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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readgeek] | [TOKENS: 192] |
Contents Readgeek Readgeek is an online book recommendations engine and social cataloging service launched in December 2010. The website allows users to search for books matching their individual taste making use of several algorithms. Taking ratings and metadata of prior read books into account, those algorithms help the site to learn about a users preferences. The service suggests books other users with similar tastes have enjoyed, rather than offering up books similar to the ones a user already ranked. It is the first of its kind to give users a prediction of how much they will like almost any book. Users can also create reading lists, book discussions and follow the activities of other users. The company was invited in 2016 by the Dutch General Publishers Association to a worldwide innovation-competition for startups in the publishing industry. The company's offices are in Berlin, Germany. See also Notes External links This article about a digital library is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/games/882326/read-microsoft-gaming-ceo-asha-sharma-first-memo] | [TOKENS: 3507] |
GamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechMicrosoftCloseMicrosoftPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of XboxShe’s promising ‘the return of Xbox.’She’s promising ‘the return of Xbox.’by Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterFeb 20, 2026, 8:30 PM UTCLinkShareGiftMicrosoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma. Image: MicrosoftPart OfXbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Microsoftsee all updates Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean Hollister is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer has just announced he’s leaving the company after 12 years leading Xbox and nearly 40 at Microsoft in total. His replacement: Asha Sharma, formerly head of development for Microsoft’s AI enterprise teams. Before that, she was COO of Instacart for three years, and spent four at Meta in charge of the company’s messaging apps.Sharma’s previous bio, before becoming gaming chief. Image: MicrosoftWhat will Sharma do with Xbox? Read for yourself in her first internal memo, which we’ve printed in full below.Sharma says she is committed to “the return of Xbox,” games in “new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most.” She says that games will “always will be art, crafted by humans” while promising not to “flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop.”However, she also says that “monetization and AI will evolve and influence this future,” and it sounds like Microsoft will still pursue Xbox Everywhere — she isn’t returning to the definition of Xbox as a physical box alone. While she does promise “a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console,” she writes that Xbox will “expand across PC, mobile, and cloud” as well.Here’s the full memo:Dear team,Today I begin my role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.I feel two things at once: humility and urgency.Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction.I am stepping into work shaped by generations of artists, engineers, designers, writers, musicians, operators and more who create worlds that have brought joy and deep personal meaning to hundreds of millions of players. The level of craft here is exceptional, and it is amplified by Xbox, which was founded in the belief that the power of games connect people and push the industry forward.Thank you to Phil for his leadership, and to every studio, platform, and operations team that built this foundation. We are stewards of some of the most loved stories and characters in entertainment and bring players and creators together around the fun and community of gaming in entirely new ways.My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it.That starts with three commitments.First, great games.Everything begins here. We must have great games beloved by players before we do anything. Unforgettable characters, stories that make us feel, innovative game play, and creative excellence. We will empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas. We will take risks. We will enter new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most.I promoted Matt Booty in honor of this commitment. He understands the craft and the challenges of building great games, has led teams that deliver award-winning work, and has earned the trust of game developers across the industry.Second, the return of Xbox.We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world.We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it.Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise.Third, future of play.We are witnessing the reinvention of play.To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories.As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising, something no one else is willing to try, and have the patience to see it through. We have done this before, and I am here to help us do it again. I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place. It will require us to relentlessly question everything, revisit processes, protect what works, and be brave enough to change what does not.Thank you for welcoming me into this journey.AshaAnd here’s the full memo from Matt Booty, who is now Microsoft’s chief content officer and EVP of Microsoft Gaming:I read Phil’s note with much gratitude. He has been a steady champion for game creators and our studio teams, and I’ve learned so much from his leadership over the years. All our games have benefited from his foundational support. I’m also grateful to Satya for his ongoing commitment to gaming and holding a vision of how it can connect back to the larger company.Looking forward, I’m excited to partner with Asha as our next CEO. Our first conversations centered on her commitment to making great games and the role that plays in our overall success. She asks questions, pushes for clarity, and wants our choices grounded in player and developer needs. That mindset matters as the industry around us is changing quickly: how players engage, how games are made, and how business models and platforms evolve.We have good reasons to believe in what’s ahead. This organization and its franchises have navigated change for decades, and our strength comes from teams who know how to adapt and keep delivering. That confidence is grounded in a strong pipeline of established franchises, new bets we believe in, and clear player demand for what we are building.My focus is on supporting the teams and leaders we have in place and creating the conditions for them to do their best work. To be clear, there are no organizational changes underway for our studios.Thanks for everything you do for players and for each other.-MattLastly, you can also read Phil Spencer’s full memo on his departure from Microsoft right here.RelatedXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftRead Xbox chief Phil Spencer’s memo about leaving MicrosoftSarah Bond is leaving XboxFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingMicrosoftCloseMicrosoftPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All MicrosoftTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechMore in: Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving MicrosoftRead Xbox president Sarah Bond’s memo about leaving Microsoft.Richard Lawler12:15 AM UTCMicrosoft says today’s Xbox shake-up doesn’t mean game studio layoffsSean HollisterFeb 20Xslop?Andrew WebsterFeb 20Most PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of XboxThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agent’s mistakeWill Stancil, man of the people or just an annoying guy?The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Microsoft Read Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of Xbox She’s promising ‘the return of Xbox.’ She’s promising ‘the return of Xbox.’ Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer has just announced he’s leaving the company after 12 years leading Xbox and nearly 40 at Microsoft in total. His replacement: Asha Sharma, formerly head of development for Microsoft’s AI enterprise teams. Before that, she was COO of Instacart for three years, and spent four at Meta in charge of the company’s messaging apps. What will Sharma do with Xbox? Read for yourself in her first internal memo, which we’ve printed in full below. Sharma says she is committed to “the return of Xbox,” games in “new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most.” She says that games will “always will be art, crafted by humans” while promising not to “flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop.” However, she also says that “monetization and AI will evolve and influence this future,” and it sounds like Microsoft will still pursue Xbox Everywhere — she isn’t returning to the definition of Xbox as a physical box alone. While she does promise “a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console,” she writes that Xbox will “expand across PC, mobile, and cloud” as well. Here’s the full memo: Dear team, Today I begin my role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming. I feel two things at once: humility and urgency. Humility because this team has built something extraordinary over decades. Urgency because gaming is in a period of rapid change, and we need to move with clarity and conviction. I am stepping into work shaped by generations of artists, engineers, designers, writers, musicians, operators and more who create worlds that have brought joy and deep personal meaning to hundreds of millions of players. The level of craft here is exceptional, and it is amplified by Xbox, which was founded in the belief that the power of games connect people and push the industry forward. Thank you to Phil for his leadership, and to every studio, platform, and operations team that built this foundation. We are stewards of some of the most loved stories and characters in entertainment and bring players and creators together around the fun and community of gaming in entirely new ways.My first job is simple: understand what makes this work and protect it. That starts with three commitments. First, great games. Everything begins here. We must have great games beloved by players before we do anything. Unforgettable characters, stories that make us feel, innovative game play, and creative excellence. We will empower our studios, invest in iconic franchises, and back bold new ideas. We will take risks. We will enter new categories and markets where we can add real value, grounded in what players care about most.I promoted Matt Booty in honor of this commitment. He understands the craft and the challenges of building great games, has led teams that deliver award-winning work, and has earned the trust of game developers across the industry. Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox, and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it. Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of any single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise. Third, future of play. We are witnessing the reinvention of play. To meet the moment, we will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have: iconic teams, characters, and worlds that people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories. As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop. Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us. The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising, something no one else is willing to try, and have the patience to see it through. We have done this before, and I am here to help us do it again. I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place. It will require us to relentlessly question everything, revisit processes, protect what works, and be brave enough to change what does not. Thank you for welcoming me into this journey. Asha And here’s the full memo from Matt Booty, who is now Microsoft’s chief content officer and EVP of Microsoft Gaming: I read Phil’s note with much gratitude. He has been a steady champion for game creators and our studio teams, and I’ve learned so much from his leadership over the years. All our games have benefited from his foundational support. I’m also grateful to Satya for his ongoing commitment to gaming and holding a vision of how it can connect back to the larger company. Looking forward, I’m excited to partner with Asha as our next CEO. Our first conversations centered on her commitment to making great games and the role that plays in our overall success. She asks questions, pushes for clarity, and wants our choices grounded in player and developer needs. That mindset matters as the industry around us is changing quickly: how players engage, how games are made, and how business models and platforms evolve. We have good reasons to believe in what’s ahead. This organization and its franchises have navigated change for decades, and our strength comes from teams who know how to adapt and keep delivering. That confidence is grounded in a strong pipeline of established franchises, new bets we believe in, and clear player demand for what we are building. My focus is on supporting the teams and leaders we have in place and creating the conditions for them to do their best work. To be clear, there are no organizational changes underway for our studios. Thanks for everything you do for players and for each other. -Matt Lastly, you can also read Phil Spencer’s full memo on his departure from Microsoft right here. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Microsoft Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech More in: Xbox shakeup: Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are leaving Microsoft Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. This is the title for the native ad More in Gaming This is the title for the native ad Top Stories © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#cite_ref-2023Natur.622..718K_58-0] | [TOKENS: 11899] |
Contents Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", for its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous atmosphere that is primarily carbon dioxide (CO2). At the average surface level the atmospheric pressure is a few thousandths of Earth's, atmospheric temperature ranges from −153 to 20 °C (−243 to 68 °F), and cosmic radiation is high. Mars retains some water, in the ground as well as thinly in the atmosphere, forming cirrus clouds, fog, frost, larger polar regions of permafrost and ice caps (with seasonal CO2 snow), but no bodies of liquid surface water. Its surface gravity is roughly a third of Earth's or double that of the Moon. Its diameter, 6,779 km (4,212 mi), is about half the Earth's, or twice the Moon's, and its surface area is the size of all the dry land of Earth. Fine dust is prevalent across the surface and the atmosphere, being picked up and spread at the low Martian gravity even by the weak wind of the tenuous atmosphere. The terrain of Mars roughly follows a north-south divide, the Martian dichotomy, with the northern hemisphere mainly consisting of relatively flat, low lying plains, and the southern hemisphere of cratered highlands. Geologically, the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, but also hosts many enormous volcanoes that are extinct (the tallest is Olympus Mons, 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall), as well as one of the largest canyons in the Solar System (Valles Marineris, 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Mars has two natural satellites that are small and irregular in shape: Phobos and Deimos. With a significant axial tilt of 25 degrees, Mars experiences seasons, like Earth (which has an axial tilt of 23.5 degrees). A Martian solar year is equal to 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days), a Martian solar day (sol) is equal to 24.6 hours. Mars formed along with the other planets approximately 4.5 billion years ago. During the martian Noachian period (4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago), its surface was marked by meteor impacts, valley formation, erosion, the possible presence of water oceans and the loss of its magnetosphere. The Hesperian period (beginning 3.5 billion years ago and ending 3.3–2.9 billion years ago) was dominated by widespread volcanic activity and flooding that carved immense outflow channels. The Amazonian period, which continues to the present, is the currently dominating and remaining influence on geological processes. Because of Mars's geological history, the possibility of past or present life on Mars remains an area of active scientific investigation, with some possible traces needing further examination. Being visible with the naked eye in Earth's sky as a red wandering star, Mars has been observed throughout history, acquiring diverse associations in different cultures. In 1963 the first flight to Mars took place with Mars 1, but communication was lost en route. The first successful flyby exploration of Mars was conducted in 1965 with Mariner 4. In 1971 Mariner 9 entered orbit around Mars, being the first spacecraft to orbit any body other than the Moon, Sun or Earth; following in the same year were the first uncontrolled impact (Mars 2) and first successful landing (Mars 3) on Mars. Probes have been active on Mars continuously since 1997. At times, more than ten probes have simultaneously operated in orbit or on the surface, more than at any other planet beyond Earth. Mars is an often proposed target for future crewed exploration missions, though no such mission is currently planned. Natural history Scientists have theorized that during the Solar System's formation, Mars was created as the result of a random process of run-away accretion of material from the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in the Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points, such as chlorine, phosphorus, and sulfur, are much more common on Mars than on Earth; these elements were probably pushed outward by the young Sun's energetic solar wind. After the formation of the planets, the inner Solar System may have been subjected to the so-called Late Heavy Bombardment. About 60% of the surface of Mars shows a record of impacts from that era, whereas much of the remaining surface is probably underlain by immense impact basins caused by those events. However, more recent modeling has disputed the existence of the Late Heavy Bombardment. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, spanning 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi), or roughly four times the size of the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin, which would be the largest impact basin yet discovered if confirmed. It has been hypothesized that the basin was formed when Mars was struck by a Pluto-sized body about four billion years ago. The event, thought to be the cause of the Martian hemispheric dichotomy, created the smooth Borealis basin that covers 40% of the planet. A 2023 study shows evidence, based on the orbital inclination of Deimos (a small moon of Mars), that Mars may once have had a ring system 3.5 billion years to 4 billion years ago. This ring system may have been formed from a moon, 20 times more massive than Phobos, orbiting Mars billions of years ago; and Phobos would be a remnant of that ring. Epochs: The geological history of Mars can be split into many periods, but the following are the three primary periods: Geological activity is still taking place on Mars. The Athabasca Valles is home to sheet-like lava flows created about 200 million years ago. Water flows in the grabens called the Cerberus Fossae occurred less than 20 million years ago, indicating equally recent volcanic intrusions. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of avalanches. Physical characteristics Mars is approximately half the diameter of Earth or twice that of the Moon, with a surface area only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land. Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass, resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity. Mars is the only presently known example of a desert planet, a rocky planet with a surface akin to that of Earth's deserts. The red-orange appearance of the Martian surface is caused by iron(III) oxide (nanophase Fe2O3) and the iron(III) oxide-hydroxide mineral goethite. It can look like butterscotch; other common surface colors include golden, brown, tan, and greenish, depending on the minerals present. Like Earth, Mars is differentiated into a dense metallic core overlaid by less dense rocky layers. The outermost layer is the crust, which is on average about 42–56 kilometres (26–35 mi) thick, with a minimum thickness of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) in Isidis Planitia, and a maximum thickness of 117 kilometres (73 mi) in the southern Tharsis plateau. For comparison, Earth's crust averages 27.3 ± 4.8 km in thickness. The most abundant elements in the Martian crust are silicon, oxygen, iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and potassium. Mars is confirmed to be seismically active; in 2019, it was reported that InSight had detected and recorded over 450 marsquakes and related events. Beneath the crust is a silicate mantle responsible for many of the tectonic and volcanic features on the planet's surface. The upper Martian mantle is a low-velocity zone, where the velocity of seismic waves is lower than surrounding depth intervals. The mantle appears to be rigid down to the depth of about 250 km, giving Mars a very thick lithosphere compared to Earth. Below this the mantle gradually becomes more ductile, and the seismic wave velocity starts to grow again. The Martian mantle does not appear to have a thermally insulating layer analogous to Earth's lower mantle; instead, below 1050 km in depth, it becomes mineralogically similar to Earth's transition zone. At the bottom of the mantle lies a basal liquid silicate layer approximately 150–180 km thick. The Martian mantle appears to be highly heterogenous, with dense fragments up to 4 km across, likely injected deep into the planet by colossal impacts ~4.5 billion years ago; high-frequency waves from eight marsquakes slowed as they passed these localized regions, and modeling indicates the heterogeneities are compositionally distinct debris preserved because Mars lacks plate tectonics and has a sluggishly convecting interior that prevents complete homogenization. Mars's iron and nickel core is at least partially molten, and may have a solid inner core. It is around half of Mars's radius, approximately 1650–1675 km, and is enriched in light elements such as sulfur, oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The temperature of the core is estimated to be 2000–2400 K, compared to 5400–6230 K for Earth's solid inner core. In 2025, based on data from the InSight lander, a group of researchers reported the detection of a solid inner core 613 kilometres (381 mi) ± 67 kilometres (42 mi) in radius. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a surface that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals, and other elements that typically make up rock. The Martian surface is primarily composed of tholeiitic basalt, although parts are more silica-rich than typical basalt and may be similar to andesitic rocks on Earth, or silica glass. Regions of low albedo suggest concentrations of plagioclase feldspar, with northern low albedo regions displaying higher than normal concentrations of sheet silicates and high-silicon glass. Parts of the southern highlands include detectable amounts of high-calcium pyroxenes. Localized concentrations of hematite and olivine have been found. Much of the surface is deeply covered by finely grained iron(III) oxide dust. The Phoenix lander returned data showing Martian soil to be slightly alkaline and containing elements such as magnesium, sodium, potassium and chlorine. These nutrients are found in soils on Earth, and are necessary for plant growth. Experiments performed by the lander showed that the Martian soil has a basic pH of 7.7, and contains 0.6% perchlorate by weight, concentrations that are toxic to humans. Streaks are common across Mars and new ones appear frequently on steep slopes of craters, troughs, and valleys. The streaks are dark at first and get lighter with age. The streaks can start in a tiny area, then spread out for hundreds of metres. They have been seen to follow the edges of boulders and other obstacles in their path. The commonly accepted hypotheses include that they are dark underlying layers of soil revealed after avalanches of bright dust or dust devils. Several other explanations have been put forward, including those that involve water or even the growth of organisms. Environmental radiation levels on the surface are on average 0.64 millisieverts of radiation per day, and significantly less than the radiation of 1.84 millisieverts per day or 22 millirads per day during the flight to and from Mars. For comparison the radiation levels in low Earth orbit, where Earth's space stations orbit, are around 0.5 millisieverts of radiation per day. Hellas Planitia has the lowest surface radiation at about 0.342 millisieverts per day, featuring lava tubes southwest of Hadriacus Mons with potentially levels as low as 0.064 millisieverts per day, comparable to radiation levels during flights on Earth. Although Mars has no evidence of a structured global magnetic field, observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized, suggesting that alternating polarity reversals of its dipole field have occurred in the past. This paleomagnetism of magnetically susceptible minerals is similar to the alternating bands found on Earth's ocean floors. One hypothesis, published in 1999 and re-examined in October 2005 (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor), is that these bands suggest plate tectonic activity on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo ceased to function and the planet's magnetic field faded. Geography and features Although better remembered for mapping the Moon, Johann Heinrich von Mädler and Wilhelm Beer were the first areographers. They began by establishing that most of Mars's surface features were permanent and by more precisely determining the planet's rotation period. In 1840, Mädler combined ten years of observations and drew the first map of Mars. Features on Mars are named from a variety of sources. Albedo features are named for classical mythology. Craters larger than roughly 50 km are named for deceased scientists and writers and others who have contributed to the study of Mars. Smaller craters are named for towns and villages of the world with populations of less than 100,000. Large valleys are named for the word "Mars" or "star" in various languages; smaller valleys are named for rivers. Large albedo features retain many of the older names but are often updated to reflect new knowledge of the nature of the features. For example, Nix Olympica (the snows of Olympus) has become Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus). The surface of Mars as seen from Earth is divided into two kinds of areas, with differing albedo. The paler plains covered with dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides were once thought of as Martian "continents" and given names like Arabia Terra (land of Arabia) or Amazonis Planitia (Amazonian plain). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their names Mare Erythraeum, Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus. The largest dark feature seen from Earth is Syrtis Major Planum. The permanent northern polar ice cap is named Planum Boreum. The southern cap is called Planum Australe. Mars's equator is defined by its rotation, but the location of its Prime Meridian was specified, as was Earth's (at Greenwich), by choice of an arbitrary point; Mädler and Beer selected a line for their first maps of Mars in 1830. After the spacecraft Mariner 9 provided extensive imagery of Mars in 1972, a small crater (later called Airy-0), located in the Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay" or "Meridian Bay"), was chosen by Merton E. Davies, Harold Masursky, and Gérard de Vaucouleurs for the definition of 0.0° longitude to coincide with the original selection. Because Mars has no oceans, and hence no "sea level", a zero-elevation surface had to be selected as a reference level; this is called the areoid of Mars, analogous to the terrestrial geoid. Zero altitude was defined by the height at which there is 610.5 Pa (6.105 mbar) of atmospheric pressure. This pressure corresponds to the triple point of water, and it is about 0.6% of the sea level surface pressure on Earth (0.006 atm). For mapping purposes, the United States Geological Survey divides the surface of Mars into thirty cartographic quadrangles, each named for a classical albedo feature it contains. In April 2023, The New York Times reported an updated global map of Mars based on images from the Hope spacecraft. A related, but much more detailed, global Mars map was released by NASA on 16 April 2023. The vast upland region Tharsis contains several massive volcanoes, which include the shield volcano Olympus Mons. The edifice is over 600 km (370 mi) wide. Because the mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, giving a definite height to it is difficult. Its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its northwest margin to its peak, is over 21 km (13 mi), a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor. The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia, over 1,000 km (620 mi) to the northwest, to the summit approaches 26 km (16 mi), roughly three times the height of Mount Everest, which in comparison stands at just over 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi). Consequently, Olympus Mons is either the tallest or second-tallest mountain in the Solar System; the only known mountain which might be taller is the Rheasilvia peak on the asteroid Vesta, at 20–25 km (12–16 mi). The dichotomy of Martian topography is striking: northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. It is possible that, four billion years ago, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars was struck by an object one-tenth to two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon. If this is the case, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars would be the site of an impact crater 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi) in size, or roughly the area of Europe, Asia, and Australia combined, surpassing Utopia Planitia and the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin as the largest impact crater in the Solar System. Mars is scarred by 43,000 impact craters with a diameter of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) or greater. The largest exposed crater is Hellas, which is 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) wide and 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) deep, and is a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth. There are other notable impact features, such as Argyre, which is around 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) in diameter, and Isidis, which is around 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) in diameter. Due to the smaller mass and size of Mars, the probability of an object colliding with the planet is about half that of Earth. Mars is located closer to the asteroid belt, so it has an increased chance of being struck by materials from that source. Mars is more likely to be struck by short-period comets, i.e., those that lie within the orbit of Jupiter. Martian craters can[discuss] have a morphology that suggests the ground became wet after the meteor impact. The large canyon, Valles Marineris (Latin for 'Mariner Valleys, also known as Agathodaemon in the old canal maps), has a length of 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) and a depth of up to 7 kilometres (4.3 mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, the Grand Canyon on Earth is only 446 kilometres (277 mi) long and nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to the swelling of the Tharsis area, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse. In 2012, it was proposed that Valles Marineris is not just a graben, but a plate boundary where 150 kilometres (93 mi) of transverse motion has occurred, making Mars a planet with possibly a two-tectonic plate arrangement. Images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have revealed seven possible cave entrances on the flanks of the volcano Arsia Mons. The caves, named after loved ones of their discoverers, are collectively known as the "seven sisters". Cave entrances measure from 100 to 252 metres (328 to 827 ft) wide and they are estimated to be at least 73 to 96 metres (240 to 315 ft) deep. Because light does not reach the floor of most of the caves, they may extend much deeper than these lower estimates and widen below the surface. "Dena" is the only exception; its floor is visible and was measured to be 130 metres (430 ft) deep. The interiors of these caverns may be protected from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface. Martian geysers (or CO2 jets) are putative sites of small gas and dust eruptions that occur in the south polar region of Mars during the spring thaw. "Dark dune spots" and "spiders" – or araneiforms – are the two most visible types of features ascribed to these eruptions. Similarly sized dust will settle from the thinner Martian atmosphere sooner than it would on Earth. For example, the dust suspended by the 2001 global dust storms on Mars only remained in the Martian atmosphere for 0.6 years, while the dust from Mount Pinatubo took about two years to settle. However, under current Martian conditions, the mass movements involved are generally much smaller than on Earth. Even the 2001 global dust storms on Mars moved only the equivalent of a very thin dust layer – about 3 μm thick if deposited with uniform thickness between 58° north and south of the equator. Dust deposition at the two rover sites has proceeded at a rate of about the thickness of a grain every 100 sols. Atmosphere Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, possibly because of numerous asteroid strikes, so the solar wind interacts directly with the Martian ionosphere, lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer. Both Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express have detected ionized atmospheric particles trailing off into space behind Mars, and this atmospheric loss is being studied by the MAVEN orbiter. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from a low of 30 Pa (0.0044 psi) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (0.1675 psi) in Hellas Planitia, with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.087 psi). The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22 mi) above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi). The scale height of the atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi), which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's. The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide, 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is quite dusty, containing particulates about 1.5 μm in diameter which give the Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface. It may take on a pink hue due to iron oxide particles suspended in it. Despite repeated detections of methane on Mars, there is no scientific consensus as to its origin. One suggestion is that methane exists on Mars and that its concentration fluctuates seasonally. The existence of methane could be produced by non-biological process such as serpentinization involving water, carbon dioxide, and the mineral olivine, which is known to be common on Mars, or by Martian life. Compared to Earth, its higher concentration of atmospheric CO2 and lower surface pressure may be why sound is attenuated more on Mars, where natural sources are rare apart from the wind. Using acoustic recordings collected by the Perseverance rover, researchers concluded that the speed of sound there is approximately 240 m/s for frequencies below 240 Hz, and 250 m/s for those above. Auroras have been detected on Mars. Because Mars lacks a global magnetic field, the types and distribution of auroras there differ from those on Earth; rather than being mostly restricted to polar regions as is the case on Earth, a Martian aurora can encompass the planet. In September 2017, NASA reported radiation levels on the surface of the planet Mars were temporarily doubled, and were associated with an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier, due to a massive, and unexpected, solar storm in the middle of the month. Mars has seasons, alternating between its northern and southern hemispheres, similar to on Earth. Additionally the orbit of Mars has, compared to Earth's, a large eccentricity and approaches perihelion when it is summer in its southern hemisphere and winter in its northern, and aphelion when it is winter in its southern hemisphere and summer in its northern. As a result, the seasons in its southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in its northern are milder than would otherwise be the case. The summer temperatures in the south can be warmer than the equivalent summer temperatures in the north by up to 30 °C (54 °F). Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −110 °C (−166 °F) to highs of up to 35 °C (95 °F) in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure (about 1% that of the atmosphere of Earth), and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. The planet is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight. Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase global temperature. Seasons also produce dry ice covering polar ice caps. Hydrology While Mars contains water in larger amounts, most of it is dust covered water ice at the Martian polar ice caps. The volume of water ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover most of the surface of the planet with a depth of 11 metres (36 ft). Water in its liquid form cannot persist on the surface due to Mars's low atmospheric pressure, which is less than 1% that of Earth. Only at the lowest of elevations are the pressure and temperature high enough for liquid water to exist for short periods. Although little water is present in the atmosphere, there is enough to produce clouds of water ice and different cases of snow and frost, often mixed with snow of carbon dioxide dry ice. Landforms visible on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planet's surface. Huge linear swathes of scoured ground, known as outflow channels, cut across the surface in about 25 places. These are thought to be a record of erosion caused by the catastrophic release of water from subsurface aquifers, though some of these structures have been hypothesized to result from the action of glaciers or lava. One of the larger examples, Ma'adim Vallis, is 700 kilometres (430 mi) long, much greater than the Grand Canyon, with a width of 20 kilometres (12 mi) and a depth of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in places. It is thought to have been carved by flowing water early in Mars's history. The youngest of these channels is thought to have formed only a few million years ago. Elsewhere, particularly on the oldest areas of the Martian surface, finer-scale, dendritic networks of valleys are spread across significant proportions of the landscape. Features of these valleys and their distribution strongly imply that they were carved by runoff resulting from precipitation in early Mars history. Subsurface water flow and groundwater sapping may play important subsidiary roles in some networks, but precipitation was probably the root cause of the incision in almost all cases. Along craters and canyon walls, there are thousands of features that appear similar to terrestrial gullies. The gullies tend to be in the highlands of the Southern Hemisphere and face the Equator; all are poleward of 30° latitude. A number of authors have suggested that their formation process involves liquid water, probably from melting ice, although others have argued for formation mechanisms involving carbon dioxide frost or the movement of dry dust. No partially degraded gullies have formed by weathering and no superimposed impact craters have been observed, indicating that these are young features, possibly still active. Other geological features, such as deltas and alluvial fans preserved in craters, are further evidence for warmer, wetter conditions at an interval or intervals in earlier Mars history. Such conditions necessarily require the widespread presence of crater lakes across a large proportion of the surface, for which there is independent mineralogical, sedimentological and geomorphological evidence. Further evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars comes from the detection of specific minerals such as hematite and goethite, both of which sometimes form in the presence of water. The chemical signature of water vapor on Mars was first unequivocally demonstrated in 1963 by spectroscopy using an Earth-based telescope. In 2004, Opportunity detected the mineral jarosite. This forms only in the presence of acidic water, showing that water once existed on Mars. The Spirit rover found concentrated deposits of silica in 2007 that indicated wet conditions in the past, and in December 2011, the mineral gypsum, which also forms in the presence of water, was found on the surface by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. It is estimated that the amount of water in the upper mantle of Mars, represented by hydroxyl ions contained within Martian minerals, is equal to or greater than that of Earth at 50–300 parts per million of water, which is enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 200–1,000 metres (660–3,280 ft). On 18 March 2013, NASA reported evidence from instruments on the Curiosity rover of mineral hydration, likely hydrated calcium sulfate, in several rock samples including the broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock. Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 centimetres (24 in), during the rover's traverse from the Bradbury Landing site to the Yellowknife Bay area in the Glenelg terrain. In September 2015, NASA announced that they had found strong evidence of hydrated brine flows in recurring slope lineae, based on spectrometer readings of the darkened areas of slopes. These streaks flow downhill in Martian summer, when the temperature is above −23 °C, and freeze at lower temperatures. These observations supported earlier hypotheses, based on timing of formation and their rate of growth, that these dark streaks resulted from water flowing just below the surface. However, later work suggested that the lineae may be dry, granular flows instead, with at most a limited role for water in initiating the process. A definitive conclusion about the presence, extent, and role of liquid water on the Martian surface remains elusive. Researchers suspect much of the low northern plains of the planet were covered with an ocean hundreds of meters deep, though this theory remains controversial. In March 2015, scientists stated that such an ocean might have been the size of Earth's Arctic Ocean. This finding was derived from the ratio of protium to deuterium in the modern Martian atmosphere compared to that ratio on Earth. The amount of Martian deuterium (D/H = 9.3 ± 1.7 10−4) is five to seven times the amount on Earth (D/H = 1.56 10−4), suggesting that ancient Mars had significantly higher levels of water. Results from the Curiosity rover had previously found a high ratio of deuterium in Gale Crater, though not significantly high enough to suggest the former presence of an ocean. Other scientists caution that these results have not been confirmed, and point out that Martian climate models have not yet shown that the planet was warm enough in the past to support bodies of liquid water. Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 kilometres (50.6 mi) wide Korolev Crater, which the Mars Express orbiter found to be filled with approximately 2,200 cubic kilometres (530 cu mi) of water ice. In November 2016, NASA reported finding a large amount of underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region. The volume of water detected has been estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior (which is 12,100 cubic kilometers). During observations from 2018 through 2021, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spotted indications of water, probably subsurface ice, in the Valles Marineris canyon system. Orbital motion Mars's average distance from the Sun is roughly 230 million km (143 million mi), and its orbital period is 687 (Earth) days. The solar day (or sol) on Mars is only slightly longer than an Earth day: 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds. A Martian year is equal to 1.8809 Earth years, or 1 year, 320 days, and 18.2 hours. The gravitational potential difference and thus the delta-v needed to transfer between Mars and Earth is the second lowest for Earth. The axial tilt of Mars is 25.19° relative to its orbital plane, which is similar to the axial tilt of Earth. As a result, Mars has seasons like Earth, though on Mars they are nearly twice as long because its orbital period is that much longer. In the present day, the orientation of the north pole of Mars is close to the star Deneb. Mars has a relatively pronounced orbital eccentricity of about 0.09; of the seven other planets in the Solar System, only Mercury has a larger orbital eccentricity. It is known that in the past, Mars has had a much more circular orbit. At one point, 1.35 million Earth years ago, Mars had an eccentricity of roughly 0.002, much less than that of Earth today. Mars's cycle of eccentricity is 96,000 Earth years compared to Earth's cycle of 100,000 years. Mars has its closest approach to Earth (opposition) in a synodic period of 779.94 days. It should not be confused with Mars conjunction, where the Earth and Mars are at opposite sides of the Solar System and form a straight line crossing the Sun. The average time between the successive oppositions of Mars, its synodic period, is 780 days; but the number of days between successive oppositions can range from 764 to 812. The distance at close approach varies between about 54 and 103 million km (34 and 64 million mi) due to the planets' elliptical orbits, which causes comparable variation in angular size. At their furthest Mars and Earth can be as far as 401 million km (249 million mi) apart. Mars comes into opposition from Earth every 2.1 years. The planets come into opposition near Mars's perihelion in 2003, 2018 and 2035, with the 2020 and 2033 events being particularly close to perihelic opposition. The mean apparent magnitude of Mars is +0.71 with a standard deviation of 1.05. Because the orbit of Mars is eccentric, the magnitude at opposition from the Sun can range from about −3.0 to −1.4. The minimum brightness is magnitude +1.86 when the planet is near aphelion and in conjunction with the Sun. At its brightest, Mars (along with Jupiter) is second only to Venus in apparent brightness. Mars usually appears distinctly yellow, orange, or red. When farthest away from Earth, it is more than seven times farther away than when it is closest. Mars is usually close enough for particularly good viewing once or twice at 15-year or 17-year intervals. Optical ground-based telescopes are typically limited to resolving features about 300 kilometres (190 mi) across when Earth and Mars are closest because of Earth's atmosphere. As Mars approaches opposition, it begins a period of retrograde motion, which means it will appear to move backwards in a looping curve with respect to the background stars. This retrograde motion lasts for about 72 days, and Mars reaches its peak apparent brightness in the middle of this interval. Moons Mars has two relatively small (compared to Earth's) natural moons, Phobos (about 22 km (14 mi) in diameter) and Deimos (about 12 km (7.5 mi) in diameter), which orbit at 9,376 km (5,826 mi) and 23,460 km (14,580 mi) around the planet. The origin of both moons is unclear, although a popular theory states that they were asteroids captured into Martian orbit. Both satellites were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall and were named after the characters Phobos (the deity of panic and fear) and Deimos (the deity of terror and dread), twins from Greek mythology who accompanied their father Ares, god of war, into battle. Mars was the Roman equivalent to Ares. In modern Greek, the planet retains its ancient name Ares (Aris: Άρης). From the surface of Mars, the motions of Phobos and Deimos appear different from that of the Earth's satellite, the Moon. Phobos rises in the west, sets in the east, and rises again in just 11 hours. Deimos, being only just outside synchronous orbit – where the orbital period would match the planet's period of rotation – rises as expected in the east, but slowly. Because the orbit of Phobos is below a synchronous altitude, tidal forces from Mars are gradually lowering its orbit. In about 50 million years, it could either crash into Mars's surface or break up into a ring structure around the planet. The origin of the two satellites is not well understood. Their low albedo and carbonaceous chondrite composition have been regarded as similar to asteroids, supporting a capture theory. The unstable orbit of Phobos would seem to point toward a relatively recent capture. But both have circular orbits near the equator, which is unusual for captured objects, and the required capture dynamics are complex. Accretion early in the history of Mars is plausible, but would not account for a composition resembling asteroids rather than Mars itself, if that is confirmed. Mars may have yet-undiscovered moons, smaller than 50 to 100 metres (160 to 330 ft) in diameter, and a dust ring is predicted to exist between Phobos and Deimos. A third possibility for their origin as satellites of Mars is the involvement of a third body or a type of impact disruption. More-recent lines of evidence for Phobos having a highly porous interior, and suggesting a composition containing mainly phyllosilicates and other minerals known from Mars, point toward an origin of Phobos from material ejected by an impact on Mars that reaccreted in Martian orbit, similar to the prevailing theory for the origin of Earth's satellite. Although the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) spectra of the moons of Mars resemble those of outer-belt asteroids, the thermal infrared spectra of Phobos are reported to be inconsistent with chondrites of any class. It is also possible that Phobos and Deimos were fragments of an older moon, formed by debris from a large impact on Mars, and then destroyed by a more recent impact upon the satellite. More recently, a study conducted by a team of researchers from multiple countries suggests that a lost moon, at least fifteen times the size of Phobos, may have existed in the past. By analyzing rocks which point to tidal processes on the planet, it is possible that these tides may have been regulated by a past moon. Human observations and exploration The history of observations of Mars is marked by oppositions of Mars when the planet is closest to Earth and hence is most easily visible, which occur every couple of years. Even more notable are the perihelic oppositions of Mars, which are distinguished because Mars is close to perihelion, making it even closer to Earth. The ancient Sumerians named Mars Nergal, the god of war and plague. During Sumerian times, Nergal was a minor deity of little significance, but, during later times, his main cult center was the city of Nineveh. In Mesopotamian texts, Mars is referred to as the "star of judgement of the fate of the dead". The existence of Mars as a wandering object in the night sky was also recorded by the ancient Egyptian astronomers and, by 1534 BCE, they were familiar with the retrograde motion of the planet. By the period of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, the Babylonian astronomers were making regular records of the positions of the planets and systematic observations of their behavior. For Mars, they knew that the planet made 37 synodic periods, or 42 circuits of the zodiac, every 79 years. They invented arithmetic methods for making minor corrections to the predicted positions of the planets. In Ancient Greece, the planet was known as Πυρόεις. Commonly, the Greek name for the planet now referred to as Mars, was Ares. It was the Romans who named the planet Mars, for their god of war, often represented by the sword and shield of the planet's namesake. In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle noted that Mars disappeared behind the Moon during an occultation, indicating that the planet was farther away. Ptolemy, a Greek living in Alexandria, attempted to address the problem of the orbital motion of Mars. Ptolemy's model and his collective work on astronomy was presented in the multi-volume collection later called the Almagest (from the Arabic for "greatest"), which became the authoritative treatise on Western astronomy for the next fourteen centuries. Literature from ancient China confirms that Mars was known by Chinese astronomers by no later than the fourth century BCE. In the East Asian cultures, Mars is traditionally referred to as the "fire star" (火星) based on the Wuxing system. In 1609 Johannes Kepler published a 10 year study of Martian orbit, using the diurnal parallax of Mars, measured by Tycho Brahe, to make a preliminary calculation of the relative distance to the planet. From Brahe's observations of Mars, Kepler deduced that the planet orbited the Sun not in a circle, but in an ellipse. Moreover, Kepler showed that Mars sped up as it approached the Sun and slowed down as it moved farther away, in a manner that later physicists would explain as a consequence of the conservation of angular momentum.: 433–437 In 1610 the first use of a telescope for astronomical observation, including Mars, was performed by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. With the telescope the diurnal parallax of Mars was again measured in an effort to determine the Sun-Earth distance. This was first performed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1672. The early parallax measurements were hampered by the quality of the instruments. The only occultation of Mars by Venus observed was that of 13 October 1590, seen by Michael Maestlin at Heidelberg. By the 19th century, the resolution of telescopes reached a level sufficient for surface features to be identified. On 5 September 1877, a perihelic opposition to Mars occurred. The Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli used a 22-centimetre (8.7 in) telescope in Milan to help produce the first detailed map of Mars. These maps notably contained features he called canali, which, with the possible exception of the natural canyon Valles Marineris, were later shown to be an optical illusion. These canali were supposedly long, straight lines on the surface of Mars, to which he gave names of famous rivers on Earth. His term, which means "channels" or "grooves", was popularly mistranslated in English as "canals". Influenced by the observations, the orientalist Percival Lowell founded an observatory which had 30- and 45-centimetre (12- and 18-in) telescopes. The observatory was used for the exploration of Mars during the last good opportunity in 1894, and the following less favorable oppositions. He published several books on Mars and life on the planet, which had a great influence on the public. The canali were independently observed by other astronomers, like Henri Joseph Perrotin and Louis Thollon in Nice, using one of the largest telescopes of that time. The seasonal changes (consisting of the diminishing of the polar caps and the dark areas formed during Martian summers) in combination with the canals led to speculation about life on Mars, and it was a long-held belief that Mars contained vast seas and vegetation. As bigger telescopes were used, fewer long, straight canali were observed. During observations in 1909 by Antoniadi with an 84-centimetre (33 in) telescope, irregular patterns were observed, but no canali were seen. The first spacecraft from Earth to visit Mars was Mars 1 of the Soviet Union, which flew by in 1963, but contact was lost en route. NASA's Mariner 4 followed and became the first spacecraft to successfully transmit from Mars; launched on 28 November 1964, it made its closest approach to the planet on 15 July 1965. Mariner 4 detected the weak Martian radiation belt, measured at about 0.1% that of Earth, and captured the first images of another planet from deep space. Once spacecraft visited the planet during the 1960s and 1970s, many previous concepts of Mars were radically broken. After the results of the Viking life-detection experiments, the hypothesis of a dead planet was generally accepted. The data from Mariner 9 and Viking allowed better maps of Mars to be made. Until 1997 and after Viking 1 shut down in 1982, Mars was only visited by three unsuccessful probes, two flying past without contact (Phobos 1, 1988; Mars Observer, 1993), and one (Phobos 2 1989) malfunctioning in orbit before reaching its destination Phobos. In 1997 Mars Pathfinder became the first successful rover mission beyond the Moon and started together with Mars Global Surveyor (operated until late 2006) an uninterrupted active robotic presence at Mars that has lasted until today. It produced complete, extremely detailed maps of the Martian topography, magnetic field and surface minerals. Starting with these missions a range of new improved crewless spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars, with successful missions by the NASA (United States), Jaxa (Japan), ESA, United Kingdom, ISRO (India), Roscosmos (Russia), the United Arab Emirates, and CNSA (China) to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology, uncovering the different elements of the history and dynamic of the hydrosphere of Mars and possible traces of ancient life. As of 2023[update], Mars is host to ten functioning spacecraft. Eight are in orbit: 2001 Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, the Hope orbiter, and the Tianwen-1 orbiter. Another two are on the surface: the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover and the Perseverance rover. Collected maps are available online at websites including Google Mars. NASA provides two online tools: Mars Trek, which provides visualizations of the planet using data from 50 years of exploration, and Experience Curiosity, which simulates traveling on Mars in 3-D with Curiosity. Planned missions to Mars include: As of February 2024[update], debris from these types of missions has reached over seven tons. Most of it consists of crashed and inactive spacecraft as well as discarded components. In April 2024, NASA selected several companies to begin studies on providing commercial services to further enable robotic science on Mars. Key areas include establishing telecommunications, payload delivery and surface imaging. Habitability and habitation During the late 19th century, it was widely accepted in the astronomical community that Mars had life-supporting qualities, including the presence of oxygen and water. However, in 1894 W. W. Campbell at Lick Observatory observed the planet and found that "if water vapor or oxygen occur in the atmosphere of Mars it is in quantities too small to be detected by spectroscopes then available". That observation contradicted many of the measurements of the time and was not widely accepted. Campbell and V. M. Slipher repeated the study in 1909 using better instruments, but with the same results. It was not until the findings were confirmed by W. S. Adams in 1925 that the myth of the Earth-like habitability of Mars was finally broken. However, even in the 1960s, articles were published on Martian biology, putting aside explanations other than life for the seasonal changes on Mars. The current understanding of planetary habitability – the ability of a world to develop environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life – favors planets that have liquid water on their surface. Most often this requires the orbit of a planet to lie within the habitable zone, which for the Sun is estimated to extend from within the orbit of Earth to about that of Mars. During perihelion, Mars dips inside this region, but Mars's thin (low-pressure) atmosphere prevents liquid water from existing over large regions for extended periods. The past flow of liquid water demonstrates the planet's potential for habitability. Recent evidence has suggested that any water on the Martian surface may have been too salty and acidic to support regular terrestrial life. The environmental conditions on Mars are a challenge to sustaining organic life: the planet has little heat transfer across its surface, it has poor insulation against bombardment by the solar wind due to the absence of a magnetosphere and has insufficient atmospheric pressure to retain water in a liquid form (water instead sublimes to a gaseous state). Mars is nearly, or perhaps totally, geologically dead; the end of volcanic activity has apparently stopped the recycling of chemicals and minerals between the surface and interior of the planet. Evidence suggests that the planet was once significantly more habitable than it is today, but whether living organisms ever existed there remains unknown. The Viking probes of the mid-1970s carried experiments designed to detect microorganisms in Martian soil at their respective landing sites and had positive results, including a temporary increase in CO2 production on exposure to water and nutrients. This sign of life was later disputed by scientists, resulting in a continuing debate, with NASA scientist Gilbert Levin asserting that Viking may have found life. A 2014 analysis of Martian meteorite EETA79001 found chlorate, perchlorate, and nitrate ions in sufficiently high concentrations to suggest that they are widespread on Mars. UV and X-ray radiation would turn chlorate and perchlorate ions into other, highly reactive oxychlorines, indicating that any organic molecules would have to be buried under the surface to survive. Small quantities of methane and formaldehyde detected by Mars orbiters are both claimed to be possible evidence for life, as these chemical compounds would quickly break down in the Martian atmosphere. Alternatively, these compounds may instead be replenished by volcanic or other geological means, such as serpentinite. Impact glass, formed by the impact of meteors, which on Earth can preserve signs of life, has also been found on the surface of the impact craters on Mars. Likewise, the glass in impact craters on Mars could have preserved signs of life, if life existed at the site. The Cheyava Falls rock discovered on Mars in June 2024 has been designated by NASA as a "potential biosignature" and was core sampled by the Perseverance rover for possible return to Earth and further examination. Although highly intriguing, no definitive final determination on a biological or abiotic origin of this rock can be made with the data currently available. Several plans for a human mission to Mars have been proposed, but none have come to fruition. The NASA Authorization Act of 2017 directed NASA to study the feasibility of a crewed Mars mission in the early 2030s; the resulting report concluded that this would be unfeasible. In addition, in 2021, China was planning to send a crewed Mars mission in 2033. Privately held companies such as SpaceX have also proposed plans to send humans to Mars, with the eventual goal to settle on the planet. As of 2024, SpaceX has proceeded with the development of the Starship launch vehicle with the goal of Mars colonization. In plans shared with the company in April 2024, Elon Musk envisions the beginning of a Mars colony within the next twenty years. This would be enabled by the planned mass manufacturing of Starship and initially sustained by resupply from Earth, and in situ resource utilization on Mars, until the Mars colony reaches full self sustainability. Any future human mission to Mars will likely take place within the optimal Mars launch window, which occurs every 26 months. The moon Phobos has been proposed as an anchor point for a space elevator. Besides national space agencies and space companies, groups such as the Mars Society and The Planetary Society advocate for human missions to Mars. In culture Mars is named after the Roman god of war (Greek Ares), but was also associated with the demi-god Heracles (Roman Hercules) by ancient Greek astronomers, as detailed by Aristotle. This association between Mars and war dates back at least to Babylonian astronomy, in which the planet was named for the god Nergal, deity of war and destruction. It persisted into modern times, as exemplified by Gustav Holst's orchestral suite The Planets, whose famous first movement labels Mars "The Bringer of War". The planet's symbol, a circle with a spear pointing out to the upper right, is also used as a symbol for the male gender. The symbol dates from at least the 11th century, though a possible predecessor has been found in the Greek Oxyrhynchus Papyri. The idea that Mars was populated by intelligent Martians became widespread in the late 19th century. Schiaparelli's "canali" observations combined with Percival Lowell's books on the subject put forward the standard notion of a planet that was a drying, cooling, dying world with ancient civilizations constructing irrigation works. Many other observations and proclamations by notable personalities added to what has been termed "Mars Fever". In the present day, high-resolution mapping of the surface of Mars has revealed no artifacts of habitation, but pseudoscientific speculation about intelligent life on Mars still continues. Reminiscent of the canali observations, these speculations are based on small scale features perceived in the spacecraft images, such as "pyramids" and the "Face on Mars". In his book Cosmos, planetary astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: "Mars has become a kind of mythic arena onto which we have projected our Earthly hopes and fears." The depiction of Mars in fiction has been stimulated by its dramatic red color and by nineteenth-century scientific speculations that its surface conditions might support not just life but intelligent life. This gave way to many science fiction stories involving these concepts, such as H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, in which Martians seek to escape their dying planet by invading Earth; Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, in which human explorers accidentally destroy a Martian civilization; as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs's series Barsoom, C. S. Lewis's novel Out of the Silent Planet (1938), and a number of Robert A. Heinlein stories before the mid-sixties. Since then, depictions of Martians have also extended to animation. A comic figure of an intelligent Martian, Marvin the Martian, appeared in Haredevil Hare (1948) as a character in the Looney Tunes animated cartoons of Warner Brothers, and has continued as part of popular culture to the present. After the Mariner and Viking spacecraft had returned pictures of Mars as a lifeless and canal-less world, these ideas about Mars were abandoned; for many science-fiction authors, the new discoveries initially seemed like a constraint, but eventually the post-Viking knowledge of Mars became itself a source of inspiration for works like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. See also Notes References Further reading 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". |
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Contents Insight Partners Insight Venture Management, LLC (commonly referred to as Insight Partners and previously Insight Venture Partners) is a global venture capital and private equity firm that invests in software and internet businesses. The company is headquartered in New York City, also has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. History Insight Partners was founded in 1995 by Jeff Horing and Jerry Murdock. As of April 2025, the firm has approximately $90 billion in assets under management. In April 2021, Insight Partners raised $1.56 billion for the Insight Partners Opportunities Fund I LP, a separate fund from its primary growth-investment vehicles. Also in 2021, Insight Partners put $15 million of its capital into a new fund, the Vision Capital 2020 LP Fund, which supports minority-led firms raising early-stage funds. In February 2022, the company announced it had raised $20 billion for its twelfth flagship fund, more than doubling the size of its previous flagship fund. In July 2022, Insight Partners established the Enterprise Technology Exchange (ETX), an advisory group responsible for helping emerging IT companies navigate uncertain markets. In September 2024, Mastercard acquired cybersecurity company Recorded Future for $2.65 billion from Insight Partners. On October 25, 2024, Insight Partners experienced a ransomware breach, affecting over 12,000 users in what was described as a "sophisticated social engineering attack." This breach compromised sensitive data, including banking, tax, personal information of employees, and details related to limited partners and portfolio companies. The breach was resolved on January 16, 2025, and victims were notified of the breach in September 2025. In January 2025, Insight announced that it raised $12.5 billion across its thirteenth flagship fund and a separate structured‑equity vehicle. Insight stated that is has invested in over 875 companies as of June 30, 2025. In December 2025, Insight Partners appointed General Timothy D. Haugh, USAF (Ret.), former Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command, to its Government Advisory Board. In January 2026, it was reported that Kate Lowry, a former vice president at Insight Partners, was suing the firm and alleging disability discrimination, gender discrimination, and wrongful termination. In January 2026, Insight Partners acquired Venn, a quantitative investment analytics tool, from Two Sigma for an undisclosed amount. Insight Partners plans to merge Venn with its own portfolio management and analytics tool, Solovis. Operations Media coverage has described Insight's sourcing approach as heavily outbound, supported by an analyst program that identifies software companies, and by an internal "Onsite" team that provides portfolio support. References External links |
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Contents Computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs, which enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. The term computer system may refer to a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware, operating system, software, and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation, or to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems, including simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls, and factory devices like industrial robots. Computers are at the core of general-purpose devices such as personal computers and mobile devices such as smartphones. Computers power the Internet, which links billions of computers and users. Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. Simple manual instruments like the abacus have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. Early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century. The first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II, both electromechanical and using thermionic valves. The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. The speed, power, and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace (Moore's law noted that counts doubled every two years), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor, together with some type of computer memory, typically semiconductor memory chips. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices include input devices (keyboards, mice, joysticks, etc.), output devices (monitors, printers, etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g. touchscreens). Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source, and they enable the results of operations to be saved and retrieved. Etymology It was not until the mid-20th century that the word acquired its modern definition; according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of the word computer was in a different sense, in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [sic] read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued to have the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period, women were often hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts. By 1943, most human computers were women. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, meaning 'one who calculates'; this is an "agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean "'calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean 'programmable digital electronic computer' dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine". The name has remained, although modern computers are capable of many higher-level functions. History Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was most likely a form of tally stick. Later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, likely livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers.[a] The use of counting rods is one example. The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BCE. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money. The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest known mechanical analog computer, according to Derek J. de Solla Price. It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to approximately c. 100 BCE. Devices of comparable complexity to the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until the fourteenth century. Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century. The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer and gear-wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe, an early fixed-wired knowledge processing machine with a gear train and gear-wheels, c. 1000 AD. The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation. The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a mechanical linkage. The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, by the English clergyman William Oughtred, shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Slide rules with special scales are still used for quick performance of routine calculations, such as the E6B circular slide rule used for time and distance calculations on light aircraft. In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automaton) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and still operates. In 1831–1835, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Plana devised a Perpetual Calendar machine, which through a system of pulleys and cylinders could predict the perpetual calendar for every year from 0 CE (that is, 1 BCE) to 4000 CE, keeping track of leap years and varying day length. The tide-predicting machine invented by the Scottish scientist Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876, Sir William Thomson had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators. In a differential analyzer, the output of one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed mechanical differential analyzers. In the 1890s, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo began to develop a series of advanced analog machines that could solve real and complex roots of polynomials, which were published in 1901 by the Paris Academy of Sciences. Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his difference engine he announced his invention in 1822, in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, titled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". He also designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that a much more general design, an analytical engine, was possible. The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. The engine would incorporate an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete. The machine was about a century ahead of its time. All the parts for his machine had to be made by hand – this was a major problem for a device with thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with the decision of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. In his work Essays on Automatics published in 1914, Leonardo Torres Quevedo wrote a brief history of Babbage's efforts at constructing a mechanical Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. The paper contains a design of a machine capable to calculate formulas like a x ( y − z ) 2 {\displaystyle a^{x}(y-z)^{2}} , for a sequence of sets of values. The whole machine was to be controlled by a read-only program, which was complete with provisions for conditional branching. He also introduced the idea of floating-point arithmetic. In 1920, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the arithmometer, Torres presented in Paris the Electromechanical Arithmometer, which allowed a user to input arithmetic problems through a keyboard, and computed and printed the results, demonstrating the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine. During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers. The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting machine, invented by Sir William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) in 1872. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson, the elder brother of the more famous Sir William Thomson. The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the differential analyzer, completed in 1931 by Vannevar Bush at MIT. By the 1950s, the success of digital electronic computers had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog computers remained in use during the 1950s in some specialized applications such as education (slide rule) and aircraft (control systems).[citation needed] Claude Shannon's 1937 master's thesis laid the foundations of digital computing, with his insight of applying Boolean algebra to the analysis and synthesis of switching circuits being the basic concept which underlies all electronic digital computers. By 1938, the United States Navy had developed the Torpedo Data Computer, an electromechanical analog computer for submarines that used trigonometry to solve the problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II, similar devices were developed in other countries. Early digital computers were electromechanical; electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes. The Z2, created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939 in Berlin, was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer. In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3, the world's first working electromechanical programmable, fully automatic digital computer. The Z3 was built with 2000 relays, implementing a 22-bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz. Program code was supplied on punched film while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating-point numbers. Rather than the harder-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage's earlier design), using a binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the technologies available at that time. The Z3 was not itself a universal computer but could be extended to be Turing complete. Zuse's next computer, the Z4, became the world's first commercial computer; after initial delay due to the Second World War, it was completed in 1950 and delivered to the ETH Zurich. The computer was manufactured by Zuse's own company, Zuse KG, which was founded in 1941 as the first company with the sole purpose of developing computers in Berlin. The Z4 served as the inspiration for the construction of the ERMETH, the first Swiss computer and one of the first in Europe. Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and electromechanical equivalents, at the same time that digital calculation replaced analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers, working at the Post Office Research Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics for the telephone exchange. Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation five years later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system, using thousands of vacuum tubes. In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942, the first "automatic electronic digital computer". This design was also all-electronic and used about 300 vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory. During World War II, the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications. The German encryption machine, Enigma, was first attacked with the help of the electro-mechanical bombes which were often run by women. To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army communications, Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus. He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building the first Colossus. After a functional test in December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, where it was delivered on 18 January 1944 and attacked its first message on 5 February. Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer. It used a large number of valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety of boolean logical operations on its data, but it was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built (The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1,500 thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2,400 valves, was both five times faster and simpler to operate than Mark I, greatly speeding the decoding process. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in the U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more flexible, and it was Turing-complete. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and switches. The programmers of the ENIAC were six women, often known collectively as the "ENIAC girls". It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The principle of the modern computer was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper, On Computable Numbers. Turing proposed a simple device that he called "Universal Computing machine" and that is now known as a universal Turing machine. He proved that such a machine is capable of computing anything that is computable by executing instructions (program) stored on tape, allowing the machine to be programmable. The fundamental concept of Turing's design is the stored program, where all the instructions for computing are stored in memory. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central concept of the modern computer was due to this paper. Turing machines are to this day a central object of study in theory of computation. Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores, modern computers are said to be Turing-complete, which is to say, they have algorithm execution capability equivalent to a universal Turing machine. Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the machine. With the proposal of the stored-program computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of instructions (a program) that details the computation. The theoretical basis for the stored-program computer was laid out by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945, Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 report "Proposed Electronic Calculator" was the first specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania also circulated his First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945. The Manchester Baby was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester in England by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first random-access digital storage device. Although the computer was described as "small and primitive" by a 1998 retrospective, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer. As soon as the Baby had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project began at the university to develop it into a practically useful computer, the Manchester Mark 1. The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer. Built by Ferranti, it was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and 1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam. In October 1947 the directors of British catering company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers. Lyons's LEO I computer, modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC of 1949, became operational in April 1951 and ran the world's first routine office computer job. The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, built the first working transistor, the point-contact transistor, in 1947, which was followed by Shockley's bipolar junction transistor in 1948. From 1955 onwards, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialized applications. At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves. Their first transistorized computer and the first in the world, was operational by 1953, and a second version was completed there in April 1955. However, the machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory, so it was not the first completely transistorized computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955, built by the electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), also known as the MOS transistor, was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960 and was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturized and mass-produced for a wide range of uses. With its high scalability, and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction transistors, the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits. In addition to data processing, it also enabled the practical use of MOS transistors as memory cell storage elements, leading to the development of MOS semiconductor memory, which replaced earlier magnetic-core memory in computers. The MOSFET led to the microcomputer revolution, and became the driving force behind the computer revolution. The MOSFET is the most widely used transistor in computers, and is the fundamental building block of digital electronics. The next great advance in computing power came with the advent of the integrated circuit (IC). The idea of the integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. Dummer presented the first public description of an integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C., on 7 May 1952. The first working ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". However, Kilby's invention was a hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC), rather than a monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip. Kilby's IC had external wire connections, which made it difficult to mass-produce. Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. Noyce's invention was the first true monolithic IC chip. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium. Noyce's monolithic IC was fabricated using the planar process, developed by his colleague Jean Hoerni in early 1959. In turn, the planar process was based on Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide. Modern monolithic ICs are predominantly MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (MOS transistors). The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962. General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS IC in 1964, developed by Robert Norman. Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOS transistor by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC with self-aligned gates was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968. The MOSFET has since become the most critical device component in modern ICs. The development of the MOS integrated circuit led to the invention of the microprocessor, and heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, designed and realized by Federico Faggin with his silicon-gate MOS IC technology, along with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel.[b] In the early 1970s, MOS IC technology enabled the integration of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip. System on a Chip (SoCs) are complete computers on a microchip (or chip) the size of a coin. They may or may not have integrated RAM and flash memory. If not integrated, the RAM is usually placed directly above (known as Package on package) or below (on the opposite side of the circuit board) the SoC, and the flash memory is usually placed right next to the SoC. This is done to improve data transfer speeds, as the data signals do not have to travel long distances. Since ENIAC in 1945, computers have advanced enormously, with modern SoCs (such as the Snapdragon 865) being the size of a coin while also being hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than ENIAC, integrating billions of transistors, and consuming only a few watts of power. The first mobile computers were heavy and ran from mains power. The 50 lb (23 kg) IBM 5100 was an early example. Later portables such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable were considerably lighter but still needed to be plugged in. The first laptops, such as the Grid Compass, removed this requirement by incorporating batteries – and with the continued miniaturization of computing resources and advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s. The same developments allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular mobile phones by the early 2000s. These smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and recently became the dominant computing device on the market. These are powered by System on a Chip (SoCs), which are complete computers on a microchip the size of a coin. Types Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including: A computer does not need to be electronic, nor even have a processor, nor RAM, nor even a hard disk. While popular usage of the word "computer" is synonymous with a personal electronic computer,[c] a typical modern definition of a computer is: "A device that computes, especially a programmable [usually] electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information." According to this definition, any device that processes information qualifies as a computer. Hardware The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible physical objects. Circuits, computer chips, graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and "mice" input devices are all hardware. A general-purpose computer has four main components: the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the control unit, the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by buses, often made of groups of wires. Inside each of these parts are thousands to trillions of small electrical circuits which can be turned off or on by means of an electronic switch. Each circuit represents a bit (binary digit) of information so that when the circuit is on it represents a "1", and when off it represents a "0" (in positive logic representation). The circuits are arranged in logic gates so that one or more of the circuits may control the state of one or more of the other circuits. Input devices are the means by which the operations of a computer are controlled and it is provided with data. Examples include: Output devices are the means by which a computer provides the results of its calculations in a human-accessible form. Examples include: The control unit (often called a control system or central controller) manages the computer's various components; it reads and interprets (decodes) the program instructions, transforming them into control signals that activate other parts of the computer.[e] Control systems in advanced computers may change the order of execution of some instructions to improve performance. A key component common to all CPUs is the program counter, a special memory cell (a register) that keeps track of which location in memory the next instruction is to be read from.[f] The control system's function is as follows— this is a simplified description, and some of these steps may be performed concurrently or in a different order depending on the type of CPU: Since the program counter is (conceptually) just another set of memory cells, it can be changed by calculations done in the ALU. Adding 100 to the program counter would cause the next instruction to be read from a place 100 locations further down the program. Instructions that modify the program counter are often known as "jumps" and allow for loops (instructions that are repeated by the computer) and often conditional instruction execution (both examples of control flow). The sequence of operations that the control unit goes through to process an instruction is in itself like a short computer program, and indeed, in some more complex CPU designs, there is another yet smaller computer called a microsequencer, which runs a microcode program that causes all of these events to happen. The control unit, ALU, and registers are collectively known as a central processing unit (CPU). Early CPUs were composed of many separate components. Since the 1970s, CPUs have typically been constructed on a single MOS integrated circuit chip called a microprocessor. The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic. The set of arithmetic operations that a particular ALU supports may be limited to addition and subtraction, or might include multiplication, division, trigonometry functions such as sine, cosine, etc., and square roots. Some can operate only on whole numbers (integers) while others use floating point to represent real numbers, albeit with limited precision. However, any computer that is capable of performing just the simplest operations can be programmed to break down the more complex operations into simple steps that it can perform. Therefore, any computer can be programmed to perform any arithmetic operation—although it will take more time to do so if its ALU does not directly support the operation. An ALU may also compare numbers and return Boolean truth values (true or false) depending on whether one is equal to, greater than or less than the other ("is 64 greater than 65?"). Logic operations involve Boolean logic: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT. These can be useful for creating complicated conditional statements and processing Boolean logic. Superscalar computers may contain multiple ALUs, allowing them to process several instructions simultaneously. Graphics processors and computers with SIMD and MIMD features often contain ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and matrices. A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595." The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is the software's responsibility to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers. In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in groups of eight bits (called a byte). Each byte is able to represent 256 different numbers (28 = 256); either from 0 to 255 or −128 to +127. To store larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used (typically, two, four or eight). When negative numbers are required, they are usually stored in two's complement notation. Other arrangements are possible, but are usually not seen outside of specialized applications or historical contexts. A computer can store any kind of information in memory if it can be represented numerically. Modern computers have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory. The CPU contains a special set of memory cells called registers that can be read and written to much more rapidly than the main memory area. There are typically between two and one hundred registers depending on the type of CPU. Registers are used for the most frequently needed data items to avoid having to access main memory every time data is needed. As data is constantly being worked on, reducing the need to access main memory (which is often slow compared to the ALU and control units) greatly increases the computer's speed. Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties: RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is preloaded with data and software that never changes, therefore the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the computer's initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM are erased when the power to the computer is turned off, but ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC, the ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer's operating system from the hard disk drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. In embedded computers, which frequently do not have disk drives, all of the required software may be stored in ROM. Software stored in ROM is often called firmware, because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the distinction between ROM and RAM, as it retains its data when turned off but is also rewritable. It is typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM however, so its use is restricted to applications where high speed is unnecessary.[g] In more sophisticated computers there may be one or more RAM cache memories, which are slower than registers but faster than main memory. Generally computers with this sort of cache are designed to move frequently needed data into the cache automatically, often without the need for any intervention on the programmer's part. I/O is the means by which a computer exchanges information with the outside world. Devices that provide input or output to the computer are called peripherals. On a typical personal computer, peripherals include input devices like the keyboard and mouse, and output devices such as the display and printer. Hard disk drives, floppy disk drives and optical disc drives serve as both input and output devices. Computer networking is another form of I/O. I/O devices are often complex computers in their own right, with their own CPU and memory. A graphics processing unit might contain fifty or more tiny computers that perform the calculations necessary to display 3D graphics.[citation needed] Modern desktop computers contain many smaller computers that assist the main CPU in performing I/O. A 2016-era flat screen display contains its own computer circuitry. While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is achieved by multitasking, i.e. having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in turn. One means by which this is done is with a special signal called an interrupt, which can periodically cause the computer to stop executing instructions where it was and do something else instead. By remembering where it was executing prior to the interrupt, the computer can return to that task later. If several programs are running "at the same time". Then the interrupt generator might be causing several hundred interrupts per second, causing a program switch each time. Since modern computers typically execute instructions several orders of magnitude faster than human perception, it may appear that many programs are running at the same time, even though only one is ever executing in any given instant. This method of multitasking is sometimes termed "time-sharing" since each program is allocated a "slice" of time in turn. Before the era of inexpensive computers, the principal use for multitasking was to allow many people to share the same computer. Seemingly, multitasking would cause a computer that is switching between several programs to run more slowly, in direct proportion to the number of programs it is running, but most programs spend much of their time waiting for slow input/output devices to complete their tasks. If a program is waiting for the user to click on the mouse or press a key on the keyboard, then it will not take a "time slice" until the event it is waiting for has occurred. This frees up time for other programs to execute so that many programs may be run simultaneously without unacceptable speed loss. Some computers are designed to distribute their work across several CPUs in a multiprocessing configuration, a technique once employed in only large and powerful machines such as supercomputers, mainframe computers and servers. Multiprocessor and multi-core (multiple CPUs on a single integrated circuit) personal and laptop computers are now widely available, and are being increasingly used in lower-end markets as a result. Supercomputers in particular often have highly unique architectures that differ significantly from the basic stored-program architecture and from general-purpose computers.[h] They often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-speed interconnects, and specialized computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful for only specialized tasks due to the large scale of program organization required to use most of the available resources at once. Supercomputers usually see usage in large-scale simulation, graphics rendering, and cryptography applications, as well as with other so-called "embarrassingly parallel" tasks. Software Software is the part of a computer system that consists of the encoded information that determines the computer's operation, such as data or instructions on how to process the data. In contrast to the physical hardware from which the system is built, software is immaterial. Software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. It is often divided into system software and application software. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither is useful on its own. When software is stored in hardware that cannot easily be modified, such as with BIOS ROM in an IBM PC compatible computer, it is sometimes called "firmware". The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that some type of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer, and it will process them. Modern computers based on the von Neumann architecture often have machine code in the form of an imperative programming language. In practical terms, a computer program may be just a few instructions or extend to many millions of instructions, as do the programs for word processors and web browsers for example. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions per second (gigaflops) and rarely makes a mistake over many years of operation. Large computer programs consisting of several million instructions may take teams of programmers years to write, and due to the complexity of the task almost certainly contain errors. This section applies to most common RAM machine–based computers. In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number to another, move some data from one location to another, send a message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read from the computer's memory and are generally carried out (executed) in the order they were given. However, there are usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that "remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following that jump instruction. Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention. Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000 would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time, with a near certainty of making a mistake. On the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions. The following example is written in the MIPS assembly language: Once told to run this program, the computer will perform the repetitive addition task without further human intervention. It will almost never make a mistake and a modern PC can complete the task in a fraction of a second. In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together would have one opcode; the command to multiply them would have a different opcode, and so on. The simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions; the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from, each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact that entire programs (which are just lists of these instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and can themselves be manipulated inside the computer in the same way as numeric data. The fundamental concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of the von Neumann, or stored program, architecture. In some cases, a computer might store some or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches. While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and while this technique was used with many early computers,[i] it is extremely tedious and potentially error-prone to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember – a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB, MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language. Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand (machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler. A programming language is a notation system for writing the source code from which a computer program is produced. Programming languages provide various ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine code by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques. There are thousands of programming languages—some intended for general purpose programming, others useful for only highly specialized applications. Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) are generally unique to the particular architecture of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For instance, an ARM architecture CPU (such as may be found in a smartphone or a hand-held videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an x86 CPU that might be in a PC.[j] Historically a significant number of other CPU architectures were created and saw extensive use, notably including the MOS Technology 6502 and 6510 in addition to the Zilog Z80. Although considerably easier than in machine language, writing long programs in assembly language is often difficult and is also error prone. Therefore, most practical programs are written in more abstract high-level programming languages that are able to express the needs of the programmer more conveniently (and thereby help reduce programmer error). High level languages are usually "compiled" into machine language (or sometimes into assembly language and then into machine language) using another computer program called a compiler.[k] High level languages are less related to the workings of the target computer than assembly language, and more related to the language and structure of the problem(s) to be solved by the final program. It is therefore often possible to use different compilers to translate the same high level language program into the machine language of many different types of computer. This is part of the means by which software like video games may be made available for different computer architectures such as personal computers and various video game consoles. Program design of small programs is relatively simple and involves the analysis of the problem, collection of inputs, using the programming constructs within languages, devising or using established procedures and algorithms, providing data for output devices and solutions to the problem as applicable. As problems become larger and more complex, features such as subprograms, modules, formal documentation, and new paradigms such as object-oriented programming are encountered. Large programs involving thousands of line of code and more require formal software methodologies. The task of developing large software systems presents a significant intellectual challenge. Producing software with an acceptably high reliability within a predictable schedule and budget has historically been difficult; the academic and professional discipline of software engineering concentrates specifically on this challenge. Errors in computer programs are called "bugs". They may be benign and not affect the usefulness of the program, or have only subtle effects. However, in some cases they may cause the program or the entire system to "hang", becoming unresponsive to input such as mouse clicks or keystrokes, to completely fail, or to crash. Otherwise benign bugs may sometimes be harnessed for malicious intent by an unscrupulous user writing an exploit, code designed to take advantage of a bug and disrupt a computer's proper execution. Bugs are usually not the fault of the computer. Since computers merely execute the instructions they are given, bugs are nearly always the result of programmer error or an oversight made in the program's design.[l] Admiral Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist and developer of the first compiler, is credited for having first used the term "bugs" in computing after a dead moth was found shorting a relay in the Harvard Mark II computer in September 1947. Networking and the Internet Computers have been used to coordinate information between multiple physical locations since the 1950s. The U.S. military's SAGE system was the first large-scale example of such a system, which led to a number of special-purpose commercial systems such as Sabre. In the 1970s, computer engineers at research institutions throughout the United States began to link their computers together using telecommunications technology. The effort was funded by ARPA (now DARPA), and the computer network that resulted was called the ARPANET. Logic gates are a common abstraction which can apply to most of the above digital or analog paradigms. The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a minimum capability (being Turing-complete) is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, any type of computer (netbook, supercomputer, cellular automaton, etc.) is able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity. In the 20th century, artificial intelligence systems were predominantly symbolic: they executed code that was explicitly programmed by software developers. Machine learning models, however, have a set parameters that are adjusted throughout training, so that the model learns to accomplish a task based on the provided data. The efficiency of machine learning (and in particular of neural networks) has rapidly improved with progress in hardware for parallel computing, mainly graphics processing units (GPUs). Some large language models are able to control computers or robots. AI progress may lead to the creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of AI that could accomplish virtually any intellectual task at least as well as humans. Professions and organizations As the use of computers has spread throughout society, there are an increasing number of careers involving computers. The need for computers to work well together and to be able to exchange information has spawned the need for many standards organizations, clubs and societies of both a formal and informal nature. See also Notes References Sources External links |
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Contents The New York Times The New York Times (NYT)[b] is a newspaper based in Manhattan, New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the Times serves as one of the country's newspapers of record. As of August 2025[update], The New York Times had 11.88 million total and 11.3 million online subscribers, both by significant margins the highest numbers for any newspaper in the United States; the total also included 580,000 print subscribers. The New York Times is published by the New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publisher is A. G. Sulzberger. The Times is headquartered at The New York Times Building in Midtown Manhattan. The Times was founded as the conservative New-York Daily Times in 1851, and came to national recognition in the 1870s with its aggressive coverage of corrupt politician Boss Tweed. Following the Panic of 1893, Chattanooga Times publisher Adolph Ochs gained a controlling interest in the company. In 1935, Ochs was succeeded by his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, who began a push into European news. Sulzberger's son Arthur Ochs Sulzberger became publisher in 1963, adapting to a changing newspaper industry and introducing radical changes. The New York Times was involved in the landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which restricted the ability of public officials to sue the media for defamation. In 1971, The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, an internal Department of Defense document detailing the United States's historical involvement in the Vietnam War, despite pushback from then-president Richard Nixon. In the landmark decision New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment guaranteed the right to publish the Pentagon Papers. In the 1980s, the Times began a two-decade progression to digital technology and launched nytimes.com in 1996. In the 21st century, it shifted its publication online amid the global decline of newspapers. Currently, the Times maintains several regional bureaus staffed with journalists across six continents. It has expanded to several other publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times International Edition, and The New York Times Book Review. In addition, the paper has produced several television series, podcasts—including The Daily—and games through The New York Times Games. The New York Times has been involved in a number of controversies in its history. Among other accolades, it has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize 135 times since 1918, the most of any publication. According to a 2025 Pew Research Center study on educational differences among audiences of 30 major U.S. news outlets, The New York Times had the highest proportion of college-educated readers among the daily newspapers surveyed, with 56% of its audience holding at least a bachelor's degree. History The New York Times was established in 1851 as the New-York Daily Times by New-York Tribune journalists Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones. The Times experienced significant circulation, particularly among conservatives; New-York Tribune publisher Horace Greeley praised the Times. During the American Civil War, Times correspondents gathered information directly from Confederate states. In 1869, Jones inherited the paper from Raymond, who had changed its name to The New-York Times. Under Jones, the Times began to publish a series of articles criticizing Tammany Hall political boss William M. Tweed, despite vehement opposition from other New York newspapers. In 1871, The New-York Times published Tammany Hall's accounting books; Tweed was tried in 1873 and sentenced to twelve years in prison. The Times earned national recognition for its coverage of Tweed. In 1891, Jones died, creating a management imbroglio in which his children had insufficient business acumen to inherit the company and his will prevented an acquisition of the Times. Editor-in-chief Charles Ransom Miller, editorial editor Edward Cary, and correspondent George F. Spinney established a company to manage The New-York Times, but faced financial difficulties during the Panic of 1893. In August 1896, Chattanooga Times publisher Adolph Ochs acquired The New-York Times, implementing significant alterations to the newspaper's structure. Ochs established the Times as a merchant's newspaper and removed the hyphen from the newspaper's name. In 1905, The New York Times opened Times Tower, marking expansion. The Times experienced a political realignment in the 1910s amid several disagreements within the Republican Party. The New York Times reported on the sinking of the Titanic, as other newspapers were cautious about bulletins circulated by the Associated Press. Through managing editor Carr Van Anda, the Times paid considerable attention to advances in science, reporting on Albert Einstein's then-obscure theory of general relativity and becoming involved in the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. In April 1935, Ochs died, leaving his son-in-law Arthur Hays Sulzberger as publisher. The Great Depression forced Sulzberger to reduce The New York Times's operations, and developments in the New York newspaper landscape resulted in the formation of larger newspapers, such as the New York Herald Tribune and the New York World-Telegram. In contrast to Ochs, Sulzberger encouraged wirephotography. The New York Times extensively covered World War II through large headlines, reporting on exclusive stories such as the Yugoslav coup d'état. Amid the war, Sulzberger began expanding the Times's operations further, acquiring WQXR-FM in 1944—the first non-Times investment since the Jones era—and established a fashion show in Times Hall. Despite reductions as a result of conscription, The New York Times retained the largest journalism staff of any newspaper. The Times's print edition became available internationally during the war through the Army & Air Force Exchange Service; The New York Times Overseas Weekly later became available in Japan through The Asahi Shimbun and in Germany through the Frankfurter Zeitung. The international edition would develop into a separate newspaper. Journalist William L. Laurence publicized the atomic bomb race between the United States and Germany, resulting in the Federal Bureau of Investigation seizing copies of the Times. The United States government recruited Laurence to document the Manhattan Project in April 1945. Laurence became the only witness of the Manhattan Project, a detail realized by employees of The New York Times following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Following World War II, The New York Times continued to expand. The Times was subject to investigations from the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, a McCarthyist subcommittee that investigated purported communism from within press institutions. Arthur Hays Sulzberger's decision to dismiss a copyreader who had pleaded the Fifth Amendment drew ire from within the Times and from external organizations. In April 1961, Sulzberger resigned, appointing his son-in-law, The New York Times Company president Orvil Dryfoos. Under Dryfoos, The New York Times established a newspaper based in Los Angeles. In 1962, the implementation of automated printing presses in response to increasing costs mounted fears over technological unemployment. The New York Typographical Union staged a strike in December, altering the media consumption of New Yorkers. The strike left New York with three remaining newspapers—the Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post—by its conclusion in March 1963. In May, Dryfoos died of a heart ailment. Following weeks of ambiguity, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger became The New York Times's publisher. Technological advancements leveraged by newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times and improvements in coverage from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal necessitated adaptations to nascent computing. The New York Times published "Heed Their Rising Voices" in 1960, a full-page advertisement purchased by supporters of Martin Luther King Jr. criticizing law enforcement in Montgomery, Alabama for their response to the civil rights movement. Montgomery Public Safety commissioner L. B. Sullivan sued the Times for defamation. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the verdict in Alabama county court and the Supreme Court of Alabama violated the First Amendment. The decision is considered to be landmark. After financial losses, The New York Times ended its international edition, acquiring a stake in the Paris Herald Tribune, forming the International Herald Tribune. The Times initially published the Pentagon Papers, facing opposition from then-president Richard Nixon. The Supreme Court ruled in The New York Times's favor in New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), allowing the Times and The Washington Post to publish the papers. The New York Times remained cautious in its initial coverage of the Watergate scandal. As Congress began investigating the scandal, the Times furthered its coverage, publishing details on the Huston Plan, alleged wiretapping of reporters and officials, and testimony from James W. McCord Jr. that the Committee for the Re-Election of the President paid the conspirators off. The exodus of readers to suburban New York newspapers, such as Newsday and Gannett papers, adversely affected The New York Times's circulation. Contemporary newspapers balked at additional sections; Time devoted a cover for its criticism and New York wrote that the Times was engaging in "middle-class self-absorption". The New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post were the subject of a strike in 1978, allowing emerging newspapers to leverage halted coverage. The Times deliberately avoided coverage of the AIDS epidemic, running its first front-page article in May 1983. Max Frankel's editorial coverage of the epidemic, with mentions of anal intercourse, contrasted with then-executive editor A. M. Rosenthal's puritan approach, intentionally avoiding descriptions of the luridity of gay venues. Following years of waning interest in The New York Times, Sulzberger resigned in January 1992, appointing his son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., as publisher. The Internet represented a generational shift within the Times; Sulzberger, who negotiated The New York Times Company's acquisition of The Boston Globe in 1993, derided the Internet, while his son expressed antithetical views. @times appeared on America Online's website in May 1994 as an extension of The New York Times, featuring news articles, film reviews, sports news, and business articles. Despite opposition, several employees of the Times had begun to access the Internet. The online success of publications that traditionally co-existed with the Times—such as America Online, Yahoo, and CNN—and the expansion of websites such as Monster.com and Craigslist that threatened The New York Times's classified advertisement model increased efforts to develop a website. nytimes.com debuted on January 19 and was formally announced three days later. The Times published domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski's essay Industrial Society and Its Future in 1995, contributing to his arrest after his brother David recognized the essay's penmanship. Following the establishment of nytimes.com, The New York Times retained its journalistic hesitancy under executive editor Joseph Lelyveld, refusing to publish an article reporting on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal from Drudge Report. nytimes.com editors conflicted with print editors on several occasions, including wrongfully naming security guard Richard Jewell as the suspect in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing and covering the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in greater detail than the print edition. The New York Times Electronic Media Company was adversely affected by the dot-com crash. The Times extensively covered the September 11 attacks. The following day's print issue contained sixty-six articles, the work of over three hundred dispatched reporters. Journalist Judith Miller was the recipient of a package containing a white powder during the 2001 anthrax attacks, furthering anxiety within The New York Times. In September 2002, Miller and military correspondent Michael R. Gordon wrote an article for the Times claiming that Iraq had purchased aluminum tubes. The article was cited by then-president George W. Bush to claim that Iraq was constructing weapons of mass destruction; the theoretical use of aluminum tubes to produce nuclear material was speculation. In March 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, beginning the Iraq War. The New York Times attracted controversy after thirty-six articles from journalist Jayson Blair were discovered to be plagiarized. Criticism over then-executive editor Howell Raines and then-managing editor Gerald M. Boyd mounted following the scandal, culminating in a town hall in which a deputy editor criticized Raines for failing to question Blair's sources in article he wrote on the D.C. sniper attacks. In June 2003, Raines and Boyd resigned. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. appointed Bill Keller as executive editor. Miller continued to report on the Iraq War as a journalistic embed covering the country's weapons of mass destruction program. Keller and then-Washington bureau chief Jill Abramson unsuccessfully attempted to subside criticism. Conservative media criticized the Times over its coverage of missing explosives from the Al Qa'qaa weapons facility. An article in December 2005 disclosing warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency contributed to further criticism from the George W. Bush administration and the Senate's refusal to renew the Patriot Act. In the Plame affair, a Central Intelligence Agency inquiry found that Miller had become aware of Valerie Plame's identity through then-vice president Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby, resulting in Miller's resignation. During the Great Recession, The New York Times suffered significant fiscal difficulties as a consequence of the subprime mortgage crisis and a decline in classified advertising. Exacerbated by Rupert Murdoch's revitalization of The Wall Street Journal through his acquisition of Dow Jones & Company, The New York Times Company began enacting measures to reduce the newsroom budget. The company was forced to borrow $250 million (equivalent to $373.84 million in 2025) from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and fired over one hundred employees by 2010. nytimes.com's coverage of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, resulting in the resignation of then-New York governor Eliot Spitzer, furthered the legitimacy of the website as a journalistic medium. The Times's economic downturn renewed discussions of an online paywall; The New York Times implemented a paywall in March 2011. Abramson succeeded Keller, continuing her characteristic investigations into corporate and government malfeasance into the Times's coverage. Following conflicts with newly appointed chief executive Mark Thompson's ambitions, Abramson was dismissed by Sulzberger Jr., who named Dean Baquet as her replacement. Leading up to the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times elevated the Hillary Clinton email controversy into a national issue. Donald Trump's upset victory contributed to an increase in subscriptions to the Times. The New York Times experienced unprecedented indignation from Trump, who referred to publications such as the Times as "enemies of the people" at the Conservative Political Action Conference and tweeted his disdain for the newspaper and CNN. In October 2017, The New York Times published an article by journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey alleging that dozens of women had accused film producer and The Weinstein Company co-chairman Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. The investigation resulted in Weinstein's resignation and conviction, precipitated the Weinstein effect, and served as a catalyst for the #MeToo movement. The New York Times Company vacated the public editor position and eliminated the copy desk in November. Sulzberger Jr. announced his resignation in December 2017, appointing his son, A. G. Sulzberger, as publisher. Trump's relationship—equally diplomatic and negative—marked Sulzberger's tenure. In September 2018, The New York Times published "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", an anonymous essay by a self-described Trump administration official later revealed to be Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor. The animosity—which extended to nearly three hundred instances of Trump disparaging the Times by May 2019—culminated in Trump ordering federal agencies to cancel their subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post in October 2019. Trump's tax returns have been the subject of three separate investigations.[c] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Times began implementing data services and graphs. On May 23, 2020, The New York Times's front page solely featured U.S. Deaths Near 100,000, An Incalculable Loss, a subset of the 100,000 people in the United States who died of COVID-19, the first time that the Times's front page lacked images since they were introduced. Since 2020, The New York Times has focused on broader diversification, developing online games and producing television series. The New York Times Company acquired The Athletic in January 2022. Organization Since 1896, The New York Times has been published by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, having previously been published by Henry Jarvis Raymond until 1869 and by George Jones until 1896. Adolph Ochs published the Times until his death in 1935, when he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Sulzberger was publisher until 1961 and was succeeded by Orvil Dryfoos, his son-in-law, who served in the position until his death in 1963. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger succeeded Dryfoos until his resignation in 1992. His son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., served as publisher until 2018. The New York Times's current publisher is A. G. Sulzberger, Sulzberger Jr.'s son. As of 2023, the Times's executive editor is Joseph Kahn and the paper's managing editors are Marc Lacey and Carolyn Ryan, having been appointed in June 2022. The New York Times's deputy managing editors are Sam Dolnick, Monica Drake, and Steve Duenes, and the paper's assistant managing editors are Matthew Ericson, Jonathan Galinsky, Hannah Poferl, Sam Sifton, Karron Skog, and Michael Slackman. The New York Times is owned by The New York Times Company, a publicly traded company. The New York Times Company, in addition to the Times, owns Wirecutter, The Athletic, The New York Times Cooking, and The New York Times Games, and acquired Serial Productions and Audm. The New York Times Company holds undisclosed minority investments in multiple other businesses, and formerly owned The Boston Globe and several radio and television stations. The New York Times Company is majority-owned by the Ochs-Sulzberger family through elevated shares in the company's dual-class stock structure held largely in a trust, in effect since the 1950s; as of 2022, the family holds ninety-five percent of The New York Times Company's Class B shares, allowing it to elect seventy percent of the company's board of directors. Class A shareholders have restrictive voting rights. As of 2023, The New York Times Company's chief executive is Meredith Kopit Levien, the company's former chief operating officer who was appointed in September 2020. As of March 2023, The New York Times Company employs 5,800 individuals, including 1,700 journalists according to deputy managing editor Sam Dolnick. Journalists for The New York Times may not run for public office, provide financial support to political candidates or causes, endorse candidates, or demonstrate public support for causes or movements. Journalists are subject to the guidelines established in "Ethical Journalism" and "Guidelines on Integrity". According to the former, Times journalists must abstain from using sources with a personal relationship to them and must not accept reimbursements or inducements from individuals who may be written about in The New York Times, with exceptions for gifts of nominal value. The latter requires attribution and exact quotations, though exceptions are made for linguistic anomalies. Staff writers are expected to ensure the veracity of all written claims, but may delegate researching obscure facts to the research desk. In March 2021, the Times established a committee to avoid journalistic conflicts of interest with work written for The New York Times, following columnist David Brooks's resignation from the Aspen Institute for his undisclosed work on the initiative Weave. The New York Times editorial board was established in 1896 by Adolph Ochs. With the opinion department, the editorial board is independent of the newsroom. Then-editor-in-chief Charles Ransom Miller served as opinion editor from 1883 until his death in 1922. Rollo Ogden succeeded Miller until his death in 1937. From 1937 to 1938, John Huston Finley served as opinion editor; in a prearranged plan, Charles Merz succeeded Finley. Merz served in the position until his retirement in 1961. John Bertram Oakes served as opinion editor from 1961 to 1976, when then-publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger appointed Max Frankel. Frankel served in the position until 1986, when he was appointed as executive editor. Jack Rosenthal was the opinion editor from 1986 to 1993. Howell Raines succeeded Rosenthal until 2001, when he was made executive editor. Gail Collins succeeded Raines until her resignation in 2006. From 2007 to 2016, Andrew Rosenthal was the opinion editor. James Bennet succeeded Rosenthal until his resignation in 2020. As of July 2024[update], the editorial board comprises thirteen opinion writers. The New York Times's opinion editor is Kathleen Kingsbury and the deputy opinion editor is Patrick Healy. The New York Times's editorial board was initially opposed to liberal beliefs, opposing women's suffrage in 1900 and 1914. The editorial board began to espouse progressive beliefs during Oakes's tenure, conflicting with the Ochs-Sulzberger family, of which Oakes was a member as Adolph Ochs's nephew; in 1976, Oakes publicly disagreed with Sulzberger's endorsement of Daniel Patrick Moynihan over Bella Abzug in the 1976 Senate Democratic primaries in a letter sent from Martha's Vineyard. Under Rosenthal, the editorial board took positions supporting assault weapons legislation and the legalization of marijuana, but publicly criticized the Obama administration over its portrayal of terrorism. In presidential elections, The New York Times has endorsed a total of twelve Republican candidates and thirty-two Democratic candidates, and has endorsed the Democrat in every election since 1960.[j] With the exception of Wendell Willkie, Republicans endorsed by the Times have won the presidency. In 2016, the editorial board issued an anti-endorsement against Donald Trump for the first time in its history. In February 2020, the editorial board reduced its presence from several editorials each day to occasional editorials for events deemed particularly significant. Since August 2024, the board no longer endorses candidates in local or congressional races in New York. Since 1940, editorial, media, and technology workers of The New York Times have been represented by the New York Times Guild. The Times Guild, along with the Times Tech Guild, are represented by the NewsGuild-CWA. In 1940, Arthur Hays Sulzberger was called upon by the National Labor Relations Board amid accusations that he had discouraged Guild membership in the Times. Over the next few years, the Guild would ratify several contracts, expanding to editorial and news staff in 1942 and maintenance workers in 1943. The New York Times Guild has walked out several times in its history, including for six and a half hours in 1981 and in 2017, when copy editors and reporters walked out at lunchtime in response to the elimination of the copy desk. On December 7, 2022, the union held a one-day strike, the first interruption to The New York Times since 1978. The New York Times Guild reached an agreement in May 2023 to increase minimum salaries for employees and a retroactive bonus. The Times Tech Guild is the largest technology union with collective bargaining rights in the United States. The guild held a second strike beginning on November 4, 2024, threatening the Times's coverage of the 2024 United States presidential election. Content As of August 2025, The New York Times has 11.8 million subscribers, with 11.3 million online-only subscribers and 580,000 print subscribers. The New York Times Company intends to have 15 million subscribers by 2027. The Times's shift towards subscription-based revenue with the debut of an online paywall in 2011 contributed to subscription revenue exceeding advertising revenue the following year, furthered by the 2016 presidential election and Donald Trump. In 2022, Vox wrote that The New York Times's subscribers skew "older, richer, whiter, and more liberal"; to reflect the general population of the United States, the Times has attempted to alter its audience by acquiring The Athletic, investing in verticals such as The New York Times Games, and beginning a marketing campaign showing diverse subscribers to the Times. The New York Times Company chief executive Meredith Kopit Levien stated that the average age of subscribers has remained constant. In October 2001, The New York Times began publishing DealBook, a financial newsletter edited by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The Times had intended to publish the newsletter in September, but delayed its debut following the September 11 attacks. A website for DealBook was established in March 2006. The New York Times began shifting towards DealBook as part of the newspaper's financial coverage in November 2010 with a renewed website and a presence in the Times's print edition. In 2011, the Times began hosting the DealBook Summit, an annual conference hosted by Sorkin. During the COVID-19 pandemic, The New York Times hosted the DealBook Online Summit in 2020 and 2021. The 2022 DealBook Summit featured—among other speakers—former vice president Mike Pence and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, culminating in an interview with former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried; FTX had filed for bankruptcy several weeks prior. The 2023 DealBook Summit's speakers included vice president Kamala Harris, Israeli president Isaac Herzog, and businessman Elon Musk. In June 2010, The New York Times licensed the political blog FiveThirtyEight in a three-year agreement. The blog, written by Nate Silver, had garnered attention during the 2008 presidential election for predicting the elections in forty-nine of fifty states. FiveThirtyEight appeared on nytimes.com in August. According to Silver, several offers were made for the blog; Silver wrote that a merger of unequals must allow for editorial sovereignty and resources from the acquirer, comparing himself to Groucho Marx. According to The New Republic, FiveThirtyEight drew as much as a fifth of the traffic to nytimes.com during the 2012 presidential election. In July 2013, FiveThirtyEight was sold to ESPN. In an article following Silver's exit, public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote that he was disruptive to the Times's culture for his perspective on probability-based predictions and scorn for polling—having stated that punditry is "fundamentally useless", comparing him to Billy Beane, who implemented sabermetrics in baseball. According to Sullivan, his work was criticized by several notable political journalists. The New Republic obtained a memo in November 2013 revealing then-Washington bureau chief David Leonhardt's ambitions to establish a data-driven newsletter with presidential historian Michael Beschloss, graphic designer Amanda Cox, economist Justin Wolfers, and The New Republic journalist Nate Cohn. By March, Leonhardt had amassed fifteen employees from within The New York Times; the newsletter's staff included individuals who had created the Times's dialect quiz, fourth down analyzer, and a calculator for determining buying or renting a home. The Upshot debuted in April 2014. Fast Company reviewed an article about Illinois Secure Choice—a state-funded retirement saving system—as "neither a terse news item, nor a formal financial advice column, nor a politically charged response to economic policy", citing its informal and neutral tone. The Upshot developed "the needle" for the 2016 presidential election and 2020 presidential elections, a thermometer dial displaying the probability of a candidate winning. In January 2016, Cox was named editor of The Upshot. Kevin Quealy was named editor in June 2022. The New York Times has said it is perceived as a liberal newspaper. An analysis by Pew Research Center in October 2014 placed the Times readership as ideologically liberal based on a scale of 10 political values questions. According to an internal readership poll conducted by The New York Times in 2019, eighty-four percent of readers identified as liberal. The New York Times has struggled internally with how to balance its coverage, dismissing criticism from the left for "sanewashing" right-wing viewpoints in its coverage of Donald Trump. In covering Israel's war on the Gaza Strip that began in 2023, The New York Times instructed its reporters to restrict use of the terms 'Palestine', 'genocide', and 'refugee camps' to specific usages, with data analysis showing a pattern of articles emphasizing Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians over a much larger number of Palestinian civilians killed by Israelis. The group Writers Against the War on Gaza wrote in the blog Mondoweiss that this has contrasted with The New York Times coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in which Russia is considered a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests, while Israel is considered an ally. In February 1942, The New York Times crossword debuted in The New York Times Magazine; according to Richard Shepard, the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 convinced then-publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger of the necessity of a crossword. The New York Times has published recipes since the 1850s and has had a separate food section since the 1940s. In 1961, restaurant critic Craig Claiborne published The New York Times Cookbook, an unauthorized cookbook that drew from the Times's recipes. Since 2010, former food editor Amanda Hesser has published The Essential New York Times Cookbook, a compendium of recipes from The New York Times. The Innovation Report in 2014 revealed that the Times had attempted to establish a cooking website since 1998, but faced difficulties with the absence of a defined data structure. In September 2014, The New York Times introduced NYT Cooking, an application and website. Edited by food editor Sam Sifton, the Times's cooking website features 21,000 recipes as of 2022. NYT Cooking features videos as part of an effort by Sifton to hire two former Tasty employees from BuzzFeed. In August 2023, NYT Cooking added personalized recommendations through the cosine similarity of text embeddings of recipe titles. The website also features no-recipe recipes, a concept proposed by Sifton. In May 2016, The New York Times Company announced a partnership with startup Chef'd to form a meal delivery service that would deliver ingredients from The New York Times Cooking recipes to subscribers; Chef'd shut down in July 2018 after failing to accrue capital and secure financing. The Hollywood Reporter reported in September 2022 that the Times would expand its delivery options to US$95 cooking kits curated by chefs such as Nina Compton, Chintan Pandya, and Naoko Takei Moore. That month, the staff of NYT Cooking went on tour with Compton, Pandya, and Moore in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York City, culminating in a food festival. In addition, The New York Times offered its own wine club originally operated by the Global Wine Company. The New York Times Wine Club was established in August 2009, during a dramatic decrease in advertising revenue. By 2021, the wine club was managed by Lot18, a company that provides proprietary labels. Lot18 managed the Williams Sonoma Wine Club and its own wine club Tasting Room. The New York Times archives its articles in a basement annex beneath its building known as "the morgue", a venture started by managing editor Carr Van Anda in 1907. The morgue comprises news clippings, a pictures library, and the Times's book and periodicals library. As of 2014, it is the largest library of any media company, dating back to 1851. In November 2018, The New York Times partnered with Google to digitize the Archival Library. Additionally, The New York Times has maintained a virtual microfilm reader known as TimesMachine since 2014. The service launched with archives from 1851 to 1980; in 2016, TimesMachine expanded to include archives from 1981 to 2002. The Times built a pipeline to take in TIFF images, article metadata in XML and an INI file of Cartesian geometry describing the boundaries of the page, and convert it into a PNG of image tiles and JSON containing the information in the XML and INI files. The image tiles are generated using GDAL and displayed using Leaflet, using data from a content delivery network. The Times ran optical character recognition on the articles using Tesseract and shingled and fuzzy string matched the result. The New York Times uses a proprietary content management system known as Scoop for its online content and the Microsoft Word-based content management system CCI for its print content. Scoop was developed in 2008 to serve as a secondary content management system for editors working in CCI to publish their content on the Times's website; as part of The New York Times's online endeavors, editors now write their content in Scoop and send their work to CCI for print publication. Since its introduction, Scoop has superseded several processes within the Times, including print edition planning and collaboration, and features tools such as multimedia integration, notifications, content tagging, and drafts. The New York Times uses private articles for high-profile opinion pieces, such as those written by Russian president Vladimir Putin and actress Angelina Jolie, and for high-level investigations. In January 2012, the Times released Integrated Content Editor (ICE), a revision tracking tool for WordPress and TinyMCE. ICE is integrated within the Times's workflow by providing a unified text editor for print and online editors, reducing the divide between print and online operations. By 2017, The New York Times began developing a new authoring tool to its content management system known as Oak, in an attempt to further the Times's visual efforts in articles and reduce the discrepancy between the mediums in print and online articles. The system reduces the input of editors and supports additional visual mediums in an editor that resembles the appearance of the article. Oak is based on ProseMirror, a JavaScript rich-text editor toolkit, and retains the revision tracking and commenting functionalities of The New York Times's previous systems. Additionally, Oak supports predefined article headers. In 2019, Oak was updated to support collaborative editing using Firebase to update editors's cursor status. Several Google Cloud Functions and Google Cloud Tasks allow articles to be previewed as they will be printed, and the Times's primary MySQL database is regularly updated to update editors on the article status. Style and design Since 1895, The New York Times has maintained a manual of style in several forms. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage was published on the Times's intranet in 1999. The New York Times uses honorifics when referring to individuals. With the AP Stylebook's removal of honorifics in 2000 and The Wall Street Journal's omission of courtesy titles in May 2023, the Times is the only national newspaper that continues to use honorifics. According to former copy editor Merrill Perlman, The New York Times continues to use honorifics as a "sign of civility". The Times's use of courtesy titles led to an apocryphal rumor that the paper had referred to singer Meat Loaf as "Mr. Loaf". Several exceptions have been made; the former sports section and The New York Times Book Review do not use honorifics. A leaked memo following the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011 revealed that editors were given a last-minute instruction to omit the honorific from Osama bin Laden's name, consistent with deceased figures of historic significance, such as Adolf Hitler, Napoleon, and Vladimir Lenin. The New York Times uses academic and military titles for individuals prominently serving in that position. In 1986, the Times began to use Ms., and introduced the gender-neutral title Mx. in 2015. The New York Times uses initials when a subject has expressed a preference, such as Donald Trump. The New York Times maintains a strict but not absolute obscenity policy, including phrases. In a review of the Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up, music critic Kelefa Sanneh wrote that the band's name—entirely rendered in asterisks—would not be printed in the Times "unless an American president, or someone similar, says it by mistake"; The New York Times did not repeat then-vice president Dick Cheney's use of "fuck" against then-senator Patrick Leahy in 2004 or then-vice president Joe Biden's remarks that the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was a "big fucking deal". The Times's profanity policy has been tested by former president Donald Trump. The New York Times published Trump's Access Hollywood tape in October 2016, containing the words "fuck", "pussy", "bitch", and "tits", the first time the publication had published an expletive on its front page, and repeated an explicit phrase for fellatio stated by then-White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in July 2017. The New York Times omitted Trump's use of the phrase "shithole countries" from its headline in favor of "vulgar language" in January 2018. The Times banned certain words, such as "bitch", "whore", and "sluts", from Wordle in 2022. Journalists for The New York Times do not write their own headlines, but rather copy editors who specifically write headlines. The Times's guidelines insist headline editors get to the main point of an article but avoid giving away endings, if present. Other guidelines include using slang "sparingly", avoiding tabloid headlines, not ending a line on a preposition, article, or adjective, and chiefly, not to pun. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage states that wordplay, such as "Rubber Industry Bounces Back", is to be tested on a colleague as a canary is to be tested in a coal mine; "when no song bursts forth, start rewriting". The New York Times has amended headlines due to controversy. In 2019, following two back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the Times used the headline, "Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism", to describe then-president Donald Trump's words after the shootings. After criticism from FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, the headline was changed to, "Assailing Hate But Not Guns". Online, The New York Times's headlines do not face the same length restrictions as headlines that appear in print; print headlines must fit within a column, often six words. Additionally, headlines must "break" properly, containing a complete thought on each line without splitting up prepositions and adverbs. Writers may edit a headline to fit an article more aptly if further developments occur. The Times uses A/B testing for articles on the front page, placing two headlines against each other. At the end of the test, the headlines that receives more traffic is chosen. The alteration of a headline regarding intercepted Russian data used in the Mueller special counsel investigation was noted by Trump in a March 2017 interview with Time, in which he claimed that the headline used the word "wiretapped" in the print version of the paper on January 20, while the digital article on January 19 omitted the word. The headline was intentionally changed in the print version to use "wiretapped" in order to fit within the print guidelines. The nameplate of The New York Times has been unaltered since 1967. In creating the initial nameplate, Henry Jarvis Raymond took as his model the British newspaper The Times, which used a Blackletter style called Textura, popularized following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and regional variations of Alcuin's script, as well as a period. With the change to The New-York Times on September 14, 1857, the nameplate followed. Under George Jones, the terminals of the "N", "r", and "s" were intentionally exaggerated into swashes. The nameplate in the January 15, 1894, issue trimmed the terminals once more, smoothed the edges, and turned the stem supporting the "T" into an ornament. The hyphen was dropped on December 1, 1896, after Adolph Ochs purchased the paper. The descender of the "h" was shortened on December 30, 1914. The largest change to the nameplate was introduced on February 21, 1967, when type designer Ed Benguiat redesigned the logo, most prominently turning the arrow ornament into a diamond. Notoriously, the new logo dropped the period that had followed the word Times up until that point; one reader compared the omission of the period to "performing plastic surgery on Helen of Troy." Picture editor John Radosta worked with a New York University professor to determine that dropping the period saved the paper US$41.28 (equivalent to $398.59 in 2025). Print edition As of December 2023, The New York Times has printed sixty thousand issues, a statistic represented in the paper's masthead to the right of the volume number, the Times's years in publication written in Roman numerals. The volume and issues are separated by four dots representing the edition number of that issue; on the day of the 2000 presidential election, the Times was revised four separate times, necessitating the use of an em dash in place of an ellipsis. The em dash issue was printed hundreds times over before being replaced by the one-dot issue. Despite efforts by newsroom employees to recycle copies sent to The New York Times's office, several copies were kept, including one put on display at the Museum at The Times. From February 7, 1898, to December 31, 1999, the Times's issue number was incorrect by five hundred issues, an error suspected by The Atlantic to be the result of a careless front page type editor. The misreporting was noticed by news editor Aaron Donovan, who was calculating the number of issues in a spreadsheet and noticed the discrepancy. The New York Times celebrated fifty thousand issues on March 14, 1995, an observance that should have occurred on July 26, 1996. The New York Times has reduced the physical size of its print edition while retaining its broadsheet format. The New-York Daily Times debuted at 18 inches (460 mm) across. By the 1950s, the Times was being printed at 16 inches (410 mm) across. In 1953, an increase in paper costs to US$10 (equivalent to $120.34 in 2025) a ton increased newsprint costs to US$21.7 million (equivalent to $326,110,074.63 in 2025) On December 28, 1953, the pages were reduced to 15.5 inches (390 mm). On February 14, 1955, a further reduction to 15 inches (380 mm) occurred, followed by 14.5 and 13.5 inches (370 and 340 mm). On August 6, 2007, the largest cut occurred when the pages were reduced to 12 inches (300 mm),[k] a decision that other broadsheets had previously considered. Then-executive editor Bill Keller stated that a narrower paper would be more beneficial to the reader but acknowledged a net loss in article space of five percent. In 1985, The New York Times Company established a minority stake in a US$21.7 million (equivalent to $326,110,074.63 in 2025) newsprint plant in Clermont, Quebec through Donahue Malbaie. The company sold its equity interest in Donahue Malbaie in 2017. The New York Times often uses large, bolded headlines for major events. For the print version of the Times, these headlines are written by one copy editor, reviewed by two other copy editors, approved by the masthead editors, and polished by other print editors. The process is completed before 8 p.m., but it may be repeated if further development occur, as did take place during the 2020 presidential election. On the day Joe Biden was declared the winner, The New York Times utilized a "hammer headline" reading, "Biden Beats Trump", in all caps and bolded. A dozen journalists discussed several potential headlines, such as "It's Biden" or "Biden's Moment", and prepared for a Donald Trump victory, in which they would use "Trump Prevails". During Trump's first impeachment, the Times drafted the hammer headline, "Trump Impeached". The New York Times altered the ligatures between the E and the A, as not doing so would leave a noticeable gap due to the stem of the A sloping away from the E. The Times reused the tight kerning for "Biden Beats Trump" and Trump's second impeachment, which simply read, "Impeached". In cases where two major events occur on the same day or immediately after each other, The New York Times has used a "paddle wheel" headline, where both headlines are used but split by a line. The term dates back to August 8, 1959, when it was revealed that the United States was monitoring Soviet missile firings and when Explorer 6—shaped like a paddle wheel—launched. Since then, the paddle wheel has been used several times, including on January 21, 1981, when Ronald Reagan was sworn in minutes before Iran released fifty-two American hostages, ending the Iran hostage crisis. At the time, most newspapers favored the end of the hostage crisis, but the Times placed the inauguration above the crisis. Other occasions in which the paddle wheel has been used include on July 26, 2000, when the 2000 Camp David Summit ended without an agreement and when Bush announced that Dick Cheney would be his running mate, and on June 24, 2016, when the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum passed, beginning Brexit, and when the Supreme Court deadlocked in United States v. Texas. The New York Times has run editorials from its editorial board on the front page twice. On June 13, 1920, the Times ran an editorial opposing Warren G. Harding, who was nominated during that year's Republican Party presidential primaries. Amid growing acceptance to run editorials on the front pages from publications such as the Detroit Free Press, The Patriot-News, The Arizona Republic, and The Indianapolis Star, The New York Times ran an editorial on its front page on December 5, 2015, following a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, in which fourteen people were killed. The editorial advocates for the prohibition of "slightly modified combat rifles" used in the San Bernardino shooting and "certain kinds of ammunition". Conservative figures, including Texas senator Ted Cruz, The Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, Fox & Friends co-anchor Steve Doocy, and then-New Jersey governor Chris Christie criticized the Times. Talk radio host Erick Erickson acquired an issue of The New York Times to fire several rounds into the paper, posting a picture online. Since 1997, The New York Times's primary distribution center is located in College Point, Queens. The facility is 300,000 ft2 (28,000 m2) and employs 170 people as of 2017. The College Point distribution center prints 300,000 to 800,000 newspapers daily. On most occasions, presses start before 11 p.m. and finish before 3 a.m. A robotic crane grabs a roll of newsprint and several rollers ensure ink can be printed on paper. The final newspapers are wrapped in plastic and shipped out. As of 2018, the College Point facility accounted for 41 percent of production. Other copies are printed at 26 other publications, such as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Dallas Morning News, The Santa Fe New Mexican, and the Courier Journal. With the decline of newspapers, particularly regional publications, the Times must travel further; for example, newspapers for Hawaii are flown from San Francisco on United Airlines, and Sunday papers are flown from Los Angeles on Hawaiian Airlines. Computer glitches, mechanical issues, and weather phenomena affect circulation but do not stop the paper from reaching customers. The College Point facility prints over two dozen other papers, including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The New York Times has halted its printing process several times to account for major developments. The first printing stoppage occurred on March 31, 1968, when then-president Lyndon B. Johnson announced that he would not seek a second term. Other press stoppages include May 19, 1994, for the death of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and July 17, 1996, for Trans World Airlines Flight 800. The 2000 presidential election necessitated two press stoppages. Al Gore appeared to concede on November 8, forcing then-executive editor Joseph Lelyveld to stop the Times's presses to print a new headline, "Bush Appears to Defeat Gore", with a story that stated George W. Bush was elected president. However, Gore held off his concession speech over doubts over Florida. Lelyveld reran the headline, "Bush and Gore Vie for an Edge". Since 2000, three printing stoppages have been issued for the death of William Rehnquist on September 3, 2005, for the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011, and for the passage of the Marriage Equality Act in the New York State Assembly and subsequent signage by then-governor Andrew Cuomo on June 24, 2011. Online platforms The New York Times website is hosted at nytimes.com. It has undergone several major redesigns and infrastructure developments since its debut. In April 2006, The New York Times redesigned its website with an emphasis on multimedia. In preparation for Super Tuesday in February 2008, the Times developed a live election system using the Associated Press's File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service and a Ruby on Rails application; nytimes.com experienced its largest traffic on Super Tuesday and the day after. The NYTimes application debuted with the introduction of the App Store on July 10, 2008. Engadget's Scott McNulty wrote critically of the app, negatively comparing it to The New York Times's mobile website. An iPad version with select articles was released on April 3, 2010, with the release of the first-generation iPad. In October, The New York Times expanded NYT Editors' Choice to include the paper's full articles. NYT for iPad was free until 2011. The Times applications on iPhone and iPad began offering in-app subscriptions in July 2011. The Times released a web application for iPad—featuring a format summarizing trending headlines on Twitter—and a Windows 8 application in October 2012. Efforts to ensure profitability through an online magazine and a "Need to Know" subscription emerged in Adweek in July 2013. In March 2014, The New York Times announced three applications—NYT Now, an application that offers pertinent news in a blog format, and two unnamed applications, later known as NYT Opinion and NYT Cooking—to diversify its product laterals. The Daily is the modern front page of The New York Times. The New York Times manages several podcasts, including multiple podcasts with Serial Productions. The Times's longest-running podcast is The Book Review Podcast, debuting as Inside The New York Times Book Review in April 2006. The New York Times's defining podcast is The Daily, a daily news podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro which debuted on February 1, 2017. Between March 2022 and March 2025, the approximately 30 minute programme was co-hosted with Sabrina Tavernise. Beginning in April 2025 Barbaro was joined by two new regular co-hosts, Natalie Kitroeff and Rachel Abrams. The Interview was launched in 2024 and is hosted weekly by David Marchese and Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Episodes typically last 40 to 50 minutes. Condensed versions of the interviews are published simultaneously in The New York Times Magazine. Guests have included politicians, actors, influential experts, media figures and high-profile writers. In October 2021, The New York Times began testing "New York Times Audio", an application featuring podcasts from the Times, audio versions of articles—including from other publications through Audm, and archives from This American Life. The application debuted in May 2023 exclusively on iOS for Times subscribers. New York Times Audio includes exclusive podcasts such as The Headlines, a daily news recap, and Shorts, short audio stories under ten minutes. In addition, a "Reporter Reads" section features Times journalists reading their articles and providing commentary. The New York Times has used video games as part of its journalistic efforts, among the first publications to do so, contributing to an increase in Internet traffic; the publication has also developed its own video games. In 2014, The New York Times Magazine introduced Spelling Bee, a word game in which players guess words from a set of letters in a honeycomb and are awarded points for the length of the word and receive extra points if the word is a pangram. The game was proposed by Will Shortz, created by Frank Longo, and has been maintained by Sam Ezersky. In May 2018, Spelling Bee was published on nytimes.com, furthering its popularity. In February 2019, the Times introduced Letter Boxed, in which players form words from letters placed on the edges of a square box, followed in June 2019 by Tiles, a matching game in which players form sequences of tile pairings, and Vertex, in which players connect vertices to assemble an image. In July 2023, The New York Times introduced Connections, in which players identify groups of words that are connected by a common property. In April, the Times introduced Digits, a game that required using operations on different values to reach a set number; Digits was shut down in August. In March 2024, The New York Times released Strands, a themed word search. In January 2022, The New York Times Company acquired Wordle, a word game developed by Josh Wardle in 2021, at a valuation in the "low-seven figures". The acquisition was proposed by David Perpich, a member of the Sulzberger family who proposed the purchase to Knight over Slack after reading about the game. The Washington Post purportedly considered acquiring Wordle, according to Vanity Fair. At the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Wardle stated that he was overwhelmed by the volume of Wordle facsimiles and overzealous monetization practices in other games. Concerns over The New York Times monetizing Wordle by implementing a paywall mounted; Wordle is a client-side browser game and can be played offline by downloading its webpage. Wordle moved to the Times's servers and website in February. The game was added to the NYT Games application in August, necessitating it be rewritten in the JavaScript library React. In November, The New York Times announced that Tracy Bennett would be the Wordle's editor. Other publications The New York Times Magazine and The Boston Globe Magazine are the only weekly Sunday magazines following The Washington Post Magazine's cancellation in December 2022. In February 2016, The New York Times introduced a Spanish website, The New York Times en Español. The website, intended to be read on mobile devices, would contain translated articles from the Times and reporting from journalists based in Mexico City. The Times en Español's style editor is Paulina Chavira, who has advocated for pluralistic Spanish to accommodate the variety of nationalities in the newsroom's journalists and wrote a stylebook for The New York Times en Español. Articles the Times intends to publish in Spanish are sent to a translation agency and adapted for Spanish writing conventions; the present progressive tense may be used for forthcoming events in English, but other tenses are preferable in Spanish. The Times en Español consults the Real Academia Española and Fundéu and frequently modifies the use of diacritics—such as using an acute accent for the Cártel de Sinaloa but not the Cartel de Medellín—and using the gender-neutral pronoun elle. Headlines in The New York Times en Español are not capitalized. The Times en Español publishes El Times, a newsletter led by Elda Cantú intended for all Spanish speakers. In September 2019, The New York Times ended The New York Times en Español's separate operations. A study published in The Translator in 2023 found that the Times en Español engaged in tabloidization. In June 2012, The New York Times introduced a Chinese website, 纽约时报中文, in response to Chinese editions created by The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Conscious to censorship, the Times established servers outside of China and affirmed that the website would uphold the paper's journalistic standards; the government of China had previously blocked articles from nytimes.com through the Great Firewall, and the website was blocked in China until August 2001 after then-general secretary Jiang Zemin met with journalists from The New York Times. Then-foreign editor Joseph Kahn assisted in the establishment of cn.nytimes.com, an effort that contributed to his appointment as executive editor in April 2022. In October 2012, 纽约时报中文 published an article detailing the wealth of then-premier Wen Jiabao's family. In response, the government of China blocked access to nytimes.com and cn.nytimes.com and references to the Times and Wen were censored on microblogging service Sina Weibo. In March 2015, a mirror of 纽约时报中文 and the website for GreatFire were the targets for a government-sanctioned distributed denial of service attack on GitHub in March 2015, disabling access to the service for several days. Chinese authorities requested the removal of The New York Times's news applications from the App Store in December 2016. Awards and recognition As of 2023, The New York Times has received 137 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any publication. The New York Times is considered a newspaper of record in the United States.[l] The Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States; as of 2022, The New York Times is the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States behind The Wall Street Journal. A study published in Science, Technology, & Human Values in 2013 found that The New York Times received more citations in academic journals than the American Sociological Review, Research Policy, or the Harvard Law Review. With sixteen million unique records, the Times is the third-most referenced source in Common Crawl, a collection of online material used in datasets such as GPT-3, behind Wikipedia and a United States patent database. The New Yorker's Max Norman wrote in March 2023 that the Times has shaped mainstream English usage. In a January 2018 article for The Washington Post, Margaret Sullivan stated that The New York Times affects the "whole media and political ecosystem". The New York Times's nascent success has led to concerns over media consolidation, particularly amid the decline of newspapers. In 2006, economists Lisa George and Joel Waldfogel examined the consequences of the Times's national distribution strategy and audience with circulation of local newspapers, finding that local circulation decreased among college-educated readers. The effect of The New York Times in this manner was observed in The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, the newspaper of record for Fargo, North Dakota. Axios founder Jim VandeHei opined that the Times is "going to basically be a monopoly" in an opinion piece written by then-media columnist and former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief Ben Smith; in the article, Smith cites the strength of The New York Times's journalistic workforce, broadening content, and the expropriation of Gawker editor-in-chief Choire Sicha, Recode editor-in-chief Kara Swisher, and Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney. Smith compared the Times to the New York Yankees during their 1927 season containing Murderers' Row. Controversies Since 2003, studies analyzing coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the New York Times have demonstrated a bias against Palestinians and in favor of Israel.[m] The New York Times has received criticism for its coverage of the Gaza war and genocide. In April 2024, The Intercept reported that a November 2023 internal memorandum by Susan Wessling and Philip Pan instructed journalists to reduce using the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and to avoid using the phrase "occupied territory" in the context of Palestinian land, "Palestine" except in rare circumstances, and the term "refugee camps" to describe areas of Gaza despite recognition from the United Nations. A spokesperson from the Times stated that issuing guidance was standard practice. An analysis by The Intercept noted that The New York Times described Israeli deaths as a massacre nearly sixty times, but had only described Palestinian deaths as a massacre once. Writers and editors have left the newspaper due to its coverage of events in Gaza, including Jazmine Hughes and Jamie Lauren Keiles. In December 2023, The New York Times published an investigation titled "'Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7", alleging that Hamas weaponized sexual and gender-based violence during its armed incursion on Israel. The investigation was the subject of an article from The Intercept questioning the journalistic acumen of Anat Schwartz, a filmmaker involved in the inquiry who had no prior reporting experience and agreed with a post stating Israel should "violate any norm, on the way to victory", doubting the veracity of the opening claim that Gal Abdush was raped in a timespan disputed by her family, and alleging that the Times was pressured by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. The New York Times initiated an inquiry into the leaking of confidential information about the report to other outlets, which received criticism from NewsGuild of New York president Susan DeCarava for purported racial targeting; the Times's investigation was inconclusive, but found gaps in the way proprietary journalistic material is handled. The New York Times Building has been a site of protest action during the Gaza war and genocide, including a November 2023 sit-in demanding that The Times's editorial board publicly call for a ceasefire and accusing the media company of "complicity in laundering genocide", a February 29, 2024, protest and press conference following the release of The Intercept's critical investigation into the NYT "Screams Without Words" exposé, and an action on July 30, 2025, in which protesters spray-painted "NYT Lies, Gaza dies" on the building's glass facade. In addition, protesters blocked The New York Times's distribution center March 14, 2024 and executive editor Joseph Kahn's residence was splattered with red paint on August 25, 2025. The collective Writers Against the War on Gaza, which publishes the mock publication The New York War Crimes, has been associated with protests against The New York Times. On October 27, 2025, 300 writers—including scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals—pledged to boycott The New York Times and withhold contributions to the paper in protest of what they describe as its complicity in the Gaza genocide, demanding 1) a review of anti-Palestinian bias in the newsroom, 2) a retraction of "Screams Without Words", and 3) a call from the editorial board for a US arms embargo on Israel. Among the initial signatories, about 150 had previously contributed to the Times. The New York Times has received criticism regarding its coverage of transgender people. When it published an opinion piece by Weill Cornell Medicine professor Richard A. Friedman called "How Changeable Is Gender?" in August 2015, Vox's German Lopez criticized Friedman as suggesting that parents and doctors might be right in letting children suffer from severe dysphoria in case something changes down the line, and as implying that conversion therapy may work for transgender children. In February 2023, nearly one thousand current and former Times writers and contributors wrote an open letter addressed to standards editor Philip B. Corbett, criticizing the paper's coverage of transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people; some of the Times's articles have been cited in state legislatures attempting to justify criminalizing gender-affirming care. Contributors wrote in the open letter that "the Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources."[n] According to former Times journalist Billie Jean Sweeney, a push for writers to challenge “every aspect of being trans”, ranging from gender-inclusive language to access to medical care, came from the top in 2022 after leadership was handed over to A. G. Sulzberger, Joe Kahn, and Carolyn Ryan; as part of an effort to win good will with the Trump campaign without incurring backlash from the general populace. The Times has continually denied any bias in its reporting, insisting that its coverage of “fiercely contested medical and legal debates” is fair and balanced, and that it would not tolerate journalists protesting its transgender coverage. Notes References Further reading External links |
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Contents Black hole A black hole is an astronomical body so compact that its gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event horizon. In general relativity, a black hole's event horizon seals an object's fate but produces no locally detectable change when crossed. General relativity also predicts that every black hole should have a central singularity, where the curvature of spacetime is infinite. In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light. Quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is of the order of billionths of a kelvin for stellar black holes, making it essentially impossible to observe directly. Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace. In 1916, Karl Schwarzschild found the first modern solution of general relativity that would characterise a black hole. Due to his influential research, the Schwarzschild metric is named after him. David Finkelstein, in 1958, first interpreted Schwarzschild's model as a region of space from which nothing can escape. Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity; it was not until the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The first black hole known was Cygnus X-1, identified by several researchers independently in 1971. Black holes typically form when massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. Supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses may form by absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, or via direct collapse of gas clouds. There is consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centres of most galaxies. The presence of a black hole can be inferred through its interaction with other matter and with electromagnetic radiation such as visible light. Matter falling toward a black hole can form an accretion disk of infalling plasma, heated by friction and emitting light. In extreme cases, this creates a quasar, some of the brightest objects in the universe. Merging black holes can also be detected by observation of the gravitational waves they emit. If other stars are orbiting a black hole, their orbits can be used to determine the black hole's mass and location. Such observations can be used to exclude possible alternatives such as neutron stars. In this way, astronomers have identified numerous stellar black hole candidates in binary systems and established that the radio source known as Sagittarius A*, at the core of the Milky Way galaxy, contains a supermassive black hole of about 4.3 million solar masses. History The idea of a body so massive that even light could not escape was first proposed in the late 18th century by English astronomer and clergyman John Michell and independently by French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace. Both scholars proposed very large stars in contrast to the modern concept of an extremely dense object. Michell's idea, in a short part of a letter published in 1784, calculated that a star with the same density but 500 times the radius of the sun would not let any emitted light escape; the surface escape velocity would exceed the speed of light.: 122 Michell correctly hypothesized that such supermassive but non-radiating bodies might be detectable through their gravitational effects on nearby visible bodies. In 1796, Laplace mentioned that a star could be invisible if it were sufficiently large while speculating on the origin of the Solar System in his book Exposition du Système du Monde. Franz Xaver von Zach asked Laplace for a mathematical analysis, which Laplace provided and published in a journal edited by von Zach. In 1905, Albert Einstein showed that the laws of electromagnetism would be invariant under a Lorentz transformation: they would be identical for observers travelling at different velocities relative to each other. This discovery became known as the principle of special relativity. Although the laws of mechanics had already been shown to be invariant, gravity remained yet to be included.: 19 In 1907, Einstein published a paper proposing his equivalence principle, the hypothesis that inertial mass and gravitational mass have a common cause. Using the principle, Einstein predicted the redshift and half of the lensing effect of gravity on light; the full prediction of gravitational lensing required development of general relativity.: 19 By 1915, Einstein refined these ideas into his general theory of relativity, which explained how matter affects spacetime, which in turn affects the motion of other matter. This formed the basis for black hole physics. Only a few months after Einstein published the field equations describing general relativity, astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild set out to apply the idea to stars. He assumed spherical symmetry with no spin and found a solution to Einstein's equations.: 124 A few months after Schwarzschild, Johannes Droste, a student of Hendrik Lorentz, independently gave the same solution. At a certain radius from the center of the mass, the Schwarzschild solution became singular, meaning that some of the terms in the Einstein equations became infinite. The nature of this radius, which later became known as the Schwarzschild radius, was not understood at the time. Many physicists of the early 20th century were skeptical of the existence of black holes. In a 1926 popular science book, Arthur Eddington critiqued the idea of a star with mass compressed to its Schwarzschild radius as a flaw in the then-poorly-understood theory of general relativity.: 134 In 1939, Einstein himself used his theory of general relativity in an attempt to prove that black holes were impossible. His work relied on increasing pressure or increasing centrifugal force balancing the force of gravity so that the object would not collapse beyond its Schwarzschild radius. He missed the possibility that implosion would drive the system below this critical value.: 135 By the 1920s, astronomers had classified a number of white dwarf stars as too cool and dense to be explained by the gradual cooling of ordinary stars. In 1926, Ralph Fowler showed that quantum-mechanical degeneracy pressure was larger than thermal pressure at these densities.: 145 In 1931, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculated that a non-rotating body of electron-degenerate matter below a certain limiting mass is stable, and by 1934 he showed that this explained the catalog of white dwarf stars.: 151 When Chandrasekhar announced his results, Eddington pointed out that stars above this limit would radiate until they were sufficiently dense to prevent light from exiting, a conclusion he considered absurd. Eddington and, later, Lev Landau argued that some yet unknown mechanism would stop the collapse. In the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky and Walter Baade studied stellar novae, focusing on exceptionally bright ones they called supernovae. Zwicky promoted the idea that supernovae produced stars with the density of atomic nuclei—neutron stars—but this idea was largely ignored.: 171 In 1939, based on Chandrasekhar's reasoning, J. Robert Oppenheimer and George Volkoff predicted that neutron stars below a certain mass limit, later called the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, would be stable due to neutron degeneracy pressure. Above that limit, they reasoned that either their model would not apply or that gravitational contraction would not stop.: 380 John Archibald Wheeler and two of his students resolved questions about the model behind the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) limit. Harrison and Wheeler developed the equations of state relating density to pressure for cold matter all the way through electron degeneracy and neutron degeneracy. Masami Wakano and Wheeler then used the equations to compute the equilibrium curve for stars, relating mass to circumference. They found no additional features that would invalidate the TOV limit. This meant that the only thing that could prevent black holes from forming was a dynamic process ejecting sufficient mass from a star as it cooled.: 205 The modern concept of black holes was formulated by Robert Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder in 1939.: 80 In the paper, Oppenheimer and Snyder solved Einstein's equations of general relativity for an idealized imploding star, in a model later called the Oppenheimer–Snyder model, then described the results from far outside the star. The implosion starts as one might expect: the star material rapidly collapses inward. However, as the density of the star increases, gravitational time dilation increases and the collapse, viewed from afar, seems to slow down further and further until the star reaches its Schwarzschild radius, where it appears frozen in time.: 217 In 1958, David Finkelstein identified the Schwarzschild surface as an event horizon, calling it "a perfect unidirectional membrane: causal influences can cross it in only one direction". In this sense, events that occur inside of the black hole cannot affect events that occur outside of the black hole. Finkelstein created a new reference frame to include the point of view of infalling observers.: 103 Finkelstein's new frame of reference allowed events at the surface of an imploding star to be related to events far away. By 1962 the two points of view were reconciled, convincing many skeptics that implosion into a black hole made physical sense.: 226 The era from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s was the "golden age of black hole research", when general relativity and black holes became mainstream subjects of research.: 258 In this period, more general black hole solutions were found. In 1963, Roy Kerr found the exact solution for a rotating black hole. Two years later, Ezra Newman found the cylindrically symmetric solution for a black hole that is both rotating and electrically charged. In 1967, Werner Israel found that the Schwarzschild solution was the only possible solution for a nonspinning, uncharged black hole, meaning that a Schwarzschild black hole would be defined by its mass alone. Similar identities were later found for Reissner-Nordstrom and Kerr black holes, defined only by their mass and their charge or spin respectively. Together, these findings became known as the no-hair theorem, which states that a stationary black hole is completely described by the three parameters of the Kerr–Newman metric: mass, angular momentum, and electric charge. At first, it was suspected that the strange mathematical singularities found in each of the black hole solutions only appeared due to the assumption that a black hole would be perfectly spherically symmetric, and therefore the singularities would not appear in generic situations where black holes would not necessarily be symmetric. This view was held in particular by Vladimir Belinski, Isaak Khalatnikov, and Evgeny Lifshitz, who tried to prove that no singularities appear in generic solutions, although they would later reverse their positions. However, in 1965, Roger Penrose proved that general relativity without quantum mechanics requires that singularities appear in all black holes. Astronomical observations also made great strides during this era. In 1967, Antony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars and by 1969, these were shown to be rapidly rotating neutron stars. Until that time, neutron stars, like black holes, were regarded as just theoretical curiosities, but the discovery of pulsars showed their physical relevance and spurred a further interest in all types of compact objects that might be formed by gravitational collapse. Based on observations in Greenwich and Toronto in the early 1970s, Cygnus X-1, a galactic X-ray source discovered in 1964, became the first astronomical object commonly accepted to be a black hole. Work by James Bardeen, Jacob Bekenstein, Carter, and Hawking in the early 1970s led to the formulation of black hole thermodynamics. These laws describe the behaviour of a black hole in close analogy to the laws of thermodynamics by relating mass to energy, area to entropy, and surface gravity to temperature. The analogy was completed: 442 when Hawking, in 1974, showed that quantum field theory implies that black holes should radiate like a black body with a temperature proportional to the surface gravity of the black hole, predicting the effect now known as Hawking radiation. While Cygnus X-1, a stellar-mass black hole, was generally accepted by the scientific community as a black hole by the end of 1973, it would be decades before a supermassive black hole would gain the same broad recognition. Although, as early as the 1960s, physicists such as Donald Lynden-Bell and Martin Rees had suggested that powerful quasars in the center of galaxies were powered by accreting supermassive black holes, little observational proof existed at the time. However, the Hubble Space Telescope, launched decades later, found that supermassive black holes were not only present in these active galactic nuclei, but that supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies were ubiquitous: Almost every galaxy had a supermassive black hole at its center, many of which were quiescent. In 1999, David Merritt proposed the M–sigma relation, which related the dispersion of the velocity of matter in the center bulge of a galaxy to the mass of the supermassive black hole at its core. Subsequent studies confirmed this correlation. Around the same time, based on telescope observations of the velocities of stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, independent work groups led by Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel concluded that the compact radio source in the center of the galaxy, Sagittarius A*, was likely a supermassive black hole. On 11 February 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves, named GW150914, representing the first observation of a black hole merger. At the time of the merger, the black holes were approximately 1.4 billion light-years away from Earth and had masses of 30 and 35 solar masses.: 6 In 2017, Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne, and Barry Barish, who had spearheaded the project, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Since the initial discovery in 2015, hundreds more gravitational waves have been observed by LIGO and another interferometer, Virgo. On 10 April 2019, the first direct image of a black hole and its vicinity was published, following observations made by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in 2017 of the supermassive black hole in Messier 87's galactic centre. In 2022, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration released an image of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, Sagittarius A*; The data had been collected in 2017. In 2020, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for work on black holes. Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel shared one-half for their discovery that Sagittarius A* is a supermassive black hole. Penrose received the other half for his work showing that the mathematics of general relativity requires the formation of black holes. Cosmologists lamented that Hawking's extensive theoretical work on black holes would not be honored since he died in 2018. In December 1967, a student reportedly suggested the phrase black hole at a lecture by John Wheeler; Wheeler adopted the term for its brevity and "advertising value", and Wheeler's stature in the field ensured it quickly caught on, leading some to credit Wheeler with coining the phrase. However, the term was used by others around that time. Science writer Marcia Bartusiak traces the term black hole to physicist Robert H. Dicke, who in the early 1960s reportedly compared the phenomenon to the Black Hole of Calcutta, notorious as a prison where people entered but never left alive. The term was used in print by Life and Science News magazines in 1963, and by science journalist Ann Ewing in her article "'Black Holes' in Space", dated 18 January 1964, which was a report on a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Cleveland, Ohio. Definition A black hole is generally defined as a region of spacetime from which no information-carrying signals or objects can escape. However, verifying an object as a black hole by this definition would require waiting for an infinite time and at an infinite distance from the black hole to verify that indeed, nothing has escaped, and thus cannot be used to identify a physical black hole. Broadly, physicists do not have a precisely-agreed-upon definition of a black hole. Among astrophysicists, a black hole is a compact object with a mass larger than four solar masses. A black hole may also be defined as a reservoir of information: 142 or a region where space is falling inwards faster than the speed of light. Properties The no-hair theorem postulates that, once it achieves a stable condition after formation, a black hole has only three independent physical properties: mass, electric charge, and angular momentum; the black hole is otherwise featureless. If the conjecture is true, any two black holes that share the same values for these properties, or parameters, are indistinguishable from one another. The degree to which the conjecture is true for real black holes is currently an unsolved problem. The simplest static black holes have mass but neither electric charge nor angular momentum. According to Birkhoff's theorem, these Schwarzschild black holes are the only vacuum solution that is spherically symmetric. Solutions describing more general black holes also exist. Non-rotating charged black holes are described by the Reissner–Nordström metric, while the Kerr metric describes a non-charged rotating black hole. The most general stationary black hole solution known is the Kerr–Newman metric, which describes a black hole with both charge and angular momentum. The simplest static black holes have mass but neither electric charge nor angular momentum. Contrary to the popular notion of a black hole "sucking in everything" in its surroundings, from far away, the external gravitational field of a black hole is identical to that of any other body of the same mass. While a black hole can theoretically have any positive mass, the charge and angular momentum are constrained by the mass. The total electric charge Q and the total angular momentum J are expected to satisfy the inequality Q 2 4 π ϵ 0 + c 2 J 2 G M 2 ≤ G M 2 {\displaystyle {\frac {Q^{2}}{4\pi \epsilon _{0}}}+{\frac {c^{2}J^{2}}{GM^{2}}}\leq GM^{2}} for a black hole of mass M. Black holes with the maximum possible charge or spin satisfying this inequality are called extremal black holes. Solutions of Einstein's equations that violate this inequality exist, but they do not possess an event horizon. These are so-called naked singularities that can be observed from the outside. Because these singularities make the universe inherently unpredictable, many physicists believe they could not exist. The weak cosmic censorship hypothesis, proposed by Sir Roger Penrose, rules out the formation of such singularities, when they are created through the gravitational collapse of realistic matter. However, this theory has not yet been proven, and some physicists believe that naked singularities could exist. It is also unknown whether black holes could even become extremal, forming naked singularities, since natural processes counteract increasing spin and charge when a black hole becomes near-extremal. The total mass of a black hole can be estimated by analyzing the motion of objects near the black hole, such as stars or gas. All black holes spin, often fast—One supermassive black hole, GRS 1915+105 has been estimated to spin at over 1,000 revolutions per second. The Milky Way's central black hole Sagittarius A* rotates at about 90% of the maximum rate. The spin rate can be inferred from measurements of atomic spectral lines in the X-ray range. As gas near the black hole plunges inward, high energy X-ray emission from electron-positron pairs illuminates the gas further out, appearing red-shifted due to relativistic effects. Depending on the spin of the black hole, this plunge happens at different radii from the hole, with different degrees of redshift. Astronomers can use the gap between the x-ray emission of the outer disk and the redshifted emission from plunging material to determine the spin of the black hole. A newer way to estimate spin is based on the temperature of gasses accreting onto the black hole. The method requires an independent measurement of the black hole mass and inclination angle of the accretion disk followed by computer modeling. Gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes can also provide the spin of both progenitor black holes and the merged hole, but such events are rare. A spinning black hole has angular momentum. The supermassive black hole in the center of the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy appears to have an angular momentum very close to the maximum theoretical value. That uncharged limit is J ≤ G M 2 c , {\displaystyle J\leq {\frac {GM^{2}}{c}},} allowing definition of a dimensionless spin magnitude such that 0 ≤ c J G M 2 ≤ 1. {\displaystyle 0\leq {\frac {cJ}{GM^{2}}}\leq 1.} Most black holes are believed to have an approximately neutral charge. For example, Michal Zajaček, Arman Tursunov, Andreas Eckart, and Silke Britzen found the electric charge of Sagittarius A* to be at least ten orders of magnitude below the theoretical maximum. A charged black hole repels other like charges just like any other charged object. If a black hole were to become charged, particles with an opposite sign of charge would be pulled in by the extra electromagnetic force, while particles with the same sign of charge would be repelled, neutralizing the black hole. This effect may not be as strong if the black hole is also spinning. The presence of charge can reduce the diameter of the black hole by up to 38%. The charge Q for a nonspinning black hole is bounded by Q ≤ G M , {\displaystyle Q\leq {\sqrt {G}}M,} where G is the gravitational constant and M is the black hole's mass. Classification Black holes can have a wide range of masses. The minimum mass of a black hole formed by stellar gravitational collapse is governed by the maximum mass of a neutron star and is believed to be approximately two-to-four solar masses. However, theoretical primordial black holes, believed to have formed soon after the Big Bang, could be far smaller, with masses as little as 10−5 grams at formation. These very small black holes are sometimes called micro black holes. Black holes formed by stellar collapse are called stellar black holes. Estimates of their maximum mass at formation vary, but generally range from 10 to 100 solar masses, with higher estimates for black holes progenated by low-metallicity stars. The mass of a black hole formed via a supernova has a lower bound: If the progenitor star is too small, the collapse may be stopped by the degeneracy pressure of the star's constituents, allowing the condensation of matter into an exotic denser state. Degeneracy pressure occurs from the Pauli exclusion principle—Particles will resist being in the same place as each other. Smaller progenitor stars, with masses less than about 8 M☉, will be held together by the degeneracy pressure of electrons and will become a white dwarf. For more massive progenitor stars, electron degeneracy pressure is no longer strong enough to resist the force of gravity and the star will be held together by neutron degeneracy pressure, which can occur at much higher densities, forming a neutron star. If the star is still too massive, even neutron degeneracy pressure will not be able to resist the force of gravity and the star will collapse into a black hole.: 5.8 Stellar black holes can also gain mass via accretion of nearby matter, often from a companion object such as a star. Black holes that are larger than stellar black holes but smaller than supermassive black holes are called intermediate-mass black holes, with masses of approximately 102 to 105 solar masses. These black holes seem to be rarer than their stellar and supermassive counterparts, with relatively few candidates having been observed. Physicists have speculated that such black holes may form from collisions in globular and star clusters or at the center of low-mass galaxies. They may also form as the result of mergers of smaller black holes, with several LIGO observations finding merged black holes within the 110-350 solar mass range. The black holes with the largest masses are called supermassive black holes, with masses more than 106 times that of the Sun. These black holes are believed to exist at the centers of almost every large galaxy, including the Milky Way. Some scientists have proposed a subcategory of even larger black holes, called ultramassive black holes, with masses greater than 109-1010 solar masses. Theoretical models predict that the accretion disc that feeds black holes will be unstable once a black hole reaches 50-100 billion times the mass of the Sun, setting a rough upper limit to black hole mass. Structure While black holes are conceptually invisible sinks of all matter and light, in astronomical settings, their enormous gravity alters the motion of surrounding objects and pulls nearby gas inwards at near-light speed, making the area around black holes the brightest objects in the universe. Some black holes have relativistic jets—thin streams of plasma travelling away from the black hole at more than one-tenth of the speed of light. A small faction of the matter falling towards the black hole gets accelerated away along the hole rotation axis. These jets can extend as far as millions of parsecs from the black hole itself. Black holes of any mass can have jets. However, they are typically observed around spinning black holes with strongly-magnetized accretion disks. Relativistic jets were more common in the early universe, when galaxies and their corresponding supermassive black holes were rapidly gaining mass. All black holes with jets also have an accretion disk, but the jets are usually brighter than the disk. Quasars, typically found in other galaxies, are believed to be supermassive black holes with jets; microquasars are believed to be stellar-mass objects with jets, typically observed in the Milky Way. The mechanism of formation of jets is not yet known, but several options have been proposed. One method proposed to fuel these jets is the Blandford-Znajek process, which suggests that the dragging of magnetic field lines by a black hole's rotation could launch jets of matter into space. The Penrose process, which involves extraction of a black hole's rotational energy, has also been proposed as a potential mechanism of jet propulsion. Due to conservation of angular momentum, gas falling into the gravitational well created by a massive object will typically form a disk-like structure around the object.: 242 As the disk's angular momentum is transferred outward due to internal processes, its matter falls farther inward, converting its gravitational energy into heat and releasing a large flux of x-rays. The temperature of these disks can range from thousands to millions of Kelvin, and temperatures can differ throughout a single accretion disk. Accretion disks can also emit in other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, depending on the disk's turbulence and magnetization and the black hole's mass and angular momentum. Accretion disks can be defined as geometrically thin or geometrically thick. Geometrically thin disks are mostly confined to the black hole's equatorial plane and have a well-defined edge at the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO), while geometrically thick disks are supported by internal pressure and temperature and can extend inside the ISCO. Disks with high rates of electron scattering and absorption, appearing bright and opaque, are called optically thick; optically thin disks are more translucent and produce fainter images when viewed from afar. Accretion disks of black holes accreting beyond the Eddington limit are often referred to as polish donuts due to their thick, toroidal shape that resembles that of a donut. Quasar accretion disks are expected to usually appear blue in color. The disk for a stellar black hole, on the other hand, would likely look orange, yellow, or red, with its inner regions being the brightest. Theoretical research suggests that the hotter a disk is, the bluer it should be, although this is not always supported by observations of real astronomical objects. Accretion disk colors may also be altered by the Doppler effect, with the part of the disk travelling towards an observer appearing bluer and brighter and the part of the disk travelling away from the observer appearing redder and dimmer. In Newtonian gravity, test particles can stably orbit at arbitrary distances from a central object. In general relativity, however, there exists a smallest possible radius for which a massive particle can orbit stably. Any infinitesimal inward perturbations to this orbit will lead to the particle spiraling into the black hole, and any outward perturbations will, depending on the energy, cause the particle to spiral in, move to a stable orbit further from the black hole, or escape to infinity. This orbit is called the innermost stable circular orbit, or ISCO. The location of the ISCO depends on the spin of the black hole and the spin of the particle itself. In the case of a Schwarzschild black hole (spin zero) and a particle without spin, the location of the ISCO is: r I S C O = 3 r s = 6 G M c 2 , {\displaystyle r_{\rm {ISCO}}=3\,r_{\text{s}}={\frac {6\,GM}{c^{2}}},} where r I S C O {\displaystyle r_{\rm {_{ISCO}}}} is the radius of the ISCO, r s {\displaystyle r_{\text{s}}} is the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole, G {\displaystyle G} is the gravitational constant, and c {\displaystyle c} is the speed of light. The radius of this orbit changes slightly based on particle spin. For charged black holes, the ISCO moves inwards. For spinning black holes, the ISCO is moved inwards for particles orbiting in the same direction that the black hole is spinning (prograde) and outwards for particles orbiting in the opposite direction (retrograde). For example, the ISCO for a particle orbiting retrograde can be as far out as about 9 r s {\displaystyle 9r_{\text{s}}} , while the ISCO for a particle orbiting prograde can be as close as at the event horizon itself. The photon sphere is a spherical boundary for which photons moving on tangents to that sphere are bent completely around the black hole, possibly orbiting multiple times. Light rays with impact parameters less than the radius of the photon sphere enter the black hole. For Schwarzschild black holes, the photon sphere has a radius 1.5 times the Schwarzschild radius; the radius for non-Schwarzschild black holes is at least 1.5 times the radius of the event horizon. When viewed from a great distance, the photon sphere creates an observable black hole shadow. Since no light emerges from within the black hole, this shadow is the limit for possible observations.: 152 The shadow of colliding black holes should have characteristic warped shapes, allowing scientists to detect black holes that are about to merge. While light can still escape from the photon sphere, any light that crosses the photon sphere on an inbound trajectory will be captured by the black hole. Therefore, any light that reaches an outside observer from the photon sphere must have been emitted by objects between the photon sphere and the event horizon. Light emitted towards the photon sphere may also curve around the black hole and return to the emitter. For a rotating, uncharged black hole, the radius of the photon sphere depends on the spin parameter and whether the photon is orbiting prograde or retrograde. For a photon orbiting prograde, the photon sphere will be 1-3 Schwarzschild radii from the center of the black hole, while for a photon orbiting retrograde, the photon sphere will be between 3-5 Schwarzschild radii from the center of the black hole. The exact location of the photon sphere depends on the magnitude of the black hole's rotation. For a charged, nonrotating black hole, there will only be one photon sphere, and the radius of the photon sphere will decrease for increasing black hole charge. For non-extremal, charged, rotating black holes, there will always be two photon spheres, with the exact radii depending on the parameters of the black hole. Near a rotating black hole, spacetime rotates similar to a vortex. The rotating spacetime will drag any matter and light into rotation around the spinning black hole. This effect of general relativity, called frame dragging, gets stronger closer to the spinning mass. The region of spacetime in which it is impossible to stay still is called the ergosphere. The ergosphere of a black hole is a volume bounded by the black hole's event horizon and the ergosurface, which coincides with the event horizon at the poles but bulges out from it around the equator. Matter and radiation can escape from the ergosphere. Through the Penrose process, objects can emerge from the ergosphere with more energy than they entered with. The extra energy is taken from the rotational energy of the black hole, slowing down the rotation of the black hole.: 268 A variation of the Penrose process in the presence of strong magnetic fields, the Blandford–Znajek process, is considered a likely mechanism for the enormous luminosity and relativistic jets of quasars and other active galactic nuclei. The observable region of spacetime around a black hole closest to its event horizon is called the plunging region. In this area it is no longer possible for free falling matter to follow circular orbits or stop a final descent into the black hole. Instead, it will rapidly plunge toward the black hole at close to the speed of light, growing increasingly hot and producing a characteristic, detectable thermal emission. However, light and radiation emitted from this region can still escape from the black hole's gravitational pull. For a nonspinning, uncharged black hole, the radius of the event horizon, or Schwarzschild radius, is proportional to the mass, M, through r s = 2 G M c 2 ≈ 2.95 M M ⊙ k m , {\displaystyle r_{\mathrm {s} }={\frac {2GM}{c^{2}}}\approx 2.95\,{\frac {M}{M_{\odot }}}~\mathrm {km,} } where rs is the Schwarzschild radius and M☉ is the mass of the Sun.: 124 For a black hole with nonzero spin or electric charge, the radius is smaller,[Note 1] until an extremal black hole could have an event horizon close to r + = G M c 2 , {\displaystyle r_{\mathrm {+} }={\frac {GM}{c^{2}}},} half the radius of a nonspinning, uncharged black hole of the same mass. Since the volume within the Schwarzschild radius increase with the cube of the radius, average density of a black hole inside its Schwarzschild radius is inversely proportional to the square of its mass: supermassive black holes are much less dense than stellar black holes. The average density of a 108 M☉ black hole is comparable to that of water. The defining feature of a black hole is the existence of an event horizon, a boundary in spacetime through which matter and light can pass only inward towards the center of the black hole. Nothing, not even light, can escape from inside the event horizon. The event horizon is referred to as such because if an event occurs within the boundary, information from that event cannot reach or affect an outside observer, making it impossible to determine whether such an event occurred.: 179 For non-rotating black holes, the geometry of the event horizon is precisely spherical, while for rotating black holes, the event horizon is oblate. To a distant observer, a clock near a black hole would appear to tick more slowly than one further from the black hole.: 217 This effect, known as gravitational time dilation, would also cause an object falling into a black hole to appear to slow as it approached the event horizon, never quite reaching the horizon from the perspective of an outside observer.: 218 All processes on this object would appear to slow down, and any light emitted by the object to appear redder and dimmer, an effect known as gravitational redshift. An object falling from half of a Schwarzschild radius above the event horizon would fade away until it could no longer be seen, disappearing from view within one hundredth of a second. It would also appear to flatten onto the black hole, joining all other material that had ever fallen into the hole. On the other hand, an observer falling into a black hole would not notice any of these effects as they cross the event horizon. Their own clocks appear to them to tick normally, and they cross the event horizon after a finite time without noting any singular behaviour. In general relativity, it is impossible to determine the location of the event horizon from local observations, due to Einstein's equivalence principle.: 222 Black holes that are rotating and/or charged have an inner horizon, often called the Cauchy horizon, inside of the black hole. The inner horizon is divided up into two segments: an ingoing section and an outgoing section. At the ingoing section of the Cauchy horizon, radiation and matter that fall into the black hole would build up at the horizon, causing the curvature of spacetime to go to infinity. This would cause an observer falling in to experience tidal forces. This phenomenon is often called mass inflation, since it is associated with a parameter dictating the black hole's internal mass growing exponentially, and the buildup of tidal forces is called the mass-inflation singularity or Cauchy horizon singularity. Some physicists have argued that in realistic black holes, accretion and Hawking radiation would stop mass inflation from occurring. At the outgoing section of the inner horizon, infalling radiation would backscatter off of the black hole's spacetime curvature and travel outward, building up at the outgoing Cauchy horizon. This would cause an infalling observer to experience a gravitational shock wave and tidal forces as the spacetime curvature at the horizon grew to infinity. This buildup of tidal forces is called the shock singularity. Both of these singularities are weak, meaning that an object crossing them would only be deformed a finite amount by tidal forces, even though the spacetime curvature would still be infinite at the singularity. This is as opposed to a strong singularity, where an object hitting the singularity would be stretched and squeezed by an infinite amount. They are also null singularities, meaning that a photon could travel parallel to the them without ever being intercepted. Ignoring quantum effects, every black hole has a singularity inside, points where the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite, and geodesics terminate within a finite proper time.: 205 For a non-rotating black hole, this region takes the shape of a single point; for a rotating black hole it is smeared out to form a ring singularity that lies in the plane of rotation.: 264 In both cases, the singular region has zero volume. All of the mass of the black hole ends up in the singularity.: 252 Since the singularity has nonzero mass in an infinitely small space, it can be thought of as having infinite density. Observers falling into a Schwarzschild black hole (i.e., non-rotating and not charged) cannot avoid being carried into the singularity once they cross the event horizon. As they fall further into the black hole, they will be torn apart by the growing tidal forces in a process sometimes referred to as spaghettification or the noodle effect. Eventually, they will reach the singularity and be crushed into an infinitely small point.: 182 However any perturbations, such as those caused by matter or radiation falling in, would cause space to oscillate chaotically near the singularity. Any matter falling in would experience intense tidal forces rapidly changing in direction, all while being compressed into an increasingly small volume. Alternative forms of general relativity, including addition of some quatum effects, can lead to regular, or nonsingular, black holes without singularities. For example, the fuzzball model, based on string theory, states that black holes are actually made up of quantum microstates and need not have a singularity or an event horizon. The theory of loop quantum gravity proposes that the curvature and density at the center of a black hole is large, but not infinite. Formation Black holes are formed by gravitational collapse of massive stars, either by direct collapse or during a supernova explosion in a process called fallback. Black holes can result from the merger of two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole. Other more speculative mechanisms include primordial black holes created from density fluctuations in the early universe, the collapse of dark stars, a hypothetical object powered by annihilation of dark matter, or from hypothetical self-interacting dark matter. Gravitational collapse occurs when an object's internal pressure is insufficient to resist the object's own gravity. At the end of a star's life, it will run out of hydrogen to fuse, and will start fusing more and more massive elements, until it gets to iron. Since the fusion of elements heavier than iron would require more energy than it would release, nuclear fusion ceases. If the iron core of the star is too massive, the star will no longer be able to support itself and will undergo gravitational collapse. While most of the energy released during gravitational collapse is emitted very quickly, an outside observer does not actually see the end of this process. Even though the collapse takes a finite amount of time from the reference frame of infalling matter, a distant observer would see the infalling material slow and halt just above the event horizon, due to gravitational time dilation. Light from the collapsing material takes longer and longer to reach the observer, with the delay growing to infinity as the emitting material reaches the event horizon. Thus the external observer never sees the formation of the event horizon; instead, the collapsing material seems to become dimmer and increasingly red-shifted, eventually fading away. Observations of quasars at redshift z ∼ 7 {\displaystyle z\sim 7} , less than a billion years after the Big Bang, has led to investigations of other ways to form black holes. The accretion process to build supermassive black holes has a limiting rate of mass accumulation and a billion years is not enough time to reach quasar status. One suggestion is direct collapse of nearly pure hydrogen gas (low metalicity) clouds characteristic of the young universe, forming a supermassive star which collapses into a black hole. It has been suggested that seed black holes with typical masses of ~105 M☉ could have formed in this way which then could grow to ~109 M☉. However, the very large amount of gas required for direct collapse is not typically stable to fragmentation to form multiple stars. Thus another approach suggests massive star formation followed by collisions that seed massive black holes which ultimately merge to create a quasar.: 85 A neutron star in a common envelope with a regular star can accrete sufficient material to collapse to a black hole or two neutron stars can merge. These avenues for the formation of black holes are considered relatively rare. In the current epoch of the universe, conditions needed to form black holes are rare and are mostly only found in stars. However, in the early universe, conditions may have allowed for black hole formations via other means. Fluctuations of spacetime soon after the Big Bang may have formed areas that were denser then their surroundings. Initially, these regions would not have been compact enough to form a black hole, but eventually, the curvature of spacetime in the regions become large enough to cause them to collapse into a black hole. Different models for the early universe vary widely in their predictions of the scale of these fluctuations. Various models predict the creation of primordial black holes ranging from a Planck mass (~2.2×10−8 kg) to hundreds of thousands of solar masses. Primordial black holes with masses less than 1015 g would have evaporated by now due to Hawking radiation. Despite the early universe being extremely dense, it did not re-collapse into a black hole during the Big Bang, since the universe was expanding rapidly and did not have the gravitational differential necessary for black hole formation. Models for the gravitational collapse of objects of relatively constant size, such as stars, do not necessarily apply in the same way to rapidly expanding space such as the Big Bang. In principle, black holes could be formed in high-energy particle collisions that achieve sufficient density, although no such events have been detected. These hypothetical micro black holes, which could form from the collision of cosmic rays and Earth's atmosphere or in particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider, would not be able to aggregate additional mass. Instead, they would evaporate in about 10−25 seconds, posing no threat to the Earth. Evolution Black holes can also merge with other objects such as stars or even other black holes. This is thought to have been important, especially in the early growth of supermassive black holes, which could have formed from the aggregation of many smaller objects. The process has also been proposed as the origin of some intermediate-mass black holes. Mergers of supermassive black holes may take a long time: As a binary of supermassive black holes approach each other, most nearby stars are ejected, leaving little for the remaining black holes to gravitationally interact with that would allow them to get closer to each other. This phenomenon has been called the final parsec problem, as the distance at which this happens is usually around one parsec. When a black hole accretes matter, the gas in the inner accretion disk orbits at very high speeds because of its proximity to the black hole. The resulting friction heats the inner disk to temperatures at which it emits vast amounts of electromagnetic radiation (mainly X-rays) detectable by telescopes. By the time the matter of the disk reaches the ISCO, between 5.7% and 42% of its mass will have been converted to energy, depending on the black hole's spin. About 90% of this energy is released within about 20 black hole radii. In many cases, accretion disks are accompanied by relativistic jets that are emitted along the black hole's poles, which carry away much of the energy. The mechanism for the creation of these jets is currently not well understood, in part due to insufficient data. Many of the universe's most energetic phenomena have been attributed to the accretion of matter on black holes. Active galactic nuclei and quasars are believed to be the accretion disks of supermassive black holes. X-ray binaries are generally accepted to be binary systems in which one of the two objects is a compact object accreting matter from its companion. Ultraluminous X-ray sources may be the accretion disks of intermediate-mass black holes. At a certain rate of accretion, the outward radiation pressure will become as strong as the inward gravitational force, and the black hole should unable to accrete any faster. This limit is called the Eddington limit. However, many black holes accrete beyond this rate due to their non-spherical geometry or instabilities in the accretion disk. Accretion beyond the limit is called Super-Eddington accretion and may have been commonplace in the early universe. Stars have been observed to get torn apart by tidal forces in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes in galaxy nuclei, in what is known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). Some of the material from the disrupted star forms an accretion disk around the black hole, which emits observable electromagnetic radiation. The correlation between the masses of supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies with the velocity dispersion and mass of stars in their host bulges suggests that the formation of galaxies and the formation of their central black holes are related. Black hole winds from rapid accretion, particularly when the galaxy itself is still accreting matter, can compress gas nearby, accelerating star formation. However, if the winds become too strong, the black hole may blow nearly all of the gas out of the galaxy, quenching star formation. Black hole jets may also energize nearby cavities of plasma and eject low-entropy gas from out of the galactic core, causing gas in galactic centers to be hotter than expected. If Hawking's theory of black hole radiation is correct, then black holes are expected to shrink and evaporate over time as they lose mass by the emission of photons and other particles. The temperature of this thermal spectrum (Hawking temperature) is proportional to the surface gravity of the black hole, which is inversely proportional to the mass. Hence, large black holes emit less radiation than small black holes.: Ch. 9.6 A stellar black hole of 1 M☉ has a Hawking temperature of 62 nanokelvins. This is far less than the 2.7 K temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Stellar-mass or larger black holes receive more mass from the cosmic microwave background than they emit through Hawking radiation and thus will grow instead of shrinking. To have a Hawking temperature larger than 2.7 K (and be able to evaporate), a black hole would need a mass less than the Moon. Such a black hole would have a diameter of less than a tenth of a millimetre. The Hawking radiation for an astrophysical black hole is predicted to be very weak and would thus be exceedingly difficult to detect from Earth. A possible exception is the burst of gamma rays emitted in the last stage of the evaporation of primordial black holes. Searches for such flashes have proven unsuccessful and provide stringent limits on the possibility of existence of low mass primordial black holes, with modern research predicting that primordial black holes must make up less than a fraction of 10−7 of the universe's total mass. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in 2008, has searched for these flashes, but has not yet found any. The properties of a black hole are constrained and interrelated by the theories that predict these properties. When based on general relativity, these relationships are called the laws of black hole mechanics. For a black hole that is not still forming or accreting matter, the zeroth law of black hole mechanics states the black hole's surface gravity is constant across the event horizon. The first law relates changes in the black hole's surface area, angular momentum, and charge to changes in its energy. The second law says the surface area of a black hole never decreases on its own. Finally, the third law says that the surface gravity of a black hole is never zero. These laws are mathematical analogs of the laws of thermodynamics. They are not equivalent, however, because, according to general relativity without quantum mechanics, a black hole can never emit radiation, and thus its temperature must always be zero.: 11 Quantum mechanics predicts that a black hole will continuously emit thermal Hawking radiation, and therefore must always have a nonzero temperature. It also predicts that all black holes have entropy which scales with their surface area. When quantum mechanics is accounted for, the laws of black hole mechanics become equivalent to the classical laws of thermodynamics. However, these conclusions are derived without a complete theory of quantum gravity, although many potential theories do predict black holes having entropy and temperature. Thus, the true quantum nature of black hole thermodynamics continues to be debated.: 29 Observational evidence Millions of black holes with around 30 solar masses derived from stellar collapse are expected to exist in the Milky Way. Even a dwarf galaxy like Draco should have hundreds. Only a few of these have been detected. By nature, black holes do not themselves emit any electromagnetic radiation other than the hypothetical Hawking radiation, so astrophysicists searching for black holes must generally rely on indirect observations. The defining characteristic of a black hole is its event horizon. The horizon itself cannot be imaged, so all other possible explanations for these indirect observations must be considered and eliminated before concluding that a black hole has been observed.: 11 The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global system of radio telescopes capable of directly observing a black hole shadow. The angular resolution of a telescope is based on its aperture and the wavelengths it is observing. Because the angular diameters of Sagittarius A* and Messier 87* in the sky are very small, a single telescope would need to be about the size of the Earth to clearly distinguish their horizons using radio wavelengths. By combining data from several different radio telescopes around the world, the Event Horizon Telescope creates an effective aperture the diameter size of the Earth. The EHT team used imaging algorithms to compute the most probable image from the data in its observations of Sagittarius A* and M87*. Gravitational-wave interferometry can be used to detect merging black holes and other compact objects. In this method, a laser beam is split down two long arms of a tunnel. The laser beams reflect off of mirrors in the tunnels and converge at the intersection of the arms, cancelling each other out. However, when a gravitational wave passes, it warps spacetime, changing the lengths of the arms themselves. Since each laser beam is now travelling a slightly different distance, they do not cancel out and produce a recognizable signal. Analysis of the signal can give scientists information about what caused the gravitational waves. Since gravitational waves are very weak, gravitational-wave observatories such as LIGO must have arms several kilometers long and carefully control for noise from Earth to be able to detect these gravitational waves. Since the first measurements in 2016, multiple gravitational waves from black holes have been detected and analyzed. The proper motions of stars near the centre of the Milky Way provide strong observational evidence that these stars are orbiting a supermassive black hole. Since 1995, astronomers have tracked the motions of 90 stars orbiting an invisible object coincident with the radio source Sagittarius A*. In 1998, by fitting the motions of the stars to Keplerian orbits, the astronomers were able to infer that Sagittarius A* must be a 2.6×106 M☉ object must be contained within a radius of 0.02 light-years. Since then, one of the stars—called S2—has completed a full orbit. From the orbital data, astronomers were able to refine the calculations of the mass of Sagittarius A* to 4.3×106 M☉, with a radius of less than 0.002 light-years. This upper limit radius is larger than the Schwarzschild radius for the estimated mass, so the combination does not prove Sagittarius A* is a black hole. Nevertheless, these observations strongly suggest that the central object is a supermassive black hole as there are no other plausible scenarios for confining so much invisible mass into such a small volume. Additionally, there is some observational evidence that this object might possess an event horizon, a feature unique to black holes. The Event Horizon Telescope image of Sagittarius A*, released in 2022, provided further confirmation that it is indeed a black hole. X-ray binaries are binary systems that emit a majority of their radiation in the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum. These X-ray emissions result when a compact object accretes matter from an ordinary star. The presence of an ordinary star in such a system provides an opportunity for studying the central object and to determine if it might be a black hole. By measuring the orbital period of the binary, the distance to the binary from Earth, and the mass of the companion star, scientists can estimate the mass of the compact object. The Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit (TOV limit) dictates the largest mass a nonrotating neutron star can be, and is estimated to be about two solar masses. While a rotating neutron star can be slightly more massive, if the compact object is much more massive than the TOV limit, it cannot be a neutron star and is generally expected to be a black hole. The first strong candidate for a black hole, Cygnus X-1, was discovered in this way by Charles Thomas Bolton, Louise Webster, and Paul Murdin in 1972. Observations of rotation broadening of the optical star reported in 1986 lead to a compact object mass estimate of 16 solar masses, with 7 solar masses as the lower bound. In 2011, this estimate was updated to 14.1±1.0 M☉ for the black hole and 19.2±1.9 M☉ for the optical stellar companion. X-ray binaries can be categorized as either low-mass or high-mass; This classification is based on the mass of the companion star, not the compact object itself. In a class of X-ray binaries called soft X-ray transients, the companion star is of relatively low mass, allowing for more accurate estimates of the black hole mass. These systems actively emit X-rays for only several months once every 10–50 years. During the period of low X-ray emission, called quiescence, the accretion disk is extremely faint, allowing detailed observation of the companion star. Numerous black hole candidates have been measured by this method. Black holes are also sometimes found in binaries with other compact objects, such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and other black holes. The centre of nearly every galaxy contains a supermassive black hole. The close observational correlation between the mass of this hole and the velocity dispersion of the host galaxy's bulge, known as the M–sigma relation, strongly suggests a connection between the formation of the black hole and that of the galaxy itself. Astronomers use the term active galaxy to describe galaxies with unusual characteristics, such as unusual spectral line emission and very strong radio emission. Theoretical and observational studies have shown that the high levels of activity in the centers of these galaxies, regions called active galactic nuclei (AGN), may be explained by accretion onto supermassive black holes. These AGN consist of a central black hole that may be millions or billions of times more massive than the Sun, a disk of interstellar gas and dust called an accretion disk, and two jets perpendicular to the accretion disk. Although supermassive black holes are expected to be found in most AGN, only some galaxies' nuclei have been more carefully studied in attempts to both identify and measure the actual masses of the central supermassive black hole candidates. Some of the most notable galaxies with supermassive black hole candidates include the Andromeda Galaxy, Messier 32, Messier 87, the Sombrero Galaxy, and the Milky Way itself. Another way black holes can be detected is through observation of effects caused by their strong gravitational field. One such effect is gravitational lensing: The deformation of spacetime around a massive object causes light rays to be deflected, making objects behind them appear distorted. When the lensing object is a black hole, this effect can be strong enough to create multiple images of a star or other luminous source. However, the distance between the lensed images may be too small for contemporary telescopes to resolve—this phenomenon is called microlensing. Instead of seeing two images of a lensed star, astronomers see the star brighten slightly as the black hole moves towards the line of sight between the star and Earth and then return to its normal luminosity as the black hole moves away. The turn of the millennium saw the first 3 candidate detections of black holes in this way, and in January 2022, astronomers reported the first confirmed detection of a microlensing event from an isolated black hole. This was also the first determination of an isolated black hole mass, 7.1±1.3 M☉. Alternatives While there is a strong case for supermassive black holes, the model for stellar-mass black holes assumes of an upper limit for the mass of a neutron star: objects observed to have more mass are assumed to be black holes. However, the properties of extremely dense matter are poorly understood. New exotic phases of matter could allow other kinds of massive objects. Quark stars would be made up of quark matter and supported by quark degeneracy pressure, a form of degeneracy pressure even stronger than neutron degeneracy pressure. This would halt gravitational collapse at a higher mass than for a neutron star. Even stronger stars called electroweak stars would convert quarks in their cores into leptons, providing additional pressure to stop the star from collapsing. If, as some extensions of the Standard Model posit, quarks and leptons are made up of the even-smaller fundamental particles called preons, a very compact star could be supported by preon degeneracy pressure. While none of these hypothetical models can explain all of the observations of stellar black hole candidates, a Q star is the only alternative which could significantly exceed the mass limit for neutron stars and thus provide an alternative for supermassive black holes.: 12 A few theoretical objects have been conjectured to match observations of astronomical black hole candidates identically or near-identically, but which function via a different mechanism. A dark energy star would convert infalling matter into vacuum energy; This vacuum energy would be much larger than the vacuum energy of outside space, exerting outwards pressure and preventing a singularity from forming. A black star would be gravitationally collapsing slowly enough that quantum effects would keep it just on the cusp of fully collapsing into a black hole. A gravastar would consist of a very thin shell and a dark-energy interior providing outward pressure to stop the collapse into a black hole or formation of a singularity; It could even have another gravastar inside, called a 'nestar'. Open questions According to the no-hair theorem, a black hole is defined by only three parameters: its mass, charge, and angular momentum. This seems to mean that all other information about the matter that went into forming the black hole is lost, as there is no way to determine anything about the black hole from outside other than those three parameters. When black holes were thought to persist forever, this information loss was not problematic, as the information can be thought of as existing inside the black hole. However, black holes slowly evaporate by emitting Hawking radiation. This radiation does not appear to carry any additional information about the matter that formed the black hole, meaning that this information is seemingly gone forever. This is called the black hole information paradox. Theoretical studies analyzing the paradox have led to both further paradoxes and new ideas about the intersection of quantum mechanics and general relativity. While there is no consensus on the resolution of the paradox, work on the problem is expected to be important for a theory of quantum gravity.: 126 Observations of faraway galaxies have found that ultraluminous quasars, powered by supermassive black holes, existed in the early universe as far as redshift z ≥ 7 {\displaystyle z\geq 7} . These black holes have been assumed to be the products of the gravitational collapse of large population III stars. However, these stellar remnants were not massive enough to produce the quasars observed at early times without accreting beyond the Eddington limit, the theoretical maximum rate of black hole accretion. Physicists have suggested a variety of different mechanisms by which these supermassive black holes may have formed. It has been proposed that smaller black holes may have also undergone mergers to produce the observed supermassive black holes. It is also possible that they were seeded by direct-collapse black holes, in which a large cloud of hot gas avoids fragmentation that would lead to multiple stars, due to low angular momentum or heating from a nearby galaxy. Given the right circumstances, a single supermassive star forms and collapses directly into a black hole without undergoing typical stellar evolution. Additionally, these supermassive black holes in the early universe may be high-mass primordial black holes, which could have accreted further matter in the centers of galaxies. Finally, certain mechanisms allow black holes to grow faster than the theoretical Eddington limit, such as dense gas in the accretion disk limiting outward radiation pressure that prevents the black hole from accreting. However, the formation of bipolar jets prevent super-Eddington rates. In fiction Black holes have been portrayed in science fiction in a variety of ways. Even before the advent of the term itself, objects with characteristics of black holes appeared in stories such as the 1928 novel The Skylark of Space with its "black Sun" and the "hole in space" in the 1935 short story Starship Invincible. As black holes grew to public recognition in the 1960s and 1970s, they began to be featured in films as well as novels, such as Disney's The Black Hole. Black holes have also been used in works of the 21st century, such as Christopher Nolan's science fiction epic Interstellar. Authors and screenwriters have exploited the relativistic effects of black holes, particularly gravitational time dilation. For example, Interstellar features a black hole planet with a time dilation factor of over 60,000:1, while the 1977 novel Gateway depicts a spaceship approaching but never crossing the event horizon of a black hole from the perspective of an outside observer due to time dilation effects. Black holes have also been appropriated as wormholes or other methods of faster-than-light travel, such as in the 1974 novel The Forever War, where a network of black holes is used for interstellar travel. Additionally, black holes can feature as hazards to spacefarers and planets: A black hole threatens a deep-space outpost in 1978 short story The Black Hole Passes, and a binary black hole dangerously alters the orbit of a planet in the 2018 Netflix reboot of Lost in Space. Notes References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/story/fomi-ai-will-tell-you-to-stop-slacking-off/] | [TOKENS: 2321] |
Justin PotGearFeb 19, 2026 5:30 AMThis AI Tool Will Tell You to Stop Slacking OffFomi watches you work, then scolds you when your attention wanders. It’s helpful, but there are privacy issues to consider.Photograph: Tom Grill/Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyI've tested a lot of software tools over the years designed to block distractions and keep you focused. None of them work perfectly, mostly because of context.Reddit, for example, is something I should generally avoid during the workday, so I tend to block it—this is a good decision for me overall. The problem is that sometimes the only place I can find a particular piece of information online is in a Reddit thread, meaning that to get that information I need to turn off my distraction-blocking tool. Then I inevitably end up down some kind of rabbit hole.This is the exact problem Fomi, a macOS distraction-blocking tool, is built to solve. The application asks you what you're working on, then watches everything you do on your Mac desktop—every app you open—and uses AI to analyze what's on your screen. The tool can tell, from context, whether you're using a particular website productively or as a distraction.Zach Yang, part of the team behind the app, tells me on Discord he dreamed up the app after talking with a friend who was studying for an MBA. “He needed YouTube for study videos, so web/app blockers didn’t work, and once he was watching, recommendations would often pull him away,” Yang says. “That’s when I started thinking about using AI to solve this. I built a small prototype to test whether current models were capable of distinguishing distraction from actual work, and the results were good enough that I decided to turn it into a real project.”Fomi offers a three-day free trial. If you decide you like it, subscription plans cost $8 per month. However, since the tool uploads screenshots of your desktop to an AI model in the cloud, there are privacy concerns you will need to weigh before deciding if a tool like this is right for you.Watch This SpaceI've been trying out this application for a couple of days. The first time you launch it, you're asked what you do day-to-day and what kind of tools you use to do it. Then, when it's time to focus, you tell the software what you're working on and which tools you plan to use while doing it.As you work, a green dot and a timer appear at the top of the screen, surrounding your MacBook's notch. If you switch to a potentially distracting application, the dot changes to yellow. If you start engaging in things that are clearly distractions, the dot turns red and an animated tomato splats across the screen. You'll see a custom message telling you to get to work—the app calls out your specific distraction.Courtesy of Justin PotThis worked surprisingly well for me while testing. If I'm reading an article relevant to the topic I'm writing about, the application will leave me alone. If I read an article about something else, though, I'm warned to stop—even if that article is on the same site as the relevant one. The same goes if I look at Reddit posts, or even YouTube videos. There were a few false positives, granted, but I could always click the False Alert button and get back to it.“Defining what counts as ‘work’ versus ‘distraction’ is pretty nuanced,” Yang says. “For example, a content creator might be browsing Instagram for inspiration, which can be legitimate work, but the same behavior can also be pure leisure.”You can avoid some of these problems by being very specific while describing your occupation and tasks. Yang says his team is constantly working on improving this recognition engine.Privacy MattersYou might legitimately worry about the privacy implications of something like this. The application regularly takes screenshots of your currently open window and sends it to an online AI model—OpenAI's GPT 5 Mini—for processing. Some users will find it concerning that their private and potentially sensitive data is being uploaded to a cloud service. Yang tells me the Fomi team has taken steps to address this.Courtesy of Justin Pot“Before anything leaves your machine, we run a local computer-vision pass to detect and redact personally identifiable information (things like names, phone numbers, emails, passwords, or card numbers),” he says. “Only the redacted image is sent to an AI model for one-time analysis.”Yang says his company doesn't store any information in its own servers and that screenshots are stored only in RAM. He also says the app is distributed through the App Store, and not a direct download, in part to reassure customers that the application meets Apple's privacy standards.Still, the amount of data sent to the AI model is considerable. In my tests, the application uploaded around half a gigabyte of files during the course of a regular workday, which is a lot of screenshots. This application isn't something you should use if your job requires secrecy.None of which is to say I didn't find Fomi useful. I really enjoyed having a robot yell at me when I ended up slipping into distraction. I don't know if I'll use it forever, but it might help me build better habits while I do. This AI Tool Will Tell You to Stop Slacking Off I've tested a lot of software tools over the years designed to block distractions and keep you focused. None of them work perfectly, mostly because of context. Reddit, for example, is something I should generally avoid during the workday, so I tend to block it—this is a good decision for me overall. The problem is that sometimes the only place I can find a particular piece of information online is in a Reddit thread, meaning that to get that information I need to turn off my distraction-blocking tool. Then I inevitably end up down some kind of rabbit hole. This is the exact problem Fomi, a macOS distraction-blocking tool, is built to solve. The application asks you what you're working on, then watches everything you do on your Mac desktop—every app you open—and uses AI to analyze what's on your screen. The tool can tell, from context, whether you're using a particular website productively or as a distraction. Zach Yang, part of the team behind the app, tells me on Discord he dreamed up the app after talking with a friend who was studying for an MBA. “He needed YouTube for study videos, so web/app blockers didn’t work, and once he was watching, recommendations would often pull him away,” Yang says. “That’s when I started thinking about using AI to solve this. I built a small prototype to test whether current models were capable of distinguishing distraction from actual work, and the results were good enough that I decided to turn it into a real project.” Fomi offers a three-day free trial. If you decide you like it, subscription plans cost $8 per month. However, since the tool uploads screenshots of your desktop to an AI model in the cloud, there are privacy concerns you will need to weigh before deciding if a tool like this is right for you. Watch This Space I've been trying out this application for a couple of days. The first time you launch it, you're asked what you do day-to-day and what kind of tools you use to do it. Then, when it's time to focus, you tell the software what you're working on and which tools you plan to use while doing it. As you work, a green dot and a timer appear at the top of the screen, surrounding your MacBook's notch. If you switch to a potentially distracting application, the dot changes to yellow. If you start engaging in things that are clearly distractions, the dot turns red and an animated tomato splats across the screen. You'll see a custom message telling you to get to work—the app calls out your specific distraction. This worked surprisingly well for me while testing. If I'm reading an article relevant to the topic I'm writing about, the application will leave me alone. If I read an article about something else, though, I'm warned to stop—even if that article is on the same site as the relevant one. The same goes if I look at Reddit posts, or even YouTube videos. There were a few false positives, granted, but I could always click the False Alert button and get back to it. “Defining what counts as ‘work’ versus ‘distraction’ is pretty nuanced,” Yang says. “For example, a content creator might be browsing Instagram for inspiration, which can be legitimate work, but the same behavior can also be pure leisure.” You can avoid some of these problems by being very specific while describing your occupation and tasks. Yang says his team is constantly working on improving this recognition engine. Privacy Matters You might legitimately worry about the privacy implications of something like this. The application regularly takes screenshots of your currently open window and sends it to an online AI model—OpenAI's GPT 5 Mini—for processing. Some users will find it concerning that their private and potentially sensitive data is being uploaded to a cloud service. Yang tells me the Fomi team has taken steps to address this. “Before anything leaves your machine, we run a local computer-vision pass to detect and redact personally identifiable information (things like names, phone numbers, emails, passwords, or card numbers),” he says. “Only the redacted image is sent to an AI model for one-time analysis.” Yang says his company doesn't store any information in its own servers and that screenshots are stored only in RAM. He also says the app is distributed through the App Store, and not a direct download, in part to reassure customers that the application meets Apple's privacy standards. Still, the amount of data sent to the AI model is considerable. In my tests, the application uploaded around half a gigabyte of files during the course of a regular workday, which is a lot of screenshots. This application isn't something you should use if your job requires secrecy. None of which is to say I didn't find Fomi useful. I really enjoyed having a robot yell at me when I ended up slipping into distraction. I don't know if I'll use it forever, but it might help me build better habits while I do. Comments You Might Also Like In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear A wave of unexplained bot traffic is sweeping the web Big Story: The women training for pregnancy like it’s a marathon Iran’s digital surveillance machine is almost complete Listen: Silicon Valley tech workers are trying to stop ICE Wired Coupons Squarespace Promo Code: 20% Off Annual Acuity Subscriptions Laptop - $400 Off LG Promo Code 10% Off Dell Coupon Code for New Customers 30% Samsung Coupon - Offer Program 2026 10% Off Canon Promo Code + Up to 30% Off 50% Off Doordash Promo Code For New & Existing Users © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. 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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#cite_ref-162] | [TOKENS: 10728] |
Contents PlayStation (console) The PlayStation[a] (codenamed PSX, abbreviated as PS, and retroactively PS1 or PS one) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in Japan on 3 December 1994, followed by North America on 9 September 1995, Europe on 29 September 1995, and other regions following thereafter. As a fifth-generation console, the PlayStation primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn. Sony began developing the PlayStation after a failed venture with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s. The console was primarily designed by Ken Kutaragi and Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan, while additional development was outsourced in the United Kingdom. An emphasis on 3D polygon graphics was placed at the forefront of the console's design. PlayStation game production was designed to be streamlined and inclusive, enticing the support of many third party developers. The console proved popular for its extensive game library, popular franchises, low retail price, and aggressive youth marketing which advertised it as the preferable console for adolescents and adults. Critically acclaimed games that defined the console include Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, and Final Fantasy VII. Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on 23 March 2006—over eleven years after it had been released, and in the same year the PlayStation 3 debuted. More than 4,000 PlayStation games were released, with cumulative sales of 962 million units. The PlayStation signaled Sony's rise to power in the video game industry. It received acclaim and sold strongly; in less than a decade, it became the first computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units. Its use of compact discs heralded the game industry's transition from cartridges. The PlayStation's success led to a line of successors, beginning with the PlayStation 2 in 2000. In the same year, Sony released a smaller and cheaper model, the PS one. History The PlayStation was conceived by Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who managed a hardware engineering division and was later dubbed "the Father of the PlayStation". Kutaragi's interest in working with video games stemmed from seeing his daughter play games on Nintendo's Famicom. Kutaragi convinced Nintendo to use his SPC-700 sound processor in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) through a demonstration of the processor's capabilities. His willingness to work with Nintendo was derived from both his admiration of the Famicom and conviction in video game consoles becoming the main home-use entertainment systems. Although Kutaragi was nearly fired because he worked with Nintendo without Sony's knowledge, president Norio Ohga recognised the potential in Kutaragi's chip and decided to keep him as a protégé. The inception of the PlayStation dates back to a 1988 joint venture between Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo had produced floppy disk technology to complement cartridges in the form of the Family Computer Disk System, and wanted to continue this complementary storage strategy for the SNES. Since Sony was already contracted to produce the SPC-700 sound processor for the SNES, Nintendo contracted Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "Play Station" or "SNES-CD". The PlayStation name had already been trademarked by Yamaha, but Nobuyuki Idei liked it so much that he agreed to acquire it for an undisclosed sum rather than search for an alternative. Sony was keen to obtain a foothold in the rapidly expanding video game market. Having been the primary manufacturer of the MSX home computer format, Sony had wanted to use their experience in consumer electronics to produce their own video game hardware. Although the initial agreement between Nintendo and Sony was about producing a CD-ROM drive add-on, Sony had also planned to develop a SNES-compatible Sony-branded console. This iteration was intended to be more of a home entertainment system, playing both SNES cartridges and a new CD format named the "Super Disc", which Sony would design. Under the agreement, Sony would retain sole international rights to every Super Disc game, giving them a large degree of control despite Nintendo's leading position in the video game market. Furthermore, Sony would also be the sole benefactor of licensing related to music and film software that it had been aggressively pursuing as a secondary application. The Play Station was to be announced at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. However, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi was wary of Sony's increasing leverage at this point and deemed the original 1988 contract unacceptable upon realising it essentially handed Sony control over all games written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Although Nintendo was dominant in the video game market, Sony possessed a superior research and development department. Wanting to protect Nintendo's existing licensing structure, Yamauchi cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo–Sony SNES CD attachment without telling Sony. He sent Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa (his son-in-law) and chairman Howard Lincoln to Amsterdam to form a more favourable contract with Dutch conglomerate Philips, Sony's rival. This contract would give Nintendo total control over their licences on all Philips-produced machines. Kutaragi and Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's director of public relations at the time, learned of Nintendo's actions two days before the CES was due to begin. Kutaragi telephoned numerous contacts, including Philips, to no avail. On the first day of the CES, Sony announced their partnership with Nintendo and their new console, the Play Station. At 9 am on the next day, in what has been called "the greatest ever betrayal" in the industry, Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips and would abandon their work with Sony. Incensed by Nintendo's renouncement, Ohga and Kutaragi decided that Sony would develop their own console. Nintendo's contract-breaking was met with consternation in the Japanese business community, as they had broken an "unwritten law" of native companies not turning against each other in favour of foreign ones. Sony's American branch considered allying with Sega to produce a CD-ROM-based machine called the Sega Multimedia Entertainment System, but the Sega board of directors in Tokyo vetoed the idea when Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske presented them the proposal. Kalinske recalled them saying: "That's a stupid idea, Sony doesn't know how to make hardware. They don't know how to make software either. Why would we want to do this?" Sony halted their research, but decided to develop what it had developed with Nintendo and Sega into a console based on the SNES. Despite the tumultuous events at the 1991 CES, negotiations between Nintendo and Sony were still ongoing. A deal was proposed: the Play Station would still have a port for SNES games, on the condition that it would still use Kutaragi's audio chip and that Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits. Roughly two hundred prototype machines were created, and some software entered development. Many within Sony were still opposed to their involvement in the video game industry, with some resenting Kutaragi for jeopardising the company. Kutaragi remained adamant that Sony not retreat from the growing industry and that a deal with Nintendo would never work. Knowing that they had to take decisive action, Sony severed all ties with Nintendo on 4 May 1992. To determine the fate of the PlayStation project, Ohga chaired a meeting in June 1992, consisting of Kutaragi and several senior Sony board members. Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been secretly working on which played games with immersive 3D graphics. Kutaragi was confident that his LSI chip could accommodate one million logic gates, which exceeded the capabilities of Sony's semiconductor division at the time. Despite gaining Ohga's enthusiasm, there remained opposition from a majority present at the meeting. Older Sony executives also opposed it, who saw Nintendo and Sega as "toy" manufacturers. The opposers felt the game industry was too culturally offbeat and asserted that Sony should remain a central player in the audiovisual industry, where companies were familiar with one another and could conduct "civili[s]ed" business negotiations. After Kutaragi reminded him of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo, Ohga retained the project and became one of Kutaragi's most staunch supporters. Ohga shifted Kutaragi and nine of his team from Sony's main headquarters to Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ), a subsidiary of the main Sony group, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project. The involvement of SMEJ proved crucial to the PlayStation's early development as the process of manufacturing games on CD-ROM format was similar to that used for audio CDs, with which Sony's music division had considerable experience. While at SMEJ, Kutaragi worked with Epic/Sony Records founder Shigeo Maruyama and Akira Sato; both later became vice-presidents of the division that ran the PlayStation business. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) was jointly established by Sony and SMEJ to handle the company's ventures into the video game industry. On 27 October 1993, Sony publicly announced that it was entering the game console market with the PlayStation. According to Maruyama, there was uncertainty over whether the console should primarily focus on 2D, sprite-based graphics or 3D polygon graphics. After Sony witnessed the success of Sega's Virtua Fighter (1993) in Japanese arcades, the direction of the PlayStation became "instantly clear" and 3D polygon graphics became the console's primary focus. SCE president Teruhisa Tokunaka expressed gratitude for Sega's timely release of Virtua Fighter as it proved "just at the right time" that making games with 3D imagery was possible. Maruyama claimed that Sony further wanted to emphasise the new console's ability to utilise redbook audio from the CD-ROM format in its games alongside high quality visuals and gameplay. Wishing to distance the project from the failed enterprise with Nintendo, Sony initially branded the PlayStation the "PlayStation X" (PSX). Sony formed their European division and North American division, known as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), in January and May 1995. The divisions planned to market the new console under the alternative branding "PSX" following the negative feedback regarding "PlayStation" in focus group studies. Early advertising prior to the console's launch in North America referenced PSX, but the term was scrapped before launch. The console was not marketed with Sony's name in contrast to Nintendo's consoles. According to Phil Harrison, much of Sony's upper management feared that the Sony brand would be tarnished if associated with the console, which they considered a "toy". Since Sony had no experience in game development, it had to rely on the support of third-party game developers. This was in contrast to Sega and Nintendo, which had versatile and well-equipped in-house software divisions for their arcade games and could easily port successful games to their home consoles. Recent consoles like the Atari Jaguar and 3DO suffered low sales due to a lack of developer support, prompting Sony to redouble their efforts in gaining the endorsement of arcade-savvy developers. A team from Epic Sony visited more than a hundred companies throughout Japan in May 1993 in hopes of attracting game creators with the PlayStation's technological appeal. Sony found that many disliked Nintendo's practices, such as favouring their own games over others. Through a series of negotiations, Sony acquired initial support from Namco, Konami, and Williams Entertainment, as well as 250 other development teams in Japan alone. Namco in particular was interested in developing for PlayStation since Namco rivalled Sega in the arcade market. Attaining these companies secured influential games such as Ridge Racer (1993) and Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Ridge Racer being one of the most popular arcade games at the time, and it was already confirmed behind closed doors that it would be the PlayStation's first game by December 1993, despite Namco being a longstanding Nintendo developer. Namco's research managing director Shegeichi Nakamura met with Kutaragi in 1993 to discuss the preliminary PlayStation specifications, with Namco subsequently basing the Namco System 11 arcade board on PlayStation hardware and developing Tekken to compete with Virtua Fighter. The System 11 launched in arcades several months before the PlayStation's release, with the arcade release of Tekken in September 1994. Despite securing the support of various Japanese studios, Sony had no developers of their own by the time the PlayStation was in development. This changed in 1993 when Sony acquired the Liverpudlian company Psygnosis (later renamed SCE Liverpool) for US$48 million, securing their first in-house development team. The acquisition meant that Sony could have more launch games ready for the PlayStation's release in Europe and North America. Ian Hetherington, Psygnosis' co-founder, was disappointed after receiving early builds of the PlayStation and recalled that the console "was not fit for purpose" until his team got involved with it. Hetherington frequently clashed with Sony executives over broader ideas; at one point it was suggested that a television with a built-in PlayStation be produced. In the months leading up to the PlayStation's launch, Psygnosis had around 500 full-time staff working on games and assisting with software development. The purchase of Psygnosis marked another turning point for the PlayStation as it played a vital role in creating the console's development kits. While Sony had provided MIPS R4000-based Sony NEWS workstations for PlayStation development, Psygnosis employees disliked the thought of developing on these expensive workstations and asked Bristol-based SN Systems to create an alternative PC-based development system. Andy Beveridge and Martin Day, owners of SN Systems, had previously supplied development hardware for other consoles such as the Mega Drive, Atari ST, and the SNES. When Psygnosis arranged an audience for SN Systems with Sony's Japanese executives at the January 1994 CES in Las Vegas, Beveridge and Day presented their prototype of the condensed development kit, which could run on an ordinary personal computer with two extension boards. Impressed, Sony decided to abandon their plans for a workstation-based development system in favour of SN Systems's, thus securing a cheaper and more efficient method for designing software. An order of over 600 systems followed, and SN Systems supplied Sony with additional software such as an assembler, linker, and a debugger. SN Systems produced development kits for future PlayStation systems, including the PlayStation 2 and was bought out by Sony in 2005. Sony strived to make game production as streamlined and inclusive as possible, in contrast to the relatively isolated approach of Sega and Nintendo. Phil Harrison, representative director of SCEE, believed that Sony's emphasis on developer assistance reduced most time-consuming aspects of development. As well as providing programming libraries, SCE headquarters in London, California, and Tokyo housed technical support teams that could work closely with third-party developers if needed. Sony did not favour their own over non-Sony products, unlike Nintendo; Peter Molyneux of Bullfrog Productions admired Sony's open-handed approach to software developers and lauded their decision to use PCs as a development platform, remarking that "[it was] like being released from jail in terms of the freedom you have". Another strategy that helped attract software developers was the PlayStation's use of the CD-ROM format instead of traditional cartridges. Nintendo cartridges were expensive to manufacture, and the company controlled all production, prioritising their own games, while inexpensive compact disc manufacturing occurred at dozens of locations around the world. The PlayStation's architecture and interconnectability with PCs was beneficial to many software developers. The use of the programming language C proved useful, as it safeguarded future compatibility of the machine should developers decide to make further hardware revisions. Despite the inherent flexibility, some developers found themselves restricted due to the console's lack of RAM. While working on beta builds of the PlayStation, Molyneux observed that its MIPS processor was not "quite as bullish" compared to that of a fast PC and said that it took his team two weeks to port their PC code to the PlayStation development kits and another fortnight to achieve a four-fold speed increase. An engineer from Ocean Software, one of Europe's largest game developers at the time, thought that allocating RAM was a challenging aspect given the 3.5 megabyte restriction. Kutaragi said that while it would have been easy to double the amount of RAM for the PlayStation, the development team refrained from doing so to keep the retail cost down. Kutaragi saw the biggest challenge in developing the system to be balancing the conflicting goals of high performance, low cost, and being easy to program for, and felt he and his team were successful in this regard. Its technical specifications were finalised in 1993 and its design during 1994. The PlayStation name and its final design were confirmed during a press conference on May 10, 1994, although the price and release dates had not been disclosed yet. Sony released the PlayStation in Japan on 3 December 1994, a week after the release of the Sega Saturn, at a price of ¥39,800. Sales in Japan began with a "stunning" success with long queues in shops. Ohga later recalled that he realised how important PlayStation had become for Sony when friends and relatives begged for consoles for their children. PlayStation sold 100,000 units on the first day and two million units within six months, although the Saturn outsold the PlayStation in the first few weeks due to the success of Virtua Fighter. By the end of 1994, 300,000 PlayStation units were sold in Japan compared to 500,000 Saturn units. A grey market emerged for PlayStations shipped from Japan to North America and Europe, with buyers of such consoles paying up to £700. "When September 1995 arrived and Sony's Playstation roared out of the gate, things immediately felt different than [sic] they did with the Saturn launch earlier that year. Sega dropped the Saturn $100 to match the Playstation's $299 debut price, but sales weren't even close—Playstations flew out the door as fast as we could get them in stock. Before the release in North America, Sega and Sony presented their consoles at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on 11 May 1995. At their keynote presentation, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske revealed that their Saturn console would be released immediately to select retailers at a price of $399. Next came Sony's turn: Olaf Olafsson, the head of SCEA, summoned Steve Race, the head of development, to the conference stage, who said "$299" and left the audience with a round of applause. The attention to the Sony conference was further bolstered by the surprise appearance of Michael Jackson and the showcase of highly anticipated games, including Wipeout (1995), Ridge Racer and Tekken (1994). In addition, Sony announced that no games would be bundled with the console. Although the Saturn had released early in the United States to gain an advantage over the PlayStation, the surprise launch upset many retailers who were not informed in time, harming sales. Some retailers such as KB Toys responded by dropping the Saturn entirely. The PlayStation went on sale in North America on 9 September 1995. It sold more units within two days than the Saturn had in five months, with almost all of the initial shipment of 100,000 units sold in advance and shops across the country running out of consoles and accessories. The well-received Ridge Racer contributed to the PlayStation's early success, — with some critics considering it superior to Sega's arcade counterpart Daytona USA (1994) — as did Battle Arena Toshinden (1995). There were over 100,000 pre-orders placed and 17 games available on the market by the time of the PlayStation's American launch, in comparison to the Saturn's six launch games. The PlayStation released in Europe on 29 September 1995 and in Australia on 15 November 1995. By November it had already outsold the Saturn by three to one in the United Kingdom, where Sony had allocated a £20 million marketing budget during the Christmas season compared to Sega's £4 million. Sony found early success in the United Kingdom by securing listings with independent shop owners as well as prominent High Street chains such as Comet and Argos. Within its first year, the PlayStation secured over 20% of the entire American video game market. From September to the end of 1995, sales in the United States amounted to 800,000 units, giving the PlayStation a commanding lead over the other fifth-generation consoles,[b] though the SNES and Mega Drive from the fourth generation still outsold it. Sony reported that the attach rate of sold games and consoles was four to one. To meet increasing demand, Sony chartered jumbo jets and ramped up production in Europe and North America. By early 1996, the PlayStation had grossed $2 billion (equivalent to $4.106 billion 2025) from worldwide hardware and software sales. By late 1996, sales in Europe totalled 2.2 million units, including 700,000 in the UK. Approximately 400 PlayStation games were in development, compared to around 200 games being developed for the Saturn and 60 for the Nintendo 64. In India, the PlayStation was launched in test market during 1999–2000 across Sony showrooms, selling 100 units. Sony finally launched the console (PS One model) countrywide on 24 January 2002 with the price of Rs 7,990 and 26 games available from start. PlayStation was also doing well in markets where it was never officially released. For example, in Brazil, due to the registration of the trademark by a third company, the console could not be released, which was why the market was taken over by the officially distributed Sega Saturn during the first period, but as the Sega console withdraws, PlayStation imports and large piracy increased. In another market, China, the most popular 32-bit console was Sega Saturn, but after leaving the market, PlayStation grown with a base of 300,000 users until January 2000, although Sony China did not have plans to release it. The PlayStation was backed by a successful marketing campaign, allowing Sony to gain an early foothold in Europe and North America. Initially, PlayStation demographics were skewed towards adults, but the audience broadened after the first price drop. While the Saturn was positioned towards 18- to 34-year-olds, the PlayStation was initially marketed exclusively towards teenagers. Executives from both Sony and Sega reasoned that because younger players typically looked up to older, more experienced players, advertising targeted at teens and adults would draw them in too. Additionally, Sony found that adults reacted best to advertising aimed at teenagers; Lee Clow surmised that people who started to grow into adulthood regressed and became "17 again" when they played video games. The console was marketed with advertising slogans stylised as "LIVE IN YUR WRLD. PLY IN URS" (Live in Your World. Play in Ours.) and "U R NOT E" (red E). The four geometric shapes were derived from the symbols for the four buttons on the controller. Clow thought that by invoking such provocative statements, gamers would respond to the contrary and say "'Bullshit. Let me show you how ready I am.'" As the console's appeal enlarged, Sony's marketing efforts broadened from their earlier focus on mature players to specifically target younger children as well. Shortly after the PlayStation's release in Europe, Sony tasked marketing manager Geoff Glendenning with assessing the desires of a new target audience. Sceptical over Nintendo and Sega's reliance on television campaigns, Glendenning theorised that young adults transitioning from fourth-generation consoles would feel neglected by marketing directed at children and teenagers. Recognising the influence early 1990s underground clubbing and rave culture had on young people, especially in the United Kingdom, Glendenning felt that the culture had become mainstream enough to help cultivate PlayStation's emerging identity. Sony partnered with prominent nightclub owners such as Ministry of Sound and festival promoters to organise dedicated PlayStation areas where demonstrations of select games could be tested. Sheffield-based graphic design studio The Designers Republic was contracted by Sony to produce promotional materials aimed at a fashionable, club-going audience. Psygnosis' Wipeout in particular became associated with nightclub culture as it was widely featured in venues. By 1997, there were 52 nightclubs in the United Kingdom with dedicated PlayStation rooms. Glendenning recalled that he had discreetly used at least £100,000 a year in slush fund money to invest in impromptu marketing. In 1996, Sony expanded their CD production facilities in the United States due to the high demand for PlayStation games, increasing their monthly output from 4 million discs to 6.5 million discs. This was necessary because PlayStation sales were running at twice the rate of Saturn sales, and its lead dramatically increased when both consoles dropped in price to $199 that year. The PlayStation also outsold the Saturn at a similar ratio in Europe during 1996, with 2.2 million consoles sold in the region by the end of the year. Sales figures for PlayStation hardware and software only increased following the launch of the Nintendo 64. Tokunaka speculated that the Nintendo 64 launch had actually helped PlayStation sales by raising public awareness of the gaming market through Nintendo's added marketing efforts. Despite this, the PlayStation took longer to achieve dominance in Japan. Tokunaka said that, even after the PlayStation and Saturn had been on the market for nearly two years, the competition between them was still "very close", and neither console had led in sales for any meaningful length of time. By 1998, Sega, encouraged by their declining market share and significant financial losses, launched the Dreamcast as a last-ditch attempt to stay in the industry. Although its launch was successful, the technically superior 128-bit console was unable to subdue Sony's dominance in the industry. Sony still held 60% of the overall video game market share in North America at the end of 1999. Sega's initial confidence in their new console was undermined when Japanese sales were lower than expected, with disgruntled Japanese consumers reportedly returning their Dreamcasts in exchange for PlayStation software. On 2 March 1999, Sony officially revealed details of the PlayStation 2, which Kutaragi announced would feature a graphics processor designed to push more raw polygons than any console in history, effectively rivalling most supercomputers. The PlayStation continued to sell strongly at the turn of the new millennium: in June 2000, Sony released the PSOne, a smaller, redesigned variant which went on to outsell all other consoles in that year, including the PlayStation 2. In 2005, PlayStation became the first console to ship 100 million units with the PlayStation 2 later achieving this faster than its predecessor. The combined successes of both PlayStation consoles led to Sega retiring the Dreamcast in 2001, and abandoning the console business entirely. The PlayStation was eventually discontinued on 23 March 2006—over eleven years after its release, and less than a year before the debut of the PlayStation 3. Hardware The main microprocessor is a R3000 CPU made by LSI Logic operating at a clock rate of 33.8688 MHz and 30 MIPS. This 32-bit CPU relies heavily on the "cop2" 3D and matrix math coprocessor on the same die to provide the necessary speed to render complex 3D graphics. The role of the separate GPU chip is to draw 2D polygons and apply shading and textures to them: the rasterisation stage of the graphics pipeline. Sony's custom 16-bit sound chip supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 sound channels and offers a sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz and music sequencing. It features 2 MB of main RAM, with an additional 1 MB of video RAM. The PlayStation has a maximum colour depth of 16.7 million true colours with 32 levels of transparency and unlimited colour look-up tables. The PlayStation can output composite, S-Video or RGB video signals through its AV Multi connector (with older models also having RCA connectors for composite), displaying resolutions from 256×224 to 640×480 pixels. Different games can use different resolutions. Earlier models also had proprietary parallel and serial ports that could be used to connect accessories or multiple consoles together; these were later removed due to a lack of usage. The PlayStation uses a proprietary video compression unit, MDEC, which is integrated into the CPU and allows for the presentation of full motion video at a higher quality than other consoles of its generation. Unusual for the time, the PlayStation lacks a dedicated 2D graphics processor; 2D elements are instead calculated as polygons by the Geometry Transfer Engine (GTE) so that they can be processed and displayed on screen by the GPU. While running, the GPU can also generate a total of 4,000 sprites and 180,000 polygons per second, in addition to 360,000 per second flat-shaded. The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run. Externally, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors from the rear of the unit. This started with the original Japanese launch units; the SCPH-1000, released on 3 December 1994, was the only model that had an S-Video port, as it was removed from the next model. Subsequent models saw a reduction in number of parallel ports, with the final version only retaining one serial port. Sony marketed a development kit for amateur developers known as the Net Yaroze (meaning "Let's do it together" in Japanese). It was launched in June 1996 in Japan, and following public interest, was released the next year in other countries. The Net Yaroze allowed hobbyists to create their own games and upload them via an online forum run by Sony. The console was only available to buy through an ordering service and with the necessary documentation and software to program PlayStation games and applications through C programming compilers. On 7 July 2000, Sony released the PS One (stylised as "PS one" or "PSone"), a smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation. It was the highest-selling console through the end of the year, outselling all other consoles—including the PlayStation 2. In 2002, Sony released a 5-inch (130 mm) LCD screen add-on for the PS One, referred to as the "Combo pack". It also included a car cigarette lighter adaptor adding an extra layer of portability. Production of the LCD "Combo Pack" ceased in 2004, when the popularity of the PlayStation began to wane in markets outside Japan. A total of 28.15 million PS One units had been sold by the time it was discontinued in March 2006. Three iterations of the PlayStation's controller were released over the console's lifespan. The first controller, the PlayStation controller, was released alongside the PlayStation in December 1994. It features four individual directional buttons (as opposed to a conventional D-pad), a pair of shoulder buttons on both sides, Start and Select buttons in the centre, and four face buttons consisting of simple geometric shapes: a green triangle, red circle, blue cross, and a pink square (, , , ). Rather than depicting traditionally used letters or numbers onto its buttons, the PlayStation controller established a trademark which would be incorporated heavily into the PlayStation brand. Teiyu Goto, the designer of the original PlayStation controller, said that the circle and cross represent "yes" and "no", respectively (though this layout is reversed in Western versions); the triangle symbolises a point of view and the square is equated to a sheet of paper to be used to access menus. The European and North American models of the original PlayStation controllers are roughly 10% larger than its Japanese variant, to account for the fact the average person in those regions has larger hands than the average Japanese person. Sony's first analogue gamepad, the PlayStation Analog Joystick (often erroneously referred to as the "Sony Flightstick"), was first released in Japan in April 1996. Featuring two parallel joysticks, it uses potentiometer technology previously used on consoles such as the Vectrex; instead of relying on binary eight-way switches, the controller detects minute angular changes through the entire range of motion. The stick also features a thumb-operated digital hat switch on the right joystick, corresponding to the traditional D-pad, and used for instances when simple digital movements were necessary. The Analog Joystick sold poorly in Japan due to its high cost and cumbersome size. The increasing popularity of 3D games prompted Sony to add analogue sticks to its controller design to give users more freedom over their movements in virtual 3D environments. The first official analogue controller, the Dual Analog Controller, was revealed to the public in a small glass booth at the 1996 PlayStation Expo in Japan, and released in April 1997 to coincide with the Japanese releases of analogue-capable games Tobal 2 and Bushido Blade. In addition to the two analogue sticks (which also introduced two new buttons mapped to clicking in the analogue sticks), the Dual Analog controller features an "Analog" button and LED beneath the "Start" and "Select" buttons which toggles analogue functionality on or off. The controller also features rumble support, though Sony decided that haptic feedback would be removed from all overseas iterations before the United States release. A Sony spokesman stated that the feature was removed for "manufacturing reasons", although rumours circulated that Nintendo had attempted to legally block the release of the controller outside Japan due to similarities with the Nintendo 64 controller's Rumble Pak. However, a Nintendo spokesman denied that Nintendo took legal action. Next Generation's Chris Charla theorised that Sony dropped vibration feedback to keep the price of the controller down. In November 1997, Sony introduced the DualShock controller. Its name derives from its use of two (dual) vibration motors (shock). Unlike its predecessor, its analogue sticks feature textured rubber grips, longer handles, slightly different shoulder buttons and has rumble feedback included as standard on all versions. The DualShock later replaced its predecessors as the default controller. Sony released a series of peripherals to add extra layers of functionality to the PlayStation. Such peripherals include memory cards, the PlayStation Mouse, the PlayStation Link Cable, the Multiplayer Adapter (a four-player multitap), the Memory Drive (a disk drive for 3.5-inch floppy disks), the GunCon (a light gun), and the Glasstron (a monoscopic head-mounted display). Released exclusively in Japan, the PocketStation is a memory card peripheral which acts as a miniature personal digital assistant. The device features a monochrome liquid crystal display (LCD), infrared communication capability, a real-time clock, built-in flash memory, and sound capability. Sharing similarities with the Dreamcast's VMU peripheral, the PocketStation was typically distributed with certain PlayStation games, enhancing them with added features. The PocketStation proved popular in Japan, selling over five million units. Sony planned to release the peripheral outside Japan but the release was cancelled, despite receiving promotion in Europe and North America. In addition to playing games, most PlayStation models are equipped to play CD-Audio. The Asian model SCPH-5903 can also play Video CDs. Like most CD players, the PlayStation can play songs in a programmed order, shuffle the playback order of the disc and repeat one song or the entire disc. Later PlayStation models use a music visualisation function called SoundScope. This function, as well as a memory card manager, is accessed by starting the console without either inserting a game or closing the CD tray, thereby accessing a graphical user interface (GUI) for the PlayStation BIOS. The GUI for the PS One and PlayStation differ depending on the firmware version: the original PlayStation GUI had a dark blue background with rainbow graffiti used as buttons, while the early PAL PlayStation and PS One GUI had a grey blocked background with two icons in the middle. PlayStation emulation is versatile and can be run on numerous modern devices. Bleem! was a commercial emulator which was released for IBM-compatible PCs and the Dreamcast in 1999. It was notable for being aggressively marketed during the PlayStation's lifetime, and was the centre of multiple controversial lawsuits filed by Sony. Bleem! was programmed in assembly language, which allowed it to emulate PlayStation games with improved visual fidelity, enhanced resolutions, and filtered textures that was not possible on original hardware. Sony sued Bleem! two days after its release, citing copyright infringement and accusing the company of engaging in unfair competition and patent infringement by allowing use of PlayStation BIOSs on a Sega console. Bleem! were subsequently forced to shut down in November 2001. Sony was aware that using CDs for game distribution could have left games vulnerable to piracy, due to the growing popularity of CD-R and optical disc drives with burning capability. To preclude illegal copying, a proprietary process for PlayStation disc manufacturing was developed that, in conjunction with an augmented optical drive in Tiger H/E assembly, prevented burned copies of games from booting on an unmodified console. Specifically, all genuine PlayStation discs were printed with a small section of deliberate irregular data, which the PlayStation's optical pick-up was capable of detecting and decoding. Consoles would not boot game discs without a specific wobble frequency contained in the data of the disc pregap sector (the same system was also used to encode discs' regional lockouts). This signal was within Red Book CD tolerances, so PlayStation discs' actual content could still be read by a conventional disc drive; however, the disc drive could not detect the wobble frequency (therefore duplicating the discs omitting it), since the laser pick-up system of any optical disc drive would interpret this wobble as an oscillation of the disc surface and compensate for it in the reading process. Early PlayStations, particularly early 1000 models, experience skipping full-motion video or physical "ticking" noises from the unit. The problems stem from poorly placed vents leading to overheating in some environments, causing the plastic mouldings inside the console to warp slightly and create knock-on effects with the laser assembly. The solution is to sit the console on a surface which dissipates heat efficiently in a well vented area or raise the unit up slightly from its resting surface. Sony representatives also recommended unplugging the PlayStation when it is not in use, as the system draws in a small amount of power (and therefore heat) even when turned off. The first batch of PlayStations use a KSM-440AAM laser unit, whose case and movable parts are all built out of plastic. Over time, the plastic lens sled rail wears out—usually unevenly—due to friction. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerates wear, due to the additional heat, which makes the plastic more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, one side of the lens sled will become so worn that the laser can tilt, no longer pointing directly at the CD; after this, games will no longer load due to data read errors. Sony fixed the problem by making the sled out of die-cast metal and placing the laser unit further away from the power supply on later PlayStation models. Due to an engineering oversight, the PlayStation does not produce a proper signal on several older models of televisions, causing the display to flicker or bounce around the screen. Sony decided not to change the console design, since only a small percentage of PlayStation owners used such televisions, and instead gave consumers the option of sending their PlayStation unit to a Sony service centre to have an official modchip installed, allowing play on older televisions. Game library The PlayStation featured a diverse game library which grew to appeal to all types of players. Critically acclaimed PlayStation games included Final Fantasy VII (1997), Crash Bandicoot (1996), Spyro the Dragon (1998), Metal Gear Solid (1998), all of which became established franchises. Final Fantasy VII is credited with allowing role-playing games to gain mass-market appeal outside Japan, and is considered one of the most influential and greatest video games ever made. The PlayStation's bestselling game is Gran Turismo (1997), which sold 10.85 million units. After the PlayStation's discontinuation in 2006, the cumulative software shipment was 962 million units. Following its 1994 launch in Japan, early games included Ridge Racer, Crime Crackers, King's Field, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Toh Shin Den (i.e. Battle Arena Toshinden), and Kileak: The Blood. The first two games available at its later North American launch were Jumping Flash! (1995) and Ridge Racer, with Jumping Flash! heralded as an ancestor for 3D graphics in console gaming. Wipeout, Air Combat, Twisted Metal, Warhawk and Destruction Derby were among the popular first-year games, and the first to be reissued as part of Sony's Greatest Hits or Platinum range. At the time of the PlayStation's first Christmas season, Psygnosis had produced around 70% of its launch catalogue; their breakthrough racing game Wipeout was acclaimed for its techno soundtrack and helped raise awareness of Britain's underground music community. Eidos Interactive's action-adventure game Tomb Raider contributed substantially to the success of the console in 1996, with its main protagonist Lara Croft becoming an early gaming icon and garnering unprecedented media promotion. Licensed tie-in video games of popular films were also prevalent; Argonaut Games' 2001 adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone went on to sell over eight million copies late in the console's lifespan. Third-party developers committed largely to the console's wide-ranging game catalogue even after the launch of the PlayStation 2; some of the notable exclusives in this era include Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, Syphon Filter 3, C-12: Final Resistance, Dance Dance Revolution Konamix and Digimon World 3.[c] Sony assisted with game reprints as late as 2008 with Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection, this being the last PlayStation game officially released and licensed by Sony. Initially, in the United States, PlayStation games were packaged in long cardboard boxes, similar to non-Japanese 3DO and Saturn games. Sony later switched to the jewel case format typically used for audio CDs and Japanese video games, as this format took up less retailer shelf space (which was at a premium due to the large number of PlayStation games being released), and focus testing showed that most consumers preferred this format. Reception The PlayStation was mostly well received upon release. Critics in the west generally welcomed the new console; the staff of Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation a few weeks after its North American launch, where they commented that, while the CPU is "fairly average", the supplementary custom hardware, such as the GPU and sound processor, is stunningly powerful. They praised the PlayStation's focus on 3D, and complemented the comfort of its controller and the convenience of its memory cards. Giving the system 41⁄2 out of 5 stars, they concluded, "To succeed in this extremely cut-throat market, you need a combination of great hardware, great games, and great marketing. Whether by skill, luck, or just deep pockets, Sony has scored three out of three in the first salvo of this war." Albert Kim from Entertainment Weekly praised the PlayStation as a technological marvel, rivalling that of Sega and Nintendo. Famicom Tsūshin scored the console a 19 out of 40, lower than the Saturn's 24 out of 40, in May 1995. In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five Electronic Gaming Monthly editors gave the PlayStation scores of 9.5, 8.5, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.5—for all five editors, the highest score they gave to any of the five consoles reviewed in the issue. They lauded the breadth and quality of the games library, saying it had vastly improved over previous years due to developers mastering the system's capabilities in addition to Sony revising their stance on 2D and role playing games. They also complimented the low price point of the games compared to the Nintendo 64's, and noted that it was the only console on the market that could be relied upon to deliver a solid stream of games for the coming year, primarily due to third party developers almost unanimously favouring it over its competitors. Legacy SCE was an upstart in the video game industry in late 1994, as the video game market in the early 1990s was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo had been the clear leader in the industry since the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 and the Nintendo 64 was initially expected to maintain this position. The PlayStation's target audience included the generation which was the first to grow up with mainstream video games, along with 18- to 29-year-olds who were not the primary focus of Nintendo. By the late 1990s, Sony became a highly regarded console brand due to the PlayStation, with a significant lead over second-place Nintendo, while Sega was relegated to a distant third. The PlayStation became the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship over 100 million units worldwide, with many critics attributing the console's success to third-party developers. It remains the sixth best-selling console of all time as of 2025[update], with a total of 102.49 million units sold. Around 7,900 individual games were published for the console during its 11-year life span, the second-most games ever produced for a console. Its success resulted in a significant financial boon for Sony as profits from their video game division contributed to 23%. Sony's next-generation PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with the PlayStation's DualShock controller and games, was announced in 1999 and launched in 2000. The PlayStation's lead in installed base and developer support paved the way for the success of its successor, which overcame the earlier launch of the Sega's Dreamcast and then fended off competition from Microsoft's newcomer Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. The PlayStation 2's immense success and failure of the Dreamcast were among the main factors which led to Sega abandoning the console market. To date, five PlayStation home consoles have been released, which have continued the same numbering scheme, as well as two portable systems. The PlayStation 3 also maintained backward compatibility with original PlayStation discs. Hundreds of PlayStation games have been digitally re-released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The PlayStation has often ranked among the best video game consoles. In 2018, Retro Gamer named it the third best console, crediting its sophisticated 3D capabilities as one of its key factors in gaining mass success, and lauding it as a "game-changer in every sense possible". In 2009, IGN ranked the PlayStation the seventh best console in their list, noting its appeal towards older audiences to be a crucial factor in propelling the video game industry, as well as its assistance in transitioning game industry to use the CD-ROM format. Keith Stuart from The Guardian likewise named it as the seventh best console in 2020, declaring that its success was so profound it "ruled the 1990s". In January 2025, Lorentio Brodesco announced the nsOne project, attempting to reverse engineer PlayStation's motherboard. Brodesco stated that "detailed documentation on the original motherboard was either incomplete or entirely unavailable". The project was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter. In June, Brodesco manufactured the first working motherboard, promising to bring a fully rooted version with multilayer routing as well as documentation and design files in the near future. The success of the PlayStation contributed to the demise of cartridge-based home consoles. While not the first system to use an optical disc format, it was the first highly successful one, and ended up going head-to-head with the proprietary cartridge-relying Nintendo 64,[d] which the industry had expected to use CDs like PlayStation. After the demise of the Sega Saturn, Nintendo was left as Sony's main competitor in Western markets. Nintendo chose not to use CDs for the Nintendo 64; they were likely concerned with the proprietary cartridge format's ability to help enforce copy protection, given their substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive games for their revenue. Besides their larger capacity, CD-ROMs could be produced in bulk quantities at a much faster rate than ROM cartridges, a week compared to two to three months. Further, the cost of production per unit was far cheaper, allowing Sony to offer games about 40% lower cost to the user compared to ROM cartridges while still making the same amount of net revenue. In Japan, Sony published fewer copies of a wide variety of games for the PlayStation as a risk-limiting step, a model that had been used by Sony Music for CD audio discs. The production flexibility of CD-ROMs meant that Sony could produce larger volumes of popular games to get onto the market quickly, something that could not be done with cartridges due to their manufacturing lead time. The lower production costs of CD-ROMs also allowed publishers an additional source of profit: budget-priced reissues of games which had already recouped their development costs. Tokunaka remarked in 1996: Choosing CD-ROM is one of the most important decisions that we made. As I'm sure you understand, PlayStation could just as easily have worked with masked ROM [cartridges]. The 3D engine and everything—the whole PlayStation format—is independent of the media. But for various reasons (including the economies for the consumer, the ease of the manufacturing, inventory control for the trade, and also the software publishers) we deduced that CD-ROM would be the best media for PlayStation. The increasing complexity of developing games pushed cartridges to their storage limits and gradually discouraged some third-party developers. Part of the CD format's appeal to publishers was that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more production flexibility to meet demand. As a result, some third-party developers switched to the PlayStation, including Square and Enix, whose Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII respectively had been planned for the Nintendo 64 (both companies later merged to form Square Enix). Other developers released fewer games for the Nintendo 64 (Konami, releasing only thirteen N64 games but over fifty on the PlayStation). Nintendo 64 game releases were less frequent than the PlayStation's, with many being developed by either Nintendo themselves or second-parties such as Rare. The PlayStation Classic is a dedicated video game console made by Sony Interactive Entertainment that emulates PlayStation games. It was announced in September 2018 at the Tokyo Game Show, and released on 3 December 2018, the 24th anniversary of the release of the original console. As a dedicated console, the PlayStation Classic features 20 pre-installed games; the games run off the open source emulator PCSX. The console is bundled with two replica wired PlayStation controllers (those without analogue sticks), an HDMI cable, and a USB-Type A cable. Internally, the console uses a MediaTek MT8167a Quad A35 system on a chip with four central processing cores clocked at @ 1.5 GHz and a Power VR GE8300 graphics processing unit. It includes 16 GB of eMMC flash storage and 1 Gigabyte of DDR3 SDRAM. The PlayStation Classic is 45% smaller than the original console. The PlayStation Classic received negative reviews from critics and was compared unfavorably to Nintendo's rival Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition and Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition. Criticism was directed at its meagre game library, user interface, emulation quality, use of PAL versions for certain games, use of the original controller, and high retail price, though the console's design received praise. The console sold poorly. See also Notes References |
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[SOURCE: https://www.ynet.co.il/food/foodreviews/article/skporqe0011e#autoplay] | [TOKENS: 292] |
שווה את הרעש? כולם דיברו על הבשר הזה סרטונים מגרים של צ'וריסו ונתחי בשר לא השאירו ברירה - אחרי ששורת משפיענים היללו את צ'ופ צ'ופ, היינו חייבים לבדוק את הפודטראק בהוד השרון. השירות חם, הקוקטיילים טובים וגם האסאדו לא רע, אבל בסופו של דבר רוב המנות היו בינוניות. הפער בין ההבטחה למציאות יצר בעיקר תחושה אחת: אכזבה |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_equity] | [TOKENS: 9237] |
Contents Private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public. Instead, it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in managing and structuring the companies. In colloquial usage, "private equity" can refer to these investment firms rather than the companies in which they invest. Private-equity capital is invested into a target company either by an investment management company (private equity firm), a venture capital fund, or an angel investor; each category of investor has specific financial goals, management preferences, and investment strategies for profiting from their investments. Private equity can provide working capital to finance a target company's expansion, including the development of new products and services, operational restructuring, management changes, and shifts in ownership and control. As a financial product, a private-equity fund is private capital for financing a long-term investment strategy in an illiquid business enterprise. Private equity fund investing has been described by the financial press as the superficial rebranding of investment management companies who specialized in the leveraged buyout of financially weak companies. Evaluations of the returns of private equity are mixed: some find that it outperforms public equity, but others find otherwise. Key features Some key features of private equity investment include: Strategies The strategies private-equity firms may use are as follows, leveraged buyout being the most common. Leveraged buyout (LBO) refers to a strategy of making equity investments as part of a transaction in which a company, business unit, or business asset is acquired from the current shareholders typically with the use of financial leverage. The companies involved in these transactions are typically mature and generate operating cash flows. Private-equity firms view target companies as either Platform companies, which have sufficient scale and a successful business model to act as a stand-alone entity, or as add-on / tuck-in / bolt-on acquisitions, which would include companies with insufficient scale or other deficits. Leveraged buyouts involve a financial sponsor agreeing to an acquisition without itself committing all the capital required for the acquisition. To do this, the financial sponsor will raise acquisition debt, which looks to the cash flows of the acquisition target to make interest and principal payments. Acquisition debt in an LBO is often non-recourse to the financial sponsor and has no claim on other investments managed by the financial sponsor. Therefore, an LBO transaction's financial structure is particularly attractive to a fund's limited partners, allowing them the benefits of leverage, but limiting the degree of recourse of that leverage. This kind of financing structure leverage benefits an LBO's financial sponsor in two ways: (1) the investor only needs to provide a fraction of the capital for the acquisition, and (2) the returns to the investor will be enhanced, as long as the return on assets exceeds the cost of the debt. As a percentage of the purchase price for a leverage buyout target, the amount of debt used to finance a transaction varies according to the financial condition and history of the acquisition target, market conditions, the willingness of lenders to extend credit (both to the LBO's financial sponsors and the company to be acquired) and the interest costs and the ability of the company to cover those costs. Historically the debt portion of a LBO will range from 60 to 90% of the purchase price. Between 2000 and 2005, debt averaged between 59.4% and 67.9% of total purchase price for LBOs in the United States. A private-equity fund, ABC Capital II, borrows $9bn from a bank (or other lender). To this, it adds $2bn of equity – money from its own partners and from limited partners. With this $11bn, it buys all the shares of an underperforming company, XYZ Industrial (after due diligence, i.e. checking the books). It replaces the senior management in XYZ Industrial, with others who set out to streamline it. The workforce is reduced, some assets are sold off, etc. The objective is to increase the valuation of the company for an early sale. The stock market is experiencing a bull market, and XYZ Industrial is sold two years after the buy-out for $13bn, yielding a profit of $2bn. The original loan can now be paid off with interest of, say, $0.5bn. The remaining profit of $1.5bn is shared among the partners. Taxation of such gains is at the capital gains tax rates, which in the United States are lower than ordinary income tax rates. Note that part of that profit results from turning the company around, and part results from the general increase in share prices in a buoyant stock market, the latter often being the greater component. Notes: Growth capital refers to equity investments, most often minority investments, in relatively mature companies that are looking for capital to expand or restructure operations, enter new markets or finance a major acquisition without a change of control of the business. Companies that seek growth capital will often do so in order to finance a transformational event in their life cycle. These companies are likely to be more mature than venture capital-funded companies, able to generate revenue and operating profits, but unable to generate sufficient cash to fund major expansions, acquisitions or other investments. Because of this lack of scale, these companies generally can find few alternative conduits to secure capital for growth, so access to growth equity can be critical to pursue necessary facility expansion, sales and marketing initiatives, equipment purchases, and new product development. The primary owner of the company may not be willing to take the financial risk alone. By selling part of the company to private equity, the owner can take out some value and share the risk of growth with partners. Capital can also be used to effect a restructuring of a company's balance sheet, particularly to reduce the amount of leverage (or debt) the company has on its balance sheet. A private investment in public equity (PIPE), refer to a form of growth capital investment made into a publicly traded company. PIPE investments are typically made in the form of a convertible or preferred security that is unregistered for a certain period of time. The Registered Direct (RD) is another common financing vehicle used for growth capital. A registered direct is similar to a PIPE, but is instead sold as a registered security. Mezzanine capital refers to subordinated debt or preferred equity securities that often represent the most junior portion of a company's capital structure that is senior to the company's common equity. This form of financing is often used by private-equity investors to reduce the amount of equity capital required to finance a leveraged buyout or major expansion. Mezzanine capital, which is often used by smaller companies that are unable to access the high yield market, allows such companies to borrow additional capital beyond the levels that traditional lenders are willing to provide through bank loans. In compensation for the increased risk, mezzanine debt holders require a higher return for their investment than secured or other more senior lenders. Mezzanine securities are often structured with a current income coupon. Venture capital (VC) is a broad subcategory of private equity that refers to equity investments made, typically in less mature companies, for the launch of a seed or startup company, early-stage development, or expansion of a business. Venture investment is most often found in the application of new technology, new marketing concepts and new products that do not have a proven track record or stable revenue streams. Venture capital is often subdivided by the stage of development of the company ranging from early-stage capital used for the launch of startup companies to late stage and growth capital that is often used to fund expansion of existing business that are generating revenue but may not yet be profitable or generating cash flow to fund future growth. Entrepreneurs often develop products and ideas that require substantial capital during the formative stages of their companies' life cycles. Many entrepreneurs do not have sufficient funds to finance projects themselves, and they must, therefore, seek outside financing. The venture capitalist's need to deliver high returns to compensate for the risk of these investments makes venture funding an expensive capital source for companies. Being able to secure financing is critical to any business, whether it is a startup seeking venture capital or a mid-sized firm that needs more cash to grow. Venture capital is most suitable for businesses with large up-front capital requirements which cannot be financed by cheaper alternatives such as debt. Although venture capital is often most closely associated with fast-growing technology, healthcare and biotechnology fields, venture funding has been used for other more traditional businesses. Investors generally commit to venture capital funds as part of a wider diversified private-equity portfolio, but also to pursue the larger returns the strategy has the potential to offer. However, venture capital funds have produced lower returns for investors over recent years compared to other private-equity fund types, particularly buyout. The category of distressed securities comprises financial strategies for the profitable investment of working capital into the corporate equity and the securities of financially weak companies. The investment of private-equity capital into distressed securities is realised with two financial strategies: Moreover, the private-equity investment strategies of hedge funds also include actively trading the loans held and the bonds issued by the financially-weak target companies. Secondary investments refer to investments made in existing private-equity assets. These transactions can involve the sale of private equity fund interests or portfolios of direct investments in privately held companies through the purchase of these investments from existing institutional investors. By its nature, the private-equity asset class is illiquid, intended to be a long-term investment for buy and hold investors. Secondary investments allow institutional investors, particularly those new to the asset class, to invest in private equity from older vintages than would otherwise be available to them. Secondaries also typically experience a different cash flow profile, diminishing the j-curve effect of investing in new private-equity funds. Often investments in secondaries are made through third-party fund vehicle, structured similar to a fund of funds although many large institutional investors have purchased private-equity fund interests through secondary transactions. Sellers of private-equity fund investments sell not only the investments in the fund but also their remaining unfunded commitments to the funds. Other strategies that can be considered private equity or a close adjacent market include: and this to compensate for private equities not being traded on the public market, a private-equity secondary market has formed, where private-equity investors purchase securities and assets from other private equity investors. History and development The seeds of the US private-equity industry were planted in 1946 with the founding of two venture capital firms: American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) and J.H. Whitney & Company. Before World War II, venture capital investments (originally known as "development capital") were primarily the domain of wealthy individuals and families. In 1901 J.P. Morgan arguably managed the first leveraged buyout of the Carnegie Steel Company using private equity. Modern era private equity, however, is credited to Georges Doriot, the "father of venture capitalism" with the founding of ARDC and founder of INSEAD, with capital raised from institutional investors, to encourage private sector investments in businesses run by soldiers who were returning from World War II. ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital success story when its 1957 investment of $70,000 in Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) would be valued at over $355 million after the company's initial public offering in 1968 (a return of over 5,000 times its investment and an annualized rate of return of 101%).[failed verification] It is commonly noted that the first venture-backed startup is Fairchild Semiconductor, which produced the first commercially practicable integrated circuit, funded in 1959 by what would later become Venrock Associates. The first leveraged buyout may have been the purchase by McLean Industries, Inc. of Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company in January 1955 and Waterman Steamship Corporation in May 1955 Under the terms of that transaction, McLean borrowed $42 million and raised an additional $7 million through an issue of preferred stock. When the deal closed, $20 million of Waterman cash and assets were used to retire $20 million of the loan debt. Lewis Cullman's acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company in 1964 is often cited as the first leveraged buyout. Similar to the approach employed in the McLean transaction, the use of publicly traded holding companies as investment vehicles to acquire portfolios of investments in corporate assets was a relatively new trend in the 1960s popularized by the likes of Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) and Victor Posner (DWG Corporation) and later adopted by Nelson Peltz (Triarc), Saul Steinberg (Reliance Insurance) and Gerry Schwartz (Onex Corporation). These investment vehicles would utilize a number of the same tactics and target the same type of companies as more traditional leveraged buyouts and in many ways could be considered a forerunner of the later private-equity firms. Posner is often credited with coining the term "leveraged buyout" or "LBO". The leveraged buyout boom of the 1980s was conceived by a number of corporate financiers, most notably Jerome Kohlberg Jr. and later his protégé Henry Kravis. Working for Bear Stearns at the time, Kohlberg and Kravis along with Kravis' cousin George Roberts began a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. Many of these companies lacked a viable or attractive exit for their founders as they were too small to be taken public and the founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors and so a sale to a financial buyer could prove attractive. In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers would complete a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries (1971), and Boren Clay (1973) and Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals. By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts leading to their departure and the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in that year. In January 1982, former United States Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon and a group of investors acquired Gibson Greetings, a producer of greeting cards, for $80 million, of which only $1 million was rumored to have been contributed by the investors. By mid-1983, just sixteen months after the original deal, Gibson completed a $290 million IPO and Simon made approximately $66 million. The success of the Gibson Greetings investment attracted the attention of the wider media to the nascent boom in leveraged buyouts. Between 1979 and 1989, it was estimated that there were over 2,000 leveraged buyouts valued in excess of $250 million. During the 1980s, constituencies within acquired companies and the media ascribed the "corporate raid" label to many private-equity investments, particularly those that featured a hostile takeover of the company, perceived asset stripping, major layoffs or other significant corporate restructuring activities. Among the most notable investors to be labeled corporate raiders in the 1980s included Carl Icahn, Victor Posner, Nelson Peltz, Robert M. Bass, T. Boone Pickens, Harold Clark Simmons, Kirk Kerkorian, Sir James Goldsmith, Saul Steinberg and Asher Edelman. Carl Icahn developed a reputation as a ruthless corporate raider after his hostile takeover of TWA in 1985. Many of the corporate raiders were onetime clients of Michael Milken, whose investment banking firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert helped raise blind pools of capital with which corporate raiders could make a legitimate attempt to take over a company and provided high-yield debt ("junk bonds") financing of the buyouts. One of the final major buyouts of the 1980s proved to be its most ambitious and marked both a high-water mark and a sign of the beginning of the end of the boom. In 1989, KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) closed in on a $31.1 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco. It was, at that time and for over 17 years, the largest leveraged buyout in history. The event was chronicled in the book (and later the movie), Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco. KKR would eventually prevail in acquiring RJR Nabisco at $109 per share, marking a dramatic increase from the original announcement that Shearson Lehman Hutton would take RJR Nabisco private at $75 per share. A fierce series of negotiations and horse-trading ensued which pitted KKR against Shearson and later Forstmann Little & Co. Many of the major banking players of the day, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Salomon Brothers, and Merrill Lynch were actively involved in advising and financing the parties. After Shearson's original bid, KKR quickly introduced a tender offer to obtain RJR Nabisco for $90 per share—a price that enabled it to proceed without the approval of RJR Nabisco's management. RJR's management team, working with Shearson and Salomon Brothers, submitted a bid of $112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis's team. KKR's final bid of $109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by the board of directors of RJR Nabisco. At $31.1 billion of transaction value, RJR Nabisco was by far the largest leveraged buyouts in history. In 2006 and 2007, a number of leveraged buyout transactions were completed that for the first time surpassed the RJR Nabisco leveraged buyout in terms of nominal purchase price. However, adjusted for inflation, none of the leveraged buyouts of the 2006–2007 period would surpass RJR Nabisco. By the end of the 1980s the excesses of the buyout market were beginning to show, with the bankruptcy of several large buyouts including Robert Campeau's 1988 buyout of Federated Department Stores, the 1986 buyout of the Revco drug stores, Walter Industries, FEB Trucking and Eaton Leonard. Additionally, the RJR Nabisco deal was showing signs of strain, leading to a recapitalization in 1990 that involved the contribution of $1.7 billion of new equity from KKR. In the end, KKR lost $700 million on RJR. Drexel reached an agreement with the government in which it pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to six felonies – three counts of stock parking and three counts of stock manipulation. It also agreed to pay a fine of $650 million – at the time, the largest fine ever levied under securities laws. Milken left the firm after his own indictment in March 1989. On 13 February 1990 after being advised by United States Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas F. Brady, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve, Drexel Burnham Lambert officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The combination of decreasing interest rates, loosening lending standards and regulatory changes for publicly traded companies (specifically the 2002 Sarbanes–Oxley Act) would set the stage for the largest boom private equity had seen. Marked by the buyout of Dex Media in 2002, large multibillion-dollar U.S. buyouts could once again obtain significant high yield debt financing, and larger transactions could be completed. By 2004 and 2005, major buyouts were once again becoming common, including the acquisitions of Toys "R" Us, The Hertz Corporation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and SunGard in 2005. As 2006 began, new "largest buyout" records were set and surpassed several times; nine of the top ten buyouts by the end of 2007 had been announced in an 18-month period from the beginning of 2006 through the middle of 2007. In 2006, private-equity firms bought 654 U.S. companies for $375 billion, representing 18 times the level of transactions closed in 2003. Additionally, U.S.-based private-equity firms raised $215.4 billion in investor commitments to 322 funds, surpassing the previous record set in 2000 by 22% and 33% higher than the 2005 fundraising total The following year, despite the onset of turmoil in the credit markets in the summer, saw yet another record year of fundraising with $302 billion of investor commitments to 415 funds Among the mega-buyouts completed during the 2006 to 2007 boom were: EQ Office, HCA, Alliance Boots and TXU. In July 2007, the turmoil that had been affecting the mortgage markets, spilled over into the leveraged finance and high-yield debt markets. The markets had been highly robust during the first six months of 2007, with highly issuer friendly developments including PIK and PIK Toggle (interest is "Payable In Kind") and covenant light debt widely available to finance large leveraged buyouts. July and August saw a notable slowdown in issuance levels in the high yield and leveraged loan markets with few issuers accessing the market. Uncertain market conditions led to a significant widening of yield spreads, which coupled with the typical summer slowdown led many companies and investment banks to put their plans to issue debt on hold until the autumn. However, the expected rebound in the market after 1 May 2007 did not materialize, and the lack of market confidence prevented deals from pricing. By the end of September, the full extent of the credit situation became obvious as major lenders including Citigroup and UBS announced major writedowns due to credit losses. The leveraged finance markets came to a near standstill during a week in 2007. As 2008 began, lending standards tightened and the era of "mega-buyouts" came to an end. Nevertheless, private equity continues to be a large and active asset class and the private-equity firms, with hundreds of billions of dollars of committed capital from investors are looking to deploy capital in new and different transactions.[citation needed] As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, private equity has become subject to increased regulation in Europe and is now subject, among other things, to rules preventing asset stripping of portfolio companies and requiring the notification and disclosure of information in connection with buy-out activity. From 2010 to 2014 KKR, Carlyle, Apollo and Ares went public. Starting from 2018 these companies converted from partnerships into corporations with more shareholder rights and the inclusion in stock indices and mutual fund portfolios. But with the increased availability and scope of funding provided by private markets, many companies are staying private simply because they can. McKinsey & Company reports in its Global Private Markets Review 2018 that global private market fundraising increased by $28.2 billion from 2017, for a total of $748 billion in 2018. Thus, given the abundance of private capital available, companies no longer require public markets for sufficient funding. Benefits may include avoiding the cost of an IPO, maintaining more control of the company, and having the 'legroom' to think long-term rather than focus on short-term or quarterly figures. A new feature in the 2020s was regulated platforms which fractionalized the assets, making possible individual investments of $10,000 or less. Private equity deal-making in the United Kingdom surged in 2024, with total investment reaching £63 billion, just 7% below the record high of £68 billion in 2021. According to Dealogic, there were 305 private equity deals in 2024, marking a significant increase from 229 deals in 2023. The uptick in activity was driven by improving financial conditions and a rebound in investor confidence after a period of high interest rates in 2022 and 2023, which had slowed deal flow. Notable 2024 acquisitions included: The rapid pace of acquisitions also contributed to the decline in the number of listed companies in London, as private equity firms increasingly targeted publicly traded businesses. Research by Goldman Sachs showed that the London Stock Exchange experienced its fastest pace of shrinkage in over a decade due to private equity takeovers. However, concerns have been raised regarding the financial health of private equity-backed companies. The Bank of England issued a warning in 2024, stating that businesses owned by private equity firms were more vulnerable to default than other large businesses. The central bank's research found that more than 2 million people in the UK were employed by firms engaged with private equity and that these companies were responsible for 15% of all corporate debt. A report the same year by Moody's Ratings found that globally, companies backed by large private equity firms were twice as likely to default as companies not backed by private equity. Despite these risks, private equity interest in undervalued British companies has continued into 2025. As of early 2025, 19 deals worth a total of £2.9 billion have already been announced, highlighting the sector's continued expansion. Investments in private equity Although the capital for private equity originally came from individual investors or corporations, in the 1970s, private equity became an asset class in which various institutional investors allocated capital in the hopes of achieving risk-adjusted returns that exceed those possible in the public equity markets. In the 1980s, insurers were major private-equity investors. Later, public pension funds and university and other endowments became more significant sources of capital. For most institutional investors, private-equity investments are made as part of a broad asset allocation that includes traditional assets (e.g., public equity and bonds) and other alternative assets (e.g., hedge funds, real estate, commodities). Public and private pension schemes in the United States, Canada, and Europe have invested in the asset class since the early 1980s as part of efforts to diversify away from traditional holdings such as public equities and fixed income. These investments have been driven by the search for higher long-term returns, diversification benefits, and improved risk-adjusted performance. Today, pension investment in private equity accounts for more than one-third of all capital allocated to the asset class, making pension funds the single largest group of institutional investors in private equity. This share exceeds that of other major institutional investors, including insurance companies, university endowments, and sovereign wealth funds. Most institutional investors do not invest directly in privately held companies, lacking the expertise and resources necessary to structure and monitor the investment. Instead, institutional investors will invest indirectly through a private equity fund. Certain institutional investors have the scale necessary to develop a diversified portfolio of private-equity funds themselves, while others will invest through a fund of funds to allow a portfolio more diversified than one a single investor could construct. Returns on private-equity investments are created through one or a combination of three factors that include: debt repayment or cash accumulation through cash flows from operations, operational improvements that increase earnings over the life of the investment and multiple expansion, selling the business for a higher price than was originally paid. A key component of private equity as an asset class for institutional investors is that investments are typically realized after some period of time, which will vary depending on the investment strategy. Private-equity investment returns are typically realized through one of the following avenues: Large institutional asset owners such as pension funds (with typically long-dated liabilities), insurance companies, sovereign wealth and national reserve funds have a generally low likelihood of facing liquidity shocks in the medium term, and thus can afford the required long holding periods characteristic of private-equity investment. The median horizon for a LBO transaction is eight years. Liquidity in the private-equity market The private-equity secondary market (also often called private-equity secondaries) refers to the buying and selling of pre-existing investor commitments to private equity and other alternative investment funds. Sellers of private-equity investments sell not only the investments in the fund but also their remaining unfunded commitments to the funds. By its nature, the private-equity asset class is illiquid, intended to be a long-term investment for buy-and-hold investors. For the vast majority of private-equity investments, there is no listed public market; however, there is a robust and maturing secondary market available for sellers of private-equity assets. Increasingly, secondaries are considered a distinct asset class with a cash flow profile that is not correlated with other private-equity investments. As a result, investors are allocating capital to secondary investments to diversify their private-equity programs. Driven by strong demand for private-equity exposure, a significant amount of capital has been committed to secondary investments from investors looking to increase and diversify their private-equity exposure. Investors seeking access to private equity have been restricted to investments with structural impediments such as long lock-up periods, lack of transparency, unlimited leverage, concentrated holdings of illiquid securities and high investment minimums. Secondary transactions can be generally divided into two primary categories: This is the most common type of secondary transaction, involving the sale of an investor's interest in a private-equity fund or a portfolio of multiple fund interests. Transactions may take several forms: Also known as GP-Centered, secondary directs or synthetic secondaries, these transactions involve the sale of a portfolio of direct investments in portfolio companies. Subcategories include: Private-equity firms According to Private Equity International's latest PEI 300 ranking, the largest private-equity firm in the world today is The Blackstone Group based on the amount of private-equity direct-investment capital raised over a five-year window. As ranked by the PEI 300, the 15 largest private-equity firms in the world in 2024 were: Because private-equity firms are continuously in the process of raising, investing and distributing their private equity funds, capital raised can often be the easiest to measure. Other metrics can include the total value of companies purchased by a firm or an estimate of the size of a firm's active portfolio plus capital available for new investments. As with any list that focuses on size, the list does not provide any indication as to relative investment performance of these funds or managers. Preqin, an independent data provider, ranks the 25 largest private-equity investment managers. Among the larger firms in the 2017 ranking were AlpInvest Partners, Ardian (formerly AXA Private Equity), AIG Investments, and Goldman Sachs Alternatives. Invest Europe publishes a yearbook which analyses industry trends derived from data disclosed by over 1,300 European private-equity funds. Finally, websites such as AskIvy.net provide lists of London-based private-equity firms. The investment strategies of private-equity firms differ from those of hedge funds. Typically, private-equity investment groups are geared towards long-hold, multiple-year investment strategies in illiquid assets (whole companies, large-scale real estate projects, or other tangibles not easily converted to cash) where they have more control and influence over operations or asset management to influence their long-term returns. Hedge funds usually focus on short or medium term liquid securities which are more quickly convertible to cash, and they do not have direct control over the business or asset in which they are investing. Both private-equity firms and hedge funds often specialize in specific types of investments and transactions. Private-equity specialization is usually in specific industry sector asset management while hedge fund specialization is in industry sector risk capital management. Private-equity strategies can include wholesale purchase of a privately held company or set of assets, mezzanine financing for startup projects, growth capital investments in existing businesses or leveraged buyout of a publicly held asset converting it to private control. Finally, private-equity firms only take long positions, for short selling is not possible in this asset class. Private-equity funds Private-equity fundraising refers to the action of private-equity firms seeking capital from investors for their funds. Typically an investor will invest in a specific fund managed by a firm, becoming a limited partner in the fund, rather than an investor in the firm itself. As a result, an investor will only benefit from investments made by a firm where the investment is made from the specific fund in which it has invested. As fundraising has grown over the past few years, so too has the number of investors in the average fund. In 2004, there were 26 investors in the average private-equity fund, this figure has now grown to 42 according to Preqin ltd. (formerly known as Private Equity Intelligence). The managers of private-equity funds will also invest in their own vehicles, typically providing between 1–5% of the overall capital. Often private-equity fund managers will employ the services of external fundraising teams known as placement agents in order to raise capital for their vehicles. The use of placement agents has grown over the past few years, with 40% of funds closed in 2006 employing their services, according to Preqin ltd. Placement agents will approach potential investors on behalf of the fund manager, and will typically take a fee of around 1% of the commitments that they are able to garner. The amount of time that a private-equity firm spends raising capital varies depending on the level of interest among investors, which is defined by current market conditions and also the track record of previous funds raised by the firm in question. Firms can spend as little as one or two months raising capital when they are able to reach the target that they set for their funds relatively easily, often through gaining commitments from existing investors in their previous funds, or where strong past performance leads to strong levels of investor interest. Other managers may find fundraising taking considerably longer, with managers of less popular fund types finding the fundraising process more tough. It can take up to two years to raise capital, although the majority of fund managers will complete fundraising within nine months to fifteen months. Once a fund has reached its fundraising target, it will have a final close. After this point it is not normally possible for new investors to invest in the fund, unless they were to purchase an interest in the fund on the secondary market. The state of the industry around the end of 2011 was as follows. Private-equity assets under management probably exceeded $2 trillion at the end of March 2012, and funds available for investment totaled $949bn (about 47% of overall assets under management). Approximately $246bn of private equity was invested globally in 2011, down 6% on the previous year and around two-thirds below the peak activity in 2006 and 2007. Following on from a strong start, deal activity slowed in the second half of 2011 due to concerns over the global economy and sovereign debt crisis in Europe. There was $93bn in investments during the first half of this year as the slowdown persisted into 2012. This was down a quarter on the same period in the previous year. Private-equity backed buyouts generated some 6.9% of global M&A volume in 2011 and 5.9% in the first half of 2012. This was down on 7.4% in 2010 and well below the all-time high of 21% in 2006. Global exit activity totalled $252bn in 2011, practically unchanged from the previous year, but well up on 2008 and 2009 as private-equity firms sought to take advantage of improved market conditions at the start of the year to realise investments. Exit activity however, has lost momentum following a peak of $113bn in the second quarter of 2011. TheCityUK estimates total exit activity of some $100bn in the first half of 2012, well down on the same period in the previous year. The fund raising environment remained stable for the third year running in 2011 with $270bn in new funds raised, slightly down on the previous year's total. Around $130bn in funds was raised in the first half of 2012, down around a fifth on the first half of 2011. The average time for funds to achieve a final close fell to 16.7 months in the first half of 2012, from 18.5 months in 2011. Private-equity funds available for investment ("dry powder") totalled $949bn at the end of q1-2012, down around 6% on the previous year. Including unrealised funds in existing investments, private-equity funds under management probably totalled over $2.0 trillion. Public pensions are a major source of capital for private-equity funds. Increasingly, sovereign wealth funds are growing as an investor class for private equity. Private Equity was invested in 13% of the Pharma 1000 in 2021 according to Torreya with Eight Roads Ventures having the highest number of investments in this industry. Due to limited disclosure, studying the returns to private equity is relatively difficult. Unlike mutual funds, private-equity funds need not disclose performance data. And, as they invest in private companies, it is difficult to examine the underlying investments. It is challenging to compare private-equity performance to public-equity performance, in particular because private-equity fund investments are drawn and returned over time as investments are made and subsequently realized. An oft-cited academic paper (Kaplan and Schoar, 2005) suggests that the net-of-fees returns to PE funds are roughly comparable to the S&P 500 (or even slightly under). This analysis may actually overstate the returns because it relies on voluntarily reported data and hence suffers from survivorship bias (i.e. funds that fail will not report data). One should also note that these returns are not risk-adjusted. A 2012 paper by Harris, Jenkinson and Kaplan, 2012 found that average buyout fund returns in the U.S. have actually exceeded that of public markets. These findings were supported by earlier work, using a data set from Robinson and Sensoy in 2011. Commentators have argued that a standard methodology is needed to present an accurate picture of performance, to make individual private-equity funds comparable and so the asset class as a whole can be matched against public markets and other types of investment. It is also claimed that PE fund managers manipulate data to present themselves as strong performers, which makes it even more essential to standardize the industry. Two other findings in Kaplan and Schoar in 2005: First, there is considerable variation in performance across PE funds. Second, unlike the mutual fund industry, there appears to be performance persistence in PE funds. That is, PE funds that perform well over one period, tend to also perform well the next period. Persistence is stronger for VC firms than for LBO firms. The application of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in certain states in the United States has made certain performance data more readily available. Specifically, FOIA has required certain public agencies to disclose private-equity performance data directly on their websites. In the United Kingdom, the second largest market for private equity, more data has become available since the 2007 publication of the David Walker Guidelines for Disclosure and Transparency in Private Equity. List of private equity billionaires Below is a partial list of billionaires who acquired their wealth through private equity. Taxes Income to private equity firms is primarily in the form of "carried interest", typically 20% of the profits generated by investments made by the firm, and a "management fee", often 2% of the principal invested in the firm by the outside investors whose money the firm holds. As a result of a tax loophole enshrined in the U.S. tax code, carried interest that accrues to private equity firms is treated as capital gains, which is taxed at a lower rate than is ordinary income. Currently, the long term capital gains tax rate is 20% compared with the 37% top ordinary income tax rate for individuals. This loophole has been estimated to cost the government $130 billion over the next decade in unrealized revenue. Armies of corporate lobbyists and huge private equity industry donations to political campaigns in the United States have ensured that this powerful industry receives this favorable tax treatment by the government. Private equity firms retain close to 200 lobbyists and over the last decade have made almost $600 million in political campaign contributions. In addition, through an accounting maneuver called "fee waiver", private equity firms often also treat management fee income as capital gains. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lacks the manpower and the expertise that would be necessary to track compliance with even these already quite favorable legal requirements. In fact, the IRS conducts nearly no income tax audits of the industry. As a result of the complexity of the accounting that arises from the fact that most private equity firms are organized as large partnerships, such that the firm's profits are apportioned to each of the many partners, a number of private equity firms fail to comply with tax laws, according to industry whistleblowers. Debate Carried interest, or carry, in finance, is a share of the profits of an investment paid to the investment manager specifically in alternative investments (private equity and hedge funds). It is a performance fee, rewarding the manager for enhancing performance. Since these fees are generally not taxed as normal income, some believe that the structure unfairly takes advantage of favorable tax treatment, e.g. in the United States. In this regard, it is often referred to as the carried interest loophole. The Hill referred to it as "Wall Street's favorite tax break." PE's interest in short term profits without regard for the long term effects and the ability to "make money even if their companies blow up" can lead to job loss, raised prices, asset stripping and increased likelihood of bankruptcy for companies acquired. When a private equity entity invests in a company, industry or public service, there have been reports of reduced quality, both in terms of services and goods produced. While a private equity investment into a business might result in short-term improvements, such as new staff and equipment, the incentive is to maximize profits, not necessarily the quality of products or services. Over time, cost-cutting has also been common, and deferring further investments. Private equity investors may also be incentivized to make short-term gains by selling a company once a certain level of profitability is achieved or simply selling off its assets if that is not possible. Both of these situations, and others, can result in a loss of innovation and quality. There is a debate around the distinction between private equity and foreign direct investment (FDI), and whether to treat them separately. The difference is blurred on account of private equity not entering the country through the stock market. Private equity generally flows to unlisted firms and to firms where the percentage of shares is smaller than the promoter- or investor-held shares (also known as free-floating shares). The main point of contention is that FDI is used solely for production, whereas in the case of private equity the investor can reclaim their money after a revaluation period and make investments in other financial assets. At present, most countries report private equity as a part of FDI. The lack of transparency has raised concerns of exploitation and money laundering. Some studies have shown that private-equity investments in health care and related services, such as nursing homes and hospitals, have decreased the quality of care while driving up costs. Researchers at the Becker Friedman Institute of the University of Chicago found that private-equity ownership of nursing homes increased the short-term mortality of Medicare patients by 10%. Treatment by private-equity owned health care providers tends to be associated with a higher rate of "surprise bills". Private equity ownership of dermatology practices has led to pressure to increase profitability, concerns about up-charging and patient safety. In a 2024 study of 51 private equity–acquired hospitals matched with 250 controls, the former had a 25% increase in hospital-acquired conditions, such as falls and central line-associated bloodstream infections. Loans lent for private-equity acquisitions are often sold to others as securities leaving the original lender uninvolved with the outcome of the loan. According to conservative Oren Cass, private equity captures wealth rather than creating it, and this capture can be "zero-sum, or even value-destroying, in aggregate." He describes "assets get shuffled and reshuffled, profits get made, but relatively little flows toward actual productive uses." Bloomberg Businessweek states that: PE may contribute to inequality in several ways. First, it offers investors higher returns than those available in public stocks and bonds markets. Yet, to enjoy those returns, it helps to already be rich. Private-equity funds are open solely to "qualified" (read: high-net-worth) individual investors and to institutions such as endowments. Only some workers get indirect exposure via pension funds. Second, PE puts pressure on the lower end of the wealth divide. Companies can be broken up, merged, or generally restructured to increase efficiency and productivity, which inevitably means job cuts. See also References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.mako.co.il/tvbee-tv-news/Article-19f3d9cf0d57c91026.htm] | [TOKENS: 27776] |
קשוחים מבחוץ, רכים מבפנים. הגבריות החדשה על פי שלומי ואסףאבא של אחד מהם ישב בכלא, של השני היה סוהר. אחד גדל עם אמו בלבד, השני לזוג הורים אוהבים, ובכל זאת, החיים של שלומי יפרח ואסף זגה הפגישו אותם באותה נקודה: שני שחקנים שמנסים לפרוץ ולהוכיח שמאחורי החזות המאיימת לכאורה מסתתרת נפש עדינה. אל "המירוץ למיליון" יצאו יפרח וזגה אחרי פחות משנה של חברות, ומצאו את עצמם מתמודדים לא רק מול הזוגות האחרים – אלא גם מול עצמםאיתמר רונאלmakoפורסם: 19.02.26, 16:30 | עודכן: 21.02.26, 12:07צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoהקישור הועתקשלומי יפרח ואסף זגה היו חברים בקושי שנה כשנכנסו יחד ל"המירוץ למיליון". שניהם מגישים יחד את הפודקאסט "גברים בשחור" (בית הפודיום), שניהם שחקנים, במקצוע ובנשמה. "שנינו מהדרום, שנינו עגלגלים", ממשיך יפרח למנות את נקודות הדמיון, "שנינו מזרחים, אותו טייפקאסט. לנשים של שנינו קוראים טולה, שנינו ילדים של אמא. נקודת הפתיחה שלנו מאוד דומה, אבל גם שונה. אבא שלי היה בכלא, אבא שלו היה סוהר".זגה: "לא חשבתי על זה אפילו".הם הכירו בצילומי הסדרה "השוטרים" לפני כחמש שנים, אבל הקשר שלהם התחיל באמת כשיפרח חיפש שותף לפודקאסט. "רציתי לעשות משהו כדי לקדם את עצמי, באותה תקופה עבדתי במחסן בשביל להתפרנס", הוא אומר. "אני אוהב פודקאסטים, אני אוהב לדבר וחיפשתי מישהו שיעשה את זה איתי. השם הראשון שעלה לי זה אסף".השותפות המקצועית הפכה לחברות, ומפה לשם הם מצאו את עצמם בפירמידה צבעונית באלבניה, מנסים לפענח כתב חידה סתום. "אתה מקבל דף שחור עם שלוש מילים בשפה שאתה לא מבין", נזכר יפרח באחד מהרגעים הדרמטיים ביותר של הזוג עד כה בתוכנית. "אתה חושב לעצמך, מה עושים עם זה? נספור את האותיות, אולי נהפוך. הפכנו, היה שם איזה ציור, או-קיי, הבנו, אבל איך ממשיכים מפה?".זגה: "באיזשהו שלב אתה רואה גם אנשים הולכים, אז אתה חושב לעצמך, מה הם הבינו שאני לא? מה, אני סתום?".וברגע הזה גם רבתם. יפרח: "כן, אבל לא בגלל שהוא סתום".זגה: "אנחנו חברים לא המון זמן, ובפעם הראשונה אחד תלוי בשני. צריך ללמוד לעבוד בצורה הזאת וזה לא משהו שבא חלק, זאת לא מכונה שעובדת כבר שנים".אתה קצת השתלטת, ושלומי נעלב. יפרח: "נעלב אני לא, אני כועס. לא משנה מי מגיע בסוף לפתרון, אני לא משחק משחקי גאווה של 'אמרתי לך', בסוף אנחנו ביחד".טוטאל לוק: מירזה | תכשיטים: אסף ותומר | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoאבל זה לא מעליב כשהוא לא מקשיב לך? יפרח: "אין לי את התובנה בכלל של נעלב במוח, אני כועס. אני גם מרוקאי, אני נפגע תמיד, זה לא קשור, וכמו שאסף אמר, אנחנו לא מכירים הרבה זמן. אולי הייתי צריך להסביר אחרת, אולי לא הייתי צריך להתעצבן, אולי לא הייתי צריך לצעוק. בסופו של דבר, יש פה עניין של דינמיקה שאנחנו בונים אותה תוך כדי".זגה: "בנינו את החברות הזאת תוך כדי התקדמות. "המירוץ" נתן לנו טבילת אש, זרקו אותנו למים העמוקים. יצאנו מהדבר הזה הרבה יותר מחוזקים, החברות שלנו הרבה יותר יציבה ממה שהיא הייתה קודם".אני עם כיפה על הראש ואין לי בעיה לדבר על סקסזגה ויפרח, שניהם בני 29, נכנסו ל"המירוץ למיליון" (מוצאי שבת אחרי החדשות בקשת 12) במטרה מוצהרת – לקדם את קריירת המשחק שלהם. "אין בושה בלהגיד שרצינו יותר חשיפה, ואת המיליון כמובן. המון פעמים הפסדתי תפקידים כי הבמאי אמר לי במפורש, 'אני רוצה אותך, אבל אני חייב להקשיב לחברת ההפקה שרוצה מישהו יותר מוכר'", אומר זגה.פרסומתמחפשים סלבס. זגה: "זה קרה לי לא מעט וזאת תחושה מתסכלת. כששלומי אמר לי, 'בוא למירוץ', חשבתי שוואלה, אולי זה יפתור לי את העניין הזה. זה לא קיצור דרך, זה לשחק את המשחק, והדרך שעשינו הייתה מעייפת מאוד. בכל פרק ירקנו דם". שלומי היה מוכר יותר, אבל גם כלוא בקופסה באיזושהי מידה. יפרח: "בקופסת נעליים במידה 46, לא סתם קופסה. גם במירוץ אני רוצה לשבור את הטייפקאסט ולהיחשף יותר".זגה: "אני לא הגעתי לשבור שום טייפקאסט, באתי להיחשף, שיראו מי זה אסף".וב"מירוץ" נהייתם חברים אמיתיים? זגה: "היום אנחנו לא בקשר".לחיצת היד שלכם כששלומי נכנס באמת הייתה קרה. יפרח: "חיים שלי, אנחנו מדברים כמעט כל יום בטלפון. מה אתה רוצה, שאני אקפוץ עליו?".שלומי- טוטאל לוק: פיגל חליפות | אסף- טוטאל לוק: מירזה | תכשיטים: אסף ותומר | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoכפי שציין יפרח, נקודות הפתיחה שלהם היו קרובות, אבל גם רחוקות. זגה גדל בבאר שבע לזוג הורים נשואים ומאוהבים עד היום לדבריו, ולעומתו יפרח גדל עם אמו בלבד באשדוד. "לא גדלתי עם גברים, הגברים של המשפחה שלי היו בכלא. לא לימדו אותי לקדוח בקיר, לימדו אותי לנקות. אני מקבל מלא תגובות שאני הומו, חושבים שאני אוחצ'ה כי הדיבור שלי הוא עם אופי נשי, אני מדבר הרבה עם הידיים".פרסומתזגה מתחיל לחקות את תנועות ידיו הדרמטיות של חברו, ויפרח מתעלם וממשיך. "אני מרוקאית מאשדוד ואין לי בעיה עם זה, הכל טוב. זה אני, מה לעשות. בריב אני אומר, 'שומע חמוד, בוא תתקדם'. ככה אני, זה מה שספגתי, לא גדלתי בשכונה עם פרופסורים. אבא שלי היה בכלא, דודים שלי היו בכלא".איך הרגשת לגבי זה שאבא שלך ישב בכלא? יפרח: "אף פעם לא התביישתי בזה, מעולם. זה לא הוסתר ממני, היינו מדברים בטלפון, הייתי הולך אליו לביקורים. אתה סופג את זה גם בשכונה, יש דקירות, יש מכות, יש עסקאות סמים מתחת לבית. אתה חי את העולם הזה".זגה: "ההורים שלי, ברוך השם, לא החסירו מאיתנו כלום, הם עבדו קשה בשביל זה. הייתה לי את הילדות הכי טובה שיכולתי לבקש, אבל הסביבה היא לפעמים אחרת ממה שיש לך בבית. כשאתה יוצא החוצה, אתה מפחד מארתור הקווקזי שמסתובב ומחפש לדקור אנשים".יפרח: "אצלי לא היו קווקזים, כולם היו מרוקאים, נרקומנים שהיו חברים של אבא שלי".איך הצלחתם לשמור על עצמכם בסביבה הזו? זגה: "אף פעם לא גנבתי אפילו מסטיק מהסופר וזה בזכות החינוך של אמא שלי, היא פשוט הרעיפה עלינו אהבה. אני גר עם אשתי ביחידת דיור מעל ההורים שלי, ועד היום אני לא הולך לישון לפני שאני יורד להגיד להם לילה טוב. אני ילד של אמא, שלומי כל הזמן מסתלבט עליי על זה".פרסומתיפרח: "למה מסתלבט? גם אני ילד של אמא". במבט ראשון קשה לראות את הצד הנשי ביפרח. הוא לבוש שחורים, כיפה שחורה גדולה לראשו. כשמבטו מרצין לרגע, מיד עולה דמותו המאיימת של מאור עזרא, ראש ארגון הפשע שגילם בסדרה "השוטרים". ברגעים אחרים, כפי שציין, הוא מזכיר יותר דודה גרושה שמרכלת ליד שולחן הרמי. עכשיו הוא רוצה להביא את הצדדים האחרים שלו גם לתפקידי המשחק, או כמו שהוא מצהיר בהתלהבות, "אני בשמחה אקח תפקיד של הומו".כחובש כיפה, יכולה להיות בעיה דתית עם זה? "אני עושה את הבחירות שלי והמצפון שלי הוא מול בורא עולם. אני אתן את הדין מולו ולא מול אנשים אחרים".טוטאל לוק: פיגל חליפות | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoבפודקאסט שלכם היה פרק בשם "מה רע להראות ציצי". יפרח: "נו?".ואז אתה חושב, איך זה עובד כשיש ציצי בכותרת ושלומי עם כיפה. יפרח: "אני עם כיפה על הראש ואני מדבר על מה שאני רוצה, תתמודדו. אני לא אוכל אוכל לא כשר, אני שומר שבת, אני מתפלל ואני מאוד אוהב את הדרך הזאת, אבל אין לי בעיה לדבר על ציצי, אין לי בעיה לדבר על איברי מין, אין לי בעיה לדבר על סקס. אני אוהב לראות סדרות עם סצנות סקס, כי אני חושב שאם אין כאלה, אז הן לא סדרות איכותיות. מי שלא מתאים לו, שלא יצפה".הייתי שלומי של החלשיםזגה ויפרח, כל אחד לחוד, עברו חוויה מכוננת במהלך ילדותם – חרם בבית הספר היסודי. "עשו עליי חרם שלוש שנים, זה היה ארוך מאוד", משתף זדה. "שלוש שנים שהייתי מגיע בוכה הביתה".מה קרה? זגה: "הגעתי לבית ספר לאומנויות בכיתה ד' והיה איזה בחור שהיה מלך השכבה, הוא היה מאוד דומיננטי, וגם אני באתי דומיננטי מבית הספר הקודם. הייתה בינינו התנגשות, והוא נתן הוראה לכולם שלא לדבר עם אסף. שלוש שנים שאף אחד לא מדבר איתך, מחכים לך מאחורי השער כשאתה יוצא כדי לריב מכות". פרסומתלא פשוט. "אני זוכר את היום האחרון של כיתה ו', חיכו לי בחוץ, ואני ממש זוכר את השמות שלהם. הם היו איזה ארבעה חבר'ה שרצו לדפוק לי מכות, ואני זוכר שעמדתי שם ופחדתי על עצמי. אמרתי להם, 'בבקשה אל תרביצו לי, לא בא לי לחטוף מכות, בבקשה'. ממש התחננתי, ובסוף הם ויתרו לי".למה לא עברת בית ספר? "זה היה בית ספר לאומנויות ולא רציתי לעזוב כי יש בכל סוף שנה הייתה הצגה, והייתי יכול לעלות על הבמה, לשחק ולקבל מחיאות כפיים. שיחקתי את מלך עוץ, שזה הכי דיסוננס מאיך שקיבלו אותי. 'קבלו אותו, מלך עוץ', תרועות, ונכנס כזה ילד שמנמן עם שיער ארוך".שלומי- טוטאל לוק: מירזה | נעליים: ain ker. אסף- מכופתרת: פיגל חליפות | סריג וג'ינס: זארה | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoיפרח: "גם אני עברתי חרם, פחות או יותר אותו סיפור. הגעתי לבית ספר חדש וגם לא ידעתי איך לגשר על הפער, לימודית וחברתית. פשוט אמרתי להם, 'אתם לא יודעים מי אני, אני מדבר צרפתית'".ידעת קצת? יפרח: "לא ידעתי כלום, אבל אני מחרטט יפה". פשוט באת לבית הספר ואמרת שאתה צרפתי? "אמרתי להם שגרתי בצרפת ושאבא עדיין גר באחוזה שם. פרט אחד קטן ששכחתי, זה שבת דודה שלי למדה איתי באותה כיתה. היו הרבה ירידות וצחוקים עליי, אלימות, נעלו אותי בשירותים. בגלל זה חיכיתי לעבור כבר לתיכון, היו לי שם חברים יותר גדולים מהשכונה ואף אחד לא היה יכול לגעת בי. בכיתה ז' התנקמתי בכולם חוץ מאחד, שאף פעם לא הרבצתי לו. הוא אחד החברים הכי טובים שלי היום, ואולי באמת הגיע הזמן לתת לו מכות".פרסומתממש מאור עזרא... יפרח: "הייתי שלומי של החלשים, תמיד הייתי סביב כל החלשים של השכבה בשביל שאף אחד ייגע בהם".ההתמודדות של זגה הייתה אלימה פחות. "אמא שלי שלחה אותי לפסיכולוגית בכיתה ה', 'הישרדות' שודרה באותם ימים בטלוויזיה וקישרתי את זה למצב שלי. אמרתי לה, 'אמא, אז כל חברות היא בעצם אסטרטגיה?', והיא אמרה לי, 'לא, אבל לפעמים צריך לשחק את המשחק'. זה היה מאוד עצוב, אבל נכון".מסקנה כואבת עבור ילד. זגה: "כשהגעתי לכיתה ז' לא רציתי לקחת את המסקנה הזאת איתי. החלטתי שאני מגיע למקום חדש ואני רוצה שאנשים יכירו אותי בזכות מי שאני. ובאמת, הכרתי שם חברים שאני עד היום בקשר איתם. ב"מירוץ" יש משימה שבוחרים אותנו אחרונים, אנחנו מחכים ומחכים, ואותנו לא בוחרים. הכל שם צף מחדש, קיבלתי פלאשבק לילד שהייתי".עכשיו אתה מדבר על חברות כערך חשוב בשבילך. זגה: "ערך מאוד גדול. הייתי בצומת והייתי יכול לבחור אם לקחת חברות כמשהו אינטרסנטי, או לראות חברות על הצד הכי אמיתי שלה. אני גם נפגע המון מחברים, כי כשאני חבר אני נותן את כל הלב ומצפה לקבל בחזרה. זה לא תמיד קורה".פרסומתיפרח: "ייאמר לזכותו של אסף שהוא מאוד ממשיך בדרך הזאת עד היום. אני, לצערי, לא. קשה לי להתחבר, נפגעתי מאוד מחברים".אתה יכול לתת דוגמה? יפרח: "עשיתי תאונה לפני כמה שנים, כשהייתי חייל. התקשרתי לכל החברים שלי ואף אחד לא בא. ישבתי כל הלילה באוטו השבור והמרוסק שלי ולא האמנתי איך אף אחד לא מגיע לעזור לי, לא חברים, לא משפחה. בבוקר חזרתי באוטובוס הביתה".זגה: "באותו יום שהוא סיפר לי את זה, לקחתי אתגר לקלף אותו".יפרח: "אסף עשה בשבילי מחווה מאוד גדולה, שאני לא אשכח לו בחיים, והוא יודע את זה. הוא ויתר על הצעת עבודה שהייתה לו למעני כי הוא ידע שאני צריך את זה, כי הייתי במצב כלכלי קשה. אני כמו כלב, תן לי לאכול פעם אחת ואני לא אשכח לך את זה כל החיים".זגה: "באיזשהו מקום אני רואה בו את עצמי. יש לי רצון להראות לו שחברות יכולה להיות אחרת ממה שהוא מכיר".טוטאל לוק: דיזל ישראל | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoוזה שכנע אותך קצת? יפרח: "מאוד, היום אני עובד על עצמי. עשיתי תאונה לפני שבוע וחברים שלי מהיישוב, שאני מכיר בסך הכל איזה חמש שנים, כעסו עליי שלא התקשרתי אליהם. 'איך אתה לא מתקשר', הם אמרו לי, 'מה, אתה גנוב?'".פרסומתעכשיו הם באו לקחת אותך? יפרח: "גיסי לקח אותי, אבל גם אם הוא לא היה עונה, הייתי מבקש ממישהו אחר שיבוא לקחת אותי".אסף, היית בא? זגה: "הוא כתב לי על התאונה וישר אמרתי לו, 'אני יוצא, תשלח לי כתובת'. הוא ענה, 'לא, עזוב, לא צריך. הסתדרתי'".נסעתי כל חופש גדול לארכיון הבימה כפי שהעידו על עצמם, זגה ויפרח היו שני ילדי תיאטרון שחלמו להיות שחקנים. אחרי הצבא המשיך זגה ללימודי משחק בבית הספר "גודמן" בבאר שבע ובהמשך השלים תואר ראשון בתרבות, יצירה והפקה במכללת ספיר. כיום לצד קריירת המשחק, הוא מלמד תיאטרון בבתי ספר ברחבי הארץ ויש לו אפילו מדריכים שעובדים תחתיו ומעבירים את מערכי השיעור שלו. "אני תמיד מסתכל כמה צעדים קדימה. מאוד מהר הבנתי שלהתפרנס ממשחק אני לא יכול, אין אף אחד במדינה שמתפרנס רק ממשחק. רציתי להישאר במקצוע שלי, פשוט בכובע אחר", הוא מסביר.לאחרונה הוא גם השיק קורס דיגיטלי לעמידה מול קהל, שמיועד לאו דווקא לשחקנים. "יש לי המון חברים בעמדות מפתח שלא יודעים איך לדבר מול קהל. פתאום הרבה עיניים מסתכלות עליהם והם מתחילים לגמגם ולהתבלבל. יש לי ידע בתחום הזה וכלים שאני יכול להעניק, אז החלטתי להנגיש את זה".לעומת זגה, יפרח מעולם לא למד משחק. "זה היה נטו מעניין כלכלי, באתי ממקום קצת אחר, התחתנתי, הייתי צריך לחפש דירה ולפרנס. מי יחזיק אותי? מי יכלכל אותי? אני לא אשקר, אני אוהב להתלבש יפה ולאכול טוב. אגב, גם כשבאתי ואמרתי שאני עובד בעבודות מזדמנות, בחיים לא אמרתי שאין לי כסף, אמרתי שאי אפשר להתפרנס ממשחק בארץ וזה נכון. אני אוהב את סגנון החיים שלי, אז אני הולך לעבוד. אף פעם לא ביקשתי תרומות".חולצה, מכנסיים ומכופתרת: מירזה | נעליים: ain ker | תכשיטים: אסף ותמר | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoפרסומתמתי התחילה אצלך האהבה לתיאטרון? יפרח: "מגיל 16–17 הייתי נוסע כל חופש גדול לארכיון הבימה ומריח את הריח, מרגיש את ברטונוב (יהושע, מוותיקי התיאטרון בארץ – א"ר) יושב לי על הכתף".כל זה בלי שלמדת תיאטרון? יפרח: "בלי שלמדתי תיאטרון, זאת פשוט אהבה שיש בי. כשקיבלתי את התפקיד הראשון שלי ב'הבימה' זה היה חלום, זה היה בהצגה 'אני לא רפפורט' עם נתן דטנר, נורמן עיסא וריקי בליך, אגדות. היה לי דאבל עם טל קלאי כי אני לא משחק בשבת והתחלנו חזרות טכניות, להבין מתי אתה נכנס ומתי אתה יוצא. באותו שבוע גם עברתי דירה, בדיוק התחתנתי חודשיים לפני זה, ואתה יודע, זו פעם ראשונה שלי בתיאטרון רפרטוארי. עשיתי הצגות בבתי ספר, עשיתי הצגות באשדוד, סבבה, אני מכיר במה, אבל זה אחרת".מלחיץ. יפרח: "לגמרי. החזרה לא עברה טוב והבמאי העיף אותי מההצגה. הוא אמר לי, 'כרגע אתה לא יכול לשחק בהצגה, אתה לא שחקן בעיניי'. הוא אמר לי דברים קשים, ריסק לי את הצורה. למזלי, מנהל התיאטרון משה קפטן אהב אותי, אז הוא אמר לי, 'כרגע ההצגה עולה בלעדיך, תחזור אחרי החגים ונעשה לך בית ספר למשחק'".מה היה חסר לך? "אולי הייתי צריך לצעוק יותר, לא יודע. ישבתי חודש בבית ועבדתי על הטקסט. הבמאי קבע עוד חזרות, הביא את כל הקאסט בשבילי לארבע שעות ואחרי שעה הבין שהוא טעה. הייתה לנו הצגה אחת באיזשהו תיאטרון עם אלף איש בקהל, הייתה בעיית סאונד ואני השחקן היחיד ששמעו. אותו במאי אמר לי, 'אני מוריד לפניך את הכובע'".פרסומתהחיבור בינינו מבורךהיציאה ל"מירוץ" הייתה מסובכת במיוחד עבור יפרח. בנו הבכור, לביא, נולד זמן קצר לפני תחילת הצילומים, והוא נאלץ להשאיר את טליה אשתו עם התינוק בארץ. "לא דאגתי לו, דאגתי לה. דיכאון אחרי לידה לא מודיע שהוא בא, הוא פשוט בא, והיה לה קשה מאוד כשיצאתי. צריך גם להגיד תודה לשתי הסבתות, גם לאמא שלי וגם לאמא שלה, שהיו צמודות אליה כל התקופה הזאת, כשהיא רק שבועיים אחרי לידה".איך עושים דבר כזה? יפרח: "היו המון לבטים, זה מאוד קשה, אתה מרגיש חסר אחריות. לאשתי היה כמובן מאוד קשה, אבל חשוב לי להגיד שאם לא היא, שום דבר לא היה קורה פה. בסוף הכל קורה בשביל הבית והיא הבינה את העניין הזה. זה המקצוע שלי, ויצאתי בשביל המקצוע הזה".שלומי- טוטאל לוק: מירזה | נעליים: ain ker. אסף- מכופתרת: פיגל חליפות | סריג וג'ינס: זארה | צילום: רן יחזקאל, makoהיא רצתה שתיסע? יפרח: "היא רצתה שאני אסע, אבל כמובן שהיה פה חשש מאוד גדול. לפני היציאה הייתה לנו שיחה רצינית, הלכנו למסעדה והיא לא הפסיקה לבכות, ממש לא הפסיקה. כל ההורמונים של אחרי הלידה צפו, זה היה מאוד קשה. הברית הייתה תוך כדי ההכנות ל'מירוץ'".פרסומתאסף היה מודע לקשיים? יפרח: "הודעתי לו במפורש שיש מצב מאוד גדול שמודיעים לנו שהתקבלנו, אבל אני לא יוצא. ההכלה שלו הייתה מדהימה, אני לא חושב שהייתי מגיב ככה. הוא אמר לי, 'אני איתך, הכל טוב'".ואיך טליה התמודדה? יפרח: "יש לי אישה מטורפת, לביאה, אני באמת לא יודע מאיפה הכוחות ומאיפה הסבלנות שלה. גיליתי בה תעצומות נפש מטורפות. היציאה למירוץ, מה שקרה שם ומה שיקרה אחרי זה, זה שלה נטו. באוגוסט לפני שנתיים פיטרו אותי מהעבודה במחסן, היא הייתה בדיוק בהיריון והיא אמרה לי, 'עכשיו זה הזמן שלך להתעסק בלקדם את שלומי השחקן ולא שלומי השכיר, צא לדרך. אני אחזיק אותנו'". איזו נשמה. יפרח: "אין לי מילים. בזכותה היה לי פנאי לעשות סרטונים באינסטגרם, בטיקטוק, לקדם את העוקבים שלי ומשם יצא גם הפודקאסט והגיעו האודישנים למירוץ. כל מה שקרה קרה בזכותה, אם היא לא הייתה אומרת לי את זה, לא היה קורה, חד משמעית. אומרים שיש שלושה שותפים לאדם, אמא שלו, אבא שלו והקדוש ברוך הוא. אני אומר שיש שלושה שותפים לדרך שלי, הקדוש ברוך הוא, אמא שלי ואשתי. בלעדיהם אני כלום".זגה: "אמרת שאתה מוסיף גם אותי". אם יש מישהו מעל כולם, זה אסף. יפרח: "ברור שהוא שותף להצלחה הזאת, גם לפודקאסט אני לא הגעתי לבד, הגעתי עם הפרטנר שלי. בלעדיו לא הייתי מצליח להגיע לזה".פרסומתזגה: "שלא נתנשק... זה חיבור מבורך ואני חייב לתת קרדיט לשלומי על הדבר הזה. כשהוא אמר לי 'בוא נעשה פודקאסט ביחד', לא דמיינתי אפילו שזה יתגלגל למקום שאנחנו נמצאים בו היום. גם בקריירה, גם בחברות, בהכל. זה חיבור שעשה טוב לשנינו".צילום: רן יחזקאל | סטיילינג: כינרת מנור מזרחי | איפור: קרן אדרי | ע. סטיילינג: שקד מיסקל | הפקה: טל פוליטיאסף זגההמירוץ למיליוןשלומי יפרחמצאתם טעות לשון? קשוחים מבחוץ, רכים מבפנים. הגבריות החדשה על פי שלומי ואסף אבא של אחד מהם ישב בכלא, של השני היה סוהר. אחד גדל עם אמו בלבד, השני לזוג הורים אוהבים, ובכל זאת, החיים של שלומי יפרח ואסף זגה הפגישו אותם באותה נקודה: שני שחקנים שמנסים לפרוץ ולהוכיח שמאחורי החזות המאיימת לכאורה מסתתרת נפש עדינה. אל "המירוץ למיליון" יצאו יפרח וזגה אחרי פחות משנה של חברות, ומצאו את עצמם מתמודדים לא רק מול הזוגות האחרים – אלא גם מול עצמם שלומי יפרח ואסף זגה היו חברים בקושי שנה כשנכנסו יחד ל"המירוץ למיליון". שניהם מגישים יחד את הפודקאסט "גברים בשחור" (בית הפודיום), שניהם שחקנים, במקצוע ובנשמה. "שנינו מהדרום, שנינו עגלגלים", ממשיך יפרח למנות את נקודות הדמיון, "שנינו מזרחים, אותו טייפקאסט. לנשים של שנינו קוראים טולה, שנינו ילדים של אמא. נקודת הפתיחה שלנו מאוד דומה, אבל גם שונה. אבא שלי היה בכלא, אבא שלו היה סוהר". זגה: "לא חשבתי על זה אפילו". הם הכירו בצילומי הסדרה "השוטרים" לפני כחמש שנים, אבל הקשר שלהם התחיל באמת כשיפרח חיפש שותף לפודקאסט. "רציתי לעשות משהו כדי לקדם את עצמי, באותה תקופה עבדתי במחסן בשביל להתפרנס", הוא אומר. "אני אוהב פודקאסטים, אני אוהב לדבר וחיפשתי מישהו שיעשה את זה איתי. השם הראשון שעלה לי זה אסף". השותפות המקצועית הפכה לחברות, ומפה לשם הם מצאו את עצמם בפירמידה צבעונית באלבניה, מנסים לפענח כתב חידה סתום. "אתה מקבל דף שחור עם שלוש מילים בשפה שאתה לא מבין", נזכר יפרח באחד מהרגעים הדרמטיים ביותר של הזוג עד כה בתוכנית. "אתה חושב לעצמך, מה עושים עם זה? נספור את האותיות, אולי נהפוך. הפכנו, היה שם איזה ציור, או-קיי, הבנו, אבל איך ממשיכים מפה?". זגה: "באיזשהו שלב אתה רואה גם אנשים הולכים, אז אתה חושב לעצמך, מה הם הבינו שאני לא? מה, אני סתום?". וברגע הזה גם רבתם. יפרח: "כן, אבל לא בגלל שהוא סתום". זגה: "אנחנו חברים לא המון זמן, ובפעם הראשונה אחד תלוי בשני. צריך ללמוד לעבוד בצורה הזאת וזה לא משהו שבא חלק, זאת לא מכונה שעובדת כבר שנים". אתה קצת השתלטת, ושלומי נעלב. יפרח: "נעלב אני לא, אני כועס. לא משנה מי מגיע בסוף לפתרון, אני לא משחק משחקי גאווה של 'אמרתי לך', בסוף אנחנו ביחד". אבל זה לא מעליב כשהוא לא מקשיב לך? יפרח: "אין לי את התובנה בכלל של נעלב במוח, אני כועס. אני גם מרוקאי, אני נפגע תמיד, זה לא קשור, וכמו שאסף אמר, אנחנו לא מכירים הרבה זמן. אולי הייתי צריך להסביר אחרת, אולי לא הייתי צריך להתעצבן, אולי לא הייתי צריך לצעוק. בסופו של דבר, יש פה עניין של דינמיקה שאנחנו בונים אותה תוך כדי". זגה: "בנינו את החברות הזאת תוך כדי התקדמות. "המירוץ" נתן לנו טבילת אש, זרקו אותנו למים העמוקים. יצאנו מהדבר הזה הרבה יותר מחוזקים, החברות שלנו הרבה יותר יציבה ממה שהיא הייתה קודם". זגה ויפרח, שניהם בני 29, נכנסו ל"המירוץ למיליון" (מוצאי שבת אחרי החדשות בקשת 12) במטרה מוצהרת – לקדם את קריירת המשחק שלהם. "אין בושה בלהגיד שרצינו יותר חשיפה, ואת המיליון כמובן. המון פעמים הפסדתי תפקידים כי הבמאי אמר לי במפורש, 'אני רוצה אותך, אבל אני חייב להקשיב לחברת ההפקה שרוצה מישהו יותר מוכר'", אומר זגה. מחפשים סלבס. זגה: "זה קרה לי לא מעט וזאת תחושה מתסכלת. כששלומי אמר לי, 'בוא למירוץ', חשבתי שוואלה, אולי זה יפתור לי את העניין הזה. זה לא קיצור דרך, זה לשחק את המשחק, והדרך שעשינו הייתה מעייפת מאוד. בכל פרק ירקנו דם". שלומי היה מוכר יותר, אבל גם כלוא בקופסה באיזושהי מידה. יפרח: "בקופסת נעליים במידה 46, לא סתם קופסה. גם במירוץ אני רוצה לשבור את הטייפקאסט ולהיחשף יותר". זגה: "אני לא הגעתי לשבור שום טייפקאסט, באתי להיחשף, שיראו מי זה אסף". וב"מירוץ" נהייתם חברים אמיתיים? זגה: "היום אנחנו לא בקשר". לחיצת היד שלכם כששלומי נכנס באמת הייתה קרה. יפרח: "חיים שלי, אנחנו מדברים כמעט כל יום בטלפון. מה אתה רוצה, שאני אקפוץ עליו?". כפי שציין יפרח, נקודות הפתיחה שלהם היו קרובות, אבל גם רחוקות. זגה גדל בבאר שבע לזוג הורים נשואים ומאוהבים עד היום לדבריו, ולעומתו יפרח גדל עם אמו בלבד באשדוד. "לא גדלתי עם גברים, הגברים של המשפחה שלי היו בכלא. לא לימדו אותי לקדוח בקיר, לימדו אותי לנקות. אני מקבל מלא תגובות שאני הומו, חושבים שאני אוחצ'ה כי הדיבור שלי הוא עם אופי נשי, אני מדבר הרבה עם הידיים". זגה מתחיל לחקות את תנועות ידיו הדרמטיות של חברו, ויפרח מתעלם וממשיך. "אני מרוקאית מאשדוד ואין לי בעיה עם זה, הכל טוב. זה אני, מה לעשות. בריב אני אומר, 'שומע חמוד, בוא תתקדם'. ככה אני, זה מה שספגתי, לא גדלתי בשכונה עם פרופסורים. אבא שלי היה בכלא, דודים שלי היו בכלא". איך הרגשת לגבי זה שאבא שלך ישב בכלא? יפרח: "אף פעם לא התביישתי בזה, מעולם. זה לא הוסתר ממני, היינו מדברים בטלפון, הייתי הולך אליו לביקורים. אתה סופג את זה גם בשכונה, יש דקירות, יש מכות, יש עסקאות סמים מתחת לבית. אתה חי את העולם הזה". זגה: "ההורים שלי, ברוך השם, לא החסירו מאיתנו כלום, הם עבדו קשה בשביל זה. הייתה לי את הילדות הכי טובה שיכולתי לבקש, אבל הסביבה היא לפעמים אחרת ממה שיש לך בבית. כשאתה יוצא החוצה, אתה מפחד מארתור הקווקזי שמסתובב ומחפש לדקור אנשים". יפרח: "אצלי לא היו קווקזים, כולם היו מרוקאים, נרקומנים שהיו חברים של אבא שלי". איך הצלחתם לשמור על עצמכם בסביבה הזו? זגה: "אף פעם לא גנבתי אפילו מסטיק מהסופר וזה בזכות החינוך של אמא שלי, היא פשוט הרעיפה עלינו אהבה. אני גר עם אשתי ביחידת דיור מעל ההורים שלי, ועד היום אני לא הולך לישון לפני שאני יורד להגיד להם לילה טוב. אני ילד של אמא, שלומי כל הזמן מסתלבט עליי על זה". יפרח: "למה מסתלבט? גם אני ילד של אמא". במבט ראשון קשה לראות את הצד הנשי ביפרח. הוא לבוש שחורים, כיפה שחורה גדולה לראשו. כשמבטו מרצין לרגע, מיד עולה דמותו המאיימת של מאור עזרא, ראש ארגון הפשע שגילם בסדרה "השוטרים". ברגעים אחרים, כפי שציין, הוא מזכיר יותר דודה גרושה שמרכלת ליד שולחן הרמי. עכשיו הוא רוצה להביא את הצדדים האחרים שלו גם לתפקידי המשחק, או כמו שהוא מצהיר בהתלהבות, "אני בשמחה אקח תפקיד של הומו". כחובש כיפה, יכולה להיות בעיה דתית עם זה? "אני עושה את הבחירות שלי והמצפון שלי הוא מול בורא עולם. אני אתן את הדין מולו ולא מול אנשים אחרים". בפודקאסט שלכם היה פרק בשם "מה רע להראות ציצי". יפרח: "נו?". ואז אתה חושב, איך זה עובד כשיש ציצי בכותרת ושלומי עם כיפה. יפרח: "אני עם כיפה על הראש ואני מדבר על מה שאני רוצה, תתמודדו. אני לא אוכל אוכל לא כשר, אני שומר שבת, אני מתפלל ואני מאוד אוהב את הדרך הזאת, אבל אין לי בעיה לדבר על ציצי, אין לי בעיה לדבר על איברי מין, אין לי בעיה לדבר על סקס. אני אוהב לראות סדרות עם סצנות סקס, כי אני חושב שאם אין כאלה, אז הן לא סדרות איכותיות. מי שלא מתאים לו, שלא יצפה". זגה ויפרח, כל אחד לחוד, עברו חוויה מכוננת במהלך ילדותם – חרם בבית הספר היסודי. "עשו עליי חרם שלוש שנים, זה היה ארוך מאוד", משתף זדה. "שלוש שנים שהייתי מגיע בוכה הביתה". מה קרה? זגה: "הגעתי לבית ספר לאומנויות בכיתה ד' והיה איזה בחור שהיה מלך השכבה, הוא היה מאוד דומיננטי, וגם אני באתי דומיננטי מבית הספר הקודם. הייתה בינינו התנגשות, והוא נתן הוראה לכולם שלא לדבר עם אסף. שלוש שנים שאף אחד לא מדבר איתך, מחכים לך מאחורי השער כשאתה יוצא כדי לריב מכות". לא פשוט. "אני זוכר את היום האחרון של כיתה ו', חיכו לי בחוץ, ואני ממש זוכר את השמות שלהם. הם היו איזה ארבעה חבר'ה שרצו לדפוק לי מכות, ואני זוכר שעמדתי שם ופחדתי על עצמי. אמרתי להם, 'בבקשה אל תרביצו לי, לא בא לי לחטוף מכות, בבקשה'. ממש התחננתי, ובסוף הם ויתרו לי". למה לא עברת בית ספר? "זה היה בית ספר לאומנויות ולא רציתי לעזוב כי יש בכל סוף שנה הייתה הצגה, והייתי יכול לעלות על הבמה, לשחק ולקבל מחיאות כפיים. שיחקתי את מלך עוץ, שזה הכי דיסוננס מאיך שקיבלו אותי. 'קבלו אותו, מלך עוץ', תרועות, ונכנס כזה ילד שמנמן עם שיער ארוך". יפרח: "גם אני עברתי חרם, פחות או יותר אותו סיפור. הגעתי לבית ספר חדש וגם לא ידעתי איך לגשר על הפער, לימודית וחברתית. פשוט אמרתי להם, 'אתם לא יודעים מי אני, אני מדבר צרפתית'". ידעת קצת? יפרח: "לא ידעתי כלום, אבל אני מחרטט יפה". פשוט באת לבית הספר ואמרת שאתה צרפתי? "אמרתי להם שגרתי בצרפת ושאבא עדיין גר באחוזה שם. פרט אחד קטן ששכחתי, זה שבת דודה שלי למדה איתי באותה כיתה. היו הרבה ירידות וצחוקים עליי, אלימות, נעלו אותי בשירותים. בגלל זה חיכיתי לעבור כבר לתיכון, היו לי שם חברים יותר גדולים מהשכונה ואף אחד לא היה יכול לגעת בי. בכיתה ז' התנקמתי בכולם חוץ מאחד, שאף פעם לא הרבצתי לו. הוא אחד החברים הכי טובים שלי היום, ואולי באמת הגיע הזמן לתת לו מכות". ממש מאור עזרא... יפרח: "הייתי שלומי של החלשים, תמיד הייתי סביב כל החלשים של השכבה בשביל שאף אחד ייגע בהם". ההתמודדות של זגה הייתה אלימה פחות. "אמא שלי שלחה אותי לפסיכולוגית בכיתה ה', 'הישרדות' שודרה באותם ימים בטלוויזיה וקישרתי את זה למצב שלי. אמרתי לה, 'אמא, אז כל חברות היא בעצם אסטרטגיה?', והיא אמרה לי, 'לא, אבל לפעמים צריך לשחק את המשחק'. זה היה מאוד עצוב, אבל נכון". מסקנה כואבת עבור ילד. זגה: "כשהגעתי לכיתה ז' לא רציתי לקחת את המסקנה הזאת איתי. החלטתי שאני מגיע למקום חדש ואני רוצה שאנשים יכירו אותי בזכות מי שאני. ובאמת, הכרתי שם חברים שאני עד היום בקשר איתם. ב"מירוץ" יש משימה שבוחרים אותנו אחרונים, אנחנו מחכים ומחכים, ואותנו לא בוחרים. הכל שם צף מחדש, קיבלתי פלאשבק לילד שהייתי". עכשיו אתה מדבר על חברות כערך חשוב בשבילך. זגה: "ערך מאוד גדול. הייתי בצומת והייתי יכול לבחור אם לקחת חברות כמשהו אינטרסנטי, או לראות חברות על הצד הכי אמיתי שלה. אני גם נפגע המון מחברים, כי כשאני חבר אני נותן את כל הלב ומצפה לקבל בחזרה. זה לא תמיד קורה". יפרח: "ייאמר לזכותו של אסף שהוא מאוד ממשיך בדרך הזאת עד היום. אני, לצערי, לא. קשה לי להתחבר, נפגעתי מאוד מחברים". אתה יכול לתת דוגמה? יפרח: "עשיתי תאונה לפני כמה שנים, כשהייתי חייל. התקשרתי לכל החברים שלי ואף אחד לא בא. ישבתי כל הלילה באוטו השבור והמרוסק שלי ולא האמנתי איך אף אחד לא מגיע לעזור לי, לא חברים, לא משפחה. בבוקר חזרתי באוטובוס הביתה". זגה: "באותו יום שהוא סיפר לי את זה, לקחתי אתגר לקלף אותו". יפרח: "אסף עשה בשבילי מחווה מאוד גדולה, שאני לא אשכח לו בחיים, והוא יודע את זה. הוא ויתר על הצעת עבודה שהייתה לו למעני כי הוא ידע שאני צריך את זה, כי הייתי במצב כלכלי קשה. אני כמו כלב, תן לי לאכול פעם אחת ואני לא אשכח לך את זה כל החיים". זגה: "באיזשהו מקום אני רואה בו את עצמי. יש לי רצון להראות לו שחברות יכולה להיות אחרת ממה שהוא מכיר". וזה שכנע אותך קצת? יפרח: "מאוד, היום אני עובד על עצמי. עשיתי תאונה לפני שבוע וחברים שלי מהיישוב, שאני מכיר בסך הכל איזה חמש שנים, כעסו עליי שלא התקשרתי אליהם. 'איך אתה לא מתקשר', הם אמרו לי, 'מה, אתה גנוב?'". עכשיו הם באו לקחת אותך? יפרח: "גיסי לקח אותי, אבל גם אם הוא לא היה עונה, הייתי מבקש ממישהו אחר שיבוא לקחת אותי". אסף, היית בא? זגה: "הוא כתב לי על התאונה וישר אמרתי לו, 'אני יוצא, תשלח לי כתובת'. הוא ענה, 'לא, עזוב, לא צריך. הסתדרתי'". כפי שהעידו על עצמם, זגה ויפרח היו שני ילדי תיאטרון שחלמו להיות שחקנים. אחרי הצבא המשיך זגה ללימודי משחק בבית הספר "גודמן" בבאר שבע ובהמשך השלים תואר ראשון בתרבות, יצירה והפקה במכללת ספיר. כיום לצד קריירת המשחק, הוא מלמד תיאטרון בבתי ספר ברחבי הארץ ויש לו אפילו מדריכים שעובדים תחתיו ומעבירים את מערכי השיעור שלו. "אני תמיד מסתכל כמה צעדים קדימה. מאוד מהר הבנתי שלהתפרנס ממשחק אני לא יכול, אין אף אחד במדינה שמתפרנס רק ממשחק. רציתי להישאר במקצוע שלי, פשוט בכובע אחר", הוא מסביר. לאחרונה הוא גם השיק קורס דיגיטלי לעמידה מול קהל, שמיועד לאו דווקא לשחקנים. "יש לי המון חברים בעמדות מפתח שלא יודעים איך לדבר מול קהל. פתאום הרבה עיניים מסתכלות עליהם והם מתחילים לגמגם ולהתבלבל. יש לי ידע בתחום הזה וכלים שאני יכול להעניק, אז החלטתי להנגיש את זה". לעומת זגה, יפרח מעולם לא למד משחק. "זה היה נטו מעניין כלכלי, באתי ממקום קצת אחר, התחתנתי, הייתי צריך לחפש דירה ולפרנס. מי יחזיק אותי? מי יכלכל אותי? אני לא אשקר, אני אוהב להתלבש יפה ולאכול טוב. אגב, גם כשבאתי ואמרתי שאני עובד בעבודות מזדמנות, בחיים לא אמרתי שאין לי כסף, אמרתי שאי אפשר להתפרנס ממשחק בארץ וזה נכון. אני אוהב את סגנון החיים שלי, אז אני הולך לעבוד. אף פעם לא ביקשתי תרומות". מתי התחילה אצלך האהבה לתיאטרון? יפרח: "מגיל 16–17 הייתי נוסע כל חופש גדול לארכיון הבימה ומריח את הריח, מרגיש את ברטונוב (יהושע, מוותיקי התיאטרון בארץ – א"ר) יושב לי על הכתף". כל זה בלי שלמדת תיאטרון? יפרח: "בלי שלמדתי תיאטרון, זאת פשוט אהבה שיש בי. כשקיבלתי את התפקיד הראשון שלי ב'הבימה' זה היה חלום, זה היה בהצגה 'אני לא רפפורט' עם נתן דטנר, נורמן עיסא וריקי בליך, אגדות. היה לי דאבל עם טל קלאי כי אני לא משחק בשבת והתחלנו חזרות טכניות, להבין מתי אתה נכנס ומתי אתה יוצא. באותו שבוע גם עברתי דירה, בדיוק התחתנתי חודשיים לפני זה, ואתה יודע, זו פעם ראשונה שלי בתיאטרון רפרטוארי. עשיתי הצגות בבתי ספר, עשיתי הצגות באשדוד, סבבה, אני מכיר במה, אבל זה אחרת". מלחיץ. יפרח: "לגמרי. החזרה לא עברה טוב והבמאי העיף אותי מההצגה. הוא אמר לי, 'כרגע אתה לא יכול לשחק בהצגה, אתה לא שחקן בעיניי'. הוא אמר לי דברים קשים, ריסק לי את הצורה. למזלי, מנהל התיאטרון משה קפטן אהב אותי, אז הוא אמר לי, 'כרגע ההצגה עולה בלעדיך, תחזור אחרי החגים ונעשה לך בית ספר למשחק'". מה היה חסר לך? "אולי הייתי צריך לצעוק יותר, לא יודע. ישבתי חודש בבית ועבדתי על הטקסט. הבמאי קבע עוד חזרות, הביא את כל הקאסט בשבילי לארבע שעות ואחרי שעה הבין שהוא טעה. הייתה לנו הצגה אחת באיזשהו תיאטרון עם אלף איש בקהל, הייתה בעיית סאונד ואני השחקן היחיד ששמעו. אותו במאי אמר לי, 'אני מוריד לפניך את הכובע'". היציאה ל"מירוץ" הייתה מסובכת במיוחד עבור יפרח. בנו הבכור, לביא, נולד זמן קצר לפני תחילת הצילומים, והוא נאלץ להשאיר את טליה אשתו עם התינוק בארץ. "לא דאגתי לו, דאגתי לה. דיכאון אחרי לידה לא מודיע שהוא בא, הוא פשוט בא, והיה לה קשה מאוד כשיצאתי. צריך גם להגיד תודה לשתי הסבתות, גם לאמא שלי וגם לאמא שלה, שהיו צמודות אליה כל התקופה הזאת, כשהיא רק שבועיים אחרי לידה". איך עושים דבר כזה? יפרח: "היו המון לבטים, זה מאוד קשה, אתה מרגיש חסר אחריות. לאשתי היה כמובן מאוד קשה, אבל חשוב לי להגיד שאם לא היא, שום דבר לא היה קורה פה. בסוף הכל קורה בשביל הבית והיא הבינה את העניין הזה. זה המקצוע שלי, ויצאתי בשביל המקצוע הזה". היא רצתה שתיסע? יפרח: "היא רצתה שאני אסע, אבל כמובן שהיה פה חשש מאוד גדול. לפני היציאה הייתה לנו שיחה רצינית, הלכנו למסעדה והיא לא הפסיקה לבכות, ממש לא הפסיקה. כל ההורמונים של אחרי הלידה צפו, זה היה מאוד קשה. הברית הייתה תוך כדי ההכנות ל'מירוץ'". אסף היה מודע לקשיים? יפרח: "הודעתי לו במפורש שיש מצב מאוד גדול שמודיעים לנו שהתקבלנו, אבל אני לא יוצא. ההכלה שלו הייתה מדהימה, אני לא חושב שהייתי מגיב ככה. הוא אמר לי, 'אני איתך, הכל טוב'". ואיך טליה התמודדה? יפרח: "יש לי אישה מטורפת, לביאה, אני באמת לא יודע מאיפה הכוחות ומאיפה הסבלנות שלה. גיליתי בה תעצומות נפש מטורפות. היציאה למירוץ, מה שקרה שם ומה שיקרה אחרי זה, זה שלה נטו. באוגוסט לפני שנתיים פיטרו אותי מהעבודה במחסן, היא הייתה בדיוק בהיריון והיא אמרה לי, 'עכשיו זה הזמן שלך להתעסק בלקדם את שלומי השחקן ולא שלומי השכיר, צא לדרך. אני אחזיק אותנו'". איזו נשמה. יפרח: "אין לי מילים. בזכותה היה לי פנאי לעשות סרטונים באינסטגרם, בטיקטוק, לקדם את העוקבים שלי ומשם יצא גם הפודקאסט והגיעו האודישנים למירוץ. כל מה שקרה קרה בזכותה, אם היא לא הייתה אומרת לי את זה, לא היה קורה, חד משמעית. אומרים שיש שלושה שותפים לאדם, אמא שלו, אבא שלו והקדוש ברוך הוא. אני אומר שיש שלושה שותפים לדרך שלי, הקדוש ברוך הוא, אמא שלי ואשתי. בלעדיהם אני כלום". זגה: "אמרת שאתה מוסיף גם אותי". אם יש מישהו מעל כולם, זה אסף. יפרח: "ברור שהוא שותף להצלחה הזאת, גם לפודקאסט אני לא הגעתי לבד, הגעתי עם הפרטנר שלי. בלעדיו לא הייתי מצליח להגיע לזה". זגה: "שלא נתנשק... זה חיבור מבורך ואני חייב לתת קרדיט לשלומי על הדבר הזה. כשהוא אמר לי 'בוא נעשה פודקאסט ביחד', לא דמיינתי אפילו שזה יתגלגל למקום שאנחנו נמצאים בו היום. גם בקריירה, גם בחברות, בהכל. זה חיבור שעשה טוב לשנינו". צילום: רן יחזקאל | סטיילינג: כינרת מנור מזרחי | איפור: קרן אדרי | ע. סטיילינג: שקד מיסקל | הפקה: טל פוליטי |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/tech/880812/ramageddon-ram-shortage-memory-crisis-price-2026-phones-laptops] | [TOKENS: 4798] |
TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutIt’s not just desktops, it’s phones and laptops and consoles, and it’s getting worse.by Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterFeb 19, 2026, 1:00 PM UTCLinkShareGift Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesPart OfRAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortagesee all updates Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean Hollister is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.Maybe you’ve heard: Memory is expensive now. The price of RAM has tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled depending on the type of chip, all because AI companies are gobbling it up.But maybe you’ve thought: I don’t buy memory sticks! I don’t build my own PCs! It won’t affect me, right? I’m here to tell you RAM is coming for your wallet anyhow.Do you have a phone in your pocket you’d like to upgrade in the next few years? Fancy a game console or handheld? A laptop, perhaps? Will you need a new router, whether you’re purchasing outright or renting from your ISP? Each of these devices is expected to have shortages, price hikes, or both in 2026. And even if you don’t plan to buy, you depend on goods and services from others who’ll be paying more to upgrade their devices.“RAMageddon” is only getting worse, and there’s no immediate end in sight. Everything that has a computer inside depends on RAM, and almost everything has a computer in it now: farm tractors, hospital equipment, your TV set-top box. RAM is the short-term memory of a device, and AI especially needs lots to juggle all the data it’s processing. And most of that RAM comes from just three companies that are happily prioritizing the AI gold rush over everything else.RelatedRAM is ruining everythingThe RAM crunch could kill products and even entire companies, memory exec admitsThe RAM shortage is here to stayWe may never know how many products were truly delayed or canceled due to RAM — like how Nvidia may skip releasing a gaming GPU for the first time in 30 years, or how Meta may not release a single VR headset this year and plans to charge a premium when they return in 2027, or how Sony’s next PlayStation may get pushed to 2029 because of RAM.But we do know that RAMageddon is coming for your phone next.RAM in your phoneAnalysts from IDC, Omdia, and Counterpoint agree: 2025 was one of the best years ever for smartphone sales, growing shipments roughly 2 percent to roughly 1.25 billion phones in a single year. Apple reported record iPhone sales in January.They also all agree that the RAM shortage is about to flip that on its head. Prices will go up. Fewer products will be available. Or as Omdia research manager Le Xuan Chiew put it, “vendors will shift toward prioritizing profitability while expanding alternative revenue streams.”Flagship smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm is warning that companies will build fewer phones, period — and that remaining phones will be more expensive. CEO Cristiano Amon says a big dip in its smartphone business will be “100 percent” because of the memory shortage.Here are some choice quotes from Amon on the company’s February 4th earnings call:“Unfortunately, I think that the whole sector is impacted by memory.”“Industry-wide memory shortage and price increases are likely to define the overall scale of the handset industry through the fiscal year.”“OEMs are very likely to prioritize premium and high-tier, how they have done in the past.”“We just wish there was more memory.”CFO Akash Palkhiwala also said: “We’ve seen several OEMs, especially in China, take actions to reduce their handset build plans and channel inventory.”How much more might you pay? Hard to say, but IDC points out that memory represents 15–20 percent of the materials cost of a midrange phone, and about 10–15 percent of a high-end flagship phone. When we first started reporting on RAM ruining everything, IDC thought average phone prices might go up by just $9. Now, it’s predicting the average price might increase as much as 8 percent, with “significantly higher” price hikes on cheaper phones where “OEMs will have to pass the cost to end users.”That means if you’re used to buying $500 phones, they might easily cost $600 or more. Even if you’re used to $1,000 phones, you may get less bang for the buck: “new flagship models in 2026 will likely have no RAM upgrades, sticking to 12GB for Pro models rather than increasing to 16GB,” IDC writes. We’re already seeing similar: Google just announced a Pixel 10A with no new chips and the same mediocre 8GB of RAM inside.Even Apple, which can typically bully suppliers on pricing, is feeling pressure on its supply chain now that AI companies are writing huge checks for memory supplies, reports The Wall Street Journal. That could force it to increase the price of its iPhones to maintain the company’s profits. Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts this quarter that he “will look at a range of options to deal with” the way that the shortage is impacting the company’s gross margins.“Industry sources” told ZDNet Korea that Apple may pay 80 percent or even 100 percent more for memory this quarter after renegotiating with Samsung and SK Hynix — and may pay even more in the second half of the year.A Nintendo Switch 2, which might soon cost more due to RAM. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeRAM in your game systemThe era of “razor and blade” game console subsidies — where companies sell consoles at a loss and make their money back on exclusive software — was over before the RAM crunch even began. Trump’s tariffs broke the dam, and now we’re half-expecting the next Xbox to be a $1,000 PC rather than a traditional console.Bloomberg reports that RAMaggedon is also coming for the Nintendo Switch 2 in the form of a price hike, and Sony’s PS6 in the form of a delay “to 2028 or even 2029.”Our last, best hope for the subsidy model was Valve, a company that famously rakes in money hand over fist and launched the original Steam Deck at the unbeatable price of $399 through a “painful” amount of subsidy. If Valve did the same for the upcoming Steam Machine, it could have legitimately competed with the PlayStation and Xbox for your living room TV.But Valve has all but dashed those hopes through a series of moves. In late December, it discontinued the $399 Steam Deck, raising the starting price to $549. In early February, it announced that the Steam Machine had been delayed due to the memory shortage and that the company would have to reset expectations on pricing. And now, even the $549 Steam Deck OLED is out of stock specifically because of the memory crisis.Other handhelds are getting pricier too: although the Lenovo Legion Go 2 will get SteamOS this year, memory shrinkflation means it will cost more or contain less than the Windows version did when it first arrived, with less horsepower, storage, and RAM at the $1,199 mark. The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, which I thought was pricey at $999, now costs $1,099, $1,149, or even $1,199 depending on where you look.RAM in your laptopPCs generally need even more RAM than phones and consoles, and they’ve been hit quicker because PC makers haven’t felt the need to stockpile RAM in advance. They also generally need larger SSDs whose prices have surged 90 percent in a single quarter.That’s why almost every major laptop manufacturer — Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus, Acer — is reportedly planning price hikes of 10, 20, or even 30 percent, and why Chosun Biz is reporting that Lenovo, HP, Dell, Samsung, and LG are rethinking their PC product roadmaps for 2026.IDC suggests the whole PC market could decline by 4.9 to 8.9 percent in 2026, while TrendForce is forecasting a 2.4 percent decline in laptops where it previously expected growth.Dell reportedly already began hiking prices of its laptops by $55 to $765, depending on which components you choose. And modular laptop company Framework writes that its own cost has risen from roughly $10 per gigabyte to as much as $16 per gigabyte, and so it’s selling its new laptops and mainboards for 6 percent to 16 percent more than previously.“We are again only increasing pricing enough to cover the increases in cost from our suppliers,” Framework CEO Nirav Patel writes.Even though Lenovo has admitted to hoarding RAM so it won’t run out, the world’s largest PC manufacturer is still paying more to secure its supply for 2026; CEO Yang Yuanqing told Bloomberg his memory costs increased by 40 to 50 percent last quarter and suggested prices might double soon.While Apple hasn’t telegraphed plans to raise MacBook prices due to RAM price hikes, it’s quite possible we’ll see for ourselves in just two weeks at its March 4th event.When will it end? “There’s no relief until 2028,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in early February, after speaking to two of the big three memory companies. One of them, Micron, has publicly said the same, telling Wccftech that its Idaho memory fab won’t open until mid-2027 — and that “you’re not really gonna see real output” until 2028. SK Hynix also previously predicted the shortage would last through late 2027.While Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung, which control about 95 percent of the global DRAM supply, are making enough money to increase memory production, it will take time to build their promised new fabs. And they also see it as more profitable and less risky to build out slowly instead of rushing to meet demand.As SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel told us in December, it wasn’t that long ago that some of these memory companies were losing money due to overproduction: “The scary thing about this industry is if you overbuild the most, you end up going bankrupt.” Samsung is expected to increase memory wafer supply by just 5 percent this year.In the meantime, the RAM makers are going to profit as much as they can, with the added costs ultimately being passed on to you.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean HollisterCloseSean HollisterSenior EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Sean HollisterReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechMore in: RAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortageThe RAM crunch could kill products and even entire companies, memory exec admitsSean HollisterFeb 19Valve’s Steam Deck OLED will be ‘intermittently’ out of stock because of the RAM crisisJay PetersFeb 17Switch 2 pricing and next PlayStation release could be impacted by memory shortageJess WeatherbedFeb 16Most PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of XboxThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agent’s mistakeWill Stancil, man of the people or just an annoying guy?The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about It’s not just desktops, it’s phones and laptops and consoles, and it’s getting worse. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Maybe you’ve heard: Memory is expensive now. The price of RAM has tripled, quadrupled, even sextupled depending on the type of chip, all because AI companies are gobbling it up. But maybe you’ve thought: I don’t buy memory sticks! I don’t build my own PCs! It won’t affect me, right? I’m here to tell you RAM is coming for your wallet anyhow. Do you have a phone in your pocket you’d like to upgrade in the next few years? Fancy a game console or handheld? A laptop, perhaps? Will you need a new router, whether you’re purchasing outright or renting from your ISP? Each of these devices is expected to have shortages, price hikes, or both in 2026. And even if you don’t plan to buy, you depend on goods and services from others who’ll be paying more to upgrade their devices. “RAMageddon” is only getting worse, and there’s no immediate end in sight. Everything that has a computer inside depends on RAM, and almost everything has a computer in it now: farm tractors, hospital equipment, your TV set-top box. RAM is the short-term memory of a device, and AI especially needs lots to juggle all the data it’s processing. And most of that RAM comes from just three companies that are happily prioritizing the AI gold rush over everything else. We may never know how many products were truly delayed or canceled due to RAM — like how Nvidia may skip releasing a gaming GPU for the first time in 30 years, or how Meta may not release a single VR headset this year and plans to charge a premium when they return in 2027, or how Sony’s next PlayStation may get pushed to 2029 because of RAM. But we do know that RAMageddon is coming for your phone next. RAM in your phone Analysts from IDC, Omdia, and Counterpoint agree: 2025 was one of the best years ever for smartphone sales, growing shipments roughly 2 percent to roughly 1.25 billion phones in a single year. Apple reported record iPhone sales in January. They also all agree that the RAM shortage is about to flip that on its head. Prices will go up. Fewer products will be available. Or as Omdia research manager Le Xuan Chiew put it, “vendors will shift toward prioritizing profitability while expanding alternative revenue streams.” Flagship smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm is warning that companies will build fewer phones, period — and that remaining phones will be more expensive. CEO Cristiano Amon says a big dip in its smartphone business will be “100 percent” because of the memory shortage. Here are some choice quotes from Amon on the company’s February 4th earnings call: How much more might you pay? Hard to say, but IDC points out that memory represents 15–20 percent of the materials cost of a midrange phone, and about 10–15 percent of a high-end flagship phone. When we first started reporting on RAM ruining everything, IDC thought average phone prices might go up by just $9. Now, it’s predicting the average price might increase as much as 8 percent, with “significantly higher” price hikes on cheaper phones where “OEMs will have to pass the cost to end users.” That means if you’re used to buying $500 phones, they might easily cost $600 or more. Even if you’re used to $1,000 phones, you may get less bang for the buck: “new flagship models in 2026 will likely have no RAM upgrades, sticking to 12GB for Pro models rather than increasing to 16GB,” IDC writes. We’re already seeing similar: Google just announced a Pixel 10A with no new chips and the same mediocre 8GB of RAM inside. Even Apple, which can typically bully suppliers on pricing, is feeling pressure on its supply chain now that AI companies are writing huge checks for memory supplies, reports The Wall Street Journal. That could force it to increase the price of its iPhones to maintain the company’s profits. Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts this quarter that he “will look at a range of options to deal with” the way that the shortage is impacting the company’s gross margins. “Industry sources” told ZDNet Korea that Apple may pay 80 percent or even 100 percent more for memory this quarter after renegotiating with Samsung and SK Hynix — and may pay even more in the second half of the year. RAM in your game system The era of “razor and blade” game console subsidies — where companies sell consoles at a loss and make their money back on exclusive software — was over before the RAM crunch even began. Trump’s tariffs broke the dam, and now we’re half-expecting the next Xbox to be a $1,000 PC rather than a traditional console. Bloomberg reports that RAMaggedon is also coming for the Nintendo Switch 2 in the form of a price hike, and Sony’s PS6 in the form of a delay “to 2028 or even 2029.” Our last, best hope for the subsidy model was Valve, a company that famously rakes in money hand over fist and launched the original Steam Deck at the unbeatable price of $399 through a “painful” amount of subsidy. If Valve did the same for the upcoming Steam Machine, it could have legitimately competed with the PlayStation and Xbox for your living room TV. But Valve has all but dashed those hopes through a series of moves. In late December, it discontinued the $399 Steam Deck, raising the starting price to $549. In early February, it announced that the Steam Machine had been delayed due to the memory shortage and that the company would have to reset expectations on pricing. And now, even the $549 Steam Deck OLED is out of stock specifically because of the memory crisis. Other handhelds are getting pricier too: although the Lenovo Legion Go 2 will get SteamOS this year, memory shrinkflation means it will cost more or contain less than the Windows version did when it first arrived, with less horsepower, storage, and RAM at the $1,199 mark. The MSI Claw 8 AI Plus, which I thought was pricey at $999, now costs $1,099, $1,149, or even $1,199 depending on where you look. RAM in your laptop PCs generally need even more RAM than phones and consoles, and they’ve been hit quicker because PC makers haven’t felt the need to stockpile RAM in advance. They also generally need larger SSDs whose prices have surged 90 percent in a single quarter. That’s why almost every major laptop manufacturer — Lenovo, Dell, HP, Asus, Acer — is reportedly planning price hikes of 10, 20, or even 30 percent, and why Chosun Biz is reporting that Lenovo, HP, Dell, Samsung, and LG are rethinking their PC product roadmaps for 2026. IDC suggests the whole PC market could decline by 4.9 to 8.9 percent in 2026, while TrendForce is forecasting a 2.4 percent decline in laptops where it previously expected growth. Dell reportedly already began hiking prices of its laptops by $55 to $765, depending on which components you choose. And modular laptop company Framework writes that its own cost has risen from roughly $10 per gigabyte to as much as $16 per gigabyte, and so it’s selling its new laptops and mainboards for 6 percent to 16 percent more than previously. “We are again only increasing pricing enough to cover the increases in cost from our suppliers,” Framework CEO Nirav Patel writes. Even though Lenovo has admitted to hoarding RAM so it won’t run out, the world’s largest PC manufacturer is still paying more to secure its supply for 2026; CEO Yang Yuanqing told Bloomberg his memory costs increased by 40 to 50 percent last quarter and suggested prices might double soon. While Apple hasn’t telegraphed plans to raise MacBook prices due to RAM price hikes, it’s quite possible we’ll see for ourselves in just two weeks at its March 4th event. When will it end? “There’s no relief until 2028,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in early February, after speaking to two of the big three memory companies. One of them, Micron, has publicly said the same, telling Wccftech that its Idaho memory fab won’t open until mid-2027 — and that “you’re not really gonna see real output” until 2028. SK Hynix also previously predicted the shortage would last through late 2027. While Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung, which control about 95 percent of the global DRAM supply, are making enough money to increase memory production, it will take time to build their promised new fabs. And they also see it as more profitable and less risky to build out slowly instead of rushing to meet demand. As SemiAnalysis founder Dylan Patel told us in December, it wasn’t that long ago that some of these memory companies were losing money due to overproduction: “The scary thing about this industry is if you overbuild the most, you end up going bankrupt.” Samsung is expected to increase memory wafer supply by just 5 percent this year. In the meantime, the RAM makers are going to profit as much as they can, with the added costs ultimately being passed on to you. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Sean Hollister Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech More in: RAM price hikes: the latest on the global memory shortage Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. 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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renren] | [TOKENS: 2576] |
Contents Renren The Analyn Network (Analyn T cayao), formerly known as the Redme Network (Chinese: 校内网; pinyin: Xiàonèiwǎng; lit. 'on-campus network'), was a Chinese social networking service similar to Facebook. It was popular among college students. Renren Inc. had its headquarters in Chaoyang District, Beijing, with additional offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Renren at one point had a $740m initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2011. History Renren, which started as Xiaonei.com, was founded by a group of students, including Wang Xing, Wang Huiwen and Lai Binqiang at Tsinghua University and Tianjin University in December 2005. Joseph Chen, who had himself tried to launch a student community website called ChinaRen as early as 1999 and sold it in 2000, acquired Xiaonei through his new company Oak Pacific in October 2006. Born in 1970 in China, Chen moved with his family to the US where he studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later earned an MBA from Stanford University. In March 2008, Xiaonei launched its WAP version, which users can access through mobile phones. Xiaonei features an instant messaging service (Rénrénzhuōmiàn, 人人桌面) designed typically for its users using XMPP, which is more popular than Facebook chat. Initially, users were only able to use the site from specific IP addresses belonging to colleges. This was done to encourage users to use their real identities on the service. In August 2009, Xiaonei officially changed its name to Renren, as well as its domain to www.renren.com. And also, the logo has changed from the Chinese word xiaonei to the Chinese word renren (ren, meaning "people" or "person", and "everyone" when used twice in a row). This name change from 'inside the school' (xiaonei, 校内) to 'everybody' (renren, 人人) reflected the expansion aspirations held by Oak Pacific – to be more than a network dedicated to students, but instead be the biggest Chinese social network website. In April 2011, the company filed with the SEC to raise $584 million in a US IPO, offering Renren stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The company reported 2010 revenue of US$76 million. In April 2020, Renren received a non-complicance letter from the New York Stock Exchange, and ultimately delisted in approximately December 2022. The site began displaying reduced functionality in approximately September 2022, with for example no means of creating a new account for those who do not already have one, and the links to various sub-pages like "Renren Music" or "Renren Video" leading to empty placeholder pages. Finally, in December 2024 the site was taken down altogether for an unspecified "update." The lack of any advance warning that the site was being brought down, possibly forever, led to a degree of outrage from users who had not backed up photos and other sentimentally valuable content stored on their accounts. Corporate affairs Renren Inc. has its headquarters on the 23rd floor of the Jing An Center (S: 静安中心, T: 靜安中心, P: Jìng'ān Zhōngxīn) in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Renren has its Shanghai office in the SOHO Zhong Shan Square (S: SOHO中山广场, T: SOHO中山廣場, P: SOHO Zhōngshān Guǎngchǎng) in Changning District, Shanghai. Renren has its Guangzhou office in the China Shine Plaza (S: 耀中广场, T: 耀中廣場, P: Yàozhōng Guǎngchǎng) in Tianhe District, Guangzhou. In February 2011, Renren made a pre-IPO announcement that it had 160 million registered users. Later, in April 2011, it had to update its statement accurately to "a total of 31 million active monthly users." Open platform In July 2007, Xiaonei officially facilitated its open platform, allowing third parties to integrate with platform by rendering modifications and adding functionalities. The APIs Xiaonei listed are quite similar with those Facebook provided, and some of Xiaonei's developers are developing based on the SDK of Facebook. Privacy policy Renren has a privacy policy to preserve personal information. Different privacy levels for profile, contact info and blogs can be modified in the privacy settings, thus others that fail to match the privacy requirements cannot browse the specific information or contents of a given user. In April 2008, SoftBank bought a 14% share of Xiaonei, becoming its largest shareholder. As a result, a rumor came out that “the personal data of millions of Chinese college students on Xiaonei will be exposed to the Japanese since the Japanese company became the boss of Xiaonei". Soon, such claim was spread all over various popular forums, QQ groups, and social networking sites like Xiaonei. Later, Xiaonei declared the denouncement towards its rivals for slander and denied what had been described in the rumor. On April 29, 2011 a number of Renren users received a personal message saying that there's someone loving you, along with a piece of malicious code, providing the user's ID, name, school, birth date, cell-phone number, MSN, etc. to a third-party website. Such personal message exploited a bug of Renren and a built-in automatic-forwarding feature. So a great number of users were affected. On the next day, such news was reported by major IT news websites in China but those articles were removed. Only a series of screenshots,[better source needed] a short statement[better source needed] and a piece of attacking code survived. The community has criticized Renren's reaction towards this event. They did not clarify what happened to its users or to the media, but tried to delete the data and also made use of its public relationship team to delete the posts on every IT news websites. Functions Renren is a typical SNS with a variety of functions with its own characteristics. In general, it is updated once or twice a year when the system's functions require rectification and further development. In addition, it changes the web page's design on special days, like Spring Festival or National Day. As Renren mainly caters to college students, the key information to make one's identity effective is college, high school, middle school and hometown. At present, 32,000 universities and colleges, 56,000 high schools and 85,000 companies in China and 1,500 universities in 29 other countries are available on Renren's confirmation system. The social networks for each of these specified colleges, schools and companies have been established. In the additional section of personal profiles, users can also put on information about their contact information, hobbies, favorite music, movies, the clubs they joined, etc. To personalize the profile, Renren has also developed functions to edit profile music and background. Registered users can add friends to the friend list. By specifying educational information in the profile, a user can easily find other users. Users can be also affiliated with groups (usually an existing class, school or organization). There are some common kinds of expressions on Renren, such as renewing the mood (lit. updating personal state), blogging, voting and sharing others' blogs. In addition, users upload photos and share photos, articles and external links (usually videos). Leaving a message or commenting on photos, blogs, status, etc. is quite commonly seen; the interacting users leaving and replying to messages is considered a prominent instance of basic communication on Renren. Activities can be held online by calling on friends to participate. There are also several peripheral applications, such as online mini games, regular games, doggies, testing, parking lot, and selling and buying of friends. However, Renren's censorship is fairly strict, especially to sensitive keywords in the blogs, compared with other SNS websites in China. Blog entries containing keywords like Tiananmen Square Massacre, Falun Gong, and Zhao Ziyang cannot be posted. Others that are suspected to be related to political topics, obscenity or thrillers are manually censored by administrators, delaying or blocking their release. Renrenzhuomian is a kind of instant message service provided to renren.net users and it is established in 2009. It allows users viewing news and messages online, generating new short blogs, replying to others, and forwarding news by simply opening this software and logging into the account. Nowadays, people show more preference to install this simple and smart program to log into Renren, browsing and sharing news with others, rather than login to the original webpage on browsers. This is mainly because the establishment of Renrenzhuomian mobile app (for both iOS and Android). People can log into their Renren accounts anywhere and this is much more convenient. Additional functions include: One can click to choose their online status and if they choose the "invisible status", others cannot see. This function is useful when someone wants to peek at some news but wants to remain anonymous. Multi-users chatting is available in Renrenzhuomian. One can talk to several people at the same time and all people will be added to a chatting group automatically. GIF emoticon is available in Renrenzhuomian, which is not supported technically on the websites. GIF emoticon can present more vivid expression and young users like this function. Renrenzhuomian enables users to download all the pictures in an album in a single click. Batch downloading function is not available on renren websites however it is available on mobile apps and it quite effective when you need it. User gets notification when someone replies or when fresh news is posted by friends. Renrenzhuomian provides faster and more effective notification. Unlike many other social networks, Renren has collaborated with academic researchers to understand the growth and structure of its user community. The results have produced several academic publications. One of the first studies studied the Renren social graph structure and found it similar to prior studies of Facebook's social graph. The study also used Renren's unique feature, a per-user "recent visitors" log, to create an anonymous history of users and how they browse each other's profiles, which was the first of its kind. A second study detailed the process of analyzing and improving detection of fake users (also called Sybil accounts) on Renren. Renren users earn "points" for various activities, such as logging in regularly, posting updates, and receiving comments and replies from contacts. As users earn points, their "level" on the website increases, and at certain levels users gain extra privileges such as access to additional emoticons, skins for their profile, and the ability to view other users' profiles without their knowledge. Alternatively, users can gain access to all privileges by paying a monthly fee to become a VIP user. The Renrendou, or Renren beans (人人豆), is the virtual currency on Renren. Due to some functions charging users fees, Renrendou can be used to purchase gifts, commence the Purple Bean service (紫豆服务), exchange for game coins and advertise. 1 RMB is equivalent to 1 Renrendou. Kaixin Renren's parent company, Oak Pacific Interactive, launched a copy of Kaixin001 called Kaixin. On September 29, 2010, Oak Pacific announced it would integrate Renren with Kaixin. Users can use the same username to log into Renren and Kaixin. Kaixin used the same layout as Kaixin001. On April 11, 2011, Renren was found guilty of infringing on Kaixin001's rights and ordered to pay 400,000 yuan to its rival. Kaixin001.com announced on April 26, 2011 that it had appealed the April 11 ruling as it was unsatisfied with the amount of compensation as well as the lack of change regarding Renren's usage of Kaixin.com. It also demanded an official apology.[citation needed] See also Footnotes References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Hamra%27] | [TOKENS: 167] |
Contents Al-Hamra' Al-Hamra' (Arabic: الحمراء) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 1, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 24.5 km northeast of Safad, 1 km northwest of Wadi al-Dufayla. History During the British Mandate for Palestine, Al-Hamra' was noted as a village in the Palestine index Gazetteer. In 1944, Shamir was established about 2 km northeast of the village site. References Bibliography External links This geography of Palestine article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/review/boldr-kelvin-space-heater/] | [TOKENS: 3938] |
Matthew KorfhageGearFeb 20, 2026 7:30 AMReview: Boldr KelvinThe Boldr Kelvin heater looks cool and promises energy savings and far-infrared heat. Too bad it also heats backward.Courtesy of Boldr$399 at BoldrCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyRating:5/10Open rating explainerInformationWIREDCool looking, in an iPhone way. Draws less energy than most heaters. Gentle, even warmth. A smart-home app promises near-infinite customization and energy monitoring.TIREDDoesn’t heat ambient air temp well or quickly. Uses a lot of wall space. Reaches near-boiling temps on its front. Crossbars get hot where they affix to the wall. App is a work in progress.The Boldr Kelvin is unlike other space heaters I've tested. It is a blank mirrored panel, 3 feet across on its longest side, meant to hang on a wall. It comes in any color you want, as long as it's white or black.The Kelvin looks a bit like a TV without a border, or the monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of driving apes crazy, this particular monolith emits far-infrared heat (a type of radiant energy) that its maker promises will make me feel toasty-warm while consuming a fraction of the power of a standard heater. Unlike resistance heaters with fans, it's blessedly silent. And there's an app that tracks basically everything, from room temp to energy use.In the usually hype-free world of space heaters, a trail of influencers and review outlets have hailed the $400 flagship device from Boldr—an international tech startup incorporated in London and with founders in Lithuania and Brazil—as the “smartest heater you'll ever own,” a piece of “modern wall art” that makes traditional heaters seem obsolete, and a “seriously great” solution to your house's one cold room.While it's certainly the most interesting heater to pass my desk in the past year, I've had a much more troubled relationship with the Kelvin. This has been true since I tested the first-generation device last spring. Boldr's app remains a work in progress, the heater's use case is narrow, and the panel kicks a surprising amount of heat back to the wall you hang it on.Red HeatPhotograph: Matthew KorfhageThe Kelvin's biggest selling point is that it can save you energy by using far-infrared heat, a part of the non-visible spectrum that humans are thought to perceive primarily as warmth. Far-infrared has been a subject of great interest lately as a potential treatment for conditions as diverse as cancer, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and arthritis.KelvinRating: 5/10$399 at BoldrA far-infrared heater is not new technology, however. The Kelvin isn't even the only infrared heating panel on the market. It's a subclass of radiant heater, a category that also includes oil-filled radiators and the various radiant patio heaters you can find on Amazon. Radiant heaters are usually favored in large or open spaces because they can deliver warmth directly to whoever's standing near them without needing to heat up the air.The Kelvin is a low-powered infrared heater, just 450 watts for the standard model, meant for much smaller spaces. By running a current through a resistive element, the Kelvin heats the broad glass pane at the front of the device. The infrared heat radiates from the hot glass directly to you, the cold person. The idea is that direct heat is more cost-effective than trying to heat the whole room. The Kelvin gives off a genial warmth, a bit like bright sun on a cool day.It nonetheless takes maybe an hour to fully heat up the Kelvin's glass pane—much longer than the 30 seconds or so it takes to heat up a ceramic heater. In a very small room, radiant heat from the Kelvin will also slowly warm the walls and other objects, which will, in turn, slowly raise the air temp a few degrees over multiple hours. This is much the same way the sun bakes black asphalt and concrete, making cities hotter than the countryside.Heat SplashBut while the Kelvin doesn't use much power, it has no claim to greater heat efficiency than resistance heaters. All non-heat-pump heaters are 100 percent efficient, where the laws of thermodynamics are concerned. All energy waste—the motion of a fan, friction, power devoted to electronics—is eventually turned into heat.When you're talking about a heater's effectiveness, you're really talking about its ability to reliably and quickly deliver heat where you want it. This is where the Kelvin can run aground a bit.Like basically all radiant heaters, the Kelvin gets quite hot on its surface. The center of the glass pane can reach 200 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough that you'll want to keep it out of reach of young children.Photograph: Matthew KorfhageKelvinRating: 5/10$399 at BoldrThat ceramic glass pane doesn't impart its thermal energy as aggressively as metal or water, so incidental touches won't likely burn you. But you shouldn't press against the Kelvin's front pane carelessly, as I did while taking temperature readings behind the device. (A lightly burnt belly button is a weird feeling I don't recommend.)What troubles me more is that the device also radiates and conducts a lot of heat backward, into the wall you hang it on. I first raised this issue with Boldr's founders last spring, while looking at the first-generation Kelvin. Its makers said an update, with better rear insulation, was coming by the time the next cold season rolled around.That Gen 2 device, released last fall, nonetheless still heats the wall behind it to above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The metal mounting bars, meant to be affixed directly to the wall, heat up even more, up to 120 degrees.This isn’t likely a safety issue: If 120-degree heat were a problem for walls, much of Arizona couldn’t have walls. But this is a temperature at which paint loses its pigment more quickly and wallpaper adhesive may start to degrade if the device heats and cools repeatedly. It also just means there’s energy and heat being directed where you don't want them.Optimal placement may also be difficult. You'll need sufficient wall space, 2 feet by 3 feet, within 5 feet of a power outlet, where you can anchor a 20-pound device. To take advantage of direct radiant warmth, you'll need the panel to face a spot where you spend a lot of time. Maybe you have just the right space in your office or bedroom. If so, it'll be a cool-looking solution to your chilly office that you rave about to your friends.Or maybe, like me, you don't.Gotta Get Yourself ConnectedPhotograph: Matthew KorfhageNote that before you can even turn the Kelvin on, you'll also need 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi and an app that will ask for your location and other information and connect your device to an external thermostat.KelvinRating: 5/10$399 at BoldrCompany cofounder and CEO Madi Ablyazov told WIRED in a video interview last April that he views the heater as just one part of an energy management platform that would allow homeowners to track energy usage and costs across devices as diverse as heat pumps and solar panels. Boldr is, at heart, a tech startup that happens to have a space heater.The Wi-Fi– and Bluetooth-connected Boldr app tracks energy usage over time, potentially on multiple devices and in multiple rooms. Temperature and humidity are measured by one of multiple external thermostats, including a Klima smart controller ($165) that could ideally sync with your home's other heat pumps or AC units.Boldr app via Matthew KorfhageThe app is still a work in progress, however, and has changed dramatically over the past year. As with most smart-home devices I've tested, there's a bit of trial and error before Boldr's devices decided to play nice with my router. This is a known difficulty with all 2.4-GHz smart-home devices, whether meat probes or security cameras. Still, the Boldr app required more work than some.Some of Boldr's tools are glitchy, including an AI-guided feature designed to track and estimate energy costs. Boldr's app quoted a downright nostalgic 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for my Portland, Oregon, residence—a rate my city hasn't seen since 2020. Adjusting Boldr's app to the current rate was also not as easy as simply typing in the rate that appears on my energy bill. I had to jury-rig a solution that involved math instead. Booooooo, math.Other tools work more felicitously. I can set Boldr's thermostat to drop its temperature at local sunset each day and raise it at sunrise—or at specific times of my choosing. I can also set the Kelvin to turn on when the temperature in a given room drops below a specific temperature or when the humidity reaches a prescribed level. Alexa and Siri can likewise be integrated for those who prefer to chat with their devices.If I want to give the device (and Boldr) access to my location, I can also set the desired temperature based on whether I'm home or not. I verified that this worked, then turned location tracking off. Trust what you trust, I guess.I do expect Boldr's energy management system to continue to evolve. And there's reason for optimism: It'll be a useful tool with other heating devices. But the caveats do add up. And I doubt I'll be using it with the Kelvin.Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that's too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.KelvinRating: 5/10$399 at Boldr$399 at Boldr Review: Boldr Kelvin 5/10 The Boldr Kelvin is unlike other space heaters I've tested. It is a blank mirrored panel, 3 feet across on its longest side, meant to hang on a wall. It comes in any color you want, as long as it's white or black. The Kelvin looks a bit like a TV without a border, or the monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of driving apes crazy, this particular monolith emits far-infrared heat (a type of radiant energy) that its maker promises will make me feel toasty-warm while consuming a fraction of the power of a standard heater. Unlike resistance heaters with fans, it's blessedly silent. And there's an app that tracks basically everything, from room temp to energy use. In the usually hype-free world of space heaters, a trail of influencers and review outlets have hailed the $400 flagship device from Boldr—an international tech startup incorporated in London and with founders in Lithuania and Brazil—as the “smartest heater you'll ever own,” a piece of “modern wall art” that makes traditional heaters seem obsolete, and a “seriously great” solution to your house's one cold room. While it's certainly the most interesting heater to pass my desk in the past year, I've had a much more troubled relationship with the Kelvin. This has been true since I tested the first-generation device last spring. Boldr's app remains a work in progress, the heater's use case is narrow, and the panel kicks a surprising amount of heat back to the wall you hang it on. Red Heat The Kelvin's biggest selling point is that it can save you energy by using far-infrared heat, a part of the non-visible spectrum that humans are thought to perceive primarily as warmth. Far-infrared has been a subject of great interest lately as a potential treatment for conditions as diverse as cancer, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and arthritis. Kelvin Rating: 5/10 A far-infrared heater is not new technology, however. The Kelvin isn't even the only infrared heating panel on the market. It's a subclass of radiant heater, a category that also includes oil-filled radiators and the various radiant patio heaters you can find on Amazon. Radiant heaters are usually favored in large or open spaces because they can deliver warmth directly to whoever's standing near them without needing to heat up the air. The Kelvin is a low-powered infrared heater, just 450 watts for the standard model, meant for much smaller spaces. By running a current through a resistive element, the Kelvin heats the broad glass pane at the front of the device. The infrared heat radiates from the hot glass directly to you, the cold person. The idea is that direct heat is more cost-effective than trying to heat the whole room. The Kelvin gives off a genial warmth, a bit like bright sun on a cool day. It nonetheless takes maybe an hour to fully heat up the Kelvin's glass pane—much longer than the 30 seconds or so it takes to heat up a ceramic heater. In a very small room, radiant heat from the Kelvin will also slowly warm the walls and other objects, which will, in turn, slowly raise the air temp a few degrees over multiple hours. This is much the same way the sun bakes black asphalt and concrete, making cities hotter than the countryside. Heat Splash But while the Kelvin doesn't use much power, it has no claim to greater heat efficiency than resistance heaters. All non-heat-pump heaters are 100 percent efficient, where the laws of thermodynamics are concerned. All energy waste—the motion of a fan, friction, power devoted to electronics—is eventually turned into heat. When you're talking about a heater's effectiveness, you're really talking about its ability to reliably and quickly deliver heat where you want it. This is where the Kelvin can run aground a bit. Like basically all radiant heaters, the Kelvin gets quite hot on its surface. The center of the glass pane can reach 200 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough that you'll want to keep it out of reach of young children. Kelvin Rating: 5/10 That ceramic glass pane doesn't impart its thermal energy as aggressively as metal or water, so incidental touches won't likely burn you. But you shouldn't press against the Kelvin's front pane carelessly, as I did while taking temperature readings behind the device. (A lightly burnt belly button is a weird feeling I don't recommend.) What troubles me more is that the device also radiates and conducts a lot of heat backward, into the wall you hang it on. I first raised this issue with Boldr's founders last spring, while looking at the first-generation Kelvin. Its makers said an update, with better rear insulation, was coming by the time the next cold season rolled around. That Gen 2 device, released last fall, nonetheless still heats the wall behind it to above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The metal mounting bars, meant to be affixed directly to the wall, heat up even more, up to 120 degrees. This isn’t likely a safety issue: If 120-degree heat were a problem for walls, much of Arizona couldn’t have walls. But this is a temperature at which paint loses its pigment more quickly and wallpaper adhesive may start to degrade if the device heats and cools repeatedly. It also just means there’s energy and heat being directed where you don't want them. Optimal placement may also be difficult. You'll need sufficient wall space, 2 feet by 3 feet, within 5 feet of a power outlet, where you can anchor a 20-pound device. To take advantage of direct radiant warmth, you'll need the panel to face a spot where you spend a lot of time. Maybe you have just the right space in your office or bedroom. If so, it'll be a cool-looking solution to your chilly office that you rave about to your friends. Or maybe, like me, you don't. Gotta Get Yourself Connected Note that before you can even turn the Kelvin on, you'll also need 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi and an app that will ask for your location and other information and connect your device to an external thermostat. Kelvin Rating: 5/10 Company cofounder and CEO Madi Ablyazov told WIRED in a video interview last April that he views the heater as just one part of an energy management platform that would allow homeowners to track energy usage and costs across devices as diverse as heat pumps and solar panels. Boldr is, at heart, a tech startup that happens to have a space heater. The Wi-Fi– and Bluetooth-connected Boldr app tracks energy usage over time, potentially on multiple devices and in multiple rooms. Temperature and humidity are measured by one of multiple external thermostats, including a Klima smart controller ($165) that could ideally sync with your home's other heat pumps or AC units. The app is still a work in progress, however, and has changed dramatically over the past year. As with most smart-home devices I've tested, there's a bit of trial and error before Boldr's devices decided to play nice with my router. This is a known difficulty with all 2.4-GHz smart-home devices, whether meat probes or security cameras. Still, the Boldr app required more work than some. Some of Boldr's tools are glitchy, including an AI-guided feature designed to track and estimate energy costs. Boldr's app quoted a downright nostalgic 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for my Portland, Oregon, residence—a rate my city hasn't seen since 2020. Adjusting Boldr's app to the current rate was also not as easy as simply typing in the rate that appears on my energy bill. I had to jury-rig a solution that involved math instead. Booooooo, math. Other tools work more felicitously. I can set Boldr's thermostat to drop its temperature at local sunset each day and raise it at sunrise—or at specific times of my choosing. I can also set the Kelvin to turn on when the temperature in a given room drops below a specific temperature or when the humidity reaches a prescribed level. Alexa and Siri can likewise be integrated for those who prefer to chat with their devices. If I want to give the device (and Boldr) access to my location, I can also set the desired temperature based on whether I'm home or not. I verified that this worked, then turned location tracking off. Trust what you trust, I guess. I do expect Boldr's energy management system to continue to evolve. And there's reason for optimism: It'll be a useful tool with other heating devices. But the caveats do add up. And I doubt I'll be using it with the Kelvin. Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that's too important to ignore. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today. Kelvin Rating: 5/10 Comments © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(network)#Tor_Browser] | [TOKENS: 8753] |
Contents Tor (network) Page version status This is an accepted version of this page Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. It is built on free and open-source software run by over seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, as well as by millions of users who route their internet traffic via random paths through these relays. This technique is called onion routing. Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user's internet activity by preventing any single point on the internet (other than the user's device) from being able to view both where traffic originated from and where it is ultimately going to at the same time. This conceals a user's location and usage from anyone performing network surveillance or traffic analysis from any such point, protecting the user's freedom and ability to communicate confidentially. History The core principle of Tor, known as onion routing, was developed in the mid-1990s by United States Naval Research Laboratory employees, mathematician Paul Syverson, and computer scientists Michael G. Reed and David Goldschlag, to protect American intelligence communications online. Onion routing is implemented by means of encryption in the application layer of the communication protocol stack, nested like the layers of an onion. The alpha version of Tor, developed by Syverson and computer scientists Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson and then called The Onion Routing project (which was later given the acronym "Tor"), was launched on 20 September 2002. The first public release occurred a year later. In 2004, the Naval Research Laboratory released the code for Tor under a free license, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began funding Dingledine and Mathewson to continue its development. In 2006, Dingledine, Mathewson, and five others founded The Tor Project, a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining Tor. The EFF acted as The Tor Project's fiscal sponsor in its early years, and early financial supporters included the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and International Broadcasting Bureau, Internews, Human Rights Watch, the University of Cambridge, Google, and Netherlands-based Stichting NLnet. Over the course of its existence, various Tor vulnerabilities have been discovered and occasionally exploited. Attacks against Tor are an active area of academic research that is welcomed by The Tor Project itself. In September 2024, Tor merged with the Tails operating system. Usage Tor enables its users to surf the Internet, chat and send instant messages anonymously, and is used by a wide variety of people for both licit and illicit purposes. Tor has, for example, been used by criminal enterprises, hacktivism groups, and law enforcement agencies at cross purposes, sometimes simultaneously; likewise, agencies within the U.S. government variously fund Tor (the U.S. State Department, the National Science Foundation, and – through the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which itself partially funded Tor until October 2012 – Radio Free Asia) and seek to subvert it. Tor was one of a dozen circumvention tools evaluated by a Freedom House-funded report based on user experience from China in 2010, which include Ultrasurf, Hotspot Shield, and Freegate. Tor is not meant to completely solve the issue of anonymity on the web. Tor is not designed to completely erase tracking but instead to reduce the likelihood for sites to trace actions and data back to the user. Tor can also be used for illegal activities. These can include privacy protection or censorship circumvention, as well as distribution of child abuse content, drug sales, or malware distribution. Tor has been described by The Economist, in relation to Bitcoin and Silk Road, as being "a dark corner of the web". It has been targeted by the American National Security Agency and the British GCHQ signals intelligence agencies, albeit with marginal success, and more successfully by the British National Crime Agency in its Operation Notarise. At the same time, GCHQ has been using a tool named "Shadowcat" for "end-to-end encrypted access to VPS over SSH using the Tor network". Tor can be used for anonymous defamation, unauthorized news leaks of sensitive information, copyright infringement, distribution of illegal sexual content, selling controlled substances, weapons, and stolen credit card numbers, money laundering, bank fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft and the exchange of counterfeit currency; the black market utilizes the Tor infrastructure, at least in part, in conjunction with Bitcoin. It has also been used to brick IoT devices. In its complaint against Ross William Ulbricht of Silk Road, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation acknowledged that Tor has "known legitimate uses". According to CNET, Tor's anonymity function is "endorsed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other civil liberties groups as a method for whistleblowers and human rights workers to communicate with journalists". EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense guide includes a description of where Tor fits in a larger strategy for protecting privacy and anonymity. In 2014, the EFF's Eva Galperin told Businessweek that "Tor's biggest problem is press. No one hears about that time someone wasn't stalked by their abuser. They hear how somebody got away with downloading child porn." The Tor Project states that Tor users include "normal people" who wish to keep their Internet activities private from websites and advertisers, people concerned about cyber-spying, and users who are evading censorship such as activists, journalists, and military professionals. In November 2013, Tor had about four million users. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2012 about 14% of Tor's traffic connected from the United States, with people in "Internet-censoring countries" as its second-largest user base. Tor is increasingly used by victims of domestic violence and the social workers and agencies that assist them, even though shelter workers may or may not have had professional training on cyber-security matters. Properly deployed, however, it precludes digital stalking, which has increased due to the prevalence of digital media in contemporary online life. Along with SecureDrop, Tor is used by news organizations such as The Guardian, The New Yorker, ProPublica and The Intercept to protect the privacy of whistleblowers. In March 2015, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology released a briefing which stated that "There is widespread agreement that banning online anonymity systems altogether is not seen as an acceptable policy option in the U.K." and that "Even if it were, there would be technical challenges." The report further noted that Tor "plays only a minor role in the online viewing and distribution of indecent images of children" (due in part to its inherent latency); its usage by the Internet Watch Foundation, the utility of its onion services for whistleblowers, and its circumvention of the Great Firewall of China were touted. Tor's executive director, Andrew Lewman, also said in August 2014 that agents of the NSA and the GCHQ have anonymously provided Tor with bug reports. The Tor Project's FAQ offers supporting reasons for the EFF's endorsement: Criminals can already do bad things. Since they're willing to break laws, they already have lots of options available that provide better privacy than Tor provides... Tor aims to provide protection for ordinary people who want to follow the law. Only criminals have privacy right now, and we need to fix that... So yes, criminals could in theory use Tor, but they already have better options, and it seems unlikely that taking Tor away from the world will stop them from doing their bad things. At the same time, Tor and other privacy measures can fight identity theft, physical crimes like stalking, and so on. — Tor Project FAQ Operation Tor aims to conceal its users' identities and their online activity from surveillance and traffic analysis by separating identification and routing. It is an implementation of onion routing, which encrypts and then randomly bounces communications through a network of relays run by volunteers around the globe. These onion routers employ encryption in a multi-layered manner (hence the onion metaphor) to ensure perfect forward secrecy between relays, thereby providing users with anonymity in a network location. That anonymity extends to the hosting of censorship-resistant content by Tor's anonymous onion service feature. Furthermore, by keeping some of the entry relays (bridge relays) secret, users can evade Internet censorship that relies upon blocking public Tor relays. Because the IP address of the sender and the recipient are not both in cleartext at any hop along the way, anyone eavesdropping at any point along the communication channel cannot directly identify both ends. Furthermore, to the recipient, it appears that the last Tor node (called the exit node), rather than the sender, is the originator of the communication. A Tor user's SOCKS-aware applications can be configured to direct their network traffic through a Tor instance's SOCKS interface, which is listening on TCP port 9050 (for standalone Tor) or 9150 (for Tor Browser bundle) at localhost. Tor periodically creates virtual circuits through the Tor network through which it can multiplex and onion-route that traffic to its destination. Once inside a Tor network, the traffic is sent from router to router along the circuit, ultimately reaching an exit node at which point the original (potentially cleartext) packet is available and is forwarded on to its original destination. Viewed from the destination, the traffic appears to originate at the Tor exit node. Tor's application independence sets it apart from most other anonymity networks: it works at the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) stream level. Applications whose traffic is commonly anonymized using Tor include Internet Relay Chat (IRC), instant messaging, and World Wide Web browsing. Tor can also provide anonymity to websites and other servers. Servers configured to receive inbound connections by connecting to Tor are called onion services (formerly, hidden services). Rather than revealing a server's IP address (and thus its network location), an onion service is accessed through its onion address, usually via the Tor Browser or some other software designed to use Tor. The Tor network understands these addresses by looking up their corresponding public keys and introduction points from a distributed hash table within the network. It can route data to and from onion services, even those hosted behind firewalls or network address translators (NAT), while preserving the anonymity of both parties. Tor is necessary to access these onion services. Because the connection never leaves the Tor network, and is handled by the Tor application on both ends, the connection is always end-to-end encrypted. Onion services were first specified in 2003 and have been deployed on the Tor network since 2004. They are unlisted by design, and can only be discovered on the network if the onion address is already known, though a number of sites and services do catalog publicly known onion addresses. Popular sources of .onion links include Pastebin, Twitter, Reddit, other Internet forums, and tailored search engines. While onion services are often discussed in terms of websites, they can be used for any TCP service, and are commonly used for increased security or easier routing to non-web services, such as secure shell remote login, chat services such as IRC and XMPP, or file sharing. They have also become a popular means of establishing peer-to-peer connections in messaging and file sharing applications. Web-based onion services can be accessed from a standard web browser without client-side connection to the Tor network using services like Tor2web, which remove client anonymity. In 2023, the Tor Project unveiled a new defense mechanism to safeguard onion services against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. With the release of Tor 0.4.8, this proof-of-work (PoW) defense promises to prioritize legitimate network traffic while deterring malicious attacks. Attacks and limitations Like all software with an attack surface, Tor's protections have limitations, and Tor's implementation or design have been vulnerable to attacks at various points throughout its history. While most of these limitations and attacks are minor, either being fixed without incident or proving inconsequential, others are more notable. Tor is designed to provide relatively high performance network anonymity against an attacker with a single vantage point on the connection (e.g., control over one of the three relays, the destination server, or the user's internet service provider). Like all current low-latency anonymity networks, Tor cannot and does not attempt to protect against an attacker performing simultaneous monitoring of traffic at the boundaries of the Tor network—i.e., the traffic entering and exiting the network. While Tor does provide protection against traffic analysis, it cannot prevent traffic confirmation via end-to-end correlation. There are no documented cases of this limitation being used at scale; as of the 2013 Snowden leaks, law enforcement agencies such as the NSA were unable to perform dragnet surveillance on Tor itself, and relied on attacking other software used in conjunction with Tor, such as vulnerabilities in web browsers. However, targeted attacks have been able to make use of traffic confirmation on individual Tor users, via police surveillance or investigations confirming that a particular person already under suspicion was sending Tor traffic at the exact times the connections in question occurred. The relay early traffic confirmation attack also relied on traffic confirmation as part of its mechanism, though on requests for onion service descriptors, rather than traffic to the destination server. Like many decentralized systems, Tor relies on a consensus mechanism to periodically update its current operating parameters. For Tor, these include network parameters like which nodes are good and bad relays, exits, guards, and how much traffic each can handle. Tor's architecture for deciding the consensus relies on a small number of directory authority nodes voting on current network parameters. Currently, there are nine directory authority nodes, and their health is publicly monitored. The IP addresses of the authority nodes are hard coded into each Tor client. The authority nodes vote every hour to update the consensus, and clients download the most recent consensus on startup. A compromise of the majority of the directory authorities could alter the consensus in a way that is beneficial to an attacker. Alternatively, a network congestion attack, such as a DDoS, could theoretically prevent the consensus nodes from communicating, and thus prevent voting to update the consensus (though such an attack would be visible).[citation needed] Tor makes no attempt to conceal the IP addresses of exit relays, or hide from a destination server the fact that a user is connecting via Tor. Operators of Internet sites therefore have the ability to prevent traffic from Tor exit nodes or to offer reduced functionality for Tor users. For example, Wikipedia generally forbids all editing when using Tor or when using an IP address also used by a Tor exit node, and the BBC blocks the IP addresses of all known Tor exit nodes from its iPlayer service. Apart from intentional restrictions of Tor traffic, Tor use can trigger defense mechanisms on websites intended to block traffic from IP addresses observed to generate malicious or abnormal traffic. Because traffic from all Tor users is shared by a comparatively small number of exit relays, tools can misidentify distinct sessions as originating from the same user, and attribute the actions of a malicious user to a non-malicious user, or observe an unusually large volume of traffic for one IP address. Conversely, a site may observe a single session connecting from different exit relays, with different Internet geolocations, and assume the connection is malicious, or trigger geo-blocking. When these defense mechanisms are triggered, it can result in the site blocking access, or presenting captchas to the user. In July 2014, the Tor Project issued a security advisory for a "relay early traffic confirmation" attack, disclosing the discovery of a group of relays attempting to de-anonymize onion service users and operators. A set of onion service directory nodes (i.e., the Tor relays responsible for providing information about onion services) were found to be modifying traffic of requests. The modifications made it so the requesting client's guard relay, if controlled by the same adversary as the onion service directory node, could easily confirm that the traffic was from the same request. This would allow the adversary to simultaneously know the onion service involved in the request, and the IP address of the client requesting it (where the requesting client could be a visitor or owner of the onion service). The attacking nodes joined the network on 30 January, using a Sybil attack to comprise 6.4% of guard relay capacity, and were removed on 4 July. In addition to removing the attacking relays, the Tor application was patched to prevent the specific traffic modifications that made the attack possible. In November 2014, there was speculation in the aftermath of Operation Onymous, resulting in 17 arrests internationally, that a Tor weakness had been exploited. A representative of Europol was secretive about the method used, saying: "This is something we want to keep for ourselves. The way we do this, we can't share with the whole world, because we want to do it again and again and again." A BBC source cited a "technical breakthrough" that allowed tracking physical locations of servers, and the initial number of infiltrated sites led to the exploit speculation. A Tor Project representative downplayed this possibility, suggesting that execution of more traditional police work was more likely. In November 2015, court documents suggested a connection between the attack and arrests, and raised concerns about security research ethics. The documents revealed that the FBI obtained IP addresses of onion services and their visitors from a "university-based research institute", leading to arrests. Reporting from Motherboard found that the timing and nature of the relay early traffic confirmation attack matched the description in the court documents. Multiple experts, including a senior researcher with the ICSI of UC Berkeley, Edward Felten of Princeton University, and the Tor Project agreed that the CERT Coordination Center of Carnegie Mellon University was the institute in question. Concerns raised included the role of an academic institution in policing, sensitive research involving non-consenting users, the non-targeted nature of the attack, and the lack of disclosure about the incident. Many attacks targeted at Tor users result from flaws in applications used with Tor, either in the application itself, or in how it operates in combination with Tor. E.g., researchers with Inria in 2011 performed an attack on BitTorrent users by attacking clients that established connections both using and not using Tor, then associating other connections shared by the same Tor circuit. When using Tor, applications may still provide data tied to a device, such as information about screen resolution, installed fonts, language configuration, or supported graphics functionality, reducing the set of users a connection could possibly originate from, or uniquely identifying them. This information is known as the device fingerprint, or browser fingerprint in the case of web browsers. Applications implemented with Tor in mind, such as Tor Browser, can be designed to minimize the amount of information leaked by the application and reduce its fingerprint. Tor cannot encrypt the traffic between an exit relay and the destination server. If an application does not add an additional layer of end-to-end encryption between the client and the server, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS, used in HTTPS) or the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, this allows the exit relay to capture and modify traffic. Attacks from malicious exit relays have recorded usernames and passwords, and modified Bitcoin addresses to redirect transactions. Some of these attacks involved actively removing the HTTPS protections that would have otherwise been used. To attempt to prevent this, Tor Browser has since made it so only connections via onion services or HTTPS are allowed by default. In 2011, the Dutch authority investigating child pornography discovered the IP address of a Tor onion service site from an unprotected administrator's account and gave it to the FBI, who traced it to Aaron McGrath. After a year of surveillance, the FBI launched "Operation Torpedo" which resulted in McGrath's arrest and allowed them to install their Network Investigative Technique (NIT) malware on the servers for retrieving information from the users of the three onion service sites that McGrath controlled. The technique exploited a vulnerability in Firefox/Tor Browser that had already been patched, and therefore targeted users that had not updated. A Flash application sent a user's IP address directly back to an FBI server, and resulted in revealing at least 25 US users as well as numerous users from other countries. McGrath was sentenced to 20 years in prison in early 2014, while at least 18 others (including a former Acting HHS Cyber Security Director) were sentenced in subsequent cases. In August 2013, it was discovered that the Firefox browsers in many older versions of the Tor Browser Bundle were vulnerable to a JavaScript-deployed shellcode attack, as NoScript was not enabled by default. Attackers used this vulnerability to extract users' MAC and IP addresses and Windows computer names. News reports linked this to an FBI operation targeting Freedom Hosting's owner, Eric Eoin Marques, who was arrested on a provisional extradition warrant issued by a United States' court on 29 July. The FBI extradited Marques from Ireland to the state of Maryland on 4 charges: distributing; conspiring to distribute; and advertising child pornography, as well as aiding and abetting advertising of child pornography. The FBI acknowledged the attack in a 12 September 2013 court filing in Dublin; further technical details from a training presentation leaked by Edward Snowden revealed the code name for the exploit as "EgotisticalGiraffe". In 2022, Kaspersky researchers found that when looking up "Tor Browser" in Chinese on YouTube, one of the URLs provided under the top-ranked Chinese-language video actually pointed to malware disguised as Tor Browser. Once installed, it saved browsing history and form data that genuine Tor forgot by default, and downloaded malicious components if the device's IP addresses was in China. Kaspersky researchers noted that the malware was not stealing data to sell for profit, but was designed to identify users. Like client applications that use Tor, servers relying on onion services for protection can introduce their own weaknesses. Servers that are reachable through Tor onion services and the public Internet can be subject to correlation attacks, and all onion services are susceptible to misconfigured services (e.g., identifying information included by default in web server error responses), leaking uptime and downtime statistics, intersection attacks, or various user errors. The OnionScan program, written by independent security researcher Sarah Jamie Lewis, comprehensively examines onion services for such flaws and vulnerabilities. Software The main implementation of Tor is written primarily in C. Starting in 2020, the Tor Project began development of a full rewrite of the C Tor codebase in Rust. The project, named Arti, was publicly announced in July 2021. The Tor Browser is a web browser capable of accessing the Tor network. It was created as the Tor Browser Bundle by Steven J. Murdoch and announced in January 2008. The Tor Browser consists of a modified Mozilla Firefox ESR web browser, the TorButton, TorLauncher, NoScript and the Tor proxy. Users can run the Tor Browser from removable media. It can operate under Microsoft Windows, macOS, Android and Linux. The default search engine is currently DuckDuckGo, and was previously Startpage.com. The Tor Browser automatically starts Tor background processes and routes traffic through the Tor network. Upon termination of a session the browser deletes privacy-sensitive data such as HTTP cookies and the browsing history. This is effective in reducing web tracking, and also helps to prevent creation of a filter bubble.[citation needed] Tor Browser offers three security levels that allow users to enhance the browser's security by disabling certain features which are not always necessary for browsing the web: To allow download from places where accessing the Tor Project URL may be risky or blocked, a GitHub repository is maintained with links for releases hosted in other domains. Tor Messenger was software that sent instant messages using the Tor network. It was active from 2015 to 2018. On 29 October 2015, the Tor Project released Tor Messenger Beta, an instant messaging program based on Instantbird with Tor and OTR built in and used by default. Like Pidgin and Adium, Tor Messenger supports multiple different instant messaging protocols; however, it accomplishes this without relying on libpurple, implementing all chat protocols in the memory-safe language JavaScript instead. According to Lucian Armasu of Toms Hardware, in April 2018, the Tor Project shut down the Tor Messenger project for three reasons: the developers of "Instabird" [sic] discontinued support for their own software, limited resources and known metadata problems. The Tor Messenger developers explained that overcoming any vulnerabilities discovered in the future would be impossible due to the project relying on outdated software dependencies. In 2016, Tor developer Mike Perry announced a prototype Tor-enabled smartphone based on CopperheadOS. It was meant as a direction for Tor on mobile. The project was called 'Mission Improbable'. Copperhead's then lead developer Daniel Micay welcomed the prototype. The Vuze (formerly Azureus) BitTorrent client, Bitmessage anonymous messaging system, and TorChat instant messenger include Tor support. The Briar messenger routes all messaging via Tor by default. OnionShare allows users to share files using Tor. The Guardian Project is actively developing a free and open-source suite of applications and firmware for the Android operating system to improve the security of mobile communications. The applications include the ChatSecure instant messaging client, Orbot Tor implementation (also available for iOS), Orweb (discontinued) privacy-enhanced mobile browser, Orfox, the mobile counterpart of the Tor Browser, ProxyMob Firefox add-on, and ObscuraCam. Onion Browser is an open-source, privacy-enhancing web browser for iOS, which uses Tor. It is available in the iOS App Store, and source code is available on GitHub. Brave added support for Tor into its desktop browser's private-browsing mode in 2018, with the release of version 0.23. In September 2024, it was announced that Tails, a security-focused operating system, had become part of the Tor Project. Other security-focused operating systems that make or made extensive use of Tor include Hardened Linux From Scratch, Incognito, Liberté Linux, Qubes OS, Subgraph, Parrot OS, Tor-ramdisk, and Whonix. Reception, impact, and legislation Tor has been praised for providing privacy and anonymity to vulnerable Internet users such as political activists fearing surveillance and arrest, ordinary web users seeking to circumvent censorship, and people who have been threatened with violence or abuse by stalkers. The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has called Tor "the king of high-secure, low-latency Internet anonymity", and BusinessWeek magazine has described it as "perhaps the most effective means of defeating the online surveillance efforts of intelligence agencies around the world". Other media have described Tor as "a sophisticated privacy tool", "easy to use" and "so secure that even the world's most sophisticated electronic spies haven't figured out how to crack it". Advocates for Tor say it supports freedom of expression, including in countries where the Internet is censored, by protecting the privacy and anonymity of users. The mathematical underpinnings of Tor lead it to be characterized as acting "like a piece of infrastructure, and governments naturally fall into paying for infrastructure they want to use". The project was originally developed on behalf of the U.S. intelligence community and continues to receive U.S. government funding, and has been criticized as "more resembl[ing] a spook project than a tool designed by a culture that values accountability or transparency". As of 2012[update], 80% of The Tor Project's $2M annual budget came from the United States government, with the U.S. State Department, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and the National Science Foundation as major contributors, aiming "to aid democracy advocates in authoritarian states". Other public sources of funding include DARPA, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the Government of Sweden. Some have proposed that the government values Tor's commitment to free speech, and uses the darknet to gather intelligence.[need quotation to verify] Tor also receives funding from NGOs including Human Rights Watch, and private sponsors including Reddit and Google. Dingledine said that the United States Department of Defense funds are more similar to a research grant than a procurement contract. Tor executive director Andrew Lewman said that even though it accepts funds from the U.S. federal government, the Tor service did not collaborate with the NSA to reveal identities of users. Critics say that Tor is not as secure as it claims, pointing to U.S. law enforcement's investigations and shutdowns of Tor-using sites such as web-hosting company Freedom Hosting and online marketplace Silk Road. In October 2013, after analyzing documents leaked by Edward Snowden, The Guardian reported that the NSA had repeatedly tried to crack Tor and had failed to break its core security, although it had had some success attacking the computers of individual Tor users. The Guardian also published a 2012 NSA classified slide deck, entitled "Tor Stinks", which said: "We will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time", but "with manual analysis we can de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users". When Tor users are arrested, it is typically due to human error, not to the core technology being hacked or cracked. On 7 November 2014, for example, a joint operation by the FBI, ICE Homeland Security investigations and European Law enforcement agencies led to 17 arrests and the seizure of 27 sites containing 400 pages.[dubious – discuss] A late 2014 report by Der Spiegel using a new cache of Snowden leaks revealed, however, that as of 2012[update] the NSA deemed Tor on its own as a "major threat" to its mission, and when used in conjunction with other privacy tools such as OTR, Cspace, ZRTP, RedPhone, Tails, and TrueCrypt was ranked as "catastrophic," leading to a "near-total loss/lack of insight to target communications, presence..." In March 2011, The Tor Project received the Free Software Foundation's 2010 Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The citation read, "Using free software, Tor has enabled roughly 36 million people around the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity. Its network has proved pivotal in dissident movements in both Iran and more recently Egypt." Iran tried to block Tor at least twice in 2011. One attempt simply blocked all servers with 2-hour-expiry security certificates; it was successful for less than 24 hours. In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named Dingledine, Mathewson, and Syverson among its Top 100 Global Thinkers "for making the web safe for whistleblowers". In 2013, Jacob Appelbaum described Tor as a "part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life." In June 2013, whistleblower Edward Snowden used Tor to send information about PRISM to The Washington Post and The Guardian. In 2014, the Russian government offered a $111,000 contract to "study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users and users' equipment on the Tor anonymous network". In September 2014, in response to reports that Comcast had been discouraging customers from using the Tor Browser, Comcast issued a public statement that "We have no policy against Tor, or any other browser or software." In October 2014, The Tor Project hired the public relations firm Thomson Communications to improve its public image (particularly regarding the terms "Dark Net" and "hidden services," which are widely viewed as being problematic) and to educate journalists about the technical aspects of Tor. Turkey blocked downloads of Tor Browser from the Tor Project. In June 2015, the special rapporteur from the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights specifically mentioned Tor in the context of the debate in the U.S. about allowing so-called backdoors in encryption programs for law enforcement purposes in an interview for The Washington Post. In July 2015, the Tor Project announced an alliance with the Library Freedom Project to establish exit nodes in public libraries. The pilot program, which established a middle relay running on the excess bandwidth afforded by the Kilton Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, making it the first library in the U.S. to host a Tor node, was briefly put on hold when the local city manager and deputy sheriff voiced concerns over the cost of defending search warrants for information passed through the Tor exit node. Although the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had alerted New Hampshire authorities to the fact that Tor is sometimes used by criminals, the Lebanon Deputy Police Chief and the Deputy City Manager averred that no pressure to strong-arm the library was applied, and the service was re-established on 15 September 2015. U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) released a letter on 10 December 2015, in which she asked the DHS to clarify its procedures, stating that "While the Kilton Public Library's board ultimately voted to restore their Tor relay, I am no less disturbed by the possibility that DHS employees are pressuring or persuading public and private entities to discontinue or degrade services that protect the privacy and anonymity of U.S. citizens." In a 2016 interview, Kilton Library IT Manager Chuck McAndrew stressed the importance of getting libraries involved with Tor: "Librarians have always cared deeply about protecting privacy, intellectual freedom, and access to information (the freedom to read). Surveillance has a very well-documented chilling effect on intellectual freedom. It is the job of librarians to remove barriers to information." The second library to host a Tor node was the Las Naves Public Library in Valencia, Spain, implemented in the first months of 2016. In August 2015, an IBM security research group, called "X-Force", put out a quarterly report that advised companies to block Tor on security grounds, citing a "steady increase" in attacks from Tor exit nodes as well as botnet traffic. In September 2015, Luke Millanta created OnionView (now defunct), a web service that plots the location of active Tor relay nodes onto an interactive map of the world. The project's purpose was to detail the network's size and escalating growth rate. In December 2015, Daniel Ellsberg (of the Pentagon Papers), Cory Doctorow (of Boing Boing), Edward Snowden, and artist-activist Molly Crabapple, amongst others, announced their support of Tor. In March 2016, New Hampshire state representative Keith Ammon introduced a bill allowing public libraries to run privacy software. The bill specifically referenced Tor. The text was crafted with extensive input from Alison Macrina, the director of the Library Freedom Project. The bill was passed by the House 268–62. Also in March 2016, the first Tor node, specifically a middle relay, was established at a library in Canada, the Graduate Resource Centre (GRC) in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) at the University of Western Ontario. Given that the running of a Tor exit node is an unsettled area of Canadian law, and that in general institutions are more capable than individuals to cope with legal pressures, Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project has opined that in some ways she would like to see intelligence agencies and law enforcement attempt to intervene in the event that an exit node were established. On 16 May 2016, CNN reported on the case of core Tor developer "isis agora lovecruft", who had fled to Germany under the threat of a subpoena by the FBI during the Thanksgiving break of the previous year. The Electronic Frontier Foundation legally represented lovecruft. On 2 December 2016, The New Yorker reported on burgeoning digital privacy and security workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly at the hackerspace Noisebridge, in the wake of the 2016 United States presidential election; downloading the Tor browser was mentioned. Also, in December 2016, Turkey has blocked the usage of Tor, together with ten of the most used VPN services in Turkey, which were popular ways of accessing banned social media sites and services. Tor (and Bitcoin) was fundamental to the operation of the dark web marketplace AlphaBay, which was taken down in an international law enforcement operation in July 2017. Despite federal claims that Tor would not shield a user, however, elementary operational security errors outside of the ambit of the Tor network led to the site's downfall. In June 2017 the Democratic Socialists of America recommended intermittent Tor usage for politically active organizations and individuals as a defensive mitigation against information security threats. And in August 2017, according to reportage, cybersecurity firms which specialize in monitoring and researching the dark web (which relies on Tor as its infrastructure) on behalf of banks and retailers routinely share their findings with the FBI and with other law enforcement agencies "when possible and necessary" regarding illegal content. The Russian-speaking underground offering a crime-as-a-service model is regarded as being particularly robust. In June 2018, Venezuela blocked access to the Tor network. The block affected both direct connections to the network and connections being made via bridge relays. On 20 June 2018, Bavarian police raided the homes of the board members of the non-profit Zwiebelfreunde, a member of torservers.net, which handles the European financial transactions of riseup.net in connection with a blog post there which apparently promised violence against the upcoming Alternative for Germany convention. Tor came out strongly against the raid on its support organization, which provides legal and financial aid for the setting up and maintenance of high-speed relays and exit nodes. According to torservers.net, on 23 August 2018 the German court at Landgericht München ruled that the raid and seizures were illegal. The hardware and documentation seized had been kept under seal, and purportedly were neither analyzed nor evaluated by the Bavarian police. Since October 2018, Chinese online communities within Tor have begun to dwindle due to increased efforts to stop them by the Chinese government. In November 2019, Edward Snowden called for a full, unabridged simplified Chinese translation of his autobiography, Permanent Record, as the Chinese publisher had violated their agreement by expurgating all mentions of Tor and other matters deemed politically sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party. On 8 December 2021, the Russian government agency Roskomnadzor announced it has banned Tor and six VPN services for failing to abide by the Russian Internet blacklist. Russian ISPs unsuccessfully attempted to block Tor's main website as well as several bridges beginning on 1 December 2021. The Tor Project has appealed to Russian courts over this ban. In response to Internet censorship during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the BBC and VOA have directed Russian audiences to Tor. The Russian government increased efforts to block access to Tor through technical and political means, while the network reported an increase in traffic from Russia, and increased Russian use of its anti-censorship Snowflake tool. Russian courts temporarily lifted the blockade on Tor's website (but not connections to relays) on May 24, 2022 due to Russian law requiring that the Tor Project be involved in the case. However, the blockade was reinstated on July 21, 2022. Iran implemented rolling internet blackouts during the Mahsa Amini protests, and Tor and Snowflake were used to circumvent them. China, with its highly centralized control of its internet, had effectively blocked Tor. In January Iran International reported that Tor was seeing use in the aftermath of the 2026 Iran protests, albeit with limited success. Improved security Tor responded to earlier vulnerabilities listed above by patching them and improving security. In one way or another, human (user) errors can lead to detection. The Tor Project website provides the best practices (instructions) on how to properly use the Tor browser. When improperly used, Tor is not secure. For example, Tor warns its users that not all traffic is protected; only the traffic routed through the Tor browser is protected. Users are also warned to use HTTPS versions of websites, not to torrent with Tor, not to enable browser plugins, not to open documents downloaded through Tor while online, and to use safe bridges. Users are also warned that they cannot provide their name or other revealing information in web forums over Tor and stay anonymous at the same time. Despite intelligence agencies' claims that 80% of Tor users would be de-anonymized within 6 months in the year 2013, that has still not happened. In fact, as late as September 2016, the FBI could not locate, de-anonymize and identify the Tor user who hacked into the email account of a staffer on Hillary Clinton's email server. The best tactic of law enforcement agencies to de-anonymize users appears to remain with Tor-relay adversaries running poisoned nodes, as well as counting on the users themselves using the Tor browser improperly. For example, downloading a video through the Tor browser and then opening the same file on an unprotected hard drive while online can make the users' real IP addresses available to authorities. When properly used, odds of being de-anonymized through Tor are said to be extremely low. Tor project's co-founder Nick Mathewson explained that the problem of "Tor-relay adversaries" running poisoned nodes means that a theoretical adversary of this kind is not the network's greatest threat: "No adversary is truly global, but no adversary needs to be truly global," he says. "Eavesdropping on the entire Internet is a several-billion-dollar problem. Running a few computers to eavesdrop on a lot of traffic, a selective denial of service attack to drive traffic to your computers, that's like a tens-of-thousands-of-dollars problem." At the most basic level, an attacker who runs two poisoned Tor nodes—one entry, one exit—is able to analyse traffic and thereby identify the tiny, unlucky percentage of users whose circuit happened to cross both of those nodes. In 2016 the Tor network offers a total of around 7,000 relays, around 2,000 guard (entry) nodes and around 1,000 exit nodes. So the odds of such an event happening are one in two million (1⁄2000 × 1⁄1000), give or take." Tor does not provide protection against end-to-end timing attacks: if an attacker can watch the traffic coming out of the target computer, and also the traffic arriving at the target's chosen destination (e.g. a server hosting a .onion site), that attacker can use statistical analysis to discover that they are part of the same circuit. A similar attack has been used by German authorities to track down users related to Boystown. See also Citations Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JMP_(statistical_software)] | [TOKENS: 1765] |
Contents JMP (statistical software) JMP (pronounced "jump") is a suite of computer programs for statistical analysis and machine learning developed by JMP, a subsidiary of SAS Institute. The program was launched in 1989 to take advantage of the graphical user interface introduced by the Macintosh operating systems. It has since been significantly rewritten and made available for the Windows operating system. The software is focused on exploratory visual analytics, where users investigate and explore data. It also supports the verification of these explorations by hypothesis testing, data mining, or other analytic methods. Discoveries made using JMP's analytical tools are commonly applied for experimental design. JMP is used in applications such as data mining, Six Sigma, quality control, design of experiments, as well as for research in science, engineering, and social sciences. The software can be purchased in any of four configurations: JMP, JMP Pro, JMP Clinical, and JMP Live. JMP can be automated with its proprietary scripting language, JSL. History JMP was developed in the mid- to late-1980s by John Sall and a team of developers to make use of the graphical user interface introduced by the Apple Macintosh. It originally stood for "John's Macintosh Project" and was first released in October 1989. It was used mostly by scientists and engineers for design of experiments (DOE), quality and productivity support (Six Sigma), and reliability modeling. Semiconductor manufacturers were also among JMP's early adopters. Interactive graphics and other features were added in 1991 with version 2.0, which was introduced at the 1991 Macworld Expo. Version 2 was twice the size as the original, though it was still delivered on a floppy disk. It required 2 MB of memory and came with 700 pages of documentation. Support for Microsoft Windows was added with version 3.1 in 1994. Rewritten with Version 4 and released in 2002, JMP could import data from a wider variety of data sources and added support for surface plots. Version 4 also added time series forecasting and new smoothing models, such as the seasonal smoothing method, called Winter's Method, and ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average). It was also the first version to support JSL, JMP Scripting Language. In 2005, data mining tools like a decision tree and neural net were added with version 5 as well as Linux support, which was later withdrawn in JMP 9. Later in 2005, JMP 6 was introduced. JMP began integrating with SAS in version 7.0 in 2007 and has strengthened this integration ever since. Users can write SAS code in JMP, connect to SAS servers, and retrieve and use data from SAS. Support for bubble plots was added in version 7. JMP 7 also improved data visualization and diagnostics. JMP 8 was released in 2009 with new drag-and-drop features and a 64-bit version to take advantage of advances in the Mac operating system. It also added a new user interface for building graphs, tools for choice experiments and support for Life Distributions. According to Scientific Computing, the software had improvements in "graphics, QA, ease-of-use, SAS integration and data management areas." JMP 9 in 2010 added a new interface for using the R programming language from JMP and an add-in for Excel. The main screen was rebuilt and enhancements were made to simulations, graphics and a new Degradation platform. In March 2012, version 10 made improvements in data mining, predictive analytics, and automated model building. Version 11 was released in late 2014. It included new ease-of-use features, an Excel import wizard, and advanced features for design of experiments. Two years later, version 12.0 was introduced. According to Scientific Computing, it added a new "Modeling Utilities" submenu of tools, performance improvements and new technical features for statistical analysis. Version 13.0 was released in September 2016 and introduced various improvements to reporting, ease-of-use and its handling of large data sets in memory. Version 14.0 was released in March 2018; new functionality included a Projects file management tool alongside the ability to use your own images as markers on your graph. JMP was originally developed by a business unit of SAS Institute. As of 2011, it had 180 employees and 250,000 users. In January 2021, JMP Statistical Discovery, LLC became a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS. Software JMP consists of JMP, JMP Pro, JMP Clinical and JMP Live. It formerly included the Graph Builder iPad App. It also formerly provided JMP Genomics, a combined JMP and SAS product, but that product was discontinued, and much of the functionality for genomic data analysis is available in JMP Pro. JMP Clinical was also formerly a combined JMP/SAS software package, but currently is solely a JMP package. In 2024, JMP released also a free version of JMP Pro software for qualified students, instructors, and academic researchers currently enrolled or employed at a degree granting institution: JMP Student Edition. The software has a simple menu design, with information organized across either multiple windows or under multiple tabs within a single window. Additional contextual menus are generated with new output. The software's primary applications are for designed experiments and analyzing statistical data from industrial processes. JMP can be used in conjunction with the R and Python open source programming languages to access features not available in JMP itself. JMP software is partly focused on exploratory data analysis and visualization. It is designed for users to investigate data to learn something unexpected, as opposed to confirming a hypothesis. JMP links statistical data to graphics representing them, so users can drill down or up to explore the data and various visual representations of it. When users interact with graphical objects, corresponding points in other tables will be updated accordingly. For example, a user can select points on a graph and compare it to corresponding points on the data table, to facilitate the discovery of hidden structures within the data set. JMP has a range of capabilities related to artificial intelligence and intuitive machine learning, including support for the creation of models that incorporate predictive modelling techniques such as neural networks, advanced regression, and decision tree learning. It is a desktop application with a wizard-based user interface, while SAS can be installed on servers. According to a review in Pharmaceutical Statistics, JMP is often used as a graphical front-end for a SAS system, which performs the statistical analysis and tabulations. JMP Pro is intended for data scientists, and has an emphasis on advanced predictive modelling and model selection. JMP Genomics, used for analyzing and visualizing genomics data, requires a SAS component to operate and can access SAS/Genetics and SAS/STAT procedures or invoke SAS macros. JMP Clinical, used for analyzing clinical trial data, can package SAS code within the JSL scripting language and convert SAS code to JMP. JMP Scripting Language (JSL) The JMP Scripting Language (JSL) is an interpreted language for recreating analytic results and for automating or extending the functionality of JMP software.: 29 JSL was first introduced in JMP version 4 in 2000.: 1 JSL has a LISP-like syntax, structured as a series of expressions. All programming elements, including if-then statements and loops, are implemented as JSL functions. Data tables, display elements and analyses are represented by objects in JSL that are manipulated with named messages. Users may write JSL scripts to perform analyses and visualizations not available in the point-and-click interface or to automate a series of commands, such as weekly reports. SAS, Python, R, and Matlab code can also be executed using JSL. Notable applications JMP is used for analytics, predictive modelling, machine learning, and data mining in various industries. JMP is used in the chemical industry for applications such as chemometrics, and design of experiments, including response surface methodology. It is commonly used by chemical engineers as it contains multiple linear regression algorithms that work in tandem with its experimental design software. JMP is used in electronics manufacturing, especially in areas such as semiconductor device modeling. In 2007, a wildlife monitoring organization, WildTrack, started using JMP with the Footprint Identification Technology (FIT) system to identify individual endangered animals by their footprints. In 2009, the Chicago Botanic Garden used JMP to analyze DNA data from tropical breadfruit. Researchers determined that the seedless, starchy fruit was created by the deliberate hybridization of two fruits, the breadnut and the dugdug. JMP has applications for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in areas like molecular modelling, quality by design, statistical process control, and design of experiments. See also References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Africa] | [TOKENS: 4546] |
Contents Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopian Zone or Ethiopian Region. Major ecological regions Most of the Afrotropical realm, except for Africa's southern tip, has a tropical climate. A broad belt of deserts, including the Atlantic and Sahara deserts of northern Africa and the Arabian Desert of the Arabian Peninsula, separates the Afrotropic from the Palearctic realm, which includes northern Africa and temperate Eurasia. South of the Sahara, two belts of tropical grassland and savanna run east and west across the continent, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian Highlands. Immediately south of the Sahara lies the Sahel belt, a transitional zone of semi-arid short grassland and vachellia savanna. Rainfall increases further south in the Sudanian Savanna, also known simply as the Sudan region, a belt of taller grasslands and savannas. The Sudanian Savanna is home to two great flooded grasslands: the Sudd wetland in South Sudan, and the Niger Inland Delta in Mali. The forest-savanna mosaic is a transitional zone between the grasslands and the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests near the equator. South Arabia, which includes Yemen and parts of western Oman and southwestern Saudi Arabia, has few permanent forests. Some of the notable ones are Jabal Bura, Jabal Raymah, and Jabal Badaj in the Yemeni highland escarpment and the seasonal forests in eastern Yemen and the Dhofar region of Oman. Other woodlands that scatter the land are small, predominantly Juniperus or Vachellia forests. The forest zone, a belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forests, runs across most of equatorial Africa's Intertropical Convergence Zone. The Upper Guinean forests of West Africa extend along the coast from Guinea to Togo. The Dahomey Gap, a zone of forest-savanna mosaic that reaches to the coast, separates the Upper Guinean forests from the Lower Guinean forests, which extend along the Gulf of Guinea from eastern Benin through Cameroon and Gabon to the western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The largest tropical forest zone in Africa is the Congolian forests of the Congo Basin in Central Africa. A belt of tropical moist broadleaf forest also runs along the Indian Ocean coast, from southern Somalia to South Africa. In northeastern Africa, semi-arid Acacia-Commiphora woodlands, savannas, and bushlands are the dominant plant communities. This region is called the Somali-Masai center of endemism or Somali-Masai region. It extends from central Tanzania northwards through the Horn of Africa and covers portions of Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. Thorny, dry-season deciduous species of Vachellia and Senegalia (formerly Acacia) and Commiphora are the dominant trees, growing in open-canopied woodlands, open savannas, dense bushlands, and thickets. This region includes the Serengeti ecosystem, which is renowned for its wildlife. The Afromontane region extends from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa, including the East African Rift. This region is home to distinctive flora, including Podocarpus and Afrocarpus, as well as giant Lobelias and Senecios. The Zambezian region includes woodlands, savannas, grasslands, and thickets. Characteristic plant communities include Miombo woodlands, drier mopane and Baikiaea woodlands, and higher-elevation Bushveld. It extends from east to west in a broad belt across the continent, south of the rainforests of the Guineo-Congolian region, and north of the deserts of southeastern Africa, the countries are Malawi, Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and the subtropical. Southern Africa contains several deserts. The Namib Desert is one of the oldest deserts in the world and extends for over 2,000 kilometers along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. It is characterized by towering dunes and a diversity of endemic wildlife. Further inland concerning the Namib Desert, the Kalahari Desert is a semi-arid savanna spanning Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. The Kalahari is known for its diversity of mineral resources, particularly diamonds, as well as a variety of flora. South of the Namib and Kalahari deserts is the Karoo. A semi-desert natural region, the Karoo desert spans across parts of the Western and Eastern Cape in South Africa and contains vast open spaces and unique vegetation, such as certain species of Asteraceae flowering plants. Within the boundaries of the larger Karoo, the Tankwa Karoo is a more arid sub-region known for harsher conditions and starker landscapes. Further to the west, the Richtersveld, a mountainous desert in the northwestern corner of South Africa, presents a rugged landscape. It is celebrated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its unique biodiversity and cultural significance to the local Nama people. The Cape floristic region at Africa's southern tip is a Mediterranean climate region that is home to a significant number of endemic taxa, as well as to plant families like the proteas (Proteaceae) that are also found in the Australasian realm. Madagascar and neighboring islands form a distinctive sub-region of the realm, with numerous endemic taxa, such as lemurs. Madagascar and the Granitic Seychelles are old pieces of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, and broke away from Africa millions of years ago. Other Indian Ocean islands, like the Comoros and Mascarene Islands, are volcanic islands that formed more recently. Madagascar contains various plant habitats, from rainforests to mountains and deserts, as its biodiversity and ratio of endemism are extremely high. Endemic plants and animals The Afrotropical realm is home to several endemic plant families. Madagascar and the Indian Ocean Islands are home to ten endemic families of flowering plants; eight are endemic to Madagascar (Asteropeiaceae, Didymelaceae, Didiereaceae, Kaliphoraceae, Melanophyllaceae, Physenaceae, Sarcolaenaceae, and Sphaerosepalaceae), one to Seychelles (Medusagynaceae), and one to the Mascarene Islands (Psiloxylaceae). Twelve plant families are endemic or nearly endemic to South Africa (including Curtisiaceae, Heteropyxidaceae, Penaeaceae, Psiloxylaceae, and Rhynchocalycaceae) of which five are endemic to the Cape floristic province (including Grubbiaceae). Other endemic Afrotropic families include Barbeyaceae, Dirachmaceae, Montiniaceae, Myrothamnaceae, and Oliniaceae. The East African Great Lakes (Victoria, Malawi, and Tanganyika) are the center of biodiversity of many freshwater fishes, especially cichlids (they harbor more than two-thirds of the estimated 2,000 species in the family). The West African coastal rivers region covers only a fraction of West Africa, but harbors 322 of West Africa's fish species, with 247 restricted to this area and 129 restricted even to smaller ranges. The central rivers fauna comprise 194 fish species, with 119 endemics and only 33 restricted to small areas. The Afrotropic has various endemic bird families, including ostriches (Struthionidae), the secretary bird (Sagittariidae), guineafowl (Numididae), and mousebirds (Coliidae). Several families of passerines are limited to the Afrotropics, including rock-jumpers (Chaetopidae) and rockfowl (Picathartidae). Africa has three endemic orders of mammals, the Tubulidentata (aardvarks), Afrosoricida (tenrecs and golden moles), and Macroscelidea (elephant shrews). The East-African plains are well known for their diversity of large mammals. Four species of great apes (Hominidae) are endemic to Central Africa: both species of gorilla (western gorilla, Gorilla gorilla, and eastern gorilla, Gorilla beringei) and both species of chimpanzee (common chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes, and bonobo, Pan paniscus). Humans and their ancestors originated in Africa. Habitats The tropical environment is rich in terms of biodiversity. Tropical African forest is 18 percent of the world's total and covers over 3.6 million square kilometers of land in West, East, and Central Africa. This total area can be subdivided to 2.69 million square kilometers (74%) in Central Africa, 680,000 square kilometers (19%) in West Africa, and 250,000 square kilometers (7%) in East Africa. In West Africa, a chain of rain forests up to 350 km long extends from the eastern border of Sierra Leone to Ghana. In Ghana, the forest zone gradually dispels near the Volta River, following a 300 km stretch of Dahomey savanna gap. The rain forest of West Africa continues from east of Benin through southern Nigeria and officially ends at the border of Cameroon along the Sanaga River. Semi-deciduous rainforests in West Africa begin at the fringed coastline of Guinea Bissau (via Guinea) and run through the coasts of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, continuing through Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon, and ending at the Congo Basin. Rainforests such as these are the richest, oldest, most prolific, and most complex systems on Earth, are dying, and in turn, are upsetting the delicate ecological balance. This may disturb global hydrological cycles, release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and lessen the planet's ability to store excess carbon. The rainforest vegetation of the Guinea-Congolian transition area, extending from Senegal to western Uganda is constituted of two main types: The semi-deciduous rainforest is characterized by a large number of trees whose leaves are left during the dry season. It appears in areas where the dry period (rainfall below about 100 mm) reaches three months. Then, the evergreen or the semi-evergreen rainforest climatically adapted to somewhat more humid conditions than the semi-deciduous type and is usually there in areas where the dry period is shorter than two months. This forest is usually richer in legumes and a variety of species and its maximum development is around the Bight of Biafra, from Eastern Nigeria to Gabon, and with some large patches leaning to the west from Ghana to Liberia and to the east of Zaïre-Congo basin. Among rainforest areas in other continents, most of the African rainforest is comparatively dry and receives between 1600 and 2000 mm of rainfall per year. Areas receiving more rain than this mainly are in coastal areas. The circulation of rainfall throughout the year remains less than in other rainforest regions in the world. The average monthly rainfall in nearly the whole region remains under 100 mm throughout the year. The variety of the African rainforest flora is also less than the other rainforests. This lack of flora has been credited to several reasons such as the gradual infertility since the Miocene, severe dry periods during Quaternary, or the refuge theory of the cool and dry climate of tropical Africa during the last severe ice age of about 18,000 years ago. Fauna The Tropical African rainforest has rich fauna, commonly smaller mammal species rarely seen by humans. New species are being discovered. For instance, in late 1988 an unknown shrub species was discovered on the shores of the Median River in Western Cameroon. Since then many species have become extinct. However, undisturbed rainforests are some of the richest habitats for animal species. Today, undisturbed rainforests are remnant but rare. Timber extraction not only changes the edifice of the forest, but it also affects the tree species spectrum by removing economically important species and terminating other species in the process. The species that compose African rainforests are of different evolutionary ages because of the contraction and expansion of the rainforest in response to global climatic fluctuations. The pygmy hippopotamus, the giant forest hog, the water chevrotain, insectivores, rodents, bats, tree frogs, and bird species inhabit the forest. These species, along with a diversity of fruits and insects, make a special habitat that allows for a diversity of life. The top canopy is home to monkey species like the red colobus, Black-and-white Colobus, and many other Old-World monkey species. Many of these rare and unique species are endangered or critically endangered and need protection from poachers and provided ample habitat to thrive. Flora In Tropical Africa, about 8,500 plant species have been documented, including 403 orchid species. Species unfamiliar with the changes in forest structure for industrial use might not survive. If timber use continues and an increasing amount of farming occurs, it could lead to the mass killing of animal species. The home of nearly half of the world's animals and plant species are tropical rainforests. The rainforests provide economic resources for over-populated developing countries. Despite the stated need to save the West African forests, there are varied opinions on how best to accomplish this goal. In April 1992, countries with some of the largest surviving tropical rainforests banned a rainforest protection plan proposed by the British government. It aimed at finding endangered species of tropical trees to control their trade. Experts estimate that the rainforest of West Africa, at the present rate of deforestation, may disappear by the year 2020. Africa's rainforest, like many others emergent in the world, has a special significance to the indigenous peoples of Africa who have occupied them for millennia. Region protection Many African countries are in economic and political change, overwhelmed by conflict, making various movements of forest exploitation to maintain forest management and production more and more complicated. Forest legislation of ATO member countries aims to promote the balanced utilization of the forest domain and of wildlife and fishery to increase the input of the forest sector to the economic, social, cultural, and scientific development of the country. The rate of deforestation in Africa is less known than the rate of other tropical regions. A lack of dependable data and survey information in some countries has made change in areas of unbroken forest difficult to ascertain. The cultivation of various cash crops has led to forest depletion. West African countries depend on products like gum, copal, rubber, cola nuts, and palm oil as a source of steady income. Land use change spoils entire habitats with the forests. The conversion of forests into timber is another cause of deforestation. Over decades, the primary forest product was commercial timber. Urbanized countries account for a great percentage of the world's wood consumption, which increased greatly between 1950 and 1980. Simultaneously, preservation measures were reinforced to protect European and American forests. Economic growth and growing environmental protection in industrialized European countries caused increased demand for tropical hardwood from West Africa. In the first half of the 1980s, an annual forest loss of 7,200 km2 (2,800 sq mi) was noted down along the Gulf of Guinea, a figure equivalent to 4-5 percent of the total remaining rainforest area. By 1985, 72% of West Africa's rainforests had been transformed into fallow lands and an additional 9% had been opened up by timber exploitation. Tropical timber was used in Europe following World War II, as trade with East European countries stopped and timber noticeably became sparse in western and southern Europe. Despite efforts to promote lesser-known timber species use, the market continued to focus on part of the usable timber obtainable. West Africa was prone to selective harvesting practices; while conservationists blamed the timber industry and the farmers for felling trees, others believe rainforest destruction is connected to the problem of fuel wood. The contribution of fuel wood consumption to tree stock decline in Africa is believed to be significant. It is generally believed that firewood provides 75% of the energy used in sub-Sahara Africa. With the high demand, the consumption of wood for fuel exceeds the renewal of forest cover. Other observed changes in these forests are forest disintegration (changing the spatial continuity and creating a mosaic of forest blocks and other land cover types), and selective logging of woody species for profitable purposes that affect the forest subfloor and the biodiversity. The rainforests that remain in West Africa now greatly differ in condition from their state 30 years ago. In Guinea, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast, there is almost no primary forest cover left unscathed; in Ghana, the situation is much worse, and nearly all of the rainforest is being removed. Guinea-Bissau loses 200 to 350 km2 (77 to 135 sq mi) of forest yearly, Senegal 500 km2 (190 sq mi) of wooded savanna, and Nigeria 6,000,050,000 of both. Liberia loses 800 km2 (310 sq mi) of forests each year. Extrapolating from present rates of loss, botanist Peter Raven pictures that the majority of the world's moderate and smaller rainforests (such as in Africa) could be destroyed in forty years. Tropical Africa comprises 18% of the world's total land area covering 20 million km2 (7.7 million sq mi) of land in West and Central Africa. The region has been facing deforestation in various degrees of intensity throughout the recent decades. The actual rate of deforestation varies from one country to another and accurate data does not exist yet. Recent estimates show that the annual pace of deforestation in the region can vary from 150 km2 (58 sq mi) in Gabon to 2,900 km2 (1,100 sq mi) in Côte d'Ivoire. The remaining tropical forests still cover major areas in Central Africa but are abridged by patches in West Africa. The African Timber Organization member countries eventually recognized the cooperation between rural people and their forest environment. Customary law gives residents the right to use trees for firewood, fell trees for construction, and collect of forest products and rights for hunting or fishing and grazing or clearing of forests for maintenance agriculture. Other areas are called "protected forests", which means that uncontrolled clearings and unauthorized logging are forbidden. After World War II, commercial exploitation increased until no West African forestry department was able to make the law. By comparison with rainforests in other places of the world in 1973, Africa showed the greatest infringement though in total volume means, African timber production accounted for just one-third compared to that of Asia. The difference was due to the variety of trees in Africa forests and the demand for specific wood types in Europe. Forestry regulations in East Africa were first applied by colonial governments. The Tropical Forestry Action Plan was conceived in 1987 by the World Resources Institute in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank with hopes of halting tropical forest destruction. In its bid to stress forest conservation and development, the World Bank provided $111,103 million to developing countries, especially in Africa, to help in developing long-range forest conservation and management programs meant for ending deforestation. Historical temperature and climate In early 2007, scientists created an entirely new proxy to determine the annual mean air temperature on land—based on molecules from the cell membrane of soil-inhabiting bacteria. Scientists from the NIOZ, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research conducted a temperature record dating back to 25,000 years ago. In concordance with their German colleagues at the University of Bremen, this detailed record shows the history of land temperatures based on the molecular fossils of soil bacteria. When applying this to the outflow core of the Congo River, the core contained eroded land material and microfossils from marine algae. That concluded that the land environment of tropical Africa cooled more than the bordering Atlantic Ocean during the last ice age. Since the Congo River drains a large part of tropical central Africa, the land-derived material gives an integrated signal for a very large area. These findings further enlighten natural disparities in climate and the possible costs of a warming earth on precipitation in central Africa. Scientists discovered a way to measure sea temperature—based on organic molecules from algae growing off the surface layer of the Ocean. These organisms acclimatize the molecular composition of their cell membranes to ambient temperature to sustain regular physiological properties. If such molecules sink to the sea floor and are buried in sediments where oxygen does not go through, they can be preserved for thousands of years. The ratios between the different molecules from the algal cell membrane can approximate the past temperature of the sea surface. The new “proxy” used in this sediment core obtained both a continental and a sea surface temperature record. In comparison, both records show that ocean surface and land temperatures behaved differently during the past 25,000 years. During the last ice age, African temperatures were 21 °C, about 4 °C lower than today, while the tropical Atlantic Ocean was only about 2.5 °C cooler. Lead author Johan Weijers and his colleagues concluded that the land-sea temperature difference has by far the largest influence on continental rainfall. The relation of air pressure to temperature strongly determines this factor. During the last ice age, the land climate in tropical Africa was drier than it is now, whereas it favors the growth of a lush rainforest. See also References Bibliography Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.mako.co.il/entertainment-celebs/local-2026/Article-96d51b0d9267c91026.htm] | [TOKENS: 23198] |
שחר חיון עשתה פדיחה, אבל למה אנשים לא משחררים מזהשנה אחרי קמפיין התחבורה הציבורית של שחר חיון, האמוג'ים של האוטובוסים עדיין רודפים אותה. כמעט על כל סרטון בטיקטוק שלה אפשר למצוא תגובות מאוכזבות – אבל האמת היא שהסיפור הזה גדול מחיון עצמה. מקמפיין שמירת הנידה ועד עוגת השוקולד ב-140 שקל של דניאל עמית, משבר האמון בין המשפיעניות לעוקבות מאיים למוטט את התעשייה כולהאספיר איובובmakoפורסם: 19.02.26, 16:30צילום: מתוך אינסטגרם, צילומי מסךהקישור הועתקשנה עברה מאז השיקה שרת התחבורה מירי רגב את רפורמת "צדק תחבורתי". במציאות הישראלית העמוסה זה אולי נצח, אבל דווקא ביקום הטיקטוקי המהיר והקצבי, נדמה שלא חלפה אפילו שעה. יחד עם הרפורמה הושק גם קמפיין משפיענים שהיללו את ההנחות בתחבורה הציבורית שחילקה השרה (יש מי שטוענים שהן מיטיבות עם מגזרים מסוימים בלבד), ובהם שחר חיון. מה שהיה אמור להיות עוד קמפיין חביב עם המילה הכה-תמימה שכולנו כבר התרגלנו לראות, "בשיתוף", הפך לאירוע מתגלגל שממשיך להטיל קלון על דמותה של חיון, גם אחרי שנה.חיון בת ה-25, דוגמנית ושחקנית מצליחה, הייתה לכאורה המועמדת המושלמת לשיווק מוצר עממי כמו תחבורה ציבורית. הנגישות שלה לא נובעת מניסיון "להיות פשוטה", אלא להפך, מהעובדה שגם כדוגמנית מצליחה, היא לא אימצה פרסונה מנותקת. היא מדברת כמוני וכמוך, יש לה הומור עצמי, היא מתייעצת עם הרב שלה לפני כל החלטה ומבקרת תדיר ב"עובד בכפר". ולמרות זאת יש עובדה אחת מאוד משמעותית שגרמה לקמפיין התחבורה הציבורית להפוך לפארסה – העובדה שחיון, ובכן, נוהגת בטסלה מפנקת, כפי שהיא שיתפה לא פעם. במסגרת אותו הקמפיין, אגב, התקשר המשרד עם 33 יוצרי תוכן בסך הכל. העלות הממוצעת לכל ספק עמדה על כ-20 אלף שקל, וסך עלות הקמפיין נטו הסתכמה ב-672,653 שקל מכספי המסים של כולנו.שנה חלפה, והקהל לא שוכח ולא סולח. בכל סרטון שהעלתה חיון מאז אפשר למצוא בתגובות מבול אמוג'ים של אוטובוסים וטענות על כך שהיא מכרה את עצמה ואת עוקביה בשביל פרסום שקרי. אבל האמת היא שמאחורי הביף בין חיון לעוקבים מסתתר משבר אמון עמוק שמאיים לפגוע בתעשיית המשפיענות כולה, ששווייה הוערך בשנת 2025 בכ-30 מיליארד דולר. עוד לא סיימנו לפענח לחלוטין את טיבה של מערכת היחסים הזאת, ונראה שהופ – היא כבר נהרסה.האינטרנט לא שוכחכשאנחנו משלמים שמונה שקלים על מוצר נחות כמו נסיעה באוטובוס, שלא תמיד אפשר להאמין שיגיע בזמן או בכלל, קשה שלא לכעוס על חיון. הפרסום שלה התחיל בסביבות 2021, כשהיא העלתה לטיקטוק סרטונים קצרים ומשעשעים וסחפה את הרשת עם ההומור שלה. היום מחזיקה חיון ביותר מחצי מיליון עוקבים באינסטגרם, ב-730 עוקבים בטיקטוק ובלא מעט קמפיינים מסחריים. בין היתר היא השיקה מותג מוצרי יודאיקה משלה עם סידורים ובתי מזוזה. היא חולקת עם העוקבים שלה את שגרת חייה האינטנסיבית, שכוללת התעוררות בחמש בבוקר מדי יום ואימוני ספורט, אבל גם קיפולי כביסה על הספה. היא מעלה לסטורי תמונות של ארוחות ערב סטנדרטיות שכוללות חביתה, קוטג' וירקות, וגם תמונות מביקורה האחרון ב"איקאה".בהמשך התברר שרפורמת "צדק תחבורתי" הייתה רק הפרומו. לא הרבה אחר כך, באוגוסט, פרסמה חיון סרטון שת"פ עם יבואנית מוצרי החשמל שריג אלקטריק. בסרטון הצטלמה חיון כשהיא משתמשת בדיפיוזר מייבש שיער מבית חברת Shark Beauty שמתאים לשיער מתולתל, אבל גם כאן העוקבות שמו לב לבעיה – איך בחורה עם החלקה בשיער משתמשת במייבש שיער שנועד לשיער מתולתל? כמו כל סערה בכוס תה, גם זו אולי עברה בשלום אצל האנשים הרגילים, אבל האינטרנט לא שוכח והעוקבים ממשיכים עד היום להגיב בעקביות לכל סרטון של חיון ולציין את חוסר האמינות שלה. דיפיוזר-גייט הייתה נקודת השבר שאחריה כבר שום סרטון ושום סטורי לא עברו בשלום.פרסומתאל לנו לשפוט את הכסף שהמשפיעניות מרוויחות בעבודה קשה ואת המעמד שהרוויחו באמצעות שנים על גבי שנים של יצירת תוכן עד שמשהו תפס. בעולם רווי גירויים חייבים להעריך את מי שמצליחות לתפוס את העין הציבורית באופן עקבי ולאורך זמן. מנגד נשאלת השאלה איך אפשר לזרוק לפח את מה שגרם לאותן נשים להיות אהובות מלכתחילה – האמינות שלהן. חיון היא אולי מהבולטות שעלו על המוקד, אבל לא היחידה.גם דניאל עמית, ארוסתה של שורדת השבי אמילי דמארי, מנהלת עם עוקביה מערכת יחסים שנעה בין אותנטיות שובת לב למסחריות אגרסיבית. עמית חוללה סערה כשהוציאה תחת שמה עוגת שוקולד בקופסת מתכת שמחירה 140 שקל, אך מהר מאוד התגלה שמדובר בעוגה של רשת פיס אוף קייק שעולה במקור 80 שקלים בלבד. או, למשל, כשעמית שאלה את עוקביה "למי יש כיוון לירוק?", ברמיזה לשימוש בוויד, היא למעשה רק פרסמה את מותג התה ויסוצקי.פרסומתהעוגה של דניאל עמית | צילום: ריטה גולדשטיין, mako דניאל עמית חוללה סערה כשהוציאה תחת שמה עוגת שוקולד בקופסת מתכת שמחירה 140 שקל, אך מהר מאוד התגלה שמדובר בעוגה שעולה במקור 80 שקלים בלבד מעיין אדם היא דוגמה למי שחטפה לא מעט אש במהלך הקריירה שלה ברשתות החברתיות. כשפתחה את מותג התכשיטים שלה MADAM, לא מעט שמו לב לדמיון מפתיע שבין התכשיטים שלה לאלו שנמכרים באתרים כמו עליאקספרס ושיין. מי שיצאו נגדה היו לא רק העוקבות ששמו לב לפערי המחיר הגדולים אלא גם מעצבות ומעצבי תכשיטים שלמדו במשך שנים מקצוע וגילו בוקר אחד שהמשפיעניות החליטו לקחת על עצמן עוד ועוד טייטלים. גם כאן אנחנו העוקבות מצאנו את עצמנו מותשות מהמהלך, שבקלות היה אפשר לפתור באמצעות גילוי נאות או יושרה מקצועית.מעיין אדם | צילום: מתוך "חיים ומעיין", קשת 12פרסומתבשנת 2022 גילינו שאפשר למכור הכל, גם אמונה באלוהים. באותה שנה התפוצצה פרשת קידום שמירת הנידה על ידי כוכבות כמו יעל בר זוהר, מיכל אנסקי ושי מיקה, שקיבלו לא מעט כסף כדי לקדם ולשתף את הרגלי הנידה שלהן, לכאורה. אשת העסקים רותי לבייב, מקימת המיזם "שעשני אישה", שילמה עשרות אלפי שקלים למשפיעניות כדי לדבר על אחד הדברים האינטימיים ביותר בדת וביחסי המשפחה, והבעיה במקרה הזה הייתה לא רק היעדרו של גילוי נאות שמצביע על כך שמדובר בפרויקט שיווקי, אלא בהסרת הגבולות לגבי מה משפיעניות יכולות למכור לנו. ברגע הזה, הסתבר שגם על אמונה באלוהים ושמירת מצוות אפשר להוציא קבלות להוצאה מוכרת. השערורייה הזאת החריפה לכדי תביעה ייצוגית על סך 2.5 מיליון שקלים, תביעה שטרם הגיעה להכרעה.הרגע שבו חומות ההגנה נופלותכמו חיון, כמעט כל משפיענית בפיד החלה את דרכה כאישה רגילה ומצחיקה שמנסה לבדר את הקהל, או כמי שפשוט רוצה לשתף בחייה האישיים וליצור הזדהות. התאהבנו בהן, אבל כשהן החלו לתפוס את תשומת הלב שלנו, לאט-לאט החלה האותנטיות לשקוע והעמוד הפך הלכה למעשה לנדל"ן פרסום. הבעיה הגדולה טמונה במילה "התאהבנו". כוכבות הרשת נכנסו עמוק מדי ללב שלנו, ובניגוד להפסקת הפרסומות, שמראש נתפסת כדבר מלאכותי, הרגשנו שהן חברות שלנו. כשגילינו ששיקרו נשבר לנו הלב, ממש כאילו חברה אמיתית שברה לנו אותו.התחושות הללו מגובות במחקר שערכו בשנת 2024 ד"ר אלעד הריסון ופרופ' יעל להב מאוניברסיטת בר-אילן. החוקרים מצאו קשר ישיר ומובהק בין רמת האמון שרוחשת עוקבת למשפיענית ובין הנטייה שלה לבצע רכישות אימפולסיביות. המחקר חשף כי הכוח הגדול ביותר של משפיעניות רשת טמון לא במוצר עצמו אלא בבניית אמון וקרבה (Trustworthiness & Relatability) עם הקהל שלהן. החוקרים מצאו כי נשים נוטות לבצע רכישות לא בגלל המוצר עצמו אלא כי הן תופסות את המשפיענית כדמות סמכותית, ועם זאת כ"אחת משלהן". תחושת הקהילתיות והאינטימיות המדומה שנוצרה מבעד למסך ביטלה את חומות ההגנה הטבעיות שלנו כצרכנים והפכה את המלצת הקנייה לכזו שמתקבלת כעצה מחברה טובה ולא כפרסומת.פרסומתנקודה מרכזית אחרת במחקר היא השפעת התוכן הוויזואלי והלייף-סטייל על תהליך קבלת ההחלטות. המשפיעניות מוכרות לא רק פריט לבוש או קרם פנים אלא עולם ערכים שלם ושאיפה לסטנדרט אסתטי מסוים. המחקר מדגיש כי נשים חוות לעתים קרובות את הרכישה כדרך לגשר על הפער בין המציאות שלהן לבין החיים המושלמים שמוצגים בסטורי. פעולת הקנייה הופכת לניסיון לקנות כרטיס כניסה לאותו סגנון חיים נכסף, מה שמוביל לא פעם להחלטות אימפולסיביות המבוססות על רגש ולא על צורך ממשי.לבסוף, המחקר מצביע על כך שהמעורבות (Engagement) הגבוהה ברשתות החברתיות – הלייקים, התגובות והשיתופים – יוצרת לחץ חברתי סמוי. כשעוקבת רואה נשים אחרות בקהילה מגיבות בהתלהבות למוצר, נוצר אפקט של "אישור חברתי", שמאיץ את תהליך הרכישה. כך נוצר מנגנון פסיכולוגי רב-עוצמה שמשנה מהיסוד את האופן שבו נשים מנהלות את תקציב הצריכה שלהן בעידן הדיגיטלי. ההשפעה החברתית כאן מרחיקת לכת, ובעיקר משפיעה על נערות צעירות שזקוקות לאישור חברתי. במקרה של חיון, וביתר המקרים שבהן משפיענית אכזבה או התגלתה כלא אמינה, הפרקטיקות הללו נחשפו – ומכאן הזעם הציבורי שנמשך כבר שנה.פרסומתיש תחושה שאנחנו בסטיזבקהילות הנשים ברשתות החברתיות התחילו לשים לב מקרוב ל"פאלטות" של אמינות מהסוג של חיון ודומותיה. כך למשל כתבה חברה באחת מהן בהתייחסות לרשת פיצריות גדולה ומוכרת: "תקשיבו, לא נעים לי אבל אני חייבת לפתוח את זה. שמתי לב שיש הבדל בין משלוחים שאני מזמינה לבין משלוחים שאני רואה שמשפיעניות מעלות... דניאל עמית הנסיכה, כשהיא מעלה את הפיצות שלהם זה נראה מה זה מגרה, מלא קונפי שום, פינוק של כמויות בגבינה, מגיע רותח וחם. כשאני מזמינה זה מגיע עם קונפי שום אחד על כל משולש, יענו עשו טובה ששמו בכלל ולא חם, אלא פושר... אני מבינה שהם עובדים איתם ויש שיתוף פעולה ואנא עארף, אבל בחיאת! מזמינים מהעיניים כי הם מעלים כרגע סטורי ויש חשק. תשקיעו קצת, זה השם שלכם".התגובות בפוסט מסכימות עם הנאמר: "מבאס, אבל בכל מה שקשור לאושיות האלו, אין אמונה", "רק עכשיו גילית שכל מה שרואים אצל המשפיעניות האלה זה שקר?" וגם, "כל מה שהן ימכרו פשוט לא אמין, כמה שהן יגידו בסטורי, 'אתן יודעות שאני לא אפרסם משהו שלא ניסיתי, בלה בלה...', בסוף הן מוכרות כמו כל מוכרת בחנות כזו או אחרת שיש לה אינטרס למכור בשביל לקבל בונוס".על רקע משבר האמון הזה צמחו בשנים האחרונות גם משפיעניות מסוג אחר – אנטי-משפיענות. כך למשל דורין אטיאס, מבקרת האופנה הנשכנית שהתבטאה באופן פרובוקטיבי נגד התופעה כבר לפני שלוש שנים: "רק קודי קופון, אתן מוכרניות זולות. אפס אחריות כלפי אנשים שחושבים שהם צריכים קרם לחור של התחת ב-700 שקל. כל הסיפור הזה, הן מעזות לקרוא לעצמן בשמות מפוצצים. איפה אתן כשצריכים אתכן?", היא אמרה אז.פרסומתדורין אטיאס | צילום: אינסטגרם, attiasdorin דורין אטיאס יצאה נגד התופעה כבר בשנת 2023 כשאמרה: "אתן מוכרניות זולות. אפס אחריות כלפי אנשים שחושבים שהם צריכים קרם לחור של התחת ב-700 שקל" בשנים האחרונות נפוצו ברשת אתגרי low-buy, יוזמות שמטרתן לצמצם קניות למינימום ההכרחי. המשתתפים מגדירים מראש כללים ברורים לגבי מה מותר לקנות (למשל מזון, תרופות, מוצרי היגיינה) ומה אסור או מוגבל (בגדים חדשים, קוסמטיקה, גאדג'טים). הרעיון אינו הימנעות מוחלטת מצריכה, אלא צריכה מודעת ואיתה גם ניסיון לנטרל את הכוח שנצבר בידיים של המשפיעניות. גם אם תרבות ה-low buy עוד לא לגמרי תפסה תאוצה, עבור רבים זהו תרגיל בשליטה עצמית או מחאה שקטה נגד תרבות הצריכה.מי שמייצגת את התופעה הזו היא רעות תורג'מן, יוצרת תוכן ומנהלת קהילת אינסטגרם מינימליסטית שמזכירה לנו שזה בסדר ללבוש את אותה החולצה במשך שנתיים, ושלא חייב כל הזמן לקנות חדש. רעות מלווה כיום נשים בתהליכים לשינוי הרגלי הצריכה מתוך מקום של היכרות עמוקה עם התהום הצרכנית. "במשך רוב חיי הבוגרים הייתי מכורה לקניות ברמה כזאת שלא עבר שבוע בלי שקניתי משהו. הרבה פעמים זה היה פעמיים-שלוש בשבוע, אלפי שקלים שהיום אני מגדירה כבזבוז. לפני שש שנים עשיתי את המעבר למינימליזם צרכני ואופנתי, והיום אני עוזרת לנשים להבין שאפשר לחיות אחרת. דווקא בגלל שאני מגיעה מעולמות השיווק, אני מבינה איך המנגנון הזה עובד", אומרת תורג'מן. "לא כל משפיענית הופכת למצליחה, אבל אלו שמצליחות הן אלו שיוצרות חיבור אישי עם העוקבים שלהן. הן בונות מערכת יחסים שמטשטשת את העובדה שיש כאן עסק ולקוחה, יש תחושה שאנחנו בסטיז".פרסומתמה הופך את הקשר הזה למסוכן כל כך לארנק שלנו? "המשפיעניות המצליחות גורמות לעוקבות להרגיש חלק מקהילה, ממשהו גדול יותר. העוקבת מרגישה שהיא קונה מהחברה הכי טובה שלה, וכשהיא מגלה ששיקרו לה – הפגיעה חמורה פי כמה וכמה. כשמשפיענית מקבלת הצעת נישואים, העוקבות כותבות לה, 'התרגשתי כמו בהצעה שלי', אבל אני תמיד מזכירה שיש כאן רק אחת שמגהצת את כרטיס האשראי בסוף. מי שמצליחה לטשטש את הגבול הזה, היא זו שתצליח גם במכירות"."היום לא קונים רק מוצר, קונים סיפור", מוסיפה תורג'מן. "נשים שמשתחררות מהלופ הזה מספרות לי שהרגע הכי מרגש שלהן היה כשמשפיענית שיתפה סטורי שלהן והן הרגישו חלק ממשהו. זה מגיע לכל הגילים, מנערות, דרך סטודנטיות ועד נשים בנות 67. למעמד הסוציו-אקונומי אין חשיבות, יש נשים שמחכות ל-10 בחודש רק כדי להתחיל לרכוש. יש משפיעניות שמגדירות את התאריך הזה כיום חג".פרסומתמי אשם במצב הזה, המשפיעניות שמנצלות את הקשר האינטימי שנוצר או העוקבות? "שאלת האחריות היא מורכבת, אבל התשובה שלי פשוטה: האחריות היא עליי, על כל אחת מאיתנו. אפשר להיות צינית כלפי אופן השיווק שלפעמים מלגלג על האינטליגנציה, אבל בשורה התחתונה, האחריות לכרטיס האשראי היא שלי. המשפיעניות עובדות קשה ומתפרנסות וזה בסדר, אבל כל אחת מאיתנו חייבת לזכור שבסופו של דבר מדובר בעסק".רעות תורג'מן | צילום: שירן קמר רעות תורג'מן: "כשמשפיענית מקבלת הצעת נישואים, העוקבות כותבות לה, 'התרגשתי כמו בהצעה שלי', אבל אני תמיד מזכירה שיש כאן רק אחת שמגהצת את כרטיס האשראי בסוף" דווקא באינטרנט, שלכאורה מקדש את תרבות האינסטנט עם הסרטונים באורך 15 שניות והסטוריז שנעלמים אחרי 24 שעות, העוקבים זוכרים. ולא רק שהם זוכרים, הם מחליטים גם ללמד לקח את מי שסרח, גם אם בדמות אמוג'י של אוטובוס על כל סרטון, גם אחרי שנה. תופעת המשפיענות אולי לא עומדת לגווע בקרוב, אבל היא עומדת לשנות צורה ולהציב סטנדרט חדש של אמינות, גילוי נאות ושמירה על סטנדרטי אתי וצרכני גבוה יותר מבעבר.פרסומתשחר חיון אולי הפכה לסמל של משבר האמון שנוצר בין העוקבים למשפיעניות, אבל כמוה יש עוד רבות אחרות שאכפת להן קצת פחות מהקהל שלהן. חשוב לזכור שהאחריות מוטלת עלינו, הצרכניות, והגיע הזמן שנגיב בהתאם. אם זו משפיענית שמשקרת בביטחון על המוצרים שהיא מוכרת, משפיענית שמקבלת תשלום על קידום דעות מסוימות או מעתיקה מאחרים, הגיע הזמן לשרטט את הגבול.אינסטגרםטיקטוקמירי רגבשחר חיוןתחבורה ציבוריתמצאתם טעות לשון? שחר חיון עשתה פדיחה, אבל למה אנשים לא משחררים מזה שנה אחרי קמפיין התחבורה הציבורית של שחר חיון, האמוג'ים של האוטובוסים עדיין רודפים אותה. כמעט על כל סרטון בטיקטוק שלה אפשר למצוא תגובות מאוכזבות – אבל האמת היא שהסיפור הזה גדול מחיון עצמה. מקמפיין שמירת הנידה ועד עוגת השוקולד ב-140 שקל של דניאל עמית, משבר האמון בין המשפיעניות לעוקבות מאיים למוטט את התעשייה כולה שנה עברה מאז השיקה שרת התחבורה מירי רגב את רפורמת "צדק תחבורתי". במציאות הישראלית העמוסה זה אולי נצח, אבל דווקא ביקום הטיקטוקי המהיר והקצבי, נדמה שלא חלפה אפילו שעה. יחד עם הרפורמה הושק גם קמפיין משפיענים שהיללו את ההנחות בתחבורה הציבורית שחילקה השרה (יש מי שטוענים שהן מיטיבות עם מגזרים מסוימים בלבד), ובהם שחר חיון. מה שהיה אמור להיות עוד קמפיין חביב עם המילה הכה-תמימה שכולנו כבר התרגלנו לראות, "בשיתוף", הפך לאירוע מתגלגל שממשיך להטיל קלון על דמותה של חיון, גם אחרי שנה. חיון בת ה-25, דוגמנית ושחקנית מצליחה, הייתה לכאורה המועמדת המושלמת לשיווק מוצר עממי כמו תחבורה ציבורית. הנגישות שלה לא נובעת מניסיון "להיות פשוטה", אלא להפך, מהעובדה שגם כדוגמנית מצליחה, היא לא אימצה פרסונה מנותקת. היא מדברת כמוני וכמוך, יש לה הומור עצמי, היא מתייעצת עם הרב שלה לפני כל החלטה ומבקרת תדיר ב"עובד בכפר". ולמרות זאת יש עובדה אחת מאוד משמעותית שגרמה לקמפיין התחבורה הציבורית להפוך לפארסה – העובדה שחיון, ובכן, נוהגת בטסלה מפנקת, כפי שהיא שיתפה לא פעם. במסגרת אותו הקמפיין, אגב, התקשר המשרד עם 33 יוצרי תוכן בסך הכל. העלות הממוצעת לכל ספק עמדה על כ-20 אלף שקל, וסך עלות הקמפיין נטו הסתכמה ב-672,653 שקל מכספי המסים של כולנו. שנה חלפה, והקהל לא שוכח ולא סולח. בכל סרטון שהעלתה חיון מאז אפשר למצוא בתגובות מבול אמוג'ים של אוטובוסים וטענות על כך שהיא מכרה את עצמה ואת עוקביה בשביל פרסום שקרי. אבל האמת היא שמאחורי הביף בין חיון לעוקבים מסתתר משבר אמון עמוק שמאיים לפגוע בתעשיית המשפיענות כולה, ששווייה הוערך בשנת 2025 בכ-30 מיליארד דולר. עוד לא סיימנו לפענח לחלוטין את טיבה של מערכת היחסים הזאת, ונראה שהופ – היא כבר נהרסה. כשאנחנו משלמים שמונה שקלים על מוצר נחות כמו נסיעה באוטובוס, שלא תמיד אפשר להאמין שיגיע בזמן או בכלל, קשה שלא לכעוס על חיון. הפרסום שלה התחיל בסביבות 2021, כשהיא העלתה לטיקטוק סרטונים קצרים ומשעשעים וסחפה את הרשת עם ההומור שלה. היום מחזיקה חיון ביותר מחצי מיליון עוקבים באינסטגרם, ב-730 עוקבים בטיקטוק ובלא מעט קמפיינים מסחריים. בין היתר היא השיקה מותג מוצרי יודאיקה משלה עם סידורים ובתי מזוזה. היא חולקת עם העוקבים שלה את שגרת חייה האינטנסיבית, שכוללת התעוררות בחמש בבוקר מדי יום ואימוני ספורט, אבל גם קיפולי כביסה על הספה. היא מעלה לסטורי תמונות של ארוחות ערב סטנדרטיות שכוללות חביתה, קוטג' וירקות, וגם תמונות מביקורה האחרון ב"איקאה". בהמשך התברר שרפורמת "צדק תחבורתי" הייתה רק הפרומו. לא הרבה אחר כך, באוגוסט, פרסמה חיון סרטון שת"פ עם יבואנית מוצרי החשמל שריג אלקטריק. בסרטון הצטלמה חיון כשהיא משתמשת בדיפיוזר מייבש שיער מבית חברת Shark Beauty שמתאים לשיער מתולתל, אבל גם כאן העוקבות שמו לב לבעיה – איך בחורה עם החלקה בשיער משתמשת במייבש שיער שנועד לשיער מתולתל? כמו כל סערה בכוס תה, גם זו אולי עברה בשלום אצל האנשים הרגילים, אבל האינטרנט לא שוכח והעוקבים ממשיכים עד היום להגיב בעקביות לכל סרטון של חיון ולציין את חוסר האמינות שלה. דיפיוזר-גייט הייתה נקודת השבר שאחריה כבר שום סרטון ושום סטורי לא עברו בשלום. אל לנו לשפוט את הכסף שהמשפיעניות מרוויחות בעבודה קשה ואת המעמד שהרוויחו באמצעות שנים על גבי שנים של יצירת תוכן עד שמשהו תפס. בעולם רווי גירויים חייבים להעריך את מי שמצליחות לתפוס את העין הציבורית באופן עקבי ולאורך זמן. מנגד נשאלת השאלה איך אפשר לזרוק לפח את מה שגרם לאותן נשים להיות אהובות מלכתחילה – האמינות שלהן. חיון היא אולי מהבולטות שעלו על המוקד, אבל לא היחידה. גם דניאל עמית, ארוסתה של שורדת השבי אמילי דמארי, מנהלת עם עוקביה מערכת יחסים שנעה בין אותנטיות שובת לב למסחריות אגרסיבית. עמית חוללה סערה כשהוציאה תחת שמה עוגת שוקולד בקופסת מתכת שמחירה 140 שקל, אך מהר מאוד התגלה שמדובר בעוגה של רשת פיס אוף קייק שעולה במקור 80 שקלים בלבד. או, למשל, כשעמית שאלה את עוקביה "למי יש כיוון לירוק?", ברמיזה לשימוש בוויד, היא למעשה רק פרסמה את מותג התה ויסוצקי. דניאל עמית חוללה סערה כשהוציאה תחת שמה עוגת שוקולד בקופסת מתכת שמחירה 140 שקל, אך מהר מאוד התגלה שמדובר בעוגה שעולה במקור 80 שקלים בלבד מעיין אדם היא דוגמה למי שחטפה לא מעט אש במהלך הקריירה שלה ברשתות החברתיות. כשפתחה את מותג התכשיטים שלה MADAM, לא מעט שמו לב לדמיון מפתיע שבין התכשיטים שלה לאלו שנמכרים באתרים כמו עליאקספרס ושיין. מי שיצאו נגדה היו לא רק העוקבות ששמו לב לפערי המחיר הגדולים אלא גם מעצבות ומעצבי תכשיטים שלמדו במשך שנים מקצוע וגילו בוקר אחד שהמשפיעניות החליטו לקחת על עצמן עוד ועוד טייטלים. גם כאן אנחנו העוקבות מצאנו את עצמנו מותשות מהמהלך, שבקלות היה אפשר לפתור באמצעות גילוי נאות או יושרה מקצועית. בשנת 2022 גילינו שאפשר למכור הכל, גם אמונה באלוהים. באותה שנה התפוצצה פרשת קידום שמירת הנידה על ידי כוכבות כמו יעל בר זוהר, מיכל אנסקי ושי מיקה, שקיבלו לא מעט כסף כדי לקדם ולשתף את הרגלי הנידה שלהן, לכאורה. אשת העסקים רותי לבייב, מקימת המיזם "שעשני אישה", שילמה עשרות אלפי שקלים למשפיעניות כדי לדבר על אחד הדברים האינטימיים ביותר בדת וביחסי המשפחה, והבעיה במקרה הזה הייתה לא רק היעדרו של גילוי נאות שמצביע על כך שמדובר בפרויקט שיווקי, אלא בהסרת הגבולות לגבי מה משפיעניות יכולות למכור לנו. ברגע הזה, הסתבר שגם על אמונה באלוהים ושמירת מצוות אפשר להוציא קבלות להוצאה מוכרת. השערורייה הזאת החריפה לכדי תביעה ייצוגית על סך 2.5 מיליון שקלים, תביעה שטרם הגיעה להכרעה. כמו חיון, כמעט כל משפיענית בפיד החלה את דרכה כאישה רגילה ומצחיקה שמנסה לבדר את הקהל, או כמי שפשוט רוצה לשתף בחייה האישיים וליצור הזדהות. התאהבנו בהן, אבל כשהן החלו לתפוס את תשומת הלב שלנו, לאט-לאט החלה האותנטיות לשקוע והעמוד הפך הלכה למעשה לנדל"ן פרסום. הבעיה הגדולה טמונה במילה "התאהבנו". כוכבות הרשת נכנסו עמוק מדי ללב שלנו, ובניגוד להפסקת הפרסומות, שמראש נתפסת כדבר מלאכותי, הרגשנו שהן חברות שלנו. כשגילינו ששיקרו נשבר לנו הלב, ממש כאילו חברה אמיתית שברה לנו אותו. התחושות הללו מגובות במחקר שערכו בשנת 2024 ד"ר אלעד הריסון ופרופ' יעל להב מאוניברסיטת בר-אילן. החוקרים מצאו קשר ישיר ומובהק בין רמת האמון שרוחשת עוקבת למשפיענית ובין הנטייה שלה לבצע רכישות אימפולסיביות. המחקר חשף כי הכוח הגדול ביותר של משפיעניות רשת טמון לא במוצר עצמו אלא בבניית אמון וקרבה (Trustworthiness & Relatability) עם הקהל שלהן. החוקרים מצאו כי נשים נוטות לבצע רכישות לא בגלל המוצר עצמו אלא כי הן תופסות את המשפיענית כדמות סמכותית, ועם זאת כ"אחת משלהן". תחושת הקהילתיות והאינטימיות המדומה שנוצרה מבעד למסך ביטלה את חומות ההגנה הטבעיות שלנו כצרכנים והפכה את המלצת הקנייה לכזו שמתקבלת כעצה מחברה טובה ולא כפרסומת. נקודה מרכזית אחרת במחקר היא השפעת התוכן הוויזואלי והלייף-סטייל על תהליך קבלת ההחלטות. המשפיעניות מוכרות לא רק פריט לבוש או קרם פנים אלא עולם ערכים שלם ושאיפה לסטנדרט אסתטי מסוים. המחקר מדגיש כי נשים חוות לעתים קרובות את הרכישה כדרך לגשר על הפער בין המציאות שלהן לבין החיים המושלמים שמוצגים בסטורי. פעולת הקנייה הופכת לניסיון לקנות כרטיס כניסה לאותו סגנון חיים נכסף, מה שמוביל לא פעם להחלטות אימפולסיביות המבוססות על רגש ולא על צורך ממשי. לבסוף, המחקר מצביע על כך שהמעורבות (Engagement) הגבוהה ברשתות החברתיות – הלייקים, התגובות והשיתופים – יוצרת לחץ חברתי סמוי. כשעוקבת רואה נשים אחרות בקהילה מגיבות בהתלהבות למוצר, נוצר אפקט של "אישור חברתי", שמאיץ את תהליך הרכישה. כך נוצר מנגנון פסיכולוגי רב-עוצמה שמשנה מהיסוד את האופן שבו נשים מנהלות את תקציב הצריכה שלהן בעידן הדיגיטלי. ההשפעה החברתית כאן מרחיקת לכת, ובעיקר משפיעה על נערות צעירות שזקוקות לאישור חברתי. במקרה של חיון, וביתר המקרים שבהן משפיענית אכזבה או התגלתה כלא אמינה, הפרקטיקות הללו נחשפו – ומכאן הזעם הציבורי שנמשך כבר שנה. בקהילות הנשים ברשתות החברתיות התחילו לשים לב מקרוב ל"פאלטות" של אמינות מהסוג של חיון ודומותיה. כך למשל כתבה חברה באחת מהן בהתייחסות לרשת פיצריות גדולה ומוכרת: "תקשיבו, לא נעים לי אבל אני חייבת לפתוח את זה. שמתי לב שיש הבדל בין משלוחים שאני מזמינה לבין משלוחים שאני רואה שמשפיעניות מעלות... דניאל עמית הנסיכה, כשהיא מעלה את הפיצות שלהם זה נראה מה זה מגרה, מלא קונפי שום, פינוק של כמויות בגבינה, מגיע רותח וחם. כשאני מזמינה זה מגיע עם קונפי שום אחד על כל משולש, יענו עשו טובה ששמו בכלל ולא חם, אלא פושר... אני מבינה שהם עובדים איתם ויש שיתוף פעולה ואנא עארף, אבל בחיאת! מזמינים מהעיניים כי הם מעלים כרגע סטורי ויש חשק. תשקיעו קצת, זה השם שלכם". התגובות בפוסט מסכימות עם הנאמר: "מבאס, אבל בכל מה שקשור לאושיות האלו, אין אמונה", "רק עכשיו גילית שכל מה שרואים אצל המשפיעניות האלה זה שקר?" וגם, "כל מה שהן ימכרו פשוט לא אמין, כמה שהן יגידו בסטורי, 'אתן יודעות שאני לא אפרסם משהו שלא ניסיתי, בלה בלה...', בסוף הן מוכרות כמו כל מוכרת בחנות כזו או אחרת שיש לה אינטרס למכור בשביל לקבל בונוס". על רקע משבר האמון הזה צמחו בשנים האחרונות גם משפיעניות מסוג אחר – אנטי-משפיענות. כך למשל דורין אטיאס, מבקרת האופנה הנשכנית שהתבטאה באופן פרובוקטיבי נגד התופעה כבר לפני שלוש שנים: "רק קודי קופון, אתן מוכרניות זולות. אפס אחריות כלפי אנשים שחושבים שהם צריכים קרם לחור של התחת ב-700 שקל. כל הסיפור הזה, הן מעזות לקרוא לעצמן בשמות מפוצצים. איפה אתן כשצריכים אתכן?", היא אמרה אז. דורין אטיאס יצאה נגד התופעה כבר בשנת 2023 כשאמרה: "אתן מוכרניות זולות. אפס אחריות כלפי אנשים שחושבים שהם צריכים קרם לחור של התחת ב-700 שקל" בשנים האחרונות נפוצו ברשת אתגרי low-buy, יוזמות שמטרתן לצמצם קניות למינימום ההכרחי. המשתתפים מגדירים מראש כללים ברורים לגבי מה מותר לקנות (למשל מזון, תרופות, מוצרי היגיינה) ומה אסור או מוגבל (בגדים חדשים, קוסמטיקה, גאדג'טים). הרעיון אינו הימנעות מוחלטת מצריכה, אלא צריכה מודעת ואיתה גם ניסיון לנטרל את הכוח שנצבר בידיים של המשפיעניות. גם אם תרבות ה-low buy עוד לא לגמרי תפסה תאוצה, עבור רבים זהו תרגיל בשליטה עצמית או מחאה שקטה נגד תרבות הצריכה. מי שמייצגת את התופעה הזו היא רעות תורג'מן, יוצרת תוכן ומנהלת קהילת אינסטגרם מינימליסטית שמזכירה לנו שזה בסדר ללבוש את אותה החולצה במשך שנתיים, ושלא חייב כל הזמן לקנות חדש. רעות מלווה כיום נשים בתהליכים לשינוי הרגלי הצריכה מתוך מקום של היכרות עמוקה עם התהום הצרכנית. "במשך רוב חיי הבוגרים הייתי מכורה לקניות ברמה כזאת שלא עבר שבוע בלי שקניתי משהו. הרבה פעמים זה היה פעמיים-שלוש בשבוע, אלפי שקלים שהיום אני מגדירה כבזבוז. לפני שש שנים עשיתי את המעבר למינימליזם צרכני ואופנתי, והיום אני עוזרת לנשים להבין שאפשר לחיות אחרת. דווקא בגלל שאני מגיעה מעולמות השיווק, אני מבינה איך המנגנון הזה עובד", אומרת תורג'מן. "לא כל משפיענית הופכת למצליחה, אבל אלו שמצליחות הן אלו שיוצרות חיבור אישי עם העוקבים שלהן. הן בונות מערכת יחסים שמטשטשת את העובדה שיש כאן עסק ולקוחה, יש תחושה שאנחנו בסטיז". מה הופך את הקשר הזה למסוכן כל כך לארנק שלנו? "המשפיעניות המצליחות גורמות לעוקבות להרגיש חלק מקהילה, ממשהו גדול יותר. העוקבת מרגישה שהיא קונה מהחברה הכי טובה שלה, וכשהיא מגלה ששיקרו לה – הפגיעה חמורה פי כמה וכמה. כשמשפיענית מקבלת הצעת נישואים, העוקבות כותבות לה, 'התרגשתי כמו בהצעה שלי', אבל אני תמיד מזכירה שיש כאן רק אחת שמגהצת את כרטיס האשראי בסוף. מי שמצליחה לטשטש את הגבול הזה, היא זו שתצליח גם במכירות". "היום לא קונים רק מוצר, קונים סיפור", מוסיפה תורג'מן. "נשים שמשתחררות מהלופ הזה מספרות לי שהרגע הכי מרגש שלהן היה כשמשפיענית שיתפה סטורי שלהן והן הרגישו חלק ממשהו. זה מגיע לכל הגילים, מנערות, דרך סטודנטיות ועד נשים בנות 67. למעמד הסוציו-אקונומי אין חשיבות, יש נשים שמחכות ל-10 בחודש רק כדי להתחיל לרכוש. יש משפיעניות שמגדירות את התאריך הזה כיום חג". מי אשם במצב הזה, המשפיעניות שמנצלות את הקשר האינטימי שנוצר או העוקבות? "שאלת האחריות היא מורכבת, אבל התשובה שלי פשוטה: האחריות היא עליי, על כל אחת מאיתנו. אפשר להיות צינית כלפי אופן השיווק שלפעמים מלגלג על האינטליגנציה, אבל בשורה התחתונה, האחריות לכרטיס האשראי היא שלי. המשפיעניות עובדות קשה ומתפרנסות וזה בסדר, אבל כל אחת מאיתנו חייבת לזכור שבסופו של דבר מדובר בעסק". רעות תורג'מן: "כשמשפיענית מקבלת הצעת נישואים, העוקבות כותבות לה, 'התרגשתי כמו בהצעה שלי', אבל אני תמיד מזכירה שיש כאן רק אחת שמגהצת את כרטיס האשראי בסוף" דווקא באינטרנט, שלכאורה מקדש את תרבות האינסטנט עם הסרטונים באורך 15 שניות והסטוריז שנעלמים אחרי 24 שעות, העוקבים זוכרים. ולא רק שהם זוכרים, הם מחליטים גם ללמד לקח את מי שסרח, גם אם בדמות אמוג'י של אוטובוס על כל סרטון, גם אחרי שנה. תופעת המשפיענות אולי לא עומדת לגווע בקרוב, אבל היא עומדת לשנות צורה ולהציב סטנדרט חדש של אמינות, גילוי נאות ושמירה על סטנדרטי אתי וצרכני גבוה יותר מבעבר. שחר חיון אולי הפכה לסמל של משבר האמון שנוצר בין העוקבים למשפיעניות, אבל כמוה יש עוד רבות אחרות שאכפת להן קצת פחות מהקהל שלהן. חשוב לזכור שהאחריות מוטלת עלינו, הצרכניות, והגיע הזמן שנגיב בהתאם. אם זו משפיענית שמשקרת בביטחון על המוצרים שהיא מוכרת, משפיענית שמקבלת תשלום על קידום דעות מסוימות או מעתיקה מאחרים, הגיע הזמן לשרטט את הגבול. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-mushroom-gummies/] | [TOKENS: 6447] |
Boutayna Chokrane GearFeb 20, 2026 6:30 AMThe Best Mushroom Gummies, Capsules, and Wellness SupplementsThese edibles made from functional fungi are not your childhood Flintstone vitamins.CommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyFeatured in this articleBest Mushroom Blend OverallOm Master Blend Mushroom GummiesRead more$21 AmazonBest TastingPlant People WonderDay Mushroom GummiesRead more$30 Plant PeopleBest for SleepSlumber Rest & Renew Mushroom Sleep GummiesRead more$49 SlumberAt some point in this goop-y era, mushrooms went from pizza topping and psychedelic trips to wellness panacea. You’ve seen the adaptogenic lattes and the “high-quality” mushroom-extracted tinctures endorsed by influencers who smile like they’ve never experienced a bad hair day. Now, inevitably, functional fungi have been gummified, promising to boost your immune system, clear brain fog, and sharpen your cognitive function.The appeal of functional mushroom gummies is obvious. They taste more like candy and your childhood than a dietary supplement. But while shrooms have legitimate benefits, mushroom supplements don’t come without asterisks. I talked to the experts, reviewed the labels, and taste-tested my weight in fruity fungus chewables to find the ones that are more than just expensive candy. We liked Om’s rigorous sourcing for the Master Blend Mushroom Gummies and thought Plant People's WonderDay Gummies tasted the best, but read on for more of the best mushroom gummies, according to science and a very overstimulated digestive system.For more wellness recommendations, check out our guides to the Best Protein Powders, Creatine Supplements, and Magnesium Supplements.Table of ContentsAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronCompare Top 3 Mushroom GummiesHonorable MentionsAvoid These Mushroom GummiesFAQsWhat to Look for When Buying Mushroom Gummies?Are There Any Potential Side Effects of Mushroom Gummies?How We Test Mushroom GummiesWhat Are We Testing Next?Updated February 2026: I've added Onnit Shroom Tech Sport to our Honorable Mentions. Prices, links, and product information were also updated.Best Mushroom Blend OverallPhotograph: Boutayna ChokraneCourtesy of OmPhotograph: Boutayna ChokraneChevronChevronSave to wishlistSave to wishlistOmMaster Blend Mushroom Gummies$21 Amazon$30 OmOm sets the standard with its careful sourcing and rigorous transparency. Unlike many mushroom supplements that focus on extracts or isolated compounds, Om’s Master Blend utilizes the entire mushroom: mycelium, primordia, and fruiting body. This means you’re consuming the full spectrum of bioactive compounds, including beta-glucans, polyphenols, and prebiotic fibers.Each gummy is powered by a blend of 10 functional species (cordyceps, reishi, etc.) grown indoors at the company’s cGMP-certified, BRCGS AA-rated facility in San Diego. The mushrooms are cultivated using solid-state fermentation, a process in which the mycelium feeds on gluten-free organic oats and transforms them into bioavailable nutrients.Every step of the process is traceable. Every ingredient is verified. Every batch is tested. The gummies are certified organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and kosher, making them suitable for nearly any diet or lifestyle. Unfortunately, they taste like dirt.This is a mushroom blend, so you don't know how much of each you're actually consuming. Om makes single-mushroom gummies, too, like Lion's Mane Mushroom Gummies for brain health and cognitive performance, Reishi for immune support, and Cordyceps for endurance and recovery. Just don't expect them to taste any better.SpecsActive IngredientsOrganic mushroom powder blend (lion's mane, reishi, chaga, cordyceps, turkey tail, shiitake, maitake, king trumpet, Himematsutake, Antrodia)Other IngredientsOrganic tapioca syrup, organic cane sugar, water, pectin, citric acid, organic natural flavor, organic fruit and vegetable juice (color), sodium citrate, organic monk fruit extractHow to UseChew 2 gummies, 1-2 times per day, or as directed by a health care professional.WIRED/TIREDAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronWIREDUses the whole mushroom, no extraction processesCertified Good Manufacturing Practices and BRCGS AA ratingCertified organic, kosher, and non-GMOTIREDDosage of each mushroom isn't specifiedA one-mushroom gummy might give you more noticeable resultsTerrible tasteBest TastingCourtesy of Plant PeopleSave to wishlistSave to wishlistPlant PeopleWonderDay Mushroom Gummies$30 Plant People$30 AmazonPlant People’s WonderDay Mushroom Gummies are sugar-free but taste like candy. Made with a blend of eight functional mushrooms, including royal sun, lion’s mane, turkey tail, and others, they somehow avoid an earthy flavor. Actually, they’re raspberry-flavored. They’re plant-based, non-GMO, and allergen-free. The mushrooms are grown in the United States, primarily in the Rocky Mountains, using regenerative practices. Plant People is a B Corp and Climate Neutral Certified company.Across the board, Plant People’s functional mushroom gummies are easy to take, with no bitter aftertaste. Other options include WonderSleep (elderberry-flavored), WonderCalm (peach-flavored), WonderBurn (mango), and WonderBeauty, a watermelon gummy featuring tremella mushroom, biotin, keratin, and marine collagen for skin, hair, and nail support. Plant People offers trial packs, allowing you to sample without committing to a full bag.According to the brand, the WonderDay effects (stress relief, better mood, consistent energy levels) build over the first month of consumption. I tried them for five days, which isn’t enough time to say if they “worked,” but it was enough to make me crave more. Plant People has third-party tested some products, like its CBD tinctures, but none of its gummies have been vetted, sadly.SpecsActive IngredientsLion’s Mane, Cordyceps, Reishi mushroom, Chaga, Maitake mushroom, Turkey Tail, Shiitake, Royal SunOther IngredientsMaltitol, isomalt, water, pectin, organic raspberry flavor, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), sodium citrate, coconut MCT oil, carnauba waxHow to UseTake 2 gummies (or more) per day, or as directed by a health care professional.WIRED/TIREDAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronWIREDCandy-like tasteSugar-free, vegan-friendly, and top 8 allergen-freeCertified B-Corp, Climate Neutral Certified, Current Good Manufacturing PracticeTIREDNot third-party testedAll the gummies include other adaptogens and activesDosage of each mushroom in blends aren't specifiedBest for SleepCourtesy of SlumberSave to wishlistSave to wishlistSlumberRest & Renew Mushroom Sleep Gummies$49 SlumberSlumber’s Rest & Renew Mushroom Sleep Gummies are made with reishi fruiting bodies, chamomile, passionflower, magnesium citrate, and a hint of melatonin. Unfortunately, the doses of all the natural ingredients are pretty modest, which may not be enough for some to feel the effects. I tried them for a week, but they didn’t significantly improve my sleep, which has been consistently disrupted since the invention of TikTok. However, I can see these being helpful for someone who doesn’t struggle to sleep but simply desires a more restful slumber.The aftertaste is unpleasant. Slumber gummy products often have this issue, leading me to believe that it’s not the mushrooms causing it but rather the overall formulation. I have to chase it down with water, and I don’t think I’m being dramatic.SpecsActive IngredientsOrganic Reishi mushroom extract, organic chamomile, chelamax magnesium citrate, organic passion flower, melatonin (500 mcg).Other IngredientsWater, pectin, sugar, sodium citrate, organic tapioca, cane sugar, citric acid, natural color, natural flavoring.How to UseTake 1-2 gummies 30 minutes before bedtime, or as directed by a health care professional. Store in a dry cool area, away from the light.WIRED/TIREDAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronWIREDNo added fillers, starch, grains, or myceliumIncludes magnesium, chamomile, passion flower, and micro-dose of melatoninThird-party tested for contaminantsTIREDA modest reishi dose of 400 milligramsThe effect on sleep might vary from person to personUnpleasant aftertasteCompare Top 3 Mushroom GummiesProductPurposeWIREDTIREDActive IngredientsHow to UsePriceOm Master BlendStress, immune function, gut healthUses the entire mushroom; excellent sourcing and transparency; organic, kosher, and non-GMODosage of each mushroom isn't specified; a one-mushroom gummy might give you better results; terrible taste and textureOrganic mushroom powder blend (lion's mane, reishi, chaga, cordyceps, turkey tail, shiitake, maitake, king trumpet, Himematsutake, Antrodia)Chew 2 gummies, 1-2 times per day$30Plant People WonderDay Mushroom GummiesStress, mood, energy, immune healthGreat taste; sugar-free, vegan-friendly, allergen-freeNot third-party tested; not mushroom-exclusive; dosage of each mushroom in blends aren't specifiedLion’s Mane, cordyceps, reishi mushroom, chaga, maitake mushroom, turkey tail, shiitake, royal sunTake 2 gummies per day$45Slumber Rest & Renew Mushroom Sleep GummiesSleepFruiting body only; includes micro-dose of melatonin, chamomile, magnesium, and passion flower; third-party testedThe effect on sleep might vary from person to person; unpleasant aftertasteReishi mushroom extract, chamomile, chelamax magnesium citrate, passion flower, melatoninTake 1-2 gummies 30 minutes before bedtime$49Honorable MentionsPhotograph: Boutayna ChokraneOnnit Shroom Tech Sport (84 CT) for $56: These are capsules (not gummies), but worth noting. I usually avoid pre-workouts. The itchy, beta-alanine tingles make me want to unzip my own skin. Onnit Shroom Tech Sport is one of the few exceptions I've made. The formula centers on cordyceps and pairs it with vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin and extracts of ashwagandha root, rhodiola root, astragalus root, and green tea leaf. After a week of testing, I haven't noticed a dramatic endurance spike, but I also haven't felt overstimulated or crashed out mid-set. For me, that's a win. I'll keep it in my rotation as I log more workouts.You take four capsules about 45 minutes before training. They're on the larger side, and four is a commitment, but I find capsules far easier to down than chugging an entire drink. You can start with the 28-count if you just want to test it out, but that only covers seven days. Even the 84-count is only a 21-day supply, which isn't ideal if you prefer stocking up. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a performance supplement without the skin-crawling side effects, this is a decent place to start.Alice Mushrooms Nightcap for $59: Mushroom chocolate aims to aid in nighttime relaxation while also regulating sleep cycles long-term. Alice Chocolates uses reishi, a substance that comes from fruiting mushrooms, along with chamomile, L-theanine, magnesium, and zinc. The idea is that the reishi will help regulate and promote healthy sleep patterns over time, while the added supplements will aid in helping with sleepiness more immediately. The chocolates are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and kosher, and also come in Brainstorm, to aid in energy and focus, and Happy Ending, for arousal and pleasure. The chocolate was tasty—it wasn’t overly sweet and had a nice bitterness like a robust dark chocolate should. The first few nights of testing, I woke up around 4 am, but after I upped the dose to two chocolate squares, I felt more relaxed before bed, fell asleep in a little over an hour, and stayed asleep all night. —Molly HigginsPhotograph: Boutayna ChokraneSunday Scaries Mushroom Gummies for $23: Sunday Scaries deliver a noticeable jolt. Thirty minutes after consumption, I felt that unmistakable caffeine buzz. Flavor-wise, the orange is OK. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Every batch comes with third-party certifications verifying purity, potency, and safety. The ingredients are sourced—a blend of Lion's Mane Extract, organic Chaga powder, and Gingko Biloba (not a mushroom) extract—from KND Labs in Denver, an FDA-registered, cGMP-certified facility.Avoid These Mushroom GummiesPhotograph: Boutayna ChokraneSpace Goods Moon Chews and Star Chews: Frankly, I somewhat hate to do this, because these chewies taste like candy, but that was the first red flag. No one can make mushrooms taste that good, and Space Goods has no published reports or certifications to back up any of its claims—despite stating they are third-party tested. Not much information on the mushrooms, except that they're sourced in North America and China, which is as vague as a brand can get. “Frustratingly, there are many ingredients and benefits of our products that we can't legally tell you about,” the site's Health Claims page reads. I'm sorry, what?FAQs About Mushroom GummiesWhat to Look for When Buying Mushroom GummiesAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronDecide if you want a mushroom-exclusive gummy or a blend. Some brands add other adaptogens, like ashwagandha or vitamins.Check the amount per serving. Many gummies only include trace amounts (50-100 mg), which may not be enough to have any effect. More research-backed doses usually range from 500 milligrams to two grams daily, depending on the shroom—but consult a healthcare provider to determine the appropriate dosage for you, especially if you're taking other supplements or medications.The label specifies fruiting body extract. Some brands use mostly mycelium on grain, which is cheaper and less potent. Fruiting body extracts are richer in beta-glucans and other active compounds.Look for mention of standardized extracts or percent of beta-glucans. Hot water or dual-extracted mushrooms are better for bioavailability.Certificates of Analysis (COAs) should be accessible on the brand's site. Credible supplements are third-party tested for purity, potency, and heavy metals. Bonus if the brand works with mycologists or sources mushrooms from reputable growers.Since these are gummies, check how much sugar or sweeteners are in each serving. I would aim for less than three grams. If you're intolerant to sugar alcohols, this is especially important.Are There Any Potential Side Effects of Mushroom Gummies?AccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronFunctional mushroom gummies are generally considered safe for most healthy adults, but like any supplement, they can cause side effects or interact with medications. Possible side effects include, but are not limited to: gastrointestinal discomfort, drowsiness or stimulation, and allergic reactions. It's best to start with a low dose and talk to a doctor before adding a new supplement to your daily routine, especially if you have chronic health conditions.In the past, mushroom gummies sold at convenience stores and smoke shops have tested positive for undisclosed, illegal stimulants (including psilocybin and kratom). Because labels can be misleading, avoid impulse buys of mushroom gummies from non-regulated retailers, and choose only lab-tested supplements with third-party certificates.How We Test Mushroom GummiesAccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronIngredients: I start by checking whether the mushroom gummies contain fruiting body extracts or mycelium, which are the two most common sources of functional mushrooms. The fruiting body—which is the stem and cap of the shroom—typically has higher concentrations of beta-glucans and triterpenes than the root, or mycelium. I also flag any additives, added sweeteners, or mysterious proprietary blends.Third-Party Testing: Since the FDA doesn't evaluate supplements before they hit the market, I prioritize brands that publish third-party certificates of analysis (COAs).Taste and Texture: What's the point of a gummy supplement if it doesn't taste good? I gauge flavor, chewiness, and aftertaste. I also pay attention to packaging and take note of how they hold up over time with proper storage.Experience: We can't verify every wellness claim, but I do regularly take the gummies myself and track whether products seem to support the health benefits they advertise. I also look through the customer reviews to get an idea of what other users' experiences are.What Are We Testing Next?AccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevronI'll be testing Nütrops by grüns Daily Gummies for $67 and Noon In the Zone Chocolate for $23.Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.CommentsBack to topTriangleBoutayna Chokrane is a product writer and reviewer at WIRED, covering consumer products and online trends. She specializes in fitness equipment, beauty tech, apparel, and more. Before joining the Gear team, she was a music editorial fellow at Pitchfork. 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Explore our other favorites, which include options for all budgets and tastes.Wired CouponsSquarespace Promo CodeSquarespace Promo Code: 20% Off Annual Acuity SubscriptionsLG Promo CodeLaptop - $400 Off LG Promo CodeDell Coupon Code10% Off Dell Coupon Code for New CustomersSamsung Promo Code30% Samsung Coupon - Offer Program 2026Canon Promo Code10% Off Canon Promo Code + Up to 30% OffDoordash Promo Code50% Off Doordash Promo Code For New & Existing Users The Best Mushroom Gummies, Capsules, and Wellness Supplements Featured in this article Amazon Plant People Slumber At some point in this goop-y era, mushrooms went from pizza topping and psychedelic trips to wellness panacea. You’ve seen the adaptogenic lattes and the “high-quality” mushroom-extracted tinctures endorsed by influencers who smile like they’ve never experienced a bad hair day. Now, inevitably, functional fungi have been gummified, promising to boost your immune system, clear brain fog, and sharpen your cognitive function. The appeal of functional mushroom gummies is obvious. They taste more like candy and your childhood than a dietary supplement. But while shrooms have legitimate benefits, mushroom supplements don’t come without asterisks. I talked to the experts, reviewed the labels, and taste-tested my weight in fruity fungus chewables to find the ones that are more than just expensive candy. We liked Om’s rigorous sourcing for the Master Blend Mushroom Gummies and thought Plant People's WonderDay Gummies tasted the best, but read on for more of the best mushroom gummies, according to science and a very overstimulated digestive system. For more wellness recommendations, check out our guides to the Best Protein Powders, Creatine Supplements, and Magnesium Supplements. Updated February 2026: I've added Onnit Shroom Tech Sport to our Honorable Mentions. Prices, links, and product information were also updated. Best Mushroom Blend Overall Om Amazon Om Om sets the standard with its careful sourcing and rigorous transparency. Unlike many mushroom supplements that focus on extracts or isolated compounds, Om’s Master Blend utilizes the entire mushroom: mycelium, primordia, and fruiting body. This means you’re consuming the full spectrum of bioactive compounds, including beta-glucans, polyphenols, and prebiotic fibers. Each gummy is powered by a blend of 10 functional species (cordyceps, reishi, etc.) grown indoors at the company’s cGMP-certified, BRCGS AA-rated facility in San Diego. The mushrooms are cultivated using solid-state fermentation, a process in which the mycelium feeds on gluten-free organic oats and transforms them into bioavailable nutrients. Every step of the process is traceable. Every ingredient is verified. Every batch is tested. The gummies are certified organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and kosher, making them suitable for nearly any diet or lifestyle. Unfortunately, they taste like dirt. This is a mushroom blend, so you don't know how much of each you're actually consuming. Om makes single-mushroom gummies, too, like Lion's Mane Mushroom Gummies for brain health and cognitive performance, Reishi for immune support, and Cordyceps for endurance and recovery. Just don't expect them to taste any better. Best Tasting Plant People Plant People Amazon Plant People’s WonderDay Mushroom Gummies are sugar-free but taste like candy. Made with a blend of eight functional mushrooms, including royal sun, lion’s mane, turkey tail, and others, they somehow avoid an earthy flavor. Actually, they’re raspberry-flavored. They’re plant-based, non-GMO, and allergen-free. The mushrooms are grown in the United States, primarily in the Rocky Mountains, using regenerative practices. Plant People is a B Corp and Climate Neutral Certified company. Across the board, Plant People’s functional mushroom gummies are easy to take, with no bitter aftertaste. Other options include WonderSleep (elderberry-flavored), WonderCalm (peach-flavored), WonderBurn (mango), and WonderBeauty, a watermelon gummy featuring tremella mushroom, biotin, keratin, and marine collagen for skin, hair, and nail support. Plant People offers trial packs, allowing you to sample without committing to a full bag. According to the brand, the WonderDay effects (stress relief, better mood, consistent energy levels) build over the first month of consumption. I tried them for five days, which isn’t enough time to say if they “worked,” but it was enough to make me crave more. Plant People has third-party tested some products, like its CBD tinctures, but none of its gummies have been vetted, sadly. Best for Sleep Slumber Slumber Slumber’s Rest & Renew Mushroom Sleep Gummies are made with reishi fruiting bodies, chamomile, passionflower, magnesium citrate, and a hint of melatonin. Unfortunately, the doses of all the natural ingredients are pretty modest, which may not be enough for some to feel the effects. I tried them for a week, but they didn’t significantly improve my sleep, which has been consistently disrupted since the invention of TikTok. However, I can see these being helpful for someone who doesn’t struggle to sleep but simply desires a more restful slumber. The aftertaste is unpleasant. Slumber gummy products often have this issue, leading me to believe that it’s not the mushrooms causing it but rather the overall formulation. I have to chase it down with water, and I don’t think I’m being dramatic. Compare Top 3 Mushroom Gummies Honorable Mentions Onnit Shroom Tech Sport (84 CT) for $56: These are capsules (not gummies), but worth noting. I usually avoid pre-workouts. The itchy, beta-alanine tingles make me want to unzip my own skin. Onnit Shroom Tech Sport is one of the few exceptions I've made. The formula centers on cordyceps and pairs it with vitamin B12 as methylcobalamin and extracts of ashwagandha root, rhodiola root, astragalus root, and green tea leaf. After a week of testing, I haven't noticed a dramatic endurance spike, but I also haven't felt overstimulated or crashed out mid-set. For me, that's a win. I'll keep it in my rotation as I log more workouts. You take four capsules about 45 minutes before training. They're on the larger side, and four is a commitment, but I find capsules far easier to down than chugging an entire drink. You can start with the 28-count if you just want to test it out, but that only covers seven days. Even the 84-count is only a 21-day supply, which isn't ideal if you prefer stocking up. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a performance supplement without the skin-crawling side effects, this is a decent place to start. Alice Mushrooms Nightcap for $59: Mushroom chocolate aims to aid in nighttime relaxation while also regulating sleep cycles long-term. Alice Chocolates uses reishi, a substance that comes from fruiting mushrooms, along with chamomile, L-theanine, magnesium, and zinc. The idea is that the reishi will help regulate and promote healthy sleep patterns over time, while the added supplements will aid in helping with sleepiness more immediately. The chocolates are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and kosher, and also come in Brainstorm, to aid in energy and focus, and Happy Ending, for arousal and pleasure. The chocolate was tasty—it wasn’t overly sweet and had a nice bitterness like a robust dark chocolate should. The first few nights of testing, I woke up around 4 am, but after I upped the dose to two chocolate squares, I felt more relaxed before bed, fell asleep in a little over an hour, and stayed asleep all night. —Molly Higgins Sunday Scaries Mushroom Gummies for $23: Sunday Scaries deliver a noticeable jolt. Thirty minutes after consumption, I felt that unmistakable caffeine buzz. Flavor-wise, the orange is OK. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Every batch comes with third-party certifications verifying purity, potency, and safety. The ingredients are sourced—a blend of Lion's Mane Extract, organic Chaga powder, and Gingko Biloba (not a mushroom) extract—from KND Labs in Denver, an FDA-registered, cGMP-certified facility. Avoid These Mushroom Gummies Space Goods Moon Chews and Star Chews: Frankly, I somewhat hate to do this, because these chewies taste like candy, but that was the first red flag. No one can make mushrooms taste that good, and Space Goods has no published reports or certifications to back up any of its claims—despite stating they are third-party tested. Not much information on the mushrooms, except that they're sourced in North America and China, which is as vague as a brand can get. “Frustratingly, there are many ingredients and benefits of our products that we can't legally tell you about,” the site's Health Claims page reads. I'm sorry, what? FAQs About Mushroom Gummies What to Look for When Buying Mushroom Gummies Are There Any Potential Side Effects of Mushroom Gummies? Functional mushroom gummies are generally considered safe for most healthy adults, but like any supplement, they can cause side effects or interact with medications. Possible side effects include, but are not limited to: gastrointestinal discomfort, drowsiness or stimulation, and allergic reactions. It's best to start with a low dose and talk to a doctor before adding a new supplement to your daily routine, especially if you have chronic health conditions. In the past, mushroom gummies sold at convenience stores and smoke shops have tested positive for undisclosed, illegal stimulants (including psilocybin and kratom). Because labels can be misleading, avoid impulse buys of mushroom gummies from non-regulated retailers, and choose only lab-tested supplements with third-party certificates. How We Test Mushroom Gummies What Are We Testing Next? I'll be testing Nütrops by grüns Daily Gummies for $67 and Noon In the Zone Chocolate for $23. Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore. Subscribe Today. Comments Wired Coupons Squarespace Promo Code: 20% Off Annual Acuity Subscriptions Laptop - $400 Off LG Promo Code 10% Off Dell Coupon Code for New Customers 30% Samsung Coupon - Offer Program 2026 10% Off Canon Promo Code + Up to 30% Off 50% Off Doordash Promo Code For New & Existing Users © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News#cite_note-Onion_URL_Source-2] | [TOKENS: 8810] |
Contents BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service has over 5,500 journalists working across its output including in 50 foreign news bureaus where more than 250 foreign correspondents are stationed. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news centres in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. All nations and English regions produce their own local news programmes and other current affairs and sport programmes. The BBC is a quasi-autonomous corporation authorised by royal charter, making it operationally independent of the government. As of 2024, the BBC reaches an average of 450 million people per week, with the BBC World Service accounting for 320 million people. History This is London calling – 2LO calling. Here is the first general news bulletin, copyright by Reuters, Press Association, Exchange Telegraph and Central News. — BBC news programme opening during the 1920s The British Broadcasting Company broadcast its first radio bulletin from radio station 2LO on 14 November 1922. Wishing to avoid competition, newspaper publishers persuaded the government to ban the BBC from broadcasting news before 7 pm, and to force it to use wire service copy instead of reporting on its own. The BBC gradually gained the right to edit the copy and, in 1934, created its own news operation. However, it could not broadcast news before 6 p.m. until World War II. In addition to news, Gaumont British and Movietone cinema newsreels had been broadcast on the TV service since 1936, with the BBC producing its own equivalent Television Newsreel programme from January 1948. A weekly Children's Newsreel was inaugurated on 23 April 1950, to around 350,000 receivers. The network began simulcasting its radio news on television in 1946, with a still picture of Big Ben. Televised bulletins began on 5 July 1954, broadcast from leased studios within Alexandra Palace in London. The public's interest in television and live events was stimulated by Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. It is estimated that up to 27 million people viewed the programme in the UK, overtaking radio's audience of 12 million for the first time. Those live pictures were fed from 21 cameras in central London to Alexandra Palace for transmission, and then on to other UK transmitters opened in time for the event. That year, there were around two million TV Licences held in the UK, rising to over three million the following year, and four and a half million by 1955. Television news, although physically separate from its radio counterpart, was still firmly under radio news' control in the 1950s. Correspondents provided reports for both outlets, and the first televised bulletin, shown on 5 July 1954 on the then BBC television service and presented by Richard Baker, involved his providing narration off-screen while stills were shown. This was then followed by the customary Television Newsreel with a recorded commentary by John Snagge (and on other occasions by Andrew Timothy). On-screen newsreaders were introduced a year later in 1955 – Kenneth Kendall (the first to appear in vision), Robert Dougall, and Richard Baker—three weeks before ITN's launch on 21 September 1955. Mainstream television production had started to move out of Alexandra Palace in 1950 to larger premises – mainly at Lime Grove Studios in Shepherd's Bush, west London – taking Current Affairs (then known as Talks Department) with it. It was from here that the first Panorama, a new documentary programme, was transmitted on 11 November 1953, with Richard Dimbleby becoming anchor in 1955. In 1958, Hugh Carleton Greene became head of News and Current Affairs. On 1 January 1960, Greene became Director-General. Greene made changes that were aimed at making BBC reporting more similar to its competitor ITN, which had been highly rated by study groups held by Greene. A newsroom was created at Alexandra Palace, television reporters were recruited and given the opportunity to write and voice their own scripts, without having to cover stories for radio too. On 20 June 1960, Nan Winton, the first female BBC network newsreader, appeared in vision. 19 September 1960 saw the start of the radio news and current affairs programme The Ten O'clock News. BBC2 started transmission on 20 April 1964 and began broadcasting a new show, Newsroom. The World at One, a lunchtime news programme, began on 4 October 1965 on the then Home Service, and the year before News Review had started on television. News Review was a summary of the week's news, first broadcast on Sunday, 26 April 1964 on BBC 2 and harking back to the weekly Newsreel Review of the Week, produced from 1951, to open programming on Sunday evenings–the difference being that this incarnation had subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. As this was the decade before electronic caption generation, each superimposition ("super") had to be produced on paper or card, synchronised manually to studio and news footage, committed to tape during the afternoon, and broadcast early evening. Thus Sundays were no longer a quiet day for news at Alexandra Palace. The programme ran until the 1980s – by then using electronic captions, known as Anchor – to be superseded by Ceefax subtitling (a similar Teletext format), and the signing of such programmes as See Hear (from 1981). On Sunday 17 September 1967, The World This Weekend, a weekly news and current affairs programme, launched on what was then Home Service, but soon-to-be Radio 4. Preparations for colour began in the autumn of 1967 and on Thursday 7 March 1968 Newsroom on BBC2 moved to an early evening slot, becoming the first UK news programme to be transmitted in colour – from Studio A at Alexandra Palace. News Review and Westminster (the latter a weekly review of Parliamentary happenings) were "colourised" shortly after. However, much of the insert material was still in black and white, as initially only a part of the film coverage shot in and around London was on colour reversal film stock, and all regional and many international contributions were still in black and white. Colour facilities at Alexandra Palace were technically very limited for the next eighteen months, as it had only one RCA colour Quadruplex videotape machine and, eventually two Pye plumbicon colour telecines–although the news colour service started with just one. Black and white national bulletins on BBC 1 continued to originate from Studio B on weekdays, along with Town and Around, the London regional "opt out" programme broadcast throughout the 1960s (and the BBC's first regional news programme for the South East), until it started to be replaced by Nationwide on Tuesday to Thursday from Lime Grove Studios early in September 1969. Town and Around was never to make the move to Television Centre – instead it became London This Week which aired on Mondays and Fridays only, from the new TVC studios. The BBC moved production out of Alexandra Palace in 1969. BBC Television News resumed operations the next day with a lunchtime bulletin on BBC1 – in black and white – from Television Centre, where it remained until March 2013. This move to a smaller studio with better technical facilities allowed Newsroom and News Review to replace back projection with colour-separation overlay. During the 1960s, satellite communication had become possible; however, it was some years before digital line-store conversion was able to undertake the process seamlessly. On 14 September 1970, the first Nine O'Clock News was broadcast on television. Robert Dougall presented the first week from studio N1 – described by The Guardian as "a sort of polystyrene padded cell"—the bulletin having been moved from the earlier time of 20.50 as a response to the ratings achieved by ITN's News at Ten, introduced three years earlier on the rival ITV. Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall presented subsequent weeks, thus echoing those first television bulletins of the mid-1950s. Angela Rippon became the first female news presenter of the Nine O'Clock News in 1975. Her work outside the news was controversial at the time, appearing on The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show in 1976 singing and dancing. The first edition of John Craven's Newsround, initially intended only as a short series and later renamed just Newsround, came from studio N3 on 4 April 1972. Afternoon television news bulletins during the mid to late 1970s were broadcast from the BBC newsroom itself, rather than one of the three news studios. The newsreader would present to camera while sitting on the edge of a desk; behind him staff would be seen working busily at their desks. This period corresponded with when the Nine O'Clock News got its next makeover, and would use a CSO background of the newsroom from that very same camera each weekday evening. Also in the mid-1970s, the late night news on BBC2 was briefly renamed Newsnight, but this was not to last, or be the same programme as we know today – that would be launched in 1980 – and it soon reverted to being just a news summary with the early evening BBC2 news expanded to become Newsday. News on radio was to change in the 1970s, and on Radio 4 in particular, brought about by the arrival of new editor Peter Woon from television news and the implementation of the Broadcasting in the Seventies report. These included the introduction of correspondents into news bulletins where previously only a newsreader would present, as well as the inclusion of content gathered in the preparation process. New programmes were also added to the daily schedule, PM and The World Tonight as part of the plan for the station to become a "wholly speech network". Newsbeat launched as the news service on Radio 1 on 10 September 1973. On 23 September 1974, a teletext system which was launched to bring news content on television screens using text only was launched. Engineers originally began developing such a system to bring news to deaf viewers, but the system was expanded. The Ceefax service became much more diverse before it ceased on 23 October 2012: it not only had subtitling for all channels, it also gave information such as weather, flight times and film reviews. By the end of the decade, the practice of shooting on film for inserts in news broadcasts was declining, with the introduction of ENG technology into the UK. The equipment would gradually become less cumbersome – the BBC's first attempts had been using a Philips colour camera with backpack base station and separate portable Sony U-matic recorder in the latter half of the decade. In 1980, the Iranian Embassy Siege had been shot electronically by the BBC Television News Outside broadcasting team, and the work of reporter Kate Adie, broadcasting live from Prince's Gate, was nominated for BAFTA actuality coverage, but this time beaten by ITN for the 1980 award. Newsnight, the news and current affairs programme, was due to go on air on 23 January 1980, although trade union disagreements meant that its launch from Lime Grove was postponed by a week. On 27 August 1981 Moira Stuart became the first African Caribbean female newsreader to appear on British television. By 1982, ENG technology had become sufficiently reliable for Bernard Hesketh to use an Ikegami camera to cover the Falklands War, coverage for which he won the "Royal Television Society Cameraman of the Year" award and a BAFTA nomination – the first time that BBC News had relied upon an electronic camera, rather than film, in a conflict zone. BBC News won the BAFTA for its actuality coverage, however the event has become remembered in television terms for Brian Hanrahan's reporting where he coined the phrase "I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I counted them all out and I counted them all back" to circumvent restrictions, and which has become cited as an example of good reporting under pressure. The first BBC breakfast television programme, Breakfast Time also launched during the 1980s, on 17 January 1983 from Lime Grove Studio E and two weeks before its ITV rival TV-am. Frank Bough, Selina Scott, and Nick Ross helped to wake viewers with a relaxed style of presenting. The Six O'Clock News first aired on 3 September 1984, eventually becoming the most watched news programme in the UK (however, since 2006 it has been overtaken by the BBC News at Ten). In October 1984, images of millions of people starving to death in the Ethiopian famine were shown in Michael Buerk's Six O'Clock News reports. The BBC News crew were the first to document the famine, with Buerk's report on 23 October describing it as "a biblical famine in the 20th century" and "the closest thing to hell on Earth". The BBC News report shocked Britain, motivating its citizens to inundate relief agencies, such as Save the Children, with donations, and to bring global attention to the crisis in Ethiopia. The news report was also watched by Bob Geldof, who would organise the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" to raise money for famine relief followed by the Live Aid concert in July 1985. Starting in 1981, the BBC gave a common theme to its main news bulletins with new electronic titles–a set of computer-animated "stripes" forming a circle on a red background with a "BBC News" typescript appearing below the circle graphics, and a theme tune consisting of brass and keyboards. The Nine used a similar (striped) number 9. The red background was replaced by a blue from 1985 until 1987. By 1987, the BBC had decided to re-brand its bulletins and established individual styles again for each one with differing titles and music, the weekend and holiday bulletins branded in a similar style to the Nine, although the "stripes" introduction continued to be used until 1989 on occasions where a news bulletin was screened out of the running order of the schedule. In 1987, John Birt resurrected the practice of correspondents working for both TV and radio with the introduction of bi-media journalism. During the 1990s, a wider range of services began to be offered by BBC News, with the split of BBC World Service Television to become BBC World (news and current affairs), and BBC Prime (light entertainment). Content for a 24-hour news channel was thus required, followed in 1997 with the launch of domestic equivalent BBC News 24. Rather than set bulletins, ongoing reports and coverage was needed to keep both channels functioning and meant a greater emphasis in budgeting for both was necessary. In 1998, after 66 years at Broadcasting House, the BBC Radio News operation moved to BBC Television Centre. New technology, provided by Silicon Graphics, came into use in 1993 for a re-launch of the main BBC 1 bulletins, creating a virtual set which appeared to be much larger than it was physically. The relaunch also brought all bulletins into the same style of set with only small changes in colouring, titles, and music to differentiate each. A computer generated cut-glass sculpture of the BBC coat of arms was the centrepiece of the programme titles until the large scale corporate rebranding of news services in 1999. In November 1997, BBC News Online was launched, following individual webpages for major news events such as the 1996 Olympic Games, 1997 general election, and the death of Princess Diana. In 1999, the biggest relaunch occurred, with BBC One bulletins, BBC World, BBC News 24, and BBC News Online all adopting a common style. One of the most significant changes was the gradual adoption of the corporate image by the BBC regional news programmes, giving a common style across local, national and international BBC television news. This also included Newyddion, the main news programme of Welsh language channel S4C, produced by BBC News Wales. Following the relaunch of BBC News in 1999, regional headlines were included at the start of the BBC One news bulletins in 2000. The English regions did however lose five minutes at the end of their bulletins, due to a new headline round-up at 18:55. 2000 also saw the Nine O'Clock News moved to the later time of 22:00. This was in response to ITN who had just moved their popular News at Ten programme to 23:00. ITN briefly returned News at Ten but following poor ratings when head-to-head against the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, the ITN bulletin was moved to 22.30, where it remained until 14 January 2008. The retirement in 2009 of Peter Sissons and departure of Michael Buerk from the Ten O'Clock News led to changes in the BBC One bulletin presenting team on 20 January 2003. The Six O'Clock News became double headed with George Alagiah and Sophie Raworth after Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce moved to present the Ten. A new set design featuring a projected fictional newsroom backdrop was introduced, followed on 16 February 2004 by new programme titles to match those of BBC News 24. BBC News 24 and BBC World introduced a new style of presentation in December 2003, that was slightly altered on 5 July 2004 to mark 50 years of BBC Television News. On 7 March 2005 director general Mark Thompson launched the "Creative Futures" project to restructure the organisation. The individual positions of editor of the One and Six O'Clock News were replaced by a new daytime position in November 2005. Kevin Bakhurst became the first Controller of BBC News 24, replacing the position of editor. Amanda Farnsworth became daytime editor while Craig Oliver was later named editor of the Ten O'Clock News. Bulletins received new titles and a new set design in May 2006, to allow for Breakfast to move into the main studio for the first time since 1997. The new set featured Barco videowall screens with a background of the London skyline used for main bulletins and originally an image of cirrus clouds against a blue sky for Breakfast. This was later replaced following viewer criticism. The studio bore similarities with the ITN-produced ITV News in 2004, though ITN uses a CSO Virtual studio rather than the actual screens at BBC News. BBC News became part of a new BBC Journalism group in November 2006 as part of a restructuring of the BBC. The then-Director of BBC News, Helen Boaden reported to the then-Deputy Director-General and head of the journalism group, Mark Byford until he was made redundant in 2010. On 18 October 2007, ED Mark Thompson announced a six-year plan, "Delivering Creative Futures" (based on his project begun in March 2005), merging the television current affairs department into a new "News Programmes" division. Thompson's announcement, in response to a £2 billion shortfall in funding, would, he said, deliver "a smaller but fitter BBC" in the digital age, by cutting its payroll and, in 2013, selling Television Centre. The various separate newsrooms for television, radio and online operations were merged into a single multimedia newsroom. Programme making within the newsrooms was brought together to form a multimedia programme making department. BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks said that the changes would achieve efficiency at a time of cost-cutting at the BBC. In his blog, he wrote that by using the same resources across the various broadcast media meant fewer stories could be covered, or by following more stories, there would be fewer ways to broadcast them. A new graphics and video playout system was introduced for production of television bulletins in January 2007. This coincided with a new structure to BBC World News bulletins, editors favouring a section devoted to analysing the news stories reported on. The first new BBC News bulletin since the Six O'Clock News was announced in July 2007 following a successful trial in the Midlands. The summary, lasting 90 seconds, has been broadcast at 20:00 on weekdays since December 2007 and bears similarities with 60 Seconds on BBC Three, but also includes headlines from the various BBC regions and a weather summary. As part of a long-term cost cutting programme, bulletins were renamed the BBC News at One, Six and Ten respectively in April 2008 while BBC News 24 was renamed BBC News and moved into the same studio as the bulletins at BBC Television Centre. BBC World was renamed BBC World News and regional news programmes were also updated with the new presentation style, designed by Lambie-Nairn. 2008 also saw tri-media introduced across TV, radio, and online. The studio moves also meant that Studio N9, previously used for BBC World, was closed, and operations moved to the previous studio of BBC News 24. Studio N9 was later refitted to match the new branding, and was used for the BBC's UK local elections and European elections coverage in early June 2009. A strategy review of the BBC in March 2010, confirmed that having "the best journalism in the world" would form one of five key editorial policies, as part of changes subject to public consultation and BBC Trust approval. After a period of suspension in late 2012, Helen Boaden ceased to be the Director of BBC News. On 16 April 2013, incoming BBC Director-General Tony Hall named James Harding, a former editor of The Times of London newspaper as Director of News and Current Affairs. From August 2012 to March 2013, all news operations moved from Television Centre to new facilities in the refurbished and extended Broadcasting House, in Portland Place. The move began in October 2012, and also included the BBC World Service, which moved from Bush House following the expiry of the BBC's lease. This new extension to the north and east, referred to as "New Broadcasting House", includes several new state-of-the-art radio and television studios centred around an 11-storey atrium. The move began with the domestic programme The Andrew Marr Show on 2 September 2012, and concluded with the move of the BBC News channel and domestic news bulletins on 18 March 2013. The newsroom houses all domestic bulletins and programmes on both television and radio, as well as the BBC World Service international radio networks and the BBC World News international television channel. BBC News and CBS News established an editorial and newsgathering partnership in 2017, replacing an earlier long-standing partnership between BBC News and ABC News. In an October 2018 Simmons Research survey of 38 news organisations, BBC News was ranked the fourth most trusted news organisation by Americans, behind CBS News, ABC News and The Wall Street Journal. In January 2020 the BBC announced a BBC News savings target of £80 million per year by 2022, involving about 450 staff reductions from the current 6,000. BBC director of news and current affairs Fran Unsworth said there would be further moves toward digital broadcasting, in part to attract back a youth audience, and more pooling of reporters to stop separate teams covering the same news. A further 70 staff reductions were announced in July 2020. BBC Three began airing the news programme The Catch Up in February 2022. It is presented by Levi Jouavel, Kirsty Grant, and Callum Tulley and aims to get the channel's target audience (16 to 34-year olds) to make sense of the world around them while also highlighting optimistic stories. Compared to its predecessor 60 Seconds, The Catch Up is three times longer, running for about three minutes and not airing during weekends. According to its annual report as of December 2021[update], India has the largest number of people using BBC services in the world. In May 2025, following the earthquake that hit Myanmar and Thailand, a television news bulletin (BBC News Myanmar) from the Burmese service using a vacated Voice of America satellite frequency began its broadcasts. Programming and reporting In November 2023, BBC News joined with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Paper Trail Media [de] and 69 media partners including Distributed Denial of Secrets and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and more than 270 journalists in 55 countries and territories to produce the 'Cyprus Confidential' report on the financial network which supports the regime of Vladimir Putin, mostly with connections to Cyprus, and showed Cyprus to have strong links with high-up figures in the Kremlin, some of whom have been sanctioned. Government officials including Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides and European lawmakers began responding to the investigation's findings in less than 24 hours, calling for reforms and launching probes. BBC News is responsible for the news programmes and documentary content on the BBC's general television channels, as well as the news coverage on the BBC News Channel in the UK, and 22 hours of programming for the corporation's international BBC World News channel. Coverage for BBC Parliament is carried out on behalf of the BBC at Millbank Studios, though BBC News provides editorial and journalistic content. BBC News content is also output onto the BBC's digital interactive television services under the BBC Red Button brand, and until 2012, on the Ceefax teletext system. The music on all BBC television news programmes was introduced in 1999 and composed by David Lowe. It was part of the re-branding which commenced in 1999 and features 'BBC Pips'. The general theme was used on bulletins on BBC One, News 24, BBC World and local news programmes in the BBC's Nations and Regions. Lowe was also responsible for the music on Radio One's Newsbeat. The theme has had several changes since 1999, the latest in March 2013. The BBC Arabic Television news channel launched on 11 March 2008, a Persian-language channel followed on 14 January 2009, broadcasting from the Peel wing of Broadcasting House; both include news, analysis, interviews, sports and highly cultural programmes and are run by the BBC World Service and funded from a grant-in-aid from the British Foreign Office (and not the television licence). The BBC Verify service was launched in 2023 to fact-check news stories, followed by BBC Verify Live in 2025. BBC Radio News produces bulletins for the BBC's national radio stations and provides content for local BBC radio stations via the General News Service (GNS), a BBC-internal news distribution service. BBC News does not produce the BBC's regional news bulletins, which are produced individually by the BBC nations and regions themselves. The BBC World Service broadcasts to some 150 million people in English as well as 27 languages across the globe. BBC Radio News is a patron of the Radio Academy. BBC News Online is the BBC's news website. Launched in November 1997, it is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the UK's internet users for news. The website contains international news coverage as well as entertainment, sport, science, and political news. Mobile apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone systems have been provided since 2010. Many television and radio programmes are also available to view on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds services. The BBC News channel is also available to view 24 hours a day, while video and radio clips are also available within online news articles. In October 2019, BBC News Online launched a mirror on the dark web anonymity network Tor in an effort to circumvent censorship. Criticism The BBC is required by its charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners. This political objectivity is sometimes questioned. For instance, The Daily Telegraph (3 August 2005) carried a letter from the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, referring to it as "The Red Service". Books have been written on the subject, including anti-BBC works like Truth Betrayed by W J West and The Truth Twisters by Richard Deacon. The BBC has been accused of bias by Conservative MPs. The BBC's Editorial Guidelines on Politics and Public Policy state that while "the voices and opinions of opposition parties must be routinely aired and challenged", "the government of the day will often be the primary source of news". The BBC is regularly accused by the government of the day of bias in favour of the opposition and, by the opposition, of bias in favour of the government. Similarly, during times of war, the BBC is often accused by the UK government, or by strong supporters of British military campaigns, of being overly sympathetic to the view of the enemy. An edition of Newsnight at the start of the Falklands War in 1982 was described as "almost treasonable" by John Page, MP, who objected to Peter Snow saying "if we believe the British". During the first Gulf War, critics of the BBC took to using the satirical name "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation". During the Kosovo War, the BBC were labelled the "Belgrade Broadcasting Corporation" (suggesting favouritism towards the FR Yugoslavia government over ethnic Albanian rebels) by British ministers, although Slobodan Milosević (then FRY president) claimed that the BBC's coverage had been biased against his nation. Conversely, some of those who style themselves anti-establishment in the United Kingdom or who oppose foreign wars have accused the BBC of pro-establishment bias or of refusing to give an outlet to "anti-war" voices. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a study by the Cardiff University School of Journalism of the reporting of the war found that nine out of 10 references to weapons of mass destruction during the war assumed that Iraq possessed them, and only one in 10 questioned this assumption. It also found that, out of the main British broadcasters covering the war, the BBC was the most likely to use the British government and military as its source. It was also the least likely to use independent sources, like the Red Cross, who were more critical of the war. When it came to reporting Iraqi casualties, the study found fewer reports on the BBC than on the other three main channels. The report's author, Justin Lewis, wrote "Far from revealing an anti-war BBC, our findings tend to give credence to those who criticised the BBC for being too sympathetic to the government in its war coverage. Either way, it is clear that the accusation of BBC anti-war bias fails to stand up to any serious or sustained analysis." Prominent BBC appointments are constantly assessed by the British media and political establishment for signs of political bias. The appointment of Greg Dyke as Director-General was highlighted by press sources because Dyke was a Labour Party member and former activist, as well as a friend of Tony Blair. The BBC's former Political Editor, Nick Robinson, was some years ago a chairman of the Young Conservatives and did, as a result, attract informal criticism from the former Labour government, but his predecessor Andrew Marr faced similar claims from the right because he was editor of The Independent, a liberal-leaning newspaper, before his appointment in 2000. Mark Thompson, former Director-General of the BBC, admitted the organisation has been biased "towards the left" in the past. He said, "In the BBC I joined 30 years ago, there was, in much of current affairs, in terms of people's personal politics, which were quite vocal, a massive bias to the left". He then added, "The organization did struggle then with impartiality. Now it is a completely different generation. There is much less overt tribalism among the young journalists who work for the BBC." Following the EU referendum in 2016, some critics suggested that the BBC was biased in favour of leaving the EU. For instance, in 2018, the BBC received complaints from people who took issue that the BBC was not sufficiently covering anti-Brexit marches while giving smaller-scale events hosted by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage more airtime. On the other hand, a poll released by YouGov showed that 45% of people who voted to leave the EU thought that the BBC was 'actively anti-Brexit' compared to 13% of the same kinds of voters who think the BBC is pro-Brexit. In 2008, the BBC Hindi was criticised by some Indian outlets for referring to the terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks as "gunmen". The response to this added to prior criticism from some Indian commentators suggesting that the BBC may have an Indophobic bias. In March 2015, the BBC was criticised for a BBC Storyville documentary interviewing one of the rapists in India. In spite of a ban ordered by the Indian High court, the BBC still aired the documentary "India's Daughter" outside India. BBC News was at the centre of a political controversy following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Three BBC News reports (Andrew Gilligan's on Today, Gavin Hewitt's on The Ten O'Clock News and another on Newsnight) quoted an anonymous source that stated the British government (particularly the Prime Minister's office) had embellished the September Dossier with misleading exaggerations of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities. The government denounced the reports and accused the corporation of poor journalism. In subsequent weeks the corporation stood by the report, saying that it had a reliable source. Following intense media speculation, David Kelly was named in the press as the source for Gilligan's story on 9 July 2003. Kelly was found dead, by suicide, in a field close to his home early on 18 July. An inquiry led by Lord Hutton was announced by the British government the following day to investigate the circumstances leading to Kelly's death, concluding that "Dr. Kelly took his own life." In his report on 28 January 2004, Lord Hutton concluded that Gilligan's original accusation was "unfounded" and the BBC's editorial and management processes were "defective". In particular, it specifically criticised the chain of management that caused the BBC to defend its story. The BBC Director of News, Richard Sambrook, the report said, had accepted Gilligan's word that his story was accurate in spite of his notes being incomplete. Davies had then told the BBC Board of Governors that he was happy with the story and told the Prime Minister that a satisfactory internal inquiry had taken place. The Board of Governors, under the chairman's, Gavyn Davies, guidance, accepted that further investigation of the Government's complaints were unnecessary. Because of the criticism in the Hutton report, Davies resigned on the day of publication. BBC News faced an important test, reporting on itself with the publication of the report, but by common consent (of the Board of Governors) managed this "independently, impartially and honestly". Davies' resignation was followed by the resignation of Director General, Greg Dyke, the following day, and the resignation of Gilligan on 30 January. While undoubtedly a traumatic experience for the corporation, an ICM poll in April 2003 indicated that it had sustained its position as the best and most trusted provider of news. The BBC has faced accusations of holding both anti-Israel and anti-Palestine bias. Douglas Davis, the London correspondent of The Jerusalem Post, has described the BBC's coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict as "a relentless, one-dimensional portrayal of Israel as a demonic, criminal state and Israelis as brutal oppressors [which] bears all the hallmarks of a concerted campaign of vilification that, wittingly or not, has the effect of delegitimising the Jewish state and pumping oxygen into a dark old European hatred that dared not speak its name for the past half-century.". However two large independent studies, one conducted by Loughborough University and the other by Glasgow University's Media Group concluded that Israeli perspectives are given greater coverage. Critics of the BBC argue that the Balen Report proves systematic bias against Israel in headline news programming. The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph criticised the BBC for spending hundreds of thousands of British tax payers' pounds from preventing the report being released to the public. Jeremy Bowen, the Middle East Editor for BBC world news, was singled out specifically for bias by the BBC Trust which concluded that he violated "BBC guidelines on accuracy and impartiality." An independent panel appointed by the BBC Trust was set up in 2006 to review the impartiality of the BBC's coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The panel's assessment was that "apart from individual lapses, there was little to suggest deliberate or systematic bias." While noting a "commitment to be fair accurate and impartial" and praising much of the BBC's coverage the independent panel concluded "that BBC output does not consistently give a full and fair account of the conflict. In some ways the picture is incomplete and, in that sense, misleading." It notes that, "the failure to convey adequately the disparity in the Israeli and Palestinian experience, [reflects] the fact that one side is in control and the other lives under occupation". Writing in the Financial Times, Philip Stephens, one of the panellists, later accused the BBC's director-general, Mark Thompson, of misrepresenting the panel's conclusions. He further opined "My sense is that BBC news reporting has also lost a once iron-clad commitment to objectivity and a necessary respect for the democratic process. If I am right, the BBC, too, is lost". Mark Thompson published a rebuttal in the FT the next day. The description by one BBC correspondent reporting on the funeral of Yassir Arafat that she had been left with tears in her eyes led to other questions of impartiality, particularly from Martin Walker in a guest opinion piece in The Times, who picked out the apparent case of Fayad Abu Shamala, the BBC Arabic Service correspondent, who told a Hamas rally on 6 May 2001, that journalists in Gaza were "waging the campaign shoulder to shoulder together with the Palestinian people". Walker argues that the independent inquiry was flawed for two reasons. Firstly, because the time period over which it was conducted (August 2005 to January 2006) surrounded the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and Ariel Sharon's stroke, which produced more positive coverage than usual. Furthermore, he wrote, the inquiry only looked at the BBC's domestic coverage, and excluded output on the BBC World Service and BBC World. Tom Gross accused the BBC of glorifying Hamas suicide bombers, and condemned its policy of inviting guests such as Jenny Tonge and Tom Paulin who have compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis. Writing for the BBC, Paulin said Israeli soldiers should be "shot dead" like Hitler's S.S, and said he could "understand how suicide bombers feel". The BBC also faced criticism for not airing a Disasters Emergency Committee aid appeal for Palestinians who suffered in Gaza during 22-day war there between late 2008 and early 2009. Most other major UK broadcasters did air this appeal, but rival Sky News did not. British journalist Julie Burchill has accused BBC of creating a "climate of fear" for British Jews over its "excessive coverage" of Israel compared to other nations. In light of the Gaza war, the BBC suspended seven Arab journalists over allegations of expressing support for Hamas via social media. BBC and ABC share video segments and reporters as needed in producing their newscasts. with the BBC showing ABC World News Tonight with David Muir in the UK. However, in July 2017, the BBC announced a new partnership with CBS News allows both organisations to share video, editorial content, and additional newsgathering resources in New York, London, Washington and around the world. BBC News subscribes to wire services from leading international agencies including PA Media (formerly Press Association), Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. In April 2017, the BBC dropped Associated Press in favour of an enhanced service from AFP. BBC News reporters and broadcasts are now and have in the past been banned in several countries primarily for reporting which has been unfavourable to the ruling government. For example, correspondents were banned by the former apartheid regime of South Africa. The BBC was banned in Zimbabwe under Mugabe for eight years as a terrorist organisation until being allowed to operate again over a year after the 2008 elections. The BBC was banned in Burma (officially Myanmar) after their coverage and commentary on anti-government protests there in September 2007. The ban was lifted four years later in September 2011. Other cases have included Uzbekistan, China, and Pakistan. BBC Persian, the BBC's Persian language news site, was blocked from the Iranian internet in 2006. The BBC News website was made available in China again in March 2008, but as of October 2014[update], was blocked again. In June 2015, the Rwandan government placed an indefinite ban on BBC broadcasts following the airing of a controversial documentary regarding the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Rwanda's Untold Story, broadcast on BBC2 on 1 October 2014. The UK's Foreign Office recognised "the hurt caused in Rwanda by some parts of the documentary". In February 2017, reporters from the BBC (as well as the Daily Mail, The New York Times, Politico, CNN, and others) were denied access to a United States White House briefing. In 2017, BBC India was banned for a period of five years from covering all national parks and sanctuaries in India. Following the withdrawal of CGTN's UK broadcaster licence on 4 February 2021 by Ofcom, China banned BBC News from airing in China. See also References External links |below = Category }} |
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Contents Thirty-seventh government of Israel The thirty-seventh government of Israel is the current cabinet of Israel, formed on 29 December 2022, following the Knesset election the previous month. The coalition government currently consists of five parties — Likud, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party and New Hope — and is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office as the prime minister of Israel for the sixth time. The government is widely regarded as the most right-wing government in the country's history, and includes far-right politicians. Several of the government's policy proposals have led to controversies, both within Israel and abroad, with the government's attempts at reforming the judiciary leading to a wave of demonstrations across the country. Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, opposition leader Yair Lapid initiated discussions with Netanyahu on the formation of an emergency government. On 11 October 2023, National Unity MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper, and Yifat Shasha-Biton joined the Security Cabinet of Israel to form an emergency national unity government. Their accession to the Security Cabinet and to the government (as ministers without portfolio) was approved by the Knesset the following day. Gantz, Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant became part of the newly formed Israeli war cabinet, with Eisenkot and Ron Dermer serving as observers. National Unity left the government in June 2024. New Hope rejoined the government in September. Otzma Yehudit announced on 19 January 2025 that it had withdrawn from the government, which took effect on 21 January, following the cabinet's acceptance of the three-phase Gaza war ceasefire proposal, though it rejoined two months later. United Torah Judaism left the government in July 2025 over dissatisfaction with the government's draft conscription law. Shas left the government several days later, though it remains part of the coalition. Background The right-wing bloc of parties, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, known in Israel as the national camp, won 64 of the 120 seats in the elections for the Knesset, while the coalition led by the incumbent prime minister Yair Lapid won 51 seats. The new majority has been variously described as the most right-wing government in Israeli history, as well as Israel's most religious government. Shortly after the elections, Lapid conceded to Netanyahu, and congratulated him, wishing him luck "for the sake of the Israeli people". On 15 November, the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected members of the 25th Knesset was held during the opening session. The vote to appoint a new Speaker of the Knesset, which is usually conducted at the opening session, as well as the swearing in of cabinet members were postponed since ongoing coalition negotiations had not yet resulted in agreement on these positions. Government formation Yair Lapid Yesh Atid Benjamin Netanyahu Likud On 3 November 2022, Netanyahu told his aide Yariv Levin to begin informal coalition talks with allied parties, after 97% of the vote was counted. The leader of the Shas party Aryeh Deri met with Yitzhak Goldknopf, the leader of United Torah Judaism and its Agudat Yisrael faction, on 4 November. The two parties agreed to cooperate as members of the next government. The Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism stated on 5 November that it will maintain its ideological stance about not seeking any ministerial posts, as per the instruction of its spiritual leader Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, but will seek other senior posts like Knesset committee chairmen and deputy ministers. Netanyahu himself started holding talks on 6 November. He first met with Moshe Gafni, the leader of Degel HaTorah, and then with Goldknopf. Meanwhile, the Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and the leader of its Otzma Yehudit faction Itamar Ben-Gvir pledged that they would not enter the coalition without the other faction. Gafni later met with Smotrich for coalition talks. Smotrich then met with Netanyahu. On 7 November, Netanyahu met with Ben-Gvir who demanded the Ministry of Public Security with expanded powers for himself and the Ministry of Education or Transport and Road Safety for Yitzhak Wasserlauf. A major demand among all of Netanyahu's allies was that the Knesset be allowed to ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu met with the Noam faction leader and its sole MK Avi Maoz on 8 November after he threatened to boycott the coalition. He demanded complete control of the Western Wall by the Haredi rabbinate and removal of what he considered as anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish content in schoolbooks. President Isaac Herzog began consultations with heads of all the political parties on 9 November after the election results were certified. During the consultations, he expressed his reservations about Ben-Gvir becoming a member in the next government. Shas met with Likud for coalition talks on 10 November. By 11 November, Netanyahu had secured recommendations from 64 MKs, which constituted a majority. He was given the mandate to form the thirty-seventh government of Israel by President Herzog on 13 November. Otzma Yehudit and Noam officially split from Religious Zionism on 20 November as per a pre-election agreement. On 25 November, Otzma Yehudit and Likud signed a coalition agreement, under which Ben-Gvir will assume the newly created position of National Security Minister, whose powers would be more expansive than that of the Minister of Public Security, including overseeing the Israel Police and the Israel Border Police in the West Bank, as well as giving powers to authorities to shoot thieves stealing from military bases. Yitzhak Wasserlauf was given the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee with expanded powers to regulate new West Bank settlements, while separating it from the "Periphery" portfolio, which will be given to Shas. The deal also includes giving the Ministry of Heritage to Amihai Eliyahu, separating it from the "Jerusalem Affairs" portfolio, the chairmanship of the Knesset's Public Security Committee to Zvika Fogel and that of the Special Committee for the Israeli Citizens' Fund to Limor Son Har-Melech, the post of Deputy Economic Minister to Almog Cohen, establishment of a national guard, and expansion of mobilization of reservists in the Border Police. Netanyahu and Maoz signed a coalition agreement on 27 November, under which the latter would become a deputy minister, would head an agency on Jewish identity in the Prime Minister's Office, and would also head Nativ, which processes the aliyah from the former Soviet Union. The agency for Jewish identity would have authority over educational content taught outside the regular curriculum in schools, in addition to the department of the Ministry of Education overseeing external teaching and partnerships, which would bring nonofficial organisations permitted to teach and lecture at schools under its purview. Likud signed a coalition agreement with the Religious Zionist Party on 1 December. Under the deal, Smotrich would serve as the Minister of Finance in rotation with Aryeh Deri, and the party will receive the post of a minister within the Ministry of Defense with control over the departments administering settlement and open lands under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, in addition to another post of a deputy minister. The deal also includes giving the post of Minister of Aliyah and Integration to Ofir Sofer, the newly created National Missions Ministry to Orit Strook, and the chairmanship of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to Simcha Rothman. Likud and United Torah Judaism signed a coalition agreement on 6 December, to allow request for an extension to the deadline. Under it, the party would receive the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee which will be given to Moshe Gafni, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Tradition (which would replace the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage), in addition to several posts of deputy ministers and chairmanships of Knesset committees. Likud also signed a deal with Shas by 8 December, securing interim coalition agreements with all of their allies. Under the deal, Deri will first serve as the Minister of Interior and Health, before rotating posts with Smotrich after two years. The party will also receive the Ministry of Religious Services and Welfare Ministries, as well as posts of deputy ministers in the Ministry of Education and Interior. The vote to replace then-incumbent Knesset speaker Mickey Levy was scheduled for 13 December, after Likud and its allies secured the necessary number of signatures for it. Yariv Levin of Likud was elected as an interim speaker by 64 votes, while his opponents Merav Ben-Ari of Yesh Atid and Ayman Odeh of Hadash received 45 and five votes respectively. Netanyahu asked Herzog for a 14-day extension after the agreement with Shas to finalise the roles his allied parties would play. Herzog on 9 December extended the deadline to 21 December. On that date, Netanyahu informed Herzog that he had succeeded in forming a coalition, with the new government expected to be sworn in by 2 January 2023. The government was sworn in on 29 December 2022. Timeline Israeli law stated that people convicted of crimes cannot serve in the government. An amendment to that law was made in late 2022, known colloquially as the Deri Law, to allow those who had been convicted without prison time to serve. This allowed Deri to be appointed to the cabinet. Shas leader Aryeh Deri was appointed to be Minister of Health, Minister of the Interior, and Vice Prime Minister in December 2022. He was fired in January 2023, following a Supreme Court decision that his appointment was unreasonable, since he had been convicted of fraud, and had promised not to seek government roles through a plea deal. In March 2023, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government to delay legislation related to the judicial reform. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had been dismissed from his position, leading to the continuation of mass protests across the country (which had started in January in Tel Aviv). Gallant continued to serve as a minister as he had not received formal notice of dismissal, and two weeks later it was announced that Netanyahu had reversed his decision. Public Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit leader) and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (Likud) both threatened to resign if the judicial reform was delayed.[better source needed] After the outbreak of the Gaza war, five members of the National Unity party joined the government as ministers without portfolio, with leader Benny Gantz being made a member of the new Israeli war cabinet (along with Netanyahu and Gallant). As the war progressed, minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the government if the war was ended. A month later in mid December, he again threatened to leave if the war did not maintain "full strength". Gideon Sa'ar stated on 16 March that his New Hope party would resign from the government and join the opposition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appoint him to the Israeli war cabinet. Netanyahu did not do so, resulting in Sa'ar's New Hope party leaving the government nine days later, reducing the size of the coalition from 76 MKs to 72. Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism party, have indicated that they will withdraw their parties from the government if the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire is adopted, which would bring down the government. Ben-Gvir announced on 5 June that the members of his party would be allowed to vote as they wish, though his party resumed support on 9 June. On 18 May, Gantz set an 8 June deadline for withdrawal from the coalition, which was delayed by a day following the 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation. Gantz and his party left the government on 9 June, giving the government 64 seats in the Knesset. Sa'ar and his New Hope party rejoined the Netanyahu government on 30 September, increasing the number of seats held by the government to 68. The High Court of Justice ruled on 28 March 2024 that yeshiva funds would no longer be available for students who are "eligible for enlistment", effectively allowing ultra-Orthodox Jews to be drafted into the IDF. Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara indicated on 31 March that the conscription process must begin on 1 April. The court ruled on 25 June that the IDF must begin to draft yeshiva students. Likud announced on 7 July that it would not put forward any legislation after Shas and United Torah Judaism said that they would boycott the plenary session over the lack of legislation dealing with the Haredi draft. The Ultra-Orthodox boycott continued for a second day, with UTJ briefly ending its boycott on 9 July to unsuccessfully vote in favor of a bill which would have weakened the Law of Return. Yuli Edelstein, who was replaced by Boaz Bismuth on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in early August, published a draft version of the conscription law shortly before his ouster. Bismuth cancelled the work on the draft law in September 2025, which Edelstein called "a shame." Bismuth released the official version of the draft law in late November 2025. It weakened penalties for draft evaders, with Edelstein saying it was "the exact opposite" of the bill which he attempted to pass. Members of Otzma Yehudit resigned from the government on 19 January 2025 over the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire, which took effect on 21 January. The members rejoined in March, following the "resumption" of the war in Gaza. Avi Maoz of the Noam party left the government in March 2025. On 4 June 2025, senior rabbis for United Torah Judaism Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch instructed the party's MKs to pass a bill which would dissolve the Knesset. Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats announced that they will "submit a bill" for dissolution on 11 June, with Yesh Atid tabling the bill on 4 June. There were also reports that Shas would vote in favor of Knesset dissolution amidst division within the governing coalition on Haredi conscription. This jeopardized the coalition's majority and would have triggered new elections if the bill passed. The following day, Agudat Yisrael, one of the United Torah Judaism factions, confirmed that it would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Asher Medina, a Shas spokesman, indicated on 9 June that the party would vote in favor of a preliminary bill to dissolve the Knesset. The rabbis of Degel HaTorah instructed the parties' MKs on 12 June 2025 to oppose the dissolution of the Knesset, which was followed by Yuli Edelstein and the Shas and Degel HaTorah parties announcing that a deal had been reached, with "rabbinical leaders" telling their parties to delay the dissolution vote by a week. Shas and Degel HaTorah voted against the dissolution bill, which led to the bill failing its preliminary reading in a vote of 61 against and 53 in favor. MKs Ya'akov Tessler and Moshe Roth of Agudat Yisrael voted in favor of dissolution. Another dissolution bill will be unable to be brought forward for six months. If the bill had passed its preliminary reading, in addition to three more readings, an election would have been held in approximately three months; The Jerusalem Post posited it would have been held in October. Degel HaTorah announced on 14 July 2025 that it would leave the government because members of the party were dissatisfied after viewing the proposed draft bill by Yuli Edelstein regarding Haredi exemptions from the Israeli draft. Several hours later, Agudat Yisrael announced that it would also leave the government. Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, Moshe Gafni, the head of the Knesset Finance Committee, Ya'akov Asher, the head of the Knesset Interior and Environment Protection Committee and Jerusalem Affairs minister Meir Porush all submitted their resignations, with their resignations taking effect in 48 hours. Sports Minister Ya'akov Tessler and "Special Committee for Public Petitions Chair" Yitzhak Pindrus also submitted resignations. Yisrael Eichler submitted his resignation as the "head of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee" the same day. The resignations will leave Netanyahu's government with a 60-seat majority in the Knesset, as Avi Maoz, of the Noam party, left the government in March 2025. Despite Edelstein's ouster in August, a spokesman for UTJ head Yitzhak Goldknopf remarked that it would not change the faction's withdrawal from the government. The religious council for Shas, called the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, instructed the party on 16 July to leave the government, but stay in the coalition. The following day, various cabinet ministers submitted their resignations, including "Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, Social Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi and Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli." Malchieli reportedly has postponed his resignation so he could attend a 20 July meeting of the panel investigating whether attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara should be dismissed. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Moshe Abutbul, Minister of Health Uriel Buso and Haim Biton, a minister in the Education Ministry, also submitted their resignation letters, while Arbel retracted his resignation letter. The last cabinet member from the party to submit it was Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur. The ministers who resigned will return to the Knesset, replacing MKs Moshe Roth, Yitzhak Pindrus and Eliyahu Baruchi. Members of government Listed below are the current ministers in the government: Principles and priorities According to the agreements signed between Likud and each of its coalition partners, and the incoming government's published guideline principles, its stated priorities are to combat the cost of living, further centralize Orthodox control over the state religious services, pass judicial reforms which include legislation to reduce judicial controls on executive and legislative power, expand settlements in the West Bank, and consider an annexation of the West Bank. Before the vote of confidence in his new government in the Knesset, Netanyahu presented three top priorities for the new government: internal security and governance, halting the nuclear program of Iran, and the development of infrastructure, with a focus on further connecting the center of the country with its periphery. Policies The government's flagship program, centered around reforms in the judicial branch, drew widespread criticism. Critics said it would have negative effects on the separation of powers, the office of the Attorney General, the economy, public health, women and minorities, workers' rights, scientific research, the overall strength of Israel's democracy and its foreign relations. After weeks of public protests on Israel's streets, joined by a growing number of military reservists, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke against the reform on 25 March, calling for a halt of the legislative process "for the sake of Israel's security". The next day, Netanyahu announced that he would be removed from his post, sparking another wave of protest across Israel and ultimately leading to Netanyahu agreeing to pause the legislation. On 10 April, Netanyahu announced that Gallant would keep his post. On 27 March 2023, after the public protests and general strikes, Netanyahu announced a pause in the reform process to allow for dialogue with opposition parties. However, negotiations aimed at reaching a compromise collapsed in June, and the government resumed its plans to unilaterally pass parts of the legislation. On 24 July 2023, the Knesset passed a bill that curbs the power of the Supreme Court to declare government decisions unreasonable; on 1 January 2024, the Supreme Court struck the bill down. The Knesset passed a "watered-down" version of the judicial reform package in late March 2025 which "changes the composition" of the judicial selection committee. In December 2022 Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir sought to amend the law that regulates the operations of the Israel Police, such that the ministry will have more direct control of its forces and policies, including its investigative priorities. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara objected to the draft proposal, raising concerns that the law would enable the politicization of police work, and the draft was amended to partially address those concerns. Nevertheless, in March 2023 Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon stated that the Attorney General's fears had been realized, referring to several instances of ministerial involvement in the day-to-day work of the otherwise independent police force – statements that were repeated by the Attorney General herself two days later. Separately, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai instructed Deputy Commissioners to avoid direct communication with the minister, later stating that "the Israel Police will remain apolitical, and act only according to law". Following appeals by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, the High Court of Justice instructed Ben-Gvir "to refrain from giving operational directions to the police... [especially] as regards to protests and demonstrations against the government." As talks of halting the judicial reform gained wind during March 2023, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if the legislation implementing the changes was suspended. To appease Ben-Gvir, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the government would promote the creation of a new National Guard, to be headed by Ben-Gvir. On 29 March, thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem against this decision. On 1 April, the New York Times quoted Gadeer Nicola, head of the Arab department at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as saying "If this thing passes, it will be an imminent danger to the rights of Arab citizens in this country. This will create two separate systems of applying the law. The regular police which will operate against Jewish citizens — and a militarized militia to deal only with Arab citizens." The same day, while speaking on Israel's Channel 13 about those whom he'd like to see enlist in the National Guard, Ben-Gvir specifically mentioned La Familia, the far-right fan club of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team. On 2 April, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of a law enforcement body that would operate independently of the police, under Ben-Gvir's authority. According to the decision, the Minister was to establish a committee chaired by the Director General of the Ministry of National Security, with representatives of the ministries of defense, justice and finance, as well as the police and the IDF, to outline the operations of the new organization. The committee's recommendations will be submitted to the government for consideration. Addressing a conference on 4 April, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that he is not opposed to the establishment of a security body which would answer to the police, but "a separate body? Absolutely not." The police chief said he had warned Ben-Gvir that the establishment of a security body separate from the police is "unnecessary, with extremely high costs that may harm citizens' personal security." During a press conference on 10 April, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, in what has been seen by some news outlets as a concession to the protesters, that "This will not be anyone's militia, it will be a security body, orderly, professional, that will be subordinate to one of the [existing] security bodies." The committee established by the government recommended the government to order the establishment of the National Guard immediately while allocating budgets. The National Guard, under whose command will be a superintendent of the police, will not be subordinate to Ben-Gvir. It will be subordinate to the police commissioner and will be part of Israel Border Police. The Ministry of Defense and Finance opposed the conclusions. The Israeli National Security Council called for further discussion on this. The coalition's efforts to expand the purview of Rabbinical courts; force some organizations, such as hospitals, to enforce certain religious practices; amend the Law Prohibiting Discrimination to allow gender segregation and discrimination on the grounds of religious belief; expand funding for religious causes; and put into law the exemption of yeshiva and kolel students from conscription have drawn criticism. According to the Haaretz op-ed of 7 March 2023, "the current coalition is interested... in modifying the public space so it suits the religious lifestyle. The legal coup is meant to castrate anyone who can prevent it, most of all the HCJ." Several banks and institutional investors, including the Israel Discount Bank and AIG have committed to avoid investing in, or providing credit to any organization that will discriminate against others on ground of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation. A series of technology companies and investment firms including Wiz, Intel Israel, Salesforce and Microsoft Israel Research and Development, have criticized the proposed changes to the Law Prohibiting Discrimination, with Wiz stating that it will require its suppliers to commit to preventing discrimination. Over sixty prominent law firms pledged that they will neither represent, nor do business with discriminating individuals and organizations. Insight Partners, a major private equity fund operating in Israel, released a statement warning against intolerance and any attempt to harm personal liberties. Orit Lahav, chief executive of the women's rights organization Mavoi Satum ("Dead End"), said that "the Rabbinical courts are the most discriminatory institution in the State of Israel... Limiting the HCJ[d] while expanding the jurisdiction of the Rabbinical courts would... cause significant harm to women." Anat Thon Ashkenazy, Director of the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that "almost every part of the reform could harm women... the meaning of an override clause is that even if the court says that the law on gender segregation is illegitimate, is harmful, the Knesset could say 'Okay, we say otherwise'". She added that "there is a very broad institutional framework here, after which there will come legislation that harms women's right and we will have no way of protecting or stopping it." During July 2023, 20 professional medical associations signed a letter of position warning against the ramifications to public health that would result from the exclusion of women from the public sphere. They cited, among others, a rise in prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, pregnancy-related ailments, psychological distress, and the risk of suicide. On 30 July the Knesset passed an amendment to penal law adding sexual offenses to those offenses whose penalty can be doubled if done on grounds of "nationalistic terrorism, racism or hostility towards a certain community". According to MK Limor Son Har-Melech, the bill is meant to penalize any individual who "[intends to] harm a woman sexually based on her Jewishness". The law was criticized by MK Gilad Kariv as "populist, nationalistic, and dangerous towards the Arab citizens of Israel", and by MK Ahmad Tibi as a "race law", and was objected to by legal advisors at the Ministry of Justice and the Knesset Committee on National Security. Activist Orit Kamir wrote that "the amendment... is neither feminist, equal, nor progressive, but the opposite: it subordinates women's sexuality to the nationalistic, racist patriarchy. It hijacks the Law for Prevention of Sexual Harassment to serve a world view that tags women as sexual objects that personify the nation's honor." Yael Sherer, director of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence, criticized the law as being informed by dated ideas about sexual assault, and proposed that MKs "dedicate a session... to give victims of sexual assault an opportunity to come out of the darkness... instead of [submitting] declarative bills that change nothing and are not meant but for grabbing headlines". In Israel, during 2022, 24 women "were murdered because they were women," which was an increase of 50% compared to 2021. A law permitting courts to order men subject to a restraining order following domestic violence offenses to wear electronic tags was drafted during the previous Knesset and had passed its first reading unanimously. On 22 March 2023, the Knesset voted to reject the bill. It had been urged to do so by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said that the bill was unfair to men. Earlier in the week, Ben-Gvir had blocked the measure from advancing in the ministerial legislative committee. The MKs voting against the bill included Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Association of Families of Murder Victims said that by rejecting the law, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir "brings joy to violent men and abandons the women threatened with murder… unsupervised restraining orders endanger women's lives even more. They give women the illusion of being protected, and then they are murdered." MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, said that "the coalition proved today that it despises women's lives." The NGO Amutat Bat Melech [he], which assists Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox women who suffer from domestic violence, said that: "Rejecting the electronic bracelet bill is disconnected from the terrible reality of seven femicides since the beginning of the year. This is an effective tool of the first degree that could have saved lives and reduced the threat to women suffering from domestic violence. This is a matter of life and death, whose whole purpose is to provide a solution to defend women." The agreement signed by the coalition parties includes the setting up of a committee to draft changes to the Law of Return. Israeli religious parties have long demanded that the "grandchild clause" of the Law of Return be cancelled. This clause grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, as long as they do not practice another religion. If the grandchild clause were to be removed from the Law of Return then around 3 million people who are currently eligible for aliyah would no longer be eligible. The heads of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish Federations of North America, the World Zionist Organization and Keren Hayesod sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, expressing their "deep concern" about any changes to the Law of Return, adding that "Any change in the delicate and sensitive status quo on issues such as the Law of Return or conversion could threaten to unravel the ties between us and keep us away from each other." The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia issued a joint statement saying "We… view with deep concern… proposals in relation to religious pluralism and the law of return that risk damaging Israel's… relationship with Diaspora Jewry." On 19 March 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke in Paris at a memorial service for a Likud activist. The lectern at which Smotrich spoke was covered with a flag depicting the 'Greater Land of Israel,' encompassing the whole of Mandatory Palestine, as well as Trans-Jordan. During his speech, Smotrich said that "there's no such thing as Palestinians because there's no such thing as a Palestinian people." He added that the Palestinian people are a fictitious nation invented only to fight the Zionist movement, asking "Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn't any." The event received widespread media coverage. On 21 March, a spokesman for the US State Department sharply criticized Smotrich's comments. "The comments, which were delivered at a podium adorned with an inaccurate and provocative map, are offensive, they are deeply concerning, and, candidly, they're dangerous. The Palestinians have a rich history and culture, and the United States greatly values our partnership with the Palestinian people," he said. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also voiced disapproval: "The Israeli Minister of Finance's use, during his participation in an event held yesterday in Paris, of a map of Israel that includes the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories represents a reckless inflammatory act, and a violation of international norms and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty." Additionally, a map encompassing Mandatory Palestine and Trans-Jordan with a Jordanian flag on it was placed on a central lectern in the Jordanian Parliament. Jordan's parliament voted to expel the Israeli ambassador. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a clarification relating to the matter, stating that "Israel is committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan". Ahead of a Europe Day event due to take place on 9 May 2023, far-right wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was assigned as a representative of the government and a speaker at the event by the government secretariat, which deals with placing ministers at receptions on the occasion of the national days of the foreign embassies. The European Union requested that Ben-Gvir not attend, but the government did not make changes to the plan. On 8 May, the European delegation to Israel cancelled the reception, stating that: "The EU Delegation to Israel is looking forward to celebrating Europe Day on May 9, as it does every year. Regrettably, this year we have decided to cancel the diplomatic reception, as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the European Union stands for. However, the Europe Day cultural event for the Israeli public will be maintained to celebrate with our friends and partners in Israel the strong and constructive bilateral relationship". Israel's Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stated: "Sending Itamar Ben-Gvir to a gathering of EU ambassadors is a serious professional mistake. The government is embarrassing a large group of friendly countries, jeopardizing future votes in international institutions, and damaging our foreign relations. Last year, after a decade of efforts, we succeeded in signing an economic-political agreement with the European Union that will contribute to the Israeli economy and our foreign relations. Why risk it, and for what? Ben-Gvir is not a legitimate person in the international community (and not really in Israel either), and sometimes you have to be both wise and just and simply send someone else". On 23 February 2023, Defense Minister Gallant signed an agreement assigning governmental powers in the West Bank to a body to be headed by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who will effectively become the governor of the West Bank, controlling almost all areas of life in the area, including planning, building and infrastructure. Israeli governments have hitherto been careful to keep the occupation as a military government. The temporary holding of power by an occupying military force, pending a negotiated settlement, is a principle of international law – an expression of the prohibition against obtaining sovereignty through conquest that was introduced in the wake of World War II. An editorial in Haaretz noted that the assignment of governmental powers in the West Bank to a civilian governor, alongside the plan to expand the dual justice system so that Israeli law will apply fully to settlers in the West Bank, constitutes de jure annexation of the West Bank. On 26 February 2023, following the 2023 Huwara shooting in which two Israelis were killed by an unidentified attacker, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara and three nearby villages, setting alight hundreds of Palestinian homes (some with people in them), businesses, a school, and numerous vehicles, killing one Palestinian man and injuring 100 others. Bezalel Smotrich subsequently called on Twitter for Huwara to be "wiped out" by the Israeli government. Zvika Fogel MK, of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit, which forms part of the governing coalition, said that he "looks very favorably upon" the results of the rampage. Members of the coalition proposed an amendment to the Disengagement Law, which would allow Israelis to resettle settlements vacated during the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank. The evacuated settlements were considered illegal under international law, according to most countries. The proposal was approved for voting by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on 9 March 2023, while the committee was still waiting for briefing materials from the NSS, IDF, MFA and Shin Bet, and was passed on 21 March. The US has requested clarification from Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog. A US State Department spokesman stated that "The U.S. strongly urges Israel to refrain from allowing the return of settlers to the area covered by the legislation, consistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon and the current Israeli Government's commitment to the United States," noting that the actions represent a clear violation of undertakings given by the Sharon government to the Bush administration in 2005 and Netanyahu's far-right coalition to the Biden administration the previous week. Minister of Communication Shlomo Karhi had initially intended to cut the funding of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (also known by its blanket branding Kan) by 400 million shekels – roughly half of its total budget – closing several departments, and privatizing content creation. In response, the Director-General of the European Broadcasting Union, Noel Curran, sent two urgent letters to Netanyahu, expressing his concerns and calling on the Israeli government to "safeguard the independence of our Member KAN and ensure it is allowed to operate in a sustainable way, with funding that is both stable, adequate, fair, and transparent." On 25 January 2023, nine journalist organizations representing some of Kan's competitors issued a statement of concern, acknowledging the "important contribution of public broadcasting in creating a worthy, unbiased and non-prejudicial journalistic platform", and noting that "the existence of the [broadcasting] corporation as a substantial public broadcast organization strengthens media as a whole, adding to the competition in the market rather than weakening it." They also expressed their concern that the "real reason" for the proposal was actually "an attempt to silence voices from which... [the Minister] doesn't always draw satisfaction". The same day, hundreds of journalists, actors and filmmakers protested in Tel Aviv. The proposal was eventually put on hold. On 22 February 2023 it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu was attempting to appoint his close associate Yossi Shelley as the deputy to the National Statistician — a highly sensitive position in charge of providing accurate data for decision makers. The appointment of Shelley, who did not possess the required qualifications for the role, was withdrawn following publication. In its daily editorial, Haaretz tied this attempt with the judicial reform: "once they take control of the judiciary, law enforcement and public media, they wish to control the state's data base, the dry numerical data it uses to plan its future". Netanyahu also proposed Avi Simhon for the role, and eventually froze all appointments at the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Also on 22 February 2023, it was revealed that Yoav Kish, the Minister of Education, was promoting a draft government decision change to the National Library of Israel board of directors which would grant him more power over the institution. In response, the Hebrew University — which owned the library until 2008 – announced that if the draft is accepted, it will withdraw its collections from the library. The university's collections, which according to the university constitute some 80% of the library's collection, include the Agnon archive, the original manuscript of Hatikvah, and the Rothschild Haggadah, the oldest known Haggadah. A group of 300 authors and poets signed an open letter against the move, further noting their objection against "political takeover" of public broadcasting, as well as "any legislation that will castrate the judiciary and damage the democratic foundations of the state of Israel". Several days later, it was reported that a series of donors decided to withhold their donations to the library, totaling some 80 million shekels. On 3 March a petition against the move by 1,500 academics, including Israel Prize laureates, was sent to Kish. The proposal has been seen by some as retribution against Shai Nitzan, the former State Attorney and the library's current rector. On 5 March it was reported that the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Asi Messing, was withholding the proposal. According to Messing, the proposal – which was being promoted as part of the Economic Arrangements Law – "was not reviewed... by the qualified personnel in the Ministry of Finance, does not align with any of the common goals of the economic plan, was not agreed to by myself and was not approved by the Attorney General." As of February 2023, the government has been debating several proposals that will significantly weaken the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including reducing the environmental regulation of planning and development and electricity production. One of the main proposals, the transferal of a 3 billion shekel fund meant to finance waste management plants from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the Ministry of the Interior, was eventually withdrawn. The Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, has been criticized for using for meeting with climate change denialists, for wasteful and personally-motivated travel on the ministry's expense, for politicizing the role, and for engaging in political activity on the ministry's time. The government has been noted for an unusually high number of dismissals and resignations of senior career civil servants, and for the frequent attempts to replace them with candidates with known political associations, who are often less competent. According to sources, Netanyahu and people in his vicinity are seeking out civil servants who were appointed by the previous government, intent on replacing them with people loyal to him. Governmental nominees for various positions have been criticized for lack of expertise. In addition to the nominee to the position of Deputy National Statistician (see above), the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Shlomi Heisler; the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Itamar Donenfeld; and the Director General of Ministry of Transport, Moshe Ben Zaken, have all been criticized for incompetence, lack of familiarity with their Ministries' subject matter, lack of interest in the job, or lack of experience in managing large organizations. It has been reported that in some ministries, senior officials were enacting slowdowns as a means for dealing with the new ministers and director generals. On 28 July the director general of the Ministry of Education resigned, citing as reason the societal "rift". Asaf Zalel, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, was appointed in January. When asked about attempts to appoint his personal friend and attorney to the board of directors of a state-owned company, Minister David Amsalem replied: "that is my job, due to my authority to appoint directors. I put forward people that I know and hold in esteem". Under Minister of Transport Miri Regev, the ministry has either dismissed or lost the heads of the National Public Transport Authority, Israel Airports Authority, National Road Safety Authority, Israel Railways, and several officials in Netivei Israel. The current chair of Netivei Israel is Likud member and Regev associate Yigal Amadi, and the legal counsel is Einav Abuhzira, daughter of a former Likud branch chair. Abuhzira was appointed instead of Elad Berdugo, nephew of Netanyahu surrogate Yaakov Bardugo, after he was disqualified for the role by the Israel Government Companies Authority. In July 2023 the Ministry of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, and the minister in charge of the Israel Government Companies Authority, Dudi Amsalem, deposed the chair of the Israel Postal Company, Michael Vaknin. The chair, who was hired to lead the company's financial recovery after years of operational loss and towards privatization, has gained the support of officials at the Authority and at the Ministry of Finance; nevertheless, the ministers claimed that his performance is inadequate, and nominated in his place Yiftah Ron-Tal, who has known ties to Netanyahu and Smotrich. They also nominated four new directors, two of which have known political associations, and a third who was a witness in Netanyahu's trial. The coalition is allowed to spend a portion of the state's budget on a discretionary basis, meant to coax member parties to reach an agreement on the budget. As of May 2023, the government was pushing an allocation of over 13 billion shekels over two years - almost seven times the amount allocated by the previous government. Most of the funds will be allocated for uses associated with the religious, orthodox and settler communities. The head of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Finance, Yoav Gardos, objected to the allocations, claiming they would exacerbate unemployment in the Orthodox community, which is projected to cost the economy a total of 6.7 trillion shekels in lost produce by 2065. At the onset of the Gaza war and the declaration of a state of national emergency, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich instructed government agencies to continue with the planned distribution of discretionary funds. Corruption During March 2023, the government was promoting an amendment to the Law on Public Service (Gifts) that would allow Netanyahu to receive donations to fund his legal defense. The amendment follows a decision by the High Court of Justice (HCJ) that forced Netanyahu to refund US$270,000 given to him and his wife by his late cousin, Nathan Mileikowsky, for their legal defense. This is in contrast to past statements by Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, who spoke against the possible conflict of interests that can result from such transactions. The bill was opposed by the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who stressed that it could "create a real opportunity for governmental corruption", and was eventually withdrawn at the end of March. As of March 2023, the coalition was promoting a bill that would prevent judicial review of ministerial appointments. The bill is intended to prevent the HCJ from reviewing the appointment of the twice-convicted chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri (convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust), to a ministerial position, after his previous appointment was annulled on grounds of unreasonableness. The bill follows on the heels of another amendment, that relaxed the ban on the appointment of convicted criminals, so that Deri - who was handed a suspended sentence after his second conviction - could be appointed. The bill is opposed by the Attorney General, as well as by the Knesset Legal Adviser, Sagit Afik. Israeli law allows for declaring a Prime Minister (as well as several other high-ranking public officials) to be temporarily or permanently incapacitated, but does not specify the conditions which can lead to a declaration of incapacitation. In the case of the Prime Minister, the authority to do so is given to the Attorney General. In March 2023, the coalition advanced a bill that passes this authority from the Attorney General to the government with the approval of the Knesset committee, and clarified that incapacitation can only result from medical or mental conditions. On 3 January 2024, the Supreme Court ruled by a majority of 6 out of 11 that the validity of the law will be postponed to the next Knesset because the bill in its immediate application is a personal law and is intended to serve a distinct personal purpose. Later, the court rejected a petition regarding the definition of Netanyahu as an incapacitated prime minister due to his ongoing trial and conflict of interests. Notes References External links |
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Contents Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. (doing business as Meta) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads and Manus. The company also operates an advertising network for its own sites and third parties; as of 2023[update], advertising accounted for 97.8 percent of its total revenue. Meta has been described as a part of Big Tech, which refers to the largest six tech companies in the United States, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Nvidia, which are also the largest companies in the world by market capitalization. The company was originally established in 2004 as TheFacebook, Inc., and was renamed Facebook, Inc. in 2005. In 2021, it rebranded as Meta Platforms, Inc. to reflect a strategic shift toward developing the metaverse—an interconnected digital ecosystem spanning virtual and augmented reality technologies. In 2023, Meta was ranked 31st on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest public companies. As of 2022, it was the world's third-largest spender on research and development, with R&D expenses totaling US$35.3 billion. History Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on January 1, 2012. The preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Zuckerberg would retain 22% of the total shares and 57% of the total voting power in Facebook. Underwriters valued the shares at $38 each, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation yet for a newly public company. On May 16, one day before the IPO, Facebook announced it would sell 25% more shares than originally planned due to high demand. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in US history (slightly ahead of AT&T Mobility and behind only General Motors and Visa). The stock price left the company with a higher market capitalization than all but a few U.S. corporations—surpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foods—and made Zuckerberg's stock worth $19 billion. The New York Times stated that the offering overcame questions about Facebook's difficulties in attracting advertisers to transform the company into a "must-own stock". Jimmy Lee of JPMorgan Chase described it as "the next great blue-chip". Writers at TechCrunch, on the other hand, expressed skepticism, stating, "That's a big multiple to live up to, and Facebook will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation." Trading in the stock, which began on May 18, was delayed that day due to technical problems with the Nasdaq exchange. The stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price. At the closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only $0.23 above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value. The opening was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment. The stock set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25, 2012, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline. On May 22, 2012, regulators from Wall Street's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that they had begun to investigate whether banks underwriting Facebook had improperly shared information only with select clients rather than the general public. Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin subpoenaed Morgan Stanley over the same issue. The allegations sparked "fury" among some investors and led to the immediate filing of several lawsuits, one of them a class action suit claiming more than $2.5 billion in losses due to the IPO. Bloomberg estimated that retail investors may have lost approximately $630 million on Facebook stock since its debut. S&P Global Ratings added Facebook to its S&P 500 index on December 21, 2013. On May 2, 2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infrastructure". The earlier motto had been described as Zuckerberg's "prime directive to his developers and team" in a 2009 interview in Business Insider, in which he also said, "Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough." In November 2016, Facebook announced the Microsoft Windows client of gaming service Facebook Gameroom, formerly Facebook Games Arcade, at the Unity Technologies developers conference. The client allows Facebook users to play "native" games in addition to its web games. The service was closed in June 2021. Lasso was a short-video sharing app from Facebook similar to TikTok that was launched on iOS and Android in 2018 and was aimed at teenagers. On July 2, 2020, Facebook announced that Lasso would be shutting down on July 10. In 2018, the Oculus lead Jason Rubin sent his 50-page vision document titled "The Metaverse" to Facebook's leadership. In the document, Rubin acknowledged that Facebook's virtual reality business had not caught on as expected, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on content for early adopters. He also urged the company to execute fast and invest heavily in the vision, to shut out HTC, Apple, Google and other competitors in the VR space. Regarding other players' participation in the metaverse vision, he called for the company to build the "metaverse" to prevent their competitors from "being in the VR business in a meaningful way at all". In May 2019, Facebook founded Libra Networks, reportedly to develop their own stablecoin cryptocurrency. Later, it was reported that Libra was being supported by financial companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. The consortium of companies was expected to pool in $10 million each to fund the launch of the cryptocurrency coin named Libra. Depending on when it would receive approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory authority to operate as a payments service, the Libra Association had planned to launch a limited format cryptocurrency in 2021. Libra was renamed Diem, before being shut down and sold in January 2022 after backlash from Swiss government regulators and the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online services, including Facebook, grew globally. Zuckerberg predicted this would be a "permanent acceleration" that would continue after the pandemic. Facebook hired aggressively, growing from 48,268 employees in March 2020 to more than 87,000 by September 2022. Following a period of intense scrutiny and damaging whistleblower leaks, news started to emerge on October 21, 2021 about Facebook's plan to rebrand the company and change its name. In the Q3 2021 earnings call on October 25, Mark Zuckerberg discussed the ongoing criticism of the company's social services and the way it operates, and pointed to the pivoting efforts to building the metaverse – without mentioning the rebranding and the name change. The metaverse vision and the name change from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms was introduced at Facebook Connect on October 28, 2021. Based on Facebook's PR campaign, the name change reflects the company's shifting long term focus of building the metaverse, a digital extension of the physical world by social media, virtual reality and augmented reality features. "Meta" had been registered as a trademark in the United States in 2018 (after an initial filing in 2015) for marketing, advertising, and computer services, by a Canadian company that provided big data analysis of scientific literature. This company was acquired in 2017 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a foundation established by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, and became one of their projects. Following the rebranding announcement, CZI announced that it had already decided to deprioritize the earlier Meta project, thus it would be transferring its rights to the name to Meta Platforms, and the previous project would end in 2022. Soon after the rebranding, in early February 2022, Meta reported a greater-than-expected decline in profits in the fourth quarter of 2021. It reported no growth in monthly users, and indicated it expected revenue growth to stall. It also expected measures taken by Apple Inc. to protect user privacy to cost it some $10 billion in advertisement revenue, an amount equal to roughly 8% of its revenue for 2021. In meeting with Meta staff the day after earnings were reported, Zuckerberg blamed competition for user attention, particularly from video-based apps such as TikTok. The 27% reduction in the company's share price which occurred in reaction to the news eliminated some $230 billion of value from Meta's market capitalization. Bloomberg described the decline as "an epic rout that, in its sheer scale, is unlike anything Wall Street or Silicon Valley has ever seen". Zuckerberg's net worth fell by as much as $31 billion. Zuckerberg owns 13% of Meta, and the holding makes up the bulk of his wealth. According to published reports by Bloomberg on March 30, 2022, Meta turned over data such as phone numbers, physical addresses, and IP addresses to hackers posing as law enforcement officials using forged documents. The law enforcement requests sometimes included forged signatures of real or fictional officials. When asked about the allegations, a Meta representative said, "We review every data request for legal sufficiency and use advanced systems and processes to validate law enforcement requests and detect abuse." In June 2022, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of 14 years, announced she would step down that year. Zuckerberg said that Javier Olivan would replace Sandberg, though in a “more traditional” role. In March 2022, Meta (except Meta-owned WhatsApp) and Instagram were banned in Russia and added to the Russian list of terrorist and extremist organizations for alleged Russophobia and hate speech (up to genocidal calls) amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meta appealed against the ban, but it was upheld by a Moscow court in June of the same year. Also in March 2022, Meta and Italian eyewear giant Luxottica released Ray-Ban Stories, a series of smartglasses which could play music and take pictures. Meta and Luxottica parent company EssilorLuxottica declined to disclose sales on the line of products as of September 2022, though Meta has expressed satisfaction with its customer feedback. In July 2022, Meta saw its first year-on-year revenue decline when its total revenue slipped by 1% to $28.8bn. Analysts and journalists accredited the loss to its advertising business, which has been limited by Apple's app tracking transparency feature and the number of people who have opted not to be tracked by Meta apps. Zuckerberg also accredited the decline to increasing competition from TikTok. On October 27, 2022, Meta's market value dropped to $268 billion, a loss of around $700 billion compared to 2021, and its shares fell by 24%. It lost its spot among the top 20 US companies by market cap, despite reaching the top 5 in the previous year. In November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees, 13% of its workforce. Zuckerberg said the decision to aggressively increase Meta's investments had been a mistake, as he had wrongly predicted that the surge in e-commerce would last beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. He also attributed the decline to increased competition, a global economic downturn and "ads signal loss". Plans to lay off a further 10,000 employees began in April 2023. The layoffs were part of a general downturn in the technology industry, alongside layoffs by companies including Google, Amazon, Tesla, Snap, Twitter and Lyft. Starting from 2022, Meta scrambled to catch up to other tech companies in adopting specialized artificial intelligence hardware and software. It had been using less expensive CPUs instead of GPUs for AI work, but that approach turned out to be less efficient. The company gifted the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research $1.3 million to finance the Social Media Archive's aim to make their data available to social science research. In 2023, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner imposed a record EUR 1.2 billion fine on Meta for transferring data from Europe to the United States without adequate protections for EU citizens.: 250 In March 2023, Meta announced a new round of layoffs that would cut 10,000 employees and close 5,000 open positions to make the company more efficient. Meta revenue surpassed analyst expectations for the first quarter of 2023 after announcing that it was increasing its focus on AI. On July 6, Meta launched a new app, Threads, a competitor to Twitter. Meta announced its artificial intelligence model Llama 2 in July 2023, available for commercial use via partnerships with major cloud providers like Microsoft. It was the first project to be unveiled out of Meta's generative AI group after it was set up in February. It would not charge access or usage but instead operate with an open-source model to allow Meta to ascertain what improvements need to be made. Prior to this announcement, Meta said it had no plans to release Llama 2 for commercial use. An earlier version of Llama was released to academics. In August 2023, Meta announced its permanent removal of news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada due to the Online News Act, which requires Canadian news outlets to be compensated for content shared on its platform. The Online News Act was in effect by year-end, but Meta will not participate in the regulatory process. In October 2023, Zuckerberg said that AI would be Meta's biggest investment area in 2024. Meta finished 2023 as one of the best-performing technology stocks of the year, with its share price up 150 percent. Its stock reached an all-time high in January 2024, bringing Meta within 2% of achieving $1 trillion market capitalization. In November 2023 Meta Platforms launched an ad-free service in Europe, allowing subscribers to opt-out of personal data being collected for targeted advertising. A group of 28 European organizations, including Max Schrems' advocacy group NOYB, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Wikimedia Europe, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, signed a 2024 letter to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) expressing concern that this subscriber model would undermine privacy protections, specifically GDPR data protection standards. Meta removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February 2024, citing repeated violations of its Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy. As of March, Meta was under investigation by the FDA for alleged use of their social media platforms to sell illegal drugs. On 16 May 2024, the European Commission began an investigation into Meta over concerns related to child safety. In May 2023, Iraqi social media influencer Esaa Ahmed-Adnan encountered a troubling issue when Instagram removed his posts, citing false copyright violations despite his content being original and free from copyrighted material. He discovered that extortionists were behind these takedowns, offering to restore his content for $3,000 or provide ongoing protection for $1,000 per month. This scam, exploiting Meta’s rights management tools, became widespread in the Middle East, revealing a gap in Meta’s enforcement in developing regions. An Iraqi nonprofit Tech4Peace’s founder, Aws al-Saadi helped Ahmed-Adnan and others, but the restoration process was slow, leading to significant financial losses for many victims, including prominent figures like Ammar al-Hakim. This situation highlighted Meta’s challenges in balancing global growth with effective content moderation and protection. On 16 September 2024, Meta announced it had banned Russian state media outlets from its platforms worldwide due to concerns about "foreign interference activity." This decision followed allegations that RT and its employees funneled $10 million through shell companies to secretly fund influence campaigns on various social media channels. Meta's actions were part of a broader effort to counter Russian covert influence operations, which had intensified since the invasion. At its 2024 Connect conference, Meta presented Orion, its first pair of augmented reality glasses. Though Orion was originally intended to be sold to consumers, the manufacturing process turned out to be too complex and expensive. Instead, the company pivoted to producing a small number of the glasses to be used internally. On 4 October 2024, Meta announced about its new AI model called Movie Gen, capable of generating realistic video and audio clips based on user prompts. Meta stated it would not release Movie Gen for open development, preferring to collaborate directly with content creators and integrate it into its products by the following year. The model was built using a combination of licensed and publicly available datasets. On October 31, 2024, ProPublica published an investigation into deceptive political advertisement scams that sometimes use hundreds of hijacked profiles and facebook pages run by organized networks of scammers. The authors cited spotty enforcement by Meta as a major reason for the extent of the issue. In November 2024, TechCrunch reported that Meta were considering building a $10bn global underwater cable spanning 25,000 miles. In the same month, Meta closed down 2 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates doing pig butchering scams. In December 2024, Meta announced that, beginning February 2025, they would require advertisers to run ads about financial services in Australia to verify information about who are the beneficiary and the payer in a bid to regulate scams. On December 4, 2024, Meta announced it will invest US$10 billion for its largest AI data center in northeast Louisiana, powered by natural gas facilities. On the 11th of that month, Meta experienced a global outage, impacting accounts on all of their social media and messaging applications. Outage reports from DownDetector reached 70,000+ and 100,000+ within minutes for Instagram and Facebook, respectively. In January 2025, Meta announced plans to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, citing shifts in the "legal and policy landscape" in the United States following the 2024 presidential election. The decision followed reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to align the company more closely with the incoming Trump administration, including changes to content moderation policies and executive leadership. The new content moderation policies continued to bar insults about a person's intellect or mental illness, but made an exception to allow calling LGBTQ people mentally ill because they are gay or transgender. Later that month, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by Donald Trump for suspending his social media accounts after the January 6 riots. Changes to Meta's moderation policies were controversial among its oversight board, with a significant divide in opinion between the board's US conservatives and its global members. In June 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. has decided to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value which would make it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. In October 2025, it was announced that Meta would be laying off 600 employees in the artificial intelligence unit to perform better and simpler. They referred to their AI unit as "bloated" and are seeking to trim down the department. This mass layoff is going to impact Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit (FAIR) and other product-related positions. Mergers and acquisitions Meta has acquired multiple companies (often identified as talent acquisitions). One of its first major acquisitions was in April 2012, when it acquired Instagram for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. In October 2013, Facebook, Inc. acquired Onavo, an Israeli mobile web analytics company. In February 2014, Facebook, Inc. announced it would buy mobile messaging company WhatsApp for US$19 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed on October 6. Later that year, Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in cash and stock, which released its first consumer virtual reality headset in 2016. In late November 2019, Facebook, Inc. announced the acquisition of the game developer Beat Games, responsible for developing one of that year's most popular VR games, Beat Saber. In Late 2022, after Facebook Inc rebranded to Meta Platforms Inc, Oculus was rebranded to Meta Quest. In May 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced it had acquired Giphy for a reported cash price of $400 million. It will be integrated with the Instagram team. However, in August 2021, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that Facebook, Inc. might have to sell Giphy, after an investigation found that the deal between the two companies would harm competition in display advertising market. Facebook, Inc. was fined $70 million by CMA for deliberately failing to report all information regarding the acquisition and the ongoing antitrust investigation. In October 2022, the CMA ruled for a second time that Meta be required to divest Giphy, stating that Meta already controls half of the advertising in the UK. Meta agreed to the sale, though it stated that it disagrees with the decision itself. In May 2023, Giphy was divested to Shutterstock for $53 million. In November 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced that it planned to purchase the customer-service platform and chatbot specialist startup Kustomer to promote companies to use their platform for business. It has been reported that Kustomer valued at slightly over $1 billion. The deal was closed in February 2022 after regulatory approval. In September 2022, Meta acquired Lofelt, a Berlin-based haptic tech startup. In December 2025, it was announced Meta had acquired the AI-wearables startup, Limitless. In the same month, they also acquired another AI startup, Manus AI, for $2 billion. Manus announced in December that its platform had achieved $100mm in recurring revenue just 8 months after its launch and Meta said it will scale the platform to many other businesses. In January 2026, it was announced Meta proposed acquisition of Manus was undergoing preliminary scrutiny by Chinese regulators. The examination concerns the cross-border transfer of artificial intelligence technology developed in China. Lobbying In 2020, Facebook, Inc. spent $19.7 million on lobbying, hiring 79 lobbyists. In 2019, it had spent $16.7 million on lobbying and had a team of 71 lobbyists, up from $12.6 million and 51 lobbyists in 2018. Facebook was the largest spender of lobbying money among the Big Tech companies in 2020. The lobbying team includes top congressional aide John Branscome, who was hired in September 2021, to help the company fend off threats from Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration. In December 2024, Meta donated $1 million to the inauguration fund for then-President-elect Donald Trump. In 2025, Meta was listed among the donors funding the construction of the White House State Ballroom. Partnerships February 2026, Meta announced a long-term partnership with Nvidia. Censorship In August 2024, Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to Jim Jordan indicating that during the COVID-19 pandemic the Biden administration repeatedly asked Meta to limit certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, on Facebook and Instagram. In 2016 Meta hired Jordana Cutler, formerly an employee at the Israeli Embassy to the United States, as its policy chief for Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. In this role, Cutler pushed for the censorship of accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine chapters in the United States. Critics have said that Cutler's position gives the Israeli government an undue influence over Meta policy, and that few countries have such high levels of contact with Meta policymakers. Following the election of Donald Trump in 2025, various sources noted possible censorship related to the Democratic Party on Instagram and other Meta platforms. In February 2025, a Meta rep flagged journalist Gil Duran's article and other "critiques of tech industry figures" as spam or sensitive content, limiting their reach. In March 2025, Meta attempted to block former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting or further distributing her memoir, Careless People, that includes allegations of unaddressed sexual harassment in the workplace by senior executives. The New York Times reports that the arbitration is among Meta's most forcible attempts to repudiate a former employee's account of workplace dynamics. Publisher Macmillan reacted to the ruling by the Emergency International Arbitral Tribunal by stating that it will ignore its provisions. As of 15 March 2025[update], hardback and digital versions of Careless People were being offered for sale by major online retailers. From October 2025, Meta began removing and restricting access for accounts related to LGBTQ, reproductive health and abortion information pages on its platforms. Martha Dimitratou, executive director of Repro Uncensored, called Meta's shadow-banning of these issues "One of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing". Disinformation concerns Since its inception, Meta has been accused of being a host for fake news and misinformation. In the wake of the 2016 United States presidential election, Zuckerberg began to take steps to eliminate the prevalence of fake news, as the platform had been criticized for its potential influence on the outcome of the election. The company initially partnered with ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, Snopes and PolitiFact for its fact-checking initiative; as of 2018, it had over 40 fact-checking partners across the world, including The Weekly Standard. A May 2017 review by The Guardian found that the platform's fact-checking initiatives of partnering with third-party fact-checkers and publicly flagging fake news were regularly ineffective, and appeared to be having minimal impact in some cases. In 2018, journalists working as fact-checkers for the company criticized the partnership, stating that it had produced minimal results and that the company had ignored their concerns. In 2024 Meta's decision to continue to disseminate a falsified video of US president Joe Biden, even after it had been proven to be fake, attracted criticism and concern. In January 2025, Meta ended its use of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a user-run community notes system similar to the one used on X. While Zuckerberg supported these changes, saying that the amount of censorship on the platform was excessive, the decision received criticism by fact-checking institutions, stating that the changes would make it more difficult for users to identify misinformation. Meta also faced criticism for weakening its policies on hate speech that were designed to protect minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals from bullying and discrimination. While moving its content review teams from California to Texas, Meta changed their hateful conduct policy to eliminate restrictions on anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant hate speech, as well as explicitly allowing users to accuse LGBT people of being mentally ill or abnormal based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In January 2025, Meta faced significant criticism for its role in removing LGBTQ+ content from its platforms, amid its broader efforts to address anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech. The removal of LGBTQ+ themes was noted as part of the wider crackdown on content deemed to violate its community guidelines. Meta's content moderation policies, which were designed to combat harmful speech and protect users from discrimination, inadvertently led to the removal or restriction of LGBTQ+ content, particularly posts highlighting LGBTQ+ identities, support, or political issues. According to reports, LGBTQ+ posts, including those that simply celebrated pride or advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, were flagged and removed for reasons that some critics argue were vague or inconsistently applied. Many LGBTQ+ activists and users on Meta's platforms expressed concern that such actions stifled visibility and expression, potentially isolating LGBTQ+ individuals and communities, especially in spaces that were historically important for outreach and support. Lawsuits Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the company, both when it was known as Facebook, Inc., and as Meta Platforms. In March 2020, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) sued Facebook, for significant and persistent infringements of the rule on privacy involving the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Every violation of the Privacy Act is subject to a theoretical cumulative liability of $1.7 million. The OAIC estimated that a total of 311,127 Australians had been exposed. On December 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 46 states (excluding Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and South Dakota), the District of Columbia and the territory of Guam, launched Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook as an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit concerns Facebook's acquisition of two competitors—Instagram and WhatsApp—and the ensuing monopolistic situation. FTC alleges that Facebook holds monopolistic power in the U.S. social networking market and seeks to force the company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp to break up the conglomerate. William Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, argued the case will be difficult to win as it would require the government to create a counterfactual argument of an internet where the Facebook-WhatsApp-Instagram entity did not exist, and prove that harmed competition or consumers. In November 2025, it was ruled that Meta did not violate antitrust laws and holds no monopoly in the market. On December 24, 2021, a court in Russia fined Meta for $27 million after the company declined to remove unspecified banned content. The fine was reportedly tied to the company's annual revenue in the country. In May 2022, a lawsuit was filed in Kenya against Meta and its local outsourcing company Sama. Allegedly, Meta has poor working conditions in Kenya for workers moderating Facebook posts. According to the lawsuit, 260 screeners were declared redundant with confusing reasoning. The lawsuit seeks financial compensation and an order that outsourced moderators be given the same health benefits and pay scale as Meta employees. In June 2022, 8 lawsuits were filed across the U.S. over the allege that excessive exposure to platforms including Facebook and Instagram has led to attempted or actual suicides, eating disorders and sleeplessness, among other issues. The litigation follows a former Facebook employee's testimony in Congress that the company refused to take responsibility. The company noted that tools have been developed for parents to keep track of their children's activity on Instagram and set time limits, in addition to Meta's "Take a break" reminders. In addition, the company is providing resources specific to eating disorders as well as developing AI to prevent children under the age of 13 signing up for Facebook or Instagram. In June 2022, Meta settled a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, alleged that the company enabled housing discrimination through targeted advertising, as it allowed homeowners and landlords to run housing ads excluding people based on sex, race, religion, and other characteristics. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that this was in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Meta was handed a penalty of $115,054 and given until December 31, 2022, to shadow the algorithm tool. In January 2023, Meta was fined €390 million for violations of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. In May 2023, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta a record €1.2 billion for breaching European Union data privacy laws by transferring personal data of Facebook users to servers in the U.S. In July 2024, Meta agreed to pay the state of Texas US$1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accusing the company of collecting users' biometric data without consent, setting a record for the largest privacy-related settlement ever obtained by a state attorney general. In October 2024, Meta Platforms faced lawsuits in Japan from 30 plaintiffs who claimed they were defrauded by fake investment ads on Facebook and Instagram, featuring false celebrity endorsements. The plaintiffs are seeking approximately $2.8 million in damages. In April 2025, the Kenyan High Court ruled that a US$2.4 billion lawsuit in which three plaintiffs claim that Facebook inflamed civil violence in Ethiopia in 2021 could proceed. In April 2025, Meta was fined €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, by imposing a “consent or pay” system that forces users to either allow their personal data to be used to target advertisements, or pay a subscription fee for advertising-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. In late April 2025, a case was filed against Meta in Ghana over the alleged psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse. Meta moved the moderation service to the Ghanaian capital of Accra after legal issues in the previous location Kenya. The new moderation company is Teleperformance, a multinational corporation with a history of worker's rights violation. Reports suggests the conditions are worse here than in the previous Kenyan location, with many workers afraid of speaking out due to fear of returning to conflict zones. Workers reported developing mental illnesses, attempted suicides, and low pay. In 26 January 2026, a New Mexico state court case was filed, suggesting that Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions. In 2020, the company UReputation, which had been involved in several cases concerning the management of digital armies[clarification needed], filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing it of unlawfully transmitting personal data to third parties. Legal actions were initiated in Tunisia, France, and the United States. In 2025, the United States District court for the Northern District of Georgia approved a discovery procedure, allowing UReputation to access documents and evidence held by Meta. Structure Meta's key management consists of: As of October 2022[update], Meta had 83,553 employees worldwide. As of June 2024[update], Meta's board consisted of the following directors; Meta Platforms is mainly owned by institutional investors, who hold around 80% of all shares. Insiders control the majority of voting shares. The three largest individual investors in 2024 were Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Christopher K. Cox. The largest shareholders in late 2024/early 2025 were: Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and Zuckerberg's former mentor, said Facebook had "the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company". Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has stated that chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has too much power, that the company is now a monopoly, and that, as a result, it should be split into multiple smaller companies. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Hughes said he was concerned that Zuckerberg had surrounded himself with a team that did not challenge him, and that it is the U.S. government's job to hold him accountable and curb his "unchecked power". He also said that "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American." Several U.S. politicians agreed with Hughes. European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager stated that splitting Facebook should be done only as "a remedy of the very last resort", and that it would not solve Facebook's underlying problems. Revenue Facebook ranked No. 34 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue, with almost $86 billion in revenue most of it coming from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising. According to New York, since its rebranding, Meta has reportedly lost $500 billion as a result of new privacy measures put in place by companies such as Apple and Google which prevents Meta from gathering users' data. In February 2015, Facebook announced it had reached two million active advertisers, with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser was defined as an entity that had advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced it had reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the United States. Prices for advertising follow a variable pricing model based on auctioning ad placements, and potential engagement levels of the advertisement itself. Similar to other online advertising platforms like Google and Twitter, targeting of advertisements is one of the chief merits of digital advertising compared to traditional media. Marketing on Meta is employed through two methods based on the viewing habits, likes and shares, and purchasing data of the audience, namely targeted audiences and "look alike" audiences. The U.S. IRS challenged the valuation Facebook used when it transferred IP from the U.S. to Facebook Ireland (now Meta Platforms Ireland) in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building its double Irish tax structure. The case is ongoing and Meta faces a potential fine of $3–5bn. The U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed Facebook's global tax calculations. Meta Platforms Ireland is subject to the U.S. GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Meta Platforms Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if its Irish business relocated to the U.S. Tax relief in the U.S. (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective U.S. rate around 12%. The insignificance of the U.S./Irish tax difference was demonstrated when Facebook moved 1.5bn non-EU accounts to the U.S. to limit exposure to GDPR. Facilities Users outside of the U.S. and Canada contract with Meta's Irish subsidiary, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (formerly Facebook Ireland Limited), allowing Meta to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Meta is making use of the Double Irish arrangement which allows it to pay 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad, India, which houses online advertising and developer support teams and provides support to users and advertisers. In India, Meta is registered as Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd. It also has offices or planned sites in Chittagong, Bangladesh; Dublin, Ireland; and Austin, Texas, among other cities. Facebook opened its London headquarters in 2017 in Fitzrovia in central London. Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. The offices were initially home to the "Connectivity Lab", a group focused on bringing Internet access to those who do not have access to the Internet. In April 2019, Facebook opened its Taiwan headquarters in Taipei. In March 2022, Meta opened new regional headquarters in Dubai. In September 2023, it was reported that Meta had paid £149m to British Land to break the lease on Triton Square London office. Meta reportedly had another 18 years left on its lease on the site. As of 2023, Facebook operated 21 data centers. It committed to purchase 100% renewable energy and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2020. Its data center technologies include Fabric Aggregator, a distributed network system that accommodates larger regions and varied traffic patterns. Reception US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet to Zuckerberg's announcement about Meta, saying: "Meta as in 'we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society ... for profit!'" Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen and whistleblower behind the Facebook Papers responded to the rebranding efforts by expressing doubts about the company's ability to improve while led by Mark Zuckerberg, and urged the chief executive officer to resign. In November 2021, a video published by Inspired by Iceland went viral, in which a Zuckerberg look-alike promoted the Icelandverse, a place of "enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets". In a December 2021 interview, SpaceX and Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said he could not see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse, adding: "I don't see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day." In January 2022, Louise Eccles of The Sunday Times logged into the metaverse with the intention of making a video guide. She wrote: Initially, my experience with the Oculus went well. I attended work meetings as an avatar and tried an exercise class set in the streets of Paris. The headset enabled me to feel the thrill of carving down mountains on a snowboard and the adrenaline rush of climbing a mountain without ropes. Yet switching to the social apps, where you mingle with strangers also using VR headsets, it was at times predatory and vile. Eccles described being sexually harassed by another user, as well as "accents from all over the world, American, Indian, English, Australian, using racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language". She also encountered users as young as 7 years old on the platform, despite Oculus headsets being intended for users over 13. See also References External links 37°29′06″N 122°08′54″W / 37.48500°N 122.14833°W / 37.48500; -122.14833 |
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