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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrene,_Libya] | [TOKENS: 6319] |
Contents Cyrene, Libya Cyrene, also sometimes anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa. It was part of the Pentapolis, an important group of five cities in the region, and gave the area its classical and early modern name Cyrenaica. Cyrene lies on a ridge of the Jebel Akhdar uplands. The archaeological remains cover several hectares and include several monumental temples, stoas, theatres, bathhouses, churches, and palatial residences. The city is surrounded by the Necropolis of Cyrene. Since 1982, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city's port was Apollonia (Marsa Sousa), located about 16 kilometres (10 mi) to the north. The city was attributed to Apollo and the legendary etymon Cyrene by the Greeks themselves but it was probably actually colonized by settlers from Thera (modern Santorini) in the late seventh century BC. It was initially ruled by a dynasty of monarchs called the Battiads, who grew rich and powerful as a result of successive waves of immigration and the export of horses and silphium, a medicinal plant. By the fifth century BC, they had expanded their control over the other cities of Cyrenaica. It became the seat of the Cyrenaics, a school of philosophy in the fourth century BC, founded by Aristippus, a disciple of Socrates. In the Hellenistic Age, the city alternated between being part of Ptolemaic Egypt and the capital of an independent kingdom. It was also an important Jewish hub. In 96 BC, it passed to the Roman Republic and became part of the province of Crete and Cyrenaica. The city was destroyed by Jewish fighters in AD 115 during the Diaspora revolt, and slowly rebuilt over the following century. Earthquakes in 262 and 365 devastated the city, but some habitation continued through the early Byzantine period and the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in 642, after which the site was abandoned until the establishment of an Italian military base on the site in 1913. Excavations have been ongoing since that time. Name Cyrene is the latinized form of the Greek name Kȳrḗnē (Κυρήνη) of uncertain origin. The Greeks themselves attributed the name to the legendary Thessalian princess Cyrene who supposedly founded the city with help from the sun god Apollo. Some modern scholars sometimes attribute the name to its spring Cyra (Κύρα, Kýra), which was considered sacred to Apollo by the city's Greco-Roman inhabitants. The legend of Thessalian Cyrene seems to long predate attestation of the spring, however, and Janko instead suggests that the existing legend and name were adopted by the early Theran settlers for this specific location after some unattested but similar local name in the Libu or Garamantian language. Although both the Greek and Latin forms of the name were pronounced something like /kuˈreɪneɪ/ koo-RAY-nay, they are more often read in English as /kaɪˈriːni/ ky-REE-nee or, in its Latin form, /saɪˈriːni/ sy-REE-nee.[citation needed] History People have lived in Cyrenaica since the Palaeolithic. There is some evidence for settlement in the caves below the Acropolis which may pre-date Greek settlement. It is possible that Minoans and Mycenaeans visited Cyrene in the Bronze Age, since it is on the easiest sea route from the Aegean to Egypt, but the only archaeological evidence for this are separate finds of a small Minoan altar and a Minoan seal, which might have been brought over at a later date. A Greek myth first recorded by Pindar in the early fifth century BC reports that the god Apollo fell in love with the huntress Cyrene and brought her to Libya, where she gave birth to a son Aristaeus. Greek historical traditions, reported in Herodotus' Histories and in a fourth-century BC inscription found at Cyrene, say that a group of Cretan Greeks, who had been expelled from Sparta and settled on the island of Thera, founded Cyrene in 631 BC, under the leadership of Battus I, at the prompting of the Oracle of Delphi. Some traditions say that the settlers left Thera because of a famine, others because of a civil war. Most say that the colonists first settled on an island at Aziris (east of Derna) before relocating to Cyrene. The historicity of these narratives is uncertain, particularly the idea that Thera was Cyrene's sole "mother city". Relationships with other cities, such as Sparta and Samos, mentioned in the foundation narratives, are uncertain. Archaeological evidence from the site, especially ceramic finds, confirm that Greek settlement began in the mid-seventh century BC. This early pottery derves from Thera, Sparta, and Samos, but also Rhodes. The initial area of habitation was a ridge stretching eastwards from the Acropolis to the Agora, but the city rapidly expanded eastwards. The sanctuary of Apollo to the north of the Acropolis, of Demeter to the south, and of Zeus to the east all go back to the seventh or sixth centuries BC. Archaeological evidence shows that several other sites in Cyrenaica, such as Apollonia, Euesperides, and Taucheira (modern Benghazi and Tocra) were settled at the same time as Cyrene. After its foundation, the city was ruled by a series of monarchs descended from Battus I. Over the course of the sixth century BC, Cyrene grew to become the most powerful city in the region. In the first half of the sixth century BC, Battus II encouraged further Greek settlement in the city, especially from the Peloponnese and Crete. This sparked conflict with the indigenous Libyans, whose king Adicran appealed to Egypt for help around 570 BC. The pharaoh Apries launched a military expedition against Cyrene, but was decisively defeated at the Battle of Irasa. According to Herodotus, conflict with king Arcesilaus II "the Cruel" (c. 560–550 BC) led his brothers to leave the city and found the city of Barca to the west. Archaeological evidence shows that Greek presence at Barca predates this foundation, going back to the seventh century. Arcesilaus was defeated by the Barcans and Libyans at the Battle of Leuco, killed by his brother and succeeded by his infant son Battus III (c. 550–530 BC), under whom Cyrene continued to suffer from continued internal conflict. This was resolved through a reform of the city's laws by Demonax of Mantinea. These reforms appear to have limited the authority of the king to religious matters, vested political power in the Cyrenaean people, and divided the Cyreneans into three tribes. He may also have mediated a peace with Barca and introduced trial by combat. Battus III's son Arcesilaus III (c. 530–515 BC) attempted to revoke Demonax's constitution and was driven into exile. He returned with an army from Samos and regained control but forced out once more and was assassinated at Barca. His mother Pheretime appealed to the Achaemenid governor of Egypt, Aryandes, who besieged and sacked Barca in 515 BC. According to Herodotus, Aryandes marched his troops through Cyrene and then, regretting that he had not taken the opportunity to conquer Cyrene, attempted to get back in, but was prevented. The story is strange; it may be that the city was actually conquered by the Persians. Remains of an extramural temple destroyed by the Persians at this time have been found. In the fifth century BC, perhaps as a consequence of the Persian intervention, Cyrene's influence over the other Greek cities in Cyrenaica seems to have solidified into institutionalised political control. The city was prosperous and construction of the Temple of Apollo, Temple of Zeus, Temple of Demeter, and structures in the Agora date to this time. Cyrene's chief local export through much of its early history was the medicinal herb silphium, which may have been used as an abortifacient; the herb was pictured on most Cyrenian coins. Silphium was in such demand that it was harvested to extinction by the end of the first century AD. Cyrene also made money from raising of horses and the transhipment trade between Egypt, the Aegean, and Carthage. It was a landing point for Greeks seeking to visit the oracle of Ammon at Siwah. Arcesilaus IV won the chariot race at the Pythian Games in 462 BC and at the Olympic Games in 460 BC, in celebration of which Pindar wrote the Fourth and Fifth Pythian Odes. Following this victory, he organised a new wave of Greek settlement at Euesperides. Some time after this however, the Cyreneans monarchy was abolished in obscure circumstances and the tomb of his ancestor Battus I was destroyed. In 454 BC, Cyrene gave refuge to the remnants of an Athenian army that had been defeated by the Persians in Egypt. In the following years, Barca seems to have become the dominant city in the region and Cyrene was regularly in conflict with the other Greek cities of Cyrenaica and with the Libyans. In 414 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, Spartan forces travelling to Sicily were driven to Cyrenaica by adverse winds and Cyrene provided them with two triremes and pilots to lead them to Sicily. Towards the end of the fifth century BC, one Ariston took control of the city, put five hundred leading Cyreneans to death and exiled others. It is possible that he attempted to establish a radical democracy on the Athenian model. A group of 3,000 Messenians who had been expelled from Naupactus by the Spartans arrived in Cyrene in 404 BC and joined forces with the exiles, but were almost all killed in a battle, after which the Cyrenean exiles and the followers of Ariston reconciled. The surviving Messenians settled at Euhesperides. There are some signs that civic conflict continued over the following century. During the fourth century BC, Cyrene clashed with Carthage over the Syrtis and the trans-Saharan trade routes that ended there. The border was established at the Altars of the Phileni. Cyrene may also have extended its control eastwards to Catabathmus Magnus. Cyrene constructed a treasury at Delphi between 350 and 325 BC. When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 331 BC and marched west to visit the oracle at Siwah, the Cyreneans sent an embassy to declare their friendship; they did not come under Macedonian control. An inscription records that during a famine in the late 320s, Cyrene sent over 800,000 medimni of grain (c. 40,000,000 litres) to the cities of Greece and the Macedonian royal family. In 324 BC, a Spartan mercenary leader, Thibron, joined forces with Cyrenean and Barcan exiles on Crete and invaded Cyrenaica, capturing Cyrene's port and forcing Cyrene to accept his rule. However, one of his officers, Mnasicles, defected to the Cyreneans and helped them to expel Thibron's troops and recapture the port. Cyrene allied with the Libyans and Carthaginians, but Thibron returned in 322 BC and defeated them. A democratic revolution took place in Cyrene and the exiled aristocrats appealed to Ptolemy I Soter for help. Ptolemy sent his general Ophellas to occupy the city and established a new constitution for the city, which is recorded on a large inscription, which was heavily oligarchic and reserved a permanent role for himself in the city's administration. The city was accepted by the other Macedonian leaders as part of the Ptolemaic realm in the Treaty of Triparadisus in 321 BC. Cyrenean rebels attempted to expel the Ptolemaic garrison in 313 BC, but Ptolemy sent reinforcements who suppressed the revolt. In 308 BC, Ophellas led Cyrenaean and Athenian troops west to join Agathocles of Syracuse's attack on Carthage and was immediately murdered. Cyrene rebelled against Ptolemy again around 305 BC. Control was re-established in 300 BC by Ptolemy's step-son Magas. After Ptolemy's death in 282 BC, Magas refused to submit to his half-brother Ptolemy II and had crowned himself king by 276 BC. He married Apama the daughter of the Seleucid king Antiochus I and assisted him in an unsuccessful invasion of Egypt during the First Syrian War. Inscribed accounts indicate severe inflation of food prices and a large fundraising campaign, possibly for repairs to the city walls. After his death, Apama invited a Macedonian prince, Demetrius the Fair, to marry her daughter Berenice and take the throne, but he was murdered after a short conflict with Berenice. She married Ptolemy III in 246 BC, bringing Cyrene back under Ptolemaic control. In the process, the city of Euesperides was destroyed and re-founded as Berenice and the cities of Cyrenaica formed a federation, called the Pentapolis, which minted its own coinage. Constitutional reforms by a pair of Arcadians, Ecdelus and Demophanes, may also belong in this period. Cyrene was reduced to subject status, a garrison was installed, and a succession of Ptolemaic courtiers were appointed to the city's priesthood of Apollo. Cyrene was established as a separate kingdom once more for Ptolemy VIII in 163 BC after his siblings expelled him from Egypt. The city rebelled against him but was defeated. It is possible that he granted Cyrene's port, Apollonia, independence from Cyrene at this time, as a reward for remaining loyal. Ptolemy engaged in a wide-ranging construction project in the city, including the construction of a monumental gymnasium. He also had a will inscribed, promising Cyrene to the Roman Republic in the event that he died without heirs. However, he regained control of Egypt in 145 BC. In the dynastic conflicts that followed, Cyrene probably remained under the control of Ptolemy VIII and then of Ptolemy IX. It was apparently given to Ptolemy VIII's illegitimate son Ptolemy Apion as a separate kingdom c. 105–101 BC. Apion made a similar will to that of his father and the territory passed to Rome when he died without heirs in 96 BC. The city became an important Jewish centre during the Hellenistic period. The deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees is said by its author to be an abridgment of a five-volume work by a Hellenized Jew by the name of Jason of Cyrene who lived around 100 BC. After 96 BC, the Romans initially ignored the new territory. Plutarch mentions a tyrant of Cyrene, Nicocrates, who was deposed by his wife Aretaphila of Cyrene and succeeded by his brother Learchus, who was murdered in turn. Lucullus visited the city in 87 BC, suppressed the tyranny and granted Cyrene a new constitution. But it was only in 74 BC that the Romans first sent a governor, Publius Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus. At some point between 67 and 30 BC, Cyrenaica became part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. The provincial capital was on Crete, but Cyrene remained the chief city in Cyrenaica and enjoyed a highly prosperous period and much construction dates to the first century AD. In the mid-first century AD, the Roman authorities launched an extensive surveying campaign to reclaim the public land around Cyrene that had slipped into private control and stopped paying dividends to the fisc. Because of its large Jewish population, Cyrene was an early centre of Christianity. A Cyrenian named Simon carried the cross of Jesus. Acts claims that Jews from Cyrene heard the disciples speaking in their own language in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and later says that Jewish Christians from Cyrene and Cyprus were among those in Antioch who began spreading the gospel among Gentiles. According to the tradition of the Coptic Orthodox Church, its founder, Saint Mark was a native of Cyrene and ordained the first bishop of Cyrene. A massive Jewish revolt, the Diaspora revolt, broke out in Cyrenaica, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Cyprus and Judaea in 115 AD. Cyrene was sacked and almost all of the city's buildings were destroyed. Literary sources claim that 220,000 people were killed before the revolt was quelled by Marcius Turbo. According to Eusebius of Caesarea, the Jewish rebellion left Libya depopulated to such an extent that a few years later new colonies had to be established there by the emperor Hadrian to maintain the viability of continued settlement. Restoration work is recorded in inscriptions and visible archaeologically; it was not completed until the reign of Commodus. The city was an early member of Hadrian's Panhellenion and a long inscription records its attempts to block membership for one of its neighbours. Cyrene was once again prosperous by the third quarter of the second century AD and several palaces date to this period, including the House of Jason Magnus. In the mid-third century AD, Cyrene's economy began to decline. This was hastened by an earthquake of 262, which destroyed much of the city. After the disaster, the city was raided by the Marmaritae, Libyan nomads, who were defeated in 269 by Tenagino Probus, prefect of Egypt. The emperor Claudius Gothicus restored Cyrene, naming it Claudiopolis. Many buildings were subsequently rebuilt, but a hurriedly built new defensive wall enclosed only the western half of the city. The civic hub shifted north from the street of Battus to the Valley street and many of the old public spaces were filled in with housing and shops. In the reforms of Diocletian, Cyrene became part of the new province of Libya Superior (also called Pentapolis). The Roman Martyrology mentions under 4 July a tradition that in the persecution of Diocletian a bishop Theodorus of Cyrene was scourged and had his tongue cut out. Earlier editions of the Martyrology mentioned what may be the same person also under 26 March. Another earthquake destroyed the city on 21 July 365. Skeletons crushed by falling masonry have been found and one tomb inscription mentions the earthquake. A contemporary historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, describes Cyrene as "an ancient but deserted city". However, the damage may have been over-emphasised. Archaeology shows that most buildings were damaged, but also that many were rebuilt, including many temples, which were only closed by the Theodosian decrees in 395. Settlement seems to have expanded east beyond Claudius Gothicus' fortification wall and a generation after the earthquake, Cyrene was a significant centre. Synesius, a wealthy magnate who became bishop of Ptolemais and whose letters are preserved, grew up in Cyrene in the generation after the earthquake. Letter 67 of Synesius tells of an irregular episcopal ordination carried out by a bishop Philo of Cyrene, which was condoned by Athanasius. The same letter mentions that a nephew of this Philo, who bore the same name, also became bishop of Cyrene. The Central and East Churches were built in the fifth or sixth century AD and renovated several times. A bishop of Cyrene name Rufus attended the Robber Council of Ephesus in 449 and there was still a bishop of Cyrene, named Leontius, at the time of Patriarch Eulogius of Alexandria (580–607). The city fell under Arab conquest in 643. At some point thereafter it was abandoned, but the ancient name lived on as "Grennah" in the 19th century. The site was totally abandoned in the early modern period. Frederick and Richard Beechey visited and produced the first site plans in 1821–1822. The French consul at Benghazi looted part of a tomb later in the century for the Louvre. The first systematic excavations were undertaken by Robert Murdoch Smith and E. A. Porcher in 1860 and 1861; their findings mostly went to the British Museum. They include the Apollo of Cyrene and a unique bronze head of an African man. In 1909, the Jewish Territorial Organization, a newly formed Zionist group also known as the ITO, led by Israel Zangwill, briefly considered the region known as Cyrenaica as the possible site for a Jewish homeland. But when it was discovered that the region was basically "waterless" and that even irrigation would be impossible, the desperately hopeful plans were immediately abandoned. The American Richard Norton began more scientific excavations in 1910, which were halted by the Italian invasion of Libya in 1911. The tomb of the excavation's epigrapher, Herbert de Cou, who was shot in mysterious circumstances, is located on the site. The Italian colonial government established a military base at the site in 1913. In the course of building the base, Italian soldiers found the "Venus of Cyrene", a headless marble statue representing the goddess Venus, a Roman copy of a Greek original, which prompted them to restrict their base to the Acropolis. The statue was transported to Rome, where it remained until 2008, when it was returned to Libya. The village of Shahat grew up on the site as a result of the Italian presence. The Italians created an antiquities service and, after the discovery of the Venus of Cyrene, carried out excavations at Cyrene on a very large scale, which were closely connected with the regime's propaganda. The Italian archaeologists were expelled in 1943 when the Allies captured Cyrenaica. Richard Goodchild, controller of antiquities from 1955 to 1966 moved the village of Shahat off the site and re-established it to the south; it has since expanded over much of the southern necropolis. He also restored control of excavations at the site to the Italians, under Sandro Stucchi [it]. Goodchild also The Italian mission has excavated much of the site and restored several buildings through the process of anastylosis. The site was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982. Beginning in 2006, the Global Heritage Fund, in partnership with the Second University of Naples (SUN, Italy), the Libyan Department of Antiquities, and the Libyan Ministry of Culture, worked to preserve the ancient site through a combination of holistic conservation practices and training of local skilled and unskilled labor. The GHF-led team conducted ongoing emergency conservation on the theater inside the Sanctuary of Apollo. In 2017 UNESCO added Cyrene to its List of World Heritage in Danger. Archaeological site Cyrene is now an archaeological site north of the village of Shahhat and east of Bayda, on a ridge of the Jabal Akhdar, about 600 metres above sea level. The southern edge of the ridge and the city is formed by the Wadi Bil Ghadir and the northern edge by the Wadi Bu Turqiyah. The Acropolis, at the western edge of the ridge, was the original centre of Greek occupation. From there, a road referred to by modern scholars as the "Street of Battus" or "Skyrotà" runs along the ridge to the southeast for around 1 kilometre, past the Agora, the House of Jason Magnus and a number of other palatial residences, the Stoa of Hermes and Heracles, the Caesareum, two theatres, a sacred area, and the caravanserai until it reaches the gates of the city. Below the Acropolis to the north, the Springs of Apollo and Cyra emerge from the cliff-face onto a triangular plateau at the base of the Wadi Bu Turqiyah. This plateau contains the Greek Theatre, the Sanctuary of Apollo, and the Baths of Trajan. From the sanctuary, a road known as "Valley Street" leads southeast up the Wadi Bu Turqiyah, roughly parallel to the "Street of Battus", lined by a stepped portico and the Aqua Augusta, past the Baths of Paris to the Market Theatre and the Central Quarter, which contains several public buildings and palatial residences. To the northeast, on another ridge, but still inside the city walls, is the largely unexcavated northeastern quarter, containing the Temple of Zeus, the hippodrome, and the East Church. Outside the city walls to the south is the Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone. The necropolis of Cyrene covers about 20 km² to the south and north of the city. Archaeological finds are stored and displayed in a temporary museum in the eastern portion of the site. In 2005, Italian archaeologists from the University of Urbino discovered 76 intact Roman statues at Cyrene from the 2nd century AD. The statues remained undiscovered for so long because "during the earthquake of 375 AD, a supporting wall of the temple fell on its side, burying all the statues. They remained hidden under stone, rubble and earth for 1,630 years. The other walls sheltered the statues, so we were able to recover all the pieces, even works that had been broken." The Acropolis lies to the West of the Agora and South of the Sanctuary of Apollo at the Western end of the Route of Skyrota also known as the Street of Battus. The acropolis was the location of the Royal Palace and the source of the sacred spring, known as the Fountain of Apollo, which ran through the sanctuary of Apollo to the North. The Agora lies in the centre of the city with an Eastern and Western Stoa, as well as several temples such as the Temple of Apollo Archegetes. One of its more significant features is the temple of Apollo, which was originally constructed as early as 7th century BC. Other ancient structures include a temple to Demeter. There is a large necropolis approximately 10 km between Cyrene and its ancient port of Apollonia. The Temple of Zeus was the largest ancient Greek temple at Cyrene, and one of the largest Greek temples ever built. The original Doric octastyle peripteral temple was constructed around 500–480 BC, It faced east and stood atop a three-stepped crepidoma, with a length of 68.3 metres and a width of 30.4 metres, making it roughly the same size as the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Parthenon at Athens. The front porch (pronaos) was supported by two columns in antis; the back porch (opisthodomos) by three columns in antis. The cella was two stories high and two rows of columns divided it into three aisles. The external colonnade (peripteros) has eight columns at the front and rear and seventeen columns on each of the long sides. It was destroyed in 115 AD during the Jewish sack of the city. Around 172–175 AD it was partially rebuilt as a non-peripteral temple. Between 185 and 192 AD, a colossal cult statue, modelled on the Statue of Zeus at Olympia was installed. The temple was destroyed once more in 365 AD by an earthquake and then burnt by Christians. The sanctuary to Demeter and Persephone, which includes a temple and theater complex, is located south of the Wadi Bil Ghadir ravine, outside the city walls. The Sanctuary comprised structures sprawled out over twenty miles and are divided into three terraces: the Lower, Middle and Upper Sanctuaries. The archaeological remains date from the late seventh century BC to the mid-third century AD. During the time of this sacred activity at the Sanctuary a voluminous amount of votive material was accumulated in its interior: pottery, lamps, coinage, stone sculpture, jewellery, inscriptions, glass, as well as bronze and terracotta figurines. The pottery excavated at the Sanctuary provides useful evidence concerning both the question of its foundation and type of religious activity. The necropolis consists of graves, rock-cut tombs, temple-tombs, and sarcophagi, dating from the sixth century BC until the fifth century AD. It covers about 20 km² to the south and north of the city, making it one of the largest known Greek necropoleis. The southern section has been encroached upon by the growing city of Shahat, especially after 2013, when many tombs were bulldozed. The northern portion is better preserved. Several of the tombs of the Roman period have niches for portrait busts of the deceased. A common find are statues of the so-called "Goddess of Death", a female bust – often faceless – depicted in the process of unveiling herself. In October 2023, a flood exposed a water canal, possibly dating back to the Roman era. Philosophy Cyrene contributed to the intellectual life of the Greeks, through renowned philosophers and mathematicians. The School of Cyrene, known as the Cyrenaics, developed here as a minor Socratic school founded by Aristippus (perhaps the friend of Socrates, though according to some accounts a grandson of Aristippus with the same name). Notable people Known bishops of the town include No longer a residential bishopric, Cyrene is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see. The Greek Orthodox Church has also treated it as a titular see. Gallery See also References Bibliography External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenile_delinquency] | [TOKENS: 7501] |
Contents Juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term delinquent usually refers to juvenile delinquency, and is also generalised to refer to a young person who behaves an unacceptable way. In the United States, a juvenile delinquent is a person who commits a crime and is under a specific age. Most states specify a juvenile delinquent, or young offender, as an individual under 18 years of age, while a few states have set the maximum age slightly different. The term "juvenile delinquent" originated from the late 18th and early 19th centuries when the treatment of juvenile and adult criminals was similar, and punishment was over the seriousness of an offense. Before the 18th century, juveniles over age 7 were tried in the same criminal court as adults and, if convicted, could get the death penalty. Illinois established the first juvenile court. This juvenile court focused on treatment objectives instead of punishment, determined appropriate terminology associated with juvenile offenders, and made juvenile records confidential. In 2021, Michigan, New York, and Vermont raised the maximum age to under 19, and Vermont law was updated again in 2022 to include individuals under 20. Only three states, Georgia, Texas, and Wisconsin, still appropriate the age of a juvenile delinquent as someone under the age of 17. While the maximum age in some US states has increased, Japan has lowered the juvenile delinquent age from under 20 to under 18. This change occurred on 1 April 2022 when the Japanese Diet activated a law lowering the age of minor status in the country. Just as there are differences in the maximum age of a juvenile delinquent, the minimum age for a child to be considered capable of delinquency or the age of criminal responsibility varies considerably between the states. Some states that impose a minimum age have made recent amendments to raise the minimum age. Still, most states remain ambiguous on the minimum age for a child to be determined a juvenile delinquent. In 2021, North Carolina changed the minimum age from 6 to 10 years old, Connecticut moved from 7 to 10, and New York adjusted from 7 to 12. In some states, the minimum age depends on the seriousness of the crime committed. Juvenile delinquents or juvenile offenders commit crimes ranging from status offenses such as, truancy, violating a curfew or underage drinking and smoking to more serious offenses categorized as property crimes, violent crimes, sexual offenses, and cybercrimes. Some scholars have found an increase in youth arrests and have concluded that this may reflect more aggressive criminal justice and zero-tolerance policies rather than changes in youth behavior. Youth violence rates in the United States have dropped to approximately 12% of peak rates in 1993, according to official U.S. government statistics, suggesting that most juvenile offending is non-violent. Many delinquent acts can be attributed to the environmental factors such as family behavior or peer influence. One contributing factor that has gained attention in recent years is the school-to-prison pipeline. According to Diverse Education, nearly 75% of states have built more jails and prisons than colleges. CNN also provides a diagram that shows that the cost per inmate is significantly higher in most states than the cost per student. This shows that taxpayers' dollars are going toward providing for prisoners rather than providing for the educational system and promoting the advancement of education. For every school built, the focus on punitive punishment has correlated with juvenile delinquency rates. Some have suggested shifting from zero-tolerance policies to restorative justice approaches. Juvenile detention centers, juvenile courts, and electronic monitoring are common structures of the juvenile legal system. Juvenile courts are in place to address offenses as civil rather than criminal cases in most instances. The frequency of use and structure of these courts in the United States varies by state. Depending on the type and severity of the offense committed, individuals under 18 may be charged and treated as adults. Overview Juvenile delinquency, or offending, is often separated into three categories: Currently, there is not an agency whose jurisdiction is tracking worldwide juvenile delinquency, but UNICEF estimates that over one million children are in some detention globally. Many countries do not keep records of the amount of delinquent or detained juveniles, but of the ones that do, the United States has the highest number of juvenile delinquency cases. In the United States, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention compiles data concerning trends in juvenile delinquency. According to their most recent publication, 7 in 1,000 juveniles in the U.S. committed a serious crime in 2016. The U.S. Department of Justice defines a serious crime as one of the following eight offenses: murder and non-negligent homicide, rape (legacy & revised), robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny theft, and arson. According to research compiled by James Howell in 2009, the juvenile arrest rate has been dropping consistently since its peak in 1994. Of the cases for juvenile delinquency that make it through the court system, probation is the most common consequence, and males account for over 70% of the caseloads. According to developmental research by Moffitt (2006), two types of offenders emerge in adolescence. The first is an age-specific offender, referred to as the adolescence-limited offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency begins and ends during their period of adolescence. Moffitt argues that most teenagers tend to show some form of antisocial or delinquent behavior during adolescence; it is therefore essential to account for these behaviors in childhood to determine whether they will be adolescence-limited offenders or something more long-term. The other type of offender is the repeat offender, referred to as the life-course-persistent offender, who begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive behavior in adolescence (or even in childhood) and continues into adulthood. Situational factors Most of the influencing factors for juvenile delinquency tend to be caused by a mix of both genetic and environmental factors. According to Laurence Steinberg's book Adolescence, the two most significant predictors of juvenile delinquency are parenting style and peer group association. Additional factors that may lead a teenager into juvenile delinquency include poor or low socioeconomic status, poor school readiness/performance, and/or failure and peer rejection. Delinquent activity, especially the involvement in youth gangs, may also be caused by a desire for protection against violence or financial hardship. Juvenile offenders can view delinquent activity as a means of gaining access to resources to protect against such threats. Research by Carrie Dabb indicates that even changes in the weather can increase the likelihood of children exhibiting deviant behavior. Family environment According to research done by Laura E. Berk, the style of parenting that would be most beneficial for a child, based on studies conducted by Diana Baumrind (1971) is the authoritative child-rearing style because it combines acceptance with discipline to render healthy development for the child. As concluded in Steinberg's Adolescence, children brought up by single parents are more likely to live in poverty and engage in delinquent behavior than those who live with both parents. However, according to research done by Graham and Bowling, once the attachment a child feels towards their parent(s) and the level of parental supervision are taken into account, children in single parent families are no more likely to offend than others. It was seen that when a child has low parental supervision they are much more likely to offend. Negative peer group association is more likely when adolescents are left unsupervised. A lack of supervision is also connected to poor relationships between children and parents. Children who are often in conflict with their parents may be less willing to discuss their activities with them. Conflict between a child's parents is also much more closely linked to offending than being raised by a lone parent. Adolescents with siblings who have committed crimes are more likely to be influenced by their siblings and become delinquent if the sibling is older, of the same sex/gender, and maintains a good relationship with the child. Cases where a younger criminal sibling influences an older one are rare. An aggressive more hostile sibling is less likely to influence a younger sibling in the direction of delinquency, if anything, the more strained the relationship between the siblings, the less they will want to be an influence on each other. Children resulting from unintended pregnancies are more likely to exhibit delinquent behavior. They also have lower mother-child relationship quality. Peer rejection in childhood is also a large predictor of juvenile delinquency. This rejection can affect the child's ability to be socialized properly and often leads them to gravitate towards anti-social peer groups. Association with anti-social groups often leads to the promotion of violent, aggressive and deviant behavior. Robert Vargas's "Being in 'Bad' Company," explains that adolescents who can choose between groups of friends are less susceptible to peer influence that could lead them to commit illegal acts. Aggressive adolescents who have been rejected by peers are also more likely to have a "hostile attribution bias", which leads people to interpret the actions of others (whether they be hostile or not) as purposefully hostile and aggressive towards them. This often leads to an impulsive and aggressive reaction. Conformity plays a significant role in the vast impact that peer group influence has on an individual. Aronson, Wilson, & Akert (2013) point to the research experiment conducted by Solomon Asch (1956), to ascertain whether a group could influence an individual's behavior. The experiment was executed by asking a participant to determine which line in the set of 3 lines matched the length of an original line. Confederates knew the purpose of the experiment and were directed to answer the questions incorrectly during certain phases of the experiment. These confederates answered the question before the participant. The confederates answered the first few questions correctly, as did the participant. Eventually, all of the confederates started to answer incorrectly. The purpose of the experiment was to see if the group would influence the participant to answer incorrectly. Asch found that seventy-six percent of the participants conformed and answered incorrectly when influenced by the group. According to these findings, it was concluded that a peer group that is involved in deviant behavior can influence an adolescent to engage in similar activities. Once the adolescent becomes part of the group, they will be susceptible to groupthink. A common contributor to juvenile delinquency rates is a phenomenon referred to as the school to prison pipeline. In recent years, school disciplinary measures have become increasingly policed. According to one study, 67% of high school students attend schools with police officers. This rise in police presence is often attributed to the implementation of zero tolerance policies. Based on the "broken windows" theory of criminology and the Gun-Free Schools Act, zero tolerance policies stress the use of specific, consistent, and harsh punishment to deal with in school infractions. Often measures such as suspension or expulsion are assigned to students who deviant regardless of the reason or past disciplinary history. This use of punishment often has been linked with increasing high school drop out rates and future arrests. It was found in a 2018 study that students who received a suspension were less likely to graduate and more likely to be arrested or on probation. As stated in research by Matthew Theriot, the increased police presence in school and use of tougher punishment methods leads student actions to be criminalized and in turn referred to juvenile justice systems. The Center on Youth Justice at the Vera Institute of Justice found that "for similar students attending similar schools, a single suspension or expulsion doubles the risk that a student will repeat a grade. Being retained a grade, especially while in middle or high school, is one of the strongest predictors of dropping out. In a national longitudinal study, it was reported that youth with a prior suspension were 68% more likely to dropout of school. The school to prison pipeline disproportionately affects minority students. According to data compiled by the United States Government Accountability Office, 39% of students who received a suspension in the 2013–14 school year were Black, even though Black students accounted for only about 15% of public school students. This over-representation applied to both boys and girls of African descent. Compared to White students, Black students were expelled or suspended 3 times as frequently. Personality factors Juvenile delinquency is the unlawful activities by minors in their teen or pre-teen years. It is influenced by four main risk factors, namely: personality, background, state of mind and drugs. Gender is another risk factor in regards to influencing delinquent behavior. The predictors of different types of delinquency vary across females and males for various reasons, but a common underlying reason for this is socialization. Different predictors of delinquency emerge when analyzing distinct offending types across gender, but overall it is evident that males commit more crimes than females. Across all offenses, females are less likely to be involved in delinquent acts than males. Females not only commit fewer offenses, but they also commit less serious offenses. Socialization plays a key role in the gender gap in delinquency because male and female juveniles are often socialized differently. Girls' and boys' experiences are heavily mediated by gender, which alters their interactions in society. Males and females are differently controlled and bonded, suggesting that they will not make the same choices and may follow different paths of delinquency. Social bonds are important for both males and females, but different aspects of the bond are relevant for each gender. The degree of involvement in social settings is a significant predictor of male's violent delinquency, but is not significant for females. Males tend to be more connected with their peer relationships which in effect has a stronger influence on their behavior. Association with delinquent peers is one of the strongest correlates of juvenile delinquency, and much of the gender gap can be accounted for by the fact that males are more likely to have friends that support delinquent behavior. Delinquent peers are positively and significantly related to delinquency in males but delinquent peers are negatively and insignificantly related to delinquency for females. As for females, familial functioning relationships have shown to be more important. Female juveniles tend to be more strongly connected with their families, the disconnect or the lack of socialization between their family members can significantly predict their likelihood of committing crimes as juveniles and even as adults. When the family is disrupted, females are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior than males. Boys, however, tend to be less connected to their family and are not as affected by these relationships. When it comes to minor offenses such as fighting, vandalism, shoplifting, and the carrying of weapons, differences in gender are limited because they are most common among both males as well as females. Elements of the social bond, social disorganization, routine activities, opportunity, and attitudes towards violence are also related to delinquent behavior among both males and females. Individual psychological or behavioral risk factors that may make offending more likely include low intelligence, impulsiveness or the inability to delay gratification, aggression, lack of empathy, and restlessness. Other risk factors that may be evident during childhood and adolescence include, aggressive or troublesome behavior, language delays or impairments, lack of emotional control (learning to control one's anger), and cruelty to animals. Children with low intelligence are more likely to do badly in school. This may increase the chances of offending because low educational attainment, a low attachment to school, and low educational aspirations are all risk factors for offending in themselves. Children who perform poorly at school are also more likely to be truant, and the status offense of truancy is linked to further offending. Impulsiveness is seen by some as the key aspect of a child's personality that predicts offending. However, it is not clear whether these aspects of personality are a result of "deficits in the executive functions of the brain" or a result of parental influences or other social factors. In any event, studies of adolescent development show that teenagers are more prone to risk-taking, which may explain the high disproportionate rate of offending among adolescents. Juvenile delinquents are often diagnosed with different disorders. Around six to sixteen percent of male teens and two to nine percent of female teens have a conduct disorder. These can vary from oppositional-defiant disorder, which is not necessarily aggressive, to antisocial personality disorder, often diagnosed among psychopaths. A conduct disorder can develop during childhood and then manifest itself during adolescence. Juvenile delinquents who have recurring encounters with the criminal justice system, or in other words those who are life-course-persistent offenders, are sometimes diagnosed with conduct disorders because they show a continuous disregard for their own and others safety and/or property. Once the juvenile continues to exhibit the same behavioral patterns and turns eighteen he is then at risk of being diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and much more prone to become a serious criminal offender. One of the main components used in diagnosing an adult with antisocial personality disorder consists of presenting documented history of conduct disorder before the age of 15. These two personality disorders are analogous in their erratic and aggressive behavior. This is why habitual juvenile offenders diagnosed with conduct disorder are likely to exhibit signs of antisocial personality disorder early in life and then as they mature. Some times these juveniles reach maturation and they develop into career criminals, or life-course-persistent offenders. "Career criminals begin committing antisocial behavior before entering grade school and are versatile in that they engage in an array of destructive behaviors, offend at exceedingly high rates, and are less likely to quit committing crime as they age." Quantitative research was completed on 9,945 juvenile male offenders between the ages of 10 and 18 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the 1970s. The longitudinal birth cohort was used to examine a trend among a small percentage of career criminals who accounted for the largest percentage of crime activity. The trend exhibited a new phenomenon among habitual offenders. The phenomenon indicated that only 6% of the youth qualified under their definition of a habitual offender (known today as life-course persistent offenders, or career criminals) and yet were responsible for 52% of the delinquency within the entire study. The same 6% of chronic offenders accounted for 71% of the murders and 69% of the aggravated assaults. This phenomenon was later researched among an adult population in 1977 and resulted in similar findings. S. A. Mednick did a birth cohort of 30,000 males and found that 1% of the males were responsible for more than half of the criminal activity. The habitual crime behavior found among juveniles is similar to that of adults. As stated before most life-course persistent offenders begin exhibiting antisocial, violent, and/or delinquent behavior, prior to adolescence. Therefore, while there is a high rate of juvenile delinquency, it is the small percentage of life-course persistent, career criminals that are responsible for most of the violent crimes. Criminology There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime (criminology) most, if not all, of which are applicable to the causes of juvenile delinquency. Classical criminology stresses that the causes of crime lie within individual offenders, rather than in their external environment. For classicists, offenders are motivated by rational self-interest, and the importance of free will and personal responsibility is emphasized. Rational choice theory is the clearest example of that idea. Delinquency is one of the major factors motivated by rational choice. Current positivist approaches generally focus on the culture. A type of criminological theory attributing variation in crime and delinquency over time and among territories to the absence or breakdown of communal institutions (such as family, school, church, and social groups) and communal relationships that traditionally encouraged cooperative relationships among people. Strain theory is associated mainly with the work of Robert K. Merton, who felt that there are institutionalized paths to success in society. Strain theory holds that crime is caused by the difficulty for those in poverty have to achieve socially-valued goals by legitimate means. Since those with, for instance, poor educational attainment have difficulty achieving wealth and status by securing well-paid employment, they are more likely to use criminal means to obtain those goals. Merton's suggests five adaptations to this dilemma: A difficulty with strain theory is that it does not explore why children of low-income families have poor educational attainment in the first place. More importantly, much youth crime does not have an economic motivation. Strain theory fails to explain violent crime, the type of youth crime that causes most anxiety to the public. Differential association is another theory that deals with young people in a group context and looks at how peer pressure and the existence of gangs could lead them into crime. It suggests young people are motivated to commit crimes by delinquent peers and learn criminal skills from them. The diminished influence of peers after men marry has also been cited as a factor in desisting from offending. There is strong evidence that young people with criminal friends are more likely to commit crimes themselves. However, offenders may prefer to associate with one another, rather than delinquent peers causing someone to start offending. Furthermore, there is the question of how the delinquent peer group initially became delinquent. Labeling theory is a concept in criminology that aims to explain deviant behavior from the social context, rather the individual themselves. It is part of interactionism criminology, which states that once young people have been labeled as criminal, they are more likely to offend. The idea is that once labelled as deviant, a young person may accept that role and be more likely to associate with others who have been similarly labeled. Labelling theorists say that male children from poor families are more likely to be labelled deviant, which may partially explain the existence of more working-class young male offenders. Social control theory proposes that exploiting the process of socialization and social learning builds self-control and can reduce the inclination to indulge in behavior that is recognized as antisocial. These four types of control can help prevent juvenile delinquency: Direct by which punishment is threatened or applied for wrongful behavior, and compliance is rewarded by parents, family, and authority figures. Internal by which a youth refrains from delinquency through the conscience or superego. Indirect by identification with those who influence behavior, such as because the delinquent act might cause pain and disappointment to parents and others close relationships. Control through needs satisfaction: if all an individual's needs are met, there is no point in criminal activity. Punishment In 2020 a ruling abolished the death penalty for juveniles in Saudi Arabia. Despite this Mustafa Hashem al-Darwish was executed in June 2021. He was alleged to have of taken part in anti-government demonstrations at the age of 17. al-Darwish had been detained in May 2015 being placed in solitary confinement for years. al-Darwish claimed that he faced brutal torture and beatings and was forced to sign confessions. One criminal justice approach to juvenile delinquency is through the juvenile court systems. These courts are specifically for minors to be tried in. Sometimes, juvenile offenders are sent to adult prisons. In the United States, children as young as 8 can be tried and convicted as adults. Additionally, the United States was the only recorded country to sentence children as young as 13 to life sentences without parole also known as death in prison sentences. As of 2012, the Supreme Court has declared death in prison sentences unconstitutional for the vast majority of cases involving children. According to the US Department of Justice, about 3,600 children are housed in adult jails. According to a report released by the Prison Policy Initiative, over 48,000 children are held in juvenile detention centers or prisons in America. The worldwide number is unknown but UNICEF estimates that over 1 million children experience confinement in various countries. Juveniles in youth detention centers are sometimes subject to many of the same punishments as adults, such as solitary confinement, despite a younger age or the presence of disabilities. Due to the influx of minors in detention facilities due to the school to prison pipeline, education is increasingly becoming a concern. Children in juvenile detention have a compromised or nonexistent schooling which to a higher number of drop outs and failure to complete secondary education. Prevention Delinquency prevention is the broad term for all efforts aimed at preventing youth from becoming involved in criminal, or other antisocial, activity. Prevention services may include activities such as substance abuse education and treatment, family counseling, youth mentoring, parenting education, educational support, and youth sheltering. Increasing availability and use of family planning services, including education and contraceptives helps to reduce unintended pregnancy and unwanted births, which are risk factors for delinquency. It has been noted that often interventions such as peer groups may leave at-risk children worse off than if there had never been an intervention. Education promotes economic growth, national productivity and innovation, and values of democracy and social cohesion. Prevention through education has been seen to discourage delinquency for minors and help them strengthen the connection and understanding between peers A well-known intervention treatment is the Scared Straight Treatment. According to research done by Scott Lilienfeld, this type of intervention is often harmful because of juvenile offenders' vicarious exposure to criminal role models and the possibility of increased resentment in reaction to the confrontational interactions. It has been reasoned that the most efficient interventions are those that not only separate at-risk teens from anti-social peers, and place them instead with pro-social ones, but also simultaneously improve their home environment by training parents with appropriate parenting styles. In response to the data correlated with the school to prison pipeline, some institutions have implemented restorative justice policies. The restorative justice approach emphasizes conflict resolution and non-punitive intervention. Interventions such as hiring more counselors as opposed to security professionals or focusing on talking through problems would be included in a restorative justice approach. It is also important to note certain works of legislation that have already been published in the United States in response to general prisoner re-entry, extending to juveniles, such as the Second Chance Act (2007) and most recently, the Second Chance Reauthorization Act (2018). Juvenile reform deals with the vocational programs and educational approach to reducing recidivism rates of juvenile offenders. Most countries in the world legislate processes for juvenile reform and re-entry, some more elaborate and formal than others. In theory, juvenile re-entry is sensitive to the fact that juveniles are young and assumes they are capable of change; it approaches a juvenile offender's situation and history holistically, evaluating the earlier factors that could lead a juvenile to commit crimes. In practice, this is complicated since juvenile delinquents return home to varying and unpredictable circumstances, including poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence, etc.. In the United States, juvenile reform is split into four main phases: An understanding of the factors involved in each of these steps is crucial to creating an effective juvenile reform program. One non-profit identifies the following approaches to juvenile reform: While juvenile reform has proved to be an effective and humanizing approach response to juvenile delinquency, it is a very complex area that still has many ongoing debates. For example, many countries around the world are debating the appropriate age of a juvenile, as well as trying to understand whether there are some crimes that are so heinous, they should be exempt from any understanding. Based on these discussions, legislation needs to be consistently updated and considered as social, cultural, and political landscapes change. Juvenile sex crimes Juveniles who commit sexual crimes refer to individuals adjudicated in a criminal court for a sexual crime. Sex crimes are defined as sexually abusive behavior committed by a person under the age of 18 that is perpetrated "against the victim's will, without consent, and in an aggressive, exploitative, manipulative, and/or threatening manner". It is important to utilize appropriate terminology for juvenile sex offenders. Harsh and inappropriate expressions include terms such as "pedophile, child molester, predator, perpetrator, and mini-perp". These terms have often been associated with this group, regardless of the youth's age, diagnosis, cognitive abilities, or developmental stage. Using appropriate expressions can facilitate a more accurate depiction of juvenile sex offenders and may decrease the subsequent aversive psychological affects from using such labels. In the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, homosexual acts are classified as an offense, and constitute one of the primary crimes for which juvenile males are charged. Examining prevalence data and the characteristics of juvenile sex offenders is a fundamental component to obtain a precise understanding of this heterogeneous group. With mandatory reporting laws in place, it became a necessity for providers to report any incidents of disclosed sexual abuse. Longo and Prescott indicate that juveniles commit approximately 30-60% of all child sexual abuse. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports indicate that in 2008 youth under the age of 18 accounted for 16.7% of forcible rapes and 20.61% of other sexual offenses. Center for Sex Offender Management indicates that approximately one-fifth of all rapes and one-half of all sexual child molestation can be accounted for by juveniles. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention indicates that 15% of juvenile arrests occurred for rape in 2006, and 12% were clearance (resolved by an arrest). The total number of juvenile arrests in 2006 for forcible rape was 3,610 with 2% being female and 36% being under the age of 15 years. This trend has declined throughout the years with forcible rape from 1997–2006 being −30% and from 2005 to 2006 being −10%. The OJJDP reports that the juvenile arrest rate for forcible rape increased from the early 1980s through the 1990s and at that time it fell again. Violent crime rates in the U.S. have been on a steady decline since the 1990s. The OJJDP also reported that the total number of juvenile arrests in 2006 for sex offenses (other than forcible rape) was 15,900 with 10% being female and 47% being under the age of 15. There was again a decrease with the trend throughout the years with sex offenses from 1997 to 2006 being −16% and from 2005 to 2006 being −9%. Barbaree and Marshall indicate that juvenile males contribute to the majority of sex crimes, with 2–4% of adolescent males having reported committing sexually assaultive behavior, and 20% of all rapes and 30–50% of all child molestation are perpetrated by adolescent males. It is clear that males are over-represented in this population. This is consistent with Ryan and Lane's research indicating that males account for 91-93% of the reported juvenile sex offenses. Righthand and Welch reported that females account for an estimated 2–11% of incidents of sexual offending. In addition, it reported by The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention that in the juvenile arrests during 2006, African American male youth were disproportionately arrested (34%) for forcible rape. In one case in a foster home a 13-year-old boy raped a 9-year-old boy by having forced anal sex with him. In a court hearing the 9-year-old boy said he had done this multiple times. The 13-year-old boy was charged for sexual assault. Sexual crimes committed by juveniles are not just an issue in the United States. Studies from the Netherlands show that out of 3,200 sex offenders recorded by police in 2009, 672 of those were juveniles, approximately 21 percent of sexual offenders. The study also points out the male to female ratio of sexual predators. In 2009, a U.S. congressman proposed legislation that would create an International Sex Offender Registry. The bill was introduced due to the fact that because laws differ in different countries, someone who is on the sex offender registry in the U.S. who may be barred from living certain places and doing certain activities has free range in other less developed countries. This can lead to child sex tourism, when a sexual predator will go to less developed countries and prey on young boys and girls. Karne Newburn in his article, The Prospect of an International Sex Offender Registry, pointed out some serious flaws in the proposed bill, such as creating safety issues within the communities for the sex offenders placed on the registry. Newburn suggested instead of creating an International Sex Offender Registry from the U.S. model the U.S. join other countries in a dialogue on creating an effective model. As of now no registry exists. Despite this there is still interest in creating some sort of international registry. By country The United Kingdom has three separate and distinct criminal justice systems: England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Young offenders are often dealt with by the Youth Offending Team. There is concern young adult offenders are not getting the support they need to help them avoid reoffending. In England and Wales the age of criminal responsibility is set at 10. Young offenders aged 10 to 17 (i.e. up to their 18th birthday) are classed as a juvenile offender. Between the ages of 18 and 20 (i.e. up to their 21st birthday) they are classed as young offenders. Offenders aged 21 and over are known as adult offenders. In Scotland the age of criminal responsibility was formerly set at 8, one of the lowest ages of criminal responsibility in Europe. It has since been raised to 12 by the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, which received Royal Assent on 6 August 2010. In Northern Ireland, the age of criminal responsibility is 10. In 2008, police rolled out Operation Staysafe, which allowed police to hand over juvenile delinquents to a social worker. In Canada, the YCJA protects the rights of young offenders. It has four main goals to ensure the youth is subject to meaningful consequences that promote the long-term protection of society, to rehabilitate and reintegrate the youth into society seamlessly, and to prevent crime by examining the underlying causes. The YCJA was introduced in 2003, succeeding the Young Offender's Act. In both Denmark and Sweden, the age of criminal responsibility is set at 15. In Sweden it has been 15 since 1902. In the United States, the age of criminal responsibility for federal crimes is set at 11. While this has been set at the federal level, each state is responsible for setting their own age of criminal responsibility. 31 states have no minimum age for criminal responsibility, while the remaining 19 do. North Carolina has the lowest responsibility age of 6 years old and Massachusetts has the highest of 12 years old. There are 1.5 million cases per year in the US that handle status offenses or criminal offenses by young offenders. However, only 52 juveniles were fully sentenced to prison-time between 2010–2015. Recidivism is common among young offenders, with 67% becoming repeat offenders. In Brazil, the age of criminal responsibility is set at the age of 18. Anyone that is found guilty of committing crimes prior to the age of 18 is treated to other options rather than jail. These include, for children under 12, foster care options in order to get them a safer family, and, for young offenders over 12, being sentenced to complying with a range of socio-educative measures that can go from a warning to community work and even to internment in specialized facilities, which include basic schooling and occupational training courses that aim at preventing the offenders from resorting to crime to support themselves, although conditions in such facilities are often subpar. With a spike in crime rates among young offenders occurring in 2015, along with an almost 40% increase in internments of young offenders, there was a push to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 16, which ultimately failed. Juvenile crime has risen in China with an average increase of 5% per year. In 2021, China lowered the age of criminal responsibility from 14 to 12 in an amendment to its criminal law, and it mandated that such prosecution must be approved by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. See also References Further reading External links |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/report/880620/ken-watanabe-interview-kokuho] | [TOKENS: 2872] |
ReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentFilmCloseFilmPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All FilmKen Watanabe didn’t think a kabuki movie would workDespite the actor’s reservations, the nearly three-hour-long Kokuho has become Japan’s top-grossing live-action film.Despite the actor’s reservations, the nearly three-hour-long Kokuho has become Japan’s top-grossing live-action film.by Andrew WebsterCloseAndrew WebsterSenior entertainment editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew WebsterFeb 18, 2026, 5:45 PM UTCLinkShareGiftDeadline via Getty ImagesAndrew WebsterCloseAndrew WebsterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew Webster is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.A three-hour-long period drama about kabuki, a centuries-old form of Japanese theater, doesn’t exactly sound like box office gold. But that’s exactly what happened with Kokuho. Director Lee Sang-il’s adaptation of the Shuichi Yoshida novel of the same name was a surprise hit last year, becoming Japan’s top-grossing live-action film domestically. But star Ken Watanabe — a veteran actor known for Hollywood movies like Inception and Detective Pikachu — initially didn’t think it was a good idea. He loved the novel, but worried that the art form wouldn’t translate well to film.“‘Don’t do that,’” he remembers telling Sang-il when he first pitched the idea. “Kabuki is a very strict culture in Japan, and it’s hard for a normal actor to play in a kabuki play.” Despite these reservations, it was a success, and now Kokuho has the chance to reach a wider audience, releasing in theaters across the US on February 20th.The film follows the lives of two actors. There’s Kikuo Tachibana (Ryo Yoshizawa), the orphaned son of a yakuza boss who is taken on as an apprentice by legendary kabuki actor Hanjiro (Watanabe). He’s joined by Shunsuke Ōgaki (Ryusei Yokohama), Hanjiro’s son, who has been groomed from a young age to succeed his father. Kokuho tracks their diverting careers over the course of 50 years, from 1964 to 2014, as each dedicates themselves to the demanding role known as onnagata, or male kabuki actors who play female roles. It’s a beautiful and at times devastating portrait of the lengths artists go to in search of greatness.It’s also a film that demanded a lot of its performers. Due to the highly specific and physically difficult movements required of an onnagata, Kokuho’s two leads spent around 18 months training to get things right. Watanabe’s character spends a comparatively small amount of time performing in the film, but even still, he says he trained for around four months to learn the moves and choreography. Things were only made more challenging by the heavy wigs, elaborate costumes, and long shoots. “All difficult things connect to joy,” he says of the preparation. “It’s all part of a process of getting somewhere. So I never really felt like it was painful or extremely difficult. However, I do complain on occasion. Just sometimes.”Watanabe’s character is a constant presence throughout the film, particularly early on. In the ’60s, he trains the budding kabuki stars (played by child actors Sōya Kurokawa and Keitatsu Koshiyama), who develop a budding rivalry, in part over his approval. “My role was to watch these two characters from being a child to becoming these great kabuki actors, so I was this watchful eye throughout their careers,” Watanabe explains. “The child actors worked really hard as well, so I got to see them grow up through the process of the film, which is a new experience for me.”However, while he was a mentor in the film, Watanabe says that, despite his storied career, he didn’t take on a similar role off-camera. “When I was young, I always felt that acting with others was like stepping into the same ring, and that our career and level of experience doesn’t matter,” he explains. “I still approach acting the same way. I don’t take the role of a teacher or someone who guides in real life, because we’re all equals stepping up into the same ring.”Watanabe is still unclear on just why Kokuho was such a success. Maybe it has to do in part with how detailed the production is, not just in terms of the impressive kabuki costumes and performances, but also the period-appropriate sets, which change frequently as the story jumps ahead in time. Whatever the reason, he says that a few days after the film premiered in Japan, he tracked sentiments on social media, and “realized that young people love this movie. Then maybe a month later, we couldn’t believe the success.”Despite his initial reservations, working on Kokuho has been a rewarding experience for Watanabe. Though he didn’t previously have experience with kabuki specifically, he got his start acting on stage, and in 2015 made his Broadway debut as the lead in The King and I. And he says that because of this, shooting Kokuho was a nostalgic experience, describing the feeling as “kind of like déjà vu.” It was such a strong feeling, in fact, that seeing the movie for the first time hit him hard. “I couldn’t stop the tears seeing the final moment of this film,” he says.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Andrew WebsterCloseAndrew WebsterSenior entertainment editorPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Andrew WebsterEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentFilmCloseFilmPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All FilmInterviewCloseInterviewPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All InterviewReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportMost PopularMost PopularThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutA $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloudXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftMeta’s VR metaverse is ditching VRRead new Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s memo on the future of XboxThe 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 Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Film Ken Watanabe didn’t think a kabuki movie would work Despite the actor’s reservations, the nearly three-hour-long Kokuho has become Japan’s top-grossing live-action film. Despite the actor’s reservations, the nearly three-hour-long Kokuho has become Japan’s top-grossing live-action film. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Webster Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Webster A three-hour-long period drama about kabuki, a centuries-old form of Japanese theater, doesn’t exactly sound like box office gold. But that’s exactly what happened with Kokuho. Director Lee Sang-il’s adaptation of the Shuichi Yoshida novel of the same name was a surprise hit last year, becoming Japan’s top-grossing live-action film domestically. But star Ken Watanabe — a veteran actor known for Hollywood movies like Inception and Detective Pikachu — initially didn’t think it was a good idea. He loved the novel, but worried that the art form wouldn’t translate well to film. “‘Don’t do that,’” he remembers telling Sang-il when he first pitched the idea. “Kabuki is a very strict culture in Japan, and it’s hard for a normal actor to play in a kabuki play.” Despite these reservations, it was a success, and now Kokuho has the chance to reach a wider audience, releasing in theaters across the US on February 20th. The film follows the lives of two actors. There’s Kikuo Tachibana (Ryo Yoshizawa), the orphaned son of a yakuza boss who is taken on as an apprentice by legendary kabuki actor Hanjiro (Watanabe). He’s joined by Shunsuke Ōgaki (Ryusei Yokohama), Hanjiro’s son, who has been groomed from a young age to succeed his father. Kokuho tracks their diverting careers over the course of 50 years, from 1964 to 2014, as each dedicates themselves to the demanding role known as onnagata, or male kabuki actors who play female roles. It’s a beautiful and at times devastating portrait of the lengths artists go to in search of greatness. It’s also a film that demanded a lot of its performers. Due to the highly specific and physically difficult movements required of an onnagata, Kokuho’s two leads spent around 18 months training to get things right. Watanabe’s character spends a comparatively small amount of time performing in the film, but even still, he says he trained for around four months to learn the moves and choreography. Things were only made more challenging by the heavy wigs, elaborate costumes, and long shoots. “All difficult things connect to joy,” he says of the preparation. “It’s all part of a process of getting somewhere. So I never really felt like it was painful or extremely difficult. However, I do complain on occasion. Just sometimes.” Watanabe’s character is a constant presence throughout the film, particularly early on. In the ’60s, he trains the budding kabuki stars (played by child actors Sōya Kurokawa and Keitatsu Koshiyama), who develop a budding rivalry, in part over his approval. “My role was to watch these two characters from being a child to becoming these great kabuki actors, so I was this watchful eye throughout their careers,” Watanabe explains. “The child actors worked really hard as well, so I got to see them grow up through the process of the film, which is a new experience for me.” However, while he was a mentor in the film, Watanabe says that, despite his storied career, he didn’t take on a similar role off-camera. “When I was young, I always felt that acting with others was like stepping into the same ring, and that our career and level of experience doesn’t matter,” he explains. “I still approach acting the same way. I don’t take the role of a teacher or someone who guides in real life, because we’re all equals stepping up into the same ring.” Watanabe is still unclear on just why Kokuho was such a success. Maybe it has to do in part with how detailed the production is, not just in terms of the impressive kabuki costumes and performances, but also the period-appropriate sets, which change frequently as the story jumps ahead in time. Whatever the reason, he says that a few days after the film premiered in Japan, he tracked sentiments on social media, and “realized that young people love this movie. Then maybe a month later, we couldn’t believe the success.” Despite his initial reservations, working on Kokuho has been a rewarding experience for Watanabe. Though he didn’t previously have experience with kabuki specifically, he got his start acting on stage, and in 2015 made his Broadway debut as the lead in The King and I. And he says that because of this, shooting Kokuho was a nostalgic experience, describing the feeling as “kind of like déjà vu.” It was such a strong feeling, in fact, that seeing the movie for the first time hit him hard. “I couldn’t stop the tears seeing the final moment of this film,” he says. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Webster Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Film Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Interview Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. 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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/882175/the-gorillaz-the-mountain-teaser] | [TOKENS: 516] |
Posted Feb 20, 2026 at 5:55 PM UTCCYoutubeCharles Pulliam-MooreThe Gorillaz are going back to the mountain.Ahead of the debut of The Gorillaz’s new album The Mountain, the animated band has dropped a teaser video that makes it seem like there might also be a short film situation on the way.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentFilmCloseFilmPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All FilmMusicCloseMusicPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All MusicCommentsLoading 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 Amazon’s cloudXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftMeta’s VR metaverse is ditching VRRead new Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s memo on the future of XboxThe 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. Ahead of the debut of The Gorillaz’s new album The Mountain, the animated band has dropped a teaser video that makes it seem like there might also be a short film situation on the way. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Charles Pulliam-Moore Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Film Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Music Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. More in Entertainment This is the title for the native ad Top Stories © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/881016/hbo-the-pitt-generative-ai-charting] | [TOKENS: 3285] |
EntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceThe Pitt has a sharp take on AIHBO’s medical drama has been teasing out a smart story about what makes gen AI so tempting and concerning.by Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreFeb 19, 2026, 11:15 PM UTCLinkShareGift Image: HBOEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceThe Pitt has a sharp take on AIHBO’s medical drama has been teasing out a smart story about what makes gen AI so tempting and concerning.by Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreFeb 19, 2026, 11:15 PM UTCLinkShareGiftCharles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MoorePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.Each episode of HBO’s The Pitt features some degree of medical trauma that almost makes the hospital drama feel like a horror series. Some patients are dealing with gnarly lacerations while others are fighting off vicious blood infections that could rob them of their limbs, and the chaos of working in an emergency room often leaves The Pitt’s central characters shaken. But as alarming as many of The Pitt’s more gore-forward moments can be, what’s even more unsettling is the show’s slow-burning subplot about hospitals adopting generative artificial intelligence.In its second season, The Pitt once again chronicles all the events that happen during a single 15-hour day shift in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room. Season two takes place on the Fourth of July — one of the busiest days for hospitals — as senior attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) is working one last shift before he takes a much-needed sabbatical. With Dr. Robby scheduled to be away for three months, the hospital brings in Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) to help lead the emergency room while he’s away. There’s some personality-based friction between the attendings, but Dr. Robby mostly respects how Dr. Al-Hashimi navigates her work except when she insists that the hospital would be better off if it committed to using a piece of AI-powered transcription software.Though this season starts off relatively calm, the day becomes increasingly stressful for all of The Pitt’s characters as the hospital becomes filled with people needing medical attention. Staying on top of her work is especially taxing for second-year resident Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) because she simply doesn’t have enough time to see all of her patients and carefully note all of their symptoms in their medical charts.Dr. Al-Hashimi knows that AI-generated transcripts aren’t perfect, but she sees Dr. Santos as the perfect example of a doctor who could get through their charting faster with the technology’s help. To the fictional software’s credit, it does accurately transcribe most of Dr. Santos’ dictation. But both doctors are stunned when a surgeon storms into the ER in a rage after receiving charts with very obvious, glaring errors that could have led to patients receiving incorrect care.Rather than running headlong into a “generative AI is bad and dangerous” ripped-from-the-headlines plot, The Pitt has taken its time to explore the reasons why medical professionals might want to use this kind of technology and the importance of looking at it with some skepticism. Dr. Al-Hashimi encourages her medical students and residents to use the transcription software, but she’s also diligent about warning them that they need to double-check any work completed with AI because they — not their tools — are responsible for how patients are treated. Each of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s warnings come across as The Pitt acknowledging real-world instances of patients suing hospitals over botched surgeries involving the use of AI tools and studies that have found large language models to be unreliable in their ability to accurately predict patient health outcomes. The Pitt also uses Dr. Al-Hashimi’s AI boosterism to hammer home how adopting the technology in professional settings can actually create more busywork (see: double-checking transcriptions) while contributing to people burning out. Initially, Dr. Al-Hashimi seems like she might be a major antagonistic presence this season, but The Pitt’s writing team has very smartly chosen to focus on a bigger idea.This season of The Pitt has been repeatedly emphasizing that technology can only do so much to solve problems when it isn’t really designed to address the real issue at hand. AI-powered transcription can help Dr. Santos finish charts more quickly (with some errors thrown in for good measure). But the software can’t do much about the emergency room being understaffed, or when the doctors and nurses are suddenly tasked with taking in more patients after another hospital goes on lockdown.Image: HBOThe way characters like Dr. Santos and nurses like Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) find themselves inundated with demanding patients who have spent hours in overstuffed waiting rooms feels like a direct reflection of the real-world challenges hospitals across the country are facing. To truly get a hold on their workloads, The Pitt’s ER staff really needs more hands on deck and more space to give patients the appropriate care. But with the country facing a nursing shortage and the fictional hospital being perpetually underfunded, it tracks that administrators would want to try boosting productivity using AI.The Pitt easily could (and still might before the season’s over) tell a story about how errors caused by using gen AI lead to mistakes in operating rooms that can leave medical professionals open to lawsuits. But the show is right for highlighting the reality that there are some critical workplace issues that can’t be fixed simply by throwing new kinds of technology at them.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreAICloseAIPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AIEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentHBOCloseHBOPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All HBOHealthCloseHealthPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All HealthScienceCloseSciencePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ScienceStreamingCloseStreamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All StreamingTV ShowsCloseTV ShowsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TV ShowsMost PopularMost PopularThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutA $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloudMeta’s VR metaverse is ditching VRThe biggest app in the whole wide worldGE 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.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 Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science The Pitt has a sharp take on AI HBO’s medical drama has been teasing out a smart story about what makes gen AI so tempting and concerning. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Charles Pulliam-Moore Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Science The Pitt has a sharp take on AI HBO’s medical drama has been teasing out a smart story about what makes gen AI so tempting and concerning. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Charles Pulliam-Moore Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Charles Pulliam-Moore Each episode of HBO’s The Pitt features some degree of medical trauma that almost makes the hospital drama feel like a horror series. Some patients are dealing with gnarly lacerations while others are fighting off vicious blood infections that could rob them of their limbs, and the chaos of working in an emergency room often leaves The Pitt’s central characters shaken. But as alarming as many of The Pitt’s more gore-forward moments can be, what’s even more unsettling is the show’s slow-burning subplot about hospitals adopting generative artificial intelligence. In its second season, The Pitt once again chronicles all the events that happen during a single 15-hour day shift in the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center’s emergency room. Season two takes place on the Fourth of July — one of the busiest days for hospitals — as senior attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) is working one last shift before he takes a much-needed sabbatical. With Dr. Robby scheduled to be away for three months, the hospital brings in Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) to help lead the emergency room while he’s away. There’s some personality-based friction between the attendings, but Dr. Robby mostly respects how Dr. Al-Hashimi navigates her work except when she insists that the hospital would be better off if it committed to using a piece of AI-powered transcription software. Though this season starts off relatively calm, the day becomes increasingly stressful for all of The Pitt’s characters as the hospital becomes filled with people needing medical attention. Staying on top of her work is especially taxing for second-year resident Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) because she simply doesn’t have enough time to see all of her patients and carefully note all of their symptoms in their medical charts. Dr. Al-Hashimi knows that AI-generated transcripts aren’t perfect, but she sees Dr. Santos as the perfect example of a doctor who could get through their charting faster with the technology’s help. To the fictional software’s credit, it does accurately transcribe most of Dr. Santos’ dictation. But both doctors are stunned when a surgeon storms into the ER in a rage after receiving charts with very obvious, glaring errors that could have led to patients receiving incorrect care. Rather than running headlong into a “generative AI is bad and dangerous” ripped-from-the-headlines plot, The Pitt has taken its time to explore the reasons why medical professionals might want to use this kind of technology and the importance of looking at it with some skepticism. Dr. Al-Hashimi encourages her medical students and residents to use the transcription software, but she’s also diligent about warning them that they need to double-check any work completed with AI because they — not their tools — are responsible for how patients are treated. Each of Dr. Al-Hashimi’s warnings come across as The Pitt acknowledging real-world instances of patients suing hospitals over botched surgeries involving the use of AI tools and studies that have found large language models to be unreliable in their ability to accurately predict patient health outcomes. The Pitt also uses Dr. Al-Hashimi’s AI boosterism to hammer home how adopting the technology in professional settings can actually create more busywork (see: double-checking transcriptions) while contributing to people burning out. Initially, Dr. Al-Hashimi seems like she might be a major antagonistic presence this season, but The Pitt’s writing team has very smartly chosen to focus on a bigger idea. This season of The Pitt has been repeatedly emphasizing that technology can only do so much to solve problems when it isn’t really designed to address the real issue at hand. AI-powered transcription can help Dr. Santos finish charts more quickly (with some errors thrown in for good measure). But the software can’t do much about the emergency room being understaffed, or when the doctors and nurses are suddenly tasked with taking in more patients after another hospital goes on lockdown. The way characters like Dr. Santos and nurses like Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) find themselves inundated with demanding patients who have spent hours in overstuffed waiting rooms feels like a direct reflection of the real-world challenges hospitals across the country are facing. To truly get a hold on their workloads, The Pitt’s ER staff really needs more hands on deck and more space to give patients the appropriate care. But with the country facing a nursing shortage and the fictional hospital being perpetually underfunded, it tracks that administrators would want to try boosting productivity using AI. The Pitt easily could (and still might before the season’s over) tell a story about how errors caused by using gen AI lead to mistakes in operating rooms that can leave medical professionals open to lawsuits. But the show is right for highlighting the reality that there are some critical workplace issues that can’t be fixed simply by throwing new kinds of technology at them. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Charles Pulliam-Moore Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All AI Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All HBO Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Health 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 Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All TV Shows 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 Entertainment This is the title for the native ad Top Stories © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#cite_ref-42] | [TOKENS: 10515] |
Contents Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk (/ˈiːlɒn/ 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 2025–26 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 (née 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 Encyclopædia 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 – 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 Alto–based 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 Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $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 trials—which have caused the deaths of some monkeys—have 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 Sánchez as a "tyrant" following Sánchez'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 — [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 Æ 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, "Æ 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 Æ A-Xii. Elon Musk has taken X Æ 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? I’ve 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 I’m 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 don’t recall introducing Epstein to anyone, as I don’t 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 Fédération Aéronautique 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://www.wired.com/story/made-in-china-niche-websites-are-seeing-a-surge-of-mysterious-traffic-from-china/] | [TOKENS: 3670] |
Zeyi YangBusinessFeb 12, 2026 2:50 PMA Wave of Unexplained Bot Traffic Is Sweeping the WebFrom small publishers to US federal agencies, websites are reporting unusual spikes in automated traffic linked to IP addresses in Lanzhou, China.Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyFor a brief moment in October, Alejandro Quintero thought he had made it big in China. The Bogotá-based data analyst owns and manages a website that publishes articles about paranormal activities, like ghosts and aliens. The content is written in “Spanglish,” he says, and was never intended for an Asian audience. But last fall, Quintero’s site suddenly began receiving a large volume of visits from China and Singapore. The amount of traffic coming from the two countries was so high and consistent that it now accounts for more than half of total visits to Quintero’s site over the past 12 months.When he first noticed the traffic spike, Quintero thought he’d found an audience on the other side of the world. “I need to travel to China right now because I’m the bomb there,” Quintero says he recalls thinking. But as soon as he dug into the data, he knew something was wrong. Google Analytics, a common tool used by website owners to parse web traffic, shows that all the Chinese visitors are from one specific city: Lanzhou. They are unlikely to be real humans, because they stay on the page for an average of 0 seconds and don’t scroll or click. Quintero quickly realized his website was actually being bombarded by bots.Quintero later found out from social media that he was far from the only website operator who started seeing a large influx of bots from China and Singapore beginning in September. A lifestyle magazine based in India, a blog about a small island off the coast of Canada, the owners of several personal portfolio websites, a weather forecast platform with over 15 million pages, ecommerce shops hosted by Shopify, and even domains run by the US government have all reported being hit by what appear to be the same bots. And they were easy to spot because the bots significantly skewed each website’s usual analytics patterns. In the last 90 days, 14.7 percent of visits to US government websites came from Lanzhou and 6.6 percent came from Singapore, making them the top two cities in the world supposedly hungry for information from the American government, according to Analytics.usa.gov.While their IP addresses can be traced to China and Singapore, there’s little information about who's actually behind this massive amount of automated visits. Website owners who are being targeted have largely concluded that the bots don’t pose any immediate harm. Given that AI-related bot activity surged across the internet last year, many believe the traffic could be connected to companies harvesting web data for training models.Where Is Lanzhou, Anyway?When website owners saw the sudden uptick of visits from China, many of them started asking, where is Lanzhou? The second-tier city in China’s northwest is known for its heavy manufacturing industries and historical legacy as a Silk Road trading hub. But it’s neither a tech hub nor home to significant numbers of data centers. So why is so much traffic coming from the city?Lanzhou might not be the actual source of the bots, says Gavin King, founder of Known Agents, which analyzes automated online traffic. King’s own company website has also been targeted by bots from China and Singapore. When he looked deeper into the specific details of the visits, the only thing he could say for certain was that all of the traffic was eventually being routed through Singapore. Google Analytics determined the visits originated from Lanzhou, but King says that could just be an educated guess instead of a precise location.But the most concrete detail King found is that the traffic is being routed through servers belonging to several major Chinese cloud companies. King says the bot traffic his website received all came through the Autonomous System Number (ASN) 132203, a unique identifier in the internet’s routing system assigned to an internet service provider operated by the Chinese company Tencent. Andy, the manager of a large weather forecasting website group, says he detected bot traffic coming from ASNs associated with Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei. (He asked only to use his first to protect his privacy.) All three companies are major cloud providers, and it’s unclear whether the bots are coming from in-house or clients using their servers.Many people suspect that these bots are part of an AI company’s effort to collect training data from web pages. In 2025, AI bots accounted for a significant portion of overall web traffic, which crawl the internet for text and other information to feed to data-hungry large language models.But there are some key differences between these Chinese bots and other AI bots. First, there’s simply way more of them. King says on his website that the traffic from China and Singapore accounts for 22 percent of overall traffic, while all other AI bots account for less than 10 percent combined.Most leading AI companies clearly identify their bots to website operators, which also makes them easier to block. The frontier AI labs are “not as interested in evading” bot-blocking rules, says Brent Maynard, senior director of security technology and strategy at the internet infrastructure company Akamai. He says AI companies usually only start trying to disguise their bots after a website shuts the front door. This wave of Chinese bots, however, disguised themselves as normal human users from the start, and they have even bypassed common bot-blocking rules, several website owners told WIRED.Beyond AI companies, there are other businesses incentivized to scrape the internet, including search crawlers and intelligence-gathering companies.Rising Costs and Distorted DataThe good news, at least for now, is that the bots don't seem to have an explicitly malicious purpose. They haven’t been publicly connected to any cyberattack and don't seem to be scanning for vulnerabilities. But the lack of a clear motive also adds to the confusion.Some website owners are worried that the bots are scanning copyrighted material without permission. Others say the surge has forced them to pay more for bandwidth, as bot traffic crowds out human users, or to invest in more sophisticated prevention tools. The visits also skew traffic analytics, distorting reports about who is actually visiting their sites.But the biggest impacts are felt by people who earn revenue from attracting ad clicks on their websites. “This is destroying my AdSense strategies,” says Quintero, the paranormal blog owner, “because they are saying [your website is] only visited by bots, so your content is not something that is valuable to the viewer.” As a result, websites like his may be seen as less desirable to advertisers and penalized by Google.Makeshift SolutionsMany people have complained about the China AI bot problem in online support channels over the past few months, or sent messages about it directly to their web-hosting providers. But so far, there are still few concrete answers.Contacted by WIRED, WordPress acknowledged that it has seen reports in recent months that some of its sites are experiencing increased traffic from suspected AI bots or scrapers. “WordPress websites have always had a great structure that makes them easy to find and be indexed by search engines. Those same capabilities make them easily crawled [by] AI as well,” the company said in an unsigned email. Google, Cloudflare, and Squarespace did not respond to requests for comment.Some website operators are now taking matters into their own hands. On social platforms like Reddit, victims of the bots have swapped makeshift strategies for identifying and blocking them. Over time, they learned that these bots often present themselves as using old versions of Windows operating systems and uncommon screen aspect ratios, characteristics that allow website operators to block them as a group. If the websites don’t care about traffic from China or Singapore at all, some also elect to prevent anyone with an IP address located in those countries from accessing their sites.Andy, the weather website manager, says he ended up blocking four ASNs associated with Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei. That was enough to reduce the number of bots significantly but not completely eliminate them, he says. The number of daily visits from the Chinese bots to his site have gone from 127,000 at their peak down to just above 2,000 the day he spoke to WIRED.As autonomous AI tools proliferate across the internet, figuring out how to combat them will likely become a more common headache for website owners. “This is the cost of being on the internet to some degree,” says Akamai’s Maynard, “You're open, and you're in public view.”This is an edition of Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis’ Made in China newsletter. Read previous newsletters here. A Wave of Unexplained Bot Traffic Is Sweeping the Web For a brief moment in October, Alejandro Quintero thought he had made it big in China. The Bogotá-based data analyst owns and manages a website that publishes articles about paranormal activities, like ghosts and aliens. The content is written in “Spanglish,” he says, and was never intended for an Asian audience. But last fall, Quintero’s site suddenly began receiving a large volume of visits from China and Singapore. The amount of traffic coming from the two countries was so high and consistent that it now accounts for more than half of total visits to Quintero’s site over the past 12 months. When he first noticed the traffic spike, Quintero thought he’d found an audience on the other side of the world. “I need to travel to China right now because I’m the bomb there,” Quintero says he recalls thinking. But as soon as he dug into the data, he knew something was wrong. Google Analytics, a common tool used by website owners to parse web traffic, shows that all the Chinese visitors are from one specific city: Lanzhou. They are unlikely to be real humans, because they stay on the page for an average of 0 seconds and don’t scroll or click. Quintero quickly realized his website was actually being bombarded by bots. Quintero later found out from social media that he was far from the only website operator who started seeing a large influx of bots from China and Singapore beginning in September. A lifestyle magazine based in India, a blog about a small island off the coast of Canada, the owners of several personal portfolio websites, a weather forecast platform with over 15 million pages, ecommerce shops hosted by Shopify, and even domains run by the US government have all reported being hit by what appear to be the same bots. And they were easy to spot because the bots significantly skewed each website’s usual analytics patterns. In the last 90 days, 14.7 percent of visits to US government websites came from Lanzhou and 6.6 percent came from Singapore, making them the top two cities in the world supposedly hungry for information from the American government, according to Analytics.usa.gov. While their IP addresses can be traced to China and Singapore, there’s little information about who's actually behind this massive amount of automated visits. Website owners who are being targeted have largely concluded that the bots don’t pose any immediate harm. Given that AI-related bot activity surged across the internet last year, many believe the traffic could be connected to companies harvesting web data for training models. Where Is Lanzhou, Anyway? When website owners saw the sudden uptick of visits from China, many of them started asking, where is Lanzhou? The second-tier city in China’s northwest is known for its heavy manufacturing industries and historical legacy as a Silk Road trading hub. But it’s neither a tech hub nor home to significant numbers of data centers. So why is so much traffic coming from the city? Lanzhou might not be the actual source of the bots, says Gavin King, founder of Known Agents, which analyzes automated online traffic. King’s own company website has also been targeted by bots from China and Singapore. When he looked deeper into the specific details of the visits, the only thing he could say for certain was that all of the traffic was eventually being routed through Singapore. Google Analytics determined the visits originated from Lanzhou, but King says that could just be an educated guess instead of a precise location. But the most concrete detail King found is that the traffic is being routed through servers belonging to several major Chinese cloud companies. King says the bot traffic his website received all came through the Autonomous System Number (ASN) 132203, a unique identifier in the internet’s routing system assigned to an internet service provider operated by the Chinese company Tencent. Andy, the manager of a large weather forecasting website group, says he detected bot traffic coming from ASNs associated with Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei. (He asked only to use his first to protect his privacy.) All three companies are major cloud providers, and it’s unclear whether the bots are coming from in-house or clients using their servers. Many people suspect that these bots are part of an AI company’s effort to collect training data from web pages. In 2025, AI bots accounted for a significant portion of overall web traffic, which crawl the internet for text and other information to feed to data-hungry large language models. But there are some key differences between these Chinese bots and other AI bots. First, there’s simply way more of them. King says on his website that the traffic from China and Singapore accounts for 22 percent of overall traffic, while all other AI bots account for less than 10 percent combined. Most leading AI companies clearly identify their bots to website operators, which also makes them easier to block. The frontier AI labs are “not as interested in evading” bot-blocking rules, says Brent Maynard, senior director of security technology and strategy at the internet infrastructure company Akamai. He says AI companies usually only start trying to disguise their bots after a website shuts the front door. This wave of Chinese bots, however, disguised themselves as normal human users from the start, and they have even bypassed common bot-blocking rules, several website owners told WIRED. Beyond AI companies, there are other businesses incentivized to scrape the internet, including search crawlers and intelligence-gathering companies. Rising Costs and Distorted Data The good news, at least for now, is that the bots don't seem to have an explicitly malicious purpose. They haven’t been publicly connected to any cyberattack and don't seem to be scanning for vulnerabilities. But the lack of a clear motive also adds to the confusion. Some website owners are worried that the bots are scanning copyrighted material without permission. Others say the surge has forced them to pay more for bandwidth, as bot traffic crowds out human users, or to invest in more sophisticated prevention tools. The visits also skew traffic analytics, distorting reports about who is actually visiting their sites. But the biggest impacts are felt by people who earn revenue from attracting ad clicks on their websites. “This is destroying my AdSense strategies,” says Quintero, the paranormal blog owner, “because they are saying [your website is] only visited by bots, so your content is not something that is valuable to the viewer.” As a result, websites like his may be seen as less desirable to advertisers and penalized by Google. Makeshift Solutions Many people have complained about the China AI bot problem in online support channels over the past few months, or sent messages about it directly to their web-hosting providers. But so far, there are still few concrete answers. Contacted by WIRED, WordPress acknowledged that it has seen reports in recent months that some of its sites are experiencing increased traffic from suspected AI bots or scrapers. “WordPress websites have always had a great structure that makes them easy to find and be indexed by search engines. Those same capabilities make them easily crawled [by] AI as well,” the company said in an unsigned email. Google, Cloudflare, and Squarespace did not respond to requests for comment. Some website operators are now taking matters into their own hands. On social platforms like Reddit, victims of the bots have swapped makeshift strategies for identifying and blocking them. Over time, they learned that these bots often present themselves as using old versions of Windows operating systems and uncommon screen aspect ratios, characteristics that allow website operators to block them as a group. If the websites don’t care about traffic from China or Singapore at all, some also elect to prevent anyone with an IP address located in those countries from accessing their sites. Andy, the weather website manager, says he ended up blocking four ASNs associated with Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei. That was enough to reduce the number of bots significantly but not completely eliminate them, he says. The number of daily visits from the Chinese bots to his site have gone from 127,000 at their peak down to just above 2,000 the day he spoke to WIRED. As autonomous AI tools proliferate across the internet, figuring out how to combat them will likely become a more common headache for website owners. “This is the cost of being on the internet to some degree,” says Akamai’s Maynard, “You're open, and you're in public view.” This is an edition of Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis’ Made in China newsletter. Read previous newsletters here. Comments You Might Also Like In your inbox: Sign up for our new Tracker: ICE newsletter I loved my OpenClaw AI agent—until it turned on me Big Story: Health workers are quitting over ICE assignments Google’s AI Overviews can scam you—here’s how to stay safe Submit your questions: The hype, reality, and future of EVs © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. 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[SOURCE: https://www.wired.com/story/backchannel-how-artificial-intelligence-changed-zillow/] | [TOKENS: 3728] |
Steven LevyBusinessFeb 13, 2026 11:14 AMZillow Has Gone Wild—for AIAs the housing market stalls, Zillow’s CEO sees AI as “an ingredient rather than a threat” that can both help the company protect its turf and reinvent how people search for homes.Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyThis will not be a banner year for the real estate app Zillow. “We describe the home market as bouncing along the bottom,” CEO Jeremy Wacksman said in our conversation this week. Last year was dismal for the real estate market, and he expects things to improve only marginally in 2026. (If January’s historic drop in home sales is indicative, that even is overoptimistic.) “The way to think about it is that there were 4.1 million existing homes sold last year—a normal market is 5.5 to 6 million,” Wacksman says. He hastens to add that Zillow itself is doing better than the real estate industry overall. Still, its valuation is a quarter of its high-water mark in 2021. A few hours after we spoke, Wacksman announced that Zillow’s earnings had increased last quarter. Nonetheless, Zillow’s stock price fell nearly 5 percent the next day.Wacksman does see a bright spot—AI. Like every other company in the world, generative AI presents both an opportunity and a risk to Zillow’s business. Wacksman much prefers to dwell on the upside. “We think AI is actually an ingredient rather than a threat,” he said on the earnings call. “In the last couple years, the LLM revolution has really opened all of our eyes to what's possible,” he tells me. Zillow is integrating AI into every aspect of its business, from the way it showcases houses to having agents automate its workflow. Wacksman marvels that with Gen AI, you can search for “homes near my kid’s new school, with a fenced-in yard, under $3,000 a month.” On the other hand, his customers might wind up making those same queries on chatbots operated by OpenAI and Google, and Wacksman must figure out how to make their next step a jump to Zillow.In its 20-year history—Zillow celebrated the anniversary this week—the company has always used AI. Wacksman, who joined in 2009 and became CEO in 2024, notes that machine learning is the engine behind those “Zestimates” that gauge a home’s worth at any given moment. Zestimates became a viral sensation that helped make the app irresistible, and sites like Zillow Gone Wild—which is also a TV show on the HGTV network—have built a business around highlighting the most intriguing or bizarre listings.More recently, Zillow has spent billions aggressively pursuing new technology. One ongoing effort is upleveling the presentation of homes for sale. A feature called SkyTour uses an AI technology called Gaussian Splatting to turn drone footage into a 3D rendering of the property. (I love typing the words “Gassian Splatting” and can’t believe an indie band hasn’t adopted it yet.) AI also powers a feature inside Zillow’s Showcase component called Virtual Staging, which supplies homes with furniture that doesn’t really exist. There is risky ground here: Once you abandon the authenticity of an actual photo, the question arises whether you’re actually seeing a trustworthy representation of the property. “It’s important that both buyer and seller understand the line between Virtual Staging and the reality of a photo,” says Wacksman. “A virtually staged image has to be clearly watermarked and disclosed.” He says he’s confident that licensed professionals will abide by rules, but as AI becomes dominant, “we have to evolve those rules,” he says.Right now, Zillow estimates that only a single-digit percentage of its users take advantage of these exotic display features. Particularly disappointing is a foray called Zillow Immerse, which runs on the Apple Vision Pro. Upon rollout in February 2024, Zillow called it “the future of home tours.” Note that it doesn't claim to be the near-future. “That platform hasn't yet come to broad consumer prominence,” says Wacksman of Apple’s underperforming innovation. “I do think that VR and AR are going to come.”Zillow is on more solid ground using AI to make its own workforce more productive. “It’s helping us do our job better,” says Wacksman, who adds that programmers are churning out more code, customer support tasks have been automated, and design teams have shortened timelines for implementing new products. As a result, he says, Zillow has been able to keep its headcount “relatively flat.” (Zillow did cut some jobs recently, but Wacksman says that involved “a handful of folks that were not meeting a performance bar.”)Still, the meat of Zillow’s business involves searching for homes, and that’s where the company may be vulnerable. The problem for Zillow and its competitors is that real estate listings are generally public information. (I won’t get into ongoing complicated litigation—including lawsuits that Zillow is involved in—regarding how private listings are handled.) It’s hard enough for Zillow to stay ahead of rivals. But as users increasingly use chatbots as a front end to all sorts of information, it has to worry about customers bypassing its app and going straight to the big LLMs.Zillow moved to stay ahead of this potential shift by becoming one the first third-party platforms to integrate with OpenAI’s platform. But when I used the chatbot to view homes for sale in one Western Massachusetts town, it took a few tries before it surfaced a link to activate the Zillow app. Without that activation, the links to homes for sale were distributed, seemingly randomly, between Zillow and competitors Homes.com, Realtor.com, and so forth. OpenAI is circumspect about what it will do with its newfound power: “It’s still early, and we continue to learn,” said spokesperson Niko Felix about how the company handles its apps. Which isn’t quite the same as saying “our developers can be 100 percent sure that we will never compete with them.”Even scarier for Zillow is a recent move by the biggest hyperscaler of all—Google. Working with a real-estate analytics company called HouseCanary, the search and AI giant has been experimenting in several cities with putting home listings alongside Google real estate agent ads in search. Click on the link and Google shows its own Zillow-style staging, with accompanying critical information like square footage and photo galleries—as well as a link to schedule a viewing with a real estate agent advertising on Google. A Google spokesperson says it's an expansion of its existing real estate agent ads, supplemented with new information to make them more helpful. If the test works out, it’s easy to imagine that Google one day might bring the same data to AI products like Gemini. (Google does say that the experiment did not involve Gemini, and currently no ads run on the AI model.) Predictably, the Google experiment led to yet another dip in Zillow’s stock price. It also generated speculation that Google might buy Zillow.Wacksman seems oddly sanguine about the nearly $4 trillion behemoth eyeing his business, dismissing Google’s experiment as just another way for the company to get more eyeballs and thus increase ad revenue. “Sure, they might grab some more marginal ad dollars,” he says. “But when buyers and sellers want to find a real estate site to use for the transaction, they find us, and that's why so much of our traffic comes direct to us. Once you want to consume a virtual tour listing, once you want to get preapproved, once you want to start messaging with real estate agents, you really need a really deep, integrated experience.”Wacksman thinks that even in an AI-driven age, its human touch, based on its partnerships with local realtor agencies, will still keep Zillow afloat for its next 20 years. “Ideally, we will be helping to allow you to use the Zillow app for everything in the real estate transaction,” he explains. That assessment might underestimate how much change is afoot. Maybe AI agents won’t replace flesh-and-blood real estate agents. But it seems likely that the app paradigm—the house Zillow is built on, so to speak—will eventually be supplanted by some sort of omniscient AI-centric super-factotum, probably powered by corporate giants like Google. How services like Zillow find their way in that paradigm is anything but certain. For now, Wacksman’s ideal outcome is more prosaic: “Maybe we’ll get more people to actually move again,” he says.This is an edition of Steven Levy’s Backchannel newsletter. Read previous newsletters here. Zillow Has Gone Wild—for AI This will not be a banner year for the real estate app Zillow. “We describe the home market as bouncing along the bottom,” CEO Jeremy Wacksman said in our conversation this week. Last year was dismal for the real estate market, and he expects things to improve only marginally in 2026. (If January’s historic drop in home sales is indicative, that even is overoptimistic.) “The way to think about it is that there were 4.1 million existing homes sold last year—a normal market is 5.5 to 6 million,” Wacksman says. He hastens to add that Zillow itself is doing better than the real estate industry overall. Still, its valuation is a quarter of its high-water mark in 2021. A few hours after we spoke, Wacksman announced that Zillow’s earnings had increased last quarter. Nonetheless, Zillow’s stock price fell nearly 5 percent the next day. Wacksman does see a bright spot—AI. Like every other company in the world, generative AI presents both an opportunity and a risk to Zillow’s business. Wacksman much prefers to dwell on the upside. “We think AI is actually an ingredient rather than a threat,” he said on the earnings call. “In the last couple years, the LLM revolution has really opened all of our eyes to what's possible,” he tells me. Zillow is integrating AI into every aspect of its business, from the way it showcases houses to having agents automate its workflow. Wacksman marvels that with Gen AI, you can search for “homes near my kid’s new school, with a fenced-in yard, under $3,000 a month.” On the other hand, his customers might wind up making those same queries on chatbots operated by OpenAI and Google, and Wacksman must figure out how to make their next step a jump to Zillow. In its 20-year history—Zillow celebrated the anniversary this week—the company has always used AI. Wacksman, who joined in 2009 and became CEO in 2024, notes that machine learning is the engine behind those “Zestimates” that gauge a home’s worth at any given moment. Zestimates became a viral sensation that helped make the app irresistible, and sites like Zillow Gone Wild—which is also a TV show on the HGTV network—have built a business around highlighting the most intriguing or bizarre listings. More recently, Zillow has spent billions aggressively pursuing new technology. One ongoing effort is upleveling the presentation of homes for sale. A feature called SkyTour uses an AI technology called Gaussian Splatting to turn drone footage into a 3D rendering of the property. (I love typing the words “Gassian Splatting” and can’t believe an indie band hasn’t adopted it yet.) AI also powers a feature inside Zillow’s Showcase component called Virtual Staging, which supplies homes with furniture that doesn’t really exist. There is risky ground here: Once you abandon the authenticity of an actual photo, the question arises whether you’re actually seeing a trustworthy representation of the property. “It’s important that both buyer and seller understand the line between Virtual Staging and the reality of a photo,” says Wacksman. “A virtually staged image has to be clearly watermarked and disclosed.” He says he’s confident that licensed professionals will abide by rules, but as AI becomes dominant, “we have to evolve those rules,” he says. Right now, Zillow estimates that only a single-digit percentage of its users take advantage of these exotic display features. Particularly disappointing is a foray called Zillow Immerse, which runs on the Apple Vision Pro. Upon rollout in February 2024, Zillow called it “the future of home tours.” Note that it doesn't claim to be the near-future. “That platform hasn't yet come to broad consumer prominence,” says Wacksman of Apple’s underperforming innovation. “I do think that VR and AR are going to come.” Zillow is on more solid ground using AI to make its own workforce more productive. “It’s helping us do our job better,” says Wacksman, who adds that programmers are churning out more code, customer support tasks have been automated, and design teams have shortened timelines for implementing new products. As a result, he says, Zillow has been able to keep its headcount “relatively flat.” (Zillow did cut some jobs recently, but Wacksman says that involved “a handful of folks that were not meeting a performance bar.”) Still, the meat of Zillow’s business involves searching for homes, and that’s where the company may be vulnerable. The problem for Zillow and its competitors is that real estate listings are generally public information. (I won’t get into ongoing complicated litigation—including lawsuits that Zillow is involved in—regarding how private listings are handled.) It’s hard enough for Zillow to stay ahead of rivals. But as users increasingly use chatbots as a front end to all sorts of information, it has to worry about customers bypassing its app and going straight to the big LLMs. Zillow moved to stay ahead of this potential shift by becoming one the first third-party platforms to integrate with OpenAI’s platform. But when I used the chatbot to view homes for sale in one Western Massachusetts town, it took a few tries before it surfaced a link to activate the Zillow app. Without that activation, the links to homes for sale were distributed, seemingly randomly, between Zillow and competitors Homes.com, Realtor.com, and so forth. OpenAI is circumspect about what it will do with its newfound power: “It’s still early, and we continue to learn,” said spokesperson Niko Felix about how the company handles its apps. Which isn’t quite the same as saying “our developers can be 100 percent sure that we will never compete with them.” Even scarier for Zillow is a recent move by the biggest hyperscaler of all—Google. Working with a real-estate analytics company called HouseCanary, the search and AI giant has been experimenting in several cities with putting home listings alongside Google real estate agent ads in search. Click on the link and Google shows its own Zillow-style staging, with accompanying critical information like square footage and photo galleries—as well as a link to schedule a viewing with a real estate agent advertising on Google. A Google spokesperson says it's an expansion of its existing real estate agent ads, supplemented with new information to make them more helpful. If the test works out, it’s easy to imagine that Google one day might bring the same data to AI products like Gemini. (Google does say that the experiment did not involve Gemini, and currently no ads run on the AI model.) Predictably, the Google experiment led to yet another dip in Zillow’s stock price. It also generated speculation that Google might buy Zillow. Wacksman seems oddly sanguine about the nearly $4 trillion behemoth eyeing his business, dismissing Google’s experiment as just another way for the company to get more eyeballs and thus increase ad revenue. “Sure, they might grab some more marginal ad dollars,” he says. “But when buyers and sellers want to find a real estate site to use for the transaction, they find us, and that's why so much of our traffic comes direct to us. Once you want to consume a virtual tour listing, once you want to get preapproved, once you want to start messaging with real estate agents, you really need a really deep, integrated experience.” Wacksman thinks that even in an AI-driven age, its human touch, based on its partnerships with local realtor agencies, will still keep Zillow afloat for its next 20 years. “Ideally, we will be helping to allow you to use the Zillow app for everything in the real estate transaction,” he explains. That assessment might underestimate how much change is afoot. Maybe AI agents won’t replace flesh-and-blood real estate agents. But it seems likely that the app paradigm—the house Zillow is built on, so to speak—will eventually be supplanted by some sort of omniscient AI-centric super-factotum, probably powered by corporate giants like Google. How services like Zillow find their way in that paradigm is anything but certain. For now, Wacksman’s ideal outcome is more prosaic: “Maybe we’ll get more people to actually move again,” he says. This is an edition of Steven Levy’s Backchannel newsletter. Read previous newsletters here. Comments You Might Also Like In your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gear A wave of unexplained bot traffic is sweeping the web Big Story: The women training for pregnancy like it’s a marathon Iran’s digital surveillance machine is almost complete Listen: Silicon Valley tech workers are trying to stop ICE © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. 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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habiru] | [TOKENS: 2956] |
Contents ʿApiru ʿApiru (Ugaritic: 𐎓𐎔𐎗𐎎, romanized: ʿPRM, Ancient Egyptian: 𓂝𓊪𓂋𓅱𓀀𓏪, romanized: Ꜥprw), also known in the Akkadian version Ḫabiru (sometimes written Habiru, Ḫapiru or Hapiru; Akkadian: 𒄩𒁉𒊒, ḫa-bi-ru or *ʿaperu) is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile Crescent for a social status of people who were variously described as rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries, bowmen, servants, slaves, and laborers. Due to the linguistic similarity between the term 'Apiru and "Hebrew," early scholars equated them with the Israelites. However, most contemporary scholars now regard the connection as indirect, suggesting that while some early Israelites may have originated from this group, they likely adopted the linguistic label in the process. Etymology The term was first discovered in its Akkadian version "ḫa-bi-ru" or "ḫa-pi-ru". Due to later findings in Ugaritic and Egyptian which used the consonants ʿ, p and r, and in light of the well-established sound change from Northwest Semitic ʿ to Akkadian ḫ, the root of this term is proven to be ʿ-p-r. This root means "dust, dirt", and links to the characterization of the ʿApiru as nomads, mercenaries, people who are not part of the cultural society. The morphological pattern of the word is qatilu, which point to a status, condition. The Akkadian term Ḫabiru occasionally alternates with the Sumerograms sa.gaz. Akkadian dictionaries for Sumerograms added to sa.gaz the gloss ḫabatu "raider", which raised the suggestion to read the Sumerograms as this word. However, the Amarna letters attested the spelling sa ga.az, and letters from Ugarit attested the spelling sa.gaz, which points that these Sumerograms were read as written and did not function as ideograms. The only Akkadian word that fits such spelling is "šagašu" (barbarian), but an Akkadian gloss to an Akkadian word seems odd, and the meaning of šagašu doesn't fit the essence of the Ḫabiru. Therefore, the meaning of sa.gaz should probably be found in a West Semitic word such as Aramaic šgš, which means "muddy, restless", while the word ḫabatu should be interpreted as "nomad", which fits the meaning of the word Ḫabiru/ʿApiru. Hapiru, Habiru, and ʿApiru In the time of Rim-Sin I (1822 BCE to 1763 BCE), the Sumerians knew a group of Aramaean nomads living in southern Mesopotamia as sa.gaz, which meant "trespassers". The later Akkadians inherited the term, which was rendered as the calque Ḫabiru, properly ʿApiru. The term occurs in hundreds of 2nd millennium BCE documents covering a 600-year period from the 18th to the 12th centuries BCE and found at sites ranging from Egypt, Canaan and Syria, to Nuzi (Upper Mesopotamia near Kirkuk, northern Iraq) and Anatolia (now Turkey). Not all Habiru were brigands: in the 18th century BCE, a north Syrian king named Irkabtum (c. 1740 BCE) "made peace with [the warlord] Shemuba and his Habiru," while the ʿApiru, Idrimi of Alalakh, was the son of a deposed king, and formed a band of ʿApiru to make himself king of Alalakh. What Idrimi shared with the other ʿApiru was membership of an inferior social class of outlaws, mercenaries, and slaves leading a marginal and sometimes lawless existence on the fringes of settled society. ʿApiru had no common ethnic affiliations and no common language, their names being most frequently West Semitic, but also East Semitic, Hurrian or Indo-European. "The Conquest of Joppa" talein hieroglyphs In the Amarna letters from the 14th century BCE, the petty kings of Canaan describe them sometimes as outlaws, sometimes as mercenaries, and sometimes as day labourers and servants. Usually they are socially marginal, but Rib-Hadda of Byblos refers to Abdi-Ashirta of Amurru (modern Lebanon) and his son Aziru as ʿApiru, with the implication that they have rebelled against their common overlord, the pharaoh. In The Taking of Joppa (now Jaffa), an Egyptian work of historical fiction from around 1440 BCE, they appear as brigands, and General Djehuty asks at one point that his horses be taken inside the city lest a passing ʿApir steal them. Habiru and the biblical Hebrews Since the discovery of the 2nd millennium BCE inscriptions mentioning the Habiru, there have been many theories linking these to the Hebrews of the Bible. Most of these theories were based on the supposed etymological link and were widely denied based on the Egyptian sources and later following the Ugaritic and Hittite discoveries. There are two main barriers, linguistic and group identity. Some scholars, Anson Rainey and R. Steven Notley among them, deny any linguistic relationship between Ḫabiru and Hebrew, or at most admit only "a bare possibility". But this view remains short of academic consensus. Philologically, argued Moshe Greenberg, Apiru and Hebrew though not transparently related are not irreconcilable. Nadav Na’aman had no doubt that the term "Hebrew" was derived from "Habiru". The Christian priestly scholars, such as Manfred Weippert, Henri Cazelles and Oswald Loretz, are the least ready to give up the relation between Apiru and Hebrew. For them the linguistic equation between Apiru and Hebrew is easy and comfortable.[page needed] Loretz, however, admits the etymological possibility despite denying all equations between Apiru and Hebrew. Regarding the identity, the academic consensus is well established that Apiru and Hebrews represent two different groups. The Biblical Hebrews are an ethnic group while Apiru were a much wider multi-ethnic group distinguished by social status. The morphological pattern of the word ʿApiru is, as mentioned above, qatilu, which point a status, as opposed to the morphological pattern of the ethnonym עִבְרִי (Hebrew) which is based on nisba (like מִצְרִי – Egyptian). Moreover, Meredith Kline finds that Apiru were not even Semitic peoples. The matter was complicated when, in the light of the research on the Apiru, scholars examined the context of Hebrews in the Bible. The new analysis indicated a group broader than the Israelites and more associated with the Apiru, best seen in 1 Samuel 13, 14. Na’aman and Yoel Bin-Nun point out that "Hebrew" is typically used to describe "Israelites in exceptional circumstances", in particular, wandering, oppressed or enslaved Israelites struggling for liberation. Na’aman finds that all biblical references to the "Hebrews" reflect some traits borrowed from the image of the second millennium Apiru. Greenberg confirms that Hebrew is an archaic term predating Israelites. Professor Albert D. Friedberg concurs, arguing that Apiru refers to a social class found in every ancient Near Eastern society but in the texts that describe the early periods of the Patriarchs and the Exodus term Hebrew refers to a broad group of people in the Levant (like the Apiru), among whom the Israelites were a part. Joseph Blenkinsopp makes one exception: Except for its first appearance (Genesis 14:13), the biblical word "Hebrew" can be interpreted as a social category. For some scholars, however, the passage is confirmation rather than exception. Here Abram appears as a leader of host in a military alliance. He pursues and smites his enemy. The passage presents a warrior Abram, with a rather different character from that of other episodes in Genesis, in which Abram is never a warrior. This associates with the Apiru too. In the earliest Mesopotamian texts mentioning the Apiru they appear as military contingents, auxiliaries, or bands of raiders. Babylonian and Mari tablets mention them particularly as military auxiliaries. Elsewhere in the Fertile Crescent they are also often depicted as auxiliary warriors. In the Amarna letters, Apiru are most prominent in military activity. Some hypotheses on Genesis 14 suggested a foreign, perhaps Babylonian, document at the core, or a memory of time when Abram belonged to Apiru before the term Hebrew obtained an ethnic meaning. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Israelites are called Hebrews when enslaved or oppressed and struggling for liberation. The military context associates with one of the interpretations suggested for Apiru. In the Sumerogram sa.gaz, sa could mean "muscle" and gaz "to strike" or "kill". The meaning "murderer" or "killer" was suggested for the combination sa.gaz, or literally "muscle killer". sa.gaz was supposed to be a transliteration of the Akkadian pseudo-ideogram šaggāšum or "murderer". The Epic of Gilgamesh (1:4:7) uses šaggāšum for Enkidu, describing him as a military leader and nomad native of the wild steppe. In the Old Babylonian tradition, Šaggāšu is a ghost-murderer of the steppe. Research defined "dust" or "dirt" as the most probable meaning of Apiru. The wandering Apiru, Rainey suggested, had to "hit the road", thus they were covered with dust and were called dusty. But this is a hypothetical suggestion not found in primary sources.[citation needed] The consensus remains that Apiru and Hebrews were not identical groups, but scholars became divided whether the two groups were related. Some scholars, such as Rainey, remained unmoved and deny any relation. Rainey stated that those relating Apiru and Hebrews were mistaken and all attempts to relate the two are wishful thinking. He notes that while ʿApiru covered the regions from Nuzi to Anatolia as well as northern Syria, Canaan and Egypt, they were distinguished from Shutu (Sutu) or Shasu (Shosu), Syrian pastoral nomads named in the Amarna letters and likely more closely associated with the Hebrews. Kline suggests that Apiru, besides being non-Semitic, were foes of Israel and their first oppressors in Canaan. Other scholars, by contrast, allowed the possibility of relation. As pointed out by Moore and Kelle, while the ʿApiru/Ḫabiru appear to be composed of many different peoples, including nomadic Shasu and Shutu, the biblical Midianites, Kenites, and Amalekites, as well as displaced peasants and pastoralists, they also may be related to the biblical Hebrews. A hypothesis emerged that Hebrews were one offshoot of Apiru, a larger whole from which the Hebrews originated. It has become a commonplace assumption that all Israelites were Hebrews but not all Hebrews were Israelites. S. Douglas Waterhouse said that the political situation during Joshua's conquests was similar to the political situation in Canaan during the Amarna period, with the largest exception being that the role of the Egyptians in Canaan during the Amarna period was not mentioned in the Bible. Kline stated that the Ḫabiru of the Amarna period and the biblical Hebrews had a different relationship with the Canaanites, different goals and used different tactics. The ethnic connotation of the term Hebrew synonymous with the people of Israel were attributed to the later Jewish tradition. "It could well be", writes Stuart A. West, "that the word Hebrew was originally only a sociological designation, indicating status or class - in which case the words Hebrew and Habiru are synonymous. The fact that in the later Books of the Bible and in its usage in post-biblical times, the word Hebrew has been used as an ethnic designation simply means that the original meaning of the word has been changed." Loretz assigns all mentions of Hebrews in the Bible to the post-exilic period, centuries after Apiru disappeared from the sources. Greenberg concluded his research: The ʿApiru were ethnically diverse but this term can be related to the term "Hebrew" both in etymology and meaning. The ethnic and social spheres may have met in Abraham the Hebrew, who may at once have been an Apiru as well as the ancestor of the Israelites. "Hebrew" will then be a peculiarly Biblical adaptation of the social term. A considerable possibility remains that the beginnings of the Israelite history are bound with the wandering Apiru. The Bible might have preserved a vague memory that the Patriarchs had once been Apiru. See also References |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate] | [TOKENS: 131] |
Contents List of countries by incarceration rate This is an alphabetical list of countries and some dependent territories and subnational areas which lays out the incarceration rate of each. Incarceration rates and counts The data below is the latest available at the World Prison Brief (WPB) at the time the data was copied here. See the individual WPB country and subnational area pages for more info on data, dates, and much more. WPB notes this: "As it is not possible to obtain meaningful comparative data on numbers of children in custody in different countries, we do not include juvenile imprisonment data in the highest to lowest lists." See also Notes References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrawi] | [TOKENS: 728] |
Contents Harrawi Harrawi (Arabic: هرّاوي/عرب الحمدون) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 25, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 18 km northeast of Safad. In 1948, it had a population of 290. History The villagers of Harrawi were descendants of Bedouin from the 'Arab al-Hamdun tribe. There is evidence to suggest the village was inhabited as far back as the early Byzantine period, with ruins of Greek inscriptions, old walls, tessellated floors, and a wine-press. In 1875, Victor Guérin passed by, and thought the ruins he found there could be ancient Hazor. The same was reported in 1881, by the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP). In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arab el Hamdun had a population of 148 Muslims, in a total of 36 houses. Harrawi was located on a mountain in eastern Upper Galilee. The area is forested but much land was converted by the settlers for agricultural purposes, given that in 1945, 551 dunums of land was devoted to the farming of cereals. However, they were also employed in animal husbandry, and brought their livestock down seasonal pastures in the winter. A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming, which dominated all of the area under cultivation. Types of land use in dunums by Arabs in the 1945 statistics: The village comprised a total area of 3,726 dunums of which 60% was owned by Arabs and 40% by Jews. The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunums: Although it was in May 1948 that the village was depopulated, the Palestinian newspaper Filastin reported an incident that occurred in February 1948 when a bus carrying Arab passengers en route from al-Hula to Safad was ambushed at Harrawi on 12 February by a Zionist military unit. A mine exploded under the bus which was also subject to gunfire and firebombing, killing four people. In mid May 1948, the village was defended by the Arab Liberation Army's Second Yarmuk Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Adib Shishakli, who later served as president of Syria. The initial resistance was reported by the American newspaper The New York Times in Damascus to have been a success, with the ALA claiming victories at Harrawi and al-Malikiyya, located 5 km to the northwest. However, any early successes were short-lived; Harrawi, along with the nearby villages of Mallaha and Baysamun fell to the Israeli Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach May 25. Ramot Naftali is located close to the village site, but it is not on Harrawi land; it is located on Al-Nabi Yusha' land. In 1992, the village site was described: "No traces of the village are visible. Woods cover the slopes and peak of the mountain on which the village was located. Some of the lands in the area are wooded while others have been planted by Israelis with fruit trees." References Bibliography External links Media related to Harrawi at Wikimedia Commons |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/news/868238/prediction-markets-polymarket-kalshi-robinhood] | [TOKENS: 6477] |
NewsUpdated Today, Feb 20, 2026, 5:54 PM UTCEverything is gambling now: the latest news on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshiby Verge StaffLinkShareRSSGiftPrediction markets will let you bet on just about anything, from how many tweets Elon Musk will post this week to the next president of the United States, with predictions sometimes showing shockingly (or suspiciously) spot-on accuracy. Polymarket’s CEO Shayne Copland has even claimed that prediction markets are “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now.”However, these platforms blur the lines — in terms of both function and regulation — between gambling and stock trading. As Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal said on The Vergecast, “All of the lines between trading, speculating, [and] gambling are just being completely torn apart.”There are also ethical concerns surfacing around prediction markets, like whether it’s acceptable to be able to place a bet on virtually everything, along with concerns about insider trading. For instance, a newly-created Polymarket account made over $400,000 in January betting on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.HighlightsProp betIt’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction marketsBlood for stonksEverything is gambling nowAre prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting notToday, 4:15 PM UTCElizabeth LopattoPrediction markets want to eat the newsPondering my orb. Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesSubstack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s pilot sponsorships program.This is just the latest foray of prediction markets into media. Last week, Dow Jones agreed to incorporate Polymarket’s betting data into its “content,” including The Wall Street Journal. A month before that, CNN incorporated Kalshi’s betting odds. In December, CNBC agreed to infuse its programming with Kalshi data. Noted poker player Nate Silver, once a respected stats journalist, is now an advisor for Polymarket.Read Article >Feb 19Richard LawlerSubstack isn’t just known for “platforming and monetizing Nazis” now.A claim cited by the Substackers Against Nazis, and in much more recent reports. What if it also promoted service providers that make money from pushing people to gamble on and seek an edge in just about anything?According to Polymarket, “Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets.”Screenshot: @Polymarket (X)Feb 19Tina NguyenIt’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction marketsThe Polymarket website hosts trading on whether Houthi militias would strike Israeli territory arranged on a laptop computer in Forest Hills neighborhood in the Queens borough of New York, US, on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. Bloomberg via Getty Images.Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington. I hope everyone got to celebrate George Washington’s birthday in their preferred manner: skiing, staycationing, subscribing to The Verge if you haven’t already, etc. Political alliances are rarely permanent, so it’s somewhat predictable that the MAGA-tech bro alliance seems to have fallen apart in the span of a single year. Which side the administration would actually choose, though, was more difficult to foresee.Read Article >Feb 18Emma RothNevada sues to block Kalshi’s prediction betting marketImage: The VergeNevada is suing to block the prediction market platform Kalshi from allowing residents to place bets on the outcomes of events, including elections and sports games, as reported earlier by Business Insider. The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal battles across the country, claiming that Kalshi is harming the state’s gambling market by operating without a proper license and by allowing users under 21 to use the platform.The state of Nevada filed the lawsuit just hours after a federal appeals court denied Kalshi’s request to block Nevada from taking action against the company. As prediction betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket become more popular — allowing users to place bets on everything from election outcomes to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — state lawmakers have had to grapple with how to regulate them. But putting local restrictions on prediction betting markets may prove difficult, as the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is rallying against state-level regulations.Read Article >Feb 13Terrence O'BrienPolymarket ran a popup ‘free grocery store’ in NYC because it has ‘market’ in its name.Curbed described the scene as “bleak” and noted that many waiting in line for the promised free Tide Pods and milk (which was apparently purchased at an Aldi before being stocked on the popups’ oddly orderly shelves) had never heard of Polymarket and didn’t intend to place bets there. When Curbed asked why:Because of the word market within Polymarket, per Josh Tucker, a company executive. Get it? Daf Orlovsky, a creative director, said it could work — “these ideas that don’t seem possible could be brought to life at tech-market speed,” he said.Feb 9Dominic PrestonSomeone nailed their halftime show bets on Polymarket.An anonymous Polymarket account, created a day before the Super Bowl, bet exclusively on celebrity appearances during Bad Bunny’s performance, and got every single one right. It’s a little less alarming than the user who seemed to know Venezuelan president Maduro’s capture was coming, but no less suspicious.Screenshot: X / PolymarketFeb 6Richard LawlerGiannis Antetokounmpo claims “We all on Kalshi now.”First, no, we’re not, and second, I’d be happier if he said he was joining the Celtics than joining the prediction markets mess, as the still-on-the-Bucks superstar says he’s “joining Kalshi as a shareholder.”Is this better or worse than the days when every athlete was pitching an NFT scheme/scam?Image: Giannis AntetokounmpoFeb 3Richard LawlerPolymarket and Kalshi play Nino Brown.While being banned from the Super Bowl, the two large prediction markets have suddenly felt overcome by the spirit of giving in New York City this week. Kalshi advertised a $50 giveaway today, and Polymarket announced what it says will be “New York’s first free grocery store” when it opens on February 12th.Image: Kalshi (L) / Polymarket (R)Jan 20Emma RothPortugal orders Polymarket to shut down.Polymarket — the same platform someone made thousands of dollars betting on Nicolás Maduro’s arrest — has 48 hours to cease operations in Portugal after users wagered more than 103 million euros (~$120 million) on the outcome of the country’s presidential election, according to a report from CoinDesk.Political betting is illegal in Portugal, and its gambling regulator says Polymarket doesn’t have a license to operate in the country, CoinDesk reports.Portugal joins growing list of countries cracking down on Polymarket[CoinDesk]Jan 7Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah JeongSnatching Maduro was all about the spectacleImage: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty ImagesOn December 31st, a brand-new account on Polymarket placed a bet: Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, would be out of office by the end of January. It was the first in a series of increasing bets. On January 3rd, the US bombed the Venezuelan capital, kidnapped Maduro and his wife, and killed at least 80 people along the way. The account cashed out with almost half a million dollars.It would be a misread to describe the surprise invasion of Venezuela as imperial expansion driven by the dictates of capitalism; it is, somehow, worse. Normal capitalism requires a working relationship with reality. Normal capitalism thrives on predictability. The Trump administration is behaving like gambling addicts chasing clout in an attention economy. Venezuela is a fucking meme stock.Read Article >Jan 3Terrence O'BrienSomeone made a ton of money betting on Maduro’s captureScreenshot: Terrence O’Brien / The VergeShortly before the US military launched an attack on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, an account on Polymarket made some very suspiciously timed investments. The prediction market had been running bets on when or if Maduro would be removed from power, with prices for “out by January 31, 2026” as low as $0.07 late Friday evening. But within 24 hours of the military action, a newly created account invested tens of thousands of dollars, racking up several hundred thousand in profits.The account was created less than a week ago and invested over $30,000 the day before the assault, turning a profit of over $408,000. The activity was flagged on social media, with people speculating that the person placing the bet was acting on inside information and perhaps even worked at the Pentagon. Joe Pompliano, an investor and podcaster, quickly pointed out on X that “Insider trading is not only allowed on prediction markets; it’s encouraged.”Read Article >Dec 29, 2025Richard LawlerKalshi and Polymarket keep partnering with fake newsbreaker accounts on X.“Prediction markets” continue to appear everywhere, including CNN and CNBC, and Polymarket is shitposting about citizen journalism.Meanwhile, The Athletic is the latest (following Awful Announcing and Front Office Sports) reporting on sports misinformation X accounts like “Emma Vance” and “Scott Hughes” have spread while sporting those site’s affiliate badges.Kalshi, Polymarket are partnering with X accounts claiming to be sports insiders[The Athletic]Dec 16, 2025David PierceEverything is gambling nowHere’s a list of things you can bet on, right this second. This year’s Super Bowl winner, sure. The winner of Survivor season 49, okay. But the number of gifts Santa will deliver this year? The number of tweets Elon Musk will send in the next 7 days? How much money Avatar: Fire and Ash will make at the box office? The next president of of Portugal? On Polymarket and Kalshi, if you can dream it up, you can probably bet on it. Welcome to the age of the prediction market.On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to figure out where prediction markets came from, and why they’ve become so popular. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal joins the show to track the rise of Polymarket and Kalshi, explain their controversies and ultimate acceptance, and put these companies in their correct place in the economy. Most of all, he helps us figure out if there’s actually something new happening here, or if the betting has been happening forever.Read Article >Nov 6, 2025Alex HeathElection night at Kalshi HQPhoto: KalshiThis is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week.At 8PM on election night in New York City, I arrived at an unmarked office building in the Meatpacking District.Read Article >Jun 12, 2025Emma RothHere’s the $2,000 fully AI-generated ad that aired during the NBA FinalsThe AI ad was inspired by GTA IV. Image: KalshiIf you’ve been on social media lately, you might’ve seen the unsettling AI slop videos showing AI-generated people in wild scenarios or just speaking a bunch of nonsense. On Wednesday night, the betting platform Kalshi decided to take this trend outside the social sphere by putting a nonsensical AI-generated ad in front of the millions of viewers watching the NBA Finals — and it apparently cost just $2,000 to make.The AI-generated highlights various things “people” are betting on, like whether the Oklahoma City Thunder or Indiana Pacers will win the NBA Finals, how many hurricanes will occur this year, and whether the price of eggs will go up this month. It flashes between scenes of an elderly man wearing a cowboy hat while carrying a chihuahua, someone swimming in a pool of eggs, and an alien chugging beer.Read Article >Apr 14, 2025Nilay PatelAre prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting notImage by The Verge / Photo: RobinhoodToday, I’m talking with Vlad Tenev, the cofounder and CEO of Robinhood, which is one of the most well-known consumer finance apps in the world. It started as a way to open up stock trading, but the company’s ambitions have grown over time — and they’re getting even bigger.Just a day before Tenev and I talked, Robinhood announced it would soon be offering bank accounts and wealth management services, which would allow Robinhood to be involved with your money at every possible level.Read Article >Nov 17, 2024Alex HeathPolymarket quietly raised more money before the FBI raided the CEO’s apartment.A new tidbit about the prediction markets startup from last week’s issue of Command Line:Coplan recently raised, but has yet to announce, a $30 million round of funding at a $350 million valuation. And in recent conversations with investors (a surprising number of whom passed on the round, which was less than Coplan hoped to raise), I’m told he was noncommittal about whether the company would work to get the Commodity Futures Trading Commission license it needs to operate in the US.Nov 14, 2024Jay PetersThe FBI reportedly seized the phone of Polymarket’s CEO.According to The Wall Street Journal:It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the FBI’s search of [Shayne] Coplan, the 26-year-old entrepreneur behind one of the most successful prediction markets in history. But Polymarket quickly tied the raid to its track record in the recent presidential election, in which bettors on its platform correctly anticipated that Donald Trump would beat Vice President Kamala Harris.Bloomberg also reports that Polymarket is being investigated by the DOJ for allegedly letting users in the US place bets on the site.FBI Seizes Polymarket Founder’s Phone in Raid of Home[WSJ]Nov 8, 2024Alex HeathWhy Robinhood’s CEO thinks prediction markets are here to stayIllustration by Alex Castro / The VergeThis week’s presidential election introduced a lot of people to prediction markets.Kalshi was the number one app in the App Store on Election Day. The CEO of Polymarket claims the Trump campaign first realized they were winning from his startup’s stats, which showed them winning by a landslide hours before news networks called the race. There’s a sense in some tech and finance circles that these betting markets are now a better “wisdom of the crowd” indicator than polls.Read Article >Oct 31, 2024Elizabeth LopattoPresidential betting platform Kalshi loads up on debt.The startup has received “tens of millions from investors in short-term loans“ to make sure it can cover election bets:Like most brokerages, the company offers instant funding to new users. This means users can start trading right away, even though it may take two to three business days for the funds to be officially transferred from the customer’s bank account to Kalshi’s.Exclusive: Kalshi secures tens of millions in loans from VCs, eyes $50M+ round amid election betting boom, source says[TechCrunch]Oct 28, 2024Elizabeth LopattoRobinhood admits it’s just a gambling app“We take pride in the fact that we are expanding the market by welcoming new investors into the financial system.” - Robinhood’s S-1 Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeUS citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this “unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold.”Let’s pause — I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. See, I thought we all had access to the events of the election because we all exist in reality and can find out about them. But apparently, if we can’t gamble on an event, it isn’t happening. This is a fascinating vision of metaphysics, and I would like to hear more about it. No one bet on my birth, for instance, and thus there is no asset class relating to my existence. So am I real?Read Article >Most PopularMost PopularThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftA $10K+ bounty is waiting for anyone who can unplug Ring doorbells from Amazon’s cloudRead new Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s memo on the future of XboxMeta’s VR metaverse is ditching VRThe 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 Everything is gambling now: the latest news on prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi Prediction markets will let you bet on just about anything, from how many tweets Elon Musk will post this week to the next president of the United States, with predictions sometimes showing shockingly (or suspiciously) spot-on accuracy. Polymarket’s CEO Shayne Copland has even claimed that prediction markets are “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now.” However, these platforms blur the lines — in terms of both function and regulation — between gambling and stock trading. As Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal said on The Vergecast, “All of the lines between trading, speculating, [and] gambling are just being completely torn apart.” There are also ethical concerns surfacing around prediction markets, like whether it’s acceptable to be able to place a bet on virtually everything, along with concerns about insider trading. For instance, a newly-created Polymarket account made over $400,000 in January betting on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Highlights Elizabeth Lopatto Prediction markets want to eat the news Substack has updated its partnership with betting platform Polymarket, “introducing native tools that make it easier to share, discuss, and debate prediction market data directly on Substack.” Additionally, Polymarket will effectively pay “a cohort of creators,” including Matt Yglesias, to use its data though the newsletter platform’s pilot sponsorships program. This is just the latest foray of prediction markets into media. Last week, Dow Jones agreed to incorporate Polymarket’s betting data into its “content,” including The Wall Street Journal. A month before that, CNN incorporated Kalshi’s betting odds. In December, CNBC agreed to infuse its programming with Kalshi data. Noted poker player Nate Silver, once a respected stats journalist, is now an advisor for Polymarket. Richard Lawler A claim cited by the Substackers Against Nazis, and in much more recent reports. What if it also promoted service providers that make money from pushing people to gamble on and seek an edge in just about anything? According to Polymarket, “Journalism is better when it’s backed by live markets.” Tina Nguyen It’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction markets Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington. I hope everyone got to celebrate George Washington’s birthday in their preferred manner: skiing, staycationing, subscribing to The Verge if you haven’t already, etc. Political alliances are rarely permanent, so it’s somewhat predictable that the MAGA-tech bro alliance seems to have fallen apart in the span of a single year. Which side the administration would actually choose, though, was more difficult to foresee. Emma Roth Nevada sues to block Kalshi’s prediction betting market Nevada is suing to block the prediction market platform Kalshi from allowing residents to place bets on the outcomes of events, including elections and sports games, as reported earlier by Business Insider. The lawsuit adds to a growing number of legal battles across the country, claiming that Kalshi is harming the state’s gambling market by operating without a proper license and by allowing users under 21 to use the platform. The state of Nevada filed the lawsuit just hours after a federal appeals court denied Kalshi’s request to block Nevada from taking action against the company. As prediction betting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket become more popular — allowing users to place bets on everything from election outcomes to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — state lawmakers have had to grapple with how to regulate them. But putting local restrictions on prediction betting markets may prove difficult, as the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is rallying against state-level regulations. Terrence O'Brien Curbed described the scene as “bleak” and noted that many waiting in line for the promised free Tide Pods and milk (which was apparently purchased at an Aldi before being stocked on the popups’ oddly orderly shelves) had never heard of Polymarket and didn’t intend to place bets there. When Curbed asked why: Because of the word market within Polymarket, per Josh Tucker, a company executive. Get it? Daf Orlovsky, a creative director, said it could work — “these ideas that don’t seem possible could be brought to life at tech-market speed,” he said. Dominic Preston An anonymous Polymarket account, created a day before the Super Bowl, bet exclusively on celebrity appearances during Bad Bunny’s performance, and got every single one right. It’s a little less alarming than the user who seemed to know Venezuelan president Maduro’s capture was coming, but no less suspicious. Richard Lawler First, no, we’re not, and second, I’d be happier if he said he was joining the Celtics than joining the prediction markets mess, as the still-on-the-Bucks superstar says he’s “joining Kalshi as a shareholder.” Is this better or worse than the days when every athlete was pitching an NFT scheme/scam? Richard Lawler While being banned from the Super Bowl, the two large prediction markets have suddenly felt overcome by the spirit of giving in New York City this week. Kalshi advertised a $50 giveaway today, and Polymarket announced what it says will be “New York’s first free grocery store” when it opens on February 12th. Emma Roth Polymarket — the same platform someone made thousands of dollars betting on Nicolás Maduro’s arrest — has 48 hours to cease operations in Portugal after users wagered more than 103 million euros (~$120 million) on the outcome of the country’s presidential election, according to a report from CoinDesk. Political betting is illegal in Portugal, and its gambling regulator says Polymarket doesn’t have a license to operate in the country, CoinDesk reports. [CoinDesk] Elizabeth Lopatto and Sarah Jeong Snatching Maduro was all about the spectacle On December 31st, a brand-new account on Polymarket placed a bet: Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela, would be out of office by the end of January. It was the first in a series of increasing bets. On January 3rd, the US bombed the Venezuelan capital, kidnapped Maduro and his wife, and killed at least 80 people along the way. The account cashed out with almost half a million dollars. It would be a misread to describe the surprise invasion of Venezuela as imperial expansion driven by the dictates of capitalism; it is, somehow, worse. Normal capitalism requires a working relationship with reality. Normal capitalism thrives on predictability. The Trump administration is behaving like gambling addicts chasing clout in an attention economy. Venezuela is a fucking meme stock. Terrence O'Brien Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro’s capture Shortly before the US military launched an attack on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro, an account on Polymarket made some very suspiciously timed investments. The prediction market had been running bets on when or if Maduro would be removed from power, with prices for “out by January 31, 2026” as low as $0.07 late Friday evening. But within 24 hours of the military action, a newly created account invested tens of thousands of dollars, racking up several hundred thousand in profits. The account was created less than a week ago and invested over $30,000 the day before the assault, turning a profit of over $408,000. The activity was flagged on social media, with people speculating that the person placing the bet was acting on inside information and perhaps even worked at the Pentagon. Joe Pompliano, an investor and podcaster, quickly pointed out on X that “Insider trading is not only allowed on prediction markets; it’s encouraged.” Richard Lawler “Prediction markets” continue to appear everywhere, including CNN and CNBC, and Polymarket is shitposting about citizen journalism. Meanwhile, The Athletic is the latest (following Awful Announcing and Front Office Sports) reporting on sports misinformation X accounts like “Emma Vance” and “Scott Hughes” have spread while sporting those site’s affiliate badges. [The Athletic] David Pierce Everything is gambling now Here’s a list of things you can bet on, right this second. This year’s Super Bowl winner, sure. The winner of Survivor season 49, okay. But the number of gifts Santa will deliver this year? The number of tweets Elon Musk will send in the next 7 days? How much money Avatar: Fire and Ash will make at the box office? The next president of of Portugal? On Polymarket and Kalshi, if you can dream it up, you can probably bet on it. Welcome to the age of the prediction market. On this episode of The Vergecast, we try to figure out where prediction markets came from, and why they’ve become so popular. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal joins the show to track the rise of Polymarket and Kalshi, explain their controversies and ultimate acceptance, and put these companies in their correct place in the economy. Most of all, he helps us figure out if there’s actually something new happening here, or if the betting has been happening forever. Alex Heath Election night at Kalshi HQ This is an excerpt of Sources by Alex Heath, a newsletter about AI and the tech industry, syndicated just for The Verge subscribers once a week. At 8PM on election night in New York City, I arrived at an unmarked office building in the Meatpacking District. Emma Roth Here’s the $2,000 fully AI-generated ad that aired during the NBA Finals If you’ve been on social media lately, you might’ve seen the unsettling AI slop videos showing AI-generated people in wild scenarios or just speaking a bunch of nonsense. On Wednesday night, the betting platform Kalshi decided to take this trend outside the social sphere by putting a nonsensical AI-generated ad in front of the millions of viewers watching the NBA Finals — and it apparently cost just $2,000 to make. The AI-generated highlights various things “people” are betting on, like whether the Oklahoma City Thunder or Indiana Pacers will win the NBA Finals, how many hurricanes will occur this year, and whether the price of eggs will go up this month. It flashes between scenes of an elderly man wearing a cowboy hat while carrying a chihuahua, someone swimming in a pool of eggs, and an alien chugging beer. Nilay Patel Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is betting not Today, I’m talking with Vlad Tenev, the cofounder and CEO of Robinhood, which is one of the most well-known consumer finance apps in the world. It started as a way to open up stock trading, but the company’s ambitions have grown over time — and they’re getting even bigger. Just a day before Tenev and I talked, Robinhood announced it would soon be offering bank accounts and wealth management services, which would allow Robinhood to be involved with your money at every possible level. Alex Heath A new tidbit about the prediction markets startup from last week’s issue of Command Line: Coplan recently raised, but has yet to announce, a $30 million round of funding at a $350 million valuation. And in recent conversations with investors (a surprising number of whom passed on the round, which was less than Coplan hoped to raise), I’m told he was noncommittal about whether the company would work to get the Commodity Futures Trading Commission license it needs to operate in the US. Jay Peters According to The Wall Street Journal: It wasn’t immediately clear what prompted the FBI’s search of [Shayne] Coplan, the 26-year-old entrepreneur behind one of the most successful prediction markets in history. But Polymarket quickly tied the raid to its track record in the recent presidential election, in which bettors on its platform correctly anticipated that Donald Trump would beat Vice President Kamala Harris. Bloomberg also reports that Polymarket is being investigated by the DOJ for allegedly letting users in the US place bets on the site. [WSJ] Alex Heath Why Robinhood’s CEO thinks prediction markets are here to stay This week’s presidential election introduced a lot of people to prediction markets. Kalshi was the number one app in the App Store on Election Day. The CEO of Polymarket claims the Trump campaign first realized they were winning from his startup’s stats, which showed them winning by a landslide hours before news networks called the race. There’s a sense in some tech and finance circles that these betting markets are now a better “wisdom of the crowd” indicator than polls. Elizabeth Lopatto The startup has received “tens of millions from investors in short-term loans“ to make sure it can cover election bets: Like most brokerages, the company offers instant funding to new users. This means users can start trading right away, even though it may take two to three business days for the funds to be officially transferred from the customer’s bank account to Kalshi’s. [TechCrunch] Elizabeth Lopatto Robinhood admits it’s just a gambling app US citizens can gamble on the upcoming election on Robinhood, the financial nihilism app announced. Robinhood has termed this “unlocking a new asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold.” Let’s pause — I would like to reflect on this incredible phrase, about an asset class that democratizes access to events as they unfold. See, I thought we all had access to the events of the election because we all exist in reality and can find out about them. But apparently, if we can’t gamble on an event, it isn’t happening. This is a fascinating vision of metaphysics, and I would like to hear more about it. No one bet on my birth, for instance, and thus there is no asset class relating to my existence. So am I real? Most Popular The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most. This is the title for the native ad © 2026 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitab] | [TOKENS: 408] |
Contents Minitab Minitab is a statistics package developed at the Pennsylvania State University by researchers Barbara F. Ryan, Thomas A. Ryan, Jr., and Brian L. Joiner in conjunction with Triola Statistics Company in 1972. It began as a light version of OMNITAB, a statistical analysis program by National Institute of Standards and Technology. History Minitab Statistical Software is a statistics package developed at the Pennsylvania State University by researchers Barbara F. Ryan, Thomas A. Ryan, Jr., Brian L. Joiner in 1972. The project received funding from the Triola Statistics Company. It began as a light version of OMNITAB, a statistical analysis program by NIST, which was conceived by Joseph Hilsenrath in years 1962–1964 for the IBM 7090. The documentation for the latest version of OMNITAB, OMNITAB 80, was last published in 1986, and there has been no significant development since then. Minitab is distributed by Minitab, LLC, a privately owned company headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania. As of 2024, Minitab LLC had subsidiaries in the Netherlands, UK, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Interoperability Minitab, LLC also produces other software that can be used in conjunction with Minitab; Minitab Connect helps businesses centralize and organize their data, Quality Trainer is an eLearning package that teaches statistical concepts, Minitab Workspace provides project planning and visualization tools, and Minitab Engage is a tool for Idea and Innovation Management, as well as managing Six Sigma and Lean manufacturing deployments. In October 2020, Minitab launched the first cloud-based version of its statistical software. As of June 2021, the Minitab Desktop app is only available for Windows, with a former version for MacOS (Minitab 19.x) no longer being supported. See also References Further reading External links |
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Special EditionThe Big Story23 Ways You’re Already Living in the Chinese CenturyThe Big StoryAI of a Thousand FacesThe Big StoryWIRED Takes You Back to SchoolThe Big StoryThe New Era of Work TravelThe Big StoryAre We Healthy Yet?The Big StoryHow to Win a FightSecurityYou're Not ReadySecurityThe Most Dangerous Hackers You’ve Never Heard OfThe Big StoryHow to Get Computers—Before Computers Get YouThe Big StoryThe Love and Sex EditionThe Big StoryThe Money Money Money Issue Special Edition © 2026 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. WIRED may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Ad Choices |
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Contents Arab al-Zubayd Arab al-Zubayd was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 20, 1948, when the villagers fled on hearing the intentions of The Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 15 km northeast of Safad, near the al-Mutilla-Safad—Tiberias highway. History In 1838, in the Ottoman era, ez-Zubeid was described as an Arab tribe residing in the vicinity of Safad. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arab Zubaid had a population of 257; 255 Muslims and 2 Melkite Christians, increasing in the 1931 census, when it was counted together with Al-'Ulmaniyya, to 432; 5 Christians and 427 Muslims, in a total of 100 houses. The population, combined with that of Mallaha, came to 890 Muslims in the 1945 statistics, with a total of 2,168 dunams of land. The village relied on its abundant springs for farming. In 1944–45 a total of 1,761 dunums was allocated to cereal farming. while 20 dunams were classified as built-up land. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the villagers fled on 20 April (prior to the occupation of any neighboring villages), anticipating an Israeli attack. In August 1948, Golani Brigade units were preparing to blow up the village in spite of a complaint from the nearby Kibbutz Sha’ar ha-’Amaqim, which objected. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion denied responsibility, saying: "No permission was given by me or to any commander to destroy houses." The village was nevertheless destroyed. In 1992, Khalidi wrote that the area was strewn with rubble covered by a thicket of woods, grass, and thorny plants, and he saw animals grazing in the hills. Some land in the plain had been turned into a nature reserve and the rest cultivated by Israeli farmers." Notes and references Bibliography External links |
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Contents Meta Platforms Meta Platforms, Inc. (doing business as Meta) is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Meta owns and operates several prominent social media platforms and communication services, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Threads and Manus. The company also operates an advertising network for its own sites and third parties; as of 2023[update], advertising accounted for 97.8 percent of its total revenue. Meta has been described as a part of Big Tech, which refers to the largest six tech companies in the United States, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft, and Nvidia, which are also the largest companies in the world by market capitalization. The company was originally established in 2004 as TheFacebook, Inc., and was renamed Facebook, Inc. in 2005. In 2021, it rebranded as Meta Platforms, Inc. to reflect a strategic shift toward developing the metaverse—an interconnected digital ecosystem spanning virtual and augmented reality technologies. In 2023, Meta was ranked 31st on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's largest public companies. As of 2022, it was the world's third-largest spender on research and development, with R&D expenses totaling US$35.3 billion. History Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on January 1, 2012. The preliminary prospectus stated that the company sought to raise $5 billion, had 845 million monthly active users, and a website accruing 2.7 billion likes and comments daily. After the IPO, Zuckerberg would retain 22% of the total shares and 57% of the total voting power in Facebook. Underwriters valued the shares at $38 each, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation yet for a newly public company. On May 16, one day before the IPO, Facebook announced it would sell 25% more shares than originally planned due to high demand. The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third-largest in US history (slightly ahead of AT&T Mobility and behind only General Motors and Visa). The stock price left the company with a higher market capitalization than all but a few U.S. corporations—surpassing heavyweights such as Amazon, McDonald's, Disney, and Kraft Foods—and made Zuckerberg's stock worth $19 billion. The New York Times stated that the offering overcame questions about Facebook's difficulties in attracting advertisers to transform the company into a "must-own stock". Jimmy Lee of JPMorgan Chase described it as "the next great blue-chip". Writers at TechCrunch, on the other hand, expressed skepticism, stating, "That's a big multiple to live up to, and Facebook will likely need to add bold new revenue streams to justify the mammoth valuation." Trading in the stock, which began on May 18, was delayed that day due to technical problems with the Nasdaq exchange. The stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, forcing underwriters to buy back shares to support the price. At the closing bell, shares were valued at $38.23, only $0.23 above the IPO price and down $3.82 from the opening bell value. The opening was widely described by the financial press as a disappointment. The stock set a new record for trading volume of an IPO. On May 25, 2012, the stock ended its first full week of trading at $31.91, a 16.5% decline. On May 22, 2012, regulators from Wall Street's Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced that they had begun to investigate whether banks underwriting Facebook had improperly shared information only with select clients rather than the general public. Massachusetts Secretary of State William F. Galvin subpoenaed Morgan Stanley over the same issue. The allegations sparked "fury" among some investors and led to the immediate filing of several lawsuits, one of them a class action suit claiming more than $2.5 billion in losses due to the IPO. Bloomberg estimated that retail investors may have lost approximately $630 million on Facebook stock since its debut. S&P Global Ratings added Facebook to its S&P 500 index on December 21, 2013. On May 2, 2014, Zuckerberg announced that the company would be changing its internal motto from "Move fast and break things" to "Move fast with stable infrastructure". The earlier motto had been described as Zuckerberg's "prime directive to his developers and team" in a 2009 interview in Business Insider, in which he also said, "Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough." In November 2016, Facebook announced the Microsoft Windows client of gaming service Facebook Gameroom, formerly Facebook Games Arcade, at the Unity Technologies developers conference. The client allows Facebook users to play "native" games in addition to its web games. The service was closed in June 2021. Lasso was a short-video sharing app from Facebook similar to TikTok that was launched on iOS and Android in 2018 and was aimed at teenagers. On July 2, 2020, Facebook announced that Lasso would be shutting down on July 10. In 2018, the Oculus lead Jason Rubin sent his 50-page vision document titled "The Metaverse" to Facebook's leadership. In the document, Rubin acknowledged that Facebook's virtual reality business had not caught on as expected, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on content for early adopters. He also urged the company to execute fast and invest heavily in the vision, to shut out HTC, Apple, Google and other competitors in the VR space. Regarding other players' participation in the metaverse vision, he called for the company to build the "metaverse" to prevent their competitors from "being in the VR business in a meaningful way at all". In May 2019, Facebook founded Libra Networks, reportedly to develop their own stablecoin cryptocurrency. Later, it was reported that Libra was being supported by financial companies such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Uber. The consortium of companies was expected to pool in $10 million each to fund the launch of the cryptocurrency coin named Libra. Depending on when it would receive approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory authority to operate as a payments service, the Libra Association had planned to launch a limited format cryptocurrency in 2021. Libra was renamed Diem, before being shut down and sold in January 2022 after backlash from Swiss government regulators and the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of online services, including Facebook, grew globally. Zuckerberg predicted this would be a "permanent acceleration" that would continue after the pandemic. Facebook hired aggressively, growing from 48,268 employees in March 2020 to more than 87,000 by September 2022. Following a period of intense scrutiny and damaging whistleblower leaks, news started to emerge on October 21, 2021 about Facebook's plan to rebrand the company and change its name. In the Q3 2021 earnings call on October 25, Mark Zuckerberg discussed the ongoing criticism of the company's social services and the way it operates, and pointed to the pivoting efforts to building the metaverse – without mentioning the rebranding and the name change. The metaverse vision and the name change from Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms was introduced at Facebook Connect on October 28, 2021. Based on Facebook's PR campaign, the name change reflects the company's shifting long term focus of building the metaverse, a digital extension of the physical world by social media, virtual reality and augmented reality features. "Meta" had been registered as a trademark in the United States in 2018 (after an initial filing in 2015) for marketing, advertising, and computer services, by a Canadian company that provided big data analysis of scientific literature. This company was acquired in 2017 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), a foundation established by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, and became one of their projects. Following the rebranding announcement, CZI announced that it had already decided to deprioritize the earlier Meta project, thus it would be transferring its rights to the name to Meta Platforms, and the previous project would end in 2022. Soon after the rebranding, in early February 2022, Meta reported a greater-than-expected decline in profits in the fourth quarter of 2021. It reported no growth in monthly users, and indicated it expected revenue growth to stall. It also expected measures taken by Apple Inc. to protect user privacy to cost it some $10 billion in advertisement revenue, an amount equal to roughly 8% of its revenue for 2021. In meeting with Meta staff the day after earnings were reported, Zuckerberg blamed competition for user attention, particularly from video-based apps such as TikTok. The 27% reduction in the company's share price which occurred in reaction to the news eliminated some $230 billion of value from Meta's market capitalization. Bloomberg described the decline as "an epic rout that, in its sheer scale, is unlike anything Wall Street or Silicon Valley has ever seen". Zuckerberg's net worth fell by as much as $31 billion. Zuckerberg owns 13% of Meta, and the holding makes up the bulk of his wealth. According to published reports by Bloomberg on March 30, 2022, Meta turned over data such as phone numbers, physical addresses, and IP addresses to hackers posing as law enforcement officials using forged documents. The law enforcement requests sometimes included forged signatures of real or fictional officials. When asked about the allegations, a Meta representative said, "We review every data request for legal sufficiency and use advanced systems and processes to validate law enforcement requests and detect abuse." In June 2022, Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of 14 years, announced she would step down that year. Zuckerberg said that Javier Olivan would replace Sandberg, though in a “more traditional” role. In March 2022, Meta (except Meta-owned WhatsApp) and Instagram were banned in Russia and added to the Russian list of terrorist and extremist organizations for alleged Russophobia and hate speech (up to genocidal calls) amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meta appealed against the ban, but it was upheld by a Moscow court in June of the same year. Also in March 2022, Meta and Italian eyewear giant Luxottica released Ray-Ban Stories, a series of smartglasses which could play music and take pictures. Meta and Luxottica parent company EssilorLuxottica declined to disclose sales on the line of products as of September 2022, though Meta has expressed satisfaction with its customer feedback. In July 2022, Meta saw its first year-on-year revenue decline when its total revenue slipped by 1% to $28.8bn. Analysts and journalists accredited the loss to its advertising business, which has been limited by Apple's app tracking transparency feature and the number of people who have opted not to be tracked by Meta apps. Zuckerberg also accredited the decline to increasing competition from TikTok. On October 27, 2022, Meta's market value dropped to $268 billion, a loss of around $700 billion compared to 2021, and its shares fell by 24%. It lost its spot among the top 20 US companies by market cap, despite reaching the top 5 in the previous year. In November 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 employees, 13% of its workforce. Zuckerberg said the decision to aggressively increase Meta's investments had been a mistake, as he had wrongly predicted that the surge in e-commerce would last beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. He also attributed the decline to increased competition, a global economic downturn and "ads signal loss". Plans to lay off a further 10,000 employees began in April 2023. The layoffs were part of a general downturn in the technology industry, alongside layoffs by companies including Google, Amazon, Tesla, Snap, Twitter and Lyft. Starting from 2022, Meta scrambled to catch up to other tech companies in adopting specialized artificial intelligence hardware and software. It had been using less expensive CPUs instead of GPUs for AI work, but that approach turned out to be less efficient. The company gifted the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research $1.3 million to finance the Social Media Archive's aim to make their data available to social science research. In 2023, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner imposed a record EUR 1.2 billion fine on Meta for transferring data from Europe to the United States without adequate protections for EU citizens.: 250 In March 2023, Meta announced a new round of layoffs that would cut 10,000 employees and close 5,000 open positions to make the company more efficient. Meta revenue surpassed analyst expectations for the first quarter of 2023 after announcing that it was increasing its focus on AI. On July 6, Meta launched a new app, Threads, a competitor to Twitter. Meta announced its artificial intelligence model Llama 2 in July 2023, available for commercial use via partnerships with major cloud providers like Microsoft. It was the first project to be unveiled out of Meta's generative AI group after it was set up in February. It would not charge access or usage but instead operate with an open-source model to allow Meta to ascertain what improvements need to be made. Prior to this announcement, Meta said it had no plans to release Llama 2 for commercial use. An earlier version of Llama was released to academics. In August 2023, Meta announced its permanent removal of news content from Facebook and Instagram in Canada due to the Online News Act, which requires Canadian news outlets to be compensated for content shared on its platform. The Online News Act was in effect by year-end, but Meta will not participate in the regulatory process. In October 2023, Zuckerberg said that AI would be Meta's biggest investment area in 2024. Meta finished 2023 as one of the best-performing technology stocks of the year, with its share price up 150 percent. Its stock reached an all-time high in January 2024, bringing Meta within 2% of achieving $1 trillion market capitalization. In November 2023 Meta Platforms launched an ad-free service in Europe, allowing subscribers to opt-out of personal data being collected for targeted advertising. A group of 28 European organizations, including Max Schrems' advocacy group NOYB, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Wikimedia Europe, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, signed a 2024 letter to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) expressing concern that this subscriber model would undermine privacy protections, specifically GDPR data protection standards. Meta removed the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February 2024, citing repeated violations of its Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy. As of March, Meta was under investigation by the FDA for alleged use of their social media platforms to sell illegal drugs. On 16 May 2024, the European Commission began an investigation into Meta over concerns related to child safety. In May 2023, Iraqi social media influencer Esaa Ahmed-Adnan encountered a troubling issue when Instagram removed his posts, citing false copyright violations despite his content being original and free from copyrighted material. He discovered that extortionists were behind these takedowns, offering to restore his content for $3,000 or provide ongoing protection for $1,000 per month. This scam, exploiting Meta’s rights management tools, became widespread in the Middle East, revealing a gap in Meta’s enforcement in developing regions. An Iraqi nonprofit Tech4Peace’s founder, Aws al-Saadi helped Ahmed-Adnan and others, but the restoration process was slow, leading to significant financial losses for many victims, including prominent figures like Ammar al-Hakim. This situation highlighted Meta’s challenges in balancing global growth with effective content moderation and protection. On 16 September 2024, Meta announced it had banned Russian state media outlets from its platforms worldwide due to concerns about "foreign interference activity." This decision followed allegations that RT and its employees funneled $10 million through shell companies to secretly fund influence campaigns on various social media channels. Meta's actions were part of a broader effort to counter Russian covert influence operations, which had intensified since the invasion. At its 2024 Connect conference, Meta presented Orion, its first pair of augmented reality glasses. Though Orion was originally intended to be sold to consumers, the manufacturing process turned out to be too complex and expensive. Instead, the company pivoted to producing a small number of the glasses to be used internally. On 4 October 2024, Meta announced about its new AI model called Movie Gen, capable of generating realistic video and audio clips based on user prompts. Meta stated it would not release Movie Gen for open development, preferring to collaborate directly with content creators and integrate it into its products by the following year. The model was built using a combination of licensed and publicly available datasets. On October 31, 2024, ProPublica published an investigation into deceptive political advertisement scams that sometimes use hundreds of hijacked profiles and facebook pages run by organized networks of scammers. The authors cited spotty enforcement by Meta as a major reason for the extent of the issue. In November 2024, TechCrunch reported that Meta were considering building a $10bn global underwater cable spanning 25,000 miles. In the same month, Meta closed down 2 million accounts on Facebook and Instagram that were linked to scam centers in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates doing pig butchering scams. In December 2024, Meta announced that, beginning February 2025, they would require advertisers to run ads about financial services in Australia to verify information about who are the beneficiary and the payer in a bid to regulate scams. On December 4, 2024, Meta announced it will invest US$10 billion for its largest AI data center in northeast Louisiana, powered by natural gas facilities. On the 11th of that month, Meta experienced a global outage, impacting accounts on all of their social media and messaging applications. Outage reports from DownDetector reached 70,000+ and 100,000+ within minutes for Instagram and Facebook, respectively. In January 2025, Meta announced plans to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, citing shifts in the "legal and policy landscape" in the United States following the 2024 presidential election. The decision followed reports that CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to align the company more closely with the incoming Trump administration, including changes to content moderation policies and executive leadership. The new content moderation policies continued to bar insults about a person's intellect or mental illness, but made an exception to allow calling LGBTQ people mentally ill because they are gay or transgender. Later that month, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to settle a 2021 lawsuit brought by Donald Trump for suspending his social media accounts after the January 6 riots. Changes to Meta's moderation policies were controversial among its oversight board, with a significant divide in opinion between the board's US conservatives and its global members. In June 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. has decided to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value which would make it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. In October 2025, it was announced that Meta would be laying off 600 employees in the artificial intelligence unit to perform better and simpler. They referred to their AI unit as "bloated" and are seeking to trim down the department. This mass layoff is going to impact Meta’s AI infrastructure units, Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research unit (FAIR) and other product-related positions. Mergers and acquisitions Meta has acquired multiple companies (often identified as talent acquisitions). One of its first major acquisitions was in April 2012, when it acquired Instagram for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. In October 2013, Facebook, Inc. acquired Onavo, an Israeli mobile web analytics company. In February 2014, Facebook, Inc. announced it would buy mobile messaging company WhatsApp for US$19 billion in cash and stock. The acquisition was completed on October 6. Later that year, Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2.3 billion in cash and stock, which released its first consumer virtual reality headset in 2016. In late November 2019, Facebook, Inc. announced the acquisition of the game developer Beat Games, responsible for developing one of that year's most popular VR games, Beat Saber. In Late 2022, after Facebook Inc rebranded to Meta Platforms Inc, Oculus was rebranded to Meta Quest. In May 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced it had acquired Giphy for a reported cash price of $400 million. It will be integrated with the Instagram team. However, in August 2021, UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that Facebook, Inc. might have to sell Giphy, after an investigation found that the deal between the two companies would harm competition in display advertising market. Facebook, Inc. was fined $70 million by CMA for deliberately failing to report all information regarding the acquisition and the ongoing antitrust investigation. In October 2022, the CMA ruled for a second time that Meta be required to divest Giphy, stating that Meta already controls half of the advertising in the UK. Meta agreed to the sale, though it stated that it disagrees with the decision itself. In May 2023, Giphy was divested to Shutterstock for $53 million. In November 2020, Facebook, Inc. announced that it planned to purchase the customer-service platform and chatbot specialist startup Kustomer to promote companies to use their platform for business. It has been reported that Kustomer valued at slightly over $1 billion. The deal was closed in February 2022 after regulatory approval. In September 2022, Meta acquired Lofelt, a Berlin-based haptic tech startup. In December 2025, it was announced Meta had acquired the AI-wearables startup, Limitless. In the same month, they also acquired another AI startup, Manus AI, for $2 billion. Manus announced in December that its platform had achieved $100mm in recurring revenue just 8 months after its launch and Meta said it will scale the platform to many other businesses. In January 2026, it was announced Meta proposed acquisition of Manus was undergoing preliminary scrutiny by Chinese regulators. The examination concerns the cross-border transfer of artificial intelligence technology developed in China. Lobbying In 2020, Facebook, Inc. spent $19.7 million on lobbying, hiring 79 lobbyists. In 2019, it had spent $16.7 million on lobbying and had a team of 71 lobbyists, up from $12.6 million and 51 lobbyists in 2018. Facebook was the largest spender of lobbying money among the Big Tech companies in 2020. The lobbying team includes top congressional aide John Branscome, who was hired in September 2021, to help the company fend off threats from Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration. In December 2024, Meta donated $1 million to the inauguration fund for then-President-elect Donald Trump. In 2025, Meta was listed among the donors funding the construction of the White House State Ballroom. Partnerships February 2026, Meta announced a long-term partnership with Nvidia. Censorship In August 2024, Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to Jim Jordan indicating that during the COVID-19 pandemic the Biden administration repeatedly asked Meta to limit certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, on Facebook and Instagram. In 2016 Meta hired Jordana Cutler, formerly an employee at the Israeli Embassy to the United States, as its policy chief for Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. In this role, Cutler pushed for the censorship of accounts belonging to Students for Justice in Palestine chapters in the United States. Critics have said that Cutler's position gives the Israeli government an undue influence over Meta policy, and that few countries have such high levels of contact with Meta policymakers. Following the election of Donald Trump in 2025, various sources noted possible censorship related to the Democratic Party on Instagram and other Meta platforms. In February 2025, a Meta rep flagged journalist Gil Duran's article and other "critiques of tech industry figures" as spam or sensitive content, limiting their reach. In March 2025, Meta attempted to block former employee Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting or further distributing her memoir, Careless People, that includes allegations of unaddressed sexual harassment in the workplace by senior executives. The New York Times reports that the arbitration is among Meta's most forcible attempts to repudiate a former employee's account of workplace dynamics. Publisher Macmillan reacted to the ruling by the Emergency International Arbitral Tribunal by stating that it will ignore its provisions. As of 15 March 2025[update], hardback and digital versions of Careless People were being offered for sale by major online retailers. From October 2025, Meta began removing and restricting access for accounts related to LGBTQ, reproductive health and abortion information pages on its platforms. Martha Dimitratou, executive director of Repro Uncensored, called Meta's shadow-banning of these issues "One of the biggest waves of censorship we are seeing". Disinformation concerns Since its inception, Meta has been accused of being a host for fake news and misinformation. In the wake of the 2016 United States presidential election, Zuckerberg began to take steps to eliminate the prevalence of fake news, as the platform had been criticized for its potential influence on the outcome of the election. The company initially partnered with ABC News, the Associated Press, FactCheck.org, Snopes and PolitiFact for its fact-checking initiative; as of 2018, it had over 40 fact-checking partners across the world, including The Weekly Standard. A May 2017 review by The Guardian found that the platform's fact-checking initiatives of partnering with third-party fact-checkers and publicly flagging fake news were regularly ineffective, and appeared to be having minimal impact in some cases. In 2018, journalists working as fact-checkers for the company criticized the partnership, stating that it had produced minimal results and that the company had ignored their concerns. In 2024 Meta's decision to continue to disseminate a falsified video of US president Joe Biden, even after it had been proven to be fake, attracted criticism and concern. In January 2025, Meta ended its use of third-party fact-checkers in favor of a user-run community notes system similar to the one used on X. While Zuckerberg supported these changes, saying that the amount of censorship on the platform was excessive, the decision received criticism by fact-checking institutions, stating that the changes would make it more difficult for users to identify misinformation. Meta also faced criticism for weakening its policies on hate speech that were designed to protect minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals from bullying and discrimination. While moving its content review teams from California to Texas, Meta changed their hateful conduct policy to eliminate restrictions on anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant hate speech, as well as explicitly allowing users to accuse LGBT people of being mentally ill or abnormal based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. In January 2025, Meta faced significant criticism for its role in removing LGBTQ+ content from its platforms, amid its broader efforts to address anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech. The removal of LGBTQ+ themes was noted as part of the wider crackdown on content deemed to violate its community guidelines. Meta's content moderation policies, which were designed to combat harmful speech and protect users from discrimination, inadvertently led to the removal or restriction of LGBTQ+ content, particularly posts highlighting LGBTQ+ identities, support, or political issues. According to reports, LGBTQ+ posts, including those that simply celebrated pride or advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, were flagged and removed for reasons that some critics argue were vague or inconsistently applied. Many LGBTQ+ activists and users on Meta's platforms expressed concern that such actions stifled visibility and expression, potentially isolating LGBTQ+ individuals and communities, especially in spaces that were historically important for outreach and support. Lawsuits Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the company, both when it was known as Facebook, Inc., and as Meta Platforms. In March 2020, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) sued Facebook, for significant and persistent infringements of the rule on privacy involving the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. Every violation of the Privacy Act is subject to a theoretical cumulative liability of $1.7 million. The OAIC estimated that a total of 311,127 Australians had been exposed. On December 8, 2020, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 46 states (excluding Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and South Dakota), the District of Columbia and the territory of Guam, launched Federal Trade Commission v. Facebook as an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook. The lawsuit concerns Facebook's acquisition of two competitors—Instagram and WhatsApp—and the ensuing monopolistic situation. FTC alleges that Facebook holds monopolistic power in the U.S. social networking market and seeks to force the company to divest from Instagram and WhatsApp to break up the conglomerate. William Kovacic, a former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, argued the case will be difficult to win as it would require the government to create a counterfactual argument of an internet where the Facebook-WhatsApp-Instagram entity did not exist, and prove that harmed competition or consumers. In November 2025, it was ruled that Meta did not violate antitrust laws and holds no monopoly in the market. On December 24, 2021, a court in Russia fined Meta for $27 million after the company declined to remove unspecified banned content. The fine was reportedly tied to the company's annual revenue in the country. In May 2022, a lawsuit was filed in Kenya against Meta and its local outsourcing company Sama. Allegedly, Meta has poor working conditions in Kenya for workers moderating Facebook posts. According to the lawsuit, 260 screeners were declared redundant with confusing reasoning. The lawsuit seeks financial compensation and an order that outsourced moderators be given the same health benefits and pay scale as Meta employees. In June 2022, 8 lawsuits were filed across the U.S. over the allege that excessive exposure to platforms including Facebook and Instagram has led to attempted or actual suicides, eating disorders and sleeplessness, among other issues. The litigation follows a former Facebook employee's testimony in Congress that the company refused to take responsibility. The company noted that tools have been developed for parents to keep track of their children's activity on Instagram and set time limits, in addition to Meta's "Take a break" reminders. In addition, the company is providing resources specific to eating disorders as well as developing AI to prevent children under the age of 13 signing up for Facebook or Instagram. In June 2022, Meta settled a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, alleged that the company enabled housing discrimination through targeted advertising, as it allowed homeowners and landlords to run housing ads excluding people based on sex, race, religion, and other characteristics. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that this was in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Meta was handed a penalty of $115,054 and given until December 31, 2022, to shadow the algorithm tool. In January 2023, Meta was fined €390 million for violations of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. In May 2023, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta a record €1.2 billion for breaching European Union data privacy laws by transferring personal data of Facebook users to servers in the U.S. In July 2024, Meta agreed to pay the state of Texas US$1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accusing the company of collecting users' biometric data without consent, setting a record for the largest privacy-related settlement ever obtained by a state attorney general. In October 2024, Meta Platforms faced lawsuits in Japan from 30 plaintiffs who claimed they were defrauded by fake investment ads on Facebook and Instagram, featuring false celebrity endorsements. The plaintiffs are seeking approximately $2.8 million in damages. In April 2025, the Kenyan High Court ruled that a US$2.4 billion lawsuit in which three plaintiffs claim that Facebook inflamed civil violence in Ethiopia in 2021 could proceed. In April 2025, Meta was fined €200 million ($230 million) for breaking the Digital Markets Act, by imposing a “consent or pay” system that forces users to either allow their personal data to be used to target advertisements, or pay a subscription fee for advertising-free versions of Facebook and Instagram. In late April 2025, a case was filed against Meta in Ghana over the alleged psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse. Meta moved the moderation service to the Ghanaian capital of Accra after legal issues in the previous location Kenya. The new moderation company is Teleperformance, a multinational corporation with a history of worker's rights violation. Reports suggests the conditions are worse here than in the previous Kenyan location, with many workers afraid of speaking out due to fear of returning to conflict zones. Workers reported developing mental illnesses, attempted suicides, and low pay. In 26 January 2026, a New Mexico state court case was filed, suggesting that Mark Zuckerberg approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions. In 2020, the company UReputation, which had been involved in several cases concerning the management of digital armies[clarification needed], filed a lawsuit against Facebook, accusing it of unlawfully transmitting personal data to third parties. Legal actions were initiated in Tunisia, France, and the United States. In 2025, the United States District court for the Northern District of Georgia approved a discovery procedure, allowing UReputation to access documents and evidence held by Meta. Structure Meta's key management consists of: As of October 2022[update], Meta had 83,553 employees worldwide. As of June 2024[update], Meta's board consisted of the following directors; Meta Platforms is mainly owned by institutional investors, who hold around 80% of all shares. Insiders control the majority of voting shares. The three largest individual investors in 2024 were Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Christopher K. Cox. The largest shareholders in late 2024/early 2025 were: Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and Zuckerberg's former mentor, said Facebook had "the most centralized decision-making structure I have ever encountered in a large company". Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has stated that chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has too much power, that the company is now a monopoly, and that, as a result, it should be split into multiple smaller companies. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Hughes said he was concerned that Zuckerberg had surrounded himself with a team that did not challenge him, and that it is the U.S. government's job to hold him accountable and curb his "unchecked power". He also said that "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American." Several U.S. politicians agreed with Hughes. European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager stated that splitting Facebook should be done only as "a remedy of the very last resort", and that it would not solve Facebook's underlying problems. Revenue Facebook ranked No. 34 in the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue, with almost $86 billion in revenue most of it coming from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined that the company earned US$20.21 per user from advertising. According to New York, since its rebranding, Meta has reportedly lost $500 billion as a result of new privacy measures put in place by companies such as Apple and Google which prevents Meta from gathering users' data. In February 2015, Facebook announced it had reached two million active advertisers, with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser was defined as an entity that had advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced it had reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the United States. Prices for advertising follow a variable pricing model based on auctioning ad placements, and potential engagement levels of the advertisement itself. Similar to other online advertising platforms like Google and Twitter, targeting of advertisements is one of the chief merits of digital advertising compared to traditional media. Marketing on Meta is employed through two methods based on the viewing habits, likes and shares, and purchasing data of the audience, namely targeted audiences and "look alike" audiences. The U.S. IRS challenged the valuation Facebook used when it transferred IP from the U.S. to Facebook Ireland (now Meta Platforms Ireland) in 2010 (which Facebook Ireland then revalued higher before charging out), as it was building its double Irish tax structure. The case is ongoing and Meta faces a potential fine of $3–5bn. The U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 changed Facebook's global tax calculations. Meta Platforms Ireland is subject to the U.S. GILTI tax of 10.5% on global intangible profits (i.e. Irish profits). On the basis that Meta Platforms Ireland Limited is paying some tax, the effective minimum US tax for Facebook Ireland will be circa 11%. In contrast, Meta Platforms Inc. would incur a special IP tax rate of 13.125% (the FDII rate) if its Irish business relocated to the U.S. Tax relief in the U.S. (21% vs. Irish at the GILTI rate) and accelerated capital expensing, would make this effective U.S. rate around 12%. The insignificance of the U.S./Irish tax difference was demonstrated when Facebook moved 1.5bn non-EU accounts to the U.S. to limit exposure to GDPR. Facilities Users outside of the U.S. and Canada contract with Meta's Irish subsidiary, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (formerly Facebook Ireland Limited), allowing Meta to avoid US taxes for all users in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and South America. Meta is making use of the Double Irish arrangement which allows it to pay 2–3% corporation tax on all international revenue. In 2010, Facebook opened its fourth office, in Hyderabad, India, which houses online advertising and developer support teams and provides support to users and advertisers. In India, Meta is registered as Facebook India Online Services Pvt Ltd. It also has offices or planned sites in Chittagong, Bangladesh; Dublin, Ireland; and Austin, Texas, among other cities. Facebook opened its London headquarters in 2017 in Fitzrovia in central London. Facebook opened an office in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2018. The offices were initially home to the "Connectivity Lab", a group focused on bringing Internet access to those who do not have access to the Internet. In April 2019, Facebook opened its Taiwan headquarters in Taipei. In March 2022, Meta opened new regional headquarters in Dubai. In September 2023, it was reported that Meta had paid £149m to British Land to break the lease on Triton Square London office. Meta reportedly had another 18 years left on its lease on the site. As of 2023, Facebook operated 21 data centers. It committed to purchase 100% renewable energy and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 75% by 2020. Its data center technologies include Fabric Aggregator, a distributed network system that accommodates larger regions and varied traffic patterns. Reception US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded in a tweet to Zuckerberg's announcement about Meta, saying: "Meta as in 'we are a cancer to democracy metastasizing into a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society ... for profit!'" Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen and whistleblower behind the Facebook Papers responded to the rebranding efforts by expressing doubts about the company's ability to improve while led by Mark Zuckerberg, and urged the chief executive officer to resign. In November 2021, a video published by Inspired by Iceland went viral, in which a Zuckerberg look-alike promoted the Icelandverse, a place of "enhanced actual reality without silly looking headsets". In a December 2021 interview, SpaceX and Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said he could not see a compelling use-case for the VR-driven metaverse, adding: "I don't see someone strapping a frigging screen to their face all day." In January 2022, Louise Eccles of The Sunday Times logged into the metaverse with the intention of making a video guide. She wrote: Initially, my experience with the Oculus went well. I attended work meetings as an avatar and tried an exercise class set in the streets of Paris. The headset enabled me to feel the thrill of carving down mountains on a snowboard and the adrenaline rush of climbing a mountain without ropes. Yet switching to the social apps, where you mingle with strangers also using VR headsets, it was at times predatory and vile. Eccles described being sexually harassed by another user, as well as "accents from all over the world, American, Indian, English, Australian, using racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic language". She also encountered users as young as 7 years old on the platform, despite Oculus headsets being intended for users over 13. See also References External links 37°29′06″N 122°08′54″W / 37.48500°N 122.14833°W / 37.48500; -122.14833 |
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[SOURCE: https://www.theverge.com/tech/882030/smart-glasses-in-court-meta-mark-zuckerberg] | [TOKENS: 3230] |
TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsPolicyClosePolicyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PolicySmart glasses in court are a privacy nightmareThat apparently didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg’s team from wearing them.That apparently didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg’s team from wearing them.by Stevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldNews WriterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie BonifieldFeb 20, 2026, 5:11 PM UTCLinkShareGiftPhoto by Vjeran Pavic / The VergePart OfSocial media on trial: tech giants face lawsuits over addiction, safety, and mental healthsee all updates Stevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie Bonifield is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse on Wednesday, he did so with a team that appeared to be wearing Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. Judge Carolyn Kuhl was concerned. According to CNBC, Kuhl warned anyone recording with the glasses, “If you have done that, you must delete that, or you will be held in contempt of the court.” Kuhl also ordered everyone wearing AI smart glasses to remove them. Even after the warning, at least one person was seen wearing the glasses around jurors in a courthouse hallway, although plaintiff attorney Rachel Lanier was told the glasses weren’t recording at the time.Glasses with recording capabilities have sparked concerns about privacy, surveillance, and doxxing in all kinds of places, and the courtroom is no exception. Earlier this month, a user on the r/legaladvice subreddit shared a post asking for advice on reporting a plaintiff wearing Meta’s glasses to court. Additionally, over recent months, a few states have moved to specifically ban smart glasses from courthouses, including the US District Courts for the District of Hawaii and the Western District of Wisconsin. The Forsyth County Court in North Carolina also banned smart glasses last year. Colorado’s District Court is considering a ban as well.As smart glasses become more common, though, keeping courts safe from unwanted recording may become an uphill battle.RelatedMark Zuckerberg is taking the stand as social media goes on trialThe future I saw through the Meta Ray-Ban Display amazes and terrifies meMeta will ruin its smart glasses by being MetaWhile a ban on smart glasses in courthouses may be a relatively recent development, limitations on cameras and recording are nothing new. Since 1946, the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53 has banned recording or broadcasting criminal proceedings in federal courts. In 1972, the Judicial Conference of the United States also adopted a ban on recording and broadcasting in the courtroom and the areas around it that included both civil and criminal cases. The only significant exception to those rules was in 2020, when the Judicial Conference temporarily allowed teleconferencing due to the covid-19 pandemic, although that exception ended in 2023.On a state level, laws around cameras in courtrooms vary from one state to another and have changed over the years. Most states allow recording in some capacity. However, there are often restrictions, like requiring a judge’s approval, prohibiting recording certain aspects of a trial, or only allowing recording for certain people, like members of the media.There are a variety of reasons for banning recording devices in the courtroom. For instance, the presence of cameras could potentially be used to intimidate witnesses or jurors, or motivate people to behave or speak differently if they know they are on camera. Privacy and security can also be an issue, especially in cases involving minors, who are often allowed to be anonymous in court records. If worn in court, smart glasses like Meta’s could be used to record court proceedings without a judge’s knowledge or permission, potentially risking the privacy of everyone involved in the case.Darío Maestro, legal director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), commented to The Verge that smart glasses are no exception to recording bans. “Courts have long restricted recording devices for good reason — to protect witnesses, jurors, and the integrity of proceedings. No judge would allow someone to sit in the gallery pointing a smartphone at the witness stand, even with the camera app closed. Glasses that can record covertly deserve at least the same scrutiny.”While a phone can be easily put away, however, someone who needs corrective lenses might find it harder to take smart glasses off. If the glasses become more common, rules could become more onerous to enforce. Meta sold 7 million pairs of smart glasses in 2025, and other companies are taking notice — Apple is reportedly aiming to release a pair of glasses in 2027.“No judge would allow someone to sit in the gallery pointing a smartphone at the witness stand”The glasses typically have an LED indicator that’s supposed to show when they’re recording, but it can be disabled without authorization and, even when it’s working, easily missed. The features, meanwhile, are only becoming more invasive: Earlier this month, an internal memo from Meta surfaced indicating that the company plans to add facial recognition, allowing users to identify people by name.Judge Kuhl made it clear that she won’t allow recording with smart glasses in the courtroom. Outright bans on smart glasses in court are still rare in the US, so orders like this will likely be the most direct and commonly used strategy for keeping glasses out of court proceedings for the time being.“Judges typically have a high degree of control over what items and devices are allowed in their courtrooms, and I would expect that most would respond as Judge Kuhl did here very strongly against any attempts to improperly record proceedings,” Alan Butler, executive director and president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), explained in a statement to The Verge.Butler added, “The fact that Meta’s legal team appears to have come to this hearing in a trial over the dangers their systems cause equipped with invasive glasses that put jurors and others in the courtroom at risk is a bit on the nose. But the Judge’s response was refreshing and shows that such behavior need not be tolerated.”Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Stevie BonifieldCloseStevie BonifieldNews WriterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Stevie BonifieldGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsPolicyClosePolicyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PolicyPrivacyClosePrivacyPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All PrivacyReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportSocial MediaCloseSocial MediaPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All Social MediaTechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechWearableCloseWearablePosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All WearableMore in: Social media on trial: tech giants face lawsuits over addiction, safety, and mental healthThe executive that helped build Meta’s ad machine is trying to expose itLauren FeinerFeb 19Someone was still wearing Meta’s Ray-Bans in the courthouse after a judge warned against it.Lauren FeinerFeb 19Mark Zuckerberg and his Ray-Ban entourage have their day in courtLauren FeinerFeb 19Most PopularMost PopularXbox chief Phil Spencer is leaving MicrosoftRead Microsoft gaming CEO Asha Sharma’s first memo on the future of XboxThe RAM shortage is coming for everything you care aboutAmazon blames human employees for an AI coding agent’s mistakeWill Stancil, man of the people or just an annoying guy?The Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gadgets Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Smart glasses in court are a privacy nightmare That apparently didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg’s team from wearing them. That apparently didn’t stop Mark Zuckerberg’s team from wearing them. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Stevie Bonifield Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Stevie Bonifield When Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived at a Los Angeles courthouse on Wednesday, he did so with a team that appeared to be wearing Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Ban smart glasses. Judge Carolyn Kuhl was concerned. According to CNBC, Kuhl warned anyone recording with the glasses, “If you have done that, you must delete that, or you will be held in contempt of the court.” Kuhl also ordered everyone wearing AI smart glasses to remove them. Even after the warning, at least one person was seen wearing the glasses around jurors in a courthouse hallway, although plaintiff attorney Rachel Lanier was told the glasses weren’t recording at the time. Glasses with recording capabilities have sparked concerns about privacy, surveillance, and doxxing in all kinds of places, and the courtroom is no exception. Earlier this month, a user on the r/legaladvice subreddit shared a post asking for advice on reporting a plaintiff wearing Meta’s glasses to court. Additionally, over recent months, a few states have moved to specifically ban smart glasses from courthouses, including the US District Courts for the District of Hawaii and the Western District of Wisconsin. The Forsyth County Court in North Carolina also banned smart glasses last year. Colorado’s District Court is considering a ban as well. As smart glasses become more common, though, keeping courts safe from unwanted recording may become an uphill battle. While a ban on smart glasses in courthouses may be a relatively recent development, limitations on cameras and recording are nothing new. Since 1946, the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53 has banned recording or broadcasting criminal proceedings in federal courts. In 1972, the Judicial Conference of the United States also adopted a ban on recording and broadcasting in the courtroom and the areas around it that included both civil and criminal cases. The only significant exception to those rules was in 2020, when the Judicial Conference temporarily allowed teleconferencing due to the covid-19 pandemic, although that exception ended in 2023. On a state level, laws around cameras in courtrooms vary from one state to another and have changed over the years. Most states allow recording in some capacity. However, there are often restrictions, like requiring a judge’s approval, prohibiting recording certain aspects of a trial, or only allowing recording for certain people, like members of the media. There are a variety of reasons for banning recording devices in the courtroom. For instance, the presence of cameras could potentially be used to intimidate witnesses or jurors, or motivate people to behave or speak differently if they know they are on camera. Privacy and security can also be an issue, especially in cases involving minors, who are often allowed to be anonymous in court records. If worn in court, smart glasses like Meta’s could be used to record court proceedings without a judge’s knowledge or permission, potentially risking the privacy of everyone involved in the case. Darío Maestro, legal director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), commented to The Verge that smart glasses are no exception to recording bans. “Courts have long restricted recording devices for good reason — to protect witnesses, jurors, and the integrity of proceedings. No judge would allow someone to sit in the gallery pointing a smartphone at the witness stand, even with the camera app closed. Glasses that can record covertly deserve at least the same scrutiny.” While a phone can be easily put away, however, someone who needs corrective lenses might find it harder to take smart glasses off. If the glasses become more common, rules could become more onerous to enforce. Meta sold 7 million pairs of smart glasses in 2025, and other companies are taking notice — Apple is reportedly aiming to release a pair of glasses in 2027. “No judge would allow someone to sit in the gallery pointing a smartphone at the witness stand” The glasses typically have an LED indicator that’s supposed to show when they’re recording, but it can be disabled without authorization and, even when it’s working, easily missed. The features, meanwhile, are only becoming more invasive: Earlier this month, an internal memo from Meta surfaced indicating that the company plans to add facial recognition, allowing users to identify people by name. Judge Kuhl made it clear that she won’t allow recording with smart glasses in the courtroom. Outright bans on smart glasses in court are still rare in the US, so orders like this will likely be the most direct and commonly used strategy for keeping glasses out of court proceedings for the time being. “Judges typically have a high degree of control over what items and devices are allowed in their courtrooms, and I would expect that most would respond as Judge Kuhl did here very strongly against any attempts to improperly record proceedings,” Alan Butler, executive director and president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), explained in a statement to The Verge. Butler added, “The fact that Meta’s legal team appears to have come to this hearing in a trial over the dangers their systems cause equipped with invasive glasses that put jurors and others in the courtroom at risk is a bit on the nose. But the Judge’s response was refreshing and shows that such behavior need not be tolerated.” Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Stevie Bonifield 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 Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Privacy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Report Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Social Media Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. 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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times_Company] | [TOKENS: 2380] |
Contents The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes The New York Times and its associated publications such as The New York Times International Edition and other media properties. The New York Times Company's headquarters are in the New York Times Building, a skyscraper in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. The first edition of the newspaper The New York Times, published on September 18, 1851, stated: "We publish today the first issue of the New-York Daily Times, and we intend to issue it every morning (Sundays excepted) for an indefinite number of years to come." The company moved into the cable channel industry, purchasing a 40% interest in the Popcorn Channel, a theatrical movie preview and local movie times, in November 1994. In 1996, it expanded upon its broadcasting by purchasing Palmer Communications, owners of WHO-DT in Des Moines and KFOR in Oklahoma City. In April 2002, The New York Times Company and Discovery Communications announced a joint venture television network called Discovery Times, although this was just a rename of the Discovery Civilization Network. The company completed its purchase of The Washington Post's 50 percent interest in the International Herald Tribune (IHT) for US$65 million on January 1, 2003, becoming the sole owner. On March 18, 2005, the company acquired About.com, an online provider of consumer information, for US$410 million. In 2005, the company reported revenues of US$3.4 billion to its investors. The Times, on August 25, 2006, acquired Baseline StudioSystems, an online database and research service on the film and television industries for US$35 million. In 2006, The Times sold their stake in Discovery Times to Discovery. The channel was relaunched as Investigation Discovery two years later. The company announced on September 12, 2006, its decision to sell its Broadcast Media Group, consisting of "nine network-affiliated television stations, their related Web sites and the digital operating center". The New York Times reported on January 4, 2007, that the company had reached an agreement to sell all nine local television stations to the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, which then created a holding company for the stations, Local TV LLC. The company announced that it had finalized the sale of its Broadcast Media Group on May 7, 2007, for "approximately $575 million". On May 7, 2007, the company announced that its About.com web information service was acquiring Consumersearch.com, a Web site that compiles reviews of consumer products, for $33 million in cash. In 2007, the company moved from 229 West 43rd Street to the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue, on the west side of Times Square, between 40th and 41st streets across from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Bus Terminal. In March 2009, the Times sold its ownership of the nineteen stories that it occupied in the New York Times Building to W. P. Carey for $225 million. In exchange, the Times leased back its floors for $24 million per year for 10 years. At the end of the contract, The Times repurchased the building's leasehold from W. P. Carey in late 2019 for $245 million. On July 14, 2009, the company announced that WQXR was to be sold to WNYC, which moved the station to 105.9 FM and began to operate the station noncommercially on October 8, 2009. This US$45 million transaction, which involved Univision Radio's WCAA moving to the 96.3 FM frequency from 105.9 FM, ended the Times' 65-year-long ownership of the station. In December 2011, the company sold its Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Group, owners of The Daytona Beach News-Journal, for $143 million. The Boston Globe and The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester were not part of the sale. In 2011, the Times sold Baseline StudioSystems back to its original owners, Laurie S. Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein, majority shareholders of Project Hollywood LLC. Facing falling revenue from print advertising in its flagship publication in 2011, The New York Times, the company introduced a paywall to its website. As of 2012, it had been modestly successful, garnering several hundred thousand subscriptions and about $100 million in annual revenue. In September 2012, the company sold About.com to IAC Inc. for $300 million. In 2013, the New York Times Company sold The Boston Globe and other New England media properties to John W. Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. According to the Times Company, the move was made in order to focus more on its core brands. After forming an editorial partnership with the New York Times in 2015, The Wirecutter, a product review website, was acquired by the Times in October 2016 for a reported $30 million. In March 2020, the New York Times Company acquired subscription-based audio app, Audm. In July 2020, the New York Times Company acquired podcast production company Serial Productions. The same month, the company appointed chief operating officer Meredith Kopit Levien to the position of CEO. In February 2022, the New York Times Company bought The Athletic, a subscription-based sports news website, for $550 million. Its founders, Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, stayed with the publication, which is run separately from the Times. In January 2022, the Times acquired Wordle, an Internet word puzzle game that grew from 90 players in October 2021 to millions at the time of purchase. The Times paid a price "in the low seven figures," according to its creator, Josh Wardle. ValueAct Capital took a stake in the company in August 2022. ValueAct aims to encourage the company to more actively pursue the sale of "bundled" subscriptions to its various offerings. The paper bought AM radio station WQXR (1560 kHz) in 1944. Its "sister" FM station, WQXQ, became WQXR-FM (96.3 MHz). Branded as "The Stereo Stations of The New York Times", its classical music radio format was simulcast on both the AM & FM frequencies until December 1992, when the big-band and pop standards music format of station WNEW (1130 kHz – now WBBR/"Bloomberg Radio") was transferred to and adopted by WQXR; in recognition of the format change, WQXR changed its call letters to WQEW (a "hybrid" combination of "WQXR" and "WNEW"). By 1999, The New York Times was leasing WQEW to ABC Radio for its "Radio Disney" format. In 2007, WQEW was finally purchased by Disney; in late 2014, it was sold to Family Radio (a religious radio network) and became WFME. In 2009, WQXR-FM was sold to the WNYC radio group and, on October 8, moved from 96.3 to 105.9 MHz (swapping frequencies with Spanish-language station WXNY-FM, which wanted the more powerful transmitter to increase its coverage) and began operating it as a noncommercial, public radio station. Holdings Alongside its namesake newspaper, the company owns The New York Times International Edition and related digital properties including NYTimes.com, as well as various brand-related properties. Business trends The company experienced a sharp decline in sales at the beginning of the 21st century. From 2011 onwards, sales stabilized and even began to grow again after a few years. In May 2025, the company had a market capitalization of US$8.9 billion. Ownership and leadership Since September 25, 1997, the company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYT. From April 27, 1967, until January 13, 1969, the company's Class A common stock traded over the counter. From January 14, 1969, until September 24, 1997, the shares were traded on the American Stock Exchange. Of the two categories of stock, Class A and Class B, the former is publicly traded and the latter is held privately—largely (over 90% through The 1997 Trust) by the descendants of Adolph Ochs, who purchased The New York Times newspaper in 1896. On January 20, 2009, The New York Times reported that its parent company, the New York Times Company, had reached an agreement to borrow $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, "to help the newspaper company finance its businesses". The New York Times Company later repaid that loan ahead of schedule. Slim subsequently bought large quantities of the company's Class A shares, which are available for purchase by the public and offer less control over the company than Class B shares, which are privately held. Slim's investments in the company included large purchases of Class A shares in 2011, when he increased his stake in the company to 8.1% of Class A shares, and again in 2015, when he exercised stock options—acquired as part of a repayment plan on the 2009 loan—to purchase 15.9 million Class A shares, making him the largest shareholder. As of March 7, 2016, Slim owned 17.4% of the company's Class A shares, according to annual filings submitted by the company. While Slim became the largest shareholder in the company, his investment only allowed him to vote for Class A directors, a third of the company's board. In December 2017, Slim reportedly cut his stake in The New York Times by half, reducing his ownership to approximately 8%. By 2021, Slim was no longer listed among "principal holders of common stock" (i.e. greater than 5% ownership) in the company's annual proxy statement. As of November 2025:[update] Community awards The company sponsors a series of national and local awards designed to highlight the achievements of individuals and organizations in different realms. In 2007, it inaugurated its first Nonprofit Excellence Award, awarded to four organizations "for the excellence of their management practices". Only nonprofits in New York City, Long Island, or Westchester were eligible. Jointly with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association, the New York Times Company sponsors an award to honor librarians "for service to their communities". The I Love My Librarian! award was given to ten recipients in December 2008, and presented by the New York Times Company president and CEO Janet L. Robinson, Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian, and Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association. The award has been given to ten exceptional librarians annually since that date. In May 2009, the company launched The New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award to honor an American playwright who had recently had his or her professional debut in New York. The first winner was Tarell Alvin McCraney for his play "The Brothers Size". In 2010, Dan LeFranc won for his play "Sixty Miles to Silver Lake". See also References External links |
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#cite_ref-59] | [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 Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century. The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BCE and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer and gear-wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235. Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe, an early fixed-wired knowledge processing machine with a gear train and gear-wheels, c. 1000 AD. The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation. The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a mechanical linkage. The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630, by the English clergyman William Oughtred, shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Slide rules with special scales are still used for quick performance of routine calculations, such as the E6B circular slide rule used for time and distance calculations on light aircraft. In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automaton) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and still operates. In 1831–1835, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Plana devised a Perpetual Calendar machine, which through a system of pulleys and cylinders could predict the perpetual calendar for every year from 0 CE (that is, 1 BCE) to 4000 CE, keeping track of leap years and varying day length. The tide-predicting machine invented by the Scottish scientist Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876, Sir William Thomson had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators. In a differential analyzer, the output of one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed mechanical differential analyzers. In the 1890s, the Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo began to develop a series of advanced analog machines that could solve real and complex roots of polynomials, which were published in 1901 by the Paris Academy of Sciences. Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer", he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his difference engine he announced his invention in 1822, in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society, titled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". He also designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that a much more general design, an analytical engine, was possible. The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. The engine would incorporate an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete. The machine was about a century ahead of its time. All the parts for his machine had to be made by hand – this was a major problem for a device with thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with the decision of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. In his work Essays on Automatics published in 1914, Leonardo Torres Quevedo wrote a brief history of Babbage's efforts at constructing a mechanical Difference Engine and Analytical Engine. The paper contains a design of a machine capable to calculate formulas like a x ( y − z ) 2 {\displaystyle a^{x}(y-z)^{2}} , for a sequence of sets of values. The whole machine was to be controlled by a read-only program, which was complete with provisions for conditional branching. He also introduced the idea of floating-point arithmetic. In 1920, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the invention of the arithmometer, Torres presented in Paris the Electromechanical Arithmometer, which allowed a user to input arithmetic problems through a keyboard, and computed and printed the results, demonstrating the feasibility of an electromechanical analytical engine. During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers. The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting machine, invented by Sir William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) in 1872. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson, the elder brother of the more famous Sir William Thomson. The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the differential analyzer, completed in 1931 by Vannevar Bush at MIT. By the 1950s, the success of digital electronic computers had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog computers remained in use during the 1950s in some specialized applications such as education (slide rule) and aircraft (control systems).[citation needed] Claude Shannon's 1937 master's thesis laid the foundations of digital computing, with his insight of applying Boolean algebra to the analysis and synthesis of switching circuits being the basic concept which underlies all electronic digital computers. By 1938, the United States Navy had developed the Torpedo Data Computer, an electromechanical analog computer for submarines that used trigonometry to solve the problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II, similar devices were developed in other countries. Early digital computers were electromechanical; electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes. The Z2, created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939 in Berlin, was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer. In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3, the world's first working electromechanical programmable, fully automatic digital computer. The Z3 was built with 2000 relays, implementing a 22-bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz. Program code was supplied on punched film while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating-point numbers. Rather than the harder-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage's earlier design), using a binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the technologies available at that time. The Z3 was not itself a universal computer but could be extended to be Turing complete. Zuse's next computer, the Z4, became the world's first commercial computer; after initial delay due to the Second World War, it was completed in 1950 and delivered to the ETH Zurich. The computer was manufactured by Zuse's own company, Zuse KG, which was founded in 1941 as the first company with the sole purpose of developing computers in Berlin. The Z4 served as the inspiration for the construction of the ERMETH, the first Swiss computer and one of the first in Europe. Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and electromechanical equivalents, at the same time that digital calculation replaced analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers, working at the Post Office Research Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics for the telephone exchange. Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation five years later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system, using thousands of vacuum tubes. In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942, the first "automatic electronic digital computer". This design was also all-electronic and used about 300 vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory. During World War II, the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications. The German encryption machine, Enigma, was first attacked with the help of the electro-mechanical bombes which were often run by women. To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army communications, Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus. He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building the first Colossus. After a functional test in December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, where it was delivered on 18 January 1944 and attacked its first message on 5 February. Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer. It used a large number of valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety of boolean logical operations on its data, but it was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built (The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1,500 thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2,400 valves, was both five times faster and simpler to operate than Mark I, greatly speeding the decoding process. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in the U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more flexible, and it was Turing-complete. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and switches. The programmers of the ENIAC were six women, often known collectively as the "ENIAC girls". It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors. The principle of the modern computer was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper, On Computable Numbers. Turing proposed a simple device that he called "Universal Computing machine" and that is now known as a universal Turing machine. He proved that such a machine is capable of computing anything that is computable by executing instructions (program) stored on tape, allowing the machine to be programmable. The fundamental concept of Turing's design is the stored program, where all the instructions for computing are stored in memory. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central concept of the modern computer was due to this paper. Turing machines are to this day a central object of study in theory of computation. Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores, modern computers are said to be Turing-complete, which is to say, they have algorithm execution capability equivalent to a universal Turing machine. Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the machine. With the proposal of the stored-program computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of instructions (a program) that details the computation. The theoretical basis for the stored-program computer was laid out by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945, Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 report "Proposed Electronic Calculator" was the first specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania also circulated his First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945. The Manchester Baby was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester in England by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948. It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first random-access digital storage device. Although the computer was described as "small and primitive" by a 1998 retrospective, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer. As soon as the Baby had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project began at the university to develop it into a practically useful computer, the Manchester Mark 1. The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer. Built by Ferranti, it was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and 1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam. In October 1947 the directors of British catering company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers. Lyons's LEO I computer, modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC of 1949, became operational in April 1951 and ran the world's first routine office computer job. The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, built the first working transistor, the point-contact transistor, in 1947, which was followed by Shockley's bipolar junction transistor in 1948. From 1955 onwards, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialized applications. At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves. Their first transistorized computer and the first in the world, was operational by 1953, and a second version was completed there in April 1955. However, the machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory, so it was not the first completely transistorized computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955, built by the electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell. The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), also known as the MOS transistor, was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960 and was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturized and mass-produced for a wide range of uses. With its high scalability, and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction transistors, the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits. In addition to data processing, it also enabled the practical use of MOS transistors as memory cell storage elements, leading to the development of MOS semiconductor memory, which replaced earlier magnetic-core memory in computers. The MOSFET led to the microcomputer revolution, and became the driving force behind the computer revolution. The MOSFET is the most widely used transistor in computers, and is the fundamental building block of digital electronics. The next great advance in computing power came with the advent of the integrated circuit (IC). The idea of the integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. Dummer presented the first public description of an integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C., on 7 May 1952. The first working ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". However, Kilby's invention was a hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC), rather than a monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip. Kilby's IC had external wire connections, which made it difficult to mass-produce. Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. Noyce's invention was the first true monolithic IC chip. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium. Noyce's monolithic IC was fabricated using the planar process, developed by his colleague Jean Hoerni in early 1959. In turn, the planar process was based on Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide. Modern monolithic ICs are predominantly MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (MOS transistors). The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962. General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS IC in 1964, developed by Robert Norman. Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOS transistor by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC with self-aligned gates was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968. The MOSFET has since become the most critical device component in modern ICs. The development of the MOS integrated circuit led to the invention of the microprocessor, and heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, designed and realized by Federico Faggin with his silicon-gate MOS IC technology, along with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel.[b] In the early 1970s, MOS IC technology enabled the integration of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip. System on a Chip (SoCs) are complete computers on a microchip (or chip) the size of a coin. They may or may not have integrated RAM and flash memory. If not integrated, the RAM is usually placed directly above (known as Package on package) or below (on the opposite side of the circuit board) the SoC, and the flash memory is usually placed right next to the SoC. This is done to improve data transfer speeds, as the data signals do not have to travel long distances. Since ENIAC in 1945, computers have advanced enormously, with modern SoCs (such as the Snapdragon 865) being the size of a coin while also being hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than ENIAC, integrating billions of transistors, and consuming only a few watts of power. The first mobile computers were heavy and ran from mains power. The 50 lb (23 kg) IBM 5100 was an early example. Later portables such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable were considerably lighter but still needed to be plugged in. The first laptops, such as the Grid Compass, removed this requirement by incorporating batteries – and with the continued miniaturization of computing resources and advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s. The same developments allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular mobile phones by the early 2000s. These smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and recently became the dominant computing device on the market. These are powered by System on a Chip (SoCs), which are complete computers on a microchip the size of a coin. Types Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including: A computer does not need to be electronic, nor even have a processor, nor RAM, nor even a hard disk. While popular usage of the word "computer" is synonymous with a personal electronic computer,[c] a typical modern definition of a computer is: "A device that computes, especially a programmable [usually] electronic machine that performs high-speed mathematical or logical operations or that assembles, stores, correlates, or otherwise processes information." According to this definition, any device that processes information qualifies as a computer. Hardware The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible physical objects. Circuits, computer chips, graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and "mice" input devices are all hardware. A general-purpose computer has four main components: the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the control unit, the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by buses, often made of groups of wires. Inside each of these parts are thousands to trillions of small electrical circuits which can be turned off or on by means of an electronic switch. Each circuit represents a bit (binary digit) of information so that when the circuit is on it represents a "1", and when off it represents a "0" (in positive logic representation). The circuits are arranged in logic gates so that one or more of the circuits may control the state of one or more of the other circuits. Input devices are the means by which the operations of a computer are controlled and it is provided with data. Examples include: Output devices are the means by which a computer provides the results of its calculations in a human-accessible form. Examples include: The control unit (often called a control system or central controller) manages the computer's various components; it reads and interprets (decodes) the program instructions, transforming them into control signals that activate other parts of the computer.[e] Control systems in advanced computers may change the order of execution of some instructions to improve performance. A key component common to all CPUs is the program counter, a special memory cell (a register) that keeps track of which location in memory the next instruction is to be read from.[f] The control system's function is as follows— this is a simplified description, and some of these steps may be performed concurrently or in a different order depending on the type of CPU: Since the program counter is (conceptually) just another set of memory cells, it can be changed by calculations done in the ALU. Adding 100 to the program counter would cause the next instruction to be read from a place 100 locations further down the program. Instructions that modify the program counter are often known as "jumps" and allow for loops (instructions that are repeated by the computer) and often conditional instruction execution (both examples of control flow). The sequence of operations that the control unit goes through to process an instruction is in itself like a short computer program, and indeed, in some more complex CPU designs, there is another yet smaller computer called a microsequencer, which runs a microcode program that causes all of these events to happen. The control unit, ALU, and registers are collectively known as a central processing unit (CPU). Early CPUs were composed of many separate components. Since the 1970s, CPUs have typically been constructed on a single MOS integrated circuit chip called a microprocessor. The ALU is capable of performing two classes of operations: arithmetic and logic. The set of arithmetic operations that a particular ALU supports may be limited to addition and subtraction, or might include multiplication, division, trigonometry functions such as sine, cosine, etc., and square roots. Some can operate only on whole numbers (integers) while others use floating point to represent real numbers, albeit with limited precision. However, any computer that is capable of performing just the simplest operations can be programmed to break down the more complex operations into simple steps that it can perform. Therefore, any computer can be programmed to perform any arithmetic operation—although it will take more time to do so if its ALU does not directly support the operation. An ALU may also compare numbers and return Boolean truth values (true or false) depending on whether one is equal to, greater than or less than the other ("is 64 greater than 65?"). Logic operations involve Boolean logic: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT. These can be useful for creating complicated conditional statements and processing Boolean logic. Superscalar computers may contain multiple ALUs, allowing them to process several instructions simultaneously. Graphics processors and computers with SIMD and MIMD features often contain ALUs that can perform arithmetic on vectors and matrices. A computer's memory can be viewed as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered "address" and can store a single number. The computer can be instructed to "put the number 123 into the cell numbered 1357" or to "add the number that is in cell 1357 to the number that is in cell 2468 and put the answer into cell 1595." The information stored in memory may represent practically anything. Letters, numbers, even computer instructions can be placed into memory with equal ease. Since the CPU does not differentiate between different types of information, it is the software's responsibility to give significance to what the memory sees as nothing but a series of numbers. In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in groups of eight bits (called a byte). Each byte is able to represent 256 different numbers (28 = 256); either from 0 to 255 or −128 to +127. To store larger numbers, several consecutive bytes may be used (typically, two, four or eight). When negative numbers are required, they are usually stored in two's complement notation. Other arrangements are possible, but are usually not seen outside of specialized applications or historical contexts. A computer can store any kind of information in memory if it can be represented numerically. Modern computers have billions or even trillions of bytes of memory. The CPU contains a special set of memory cells called registers that can be read and written to much more rapidly than the main memory area. There are typically between two and one hundred registers depending on the type of CPU. Registers are used for the most frequently needed data items to avoid having to access main memory every time data is needed. As data is constantly being worked on, reducing the need to access main memory (which is often slow compared to the ALU and control units) greatly increases the computer's speed. Computer main memory comes in two principal varieties: RAM can be read and written to anytime the CPU commands it, but ROM is preloaded with data and software that never changes, therefore the CPU can only read from it. ROM is typically used to store the computer's initial start-up instructions. In general, the contents of RAM are erased when the power to the computer is turned off, but ROM retains its data indefinitely. In a PC, the ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer's operating system from the hard disk drive into RAM whenever the computer is turned on or reset. In embedded computers, which frequently do not have disk drives, all of the required software may be stored in ROM. Software stored in ROM is often called firmware, because it is notionally more like hardware than software. Flash memory blurs the distinction between ROM and RAM, as it retains its data when turned off but is also rewritable. It is typically much slower than conventional ROM and RAM however, so its use is restricted to applications where high speed is unnecessary.[g] In more sophisticated computers there may be one or more RAM cache memories, which are slower than registers but faster than main memory. Generally computers with this sort of cache are designed to move frequently needed data into the cache automatically, often without the need for any intervention on the programmer's part. I/O is the means by which a computer exchanges information with the outside world. Devices that provide input or output to the computer are called peripherals. On a typical personal computer, peripherals include input devices like the keyboard and mouse, and output devices such as the display and printer. Hard disk drives, floppy disk drives and optical disc drives serve as both input and output devices. Computer networking is another form of I/O. I/O devices are often complex computers in their own right, with their own CPU and memory. A graphics processing unit might contain fifty or more tiny computers that perform the calculations necessary to display 3D graphics.[citation needed] Modern desktop computers contain many smaller computers that assist the main CPU in performing I/O. A 2016-era flat screen display contains its own computer circuitry. While a computer may be viewed as running one gigantic program stored in its main memory, in some systems it is necessary to give the appearance of running several programs simultaneously. This is achieved by multitasking, i.e. having the computer switch rapidly between running each program in turn. One means by which this is done is with a special signal called an interrupt, which can periodically cause the computer to stop executing instructions where it was and do something else instead. By remembering where it was executing prior to the interrupt, the computer can return to that task later. If several programs are running "at the same time". Then the interrupt generator might be causing several hundred interrupts per second, causing a program switch each time. Since modern computers typically execute instructions several orders of magnitude faster than human perception, it may appear that many programs are running at the same time, even though only one is ever executing in any given instant. This method of multitasking is sometimes termed "time-sharing" since each program is allocated a "slice" of time in turn. Before the era of inexpensive computers, the principal use for multitasking was to allow many people to share the same computer. Seemingly, multitasking would cause a computer that is switching between several programs to run more slowly, in direct proportion to the number of programs it is running, but most programs spend much of their time waiting for slow input/output devices to complete their tasks. If a program is waiting for the user to click on the mouse or press a key on the keyboard, then it will not take a "time slice" until the event it is waiting for has occurred. This frees up time for other programs to execute so that many programs may be run simultaneously without unacceptable speed loss. Some computers are designed to distribute their work across several CPUs in a multiprocessing configuration, a technique once employed in only large and powerful machines such as supercomputers, mainframe computers and servers. Multiprocessor and multi-core (multiple CPUs on a single integrated circuit) personal and laptop computers are now widely available, and are being increasingly used in lower-end markets as a result. Supercomputers in particular often have highly unique architectures that differ significantly from the basic stored-program architecture and from general-purpose computers.[h] They often feature thousands of CPUs, customized high-speed interconnects, and specialized computing hardware. Such designs tend to be useful for only specialized tasks due to the large scale of program organization required to use most of the available resources at once. Supercomputers usually see usage in large-scale simulation, graphics rendering, and cryptography applications, as well as with other so-called "embarrassingly parallel" tasks. Software Software is the part of a computer system that consists of the encoded information that determines the computer's operation, such as data or instructions on how to process the data. In contrast to the physical hardware from which the system is built, software is immaterial. Software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. It is often divided into system software and application software. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither is useful on its own. When software is stored in hardware that cannot easily be modified, such as with BIOS ROM in an IBM PC compatible computer, it is sometimes called "firmware". The defining feature of modern computers which distinguishes them from all other machines is that they can be programmed. That is to say that some type of instructions (the program) can be given to the computer, and it will process them. Modern computers based on the von Neumann architecture often have machine code in the form of an imperative programming language. In practical terms, a computer program may be just a few instructions or extend to many millions of instructions, as do the programs for word processors and web browsers for example. A typical modern computer can execute billions of instructions per second (gigaflops) and rarely makes a mistake over many years of operation. Large computer programs consisting of several million instructions may take teams of programmers years to write, and due to the complexity of the task almost certainly contain errors. This section applies to most common RAM machine–based computers. In most cases, computer instructions are simple: add one number to another, move some data from one location to another, send a message to some external device, etc. These instructions are read from the computer's memory and are generally carried out (executed) in the order they were given. However, there are usually specialized instructions to tell the computer to jump ahead or backwards to some other place in the program and to carry on executing from there. These are called "jump" instructions (or branches). Furthermore, jump instructions may be made to happen conditionally so that different sequences of instructions may be used depending on the result of some previous calculation or some external event. Many computers directly support subroutines by providing a type of jump that "remembers" the location it jumped from and another instruction to return to the instruction following that jump instruction. Program execution might be likened to reading a book. While a person will normally read each word and line in sequence, they may at times jump back to an earlier place in the text or skip sections that are not of interest. Similarly, a computer may sometimes go back and repeat the instructions in some section of the program over and over again until some internal condition is met. This is called the flow of control within the program and it is what allows the computer to perform tasks repeatedly without human intervention. Comparatively, a person using a pocket calculator can perform a basic arithmetic operation such as adding two numbers with just a few button presses. But to add together all of the numbers from 1 to 1,000 would take thousands of button presses and a lot of time, with a near certainty of making a mistake. On the other hand, a computer may be programmed to do this with just a few simple instructions. The following example is written in the MIPS assembly language: Once told to run this program, the computer will perform the repetitive addition task without further human intervention. It will almost never make a mistake and a modern PC can complete the task in a fraction of a second. In most computers, individual instructions are stored as machine code with each instruction being given a unique number (its operation code or opcode for short). The command to add two numbers together would have one opcode; the command to multiply them would have a different opcode, and so on. The simplest computers are able to perform any of a handful of different instructions; the more complex computers have several hundred to choose from, each with a unique numerical code. Since the computer's memory is able to store numbers, it can also store the instruction codes. This leads to the important fact that entire programs (which are just lists of these instructions) can be represented as lists of numbers and can themselves be manipulated inside the computer in the same way as numeric data. The fundamental concept of storing programs in the computer's memory alongside the data they operate on is the crux of the von Neumann, or stored program, architecture. In some cases, a computer might store some or all of its program in memory that is kept separate from the data it operates on. This is called the Harvard architecture after the Harvard Mark I computer. Modern von Neumann computers display some traits of the Harvard architecture in their designs, such as in CPU caches. While it is possible to write computer programs as long lists of numbers (machine language) and while this technique was used with many early computers,[i] it is extremely tedious and potentially error-prone to do so in practice, especially for complicated programs. Instead, each basic instruction can be given a short name that is indicative of its function and easy to remember – a mnemonic such as ADD, SUB, MULT or JUMP. These mnemonics are collectively known as a computer's assembly language. Converting programs written in assembly language into something the computer can actually understand (machine language) is usually done by a computer program called an assembler. A programming language is a notation system for writing the source code from which a computer program is produced. Programming languages provide various ways of specifying programs for computers to run. Unlike natural languages, programming languages are designed to permit no ambiguity and to be concise. They are purely written languages and are often difficult to read aloud. They are generally either translated into machine code by a compiler or an assembler before being run, or translated directly at run time by an interpreter. Sometimes programs are executed by a hybrid method of the two techniques. There are thousands of programming languages—some intended for general purpose programming, others useful for only highly specialized applications. Machine languages and the assembly languages that represent them (collectively termed low-level programming languages) are generally unique to the particular architecture of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). For instance, an ARM architecture CPU (such as may be found in a smartphone or a hand-held videogame) cannot understand the machine language of an x86 CPU that might be in a PC.[j] Historically a significant number of other CPU architectures were created and saw extensive use, notably including the MOS Technology 6502 and 6510 in addition to the Zilog Z80. Although considerably easier than in machine language, writing long programs in assembly language is often difficult and is also error prone. Therefore, most practical programs are written in more abstract high-level programming languages that are able to express the needs of the programmer more conveniently (and thereby help reduce programmer error). High level languages are usually "compiled" into machine language (or sometimes into assembly language and then into machine language) using another computer program called a compiler.[k] High level languages are less related to the workings of the target computer than assembly language, and more related to the language and structure of the problem(s) to be solved by the final program. It is therefore often possible to use different compilers to translate the same high level language program into the machine language of many different types of computer. This is part of the means by which software like video games may be made available for different computer architectures such as personal computers and various video game consoles. Program design of small programs is relatively simple and involves the analysis of the problem, collection of inputs, using the programming constructs within languages, devising or using established procedures and algorithms, providing data for output devices and solutions to the problem as applicable. As problems become larger and more complex, features such as subprograms, modules, formal documentation, and new paradigms such as object-oriented programming are encountered. Large programs involving thousands of line of code and more require formal software methodologies. The task of developing large software systems presents a significant intellectual challenge. Producing software with an acceptably high reliability within a predictable schedule and budget has historically been difficult; the academic and professional discipline of software engineering concentrates specifically on this challenge. Errors in computer programs are called "bugs". They may be benign and not affect the usefulness of the program, or have only subtle effects. However, in some cases they may cause the program or the entire system to "hang", becoming unresponsive to input such as mouse clicks or keystrokes, to completely fail, or to crash. Otherwise benign bugs may sometimes be harnessed for malicious intent by an unscrupulous user writing an exploit, code designed to take advantage of a bug and disrupt a computer's proper execution. Bugs are usually not the fault of the computer. Since computers merely execute the instructions they are given, bugs are nearly always the result of programmer error or an oversight made in the program's design.[l] Admiral Grace Hopper, an American computer scientist and developer of the first compiler, is credited for having first used the term "bugs" in computing after a dead moth was found shorting a relay in the Harvard Mark II computer in September 1947. Networking and the Internet Computers have been used to coordinate information between multiple physical locations since the 1950s. The U.S. military's SAGE system was the first large-scale example of such a system, which led to a number of special-purpose commercial systems such as Sabre. In the 1970s, computer engineers at research institutions throughout the United States began to link their computers together using telecommunications technology. The effort was funded by ARPA (now DARPA), and the computer network that resulted was called the ARPANET. Logic gates are a common abstraction which can apply to most of the above digital or analog paradigms. The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a minimum capability (being Turing-complete) is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, any type of computer (netbook, supercomputer, cellular automaton, etc.) is able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity. In the 20th century, artificial intelligence systems were predominantly symbolic: they executed code that was explicitly programmed by software developers. Machine learning models, however, have a set parameters that are adjusted throughout training, so that the model learns to accomplish a task based on the provided data. The efficiency of machine learning (and in particular of neural networks) has rapidly improved with progress in hardware for parallel computing, mainly graphics processing units (GPUs). Some large language models are able to control computers or robots. AI progress may lead to the creation of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of AI that could accomplish virtually any intellectual task at least as well as humans. Professions and organizations As the use of computers has spread throughout society, there are an increasing number of careers involving computers. The need for computers to work well together and to be able to exchange information has spawned the need for many standards organizations, clubs and societies of both a formal and informal nature. See also Notes References Sources External links |
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Contents Thirty-seventh government of Israel The thirty-seventh government of Israel is the current cabinet of Israel, formed on 29 December 2022, following the Knesset election the previous month. The coalition government currently consists of five parties — Likud, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionist Party and New Hope — and is led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who took office as the prime minister of Israel for the sixth time. The government is widely regarded as the most right-wing government in the country's history, and includes far-right politicians. Several of the government's policy proposals have led to controversies, both within Israel and abroad, with the government's attempts at reforming the judiciary leading to a wave of demonstrations across the country. Following the outbreak of the Gaza war, opposition leader Yair Lapid initiated discussions with Netanyahu on the formation of an emergency government. On 11 October 2023, National Unity MKs Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Gideon Sa'ar, Hili Tropper, and Yifat Shasha-Biton joined the Security Cabinet of Israel to form an emergency national unity government. Their accession to the Security Cabinet and to the government (as ministers without portfolio) was approved by the Knesset the following day. Gantz, Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant became part of the newly formed Israeli war cabinet, with Eisenkot and Ron Dermer serving as observers. National Unity left the government in June 2024. New Hope rejoined the government in September. Otzma Yehudit announced on 19 January 2025 that it had withdrawn from the government, which took effect on 21 January, following the cabinet's acceptance of the three-phase Gaza war ceasefire proposal, though it rejoined two months later. United Torah Judaism left the government in July 2025 over dissatisfaction with the government's draft conscription law. Shas left the government several days later, though it remains part of the coalition. Background The right-wing bloc of parties, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, known in Israel as the national camp, won 64 of the 120 seats in the elections for the Knesset, while the coalition led by the incumbent prime minister Yair Lapid won 51 seats. The new majority has been variously described as the most right-wing government in Israeli history, as well as Israel's most religious government. Shortly after the elections, Lapid conceded to Netanyahu, and congratulated him, wishing him luck "for the sake of the Israeli people". On 15 November, the swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected members of the 25th Knesset was held during the opening session. The vote to appoint a new Speaker of the Knesset, which is usually conducted at the opening session, as well as the swearing in of cabinet members were postponed since ongoing coalition negotiations had not yet resulted in agreement on these positions. Government formation Yair Lapid Yesh Atid Benjamin Netanyahu Likud On 3 November 2022, Netanyahu told his aide Yariv Levin to begin informal coalition talks with allied parties, after 97% of the vote was counted. The leader of the Shas party Aryeh Deri met with Yitzhak Goldknopf, the leader of United Torah Judaism and its Agudat Yisrael faction, on 4 November. The two parties agreed to cooperate as members of the next government. The Degel HaTorah faction of United Torah Judaism stated on 5 November that it will maintain its ideological stance about not seeking any ministerial posts, as per the instruction of its spiritual leader Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, but will seek other senior posts like Knesset committee chairmen and deputy ministers. Netanyahu himself started holding talks on 6 November. He first met with Moshe Gafni, the leader of Degel HaTorah, and then with Goldknopf. Meanwhile, the Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and the leader of its Otzma Yehudit faction Itamar Ben-Gvir pledged that they would not enter the coalition without the other faction. Gafni later met with Smotrich for coalition talks. Smotrich then met with Netanyahu. On 7 November, Netanyahu met with Ben-Gvir who demanded the Ministry of Public Security with expanded powers for himself and the Ministry of Education or Transport and Road Safety for Yitzhak Wasserlauf. A major demand among all of Netanyahu's allies was that the Knesset be allowed to ignore the rulings of the Supreme Court. Netanyahu met with the Noam faction leader and its sole MK Avi Maoz on 8 November after he threatened to boycott the coalition. He demanded complete control of the Western Wall by the Haredi rabbinate and removal of what he considered as anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish content in schoolbooks. President Isaac Herzog began consultations with heads of all the political parties on 9 November after the election results were certified. During the consultations, he expressed his reservations about Ben-Gvir becoming a member in the next government. Shas met with Likud for coalition talks on 10 November. By 11 November, Netanyahu had secured recommendations from 64 MKs, which constituted a majority. He was given the mandate to form the thirty-seventh government of Israel by President Herzog on 13 November. Otzma Yehudit and Noam officially split from Religious Zionism on 20 November as per a pre-election agreement. On 25 November, Otzma Yehudit and Likud signed a coalition agreement, under which Ben-Gvir will assume the newly created position of National Security Minister, whose powers would be more expansive than that of the Minister of Public Security, including overseeing the Israel Police and the Israel Border Police in the West Bank, as well as giving powers to authorities to shoot thieves stealing from military bases. Yitzhak Wasserlauf was given the Ministry for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee with expanded powers to regulate new West Bank settlements, while separating it from the "Periphery" portfolio, which will be given to Shas. The deal also includes giving the Ministry of Heritage to Amihai Eliyahu, separating it from the "Jerusalem Affairs" portfolio, the chairmanship of the Knesset's Public Security Committee to Zvika Fogel and that of the Special Committee for the Israeli Citizens' Fund to Limor Son Har-Melech, the post of Deputy Economic Minister to Almog Cohen, establishment of a national guard, and expansion of mobilization of reservists in the Border Police. Netanyahu and Maoz signed a coalition agreement on 27 November, under which the latter would become a deputy minister, would head an agency on Jewish identity in the Prime Minister's Office, and would also head Nativ, which processes the aliyah from the former Soviet Union. The agency for Jewish identity would have authority over educational content taught outside the regular curriculum in schools, in addition to the department of the Ministry of Education overseeing external teaching and partnerships, which would bring nonofficial organisations permitted to teach and lecture at schools under its purview. Likud signed a coalition agreement with the Religious Zionist Party on 1 December. Under the deal, Smotrich would serve as the Minister of Finance in rotation with Aryeh Deri, and the party will receive the post of a minister within the Ministry of Defense with control over the departments administering settlement and open lands under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, in addition to another post of a deputy minister. The deal also includes giving the post of Minister of Aliyah and Integration to Ofir Sofer, the newly created National Missions Ministry to Orit Strook, and the chairmanship of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee to Simcha Rothman. Likud and United Torah Judaism signed a coalition agreement on 6 December, to allow request for an extension to the deadline. Under it, the party would receive the Ministry of Construction and Housing, the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee which will be given to Moshe Gafni, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Tradition (which would replace the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage), in addition to several posts of deputy ministers and chairmanships of Knesset committees. Likud also signed a deal with Shas by 8 December, securing interim coalition agreements with all of their allies. Under the deal, Deri will first serve as the Minister of Interior and Health, before rotating posts with Smotrich after two years. The party will also receive the Ministry of Religious Services and Welfare Ministries, as well as posts of deputy ministers in the Ministry of Education and Interior. The vote to replace then-incumbent Knesset speaker Mickey Levy was scheduled for 13 December, after Likud and its allies secured the necessary number of signatures for it. Yariv Levin of Likud was elected as an interim speaker by 64 votes, while his opponents Merav Ben-Ari of Yesh Atid and Ayman Odeh of Hadash received 45 and five votes respectively. Netanyahu asked Herzog for a 14-day extension after the agreement with Shas to finalise the roles his allied parties would play. Herzog on 9 December extended the deadline to 21 December. On that date, Netanyahu informed Herzog that he had succeeded in forming a coalition, with the new government expected to be sworn in by 2 January 2023. The government was sworn in on 29 December 2022. Timeline Israeli law stated that people convicted of crimes cannot serve in the government. An amendment to that law was made in late 2022, known colloquially as the Deri Law, to allow those who had been convicted without prison time to serve. This allowed Deri to be appointed to the cabinet. Shas leader Aryeh Deri was appointed to be Minister of Health, Minister of the Interior, and Vice Prime Minister in December 2022. He was fired in January 2023, following a Supreme Court decision that his appointment was unreasonable, since he had been convicted of fraud, and had promised not to seek government roles through a plea deal. In March 2023, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called on the government to delay legislation related to the judicial reform. Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he had been dismissed from his position, leading to the continuation of mass protests across the country (which had started in January in Tel Aviv). Gallant continued to serve as a minister as he had not received formal notice of dismissal, and two weeks later it was announced that Netanyahu had reversed his decision. Public Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit leader) and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (Likud) both threatened to resign if the judicial reform was delayed.[better source needed] After the outbreak of the Gaza war, five members of the National Unity party joined the government as ministers without portfolio, with leader Benny Gantz being made a member of the new Israeli war cabinet (along with Netanyahu and Gallant). As the war progressed, minister of national security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to leave the government if the war was ended. A month later in mid December, he again threatened to leave if the war did not maintain "full strength". Gideon Sa'ar stated on 16 March that his New Hope party would resign from the government and join the opposition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not appoint him to the Israeli war cabinet. Netanyahu did not do so, resulting in Sa'ar's New Hope party leaving the government nine days later, reducing the size of the coalition from 76 MKs to 72. Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism party, have indicated that they will withdraw their parties from the government if the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire is adopted, which would bring down the government. Ben-Gvir announced on 5 June that the members of his party would be allowed to vote as they wish, though his party resumed support on 9 June. On 18 May, Gantz set an 8 June deadline for withdrawal from the coalition, which was delayed by a day following the 2024 Nuseirat rescue operation. Gantz and his party left the government on 9 June, giving the government 64 seats in the Knesset. Sa'ar and his New Hope party rejoined the Netanyahu government on 30 September, increasing the number of seats held by the government to 68. The High Court of Justice ruled on 28 March 2024 that yeshiva funds would no longer be available for students who are "eligible for enlistment", effectively allowing ultra-Orthodox Jews to be drafted into the IDF. Attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara indicated on 31 March that the conscription process must begin on 1 April. The court ruled on 25 June that the IDF must begin to draft yeshiva students. Likud announced on 7 July that it would not put forward any legislation after Shas and United Torah Judaism said that they would boycott the plenary session over the lack of legislation dealing with the Haredi draft. The Ultra-Orthodox boycott continued for a second day, with UTJ briefly ending its boycott on 9 July to unsuccessfully vote in favor of a bill which would have weakened the Law of Return. Yuli Edelstein, who was replaced by Boaz Bismuth on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in early August, published a draft version of the conscription law shortly before his ouster. Bismuth cancelled the work on the draft law in September 2025, which Edelstein called "a shame." Bismuth released the official version of the draft law in late November 2025. It weakened penalties for draft evaders, with Edelstein saying it was "the exact opposite" of the bill which he attempted to pass. Members of Otzma Yehudit resigned from the government on 19 January 2025 over the January 2025 Gaza war ceasefire, which took effect on 21 January. The members rejoined in March, following the "resumption" of the war in Gaza. Avi Maoz of the Noam party left the government in March 2025. On 4 June 2025, senior rabbis for United Torah Judaism Dov Lando and Moshe Hillel Hirsch instructed the party's MKs to pass a bill which would dissolve the Knesset. Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beytenu and The Democrats announced that they will "submit a bill" for dissolution on 11 June, with Yesh Atid tabling the bill on 4 June. There were also reports that Shas would vote in favor of Knesset dissolution amidst division within the governing coalition on Haredi conscription. This jeopardized the coalition's majority and would have triggered new elections if the bill passed. The following day, Agudat Yisrael, one of the United Torah Judaism factions, confirmed that it would submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset. Asher Medina, a Shas spokesman, indicated on 9 June that the party would vote in favor of a preliminary bill to dissolve the Knesset. The rabbis of Degel HaTorah instructed the parties' MKs on 12 June 2025 to oppose the dissolution of the Knesset, which was followed by Yuli Edelstein and the Shas and Degel HaTorah parties announcing that a deal had been reached, with "rabbinical leaders" telling their parties to delay the dissolution vote by a week. Shas and Degel HaTorah voted against the dissolution bill, which led to the bill failing its preliminary reading in a vote of 61 against and 53 in favor. MKs Ya'akov Tessler and Moshe Roth of Agudat Yisrael voted in favor of dissolution. Another dissolution bill will be unable to be brought forward for six months. If the bill had passed its preliminary reading, in addition to three more readings, an election would have been held in approximately three months; The Jerusalem Post posited it would have been held in October. Degel HaTorah announced on 14 July 2025 that it would leave the government because members of the party were dissatisfied after viewing the proposed draft bill by Yuli Edelstein regarding Haredi exemptions from the Israeli draft. Several hours later, Agudat Yisrael announced that it would also leave the government. Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev, Moshe Gafni, the head of the Knesset Finance Committee, Ya'akov Asher, the head of the Knesset Interior and Environment Protection Committee and Jerusalem Affairs minister Meir Porush all submitted their resignations, with their resignations taking effect in 48 hours. Sports Minister Ya'akov Tessler and "Special Committee for Public Petitions Chair" Yitzhak Pindrus also submitted resignations. Yisrael Eichler submitted his resignation as the "head of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee" the same day. The resignations will leave Netanyahu's government with a 60-seat majority in the Knesset, as Avi Maoz, of the Noam party, left the government in March 2025. Despite Edelstein's ouster in August, a spokesman for UTJ head Yitzhak Goldknopf remarked that it would not change the faction's withdrawal from the government. The religious council for Shas, called the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, instructed the party on 16 July to leave the government, but stay in the coalition. The following day, various cabinet ministers submitted their resignations, including "Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, Social Affairs Minister Ya'akov Margi and Religious Services Minister Michael Malchieli." Malchieli reportedly has postponed his resignation so he could attend a 20 July meeting of the panel investigating whether attorney general Gali Baharav-Miara should be dismissed. Deputy Minister of Agriculture Moshe Abutbul, Minister of Health Uriel Buso and Haim Biton, a minister in the Education Ministry, also submitted their resignation letters, while Arbel retracted his resignation letter. The last cabinet member from the party to submit it was Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur. The ministers who resigned will return to the Knesset, replacing MKs Moshe Roth, Yitzhak Pindrus and Eliyahu Baruchi. Members of government Listed below are the current ministers in the government: Principles and priorities According to the agreements signed between Likud and each of its coalition partners, and the incoming government's published guideline principles, its stated priorities are to combat the cost of living, further centralize Orthodox control over the state religious services, pass judicial reforms which include legislation to reduce judicial controls on executive and legislative power, expand settlements in the West Bank, and consider an annexation of the West Bank. Before the vote of confidence in his new government in the Knesset, Netanyahu presented three top priorities for the new government: internal security and governance, halting the nuclear program of Iran, and the development of infrastructure, with a focus on further connecting the center of the country with its periphery. Policies The government's flagship program, centered around reforms in the judicial branch, drew widespread criticism. Critics said it would have negative effects on the separation of powers, the office of the Attorney General, the economy, public health, women and minorities, workers' rights, scientific research, the overall strength of Israel's democracy and its foreign relations. After weeks of public protests on Israel's streets, joined by a growing number of military reservists, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke against the reform on 25 March, calling for a halt of the legislative process "for the sake of Israel's security". The next day, Netanyahu announced that he would be removed from his post, sparking another wave of protest across Israel and ultimately leading to Netanyahu agreeing to pause the legislation. On 10 April, Netanyahu announced that Gallant would keep his post. On 27 March 2023, after the public protests and general strikes, Netanyahu announced a pause in the reform process to allow for dialogue with opposition parties. However, negotiations aimed at reaching a compromise collapsed in June, and the government resumed its plans to unilaterally pass parts of the legislation. On 24 July 2023, the Knesset passed a bill that curbs the power of the Supreme Court to declare government decisions unreasonable; on 1 January 2024, the Supreme Court struck the bill down. The Knesset passed a "watered-down" version of the judicial reform package in late March 2025 which "changes the composition" of the judicial selection committee. In December 2022 Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir sought to amend the law that regulates the operations of the Israel Police, such that the ministry will have more direct control of its forces and policies, including its investigative priorities. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara objected to the draft proposal, raising concerns that the law would enable the politicization of police work, and the draft was amended to partially address those concerns. Nevertheless, in March 2023 Deputy Attorney General Gil Limon stated that the Attorney General's fears had been realized, referring to several instances of ministerial involvement in the day-to-day work of the otherwise independent police force – statements that were repeated by the Attorney General herself two days later. Separately, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai instructed Deputy Commissioners to avoid direct communication with the minister, later stating that "the Israel Police will remain apolitical, and act only according to law". Following appeals by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, the High Court of Justice instructed Ben-Gvir "to refrain from giving operational directions to the police... [especially] as regards to protests and demonstrations against the government." As talks of halting the judicial reform gained wind during March 2023, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened to resign if the legislation implementing the changes was suspended. To appease Ben-Gvir, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that the government would promote the creation of a new National Guard, to be headed by Ben-Gvir. On 29 March, thousands of Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem against this decision. On 1 April, the New York Times quoted Gadeer Nicola, head of the Arab department at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, as saying "If this thing passes, it will be an imminent danger to the rights of Arab citizens in this country. This will create two separate systems of applying the law. The regular police which will operate against Jewish citizens — and a militarized militia to deal only with Arab citizens." The same day, while speaking on Israel's Channel 13 about those whom he'd like to see enlist in the National Guard, Ben-Gvir specifically mentioned La Familia, the far-right fan club of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team. On 2 April, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of a law enforcement body that would operate independently of the police, under Ben-Gvir's authority. According to the decision, the Minister was to establish a committee chaired by the Director General of the Ministry of National Security, with representatives of the ministries of defense, justice and finance, as well as the police and the IDF, to outline the operations of the new organization. The committee's recommendations will be submitted to the government for consideration. Addressing a conference on 4 April, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai said that he is not opposed to the establishment of a security body which would answer to the police, but "a separate body? Absolutely not." The police chief said he had warned Ben-Gvir that the establishment of a security body separate from the police is "unnecessary, with extremely high costs that may harm citizens' personal security." During a press conference on 10 April, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, in what has been seen by some news outlets as a concession to the protesters, that "This will not be anyone's militia, it will be a security body, orderly, professional, that will be subordinate to one of the [existing] security bodies." The committee established by the government recommended the government to order the establishment of the National Guard immediately while allocating budgets. The National Guard, under whose command will be a superintendent of the police, will not be subordinate to Ben-Gvir. It will be subordinate to the police commissioner and will be part of Israel Border Police. The Ministry of Defense and Finance opposed the conclusions. The Israeli National Security Council called for further discussion on this. The coalition's efforts to expand the purview of Rabbinical courts; force some organizations, such as hospitals, to enforce certain religious practices; amend the Law Prohibiting Discrimination to allow gender segregation and discrimination on the grounds of religious belief; expand funding for religious causes; and put into law the exemption of yeshiva and kolel students from conscription have drawn criticism. According to the Haaretz op-ed of 7 March 2023, "the current coalition is interested... in modifying the public space so it suits the religious lifestyle. The legal coup is meant to castrate anyone who can prevent it, most of all the HCJ." Several banks and institutional investors, including the Israel Discount Bank and AIG have committed to avoid investing in, or providing credit to any organization that will discriminate against others on ground of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation. A series of technology companies and investment firms including Wiz, Intel Israel, Salesforce and Microsoft Israel Research and Development, have criticized the proposed changes to the Law Prohibiting Discrimination, with Wiz stating that it will require its suppliers to commit to preventing discrimination. Over sixty prominent law firms pledged that they will neither represent, nor do business with discriminating individuals and organizations. Insight Partners, a major private equity fund operating in Israel, released a statement warning against intolerance and any attempt to harm personal liberties. Orit Lahav, chief executive of the women's rights organization Mavoi Satum ("Dead End"), said that "the Rabbinical courts are the most discriminatory institution in the State of Israel... Limiting the HCJ[d] while expanding the jurisdiction of the Rabbinical courts would... cause significant harm to women." Anat Thon Ashkenazy, Director of the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that "almost every part of the reform could harm women... the meaning of an override clause is that even if the court says that the law on gender segregation is illegitimate, is harmful, the Knesset could say 'Okay, we say otherwise'". She added that "there is a very broad institutional framework here, after which there will come legislation that harms women's right and we will have no way of protecting or stopping it." During July 2023, 20 professional medical associations signed a letter of position warning against the ramifications to public health that would result from the exclusion of women from the public sphere. They cited, among others, a rise in prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, pregnancy-related ailments, psychological distress, and the risk of suicide. On 30 July the Knesset passed an amendment to penal law adding sexual offenses to those offenses whose penalty can be doubled if done on grounds of "nationalistic terrorism, racism or hostility towards a certain community". According to MK Limor Son Har-Melech, the bill is meant to penalize any individual who "[intends to] harm a woman sexually based on her Jewishness". The law was criticized by MK Gilad Kariv as "populist, nationalistic, and dangerous towards the Arab citizens of Israel", and by MK Ahmad Tibi as a "race law", and was objected to by legal advisors at the Ministry of Justice and the Knesset Committee on National Security. Activist Orit Kamir wrote that "the amendment... is neither feminist, equal, nor progressive, but the opposite: it subordinates women's sexuality to the nationalistic, racist patriarchy. It hijacks the Law for Prevention of Sexual Harassment to serve a world view that tags women as sexual objects that personify the nation's honor." Yael Sherer, director of the Lobby to Combat Sexual Violence, criticized the law as being informed by dated ideas about sexual assault, and proposed that MKs "dedicate a session... to give victims of sexual assault an opportunity to come out of the darkness... instead of [submitting] declarative bills that change nothing and are not meant but for grabbing headlines". In Israel, during 2022, 24 women "were murdered because they were women," which was an increase of 50% compared to 2021. A law permitting courts to order men subject to a restraining order following domestic violence offenses to wear electronic tags was drafted during the previous Knesset and had passed its first reading unanimously. On 22 March 2023, the Knesset voted to reject the bill. It had been urged to do so by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said that the bill was unfair to men. Earlier in the week, Ben-Gvir had blocked the measure from advancing in the ministerial legislative committee. The MKs voting against the bill included Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Association of Families of Murder Victims said that by rejecting the law, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir "brings joy to violent men and abandons the women threatened with murder… unsupervised restraining orders endanger women's lives even more. They give women the illusion of being protected, and then they are murdered." MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality, said that "the coalition proved today that it despises women's lives." The NGO Amutat Bat Melech [he], which assists Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox women who suffer from domestic violence, said that: "Rejecting the electronic bracelet bill is disconnected from the terrible reality of seven femicides since the beginning of the year. This is an effective tool of the first degree that could have saved lives and reduced the threat to women suffering from domestic violence. This is a matter of life and death, whose whole purpose is to provide a solution to defend women." The agreement signed by the coalition parties includes the setting up of a committee to draft changes to the Law of Return. Israeli religious parties have long demanded that the "grandchild clause" of the Law of Return be cancelled. This clause grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent, as long as they do not practice another religion. If the grandchild clause were to be removed from the Law of Return then around 3 million people who are currently eligible for aliyah would no longer be eligible. The heads of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish Federations of North America, the World Zionist Organization and Keren Hayesod sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, expressing their "deep concern" about any changes to the Law of Return, adding that "Any change in the delicate and sensitive status quo on issues such as the Law of Return or conversion could threaten to unravel the ties between us and keep us away from each other." The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia issued a joint statement saying "We… view with deep concern… proposals in relation to religious pluralism and the law of return that risk damaging Israel's… relationship with Diaspora Jewry." On 19 March 2023, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich spoke in Paris at a memorial service for a Likud activist. The lectern at which Smotrich spoke was covered with a flag depicting the 'Greater Land of Israel,' encompassing the whole of Mandatory Palestine, as well as Trans-Jordan. During his speech, Smotrich said that "there's no such thing as Palestinians because there's no such thing as a Palestinian people." He added that the Palestinian people are a fictitious nation invented only to fight the Zionist movement, asking "Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There isn't any." The event received widespread media coverage. On 21 March, a spokesman for the US State Department sharply criticized Smotrich's comments. "The comments, which were delivered at a podium adorned with an inaccurate and provocative map, are offensive, they are deeply concerning, and, candidly, they're dangerous. The Palestinians have a rich history and culture, and the United States greatly values our partnership with the Palestinian people," he said. The Jordanian Foreign Ministry also voiced disapproval: "The Israeli Minister of Finance's use, during his participation in an event held yesterday in Paris, of a map of Israel that includes the borders of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the occupied Palestinian territories represents a reckless inflammatory act, and a violation of international norms and the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty." Additionally, a map encompassing Mandatory Palestine and Trans-Jordan with a Jordanian flag on it was placed on a central lectern in the Jordanian Parliament. Jordan's parliament voted to expel the Israeli ambassador. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a clarification relating to the matter, stating that "Israel is committed to the 1994 peace agreement with Jordan. There has been no change in the position of the State of Israel, which recognizes the territorial integrity of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan". Ahead of a Europe Day event due to take place on 9 May 2023, far-right wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was assigned as a representative of the government and a speaker at the event by the government secretariat, which deals with placing ministers at receptions on the occasion of the national days of the foreign embassies. The European Union requested that Ben-Gvir not attend, but the government did not make changes to the plan. On 8 May, the European delegation to Israel cancelled the reception, stating that: "The EU Delegation to Israel is looking forward to celebrating Europe Day on May 9, as it does every year. Regrettably, this year we have decided to cancel the diplomatic reception, as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the European Union stands for. However, the Europe Day cultural event for the Israeli public will be maintained to celebrate with our friends and partners in Israel the strong and constructive bilateral relationship". Israel's Opposition Leader Yair Lapid stated: "Sending Itamar Ben-Gvir to a gathering of EU ambassadors is a serious professional mistake. The government is embarrassing a large group of friendly countries, jeopardizing future votes in international institutions, and damaging our foreign relations. Last year, after a decade of efforts, we succeeded in signing an economic-political agreement with the European Union that will contribute to the Israeli economy and our foreign relations. Why risk it, and for what? Ben-Gvir is not a legitimate person in the international community (and not really in Israel either), and sometimes you have to be both wise and just and simply send someone else". On 23 February 2023, Defense Minister Gallant signed an agreement assigning governmental powers in the West Bank to a body to be headed by Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who will effectively become the governor of the West Bank, controlling almost all areas of life in the area, including planning, building and infrastructure. Israeli governments have hitherto been careful to keep the occupation as a military government. The temporary holding of power by an occupying military force, pending a negotiated settlement, is a principle of international law – an expression of the prohibition against obtaining sovereignty through conquest that was introduced in the wake of World War II. An editorial in Haaretz noted that the assignment of governmental powers in the West Bank to a civilian governor, alongside the plan to expand the dual justice system so that Israeli law will apply fully to settlers in the West Bank, constitutes de jure annexation of the West Bank. On 26 February 2023, following the 2023 Huwara shooting in which two Israelis were killed by an unidentified attacker, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian town of Huwara and three nearby villages, setting alight hundreds of Palestinian homes (some with people in them), businesses, a school, and numerous vehicles, killing one Palestinian man and injuring 100 others. Bezalel Smotrich subsequently called on Twitter for Huwara to be "wiped out" by the Israeli government. Zvika Fogel MK, of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit, which forms part of the governing coalition, said that he "looks very favorably upon" the results of the rampage. Members of the coalition proposed an amendment to the Disengagement Law, which would allow Israelis to resettle settlements vacated during the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza and the northern West Bank. The evacuated settlements were considered illegal under international law, according to most countries. The proposal was approved for voting by the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on 9 March 2023, while the committee was still waiting for briefing materials from the NSS, IDF, MFA and Shin Bet, and was passed on 21 March. The US has requested clarification from Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog. A US State Department spokesman stated that "The U.S. strongly urges Israel to refrain from allowing the return of settlers to the area covered by the legislation, consistent with both former Prime Minister Sharon and the current Israeli Government's commitment to the United States," noting that the actions represent a clear violation of undertakings given by the Sharon government to the Bush administration in 2005 and Netanyahu's far-right coalition to the Biden administration the previous week. Minister of Communication Shlomo Karhi had initially intended to cut the funding of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (also known by its blanket branding Kan) by 400 million shekels – roughly half of its total budget – closing several departments, and privatizing content creation. In response, the Director-General of the European Broadcasting Union, Noel Curran, sent two urgent letters to Netanyahu, expressing his concerns and calling on the Israeli government to "safeguard the independence of our Member KAN and ensure it is allowed to operate in a sustainable way, with funding that is both stable, adequate, fair, and transparent." On 25 January 2023, nine journalist organizations representing some of Kan's competitors issued a statement of concern, acknowledging the "important contribution of public broadcasting in creating a worthy, unbiased and non-prejudicial journalistic platform", and noting that "the existence of the [broadcasting] corporation as a substantial public broadcast organization strengthens media as a whole, adding to the competition in the market rather than weakening it." They also expressed their concern that the "real reason" for the proposal was actually "an attempt to silence voices from which... [the Minister] doesn't always draw satisfaction". The same day, hundreds of journalists, actors and filmmakers protested in Tel Aviv. The proposal was eventually put on hold. On 22 February 2023 it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu was attempting to appoint his close associate Yossi Shelley as the deputy to the National Statistician — a highly sensitive position in charge of providing accurate data for decision makers. The appointment of Shelley, who did not possess the required qualifications for the role, was withdrawn following publication. In its daily editorial, Haaretz tied this attempt with the judicial reform: "once they take control of the judiciary, law enforcement and public media, they wish to control the state's data base, the dry numerical data it uses to plan its future". Netanyahu also proposed Avi Simhon for the role, and eventually froze all appointments at the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Also on 22 February 2023, it was revealed that Yoav Kish, the Minister of Education, was promoting a draft government decision change to the National Library of Israel board of directors which would grant him more power over the institution. In response, the Hebrew University — which owned the library until 2008 – announced that if the draft is accepted, it will withdraw its collections from the library. The university's collections, which according to the university constitute some 80% of the library's collection, include the Agnon archive, the original manuscript of Hatikvah, and the Rothschild Haggadah, the oldest known Haggadah. A group of 300 authors and poets signed an open letter against the move, further noting their objection against "political takeover" of public broadcasting, as well as "any legislation that will castrate the judiciary and damage the democratic foundations of the state of Israel". Several days later, it was reported that a series of donors decided to withhold their donations to the library, totaling some 80 million shekels. On 3 March a petition against the move by 1,500 academics, including Israel Prize laureates, was sent to Kish. The proposal has been seen by some as retribution against Shai Nitzan, the former State Attorney and the library's current rector. On 5 March it was reported that the Legal Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Asi Messing, was withholding the proposal. According to Messing, the proposal – which was being promoted as part of the Economic Arrangements Law – "was not reviewed... by the qualified personnel in the Ministry of Finance, does not align with any of the common goals of the economic plan, was not agreed to by myself and was not approved by the Attorney General." As of February 2023, the government has been debating several proposals that will significantly weaken the Ministry of Environmental Protection, including reducing the environmental regulation of planning and development and electricity production. One of the main proposals, the transferal of a 3 billion shekel fund meant to finance waste management plants from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the Ministry of the Interior, was eventually withdrawn. The Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, has been criticized for using for meeting with climate change denialists, for wasteful and personally-motivated travel on the ministry's expense, for politicizing the role, and for engaging in political activity on the ministry's time. The government has been noted for an unusually high number of dismissals and resignations of senior career civil servants, and for the frequent attempts to replace them with candidates with known political associations, who are often less competent. According to sources, Netanyahu and people in his vicinity are seeking out civil servants who were appointed by the previous government, intent on replacing them with people loyal to him. Governmental nominees for various positions have been criticized for lack of expertise. In addition to the nominee to the position of Deputy National Statistician (see above), the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Shlomi Heisler; the Director General of the Ministry of Justice, Itamar Donenfeld; and the Director General of Ministry of Transport, Moshe Ben Zaken, have all been criticized for incompetence, lack of familiarity with their Ministries' subject matter, lack of interest in the job, or lack of experience in managing large organizations. It has been reported that in some ministries, senior officials were enacting slowdowns as a means for dealing with the new ministers and director generals. On 28 July the director general of the Ministry of Education resigned, citing as reason the societal "rift". Asaf Zalel, a retired Air Force Brigadier General, was appointed in January. When asked about attempts to appoint his personal friend and attorney to the board of directors of a state-owned company, Minister David Amsalem replied: "that is my job, due to my authority to appoint directors. I put forward people that I know and hold in esteem". Under Minister of Transport Miri Regev, the ministry has either dismissed or lost the heads of the National Public Transport Authority, Israel Airports Authority, National Road Safety Authority, Israel Railways, and several officials in Netivei Israel. The current chair of Netivei Israel is Likud member and Regev associate Yigal Amadi, and the legal counsel is Einav Abuhzira, daughter of a former Likud branch chair. Abuhzira was appointed instead of Elad Berdugo, nephew of Netanyahu surrogate Yaakov Bardugo, after he was disqualified for the role by the Israel Government Companies Authority. In July 2023 the Ministry of Communications, Shlomo Karhi, and the minister in charge of the Israel Government Companies Authority, Dudi Amsalem, deposed the chair of the Israel Postal Company, Michael Vaknin. The chair, who was hired to lead the company's financial recovery after years of operational loss and towards privatization, has gained the support of officials at the Authority and at the Ministry of Finance; nevertheless, the ministers claimed that his performance is inadequate, and nominated in his place Yiftah Ron-Tal, who has known ties to Netanyahu and Smotrich. They also nominated four new directors, two of which have known political associations, and a third who was a witness in Netanyahu's trial. The coalition is allowed to spend a portion of the state's budget on a discretionary basis, meant to coax member parties to reach an agreement on the budget. As of May 2023, the government was pushing an allocation of over 13 billion shekels over two years - almost seven times the amount allocated by the previous government. Most of the funds will be allocated for uses associated with the religious, orthodox and settler communities. The head of the Budget Department at the Ministry of Finance, Yoav Gardos, objected to the allocations, claiming they would exacerbate unemployment in the Orthodox community, which is projected to cost the economy a total of 6.7 trillion shekels in lost produce by 2065. At the onset of the Gaza war and the declaration of a state of national emergency, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich instructed government agencies to continue with the planned distribution of discretionary funds. Corruption During March 2023, the government was promoting an amendment to the Law on Public Service (Gifts) that would allow Netanyahu to receive donations to fund his legal defense. The amendment follows a decision by the High Court of Justice (HCJ) that forced Netanyahu to refund US$270,000 given to him and his wife by his late cousin, Nathan Mileikowsky, for their legal defense. This is in contrast to past statements by Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, who spoke against the possible conflict of interests that can result from such transactions. The bill was opposed by the Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who stressed that it could "create a real opportunity for governmental corruption", and was eventually withdrawn at the end of March. As of March 2023, the coalition was promoting a bill that would prevent judicial review of ministerial appointments. The bill is intended to prevent the HCJ from reviewing the appointment of the twice-convicted chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri (convicted of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust), to a ministerial position, after his previous appointment was annulled on grounds of unreasonableness. The bill follows on the heels of another amendment, that relaxed the ban on the appointment of convicted criminals, so that Deri - who was handed a suspended sentence after his second conviction - could be appointed. The bill is opposed by the Attorney General, as well as by the Knesset Legal Adviser, Sagit Afik. Israeli law allows for declaring a Prime Minister (as well as several other high-ranking public officials) to be temporarily or permanently incapacitated, but does not specify the conditions which can lead to a declaration of incapacitation. In the case of the Prime Minister, the authority to do so is given to the Attorney General. In March 2023, the coalition advanced a bill that passes this authority from the Attorney General to the government with the approval of the Knesset committee, and clarified that incapacitation can only result from medical or mental conditions. On 3 January 2024, the Supreme Court ruled by a majority of 6 out of 11 that the validity of the law will be postponed to the next Knesset because the bill in its immediate application is a personal law and is intended to serve a distinct personal purpose. Later, the court rejected a petition regarding the definition of Netanyahu as an incapacitated prime minister due to his ongoing trial and conflict of interests. Notes References External links |
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Contents Extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically or conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms such as prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more, or far less, advanced than humans. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. The science of extraterrestrial life is known as astrobiology. Speculation about inhabited worlds beyond Earth dates back to antiquity. Early Christian writers, including Augustine, discussed ideas from thinkers like Democritus and Epicurus about countless worlds in the vast universe. Pre-modern writers typically assumed extraterrestrial "worlds" were inhabited by living beings. William Vorilong, in the 15th century, acknowledged the possibility Jesus could have visited extraterrestrial worlds to redeem their inhabitants.: 26 In 1440, Nicholas of Cusa suggested Earth is a "brilliant star"; he theorized that all celestial bodies, even the Sun, could host life. Descartes wrote that there were no means to prove the stars were not inhabited by "intelligent creatures", but their existence was a matter of speculation.: 67 In comparison to the life-abundant Earth, the vast majority of intrasolar and extrasolar planets and moons have harsh surface conditions and disparate atmospheric chemistry, or lack an atmosphere. However, there are many extreme and chemically harsh ecosystems on Earth that do support forms of life and are often hypothesized to be the origin of life on Earth. Examples include life surrounding hydrothermal vents, acidic hot springs, and volcanic lakes, as well as halophiles and the deep biosphere. Since the mid-20th century, researchers have searched for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Solar system studies focus on Venus, Mars, Europa, and Titan, while exoplanet discoveries now total 6,022 confirmed planets in 4,490 systems as of October 2025. Depending on the category of search, methods range from analysis of telescope and specimen data to radios used to detect and transmit interstellar communication. Interstellar travel remains largely hypothetical, with only the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes confirmed to have entered the interstellar medium. The concept of extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent life, has greatly influenced culture and fiction. A key debate centers on contacting extraterrestrial intelligence: some advocate active attempts, while others warn it could be risky, given human history of exploiting other societies. Context Initially, after the Big Bang, the universe was too hot to allow life. It is estimated that the temperature of the universe was around 10 billion Kelvin at the one-second mark. Roughly 15 million years later, it cooled to temperate levels, though the elements of organic life were yet nonexistent. The only freely available elements at that point were hydrogen and helium. Carbon and oxygen (and later, water) would not appear until 50 million years later, created through stellar fusion. At that point, the difficulty for life to appear was not the temperature, but the scarcity of free heavy elements. Planetary systems emerged, and the first organic compounds may have formed in the protoplanetary disk of dust grains that would eventually create rocky planets like Earth. Although Earth was in a molten state after its birth and may have burned any organics that fell on it, it would have been more receptive once it cooled down. Once the right conditions on Earth were met, life started by a chemical process known as abiogenesis. Alternatively, life may have formed less frequently, then spread—by meteoroids, for example—between habitable planets in a process called panspermia. During most of its stellar evolution, stars combine hydrogen nuclei to make helium nuclei by stellar fusion, and the comparatively lighter weight of helium allows the star to release the extra energy. The process continues until the star uses all of its available fuel, with the speed of consumption being related to the size of the star. During its last stages, stars start combining helium nuclei to form carbon nuclei. The larger stars can further combine carbon nuclei to create oxygen and silicon, oxygen into neon and sulfur, and so on until iron. Ultimately, the star blows much of its content back into the stellar medium, where it would join clouds that would eventually become new generations of stars and planets. Many of those materials are the raw components of life on Earth. As this process takes place in all the universe, said materials are ubiquitous in the cosmos and not a rarity from the Solar System. Earth is a planet in the Solar System, a planetary system formed by a star at the center, the Sun, and the objects that orbit it: other planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. The sun is part of the Milky Way, a galaxy. The Milky Way is part of the Local Group, a galaxy group that is in turn part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The universe is composed of all similar structures in existence. The immense distances between celestial objects are a difficulty for studying extraterrestrial life. So far, humans have only set foot on the Moon and sent robotic probes to other planets and moons in the Solar System. Although probes can withstand conditions that may be lethal to humans, the distances cause time delays: the New Horizons took nine years after launch to reach Pluto. No probe has ever reached extrasolar planetary systems. The Voyager 2 left the Solar System at a speed of 50,000 kilometers per hour; if it headed towards the Alpha Centauri system, the closest one to Earth at 4.4 light years, it would reach it in 100,000 years. Under current technology, such systems can only be studied by telescopes, which have limitations. It is estimated that dark matter has a larger amount of combined matter than stars and gas clouds, but as it plays no role in the stellar evolution of stars and planets, it is usually not taken into account by astrobiology. There is an area around a star, the circumstellar habitable zone or "Goldilocks zone", wherein water may be at the right temperature to exist in liquid form at a planetary surface. This area is neither too close to the star, where water would become steam, nor too far away, where water would be frozen as ice. However, although useful as an approximation, planetary habitability is complex and defined by several factors. Being in the habitable zone is not enough for a planet to be habitable, not even to actually have such liquid water. Venus is located in the solar system's habitable zone, but does not have liquid water because of the conditions of its atmosphere. Jovian planets or gas giants are not considered habitable even if they orbit close enough to their stars as hot Jupiters, due to crushing atmospheric pressures. The actual distances for the habitable zones vary according to the type of star, and even the solar activity of each specific star influences the local habitability. The type of star also defines the time the habitable zone will exist, as its presence and limits will change along with the star's stellar evolution. The Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago, the Solar System was formed 4.6 billion years ago, and the first hominids appeared 6 million years ago. Life on other planets may have started, evolved, given birth to extraterrestrial intelligences, and perhaps even faced a planetary extinction event millions or billions of years ago. When considered from a cosmic perspective, the brief times of existence of Earth's species may suggest that extraterrestrial life may be equally fleeting under such a scale. During a period of about 7 million years, from about 10 to 17 million years after the Big Bang, the background temperature was between 373 and 273 K (100 and 0 °C; 212 and 32 °F), allowing the possibility of liquid water if any planets existed. Avi Loeb (2014) speculated that primitive life might in principle have appeared during this window, which he called "the Habitable Epoch of the Early Universe". Life on Earth is quite ubiquitous across the planet and has adapted over time to almost all the available environments in it, extremophiles and the deep biosphere thrive at even the most hostile ones. As a result, it is inferred that life in other celestial bodies may be equally adaptive. However, the origin of life is unrelated to its ease of adaptation and may have stricter requirements. A celestial body may not have any life on it, even if it were habitable. Likelihood of existence Life in the cosmos beyond Earth has been observed. The hypothesis of ubiquitous extraterrestrial life relies on three main ideas. The first one, the size of the universe, allows for plenty of planets to have a similar habitability to Earth, and the age of the universe gives enough time for a long process analog to the history of Earth to happen there. The second is that the substances that make life, such as carbon and water, are ubiquitous in the universe. The third is that the physical laws are universal, which means that the forces that would facilitate or prevent the existence of life would be the same ones as on Earth. According to this argument, made by scientists such as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere else other than Earth. This argument is embodied in the Copernican principle, which states that Earth does not occupy a unique position in the Universe, and the mediocrity principle, which states that there is nothing special about life on Earth. Other authors consider instead that life in the cosmos, or at least multicellular life, may actually be rare. The Rare Earth hypothesis maintains that life on Earth is possible because of a series of factors that range from the location in the galaxy and the configuration of the Solar System to local characteristics of the planet, and that it is unlikely that another planet simultaneously meets all such requirements. The proponents of this hypothesis consider that very little evidence suggests the existence of extraterrestrial life and that, at this point, it is just a desired result and not a reasonable scientific explanation for any gathered data. In 1961, astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake devised the Drake equation as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at a meeting on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The Drake equation is:: xix where: and Drake's proposed estimates are as follows, but numbers on the right side of the equation are agreed as speculative and open to substitution: 10,000 = 5 ⋅ 0.5 ⋅ 2 ⋅ 1 ⋅ 0.2 ⋅ 1 ⋅ 10,000 {\displaystyle 10{,}000=5\cdot 0.5\cdot 2\cdot 1\cdot 0.2\cdot 1\cdot 10{,}000} [better source needed] The Drake equation has proved controversial since, although it is written as a math equation, none of its values were known at the time. Although some values may eventually be measured, others are based on social sciences and are not knowable by their very nature. This does not allow one to make noteworthy conclusions from the equation. Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are nearly 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all Sun-like stars have a system of planets. In other words, there are 6.25×1018 stars with planets orbiting them in the observable universe. Even if it is assumed that only one out of a billion of these stars has planets supporting life, there would be some 6.25 billion life-supporting planetary systems in the observable universe. A 2013 study based on results from the Kepler spacecraft estimated that the Milky Way contains at least as many planets as it does stars, resulting in 100–400 billion exoplanets. The Nebular hypothesis that explains the formation of the Solar System and other planetary systems would suggest that those can have several configurations, and not all of them may have rocky planets within the habitable zone. The apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations and the lack of evidence for such civilisations is known as the Fermi paradox. Dennis W. Sciama claimed that life's existence in the universe depends on various fundamental constants. Zhi-Wei Wang and Samuel L. Braunstein suggest that a random universe capable of supporting life is likely to be just barely able to do so, giving a potential explanation to the Fermi paradox. Biochemical basis If extraterrestrial life exists, it could range from simple microorganisms and multicellular organisms similar to animals or plants, to complex alien intelligences akin to humans. When scientists talk about extraterrestrial life, they consider all those types. Although it is possible that extraterrestrial life may have other configurations, scientists use the hierarchy of lifeforms from Earth for simplicity, as it is the only one known to exist. The first basic requirement for life is an environment with non-equilibrium thermodynamics, which means that the thermodynamic equilibrium must be broken by a source of energy. The traditional sources of energy in the cosmos are the stars, such as for life on Earth, which depends on the energy of the sun. However, there are other alternative energy sources, such as volcanoes, plate tectonics, and hydrothermal vents. There are ecosystems on Earth in deep areas of the ocean that do not receive sunlight, and take energy from black smokers instead. Magnetic fields and radioactivity have also been proposed as sources of energy, although they would be less efficient ones. Life on Earth requires water in a liquid state as a solvent in which biochemical reactions take place. It is highly unlikely that an abiogenesis process can start within a gaseous or solid medium: the atom speeds, either too fast or too slow, make it difficult for specific ones to meet and start chemical reactions. A liquid medium also allows the transport of nutrients and substances required for metabolism. Sufficient quantities of carbon and other elements, along with water, might enable the formation of living organisms on terrestrial planets with a chemical make-up and temperature range similar to that of Earth. Life based on ammonia rather than water has been suggested as an alternative, though this solvent appears less suitable than water. It is also conceivable that there are forms of life whose solvent is a liquid hydrocarbon, such as methane, ethane or propane. Another unknown aspect of potential extraterrestrial life would be the chemical elements that would compose it. Life on Earth is largely composed of carbon, but there could be other hypothetical types of biochemistry. A replacement for carbon would need to be able to create complex molecules, store information required for evolution, and be freely available in the medium. To create DNA, RNA, or a close analog, such an element should be able to bind its atoms with many others, creating complex and stable molecules. It should be able to create at least three covalent bonds: two for making long strings and at least a third to add new links and allow for diverse information. Only nine elements meet this requirement: boron, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony (three bonds), carbon, silicon, germanium and tin (four bonds). As for abundance, carbon, nitrogen, and silicon are the most abundant ones in the universe, far more than the others. On Earth's crust the most abundant of those elements is silicon, in the Hydrosphere it is carbon and in the atmosphere, it is carbon and nitrogen. Silicon, however, has disadvantages over carbon. The molecules formed with silicon atoms are less stable, and more vulnerable to acids, oxygen, and light. An ecosystem of silicon-based lifeforms would require very low temperatures, high atmospheric pressure, an atmosphere devoid of oxygen, and a solvent other than water. The low temperatures required would add an extra problem, the difficulty to kickstart a process of abiogenesis to create life in the first place. Norman Horowitz, head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory bioscience section for the Mariner and Viking missions from 1965 to 1976 considered that the great versatility of the carbon atom makes it the element most likely to provide solutions, even exotic solutions, to the problems of survival of life on other planets. However, he also considered that the conditions found on Mars were incompatible with carbon based life. Even if extraterrestrial life is based on carbon and uses water as a solvent, like Earth life, it may still have a radically different biochemistry. Life is generally considered to be a product of natural selection. It has been proposed that to undergo natural selection a living entity must have the capacity to replicate itself, the capacity to avoid damage/decay, and the capacity to acquire and process resources in support of the first two capacities. Life on Earth may have started with an RNA world and later evolved to its current form, where some of the RNA tasks were transferred to DNA and proteins. Extraterrestrial life may still be stuck using RNA, or evolve into other configurations. It is unclear if our biochemistry is the most efficient one that could be generated, or which elements would follow a similar pattern. However, it is likely that, even if cells had a different composition to those from Earth, they would still have a cell membrane. Life on Earth jumped from prokaryotes to eukaryotes and from unicellular organisms to multicellular organisms through evolution. So far no alternative process to achieve such a result has been conceived, even if hypothetical. Evolution requires life to be divided into individual organisms, and no alternative organisation has been satisfactorily proposed either. At the basic level, membranes define the limit of a cell, between it and its environment, while remaining partially open to exchange energy and resources with it. The evolution from simple cells to eukaryotes, and from them to multicellular lifeforms, is not guaranteed. The Cambrian explosion took place thousands of millions of years after the origin of life, and its causes are not fully known yet. On the other hand, the jump to multicellularity took place several times, which suggests that it could be a case of convergent evolution, and so likely to take place on other planets as well. Palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris considers that convergent evolution would lead to kingdoms similar to our plants and animals, and that many features are likely to develop in alien animals as well, such as bilateral symmetry, limbs, digestive systems and heads with sensory organs. Scientists from the University of Oxford analysed it from the perspective of evolutionary theory and wrote in a study in the International Journal of Astrobiology that aliens may be similar to humans. The planetary context would also have an influence: a planet with higher gravity would have smaller animals, and other types of stars can lead to non-green photosynthesizers. The amount of energy available would also affect biodiversity, as an ecosystem sustained by black smokers or hydrothermal vents would have less energy available than those sustained by a star's light and heat, and so its lifeforms would not grow beyond a certain complexity. There is also research in assessing the capacity of life for developing intelligence. It has been suggested that this capacity arises with the number of potential niches a planet contains, and that the complexity of life itself is reflected in the information density of planetary environments, which in turn can be computed from its niches. It is common knowledge that the conditions on other planets in the solar system, in addition to the many galaxies outside of the Milky Way galaxy, are very harsh and seem to be too extreme to harbor any life. The environmental conditions on these planets can have intense UV radiation paired with extreme temperatures, lack of water, and much more that can lead to conditions that don't seem to favor the creation or maintenance of extraterrestrial life. However, there has been much historical evidence that some of the earliest and most basic forms of life on Earth originated in some extreme environments that seem unlikely to have harbored life at least at one point in Earth's history. Fossil evidence as well as many historical theories backed up by years of research and studies have marked environments like hydrothermal vents or acidic hot springs as some of the first places that life could have originated on Earth. These environments can be considered extreme when compared to the typical ecosystems that the majority of life on Earth now inhabit, as hydrothermal vents are scorching hot due to the magma escaping from the Earth's mantle and meeting the much colder oceanic water. Even in today's world, there can be a diverse population of bacteria found inhabiting the area surrounding these hydrothermal vents which can suggest that some form of life can be supported even in the harshest of environments like the other planets in the solar system. The aspects of these harsh environments that make them ideal for the origin of life on Earth, as well as the possibility of creation of life on other planets, is the chemical reactions forming spontaneously. For example, the hydrothermal vents found on the ocean floor are known to support many chemosynthetic processes which allow organisms to utilize energy through reduced chemical compounds that fix carbon. In return, these reactions will allow for organisms to live in relatively low oxygenated environments while maintaining enough energy to support themselves. The early Earth environment was reducing and therefore, these carbon fixing compounds were necessary for the survival and possible origin of life on Earth. With the little amount of information that scientists have found regarding the atmosphere on other planets in the Milky Way galaxy and beyond, the atmospheres are most likely reducing or with very low oxygen levels, especially when compared with Earth's atmosphere. If there were the necessary elements and ions on these planets, the same carbon fixing, reduced chemical compounds occurring around hydrothermal vents could also occur on these planets' surfaces and possibly result in the origin of extraterrestrial life. Planetary habitability in the Solar System The Solar System has a wide variety of planets, dwarf planets, and moons, and each one is studied for its potential to host life. Each one has its own specific conditions that may benefit or harm life. So far, the only lifeforms found are those from Earth. No extraterrestrial intelligence other than humans exists or has ever existed within the Solar System. Astrobiologist Mary Voytek points out that it would be unlikely to find large ecosystems, as they would have already been detected by now. The inner Solar System is likely devoid of life. However, Venus is still of interest to astrobiologists, as it is a terrestrial planet that was likely similar to Earth in its early stages and developed in a different way. There is a greenhouse effect, the surface is the hottest in the Solar System, sulfuric acid clouds, all surface liquid water is lost, and it has a thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere with huge pressure. Comparing both helps to understand the precise differences that lead to beneficial or harmful conditions for life. And despite the conditions against life on Venus, there are suspicions that microbial life-forms may still survive in high-altitude clouds. Mars is a cold and almost airless desert, inhospitable to life. However, recent studies revealed that water on Mars used to be quite abundant, forming rivers, lakes, and perhaps even oceans. Mars may have been habitable back then, and life on Mars may have been possible. But when the planetary core ceased to generate a magnetic field, solar winds removed the atmosphere and the planet became vulnerable to solar radiation. Ancient life-forms may still have left fossilised remains, and microbes may still survive deep underground. As mentioned, the gas giants and ice giants are unlikely to contain life. The most distant solar system bodies, found in the Kuiper Belt and outwards, are locked in permanent deep-freeze, but cannot be ruled out completely. Although the giant planets themselves are highly unlikely to have life, there is much hope to find it on moons orbiting these planets. Europa, from the Jovian system, has a subsurface ocean below a thick layer of ice. Ganymede and Callisto also have subsurface oceans, but life is less likely in them because water is sandwiched between layers of solid ice. Europa would have contact between the ocean and the rocky surface, which helps the chemical reactions. It may be difficult to dig so deep in order to study those oceans, though. Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn with another subsurface ocean, may not need to be dug, as it releases water to space in eruption columns. The space probe Cassini flew inside one of these, but could not make a full study because NASA did not expect this phenomenon and did not equip the probe to study ocean water. Still, Cassini detected complex organic molecules, salts, evidence of hydrothermal activity, hydrogen, and methane. Titan is the only celestial body in the Solar System besides Earth that has liquid bodies on the surface. It has rivers, lakes, and rain of hydrocarbons, methane, and ethane, and even a cycle similar to Earth's water cycle. This special context encourages speculations about lifeforms with different biochemistry, but the cold temperatures would make such chemistry take place at a very slow pace. Water is rock-solid on the surface, but Titan does have a subsurface water ocean like several other moons. However, it is of such a great depth that it would be very difficult to access it for study. Scientific search The science that searches and studies life in the universe, both on Earth and elsewhere, is called astrobiology. With the study of Earth's life, the only known form of life, astrobiology seeks to study how life starts and evolves and the requirements for its continuous existence. This helps to determine what to look for when searching for life in other celestial bodies. This is a complex area of study, and uses the combined perspectives of several scientific disciplines, such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, oceanography, and atmospheric sciences. The scientific search for extraterrestrial life is being carried out both directly and indirectly. As of September 2017[update], 3,667 exoplanets in 2,747 systems have been identified, and other planets and moons in the Solar System hold the potential for hosting primitive life such as microorganisms. As of 8 February 2021, an updated status of studies considering the possible detection of lifeforms on Venus (via phosphine) and Mars (via methane) was reported. Scientists search for biosignatures within the Solar System by studying planetary surfaces and examining meteorites. Some claim to have identified evidence that microbial life has existed on Mars. In 1996, a controversial report stated that structures resembling nanobacteria were discovered in a meteorite, ALH84001, formed of rock ejected from Mars. Although all the unusual properties of the meteorite were eventually explained as the result of inorganic processes, the controversy over its discovery laid the groundwork for the development of astrobiology. An experiment on the two Viking Mars landers reported gas emissions from heated Martian soil samples that some scientists argue are consistent with the presence of living microorganisms. Lack of corroborating evidence from other experiments on the same samples suggests that a non-biological reaction is a more likely hypothesis. In February 2005 NASA scientists reported they may have found some evidence of extraterrestrial life on Mars. The two scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA's Ames Research Center, based their claim on methane signatures found in Mars's atmosphere resembling the methane production of some forms of primitive life on Earth, as well as on their own study of primitive life near the Rio Tinto river in Spain. NASA officials soon distanced NASA from the scientists' claims, and Stoker herself backed off from her initial assertions. In November 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars. It is designed to assess the past and present habitability on Mars using a variety of scientific instruments. The rover landed on Mars at Gale Crater in August 2012. A group of scientists at Cornell University started a catalog of microorganisms, with the way each one reacts to sunlight. The goal is to help with the search for similar organisms in exoplanets, as the starlight reflected by planets rich in such organisms would have a specific spectrum, unlike that of starlight reflected from lifeless planets. If Earth was studied from afar with this system, it would reveal a shade of green, as a result of the abundance of plants with photosynthesis. In August 2011, NASA studied meteorites found on Antarctica, finding adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine, and xanthine. Adenine and guanine are components of DNA, and the others are used in other biological processes. The studies ruled out pollution of the meteorites on Earth, as those components would not be freely available the way they were found in the samples. This discovery suggests that several organic molecules that serve as building blocks of life may be generated within asteroids and comets. In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic compounds ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars. It is still unclear if those compounds played a role in the creation of life on Earth, but Sun Kwok, of the University of Hong Kong, thinks so. "If this is the case, life on Earth may have had an easier time getting started as these organics can serve as basic ingredients for life." In August 2012, and in a world first, astronomers at Copenhagen University reported the detection of a specific sugar molecule, glycolaldehyde, in a distant star system. The molecule was found around the protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422, which is located 400 light years from Earth. Glycolaldehyde is needed to form ribonucleic acid, or RNA, which is similar in function to DNA. This finding suggests that complex organic molecules may form in stellar systems prior to the formation of planets, eventually arriving on young planets early in their formation. In December 2023, astronomers reported the first time discovery, in the plumes of Enceladus, moon of the planet Saturn, of hydrogen cyanide, a possible chemical essential for life as we know it, as well as other organic molecules, some of which are yet to be better identified and understood. According to the researchers, "these [newly discovered] compounds could potentially support extant microbial communities or drive complex organic synthesis leading to the origin of life." Although most searches are focused on the biology of extraterrestrial life, an extraterrestrial intelligence capable enough to develop a civilization may be detectable by other means as well. Technology may generate technosignatures, effects on the native planet that may not be caused by natural causes. There are three main types of techno-signatures considered: interstellar communications, effects on the atmosphere, and planetary-sized structures such as Dyson spheres. Organizations such as the SETI Institute search the cosmos for potential forms of communication. They started with radio waves, and now search for laser pulses as well. The challenge for this search is that there are natural sources of such signals as well, such as gamma-ray bursts and supernovae, and the difference between a natural signal and an artificial one would be in its specific patterns. Astronomers intend to use artificial intelligence for this, as it can manage large amounts of data and is devoid of biases and preconceptions. Besides, even if there is an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, there is no guarantee that it is transmitting radio communications in the direction of Earth. The length of time required for a signal to travel across space means that a potential answer may arrive decades or centuries after the initial message. The atmosphere of Earth is rich in nitrogen dioxide as a result of air pollution, which can be detectable. The natural abundance of carbon, which is also relatively reactive, makes it likely to be a basic component of the development of a potential extraterrestrial technological civilization, as it is on Earth. Fossil fuels may likely be generated and used on such worlds as well. The abundance of chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere can also be a clear technosignature, considering their role in ozone depletion. Light pollution may be another technosignature, as multiple lights on the night side of a rocky planet can be a sign of advanced technological development. However, modern telescopes are not strong enough to study exoplanets with the required level of detail to perceive it. The Kardashev scale proposes that a civilization may eventually start consuming energy directly from its local star. This would require giant structures built next to it, called Dyson spheres. Those speculative structures would cause an excess infrared radiation, that telescopes may notice. The infrared radiation is typical of young stars, surrounded by dusty protoplanetary disks that will eventually form planets. An older star such as the Sun would have no natural reason to have excess infrared radiation. The presence of heavy elements in a star's light-spectrum is another potential biosignature; such elements would (in theory) be found if the star were being used as an incinerator/repository for nuclear waste products. Some astronomers search for extrasolar planets that may be conducive to life, narrowing the search to terrestrial planets within the habitable zones of their stars. Since 1992, over four thousand exoplanets have been discovered (6,128 planets in 4,584 planetary systems including 1,017 multiple planetary systems as of 30 October 2025). The extrasolar planets so far discovered range in size from that of terrestrial planets similar to Earth's size to that of gas giants larger than Jupiter. The number of observed exoplanets is expected to increase greatly in the coming years.[better source needed] The Kepler space telescope has also detected a few thousand candidate planets, of which about 11% may be false positives. There is at least one planet on average per star. About 1 in 5 Sun-like stars[a] have an "Earth-sized"[b] planet in the habitable zone,[c] with the nearest expected to be within 12 light-years distance from Earth. Assuming 200 billion stars in the Milky Way,[d] that would be 11 billion potentially habitable Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way, rising to 40 billion if red dwarfs are included. The rogue planets in the Milky Way possibly number in the trillions. The nearest known exoplanet is Proxima Centauri b, located 4.2 light-years (1.3 pc) from Earth in the southern constellation of Centaurus. As of March 2014[update], the least massive exoplanet known is PSR B1257+12 A, which is about twice the mass of the Moon. The most massive planet listed on the NASA Exoplanet Archive is DENIS-P J082303.1−491201 b, about 29 times the mass of Jupiter, although according to most definitions of a planet, it is too massive to be a planet and may be a brown dwarf instead. Almost all of the planets detected so far are within the Milky Way, but there have also been a few possible detections of extragalactic planets. The study of planetary habitability also considers a wide range of other factors in determining the suitability of a planet for hosting life. One sign that a planet probably already contains life is the presence of an atmosphere with significant amounts of oxygen, since that gas is highly reactive and generally would not last long without constant replenishment. This replenishment occurs on Earth through photosynthetic organisms. One way to analyse the atmosphere of an exoplanet is through spectrography when it transits its star, though this might only be feasible with dim stars like white dwarfs. History and cultural impact The modern concept of extraterrestrial life is based on assumptions that were not commonplace during the early days of astronomy. The first explanations for the celestial objects seen in the night sky were based on mythology. Scholars from Ancient Greece were the first to consider that the universe is inherently understandable and rejected explanations based on supernatural incomprehensible forces, such as the myth of the Sun being pulled across the sky in the chariot of Apollo. They had not developed the scientific method yet and based their ideas on pure thought and speculation, but they developed precursor ideas to it, such as that explanations had to be discarded if they contradict observable facts. The discussions of those Greek scholars established many of the pillars that would eventually lead to the idea of extraterrestrial life, such as Earth being round and not flat. The cosmos was first structured in a geocentric model that considered that the sun and all other celestial bodies revolve around Earth. However, they did not consider them as worlds. In Greek understanding, the world was composed by both Earth and the celestial objects with noticeable movements. Anaximander thought that the cosmos was made from apeiron, a substance that created the world, and that the world would eventually return to the cosmos. Eventually two groups emerged, the atomists that thought that matter at both Earth and the cosmos was equally made of small atoms of the classical elements (earth, water, fire and air), and the Aristotelians who thought that those elements were exclusive of Earth and that the cosmos was made of a fifth one, the aether. Atomist Epicurus thought that the processes that created the world, its animals and plants should have created other worlds elsewhere, along with their own animals and plants. Aristotle thought instead that all the earth element naturally fell towards the center of the universe, and that would make it impossible for other planets to exist elsewhere. Under that reasoning, Earth was not only in the center, it was also the only planet in the universe. Cosmic pluralism, the plurality of worlds, or simply pluralism, describes the philosophical belief in numerous "worlds" in addition to Earth, which might harbor extraterrestrial life. The earliest recorded assertion of extraterrestrial human life is found in ancient scriptures of Jainism. There are multiple "worlds" mentioned in Jain scriptures that support human life. These include, among others, Bharat Kshetra, Mahavideh Kshetra, Airavat Kshetra, and Hari kshetra. Medieval Muslim writers like Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Muhammad al-Baqir supported cosmic pluralism on the basis of the Qur'an. Chaucer's poem The House of Fame engaged in medieval thought experiments that postulated the plurality of worlds. However, those ideas about other worlds were different from the current knowledge about the structure of the universe, and did not postulate the existence of planetary systems other than the Solar System. When those authors talk about other worlds, they talk about places located at the center of their own systems, and with their own stellar vaults and cosmos surrounding them. The Greek ideas and the disputes between atomists and Aristotelians outlived the fall of the Greek empire. The Great Library of Alexandria compiled information about it, part of which was translated by Islamic scholars and thus survived the end of the Library. Baghdad combined the knowledge of the Greeks, the Indians, the Chinese and its own scholars, and the knowledge expanded through the Byzantine Empire. From there it eventually returned to Europe by the time of the Middle Ages. However, as the Greek atomist doctrine held that the world was created by random movements of atoms, with no need for a creator deity, it became associated with atheism, and the dispute intertwined with religious ones. Still, the Church did not react to those topics in a homogeneous way, and there were stricter and more permissive views within the church itself. The first known mention of the term 'panspermia' was in the writings of the 5th-century BC Greek philosopher Anaxagoras. He proposed the idea that life exists everywhere. By the time of the late Middle Ages there were many known inaccuracies in the geocentric model, but it was kept in use because naked eye observations provided limited data. Nicolaus Copernicus started the Copernican Revolution by proposing that the planets revolve around the sun rather than Earth. His proposal had little acceptance at first because, as he kept the assumption that orbits were perfect circles, his model led to as many inaccuracies as the geocentric one. Tycho Brahe improved the available data with naked-eye observatories, which worked with highly complex sextants and quadrants. Tycho could not make sense of his observations, but Johannes Kepler did: orbits were not perfect circles, but ellipses. This knowledge benefited the Copernican model, which worked now almost perfectly. The invention of the telescope a short time later, perfected by Galileo Galilei, clarified the final doubts, and the paradigm shift was completed. Under this new understanding, the notion of extraterrestrial life became feasible: if Earth is but just a planet orbiting around a star, there may be planets similar to Earth elsewhere. The astronomical study of distant bodies also proved that physical laws are the same elsewhere in the universe as on Earth, with nothing making the planet truly special. The new ideas were met with resistance from the Catholic church. Galileo was tried for the heliocentric model, which was considered heretical, and forced to recant it. The best-known early-modern proponent of ideas of extraterrestrial life was the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who argued in the 16th century for an infinite universe in which every star is surrounded by its own planetary system. Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different to that of our earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants". Bruno's belief in the plurality of worlds was one of the charges leveled against him by the Venetian Holy Inquisition, which tried and executed him. The heliocentric model was further strengthened by the postulation of the theory of gravity by Sir Isaac Newton. This theory provided the mathematics that explains the motions of all things in the universe, including planetary orbits. By this point, the geocentric model was definitely discarded. By this time, the use of the scientific method had become a standard, and new discoveries were expected to provide evidence and rigorous mathematical explanations. Science also took a deeper interest in the mechanics of natural phenomena, trying to explain not just the way nature works but also the reasons for working that way. There was very little actual discussion about extraterrestrial life before this point, as the Aristotelian ideas remained influential while geocentrism was still accepted. When it was finally proved wrong, it not only meant that Earth was not the center of the universe, but also that the lights seen in the sky were not just lights, but physical objects. The notion that life may exist in them as well soon became an ongoing topic of discussion, although one with no practical ways to investigate. The possibility of extraterrestrials remained a widespread speculation as scientific discovery accelerated. William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, was one of many 18th–19th-century astronomers who believed that the Solar System is populated by alien life. Other scholars of the period who championed "cosmic pluralism" included Immanuel Kant and Benjamin Franklin. At the height of the Enlightenment, even the Sun and Moon were considered candidates for extraterrestrial inhabitants. Speculation about life on Mars increased in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation of apparent Martian canals – which soon, however, turned out to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilisation. Spectroscopic analysis of Mars's atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U.S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither water nor oxygen was present in the Martian atmosphere. By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic opposition of Mars since 1877 conclusively put an end to the canal hypothesis. As a consequence of the belief in the spontaneous generation there was little thought about the conditions of each celestial body: it was simply assumed that life would thrive anywhere. This theory was disproved by Louis Pasteur in the 19th century. Popular belief in thriving alien civilisations elsewhere in the solar system still remained strong until Mariner 4 and Mariner 9 provided close images of Mars, which debunked forever the idea of the existence of Martians and decreased the previous expectations of finding alien life in general. The end of the spontaneous generation belief forced investigation into the origin of life. Although abiogenesis is the more accepted theory, a number of authors reclaimed the term "panspermia" and proposed that life was brought to Earth from elsewhere. Some of those authors are Jöns Jacob Berzelius (1834), Kelvin (1871), Hermann von Helmholtz (1879) and, somewhat later, by Svante Arrhenius (1903). The science fiction genre, although not so named during the time, developed during the late 19th century. The expansion of the genre of extraterrestrials in fiction influenced the popular perception over the real-life topic, making people eager to jump to conclusions about the discovery of aliens. Science marched at a slower pace, some discoveries fueled expectations and others dashed excessive hopes. For example, with the advent of telescopes, most structures seen on the Moon or Mars were immediately attributed to Selenites or Martians, and later ones (such as more powerful telescopes) revealed that all such discoveries were natural features. A famous case is the Cydonia region of Mars, first imaged by the Viking 1 orbiter. The low-resolution photos showed a rock formation that resembled a human face, but later spacecraft took photos in higher detail that showed that there was nothing special about the site. The search and study of extraterrestrial life became a science of its own, astrobiology. Also known as exobiology, this discipline is studied by the NASA, the ESA, the INAF, and others. Astrobiology studies life from Earth as well, but with a cosmic perspective. For example, abiogenesis is of interest to astrobiology, not because of the origin of life on Earth, but for the chances of a similar process taking place in other celestial bodies. Many aspects of life, from its definition to its chemistry, are analyzed as either likely to be similar in all forms of life across the cosmos or only native to Earth. Astrobiology, however, remains constrained by the current lack of extraterrestrial life-forms to study, as all life on Earth comes from the same ancestor, and it is hard to infer general characteristics from a group with a single example to analyse. The 20th century came with great technological advances, speculations about future hypothetical technologies, and an increased basic knowledge of science by the general population thanks to science divulgation through the mass media. The public interest in extraterrestrial life and the lack of discoveries by mainstream science led to the emergence of pseudosciences that provided affirmative, if questionable, answers to the existence of aliens. Ufology claims that many unidentified flying objects (UFOs) would be spaceships from alien species, and ancient astronauts hypothesis claim that aliens would have visited Earth in antiquity and prehistoric times but people would have failed to understand it by then. Most UFOs or UFO sightings can be readily explained as sightings of Earth-based aircraft (including top-secret aircraft), known astronomical objects or weather phenomenons, or as hoaxes. Looking beyond the pseudosciences, Lewis White Beck strove to elevate the level of public discourse on the topic of extraterrestrial life by tracing the evolution of philosophical thought over the centuries from ancient times into the modern era. His review of the contributions made by Lucretius, Plutarch, Aristotle, Copernicus, Immanuel Kant, John Wilkins, Charles Darwin and Karl Marx demonstrated that even in modern times, humanity could be profoundly influenced in its search for extraterrestrial life by subtle and comforting archetypal ideas which are largely derived from firmly held religious, philosophical and existential belief systems. On a positive note, however, Beck further argued that even if the search for extraterrestrial life proves to be unsuccessful, the endeavor itself could have beneficial consequences by assisting humanity in its attempt to actualize superior ways of living here on Earth. By the 21st century, it was accepted that multicellular life in the Solar System can only exist on Earth, but the interest in extraterrestrial life increased regardless. This is a result of the advances in several sciences. The knowledge of planetary habitability allows to consider on scientific terms the likelihood of finding life at each specific celestial body, as it is known which features are beneficial and harmful for life. Astronomy and telescopes also improved to the point exoplanets can be confirmed and even studied, increasing the number of search places. Life may still exist elsewhere in the Solar System in unicellular form, but the advances in spacecraft allow to send robots to study samples in situ, with tools of growing complexity and reliability. Although no extraterrestrial life has been found and life may still be just a rarity from Earth, there are scientific reasons to suspect that it can exist elsewhere, and technological advances that may detect it if it does. Many scientists are optimistic about the chances of finding alien life. In the words of SETI's Frank Drake, "All we know for sure is that the sky is not littered with powerful microwave transmitters". Drake noted that it is entirely possible that advanced technology results in communication being carried out in some way other than conventional radio transmission. At the same time, the data returned by space probes, and giant strides in detection methods, have allowed science to begin delineating habitability criteria on other worlds, and to confirm that at least other planets are plentiful, though aliens remain a question mark. The Wow! signal, detected in 1977 by a SETI project, remains a subject of speculative debate. On the other hand, other scientists are pessimistic. Jacques Monod wrote that "Man knows at last that he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the universe, whence which he has emerged by chance". In 2000, geologist and paleontologist Peter Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee published a book entitled Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe.[better source needed] In it, they discussed the Rare Earth hypothesis, in which they claim that Earth-like life is rare in the universe, whereas microbial life is common. Ward and Brownlee are open to the idea of evolution on other planets that is not based on essential Earth-like characteristics such as DNA and carbon. As for the possible risks, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking warned in 2010 that humans should not try to contact alien life forms. He warned that aliens might pillage Earth for resources. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans", he said. Jared Diamond had earlier expressed similar concerns. On 20 July 2015, Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, along with the SETI Institute, announced a well-funded effort, called the Breakthrough Initiatives, to expand efforts to search for extraterrestrial life. The group contracted the services of the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia in the United States and the 64-meter Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia. On 13 February 2015, scientists (including Geoffrey Marcy, Seth Shostak, Frank Drake and David Brin) at a convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, discussed Active SETI and whether transmitting a message to possible intelligent extraterrestrials in the Cosmos was a good idea; one result was a statement, signed by many, that a "worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent". Government responses The 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 Moon Agreement define rules of planetary protection against potentially hazardous extraterrestrial life. COSPAR also provides guidelines for planetary protection. A committee of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs had in 1977 discussed for a year strategies for interacting with extraterrestrial life or intelligence. The discussion ended without any conclusions. As of 2010, the UN lacks response mechanisms for the case of an extraterrestrial contact. One of the NASA divisions is the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA), also known as the Planetary Protection Office. A part of its mission is to "rigorously preclude backward contamination of Earth by extraterrestrial life." In 2016, the Chinese Government released a white paper detailing its space program. According to the document, one of the research objectives of the program is the search for extraterrestrial life. It is also one of the objectives of the Chinese Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) program. In 2020, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency, said the search for extraterrestrial life is one of the main goals of deep space research. He also acknowledged the possibility of existence of primitive life on other planets of the Solar System. The French space agency has an office for the study of "non-identified aero spatial phenomena". The agency is maintaining a publicly accessible database of such phenomena, with over 1600 detailed entries. According to the head of the office, the vast majority of entries have a mundane explanation; but for 25% of entries, their extraterrestrial origin can neither be confirmed nor denied. In 2020, chairman of the Israel Space Agency Isaac Ben-Israel stated that the probability of detecting life in outer space is "quite large". But he disagrees with his former colleague Haim Eshed who stated that there are contacts between an advanced alien civilisation and some of Earth's governments. In fiction Although the idea of extraterrestrial peoples became feasible once astronomy developed enough to understand the nature of planets, they were not thought of as being any different from humans. Having no scientific explanation for the origin of mankind and its relation to other species, there was no reason to expect them to be any other way. This was changed by the 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, which proposed the theory of evolution. Now with the notion that evolution on other planets may take other directions, science fiction authors created bizarre aliens, clearly distinct from humans. A usual way to do that was to add body features from other animals, such as insects or octopuses. Costuming and special effects feasibility alongside budget considerations forced films and TV series to tone down the fantasy, but these limitations lessened since the 1990s with the advent of computer-generated imagery (CGI), and later on as CGI became more effective and less expensive. Real-life events sometimes captivate people's imagination and this influences the works of fiction. For example, during the Barney and Betty Hill incident, the first recorded claim of an alien abduction, the couple reported that they were abducted and experimented on by aliens with oversized heads, big eyes, pale grey skin, and small noses, a description that eventually became the grey alien archetype once used in works of fiction. See also Notes References Further reading External links |
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Contents PlayStation (console) The PlayStation[a] (codenamed PSX, abbreviated as PS, and retroactively PS1 or PS one) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released in Japan on 3 December 1994, followed by North America on 9 September 1995, Europe on 29 September 1995, and other regions following thereafter. As a fifth-generation console, the PlayStation primarily competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn. Sony began developing the PlayStation after a failed venture with Nintendo to create a CD-ROM peripheral for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s. The console was primarily designed by Ken Kutaragi and Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan, while additional development was outsourced in the United Kingdom. An emphasis on 3D polygon graphics was placed at the forefront of the console's design. PlayStation game production was designed to be streamlined and inclusive, enticing the support of many third party developers. The console proved popular for its extensive game library, popular franchises, low retail price, and aggressive youth marketing which advertised it as the preferable console for adolescents and adults. Critically acclaimed games that defined the console include Gran Turismo, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, and Final Fantasy VII. Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on 23 March 2006—over eleven years after it had been released, and in the same year the PlayStation 3 debuted. More than 4,000 PlayStation games were released, with cumulative sales of 962 million units. The PlayStation signaled Sony's rise to power in the video game industry. It received acclaim and sold strongly; in less than a decade, it became the first computer entertainment platform to ship over 100 million units. Its use of compact discs heralded the game industry's transition from cartridges. The PlayStation's success led to a line of successors, beginning with the PlayStation 2 in 2000. In the same year, Sony released a smaller and cheaper model, the PS one. History The PlayStation was conceived by Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who managed a hardware engineering division and was later dubbed "the Father of the PlayStation". Kutaragi's interest in working with video games stemmed from seeing his daughter play games on Nintendo's Famicom. Kutaragi convinced Nintendo to use his SPC-700 sound processor in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) through a demonstration of the processor's capabilities. His willingness to work with Nintendo was derived from both his admiration of the Famicom and conviction in video game consoles becoming the main home-use entertainment systems. Although Kutaragi was nearly fired because he worked with Nintendo without Sony's knowledge, president Norio Ohga recognised the potential in Kutaragi's chip and decided to keep him as a protégé. The inception of the PlayStation dates back to a 1988 joint venture between Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo had produced floppy disk technology to complement cartridges in the form of the Family Computer Disk System, and wanted to continue this complementary storage strategy for the SNES. Since Sony was already contracted to produce the SPC-700 sound processor for the SNES, Nintendo contracted Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "Play Station" or "SNES-CD". The PlayStation name had already been trademarked by Yamaha, but Nobuyuki Idei liked it so much that he agreed to acquire it for an undisclosed sum rather than search for an alternative. Sony was keen to obtain a foothold in the rapidly expanding video game market. Having been the primary manufacturer of the MSX home computer format, Sony had wanted to use their experience in consumer electronics to produce their own video game hardware. Although the initial agreement between Nintendo and Sony was about producing a CD-ROM drive add-on, Sony had also planned to develop a SNES-compatible Sony-branded console. This iteration was intended to be more of a home entertainment system, playing both SNES cartridges and a new CD format named the "Super Disc", which Sony would design. Under the agreement, Sony would retain sole international rights to every Super Disc game, giving them a large degree of control despite Nintendo's leading position in the video game market. Furthermore, Sony would also be the sole benefactor of licensing related to music and film software that it had been aggressively pursuing as a secondary application. The Play Station was to be announced at the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. However, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi was wary of Sony's increasing leverage at this point and deemed the original 1988 contract unacceptable upon realising it essentially handed Sony control over all games written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Although Nintendo was dominant in the video game market, Sony possessed a superior research and development department. Wanting to protect Nintendo's existing licensing structure, Yamauchi cancelled all plans for the joint Nintendo–Sony SNES CD attachment without telling Sony. He sent Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa (his son-in-law) and chairman Howard Lincoln to Amsterdam to form a more favourable contract with Dutch conglomerate Philips, Sony's rival. This contract would give Nintendo total control over their licences on all Philips-produced machines. Kutaragi and Nobuyuki Idei, Sony's director of public relations at the time, learned of Nintendo's actions two days before the CES was due to begin. Kutaragi telephoned numerous contacts, including Philips, to no avail. On the first day of the CES, Sony announced their partnership with Nintendo and their new console, the Play Station. At 9 am on the next day, in what has been called "the greatest ever betrayal" in the industry, Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips and would abandon their work with Sony. Incensed by Nintendo's renouncement, Ohga and Kutaragi decided that Sony would develop their own console. Nintendo's contract-breaking was met with consternation in the Japanese business community, as they had broken an "unwritten law" of native companies not turning against each other in favour of foreign ones. Sony's American branch considered allying with Sega to produce a CD-ROM-based machine called the Sega Multimedia Entertainment System, but the Sega board of directors in Tokyo vetoed the idea when Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske presented them the proposal. Kalinske recalled them saying: "That's a stupid idea, Sony doesn't know how to make hardware. They don't know how to make software either. Why would we want to do this?" Sony halted their research, but decided to develop what it had developed with Nintendo and Sega into a console based on the SNES. Despite the tumultuous events at the 1991 CES, negotiations between Nintendo and Sony were still ongoing. A deal was proposed: the Play Station would still have a port for SNES games, on the condition that it would still use Kutaragi's audio chip and that Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits. Roughly two hundred prototype machines were created, and some software entered development. Many within Sony were still opposed to their involvement in the video game industry, with some resenting Kutaragi for jeopardising the company. Kutaragi remained adamant that Sony not retreat from the growing industry and that a deal with Nintendo would never work. Knowing that they had to take decisive action, Sony severed all ties with Nintendo on 4 May 1992. To determine the fate of the PlayStation project, Ohga chaired a meeting in June 1992, consisting of Kutaragi and several senior Sony board members. Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been secretly working on which played games with immersive 3D graphics. Kutaragi was confident that his LSI chip could accommodate one million logic gates, which exceeded the capabilities of Sony's semiconductor division at the time. Despite gaining Ohga's enthusiasm, there remained opposition from a majority present at the meeting. Older Sony executives also opposed it, who saw Nintendo and Sega as "toy" manufacturers. The opposers felt the game industry was too culturally offbeat and asserted that Sony should remain a central player in the audiovisual industry, where companies were familiar with one another and could conduct "civili[s]ed" business negotiations. After Kutaragi reminded him of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo, Ohga retained the project and became one of Kutaragi's most staunch supporters. Ohga shifted Kutaragi and nine of his team from Sony's main headquarters to Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ), a subsidiary of the main Sony group, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project. The involvement of SMEJ proved crucial to the PlayStation's early development as the process of manufacturing games on CD-ROM format was similar to that used for audio CDs, with which Sony's music division had considerable experience. While at SMEJ, Kutaragi worked with Epic/Sony Records founder Shigeo Maruyama and Akira Sato; both later became vice-presidents of the division that ran the PlayStation business. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) was jointly established by Sony and SMEJ to handle the company's ventures into the video game industry. On 27 October 1993, Sony publicly announced that it was entering the game console market with the PlayStation. According to Maruyama, there was uncertainty over whether the console should primarily focus on 2D, sprite-based graphics or 3D polygon graphics. After Sony witnessed the success of Sega's Virtua Fighter (1993) in Japanese arcades, the direction of the PlayStation became "instantly clear" and 3D polygon graphics became the console's primary focus. SCE president Teruhisa Tokunaka expressed gratitude for Sega's timely release of Virtua Fighter as it proved "just at the right time" that making games with 3D imagery was possible. Maruyama claimed that Sony further wanted to emphasise the new console's ability to utilise redbook audio from the CD-ROM format in its games alongside high quality visuals and gameplay. Wishing to distance the project from the failed enterprise with Nintendo, Sony initially branded the PlayStation the "PlayStation X" (PSX). Sony formed their European division and North American division, known as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), in January and May 1995. The divisions planned to market the new console under the alternative branding "PSX" following the negative feedback regarding "PlayStation" in focus group studies. Early advertising prior to the console's launch in North America referenced PSX, but the term was scrapped before launch. The console was not marketed with Sony's name in contrast to Nintendo's consoles. According to Phil Harrison, much of Sony's upper management feared that the Sony brand would be tarnished if associated with the console, which they considered a "toy". Since Sony had no experience in game development, it had to rely on the support of third-party game developers. This was in contrast to Sega and Nintendo, which had versatile and well-equipped in-house software divisions for their arcade games and could easily port successful games to their home consoles. Recent consoles like the Atari Jaguar and 3DO suffered low sales due to a lack of developer support, prompting Sony to redouble their efforts in gaining the endorsement of arcade-savvy developers. A team from Epic Sony visited more than a hundred companies throughout Japan in May 1993 in hopes of attracting game creators with the PlayStation's technological appeal. Sony found that many disliked Nintendo's practices, such as favouring their own games over others. Through a series of negotiations, Sony acquired initial support from Namco, Konami, and Williams Entertainment, as well as 250 other development teams in Japan alone. Namco in particular was interested in developing for PlayStation since Namco rivalled Sega in the arcade market. Attaining these companies secured influential games such as Ridge Racer (1993) and Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), Ridge Racer being one of the most popular arcade games at the time, and it was already confirmed behind closed doors that it would be the PlayStation's first game by December 1993, despite Namco being a longstanding Nintendo developer. Namco's research managing director Shegeichi Nakamura met with Kutaragi in 1993 to discuss the preliminary PlayStation specifications, with Namco subsequently basing the Namco System 11 arcade board on PlayStation hardware and developing Tekken to compete with Virtua Fighter. The System 11 launched in arcades several months before the PlayStation's release, with the arcade release of Tekken in September 1994. Despite securing the support of various Japanese studios, Sony had no developers of their own by the time the PlayStation was in development. This changed in 1993 when Sony acquired the Liverpudlian company Psygnosis (later renamed SCE Liverpool) for US$48 million, securing their first in-house development team. The acquisition meant that Sony could have more launch games ready for the PlayStation's release in Europe and North America. Ian Hetherington, Psygnosis' co-founder, was disappointed after receiving early builds of the PlayStation and recalled that the console "was not fit for purpose" until his team got involved with it. Hetherington frequently clashed with Sony executives over broader ideas; at one point it was suggested that a television with a built-in PlayStation be produced. In the months leading up to the PlayStation's launch, Psygnosis had around 500 full-time staff working on games and assisting with software development. The purchase of Psygnosis marked another turning point for the PlayStation as it played a vital role in creating the console's development kits. While Sony had provided MIPS R4000-based Sony NEWS workstations for PlayStation development, Psygnosis employees disliked the thought of developing on these expensive workstations and asked Bristol-based SN Systems to create an alternative PC-based development system. Andy Beveridge and Martin Day, owners of SN Systems, had previously supplied development hardware for other consoles such as the Mega Drive, Atari ST, and the SNES. When Psygnosis arranged an audience for SN Systems with Sony's Japanese executives at the January 1994 CES in Las Vegas, Beveridge and Day presented their prototype of the condensed development kit, which could run on an ordinary personal computer with two extension boards. Impressed, Sony decided to abandon their plans for a workstation-based development system in favour of SN Systems's, thus securing a cheaper and more efficient method for designing software. An order of over 600 systems followed, and SN Systems supplied Sony with additional software such as an assembler, linker, and a debugger. SN Systems produced development kits for future PlayStation systems, including the PlayStation 2 and was bought out by Sony in 2005. Sony strived to make game production as streamlined and inclusive as possible, in contrast to the relatively isolated approach of Sega and Nintendo. Phil Harrison, representative director of SCEE, believed that Sony's emphasis on developer assistance reduced most time-consuming aspects of development. As well as providing programming libraries, SCE headquarters in London, California, and Tokyo housed technical support teams that could work closely with third-party developers if needed. Sony did not favour their own over non-Sony products, unlike Nintendo; Peter Molyneux of Bullfrog Productions admired Sony's open-handed approach to software developers and lauded their decision to use PCs as a development platform, remarking that "[it was] like being released from jail in terms of the freedom you have". Another strategy that helped attract software developers was the PlayStation's use of the CD-ROM format instead of traditional cartridges. Nintendo cartridges were expensive to manufacture, and the company controlled all production, prioritising their own games, while inexpensive compact disc manufacturing occurred at dozens of locations around the world. The PlayStation's architecture and interconnectability with PCs was beneficial to many software developers. The use of the programming language C proved useful, as it safeguarded future compatibility of the machine should developers decide to make further hardware revisions. Despite the inherent flexibility, some developers found themselves restricted due to the console's lack of RAM. While working on beta builds of the PlayStation, Molyneux observed that its MIPS processor was not "quite as bullish" compared to that of a fast PC and said that it took his team two weeks to port their PC code to the PlayStation development kits and another fortnight to achieve a four-fold speed increase. An engineer from Ocean Software, one of Europe's largest game developers at the time, thought that allocating RAM was a challenging aspect given the 3.5 megabyte restriction. Kutaragi said that while it would have been easy to double the amount of RAM for the PlayStation, the development team refrained from doing so to keep the retail cost down. Kutaragi saw the biggest challenge in developing the system to be balancing the conflicting goals of high performance, low cost, and being easy to program for, and felt he and his team were successful in this regard. Its technical specifications were finalised in 1993 and its design during 1994. The PlayStation name and its final design were confirmed during a press conference on May 10, 1994, although the price and release dates had not been disclosed yet. Sony released the PlayStation in Japan on 3 December 1994, a week after the release of the Sega Saturn, at a price of ¥39,800. Sales in Japan began with a "stunning" success with long queues in shops. Ohga later recalled that he realised how important PlayStation had become for Sony when friends and relatives begged for consoles for their children. PlayStation sold 100,000 units on the first day and two million units within six months, although the Saturn outsold the PlayStation in the first few weeks due to the success of Virtua Fighter. By the end of 1994, 300,000 PlayStation units were sold in Japan compared to 500,000 Saturn units. A grey market emerged for PlayStations shipped from Japan to North America and Europe, with buyers of such consoles paying up to £700. "When September 1995 arrived and Sony's Playstation roared out of the gate, things immediately felt different than [sic] they did with the Saturn launch earlier that year. Sega dropped the Saturn $100 to match the Playstation's $299 debut price, but sales weren't even close—Playstations flew out the door as fast as we could get them in stock. Before the release in North America, Sega and Sony presented their consoles at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles on 11 May 1995. At their keynote presentation, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske revealed that their Saturn console would be released immediately to select retailers at a price of $399. Next came Sony's turn: Olaf Olafsson, the head of SCEA, summoned Steve Race, the head of development, to the conference stage, who said "$299" and left the audience with a round of applause. The attention to the Sony conference was further bolstered by the surprise appearance of Michael Jackson and the showcase of highly anticipated games, including Wipeout (1995), Ridge Racer and Tekken (1994). In addition, Sony announced that no games would be bundled with the console. Although the Saturn had released early in the United States to gain an advantage over the PlayStation, the surprise launch upset many retailers who were not informed in time, harming sales. Some retailers such as KB Toys responded by dropping the Saturn entirely. The PlayStation went on sale in North America on 9 September 1995. It sold more units within two days than the Saturn had in five months, with almost all of the initial shipment of 100,000 units sold in advance and shops across the country running out of consoles and accessories. The well-received Ridge Racer contributed to the PlayStation's early success, — with some critics considering it superior to Sega's arcade counterpart Daytona USA (1994) — as did Battle Arena Toshinden (1995). There were over 100,000 pre-orders placed and 17 games available on the market by the time of the PlayStation's American launch, in comparison to the Saturn's six launch games. The PlayStation released in Europe on 29 September 1995 and in Australia on 15 November 1995. By November it had already outsold the Saturn by three to one in the United Kingdom, where Sony had allocated a £20 million marketing budget during the Christmas season compared to Sega's £4 million. Sony found early success in the United Kingdom by securing listings with independent shop owners as well as prominent High Street chains such as Comet and Argos. Within its first year, the PlayStation secured over 20% of the entire American video game market. From September to the end of 1995, sales in the United States amounted to 800,000 units, giving the PlayStation a commanding lead over the other fifth-generation consoles,[b] though the SNES and Mega Drive from the fourth generation still outsold it. Sony reported that the attach rate of sold games and consoles was four to one. To meet increasing demand, Sony chartered jumbo jets and ramped up production in Europe and North America. By early 1996, the PlayStation had grossed $2 billion (equivalent to $4.106 billion 2025) from worldwide hardware and software sales. By late 1996, sales in Europe totalled 2.2 million units, including 700,000 in the UK. Approximately 400 PlayStation games were in development, compared to around 200 games being developed for the Saturn and 60 for the Nintendo 64. In India, the PlayStation was launched in test market during 1999–2000 across Sony showrooms, selling 100 units. Sony finally launched the console (PS One model) countrywide on 24 January 2002 with the price of Rs 7,990 and 26 games available from start. PlayStation was also doing well in markets where it was never officially released. For example, in Brazil, due to the registration of the trademark by a third company, the console could not be released, which was why the market was taken over by the officially distributed Sega Saturn during the first period, but as the Sega console withdraws, PlayStation imports and large piracy increased. In another market, China, the most popular 32-bit console was Sega Saturn, but after leaving the market, PlayStation grown with a base of 300,000 users until January 2000, although Sony China did not have plans to release it. The PlayStation was backed by a successful marketing campaign, allowing Sony to gain an early foothold in Europe and North America. Initially, PlayStation demographics were skewed towards adults, but the audience broadened after the first price drop. While the Saturn was positioned towards 18- to 34-year-olds, the PlayStation was initially marketed exclusively towards teenagers. Executives from both Sony and Sega reasoned that because younger players typically looked up to older, more experienced players, advertising targeted at teens and adults would draw them in too. Additionally, Sony found that adults reacted best to advertising aimed at teenagers; Lee Clow surmised that people who started to grow into adulthood regressed and became "17 again" when they played video games. The console was marketed with advertising slogans stylised as "LIVE IN YUR WRLD. PLY IN URS" (Live in Your World. Play in Ours.) and "U R NOT E" (red E). The four geometric shapes were derived from the symbols for the four buttons on the controller. Clow thought that by invoking such provocative statements, gamers would respond to the contrary and say "'Bullshit. Let me show you how ready I am.'" As the console's appeal enlarged, Sony's marketing efforts broadened from their earlier focus on mature players to specifically target younger children as well. Shortly after the PlayStation's release in Europe, Sony tasked marketing manager Geoff Glendenning with assessing the desires of a new target audience. Sceptical over Nintendo and Sega's reliance on television campaigns, Glendenning theorised that young adults transitioning from fourth-generation consoles would feel neglected by marketing directed at children and teenagers. Recognising the influence early 1990s underground clubbing and rave culture had on young people, especially in the United Kingdom, Glendenning felt that the culture had become mainstream enough to help cultivate PlayStation's emerging identity. Sony partnered with prominent nightclub owners such as Ministry of Sound and festival promoters to organise dedicated PlayStation areas where demonstrations of select games could be tested. Sheffield-based graphic design studio The Designers Republic was contracted by Sony to produce promotional materials aimed at a fashionable, club-going audience. Psygnosis' Wipeout in particular became associated with nightclub culture as it was widely featured in venues. By 1997, there were 52 nightclubs in the United Kingdom with dedicated PlayStation rooms. Glendenning recalled that he had discreetly used at least £100,000 a year in slush fund money to invest in impromptu marketing. In 1996, Sony expanded their CD production facilities in the United States due to the high demand for PlayStation games, increasing their monthly output from 4 million discs to 6.5 million discs. This was necessary because PlayStation sales were running at twice the rate of Saturn sales, and its lead dramatically increased when both consoles dropped in price to $199 that year. The PlayStation also outsold the Saturn at a similar ratio in Europe during 1996, with 2.2 million consoles sold in the region by the end of the year. Sales figures for PlayStation hardware and software only increased following the launch of the Nintendo 64. Tokunaka speculated that the Nintendo 64 launch had actually helped PlayStation sales by raising public awareness of the gaming market through Nintendo's added marketing efforts. Despite this, the PlayStation took longer to achieve dominance in Japan. Tokunaka said that, even after the PlayStation and Saturn had been on the market for nearly two years, the competition between them was still "very close", and neither console had led in sales for any meaningful length of time. By 1998, Sega, encouraged by their declining market share and significant financial losses, launched the Dreamcast as a last-ditch attempt to stay in the industry. Although its launch was successful, the technically superior 128-bit console was unable to subdue Sony's dominance in the industry. Sony still held 60% of the overall video game market share in North America at the end of 1999. Sega's initial confidence in their new console was undermined when Japanese sales were lower than expected, with disgruntled Japanese consumers reportedly returning their Dreamcasts in exchange for PlayStation software. On 2 March 1999, Sony officially revealed details of the PlayStation 2, which Kutaragi announced would feature a graphics processor designed to push more raw polygons than any console in history, effectively rivalling most supercomputers. The PlayStation continued to sell strongly at the turn of the new millennium: in June 2000, Sony released the PSOne, a smaller, redesigned variant which went on to outsell all other consoles in that year, including the PlayStation 2. In 2005, PlayStation became the first console to ship 100 million units with the PlayStation 2 later achieving this faster than its predecessor. The combined successes of both PlayStation consoles led to Sega retiring the Dreamcast in 2001, and abandoning the console business entirely. The PlayStation was eventually discontinued on 23 March 2006—over eleven years after its release, and less than a year before the debut of the PlayStation 3. Hardware The main microprocessor is a R3000 CPU made by LSI Logic operating at a clock rate of 33.8688 MHz and 30 MIPS. This 32-bit CPU relies heavily on the "cop2" 3D and matrix math coprocessor on the same die to provide the necessary speed to render complex 3D graphics. The role of the separate GPU chip is to draw 2D polygons and apply shading and textures to them: the rasterisation stage of the graphics pipeline. Sony's custom 16-bit sound chip supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 sound channels and offers a sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz and music sequencing. It features 2 MB of main RAM, with an additional 1 MB of video RAM. The PlayStation has a maximum colour depth of 16.7 million true colours with 32 levels of transparency and unlimited colour look-up tables. The PlayStation can output composite, S-Video or RGB video signals through its AV Multi connector (with older models also having RCA connectors for composite), displaying resolutions from 256×224 to 640×480 pixels. Different games can use different resolutions. Earlier models also had proprietary parallel and serial ports that could be used to connect accessories or multiple consoles together; these were later removed due to a lack of usage. The PlayStation uses a proprietary video compression unit, MDEC, which is integrated into the CPU and allows for the presentation of full motion video at a higher quality than other consoles of its generation. Unusual for the time, the PlayStation lacks a dedicated 2D graphics processor; 2D elements are instead calculated as polygons by the Geometry Transfer Engine (GTE) so that they can be processed and displayed on screen by the GPU. While running, the GPU can also generate a total of 4,000 sprites and 180,000 polygons per second, in addition to 360,000 per second flat-shaded. The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run. Externally, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors from the rear of the unit. This started with the original Japanese launch units; the SCPH-1000, released on 3 December 1994, was the only model that had an S-Video port, as it was removed from the next model. Subsequent models saw a reduction in number of parallel ports, with the final version only retaining one serial port. Sony marketed a development kit for amateur developers known as the Net Yaroze (meaning "Let's do it together" in Japanese). It was launched in June 1996 in Japan, and following public interest, was released the next year in other countries. The Net Yaroze allowed hobbyists to create their own games and upload them via an online forum run by Sony. The console was only available to buy through an ordering service and with the necessary documentation and software to program PlayStation games and applications through C programming compilers. On 7 July 2000, Sony released the PS One (stylised as "PS one" or "PSone"), a smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation. It was the highest-selling console through the end of the year, outselling all other consoles—including the PlayStation 2. In 2002, Sony released a 5-inch (130 mm) LCD screen add-on for the PS One, referred to as the "Combo pack". It also included a car cigarette lighter adaptor adding an extra layer of portability. Production of the LCD "Combo Pack" ceased in 2004, when the popularity of the PlayStation began to wane in markets outside Japan. A total of 28.15 million PS One units had been sold by the time it was discontinued in March 2006. Three iterations of the PlayStation's controller were released over the console's lifespan. The first controller, the PlayStation controller, was released alongside the PlayStation in December 1994. It features four individual directional buttons (as opposed to a conventional D-pad), a pair of shoulder buttons on both sides, Start and Select buttons in the centre, and four face buttons consisting of simple geometric shapes: a green triangle, red circle, blue cross, and a pink square (, , , ). Rather than depicting traditionally used letters or numbers onto its buttons, the PlayStation controller established a trademark which would be incorporated heavily into the PlayStation brand. Teiyu Goto, the designer of the original PlayStation controller, said that the circle and cross represent "yes" and "no", respectively (though this layout is reversed in Western versions); the triangle symbolises a point of view and the square is equated to a sheet of paper to be used to access menus. The European and North American models of the original PlayStation controllers are roughly 10% larger than its Japanese variant, to account for the fact the average person in those regions has larger hands than the average Japanese person. Sony's first analogue gamepad, the PlayStation Analog Joystick (often erroneously referred to as the "Sony Flightstick"), was first released in Japan in April 1996. Featuring two parallel joysticks, it uses potentiometer technology previously used on consoles such as the Vectrex; instead of relying on binary eight-way switches, the controller detects minute angular changes through the entire range of motion. The stick also features a thumb-operated digital hat switch on the right joystick, corresponding to the traditional D-pad, and used for instances when simple digital movements were necessary. The Analog Joystick sold poorly in Japan due to its high cost and cumbersome size. The increasing popularity of 3D games prompted Sony to add analogue sticks to its controller design to give users more freedom over their movements in virtual 3D environments. The first official analogue controller, the Dual Analog Controller, was revealed to the public in a small glass booth at the 1996 PlayStation Expo in Japan, and released in April 1997 to coincide with the Japanese releases of analogue-capable games Tobal 2 and Bushido Blade. In addition to the two analogue sticks (which also introduced two new buttons mapped to clicking in the analogue sticks), the Dual Analog controller features an "Analog" button and LED beneath the "Start" and "Select" buttons which toggles analogue functionality on or off. The controller also features rumble support, though Sony decided that haptic feedback would be removed from all overseas iterations before the United States release. A Sony spokesman stated that the feature was removed for "manufacturing reasons", although rumours circulated that Nintendo had attempted to legally block the release of the controller outside Japan due to similarities with the Nintendo 64 controller's Rumble Pak. However, a Nintendo spokesman denied that Nintendo took legal action. Next Generation's Chris Charla theorised that Sony dropped vibration feedback to keep the price of the controller down. In November 1997, Sony introduced the DualShock controller. Its name derives from its use of two (dual) vibration motors (shock). Unlike its predecessor, its analogue sticks feature textured rubber grips, longer handles, slightly different shoulder buttons and has rumble feedback included as standard on all versions. The DualShock later replaced its predecessors as the default controller. Sony released a series of peripherals to add extra layers of functionality to the PlayStation. Such peripherals include memory cards, the PlayStation Mouse, the PlayStation Link Cable, the Multiplayer Adapter (a four-player multitap), the Memory Drive (a disk drive for 3.5-inch floppy disks), the GunCon (a light gun), and the Glasstron (a monoscopic head-mounted display). Released exclusively in Japan, the PocketStation is a memory card peripheral which acts as a miniature personal digital assistant. The device features a monochrome liquid crystal display (LCD), infrared communication capability, a real-time clock, built-in flash memory, and sound capability. Sharing similarities with the Dreamcast's VMU peripheral, the PocketStation was typically distributed with certain PlayStation games, enhancing them with added features. The PocketStation proved popular in Japan, selling over five million units. Sony planned to release the peripheral outside Japan but the release was cancelled, despite receiving promotion in Europe and North America. In addition to playing games, most PlayStation models are equipped to play CD-Audio. The Asian model SCPH-5903 can also play Video CDs. Like most CD players, the PlayStation can play songs in a programmed order, shuffle the playback order of the disc and repeat one song or the entire disc. Later PlayStation models use a music visualisation function called SoundScope. This function, as well as a memory card manager, is accessed by starting the console without either inserting a game or closing the CD tray, thereby accessing a graphical user interface (GUI) for the PlayStation BIOS. The GUI for the PS One and PlayStation differ depending on the firmware version: the original PlayStation GUI had a dark blue background with rainbow graffiti used as buttons, while the early PAL PlayStation and PS One GUI had a grey blocked background with two icons in the middle. PlayStation emulation is versatile and can be run on numerous modern devices. Bleem! was a commercial emulator which was released for IBM-compatible PCs and the Dreamcast in 1999. It was notable for being aggressively marketed during the PlayStation's lifetime, and was the centre of multiple controversial lawsuits filed by Sony. Bleem! was programmed in assembly language, which allowed it to emulate PlayStation games with improved visual fidelity, enhanced resolutions, and filtered textures that was not possible on original hardware. Sony sued Bleem! two days after its release, citing copyright infringement and accusing the company of engaging in unfair competition and patent infringement by allowing use of PlayStation BIOSs on a Sega console. Bleem! were subsequently forced to shut down in November 2001. Sony was aware that using CDs for game distribution could have left games vulnerable to piracy, due to the growing popularity of CD-R and optical disc drives with burning capability. To preclude illegal copying, a proprietary process for PlayStation disc manufacturing was developed that, in conjunction with an augmented optical drive in Tiger H/E assembly, prevented burned copies of games from booting on an unmodified console. Specifically, all genuine PlayStation discs were printed with a small section of deliberate irregular data, which the PlayStation's optical pick-up was capable of detecting and decoding. Consoles would not boot game discs without a specific wobble frequency contained in the data of the disc pregap sector (the same system was also used to encode discs' regional lockouts). This signal was within Red Book CD tolerances, so PlayStation discs' actual content could still be read by a conventional disc drive; however, the disc drive could not detect the wobble frequency (therefore duplicating the discs omitting it), since the laser pick-up system of any optical disc drive would interpret this wobble as an oscillation of the disc surface and compensate for it in the reading process. Early PlayStations, particularly early 1000 models, experience skipping full-motion video or physical "ticking" noises from the unit. The problems stem from poorly placed vents leading to overheating in some environments, causing the plastic mouldings inside the console to warp slightly and create knock-on effects with the laser assembly. The solution is to sit the console on a surface which dissipates heat efficiently in a well vented area or raise the unit up slightly from its resting surface. Sony representatives also recommended unplugging the PlayStation when it is not in use, as the system draws in a small amount of power (and therefore heat) even when turned off. The first batch of PlayStations use a KSM-440AAM laser unit, whose case and movable parts are all built out of plastic. Over time, the plastic lens sled rail wears out—usually unevenly—due to friction. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerates wear, due to the additional heat, which makes the plastic more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, one side of the lens sled will become so worn that the laser can tilt, no longer pointing directly at the CD; after this, games will no longer load due to data read errors. Sony fixed the problem by making the sled out of die-cast metal and placing the laser unit further away from the power supply on later PlayStation models. Due to an engineering oversight, the PlayStation does not produce a proper signal on several older models of televisions, causing the display to flicker or bounce around the screen. Sony decided not to change the console design, since only a small percentage of PlayStation owners used such televisions, and instead gave consumers the option of sending their PlayStation unit to a Sony service centre to have an official modchip installed, allowing play on older televisions. Game library The PlayStation featured a diverse game library which grew to appeal to all types of players. Critically acclaimed PlayStation games included Final Fantasy VII (1997), Crash Bandicoot (1996), Spyro the Dragon (1998), Metal Gear Solid (1998), all of which became established franchises. Final Fantasy VII is credited with allowing role-playing games to gain mass-market appeal outside Japan, and is considered one of the most influential and greatest video games ever made. The PlayStation's bestselling game is Gran Turismo (1997), which sold 10.85 million units. After the PlayStation's discontinuation in 2006, the cumulative software shipment was 962 million units. Following its 1994 launch in Japan, early games included Ridge Racer, Crime Crackers, King's Field, Motor Toon Grand Prix, Toh Shin Den (i.e. Battle Arena Toshinden), and Kileak: The Blood. The first two games available at its later North American launch were Jumping Flash! (1995) and Ridge Racer, with Jumping Flash! heralded as an ancestor for 3D graphics in console gaming. Wipeout, Air Combat, Twisted Metal, Warhawk and Destruction Derby were among the popular first-year games, and the first to be reissued as part of Sony's Greatest Hits or Platinum range. At the time of the PlayStation's first Christmas season, Psygnosis had produced around 70% of its launch catalogue; their breakthrough racing game Wipeout was acclaimed for its techno soundtrack and helped raise awareness of Britain's underground music community. Eidos Interactive's action-adventure game Tomb Raider contributed substantially to the success of the console in 1996, with its main protagonist Lara Croft becoming an early gaming icon and garnering unprecedented media promotion. Licensed tie-in video games of popular films were also prevalent; Argonaut Games' 2001 adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone went on to sell over eight million copies late in the console's lifespan. Third-party developers committed largely to the console's wide-ranging game catalogue even after the launch of the PlayStation 2; some of the notable exclusives in this era include Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, Syphon Filter 3, C-12: Final Resistance, Dance Dance Revolution Konamix and Digimon World 3.[c] Sony assisted with game reprints as late as 2008 with Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection, this being the last PlayStation game officially released and licensed by Sony. Initially, in the United States, PlayStation games were packaged in long cardboard boxes, similar to non-Japanese 3DO and Saturn games. Sony later switched to the jewel case format typically used for audio CDs and Japanese video games, as this format took up less retailer shelf space (which was at a premium due to the large number of PlayStation games being released), and focus testing showed that most consumers preferred this format. Reception The PlayStation was mostly well received upon release. Critics in the west generally welcomed the new console; the staff of Next Generation reviewed the PlayStation a few weeks after its North American launch, where they commented that, while the CPU is "fairly average", the supplementary custom hardware, such as the GPU and sound processor, is stunningly powerful. They praised the PlayStation's focus on 3D, and complemented the comfort of its controller and the convenience of its memory cards. Giving the system 41⁄2 out of 5 stars, they concluded, "To succeed in this extremely cut-throat market, you need a combination of great hardware, great games, and great marketing. Whether by skill, luck, or just deep pockets, Sony has scored three out of three in the first salvo of this war." Albert Kim from Entertainment Weekly praised the PlayStation as a technological marvel, rivalling that of Sega and Nintendo. Famicom Tsūshin scored the console a 19 out of 40, lower than the Saturn's 24 out of 40, in May 1995. In a 1997 year-end review, a team of five Electronic Gaming Monthly editors gave the PlayStation scores of 9.5, 8.5, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.5—for all five editors, the highest score they gave to any of the five consoles reviewed in the issue. They lauded the breadth and quality of the games library, saying it had vastly improved over previous years due to developers mastering the system's capabilities in addition to Sony revising their stance on 2D and role playing games. They also complimented the low price point of the games compared to the Nintendo 64's, and noted that it was the only console on the market that could be relied upon to deliver a solid stream of games for the coming year, primarily due to third party developers almost unanimously favouring it over its competitors. Legacy SCE was an upstart in the video game industry in late 1994, as the video game market in the early 1990s was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Nintendo had been the clear leader in the industry since the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 and the Nintendo 64 was initially expected to maintain this position. The PlayStation's target audience included the generation which was the first to grow up with mainstream video games, along with 18- to 29-year-olds who were not the primary focus of Nintendo. By the late 1990s, Sony became a highly regarded console brand due to the PlayStation, with a significant lead over second-place Nintendo, while Sega was relegated to a distant third. The PlayStation became the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship over 100 million units worldwide, with many critics attributing the console's success to third-party developers. It remains the sixth best-selling console of all time as of 2025[update], with a total of 102.49 million units sold. Around 7,900 individual games were published for the console during its 11-year life span, the second-most games ever produced for a console. Its success resulted in a significant financial boon for Sony as profits from their video game division contributed to 23%. Sony's next-generation PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with the PlayStation's DualShock controller and games, was announced in 1999 and launched in 2000. The PlayStation's lead in installed base and developer support paved the way for the success of its successor, which overcame the earlier launch of the Sega's Dreamcast and then fended off competition from Microsoft's newcomer Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. The PlayStation 2's immense success and failure of the Dreamcast were among the main factors which led to Sega abandoning the console market. To date, five PlayStation home consoles have been released, which have continued the same numbering scheme, as well as two portable systems. The PlayStation 3 also maintained backward compatibility with original PlayStation discs. Hundreds of PlayStation games have been digitally re-released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. The PlayStation has often ranked among the best video game consoles. In 2018, Retro Gamer named it the third best console, crediting its sophisticated 3D capabilities as one of its key factors in gaining mass success, and lauding it as a "game-changer in every sense possible". In 2009, IGN ranked the PlayStation the seventh best console in their list, noting its appeal towards older audiences to be a crucial factor in propelling the video game industry, as well as its assistance in transitioning game industry to use the CD-ROM format. Keith Stuart from The Guardian likewise named it as the seventh best console in 2020, declaring that its success was so profound it "ruled the 1990s". In January 2025, Lorentio Brodesco announced the nsOne project, attempting to reverse engineer PlayStation's motherboard. Brodesco stated that "detailed documentation on the original motherboard was either incomplete or entirely unavailable". The project was successfully crowdfunded via Kickstarter. In June, Brodesco manufactured the first working motherboard, promising to bring a fully rooted version with multilayer routing as well as documentation and design files in the near future. The success of the PlayStation contributed to the demise of cartridge-based home consoles. While not the first system to use an optical disc format, it was the first highly successful one, and ended up going head-to-head with the proprietary cartridge-relying Nintendo 64,[d] which the industry had expected to use CDs like PlayStation. After the demise of the Sega Saturn, Nintendo was left as Sony's main competitor in Western markets. Nintendo chose not to use CDs for the Nintendo 64; they were likely concerned with the proprietary cartridge format's ability to help enforce copy protection, given their substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive games for their revenue. Besides their larger capacity, CD-ROMs could be produced in bulk quantities at a much faster rate than ROM cartridges, a week compared to two to three months. Further, the cost of production per unit was far cheaper, allowing Sony to offer games about 40% lower cost to the user compared to ROM cartridges while still making the same amount of net revenue. In Japan, Sony published fewer copies of a wide variety of games for the PlayStation as a risk-limiting step, a model that had been used by Sony Music for CD audio discs. The production flexibility of CD-ROMs meant that Sony could produce larger volumes of popular games to get onto the market quickly, something that could not be done with cartridges due to their manufacturing lead time. The lower production costs of CD-ROMs also allowed publishers an additional source of profit: budget-priced reissues of games which had already recouped their development costs. Tokunaka remarked in 1996: Choosing CD-ROM is one of the most important decisions that we made. As I'm sure you understand, PlayStation could just as easily have worked with masked ROM [cartridges]. The 3D engine and everything—the whole PlayStation format—is independent of the media. But for various reasons (including the economies for the consumer, the ease of the manufacturing, inventory control for the trade, and also the software publishers) we deduced that CD-ROM would be the best media for PlayStation. The increasing complexity of developing games pushed cartridges to their storage limits and gradually discouraged some third-party developers. Part of the CD format's appeal to publishers was that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more production flexibility to meet demand. As a result, some third-party developers switched to the PlayStation, including Square and Enix, whose Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII respectively had been planned for the Nintendo 64 (both companies later merged to form Square Enix). Other developers released fewer games for the Nintendo 64 (Konami, releasing only thirteen N64 games but over fifty on the PlayStation). Nintendo 64 game releases were less frequent than the PlayStation's, with many being developed by either Nintendo themselves or second-parties such as Rare. The PlayStation Classic is a dedicated video game console made by Sony Interactive Entertainment that emulates PlayStation games. It was announced in September 2018 at the Tokyo Game Show, and released on 3 December 2018, the 24th anniversary of the release of the original console. As a dedicated console, the PlayStation Classic features 20 pre-installed games; the games run off the open source emulator PCSX. The console is bundled with two replica wired PlayStation controllers (those without analogue sticks), an HDMI cable, and a USB-Type A cable. Internally, the console uses a MediaTek MT8167a Quad A35 system on a chip with four central processing cores clocked at @ 1.5 GHz and a Power VR GE8300 graphics processing unit. It includes 16 GB of eMMC flash storage and 1 Gigabyte of DDR3 SDRAM. The PlayStation Classic is 45% smaller than the original console. The PlayStation Classic received negative reviews from critics and was compared unfavorably to Nintendo's rival Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition and Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition. Criticism was directed at its meagre game library, user interface, emulation quality, use of PAL versions for certain games, use of the original controller, and high retail price, though the console's design received praise. The console sold poorly. See also Notes References |
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[SOURCE: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47096520] | [TOKENS: 2921] |
"At its core, OAuth for delegation is a standard way to do the following:The first half exists to send, with consent, a multi-use secret to a known delegate.The other half of OAuth details how the delegate can use that secret to make subsequent requests on behalf of the person that gave the consent"This paragraph has a bunch of words that need defining (the word delegate does not appear on the page until then) and a confusing use of 'first half', 'second half' .... First half of what?Surely it can be explained better than that? The first half exists to send, with consent, a multi-use secret to a known delegate.The other half of OAuth details how the delegate can use that secret to make subsequent requests on behalf of the person that gave the consent"This paragraph has a bunch of words that need defining (the word delegate does not appear on the page until then) and a confusing use of 'first half', 'second half' .... First half of what?Surely it can be explained better than that? The other half of OAuth details how the delegate can use that secret to make subsequent requests on behalf of the person that gave the consent"This paragraph has a bunch of words that need defining (the word delegate does not appear on the page until then) and a confusing use of 'first half', 'second half' .... First half of what?Surely it can be explained better than that? This paragraph has a bunch of words that need defining (the word delegate does not appear on the page until then) and a confusing use of 'first half', 'second half' .... First half of what?Surely it can be explained better than that? Surely it can be explained better than that? reply Thanks, it did not.OAuth and OpenID Connect are a denial of service attack on the brains of the humans who have to work with them. OAuth and OpenID Connect are a denial of service attack on the brains of the humans who have to work with them. reply I do not understand what I am doing and trust the docs, but it has never been a particularly difficult setup. reply I would argue that then you do not "have to work with them", you are merely using products built with them. reply reply That said, there's a lot of details that are non-trivial, especially since in many cases you actually have to deal with OIDC which builds on OAuth 2.0, and so then you're suddenly dealing with JWKs and whatnot in addition.: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/v2...: https://openid.net/developers/how-connect-works/ : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/v2...: https://openid.net/developers/how-connect-works/ : https://openid.net/developers/how-connect-works/ reply Still have scars from building directly based off the blogposts Twitter and Facebook engineers wrote about how to integrate with this. Think it wasn’t even a standard yet.I credit that painful experience with now feeling like OAuth is really quite simple. V2 cleaned it up a lot I credit that painful experience with now feeling like OAuth is really quite simple. V2 cleaned it up a lot reply It doesn’t seem that way on the surface. But once your finished with out of band callback validation, localhost, refresh tokens, and PKCE, you realize what a monster OAuth 2 actually is. reply "OAuth is a simple idea, but with a curse: once you understand it, you lose the ability to explain it." reply reply reply A classic explainer from almost a decade ago. This explains it from the point of view of the original problem it was designed to solve. reply I am seeing many fintech vendors move in this direction. The mutual clients want more granular control over access. Resource tokens are only valid for a few minutes in these new schemes. In most cases we're coming from a world where the same username and password was used to access things like bank cores for over a decade. reply reply reply It's pretty neat since you can have one oauth instances for all virtual hosts, e.g.: server { [...] location /oauth2/ { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8469; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme; proxy_set_header X-Auth-Request-Redirect $request_uri; } location / { auth_request /oauth2/auth; error_page 401 = /oauth2/sign_in; [...] } } https://github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy server { [...] location /oauth2/ { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8469; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme; proxy_set_header X-Auth-Request-Redirect $request_uri; } location / { auth_request /oauth2/auth; error_page 401 = /oauth2/sign_in; [...] } } https://github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy reply This page might have something, but I can’t read it myself on mobile cause it shows up broken: https://openid.net/certification/certified-openid-relying-pa...I know it’s not just OAuth but OIDC had a pretty decent provider support and I could even self-host a Keycloak instance - it was annoying to setup but worked okay in practice, could define my own users and then just get a decent login page when needed and otherwise just got into the sites I wanted.Personally though, it felt a bit overkill when compared to basicauth for anything not run in public or for a lot of users. I know it’s not just OAuth but OIDC had a pretty decent provider support and I could even self-host a Keycloak instance - it was annoying to setup but worked okay in practice, could define my own users and then just get a decent login page when needed and otherwise just got into the sites I wanted.Personally though, it felt a bit overkill when compared to basicauth for anything not run in public or for a lot of users. Personally though, it felt a bit overkill when compared to basicauth for anything not run in public or for a lot of users. reply reply I remember how stoked I was to finally get it working. It was a massive pain, but luckily there were websites that would walk through the process procedurally, showing how everything worked, one step at a time. reply reply reply reply reply : https://youtu.be/996OiexHze0 reply OAuth is just a process framework for doing authentication and authorization such that a system doesn’t need to create those mechanisms themselves but can ask a server for it. More recently, in the form of a JWT token with those permissions encoded within.It all boils down to how long your login token (some hash), or in the case of OAuth, your refresh token, can request an access token (timeboxed access to the system). “Tokens” in this case are just cryptographic signatures or hmac hashes of something. Preferably with a nonce or client_id as a salt.Traditional login with username and password gives you a cookie (or session, or both) that you use to identify that login, same thing for refresh tokens. Only, refresh tokens are authentication, you need access so you request an access token from a resource server or api, now you have your time boxed access token that allows you to “Authentication: Bearer <token>” at your resource.From a server perspective, your resource server could have just proxied the username and password auth to get the refresh token or (what I like to do) check the signature of the refresh token to verify that it came from me. If it did, I trust it, so long as the user isn’t in the ban table. If it’s good and they aren’t banned, issue them a time boxed access token for 24h.If you fail to grasp the JWT aspect, I suggest you learn more about RSA/PKI/SHA and HMAC encryption libraries in your programming language of choice. Knowing how to bcrypt is one thing, knowing how to encrypt/sign/verify/decrypt is The Way.(Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). It all boils down to how long your login token (some hash), or in the case of OAuth, your refresh token, can request an access token (timeboxed access to the system). “Tokens” in this case are just cryptographic signatures or hmac hashes of something. Preferably with a nonce or client_id as a salt.Traditional login with username and password gives you a cookie (or session, or both) that you use to identify that login, same thing for refresh tokens. Only, refresh tokens are authentication, you need access so you request an access token from a resource server or api, now you have your time boxed access token that allows you to “Authentication: Bearer <token>” at your resource.From a server perspective, your resource server could have just proxied the username and password auth to get the refresh token or (what I like to do) check the signature of the refresh token to verify that it came from me. If it did, I trust it, so long as the user isn’t in the ban table. If it’s good and they aren’t banned, issue them a time boxed access token for 24h.If you fail to grasp the JWT aspect, I suggest you learn more about RSA/PKI/SHA and HMAC encryption libraries in your programming language of choice. Knowing how to bcrypt is one thing, knowing how to encrypt/sign/verify/decrypt is The Way.(Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). Traditional login with username and password gives you a cookie (or session, or both) that you use to identify that login, same thing for refresh tokens. Only, refresh tokens are authentication, you need access so you request an access token from a resource server or api, now you have your time boxed access token that allows you to “Authentication: Bearer <token>” at your resource.From a server perspective, your resource server could have just proxied the username and password auth to get the refresh token or (what I like to do) check the signature of the refresh token to verify that it came from me. If it did, I trust it, so long as the user isn’t in the ban table. If it’s good and they aren’t banned, issue them a time boxed access token for 24h.If you fail to grasp the JWT aspect, I suggest you learn more about RSA/PKI/SHA and HMAC encryption libraries in your programming language of choice. Knowing how to bcrypt is one thing, knowing how to encrypt/sign/verify/decrypt is The Way.(Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). From a server perspective, your resource server could have just proxied the username and password auth to get the refresh token or (what I like to do) check the signature of the refresh token to verify that it came from me. If it did, I trust it, so long as the user isn’t in the ban table. If it’s good and they aren’t banned, issue them a time boxed access token for 24h.If you fail to grasp the JWT aspect, I suggest you learn more about RSA/PKI/SHA and HMAC encryption libraries in your programming language of choice. Knowing how to bcrypt is one thing, knowing how to encrypt/sign/verify/decrypt is The Way.(Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). If you fail to grasp the JWT aspect, I suggest you learn more about RSA/PKI/SHA and HMAC encryption libraries in your programming language of choice. Knowing how to bcrypt is one thing, knowing how to encrypt/sign/verify/decrypt is The Way.(Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). (Sorry to the grey beards in the back and they know this already and probably wrote that RFC). reply I've seen so many integrations use Oauth where it wasn't a good fit or where the spec was not followed. It always results in an abomination and insecure mess.Maybe it's a know the rules before you can break them thing, but I've found designing custom auth integrations from UX first perspective result in amazing features. It's rare that both parties are willing to put the effort in it though. Usually people try to shoehorn the usecase into an existing oauth platform.The main selling point of Oauth is to scale auth and authz to thousands of clients and use cases. Maybe it's a know the rules before you can break them thing, but I've found designing custom auth integrations from UX first perspective result in amazing features. It's rare that both parties are willing to put the effort in it though. Usually people try to shoehorn the usecase into an existing oauth platform.The main selling point of Oauth is to scale auth and authz to thousands of clients and use cases. The main selling point of Oauth is to scale auth and authz to thousands of clients and use cases. reply reply reply reply What I need is to understand why it is designed this way, and to see concrete examples of use cases that motivate the designIt's not "just another" explanation for how OAuth does, which was my immediate guess when reading the title.However glad I opted to give it a chance, and likely especially illuminating for the younger crowd who didn't get to experience the joys of the early web 2.0 days. It's not "just another" explanation for how OAuth does, which was my immediate guess when reading the title.However glad I opted to give it a chance, and likely especially illuminating for the younger crowd who didn't get to experience the joys of the early web 2.0 days. However glad I opted to give it a chance, and likely especially illuminating for the younger crowd who didn't get to experience the joys of the early web 2.0 days. reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply reply |
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