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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 metaverseโan 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. corporationsโsurpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foodsโand 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 โ 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 โmore traditionalโ 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 Metaโs rights management tools, became widespread in the Middle East, revealing a gap in Metaโs enforcement in developing regions. An Iraqi nonprofit Tech4Peaceโs 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 Metaโs 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 Metaโs 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 competitorsโInstagram and WhatsAppโand 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 โฌ390 million for violations of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. In May 2023, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta a record โฌ1.2 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 โฌ200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, by imposing a โconsent or payโ 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 $3โ5bn. 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 2โ3% 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 ยฃ149m 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 37ยฐ29โฒ06โณN 122ยฐ08โฒ54โณW๏ปฟ / ๏ปฟ37.48500ยฐN 122.14833ยฐW๏ปฟ / 37.48500; -122.14833 |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/815676/sony-playstation-dualsense-edge-controller-refurbished-deal-sale] | [TOKENS: 1821] |
GadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingPC GamingClosePC GamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PC GamingYou can save $30 on Sonyโs DualSense Edge controller by buying refurbishedIt comes with a one-year warranty, although it might have minor cosmetic imperfections.It comes with a one-year warranty, although it might have minor cosmetic imperfections.by Cameron FaulknerCloseCameron FaulknerEditor, CommercePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Cameron FaulknerFeb 20, 2026, 7:55 PM UTCLinkShareIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The VergeCameron FaulknerCloseCameron FaulknerPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Cameron Faulkner is an editor covering deals and gaming hardware. He joined in 2018, and after a two-year stint at Polygon, he rejoined The Verge in May 2025.If the PlayStation 5 is your console of choice โ and youโre not satisfied with the DualSense gamepad it comes with โ the DualSense Edge may be what youโre looking for. Luckily, if its high asking price of $199 was keeping you away, Sony is now offering the white and black controller via the PlayStation Direct storefront in refurbished condition for $169 ($30 off). It comes with the same one-year warranty as a new unit, though it may exhibit minor cosmetic imperfections.Sony DualSense Edge$169$19915% off$169Sonyโs pro-style controller, the DualSense Edge, might suffer from shorter battery life than the standard DualSense model, but it features great software integration with the PlayStation 5 and plenty of customizable components.Read More$169 at PlayStation Direct (refurbished)The DualSense Edge is significantly more customizable than Sonyโs pack-in controller, with toggleable control schemes you can switch without leaving your game, mappable rear paddles, and swappable joysticks in case one breaks. On its back, there are switches that let you adjust the stopping point of its triggers, allowing either a full pull or a short and clicky feel. Itโs also easy to tweak the joysticksโ deadzone and sensitivity levels.In addition to being a great pairing with the PS5, the DualSense Edge is also compatible with Windows. Several PC games published by PlayStation Studios feature support for some of the controllerโs unique features, too. The wireless controllerโs only significant downside is that itโs limited to eight hours of battery life, which is a couple of hours shorter than Sonyโs standard DualSense gamepad. It shouldnโt be an issue if you remember to charge the controller every few days, though.Read our full DualSense Edge review.Verge DealsSign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products weโve tested sent to your inbox weekly.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.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Cameron FaulknerCloseCameron FaulknerEditor, CommercePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Cameron FaulknerDealsCloseDealsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All DealsGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingPC GamingClosePC GamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PC GamingPlayStationClosePlayStationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PlayStationVerge ShoppingCloseVerge ShoppingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Verge ShoppingMost PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharmaโs first memo on the future of XboxAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agentโs mistakeWill Stancil, man of the people or just an annoying guy?Verge DealsSign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products weโve tested sent to your inbox weekly.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 Gadgets 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 PC Gaming You can save $30 on Sonyโs DualSense Edge controller by buying refurbished It comes with a one-year warranty, although it might have minor cosmetic imperfections. It comes with a one-year warranty, although it might have minor cosmetic imperfections. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner If the PlayStation 5 is your console of choice โ and youโre not satisfied with the DualSense gamepad it comes with โ the DualSense Edge may be what youโre looking for. Luckily, if its high asking price of $199 was keeping you away, Sony is now offering the white and black controller via the PlayStation Direct storefront in refurbished condition for $169 ($30 off). It comes with the same one-year warranty as a new unit, though it may exhibit minor cosmetic imperfections. Sonyโs pro-style controller, the DualSense Edge, might suffer from shorter battery life than the standard DualSense model, but it features great software integration with the PlayStation 5 and plenty of customizable components. The DualSense Edge is significantly more customizable than Sonyโs pack-in controller, with toggleable control schemes you can switch without leaving your game, mappable rear paddles, and swappable joysticks in case one breaks. On its back, there are switches that let you adjust the stopping point of its triggers, allowing either a full pull or a short and clicky feel. Itโs also easy to tweak the joysticksโ deadzone and sensitivity levels. In addition to being a great pairing with the PS5, the DualSense Edge is also compatible with Windows. Several PC games published by PlayStation Studios feature support for some of the controllerโs unique features, too. The wireless controllerโs only significant downside is that itโs limited to eight hours of battery life, which is a couple of hours shorter than Sonyโs standard DualSense gamepad. It shouldnโt be an issue if you remember to charge the controller every few days, though. Verge Deals Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products weโve tested sent to your inbox weekly. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Cameron Faulkner Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Deals Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets 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 PC Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All PlayStation Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Verge Shopping Most Popular Verge Deals Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products weโve tested sent to your inbox weekly. This is the title for the native ad More in Gadgets This is the title for the native ad Top Stories ยฉ 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_court_(United_States)] | [TOKENS: 4220] |
Contents State court (United States) (Alabama to Missouri, Montana to Wyoming) In the United States, a state court is a court of law with jurisdiction over disputes with some connection to a U.S. state. State courts handle the overwhelming majority of civil and criminal cases in the United States; the United States federal courts are far smaller in terms of both personnel and caseload, and handle different types of cases. The number of cases filed in state courts each year surpasses the number of cases filed in federal courts by a factor of over two hundred. States often provide their trial courts with general jurisdiction (the hearing of all matters in which personal jurisdiction exists and which are not committed to another court) and state trial courts regularly have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction and their subject-matter jurisdiction arises only under federal law. Each state "is free to organize its courts as it sees fit," and consequently, "no two states have identical court structures." Generally, state courts are common law courts, and apply their respective state laws and procedures to decide cases. They are organized pursuant to and apply the law in accordance with their state's constitution, state statutes, and binding decisions of courts in their state court hierarchy. Where applicable, they also apply federal law, or need to make a choice of law from another jurisdiction. Generally, a single judicial officer, usually called a judge, exercises original jurisdiction by presiding over contested criminal or civil actions which culminate in trials, which may include empaneling a jury, although most matters stop short of reaching trial. The decisions of lower courts may be reviewed by a panel of a state intermediate appellate court. Generally, there is also a highest court for appeals, a state supreme court, that oversees the court system. In matters that involve issues of federal law, the final decision of the state's highest court (including refusals to hear final appeals) may be appealed to the United States Supreme Court (which also has the discretion to refuse to hear them). Types of state courts Cases in state courts begin in a trial court where lawsuits and criminal cases are filed and evidence is eventually presented if a case proceeds to a hearing or trial. Trials in these courts are often held only after extensive pretrial procedures that in more than 90% of cases lead to a default judgment in a civil case, an agreed resolution settling the case or plea bargain resolving a criminal case, or pretrial resolution of the case by a judge either on the merits or on procedural grounds. On the one hand, the United States has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most litigious places in the world: "American society is somewhat exceptional not only in the frequency with which Americans resort to court to settle their disputes but, more significantly, the scope and importance of social and economic issues that are confided to the private litigation process". On the other hand, very few cases actually go to a jury verdict and a final judgment, let alone an appeal that results in a published appellate opinion. A 2015 empirical study examined 8,038 cases that went to trial in state-level trial courts and found that only 24 (0.3%) resulted in a judicial opinion from the state supreme court. In other words, the reported case law studied in American law schools does not reflect the way the vast majority of cases are handled and resolvedโby "bargain[ing] [in the] shadow of the law". Territory outside of any state in the United States, such as the District of Columbia or American Samoa, often has a court system established under federal or territorial law which substitutes for a state court system and is distinct from the ordinary federal court system. State trial courts are usually located in a courthouse, which is often in the county seat. Even when state trial courts include more than one county in a judicial district, it is not uncommon for the state trial court to hold regular sessions at each county seat in its jurisdiction and function from the point of view of litigants as if it were a county-based court. If one of the litigants is unsatisfied with the decision of the lower court, the matter may be taken up on appeal. However, an acquittal in a criminal trial cannot be appealed by the state because of the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy. Usually, an intermediate appellate court, if there is one in that state, often called the state court of appeals, will review the decision of the trial court. If still unsatisfied, the litigant can appeal to the highest appellate court in the state, which is usually called the state supreme court and is usually located in or near the state's capital city. Appellate courts in the United States, unlike their civil law counterparts, are generally not permitted to correct mistakes concerning the facts of the case on appeal, only mistakes of law, or findings of fact with no support in the trial court record. Many states have courts of limited jurisdiction (inferior jurisdiction), presided over by, for example, a magistrate or justice of the peace who hears criminal arraignments and tries petty offenses and small civil cases. Appeals from courts of limited jurisdiction are frequently sent to state trial courts of general jurisdiction rather than to an appellate court. As of 2014, the United States had over 13,500 courts of limited jurisdiction. Most of these courts were small one-judge courts, meaning that these courts were staffed by approximately 18,500 judicial officers. Larger cities often have city courts (also known as municipal courts) which hear traffic offenses and violations of city ordinances; in some states, such as New York, these courts have slightly broader jurisdiction and can also handle small claims and misdemeanors. Other courts of limited jurisdiction include alderman's courts, police court, mayor's courts, recorder's courts, county courts, probate courts, municipal courts, juvenile courts, courts of claims, courts of common pleas, family courts, small claims courts, tax courts, water courts (present in some western states such as Colorado and Montana), and workers' compensation courts (Rhode Island). Lawrence M. Friedman has described courts of limited jurisdiction as "the bargain basement of justice," where procedures are often informal and "slapdash" and the quality of justice is poor. In states that still use justices of the peace or equivalent judicial officers, many judges of courts of limited jurisdiction are laypersons who never attended law school or passed a bar examination. As of 2020, 26 states still allowed such nonlawyers to preside as judges in courts of limited jurisdiction. The low pay and low status of such positions tends to attract candidates with terrible educational qualifications; a 1976 survey found that somewhere between one-third and one-half of judges of courts of limited jurisdiction in California had not even completed high school. There is widespread anecdotal and empirical evidence that lay judges are prone to ignoring the law and issuing arbitrary rulings. The issues that inevitably result from the lack of a law-trained judge are compounded by the complete absence of lawyers on both sides of a case in some of the poorest states. For example, in South Carolina, "one of the poorest states in the country", a criminal defendant prosecuted in a court of limited jurisdiction in that state may be arrested, prosecuted, tried, and convicted without ever encountering a single lawyer. The police in South Carolina often act as the prosecutor. Courts of limited jurisdiction should not be confused with the administrative courts seen in other countries. The United States does not use administrative courts, as a result of the strict separation of powers imposed by the United States Constitution. Instead, at both the federal and state levels, administrative law judges (ALJs) preside over tribunals within executive branch agencies (although their decisions can usually be appealed to real judges in the judicial branch). In state governments, ALJs handle matters such as driver's license revocations, workers' compensation claims, unemployment insurance claims, and land use disputes. All these courts are distinguished from courts of general jurisdiction (also known as "superior jurisdiction"), which are the default type of trial court that can hear any case which is not required to be first heard in a court of limited jurisdiction. Most such cases are civil cases involving large sums of money or criminal cases arising from serious felonies like rape and murder. Typically, felonies are handled in general jurisdiction courts, while misdemeanors and other lesser offenses are handled in inferior jurisdiction courts. Unlike most European courts (in both common law and civil law countries), American state courts do not usually have a separate court that handles serious crimes; jurisdiction lies with the court that handles all other felony cases in a given county. Many state courts that handle criminal cases also have separate divisions or judges assigned to handle certain types of cases, known as "problem-solving courts". Problem-solving courts are part of a larger reform effort known as therapeutic jurisprudence which attempts to address underlying issues which lead to the same people repeatedly appearing in criminal courts, in order to reduce recidivism. Examples of such courts include drug court, domestic violence court, and mental health court. All states have courts of general jurisdiction, but only some have courts of limited jurisdiction. Courts of general jurisdiction tend to be better funded, better staffed, more professional, more dignified, and more solemn than courts of limited jurisdiction. They also tend to have jurisdiction over larger geographical areas and more people. As of 2014, the United States had approximately 2,000 state trial courts of general jurisdiction. These courts were staffed by approximately 11,000 judges. A few states like California have unified all courts of general and inferior jurisdiction to make the judicial process more efficient. In such courts, there may be divisions that specialize in hearing particular types of proceedings, but from the perspective of the judges, these are mere administrative assignments. In such courts, every judge is deemed to be "qualified to hear every type of proceeding, enhancing administrative flexibility and ending the possibility of a judgment being invalidated because it was heard in the wrong court". As of 2014, the six jurisdictions which had fully unified all trial courts and no longer used courts of limited jurisdiction were California, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. State court judges Unlike federal courts, where judges are presidential appointees confirmed by the U.S. Senate serving life terms of office, the vast majority of states have some judges who are elected, while some judges are appointed. The methods of judicial appointment vary widely. The American habit of electing state court judges originates with Alexander Hamilton and Federalist No. 78, in which Hamilton brought about a fundamental reconceptualization of the idea of separation of powers with respect to the judiciary. Before Hamilton, both English and American people had thought of judges as mere appendages of royal authority, and that a government had only two branches, the executive and the legislative. Hamilton implied and others later developed the idea that American judges were coequal to legislatures and executives in their responsibility to carry out the people's will (popular sovereignty), which extended to the power to make law (through case law). Therefore, if the judiciary was a coequal third branch of government, and the judges were the people's agents, then like the other branches, they ought to be elected by the people. However, problems with partisan judicial elections led many states to later adopt judicial appointment systems, while also using retention elections as a check on appointed judges. State court judges are usually distinguished attorneys who have had some political involvement, who are pursuing second careers on the bench. But a small number of state court judges, particularly in limited jurisdiction trial courts in rural areas or small towns, are nonlawyers, who are often elected to their posts. A disproportionate share of state court judges previously served as prosecutors, or less commonly as criminal defense attorneys or trial lawyers, although no particular background as an attorney is required to serve as a judge. The judiciary is not a separate profession in the American legal system as it is in many civil law jurisdictions. While in many civil law jurisdictions a common judicial career involves an entry-level assignment in an inferior court followed by promotions to more senior courts over the course of a career, no U.S. court system makes experience in an inferior judicial position a prerequisite to higher judicial office. While many countries consider criminal prosecutors to be part of the judicial branch, in the United States, all criminal prosecutors are considered part of the executive branch. The fact that all attorneys admitted to the practice of law are somewhat confusingly called "officers of the court" in U.S. legal practice is a legal fiction that calls attention to the special professional ethical obligations that all lawyers have to the court, and does not mean that all lawyers are employees or agents of the judicial branch. State court judges are typically paid less, have smaller staffs, and handle larger caseloads than their counterparts in the federal judiciary. One indicator of the significant disparity in prestige between the federal judiciary and the state judiciaries is the number of judges who go from one to the other. A 2017 study found that of the 3,580 judges then listed in the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, 911 judges went directly from a state court to a federal court, but only 14 went the other way. The study was expressly limited to analyzing direct movements between judicial systems and did not include judges who had taken other types of jobs when not serving in judicial positions. How many and what level One of the largest areas of interstate divergence goes to how states conceive of their courts as one court or many courts, and whether their courts are part of the state government itself, or part of local governments (which are creatures of state law but usually enjoy some autonomy from the state government). One difference is whether the state trial court of general jurisdiction is regarded as a single entity or a set of many entities. Some states conceptualize of that court as a single unified court of statewide jurisdiction that merely happens to sit in particular counties or districts, while other states have a set of separate and coequal courts, one for each county or district. The most extreme exponent of the first position is New York, which has a single Supreme Court that sits as a trial court with general jurisdiction throughout the entire state. The most extreme exponent of the second position is Texas, where each trial court is constituted as a legally distinct entity with a single judge. The language in the Texas Constitution requiring one judge per court was not fixed until 1985. Thus, an urban courthouse in Texas normally houses multiple single-judge trial courts sharing concurrent jurisdiction over the same county. Another difference is whether state trial courts, especially courts of limited jurisdiction, are created and funded as components of state government or local governments. There are a great many hybrid systems which lie in between. State courts which operate as part of the state government are more likely to have centralized court administration and oversight, which promotes professionalism and uniformity of procedure. Local courts which operate as parts of local governments tend to see themselves as components of local communities, rather than as agents of the state government impartially applying state law. Local courts are more likely to be integrated into local political machines and are more sensitive to local politics. The most significant danger which arises from the latter arrangement is that in the United States, local governments are also usually responsible for most of the other components of criminal justice, like police, prosecutors, and jails. This clear conflict of interest has resulted in the development of predatory criminal justice systems more focused on sustaining themselves on revenue from excessive penal fines than ensuring the fair administration of justice or protecting the rights of the accused. Differences among the states The foregoing summary is only a very rough generalization. There are a great many "oddities" and "extra wrinkles" from one state court system to the next, although the tendency in most states has been towards rationalization and simplification: "the further back in history one goes, the more confused the situation gets". Administration In most, but not all states (California and New York are significant exceptions), the state supreme court or a related administrative body has the power to write the rules of procedure that govern the courts through a rulemaking process. In a minority of the states, criminal and civil procedure are largely governed by state statutes. Most states model their general jurisdiction trial court rules closely upon the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure with modifications to address types of cases that come up only in state practice (like traffic violations), and model their professional ethics rules closely upon models drafted by the American Bar Association with minor modifications. A minority of states, however, have idiosyncratic procedural rules, often based on the Field Code in place in many states before the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were adopted. Importantly, neither California nor New York state follow federal models. Typically, state trial courts of limited jurisdiction have generally similar rules to state trial courts of general jurisdiction, but are stripped of rules applicable to special cases like class actions and many pretrial procedures (such as out-of-court discovery in the absence of a court order). Most state supreme courts also have general supervisory authority over the state court system. In this capacity they are responsible, for example, for making budget requests and administrative management decisions for the court system as a whole. In most states, such administrative authority has been transferred or delegated to a state judicial council which includes members of lower courts. All state supreme courts are the de jure primary regulatory body for all lawyers in their state and determine who can practice law and when lawyers are sanctioned for violations of professional ethical rules, which are generally also put in place as state court rules. (Most federal courts that sit within a particular state usually require lawyers seeking admission to their bars to first obtain admission to that particular state's bar). In all states, such powers have been delegated either to the state bar association or various committees, commissions, or offices directly responsible to the state supreme court. The result is that such subordinate entities generally have original jurisdiction over lawyer admissions and discipline, nearly all de facto lawyer regulation takes place through such entities, and the state supreme court becomes directly involved only when petitioned to not ratify the decisions made by some subordinate entity in its name. Relationship to federal courts Although the United States Constitution and federal laws override state laws where there is a conflict between federal and state law, state courts are not subordinate to federal courts. Rather, as instruments of separate sovereigns (under the U.S. system of dual sovereignty), they are two parallel sets of courts with different but often overlapping jurisdiction. Thus, state courts usually interpret federal law independently of the inferior federal courts. The U.S. Supreme Court is the only court whose interpretation of federal law is always binding upon all federal and state courts. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938), no part of the federal Constitution actually grants federal courts the power to directly decide the content of state law. Clause 1 of Section 2 of Article Three of the United States Constitution describes the scope of federal judicial power, but only extended it to "the Laws of the United States" and not the laws of the several or individual states. The U.S. Supreme Court can but is not required to review final decisions of state courts, after a party exhausts all remedies up to a request for relief from the state's highest appellate court, if the Court believes that the case involves an important question of federal law. Because of the aforementioned silence in the Constitution (as well as Section 25 of the Judiciary Act of 1789 and successor sections), the Court cannot and never reviews decisions of state courts that depend entirely on the resolution of a state law issue; there must be an issue of federal law (such as the federal constitutional right to due process) implicit in the state case before the Court will even agree to hear it. Since there really is no such issue in the vast majority of state cases, the decision of the state supreme court in such cases is effectively final, as any petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court will be summarily denied without comment. Nomenclature The following table notes the names of the courts in the states and territories of the United States. Listed are the principal trial courts of general jurisdiction, the principal intermediate appellate courts, and the state supreme courts. Courts are described below in the singular when state law defines only one statewide court of that name (whose judges may be assigned to particular counties, circuits, or districts, but still remain part of a single court). Courts are described below in the plural when they are defined by state law as a set of separate courts, each exercising jurisdiction only over a specifically defined territory within the state. In some states, the number of county-based courts does not exactly match the number of actual counties in the state. This occurs when a single court has jurisdiction over more than one county. See also References External links and references |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/story/inside-the-app-where-queer-gooners-run-free/] | [TOKENS: 5218] |
Jason ParhamCultureFeb 16, 2026 6:30 AMInside the App Where Queer Gooners Run FreeIn light of Zoom crackdowns and Skype shutting down, Batemates has emerged as an alternative for โbatorsโ who like masturbating together online.Photo-Illustration: Rob Vargas; Getty ImagesSave StorySave this storySave StorySave this storyOne night not long ago, Jaxon Roman sat naked in front of his laptop wearing only a pup hood as he masturbated with single-minded zeal to the attention of eight other men watching onscreen.It was a typical evening for the 33-year-old Arlington, Virginia, program analyst. โWhen bros praise me and say theyโre enjoying [me], I get to that edge point so fast,โ Roman says. His favorite instances are โwhen they all come to what Iโm doing.โ Sometimes, when heโs feeling especially kinky, Roman, who is bisexual, likes to ask for permission before climaxing. When granted, he releases and his body, he says, shakes for 10 seconds. โPure bliss,โ he calls it.At least a few times a month on Batemates, a social app for men who like to masturbate with other men, Roman will spend an hour online with his bros. Masturbatingโor โbatingโ as itโs known onlineโhas always helped him relieve stress and find his center.Heโs not the only one. Pitched as an โall-in-one platform designed to embrace bating as a lifestyle, together,โ Batemates is the newest haven of queer pleasure. โItโs a community of like-minded people who are just trying to be porn for others, virtually, while watching others pleasure themselves,โ Roman says. โGroup play with hotties around the world. Whatโs not to like?โThough Batemates technically launched in October 2024, it wasnโt until last year that it really started to catch on as a viableโand safeโalternative to other online bator platforms.Nearly all of the bators WIRED spoke to said they were introduced to the lifestyle in 2020, during Covid, because, as one of them put it, โthere was nothing else to do.โ Gone, at least momentarily, were the days of the discreet sauna circle jerk. Public cruising dried up. Instead, men flocked to private video channels on Skype and Zoom for digital jam sessions where they communally bated with other men from around the world via the portal of their laptop screens. During this period, virtual sessions got so popular that they would occasionally max out with more than 100 people in a single room.Everything changed last year. Skype was shut down in May. Zoom sessions started getting reported more often. (โSensitive content,โ including porn, nudity, and โother content intended to cause sexual arousalโ is prohibited according to the companyโs acceptable use guidelines; Zoom did not respond to a request for comment.) Some queer bators have since decamped to Teams, Microsoftโs chat and video-conferencing app; others rely on chat forums like BateWorldโa Reddit-style platform for all things male masturbation that is arguably the most popular destination for batorsโas well as Discord, Telegram, and Reddit to find bros to bond with.Batemates emerged as an exciting replacement. โAll the corporate tools were just banning us,โ says Batemates founder Johan Guams. โAs members of the LGBTQ+ community, we had no space. I was really upset about the hypocrisy of the situation, especially when this is something everybody does.โBatemates wants to put an end to the corporate sanctimony around adult content. Itโs an ethos the company has entirely woven into its branding. Exclaimed a recent ad on X: โYour friends. Your boss. Your coach. Your colleague. Everyone bates.โMicrosoft declined to comment, but according to both its digital safety policy and its terms of use, โany images, videos, audio, text, or links that depict or imply nudity, sexual acts, sexual arousal, or sexual violenceโ are prohibited on Teams.Though Guams, who is 31 and from Paris, was also a regular in various Zoom bating sessions during the pandemic, he often left them wanting more. โI was like, OK, I masturbate on Zoom, but I donโt know who these people are. Thereโs no control. I canโt keep in touch with them. Sometimes you find crazy people. The experience just felt complicated.โGuams has worked as a freelance product designer for major brands and hotel chains for 10 years, so the instinct to โfix the flowโ of the experience came naturally, he says. โMy job was always to solve other peopleโs issues.โBatemates runs on a subscription modelโ$17.99 per month or $155 for the annual planโand requires users to create a profile when signing up. Rooms, or bate groups, can host up to 32 people at one time. โBut 32 is never used, because we found out that people prefer smaller rooms,โ Guams says. Users can create their own rooms or join established ones, which can be tailored to appeal to people with shared kinks and fetishes. That includes everything from leather and verbal to piss play, toys, and fisting. Thereโs also a feed where all the real-time rooms are listed and users can post their thoughts, upload photos, and comment. A filtered search function can find bators based on location, kinks, age, race, and more.The platform is on track to hit its next milestone very soon: 10,000 members, the majority between 30 and 50 years old. For a niche product, Guams considers it a win.Puppaluffagus, who asked to be identified by his online persona citing professional concerns, joined Batemates a few months after it launched. Initially, the 47-year-old Missouri-based software developer had concerns, because the onboarding process required US citizens to upload their passport, but the company has since allowed for driverโs licenses instead; ID verification for potential new members is processed by third-party vendor Shufti Pro. The company also uses Besedo, a content moderation service, to monitor communication and make sure members are following the rules, including not spreading hate speech or posting about minors. Puppaluffagus now considers himself a regular, using Batemates โa couple times a week.โAmong the most important rules on Batemates? No lurking allowed. โItโs kind of like when straight women go to a leather bar, and theyโre gawking at peopleโlike weโre animals in a zoo,โ Puppaluffagus says.When joining a virtual session, all users are required to turn on their camera and are automatically removed when they turn it off. To maintain privacy, many bators will often wear a mask or position their camera from the neck down. Others happily let their freak flag fly and show their face during sessions. Room moderators have the option to host โface-mandatoryโ rooms. In those scenarios, everyone is required to show their face for the entire bate session.The platformโs mandatory-face feature was one of the reasons Puppaluffagus was eager to join. (BateWorld does not have the same rule.) He likes to know who heโs bonding with, because it makes for a heightened experience. โEveryone is participating. At this point, I use Batemates more than I use BateWorld.โBatemates is available for download only on Windows and MacOS computers. The company plans to release a web versionโavailable on mobileโby the end of the year. โWeโre not trying to reinvent the wheel; weโre just trying to create a space that is dedicated. Itโs tailored for our use,โ Guams says.Being biracialโhis father is from Guadeloupe and his mother is white Frenchโhe was adamant about including an ethnicity filter. โI often found myself being the only person of color on Zoom. Culturally, in these online bator spaces, it is dominated by white men. So it was important to me that peopleโBlack, Asian, Latino, whateverโcan find their community within the community.โ Critics have said that such filters promote discrimination; in 2020, Grindr discontinued its race filter in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. โItโs only a problem if you are using it for fetishization. It has allowed Black men to bate more comfortably,โ Guams says. He tells WIRED that people of color account for roughly 50 percent of the rooms on a daily basis.The most active rooms on Batemates are for gooners, where men indulge in what is known as popper bating. Poppers are a recreational inhalant and party drug used as a stimulus to enhance oneโs sexual experience. (Batemates published a โbator-friendly guideโ on poppers in November.) For the uninitiated, gooning is a state of extreme sexual arousal achieved through prolonged masturbation and porn consumption. Like edging, gooning is about reaching a state of total ecstasy without climaxing; some men edge for hours at a time, fueled by a sustained euphoria. Unlike edging, gooning can be about losing control of your senses in the process.The growing popularity of gooningโit's jumped from internet forums to TikTok to the pages of Harperโs magazineโhas also contributed to the rise of Batemates. Largely fueled by Gen Z, gooners officially broke into the zeitgeist last year. Though its exact origins are up for debateโsome speculate it started on 4chanโall gooners seemingly want the same thing in the end: to reach the โgooning state, where [a man] and his dick become one,โ as one Redditor explained on r/askgaybros in 2022, just as trend was gaining momentum. โWhen the gooning state is achieved, the man's body becomes for all intents and purposes an appendage to his erection.โAn important distinction to note: All gooners are bators but not every bator is a gooner. โIf you want to ejaculate really quickly, thatโs just masturbating,โ Puppaluffagus says. Gooning, on the other hand, is โa communal experience that isnโt necessarily rushed. Itโs kind of like a meditation that can let your mind take you where you want to be.โGuams hates how gooning is being co-opted in the larger culture. He says the practice โis much more than making faces and flashing your tongue. In the bator community, when you goon, itโs because youโve reached the pinnacle of pleasure. You are being vulnerable, youโre exposing yourself in ways that you would not expose yourself normallyโmoaning, grunting, screaming. Maybe you make faces, but youโre going to let go of all of your inhibitions. Thereโs a communion of pleasure because we're all feeling the same thing at the same time. This is not something thatโs supposed to be performative.โHe thinks platforms like the Gooniversity podcast have totally misappropriated gooning for profit. โItโs just putting on a show about gooning. And of course it works, because itโs sex and itโs cool. But if you really are gooning, you know that this is not what this is about. Itโs not about putting on a show. Itโs about bonding with yourself deeply.โ (Gooniversity host Big Dick Clark denies the claims. He tells WIRED: โOf course gooning on camera is performative. Anyone who says gooning is not performative doesnโt know what gooning is. It requires specific facial expressions and jargon. But nothing Gooniversity does is inauthentic.โ)Even so, Guams wants Batemates to be a safe and welcoming place for not only LGBTQ+ bators but for all people who crave that deeper sense of connection.The platform recently celebrated its first anniversary, and though Guams has all sorts of ideas for new features, he says there is one thing about Batemates that wonโt change. Unlike Grindr or Jackโd, queer apps also geared toward pleasure-seeking, Batemates has no outside investors and doesnโt feature a single ad.โNo, no, noโweโll never sell your data. And weโll never have ads on the product. Itโs only being supported by premium members. And it will stay like that. This is what makes the difference,โ he says. โThis is by bators, for bators.โ Inside the App Where Queer Gooners Run Free One night not long ago, Jaxon Roman sat naked in front of his laptop wearing only a pup hood as he masturbated with single-minded zeal to the attention of eight other men watching onscreen. It was a typical evening for the 33-year-old Arlington, Virginia, program analyst. โWhen bros praise me and say theyโre enjoying [me], I get to that edge point so fast,โ Roman says. His favorite instances are โwhen they all come to what Iโm doing.โ Sometimes, when heโs feeling especially kinky, Roman, who is bisexual, likes to ask for permission before climaxing. When granted, he releases and his body, he says, shakes for 10 seconds. โPure bliss,โ he calls it. At least a few times a month on Batemates, a social app for men who like to masturbate with other men, Roman will spend an hour online with his bros. Masturbatingโor โbatingโ as itโs known onlineโhas always helped him relieve stress and find his center. Heโs not the only one. Pitched as an โall-in-one platform designed to embrace bating as a lifestyle, together,โ Batemates is the newest haven of queer pleasure. โItโs a community of like-minded people who are just trying to be porn for others, virtually, while watching others pleasure themselves,โ Roman says. โGroup play with hotties around the world. Whatโs not to like?โ Though Batemates technically launched in October 2024, it wasnโt until last year that it really started to catch on as a viableโand safeโalternative to other online bator platforms. Nearly all of the bators WIRED spoke to said they were introduced to the lifestyle in 2020, during Covid, because, as one of them put it, โthere was nothing else to do.โ Gone, at least momentarily, were the days of the discreet sauna circle jerk. Public cruising dried up. Instead, men flocked to private video channels on Skype and Zoom for digital jam sessions where they communally bated with other men from around the world via the portal of their laptop screens. During this period, virtual sessions got so popular that they would occasionally max out with more than 100 people in a single room. Everything changed last year. Skype was shut down in May. Zoom sessions started getting reported more often. (โSensitive content,โ including porn, nudity, and โother content intended to cause sexual arousalโ is prohibited according to the companyโs acceptable use guidelines; Zoom did not respond to a request for comment.) Some queer bators have since decamped to Teams, Microsoftโs chat and video-conferencing app; others rely on chat forums like BateWorldโa Reddit-style platform for all things male masturbation that is arguably the most popular destination for batorsโas well as Discord, Telegram, and Reddit to find bros to bond with. Batemates emerged as an exciting replacement. โAll the corporate tools were just banning us,โ says Batemates founder Johan Guams. โAs members of the LGBTQ+ community, we had no space. I was really upset about the hypocrisy of the situation, especially when this is something everybody does.โ Batemates wants to put an end to the corporate sanctimony around adult content. Itโs an ethos the company has entirely woven into its branding. Exclaimed a recent ad on X: โYour friends. Your boss. Your coach. Your colleague. Everyone bates.โ Microsoft declined to comment, but according to both its digital safety policy and its terms of use, โany images, videos, audio, text, or links that depict or imply nudity, sexual acts, sexual arousal, or sexual violenceโ are prohibited on Teams. Though Guams, who is 31 and from Paris, was also a regular in various Zoom bating sessions during the pandemic, he often left them wanting more. โI was like, OK, I masturbate on Zoom, but I donโt know who these people are. Thereโs no control. I canโt keep in touch with them. Sometimes you find crazy people. The experience just felt complicated.โ Guams has worked as a freelance product designer for major brands and hotel chains for 10 years, so the instinct to โfix the flowโ of the experience came naturally, he says. โMy job was always to solve other peopleโs issues.โ Batemates runs on a subscription modelโ$17.99 per month or $155 for the annual planโand requires users to create a profile when signing up. Rooms, or bate groups, can host up to 32 people at one time. โBut 32 is never used, because we found out that people prefer smaller rooms,โ Guams says. Users can create their own rooms or join established ones, which can be tailored to appeal to people with shared kinks and fetishes. That includes everything from leather and verbal to piss play, toys, and fisting. Thereโs also a feed where all the real-time rooms are listed and users can post their thoughts, upload photos, and comment. A filtered search function can find bators based on location, kinks, age, race, and more. The platform is on track to hit its next milestone very soon: 10,000 members, the majority between 30 and 50 years old. For a niche product, Guams considers it a win. Puppaluffagus, who asked to be identified by his online persona citing professional concerns, joined Batemates a few months after it launched. Initially, the 47-year-old Missouri-based software developer had concerns, because the onboarding process required US citizens to upload their passport, but the company has since allowed for driverโs licenses instead; ID verification for potential new members is processed by third-party vendor Shufti Pro. The company also uses Besedo, a content moderation service, to monitor communication and make sure members are following the rules, including not spreading hate speech or posting about minors. Puppaluffagus now considers himself a regular, using Batemates โa couple times a week.โ Among the most important rules on Batemates? No lurking allowed. โItโs kind of like when straight women go to a leather bar, and theyโre gawking at peopleโlike weโre animals in a zoo,โ Puppaluffagus says. When joining a virtual session, all users are required to turn on their camera and are automatically removed when they turn it off. To maintain privacy, many bators will often wear a mask or position their camera from the neck down. Others happily let their freak flag fly and show their face during sessions. Room moderators have the option to host โface-mandatoryโ rooms. In those scenarios, everyone is required to show their face for the entire bate session. The platformโs mandatory-face feature was one of the reasons Puppaluffagus was eager to join. (BateWorld does not have the same rule.) He likes to know who heโs bonding with, because it makes for a heightened experience. โEveryone is participating. At this point, I use Batemates more than I use BateWorld.โ Batemates is available for download only on Windows and MacOS computers. The company plans to release a web versionโavailable on mobileโby the end of the year. โWeโre not trying to reinvent the wheel; weโre just trying to create a space that is dedicated. Itโs tailored for our use,โ Guams says. Being biracialโhis father is from Guadeloupe and his mother is white Frenchโhe was adamant about including an ethnicity filter. โI often found myself being the only person of color on Zoom. Culturally, in these online bator spaces, it is dominated by white men. So it was important to me that peopleโBlack, Asian, Latino, whateverโcan find their community within the community.โ Critics have said that such filters promote discrimination; in 2020, Grindr discontinued its race filter in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. โItโs only a problem if you are using it for fetishization. It has allowed Black men to bate more comfortably,โ Guams says. He tells WIRED that people of color account for roughly 50 percent of the rooms on a daily basis. The most active rooms on Batemates are for gooners, where men indulge in what is known as popper bating. Poppers are a recreational inhalant and party drug used as a stimulus to enhance oneโs sexual experience. (Batemates published a โbator-friendly guideโ on poppers in November.) For the uninitiated, gooning is a state of extreme sexual arousal achieved through prolonged masturbation and porn consumption. Like edging, gooning is about reaching a state of total ecstasy without climaxing; some men edge for hours at a time, fueled by a sustained euphoria. Unlike edging, gooning can be about losing control of your senses in the process. The growing popularity of gooningโit's jumped from internet forums to TikTok to the pages of Harperโs magazineโhas also contributed to the rise of Batemates. Largely fueled by Gen Z, gooners officially broke into the zeitgeist last year. Though its exact origins are up for debateโsome speculate it started on 4chanโall gooners seemingly want the same thing in the end: to reach the โgooning state, where [a man] and his dick become one,โ as one Redditor explained on r/askgaybros in 2022, just as trend was gaining momentum. โWhen the gooning state is achieved, the man's body becomes for all intents and purposes an appendage to his erection.โ An important distinction to note: All gooners are bators but not every bator is a gooner. โIf you want to ejaculate really quickly, thatโs just masturbating,โ Puppaluffagus says. Gooning, on the other hand, is โa communal experience that isnโt necessarily rushed. Itโs kind of like a meditation that can let your mind take you where you want to be.โ Guams hates how gooning is being co-opted in the larger culture. He says the practice โis much more than making faces and flashing your tongue. In the bator community, when you goon, itโs because youโve reached the pinnacle of pleasure. You are being vulnerable, youโre exposing yourself in ways that you would not expose yourself normallyโmoaning, grunting, screaming. Maybe you make faces, but youโre going to let go of all of your inhibitions. Thereโs a communion of pleasure because we're all feeling the same thing at the same time. This is not something thatโs supposed to be performative.โ He thinks platforms like the Gooniversity podcast have totally misappropriated gooning for profit. โItโs just putting on a show about gooning. And of course it works, because itโs sex and itโs cool. But if you really are gooning, you know that this is not what this is about. Itโs not about putting on a show. Itโs about bonding with yourself deeply.โ (Gooniversity host Big Dick Clark denies the claims. He tells WIRED: โOf course gooning on camera is performative. Anyone who says gooning is not performative doesnโt know what gooning is. It requires specific facial expressions and jargon. But nothing Gooniversity does is inauthentic.โ) Even so, Guams wants Batemates to be a safe and welcoming place for not only LGBTQ+ bators but for all people who crave that deeper sense of connection. The platform recently celebrated its first anniversary, and though Guams has all sorts of ideas for new features, he says there is one thing about Batemates that wonโt change. Unlike Grindr or Jackโd, queer apps also geared toward pleasure-seeking, Batemates has no outside investors and doesnโt feature a single ad. โNo, no, noโweโll never sell your data. And weโll never have ads on the product. Itโs only being supported by premium members. And it will stay like that. This is what makes the difference,โ he says. โThis is by bators, for bators.โ You Might Also Like In your inbox: Maxwell Zeff's dispatch from the heart of AI ICE is expanding at breakneck speedโhereโs where itโs going next Big Story: Inside the gay tech mafia Big Tech says AI will save the planetโit doesnโt offer much proof Event: Helping small business owners succeed ยฉ 2026 Condรฉ 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 Condรฉ Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47045175] | [TOKENS: 306] |
~/.ssh/config Host github.com-work HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work_id_rsa IdentitiesOnly yes ~/.git/config [user] email = work@example.com [remote "origin"] url = github.com-work:Work/Widget.git Host github.com-work HostName github.com User git IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work_id_rsa IdentitiesOnly yes ~/.git/config [user] email = work@example.com [remote "origin"] url = github.com-work:Work/Widget.git [user] email = work@example.com [remote "origin"] url = github.com-work:Work/Widget.git reply In my main ~/.gitconfig I have: [includeIf "gitdir:/home/user/projects/embedding-shapes/"] path = /home/user/.gitconfig-embedding-shapes Where basically `projects/` follow GitHub naming with $user/$repo, so I set the git identity based on all projects within that user, rather than repo-by-repo which would get cumbersome fast.Then you just make sure you're in the right directory :) [includeIf "gitdir:/home/user/projects/embedding-shapes/"] path = /home/user/.gitconfig-embedding-shapes Where basically `projects/` follow GitHub naming with $user/$repo, so I set the git identity based on all projects within that user, rather than repo-by-repo which would get cumbersome fast.Then you just make sure you're in the right directory :) Then you just make sure you're in the right directory :) reply reply reply |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#cite_ref-104] | [TOKENS: 9291] |
Contents Internet The Internet (or internet)[a] is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP)[b] to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that comprises private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information services and resources, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, discussion groups, internet telephony, streaming media and file sharing. Most traditional communication media, including telephone, radio, television, paper mail, newspapers, and print publishing, have been transformed by the Internet, giving rise to new media such as email, online music, digital newspapers, news aggregators, and audio and video streaming websites. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interaction through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking services. Online shopping has also grown to occupy a significant market across industries, enabling firms to extend brick and mortar presences to serve larger markets. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. The origins of the Internet date back to research that enabled the time-sharing of computer resources, the development of packet switching, and the design of computer networks for data communication. The set of communication protocols to enable internetworking on the Internet arose from research and development commissioned in the 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense in collaboration with universities and researchers across the United States and in the United Kingdom and France. The Internet has no single centralized governance in either technological implementation or policies for access and usage. Each constituent network sets its own policies. The overarching definitions of the two principal name spaces on the Internet, the Internet Protocol address (IP address) space and the Domain Name System (DNS), are directed by a maintainer organization, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols is an activity of the non-profit Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Terminology The word internetted was used as early as 1849, meaning interconnected or interwoven. The word Internet was used in 1945 by the United States War Department in a radio operator's manual, and in 1974 as the shorthand form of Internetwork. Today, the term Internet most commonly refers to the global system of interconnected computer networks, though it may also refer to any group of smaller networks. The word Internet may be capitalized as a proper noun, although this is becoming less common. This reflects the tendency in English to capitalize new terms and move them to lowercase as they become familiar. The word is sometimes still capitalized to distinguish the global internet from smaller networks, though many publications, including the AP Stylebook since 2016, recommend the lowercase form in every case. In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary found that, based on a study of around 2.5 billion printed and online sources, "Internet" was capitalized in 54% of cases. The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably; it is common to speak of "going on the Internet" when using a web browser to view web pages. However, the World Wide Web, or the Web, is only one of a large number of Internet services. It is the global collection of web pages, documents and other web resources linked by hyperlinks and URLs. History In the 1960s, computer scientists began developing systems for time-sharing of computer resources. J. C. R. Licklider proposed the idea of a universal network while working at Bolt Beranek & Newman and, later, leading the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defense. Research into packet switching,[c] one of the fundamental Internet technologies, started in the work of Paul Baran at RAND in the early 1960s and, independently, Donald Davies at the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory in 1965. After the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in 1967, packet switching from the proposed NPL network was incorporated into the design of the ARPANET, an experimental resource sharing network proposed by ARPA. ARPANET development began with two network nodes which were interconnected between the University of California, Los Angeles and the Stanford Research Institute on 29 October 1969. The third site was at the University of California, Santa Barbara, followed by the University of Utah. By the end of 1971, 15 sites were connected to the young ARPANET. Thereafter, the ARPANET gradually developed into a decentralized communications network, connecting remote centers and military bases in the United States. Other user networks and research networks, such as the Merit Network and CYCLADES, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Early international collaborations for the ARPANET were rare. Connections were made in 1973 to Norway (NORSAR and, later, NDRE) and to Peter Kirstein's research group at University College London, which provided a gateway to British academic networks, the first internetwork for resource sharing. ARPA projects, the International Network Working Group and commercial initiatives led to the development of various protocols and standards by which multiple separate networks could become a single network, or a network of networks. In 1974, Vint Cerf at Stanford University and Bob Kahn at DARPA published a proposal for "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication". Cerf and his graduate students used the term internet as a shorthand for internetwork in RFC 675. The Internet Experiment Notes and later RFCs repeated this use. The work of Louis Pouzin and Robert Metcalfe had important influences on the resulting TCP/IP design. National PTTs and commercial providers developed the X.25 standard and deployed it on public data networks. The ARPANET initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the United States to enable resource sharing. Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982, the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) was standardized, which facilitated worldwide proliferation of interconnected networks. TCP/IP network access expanded again in 1986 when the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNet) provided access to supercomputer sites in the United States for researchers, first at speeds of 56 kbit/s and later at 1.5 Mbit/s and 45 Mbit/s. The NSFNet expanded into academic and research organizations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in 1988โ89. Although other network protocols such as UUCP and PTT public data networks had global reach well before this time, this marked the beginning of the Internet as an intercontinental network. Commercial Internet service providers emerged in 1989 in the United States and Australia. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s, as well as the advent of the World Wide Web, marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet. Steady advances in semiconductor technology and optical networking created new economic opportunities for commercial involvement in the expansion of the network in its core and for delivering services to the public. In mid-1989, MCI Mail and Compuserve established connections to the Internet, delivering email and public access products to the half million users of the Internet. Just months later, on 1 January 1990, PSInet launched an alternate Internet backbone for commercial use; one of the networks that added to the core of the commercial Internet of later years. In March 1990, the first high-speed T1 (1.5 Mbit/s) link between the NSFNET and Europe was installed between Cornell University and CERN, allowing much more robust communications than were capable with satellites. Later in 1990, Tim Berners-Lee began writing WorldWideWeb, the first web browser, after two years of lobbying CERN management. By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web: the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 0.9, the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the first Web browser (which was also an HTML editor and could access Usenet newsgroups and FTP files), the first HTTP server software (later known as CERN httpd), the first web server, and the first Web pages that described the project itself. In 1991 the Commercial Internet eXchange was founded, allowing PSInet to communicate with the other commercial networks CERFnet and Alternet. Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online Internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994. In 1996, OP Financial Group, also a cooperative bank, became the second online bank in the world and the first in Europe. By 1995, the Internet was fully commercialized in the U.S. when the NSFNet was decommissioned, removing the last restrictions on use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic. As technology advanced and commercial opportunities fueled reciprocal growth, the volume of Internet traffic started experiencing similar characteristics as that of the scaling of MOS transistors, exemplified by Moore's law, doubling every 18 months. This growth, formalized as Edholm's law, was catalyzed by advances in MOS technology, laser light wave systems, and noise performance. Since 1995, the Internet has tremendously impacted culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by email, instant messaging, telephony (Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP), two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web. Increasing amounts of data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, or more. The Internet continues to grow, driven by ever-greater amounts of online information and knowledge, commerce, entertainment and social networking services. During the late 1990s, it was estimated that traffic on the public Internet grew by 100 percent per year, while the mean annual growth in the number of Internet users was thought to be between 20% and 50%. This growth is often attributed to the lack of central administration, which allows organic growth of the network, as well as the non-proprietary nature of the Internet protocols, which encourages vendor interoperability and prevents any one company from exerting too much control over the network. In November 2006, the Internet was included on USA Today's list of the New Seven Wonders. As of 31 March 2011[update], the estimated total number of Internet users was 2.095 billion (30% of world population). It is estimated that in 1993 the Internet carried only 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunication. By 2000 this figure had grown to 51%, and by 2007 more than 97% of all telecommunicated information was carried over the Internet. Modern smartphones can access the Internet through cellular carrier networks, and internet usage by mobile and tablet devices exceeded desktop worldwide for the first time in October 2016. As of 2018[update], 80% of the world's population were covered by a 4G network. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that, by the end of 2017, 48% of individual users regularly connect to the Internet, up from 34% in 2012. Mobile Internet connectivity has played an important role in expanding access in recent years, especially in Asia and the Pacific and in Africa. The number of unique mobile cellular subscriptions increased from 3.9 billion in 2012 to 4.8 billion in 2016, two-thirds of the world's population, with more than half of subscriptions located in Asia and the Pacific. The limits that users face on accessing information via mobile applications coincide with a broader process of fragmentation of the Internet. Fragmentation restricts access to media content and tends to affect the poorest users the most. One solution, zero-rating, is the practice of Internet service providers allowing users free connectivity to access specific content or applications without cost. Social impact The Internet has enabled new forms of social interaction, activities, and social associations, giving rise to the scholarly study of the sociology of the Internet. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of Internet users globally rose from 390 million to 1.9 billion. By 2010, 22% of the world's population had access to computers with 1 billion Google searches every day, 300 million Internet users reading blogs, and 2 billion videos viewed daily on YouTube. In 2014 the world's Internet users surpassed 3 billion or 44 percent of world population, but two-thirds came from the richest countries, with 78 percent of Europeans using the Internet, followed by 57 percent of the Americas. However, by 2018, Asia alone accounted for 51% of all Internet users, with 2.2 billion out of the 4.3 billion Internet users in the world. China's Internet users surpassed a major milestone in 2018, when the country's Internet regulatory authority, China Internet Network Information Centre, announced that China had 802 million users. China was followed by India, with some 700 million users, with the United States third with 275 million users. However, in terms of penetration, in 2022, China had a 70% penetration rate compared to India's 60% and the United States's 90%. In 2022, 54% of the world's Internet users were based in Asia, 14% in Europe, 7% in North America, 10% in Latin America and the Caribbean, 11% in Africa, 4% in the Middle East and 1% in Oceania. In 2019, Kuwait, Qatar, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda and Iceland had the highest Internet penetration by the number of users, with 93% or more of the population with access. As of 2022, it was estimated that 5.4 billion people use the Internet, more than two-thirds of the world's population. Early computer systems were limited to the characters in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), a subset of the Latin alphabet. After English (27%), the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese (25%), Spanish (8%), Japanese (5%), Portuguese and German (4% each), Arabic, French and Russian (3% each), and Korean (2%). Modern character encoding standards, such as Unicode, allow for development and communication in the world's widely used languages. However, some glitches such as mojibake (incorrect display of some languages' characters) still remain. Several neologisms exist that refer to Internet users: Netizen (as in "citizen of the net") refers to those actively involved in improving online communities, the Internet in general or surrounding political affairs and rights such as free speech, Internaut refers to operators or technically highly capable users of the Internet, digital citizen refers to a person using the Internet in order to engage in society, politics, and government participation. The Internet allows greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections. The Internet can be accessed almost anywhere by numerous means, including through mobile Internet devices. Mobile phones, datacards, handheld game consoles and cellular routers allow users to connect to the Internet wirelessly.[citation needed] Educational material at all levels from pre-school (e.g. CBeebies) to post-doctoral (e.g. scholarly literature through Google Scholar) is available on websites. The internet has facilitated the development of virtual universities and distance education, enabling both formal and informal education. The Internet allows researchers to conduct research remotely via virtual laboratories, with profound changes in reach and generalizability of findings as well as in communication between scientists and in the publication of results. By the late 2010s the Internet had been described as "the main source of scientific information "for the majority of the global North population".: 111 Wikis have also been used in the academic community for sharing and dissemination of information across institutional and international boundaries. In those settings, they have been found useful for collaboration on grant writing, strategic planning, departmental documentation, and committee work. The United States Patent and Trademark Office uses a wiki to allow the public to collaborate on finding prior art relevant to examination of pending patent applications. Queens, New York has used a wiki to allow citizens to collaborate on the design and planning of a local park. The English Wikipedia has the largest user base among wikis on the World Wide Web and ranks in the top 10 among all sites in terms of traffic. The Internet has been a major outlet for leisure activity since its inception, with entertaining social experiments such as MUDs and MOOs being conducted on university servers, and humor-related Usenet groups receiving much traffic. Many Internet forums have sections devoted to games and funny videos. Another area of leisure activity on the Internet is multiplayer gaming. This form of recreation creates communities, where people of all ages and origins enjoy the fast-paced world of multiplayer games. These range from MMORPG to first-person shooters, from role-playing video games to online gambling. While online gaming has been around since the 1970s, modern modes of online gaming began with subscription services such as GameSpy and MPlayer. Streaming media is the real-time delivery of digital media for immediate consumption or enjoyment by end users. Streaming companies (such as Netflix, Disney+, Amazon's Prime Video, Mubi, Hulu, and Apple TV+) now dominate the entertainment industry, eclipsing traditional broadcasters. Audio streamers such as Spotify and Apple Music also have significant market share in the audio entertainment market. Video sharing websites are also a major factor in the entertainment ecosystem. YouTube was founded on 15 February 2005 and is now the leading website for free streaming video with more than two billion users. It uses a web player to stream and show video files. YouTube users watch hundreds of millions, and upload hundreds of thousands, of videos daily. Other video sharing websites include Vimeo, Instagram and TikTok.[citation needed] Although many governments have attempted to restrict both Internet pornography and online gambling, this has generally failed to stop their widespread popularity. A number of advertising-funded ostensible video sharing websites known as "tube sites" have been created to host shared pornographic video content. Due to laws requiring the documentation of the origin of pornography, these websites now largely operate in conjunction with pornographic movie studios and their own independent creator networks, acting as de-facto video streaming services. Major players in this field include the market leader Aylo, the operator of PornHub and numerous other branded sites, as well as other independent operators such as xHamster and Xvideos. As of 2023[update], Internet traffic to pornographic video sites rivalled that of mainstream video streaming and sharing services. Remote work is facilitated by tools such as groupware, virtual private networks, conference calling, videotelephony, and VoIP so that work may be performed from any location, such as the worker's home.[citation needed] The spread of low-cost Internet access in developing countries has opened up new possibilities for peer-to-peer charities, which allow individuals to contribute small amounts to charitable projects for other individuals. Websites, such as DonorsChoose and GlobalGiving, allow small-scale donors to direct funds to individual projects of their choice. A popular twist on Internet-based philanthropy is the use of peer-to-peer lending for charitable purposes. Kiva pioneered this concept in 2005, offering the first web-based service to publish individual loan profiles for funding. The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills have made collaborative work dramatically easier, with the help of collaborative software, which allow groups to easily form, cheaply communicate, and share ideas. An example of collaborative software is the free software movement, which has produced, among other things, Linux, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org (later forked into LibreOffice).[citation needed] Content management systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents simultaneously without accidentally destroying each other's work.[citation needed] The internet also allows for cloud computing, virtual private networks, remote desktops, and remote work.[citation needed] The online disinhibition effect describes the tendency of many individuals to behave more stridently or offensively online than they would in person. A significant number of feminist women have been the target of various forms of harassment, including insults and hate speech, to, in extreme cases, rape and death threats, in response to posts they have made on social media. Social media companies have been criticized in the past for not doing enough to aid victims of online abuse. Children also face dangers online such as cyberbullying and approaches by sexual predators, who sometimes pose as children themselves. Due to naivety, they may also post personal information about themselves online, which could put them or their families at risk unless warned not to do so. Many parents choose to enable Internet filtering or supervise their children's online activities in an attempt to protect their children from pornography or violent content on the Internet. The most popular social networking services commonly forbid users under the age of 13. However, these policies can be circumvented by registering an account with a false birth date, and a significant number of children aged under 13 join such sites.[citation needed] Social networking services for younger children, which claim to provide better levels of protection for children, also exist. Internet usage has been correlated to users' loneliness. Lonely people tend to use the Internet as an outlet for their feelings and to share their stories with others, such as in the "I am lonely will anyone speak to me" thread.[citation needed] Cyberslacking can become a drain on corporate resources; employees spend a significant amount of time surfing the Web while at work. Internet addiction disorder is excessive computer use that interferes with daily life. Nicholas G. Carr believes that Internet use has other effects on individuals, for instance improving skills of scan-reading and interfering with the deep thinking that leads to true creativity. Electronic business encompasses business processes spanning the entire value chain: purchasing, supply chain management, marketing, sales, customer service, and business relationship. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners. According to International Data Corporation, the size of worldwide e-commerce, when global business-to-business and -consumer transactions are combined, equate to $16 trillion in 2013. A report by Oxford Economics added those two together to estimate the total size of the digital economy at $20.4 trillion, equivalent to roughly 13.8% of global sales. While much has been written of the economic advantages of Internet-enabled commerce, there is also evidence that some aspects of the Internet such as maps and location-aware services may serve to reinforce economic inequality and the digital divide. Electronic commerce may be responsible for consolidation and the decline of mom-and-pop, brick and mortar businesses resulting in increases in income inequality. A 2013 Institute for Local Self-Reliance report states that brick-and-mortar retailers employ 47 people for every $10 million in sales, while Amazon employs only 14. Similarly, the 700-employee room rental start-up Airbnb was valued at $10 billion in 2014, about half as much as Hilton Worldwide, which employs 152,000 people. At that time, Uber employed 1,000 full-time employees and was valued at $18.2 billion, about the same valuation as Avis Rent a Car and The Hertz Corporation combined, which together employed almost 60,000 people. Advertising on popular web pages can be lucrative, and e-commerce. Online advertising is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. It includes email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising. In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in the United States surpassed those of cable television and nearly exceeded those of broadcast television.: 19 Many common online advertising practices are controversial and increasingly subject to regulation. The Internet has achieved new relevance as a political tool. The presidential campaign of Howard Dean in 2004 in the United States was notable for its success in soliciting donation via the Internet. Many political groups use the Internet to achieve a new method of organizing for carrying out their mission, having given rise to Internet activism. Social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, helped people organize the Arab Spring, by helping activists organize protests, communicate grievances, and disseminate information. Many have understood the Internet as an extension of the Habermasian notion of the public sphere, observing how network communication technologies provide something like a global civic forum. However, incidents of politically motivated Internet censorship have now been recorded in many countries, including western democracies. E-government is the use of technological communications devices, such as the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers opportunities for more direct and convenient citizen access to government and for government provision of services directly to citizens. Cybersectarianism is a new organizational form that involves: highly dispersed small groups of practitioners that may remain largely anonymous within the larger social context and operate in relative secrecy, while still linked remotely to a larger network of believers who share a set of practices and texts, and often a common devotion to a particular leader. Overseas supporters provide funding and support; domestic practitioners distribute tracts, participate in acts of resistance, and share information on the internal situation with outsiders. Collectively, members and practitioners of such sects construct viable virtual communities of faith, exchanging personal testimonies and engaging in the collective study via email, online chat rooms, and web-based message boards. In particular, the British government has raised concerns about the prospect of young British Muslims being indoctrinated into Islamic extremism by material on the Internet, being persuaded to join terrorist groups such as the so-called "Islamic State", and then potentially committing acts of terrorism on returning to Britain after fighting in Syria or Iraq.[citation needed] Applications and services The Internet carries many applications and services, most prominently the World Wide Web, including social media, electronic mail, mobile applications, multiplayer online games, Internet telephony, file sharing, and streaming media services. The World Wide Web is a global collection of documents, images, multimedia, applications, and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), which provide a global system of named references. URIs symbolically identify services, web servers, databases, and the documents and resources that they can provide. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the main access protocol of the World Wide Web. Web services also use HTTP for communication between software systems for information transfer, sharing and exchanging business data and logistics and is one of many languages or protocols that can be used for communication on the Internet. World Wide Web browser software, such as Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple's Safari, and Google Chrome, enable users to navigate from one web page to another via the hyperlinks embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain computer data, including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content. Client-side scripts can include animations, games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. Email is an important communications service available via the Internet. The concept of sending electronic text messages between parties, analogous to mailing letters or memos, predates the creation of the Internet. Internet telephony is a common communications service realized with the Internet. The name of the principal internetworking protocol, the Internet Protocol, lends its name to voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).[citation needed] VoIP systems now dominate many markets, being as easy and convenient as a traditional telephone, while having substantial cost savings, especially over long distances. File sharing is the practice of transferring large amounts of data in the form of computer files across the Internet, for example via file servers. The load of bulk downloads to many users can be eased by the use of "mirror" servers or peer-to-peer networks. Access to the file may be controlled by user authentication, the transit of the file over the Internet may be obscured by encryption, and money may change hands for access to the file. The price can be paid by the remote charging of funds from, for example, a credit card whose details are also passedโusually fully encryptedโacross the Internet. The origin and authenticity of the file received may be checked by a digital signature. Governance The Internet is a global network that comprises many voluntarily interconnected autonomous networks. It operates without a central governing body. The technical underpinning and standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of loosely affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by contributing technical expertise. While the hardware components in the Internet infrastructure can often be used to support other software systems, it is the design and the standardization process of the software that characterizes the Internet and provides the foundation for its scalability and success. The responsibility for the architectural design of the Internet software systems has been assumed by the IETF. The IETF conducts standard-setting work groups, open to any individual, about the various aspects of Internet architecture. The resulting contributions and standards are published as Request for Comments (RFC) documents on the IETF web site. The principal methods of networking that enable the Internet are contained in specially designated RFCs that constitute the Internet Standards. Other less rigorous documents are simply informative, experimental, or historical, or document the best current practices when implementing Internet technologies. To maintain interoperability, the principal name spaces of the Internet are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is governed by an international board of directors drawn from across the Internet technical, business, academic, and other non-commercial communities. The organization coordinates the assignment of unique identifiers for use on the Internet, including domain names, IP addresses, application port numbers in the transport protocols, and many other parameters. Globally unified name spaces are essential for maintaining the global reach of the Internet. This role of ICANN distinguishes it as perhaps the only central coordinating body for the global Internet. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency of the United States Department of Commerce, had final approval over changes to the DNS root zone until the IANA stewardship transition on 1 October 2016. Regional Internet registries (RIRs) were established for five regions of the world to assign IP address blocks and other Internet parameters to local registries, such as Internet service providers, from a designated pool of addresses set aside for each region:[citation needed] The Internet Society (ISOC) was founded in 1992 with a mission to "assure the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world". Its members include individuals as well as corporations, organizations, governments, and universities. Among other activities ISOC provides an administrative home for a number of less formally organized groups that are involved in developing and managing the Internet, including: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG), Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). On 16 November 2005, the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis established the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to discuss Internet-related issues.[citation needed] Infrastructure The communications infrastructure of the Internet consists of its hardware components and a system of software layers that control various aspects of the architecture. As with any computer network, the Internet physically consists of routers, media (such as cabling and radio links), repeaters, and modems. However, as an example of internetworking, many of the network nodes are not necessarily Internet equipment per se. Internet packets are carried by other full-fledged networking protocols, with the Internet acting as a homogeneous networking standard, running across heterogeneous hardware, with the packets guided to their destinations by IP routers.[citation needed] Internet service providers (ISPs) establish worldwide connectivity between individual networks at various levels of scope. At the top of the routing hierarchy are the tier 1 networks, large telecommunication companies that exchange traffic directly with each other via very high speed fiber-optic cables and governed by peering agreements. Tier 2 and lower-level networks buy Internet transit from other providers to reach at least some parties on the global Internet, though they may also engage in peering. End-users who only access the Internet when needed to perform a function or obtain information, represent the bottom of the routing hierarchy.[citation needed] An ISP may use a single upstream provider for connectivity, or implement multihoming to achieve redundancy and load balancing. Internet exchange points are major traffic exchanges with physical connections to multiple ISPs. Large organizations, such as academic institutions, large enterprises, and governments, may perform the same function as ISPs, engaging in peering and purchasing transit on behalf of their internal networks. Research networks tend to interconnect with large subnetworks such as GEANT, GLORIAD, Internet2, and the UK's national research and education network, JANET.[citation needed] Common methods of Internet access by users include broadband over coaxial cable, fiber optics or copper wires, Wi-Fi, satellite, and cellular telephone technology.[citation needed] Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks. Commercial Wi-Fi services that cover large areas are available in many cities, such as New York, London, Vienna, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago and Pittsburgh. Most servers that provide internet services are today hosted in data centers, and content is often accessed through high-performance content delivery networks. Colocation centers often host private peering connections between their customers, internet transit providers, cloud providers, meet-me rooms for connecting customers together, Internet exchange points, and landing points and terminal equipment for fiber optic submarine communication cables, connecting the internet. Internet Protocol Suite The Internet standards describe a framework known as the Internet protocol suite (also called TCP/IP, based on the first two components.) This is a suite of protocols that are ordered into a set of four conceptional layers by the scope of their operation, originally documented in RFC 1122 and RFC 1123:[citation needed] The most prominent component of the Internet model is the Internet Protocol. IP enables internetworking, essentially establishing the Internet itself. Two versions of the Internet Protocol exist, IPv4 and IPv6.[citation needed] Aside from the complex array of physical connections that make up its infrastructure, the Internet is facilitated by bi- or multi-lateral commercial contracts (e.g., peering agreements), and by technical specifications or protocols that describe the exchange of data over the network.[citation needed] For locating individual computers on the network, the Internet provides IP addresses. IP addresses are used by the Internet infrastructure to direct internet packets to their destinations. They consist of fixed-length numbers, which are found within the packet. IP addresses are generally assigned to equipment either automatically via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or are configured.[citation needed] Domain Name Systems convert user-inputted domain names (e.g. "en.wikipedia.org") into IP addresses.[citation needed] Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) defines an IP address as a 32-bit number. IPv4 is the initial version used on the first generation of the Internet and is still in dominant use. It was designed in 1981 to address up to โ4.3 billion (109) hosts. However, the explosive growth of the Internet has led to IPv4 address exhaustion, which entered its final stage in 2011, when the global IPv4 address allocation pool was exhausted. Because of the growth of the Internet and the depletion of available IPv4 addresses, a new version of IP IPv6, was developed in the mid-1990s, which provides vastly larger addressing capabilities and more efficient routing of Internet traffic. IPv6 uses 128 bits for the IP address and was standardized in 1998. IPv6 deployment has been ongoing since the mid-2000s and is currently in growing deployment around the world, since Internet address registries began to urge all resource managers to plan rapid adoption and conversion. By design, IPv6 is not directly interoperable with IPv4. Instead, it establishes a parallel version of the Internet not directly accessible with IPv4 software. Thus, translation facilities exist for internetworking, and some nodes have duplicate networking software for both networks. Essentially all modern computer operating systems support both versions of the Internet Protocol.[citation needed] Network infrastructure, however, has been lagging in this development.[citation needed] A subnet or subnetwork is a logical subdivision of an IP network.: 1, 16 Computers that belong to a subnet are addressed with an identical most-significant bit-group in their IP addresses. This results in the logical division of an IP address into two fields, the network number or routing prefix and the rest field or host identifier. The rest field is an identifier for a specific host or network interface.[citation needed] The routing prefix may be expressed in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation written as the first address of a network, followed by a slash character (/), and ending with the bit-length of the prefix. For example, 198.51.100.0/24 is the prefix of the Internet Protocol version 4 network starting at the given address, having 24 bits allocated for the network prefix, and the remaining 8 bits reserved for host addressing. Addresses in the range 198.51.100.0 to 198.51.100.255 belong to this network. The IPv6 address specification 2001:db8::/32 is a large address block with 296 addresses, having a 32-bit routing prefix.[citation needed] For IPv4, a network may also be characterized by its subnet mask or netmask, which is the bitmask that when applied by a bitwise AND operation to any IP address in the network, yields the routing prefix. Subnet masks are also expressed in dot-decimal notation like an address. For example, 255.255.255.0 is the subnet mask for the prefix 198.51.100.0/24.[citation needed] Computers and routers use routing tables in their operating system to forward IP packets to reach a node on a different subnetwork. Routing tables are maintained by manual configuration or automatically by routing protocols. End-nodes typically use a default route that points toward an ISP providing transit, while ISP routers use the Border Gateway Protocol to establish the most efficient routing across the complex connections of the global Internet.[citation needed] The default gateway is the node that serves as the forwarding host (router) to other networks when no other route specification matches the destination IP address of a packet. Security Internet resources, hardware, and software components are the target of criminal or malicious attempts to gain unauthorized control to cause interruptions, commit fraud, engage in blackmail or access private information. Malware is malicious software used and distributed via the Internet. It includes computer viruses which are copied with the help of humans, computer worms which copy themselves automatically, software for denial of service attacks, ransomware, botnets, and spyware that reports on the activity and typing of users.[citation needed] Usually, these activities constitute cybercrime. Defense theorists have also speculated about the possibilities of hackers using cyber warfare using similar methods on a large scale. Malware poses serious problems to individuals and businesses on the Internet. According to Symantec's 2018 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), malware variants number has increased to 669,947,865 in 2017, which is twice as many malware variants as in 2016. Cybercrime, which includes malware attacks as well as other crimes committed by computer, was predicted to cost the world economy US$6 trillion in 2021, and is increasing at a rate of 15% per year. Since 2021, malware has been designed to target computer systems that run critical infrastructure such as the electricity distribution network. Malware can be designed to evade antivirus software detection algorithms. The vast majority of computer surveillance involves the monitoring of data and traffic on the Internet. In the United States for example, under the Communications Assistance For Law Enforcement Act, all phone calls and broadband Internet traffic (emails, web traffic, instant messaging, etc.) are required to be available for unimpeded real-time monitoring by Federal law enforcement agencies. Under the Act, all U.S. telecommunications providers are required to install packet sniffing technology to allow Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to intercept all of their customers' broadband Internet and VoIP traffic.[d] The large amount of data gathered from packet capture requires surveillance software that filters and reports relevant information, such as the use of certain words or phrases, the access to certain types of web sites, or communicating via email or chat with certain parties. Agencies, such as the Information Awareness Office, NSA, GCHQ and the FBI, spend billions of dollars per year to develop, purchase, implement, and operate systems for interception and analysis of data. Similar systems are operated by Iranian secret police to identify and suppress dissidents. The required hardware and software were allegedly installed by German Siemens AG and Finnish Nokia. Some governments, such as those of Myanmar, Iran, North Korea, Mainland China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, restrict access to content on the Internet within their territories, especially to political and religious content, with domain name and keyword filters. In Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, major Internet service providers have voluntarily agreed to restrict access to sites listed by authorities. While this list of forbidden resources is supposed to contain only known child pornography sites, the content of the list is secret. Many countries, including the United States, have enacted laws against the possession or distribution of certain material, such as child pornography, via the Internet but do not mandate filter software. Many free or commercially available software programs, called content-control software are available to users to block offensive specific on individual computers or networks in order to limit access by children to pornographic material or depiction of violence.[citation needed] Performance As the Internet is a heterogeneous network, its physical characteristics, including, for example the data transfer rates of connections, vary widely. It exhibits emergent phenomena that depend on its large-scale organization. PB per monthYear020,00040,00060,00080,000100,000120,000140,000199019952000200520102015Petabytes per monthGlobal Internet Traffic Volume The volume of Internet traffic is difficult to measure because no single point of measurement exists in the multi-tiered, non-hierarchical topology. Traffic data may be estimated from the aggregate volume through the peering points of the Tier 1 network providers, but traffic that stays local in large provider networks may not be accounted for.[citation needed] An Internet blackout or outage can be caused by local signaling interruptions. Disruptions of submarine communications cables may cause blackouts or slowdowns to large areas, such as in the 2008 submarine cable disruption. Less-developed countries are more vulnerable due to the small number of high-capacity links. Land cables are also vulnerable, as in 2011 when a woman digging for scrap metal severed most connectivity for the nation of Armenia. Internet blackouts affecting almost entire countries can be achieved by governments as a form of Internet censorship, as in the blockage of the Internet in Egypt, whereby approximately 93% of networks were without access in 2011 in an attempt to stop mobilization for anti-government protests. Estimates of the Internet's electricity usage have been the subject of controversy, according to a 2014 peer-reviewed research paper that found claims differing by a factor of 20,000 published in the literature during the preceding decade, ranging from 0.0064 kilowatt hours per gigabyte transferred (kWh/GB) to 136 kWh/GB. The researchers attributed these discrepancies mainly to the year of reference (i.e. whether efficiency gains over time had been taken into account) and to whether "end devices such as personal computers and servers are included" in the analysis. In 2011, academic researchers estimated the overall energy used by the Internet to be between 170 and 307 GW, less than two percent of the energy used by humanity. This estimate included the energy needed to build, operate, and periodically replace the estimated 750 million laptops, a billion smart phones and 100 million servers worldwide as well as the energy that routers, cell towers, optical switches, Wi-Fi transmitters and cloud storage devices use when transmitting Internet traffic. According to a non-peer-reviewed study published in 2018 by The Shift Project (a French think tank funded by corporate sponsors), nearly 4% of global CO2 emissions could be attributed to global data transfer and the necessary infrastructure. The study also said that online video streaming alone accounted for 60% of this data transfer and therefore contributed to over 300 million tons of CO2 emission per year, and argued for new "digital sobriety" regulations restricting the use and size of video files. See also Notes References Sources Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_Analytics] | [TOKENS: 1015] |
Contents Revolution Analytics Revolution Analytics (formerly REvolution Computing) is a statistical software company focused on developing open source and "open-core" versions of the free and open source software R for enterprise, academic and analytics customers. Revolution Analytics was founded in 2007 as REvolution Computing providing support and services for R in a model similar to Red Hat's approach with Linux in the 1990s as well as bolt-on additions for parallel processing. In 2009 the company received nine million in venture capital from Intel along with a private equity firm and named Norman H. Nie as their new CEO. In 2010 the company announced the name change as well as a change in focus. Their core product, Revolution R, would be offered free to academic users and their commercial software would focus on big data, large scale multiprocessor (or "high performance") computing, and multi-core functionality. Microsoft announced on January 23, 2015, that they had reached an agreement to purchase Revolution Analytics for an as yet undisclosed amount. In 2021, Microsoft announced they would be retiring their R distribution they acquired from Revolution Analytics. In 2023, Microsoft retired the Microsoft R Application Network, which was a proprietary package hosting service similar to the Comprehensive R Archive Network for packages acquired from Revolution Analytics (like "ScaleR"). Founding and venture capital REvolution Computing was founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 2007 by Richard Schultz, Martin Schultz, Steve Weston and Kirk Mettler. At the time Martin Schultz was also the Watson Professor of Computer Science at Yale University. Adding parallel computing to R allowed the company to net large gains in speed for many common analytics operations and early clients like Pfizer took advantage of REvolution R to see large performance gains using R on computing clusters. While the improvements to core R were released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), REvolution provides support and services to customers of their commercial product and had considerable early success with life sciences and pharmaceutical companies. A year later the company opened an additional office in Seattle. In 2009 REvolution Computing accepted nine million dollars in venture capital from Intel and North Bridge Venture Partners, a private equity firm. Intel had previously supported REvolution Computing with venture capital in 2008. A number of Intel employees also joined Revolution Analytics as employees or as advisors. Concurrently, the company changed their name to Revolution Analytics and invited Norman Nie, founder of SPSS, to serve as CEO. This change in management corresponded with a movement toward building a more complete set of software for commercial users; prior to 2009 Revolution had been focused on building parallel processing functionality into the then mostly single threaded R. David Rich replaced Norman Nie as CEO in February 2012. High performance computing, big data and the shift to analytics Unlike analytics products offered by SAS Institute, R does not natively handle datasets larger than main memory. In 2010 Revolution Analytics introduced ScaleR, a package for Revolution R Enterprise designed to handle big data through a high-performance disk-based data store called XDF (not related to IBM's Extensible Data Format) and high performance computing across large clusters. The release of ScaleR marked a push away from consulting and services alone to custom code and a la carte package pricing. ScaleR also works with Apache Hadoop and other distributed file systems and Revolution Analytics has partnered with IBM to further integrate Hadoop into Revolution R. Packages to integrate Hadoop and MapReduce into open source R can also be found on the community package repository, CRAN. Market position In comparison to developers of similar analytics tools, Revolution Analytics is a small company; in 2010 the company had a projected revenue of $8โ11 million, but no official records of revenue or profit were published in their projections. According to Nie, the increased use of R - a fully fledged programming language, in contrast to other analytics packages - within academia is helping the company to grow quickly. Community vice president David Smith suggested that movement away from "black box" analytics toward open source tools in general supported vendors like Revolution over solely proprietary tools. Products Revolution Analytics' product Revolution R is available in three editions. Revolution R Open is a free and open source distribution of R with additional features for performance and reproducibility. Revolution R Plus provides technical support and open-source assurance (legal indemnification) subscriptions for Revolution R Open and other open-source components that work with R. (These products were first announced October 15, 2014.) Revolution R Enterprise adds proprietary components to support statistical analysis of Big Data, and is sold as subscriptions for workstations, servers, Hadoop and databases. (Single-user licenses are available free for academic users as well as users competing in Kaggle data mining competitions.) In January 2015 Microsoft rebranded and renewed several Revolution Analytics products and offerings for Hadoop, Teradata Database, SUSE Linux, Red Hat, and Microsoft Windows. Microsoft made several of these R-based products free of charge for developers - these products included: See also References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/s1g6p0i00bg] | [TOKENS: 320] |
ืืชืืื ืื ืขืจื ืืจืฉืช, ืืฉืื ืคืืจื ื ืืืืืืช: ืื ืืืืจืื ืืฉืื ืืืขืฉืื ืืืื ืื ืืืช 10 ืชืืฉื ืืืจืื ื ืขืฆืจ ืืืฉื ืืืชืืืืช ืืืคืืืงืฆืืืช ืกื ืืคืฆ'ืื, ืื ืืฉืชืืฉ ืืื ืื ืจืื ืืื ืืฉืื ืืืืืช ืืฉืืื ืื ืชืืื ืืช ืืื ืืืืืืช ืืืฉืืื ืืืชื ืืืืืืื. ืืืงืืจื ื ืคืชืื ืืขืงืืืช ืงืืืช ืืืืื ืืืืงื 105, ืืืืจ ืฉืืื ืืืช 10 ืืืืชื ืคืจืืคืื ืืฉืื ืฉืฉืื ืื ืกืจืืื ืื ืืื ืืื. ืืืฉืืจื ืืืคืฉืื ืงืืจืื ืืช ื ืืกืคืื |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/tag/culture-guides/] | [TOKENS: 359] |
Culture GuidesCultureThe 10 Best TV Shows to Stream This MonthCultureThe 24 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right NowCultureThe 45 Best Movies on HBO Max Right NowCultureThe 50 Best Shows on HBO Max Right NowCultureThe 52 Best Movies on Netflix Right NowCultureThe 52 Best Shows on Netflix Right NowCultureThe 28 Best Movies on Apple TV Right NowCultureThe 40 Best Shows on Apple TV Right NowCultureThe 24 Best Shows on Amazon Prime Right NowCultureThe 45 Best Movies on Hulu This WeekCultureThe 51 Best Shows on Hulu Right NowCultureThe 70 Best Movies on Disney+ Right NowCultureThe 57 Best Shows on Disney+ Right NowGearThe WIRED Guide to Seattle for Business TravelersGearThese 11 Nature Documentaries Will Make You Want to Touch GrassCultureThe 16 Best Holiday Movies to Stream This SeasonGamingThe Best Nintendo Switch Games for Every Kind of PlayerCultureThe 16 Sci-Fi Movies You Need to Watch Before You DieCultureThe 15 Most Anticipated Shows of 2024CultureThe 22 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024CultureThe 10 Best TV Shows of 2023โand Where to Watch ThemCultureThe 15 Best Movies of 2023โand Where to Watch ThemCultureEvery Studio Ghibli Film, Ranked From Worst to BestCultureThe Best Sci-Fi Movies Everyone Should Watch OnceMore Stories Culture Guides ยฉ 2026 Condรฉ 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 Condรฉ Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/transportation/882194/america-auto-backwater-ev-loss-detroit-trump-emissions] | [TOKENS: 3613] |
TransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationPolicyClosePolicyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PolicyScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceAmerica is at risk of becoming an automotive backwaterDetroit badly bungled the EV transition. Then Trump wiped out emission rules.Detroit badly bungled the EV transition. Then Trump wiped out emission rules.by Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsFeb 20, 2026, 7:52 PM UTCLinkShareGiftTraffic moves along the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles in February of 2026. Apu Gomes/Getty ImagesAndrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. Hawkins is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.For decades, Americaโs auto industry was the envy of the world, driven by mass production, the rise of Detroitโs Big Three automakers, and the iconic stylings of the 1950s and โ60s.Then, through a series of blunders and missteps, things started to unravel. There was the fuel crisis of the 1970s, which led to an influx of Japanese imports that bested Detroit in fuel savings and reliability. And then there were various global financial collapses throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and a significant decline in automotive quality as the Big Three continued to push bigger and more expensive vehicles, at the expense of road safety and global competitiveness.And then there was, for lack of a better term, the great EV whiff of the 2010s and 2020s. After sleeping on electric vehicles for too long, the Big Three finally got in the game โ but they botched it, rolling out a series of electric versions of gas cars that lacked the finesse or gee-whiz software tricks of Tesla. They were also too expensive for most Americans.And now the real financial fallout begins. Ford announced a $19.5 billion write-down on its EV investments โ one of the largest in corporate history. On the same day, the Blue Oval said it was killing the F-150 Lightning, a vehicle once heralded as the return of the Model T. General Motors came next, with a $7.6 billion charge. And then Stellantis, with a colossal $26.6 billion hit on its EV investments.Cumulatively, thatโs over $50 billion gone. Poof.How did the US get EVs so wrong? The lazy answer is that Americans just donโt want them, preferring to keep pumping dead dinosaur sludge into their lifted Ford F-150s and not have to deal with all that charging. But the real reason is that Detroit never took the challenge seriously, while dealers actively worked against the transition, worried about losses in service and repair. And then President Donald Trump turned EVs politically toxic, and here we are. Americans are now falling behind in what may be one of the most significant technological shifts since the first car rolled off the assembly line.Cumulatively, thatโs over $50 billion gone. Poof As such, Trump seems happy to accelerate the auto industryโs rush toward irrelevance. Along with Congressional Republicans, Trump eliminated the $7,500 EV tax credit, right when the market was finding its footing. GMโs EV sales dropped 43 percent in the quarter right after the tax credit ended.The Trump administration has also rolled back emissions regulations that were designed to push automakers to build more EVs and challenged Californiaโs authority to set its own pollution limits. And then, earlier this month, the real kill shot: Trumpโs EPA rescinded the landmark โendangerment findingโ that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health โ the foundation of the agencyโs vehicle-pollution rules first adopted in 2010.Automakers will no longer face fines for exceeding fuel emissions standards, nor will they have to buy pricey climate credits from Tesla and other EV makers. They have free rein to pollute.โThe US no longer has emissions standards of any meaning,โ Margo Oge, who served as the EPAโs top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups, told The New York Times. โNothing. Zero. Not many countries have zero.โThere are other ways of looking at this. Without emissions standards or the endangerment finding looming over them, automakers will have some โbreathing roomโ to continue to churn out big, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs that help pay the bills, while also hopefully continuing to fund R&D efforts to design better, more efficient, and most importantly profitable electric vehicles, said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.โHopefully, theyโve learned their lesson and donโt allow this breathing room to be their gas chamber,โ he added.โHopefully, theyโve learned their lesson and donโt allow this breathing room to be their gas chamber.โโ Ivan Drury, director of insights at EdmundsAs the US backslides, the rest of the world is already transitioning to electric power. In 2025, people bought a record 20.7 million EVs worldwide, up from just three million in 2020. In a number of nations, EVs represent a significant portion of overall auto sales: 20 percent in South Korea; 50 percent in China; 68 percent in Denmark; 65 percent in Sweden; and 96 percent in Norway. In the US, EV sales were roughly 10 percent.Howโd they do it? Sustained investment in battery technology, charging infrastructure, and affordable models. Thatโs it, really. China is estimated to have spent between $150 billion and $250 billion on EV development, raw materials, and everything else, and now the countryโs auto industry is on the cusp of taking over the world. Well, the world minus the US, where tariffs and restrictions on Chinese software have kept BYD, Xiaomi, and others from coming in and decimating the Big Three.Just as the pendulum has swung against EVs, it could certainly swing back. California is challenging the move by Congressional Republicans to revoke its waiver to enact its own emissions regulations. If it wins, automakers could find themselves stuck between the pro-EV California and the anti-EV Washington.This will likely force automakers to continue to develop multiple powertrains โ ICE, hybrid, EV โ for longer than they would have preferred, said Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific. If Ford, GM, and Stellantis want to continue to compete globally โ hell, if they want to continue to survive, and not get completely taken out by China โ they will need to ignore the regulatory impulse to abandon EVs altogether and keep trying to crack the code.Ford says itโs committed. Mary Barra at GM too. Stellantis is in a tougher spot, but has yet to completely throw in the towel. European, Japanese, and Korean automakers will have a role to play too. The EV transition isnโt defeated. Itโs winning all across the globe, just not in America. Not yet.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew J. HawkinsCloseAndrew J. HawkinsTransportation editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew J. HawkinsCarsCloseCarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All CarsClimateCloseClimatePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ClimateElectric CarsCloseElectric CarsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Electric CarsFordCloseFordPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All FordGMCloseGMPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GMPolicyClosePolicyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PolicyScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceTransportationCloseTransportationPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TransportationMost PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharmaโs first memo on the future of XboxAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agentโs 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 Transportation Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science America is at risk of becoming an automotive backwater Detroit badly bungled the EV transition. Then Trump wiped out emission rules. Detroit badly bungled the EV transition. Then Trump wiped out emission rules. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins For decades, Americaโs auto industry was the envy of the world, driven by mass production, the rise of Detroitโs Big Three automakers, and the iconic stylings of the 1950s and โ60s. Then, through a series of blunders and missteps, things started to unravel. There was the fuel crisis of the 1970s, which led to an influx of Japanese imports that bested Detroit in fuel savings and reliability. And then there were various global financial collapses throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and a significant decline in automotive quality as the Big Three continued to push bigger and more expensive vehicles, at the expense of road safety and global competitiveness. And then there was, for lack of a better term, the great EV whiff of the 2010s and 2020s. After sleeping on electric vehicles for too long, the Big Three finally got in the game โ but they botched it, rolling out a series of electric versions of gas cars that lacked the finesse or gee-whiz software tricks of Tesla. They were also too expensive for most Americans. And now the real financial fallout begins. Ford announced a $19.5 billion write-down on its EV investments โ one of the largest in corporate history. On the same day, the Blue Oval said it was killing the F-150 Lightning, a vehicle once heralded as the return of the Model T. General Motors came next, with a $7.6 billion charge. And then Stellantis, with a colossal $26.6 billion hit on its EV investments. Cumulatively, thatโs over $50 billion gone. Poof. How did the US get EVs so wrong? The lazy answer is that Americans just donโt want them, preferring to keep pumping dead dinosaur sludge into their lifted Ford F-150s and not have to deal with all that charging. But the real reason is that Detroit never took the challenge seriously, while dealers actively worked against the transition, worried about losses in service and repair. And then President Donald Trump turned EVs politically toxic, and here we are. Americans are now falling behind in what may be one of the most significant technological shifts since the first car rolled off the assembly line. Cumulatively, thatโs over $50 billion gone. Poof As such, Trump seems happy to accelerate the auto industryโs rush toward irrelevance. Along with Congressional Republicans, Trump eliminated the $7,500 EV tax credit, right when the market was finding its footing. GMโs EV sales dropped 43 percent in the quarter right after the tax credit ended. The Trump administration has also rolled back emissions regulations that were designed to push automakers to build more EVs and challenged Californiaโs authority to set its own pollution limits. And then, earlier this month, the real kill shot: Trumpโs EPA rescinded the landmark โendangerment findingโ that greenhouse gas emissions endanger human health โ the foundation of the agencyโs vehicle-pollution rules first adopted in 2010. Automakers will no longer face fines for exceeding fuel emissions standards, nor will they have to buy pricey climate credits from Tesla and other EV makers. They have free rein to pollute. โThe US no longer has emissions standards of any meaning,โ Margo Oge, who served as the EPAโs top vehicle emissions regulator under three presidents and has since advised both automakers and environmental groups, told The New York Times. โNothing. Zero. Not many countries have zero.โ There are other ways of looking at this. Without emissions standards or the endangerment finding looming over them, automakers will have some โbreathing roomโ to continue to churn out big, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs that help pay the bills, while also hopefully continuing to fund R&D efforts to design better, more efficient, and most importantly profitable electric vehicles, said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds. โHopefully, theyโve learned their lesson and donโt allow this breathing room to be their gas chamber,โ he added. โHopefully, theyโve learned their lesson and donโt allow this breathing room to be their gas chamber.โ As the US backslides, the rest of the world is already transitioning to electric power. In 2025, people bought a record 20.7 million EVs worldwide, up from just three million in 2020. In a number of nations, EVs represent a significant portion of overall auto sales: 20 percent in South Korea; 50 percent in China; 68 percent in Denmark; 65 percent in Sweden; and 96 percent in Norway. In the US, EV sales were roughly 10 percent. Howโd they do it? Sustained investment in battery technology, charging infrastructure, and affordable models. Thatโs it, really. China is estimated to have spent between $150 billion and $250 billion on EV development, raw materials, and everything else, and now the countryโs auto industry is on the cusp of taking over the world. Well, the world minus the US, where tariffs and restrictions on Chinese software have kept BYD, Xiaomi, and others from coming in and decimating the Big Three. Just as the pendulum has swung against EVs, it could certainly swing back. California is challenging the move by Congressional Republicans to revoke its waiver to enact its own emissions regulations. If it wins, automakers could find themselves stuck between the pro-EV California and the anti-EV Washington. This will likely force automakers to continue to develop multiple powertrains โ ICE, hybrid, EV โ for longer than they would have preferred, said Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific. If Ford, GM, and Stellantis want to continue to compete globally โ hell, if they want to continue to survive, and not get completely taken out by China โ they will need to ignore the regulatory impulse to abandon EVs altogether and keep trying to crack the code. Ford says itโs committed. Mary Barra at GM too. Stellantis is in a tougher spot, but has yet to completely throw in the towel. European, Japanese, and Korean automakers will have a role to play too. The EV transition isnโt defeated. Itโs winning all across the globe, just not in America. Not yet. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Cars Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Climate Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Electric Cars Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Ford Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All GM Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Transportation 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 Transportation This is the title for the native ad Top Stories ยฉ 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://www.mako.co.il/breaking_news-2026/m02_w03/shorts-1d2473a838e7c91026.htm] | [TOKENS: 102] |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_Platforms#cite_ref-252] | [TOKENS: 8626] |
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 metaverseโan 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. corporationsโsurpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foodsโand 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 โ 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 โmore traditionalโ 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 Metaโs rights management tools, became widespread in the Middle East, revealing a gap in Metaโs enforcement in developing regions. An Iraqi nonprofit Tech4Peaceโs 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 Metaโs 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 Metaโs 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 competitorsโInstagram and WhatsAppโand 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 โฌ390 million for violations of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. In May 2023, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta a record โฌ1.2 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 โฌ200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, by imposing a โconsent or payโ 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 $3โ5bn. 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 2โ3% 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 ยฃ149m 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 37ยฐ29โฒ06โณN 122ยฐ08โฒ54โณW๏ปฟ / ๏ปฟ37.48500ยฐN 122.14833ยฐW๏ปฟ / 37.48500; -122.14833 |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_(app)] | [TOKENS: 622] |
Contents Tea (app) Tea, officially Tea Dating Advice, is a dating surveillance mobile phone application that allows women to post personal data about men they are interested in or are currently dating. Founded by Sean Cook, the app rose to prominence in July 2025 after it was the subject of three major data leaks in July and August 2025. It was removed from Apple's App Store in October 2025, but remains available on the Google play store. History The app enables its users to upload, view, and comment on photos of men, check men's public records, and perform image searches. It also provides the ability to rate and review men, as well as a group chat function. The app uses artificial intelligence to verify that the user is a woman through facial analysis and other personal information to preserve the app as a women-only space. Users are required to submit their photo and an ID to access the app. The company that created the app was founded by businessman and tech capitalist Sean Cook, who stated in July 2025 that he was inspired to create the app because of his mother's experiences from online dating. According to the company, users remain anonymous, and the requirement to upload an ID was removed in 2023. An August 2025 investigation by 404 Media suggested that much of the information given by Cook on the historical background of the company was inaccurate. In July 2025, private messages, other personally identifying information, and approximately 72,000 images were leaked via 4chan. A further 1.1 million private messages were subsequently leaked using a separate security vulnerability; these included intimate conversations about controversial topics such as adultery and other forms of infidelity to their partners, discussions of abortion, phone numbers, meeting locations, and other confidential communications. The app's publishers subsequently revoked the ability to private message users in the app. Shortly after, the app was hidden from search on Android and an interactive, unverified map was also created of those in the files. By 7 August 2025, ten class action lawsuits had been filed. A further leak was reported later that month. Proponents have praised the app as an aid for women's safety by helping them check men for adultery, catfishing, criminal convictions and other "red flag" behaviors. Critics have described the app as a doxing tool and a violation of privacy, an opportunity for defamation against innocent individuals, and a witch hunt. Cook has stated that the company's legal team receives about three legal threats per day. Another mobile app, called TeaOnHer, was created in response of the appโs popularity. It was described as the male version of the Tea app. The app also reported a data breach in August 2025. In October 2025, Apple removed the app from their app store, telling journalists that the removal was due to a failure to meet company terms regarding content moderation and user privacy. Apple also mentioned an excessive amount of complaints, including allegations that the personal information of minors was being shared. The app remains on the Android app store. See also References |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast.ai#cite_ref-6] | [TOKENS: 302] |
Contents fast.ai fast.ai is a non-profit research group focused on deep learning and artificial intelligence. It was founded in 2016 by Jeremy Howard and Rachel Thomas with the goal of democratizing deep learning. They do this by providing a massive open online course (MOOC) named "Practical Deep Learning for Coders," which has no other prerequisites except for knowledge of the programming language Python. Massive Open Online Course The free MOOC "Practical Deep Learning for Coders" is available as recorded videos, initially taught by Howard and Thomas at the University of San Francisco. In contrast to other online learning platforms such as Coursera or Udemy, a certificate is not granted to those successfully finishing the course online. Only the students following the in-person classes can obtain a certificate from the University of San Francisco. The MOOC consists of two parts, each containing seven lessons. Topics include image classification, stochastic gradient descent, natural language processing (NLP), and various deep learning architectures such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), recursive neural networks (RNNs) and generative adversarial networks (GANs). Applications and alumni Software In the fall of 2018, fast.ai released v1.0 of their free open-source library for deep learning called fastai (without a period), sitting atop PyTorch. Google Cloud was the first to announce its support. This open-source framework is hosted on GitHub and is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/story/the-best-shows-to-stream-right-now/] | [TOKENS: 5031] |
Jennifer M. WoodCultureFeb 19, 2026 3:00 PMThe 10 Best TV Shows to Stream This MonthFallout, Neighbors, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters are just a few of the TV shows weโre swooning over for February.Still from Wonder Man.Courtesy of Marvel TelevisionCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyNo matter how well your favorite streaming serviceโs algorithm knows you, come February, sometimes even the smartest technology can be swayed by the power of Valentineโs Day. Hence all those romance-heavy promos at the top of your screen, from Ryan Murphyโs Love Story to Netflixโs ever-proliferating Love Is Blind.But loveโromantic or otherwiseโcan be found in the oddest of places, including the radioactive wasteland of postapocalyptic Los Angeles, Westeros in the rare midst of relative peace, or behind the scenes of the latest MCU blockbuster.Whether youโre in the mood for a reliable sci-fi gem or an enlightening new docuseries courtesy of Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie, Februaryโs streaming lineup offers plenty of options to swoon over. Here are the 10 shows weโre falling for right now.Star Trek: Starfleet AcademyPicking up from roughly where Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzmanโs Star Trek: Discovery left off when it ended in 2024, Starfleet Academy might be best described as Star Trek for the TikTok age โฆ or simply the franchiseโs horniest iteration. Set in the 32nd century, it follows the first group of cadets to train at the Academy in more than a century, giving it license to play out more like a college soap opera ร la Huluโs Tell Me Lies. Fortunately, Hollywood heavyweights Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti are there to refocus these wannabe Starfleet officers on boldly going where no one has gone before.While franchise diehards may find it all a bit too lightweight for their tastes, itโs impossible to not appreciate the showโs obvious nostalgia for the iconic series that started it all and Gene Roddenberryโs fierce commitment to diversity, which has unfortunately become an ugly word to the countryโs powers that beโand an aspect of the original show that appears to have gone over self-described Trekkie Stephen Millerโs head completely.Watch on Paramount+Wonder ManWhat do you do if youโre Disney and realize the Marvel movies that once regularly crossed the $1 billion box office threshold while barely lifting a Nano Gauntlet are now facing a seriously dwindling ROI problem? You poke fun at the problem with a playfully self-aware buddy comedy that smartly doesnโt require any real knowledge of the MCU on the audienceโs part.Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a struggling actor who is desperate to audition for the title role in Wonder Man, a new superhero movie based on the very real comic book character created more than 60 years ago by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck. Unfortunately for Simon, Hollywood has instituted a rule, the Doormanโs Clause, which prohibits anyone with real superpowers from working in the industry. So he hatches a plan to pursue the part while desperately attempting to hide his superhuman abilities. He is aided in his endeavors by Ben Kingsleyโs Trevor Slattery, a failed actor who we first met in Iron Man 3 and whose backstory we come to understand even better here.Watch on Disney+A Knight of the Seven KingdomsWinter will undoubtedly be coming to Westeros, but you can save that for another series. Same goes for the high-flying dragons and jaw-droppingly explicit sex scenes that sparked so many headlines for both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.Much like Marvelโs aforementioned Wonder Man, George R.R. Martinโs A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows a wildly different path than its predecessors. Itโs more of an Arthurian buddy comedy that recollects Tyrion Lannisterโs (Peter Dinklage) many bromances from Game of Thrones, which provided that iconic series with some of its funniest and most personal moments. (See: pretty much any scene between Tyrion and Bronn.) In the case of HBOโs latest title in the Martinverse, the buddies in question are Ser Duncan โDunkโ the Tall (Peter Claffey), a legendary knight noted for both his bravery and his towering stature (hence the entirely noncreative name), and his squire, Aegon โEggโ Targaryen (Dexter Sol Ansell), whose famous last name and place in the royal line of succession are a well-guarded secretโuntil they arenโt, which helps drive the first seasonโs narrative. Just know that this pair plans on sticking around; months before the seriesโ January 18 premiere, it was already renewed for a second season.Watch on HBO MaxFalloutFor almost as long as there have been video games, there have been producers hungry to adapt those video games into movies and television seriesโlargely with utterly disastrous results. (See: 1993โs Super Mario Bros., which the late, great Bob Hoskins called โthe worst thingโ he ever did.) But all that changed in the past few years, first with the premiere of HBOโs fungi-rrific The Last of Us followed one year later by Fallout.Set in the aftermath of the Great War of 2077โa global nuclear exchange that destroyed human civilization as we know itโLucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) emerges from the cushy depths of Vault 33, the underground bunker where she has spent her entire life, in order to rescue her kidnapped father (Kyle MacLachlan), with the decapitated head of cold fusion scientist Dr. Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) in tow as a bargaining chip. But the postapocalyptic wasteland that awaits her above proves to be a much more dangerous place than she ever imagined. Eventually she crosses paths with The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a Hollywood star turned bounty hunter who thinks Lucy can help him find what heโs searching for: the location of his wife and children. What begins as a rocky but seemingly mutually beneficial relationship slowly morphs into a bizarre kind of mentorship. Itโs a multilayered story, but one that benefits from the showโs IP origins, allowing its hyper-violent underpinnings to play out via gorgeous visuals and delightfully campy performances from its stellar cast.Watch on Amazon Prime VideoSamuelFrom Lupin to Squid Game, Netflixโs interest in international programming is well known, and Franceโs Samuel is just the latest example. Creator รmilie Tronche initially began creating episodes of the micro-series in 2020, which she then posted to Instagram and TikTok. Viral fame soon came calling, and she turned what started as a deeply personal passion project into a full series of 21 episodes. The show, set in the early 2000s, is a coming-of-age tale told through the diary of the eponymous 10-year-old as he faces the challenges of middle-school friendships, first loves, and other tween rites of passage. The intimate nature of the stories is only enhanced by its low-fi style; black-and-white, 2D animated episodes that run around five minutes apiece allow Tronche to focus on a singular feeling without the need for filler. Note to subtitlephobes: The series is dubbed into English.Watch on NetflixNeighborsWhen the pandemic hit in 2020, many people turned to bread-making to pass the time. Filmmakers Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redfordโyes, one of those Redfords; heโs Robertโs grandsonโinstead chose to watch viral videos of neighbors arguing with each other. This fascination eventually led to a formal series pitch, which four-time Oscar nominee and Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie was game to hop onboard.Unlike the viral videos that inspired it, the series itself was no low-effort affair. Production on the series, which features just six episodes, took two years so that these very realโand often very uglyโneighbor disputes could fully play out. โCastingโ for the dueling residents happened via detailed searches of local newspapers, small claims court filings, and various Facebook groups.Watch on NetflixStargate SG-1In November, Amazon answered the prayers of many old-school sci-fi fans when it announced that a new version of Stargate was in the works. Though no dates of when to expect the new series have been shared, the timing of its predecessorโs February 15 arrival on Netflixโnearly 30 years after making its original debut on Showtimeโcould not have been more welcome.All 10 seasons of the military sci-fi adventure are coming, in which an elite and clandestine Air Force team uses alien technology (the Stargate) to bounce around the galaxy and protect Earth from extraterrestrial dangers before they happen. Like any long-running sci-fi series (see: Doctor Who), not every season or creative decision was perfect. Some of the writing in the earlier episodes is laughable, plot holes abound, and clichรฉs were sometimes as abundant as new alien species. But, really, when youโre facing off against a self-replicating species known as โฆ Replicators, isnโt that just part of the charm?Watch on NetflixStrip LawAdam Scott is having a major streaming moment. While he and his castmates are logging all sorts of accolades for Apple TVโs Severance, the Step Brothers star is also about to become the voice of Lincoln Gumb, the most boring lawyer in Las Vegas. In Strip Law, a brand-new animated, adult comedy that arrives on February 20, Gumb realizes that if he wants to stand out amid the razzle-dazzle of the Vegas Strip, heโs got to get a better act. So he partners with Sheila Flambรฉ (Janelle James), a local magician who helps turn every courtroom appearance into an outright spectacleโwhich isnโt always a good thing.Watch on NetflixParadiseWith This Is Us, Dan Fogelman became televisionโs answer to M. Night Shyamalan (and a headache for Crock-Pot) thanks to his love of a good twist. He did it again in 2025 with Huluโs Paradiseโand this time managed to leave your beloved slow cooker out of it. For this postapocalyptic political thriller, which debuts its second season on February 23, Fogelman once again teams up with three-time Emmy winner (and onetime Oscar nominee) Sterling K. Brown, who plays Secret Service agent Xavier Collins.Like This Is Us, the series is built on playing with time and carefully seeded details to pull the rug out from under its audience. Here, Collins is tasked with protecting the life of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), until he becomes the prime suspect in the commander in chiefโs murder. To say much more would ruin the surprises (plural). Expect even more whodunnitery when the second season arrives, with Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty joining the fold.Watch on HuluMonarch: Legacy of MonstersWith its 2014 Godzilla reboot, Legendary proved there was still plenty of atomic life left in the King of the Monsters. More than a decade later, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters zooms in on the very human fallout of Godzillaโs radioactive wake. Set after San Franciscoโs catastrophic encounter with the giant lizard, the series follows two siblings who uncover their familyโs long-hidden ties to Monarch, the shadowy scientific organization that has been tracking these MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) for decades. What begins as a personal mystery quickly spirals into a global conspiracy, while the series jumps back and forth between the 1950s and today.Bridging those timelines are Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell, playing older and younger versions of Monarch operative Lee Shaw. While the MonsterVerse spectacle may be the initial draw, itโs the generations-spanning storylineโabout how seismic events echo long after the dust settlesโthat ultimately makes even the towering Titans seem small. The showโs second season arrives on February 27.Watch on Apple TV The 10 Best TV Shows to Stream This Month No matter how well your favorite streaming serviceโs algorithm knows you, come February, sometimes even the smartest technology can be swayed by the power of Valentineโs Day. Hence all those romance-heavy promos at the top of your screen, from Ryan Murphyโs Love Story to Netflixโs ever-proliferating Love Is Blind. But loveโromantic or otherwiseโcan be found in the oddest of places, including the radioactive wasteland of postapocalyptic Los Angeles, Westeros in the rare midst of relative peace, or behind the scenes of the latest MCU blockbuster. Whether youโre in the mood for a reliable sci-fi gem or an enlightening new docuseries courtesy of Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie, Februaryโs streaming lineup offers plenty of options to swoon over. Here are the 10 shows weโre falling for right now. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Picking up from roughly where Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzmanโs Star Trek: Discovery left off when it ended in 2024, Starfleet Academy might be best described as Star Trek for the TikTok age โฆ or simply the franchiseโs horniest iteration. Set in the 32nd century, it follows the first group of cadets to train at the Academy in more than a century, giving it license to play out more like a college soap opera ร la Huluโs Tell Me Lies. Fortunately, Hollywood heavyweights Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti are there to refocus these wannabe Starfleet officers on boldly going where no one has gone before. While franchise diehards may find it all a bit too lightweight for their tastes, itโs impossible to not appreciate the showโs obvious nostalgia for the iconic series that started it all and Gene Roddenberryโs fierce commitment to diversity, which has unfortunately become an ugly word to the countryโs powers that beโand an aspect of the original show that appears to have gone over self-described Trekkie Stephen Millerโs head completely. Wonder Man What do you do if youโre Disney and realize the Marvel movies that once regularly crossed the $1 billion box office threshold while barely lifting a Nano Gauntlet are now facing a seriously dwindling ROI problem? You poke fun at the problem with a playfully self-aware buddy comedy that smartly doesnโt require any real knowledge of the MCU on the audienceโs part. Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a struggling actor who is desperate to audition for the title role in Wonder Man, a new superhero movie based on the very real comic book character created more than 60 years ago by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Don Heck. Unfortunately for Simon, Hollywood has instituted a rule, the Doormanโs Clause, which prohibits anyone with real superpowers from working in the industry. So he hatches a plan to pursue the part while desperately attempting to hide his superhuman abilities. He is aided in his endeavors by Ben Kingsleyโs Trevor Slattery, a failed actor who we first met in Iron Man 3 and whose backstory we come to understand even better here. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Winter will undoubtedly be coming to Westeros, but you can save that for another series. Same goes for the high-flying dragons and jaw-droppingly explicit sex scenes that sparked so many headlines for both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Much like Marvelโs aforementioned Wonder Man, George R.R. Martinโs A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows a wildly different path than its predecessors. Itโs more of an Arthurian buddy comedy that recollects Tyrion Lannisterโs (Peter Dinklage) many bromances from Game of Thrones, which provided that iconic series with some of its funniest and most personal moments. (See: pretty much any scene between Tyrion and Bronn.) In the case of HBOโs latest title in the Martinverse, the buddies in question are Ser Duncan โDunkโ the Tall (Peter Claffey), a legendary knight noted for both his bravery and his towering stature (hence the entirely noncreative name), and his squire, Aegon โEggโ Targaryen (Dexter Sol Ansell), whose famous last name and place in the royal line of succession are a well-guarded secretโuntil they arenโt, which helps drive the first seasonโs narrative. Just know that this pair plans on sticking around; months before the seriesโ January 18 premiere, it was already renewed for a second season. Fallout For almost as long as there have been video games, there have been producers hungry to adapt those video games into movies and television seriesโlargely with utterly disastrous results. (See: 1993โs Super Mario Bros., which the late, great Bob Hoskins called โthe worst thingโ he ever did.) But all that changed in the past few years, first with the premiere of HBOโs fungi-rrific The Last of Us followed one year later by Fallout. Set in the aftermath of the Great War of 2077โa global nuclear exchange that destroyed human civilization as we know itโLucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) emerges from the cushy depths of Vault 33, the underground bunker where she has spent her entire life, in order to rescue her kidnapped father (Kyle MacLachlan), with the decapitated head of cold fusion scientist Dr. Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson) in tow as a bargaining chip. But the postapocalyptic wasteland that awaits her above proves to be a much more dangerous place than she ever imagined. Eventually she crosses paths with The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), a Hollywood star turned bounty hunter who thinks Lucy can help him find what heโs searching for: the location of his wife and children. What begins as a rocky but seemingly mutually beneficial relationship slowly morphs into a bizarre kind of mentorship. Itโs a multilayered story, but one that benefits from the showโs IP origins, allowing its hyper-violent underpinnings to play out via gorgeous visuals and delightfully campy performances from its stellar cast. Samuel From Lupin to Squid Game, Netflixโs interest in international programming is well known, and Franceโs Samuel is just the latest example. Creator รmilie Tronche initially began creating episodes of the micro-series in 2020, which she then posted to Instagram and TikTok. Viral fame soon came calling, and she turned what started as a deeply personal passion project into a full series of 21 episodes. The show, set in the early 2000s, is a coming-of-age tale told through the diary of the eponymous 10-year-old as he faces the challenges of middle-school friendships, first loves, and other tween rites of passage. The intimate nature of the stories is only enhanced by its low-fi style; black-and-white, 2D animated episodes that run around five minutes apiece allow Tronche to focus on a singular feeling without the need for filler. Note to subtitlephobes: The series is dubbed into English. Neighbors When the pandemic hit in 2020, many people turned to bread-making to pass the time. Filmmakers Harrison Fishman and Dylan Redfordโyes, one of those Redfords; heโs Robertโs grandsonโinstead chose to watch viral videos of neighbors arguing with each other. This fascination eventually led to a formal series pitch, which four-time Oscar nominee and Marty Supreme director Josh Safdie was game to hop onboard. Unlike the viral videos that inspired it, the series itself was no low-effort affair. Production on the series, which features just six episodes, took two years so that these very realโand often very uglyโneighbor disputes could fully play out. โCastingโ for the dueling residents happened via detailed searches of local newspapers, small claims court filings, and various Facebook groups. Stargate SG-1 In November, Amazon answered the prayers of many old-school sci-fi fans when it announced that a new version of Stargate was in the works. Though no dates of when to expect the new series have been shared, the timing of its predecessorโs February 15 arrival on Netflixโnearly 30 years after making its original debut on Showtimeโcould not have been more welcome. All 10 seasons of the military sci-fi adventure are coming, in which an elite and clandestine Air Force team uses alien technology (the Stargate) to bounce around the galaxy and protect Earth from extraterrestrial dangers before they happen. Like any long-running sci-fi series (see: Doctor Who), not every season or creative decision was perfect. Some of the writing in the earlier episodes is laughable, plot holes abound, and clichรฉs were sometimes as abundant as new alien species. But, really, when youโre facing off against a self-replicating species known as โฆ Replicators, isnโt that just part of the charm? Strip Law Adam Scott is having a major streaming moment. While he and his castmates are logging all sorts of accolades for Apple TVโs Severance, the Step Brothers star is also about to become the voice of Lincoln Gumb, the most boring lawyer in Las Vegas. In Strip Law, a brand-new animated, adult comedy that arrives on February 20, Gumb realizes that if he wants to stand out amid the razzle-dazzle of the Vegas Strip, heโs got to get a better act. So he partners with Sheila Flambรฉ (Janelle James), a local magician who helps turn every courtroom appearance into an outright spectacleโwhich isnโt always a good thing. Paradise With This Is Us, Dan Fogelman became televisionโs answer to M. Night Shyamalan (and a headache for Crock-Pot) thanks to his love of a good twist. He did it again in 2025 with Huluโs Paradiseโand this time managed to leave your beloved slow cooker out of it. For this postapocalyptic political thriller, which debuts its second season on February 23, Fogelman once again teams up with three-time Emmy winner (and onetime Oscar nominee) Sterling K. Brown, who plays Secret Service agent Xavier Collins. Like This Is Us, the series is built on playing with time and carefully seeded details to pull the rug out from under its audience. Here, Collins is tasked with protecting the life of President Cal Bradford (James Marsden), until he becomes the prime suspect in the commander in chiefโs murder. To say much more would ruin the surprises (plural). Expect even more whodunnitery when the second season arrives, with Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty joining the fold. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters With its 2014 Godzilla reboot, Legendary proved there was still plenty of atomic life left in the King of the Monsters. More than a decade later, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters zooms in on the very human fallout of Godzillaโs radioactive wake. Set after San Franciscoโs catastrophic encounter with the giant lizard, the series follows two siblings who uncover their familyโs long-hidden ties to Monarch, the shadowy scientific organization that has been tracking these MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) for decades. What begins as a personal mystery quickly spirals into a global conspiracy, while the series jumps back and forth between the 1950s and today. Bridging those timelines are Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell, playing older and younger versions of Monarch operative Lee Shaw. While the MonsterVerse spectacle may be the initial draw, itโs the generations-spanning storylineโabout how seismic events echo long after the dust settlesโthat ultimately makes even the towering Titans seem small. The showโs second season arrives on February 27. Comments You Might Also Like In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter I loved my OpenClaw AI agentโuntil it turned on me Big Story: Health workers are quitting over ICE assignments Googleโs AI Overviews can scam youโhereโs how to stay safe Submit your questions: The hype, reality, and future of EVs ยฉ 2026 Condรฉ 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 Condรฉ Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/science/882223/nasa-march-6-artemis-ii-mission-launch-moon] | [TOKENS: 655] |
All the news of NASAโs Artemis program, the agencyโs attempt to returns humans to the MoonSee all StoriesPosted Feb 20, 2026 at 7:41 PM UTCAYoutubeAndrew LiszewskiNASAโs now targeting March 6th as its earliest Artemis II launch attempt.Following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Thursday plagued only by ground communications glitches, NASA says March 6th will be the earliest launch date for the long-delayed Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on an approximately 600,000-mile trip to circle the moon and return to Earth.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew LiszewskiCloseAndrew LiszewskiSenior Reporter, NewsPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew LiszewskiNASACloseNASAPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NASANewsCloseNewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NewsScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceSpaceCloseSpacePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All SpaceCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...Most PopularMost PopularThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutA $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazonโs cloudMetaโs VR metaverse is ditching VRTurtle Beachโs new PC controller with swiveling sticks is 30 percent offGE Profile made a smaller version of its nugget ice maker that needs less counter spaceThe 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. All the news of NASAโs Artemis program, the agencyโs attempt to returns humans to the Moon See all Stories Following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Thursday plagued only by ground communications glitches, NASA says March 6th will be the earliest launch date for the long-delayed Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on an approximately 600,000-mile trip to circle the moon and return to Earth. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Liszewski Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All NASA Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Space Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. More in Science This is the title for the native ad Top Stories ยฉ 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://www.mako.co.il/travel-israel/family_trip/Article-238625e0b8b6c91026.htm] | [TOKENS: 97] |
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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/story/best-amazon-prime-movies/] | [TOKENS: 9307] |
Matt Kamen WIRED StaffCultureJan 31, 2026 7:00 AMThe 24 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right NowSinners, Wicked, and Die Hard are just a few of the movies you should be watching on Amazon Prime Video this week.Still from Sinners.ยฉWarner Bros/Courtesy Everett CollectionCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyIn Recent years, Netflix and Apple TV+ have been duking it out to have the most prestigious film offerings, but some of the best movies are on Amazon Prime Video. The streamer was one of the first to go around picking up film festival darlings and other lovable favorites, and those movies are all still there in the library, so if they flew under your radar the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up.Our picks for the best movies on Amazon Prime are below. All the films in our guide are included in your Prime subscriptionโno renting here. Once youโve watched your fill, check out our lists for the best shows on Netflix and best movies on Disney+ if youโre looking for something else to watch. We also have a guide to the best shows on Amazon, if thatโs what youโre in the mood for.If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.SinnersWhen twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan) return to Mississippi after years in Chicago, planning to open a new juke joint, theyโre prepared to navigate the creeping, mundane evils of the Jim Crow South. Theyโre less prepared for Remmick (Jack OโConnell), a wandering vampire, who plans to turn the brothersโ opening night into a bloodbath. Sinners is far more than a horror movie, though. Its exploration of the period, communities, and prejudices of the era gives it a richness and resonance that transcends genre. Exquisitely shot, and already a record-holder for the most Oscar nominations of all time, Sinners showcases exactly why writer-director Ryan Coogler is a generational talent.Watch on AmazonDie HardIs it a Christmas movie or just a movie set at Christmas? That argument has haunted Die Hard pretty much since its release, but ask yourself this: Have the holidays really begun until Hans Gruber has fallen off Nakatomi Plaza? Debate in the comments, but this action classic remains endlessly entertaining no matter when you watch it. Itโs easy to see why Bruce Willisโ turn as reluctant but quippy hero John McClane became his cinematic breakthrough role, single-handedly liberating an entire skyscraper from Alan Rickmanโs ruthless terrorist Gruber, but thereโs plenty of heart alongside the thrilling set pieces and incredible stunt work. Wherever you stand on the genre question, Die Hard continues to impress, decades on.Watch on AmazonWickedWith Wicked: For Good in cinemas, it's the perfect time to revisit the first act of the secret history of the witches of Oz. The filmโbased on the stage musical, in turn based on Gregory Maguire's novelโfollows green-skinned outsider Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and perfectly popular pink princess Glinda (Ariana Grande) during their college years, long before society forces them into the roles of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good during the events of The Wizard of Oz. It might appear frivolous and fluffy, but it's also a powerful exploration of how society can be warped by propaganda and authoritarianismโit just happens to be backed up by an absolute belter of a soundtrack.Watch on AmazonMerry Little BatmanJingle bells, Batman smells, Robin โฆ takes over protecting Gotham City solo on a cold Christmas Eve, when the Caped Crusader is away on Justice League business. Focusing on the Damian Wayne incarnation of Robinโhere taking on the mantle of โLittle BatmanโโMerry Little Batman finds Damian taking on the likes of the Penguin, Bane, and Mr. Freeze, desperate to prove he's ready to join the family business permanently by saving Christmas from the Joker's evil plans. Proof Batman stories don't always have to be grim sojourns into Bruce Wayne's tortured psyche, this festive animated treat is a delight, crammed with loving details for fans of the comics while serving as a fantastic entry point for newcomers. Art director Guillaume Fesquet's unique approach, based on the style of Ronald Searle, offers one of the most distinctive takes on the Dynamic Duo in their eight decades of existence, too.Watch on AmazonNosferatuMore than a century after F. W. Murnau brought vampires to the silent screen with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrorsโliberally and infamously โinspiredโ by Bram Stokerโs DraculaโRobert Eggers reimagines cinemaโs first blood-sucker. The story will be familiar to anyone acquainted with Murnauโs or Stokerโs works: Ambitious young estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to Transylvania to finalize a property deal with the enigmatic Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgรฅrd), who becomes obsessed with Hutterโs new bride, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). But Eggers presents the trail of blood, plague, and terror that follows in a morbidly fascinating new light. Every frame is gorgeously shot, and Skarsgรฅrd brings the rapacious Orlok to demonic un-life with an utterly heart-stopping performance.Watch on AmazonKnives OutThe debut outing of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) finds the master detective investigating the suspicious death of famed crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). It's a case complicated by the deceasedโs expansive, dysfunctional family, all of whom appear to have a motive for killing their supposedly beloved patriarch. Boasting a murderers' row of acting talent, including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Ana de Armas as Thrombeyโs attentive nurse Martaโdirector Rian Johnsonโs Knives Out remains a masterful modern updating of the classic whodunit, packed full of meta twists that almost single-handedly reenergized the genre.Watch on AmazonAirSure, nowadays Michael Jordan is a bona fide sports god, and Nike Air Jordans are still arguably the cool sneakerโbut that wasnโt the case back in 1984. Jordan was a rookie, and Nike was about to close down its basketball shoe division. Enter Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a talent scout for the footwear maker whoโs spotted a rising star in North Carolina who could turn everything aroundโhe just needs to convince everyone else that Jordan is worth betting the company on. We all know how that panned out, so thankfully Air is more than a two-hour advert for gym shoes. Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and director Ben Affleck all deliver strong performancesโonly to be utterly eclipsed by Viola Davis in a magnetic and powerful, if somewhat under-utilized, turn as matriarch Deloris Jordanโwhile Alex Converyโs script keeps the drama on the people and personalities involved, rather than the boardroom. In an age of franchises and endless blockbusters, Air is the sort of character-focused film that rarely gets made anymore, and is all the more enjoyable for it.Watch on AmazonHeads of StateGrumpy British prime minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) and action-movie star turned US President Will Derringer (John Cena) can't stand each otherโso teaming up to survive after Air Force One is shot down over the Belarusian wilderness is going to put a real strain on the Special Relationship. Luckily for viewers, though, it also makes for one of the most hilarious and brilliantly choreographed action comedies in years. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is astounding as hard-nosed senior MI6 agent Noel Bisset, out to protect the combative world leaders from each other as much as a mounting terrorist threat, but it's the spiky chemistry between the leads that really carries the film. Cena is so perfectly obnoxious throughout that you can't help but feel Elba might actually hate him. A throwback of an action flick in the best way.Watch on AmazonDeep CoverWhen London police detective Billings (Sean Bean) hits a brick wall infiltrating criminal organizations, he turns to the only people he can trust: struggling improv actors. This ludicrous concept is played for maximum laughs by Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, a comedian desperate for her big break, and Orlando Bloom as the intractably method-acting Marlon. But it's Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed who steals every scene as meek and awkward Hughโan IT nerd who can't act but โyes, ands โฆ โ every increasingly farcical scenario the trio find themselves in. A bizarre blend of slapstick and Guy Ritchie-esque grit, Deep Cover fully commits.Watch on AmazonThe Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th DimensionOne of the absolute wildest films you've probably never seen, 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai is โฆ almost impossible to describe. Centered on Peter Weller's Dr. Buckaroo Banzaiโa super-genius physicist, skilled neurosurgeon, high-flying test pilot, and beloved rock starโthe film follows his battle with the evil Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) over the advanced "oscillation overthruster" that allows travel between dimensions. It's so much stranger than that though. Expect alien invaders, identical twins of long-lost lovers, Orville Welles, and mid-1980s nuclear war paranoia, and that's just scratching the surface. The highest of high concept sci-fi flicks, it absolutely bombed on release (despite a phenomenal cast including Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd) but has since more than earned its standing as a cult favorite. Even Weller himself can't explain the film, but it is undeniably an experience.Watch on AmazonConclaveArriving on Prime Video with divine timing, this parable of the election of a new pope makes for powerful viewing. When the pope passes, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) starts the process of hosting the papal conclave to choose his successorโbut given that the supreme pontiff is one of the most powerful positions on Earth, the election makes for anything but dry Catholic procedure. As the choice narrows to four candidates, and no one is allowed in or out until a new pope is elected, tension mounts while power plays, blackmail, and long-buried secrets rock the Holy See. Based on the novel by Robert Harris and directed by Edward Berger (2022's All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave is a meticulously researched and exquisitely shot drama, driven by magnetic performances from a cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.Watch on AmazonEvangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a TimeFair warning: As the culmination of 15 years of work for creator and director Hideaki Anno, and serving as a follow-up to his classic 1995 TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is hardly what you'd call a jumping on point for the notoriously complex mecha franchise. (Thankfully, Prime Video has the whole movie saga available, starting with Evangelion 1.11.) Nevertheless, snagging the international rights for this long-awaited film from Japan's Studio Khara was a genuine coup for Amazon. Thrice Upon a Time brings to a close the decades-long tale of traumatized teenage robot pilots forced to fight biblically accurate angelsโand worse, the twisted machinations of lead character Shinji's abusive father, Gendo. With bewilderingly beautiful animation, plenty of emotional clout, and an ending that surprised even longtime fans, this is a textbook example of how to send a series out with a bang.Watch on AmazonChallengersDirected by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), Challengers follows the complicated three-way relationship between tennis aces Tashi (Zendaya), Patrick (Josh O'Connor), and Art (Mike Faist). Told nonlinearly, it volleys between the trio's disaffected present and their more optimistic, exciting past. It's an energetic and inventively shot sports movie, but the real match tension is in how the promise of Grand Slam glory (and no shortage of raging hormonesโit is a Guadagnino film, after all) in the trio's youth lead to choices that ricochet into the present. Tashi has been forced to abandon the court after a horrific injury, her now-husband Art is stuck in a competitive rut, and Patrick hustles low-stakes games to get byโbut none of them have really moved on.Watch on AmazonMy Old AssThe unstoppable rise of Aubrey Plaza continues in this smart, modern take on the coming-of-age dramedy. Written and directed by The Falloutโs Megan Park, My Old Ass follows 18-year old Elliott (Maisy Stella) who, on the cusp of college and major life changes, celebrates her birthday by taking mushrooms with her friends. Mid-trip, she meets โฆ Elliott, age 39 (Plaza). Itโs when sheโs sobered up that things get really trippy, though. Elliott starts receiving text messages from the futureโwarning her to avoid a boy named Chad. Equal parts hopeful and melancholic, and with powerful performances from both actors playing an Elliott, this film beautifully captures the messy, joyful potential of youth and the nagging, wistful โwhat ifs?โ that come with age. A delight however old you are.Watch on AmazonSaltburnOxford student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is having trouble fitting in at the prestigious British universityโuntil he befriends the popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Handsome, rich, and born to the landed gentry, Felix brings the awkward, socially invisible Oliver into his circle, eventually inviting him to spend summer at the family estate, Saltburn. But as Oliver works his way into the family's graces, his obsession with Felix takes increasingly dark and deranged turns. Oscillating between black comedy and psychological thriller, writer and director Emerald Fennel (Promising Young Woman) frames the film in 4:3 aspect ratio for a tighter, almost voyeuristic viewing experience that makes its frequently unsettling moments even more uncomfortable. Having attracted plenty of debate since its 2023 releaseโnot least for how it questionably navigates its themes of class and social inclusionโSaltburn was one of the year's most divisive films, but one that demands your attention.Watch on AmazonThe BurialCourtroom dramas are rarely laugh riots, but this tale of funeral home director Jeremiah O'Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) and his flashy lawyer Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) taking on a major player in America's "death care" system brings a dark sense of humor to already grim proceedings. This is no comedy though. Based on true events, director Maggie Betts' (The Novitiate) latest drama retells a real-life legal case that exposed massive inequality in funereal care and the way Black communities were being regularly overcharged. Foxx and Jones are in top form throughout, but it's Jurnee Smollett as Mame Downes, Gary's rival attorney who threatens to outpace him at every turn, whose performance threatens to steal the whole movie. For a film about death, The Burial proves warmly life-affirming.Watch on AmazonA Million Miles AwayCharting the life of Josรฉ Hernรกndez, this biopicโbased on Hernรกndez's own bookโmixes the aspirational with the inspirational as it follows its central figure's rise from, in his own words, migrant farm worker to the first Mexican-American astronaut. Michael Peรฑa is in fine form as Hernรกndez, painting a picture of a man almost myopically driven to reach space, no matter the cost, while Rosa Salazar impresses as his wife Adela, refusing to fade into the background even as she puts her own dreams on pause for Josรฉ to chase the stars. In lesser hands, this could all be cloyingโa twee tale of hard work and achieving the American Dream, with a dash of NASA promo material on the side, but director Alejandra Mรกrquez Abella has her lens as focused on the small beauties of life here on Earth as the splendor and sheer potential of space. A rare delight.Watch on AmazonShin Masked RiderIf youโre sick of cookie-cutter Hollywood superhero movies, then this ground-up reboot of one of Japanโs most beloved heroes deserves your attention. Helmed by Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultramanโโshinโ meaning โnewโ or โtrueโ in Japanese), this revamps the 1971 TV series Kamen Rider. Like that show, it follows motorcyclist Takeshi Hongo (Sosuke Ikematsu). Kidnapped by the terrorist organization S.H.O.C.K.E.R. and forcibly converted into a powerful cyborg, Hongo escapes before being reprogrammed as an agent of the group, instead using his newfound powers to take down its forces. However, unlike the original, Annoโs approach taps into the body horror of the core concept, while also challenging his charactersโand audienceโto hang onto their intrinsic humanity in the face of a world trying to dehumanize them. Itโs more violent than youโd probably expect, often showing the grisly outcome of regular people getting punched by superpowered cyborgs and monsters, but never gratuitous. While those with some understanding of the source material will get more out of Shin Masked Rider, itโs an exciting outing for anyone looking for something a bit fresher from their hero movies.Watch on AmazonNannyAisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a rich couple in New York City, hoping to earn enough to bring her son and cousin to join her in America. However, her future is at the mercy of her employers, who seem content to leave Aisha to raise their daughter, Rose, while often withholding her pay. As the stress of the power imbalance weighs on her, Aisha begins having strange dreams of drowning, worsened by her fears of abandoning her own child. The feature debut of director Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny contrasts the horror of the immigrant experience in modern America with something darker, while swapping the expected tropes of hope and opportunity for a palpable sadness for culture and community left behind. Nanny takes a slow-burn, psychological approach to its scares, but Diop is phenomenal throughout, and the meticulous pacing and gorgeous cinematography means every frame lingers.Watch on AmazonComing 2 AmericaRelying on nostalgia to carry new entries in long-dormant series can be risky business, but Eddie Murphyโs return to the role of Princeโnow KingโAkeem of Zamunda more than three decades after 1988โs Coming to America shows how to do it right. Drawn back to the US in search of a son he never knew he had, Akeemโand the audienceโgets to reunite with familiar faces from the first film, before director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) reverses the formula and tests the American characters with a trip to Zamunda. With a sharper, smarter, and more globally aware script than the original, Coming 2 America defies the odds to be a comedy sequel that stands up to the reputation of its predecessor.Watch on AmazonThirteen LivesDirector Ron Howardโs latest gathers a top-notch castโincluding Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgertonโfor a dramatization of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, where a Thai junior soccer team and their assistant coach were trapped in the flooded cave system. As an international effort mounts to save the children, the challenges of navigating miles of underwater caverns become ever more dangerous, and Howard masterfully captures every perilously claustrophobic moment of it. A nail-bitingly tense movie with some ingeniously shot aquatic scenes, Thirteen Lives is a testament to one of the most difficult rescues ever performed.Watch on AmazonOne Night in Miami โฆBased on the play of same name, One Night in Miami follows four icons of culture, music, and sportsโMalcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Muhammad Aliโat the height of the Civil Rights Movement, a converging and pivotal point in their lives and careers. Meeting in a motel room in the wake of Aliโsโthen still Cassius Clayโheavyweight victory over Sonny Liston in 1964, the four men discuss their roles in the movement and society as a whole, all while the audience knows the weight of history is bearing down on them. The close confines of much of the film reflect its theatrical roots, but this feature directorial debut from Regina King perfectly portrays the larger-than-life personalities of its cast. Kingsley Ben-Adir is on fire as Malcolm X, with Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., and Eli Goreeโas Brown, Cooke, and Aliโall utterly magnetic.Watch on AmazonThe ReportProduced by Amazon, The Report is an engrossing depiction of the US Senate's investigation into the CIA's โenhanced interrogationโ programโhow it came to be, who knew about it, and how the CIA massaged the facts to support its efficacy. Adam Driver stars as Daniel Jones, the lead investigator who plowed an increasingly lonely path to the truth, battling against political resistance and CIA interference all the way. Driver is, as is his habit these days, superb, and the film's 82 percent โfreshโ rating on Rotten Tomatoes is well earned.Watch on AmazonSound of MetalPunk-rock drummer and recovering addict Ruben starts experiencing hearing loss, and it threatens to upend his entire life. Faced with an impossible choice between giving up his hearing or giving up his career, Ruben begins to spiral, until his girlfriend Lou checks him into a rehab center for the deaf, forcing him to confront his own behavior as much as the future he faces. Riz Ahmed is in spectacular form as the troubled Ruben, while Olivia Cookeโs turn as Lou, who suffers with her own demons, including self-harm, is riveting. Fittingly enough, Sound of Metal also features incredibly nuanced use of soundโand its absenceโas director Darius Marder crafts one of the finest dramas in recent years.Watch on Amazon The 24 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now In Recent years, Netflix and Apple TV+ have been duking it out to have the most prestigious film offerings, but some of the best movies are on Amazon Prime Video. The streamer was one of the first to go around picking up film festival darlings and other lovable favorites, and those movies are all still there in the library, so if they flew under your radar the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up. Our picks for the best movies on Amazon Prime are below. All the films in our guide are included in your Prime subscriptionโno renting here. Once youโve watched your fill, check out our lists for the best shows on Netflix and best movies on Disney+ if youโre looking for something else to watch. We also have a guide to the best shows on Amazon, if thatโs what youโre in the mood for. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Sinners When twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan) return to Mississippi after years in Chicago, planning to open a new juke joint, theyโre prepared to navigate the creeping, mundane evils of the Jim Crow South. Theyโre less prepared for Remmick (Jack OโConnell), a wandering vampire, who plans to turn the brothersโ opening night into a bloodbath. Sinners is far more than a horror movie, though. Its exploration of the period, communities, and prejudices of the era gives it a richness and resonance that transcends genre. Exquisitely shot, and already a record-holder for the most Oscar nominations of all time, Sinners showcases exactly why writer-director Ryan Coogler is a generational talent. Die Hard Is it a Christmas movie or just a movie set at Christmas? That argument has haunted Die Hard pretty much since its release, but ask yourself this: Have the holidays really begun until Hans Gruber has fallen off Nakatomi Plaza? Debate in the comments, but this action classic remains endlessly entertaining no matter when you watch it. Itโs easy to see why Bruce Willisโ turn as reluctant but quippy hero John McClane became his cinematic breakthrough role, single-handedly liberating an entire skyscraper from Alan Rickmanโs ruthless terrorist Gruber, but thereโs plenty of heart alongside the thrilling set pieces and incredible stunt work. Wherever you stand on the genre question, Die Hard continues to impress, decades on. Wicked With Wicked: For Good in cinemas, it's the perfect time to revisit the first act of the secret history of the witches of Oz. The filmโbased on the stage musical, in turn based on Gregory Maguire's novelโfollows green-skinned outsider Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and perfectly popular pink princess Glinda (Ariana Grande) during their college years, long before society forces them into the roles of the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good during the events of The Wizard of Oz. It might appear frivolous and fluffy, but it's also a powerful exploration of how society can be warped by propaganda and authoritarianismโit just happens to be backed up by an absolute belter of a soundtrack. Merry Little Batman Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin โฆ takes over protecting Gotham City solo on a cold Christmas Eve, when the Caped Crusader is away on Justice League business. Focusing on the Damian Wayne incarnation of Robinโhere taking on the mantle of โLittle BatmanโโMerry Little Batman finds Damian taking on the likes of the Penguin, Bane, and Mr. Freeze, desperate to prove he's ready to join the family business permanently by saving Christmas from the Joker's evil plans. Proof Batman stories don't always have to be grim sojourns into Bruce Wayne's tortured psyche, this festive animated treat is a delight, crammed with loving details for fans of the comics while serving as a fantastic entry point for newcomers. Art director Guillaume Fesquet's unique approach, based on the style of Ronald Searle, offers one of the most distinctive takes on the Dynamic Duo in their eight decades of existence, too. Nosferatu More than a century after F. W. Murnau brought vampires to the silent screen with Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrorsโliberally and infamously โinspiredโ by Bram Stokerโs DraculaโRobert Eggers reimagines cinemaโs first blood-sucker. The story will be familiar to anyone acquainted with Murnauโs or Stokerโs works: Ambitious young estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) is sent to Transylvania to finalize a property deal with the enigmatic Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgรฅrd), who becomes obsessed with Hutterโs new bride, Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). But Eggers presents the trail of blood, plague, and terror that follows in a morbidly fascinating new light. Every frame is gorgeously shot, and Skarsgรฅrd brings the rapacious Orlok to demonic un-life with an utterly heart-stopping performance. Knives Out The debut outing of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) finds the master detective investigating the suspicious death of famed crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). It's a case complicated by the deceasedโs expansive, dysfunctional family, all of whom appear to have a motive for killing their supposedly beloved patriarch. Boasting a murderers' row of acting talent, including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Ana de Armas as Thrombeyโs attentive nurse Martaโdirector Rian Johnsonโs Knives Out remains a masterful modern updating of the classic whodunit, packed full of meta twists that almost single-handedly reenergized the genre. Air Sure, nowadays Michael Jordan is a bona fide sports god, and Nike Air Jordans are still arguably the cool sneakerโbut that wasnโt the case back in 1984. Jordan was a rookie, and Nike was about to close down its basketball shoe division. Enter Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a talent scout for the footwear maker whoโs spotted a rising star in North Carolina who could turn everything aroundโhe just needs to convince everyone else that Jordan is worth betting the company on. We all know how that panned out, so thankfully Air is more than a two-hour advert for gym shoes. Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and director Ben Affleck all deliver strong performancesโonly to be utterly eclipsed by Viola Davis in a magnetic and powerful, if somewhat under-utilized, turn as matriarch Deloris Jordanโwhile Alex Converyโs script keeps the drama on the people and personalities involved, rather than the boardroom. In an age of franchises and endless blockbusters, Air is the sort of character-focused film that rarely gets made anymore, and is all the more enjoyable for it. Heads of State Grumpy British prime minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) and action-movie star turned US President Will Derringer (John Cena) can't stand each otherโso teaming up to survive after Air Force One is shot down over the Belarusian wilderness is going to put a real strain on the Special Relationship. Luckily for viewers, though, it also makes for one of the most hilarious and brilliantly choreographed action comedies in years. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is astounding as hard-nosed senior MI6 agent Noel Bisset, out to protect the combative world leaders from each other as much as a mounting terrorist threat, but it's the spiky chemistry between the leads that really carries the film. Cena is so perfectly obnoxious throughout that you can't help but feel Elba might actually hate him. A throwback of an action flick in the best way. Deep Cover When London police detective Billings (Sean Bean) hits a brick wall infiltrating criminal organizations, he turns to the only people he can trust: struggling improv actors. This ludicrous concept is played for maximum laughs by Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, a comedian desperate for her big break, and Orlando Bloom as the intractably method-acting Marlon. But it's Ted Lasso's Nick Mohammed who steals every scene as meek and awkward Hughโan IT nerd who can't act but โyes, ands โฆ โ every increasingly farcical scenario the trio find themselves in. A bizarre blend of slapstick and Guy Ritchie-esque grit, Deep Cover fully commits. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension One of the absolute wildest films you've probably never seen, 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai is โฆ almost impossible to describe. Centered on Peter Weller's Dr. Buckaroo Banzaiโa super-genius physicist, skilled neurosurgeon, high-flying test pilot, and beloved rock starโthe film follows his battle with the evil Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) over the advanced "oscillation overthruster" that allows travel between dimensions. It's so much stranger than that though. Expect alien invaders, identical twins of long-lost lovers, Orville Welles, and mid-1980s nuclear war paranoia, and that's just scratching the surface. The highest of high concept sci-fi flicks, it absolutely bombed on release (despite a phenomenal cast including Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd) but has since more than earned its standing as a cult favorite. Even Weller himself can't explain the film, but it is undeniably an experience. Conclave Arriving on Prime Video with divine timing, this parable of the election of a new pope makes for powerful viewing. When the pope passes, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) starts the process of hosting the papal conclave to choose his successorโbut given that the supreme pontiff is one of the most powerful positions on Earth, the election makes for anything but dry Catholic procedure. As the choice narrows to four candidates, and no one is allowed in or out until a new pope is elected, tension mounts while power plays, blackmail, and long-buried secrets rock the Holy See. Based on the novel by Robert Harris and directed by Edward Berger (2022's All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave is a meticulously researched and exquisitely shot drama, driven by magnetic performances from a cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time Fair warning: As the culmination of 15 years of work for creator and director Hideaki Anno, and serving as a follow-up to his classic 1995 TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is hardly what you'd call a jumping on point for the notoriously complex mecha franchise. (Thankfully, Prime Video has the whole movie saga available, starting with Evangelion 1.11.) Nevertheless, snagging the international rights for this long-awaited film from Japan's Studio Khara was a genuine coup for Amazon. Thrice Upon a Time brings to a close the decades-long tale of traumatized teenage robot pilots forced to fight biblically accurate angelsโand worse, the twisted machinations of lead character Shinji's abusive father, Gendo. With bewilderingly beautiful animation, plenty of emotional clout, and an ending that surprised even longtime fans, this is a textbook example of how to send a series out with a bang. Challengers Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), Challengers follows the complicated three-way relationship between tennis aces Tashi (Zendaya), Patrick (Josh O'Connor), and Art (Mike Faist). Told nonlinearly, it volleys between the trio's disaffected present and their more optimistic, exciting past. It's an energetic and inventively shot sports movie, but the real match tension is in how the promise of Grand Slam glory (and no shortage of raging hormonesโit is a Guadagnino film, after all) in the trio's youth lead to choices that ricochet into the present. Tashi has been forced to abandon the court after a horrific injury, her now-husband Art is stuck in a competitive rut, and Patrick hustles low-stakes games to get byโbut none of them have really moved on. My Old Ass The unstoppable rise of Aubrey Plaza continues in this smart, modern take on the coming-of-age dramedy. Written and directed by The Falloutโs Megan Park, My Old Ass follows 18-year old Elliott (Maisy Stella) who, on the cusp of college and major life changes, celebrates her birthday by taking mushrooms with her friends. Mid-trip, she meets โฆ Elliott, age 39 (Plaza). Itโs when sheโs sobered up that things get really trippy, though. Elliott starts receiving text messages from the futureโwarning her to avoid a boy named Chad. Equal parts hopeful and melancholic, and with powerful performances from both actors playing an Elliott, this film beautifully captures the messy, joyful potential of youth and the nagging, wistful โwhat ifs?โ that come with age. A delight however old you are. Saltburn Oxford student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is having trouble fitting in at the prestigious British universityโuntil he befriends the popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Handsome, rich, and born to the landed gentry, Felix brings the awkward, socially invisible Oliver into his circle, eventually inviting him to spend summer at the family estate, Saltburn. But as Oliver works his way into the family's graces, his obsession with Felix takes increasingly dark and deranged turns. Oscillating between black comedy and psychological thriller, writer and director Emerald Fennel (Promising Young Woman) frames the film in 4:3 aspect ratio for a tighter, almost voyeuristic viewing experience that makes its frequently unsettling moments even more uncomfortable. Having attracted plenty of debate since its 2023 releaseโnot least for how it questionably navigates its themes of class and social inclusionโSaltburn was one of the year's most divisive films, but one that demands your attention. The Burial Courtroom dramas are rarely laugh riots, but this tale of funeral home director Jeremiah O'Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) and his flashy lawyer Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) taking on a major player in America's "death care" system brings a dark sense of humor to already grim proceedings. This is no comedy though. Based on true events, director Maggie Betts' (The Novitiate) latest drama retells a real-life legal case that exposed massive inequality in funereal care and the way Black communities were being regularly overcharged. Foxx and Jones are in top form throughout, but it's Jurnee Smollett as Mame Downes, Gary's rival attorney who threatens to outpace him at every turn, whose performance threatens to steal the whole movie. For a film about death, The Burial proves warmly life-affirming. A Million Miles Away Charting the life of Josรฉ Hernรกndez, this biopicโbased on Hernรกndez's own bookโmixes the aspirational with the inspirational as it follows its central figure's rise from, in his own words, migrant farm worker to the first Mexican-American astronaut. Michael Peรฑa is in fine form as Hernรกndez, painting a picture of a man almost myopically driven to reach space, no matter the cost, while Rosa Salazar impresses as his wife Adela, refusing to fade into the background even as she puts her own dreams on pause for Josรฉ to chase the stars. In lesser hands, this could all be cloyingโa twee tale of hard work and achieving the American Dream, with a dash of NASA promo material on the side, but director Alejandra Mรกrquez Abella has her lens as focused on the small beauties of life here on Earth as the splendor and sheer potential of space. A rare delight. Shin Masked Rider If youโre sick of cookie-cutter Hollywood superhero movies, then this ground-up reboot of one of Japanโs most beloved heroes deserves your attention. Helmed by Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultramanโโshinโ meaning โnewโ or โtrueโ in Japanese), this revamps the 1971 TV series Kamen Rider. Like that show, it follows motorcyclist Takeshi Hongo (Sosuke Ikematsu). Kidnapped by the terrorist organization S.H.O.C.K.E.R. and forcibly converted into a powerful cyborg, Hongo escapes before being reprogrammed as an agent of the group, instead using his newfound powers to take down its forces. However, unlike the original, Annoโs approach taps into the body horror of the core concept, while also challenging his charactersโand audienceโto hang onto their intrinsic humanity in the face of a world trying to dehumanize them. Itโs more violent than youโd probably expect, often showing the grisly outcome of regular people getting punched by superpowered cyborgs and monsters, but never gratuitous. While those with some understanding of the source material will get more out of Shin Masked Rider, itโs an exciting outing for anyone looking for something a bit fresher from their hero movies. Nanny Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a rich couple in New York City, hoping to earn enough to bring her son and cousin to join her in America. However, her future is at the mercy of her employers, who seem content to leave Aisha to raise their daughter, Rose, while often withholding her pay. As the stress of the power imbalance weighs on her, Aisha begins having strange dreams of drowning, worsened by her fears of abandoning her own child. The feature debut of director Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny contrasts the horror of the immigrant experience in modern America with something darker, while swapping the expected tropes of hope and opportunity for a palpable sadness for culture and community left behind. Nanny takes a slow-burn, psychological approach to its scares, but Diop is phenomenal throughout, and the meticulous pacing and gorgeous cinematography means every frame lingers. Coming 2 America Relying on nostalgia to carry new entries in long-dormant series can be risky business, but Eddie Murphyโs return to the role of Princeโnow KingโAkeem of Zamunda more than three decades after 1988โs Coming to America shows how to do it right. Drawn back to the US in search of a son he never knew he had, Akeemโand the audienceโgets to reunite with familiar faces from the first film, before director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) reverses the formula and tests the American characters with a trip to Zamunda. With a sharper, smarter, and more globally aware script than the original, Coming 2 America defies the odds to be a comedy sequel that stands up to the reputation of its predecessor. Thirteen Lives Director Ron Howardโs latest gathers a top-notch castโincluding Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgertonโfor a dramatization of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, where a Thai junior soccer team and their assistant coach were trapped in the flooded cave system. As an international effort mounts to save the children, the challenges of navigating miles of underwater caverns become ever more dangerous, and Howard masterfully captures every perilously claustrophobic moment of it. A nail-bitingly tense movie with some ingeniously shot aquatic scenes, Thirteen Lives is a testament to one of the most difficult rescues ever performed. One Night in Miami โฆ Based on the play of same name, One Night in Miami follows four icons of culture, music, and sportsโMalcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Muhammad Aliโat the height of the Civil Rights Movement, a converging and pivotal point in their lives and careers. Meeting in a motel room in the wake of Aliโsโthen still Cassius Clayโheavyweight victory over Sonny Liston in 1964, the four men discuss their roles in the movement and society as a whole, all while the audience knows the weight of history is bearing down on them. The close confines of much of the film reflect its theatrical roots, but this feature directorial debut from Regina King perfectly portrays the larger-than-life personalities of its cast. Kingsley Ben-Adir is on fire as Malcolm X, with Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., and Eli Goreeโas Brown, Cooke, and Aliโall utterly magnetic. The Report Produced by Amazon, The Report is an engrossing depiction of the US Senate's investigation into the CIA's โenhanced interrogationโ programโhow it came to be, who knew about it, and how the CIA massaged the facts to support its efficacy. Adam Driver stars as Daniel Jones, the lead investigator who plowed an increasingly lonely path to the truth, battling against political resistance and CIA interference all the way. Driver is, as is his habit these days, superb, and the film's 82 percent โfreshโ rating on Rotten Tomatoes is well earned. Sound of Metal Punk-rock drummer and recovering addict Ruben starts experiencing hearing loss, and it threatens to upend his entire life. Faced with an impossible choice between giving up his hearing or giving up his career, Ruben begins to spiral, until his girlfriend Lou checks him into a rehab center for the deaf, forcing him to confront his own behavior as much as the future he faces. Riz Ahmed is in spectacular form as the troubled Ruben, while Olivia Cookeโs turn as Lou, who suffers with her own demons, including self-harm, is riveting. Fittingly enough, Sound of Metal also features incredibly nuanced use of soundโand its absenceโas director Darius Marder crafts one of the finest dramas in recent years. 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 itโs a marathon Iranโs digital surveillance machine is almost complete Listen: Silicon Valley tech workers are trying to stop ICE ยฉ 2026 Condรฉ 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 Condรฉ Nast. Ad Choices |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#cite_ref-Copeland2006_53-1] | [TOKENS: 10628] |
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 Abลซ Rayhฤn al-Bฤซrลซnฤซ 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. Abลซ Rayhฤn al-Bฤซrลซnฤซ 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 1620โ1630, 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 Musรฉe d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchรขtel, Switzerland, and still operates. In 1831โ1835, 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 โ 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 โ 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 5โ10 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 AtanasoffโBerry 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 metalโoxideโsilicon 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 (metalโoxideโsemiconductor) 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 โ 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 followsโ 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 operationโalthough 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 โ128 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 machineโbased 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 โ 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 languagesโsome 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 ChurchโTuring 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 Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk (/หiหlษn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman and entrepreneur known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and xAI. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of February 2026,[update] Forbes estimates his net worth to be around US$852 billion. Born into a wealthy family in Pretoria, South Africa, Musk emigrated in 1989 to Canada; he has Canadian citizenship since his mother was born there. He received bachelor's degrees in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania before moving to California to pursue business ventures. In 1995, Musk co-founded the software company Zip2. Following its sale in 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online payment company that later merged to form PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002. Musk also became an American citizen in 2002. In 2002, Musk founded the space technology company SpaceX, becoming its CEO and chief engineer; the company has since led innovations in reusable rockets and commercial spaceflight. Musk joined the automaker Tesla as an early investor in 2004 and became its CEO and product architect in 2008; it has since become a leader in electric vehicles. In 2015, he co-founded OpenAI to advance artificial intelligence (AI) research, but later left; growing discontent with the organization's direction and their leadership in the AI boom in the 2020s led him to establish xAI, which became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026. In 2022, he acquired the social network Twitter, implementing significant changes, and rebranding it as X in 2023. His other businesses include the neurotechnology company Neuralink, which he co-founded in 2016, and the tunneling company the Boring Company, which he founded in 2017. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Musk was the largest donor in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where he supported Donald Trump. After Trump was inaugurated as president in early 2025, Musk served as Senior Advisor to the President and as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After a public feud with Trump, Musk left the Trump administration and returned to managing his companies. Musk is a supporter of global far-right figures, causes, and political parties. His political activities, views, and statements have made him a polarizing figure. Musk has been criticized for COVID-19 misinformation, promoting conspiracy theories, and affirming antisemitic, racist, and transphobic comments. His acquisition of Twitter was controversial due to a subsequent increase in hate speech and the spread of misinformation on the service, following his pledge to decrease censorship. His role in the second Trump administration attracted public backlash, particularly in response to DOGE. The emails he sent to Jeffrey Epstein are included in the Epstein files, which were published between 2025โ26 and became a topic of worldwide debate. Early life Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital. He is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry. His mother, Maye (nรฉe Haldeman), is a model and dietitian born in Saskatchewan, Canada, and raised in South Africa. Musk therefore holds both South African and Canadian citizenship from birth. His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, emerald dealer, and property developer, who partly owned a rental lodge at Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. His maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman, who died in a plane crash when Elon was a toddler, was an American-born Canadian chiropractor, aviator and political activist in the technocracy movement who moved to South Africa in 1950. Elon has a younger brother, Kimbal, a younger sister, Tosca, and four paternal half-siblings. Musk was baptized as a child in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. Despite both Elon and Errol previously stating that Errol was a part owner of a Zambian emerald mine, in 2023, Errol recounted that the deal he made was to receive "a portion of the emeralds produced at three small mines". Errol was elected to the Pretoria City Council as a representative of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party and has said that his children shared their father's dislike of apartheid. After his parents divorced in 1979, Elon, aged around 9, chose to live with his father because Errol Musk had an Encyclopรฆdia Britannica and a computer. Elon later regretted his decision and became estranged from his father. Elon has recounted trips to a wilderness school that he described as a "paramilitary Lord of the Flies" where "bullying was a virtue" and children were encouraged to fight over rations. In one incident, after an altercation with a fellow pupil, Elon was thrown down concrete steps and beaten severely, leading to him being hospitalized for his injuries. Elon described his father berating him after he was discharged from the hospital. Errol denied berating Elon and claimed, "The [other] boy had just lost his father to suicide, and Elon had called him stupid. Elon had a tendency to call people stupid. How could I possibly blame that child?" Elon was an enthusiastic reader of books, and had attributed his success in part to having read The Lord of the Rings, the Foundation series, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At age ten, he developed an interest in computing and video games, teaching himself how to program from the VIC-20 user manual. At age twelve, Elon sold his BASIC-based game Blastar to PC and Office Technology magazine for approximately $500 (equivalent to $1,600 in 2025). Musk attended Waterkloof House Preparatory School, Bryanston High School, and then Pretoria Boys High School, where he graduated. Musk was a decent but unexceptional student, earning a 61/100 in Afrikaans and a B on his senior math certification. Musk applied for a Canadian passport through his Canadian-born mother to avoid South Africa's mandatory military service, which would have forced him to participate in the apartheid regime, as well as to ease his path to immigration to the United States. While waiting for his application to be processed, he attended the University of Pretoria for five months. Musk arrived in Canada in June 1989, connected with a second cousin in Saskatchewan, and worked odd jobs, including at a farm and a lumber mill. In 1990, he entered Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Two years later, he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied until 1995. Although Musk has said that he earned his degrees in 1995, the University of Pennsylvania did not award them until 1997 โ a Bachelor of Arts in physics and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the university's Wharton School. He reportedly hosted large, ticketed house parties to help pay for tuition, and wrote a business plan for an electronic book-scanning service similar to Google Books. In 1994, Musk held two internships in Silicon Valley: one at energy storage startup Pinnacle Research Institute, which investigated electrolytic supercapacitors for energy storage, and another at Palo Altoโbased startup Rocket Science Games. In 1995, he was accepted to a graduate program in materials science at Stanford University, but did not enroll. Musk decided to join the Internet boom of the 1990s, applying for a job at Netscape, to which he reportedly never received a response. The Washington Post reported that Musk lacked legal authorization to remain and work in the United States after failing to enroll at Stanford. In response, Musk said he was allowed to work at that time and that his student visa transitioned to an H1-B. According to numerous former business associates and shareholders, Musk said he was on a student visa at the time. Business career In 1995, Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri founded the web software company Zip2 with funding from a group of angel investors. They housed the venture at a small rented office in Palo Alto. Replying to Rolling Stone, Musk denounced the notion that they started their company with funds borrowed from Errol Musk, but in a tweet, he recognized that his father contributed 10% of a later funding round. The company developed and marketed an Internet city guide for the newspaper publishing industry, with maps, directions, and yellow pages. According to Musk, "The website was up during the day and I was coding it at night, seven days a week, all the time." To impress investors, Musk built a large plastic structure around a standard computer to create the impression that Zip2 was powered by a small supercomputer. The Musk brothers obtained contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, and persuaded the board of directors to abandon plans for a merger with CitySearch. Musk's attempts to become CEO were thwarted by the board. Compaq acquired Zip2 for $307 million in cash in February 1999 (equivalent to $590,000,000 in 2025), and Musk received $22 million (equivalent to $43,000,000 in 2025) for his 7-percent share. In 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and e-mail payment company. The startup was one of the first federally insured online banks, and, in its initial months of operation, over 200,000 customers joined the service. The company's investors regarded Musk as inexperienced and replaced him with Intuit CEO Bill Harris by the end of the year. The following year, X.com merged with online bank Confinity to avoid competition. Founded by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, Confinity had its own money-transfer service, PayPal, which was more popular than X.com's service. Within the merged company, Musk returned as CEO. Musk's preference for Microsoft software over Unix created a rift in the company and caused Thiel to resign. Due to resulting technological issues and lack of a cohesive business model, the board ousted Musk and replaced him with Thiel in 2000.[b] Under Thiel, the company focused on the PayPal service and was renamed PayPal in 2001. In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) in stock, of which Muskโthe largest shareholder with 11.72% of sharesโreceived $175.8 million (equivalent to $320,000,000 in 2025). In 2017, Musk purchased the domain X.com from PayPal for an undisclosed amount, stating that it had sentimental value. In 2001, Musk became involved with the nonprofit Mars Society and discussed funding plans to place a growth-chamber for plants on Mars. Seeking a way to launch the greenhouse payloads into space, Musk made two unsuccessful trips to Moscow to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) from Russian companies NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras. Musk instead decided to start a company to build affordable rockets. With $100 million of his early fortune, (equivalent to $180,000,000 in 2025) Musk founded SpaceX in May 2002 and became the company's CEO and Chief Engineer. SpaceX attempted its first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket in 2006. Although the rocket failed to reach Earth orbit, it was awarded a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program contract from NASA, then led by Mike Griffin. After two more failed attempts that nearly caused Musk to go bankrupt, SpaceX succeeded in launching the Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. Later that year, SpaceX received a $1.6 billion NASA contract (equivalent to $2,400,000,000 in 2025) for Falcon 9-launched Dragon spacecraft flights to the International Space Station (ISS), replacing the Space Shuttle after its 2011 retirement. In 2012, the Dragon vehicle docked with the ISS, a first for a commercial spacecraft. Working towards its goal of reusable rockets, in 2015 SpaceX successfully landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 on a land platform. Later landings were achieved on autonomous spaceport drone ships, an ocean-based recovery platform. In 2018, SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy; the inaugural mission carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster as a dummy payload. Since 2019, SpaceX has been developing Starship, a reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle intended to replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. In 2020, SpaceX launched its first crewed flight, the Demo-2, becoming the first private company to place astronauts into orbit and dock a crewed spacecraft with the ISS. In 2024, NASA awarded SpaceX an $843 million (equivalent to $865,000,000 in 2025) contract to build a spacecraft that NASA will use to deorbit the ISS at the end of its lifespan. In 2015, SpaceX began development of the Starlink constellation of low Earth orbit satellites to provide satellite Internet access. After the launch of prototype satellites in 2018, the first large constellation was deployed in May 2019. As of May 2025[update], over 7,600 Starlink satellites are operational, comprising 65% of all operational Earth satellites. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in 2020 to be $10 billion (equivalent to $12,000,000,000 in 2025).[c] During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk provided free Starlink service to Ukraine, permitting Internet access and communication at a yearly cost to SpaceX of $400 million (equivalent to $440,000,000 in 2025). However, Musk refused to block Russian state media on Starlink. In 2023, Musk denied Ukraine's request to activate Starlink over Crimea to aid an attack against the Russian navy, citing fears of a nuclear response. Tesla, Inc., originally Tesla Motors, was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Both men played active roles in the company's early development prior to Musk's involvement. Musk led the Series A round of investment in February 2004; he invested $6.35 million (equivalent to $11,000,000 in 2025), became the majority shareholder, and joined Tesla's board of directors as chairman. Musk took an active role within the company and oversaw Roadster product design, but was not deeply involved in day-to-day business operations. Following a series of escalating conflicts in 2007 and the 2008 financial crisis, Eberhard was ousted from the firm.[page needed] Musk assumed leadership of the company as CEO and product architect in 2008. A 2009 lawsuit settlement with Eberhard designated Musk as a Tesla co-founder, along with Tarpenning and two others. Tesla began delivery of the Roadster, an electric sports car, in 2008. With sales of about 2,500 vehicles, it was the first mass production all-electric car to use lithium-ion battery cells. Under Musk, Tesla has since launched several well-selling electric vehicles, including the four-door sedan Model S (2012), the crossover Model X (2015), the mass-market sedan Model 3 (2017), the crossover Model Y (2020), and the pickup truck Cybertruck (2023). In May 2020, Musk resigned as chairman of the board as part of the settlement of a lawsuit from the SEC over him tweeting that funding had been "secured" for potentially taking Tesla private. The company has also constructed multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, called Gigafactories. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Tesla stock has risen significantly; it became the most valuable carmaker in summer 2020, and it entered the S&P 500 later that year. In October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion (equivalent to $1,200,000,000,000 in 2025), the sixth company in U.S. history to do so. Musk provided the initial concept and financial capital for SolarCity, which his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive founded in 2006. By 2013, SolarCity was the second largest provider of solar power systems in the United States. In 2014, Musk promoted the idea of SolarCity building an advanced production facility in Buffalo, New York, triple the size of the largest solar plant in the United States. Construction of the factory started in 2014 and was completed in 2017. It operated as a joint venture with Panasonic until early 2020. Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2 billion in 2016 (equivalent to $2,700,000,000 in 2025) and merged it with its battery unit to create Tesla Energy. The deal's announcement resulted in a more than 10% drop in Tesla's stock price; at the time, SolarCity was facing liquidity issues. Multiple shareholder groups filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla's directors, stating that the purchase of SolarCity was done solely to benefit Musk and came at the expense of Tesla and its shareholders. Tesla directors settled the lawsuit in January 2020, leaving Musk the sole remaining defendant. Two years later, the court ruled in Musk's favor. In 2016, Musk co-founded Neuralink, a neurotechnology startup, with an investment of $100 million. Neuralink aims to integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence (AI) by creating devices that are embedded in the brain. Such technology could enhance memory or allow the devices to communicate with software. The company also hopes to develop devices to treat neurological conditions like spinal cord injuries. In 2022, Neuralink announced that clinical trials would begin by the end of the year. In September 2023, the Food and Drug Administration approved Neuralink to initiate six-year human trials. Neuralink has conducted animal testing on macaques at the University of California, Davis. In 2021, the company released a video in which a macaque played the video game Pong via a Neuralink implant. The company's animal trialsโwhich have caused the deaths of some monkeysโhave led to claims of animal cruelty. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has alleged that Neuralink violated the Animal Welfare Act. Employees have complained that pressure from Musk to accelerate development has led to botched experiments and unnecessary animal deaths. In 2022, a federal probe was launched into possible animal welfare violations by Neuralink.[needs update] In 2017, Musk founded the Boring Company to construct tunnels; he also revealed plans for specialized, underground, high-occupancy vehicles that could travel up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) and thus circumvent above-ground traffic in major cities. Early in 2017, the company began discussions with regulatory bodies and initiated construction of a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 50-foot (15 m) long, and 15-foot (4.6 m) deep "test trench" on the premises of SpaceX's offices, as that required no permits. The Los Angeles tunnel, less than two miles (3.2 km) in length, debuted to journalists in 2018. It used Tesla Model Xs and was reported to be a rough ride while traveling at suboptimal speeds. Two tunnel projects announced in 2018, in Chicago and West Los Angeles, have been canceled. A tunnel beneath the Las Vegas Convention Center was completed in early 2021. Local officials have approved further expansions of the tunnel system. April 14, 2022 In early 2017, Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter and had questioned the platform's commitment to freedom of speech. By 2022, Musk had reached 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.[d] Musk later agreed to a deal that would appoint him to Twitter's board of directors and prohibit him from acquiring more than 14.9% of the company. Days later, Musk made a $43 billion offer to buy Twitter. By the end of April Musk had successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion. This included approximately $12.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in equity financing. Having backtracked on his initial decision, Musk bought the company on October 27, 2022. Immediately after the acquisition, Musk fired several top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal; Musk became the CEO instead. Under Elon Musk, Twitter instituted monthly subscriptions for a "blue check", and laid off a significant portion of the company's staff. Musk lessened content moderation and hate speech also increased on the platform after his takeover. In late 2022, Musk released internal documents relating to Twitter's moderation of Hunter Biden's laptop controversy in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Musk also promised to step down as CEO after a Twitter poll, and five months later, Musk stepped down as CEO and transitioned his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer (CTO). Despite Musk stepping down as CEO, X continues to struggle with challenges such as viral misinformation, hate speech, and antisemitism controversies. Musk has been accused of trying to silence some of his critics such as Twitch streamer Asmongold, who criticized him during one of his streams. Musk has been accused of removing their accounts' blue checkmarks, which hinders visibility and is considered a form of shadow banning, or suspending their accounts without justification. Other activities In August 2013, Musk announced plans for a version of a vactrain, and assigned engineers from SpaceX and Tesla to design a transport system between Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, at an estimated cost of $6 billion. Later that year, Musk unveiled the concept, dubbed the Hyperloop, intended to make travel cheaper than any other mode of transport for such long distances. In December 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, a not-for-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company aiming to develop artificial general intelligence, intended to be safe and beneficial to humanity. Musk pledged $1 billion of funding to the company, and initially gave $50 million. In 2018, Musk left the OpenAI board. Since 2018, OpenAI has made significant advances in machine learning. In July 2023, Musk launched the artificial intelligence company xAI, which aims to develop a generative AI program that competes with existing offerings like OpenAI's ChatGPT. Musk obtained funding from investors in SpaceX and Tesla, and xAI hired engineers from Google and OpenAI. December 16, 2022 Musk uses a private jet owned by Falcon Landing LLC, a SpaceX-linked company, and acquired a second jet in August 2020. His heavy use of the jets and the consequent fossil fuel usage have received criticism. Musk's flight usage is tracked on social media through ElonJet. In December 2022, Musk banned the ElonJet account on Twitter, and made temporary bans on the accounts of journalists that posted stories regarding the incident, including Donie O'Sullivan, Keith Olbermann, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept. In October 2025, Musk's company xAI launched Grokipedia, an AI-generated online encyclopedia that he promoted as an alternative to Wikipedia. Articles on Grokipedia are generated and reviewed by xAI's Grok chatbot. Media coverage and academic analysis described Grokipedia as frequently reusing Wikipedia content but framing contested political and social topics in line with Musk's own views and right-wing narratives. A study by Cornell University researchers and NBC News stated that Grokipedia cites sources that are blacklisted or considered "generally unreliable" on Wikipedia, for example, the conspiracy site Infowars and the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront. Wired, The Guardian and Time criticized Grokipedia for factual errors and for presenting Musk himself in unusually positive terms while downplaying controversies. Politics Musk is an outlier among business leaders who typically avoid partisan political advocacy. Musk was a registered independent voter when he lived in California. Historically, he has donated to both Democrats and Republicans, many of whom serve in states in which he has a vested interest. Since 2022, his political contributions have mostly supported Republicans, with his first vote for a Republican going to Mayra Flores in the 2022 Texas's 34th congressional district special election. In 2024, he started supporting international far-right political parties, activists, and causes, and has shared misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories. Since 2024, his views have been generally described as right-wing. Musk supported Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, Joe Biden in 2020, and Donald Trump in 2024. In the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Musk endorsed candidate Andrew Yang and expressed support for Yang's proposed universal basic income, and endorsed Kanye West's 2020 presidential campaign. In 2021, Musk publicly expressed opposition to the Build Back Better Act, a $3.5 trillion legislative package endorsed by Joe Biden that ultimately failed to pass due to unanimous opposition from congressional Republicans and several Democrats. In 2022, gave over $50 million to Citizens for Sanity, a conservative political action committee. In 2023, he supported Republican Ron DeSantis for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, giving $10 million to his campaign, and hosted DeSantis's campaign announcement on a Twitter Spaces event. From June 2023 to January 2024, Musk hosted a bipartisan set of X Spaces with Republican and Democratic candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, and Dean Phillips. In October 2025, former vice-president Kamala Harris commented that it was a mistake from the Democratic side to not invite Musk to a White House electric vehicle event organized in August 2021 and featuring executives from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, despite Tesla being "the major American manufacturer of extraordinary innovation in this space." Fortune remarked that this was a nod to United Auto Workers and organized labor. Harris said presidents should put aside political loyalties when it came to recognizing innovation, and guessed that the non-invitation impacted Musk's perspective. Fortune noted that, at the time, Musk said, "Yeah, seems odd that Tesla wasn't invited." A month later, he criticized Biden as "not the friendliest administration." Jacob Silverman, author of the book Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley, said that the tech industry represented by Musk, Thiel, Andreessen and other capitalists, actually flourished under Biden, but the tech leaders chose Trump for their common ground on cultural issues. By early 2024, Musk had become a vocal and financial supporter of Donald Trump. In July 2024, minutes after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Musk endorsed him for president saying; "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery." During the presidential campaign, Musk joined Trump on stage at a campaign rally, and during the campaign promoted conspiracy theories and falsehoods about Democrats, election fraud and immigration, in support of Trump. Musk was the largest individual donor of the 2024 election. In 2025, Musk contributed $19 million to the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, hoping to influence the state's future redistricting efforts and its regulations governing car manufacturers and dealers. In 2023, Musk said he shunned the World Economic Forum because it was boring. The organization commented that they had not invited him since 2015. He has participated in Dialog, dubbed "Tech Bilderberg" and organized by Peter Thiel and Auren Hoffman, though. Musk's international political actions and comments have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism, especially from the governments and leaders of France, Germany, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, particularly due to his position in the U.S. government as well as ownership of X. An NBC News analysis found he had boosted far-right political movements to cut immigration and curtail regulation of business in at least 18 countries on six continents since 2023. During his speech after the second inauguration of Donald Trump, Musk twice made a gesture interpreted by many as a Nazi or a fascist Roman salute.[e] He thumped his right hand over his heart, fingers spread wide, and then extended his right arm out, emphatically, at an upward angle, palm down and fingers together. He then repeated the gesture to the crowd behind him. As he finished the gestures, he said to the crowd, "My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured." It was widely condemned as an intentional Nazi salute in Germany, where making such gestures is illegal. The Anti-Defamation League said it was not a Nazi salute, but other Jewish organizations disagreed and condemned the salute. American public opinion was divided on partisan lines as to whether it was a fascist salute. Musk dismissed the accusations of Nazi sympathies, deriding them as "dirty tricks" and a "tired" attack. Neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups celebrated it as a Nazi salute. Multiple European political parties demanded that Musk be banned from entering their countries. The concept of DOGE emerged in a discussion between Musk and Donald Trump, and in August 2024, Trump committed to giving Musk an advisory role, with Musk accepting the offer. In November and December 2024, Musk suggested that the organization could help to cut the U.S. federal budget, consolidate the number of federal agencies, and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that its final stage would be "deleting itself". In January 2025, the organization was created by executive order, and Musk was designated a "special government employee". Musk led the organization and was a senior advisor to the president, although his official role is not clear. In sworn statement during a lawsuit, the director of the White House Office of Administration stated that Musk "is not an employee of the U.S. DOGE Service or U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization", "is not the U.S. DOGE Service administrator", and has "no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself". Trump said two days later that he had put Musk in charge of DOGE. A federal judge has ruled that Musk acted as the de facto leader of DOGE. Musk's role in the second Trump administration, particularly in response to DOGE, has attracted public backlash. He was criticized for his treatment of federal government employees, including his influence over the mass layoffs of the federal workforce. He has prioritized secrecy within the organization and has accused others of violating privacy laws. A Senate report alleged that Musk could avoid up to $2 billion in legal liability as a result of DOGE's actions. In May 2025, Bill Gates accused Musk of "killing the world's poorest children" through his cuts to USAID, which modeling by Boston University estimated had resulted in 300,000 deaths by this time, most of them of children. By November 2025, the estimated death toll had increased to 400,000 children and 200,000 adults. Musk announced on May 28, 2025, that he would depart from the Trump administration as planned when the special government employee's 130 day deadline expired, with a White House official confirming that Musk's offboarding from the Trump administration was already underway. His departure was officially confirmed during a joint Oval Office press conference with Trump on May 30, 2025. @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. June 5, 2025 After leaving office, Musk criticized the Trump administration's Big Beautiful Bill, calling it a "disgusting abomination" due to its provisions increasing the deficit. A feud began between Musk and Trump, with its most notable event being Musk alleging Trump had ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on X (formerly Twitter) on June 5, 2025. Trump responded on Truth Social stating that Musk went "CRAZY" after the "EV Mandate" was purportedly taken away and threatened to cut Musk's government contracts. Musk then called for a third Trump impeachment. The next day, Trump stated that he did not wish to reconcile with Musk, and added that Musk would face "very serious consequences" if he funds Democratic candidates. On June 11, Musk publicly apologized for the tweets against Trump, saying they "went too far". Views November 6, 2022 Rejecting the conservative label, Musk has described himself as a political moderate, even as his views have become more right-wing over time. His views have been characterized as libertarian and far-right, and after his involvement in European politics, they have received criticism from world leaders such as Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. Within the context of American politics, Musk supported Democratic candidates up until 2022, at which point he voted for a Republican for the first time. He has stated support for universal basic income, gun rights, freedom of speech, a tax on carbon emissions, and H-1B visas. Musk has expressed concern about issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change, and has been a critic of wealth tax, short-selling, and government subsidies. An immigrant himself, Musk has been accused of being anti-immigration, and regularly blames immigration policies for illegal immigration. He is also a pronatalist who believes population decline is the biggest threat to civilization, and identifies as a cultural Christian. Musk has long been an advocate for space colonization, especially the colonization of Mars. He has repeatedly pushed for humanity colonizing Mars, in order to become an interplanetary species and lower the risks of human extinction. Musk has promoted conspiracy theories and made controversial statements that have led to accusations of racism, sexism, antisemitism, transphobia, disseminating disinformation, and support of white pride. While describing himself as a "pro-Semite", his comments regarding George Soros and Jewish communities have been condemned by the Anti-Defamation League and the Biden White House. Musk was criticized during the COVID-19 pandemic for making unfounded epidemiological claims, defying COVID-19 lockdowns restrictions, and supporting the Canada convoy protest against vaccine mandates. He has amplified false claims of white genocide in South Africa. Musk has been critical of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza war, praised China's economic and climate goals, suggested that Taiwan and China should resolve cross-strait relations, and was described as having a close relationship with the Chinese government. In Europe, Musk expressed support for Ukraine in 2022 during the Russian invasion, recommended referendums and peace deals on the annexed Russia-occupied territories, and supported the far-right Alternative for Germany political party in 2024. Regarding British politics, Musk blamed the 2024 UK riots on mass migration and open borders, criticized Prime Minister Keir Starmer for what he described as a "two-tier" policing system, and was subsequently attacked as being responsible for spreading misinformation and amplifying the far-right. He has also voiced his support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson and pledged electoral support for Reform UK. In February 2026, Musk described Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sรกnchez as a "tyrant" following Sรกnchez's proposal to prohibit minors under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms. Legal affairs In 2018, Musk was sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a tweet stating that funding had been secured for potentially taking Tesla private.[f] The securities fraud lawsuit characterized the tweet as false, misleading, and damaging to investors, and sought to bar Musk from serving as CEO of publicly traded companies. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations. As a result, Musk and Tesla were fined $20 million each, and Musk was forced to step down for three years as Tesla chairman but was able to remain as CEO. Shareholders filed a lawsuit over the tweet, and in February 2023, a jury found Musk and Tesla not liable. Musk has stated in interviews that he does not regret posting the tweet that triggered the SEC investigation. In 2019, Musk stated in a tweet that Tesla would build half a million cars that year. The SEC reacted by asking a court to hold him in contempt for violating the terms of the 2018 settlement agreement. A joint agreement between Musk and the SEC eventually clarified the previous agreement details, including a list of topics about which Musk needed preclearance. In 2020, a judge blocked a lawsuit that claimed a tweet by Musk regarding Tesla stock price ("too high imo") violated the agreement. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released records showed that the SEC concluded Musk had subsequently violated the agreement twice by tweeting regarding "Tesla's solar roof production volumes and its stock price". In October 2023, the SEC sued Musk over his refusal to testify a third time in an investigation into whether he violated federal law by purchasing Twitter stock in 2022. In February 2024, Judge Laurel Beeler ruled that Musk must testify again. In January 2025, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk for securities violations related to his purchase of Twitter. In January 2024, Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled in a 2018 lawsuit that Musk's $55 billion pay package from Tesla be rescinded. McCormick called the compensation granted by the company's board "an unfathomable sum" that was unfair to shareholders. The Delaware Supreme Court overturned McCormick's decision in December 2025, restoring Musk's compensation package and awarding $1 in nominal damages. Personal life Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002. From the early 2000s until late 2020, Musk resided in California, where both Tesla and SpaceX were founded. He then relocated to Cameron County, Texas, saying that California had become "complacent" about its economic success. While hosting Saturday Night Live in 2021, Musk stated that he has Asperger syndrome (an outdated term for autism spectrum disorder). When asked about his experience growing up with Asperger's syndrome in a TED2022 conference in Vancouver, Musk stated that "the social cues were not intuitive ... I would just tend to take things very literally ... but then that turned out to be wrong โ [people were not] simply saying exactly what they mean, there's all sorts of other things that are meant, and [it] took me a while to figure that out." Musk suffers from back pain and has undergone several spine-related surgeries, including a disc replacement. In 2000, he contracted a severe case of malaria while on vacation in South Africa. Musk has stated he uses doctor-prescribed ketamine for occasional depression and that he doses "a small amount once every other week or something like that"; since January 2024, some media outlets have reported that he takes ketamine, marijuana, LSD, ecstasy, mushrooms, cocaine and other drugs. Musk at first refused to comment on his alleged drug use, before responding that he had not tested positive for drugs, and that if drugs somehow improved his productivity, "I would definitely take them!". The New York Times' investigations revealed Musk's overuse of ketamine and numerous other drugs, as well as strained family relationships and concerns from close associates who have become troubled by his public behavior as he became more involved in political activities and government work. According to The Washington Post, President Trump described Musk as "a big-time drug addict". Through his own label Emo G Records, Musk released a rap track, "RIP Harambe", on SoundCloud in March 2019. The following year, he released an EDM track, "Don't Doubt Ur Vibe", featuring his own lyrics and vocals. Musk plays video games, which he stated has a "'restoring effect' that helps his 'mental calibration'". Some games he plays include Quake, Diablo IV, Elden Ring, and Polytopia. Musk once claimed to be one of the world's top video game players but has since admitted to "account boosting", or cheating by hiring outside services to achieve top player rankings. Musk has justified the boosting by claiming that all top accounts do it so he has to as well to remain competitive. In 2024 and 2025, Musk criticized the video game Assassin's Creed Shadows and its creator Ubisoft for "woke" content. Musk posted to X that "DEI kills art" and specified the inclusion of the historical figure Yasuke in the Assassin's Creed game as offensive; he also called the game "terrible". Ubisoft responded by saying that Musk's comments were "just feeding hatred" and that they were focused on producing a game not pushing politics. Musk has fathered at least 14 children, one of whom died as an infant. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2025 that sources close to Musk suggest that the "true number of Musk's children is much higher than publicly known". He had six children with his first wife, Canadian author Justine Wilson, whom he met while attending Queen's University in Ontario, Canada; they married in 2000. In 2002, their first child Nevada Musk died of sudden infant death syndrome at the age of 10 weeks. After his death, the couple used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to continue their family; they had twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008 and have shared custody of their children. The elder twin he had with Wilson came out as a trans woman and, in 2022, officially changed her name to Vivian Jenna Wilson, adopting her mother's surname because she no longer wished to be associated with Musk. Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley in 2008. They married two years later at Dornoch Cathedral in Scotland. In 2012, the couple divorced, then remarried the following year. After briefly filing for divorce in 2014, Musk finalized a second divorce from Riley in 2016. Musk then dated the American actress Amber Heard for several months in 2017; he had reportedly been "pursuing" her since 2012. In 2018, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes confirmed they were dating. Grimes and Musk have three children, born in 2020, 2021, and 2022.[g] Musk and Grimes originally gave their eldest child the name "X ร A-12", which would have violated California regulations as it contained characters that are not in the modern English alphabet; the names registered on the birth certificate are "X" as a first name, "ร A-Xii" as a middle name, and "Musk" as a last name. They received criticism for choosing a name perceived to be impractical and difficult to pronounce; Musk has said the intended pronunciation is "X Ash A Twelve". Their second child was born via surrogacy. Despite the pregnancy, Musk confirmed reports that the couple were "semi-separated" in September 2021; in an interview with Time in December 2021, he said he was single. In October 2023, Grimes sued Musk over parental rights and custody of X ร A-Xii. Elon Musk has taken X ร A-Xii to multiple official events in Washington, D.C. during Trump's second term in office. Also in July 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, in 2021, leading to their divorce the following year. Musk denied the report. Musk also had a relationship with Australian actress Natasha Bassett, who has been described as "an occasional girlfriend". In October 2024, The New York Times reported Musk bought a Texas compound for his children and their mothers, though Musk denied having done so. Musk also has four children with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink: twins born via IVF in 2021, a child born in 2024 via surrogacy and a child born in 2025.[h] On February 14, 2025, Ashley St. Clair, an influencer and author, posted on X claiming to have given birth to Musk's son Romulus five months earlier, which media outlets reported as Musk's supposed thirteenth child.[i] On February 22, 2025, it was reported that St Clair had filed for sole custody of her five-month-old son and for Musk to be recognised as the child's father. On March 31, 2025, Musk wrote that, while he was unsure if he was the father of St. Clair's child, he had paid St. Clair $2.5 million and would continue paying her $500,000 per year.[j] Later reporting from the Wall Street Journal indicated that $1 million of these payments to St. Clair were structured as a loan. In 2014, Musk and Ghislaine Maxwell appeared together in a photograph taken at an Academy Awards after-party, which Musk later described as a "photobomb". The January 2026 Epstein files contain emails between Musk and Epstein from 2012 to 2013, after Epstein's first conviction. Emails released on January 30, 2026, indicated that Epstein invited Musk to visit his private island on multiple occasions. The correspondence showed that while Epstein repeatedly encouraged Musk to attend, Musk did not visit the island. In one instance, Musk discussed the possibility of attending a party with his then-wife Talulah Riley and asked which day would be the "wildest party"; according to the emails, the visit did not take place after Epstein later cancelled the plans.[k] On Christmas day in 2012, Musk emailed Epstein asking "Do you have any parties planned? Iโve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose. The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what Iโm looking for". Epstein replied that the "ratio on my island" might make Musk's wife uncomfortable to which Musk responded, "Ratio is not a problem for Talulah". On September 11, 2013, Epstein sent an email asking Musk if he had any plans for coming to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly where many "interesting people" would be coming to his house to which Musk responded that "Flying to NY to see UN diplomats do nothing would be an unwise use of time". Epstein responded by stating "Do you think i am retarded. Just kidding, there is no one over 25 and all very cute." Musk has denied any close relationship with Epstein and described him as a "creep" who attempted to ingratiate himself with influential people. When Musk was asked in 2019 if he introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg, Musk responded: "I donโt recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I donโt know the guy well enough to do so." The released emails nonetheless showed cordial exchanges on a range of topics, including Musk's inquiry about parties on the island. The correspondence also indicated that Musk suggested hosting Epstein at SpaceX, while Epstein separately discussed plans to tour SpaceX and bring "the girls", though there is no evidence that such a visit occurred. Musk has described the release of the files a "distraction", later accusing the second Trump administration of suppressing them to protect powerful individuals, including Trump himself.[l] Wealth Elon Musk is the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$690 billion as of January 2026, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $852 billion according to Forbes, primarily from his ownership stakes in SpaceX and Tesla. Having been first listed on the Forbes Billionaires List in 2012, around 75% of Musk's wealth was derived from Tesla stock in November 2020, although he describes himself as "cash poor". According to Forbes, he became the first person in the world to achieve a net worth of $300 billion in 2021; $400 billion in December 2024; $500 billion in October 2025; $600 billion in mid-December 2025; $700 billion later that month; and $800 billion in February 2026. In November 2025, a Tesla pay package worth potentially $1 trillion for Musk was approved, which he is to receive over 10 years if he meets specific goals. Public image Although his ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries starting in the 2000s, Musk only became a public figure in the early 2010s. He has been described as an eccentric who makes spontaneous and impactful decisions, while also often making controversial statements, contrary to other billionaires who prefer reclusiveness to protect their businesses. Musk's actions and his expressed views have made him a polarizing figure. Biographer Ashlee Vance described people's opinions of Musk as polarized due to his "part philosopher, part troll" persona on Twitter. He has drawn denouncement for using his platform to mock the self-selection of personal pronouns, while also receiving praise for bringing international attention to matters like British survivors of grooming gangs. Musk has been described as an American oligarch due to his extensive influence over public discourse, social media, industry, politics, and government policy. After Trump's re-election, Musk's influence and actions during the transition period and the second presidency of Donald Trump led some to call him "President Musk", the "actual president-elect", "shadow president" or "co-president". Awards for his contributions to the development of the Falcon rockets include the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Transportation Award in 2008, the Fรฉdรฉration Aรฉronautique Internationale Gold Space Medal in 2010, and the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal in 2012. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering and technology from Yale University and an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Honorary Membership. Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[m] In 2022, Musk was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Time has listed Musk as one of the most influential people in the world in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Musk was selected as Time's "Person of the Year" for 2021. Then Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote that, "Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too." Notes References Works cited Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAS_Viya] | [TOKENS: 481] |
Contents SAS Viya SAS Viya is an artificial intelligence, analytics and data management platform developed by SAS Institute. History SAS Viya was released in 2016. The software was containerized with the release of Viya 4 in 2020. Viya has become one of SAS' most widely used platforms during the AI boom, as artificial intelligence becomes more widely used in business and computing. Technical overview The platform is cloud-native, and is executed on SAS's Cloud Analytics Services (CAS) engine. It is compatible with open source software, allowing users to build models using open sources tool such as R, Python and Jupyter. It integrates with major large language models like GPT-4 and Gemini Pro. The platform uses econometrics to create predictive models for forecasting scenarios based on complex data. It also has features for detecting algorithmic bias, auditing decisions and monitoring models. It is implemented through a low-code, no-code platform. The software is available on Amazon AWS Marketplace, Google Cloud, Red Hat OpenShift, and on Microsoft Azure Marketplace under a pay-as-you-use model. Software SAS Viya has released software as a service (SaaS) modules for creating AI content. These include Viya Workbench, Viya App Factory, Viya Copilot, and SAS Data Maker. The company also develops industry specific models, used by companies including Georgia-Pacific. Applications The software is also widely used in business, especially in areas such as predictive modelling and fraud detection. SAS Viya is used in insurance for tasks such as actuarial analytics and modelling, as well as regulatory reporting. In 2023, the company introduced SAS Health, a common health data model built on the SAS Viya platform. AstraZeneca has partnered with SAS to use SAS Viya and SAS Life Science Analytics Framework in its delivery and approval processes. In 2024, SAS partnered with the University of Cambridge's Maxwell Center to use SAS Viya for healthcare research and development. SAS Viya is used in partnership with national and local governments to provide services and detect tax fraud. SAS Viya is used in research and education, particularly studies related to business intelligence, cybersecurity and data management. SAS Institute has partnered with educational institutions such as Appalachian State University, Clemson University, University of Arkansas, Stockholm University, and Marian University, to provide access to and training for using SAS Viya. See also References |
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[SOURCE: https://www.mako.co.il/tvbee-tv-news/Article-b05a73a838e7c91026.htm] | [TOKENS: 4943] |
ืื ืืืจื ืชืืงืฃ ืืืจื ืืืชื ืฉื ืื ื ืขืื: "ืื ืฉืฉืื ืืื - ืืืกืื ืืืชื"ืืืืื ืืืจืืื, ืฉืืฉืชืชืฃ ืื ื"ืืืจื", ืกืคื ืืืงืื ืืืชืจ ืืฉืืืข ืืืคืืงื ืืืฉืจืืืืช ืฉืืชื ืืืืื ืฆืืืืื ืืกืืจื. ืืคืืกื ืืืฉื ืืืกืคื ืืืจ ืืืืืืฉ ืื ืืืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื ืื ืงืฉืืจ ืืืขืชื ืขื ืืฉืจืื, ืืชืงืฃ ืืืืืื: "ืืชื ืืืืืื ืืืืช ืืืืืืื"ืืื ืืฉืขืืmakoืคืืจืกื: 21.02.26, 06:51 | ืขืืืื: 21.02.26, 10:30ืื ื ืขืื ื"ื ืืื ืืืจื | ืฆืืืื: Reutersืืงืืฉืืจ ืืืขืชืง"ืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ืืืืืืช ืฉื ืืืจื ืฉืื, ืื ื ืืืกืื ืืืชื": ืืฉืืงื ืืืจืืื ืื ืืืจื, ืืืื "ืืืืก" ืฉืืฉืชืชืฃ ืื ืืขืื ื ืืฉืืืฉืืช ืฉื "ืืืจื" ืืืฉืจืืืืช, ืคืจืกื ืืืฉ (ืฉืืฉื) ืฆืืืฅ ืืืฉืืื ื-X ืฉืื ืฉืื ืืชืืืืก ืคืขื ื ืืกืคืช ืืืืชื ืฉื ืืคืืงืช ืืกืืจื ืื ื ืขืื ืืชืืืืช ืืฉืืืข - ืืืืืืฉ ืื ืืืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื ืื ืงืฉืืจ ืืืขืชื ืขื ืืฉืจืื, ืื ืืฆืืื ืืช ืฉืืืืกื ืื ืขื ืืื ืืืง ืืืืืืืื."ืฉืื ืืืจ ืฉืื ืคืขื ืืืจืชื ืื ืขืฉืืชื ืื ืืืื ืืืจืื ืืืื ืฉืคืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ื ืฆืืื ื", ืืืืืจ ืืืจื, "ืขื ืืืช, ืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ืืืืืืช ืฉื ืืืจื ืฉืื, ืื, ืื ื ืืืกืื ืืืชื. ืื ืื ืืืืชื ืขืืฉืื ืืช ืืืชื ืืืืจ ืืืงืืื, ืื ืืชื ืืืืืื ืืืืืืื". ืืฆืืืฅ ืฉื ืฉื ืืืจื ืืืืข ืืืขื ืืืื ืืืืจ ืฆืืืฅ ืืืจ ืฉืคืจืกื - ืืฃ ืฉืืฉืืื ื-X ืฉื ืืฉืืงื ืืืขื ืืื ื ืคืขืื ืืฉืืจื - ืืื ืืชื ืื "ืคืขื ืฉื ืืชื ืืืกืื ืื ืฉืื, ืืืงืืฉื ืขืฉืืชื ืืช ืื. ืขืืฉืื ืื ื ืืืืจ ืืืชืจ".ืืืงืื ืืืชืจ ืืฉืืืข ืคืจืกื ืืืจื ืืกืคื ืืืืจื ืฉื ืขืื, ืืช 52 ืืืืชื, ืฉืืืชืจื ืืื ืจืื ืืืื ืืืืจ ืืืื ืืืชืื ื ืืืืื ืฆืืืืื ืืขืื ื ืืืืฉื ืฉื "ืืืจื". "ืื ืืืจ ื ืืจื", ืืชื ืืฉืืงื, "ืืื ืืืืชื ืืืจืืงื, ืืฆืืืงื ืืื ืืืื ืืืฆืืช ืืืคื". ืฆืืืฅ ืืืกืคื ืืื ืืขืฉืจืืช ืชืืืืืช, ืื ืืฆืืืฅ ืฉืืืืจ ืืื - ืฉืื ืืืืืข ืขื ืืืื ืชื ืืืกืื ืืืืืื ืืกืืืืื - ืืืจ ื ืจืฉืื ืืืขืื ืืืืฃ ืชืืืืืช. ืืื ืืืฉืื ืืฉืืงื ืืืชืงืืื ืขื ืืื ืืขืืงืืื, ืืืื ืืืชืจ ืืชื ืืขืืชืื ืืืช ืืจืืืืช ืืฉื ืื ื'ืื ืืคืฉืืืื: "ืืืืืื ืืืืจืื, ืืื ืืฃ ืืื ืืืจ ืื ืืืื ืื ืืืืช? ืื ืืืจืชื ืื ืืชืืชื ืืืื ืืืช ืฉืืืืื ืืืฆืืืข ืขื ืชืืืื ืื ืื ืื-ืฆืืื ืืช. ืืืช ืืืฉืืขืืช ืฉื ืืืืืื ืืืื".ืืืื ื' ืืืืื ืขืื ืืื ืืืืช, ืืืืืืื ืฉื ืขืจืื ืืืืช ืืขืืืื ืงืจืืืช ืฉืืื. "ืืจืื ืคืขืืื ืืืจืช ืื ื ืฉืืืขืชื ืื ืืืืช ืืกืคืืง ื ืืืืช ืืืชื ื, ืืื ืืืจื ื ืฉืื ืื ื ืืื. ืืืืจ ืืื ืืฉืื ืืืืืื ืื ืืืื, ืืืืืื ืฉืื ืืืื ื ืืืืชื ืืื-ืกืืคืืช", ืกืคืื ืื ืืืืื ืจืืขื, ืจืื ื ืืืืจ, "ืขืืฉืื ืืฉืืช ืื ืคื, ืืฉืืืืช ืืืขืฆืืช ืืืืืืจืื ืืช ืืืฉืืจื ืืืชื ื ืืชืืื. ืืฆืืืช ืืชืช ืื ื ืืช ืืืืื ืืื ืฉื ืืื ืืืชืืืจ ืืืืฆืืื ืืืืื. ืืืืื ืฉื ืชืช ืื ื ืชืกืคืืง ืื ื ืืื ืืืืื".ืคืจืกืืืชืืขืื ืฉื ืขืื, ืืืชืืจ, ืืืจ ืื "ืืฆื ืื ื ืืื ืืชืืื ืื ืืืจ ืืกืืคืืจ ืืื ืืชืืื ืืื ืื ืกืืคืืจืื ืืืืจืคืื. ืืื ืืืกืืคืืจ ืขื ืืืชืื ื ืฉืื ื ืืขื ืืกืืคืืจ ืืืืืจืฃ ืฉื 'ืืืจื' ืฉืฉืื ื ืื ื ืืช ืืืืื ืืืืื ืืืชื ืืฉืืืื ืืงืฆืืขืืื. ืื ื ืื ืื ืืืืฉืจ ืขื 38 ืฉื ืื ืืืชื, ืกืืืื ืฉืื ืชืืื ืืื ืชื ืืืชื ืขื ืืกืืฃ. ืื ื ืืงืืื ืฉืชืืฆืื ืืช ืืฉืงื ืืืฉืืืื".ืืคื ืืืืืืื ืืืืื, ืืช ืืืคืชื ืฉื ืขืื ืืืชืจ ืืืื, ืฉืืืคืฉ ืืืจืื ืืืฉื ืฉืขืืช ืืืืคืื - ืื ืืื ืื ืขื ืชื ืื. ืขืื ืืืื ืื ืืืคืืงื ื ืืฆืื ืขื ืืืืืช ืืืืคื, ืืฉืืฆืืื ืืืืจืื. ืืืงืืื ืคืืจืกื ื-mako ืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื, ืืืคืงืช "ืืืจื" ืืืืืื ืืขืฆืืจ ืืช ืฆืืืืื ืืขืื ื ืืืืฉื ืืืฉื ืืฉืืืข, ืืืช ืืื ืืืคืฉืจ ืืื ืฉื ืืฆืืืช ืฉื ืืกืืจื ืืืืืข ืืืืืืืืชื.ืืฆืืชื ืืขืืช ืืฉืื? ืื ืืืจื ืชืืงืฃ ืืืจื ืืืชื ืฉื ืื ื ืขืื: "ืื ืฉืฉืื ืืื - ืืืกืื ืืืชื" ืืืืื ืืืจืืื, ืฉืืฉืชืชืฃ ืื ื"ืืืจื", ืกืคื ืืืงืื ืืืชืจ ืืฉืืืข ืืืคืืงื ืืืฉืจืืืืช ืฉืืชื ืืืืื ืฆืืืืื ืืกืืจื. ืืคืืกื ืืืฉื ืืืกืคื ืืืจ ืืืืืืฉ ืื ืืืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื ืื ืงืฉืืจ ืืืขืชื ืขื ืืฉืจืื, ืืชืงืฃ ืืืืืื: "ืืชื ืืืืืื ืืืืช ืืืืืืื" "ืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ืืืืืืช ืฉื ืืืจื ืฉืื, ืื ื ืืืกืื ืืืชื": ืืฉืืงื ืืืจืืื ืื ืืืจื, ืืืื "ืืืืก" ืฉืืฉืชืชืฃ ืื ืืขืื ื ืืฉืืืฉืืช ืฉื "ืืืจื" ืืืฉืจืืืืช, ืคืจืกื ืืืฉ (ืฉืืฉื) ืฆืืืฅ ืืืฉืืื ื-X ืฉืื ืฉืื ืืชืืืืก ืคืขื ื ืืกืคืช ืืืืชื ืฉื ืืคืืงืช ืืกืืจื ืื ื ืขืื ืืชืืืืช ืืฉืืืข - ืืืืืืฉ ืื ืืืื ืฉืืืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื ืื ืงืฉืืจ ืืืขืชื ืขื ืืฉืจืื, ืื ืืฆืืื ืืช ืฉืืืืกื ืื ืขื ืืื ืืืง ืืืืืืืื. "ืฉืื ืืืจ ืฉืื ืคืขื ืืืจืชื ืื ืขืฉืืชื ืื ืืืื ืืืจืื ืืืื ืฉืคืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ื ืฆืืื ื", ืืืืืจ ืืืจื, "ืขื ืืืช, ืื ืืืฉืื ืฉืื ืืืืืืช ืฉื ืืืจื ืฉืื, ืื, ืื ื ืืืกืื ืืืชื. ืื ืื ืืืืชื ืขืืฉืื ืืช ืืืชื ืืืืจ ืืืงืืื, ืื ืืชื ืืืืืื ืืืืืืื". ืืฆืืืฅ ืฉื ืฉื ืืืจื ืืืืข ืืืขื ืืืื ืืืืจ ืฆืืืฅ ืืืจ ืฉืคืจืกื - ืืฃ ืฉืืฉืืื ื-X ืฉื ืืฉืืงื ืืืขื ืืื ื ืคืขืื ืืฉืืจื - ืืื ืืชื ืื "ืคืขื ืฉื ืืชื ืืืกืื ืื ืฉืื, ืืืงืืฉื ืขืฉืืชื ืืช ืื. ืขืืฉืื ืื ื ืืืืจ ืืืชืจ". ืืืงืื ืืืชืจ ืืฉืืืข ืคืจืกื ืืืจื ืืกืคื ืืืืจื ืฉื ืขืื, ืืช 52 ืืืืชื, ืฉืืืชืจื ืืื ืจืื ืืืื ืืืืจ ืืืื ืืืชืื ื ืืืืื ืฆืืืืื ืืขืื ื ืืืืฉื ืฉื "ืืืจื". "ืื ืืืจ ื ืืจื", ืืชื ืืฉืืงื, "ืืื ืืืืชื ืืืจืืงื, ืืฆืืืงื ืืื ืืืื ืืืฆืืช ืืืคื". ืฆืืืฅ ืืืกืคื ืืื ืืขืฉืจืืช ืชืืืืืช, ืื ืืฆืืืฅ ืฉืืืืจ ืืื - ืฉืื ืืืืืข ืขื ืืืื ืชื ืืืกืื ืืืืืื ืืกืืืืื - ืืืจ ื ืจืฉืื ืืืขืื ืืืืฃ ืชืืืืืช. ืืื ืืืฉืื ืืฉืืงื ืืืชืงืืื ืขื ืืื ืืขืืงืืื, ืืืื ืืืชืจ ืืชื ืืขืืชืื ืืืช ืืจืืืืช ืืฉื ืื ื'ืื ืืคืฉืืืื: "ืืืืืื ืืืืจืื, ืืื ืืฃ ืืื ืืืจ ืื ืืืื ืื ืืืืช? ืื ืืืจืชื ืื ืืชืืชื ืืืื ืืืช ืฉืืืืื ืืืฆืืืข ืขื ืชืืืื ืื ืื ืื-ืฆืืื ืืช. ืืืช ืืืฉืืขืืช ืฉื ืืืืืื ืืืื". ืืืื ื' ืืืืื ืขืื ืืื ืืืืช, ืืืืืืื ืฉื ืขืจืื ืืืืช ืืขืืืื ืงืจืืืช ืฉืืื. "ืืจืื ืคืขืืื ืืืจืช ืื ื ืฉืืืขืชื ืื ืืืืช ืืกืคืืง ื ืืืืช ืืืชื ื, ืืื ืืืจื ื ืฉืื ืื ื ืืื. ืืืืจ ืืื ืืฉืื ืืืืืื ืื ืืืื, ืืืืืื ืฉืื ืืืื ื ืืืืชื ืืื-ืกืืคืืช", ืกืคืื ืื ืืืืื ืจืืขื, ืจืื ื ืืืืจ, "ืขืืฉืื ืืฉืืช ืื ืคื, ืืฉืืืืช ืืืขืฆืืช ืืืืืืจืื ืืช ืืืฉืืจื ืืืชื ื ืืชืืื. ืืฆืืืช ืืชืช ืื ื ืืช ืืืืื ืืื ืฉื ืืื ืืืชืืืจ ืืืืฆืืื ืืืืื. ืืืืื ืฉื ืชืช ืื ื ืชืกืคืืง ืื ื ืืื ืืืืื". ืืขืื ืฉื ืขืื, ืืืชืืจ, ืืืจ ืื "ืืฆื ืื ื ืืื ืืชืืื ืื ืืืจ ืืกืืคืืจ ืืื ืืชืืื ืืื ืื ืกืืคืืจืื ืืืืจืคืื. ืืื ืืืกืืคืืจ ืขื ืืืชืื ื ืฉืื ื ืืขื ืืกืืคืืจ ืืืืืจืฃ ืฉื 'ืืืจื' ืฉืฉืื ื ืื ื ืืช ืืืืื ืืืืื ืืืชื ืืฉืืืื ืืงืฆืืขืืื. ืื ื ืื ืื ืืืืฉืจ ืขื 38 ืฉื ืื ืืืชื, ืกืืืื ืฉืื ืชืืื ืืื ืชื ืืืชื ืขื ืืกืืฃ. ืื ื ืืงืืื ืฉืชืืฆืื ืืช ืืฉืงื ืืืฉืืืื". ืืคื ืืืืืืื ืืืืื, ืืช ืืืคืชื ืฉื ืขืื ืืืชืจ ืืืื, ืฉืืืคืฉ ืืืจืื ืืืฉื ืฉืขืืช ืืืืคืื - ืื ืืื ืื ืขื ืชื ืื. ืขืื ืืืื ืื ืืืคืืงื ื ืืฆืื ืขื ืืืืืช ืืืืคื, ืืฉืืฆืืื ืืืืจืื. ืืืงืืื ืคืืจืกื ื-mako ืื ืืขืงืืืช ืืืจืืืื, ืืืคืงืช "ืืืจื" ืืืืืื ืืขืฆืืจ ืืช ืฆืืืืื ืืขืื ื ืืืืฉื ืืืฉื ืืฉืืืข, ืืืช ืืื ืืืคืฉืจ ืืื ืฉื ืืฆืืืช ืฉื ืืกืืจื ืืืืืข ืืืืืืืืชื. |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/science/872882/artemis-ii-delayed] | [TOKENS: 610] |
All the news of NASAโs Artemis program, the agencyโs attempt to returns humans to the MoonSee all StoriesPosted Feb 3, 2026 at 7:54 AM UTCTExternal LinkThomas RickerArtemis II delayed.NASAโs overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March.NASA Conducts Artemis II Fuel Test, Eyes March for Launch Opportunity - NASA[NASA]Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Thomas RickerCloseThomas RickerDeputy EditorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Thomas RickerNASACloseNASAPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NASANewsCloseNewsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All NewsScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceSpaceCloseSpacePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All SpaceCommentsLoading commentsGetting the conversation ready...Most PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharmaโs first memo on the future of XboxThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agentโs 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. All the news of NASAโs Artemis program, the agencyโs attempt to returns humans to the Moon See all Stories NASAโs overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March. [NASA] Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Thomas Ricker Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All NASA Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Space Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. More in Science This is the title for the native ad Top Stories ยฉ 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correspondent] | [TOKENS: 563] |
Contents Correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign country. The term "correspondent" refers to the original practice of filing news reports via postal letter. The largest networks of correspondents belong to ARD (Germany) and BBC (UK). Vs. reporter In Britain, the term 'correspondent' usually refers to someone with a specific specialist area, such as health correspondent. A 'reporter' is usually someone without such expertise who is allocated stories by the newsdesk on any story in the news. A 'correspondent' can sometimes have direct executive powers, for example a 'Local Correspondent' (voluntary) of the Open Spaces Society (founded 1865) has some delegated powers to speak for the Society on path and commons matters in their area including representing the Society at Public Inquiries. Common types of correspondents A capitol correspondent is one who reports from headquarters of government. Cost of living correspondents have been employed by several news agencies in the light of the "cost of living" crisis in the United Kingdom from 2021 onwards. A legal or justice correspondent reports on issues involving legal or criminal justice topics, and may often report from the vicinity of a courthouse. A foreign correspondent is anyone who reports from primarily foreign locations. A foreign bureau is a news bureau set up to support a news gathering operation in a foreign country. A red carpet correspondent is an entertainment reporter who reports from the red carpet of an entertainment or media event, such as a premiere, award ceremony or festival. A war correspondent is a foreign correspondent who covers stories first-hand from a war zone. On-the-scene TV news In TV news, a "live on-the-scene" reporter reports from the field during a "live shot". This has become an extremely popular format with the advent of Eyewitness News. A recent cost-saving measure is for local TV news to dispense with out-of-town reporters and replace them with syndicated correspondents, usually supplied by a centralized news reporting agency. The producers of the show schedule time with the correspondent, who then appears "live" to file a report and chat with the hosts. The reporter will go and do a number of similar reports for other stations. Many viewers may be unaware that the reporter does not work directly for the news show. This is also a popular way to report the weather. For example, AccuWeather does not just supply data, they also supply on-air meteorologists from television studios at their headquarters. See also References External links Media related to Correspondents at Wikimedia Commons |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartPLS] | [TOKENS: 470] |
Contents SmartPLS SmartPLS is a software with graphical user interface for variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling method. Users can estimate models with their data by using basic PLS-SEM, weighted PLS-SEM (WPLS), consistent PLS-SEM (PLSc-SEM), and sumscores regression algorithms. The software computes standard results assessment criteria (e.g., for the reflective and formative measurement models and the structural model, including the HTMT criterion, bootstrap based significance testing, PLSpredict, and goodness of fit) and it supports additional statistical analyses (e.g., confirmatory tetrad analysis, higher-order models, importance-performance map analysis, latent class segmentation, mediation, moderation, measurement invariance assessment, multigroup analysis, regression analysis, logistic regression, path analysis, PROCESS, confirmatory factor analysis, and covariance-based structural equation modeling). Since SmartPLS is programmed in Java, it can be executed and run on different computer operating systems such as Windows and Mac. SmartPLS4 The Newest addition is the SmartPLS4. The software released to the general public in 2022 is an easy to use tool for Structural Equation Modelling. To estimate the model in SmartPLS, the model has to be estimated at two levels that include the measurement model assessment and structural model assessment. Measurement Model assessment involves several steps that includes the assessment of quality criteria that includes the evaluation of factor loadings, construct reliability, construct validity. The criteria for factor loadings is 0.70, any items with loadings less than 0.70 may be considered for removal, if removing the items can improve the reliability and validity over the required threshold. Further Construct reliability is assessed using Cronbach Alpha and Composite Reliability, the required value for both is 0.70. Further, construct validity is assessed using convergent validity (AVE > 0.50) and Discriminant validity (Fornell & Larcker Criterion and Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio). Next, after measurement model assessment structural model is assessed to substantiate the proposed hypotheses. This can include direct, indirect, or moderating relationships. SmartPLS4 is an increasingly used tool for SEM that can help model simple and complex model. See also References |
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