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Contents United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also asserts sovereignty over five major island territories and various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean.[j] It is a megadiverse country, with the world's third-largest land area[c] and third-largest population, exceeding 341 million.[k] Paleo-Indians first migrated from North Asia to North America at least 15,000 years ago, and formed various civilizations. Spanish colonization established Spanish Florida in 1513, the first European colony in what is now the continental United States. British colonization followed with the 1607 settlement of Virginia, the first of the Thirteen Colonies. Enslavement of Africans was practiced in all colonies by 1770 and supplied most of the labor for the Southern Colonies' plantation economy. Clashes with the British Crown began as a civil protest over the illegality of taxation without representation in Parliament and the denial of other English rights. They evolved into the American Revolution, which led to the Declaration of Independence and a society based on universal rights. Victory in the 1775–1783 Revolutionary War brought international recognition of U.S. sovereignty and fueled westward expansion, further dispossessing native inhabitants. As more states were admitted, a North–South division over slavery led the Confederate States of America to declare secession and fight the Union in the 1861–1865 American Civil War. With the United States' victory and reunification, slavery was abolished nationally. By the late 19th century, the U.S. economy outpaced the French, German and British economies combined. As of 1900, the country had established itself as a great power, a status solidified after its involvement in World War I. Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. entered World War II. Its aftermath left the U.S. and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers, competing for ideological dominance and international influence during the Cold War. The Soviet Union's collapse in 1991 ended the Cold War, leaving the U.S. as the world's sole superpower. The U.S. federal government is a representative democracy with a president and a constitution that grants separation of powers under three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The United States Congress is a bicameral national legislature composed of the House of Representatives (a lower house based on population) and the Senate (an upper house based on equal representation for each state). Federalism grants substantial autonomy to the 50 states. In addition, 574 Native American tribes have sovereignty rights, and there are 326 Native American reservations. Since the 1850s, the Democratic and Republican parties have dominated American politics. American ideals and values are based on a democratic tradition inspired by the American Enlightenment movement. A developed country, the U.S. ranks high in economic competitiveness, innovation, and higher education. Accounting for over a quarter of nominal global GDP, its economy has been the world's largest since about 1890. It is the wealthiest country, with the highest disposable household income per capita among OECD members, though its wealth inequality is highly pronounced. Shaped by centuries of immigration, the culture of the U.S. is diverse and globally influential. Making up more than a third of global military spending, the country has one of the strongest armed forces and is a designated nuclear state. A member of numerous international organizations, the U.S. plays a major role in global political, cultural, economic, and military affairs. Etymology Documented use of the phrase "United States of America" dates back to January 2, 1776. On that day, Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, wrote a letter to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp, seeking to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort. The first known public usage is an anonymous essay published in the Williamsburg newspaper The Virginia Gazette on April 6, 1776. Sometime on or after June 11, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote "United States of America" in a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The term "United States" and its initialism "U.S.", used as nouns or as adjectives in English, are common short names for the country. The initialism "USA", a noun, is also common. "United States" and "U.S." are the established terms throughout the U.S. federal government, with prescribed rules.[l] "The States" is an established colloquial shortening of the name, used particularly from abroad; "stateside" is the corresponding adjective or adverb. "America" is the feminine form of the first word of Americus Vesputius, the Latinized name of Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512);[m] it was first used as a place name by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann in 1507.[n] Vespucci first proposed that the West Indies discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were part of a previously unknown landmass and not among the Indies at the eastern limit of Asia. In English, the term "America" usually does not refer to topics unrelated to the United States, despite the usage of "the Americas" to describe the totality of the continents of North and South America. History The first inhabitants of North America migrated from Siberia approximately 15,000 years ago, either across the Bering land bridge or along the now-submerged Ice Age coastline. Small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers are said to have migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska, with ice-free corridors developing along the Pacific coast and valleys of North America in c. 16,500 – c. 13,500 BCE (c. 18,500 – c. 15,500 BP). The Clovis culture, which appeared around 11,000 BCE, is believed to be the first widespread culture in the Americas. Over time, Indigenous North American cultures grew increasingly sophisticated, and some, such as the Mississippian culture, developed agriculture, architecture, and complex societies. In the post-archaic period, the Mississippian cultures were located in the midwestern, eastern, and southern regions, and the Algonquian in the Great Lakes region and along the Eastern Seaboard, while the Hohokam culture and Ancestral Puebloans inhabited the Southwest. Native population estimates of what is now the United States before the arrival of European colonizers range from around 500,000 to nearly 10 million. Christopher Columbus began exploring the Caribbean for Spain in 1492, leading to Spanish-speaking settlements and missions from what are now Puerto Rico and Florida to New Mexico and California. The first Spanish colony in the present-day continental United States was Spanish Florida, chartered in 1513. After several settlements failed there due to starvation and disease, Spain's first permanent town, Saint Augustine, was founded in 1565. France established its own settlements in French Florida in 1562, but they were either abandoned (Charlesfort, 1578) or destroyed by Spanish raids (Fort Caroline, 1565). Permanent French settlements were founded much later along the Great Lakes (Fort Detroit, 1701), the Mississippi River (Saint Louis, 1764) and especially the Gulf of Mexico (New Orleans, 1718). Early European colonies also included the thriving Dutch colony of New Nederland (settled 1626, present-day New York) and the small Swedish colony of New Sweden (settled 1638 in what became Delaware). British colonization of the East Coast began with the Virginia Colony (1607) and the Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts, 1620). The Mayflower Compact in Massachusetts and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut established precedents for local representative self-governance and constitutionalism that would develop throughout the American colonies. While European settlers in what is now the United States experienced conflicts with Native Americans, they also engaged in trade, exchanging European tools for food and animal pelts.[o] Relations ranged from close cooperation to warfare and massacres. The colonial authorities often pursued policies that forced Native Americans to adopt European lifestyles, including conversion to Christianity. Along the eastern seaboard, settlers trafficked Africans through the Atlantic slave trade, largely to provide manual labor on plantations. The original Thirteen Colonies[p] that would later found the United States were administered as possessions of the British Empire by Crown-appointed governors, though local governments held elections open to most white male property owners. The colonial population grew rapidly from Maine to Georgia, eclipsing Native American populations; by the 1770s, the natural increase of the population was such that only a small minority of Americans had been born overseas. The colonies' distance from Britain facilitated the entrenchment of self-governance, and the First Great Awakening, a series of Christian revivals, fueled colonial interest in guaranteed religious liberty. Following its victory in the French and Indian War, Britain began to assert greater control over local affairs in the Thirteen Colonies, resulting in growing political resistance. One of the primary grievances of the colonists was the denial of their rights as Englishmen, particularly the right to representation in the British government that taxed them. To demonstrate their dissatisfaction and resolve, the First Continental Congress met in 1774 and passed the Continental Association, a colonial boycott of British goods enforced by local "committees of safety" that proved effective. The British attempt to then disarm the colonists resulted in the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, igniting the American Revolutionary War. At the Second Continental Congress, the colonies appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and created a committee that named Thomas Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence. Two days after the Second Continental Congress passed the Lee Resolution to create an independent, sovereign nation, the Declaration was adopted on July 4, 1776. The political values of the American Revolution evolved from an armed rebellion demanding reform within an empire to a revolution that created a new social and governing system founded on the defense of liberty and the protection of inalienable natural rights; sovereignty of the people; republicanism over monarchy, aristocracy, and other hereditary political power; civic virtue; and an intolerance of political corruption. The Founding Fathers of the United States, who included Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, Thomas Paine, and many others, were inspired by Classical, Renaissance, and Enlightenment philosophies and ideas. Though in practical effect since its drafting in 1777, the Articles of Confederation was ratified in 1781 and formally established a decentralized government that operated until 1789. After the British surrender at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, American sovereignty was internationally recognized by the Treaty of Paris (1783), through which the U.S. gained territory stretching west to the Mississippi River, north to present-day Canada, and south to Spanish Florida. The Northwest Ordinance (1787) established the precedent by which the country's territory would expand with the admission of new states, rather than the expansion of existing states. The U.S. Constitution was drafted at the 1787 Constitutional Convention to overcome the limitations of the Articles. It went into effect in 1789, creating a federal republic governed by three separate branches that together formed a system of checks and balances. George Washington was elected the country's first president under the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1791 to allay skeptics' concerns about the power of the more centralized government. His resignation as commander-in-chief after the Revolutionary War and his later refusal to run for a third term as the country's first president established a precedent for the supremacy of civil authority in the United States and the peaceful transfer of power. In the late 18th century, American settlers began to expand westward in larger numbers, many with a sense of manifest destiny. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 from France nearly doubled the territory of the United States. Lingering issues with Britain remained, leading to the War of 1812, which was fought to a draw. Spain ceded Florida and its Gulf Coast territory in 1819. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, attempted to balance the desire of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery into new territories with that of southern states to extend it there. Primarily, the compromise prohibited slavery in all other lands of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ parallel. As Americans expanded further into territory inhabited by Native Americans, the federal government implemented policies of Indian removal or assimilation. The most significant such legislation was the Indian Removal Act of 1830, a key policy of President Andrew Jackson. It resulted in the Trail of Tears (1830–1850), in which an estimated 60,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River were forcibly removed and displaced to lands far to the west, causing 13,200 to 16,700 deaths along the forced march. Settler expansion as well as this influx of Indigenous peoples from the East resulted in the American Indian Wars west of the Mississippi. During the colonial period, slavery became legal in all the Thirteen colonies, but by 1770 it provided the main labor force in the large-scale, agriculture-dependent economies of the Southern Colonies from Maryland to Georgia. The practice began to be significantly questioned during the American Revolution, and spurred by an active abolitionist movement that had reemerged in the 1830s, states in the North enacted laws to prohibit slavery within their boundaries. At the same time, support for slavery had strengthened in Southern states, with widespread use of inventions such as the cotton gin (1793) having made slavery immensely profitable for Southern elites. The United States annexed the Republic of Texas in 1845, and the 1846 Oregon Treaty led to U.S. control of the present-day American Northwest. Dispute with Mexico over Texas led to the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). After the victory of the U.S., Mexico recognized U.S. sovereignty over Texas, New Mexico, and California in the 1848 Mexican Cession; the cession's lands also included the future states of Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The California gold rush of 1848–1849 spurred a huge migration of white settlers to the Pacific coast, leading to even more confrontations with Native populations. One of the most violent, the California genocide of thousands of Native inhabitants, lasted into the mid-1870s. Additional western territories and states were created. Throughout the 1850s, the sectional conflict regarding slavery was further inflamed by national legislation in the U.S. Congress and decisions of the Supreme Court. In Congress, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 mandated the forcible return to their owners in the South of slaves taking refuge in non-slave states, while the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively gutted the anti-slavery requirements of the Missouri Compromise. In its Dred Scott decision of 1857, the Supreme Court ruled against a slave brought into non-slave territory, simultaneously declaring the entire Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. These and other events exacerbated tensions between North and South that would culminate in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Beginning with South Carolina, 11 slave-state governments voted to secede from the United States in 1861, joining to create the Confederate States of America. All other state governments remained loyal to the Union.[q] War broke out in April 1861 after the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter. Following the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, many freed slaves joined the Union army. The war began to turn in the Union's favor following the 1863 Siege of Vicksburg and Battle of Gettysburg, and the Confederates surrendered in 1865 after the Union's victory in the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Efforts toward reconstruction in the secessionist South had begun as early as 1862, but it was only after President Lincoln's assassination that the three Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution were ratified to protect civil rights. The amendments codified nationally the abolition of slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crimes, promised equal protection under the law for all persons, and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race or previous enslavement. As a result, African Americans took an active political role in ex-Confederate states in the decade following the Civil War. The former Confederate states were readmitted to the Union, beginning with Tennessee in 1866 and ending with Georgia in 1870. National infrastructure, including transcontinental telegraph and railroads, spurred growth in the American frontier. This was accelerated by the Homestead Acts, through which nearly 10 percent of the total land area of the United States was given away free to some 1.6 million homesteaders. From 1865 through 1917, an unprecedented stream of immigrants arrived in the United States, including 24.4 million from Europe. Most came through the Port of New York, as New York City and other large cities on the East Coast became home to large Jewish, Irish, and Italian populations. Many Northern Europeans as well as significant numbers of Germans and other Central Europeans moved to the Midwest. At the same time, about one million French Canadians migrated from Quebec to New England. During the Great Migration, millions of African Americans left the rural South for urban areas in the North. Alaska was purchased from Russia in 1867. The Compromise of 1877 is generally considered the end of the Reconstruction era, as it resolved the electoral crisis following the 1876 presidential election and led President Rutherford B. Hayes to reduce the role of federal troops in the South. Immediately, the Redeemers began evicting the Carpetbaggers and quickly regained local control of Southern politics in the name of white supremacy. African Americans endured a period of heightened, overt racism following Reconstruction, a time often considered the nadir of American race relations. A series of Supreme Court decisions, including Plessy v. Ferguson, emptied the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of their force, allowing Jim Crow laws in the South to remain unchecked, sundown towns in the Midwest, and segregation in communities across the country, which would be reinforced in part by the policy of redlining later adopted by the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation. An explosion of technological advancement, accompanied by the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor, led to rapid economic expansion during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century. It continued into the early 20th, when the United States already outpaced the economies of Britain, France, and Germany combined. This fostered the amassing of power by a few prominent industrialists, largely by their formation of trusts and monopolies to prevent competition. Tycoons led the nation's expansion in the railroad, petroleum, and steel industries. The United States emerged as a pioneer of the automotive industry. These changes resulted in significant increases in economic inequality, slum conditions, and social unrest, creating the environment for labor unions and socialist movements to begin to flourish. This period eventually ended with the advent of the Progressive Era, which was characterized by significant economic and social reforms. Pro-American elements in Hawaii overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy; the islands were annexed in 1898. That same year, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam were ceded to the U.S. by Spain after the latter's defeat in the Spanish–American War. (The Philippines was granted full independence from the U.S. on July 4, 1946, following World War II. Puerto Rico and Guam have remained U.S. territories.) American Samoa was acquired by the United States in 1900 after the Second Samoan Civil War. The U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark in 1917. The United States entered World War I alongside the Allies in 1917 helping to turn the tide against the Central Powers. In 1920, a constitutional amendment granted nationwide women's suffrage. During the 1920s and 1930s, radio for mass communication and early television transformed communications nationwide. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression, to which President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with the New Deal plan of "reform, recovery and relief", a series of unprecedented and sweeping recovery programs and employment relief projects combined with financial reforms and regulations. Initially neutral during World War II, the U.S. began supplying war materiel to the Allies of World War II in March 1941 and entered the war in December after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Agreeing to a "Europe first" policy, the U.S. concentrated its wartime efforts on Japan's allies Italy and Germany until their final defeat in May 1945. The U.S. developed the first nuclear weapons and used them against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, ending the war. The United States was one of the "Four Policemen" who met to plan the post-war world, alongside the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. The U.S. emerged relatively unscathed from the war, with even greater economic power and international political influence. The end of World War II in 1945 left the U.S. and the Soviet Union as superpowers, each with its own political, military, and economic sphere of influence. Geopolitical tensions between the two superpowers soon led to the Cold War. The U.S. implemented a policy of containment intended to limit the Soviet Union's sphere of influence; engaged in regime change against governments perceived to be aligned with the Soviets; and prevailed in the Space Race, which culminated with the first crewed Moon landing in 1969. Domestically, the U.S. experienced economic growth, urbanization, and population growth following World War II. The civil rights movement emerged, with Martin Luther King Jr. becoming a prominent leader in the early 1960s. The Great Society plan of President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration resulted in groundbreaking and broad-reaching laws, policies and a constitutional amendment to counteract some of the worst effects of lingering institutional racism. The counterculture movement in the U.S. brought significant social changes, including the liberalization of attitudes toward recreational drug use and sexuality. It also encouraged open defiance of the military draft (leading to the end of conscription in 1973) and wide opposition to U.S. intervention in Vietnam, with the U.S. totally withdrawing in 1975. A societal shift in the roles of women was significantly responsible for the large increase in female paid labor participation starting in the 1970s, and by 1985 the majority of American women aged 16 and older were employed. The Fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991 marked the end of the Cold War and left the United States as the world's sole superpower. This cemented the United States' global influence, reinforcing the concept of the "American Century" as the U.S. dominated international political, cultural, economic, and military affairs. The 1990s saw the longest recorded economic expansion in American history, a dramatic decline in U.S. crime rates, and advances in technology. Throughout this decade, technological innovations such as the World Wide Web, the evolution of the Pentium microprocessor in accordance with Moore's law, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, the first gene therapy trial, and cloning either emerged in the U.S. or were improved upon there. The Human Genome Project was formally launched in 1990, while Nasdaq became the first stock market in the United States to trade online in 1998. In the Gulf War of 1991, an American-led international coalition of states expelled an Iraqi invasion force that had occupied neighboring Kuwait. The September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 by the pan-Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda led to the war on terror and subsequent military interventions in Afghanistan and in Iraq. The U.S. housing bubble culminated in 2007 with the Great Recession, the largest economic contraction since the Great Depression. In the 2010s and early 2020s, the United States has experienced increased political polarization and democratic backsliding. The country's polarization was violently reflected in the January 2021 Capitol attack, when a mob of insurrectionists entered the U.S. Capitol and sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in an attempted self-coup d'état. Geography The United States is the world's third-largest country by total area behind Russia and Canada.[c] The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia have a combined area of 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,470 km2). In 2021, the United States had 8% of the Earth's permanent meadows and pastures and 10% of its cropland. Starting in the east, the coastal plain of the Atlantic seaboard gives way to inland forests and rolling hills in the Piedmont plateau region. The Appalachian Mountains and the Adirondack Massif separate the East Coast from the Great Lakes and the grasslands of the Midwest. The Mississippi River System, the world's fourth-longest river system, runs predominantly north–south through the center of the country. The flat and fertile prairie of the Great Plains stretches to the west, interrupted by a highland region in the southeast. The Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains, extend north to south across the country, peaking at over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in Colorado. The supervolcano underlying Yellowstone National Park in the Rocky Mountains, the Yellowstone Caldera, is the continent's largest volcanic feature. Farther west are the rocky Great Basin and the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave deserts. In the northwest corner of Arizona, carved by the Colorado River, is the Grand Canyon, a steep-sided canyon and popular tourist destination known for its overwhelming visual size and intricate, colorful landscape. The Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast. The lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States are in the State of California, about 84 miles (135 km) apart. At an elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190.5 m), Alaska's Denali (also called Mount McKinley) is the highest peak in the country and on the continent. Active volcanoes in the U.S. are common throughout Alaska's Alexander and Aleutian Islands. Located entirely outside North America, the archipelago of Hawaii consists of volcanic islands, physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania. In addition to its total land area, the United States has one of the world's largest marine exclusive economic zones spanning approximately 4.5 million square miles (11.7 million km2) of ocean. With its large size and geographic variety, the United States includes most climate types. East of the 100th meridian, the climate ranges from humid continental in the north to humid subtropical in the south. The western Great Plains are semi-arid. Many mountainous areas of the American West have an alpine climate. The climate is arid in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon, Washington, and southern Alaska. Most of Alaska is subarctic or polar. Hawaii, the southern tip of Florida and U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific are tropical. The United States receives more high-impact extreme weather incidents than any other country. States bordering the Gulf of Mexico are prone to hurricanes, and most of the world's tornadoes occur in the country, mainly in Tornado Alley. Due to climate change in the country, extreme weather has become more frequent in the U.S. in the 21st century, with three times the number of reported heat waves compared to the 1960s. Since the 1990s, droughts in the American Southwest have become more persistent and more severe. The regions considered as the most attractive to the population are the most vulnerable. The U.S. is one of 17 megadiverse countries containing large numbers of endemic species: about 17,000 species of vascular plants occur in the contiguous United States and Alaska, and over 1,800 species of flowering plants are found in Hawaii, few of which occur on the mainland. The United States is home to 428 mammal species, 784 birds, 311 reptiles, 295 amphibians, and around 91,000 insect species. There are 63 national parks, and hundreds of other federally managed monuments, forests, and wilderness areas, administered by the National Park Service and other agencies. About 28% of the country's land is publicly owned and federally managed, primarily in the Western States. Most of this land is protected, though some is leased for commercial use, and less than one percent is used for military purposes. Environmental issues in the United States include debates on non-renewable resources and nuclear energy, air and water pollution, biodiversity, logging and deforestation, and climate change. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the federal agency charged with addressing most environmental-related issues. The idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since 1964, with the Wilderness Act. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 provides a way to protect threatened and endangered species and their habitats. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service implements and enforces the Act. In 2024, the U.S. ranked 35th among 180 countries in the Environmental Performance Index. Government and politics The United States is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The U.S. asserts sovereignty over five unincorporated territories and several uninhabited island possessions. It is the world's oldest surviving federation, and its presidential system of federal government has been adopted, in whole or in part, by many newly independent states worldwide following their decolonization. The Constitution of the United States serves as the country's supreme legal document. Most scholars describe the United States as a liberal democracy.[r] Composed of three branches, all headquartered in Washington, D.C., the federal government is the national government of the United States. The U.S. Constitution establishes a separation of powers intended to provide a system of checks and balances to prevent any of the three branches from becoming supreme. The three-branch system is known as the presidential system, in contrast to the parliamentary system where the executive is part of the legislative body. Many countries around the world adopted this aspect of the 1789 Constitution of the United States, especially in the postcolonial Americas. In the U.S. federal system, sovereign powers are shared between three levels of government specified in the Constitution: the federal government, the states, and Indian tribes. The U.S. also asserts sovereignty over five permanently inhabited territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Residents of the 50 states are governed by their elected state government, under state constitutions compatible with the national constitution, and by elected local governments that are administrative divisions of a state. States are subdivided into counties or county equivalents, and (except for Hawaii) further divided into municipalities, each administered by elected representatives. The District of Columbia is a federal district containing the U.S. capital, Washington, D.C. The federal district is an administrative division of the federal government. Indian country is made up of 574 federally recognized tribes and 326 Indian reservations. They hold a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. federal government in Washington and are legally defined as domestic dependent nations with inherent tribal sovereignty rights. In addition to the five major territories, the U.S. also asserts sovereignty over the United States Minor Outlying Islands in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean. The seven undisputed islands without permanent populations are Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll. U.S. sovereignty over the unpopulated Bajo Nuevo Bank, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, and Wake Island is disputed. The Constitution is silent on political parties. However, they developed independently in the 18th century with the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties. Since then, the United States has operated as a de facto two-party system, though the parties have changed over time. Since the mid-19th century, the two main national parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The former is perceived as relatively liberal in its political platform while the latter is perceived as relatively conservative in its platform. The United States has an established structure of foreign relations, with the world's second-largest diplomatic corps as of 2024[update]. It is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and home to the United Nations headquarters. The United States is a member of the G7, G20, and OECD intergovernmental organizations. Almost all countries have embassies and many have consulates (official representatives) in the country. Likewise, nearly all countries host formal diplomatic missions with the United States, except Iran, North Korea, and Bhutan. Though Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with the U.S., it maintains close unofficial relations. The United States regularly supplies Taiwan with military equipment to deter potential Chinese aggression. Its geopolitical attention also turned to the Indo-Pacific when the United States joined the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia, India, and Japan. The United States has a "Special Relationship" with the United Kingdom and strong ties with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Israel, and several European Union countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Poland. The U.S. works closely with its NATO allies on military and national security issues, and with countries in the Americas through the Organization of American States and the United States–Mexico–Canada Free Trade Agreement. The U.S. exercises full international defense authority and responsibility for Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau through the Compact of Free Association. It has increasingly conducted strategic cooperation with India, while its ties with China have steadily deteriorated. Beginning in 2014, the U.S. had become a key ally of Ukraine. After Donald Trump was elected U.S. president in 2024, he sought to negotiate an end to the Russo-Ukrainian War. He paused all military aid to Ukraine in March 2025, although the aid resumed later. Trump also ended U.S. intelligence sharing with the country, but this too was eventually restored. The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces and appoints its leaders, the secretary of defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Department of Defense, headquartered at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., administers five of the six service branches, which are made up of the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. The Coast Guard is administered by the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime and can be transferred to the Department of the Navy in wartime. Total strength of the entire military is about 1.3 million active duty with an additional 400,000 in reserve. The United States spent $997 billion on its military in 2024, which is by far the largest amount of any country, making up 37% of global military spending and accounting for 3.4% of the country's GDP. The U.S. possesses 42% of the world's nuclear weapons—the second-largest stockpile after that of Russia. The U.S. military is widely regarded as the most powerful and advanced in the world. The United States has the third-largest combined armed forces in the world, behind the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Indian Armed Forces. The U.S. military operates about 800 bases and facilities abroad, and maintains deployments greater than 100 active duty personnel in 25 foreign countries. The United States has engaged in over 400 military interventions since its founding in 1776, with over half of these occurring between 1950 and 2019 and 25% occurring in the post-Cold War era. State defense forces (SDFs) are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government. SDFs are authorized by state and federal law but are under the command of the state's governor. By contrast, the 54 U.S. National Guard organizations[t] fall under the dual control of state or territorial governments and the federal government; their units can also become federalized entities, but SDFs cannot be federalized. The National Guard personnel of a state or territory can be federalized by the president under the National Defense Act Amendments of 1933; this legislation created the Guard and provides for the integration of Army National Guard and Air National Guard units and personnel into the U.S. Army and (since 1947) the U.S. Air Force. The total number of National Guard members is about 430,000, while the estimated combined strength of SDFs is less than 10,000. There are about 18,000 U.S. police agencies from local to national level in the United States. Law in the United States is mainly enforced by local police departments and sheriff departments in their municipal or county jurisdictions. The state police departments have authority in their respective state, and federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Marshals Service have national jurisdiction and specialized duties, such as protecting civil rights, national security, enforcing U.S. federal courts' rulings and federal laws, and interstate criminal activity. State courts conduct almost all civil and criminal trials, while federal courts adjudicate the much smaller number of civil and criminal cases that relate to federal law. There is no unified "criminal justice system" in the United States. The American prison system is largely heterogenous, with thousands of relatively independent systems operating across federal, state, local, and tribal levels. In 2025, "these systems hold nearly 2 million people in 1,566 state prisons, 98 federal prisons, 3,116 local jails, 1,277 juvenile correctional facilities, 133 immigration detention facilities, and 80 Indian country jails, as well as in military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories." Despite disparate systems of confinement, four main institutions dominate: federal prisons, state prisons, local jails, and juvenile correctional facilities. Federal prisons are run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and hold pretrial detainees as well as people who have been convicted of federal crimes. State prisons, run by the department of corrections of each state, hold people sentenced and serving prison time (usually longer than one year) for felony offenses. Local jails are county or municipal facilities that incarcerate defendants prior to trial; they also hold those serving short sentences (typically under a year). Juvenile correctional facilities are operated by local or state governments and serve as longer-term placements for any minor adjudicated as delinquent and ordered by a judge to be confined. In January 2023, the United States had the sixth-highest per capita incarceration rate in the world—531 people per 100,000 inhabitants—and the largest prison and jail population in the world, with more than 1.9 million people incarcerated. An analysis of the World Health Organization Mortality Database from 2010 showed U.S. homicide rates "were 7 times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25 times higher". Economy The U.S. has a highly developed mixed economy that has been the world's largest nominally since about 1890. Its 2024 gross domestic product (GDP)[e] of more than $29 trillion constituted over 25% of nominal global economic output, or 15% at purchasing power parity (PPP). From 1983 to 2008, U.S. real compounded annual GDP growth was 3.3%, compared to a 2.3% weighted average for the rest of the G7. The country ranks first in the world by nominal GDP, second when adjusted for purchasing power parities (PPP), and ninth by PPP-adjusted GDP per capita. In February 2024, the total U.S. federal government debt was $34.4 trillion. Of the world's 500 largest companies by revenue, 138 were headquartered in the U.S. in 2025, the highest number of any country. The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions and the world's foremost reserve currency, backed by the country's dominant economy, its military, the petrodollar system, its large U.S. treasuries market, and its linked eurodollar. Several countries use it as their official currency, and in others it is the de facto currency. The U.S. has free trade agreements with several countries, including the USMCA. Although the United States has reached a post-industrial level of economic development and is often described as having a service economy, it remains a major industrial power; in 2024, the U.S. manufacturing sector was the world's second-largest by value output after China's. New York City is the world's principal financial center, and its metropolitan area is the world's largest metropolitan economy. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, both located in New York City, are the world's two largest stock exchanges by market capitalization and trade volume. The United States is at the forefront of technological advancement and innovation in many economic fields, especially in artificial intelligence; electronics and computers; pharmaceuticals; and medical, aerospace and military equipment. The country's economy is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. The largest trading partners of the United States are the European Union, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, India, and Taiwan. The United States is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter.[u] It is by far the world's largest exporter of services. Americans have the highest average household and employee income among OECD member states, and the fourth-highest median household income in 2023, up from sixth-highest in 2013. With personal consumption expenditures of over $18.5 trillion in 2023, the U.S. has a heavily consumer-driven economy and is the world's largest consumer market. The U.S. ranked first in the number of dollar billionaires and millionaires in 2023, with 735 billionaires and nearly 22 million millionaires. Wealth in the United States is highly concentrated; in 2011, the richest 10% of the adult population owned 72% of the country's household wealth, while the bottom 50% owned just 2%. U.S. wealth inequality increased substantially since the late 1980s, and income inequality in the U.S. reached a record high in 2019. In 2024, the country had some of the highest wealth and income inequality levels among OECD countries. Since the 1970s, there has been a decoupling of U.S. wage gains from worker productivity. In 2016, the top fifth of earners took home more than half of all income, giving the U.S. one of the widest income distributions among OECD countries. There were about 771,480 homeless persons in the U.S. in 2024. In 2022, 6.4 million children experienced food insecurity. Feeding America estimates that around one in five, or approximately 13 million, children experience hunger in the U.S. and do not know where or when they will get their next meal. Also in 2022, about 37.9 million people, or 11.5% of the U.S. population, were living in poverty. The United States has a smaller welfare state and redistributes less income through government action than most other high-income countries. It is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation nationally and one of a few countries in the world without federal paid family leave as a legal right. The United States has a higher percentage of low-income workers than almost any other developed country, largely because of a weak collective bargaining system and lack of government support for at-risk workers. The United States has been a leader in technological innovation since the late 19th century and scientific research since the mid-20th century. Methods for producing interchangeable parts and the establishment of a machine tool industry enabled the large-scale manufacturing of U.S. consumer products in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century, factory electrification, the introduction of the assembly line, and other labor-saving techniques created the system of mass production. In the 21st century, the United States continues to be one of the world's foremost scientific powers, though China has emerged as a major competitor in many fields. The U.S. has the highest research and development expenditures of any country and ranks ninth as a percentage of GDP. In 2022, the United States was (after China) the country with the second-highest number of published scientific papers. In 2021, the U.S. ranked second (also after China) by the number of patent applications, and third by trademark and industrial design applications (after China and Germany), according to World Intellectual Property Indicators. In 2025 the United States ranked third (after Switzerland and Sweden) in the Global Innovation Index. The United States is considered to be a world leader in the development of artificial intelligence technology. In 2023, the United States was ranked the second most technologically advanced country in the world (after South Korea) by Global Finance magazine. The United States has maintained a space program since the late 1950s, beginning with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. NASA's Apollo program (1961–1972) achieved the first crewed Moon landing with the 1969 Apollo 11 mission; it remains one of the agency's most significant milestones. Other major endeavors by NASA include the Space Shuttle program (1981–2011), the Voyager program (1972–present), the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes (launched in 1990 and 2021, respectively), and the multi-mission Mars Exploration Program (Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance). NASA is one of five agencies collaborating on the International Space Station (ISS); U.S. contributions to the ISS include several modules, including Destiny (2001), Harmony (2007), and Tranquility (2010), as well as ongoing logistical and operational support. The United States private sector dominates the global commercial spaceflight industry. Prominent American spaceflight contractors include Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX. NASA programs such as the Commercial Crew Program, Commercial Resupply Services, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, and NextSTEP have facilitated growing private-sector involvement in American spaceflight. In 2023, the United States received approximately 84% of its energy from fossil fuel, and its largest source of energy was petroleum (38%), followed by natural gas (36%), renewable sources (9%), coal (9%), and nuclear power (9%). In 2022, the United States constituted about 4% of the world's population, but consumed around 16% of the world's energy. The U.S. ranks as the second-highest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. The U.S. is the world's largest producer of nuclear power, generating around 30% of the world's nuclear electricity. It also has the highest number of nuclear power reactors of any country. From 2024, the U.S. plans to triple its nuclear power capacity by 2050. The United States' 4 million miles (6.4 million kilometers) of road network, owned almost entirely by state and local governments, is the longest in the world. The extensive Interstate Highway System that connects all major U.S. cities is funded mostly by the federal government but maintained by state departments of transportation. The system is further extended by state highways and some private toll roads. The U.S. is among the top ten countries with the highest vehicle ownership per capita (850 vehicles per 1,000 people) in 2022. A 2022 study found that 76% of U.S. commuters drive alone and 14% ride a bicycle, including bike owners and users of bike-sharing networks. About 11% use some form of public transportation. Public transportation in the United States is well developed in the largest urban areas, notably New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco; otherwise, coverage is generally less extensive than in most other developed countries. The U.S. also has many relatively car-dependent localities. Long-distance intercity travel is provided primarily by airlines, but travel by rail is more common along the Northeast Corridor, the only high-speed rail in the U.S. that meets international standards. Amtrak, the country's government-sponsored national passenger rail company, has a relatively sparse network compared to that of Western European countries. Service is concentrated in the Northeast, California, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and Virginia/Southeast. The United States has an extensive air transportation network. U.S. civilian airlines are all privately owned. The three largest airlines in the world, by total number of passengers carried, are U.S.-based; American Airlines became the global leader after its 2013 merger with US Airways. Of the 50 busiest airports in the world, 16 are in the United States, as well as five of the top 10. The world's busiest airport by passenger volume is Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2022, most of the 19,969 U.S. airports were owned and operated by local government authorities, and there are also some private airports. Some 5,193 are designated as "public use", including for general aviation. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has provided security at most major airports since 2001. The country's rail transport network, the longest in the world at 182,412.3 mi (293,564.2 km), handles mostly freight (in contrast to more passenger-centered rail in Europe). Because they are often privately owned operations, U.S. railroads lag behind those of the rest of the world in terms of electrification. The country's inland waterways are the world's fifth-longest, totaling 25,482 mi (41,009 km). They are used extensively for freight, recreation, and a small amount of passenger traffic. Of the world's 50 busiest container ports, four are located in the United States, with the busiest in the country being the Port of Los Angeles. Demographics The U.S. Census Bureau reported 331,449,281 residents on April 1, 2020,[v] making the United States the third-most-populous country in the world, after India and China. The Census Bureau's official 2025 population estimate was 341,784,857, an increase of 3.1% since the 2020 census. According to the Bureau's U.S. Population Clock, on July 1, 2024, the U.S. population had a net gain of one person every 16 seconds, or about 5400 people per day. In 2023, 51% of Americans age 15 and over were married, 6% were widowed, 10% were divorced, and 34% had never been married. In 2023, the total fertility rate for the U.S. stood at 1.6 children per woman, and, at 23%, it had the world's highest rate of children living in single-parent households in 2019. Most Americans live in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas. The United States has a diverse population; 37 ancestry groups have more than one million members. White Americans with ancestry from Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa form the largest racial and ethnic group at 57.8% of the United States population. Hispanic and Latino Americans form the second-largest group and are 18.7% of the United States population. African Americans constitute the country's third-largest ancestry group and are 12.1% of the total U.S. population. Asian Americans are the country's fourth-largest group, composing 5.9% of the United States population. The country's 3.7 million Native Americans account for about 1%, and some 574 native tribes are recognized by the federal government. In 2024, the median age of the United States population was 39.1 years. While many languages and dialects are spoken in the United States, English is by far the most commonly spoken and written. De facto, English is the official language of the United States, and in 2025, Executive Order 14224 declared English official. However, the U.S. has never had a de jure official language, as Congress has never passed a law to designate English as official for all three federal branches. Some laws, such as U.S. naturalization requirements, nonetheless standardize English. Twenty-eight states and the United States Virgin Islands have laws that designate English as the sole official language; 19 states and the District of Columbia have no official language. Three states and four U.S. territories have recognized local or indigenous languages in addition to English: Hawaii (Hawaiian), Alaska (twenty Native languages),[w] South Dakota (Sioux), American Samoa (Samoan), Puerto Rico (Spanish), Guam (Chamorro), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Carolinian and Chamorro). In total, 169 Native American languages are spoken in the United States. In Puerto Rico, Spanish is more widely spoken than English. According to the American Community Survey (2020), some 245.4 million people in the U.S. age five and older spoke only English at home. About 41.2 million spoke Spanish at home, making it the second most commonly used language. Other languages spoken at home by one million people or more include Chinese (3.40 million), Tagalog (1.71 million), Vietnamese (1.52 million), Arabic (1.39 million), French (1.18 million), Korean (1.07 million), and Russian (1.04 million). German, spoken by 1 million people at home in 2010, fell to 857,000 total speakers in 2020. America's immigrant population is by far the world's largest in absolute terms. In 2022, there were 87.7 million immigrants and U.S.-born children of immigrants in the United States, accounting for nearly 27% of the overall U.S. population. In 2017, out of the U.S. foreign-born population, some 45% (20.7 million) were naturalized citizens, 27% (12.3 million) were lawful permanent residents, 6% (2.2 million) were temporary lawful residents, and 23% (10.5 million) were unauthorized immigrants. In 2019, the top countries of origin for immigrants were Mexico (24% of immigrants), India (6%), China (5%), the Philippines (4.5%), and El Salvador (3%). In fiscal year 2022, over one million immigrants (most of whom entered through family reunification) were granted legal residence. The undocumented immigrant population in the U.S. reached a record high of 14 million in 2023. The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion in the country and forbids Congress from passing laws respecting its establishment. Religious practice is widespread, among the most diverse in the world, and profoundly vibrant. The country has the world's largest Christian population, which includes the fourth-largest population of Catholics. Other notable faiths include Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, New Age, and Native American religions. Religious practice varies significantly by region. "Ceremonial deism" is common in American culture. The overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power or spiritual force, engage in spiritual practices such as prayer, and consider themselves religious or spiritual. In the Southern United States' "Bible Belt", evangelical Protestantism plays a significant role culturally; New England and the Western United States tend to be more secular. Mormonism, a Restorationist movement founded in the U.S. in 1847, is the predominant religion in Utah and a major religion in Idaho. About 82% of Americans live in metropolitan areas, particularly in suburbs; about half of those reside in cities with populations over 50,000. In 2022, 333 incorporated municipalities had populations over 100,000, nine cities had more than one million residents, and four cities—New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston—had populations exceeding two million. Many U.S. metropolitan populations are growing rapidly, particularly in the South and West. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), average U.S. life expectancy at birth reached 79.0 years in 2024, its highest recorded level. This was an increase of 0.6 years over 2023. The CDC attributed the improvement to a significant fall in the number of fatal drug overdoses in the country, noting that "heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by cancer and unintentional injuries." In 2024, life expectancy at birth for American men rose to 76.5 years (+0.7 years compared to 2023), while life expectancy for women was 81.4 years (+0.3 years). Starting in 1998, life expectancy in the U.S. fell behind that of other wealthy industrialized countries, and Americans' "health disadvantage" gap has been increasing ever since. The Commonwealth Fund reported in 2020 that the U.S. had the highest suicide rate among high-income countries. Approximately one-third of the U.S. adult population is obese and another third is overweight. The U.S. healthcare system far outspends that of any other country, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP, but attains worse healthcare outcomes when compared to peer countries for reasons that are debated. The United States is the only developed country without a system of universal healthcare, and a significant proportion of the population that does not carry health insurance. Government-funded healthcare coverage for the poor (Medicaid) and for those age 65 and older (Medicare) is available to Americans who meet the programs' income or age qualifications. In 2010, then-President Obama passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[x] Abortion in the United States is not federally protected, and is illegal or restricted in 17 states. American primary and secondary education, known in the U.S. as K–12 ("kindergarten through 12th grade"), is decentralized. School systems are operated by state, territorial, and sometimes municipal governments and regulated by the U.S. Department of Education. In general, children are required to attend school or an approved homeschool from the age of five or six (kindergarten or first grade) until they are 18 years old. This often brings students through the 12th grade, the final year of a U.S. high school, but some states and territories allow them to leave school earlier, at age 16 or 17. The U.S. spends more on education per student than any other country, an average of $18,614 per year per public elementary and secondary school student in 2020–2021. Among Americans age 25 and older, 92.2% graduated from high school, 62.7% attended some college, 37.7% earned a bachelor's degree, and 14.2% earned a graduate degree. The U.S. literacy rate is near-universal. The U.S. has produced the most Nobel Prize winners of any country, with 411 (having won 413 awards). U.S. tertiary or higher education has earned a global reputation. Many of the world's top universities, as listed by various ranking organizations, are in the United States, including 19 of the top 25. American higher education is dominated by state university systems, although the country's many private universities and colleges enroll about 20% of all American students. Local community colleges generally offer open admissions, lower tuition, and coursework leading to a two-year associate degree or a non-degree certificate. As for public expenditures on higher education, the U.S. spends more per student than the OECD average, and Americans spend more than all nations in combined public and private spending. Colleges and universities directly funded by the federal government do not charge tuition and are limited to military personnel and government employees, including: the U.S. service academies, the Naval Postgraduate School, and military staff colleges. Despite some student loan forgiveness programs in place, student loan debt increased by 102% between 2010 and 2020, and exceeded $1.7 trillion in 2022. Culture and society The United States is home to a wide variety of ethnic groups, traditions, and customs. The country has been described as having the values of individualism and personal autonomy, as well as a strong work ethic and competitiveness. Voluntary altruism towards others also plays a major role; according to a 2016 study by the Charities Aid Foundation, Americans donated 1.44% of total GDP to charity—the highest rate in the world by a large margin. Americans have traditionally been characterized by a unifying political belief in an "American Creed" emphasizing consent of the governed, liberty, equality under the law, democracy, social equality, property rights, and a preference for limited government. The U.S. has acquired significant hard and soft power through its diplomatic influence, economic power, military alliances, and cultural exports such as American movies, music, video games, sports, and food. The influence that the United States exerts on other countries through soft power is referred to as Americanization. Nearly all present Americans or their ancestors came from Europe, Africa, or Asia (the "Old World") within the past five centuries. Mainstream American culture is a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of European immigrants with influences from many other sources, such as traditions brought by slaves from Africa. More recent immigration from Asia and especially Latin America has added to a cultural mix that has been described as a homogenizing melting pot, and a heterogeneous salad bowl, with immigrants contributing to, and often assimilating into, mainstream American culture. Under the First Amendment to the Constitution, the United States is considered to have the strongest protections of free speech of any country. Flag desecration, hate speech, blasphemy, and lese majesty are all forms of protected expression. A 2016 Pew Research Center poll found that Americans were the most supportive of free expression of any polity measured. Additionally, they are the "most supportive of freedom of the press and the right to use the Internet without government censorship". The U.S. is a socially progressive country with permissive attitudes surrounding human sexuality. LGBTQ rights in the United States are among the most advanced by global standards. The American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high levels of social mobility, plays a key role in attracting immigrants. Whether this perception is accurate has been a topic of debate. While mainstream culture holds that the United States is a classless society, scholars identify significant differences between the country's social classes, affecting socialization, language, and values. Americans tend to greatly value socioeconomic achievement, but being ordinary or average is promoted by some as a noble condition as well. The National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities is an agency of the United States federal government that was established in 1965 with the purpose to "develop and promote a broadly conceived national policy of support for the humanities and the arts in the United States, and for institutions which preserve the cultural heritage of the United States." It is composed of four sub-agencies: Colonial American authors were influenced by John Locke and other Enlightenment philosophers. The American Revolutionary Period (1765–1783) is notable for the political writings of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson. Shortly before and after the Revolutionary War, the newspaper rose to prominence, filling a demand for anti-British national literature. An early novel is William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy, published in 1791. Writer and critic John Neal in the early- to mid-19th century helped advance America toward a unique literature and culture by criticizing predecessors such as Washington Irving for imitating their British counterparts, and by influencing writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, who took American poetry and short fiction in new directions. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller pioneered the influential Transcendentalism movement; Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, was influenced by this movement. The conflict surrounding abolitionism inspired writers, like Harriet Beecher Stowe, and authors of slave narratives, such as Frederick Douglass. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) explored the dark side of American history, as did Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). Major American poets of the 19th century American Renaissance include Walt Whitman, Melville, and Emily Dickinson. Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born in the West. Henry James achieved international recognition with novels like The Portrait of a Lady (1881). As literacy rates rose, periodicals published more stories centered around industrial workers, women, and the rural poor. Naturalism, regionalism, and realism were the major literary movements of the period. While modernism generally took on an international character, modernist authors working within the United States more often rooted their work in specific regions, peoples, and cultures. Following the Great Migration to northern cities, African-American and black West Indian authors of the Harlem Renaissance developed an independent tradition of literature that rebuked a history of inequality and celebrated black culture. An important cultural export during the Jazz Age, these writings were a key influence on Négritude, a philosophy emerging in the 1930s among francophone writers of the African diaspora. In the 1950s, an ideal of homogeneity led many authors to attempt to write the Great American Novel, while the Beat Generation rejected this conformity, using styles that elevated the impact of the spoken word over mechanics to describe drug use, sexuality, and the failings of society. Contemporary literature is more pluralistic than in previous eras, with the closest thing to a unifying feature being a trend toward self-conscious experiments with language. Twelve American laureates have won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Media in the United States is broadly uncensored, with the First Amendment providing significant protections, as reiterated in New York Times Co. v. United States. The four major broadcasters in the U.S. are the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), American Broadcasting Company (ABC), and Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox). The four major broadcast television networks are all commercial entities. The U.S. cable television system offers hundreds of channels catering to a variety of niches. In 2021, about 83% of Americans over age 12 listened to broadcast radio, while about 40% listened to podcasts. In the prior year, there were 15,460 licensed full-power radio stations in the U.S. according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Much of the public radio broadcasting is supplied by National Public Radio (NPR), incorporated in February 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. U.S. newspapers with a global reach and reputation include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and USA Today. About 800 publications are produced in Spanish. With few exceptions, newspapers are privately owned, either by large chains such as Gannett or McClatchy, which own dozens or even hundreds of newspapers; by small chains that own a handful of papers; or, in an increasingly rare situation, by individuals or families. Major cities often have alternative newspapers to complement the mainstream daily papers, such as The Village Voice in New York City and LA Weekly in Los Angeles. The five most-visited websites in the world are Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and ChatGPT—all of them American-owned. Other popular platforms used include X (formerly Twitter) and Amazon. In 2025, the U.S. was the world's second-largest video game market by revenue (after China). In 2015, the U.S. video game industry consisted of 2,457 companies that employed around 220,000 jobs and generated $30.4 billion in revenue. There are 444 game publishers, developers, and hardware companies in California alone. According to the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the U.S. is the top location for video game development, with 58% of the world's game developers based there in 2025. The United States is well known for its theater. Mainstream theater in the United States derives from the old European theatrical tradition and has been heavily influenced by the British theater. By the middle of the 19th century, America had created new distinct dramatic forms in the Tom Shows, the showboat theater and the minstrel show. The central hub of the American theater scene is the Theater District in Manhattan, with its divisions of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway. Many movie and television celebrities have gotten their big break working in New York productions. Outside New York City, many cities have professional regional or resident theater companies that produce their own seasons. The biggest-budget theatrical productions are musicals. U.S. theater has an active community theater culture. The Tony Awards recognizes excellence in live Broadway theater and are presented at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theater. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. Folk art in colonial America grew out of artisanal craftsmanship in communities that allowed commonly trained people to individually express themselves. It was distinct from Europe's tradition of high art, which was less accessible and generally less relevant to early American settlers. Cultural movements in art and craftsmanship in colonial America generally lagged behind those of Western Europe. For example, the prevailing medieval style of woodworking and primitive sculpture became integral to early American folk art, despite the emergence of Renaissance styles in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The new English styles would have been early enough to make a considerable impact on American folk art, but American styles and forms had already been firmly adopted. Not only did styles change slowly in early America, but there was a tendency for rural artisans there to continue their traditional forms longer than their urban counterparts did—and far longer than those in Western Europe. The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century movement in the visual arts tradition of European naturalism. The 1913 Armory Show in New York City, an exhibition of European modernist art, shocked the public and transformed the U.S. art scene. American Realism and American Regionalism sought to reflect and give America new ways of looking at itself. Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, and others experimented with new and individualistic styles, which would become known as American modernism. Major artistic movements such as the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and the pop art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein developed largely in the United States. Major photographers include Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, James Van Der Zee, Ansel Adams, and Gordon Parks. The tide of modernism and then postmodernism has brought global fame to American architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Frank Gehry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is the largest art museum in the United States and the fourth-largest in the world. American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the same family or folk group for generations, and sometimes trace back to such origins as the British Isles, mainland Europe, or Africa. The rhythmic and lyrical styles of African-American music in particular have influenced American music. Banjos were brought to America through the slave trade. Minstrel shows incorporating the instrument into their acts led to its increased popularity and widespread production in the 19th century. The electric guitar, first invented in the 1930s, and mass-produced by the 1940s, had an enormous influence on popular music, in particular due to the development of rock and roll. The synthesizer, turntablism, and electronic music were also largely developed in the U.S. Elements from folk idioms such as the blues and old-time music were adopted and transformed into popular genres with global audiences. Jazz grew from blues and ragtime in the early 20th century, developing from the innovations and recordings of composers such as W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton. Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington increased its popularity early in the 20th century. Country music developed in the 1920s, bluegrass and rhythm and blues in the 1940s, and rock and roll in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Bob Dylan emerged from the folk revival to become one of the country's most celebrated songwriters. The musical forms of punk and hip hop both originated in the United States in the 1970s. The United States has the world's largest music market, with a total retail value of $15.9 billion in 2022. Most of the world's major record companies are based in the U.S.; they are represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Mid-20th-century American pop stars, such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley, became global celebrities and best-selling music artists, as have artists of the late 20th century, such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey, and of the early 21st century, such as Eminem, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. The United States has the world's largest apparel market by revenue. Apart from professional business attire, American fashion is eclectic and predominantly informal. Americans' diverse cultural roots are reflected in their clothing; however, sneakers, jeans, T-shirts, and baseball caps are emblematic of American styles. New York, with its Fashion Week, is considered to be one of the "Big Four" global fashion capitals, along with Paris, Milan, and London. A study demonstrated that general proximity to Manhattan's Garment District has been synonymous with American fashion since its inception in the early 20th century. A number of well-known designer labels, among them Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Tom Ford and Calvin Klein, are headquartered in Manhattan. Labels cater to niche markets, such as preteens. New York Fashion Week is one of the most influential fashion shows in the world, and is held twice each year in Manhattan; the annual Met Gala, also in Manhattan, has been called the fashion world's "biggest night". The U.S. film industry has a worldwide influence and following. Hollywood, a district in central Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city, is also metonymous for the American filmmaking industry. The major film studios of the United States are the primary source of the most commercially successful movies selling the most tickets in the world. Largely centered in the New York City region from its beginnings in the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, the U.S. film industry has since been primarily based in and around Hollywood. Nonetheless, American film companies have been subject to the forces of globalization in the 21st century, and an increasing number of films are made elsewhere. The Academy Awards, popularly known as "the Oscars", have been held annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1929, and the Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since January 1944. The industry peaked in what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Hollywood", from the early sound period until the early 1960s, with screen actors such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe becoming iconic figures. In the 1970s, "New Hollywood", or the "Hollywood Renaissance", was defined by grittier films influenced by French and Italian realist pictures of the post-war period. The 21st century has been marked by the rise of American streaming platforms, which came to rival traditional cinema. Early settlers were introduced by Native Americans to foods such as turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup. Of the most enduring and pervasive examples are variations of the native dish called succotash. Early settlers and later immigrants combined these with foods they were familiar with, such as wheat flour, beef, and milk, to create a distinctive American cuisine. New World crops, especially pumpkin, corn, potatoes, and turkey as the main course are part of a shared national menu on Thanksgiving, when many Americans prepare or purchase traditional dishes to celebrate the occasion. Characteristic American dishes such as apple pie, fried chicken, doughnuts, french fries, macaroni and cheese, ice cream, hamburgers, hot dogs, and American pizza derive from the recipes of various immigrant groups. Mexican dishes such as burritos and tacos preexisted the United States in areas later annexed from Mexico, and adaptations of Chinese cuisine as well as pasta dishes freely adapted from Italian sources are all widely consumed. American chefs have had a significant impact on society both domestically and internationally. In 1946, the Culinary Institute of America was founded by Katharine Angell and Frances Roth. This would become the United States' most prestigious culinary school, where many of the most talented American chefs would study prior to successful careers. The United States restaurant industry was projected at $899 billion in sales for 2020, and employed more than 15 million people, representing 10% of the nation's workforce directly. It is the country's second-largest private employer and the third-largest employer overall. The United States is home to over 220 Michelin star-rated restaurants, 70 of which are in New York City. Wine has been produced in what is now the United States since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in what is now New Mexico in 1628. In the modern U.S., wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84 percent of all U.S. wine. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine-producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France. The classic American diner, a casual restaurant type originally intended for the working class, emerged during the 19th century from converted railroad dining cars made stationary. The diner soon evolved into purpose-built structures whose number expanded greatly in the 20th century. The American fast-food industry developed alongside the nation's car culture. American restaurants developed the drive-in format in the 1920s, which they began to replace with the drive-through format by the 1940s. American fast-food restaurant chains, such as McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dunkin' Donuts and many others, have numerous outlets around the world. The most popular spectator sports in the U.S. are American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and ice hockey. Their premier leagues are, respectively, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and the National Hockey League, All these leagues enjoy wide-ranging domestic media coverage and, except for the MLS, all are considered the preeminent leagues in their respective sports in the world. While most major U.S. sports such as baseball and American football have evolved out of European practices, basketball, volleyball, skateboarding, and snowboarding are American inventions, many of which have become popular worldwide. Lacrosse and surfing arose from Native American and Native Hawaiian activities that predate European contact. The market for professional sports in the United States was approximately $69 billion in July 2013, roughly 50% larger than that of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined. American football is by several measures the most popular spectator sport in the United States. Although American football does not have a substantial following in other nations, the NFL does have the highest average attendance (67,254) of any professional sports league in the world. In the year 2024, the NFL generated over $23 billion, making them the most valued professional sports league in the United States and the world. Baseball has been regarded as the U.S. "national sport" since the late 19th century. The most-watched individual sports in the U.S. are golf and auto racing, particularly NASCAR and IndyCar. On the collegiate level, earnings for the member institutions exceed $1 billion annually, and college football and basketball attract large audiences, as the NCAA March Madness tournament and the College Football Playoff are some of the most watched national sporting events. In the U.S., the intercollegiate sports level serves as the main feeder system for professional and Olympic sports, with significant exceptions such as Minor League Baseball. This differs greatly from practices in nearly all other countries, where publicly and privately funded sports organizations serve this function. Eight Olympic Games have taken place in the United States. The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, were the first-ever Olympic Games held outside of Europe. The Olympic Games will be held in the U.S. for a ninth time when Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. U.S. athletes have won a total of 2,968 medals (1,179 gold) at the Olympic Games, the most of any country. In other international competition, the United States is the home of a number of prestigious events, including the America's Cup, World Baseball Classic, the U.S. Open, and the Masters Tournament. The U.S. men's national soccer team has qualified for eleven World Cups, while the women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympic soccer tournament four and five times, respectively. The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was hosted by the United States. Its final match was attended by 90,185, setting the world record for largest women's sporting event crowd at the time. The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and will co-host, along with Canada and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup. See also Notes References This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2023, FAO, FAO. External links 40°N 100°W / 40°N 100°W / 40; -100 (United States of America)
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344] \| [TOKENS: 8773]
Contents OpenAI OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence research organization comprising both a non-profit foundation and a controlled for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC), headquartered in San Francisco. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines as "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work". OpenAI is widely recognized for its development of the GPT family of large language models, the DALL-E series of text-to-image models, and the Sora series of text-to-video models, which have influenced industry research and commercial applications. Its release of ChatGPT in November 2022 has been credited with catalyzing widespread interest in generative AI. The organization was founded in 2015 in Delaware but evolved a complex corporate structure. As of October 2025, following restructuring approved by California and Delaware regulators, the non-profit OpenAI Foundation holds 26% of the for-profit OpenAI Group PBC, with Microsoft holding 27% and employees/other investors holding 47%. Under its governance arrangements, the OpenAI Foundation holds the authority to appoint the board of the for-profit OpenAI Group PBC, a mechanism designed to align the entity’s strategic direction with the Foundation’s charter. Microsoft previously invested over $13 billion into OpenAI, and provides Azure cloud computing resources. In October 2025, OpenAI conducted a $6.6 billion share sale that valued the company at $500 billion. In 2023 and 2024, OpenAI faced multiple lawsuits for alleged copyright infringement against authors and media companies whose work was used to train some of OpenAI's products. In November 2023, OpenAI's board removed Sam Altman as CEO, citing a lack of confidence in him, but reinstated him five days later following a reconstruction of the board. Throughout 2024, roughly half of then-employed AI safety researchers left OpenAI, citing the company's prominent role in an industry-wide problem. Founding In December 2015, OpenAI was founded as a not for profit organization by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, John Schulman, Pamela Vagata, and Wojciech Zaremba, with Sam Altman and Elon Musk as the co-chairs. A total of $1 billion in capital was pledged by Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Infosys. However, the actual capital collected significantly lagged pledges. According to company disclosures, only $130 million had been received by 2019. In its founding charter, OpenAI stated an intention to collaborate openly with other institutions by making certain patents and research publicly available, but later restricted access to its most capable models, citing competitive and safety concerns. OpenAI was initially run from Brockman's living room. It was later headquartered at the Pioneer Building in the Mission District, San Francisco. According to OpenAI's charter, its founding mission is "to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI)—by which we mean highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work—benefits all of humanity." Musk and Altman stated in 2015 that they were partly motivated by concerns about AI safety and existential risk from artificial general intelligence. OpenAI stated that "it's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society", and that it is equally difficult to comprehend "how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly". The startup also wrote that AI "should be an extension of individual human wills and, in the spirit of liberty, as broadly and evenly distributed as possible", and that "because of AI's surprising history, it's hard to predict when human-level AI might come within reach. When it does, it'll be important to have a leading research institution which can prioritize a good outcome for all over its own self-interest." Co-chair Sam Altman expected a decades-long project that eventually surpasses human intelligence. Brockman met with Yoshua Bengio, one of the "founding fathers" of deep learning, and drew up a list of great AI researchers. Brockman was able to hire nine of them as the first employees in December 2015. OpenAI did not pay AI researchers salaries comparable to those of Facebook or Google. It also did not pay stock options which AI researchers typically get. Nevertheless, OpenAI spent $7 million on its first 52 employees in 2016. OpenAI's potential and mission drew these researchers to the firm; a Google employee said he was willing to leave Google for OpenAI "partly because of the very strong group of people and, to a very large extent, because of its mission." OpenAI co-founder Wojciech Zaremba stated that he turned down "borderline crazy" offers of two to three times his market value to join OpenAI instead. In April 2016, OpenAI released a public beta of "OpenAI Gym", its platform for reinforcement learning research. Nvidia gifted its first DGX-1 supercomputer to OpenAI in August 2016 to help it train larger and more complex AI models with the capability of reducing processing time from six days to two hours. In December 2016, OpenAI released "Universe", a software platform for measuring and training an AI's general intelligence across the world's supply of games, websites, and other applications. Corporate structure In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from non-profit to "capped" for-profit, with the profit being capped at 100 times any investment. According to OpenAI, the capped-profit model allows OpenAI Global, LLC to legally attract investment from venture funds and, in addition, to grant employees stakes in the company. Many top researchers work for Google Brain, DeepMind, or Facebook, which offer equity that a nonprofit would be unable to match. Before the transition, OpenAI was legally required to publicly disclose the compensation of its top employees. The company then distributed equity to its employees and partnered with Microsoft, announcing an investment package of $1 billion into the company. Since then, OpenAI systems have run on an Azure-based supercomputing platform from Microsoft. OpenAI Global, LLC then announced its intention to commercially license its technologies. It planned to spend $1 billion "within five years, and possibly much faster". Altman stated that even a billion dollars may turn out to be insufficient, and that the lab may ultimately need "more capital than any non-profit has ever raised" to achieve artificial general intelligence. The nonprofit, OpenAI, Inc., is the sole controlling shareholder of OpenAI Global, LLC, which, despite being a for-profit company, retains a formal fiduciary responsibility to OpenAI, Inc.'s nonprofit charter. A majority of OpenAI, Inc.'s board is barred from having financial stakes in OpenAI Global, LLC. In addition, minority members with a stake in OpenAI Global, LLC are barred from certain votes due to conflict of interest. Some researchers have argued that OpenAI Global, LLC's switch to for-profit status is inconsistent with OpenAI's claims to be "democratizing" AI. On February 29, 2024, Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of shifting focus from public benefit to profit maximization—a case OpenAI dismissed as "incoherent" and "frivolous," though Musk later revived legal action against Altman and others in August. On April 9, 2024, OpenAI countersued Musk in federal court, alleging that he had engaged in "bad-faith tactics" to slow the company's progress and seize its innovations for his personal benefit. OpenAI also argued that Musk had previously supported the creation of a for-profit structure and had expressed interest in controlling OpenAI himself. The countersuit seeks damages and legal measures to prevent further alleged interference. On February 10, 2025, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.4 billion unsolicited bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, declaring willingness to match or exceed any better offer. The offer was rejected on 14 February 2025, with OpenAI stating that it was not for sale, but the offer complicated Altman's restructuring plan by suggesting a lower bar for how much the nonprofit should be valued. OpenAI, Inc. was originally designed as a nonprofit in order to ensure that AGI "benefits all of humanity" rather than "the private gain of any person". In 2019, it created OpenAI Global, LLC, a capped-profit subsidiary controlled by the nonprofit. In December 2024, OpenAI proposed a restructuring plan to convert the capped-profit into a Delaware-based public benefit corporation (PBC), and to release it from the control of the nonprofit. The nonprofit would sell its control and other assets, getting equity in return, and would use it to fund and pursue separate charitable projects, including in science and education. OpenAI's leadership described the change as necessary to secure additional investments, and claimed that the nonprofit's founding mission to ensure AGI "benefits all of humanity" would be better fulfilled. The plan has been criticized by former employees. A legal letter named "Not For Private Gain" asked the attorneys general of California and Delaware to intervene, stating that the restructuring is illegal and would remove governance safeguards from the nonprofit and the attorneys general. The letter argues that OpenAI's complex structure was deliberately designed to remain accountable to its mission, without the conflicting pressure of maximizing profits. It contends that the nonprofit is best positioned to advance its mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity by continuing to control OpenAI Global, LLC, whatever the amount of equity that it could get in exchange. PBCs can choose how they balance their mission with profit-making. Controlling shareholders have a large influence on how closely a PBC sticks to its mission. On October 28, 2025, OpenAI announced that it had adopted the new PBC corporate structure after receiving approval from the attorneys general of California and Delaware. Under the new structure, OpenAI's for-profit branch became a public benefit corporation known as OpenAI Group PBC, while the non-profit was renamed to the OpenAI Foundation. The OpenAI Foundation holds a 26% stake in the PBC, while Microsoft holds a 27% stake and the remaining 47% is owned by employees and other investors. All members of the OpenAI Group PBC board of directors will be appointed by the OpenAI Foundation, which can remove them at any time. Members of the Foundation's board will also serve on the for-profit board. The new structure allows the for-profit PBC to raise investor funds like most traditional tech companies, including through an initial public offering, which Altman claimed was the most likely path forward. In January 2023, OpenAI Global, LLC was in talks for funding that would value the company at $29 billion, double its 2021 value. On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a new US$10 billion investment in OpenAI Global, LLC over multiple years, partially needed to use Microsoft's cloud-computing service Azure. From September to December, 2023, Microsoft rebranded all variants of its Copilot to Microsoft Copilot, and they added MS-Copilot to many installations of Windows and released Microsoft Copilot mobile apps. Following OpenAI's 2025 restructuring, Microsoft owns a 27% stake in the for-profit OpenAI Group PBC, valued at $135 billion. In a deal announced the same day, OpenAI agreed to purchase $250 billion of Azure services, with Microsoft ceding their right of first refusal over OpenAI's future cloud computing purchases. As part of the deal, OpenAI will continue to share 20% of its revenue with Microsoft until it achieves AGI, which must now be verified by an independent panel of experts. The deal also loosened restrictions on both companies working with third parties, allowing Microsoft to pursue AGI independently and allowing OpenAI to develop products with other companies. In 2017, OpenAI spent $7.9 million, a quarter of its functional expenses, on cloud computing alone. In comparison, DeepMind's total expenses in 2017 were $442 million. In the summer of 2018, training OpenAI's Dota 2 bots required renting 128,000 CPUs and 256 GPUs from Google for multiple weeks. In October 2024, OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion capital raise with a $157 billion valuation including investments from Microsoft, Nvidia, and SoftBank. On January 21, 2025, Donald Trump announced The Stargate Project, a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX to build an AI infrastructure system in conjunction with the US government. The project takes its name from OpenAI's existing "Stargate" supercomputer project and is estimated to cost $500 billion. The partners planned to fund the project over the next four years. In July, the United States Department of Defense announced that OpenAI had received a $200 million contract for AI in the military, along with Anthropic, Google, and xAI. In the same month, the company made a deal with the UK Government to use ChatGPT and other AI tools in public services. OpenAI subsequently began a $50 million fund to support nonprofit and community organizations. In April 2025, OpenAI raised $40 billion at a $300 billion post-money valuation, which was the highest-value private technology deal in history. The financing round was led by SoftBank, with other participants including Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter and Thrive. In July 2025, the company reported annualized revenue of $12 billion. This was an increase from $3.7 billion in 2024, which was driven by ChatGPT subscriptions, which reached 20 million paid subscribers by April 2025, up from 15.5 million at the end of 2024, alongside a rapidly expanding enterprise customer base that grew to five million business users. The company’s cash burn remains high because of the intensive computational costs required to train and operate large language models. It projects an $8 billion operating loss in 2025. OpenAI reports revised long-term spending projections totaling approximately $115 billion through 2029, with annual expenditures projected to escalate significantly, reaching $17 billion in 2026, $35 billion in 2027, and $45 billion in 2028. These expenditures are primarily allocated toward expanding compute infrastructure, developing proprietary AI chips, constructing data centers, and funding intensive model training programs, with more than half of the spending through the end of the decade expected to support research-intensive compute for model training and development. The company's financial strategy prioritizes market expansion and technological advancement over near-term profitability, with OpenAI targeting cash-flow-positive operations by 2029 and projecting revenue of approximately $200 billion by 2030. This aggressive spending trajectory underscores both the enormous capital requirements of scaling cutting-edge AI technology and OpenAI's commitment to maintaining its position as a leader in the artificial intelligence industry. In October 2025, OpenAI completed an employee share sale of up to $10 billion to existing investors which valued the company at $500 billion. The deal values OpenAI as the most valuable privately owned company in the world—surpassing SpaceX as the world's most valuable private company. On November 17, 2023, Sam Altman was removed as CEO when its board of directors (composed of Helen Toner, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D'Angelo and Tasha McCauley) cited a lack of confidence in him. Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati took over as interim CEO. Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI, was also removed as chairman of the board and resigned from the company's presidency shortly thereafter. Three senior OpenAI researchers subsequently resigned: director of research and GPT-4 lead Jakub Pachocki, head of AI risk Aleksander Mądry, and researcher Szymon Sidor. On November 18, 2023, there were reportedly talks of Altman returning as CEO amid pressure placed upon the board by investors such as Microsoft and Thrive Capital, who objected to Altman's departure. Although Altman himself spoke in favor of returning to OpenAI, he has since stated that he considered starting a new company and bringing former OpenAI employees with him if talks to reinstate him didn't work out. The board members agreed "in principle" to resign if Altman returned. On November 19, 2023, negotiations with Altman to return failed and Murati was replaced by Emmett Shear as interim CEO. The board initially contacted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (a former OpenAI executive) about replacing Altman, and proposed a merger of the two companies, but both offers were declined. On November 20, 2023, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced Altman and Brockman would be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team, but added that they were still committed to OpenAI despite recent events. Before the partnership with Microsoft was finalized, Altman gave the board another opportunity to negotiate with him. About 738 of OpenAI's 770 employees, including Murati and Sutskever, signed an open letter stating they would quit their jobs and join Microsoft if the board did not rehire Altman and then resign. This prompted OpenAI investors to consider legal action against the board as well. In response, OpenAI management sent an internal memo to employees stating that negotiations with Altman and the board had resumed and would take some time. On November 21, 2023, after continued negotiations, Altman and Brockman returned to the company in their prior roles along with a reconstructed board made up of new members Bret Taylor (as chairman) and Lawrence Summers, with D'Angelo remaining. According to subsequent reporting, shortly before Altman’s firing, some employees raised concerns to the board about how he had handled the safety implications of a recent internal AI capability discovery. On November 29, 2023, OpenAI announced that an anonymous Microsoft employee had joined the board as a non-voting member to observe the company's operations; Microsoft resigned from the board in July 2024. In February 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed OpenAI's internal communication to determine if Altman's alleged lack of candor misled investors. In 2024, following the temporary removal of Sam Altman and his return, many employees gradually left OpenAI, including most of the original leadership team and a significant number of AI safety researchers. In August 2023, it was announced that OpenAI had acquired the New York-based start-up Global Illumination, a company that deploys AI to develop digital infrastructure and creative tools. In June 2024, OpenAI acquired Multi, a startup focused on remote collaboration. In March 2025, OpenAI reached a deal with CoreWeave to acquire $350 million worth of CoreWeave shares and access to AI infrastructure, in return for $11.9 billion paid over five years. Microsoft was already CoreWeave's biggest customer in 2024. Alongside their other business dealings, OpenAI and Microsoft were renegotiating the terms of their partnership to facilitate a potential future initial public offering by OpenAI, while ensuring Microsoft's continued access to advanced AI models. On May 21, OpenAI announced the $6.5 billion acquisition of io, an AI hardware start-up founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive in 2024. In September 2025, OpenAI agreed to acquire the product testing startup Statsig for $1.1 billion in an all-stock deal and appointed Statsig's founding CEO Vijaye Raji as OpenAI's chief technology officer of applications. The company also announced development of an AI-driven hiring service designed to rival LinkedIn. OpenAI acquired personal finance app Roi in October 2025. In October 2025, OpenAI acquired Software Applications Incorporated, the developer of Sky, a macOS-based natural language interface designed to operate across desktop applications. The Sky team joined OpenAI, and the company announced plans to integrate Sky’s capabilities into ChatGPT. In December 2025, it was announced OpenAI had agreed to acquire Neptune, an AI tooling startup that helps companies track and manage model training, for an undisclosed amount. In January 2026, it was announced OpenAI had acquired healthcare technology startup Torch for approximately $60 million. The acquisition followed the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT Health product and was intended to strengthen the company’s medical data and healthcare artificial intelligence capabilities. OpenAI has been criticized for outsourcing the annotation of data sets to Sama, a company based in San Francisco that employed workers in Kenya. These annotations were used to train an AI model to detect toxicity, which could then be used to moderate toxic content, notably from ChatGPT's training data and outputs. However, these pieces of text usually contained detailed descriptions of various types of violence, including sexual violence. The investigation uncovered that OpenAI began sending snippets of data to Sama as early as November 2021. The four Sama employees interviewed by Time described themselves as mentally scarred. OpenAI paid Sama $12.50 per hour of work, and Sama was redistributing the equivalent of between $1.32 and $2.00 per hour post-tax to its annotators. Sama's spokesperson said that the $12.50 was also covering other implicit costs, among which were infrastructure expenses, quality assurance and management. In 2024, OpenAI began collaborating with Broadcom to design a custom AI chip capable of both training and inference, targeted for mass production in 2026 and to be manufactured by TSMC on a 3 nm process node. This initiative intended to reduce OpenAI's dependence on Nvidia GPUs, which are costly and face high demand in the market. In January 2024, Arizona State University purchased ChatGPT Enterprise in OpenAI's first deal with a university. In June 2024, Apple Inc. signed a contract with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT features into its products as part of its new Apple Intelligence initiative. In June 2025, OpenAI began renting Google Cloud's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to support ChatGPT and related services, marking its first meaningful use of non‑Nvidia AI chips. In September 2025, it was revealed that OpenAI signed a contract with Oracle to purchase $300 billion in computing power over the next five years. In September 2025, OpenAI and NVIDIA announced a memorandum of understanding that included a potential deployment of at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems and a $100 billion investment from NVIDIA in OpenAI. OpenAI expected the negotiations to be completed within weeks. As of January 2026, this has not been realized, and the two sides are rethinking the future of their partnership. In October 2025, OpenAI announced a multi-billion dollar deal with AMD. OpenAI committed to purchasing six gigawatts worth of AMD chips, starting with the MI450. OpenAI will have the option to buy up to 160 million shares of AMD, about 10% of the company, depending on development, performance and share price targets. In December 2025, Disney said it would make a $1 billion investment in OpenAI, and signed a three-year licensing deal that will let users generate videos using Sora—OpenAI's short-form AI video platform. More than 200 Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar characters will be available to OpenAI users. In early 2026, Amazon entered advanced discussions to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a potential artificial intelligence partnership. Under the proposed agreement, OpenAI’s models could be integrated into Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa and other internal projects. OpenAI provides LLMs to the Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge and to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. In October 2024, The Intercept revealed that OpenAI's tools are considered "essential" for AFRICOM's mission and included in an "Exception to Fair Opportunity" contractual agreement between the United States Department of Defense and Microsoft. In December 2024, OpenAI said it would partner with defense-tech company Anduril to build drone defense technologies for the United States and its allies. In 2025, OpenAI's Chief Product Officer, Kevin Weil, was commissioned lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army to join Detachment 201 as senior advisor. In June 2025, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded OpenAI a $200 million one-year contract to develop AI tools for military and national security applications. OpenAI announced a new program, OpenAI for Government, to give federal, state, and local governments access to its models, including ChatGPT. Services In February 2019, GPT-2 was announced, which gained attention for its ability to generate human-like text. In 2020, OpenAI announced GPT-3, a language model trained on large internet datasets. GPT-3 is aimed at natural language answering questions, but it can also translate between languages and coherently generate improvised text. It also announced that an associated API, named the API, would form the heart of its first commercial product. Eleven employees left OpenAI, mostly between December 2020 and January 2021, in order to establish Anthropic. In 2021, OpenAI introduced DALL-E, a specialized deep learning model adept at generating complex digital images from textual descriptions, utilizing a variant of the GPT-3 architecture. In December 2022, OpenAI received widespread media coverage after launching a free preview of ChatGPT, its new AI chatbot based on GPT-3.5. According to OpenAI, the preview received over a million signups within the first five days. According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters in December 2022, OpenAI Global, LLC was projecting $200 million of revenue in 2023 and $1 billion in revenue in 2024. After ChatGPT was launched, Google announced a similar chatbot, Bard, amid internal concerns that ChatGPT could threaten Google’s position as a primary source of online information. On February 7, 2023, Microsoft announced that it was building AI technology based on the same foundation as ChatGPT into Microsoft Bing, Edge, Microsoft 365 and other products. On March 14, 2023, OpenAI released GPT-4, both as an API (with a waitlist) and as a feature of ChatGPT Plus. On November 6, 2023, OpenAI launched GPTs, allowing individuals to create customized versions of ChatGPT for specific purposes, further expanding the possibilities of AI applications across various industries. On November 14, 2023, OpenAI announced they temporarily suspended new sign-ups for ChatGPT Plus due to high demand. Access for newer subscribers re-opened a month later on December 13. In December 2024, the company launched the Sora model. It also launched OpenAI o1, an early reasoning model that was internally codenamed strawberry. Additionally, ChatGPT Pro—a $200/month subscription service offering unlimited o1 access and enhanced voice features—was introduced, and preliminary benchmark results for the upcoming OpenAI o3 models were shared. On January 23, 2025, OpenAI released Operator, an AI agent and web automation tool for accessing websites to execute goals defined by users. The feature was only available to Pro users in the United States. OpenAI released deep research agent, nine days later. It scored a 27% accuracy on the benchmark Humanity's Last Exam (HLE). Altman later stated GPT-4.5 would be the last model without full chain-of-thought reasoning. In July 2025, reports indicated that AI models by both OpenAI and Google DeepMind solved mathematics problems at the level of top-performing students in the International Mathematical Olympiad. OpenAI's large language model was able to achieve gold medal-level performance, reflecting significant progress in AI's reasoning abilities. On October 6, 2025, OpenAI unveiled its Agent Builder platform during the company's DevDay event. The platform includes a visual drag-and-drop interface that lets developers and businesses design, test, and deploy agentic workflows with limited coding. On October 21, 2025, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Atlas, a browser integrating the ChatGPT assistant directly into web navigation, to compete with existing browsers such as Google Chrome and Apple Safari. On December 11, 2025, OpenAI announced GPT-5.2. This model will be better at creating spreadsheets, building presentations, perceiving images, writing code and understanding long context. On January 27, 2026, OpenAI introduced Prism, a LaTeX-native workspace meant to assist scientists to help with research and writing. The platform utilizes GPT-5.2 as a backend to automate the process of drafting for scientific papers, including features for managing citations, complex equation formatting, and real-time collaborative editing. In March 2023, the company was criticized for disclosing particularly few technical details about products like GPT-4, contradicting its initial commitment to openness and making it harder for independent researchers to replicate its work and develop safeguards. OpenAI cited competitiveness and safety concerns to justify this repudiation. OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever argued in 2023 that open-sourcing increasingly capable models was increasingly risky, and that the safety reasons for not open-sourcing the most potent AI models would become "obvious" in a few years. In September 2025, OpenAI published a study on how people use ChatGPT for everyday tasks. The study found that "non-work tasks" (according to an LLM-based classifier) account for more than 72 percent of all ChatGPT usage, with a minority of overall usage related to business productivity. In July 2023, OpenAI launched the superalignment project, aiming within four years to determine how to align future superintelligent systems. OpenAI promised to dedicate 20% of its computing resources to the project, although the team denied receiving anything close to 20%. OpenAI ended the project in May 2024 after its co-leaders Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike left the company. In August 2025, OpenAI was criticized after thousands of private ChatGPT conversations were inadvertently exposed to public search engines like Google due to an experimental "share with search engines" feature. The opt-in toggle, intended to allow users to make specific chats discoverable, resulted in some discussions including personal details such as names, locations, and intimate topics appearing in search results when users accidentally enabled it while sharing links. OpenAI announced the feature's permanent removal on August 1, 2025, and the company began coordinating with search providers to remove the exposed content, emphasizing that it was not a security breach but a design flaw that heightened privacy risks. CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the issue in a podcast, noting users often treat ChatGPT as a confidant for deeply personal matters, which amplified concerns about AI handling sensitive data. Management In 2018, Musk resigned from his Board of Directors seat, citing "a potential future conflict [of interest]" with his role as CEO of Tesla due to Tesla's AI development for self-driving cars. OpenAI stated that Musk's financial contributions were below $45 million. On March 3, 2023, Reid Hoffman resigned from his board seat, citing a desire to avoid conflicts of interest with his investments in AI companies via Greylock Partners, and his co-founding of the AI startup Inflection AI. Hoffman remained on the board of Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI. In May 2024, Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever resigned and was succeeded by Jakub Pachocki. Co-leader Jan Leike also departed amid concerns over safety and trust. OpenAI then signed deals with Reddit, News Corp, Axios, and Vox Media. Paul Nakasone then joined the board of OpenAI. In August 2024, cofounder John Schulman left OpenAI to join Anthropic, and OpenAI's president Greg Brockman took extended leave until November. In September 2024, CTO Mira Murati left the company. In November 2025, Lawrence Summers resigned from the board of directors. Governance and legal issues In May 2023, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever posted recommendations for the governance of superintelligence. They stated that superintelligence could happen within the next 10 years, allowing a "dramatically more prosperous future" and that "given the possibility of existential risk, we can't just be reactive". They proposed creating an international watchdog organization similar to IAEA to oversee AI systems above a certain capability threshold, suggesting that relatively weak AI systems on the other side should not be overly regulated. They also called for more technical safety research for superintelligences, and asked for more coordination, for example through governments launching a joint project which "many current efforts become part of". In July 2023, the FTC issued a civil investigative demand to OpenAI to investigate whether the company's data security and privacy practices to develop ChatGPT were unfair or harmed consumers (including by reputational harm) in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. These are typically preliminary investigative matters and are nonpublic, but the FTC's document was leaked. In July 2023, the FTC launched an investigation into OpenAI over allegations that the company scraped public data and published false and defamatory information. They asked OpenAI for comprehensive information about its technology and privacy safeguards, as well as any steps taken to prevent the recurrence of situations in which its chatbot generated false and derogatory content about people. The agency also raised concerns about ‘circular’ spending arrangements—for example, Microsoft extending Azure credits to OpenAI while both companies shared engineering talent—and warned that such structures could negatively affect the public. In September 2024, OpenAI's global affairs chief endorsed the UK's "smart" AI regulation during testimony to a House of Lords committee. In February 2025, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that the company is interested in collaborating with the People's Republic of China, despite regulatory restrictions imposed by the U.S. government. This shift comes in response to the growing influence of the Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek, which has disrupted the AI market with open models, including DeepSeek V3 and DeepSeek R1. Following DeepSeek's market emergence, OpenAI enhanced security protocols to protect proprietary development techniques from industrial espionage. Some industry observers noted similarities between DeepSeek's model distillation approach and OpenAI's methodology, though no formal intellectual property claim was filed. According to Oliver Roberts, in March 2025, the United States had 781 state AI bills or laws. OpenAI advocated for preempting state AI laws with federal laws. According to Scott Kohler, OpenAI has opposed California's AI legislation and suggested that the state bill encroaches on a more competent federal government. Public Citizen opposed a federal preemption on AI and pointed to OpenAI's growth and valuation as evidence that existing state laws have not hampered innovation. Before May 2024, OpenAI required departing employees to sign a lifelong non-disparagement agreement forbidding them from criticizing OpenAI and acknowledging the existence of the agreement. Daniel Kokotajlo, a former employee, publicly stated that he forfeited his vested equity in OpenAI in order to leave without signing the agreement. Sam Altman stated that he was unaware of the equity cancellation provision, and that OpenAI never enforced it to cancel any employee's vested equity. However, leaked documents and emails refute this claim. On May 23, 2024, OpenAI sent a memo releasing former employees from the agreement. OpenAI was sued for copyright infringement by authors Sarah Silverman, Matthew Butterick, Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad in July 2023. In September 2023, 17 authors, including George R. R. Martin, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and Jonathan Franzen, joined the Authors Guild in filing a class action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company's technology was illegally using their copyrighted work. The New York Times also sued the company in late December 2023. In May 2024 it was revealed that OpenAI had destroyed its Books1 and Books2 training datasets, which were used in the training of GPT-3, and which the Authors Guild believed to have contained over 100,000 copyrighted books. In 2021, OpenAI developed a speech recognition tool called Whisper. OpenAI used it to transcribe more than one million hours of YouTube videos into text for training GPT-4. The automated transcription of YouTube videos raised concerns within OpenAI employees regarding potential violations of YouTube's terms of service, which prohibit the use of videos for applications independent of the platform, as well as any type of automated access to its videos. Despite these concerns, the project proceeded with notable involvement from OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman. The resulting dataset proved instrumental in training GPT-4. In February 2024, The Intercept as well as Raw Story and Alternate Media Inc. filed lawsuit against OpenAI on copyright litigation ground. The lawsuit is said to have charted a new legal strategy for digital-only publishers to sue OpenAI. On April 30, 2024, eight newspapers filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming illegal harvesting of their copyrighted articles. The suing publications included The Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, and New York Daily News. In June 2023, a lawsuit claimed that OpenAI scraped 300 billion words online without consent and without registering as a data broker. It was filed in San Francisco, California, by sixteen anonymous plaintiffs. They also claimed that OpenAI and its partner as well as customer Microsoft continued to unlawfully collect and use personal data from millions of consumers worldwide to train artificial intelligence models. On May 22, 2024, OpenAI entered into an agreement with News Corp to integrate news content from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, The Times, and The Sunday Times into its AI platform. Meanwhile, other publications like The New York Times chose to sue OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement over the use of their content to train AI models. In November 2024, a coalition of Canadian news outlets, including the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and CBC, sued OpenAI for using their news articles to train its software without permission. In October 2024 during a New York Times interview, Suchir Balaji accused OpenAI of violating copyright law in developing its commercial LLMs which he had helped engineer. He was a likely witness in a major copyright trial against the AI company, and was one of several of its current or former employees named in court filings as potentially having documents relevant to the case. On November 26, 2024, Balaji died by suicide. His death prompted the circulation of conspiracy theories alleging that he had been deliberately silenced. California Congressman Ro Khanna endorsed calls for an investigation. On April 24, 2025, Ziff Davis sued OpenAI in Delaware federal court for copyright infringement. Ziff Davis is known for publications such as ZDNet, PCMag, CNET, IGN and Lifehacker. In April 2023, the EU's European Data Protection Board (EDPB) formed a dedicated task force on ChatGPT "to foster cooperation and to exchange information on possible enforcement actions conducted by data protection authorities" based on the "enforcement action undertaken by the Italian data protection authority against OpenAI about the ChatGPT service". In late April 2024 NOYB filed a complaint with the Austrian Datenschutzbehörde against OpenAI for violating the European General Data Protection Regulation. A text created with ChatGPT gave a false date of birth for a living person without giving the individual the option to see the personal data used in the process. A request to correct the mistake was denied. Additionally, neither the recipients of ChatGPT's work nor the sources used, could be made available, OpenAI claimed. OpenAI was criticized for lifting its ban on using ChatGPT for "military and warfare". Up until January 10, 2024, its "usage policies" included a ban on "activity that has high risk of physical harm, including", specifically, "weapons development" and "military and warfare". Its new policies prohibit "[using] our service to harm yourself or others" and to "develop or use weapons". In August 2025, the parents of a 16-year-old boy who died by suicide filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI (and CEO Sam Altman), alleging that months of conversations with ChatGPT about mental health and methods of self-harm contributed to their son's death and that safeguards were inadequate for minors. OpenAI expressed condolences and said it was strengthening protections (including updated crisis response behavior and parental controls). Coverage described it as a first-of-its-kind wrongful death case targeting the company's chatbot. The complaint was filed in California state court in San Francisco. In November 2025, the Social Media Victims Law Center and Tech Justice Law Project filed seven lawsuits against OpenAI, of which four lawsuits alleged wrongful death. The suits were filed on behalf of Zane Shamblin, 23, of Texas; Amaurie Lacey, 17, of Georgia; Joshua Enneking, 26, of Florida; and Joe Ceccanti, 48, of Oregon, who each committed suicide after prolonged ChatGPT usage. In December 2025, Stein-Erik Soelberg, who was 56 years old at the time, allegedly murdered his mother Suzanne Adams. In the months prior the paranoid, delusional man often discussed his ideas with ChatGPT. Adam's estate then sued OpenAI claiming that the company shared responsibility due to the risk of chatbot psychosis despite the fact that chatbot psychosis is not a real medical diagnosis. OpenAI responded saying they will make ChatGPT safer for users disconnected from reality. See also References Further reading External links
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_green_men] \| [TOKENS: 2567]
Contents Little green men Little green men are stereotypical portrayals of extraterrestrials as little humanoids with green skin and sometimes antennae on their heads. The term "little green men" came into popular usage in reference to aliens during the reports of flying saucers in the 1950s. In one classic case, the Kelly-Hopkinsville sighting in 1955, two rural Kentucky men described a supposed encounter with metallic-silver, somewhat humanoid-looking aliens no more than 4 feet (1.2 m) in height. Employing journalistic licence and deviating from the witnesses' accounts, The Evansville Courier used the term "little green men" in writing up the story. Other media then followed suit. History of the term Usage of the term clearly predates the 1955 incident; for example, in England reference to little green men or children dates back to the 12th century green children of Woolpit, although exactly when the term was first applied to extraterrestrial aliens has been difficult to pin down. In his historical satire A History of New York (1809), American author Washington Irving described Lunatics (or men from the Moon) as "pea green", in contrast to the "white" inhabitants of Earth. Science fiction scholar Adam Roberts writes that these may be the first green aliens in literature. Folklore researcher Chris Aubeck has used electronic searches of old newspapers and found a number of instances dating from around the turn of the 20th century referring to green aliens. Aubeck found one story from 1899 in the Atlanta Constitution, about a little green-skinned alien, in a tale called Green Boy From Hurrah, "Hurrah" being another planet, perhaps Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs referred to the "green men of Mars" and "green Martian women" in his first science fiction novel A Princess of Mars (1912), although at 10 to 12 feet (3.0 to 3.7 m) tall, they were hardly "little". However, the first use of the specific phrase "little green man" in reference to extraterrestrials that Aubeck found dates to 1908 in the Daily Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Maine), in this case the aliens again being Martians. In 1910 (or 1915), a "little green man" was allegedly captured from his crashed spaceship in Apulia, in south-east Italy. Green aliens soon came to commonly portray extraterrestrials and adorned the covers of many of the 1920s to 1950s science fiction pulp magazines with such things as pictures of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon battling green alien monsters. The first documented print example specifically linking "little green men" to extraterrestrial spaceships is in a newspaper column satirizing the public panic following Orson Welles' famous "War of the Worlds" Halloween broadcast of October 31, 1938. The column by reporter Bill Barnard in the Corpus Christi Times the next day begins, "Thirteen little green men from Mercury stepped out of their space ship at Cliff Maus Field [local airport] late yesterday afternoon for a good-will visit to Corpus Christi" and ends with: "Then the 13 little green men got in their space ship and flew away." The familiarity with which the term was used suggests that this probably was not the first instance where it was applied to extraterrestrials in spaceships.[citation needed] In 1946, Harold M. Sherman published a pulp science fiction book entitled The Green Man: A Visitor From Space. The cover illustration was of a normal-looking and proportioned human being, albeit with a green skin. Nationally syndicated columns by humorist Hal Boyle spoke of a green man from Mars in his flying saucer in early July 1947 during the height of the brand new flying saucer phenomenon in the U.S. that started June 24 after Kenneth Arnold's famous sighting and the Roswell UFO incident. However, Boyle did not describe his green Martian as "small".[citation needed] The 1951 science fiction book The Case of the Little Green Men, by Mack Reynolds, tells of a private detective hired to investigate disguised aliens living among the human population. As he was being hired, the detective referred derisively and familiarly to the aliens in the flying saucers being "little green men". The cover illustration is notable for depicting the LGM with the classic antennae sticking out of the head. Mack Reynolds would go on to write the first Star Trek novel in 1968 (Mission to Horatius). By early 1950, stories began circulating in newspapers about little beings being recovered from flying saucer crashes. Though largely considered to be hoaxes, some of the stories from the sources about little aliens eventually made it into the popular 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers by Variety magazine columnist Frank Scully. A witness reporting a flying saucer sighting to a Wichita, Kansas newspaper in June 1950 stated that he saw "absolutely no little green men with egg on their whiskers". The term "little green men" was specifically used in reference to science fiction and flying saucers by at least 1951 in The New York Times and The Washington Post (in the Post, a book review of a mystery/science fiction novel called The Little Green Man), and 1952 in the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune (the Tribune mocking flying saucer reports using a "little green man with pink polka dots"). The New York Times used the term in 1955 in a book review of the sci-fi satire Martians, Go Home, saying the Martians were obnoxious "little green men" whose appearance was "true to prophecy".[citation needed] Following a nationally publicized flurry of UFO sightings in November 1957, syndicated Washington columnist Frederick Othman wrote: "New Flying Saucer Epidemic On. All over this land again are flying saucers ... No little green men have climbed out of these celestial vehicles so far, but in another couple of days I wouldn't be surprised ..." Origins and other uses The term also shows up much earlier in other contexts. Film gossip columnist Hedda Hopper used it in 1939 referring to small cast members of The Wizard of Oz (1939), and admonished against drinking on the set. In 1942, The Los Angeles Times used the term in a pictorial on Marines training for jungle combat. In this case, "little green men" referred to camouflaged Japanese soldiers. The Washington Post in 1942 likewise used the term "little green man" in reference to a camouflaged Japanese sniper who nearly killed one of their war correspondents. Before its more modern application to aliens, little green men was commonly used to describe various supernatural beings in old legends and folklore and in later fairy tales and children's books such as goblins. Aubeck noted several examples of the latter in 19th and early 20th century literature. As an example, Rudyard Kipling had a "little green man" in Puck of Pook's Hill from 1906. Another example, and the earliest use of little green man in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, dates from 1902, in a review of a children's book called The Gift of the Magic Staff, where a supernatural "Little Green Man" is a boy's friend and helps him visit the cloudland fairies. The next use in The New York Times was in 1950, and references a planned film by Walt Disney Company of a 1927 novel by poet/novelist Robert Nathan called The Woodcutter's House. The only animated character in the picture was to be Nathan's "Little Green Man", a confidant of the woodland animals. (The film was never made.) In 1923, a serialized romance, When Hearts Command by Elizabeth York Miller, which appeared in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post, has a former mental patient who still sees "little green men" and who simultaneously comments that a fellow patient "conversed with the inhabitants of Mars". Other instances of imaginary small green beings have been found in a newspaper column from 1936 sarcastically discussing doctors and their medical advice, saying these are the same people who have breakdowns in middle age and start hallucinating "a little green man with big ears". Syndicated columnist Sydney J. Harris used "little green man" in 1948 as a child's imaginary friend while condemning the age-old tradition of frightening children with stories of "boogeymen". These examples illustrate that use of little green men was already deeply engrained in English vernacular long before the flying saucer era, used for a variety of supernatural, imaginary, or mythical beings. It also seems to have easily extended beyond the imaginary to real people, such as the reference to small actors in the Wizard of Oz or camouflaged Japanese soldiers. Similarly, Aubeck and others suspect that when flying saucers came along in 1947, with subsequent speculation about alien origins, the term naturally and quickly attached itself to the modern age equivalent. The Mekon, the green-skinned adversary in Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, from Eagle comic's long-running series, first appeared 1950. It is also clear that by the early 1950s, the term was already commonly used as a sarcastic reference to the occupants of flying saucers. By 1954, the image of little green men had become inscribed in the public's collective consciousness. Further electronic searches suggest that the term became increasingly more common in the 1960s and always used in a derisive or humorous way. The Chicago Tribune in 1960 carried a front-page story on the speculations of a Harvard anthropologist about how aliens might look and alien sex. The article opens with the comment, "If there really are 'little green men' out there in space, there are probably also little green women–and sex." A cartoon was attached showing two amorous centaur-like male and female aliens with antennae sticking out of their heads. The article also enigmatically states, "The 'little green men' designation came from Dr. Otto Struve, director of the national radio astronomy observatory, Green Bank, W. Va. He said that's what the possible outerspacers are called 'among themselves'." The term even penetrated into the commentary of The Wall Street Journal. First use in the Journal was 1960 in an article on the Brookings Report commissioned by NASA, studying the possible social effects of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. The Journal commented that they thought the report overly pessimistic, assuming that "the little green men with the wiggly antennae" would be hostile. Another Journal use of the term occurred in 1968 in an editorial on a planned Congressional investigation of UFOs. The writer sarcastically asked how they planned to subpoena "a little green man". In 1969, they commented that the Condon Committee UFO study commissioned by the Air Force was a waste of money. The editorial stated that even if they did prove that "UFOs were people with little green men", what were we supposed to do about it? A green-skinned little green man had even appeared in The Flintstones as a recurring character. The Great Gazoo (introduced in Episode 145) typified the representation of a little green man with his short, green stature and helmet with antennae. However, the 1960s also marked a transition in the way people imagined a stereotypical alien. In alien abduction stories they are often small but grey beings and in Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) they are unseen. Current usage The pro-Russian uniformed "local self-defence" forces with camouflage and modern Russian weaponry but no identifying badges or insignia, operating in 2014 during the Russo-Ukrainian War were also called "Martians" or "little green men" by the locals and the media. Astronomy In 1967, Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish of the University of Cambridge, UK dubbed the first discovered pulsar LGM-1 for "little green men" because the regular oscillations of its signal suggested a possible intelligent origin. Its designation was later changed to CP 1919, and is now known as PSR B1919+21. See also References Further reading External links
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[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/author/zack-whittaker/] \| [TOKENS: 206]
Save up to $680 on your pass with Super Early Bird rates. REGISTER NOW. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends February 27. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Zack Whittaker Security Editor, TechCrunch Zack Whittaker is the security editor at TechCrunch. He also authors the weekly cybersecurity newsletter, this week in security. He can be reached via encrypted message at zackwhittaker.1337 on Signal. You can also contact him by email, or to verify outreach, at zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com. Latest from Zack Whittaker © 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC.
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[SOURCE: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_(מערכת_הפעלה)] \| [TOKENS: 660]
תוכן עניינים Fire (מערכת הפעלה) Fire OS היא מערכת הפעלה ניידת המבוססת על פרויקט הקוד הפתוח של אנדרואיד ונוצרה על ידי אמזון עבור טאבלטי ה-Fire שלה, רמקולים חכמים Echo ומכשירי Fire TV. מערכת ההפעלה כוללת תוכנה קניינית, ממשק משתמש מותאם המתמקד בעיקר בצריכת תוכן, וקישור לתוכן הזמין מהשירותים של אמזון עצמה. אפליקציות ל-Fire OS מסופקות דרך ה-Amazon Appstore. מאפיינים Fire OS משתמשת בממשק משתמש מותאם אישית שנועד לקדם באופן בולט תוכן הזמין באמצעות שירותי אמזון, כגון Amazon Appstore, פריים וידאו, Amazon Music ו-Kindle Store. פונקציית החיפוש מאפשרת למשתמשים לחפש דרך ספריית התוכן המקומית שלהם או בחנויות של אמזון. בדומה לאנדרואיד, החלקה מהחלק העליון של המסך חושפת הגדרות והתראות מהירות. Fire OS מספקת גם אינטגרציה עם Goodreads, פייסבוק וטוויטר. הערות שוליים
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&action=info] \| [TOKENS: 46]
Contents Information for "OpenAI" Basic information Page protection Edit history Page properties This page is a member of 8 hidden categories (help): Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page (help): Lint errors External tools
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mars&action=history] \| [TOKENS: 67]
Mars: Revision history For any version listed below, click on its date to view it. For more help, see Help:Page history and Help:Edit summary. (cur) = difference from current version, (prev) = difference from preceding version, m = minor edit, → = section edit, ← = automatic edit summary
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_executive_officer] \| [TOKENS: 2481]
Contents Chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in various organizations, including public and private corporations, nonprofit organizations, and even some government organizations (notably state-owned enterprises). The governor and CEO of a corporation or company typically report to the board of directors and are charged with maximizing the value of the business, which may include maximizing the profitability, market share, revenue, or another financial metric. In the nonprofit and government sector, CEOs typically aim at achieving outcomes related to the organization's mission, usually provided by legislation. CEOs are also frequently assigned the role of the main manager of the organization and the highest-ranking officer in the C-suite. Origins The term "chief executive officer" is attested as early as 1782, when an ordinance of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States of America used the term to refer to governors and other leaders of the executive branches of each of the Thirteen Colonies. In draft additions to the Oxford English Dictionary published online in 2011, the Dictionary says that the use of "CEO" as an acronym for a chief executive officer originated in Australia, with the first attestation being in 1914. The first American usage cited is from 1972. Responsibilities The responsibilities of an organization's CEO are set by the organization's board of directors or other authority, depending on the organization's structure. They can be far-reaching or quite limited, and are typically enshrined in a formal delegation of authority regarding business administration. Typically, responsibilities include being an active decision-maker on business strategy and other key policy issues, as well as leader, manager, and executor roles. The communicator role can involve speaking to the press and the public, as well as to the organization's management and employees. The decision-making role entails making high-level decisions regarding policy and strategy. The CEO is responsible for implementing the goals, targets, and strategic objectives as determined by the board of directors. As an executive officer of the company, the CEO reports the status of the business to the board of directors, motivates employees, and drives change within the organization. As a manager, the CEO presides over the organization's day-to-day operations. The CEO is the person who is ultimately accountable for a company's business decisions, including those in operations, marketing, business development, finance, human resources, etc. The CEO of a political party is often entrusted with fundraising, particularly for election campaigns. The use of the CEO title may be used by for-profit companies or non-profit or charitable organisations, such as the Wikimedia Foundation. International use In some countries, there is a dual board system with two separate boards, one executive board for the day-to-day business and one supervisory board for control purposes (selected by the shareholders). In these countries, the CEO presides over the executive board and the chairperson presides over the supervisory board, and these two roles will always be held by different people. This ensures a distinction between management by the executive board and governance by the supervisory board. This allows for clear lines of authority. The aim is to prevent a conflict of interest and too much power being concentrated in the hands of one person. In the United States, the board of directors (elected by the shareholders) is often equivalent to the supervisory board, while the executive board may often be known as the executive committee (the division/subsidiary heads and C-level officers that report directly to the CEO). In the United States, and in business, the executive officers are usually the top officers of a corporation, the chief executive officer (CEO) being the best-known type. The definition varies; for instance, the California Corporate Disclosure Act defines "executive officers" as the five most highly compensated officers not also sitting on the board of directors. In the case of a sole proprietorship, an executive officer is the sole proprietor. In the case of a partnership, an executive officer is a managing partner, senior partner, or administrative partner. In the case of a limited liability company, an executive officer is any member, manager, or officer.[citation needed] Related positions Depending on the organization, a CEO may have several subordinate executives to help run the day-to-day administration of the company, each of whom has specific functional responsibilities referred to as senior executives, executive officers, or corporate officers. Subordinate executives are given different titles in different organizations, but one common category of subordinate executive, if the CEO is also the president, is the vice president (VP). An organization may have more than one vice president, each tasked with a different area of responsibility (e.g., VP of finance, VP of human resources). Examples of subordinate executive officers who typically report to the CEO include the chief operating officer (COO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief strategy officer (CSO), chief marketing officer (CMO), and chief business officer (CBO). The public relations-focused position of chief reputation officer is sometimes included as one such subordinate executive officer, but, as suggested by Anthony Johndrow, CEO of Reputation Economy Advisors, it can also be seen as "simply another way to add emphasis to the role of a modern-day CEO – where they are both the external face of, and the driving force behind, an organization culture". In the US, the term "chief executive officer" is used primarily in business, whereas the term "executive director" is used primarily in the not-for-profit sector. These terms are generally mutually exclusive and refer to distinct legal duties and responsibilities. The CEO is the highest-ranking executive in a company, making corporate decisions, managing operations, allocating resources, and serving as the main point of communication between the board of directors and the company. In the UK, chief executive and chief executive officer are used in local government, where their position in law is described as the "head of paid service", and in business and in the charitable sector. As of 2013[update], the use of the term director for senior charity staff is deprecated to avoid confusion with the legal duties and responsibilities associated with being a charity director or trustee, which are normally non-executive (unpaid) roles. The term managing director is often used in lieu of chief executive officer. Celebrity CEOs Business publicists since the days of Edward Bernays (1891–1995) and his client John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) and even more successfully the corporate publicists for Henry Ford, promoted the concept of the "celebrity CEO". Business journalists have often adopted this approach, which assumes that the corporate achievements, especially in the arena of manufacturing, are produced by uniquely talented individuals, especially the "heroic CEO". In effect, journalists celebrate a CEO who takes distinctive strategic actions. The model is the celebrity in entertainment, sports, and politics – compare the "great man theory". Guthey et al. argues that "...these individuals are not self-made, but rather are created by a process of widespread media exposure to the point that their actions, personalities, and even private lives function symbolically to represent significant dynamics and tensions prevalent in the contemporary business atmosphere". Journalism thereby exaggerates the importance of the CEO and tends to neglect harder-to-describe broader corporate factors. There is little attention to the intricately organized technical bureaucracy that actually does the work. Hubris sets in when the CEO internalizes the celebrity and becomes excessively self-confident in making complex decisions. There may be an emphasis on the sort of decisions that attract the celebrity journalists. Research published in 2009 by Ulrike Malmendier and Geoffrey Tate indicates that "firms with award-winning CEOs subsequently underperform, in terms both of stock and of operating performance". Criticism CEOs and senior executives are governed by the board of directors. The proper selection and evaluation of the CEO and the executive team is critical to the company’s performance. Yet there is no established standard framework to evaluate and govern the CEO performance. Aside from Sarbanes Oxley Act legal standard to govern the financial reporting of public companies and hold the CEO & CFO accountable, there are no industry standards to test the CEO competency and actions or to help align the performance of the executive team with the shareholders' interest and performance expectations. One initiative proposes a standardized questionnaire used in annual CEO reviews and senior executive recruitment. These questionnaires help guide CEO strategy and assure the shareholders that the company and its executive team are on the right track. According to the Executive Institute, the top 10 questions every board must ask its CEO, include the following: Every CEO and C-level executive must be able to provide specific answers to the preceding questions, readily and clearly. Additionally, these questions can also be used as a framework for evaluating potential candidates for the succession planning and selection process. Executive compensation has been a source of criticism following a dramatic rise in pay relative to the average worker's wage. For example, the relative pay was 20-to-1 in 1965 in the US, but had risen to 376-to-1 by 2000. The relative pay differs around the world, and, in some smaller countries, is still around 20-to-1. Observers differ as to whether the rise is due to competition for talent or due to lack of control by compensation committees. In recent years, investors have demanded more say over executive pay. Lack of diversity amongst chief executives has also been a source of criticism. In 2018, 5% of Fortune 500 CEOs were women. In 2023 the number rose to 10.4% of for Women CEO's of Fortune 500 companies. The reasons for this are explained or justified in various ways, and may include biological sex differences, male and female differences in Big Five personality traits and temperament, sex differences in psychology and interests, maternity and career breaks, hypergamy, phallogocentrism, the existence of old boy networks, tradition, and the lack of female role models in that regard. Some countries have passed laws mandating boardroom gender quotas. In 2023 Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to Korn Ferry to research strategies and then action a plan to help more women to become CEO's. There are contentious claims that a significant number of CEOs have psychopathic tendencies, often characterized by power-seeking behavior and dominance. These individuals can often conceal their ruthlessness and antisocial behavior behind a facade of charm and eloquence. Traits such as courage and risk-taking, generally considered desirable, are often found alongside these psychopathic tendencies. Tara Swart, a neuroscientist at MIT Sloan School of Management, has suggested that individuals with psychopathic traits thrive in chaotic environments and are aware that others do not. As a result, they may intentionally create chaos in the workplace. This perspective is explored in the book Snakes in Suits, co-authored by Robert D. Hare. However, Scott Lilienfeld has argued that the attention given to psychopathy in the workplace by both the media and scholars has far exceeded the available scientific evidence. Emilia Bunea, writing in Psychology Today, has linked psychopathic traits in managers to workplace bullying, employee dissatisfaction, and turnover intentions. Despite this, Bunea cautions that excessive worry about supposed psychopathic managers could discourage individuals from pursuing careers in corporations and deter employees from addressing issues with difficult bosses. There have been several notable controversies involving famous CEOs. Some of the most prominent controversies were a result of the MeToo Movement including Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Company, Steve Wynn and Wynn Resorts Ltd., and Leslie Moonves & CBS. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, Inc. and SpaceX, has been the subject of several controversies. In 2018, Musk tweeted "[a]m considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured" in the middle of a trading day and a few weeks later, Tesla announced it would go private. The SEC investigated Musk shortly after his tweet and charged him with securities fraud. Musk settled the controversy and stepped down as chair of Tesla's board but remained the company's CEO. Musk and Tesla both paid a $20 million penalty to be distributed among harmed investors. See also References Further reading External links
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81] \| [TOKENS: 196]
Contents .рус .рус[a][b] is a top-level domain intended for the Russian-speaking Internet community. It was delegated on 29 September 2014. Priority registration began on 3 September 2015. Open registration started on 24 May 2016.[citation needed] .рус is one of 11 top-level domains for which issuance and reissuance of certificates were suspended due to the geopolitical situation in Ukraine. General information The .рус domain is intended for all Internet users who are speakers of the Russian language and participants in Russian culture. It is not a country-code top-level domain and is not associated with any specific state or nation. It has generic status. Only characters of the Russian alphabet, digits, and the hyphen may be used in domain names. Early Cyrillic domains History of the .рус domain Launch phases Registration of domain names in the .рус zone took place in several stages: See also Notes References
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CiteThisPage&page=OpenAI&id=1339377344&wpFormIdentifier=titleform] \| [TOKENS: 561]
Contents Cite This Page IMPORTANT NOTE: Most educators and professionals do not consider it appropriate to use tertiary sources such as encyclopedias as a sole source for any information—citing an encyclopedia as an important reference in footnotes or bibliographies may result in censure or a failing grade. Wikipedia articles should be used for background information, as a reference for correct terminology and search terms, and as a starting point for further research. As with any community-built reference, there is a possibility for error in Wikipedia's content—please check your facts against multiple sources and read our disclaimers for more information. Bibliographic details for "OpenAI" Please remember to check your manual of style, standards guide or instructor's guidelines for the exact syntax to suit your needs. For more detailed advice, see Citing Wikipedia. Citation styles for "OpenAI" Wikipedia contributors. (2026, February 20). OpenAI. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:11, February 21, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344 Wikipedia contributors. "OpenAI." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Feb. 2026. Web. 21 Feb. 2026. Wikipedia contributors, 'OpenAI', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 February 2026, 05:23 UTC, <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344> [accessed 21 February 2026] Wikipedia contributors, "OpenAI," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344 (accessed February 21, 2026). Wikipedia contributors. OpenAI [Internet]. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia; 2026 Feb 20, 05:23 UTC [cited 2026 Feb 21]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344. OpenAI, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344 (last visited Feb. 21, 2026). Wikipedia contributors. OpenAI. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. February 20, 2026, 05:23 UTC. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenAI&oldid=1339377344. Accessed February 21, 2026. When using the LaTeX package url (\usepackage{url} somewhere in the preamble), which tends to give much more nicely formatted web addresses, the following may be preferred:
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[SOURCE: https://www.fast.ai/posts/2016-10-09-diversity-in-ai.html] \| [TOKENS: 697]
The Diversity Crisis in AI, and fast.ai Diversity Fellowship Rachel Thomas October 9, 2016 Update: The deadline has been extended to 10/17. Read more here At fast.ai, we want to do our part to help make deep learning more inclusive, and we are beginning by offering 1 full tuition fellowship for our deep learning certificate course at the Data Institute at USF, to be held on Monday evenings starting 10/24. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ people are invited to apply. To apply, please send your resume to [email protected] before 10/12 10/17, along with a note that you are interested in the diversity fellowship and a brief paragraph on how you want to use deep learning. You can read more here about what we’ll cover and our approach to teaching. Why are we doing this? Artificial intelligence is an incredibly exciting field to be working in right now, with new breakthroughs occurring almost daily. I personally feel so lucky to be able to work in this field and want everyone to have access to such fascinating and creative work. . Furthermore, artificial intelligence is missing out because of it’s lack of diversity. A study of 366 companies found that ethnically diverse companies are 35% more likely to perform well financially, and teams with more women perform better on collective intelligence tests. Scientific papers written by diverse teams receive more citations and have higher impact factors. As big as the diversity crisis in tech is, it’s even worse in the field of artificial intelligence, which includes deep learning. Immensely powerful algorithms are being created by a very narrow and homeogeneous slice of the population. Only 3 of the 35 people on the Google Brain team are women; only 1 of the 15 AI researchers at Stanford is a women; and in 2015, only 14% of the attendees at one of the largest AI conferences (NIPS) were women. An analysis of the language in job postings found that job ads for machine intelligence roles were significantly more masculinely biased compared to postings for all other types of software engineer roles. We’ve already seen the following sad (yet unintentional) reflections of bias in AI: The opportunity for biased algorithms to have negative real world consequences will only increase as the role of machine learning continues to grow in coming years. Olga Russakovsky, a research fellow at the CMU Robotics Institute (and soon to be CS professor at Princeton), wrote that the field of AI is in a rut, “We’ve tended to breed the same style of researchers over and over again–people who come from similar backgrounds, have similar interests, read the same books as kids, learn from the same thought leaders, and ultimately do the same kinds of research.” Jeff Dean, the legendary head of Google Brain, said that he is not worried about an AI apocolypse, but he is very concerned by the lack of diversity in the field of AI. Mathematics is a field notorious for its sexism, and when we make advanced mathematics an unnecessary barrier to entry for deep learning (a follow up post expanding on this is in the works), we greatly reduce the number of women that will be eligible, since they’ve already been weeded out by hostile and biased environments. Note that this is due to cultural factors in the US, and doesn’t hold true in all countries. Please email [email protected] with any questions about the diversity fellowship or comments about this article.
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[SOURCE: https://www.reddit.com/r/MinecraftCommands/rising/] \| [TOKENS: 1303]
r/MinecraftCommands Important Info (read before posting) New list of available automod commands, new !resources command lightning smite command? u/Interesting_Paper_32 • lightning smite command? Help \| Bedrock Create persistent slime, damageable but unkillable, for parkour course? u/StrawberryGS • Create persistent slime, damageable but unkillable, for parkour course? Help \| Java 1.21.11 Hi, On my SMP I'm making a parkour course. I generally try to keep things as "vanilla" as possible, but I'll make some lore around why a few things aren't strictly vanilla from time to time. The course is to use the trident, mace, and lance as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkPFly9l8Pw I'm having trouble getting the mace parts to work. When I set Invulnerable:true then the slime won't take damage from players in survival, and the mace windburst effect won't trigger. Everything else I can think of to protect the slime from death doesn't seem to work. It will start dying after two mace hits when I use this command: /summon minecraft:slime ~ ~ ~ {Size:6, NoGravity:true, NoAI:true, PersistenceRequired:true, AbsorptionAmount:10000, active_effects:{resistance:10000, regeneration:10000 , instant_health:10000, absorption:10000}} Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks! Hi, On my SMP I'm making a parkour course. I generally try to keep things as "vanilla" as possible, but I'll make some lore around why a few things aren't strictly vanilla from time to time. The course is to use the trident, mace, and lance as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkPFly9l8Pw I'm having trouble getting the mace parts to work. When I set Invulnerable:true then the slime won't take damage from players in survival, and the mace windburst effect won't trigger. Everything else I can think of to protect the slime from death doesn't seem to work. It will start dying after two mace hits when I use this command: /summon minecraft:slime ~ ~ ~ {Size:6, NoGravity:true, NoAI:true, PersistenceRequired:true, AbsorptionAmount:10000, active_effects:{resistance:10000, regeneration:10000 , instant_health:10000, absorption:10000}} Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks! Stop writing raw JSON and MCFunctions. I built a strict Kotlin DSL to generate Minecraft Datapacks 🔥 u/Ayfri • Stop writing raw JSON and MCFunctions. I built a strict Kotlin DSL to generate Minecraft Datapacks 🔥 Creation Hey everyone 👋 A year ago I shared Kore, an open-source Kotlin library to build Minecraft datapacks. It has evolved a lot since then, and if you're working on complex projects, it's time to ditch the vanilla way. Instead of debugging typos in hundreds of .mcfunction and JSON files, Kore lets you write everything in pure, type-safe Kotlin, compatible with 1.21.11 right now. Main features: External Datapack Bindings (Huge time saver): You can pull a GitHub repo (like VanillaTweaks) directly into your code via importDatapacks and use it as a strongly typed dependency in your IDE. 100% Type-Safe & Autocompletion: Catch typos at compile-time, not in-game. Blocks, items, sounds, enchantments etc. everything is mapped to exact Enums. Zero JSON: Handle custom recipes (like smithing), complex advancements, loot tables, and raw NBT data directly through the DSL. No JSON files needed, ever. Real Code Architecture: Use Kotlin's full power: variables, loops, extension functions, and sealed classes to structure your logic instead of getting lost in a sea of commands. Smart Abstractions: Includes wrappers for tedious vanilla mechanics (like recreating dynamic scoreboards every tick easily). Resources to get started: 📖 Docs & Website: kore.ayfri.com 🛠️ Quickstart Template: Kore-Template 💡 New Examples Repo: Kore Examples I'd love to hear your feedback or see what you build with it! Open to any PRs or feature requests. Hey everyone 👋 A year ago I shared Kore, an open-source Kotlin library to build Minecraft datapacks. It has evolved a lot since then, and if you're working on complex projects, it's time to ditch the vanilla way. Instead of debugging typos in hundreds of .mcfunction and JSON files, Kore lets you write everything in pure, type-safe Kotlin, compatible with 1.21.11 right now. Main features: External Datapack Bindings (Huge time saver): You can pull a GitHub repo (like VanillaTweaks) directly into your code via importDatapacks and use it as a strongly typed dependency in your IDE. 100% Type-Safe & Autocompletion: Catch typos at compile-time, not in-game. Blocks, items, sounds, enchantments etc. everything is mapped to exact Enums. Zero JSON: Handle custom recipes (like smithing), complex advancements, loot tables, and raw NBT data directly through the DSL. No JSON files needed, ever. Real Code Architecture: Use Kotlin's full power: variables, loops, extension functions, and sealed classes to structure your logic instead of getting lost in a sea of commands. Smart Abstractions: Includes wrappers for tedious vanilla mechanics (like recreating dynamic scoreboards every tick easily). Resources to get started: 📖 Docs & Website: kore.ayfri.com 🛠️ Quickstart Template: Kore-Template 💡 New Examples Repo: Kore Examples I'd love to hear your feedback or see what you build with it! Open to any PRs or feature requests. Anyone can view, post, and comment to this community Community Bookmarks r/MinecraftCommands Rules No spamming comments, posts, or links Do not post inappropriate content Be respectful: don't use offensive language, especially directed towards others Discord Lemmy Links Community Discord Lemmy Read this first before posting FAQ Resources Moderators
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Middle_East_(orthographic_projection).svg] \| [TOKENS: 198]
File:Middle East (orthographic projection).svg Summary Own work (Original text: Own work,) বাংলা ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ sicilianu ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/− Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania Intercontinental Historical Subnationals Orthographic projections maps created by Heraldry: Licensing File history Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. File usage The following 41 pages use this file: Global file usage The following other wikis use this file: View more global usage of this file. Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ufology] \| [TOKENS: 1831]
Contents Ufology Ufology, sometimes written UFOlogy (US: /juːˈfɑːlədʒi/ or UK: /juːˈfɒlədʒi/), is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and fringe science investigations of UFOs, ufology is generally regarded by skeptics and science educators as an example of pseudoscience. Etymology Ufology is a neologism derived from UFO (a term coined by Edward J. Ruppelt), and is derived from appending the acronym UFO with the suffix -logy (from the Ancient Greek -λογία (-logia)). Early uses of ufology include an article in Fantastic Universe (1957) and a 1958 presentation for the UFO "research organization" The Planetary Center. Historical background The roots of ufology include the "mystery airships" of the late 1890s, the "foo fighters" reported by Allied airmen during World War II, the "ghost fliers" of Europe and North America during the 1930s, the "ghost rockets" of Scandinavia (mainly Sweden) in 1946, and the Kenneth Arnold "flying saucer" sighting of 1947. Media attention to the Arnold sighting helped publicize the concept of flying saucers. Publicity of UFOs increased after World War II, coinciding with the escalation of the Cold War and strategic concerns related to the development and detection (for example, the Ground Observer Corps) of advanced Soviet aircraft. Official, government-sponsored activities in the United States related to ufology ended in the late 1960s following the Condon Committee report and the termination of Project Blue Book. Government-sponsored, UFO-related activities in other countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Italy, and Sweden also ended. An exception to this trend is France, which maintains the GEIPAN program, formerly known as GEPAN (1977–1988) and SEPRA (1988–2004), operated by the French Space Agency CNES. On 14 September 2023, NASA reported the appointment, for the first time, of a Director of U.A.P. (known earlier as U.F.O.), identified as Mark McInerney, to scientifically and transparently study such occurrences. As a field Despite investigations sponsored by governments and private entities, ufology is not embraced by academia as a scientific field of study, and is instead generally considered a pseudoscience by skeptics and science educators, being often included on lists of topics characterized as pseudoscience as either a partial or total pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is a term that classifies arguments that are claimed to exemplify the methods and principles of science, but do not adhere to an appropriate scientific method, lack supporting evidence, plausibility, falsifiability, or otherwise lack scientific status. Some writers have identified social factors that contribute to the status of ufology as a pseudoscience, with one study suggesting that "any science doubt surrounding unidentified flying objects and aliens was not primarily due to the ignorance of ufologists about science, but rather a product of the respective research practices of and relations between ufology, the sciences, and government investigative bodies". One study suggests that "the rudimentary standard of science communication attending to the extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) hypothesis for UFOs inhibits public understanding of science, dissuades academic inquiry within the physical and social sciences, and undermines progressive space policy initiatives". In 2021, astronomer Avi Loeb launched The Galileo Project, which intends to collect and report scientific evidence of extraterrestrials or extraterrestrial technology on or near Earth via telescopic observations. In Germany, the University of Würzburg is developing intelligent sensors that can help detect and analyze aerial objects in hopes of applying such technology to UAP. A 2021 Gallup poll found that belief among Americans in some UFOs being extraterrestrial spacecraft grew between 2019 and 2021 from 33% to 41%. Gallup cited increased coverage in mainstream news and scrutiny from government authorities as a factor in changing attitudes towards UFOs. In 2022, NASA announced a nine-month study starting in the fall to help establish a road map for investigating UAP—or for reconnaissance of the publicly available data it might use for such research. In 2023, the RAND Corporation published a study reviewing 101,151 public reports of UAP sightings in the United States from 1998 to 2022. The models used to conduct the analysis showed that reports of UAP sightings were less likely within 30 km of weather stations, 60 km of civilian airports, and in more–densely populated areas, while rural areas tended to have a higher rate of UAP reports. The most consistent and statistically significant finding was that reports of UAP sightings were more likely to occur within 30 km of military operations areas, where routine military training occurs. Although some ufologists like Peter A. Sturrock have proposed explicit methodological activities for the investigation of UFOs, scientific UFO research is challenged by the facts that the phenomena are spatially and temporally unpredictable, are not reproducible, and lack tangible physicality. That most UFO sightings have mundane explanations limits interpretive power of "interesting," extraordinary UFO-related events, with the astronomer Carl Sagan writing: "The reliable cases are uninteresting and the interesting cases are unreliable. Unfortunately there are no cases that are both reliable and interesting." The ufologists J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallée have each developed descriptive systems for characterizing UFO sightings and, by extension, for organizing ufology investigations.[unreliable source?] In addition to UFO sightings, certain supposedly related phenomena are of interest to some ufologists, including crop circles, cattle mutilations, anomalous materials, alien abductions and implants. Some ufologists have also promoted UFO conspiracy theories, including the Roswell Incident of 1947, the Majestic 12 documents, and UFO disclosure advocates. Skeptic Robert Sheaffer has accused ufology of having a "credulity explosion", writing that "the kind of stories generating excitement and attention in any given year would have been rejected by mainstream ufologists a few years earlier for being too outlandish." The physicist James E. McDonald also identified "cultism" and "extreme...subgroups" as negatively impacting ufology. During the Cold War, ufology was synthesized with the ideas of a Trotskyist movement in South America known as Posadism. Posadism's main theorist, J. Posadas, believed the human race must "appeal to the beings on other planets ... to intervene and collaborate with Earth's inhabitants in suppressing poverty". Posadas wished to collaborate with extraterrestrials to create a socialist system on Earth. The adoption of this belief among Posadists, who had previously been a significant political force in South America, has been noted as a contributing factor in their decline. Governmental and private ufology studies Starting in the 1940s, governmental agencies and private groups sponsored investigations, studies, and conferences related to ufology. Typically motivated by visual UFO sightings, the goals of these studies included critical evaluation of the observational evidence, attempts to resolve and identify the observed events, and the development of policy recommendations. These studies include Project Sign, Project Magnet, Project Blue Book, the Robertson Panel, and the Condon Committee in the United States, the Flying Saucer Working Party and Project Condign in Britain, GEIPAN in France, and Project Hessdalen in Norway. Private studies of UFO phenomena include those produced by the RAND Corporation in 1968, Harvey Rutledge of the University of Missouri from 1973 to 1980, and the National Press Club's Disclosure Project in 2001. Additionally, the United Nations from 1977 to 1979 sponsored meetings and hearings concerning UFO sightings. In August 2020, the United States Department of Defense established the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force to detect, analyze and catalog unidentified aerial phenomena that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security. UFO organizations and events A large number of private organizations dedicated to the study, discussion, and publicity of ufology and other UFO-related topics exist worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland. Along with such "pro-UFO" groups are skeptic organizations that emphasize the pseudoscientific nature of ufology. During the annual World UFO Day (2 July), ufologists and associated organizations raise public awareness of ufology to "tell the truth about earthly visits from outer space aliens." The day's events include group gatherings to search for and observe UFOs. See also References Further reading External links
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[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/lucid-motors-slashes-12-of-its-workforce-as-it-seeks-profitability/] \| [TOKENS: 955]
Save up to $680 on your pass with Super Early Bird rates. REGISTER NOW. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends February 27. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Lucid Motors slashes 12% of its workforce as it seeks profitability Lucid Motors is laying off 12% of its workforce in a bid to “improve operational effectiveness and optimize our resources as we continue on our path toward profitability,” according to an internal memo that was obtained by TechCrunch. Hourly workers on the manufacturing, logistics, and quality teams are not affected by the cuts, according to the memo, which was sent to employees being spared by the layoffs. It’s unclear exactly how many workers are being laid off, but it is likely in the hundreds. Lucid Motors reported having 6,800 full-time employees globally at the end of 2024. “Saying goodbye to colleagues is never easy,” interim CEO Marc Winterhoff wrote in the memo. “We are grateful for the contributions of those impacted by today’s actions, and we are providing severance, bonus, continued health benefits, and transition support to help them through this period.” The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The cuts come as the company is in the middle of ramping up production and deliveries of its Gravity SUV. While Lucid Motors struggled with Gravity production and quality issues during the first few months, the company has been able to pick up the pace, and ultimately doubled its 2024 output last year. The company is also preparing to launch a more affordable mid-size EV later this year that is expected to cost around $50,000. It’s collaborating with Uber and autonomous vehicle company Nuro on launching a robotaxi service in the San Francisco area this year, too. The company is scheduled to release its financial results for 2025 next week. “Importantly, today’s actions do not affect our strategy,” Winterhoff wrote in the memo. “Our core priorities remain unchanged, and we continue to focus on the start of production of our Midsize platform. With disciplined execution, we are also focused on further expansion into the robotaxi market, continued ADAS and software development, and growth in sales of Lucid Gravity and Air across existing and new geographies.” Lucid Motors has now gone almost a full year without a permanent CEO. Peter Rawlinson, who was the company’s chief executive and chief technical officer, abruptly resigned on February 25, 2025. Since then, Lucid Motors has seen a significant amount of turnover in its executive ranks, including the loss of its chief engineer, who sued the company in December for wrongful termination and discrimination. (Lucid Motors has called his legal claims “absurd.”) Topics Sr. Reporter, Transportation Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane. You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal. Save up to $680 on your pass before February 27.Meet investors. Discover your next portfolio company. Hear from 250+ tech leaders, dive into 200+ sessions, and explore 300+ startups building what’s next. Don’t miss these one-time savings. Most Popular FBI says ATM ‘jackpotting’ attacks are on the rise, and netting hackers millions in stolen cash Meta’s own research found parental supervision doesn’t really help curb teens’ compulsive social media use How Ricursive Intelligence raised $335M at a $4B valuation in 4 months After all the hype, some AI experts don’t think OpenClaw is all that exciting OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joins OpenAI Hollywood isn’t happy about the new Seedance 2.0 video generator The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead) © 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC.
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[SOURCE: https://www.reddit.com/r/MinecraftCommands/controversial/] \| [TOKENS: 935]
r/MinecraftCommands Important Info (read before posting) New list of available automod commands, new !resources command why is my command not working u/Real-Pickle-6216 • why is my command not working Help \| Java 1.21.11 /execute at @ p if entity @ p positioned 152 76.00 -7 run tp @ s -42 80 -8 /execute at @ p if entity @ p positioned 152 76.00 -7 run tp @ s -42 80 -8 Stop writing raw JSON and MCFunctions. I built a strict Kotlin DSL to generate Minecraft Datapacks 🔥 u/Ayfri • Stop writing raw JSON and MCFunctions. I built a strict Kotlin DSL to generate Minecraft Datapacks 🔥 Creation Hey everyone 👋 A year ago I shared Kore, an open-source Kotlin library to build Minecraft datapacks. It has evolved a lot since then, and if you're working on complex projects, it's time to ditch the vanilla way. Instead of debugging typos in hundreds of .mcfunction and JSON files, Kore lets you write everything in pure, type-safe Kotlin, compatible with 1.21.11 right now. Main features: External Datapack Bindings (Huge time saver): You can pull a GitHub repo (like VanillaTweaks) directly into your code via importDatapacks and use it as a strongly typed dependency in your IDE. 100% Type-Safe & Autocompletion: Catch typos at compile-time, not in-game. Blocks, items, sounds, enchantments etc. everything is mapped to exact Enums. Zero JSON: Handle custom recipes (like smithing), complex advancements, loot tables, and raw NBT data directly through the DSL. No JSON files needed, ever. Real Code Architecture: Use Kotlin's full power: variables, loops, extension functions, and sealed classes to structure your logic instead of getting lost in a sea of commands. Smart Abstractions: Includes wrappers for tedious vanilla mechanics (like recreating dynamic scoreboards every tick easily). Resources to get started: 📖 Docs & Website: kore.ayfri.com 🛠️ Quickstart Template: Kore-Template 💡 New Examples Repo: Kore Examples I'd love to hear your feedback or see what you build with it! Open to any PRs or feature requests. Hey everyone 👋 A year ago I shared Kore, an open-source Kotlin library to build Minecraft datapacks. It has evolved a lot since then, and if you're working on complex projects, it's time to ditch the vanilla way. Instead of debugging typos in hundreds of .mcfunction and JSON files, Kore lets you write everything in pure, type-safe Kotlin, compatible with 1.21.11 right now. Main features: External Datapack Bindings (Huge time saver): You can pull a GitHub repo (like VanillaTweaks) directly into your code via importDatapacks and use it as a strongly typed dependency in your IDE. 100% Type-Safe & Autocompletion: Catch typos at compile-time, not in-game. Blocks, items, sounds, enchantments etc. everything is mapped to exact Enums. Zero JSON: Handle custom recipes (like smithing), complex advancements, loot tables, and raw NBT data directly through the DSL. No JSON files needed, ever. Real Code Architecture: Use Kotlin's full power: variables, loops, extension functions, and sealed classes to structure your logic instead of getting lost in a sea of commands. Smart Abstractions: Includes wrappers for tedious vanilla mechanics (like recreating dynamic scoreboards every tick easily). Resources to get started: 📖 Docs & Website: kore.ayfri.com 🛠️ Quickstart Template: Kore-Template 💡 New Examples Repo: Kore Examples I'd love to hear your feedback or see what you build with it! Open to any PRs or feature requests. Why does my chain of command blocks not work u/Real-Pickle-6216 • Why does my chain of command blocks not work Help \| Java 1.21.11 It only lasts 2 blocks and then just refuses to go bigger It only lasts 2 blocks and then just refuses to go bigger Anyone can view, post, and comment to this community Community Bookmarks r/MinecraftCommands Rules No spamming comments, posts, or links Do not post inappropriate content Be respectful: don't use offensive language, especially directed towards others Discord Lemmy Links Community Discord Lemmy Read this first before posting FAQ Resources Moderators
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#Bugs] \| [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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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift] \| [TOKENS: 3085]
Contents Gift A gift or present is an item given to someone (who is not already the owner) without the expectation of payment or anything in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is intended to be free. In many countries, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc., may sustain social relationships and contribute to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy. By extension, the term gift can refer to any item or act of service that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness. Gifts are often presented on occasions such as birthdays and holidays. History The history of gift-giving is a longstanding human tradition that predates recorded history. The practice has evolved across different cultures and eras, serving various purposes ranging from expressions of love and respect to political allegiance and social obligation. Gift-giving has been documented in archaeological records, ancient literature, religious texts, and historical accounts. Gift-giving has played a central role in social and economic systems throughout human history. Anthropologist Marcel Mauss argued in The Gift (1925) that gifts in archaic societies were embedded in systems of obligation, where the act of giving, receiving, and reciprocating created enduring social bonds. In many early civilizations, gifts were used for religious offerings, royal tribute, diplomatic negotiations, and public displays of generosity by elites. Archaeological evidence suggests that gift-giving existed among early hominins. Anthropologists believe that the exchange of items, such as tools, food, and ornamental objects, played a role in social bonding and the establishment of alliances among hunter-gatherer communities. For example, the Khoisan people of southern Africa practiced gift exchange as part of social interaction and conflict avoidance mechanisms. Over time, gift-giving evolved into a broader practice encompassing both ceremonial and personal exchanges. In Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, gifts were presented to rulers and deities as symbols of devotion or allegiance. Archaeological records and cuneiform tablets describe tributes of grain, livestock, and precious metals given as offerings or tokens of loyalty. Similarly, in Mesopotamian and Sumerian societies, gifts played a role in diplomacy and religious offerings. Kings exchanged gifts to reinforce alliances and display wealth. In ancient Greece and Rome, gift-giving was integral to social and political life. The practice was governed by social norms and expectations, often involving reciprocal obligations. The Roman concept of donum (gift) extended to both personal and state affairs, including patron-client relationships, religious donations, and diplomatic exchanges. In Homeric epics such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the giving of gifts, such as weapons, garments, and livestock, was portrayed as a mark of honor and friendship. Greek city-states also exchanged ceremonial gifts during festivals and religious observances. In Ancient Greece, the institution of xenia (guest-friendship) involved ritualized gift exchanges between hosts and guests. These practices, frequently described in Homeric epics such as the Odyssey, served to strengthen social ties and demonstrate respect. In the Roman world, elites gave munera (public gifts or services), including gladiatorial games and food distributions, as acts of civic generosity and to enhance political reputation. In Ancient China, gift-giving was guided by the Confucian ideal of li (ritual propriety). Formal exchanges of gifts—such as jade, scrolls, or tea—were common among the aristocracy and scholars and symbolized respect and social hierarchy. Many ancient religious traditions also incorporated gift-giving. In the Rigveda, patrons offered cattle, gold, and horses to priests as part of ritual sacrifices. In Christian tradition, the Magi's presentation of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus is an early example of symbolic religious gift-giving, commemorated in modern Christmas customs. During the Middle Ages in Europe, gift-giving was closely tied to feudal obligations, religious observances, and courtly traditions. Nobles presented gifts to their monarchs as a sign of loyalty, while monarchs rewarded their vassals with land and titles. The Christian Church promoted charitable giving, especially during religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter, which later influenced the development of holiday gifting traditions. In Islamic cultures, gift-giving (hiba) was also significant, both as a religious act and as a practice in hospitality. The Qur'an and Hadith literature encourage believers to give generously to others, particularly the needy and travelers. In the 760s, Bregowin (archbishop of Canterbury) gave a bone casket to Lul (the bishop of Mainz). This was the only known instance of gift-giving between 8th-century missionaries. Donations to monasteries in medieval Europe peaked between the 9th and 12th centuries. Eventually, people began to explain this by claiming that monks or other holy people contributed disproportionately to a "treasure of merit". By the Renaissance and early modern era, gift-giving in Europe expanded among the merchant and upper classes. The rise of personal letters and tokens, including jewelry and manuscripts, became popular among the literate elite. In royal courts, the exchange of luxury gifts was part of diplomatic protocol. In China, Confucian teachings emphasized the importance of li (ritual propriety), which included the appropriate giving and receiving of gifts. Elaborate ceremonies and strict etiquette governed imperial gift exchanges and family rituals. In sixteenth and seventeenth century France, gift-giving was often patronage in disguise.: 131 This was hidden by terms like grâces, bonté, and bienveillance.: 137 Sometimes actual gifts were given with patron-client letters. These often included money, hunting birds, food, and cloth,: 138–139 and occasionally messengers as well.: 140 The Industrial Revolution significantly transformed gift-giving by introducing mass production and consumer goods. With increased accessibility and affordability, gift-giving became more widespread across socioeconomic classes. The emergence of department stores and catalogs in the 19th century, especially in Western Europe and North America, facilitated the commercial aspect of gifting. Holiday gift-giving became institutionalized with events such as Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day. Influenced by Victorian customs and Christian traditions, Christmas became a major gift-exchange occasion, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. Gift-giving during Christmas celebrations in the U.S. began in the early 19th century, initially in the Mid-Atlantic region.: xvi This kind of celebration was Northern European and had its roots in Lutheran theology.: xvi During this era, gifts were usually small and handmade.: xvi In the late 19th century, U.S. Christmas celebrations began to grow in scale, with more manufacturing of goods.: xvii As early as 1880, the country's businesspeople had begun taking advantage of the holiday to sell more.: xix In Japan, Valentine's Day gift giving was introduced by Morozoff Ltd. in 1936, and initially targeted foreigners living near Kobe. The holiday was then reintroduced in the 1950s, but was not popular. It only became popular in the 1970s, when it was framed as a time for women to give gifts to men. To fix the gender imbalance, White Day was introduced for the men to give back to women. The typical gift on Valentine's Day in Japan is giri choko ("obligation chocolate"). Typical gifts on White Day include chocolate, jewelry, and clothes. Recent changes in gift-giving have been influenced by technology, consumer preferences, and cultural shifts. In the 20th and 21st centuries, globalized commerce, advertising, and cultural exchange have further diversified gift-giving practices. The expansion of e-commerce and digital platforms has introduced new forms of gifting, such as electronic gift cards and subscription services. There is a growing preference for personalized, handmade, or digitally delivered gifts over traditional store-bought items. Customized gifts like hand-drawn portraits and personalized books are increasingly popular, offering more emotional and cultural significance. E-commerce has played a key role in this transformation, with online platforms providing a convenient way to order personalized and virtual gifts. The article from ScienceDaily discusses research by the University of Bath showing that personalized gifts create lasting emotional connections and boost self-esteem. The study found that recipients of personalized gifts, such as custom portraits, mugs or clothing, feel more cherished and are more likely to value and care for these items. The emotional impact is enhanced when the thought and effort behind the personalization are communicated. Personalized gifts foster deeper relationships and contribute to sustainability. Various online platforms have contributed to this trend by offering personalized gifts like hand-drawn portraits and customized books. University gift shops, such as The Duck Store and The Harvard Shop, have also embraced this trend, offering customized items that reflect their institutions' traditions. Additional gift types that reflect modern personalization trends include custom jewelry or accessories featuring engraved names, initials, or birthstones; personalized greeting cards or art prints; digital gifts such as NFTs or tailored online experiences like personalized video messages; handcrafted wellness products including soaps or candles with custom labels; and themed experience kits, for example, cooking kits with personalized recipes. Presentation In many cultures gifts are traditionally packaged in some way. For example, in Western cultures, gifts are often wrapped in wrapping paper and accompanied by a gift note which may note the occasion, the recipient's name and the giver's name. In Chinese culture, red wrapping connotes luck. Although inexpensive gifts are common among colleagues, associates and acquaintances, expensive or amorous gifts are considered more appropriate among close friends, romantic interests or relatives. Gift-giving occasions Gift-giving occasions may be: Promotional gifts Promotional gifts differ from regular gifts. Recipients may include employees or clients. These gifts are primarily used for advertising. They help promote the brand name and increase its awareness. In promotional gifting, the quality and presentation of the gifts are more important than the gifts themselves, as they serve as a gateway to acquire new clients or associates. [citation needed] As reinforcement and manipulation Giving a gift to someone is not necessarily just an altruistic act. It may be given in the hope that the receiver reciprocates in a particular way. It may take the form of positive reinforcement as a reward for compliance, possibly for an underhand manipulative and abusive purpose. Unwanted gifts Giving the appropriate gift that aligns with the recipient's preferences poses a formidable challenge. Gift givers commonly err in the process of gift selection, either by offering gifts that the recipients' do not wish to receive or by failing to provide gifts that recipients earnestly desired. For example, givers avoid giving the same gifts more than once while recipients are more open to receiving a repeated gift, givers prefer to avoid giving self-improvement products (e.g., self-help books) as gifts while recipients are more open to receiving such gifts, when choosing between giving digital and physical gift cards, givers opt for the latter more often than recipients want, and many receivers prefer a future experience instead of an object, or a practical gift that they have requested over a more expensive, showier gift chosen by the giver. One cause of the mismatch between the giver's and receiver's view is that the giver is focused on the act of giving the gift, while the receiver is more interested in the long-term utilitarian value of the gift. Due to the mismatch between givers' and recipients' gift preferences, a significant fraction of gifts are unwanted, or the giver pays more for the item than the recipient values it, resulting in a misallocation of economic resources known as a deadweight loss. Unwanted gifts are often "regifted", donated to charity, or thrown away. A gift that actually imposes a burden on the recipient, either due to maintenance or storage or disposal costs, is known as a white elephant. One means of reducing the mismatch between the buyer and receivers' tastes is advance coordination, often undertaken in the form of a wedding registry or Christmas list. Wedding registries in particular are often kept at a single store, which can designate the exact items to be purchased (resulting in matching housewares), and to coordinate purchases so the same gift is not purchased by different guests. One study found that wedding guests who departed from the registry typically did so because they wished to signal a closer relationship to the couple by personalizing a gift, and also found that as a result of not abiding by the recipients' preferences, their gifts were appreciated less often. An estimated $3.4 billion was spent on unwanted Christmas gifts in the United States in 2017 and $10.1 billion in 2024 .The day after Christmas is typically the busiest day for returns in countries with large Christmas gift giving traditions. The total unredeemed value of gift cards purchased in the U.S. each year is estimated to be about a billion dollars. In some cases, people know the preferences of recipients very well, and can give highly valued gifts. Some value in gift-giving comes from assisted preference discovery - people receiving gifts they did not know they would like, or which they did not know were available. Behavioral economists propose that the non-material value of gifts lies in strengthening relationships by signalling the giver was thoughtful, or spent time and effort on the gift. Legal aspects At common law, for a gift to have legal effect, it was required that there be (1) intent by the donor to give a gift, and (2) delivery to the recipient of the item to be given as a gift. In some countries, certain types of gifts above a certain monetary amount are subject to taxation. For the United States, see Gift tax in the United States. In some contexts, gift giving can be construed as bribery. This tends to occur in situations where the gift is given with an implicit or explicit agreement between the giver of the gift and its receiver that some type of service will be rendered (often outside of normal legitimate methods) because of the gift. Some groups, such as government workers, may have strict rules concerning gift giving and receiving so as to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Cross border monetary gifts are subject to taxation in both source and destination countries based on the treaty between the two countries. Religious views Lewis Hyde claims in The Gift that Christianity considers the Incarnation and subsequent death of Jesus to be the greatest gift to humankind, and that the Jataka contains a tale of the Buddha in his incarnation as the Wise Hare giving the ultimate alms by offering himself up as a meal for Sakka. (Hyde, 1983, 58–60) In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the bread and wine that are consecrated during the Divine Liturgy are referred to as "the Gifts." They are first of all the gifts of the community (both individually and corporately) to God, and then, after the epiklesis, the Gifts of the Body and Blood of Christ to the Church. Ritual sacrifices can be seen as return gifts to a deity. See also References Further reading
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[SOURCE: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/אנדרואיד_(מערכת_הפעלה)] \| [TOKENS: 19816]
תוכן עניינים אנדרואיד (מערכת הפעלה) הרישיון הציבורי הכללי של גנו גרסה 2 לגרעין לינוקס בלבד. Google Play היא חנות האפליקציות הנפוצה ביותר אנדרואיד (באנגלית: Android) היא מערכת הפעלה חינמית וקוד פתוח המיועדת לטלפונים חכמים, מחשבי לוח, טלוויזיות חכמות, שעונים חכמים ומכוניות ומבוססת על גרעין לינוקס. היא מופצת על ידי חברת גוגל בשיתוף פעולה עם Open Handset Alliance. מערכת הפעלה זו מעוצבת במיוחד לשימוש בטלפונים חכמים מבוססי מסך מגע ומחשבי לוח (טאבלטים). לקראת סוף שנת 2010, אנדרואיד הפכה למערכת ההפעלה הנפוצה ביותר בעולם לטלפונים חכמים. על פי IDC, ב-2012 היא החזיקה נתח של 70% מכלל שוק הטלפונים החכמים העולמי (ביחס לכ-20% למתחרה המרכזית iOS של חברת אפל) ובמהלך השנה נמכרו כמעט 500 מיליון מכשירים חדשים מבוססי אנדרואיד. טלפונים חכמים מפורסמים עם אנדרואיד הם מכשירים בסדרת "גלקסי" של סמסונג, סדרת "פיקסל" של גוגל, סדרות מכשירים של החברות: סוני, מוטורולה, HTC, ומכשירים של חברות סיניות. חברת LG אלקטרוניקה הפסיקה את היצור שלהם. אנדרואיד פותחה לראשונה בידי חברת הזנק בשם Android Inc שנוסדה ב-2003, ובשנת 2005 נרכשה על ידי גוגל. הגרסה הראשונה של מערכת ההפעלה הוכרזה ב-5 בנובמבר 2007 עם הקמתו של Open Handset Alliance, תאגיד של 84 חברות חומרה, תוכנה ותקשורת, שהוקדש למטרת קידום תקנים פתוחים עבור מכשירים ניידים. המכשיר הראשון מבוסס אנדרואיד נמכר באוקטובר 2008. אנדרואיד נועדה בתחילה למצלמות חכמות. רוב הגרסאות של אנדרואיד הן קנייניות. רכיבי הליבה לקוחים מפרויקט הקוד הפתוח של אנדרואיד (AOSP), שהוא תוכנה חינמית וקוד פתוח המורשית בעיקר תחת רישיון אפאצ'י. כאשר אנדרואיד מותקן במכשירים, היכולת לשנות את קוד המקור מוגבלת בדרך כלל, בין אם על ידי אי אספקת קוד המקור המתאים או על ידי מניעת התקנה מחדש באמצעות אמצעים טכניים, מה שהופך את הגרסה המותקנת לקניינית. רוב מכשירי האנדרואיד נשלחים עם תוכנות קנייניות נוספות מותקנות מראש, ובעיקר שירותי Google Mobile Services הכוללת אפליקציות ליבה כגון גוגל כרום (בדומה לאינטרנט אקספלורר ב-Windows 98 עד Windows 7 כולל), פלטפורמת ההפצה הדיגיטלית Google Play ופלטפורמת הפיתוח Google Play Service. נכון להיום אנדרואיד היא מערכת ההפעלה הנפוצה ביותר למכשירים חכמים. בחנות האפליקציות Google Play יש נכון לינואר 2021 מעל ל-3 מיליון אפליקציות. היסטוריה ביולי 2005 רכשה גוגל את חברת אנדרואיד (Android inc), חברת הזנק קטנה שנוסדה ב-2003 ופעלה בפאלו אלטו, קליפורניה. מייסדי החברה, אנדי רובין, ריץ' מינר, ניק סירס (סמנכ"ל T-Mobile (אנ') לשעבר) וכריס וויט, עברו לעבוד בגוגל. באותה תקופה, מעטים הכירו את פעילות החברה, חוץ מאלו שפיתחו תוכנות לטלפונים סלולריים. מכיוון שכך, החלו שמועות כי גוגל הולכת להיכנס לשוק הטלפונים הסלולריים. בגוגל, צוות בראשות אנדי רובין פיתח פלטפורמה לטלפונים ניידים המבוסס על גרעין לינוקס ושיווק את הפלטפורמה ליצרני טלפונים סלולריים וספקיות, מתוך הנחה שהם יפתחו מערכת הפעלה גמישה וניתנת לשדרוג. דווח, כי לגוגל כבר הייתה סדרת שותפים לייצור מכשירים מבוססי אנדרואיד ותוכנות למערכת ההפעלה, וגוגל מסרה למשווקות טלפונים סלולריים תוך שהם מוכנים לדרגות שונות של שיתוף פעולה מצדם. ראיה נוספת כי גוגל הולכת להיכנס לשוק הטלפונים הסלולריים, הגיעה בדצמבר 2006 - בדיווח של BBC והוול סטריט ג'ורנל לפיו גוגל מעוניינת בהנגשת שירות החיפוש שלה ואפליקציות נוספות שלה לטלפונים סלולריים. זמן קצר לאחר מכן, כלי תקשורת דיווחו כי גוגל מפתחת מכשיר סלולרי תחת המותג גוגל. השמועות המשיכו כאשר דווח כי גוגל מנסחת דרישות סף ומפרטי חומרה למכשירים סלולריים ומציגה לחברות תקשורת אבות-טיפוס אפשריים. בספטמבר 2007 דיווח מגזין אמריקאי כי גוגל הגישה בקשות לפטנטים בתחום התקשורת הסלולרית. ב-5 בנובמבר 2007 הוקמה ברית Open Handset Alliance שכללה חברות בולטות בתחומי האלקטרוניקה והתקשורת הסלולרית. מטרת הברית הייתה לפתח תקנים פתוחים עבור התקנים ניידים, ויחד עם הקמתה, חשפה את המוצר הראשון שלהם, אנדרואיד, הבנוי על בסיס גרעין לינוקס. מאז 2008 הושקו עדכונים רבים למערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד. גרסאות אנדרואיד לטלפונים חכמים (סמארטפונים) ומחשבי לוח (טאבלטים) מערכות אנדרואיד השונות מזוהות על ידי מספר גרסה וכן על ידי שם קוד שהוא שם של מאכל מתוק. ראשי התיבות של שמות הקוד הם אותיות האלפבית האנגלי בסדר עולה. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס, יצא לאור ב-9 בפברואר 2009, וברישיון אפאצ'י 2.0. נוסף, הגדרת זמן במהלך שיחה בעת שימוש ברמקול. אפשרות לבצע חיפוש במפות וללחוץ על עסק כדי לראות את הפרטים שלו. שימוש בלחצנים "הצג לוח חיוג" או "הסתר לוח חיוג" לתפריט בזמן השיחה. גאדג'טים חדשים המאפשרים לאפליקציה לשלוח הודעת SMS או WAP Push. במערכת מותקן ניקוי בנאי המוגן מתמונות מערכת הקשורות ל-SDK. הגרסה אינה בשימוש על ידי אף אחד ואין לה גישה ל-Google Play ולשירותי גוגל אחרים. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.27, יצא לאור ב-30 באפריל 2009. נוספו הקלטה וצפייה בקטעי וידאו באמצעות מצלמת וידאו, העלאה של סרטונים ליוטיוב ותמונות לפיקאסה, מקלדת תוכנה חדשה עם יכולת חיזוי טקסט, תמיכת A2DP ו-AVRCP לבלוטות' במכשיר, אפשרות להתחבר אוטומטית לאוזניית בלוטות' ממרחק מסוים, וידג'טים ותיקיות במסכי הבית ואנימציית מסכי מעבר. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.29, יצא לאור ב-15 בספטמבר 2009. שופרו המרקט, המצלמה, החיפוש הקולי וחיפוש גוגל. נוספו תמיכה ב-CDMA/EVDO, 802.1x, VPN, מחוות, מנוע טקסט-לדיבור ותמיכה באבחנת מסך WVGA. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.29, יצא לאור ב-26 באוקטובר 2009. הממשק כלל תמיכה ב-HTML5, רשימת אנשי קשר חדשה, יכולת עבודה מול שרת Exchange, תמיכת מבזק מובנית למצלמה דיגיטלית וזום דיגיטלי. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.32, יצא לאור ב-20 במאי 2010. הממשק כלל שילוב של מנוע V8 - JavaScript של הדפדפן גוגל כרום, סנכרון יישומים באמצעות האינטרנט, חיוג קולי, שיפור התמיכה ב-Microsoft Exchange, קישוריות USB ופונקציונליות של נקודה חמה ב-WIFI. כמו כן נוספה אפשרות של ביטול העברת נתונים דרך הרשת הסלולרית, שופרה חנות האפליקציות ונוספו לה עדכונים אוטומטיים ואפשרות לשמירת אפליקציות על כרטיס הזיכרון, מעבר מהיר בין שפות המקלדת והמילונים שלהן, תמיכה בסיסמאות מספריות ואלפאבתיות ותמיכה בהעלאת קבצים באפליקציות רשת. לדפדפן נוספו היכולת להציג אנימציות GIF ותמיכה באדובי פלאש 10.1. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.35, יצא לאור ב-6 בדצמבר 2010. שיפורים בגרסה זו כוללים: ממשק מעודכן, תמיכה ב-VoIP, תמיכה בתקשורת טווח אפס (לגעת בחפצים עם המכשיר ולקנות אותם דרך האינטרנט, תקשור בין מכשירים באמצעות מגע ביניהם וכולי) תמיכה בפורמט WebM של גוגל, שיפור פונקציונליות ה"העתק-הדבק", מקלדת רב מגע (Multi Touch) מעוצבת מחדש, תמיכה משופרת בפיתוח קוד, שיפור השמע, גרפיקה והקלט למפתחים, תמיכה בחיישנים נוספים (כמו גירוסקופ וברומטר), שיפור ניהול צריכת החשמל ושליטה באפליקציות, תמיכה במצלמות מרובות, ושיפור התמיכה ברשת דור 4. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.36, יצא לאור ב-22 בפברואר 2011 ומיועד למחשבי לוח בלבד. גרסה זו כוללת ממשק חדש, שולחן עבודה תלת־ממדי עם וידג'טים מעוצבים מחדש, ריבוי משימות משופר (שורת משימות בחלק התחתון של המסך), דפדפן משופר (גלישה פרטית, סנכרון מועדפים עם גוגל כרום ועוד), תמיכה בשיחות וידאו ב-Google Talk, האצת חומרה, תמיכה במעבדים מרובי ליבות. העדכון 3.1 הוצג בכנס Google I/O ב-10 במאי 2011 ומכיל שיפורים רבים, ביניהם - ליטושי ממשק, חיבור לאביזרי USB נלווים, רשימת יישומים חדשים מורחבת, אפשרות לקבוע את גודל הווידג'טים בדף הבית, תמיכה במקלדת, שלטים ואביזרים חיצוניים אחרים וביצועי WIFI טובים במיוחד כאשר מסך המכשיר כבוי. מבוסס על גרעין לינוקס 2.6.36 (כלומר ללא שינוי מהגרסה הקודמת), יצא לאור ב-15 ביולי 2011 ומיועד למחשבי לוח בלבד. גרסה זו של אנדרואיד הוסיפה לראשונה התאמה למחשבי לוח בגודל 7 אינץ', גישה מהירה יותר ליישומים המאוחסנים בכרטיס הזיכרון, התאמה של אפליקציות לגודל של מסך המכשיר (ביצוע "זום" לאפליקציה) ואפשרויות תצוגה חדשות שנותנות למפתחים יותר שליטה במראה ובתחושה במכשירי האנדרואיד השונים. יצא לאור ב-19 באוקטובר 2011. גרסה זו היא מעין שילוב בין Gingerbread ו-Honeycomb והיא תומכת הן במחשבי לוח והן במכשירים סלולריים, היא הוצגה ויצאה ב-19 בנובמבר 2011. שיפורים בגרסה זו כוללים: עיצוב חדש בשם Holo Design, כפתורים מובנים במסך (אופציונלי), תפריט ווידג'טים ליד תפריט האפליקציות, מנהל משימות חדש שמאפשר סגירה מהירה של היישומים הפתוחים, יצירת תיקיות קלה - גרירת אייקון אחד על אחר, תמיכה בצביטה לזום בלוח השנה, החלקת האצבע ימינה ושמאלה למעבר בין הודעות ב-Gmail, צילום מסך מובנה, שיפור התיקון האוטומטי במקלדת, תמיכה בהפעלת אפליקציות ממסך הנעילה (כמו ב-HTC Sense 3.0 ומעלה), שיפור בשימושיות העתק-הדבק, שילוב טוב יותר של חיפוש ושימוש בפקודות קוליות, פתיחה באמצעות זיהוי פנים, דפדפן שתומך עד 16 לשוניות פתוחות, סנכרון אוטומטי עם המועדפים של המשתמש בגוגל כרום, גופן Roboto חדש (במקום Droid), הצגה של נתוני שימוש בחבילת הגלישה בהגדרות, שיפור באפליקציית המצלמה המאפשר צילום מהיר יותר, מצב פנורמה מובנה, זום בזמן צילום וידאו, עריכת תמונות מובנית, עיצוב חדש לגלריית התמונות, אפליקציית אנשי קשר חדשה בשם People הכוללת אינטגרציה עם רשתות חברתיות מקוונות, תוכנה בשם Android Beam לסינכרון מועדפים, אנשי קשר ועוד בין שני מכשירי אנדרואיד, האצת חומרה של ממשק המשתמש, הגדלה והקטנה של הווידג'טים, טכנולוגיית WIFI Direct מובנית במערכת ההפעלה וצילום וידאו באיכות HD 720p בכל מכשירי האנדרואיד. הוכרז ב-27 ביוני 2012 באירוע "Google I/O". בין השאר, נוספה תמיכה ב-18 שפות נוספות, ושיפורים בתמיכה בשפות הנכתבות מימין לשמאל. השיפור העיקרי בגרסה זו הוא "פרויקט החמאה" שמטרתו הייתה "להחליק" ולשפר את כל האנימציה במערכת וליצור חוויית שימוש מהנה, חלקה, ורציפה יותר במערכת. הכרזה גדולה נוספת היא כי החל מגרסה זו, ההקלדה הקולית שמאפשרת להכתיב למכשיר הודעות טקסט תהיה זמינה גם ללא צורך בחיבור לאינטרנט ואף תתמוך בעברית ובשפות אחרות חוץ מאנגלית. בנוסף, נוספו תוספות קטנות כגון אפשרות גישה ישירה לאפליקציה דרך ה-"Notification Bar" ללא צורך להפעיל את האפליקציה עצמה, שיפורים קטנים במצלמה המאפשרים בחירה ומחיקה של תמונות שצולמו ושיפורים לחנות של גוגל - Google Play. גוגל התחילה ב"פרויקט החמאה" שבו האנימציות יותר חלקות, הדפדוף יותר מהיר, סגירה ופתיחה של אפליקציות יותר מהירים וחלקים ועוד שיפורים למהירות של מערכת ההפעלה, מלבד שיפורים אלו, גוגל הציגה שירות חיפוש קולי חדש, בעל קול טבעי, הבנה טובה של השאלות ותשובות מדויקות ומעוצבות בעיצוב מחודש. החיפוש הקולי הוא חלק מהמערכת Google Now הקולטת מידע על המשתמש במכשיר וכך "לומדת" אודותיו ומספקת לו מידע מותאם אישית, כמו תחזית מזג האוויר בהתאם לאזור, תוצאות ותאריכי משחקים של קבוצות ספורט אהודות על ידי המשתמש, טיסות היוצאות ליעד שהמשתמש מעוניין לטוס אליו וכדומה. יצא לאור ב-13 בנובמבר 2012. כוללת שיפורים שונים, כמו תמיכה במספר חשבונות משתמש שונים (בגרסת מחשבי הלוח בלבד), תמיכה במחוות במקלדת, אפשרות להשתמש בגרעין SELinux (גרסת לינוקס עם רמת אבטחה גבוהה יותר) ועוד. ב-27 בנובמבר 2012 יצאה גרסת תיקונים, 4.2.1, וב-11 בפברואר 2013 יצאה גרסת תיקונים נוספת 4.2.2. עוד שיפור בגרסה זו היא האפשרות לגשת למצלמה ממסך הנעילה וכן דפי ווידג'טים במסך הנעילה. יצא לאור ב-24 ביולי 2013. כוללת תמיכה בחיסכון בחשמל בעת שימוש בבלוטות', תמיכה בגרסה החדשה של ממשק פריסת התצוגה ES 3.0 OpenGL ולראשונה, מערכת ההפעלה הציגה יישור מימין לשמאל כאשר השפה המוגדרת במכשיר היא מימין לשמאל (כגון עברית וערבית), וכן השלמה אוטומטית מובנית של מספרי טלפון. כמו כן יש ממשק מצלמה משופר, תיקוני אבטחה, שיפורים במערכת ניהול הזכויות הדיגיטלי, ושיפורים קוסמטיים קלים. ב-5 באוקטובר, יצאה גרסת תיקונים, 4.3.1. פורסם ב-31 באוקטובר 2013. מציגה שיפור בביצועים, ניהול זיכרון טוב יותר, תמיכה במכשירים יותר חלשים (בעלי פחות מ-512 מגה-בייט RAM) ועיצוב חדש לממשק. ניתן להשתמש בשירות ה-Google Now של גוגל על ידי אמירת "OK, google" בעמוד הבית. תמיכה בכתוביות לכבדי שמיעה בסרטונים, חייגן חדש, יישום אנשי קשר חדש ועוד. הגרסה הוצגה ביחד עם מכשיר נקסוס 5 שהוא הראשון שמגיע עם גרסה זאת. קיטקט הוא מוצר מסחרי של נסטלה. כל שמות הקוד הקודמים של מוצרי גרסאות אנדרואיד נקראו על שם מאכלים גנריים. הפרסומים המקוריים היו ששם הקוד של הגרסה יהיה Key Lemon Pie (עוגת לימון). בהמשך פורסם ששם הקוד יהיה קיטקט. שם הקוד נבחר תוך שיתוף פעולה עם חברת נסטלה, יצרנית המוצר ועם חברת הרשי, המשווקת שלו בארצות הברית. ב-7 בדצמבר 2013 יצא עדכון 4.4.1 הכולל שיפור למצלמת הנקסוס 5 ותיקוני באגים. ב-9 בדצמבר 2013, יצאה גרסת 4.4.2 שמכילה תיקונים בהודעות הקוליות, תיקוני באגים ותיקוני אבטחה. בתחילת מאי 2014, יצאה גרסה 4.4.3 הכוללת תיקוני באגים, בין השאר בכל הקשור בניהול חיי סוללה, יציבות קישוריות בלוטות' ו-WIFI. גרסה זאת שוחררה בשלב ראשון למכשירים בעלי מערכת הפעלה 'נקיה' כגון סדרת גוגל נקסוס ומכשירי סמסונג ו-HTC בגרסת Google Play Editions. ב-19 ביוני, יצאה גרסת 4.4.4, שכוללת מספר תיקונים, ביניהם תיקון פרצת אבטחה קריטית. הוכרז במהלך אירוע ה-Keynote שבכנס המפתחים Google I/O 2014, ב-25 ביוני 2014. העדכון הוא הגדול ביותר מאז אנדרואיד 4.0, Ice-Cream Sandwich. המערכת כוללת שינוי נרחב בעיצוב שלה בשם Material design, הכולל עיצוב חדש ללחצני הניווט שעל מסך המכשיר, למרכז ריבוי המשימות, למקלדת, לאייקונים, לווילון ההתראות שכעת משולב עם תפריט הגישה המהירה, לחייגן, לדפדפן הכרום, ליישום ה-Gmail, ליישום ה-Google Keep, להגדרות ולכלל יישומי המערכת. בנוסף לכל, נוסף מצב 'חיסכון בסוללה' חדש, בוצע שיפור כללי בחיי הסוללה - project Volta, בוצע המעבר הסופי לסביבת ההרצה ART, נוספה תמיכה במעבדי 64 ביט, מסך הנעילה שופר ונוספו לו קיצורים חדשים ותצוגת התראות, ועוד רכיבי API חדשים רבים ושיפורים נוספים. בהמשך יצאו הגרסאות 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, 5.1 ו-5.1.1. הגרסה הוכרזה במאי 2015, ויצאה ב-6 באוקטובר 2015. הגרסה כללה שיפור חיי הסוללה, מצב "נא לא להפריע" וחסימת הרשאות לאפליקציות. ב-7 בדצמבר 2015 שוחררה הגרסה 6.0.1, אשר כללה עדכוני אבטחה ורגשונים (אימוג'ים) חדשים. זו הגרסה הראשונה שמאפשרת שימוש בשיתוף בקרבת מקום. ב-9 במרץ 2016 יצאה לאור גרסה מוקדמת למפתחים הזמינה למכשירי נקסוס. הגרסה הרשמית יצאה ב-22 באוגוסט 2016. גרסת המפתחים כוללת מספר אפשרויות חדשות, כגון מילוי פרטים רפואיים (כגון אלרגיות וסוג דם) ושמירתם בטלפון החכם לצורכי חירום, כך שבעת הצורך לא יהיה אף צורך לדעת את הסיסמה עבור מידע זה. ב-21 במרץ 2017 יצאה לאור גרסה מוקדמת למפתחים הזמינה למכשירי נקסוס ופיקסל. הגרסה הסופית יצאה בתאריך 24 ביולי 2017. הגרסה כוללת שינויים כללים בעיצוב ותכונות חדשות כגון קטגוריות להתראות, נודניק להתראות, הצגת יישומים בתוך חלון, הגבלת היישומים הרצים ברקע וסמלים מונפשים. ב-7 במרץ 2018, יצאה לאור גרסה מוקדמת למפתחים הזמינה למכשירי נקסוס ופיקסל. הגרסה הסופית יצאה בתאריך 6 באוגוסט 2018 בשם פאי והייתה זמינה עם יציאתה למכשירי פיקסל ו־Essential Phone. הגרסה כוללת שינויים כללים בעיצוב ותכונות חדשות כגון עיצוב חדש לתפריט הגישה המהירה, השעון בחלק העליון עבר לצד שמאל, בחירת ערכת נושא, ניווט במחוות חדש ועוד. אנדרואיד 10 (נקראה במהלך הפיתוח Android Q) היא הגרסה העשירית של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד. תאריך היציאה שלה הוא 3 בספטמבר 2019, עת גוגל הוציאה עדכון גרסה למכשיריה. אנדרואיד 11 היא גרסה של מערכת ההפעלה לניידים אנדרואיד שיצאה ב-2020. אנדרואיד 12 היא הגרסה העיקרית ה-12 של אנדרואיד, מערכת ההפעלה הסלולרית שפותחה על ידי Open Handset Alliance בהובלת גוגל. לאחר מספר גרסאות בטא, באוקטובר 2021 הושקה הגרסה הסופית וזמינה להתקנה במכשירי פיקסל נתמכים. אנדרואיד 13 היא הגרסה העיקרית ה-13 של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד שפותחה על ידי Open Handset Alliance בראשות גוגל. הגרסה זמינה במכשירי פיקסל, מדגם פיקסל 4 ומעלה, החל מ-15 באוגוסט 2022. אנדרואיד 14 היא הגרסה העיקרית ה-14 של מערכת ההפעלה לניידים אנדרואיד שהוכרזה ב-8 בפברואר 2023, כאשר התצוגה המקדימה של המפתחים יצאה באותו יום וגרסת הבטא הראשונה יצאה ב-12 באפריל. הגרסה שוחררה ב-4 באוקטובר 2023. אנדרואיד 15 היא הגרסה העיקרית ה-15 של מערכת ההפעלה לניידים אנדרואיד. התצוגה המקדימה הראשונה למפתחים יצאה בפברואר 2024 וגרסת הבטא הראשונה יצאה באפריל 2024. גרסתה הסופית יצאה בספטמבר 2024. אנדרואיד 15 נקראת פנימית "גלידת וניל". גרסת הבטא הראשונה הגיעה עם תכונות נוספות, כמו אפליקציות שיכולות לשנות קנה מידה מקצה לקצה ולצייר פסי מערכת שקופים בחלק העליון והתחתון של המסך, תמיכה ברמת מערכת ההפעלה לארכוב אפליקציות והוצאה מארכיון בחנויות אפליקציות של צד שלישי, שיפור תמיכה בברייל, הצפנה מקצה לקצה עבור מפתחות אנשי קשר ותכונות מפתחים חדשות רבות אחרות. גרסאות ייעודיות Wear OS, ובעבר Android Wear, היא גרסה של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד למוצרים לבישים (כמו: שעונים חכמים). רוב המערכת נשענת על הזיהוי הקולי של גוגל. כאשר אומרים 'Ok Google', ניתן לחפש במנוע החיפוש גוגל, שבאמצעותו ניתן למצוא מזג אוויר, מפה ליעד מסוים ועוד. השעון ניתן לשליטה דרך יישום בטלפונים חכמים הנתמכים במערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד (גרסת אנדרואיד 4.3 ומעלה). השעון הראשון עם מערכת הפעלה זאת הוא LG G Watch, לאחר מכן, באותו הכרזה של מערכת ההפעלה, הוכרז גם ה-Moto 360, שעון חכם מיוחד במינו בשל מסך המגע העגול שלו. במהלך כנס Google I/O 2014 הוכרז השעון החכם Samsung Galaxy Gear Lite. למערכת ה-Wear נוספו עוד שעונים רבים מיצרניות האנדרואיד. 2 Android Wear שמבוססת על Android 7.1.1 היא הגרסה החדשה ביותר (נכון לפברואר 2017). Android TV היא גרסה של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד לטלוויזיות. מערכת זו מאפשרת לצפות בסדרות, סרטים וסרטונים מ-Google Play Movies & TV, מיוטיוב, או מאפליקציות צד שלישי אחרות כמו נטפליקס, לשחק במשחקי וידאו מחנות ה-Google Play ובנוסף לכל זה מערכת ההפעלה תומכת גם בשידורי טלוויזיה רגילים. המערכת יכולה, באופן אוטומטי, "לחזות" באילו תכנים רוצה המשתמש לצפות באותו רגע ולהציע תכנים מתאימים ובכל עת ניתן להגיד 'Ok Google' אל השלט (שלט משחק, טלפון חכם, מחשב לוח או השלט הבסיסי) כדי לבצע חיפוש קולי במנוע החיפוש גוגל ואף לשאול את 'העוזרת הווירטואלית' google now שאלות בנוגע לדברים שונים. מערכת ההפעלה מסתנכרנת עם כל מכשיר הכולל את מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד בגרסאות הנתמכות. החברות השונות הודיעו שיחלו שיווק טלוויזיות עם מערכת הפעלה זו החל משנת 2015. Android Auto היא הגרסה של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד למכוניות וכלי רכב שונים. גרסה זו אינה מותקנת ברכב עצמו. היא נמצאת על המכשיר החכם של המשתמש ונטענת לרכב (תומך) כאשר הטלפון מתחבר למכונית. הסיבה לכך היא כדי ש"סוף סוף תהיה סביבת עבודה שניתנת לעדכון בכלי רכב". היא כוללת את - Google Now, את יישום המפות - גוגל מפות, הנחשב לפופולרי ביותר בעולם וכולל גם שילוב עם היישום Waze. היא כוללת גם שילוב עם היישום Play Music, החנות של גוגל למוזיקה מקוונת. כמו כן ניתן להוריד יישומים נוספים מחנות ה-Google Play. המכוניות הראשונות שכללו מערכת מולטימדיה שתמכה ב-Android Auto הושקו בשנת 2015 ובמקביל הושקה גם האפליקציה לטלפון החכם. גוגל נקסוס סדרת הנקסוס היא סדרת מכשירי אנדרואיד שפותחה על ידי חברת גוגל בשיתוף יצרניות חומרה שונות. מכשירי הנקסוס היוו את מכשירי הדגל של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד, ולכן קיבלו עדכוני תוכנה היישר מגוגל והתעדכנו ראשונים לגרסאות אנדרואיד חדשות. ב-15 באוקטובר 2014 הוכרזו הסמארטפון נקסוס 6 ומחשב הלוח נקסוס 9 המבוססים על אנדרואיד 5. ב-29 בספטמבר 2015 הוכרזו הנקסוס 5X והנקסוס 6P עם מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד 6.0 מרשמלו. באוקטובר 2016 השיקה גוגל את סדרת מכשירי פיקסל שמחליפה את סדרת נקסוס. Google Play Store גוגל פליי סטור (Google Play Store) (לשעבר אנדרואיד מרקט) היא חנות דיגיטלית להורדת תוכן כגון סרטים, מוזיקה, ספרים ואפליקציות שהועלו על ידי מפתחים עצמאיים, בדומה ל-App Store של המתחרה אפל. התוכנה היא חלק משירות התוכן הדיגיטלי Google Play ומותקנת כברירת מחדל במכשירים מבוססי אנדרואיד המממשים את "חוויית השימוש של גוגל". בניגוד ל־App Store בה כל אפליקציה מאושרת מראש, גוגל מפעילה סינון כללי יותר, וכל אחד יכול להעלות אפליקציות כל עוד אינן מנוגדות למספר כללים בסיסיים, וזה אחד הגורמים לגודלה הגדול יחסית של החנות. נכון לנובמבר 2020 יש בה יותר מ-2.5 מיליון אפליקציות. גוגל פליי זמינה מסביב לעולם. בחנות ניתן למכור ולקנות תוכן בתשלום, אך לא כל התוכן זמין בכל המדינות. רכישת אפליקציות בתשלום אפשרית ב-132 מדינות כולל ישראל. במדינות מסוימות, כמו פולין, צ'כיה ופקיסטן, ניתן לקנות אך לא למכור, ואילו במדינות אחרות לא ניתן לקנות ולא ניתן למכור. בישראל, שתי האפשרויות זמינות. קניית האפליקציות בתשלום נעשית באמצעות שירות התשלום של גוגל - Google Pay, שזמין בישראל. כדי להוריד אפליקציות חינמיות אין צורך בחשבון בשירות Google Checkout. נתח שוק חברת מחקרים בשם Canalys העריכה ברבעון השני של 2009 שלמערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד הייתה ב-2.8% מכלל משלוחי הטלפונים החכמים בעולם. ברבעון הרביעי של 2010 מספר זה צמח ל-33% מהשוק, מה שהפך את האנדרואיד למערכת הנמכרת ביותר בקרב טלפונים חכמים. ברבעון השלישי של 2011 חברת גרטנר העריכה שיותר מחצי (52.5%) משוק הטלפונים החכמים שייך לאנדרואיד. בשנת 2012, על פי חברת המחקר IDC, נתח זה עלה ל-70% מכלל שוק הטלפונים החכמים העולמי (ביחס לכ-20% למתחרה המרכזית iOS של חברת אפל) ובמהלך השנה נמכרו כמעט 500 מיליון מכשירים חדשים מבוססי אנדרואיד. נתח שימוש של הגרסאות השונות נתח שימוש של הגרסאות השונות, נכון לאוגוסט 2019: רישיון קוד המקור של אנדרואיד נגיש לציבור אך ללא אפשרות לתרומה חיצונית (באנגלית: Source available software (אנ')). גוגל מפרסמת את רוב הקוד (כולל רשת וערימות טלפוניה) תחת רישיון אפאצ'י, שבמסגרתו יצרנים יכולים להוסיף הרחבות קנייניות מבלי להגיש אותן חזרה לקהילת הקוד הפתוח. בדומה לפרויקט אפאצ'י, תרומת קוד למיזם דורשת מהתורם אישור התחייבותו (רישיון זכויות יוצרים מתירני ורישיון לשימוש בפטנטים). פיתוח קוד המקור של אנדרואיד זמין במאגרי גיט ציבוריים. מכיוון שהמיזם מתפרש על־פני מספר רב של מאגרים שכאלו, גוגל כתבה כלי בשם Repo על מנת להקל על המפתחים לעבוד עם מספר רב של מאגרים. במקביל מפתחת גוגל מערכת הפעלה נוספת פוקסיה (באנגלית: Fuchsia) המיועדת לעבוד הן על טלפונים ניידים והן על מחשבים אישיים וגם על שעונים חכמים. הפיתוח של אנדרואיד וגרסאותיו החדשות נעשה על ידי עובדי גוגל בצורה פרטית. יצרני התקנים יכולים להוסיף שינויים משלהם. בפועל לחלקם שינויים גדולים יותר ולחלקם שינויים קטנים יותר. קוד המקור של ממשקי המשתמש הללו אינו גלוי[דרוש מקור]. בדרך כלל גוגל פותחת את קוד המקור של גרסה חדשה למאגרים הציבוריים רק כשהגרסה יוצאת באופן רשמי. מספר ימים לאחר Google I/O 2014 הודיעה גוגל כי לא תאפשר לשנות את הממשק של מערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד בגרסאות הטלוויזיה, לכלי רכב, ולשעונים חכמים. ישנם מספר מיזמים שמספקים מערכת מותאמת אישית חלופית למכשירי אנדרואיד שונים. הבולט שבהם הוא פרויקט LineageOS. זהו מיזם שהחל את דרכו כשינוי ("מוד") של המערכת מבוססת בעיקר על קוד המקור הזמין של אנדרואיד. במקור היא כללה גם מספר יישומים קנייניים של גוגל, אולם בעקבות תביעה מצד גוגל על הפרת רישיון השימוש בהם (השימוש בהם מותר רק בהתקנים שמממשים את מלוא הדרישות של "חוויית השימוש של גוגל") הם הוסרו מההתקנה הרגילה וזמינים להורדה בנפרד. ברחבי האינטרנט קיימת כמות עצומה של מדריכים ומערכות מותאמות אישית עבור מגוון רחב מאוד של מכשירים. השם המקורי של המיזם היה CyanogenMod אך בעקבות סגירת החברה, שהייתה המפתחת העיקרית שלו, נוצר מיזם המשך בשם LineageOS, שאף מבוסס על חלק מהקוד של CyanogenMod, כהמשך לו, והוא מתוחזק על ידי קבוצת מפתחים שונים. סכסוך זכויות יוצרים באוגוסט 2010 הגישה חברת אורקל תביעה משפטית כנגד חברת גוגל. על פי אורקל, גוגל הפרה את קניינה הרוחני של אורקל בטכנולוגיית Java, בכך שהשתמשה בה במערכת ההפעלה אנדרואיד שגוגל פיתחה. מנגד טענה גוגל כי אין קניין רוחני על שפה, ולא ניתן להחיל זכויות יוצרים על ממשקי API. במאי 2016 קבע חבר המושבעים בבית המשפט הפדרלי בסן פרנסיסקו כי השימוש של גוגל בשפת התכנות נחשב שימוש הוגן. באפריל 2021 קיבל בית המשפט העליון של ארצות הברית את עמדתה של גוגל בסכסוך זה. ראו גם קישורים חיצוניים הערות שוליים
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[SOURCE: https://techcrunch.com/author/sean-okane/] \| [TOKENS: 316]
Save up to $680 on your pass with Super Early Bird rates. REGISTER NOW. Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends February 27. REGISTER NOW. Latest AI Amazon Apps Biotech & Health Climate Cloud Computing Commerce Crypto Enterprise EVs Fintech Fundraising Gadgets Gaming Google Government & Policy Hardware Instagram Layoffs Media & Entertainment Meta Microsoft Privacy Robotics Security Social Space Startups TikTok Transportation Venture Staff Events Startup Battlefield StrictlyVC Newsletters Podcasts Videos Partner Content TechCrunch Brand Studio Crunchboard Contact Us Sean O'Kane Sr. Reporter, Transportation, TechCrunch Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane. You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal. Latest from Sean O'Kane 1,065 Episodes Last update: Feb 2026 Equity is TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups, unpacked by the writers who know best. Produced by Theresa… © 2025 TechCrunch Media LLC.
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_and_Betty_Hill] \| [TOKENS: 5229]
Contents Barney and Betty Hill incident Barney and Betty Hill were an American couple and civil rights activists who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19 to 20, 1961. The incident came to be called the "Hill Abduction" and the "Zeta Reticuli Incident" because two ufologists connected the star map allegedly shown to Betty Hill with the Zeta Reticuli system. Their story was adapted into the best-selling 1966 book The Interrupted Journey and NBC's 1975 television film The UFO Incident. Most of Betty Hill's notes, tapes, and other items have been placed in the permanent collection at the University of New Hampshire, her alma mater. In July 2011, the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources marked the site of the alleged craft's first approach with a historical marker. The Hills' story was widely publicized in books and movies. Background The Hills lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Barney (1922–1969) was a World War II veteran employed by the United States Postal Service, while Betty (née Eunice Barrett) (1919–2004) was a social worker. Active in the local Unitarian congregation, the Hills were also members of the NAACP and community leaders, and Barney sat on a local board of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. They were an interracial couple at a time when it was particularly uncommon in the United States; Barney was black and Betty was white. Barney Hill is the grandfather of current UFC strawweight Angela Hill. UFO encounter According to a variety of reports given by the Hills, the alleged UFO sighting happened about 10:30 p.m. September 19, 1961. The Hills were driving back to Portsmouth from a vacation in Niagara Falls and Montreal. Just south of Lancaster, New Hampshire, Betty claimed to have observed a bright point of light in the sky that moved from below the Moon and the planet Jupiter, upward to the west of the Moon. While Barney navigated U.S. Route 3, Betty reasoned that she was observing a falling star, only it moved upward. Because it moved erratically and grew bigger and brighter, Betty urged Barney to stop the car for a closer look, as well as to walk their dog, Delsey. Barney stopped at a scenic picnic area just south of Twin Mountain. Betty, looking through binoculars, observed an "odd-shaped" craft flashing multicolored lights travelling across the face of the Moon. Because her sister had several years earlier said she had seen a flying saucer, Betty thought it might be what she was observing. Through binoculars, Barney observed what he reasoned was a commercial airliner traveling toward Vermont on its way to Montreal. However, he soon changed his mind, because without looking as if it had turned, the craft rapidly descended in his direction. This observation caused Barney to realize, "this object that was a plane was not a plane." The Hills said they continued driving on the quiet and isolated road, moving very slowly through Franconia Notch in order to observe the object as it came even closer. At one point, the object passed above a restaurant and signal tower on top of Cannon Mountain and came out near the Old Man of the Mountain. Betty testified that it was at least one and a half times the length of the granite cliff profile, which was 40 feet (12 m) long, and that it seemed to be rotating. The couple watched as the silent, illuminated craft moved erratically and bounced back and forth in the night sky. About one mile south of Indian Head, they said, the object rapidly descended toward their vehicle, causing Barney to stop in the middle of the highway. The huge, silent craft hovered about 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 m) above the Hills' 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and filled the entire field of view in the windshield. It reminded Barney of a huge pancake. Carrying his pistol in his pocket, he stepped away from the vehicle and moved closer to the object. Using the binoculars, Barney claimed to have seen eight to eleven humanoid figures, who were peering out of the craft's windows, seeming to look at him. In unison, all but one figure moved to what appeared to be a panel on the rear wall of the hallway that encircled the front portion of the craft. The one remaining figure continued to look at Barney and communicated a message telling him to "stay where you are and keep looking." Barney had a recollection of observing the humanoid forms wearing glossy black uniforms and black caps. Red lights on what appeared to be bat-wing fins began to telescope out of the sides of the craft, and a long structure descended from the bottom of the craft. The silent craft approached to what Barney estimated was within 50 to 80 feet (15 to 24 m) overhead and 300 feet (91 m) away from him. Barney, fearing being captured by these creatures, ran back to the car terrified. As the Hills sped away, they heard a strange beeping sound and they fell into a daze. When they awoke, they realized they were now just outside of Concord. On Oct. 21, 1961, Barney reported to National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) investigator Walter Webb that the "beings were somehow not human". Immediate aftermath Arriving home at about dawn, the Hills stated that they had some odd sensations and impulses they could not readily explain: Betty insisted their luggage be kept near the back door rather than in the main part of the house. Their watches would never work again. Barney said that the leather strap for the binoculars was torn, though he could not recall it tearing. The toes of his best dress shoes were scraped. Barney says he was compelled to examine his genitals in the bathroom, though he found nothing unusual. They took long showers to remove possible contamination and each drew a picture of what they had observed. Perplexed, the Hills say they tried to reconstruct the chronology of events as they witnessed the UFO and drove home. But immediately after they heard the buzzing sounds, their memories became incomplete and fragmented. After sleeping for a few hours, Betty awoke and placed the shoes and clothing she had worn during the drive into her closet, observing that the dress was torn at the hem, zipper and lining. Later, when she retrieved the items from her closet, she noted a pinkish powder on her dress. She hung the dress on her clothesline and the pink powder blew away, but the dress was irreparably damaged. She threw it away, but then changed her mind, retrieved the dress and hung it in her closet. Over the years, five laboratories have conducted chemical and forensic analyses on the dress. There were shiny, concentric circles on their car's trunk that had not been there the previous day. Betty and Barney experimented with a compass, noting that when they moved it close to the spots, the needle would whirl rapidly. But when they moved it a few inches away from the shiny spots, it would drop down. Walter N. Webb, a Boston astronomer and NICAP member, met with the Hills on October 21, 1961. In a six-hour interview, the Hills related all they could remember of the UFO encounter. Barney stated that he had developed a "mental block", and that he suspected there were some portions of the event that he did not wish to remember. He described in detail all that he could remember about the craft and the appearance of the "somehow not human" figures aboard it. Webb stated that "they were telling the truth and the incident probably occurred exactly as reported except for some minor uncertainties and technicalities that must be tolerated in any such observations where human judgment is involved (e.g., exact time and length of visibility, apparent sizes of object and occupants, distance and height of object, etc.)." Betty's dreams Ten days after the alleged UFO encounter, Betty began having a series of vivid dreams, which continued for five successive nights. She stated that she experienced them with a degree of detail and intensity that she had never had before. After the fifth night, they stopped and never recurred, though they occupied her thoughts during the day. When she mentioned them to Barney, he was sympathetic, but not too concerned, and the matter was dropped. Betty did not mention them to Barney again. In November 1961 Betty began writing down the details of her dreams. In one dream, she and Barney encountered a roadblock and men who surrounded their car. She lost consciousness but struggled to regain it. Then she realized that she was being forced by two small men to walk in a forest at night, and of seeing Barney walking behind her, though when she called to him, he seemed to be in a trance or sleepwalking. The men stood about five feet to five feet four inches tall and wore matching blue uniforms, with caps similar to those worn by military cadets. They appeared nearly human, with black hair, dark eyes, prominent noses and bluish lips. Their skin was a greyish color. She and Barney were taken to their car, where the leader suggested that they wait to watch the craft's departure. They did so, and then resumed their drive home. Medical help and more interviews On November 25, 1961, the Hills were again interviewed at length by NICAP members, this time C. D. Jackson and Robert E. Hohmann. Having read Webb's initial report, Jackson and Hohmann had many questions for the Hills. One of their main questions was about the length of the trip. Although the Hills had noted that they had arrived home later than anticipated (the 178-mile drive should have taken about four hours), they did not realize that they had arrived home seven hours after their departure from Colebrook. When Hohman and Jackson noted this discrepancy to the Hills, the couple had no explanation (a phenomenon ufologists call "missing time"). The Hills claimed to recall almost nothing of the 35 miles of U.S. Route 3 between Lincoln/Indian Head and Ashland. Both claimed to recall an image of a fiery orb sitting on the ground. Betty and Barney reasoned that it must have been the moon, but Hohmann and Jackson informed them that the moon had set earlier in the evening. The subject of hypnosis came up, and it was decided that it should be carried out in order to recover previously irretrievable memories. Barney was apprehensive, but thought it might help Betty put to rest what Barney described as "the 'nonsense' about her dreams." On November 23, 1962, the Hills attended a meeting at the parsonage of their church, where Captain Ben H. Swett of the United States Air Force was a guest speaker. Having had an interest in hypnosis, the Hills approached Swett privately and related their strange encounter. Swett was particularly interested in the "missing time" of the Hills' account. The Hills asked if he would hypnotize them to recover their memories, but Swett declined and cautioned them against going to an amateur hypnotist, such as himself. Simon's hypnosis sessions Under hypnosis with Dr. Benjamin Simon (as was consistent with his conscious recall), Barney reported that the binocular strap had broken when he ran from the UFO back to his car. He recalled driving the car away from the UFO, but afterward, he felt irresistibly compelled to pull off the road and drive into the woods. He eventually sighted six men standing on the dirt road. The car stalled and three of the men approached the car. Barney described the beings as generally similar to Betty's hypnotic recollection. He said the beings stared into his eyes with a terrifying, mesmerizing effect. Under hypnosis, Barney said, "Oh, those eyes. They're there in my brain" (from his first hypnosis session) and "I was told to close my eyes because I saw two eyes coming close to mine, and I felt like the eyes had pushed into my eyes" (from his second hypnosis session) and "All I see are these eyes... I'm not even afraid that they're not connected to a body. They're just there. They're just up close to me, pressing against my eyes." While Betty reported a conversation with the "leader" in English, Barney said that he heard them speaking in a mumbling language he did not understand. Betty also mentioned this detail. The few times they communicated with him, Barney said it seemed to be "thought transference" (at that time, he was unfamiliar with the word "telepathy"). Under hypnosis, Betty's account was similar to her five dreams about the UFO abduction, with some notable differences, mainly pertaining to her capture and release. Also, the technology on the craft was different, the short men differed significantly in physical appearance and the sequential order of the abduction differed. Barney's and Betty's memories in hypnotic regression were, however, consistent with one another. When the series of hypnosis sessions were complete, Simon wrote an article about the Hills for the journal Psychiatric Opinion, explaining his conclusion that the case was a singular psychological aberration. Post-hypnosis publicity and Barney's and Betty's death The Hills went back to their regular lives. They were willing to discuss the alleged UFO encounter with friends, family and the occasional UFO researcher, but the Hills apparently made no effort to seek publicity.[citation needed] On October 25, 1965, a front page story in the Boston Traveller asked "UFO Chiller: Did THEY Seize Couple?" Reporter John H. Luttrell of the Traveller had allegedly been given an audio tape recording of the lecture the Hills had made in Quincy Center in late 1963. Luttrell learned that the Hills had undergone hypnosis with Simon; he also obtained notes from confidential interviews the Hills had given to UFO investigators. On October 26, United Press International (UPI) picked up Luttrell's story, and the Hills earned international attention.[citation needed] In 1966, writer John G. Fuller secured the cooperation of the Hills and Simon and wrote the book The Interrupted Journey (see below) about the case. The book included a copy of Betty's sketch of the "star map". The book was a quick success and went through several printings. Barney died of a cerebral hemorrhage on February 25, 1969, at age 46, after which Betty went on to become a celebrity in the UFO community. Betty died of cancer on October 17, 2004, at age 85, never having remarried.[citation needed] Analyzing the star map In 1968 Marjorie Fish of Oak Harbor, Ohio, read Fuller's book, Interrupted Journey. Fish was an elementary school teacher and amateur astronomer. Intrigued by the "star map," Fish wondered if it might be "deciphered" to determine which star system the UFO came from. Assuming that one of the fifteen stars on the map must represent Earth's Sun, Fish constructed a three-dimensional model of nearby Sun-like stars (i.e., stars deemed to have characteristics that could support life such as that found on Earth) using thread and beads, basing stellar distances on those published in the 1969 Gliese Star Catalogue. Studying thousands of vantage points over several years, the only one that seemed to match the Hill map was from the viewpoint of the double star system of Zeta Reticuli (about 39 light-years from Earth).[citation needed] Fish sent her analysis to Webb. Agreeing with her conclusions, Webb sent the map to Terence Dickinson, editor of the magazine Astronomy. Dickinson did not endorse Fish and Webb's conclusions, but for the first time in the journal's history, Astronomy invited comments and debate on a UFO report, starting with an opening article in the December 1974 issue. For about a year afterward, the opinions page of Astronomy carried arguments for and against Fish's star map. Notable was an argument made by Carl Sagan and Steven Soter, arguing that the "star map" was little more than a random alignment of chance points. In an episode of Cosmos in 1980, Sagan demonstrated that without the lines drawn in the maps, the Hill map bore no resemblance to the real-life map. In contrast, those more favorable to the map, such as David Saunders, a statistician who had been on the Condon UFO study, disagreed. Saunders claimed that a match among sixteen stars of the specific spectral type among the thousand stars nearest the Sun is "at least 1,000 to 1 against". In the early 1990s, the European Hipparcos ("high precision parallax collecting satellite") mission, which measured the distances to more than a hundred thousand stars around the Sun more accurately than had previously been done, showed that some of the stars in Fish's interpretation of the map were in fact much farther away than previously thought. Other research revealed that some stars counted by Fish as likely to host life would have had to be excluded by her own criteria, while some other stars which had been discounted by Fish have been recognised as potential abodes for life. Results such as these led Fish herself to reject her hypothesis in a public statement. Interrupted Journey The 1966 publication of Interrupted Journey, by John G. Fuller, details much of the Hills' claims. Excerpts of the book were published in Look magazine.[volume & issue needed] Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience by Betty Hill's niece Kathleen Marden further explored Fuller's themes along with scientist Stanton T. Friedman. Marden, who sat on the board of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) for 10 years, knew Betty well and had spoken with her at great length about the encounter. Rebutting the Hills Jim Macdonald, a resident of the area in which the Hills claimed to have been abducted, has produced a detailed analysis of their journey which concludes that the episode was provoked by their misperceiving an aircraft warning beacon on Cannon Mountain as a UFO. Macdonald notes that from the road the Hills took, the beacon appears and disappears at exactly the same time the Hills describe the UFO as appearing and disappearing. The remainder of the experience is ascribed to stress, sleep deprivation, and false memories "recovered" under hypnosis. After reading Macdonald's recreation, UFO expert Robert Sheaffer writes that the Hills are the "poster children" for not driving when sleep deprived. In the Skeptical Inquirer, Sheaffer also wrote: "I was present at the National UFO Conference in New York City in 1980, at which Betty presented some of the UFO photos she had taken. She showed what must have been far more than 200 slides, mostly of blips, blurs, and blobs against a dark background. These were supposed to be UFOs coming in close, chasing her car, landing, etc. ... After her talk had exceeded about twice its allotted time, Betty was literally jeered off the stage by what had been at first a sympathetic audience. This incident, witnessed by many of UFOlogy's leaders and top activists, removed any lingering doubts about Betty's credibility — she had none. In 1995, Betty Hill wrote a self-published book, A Common Sense Approach to UFOs. It is filled with delusional stories, such as seeing entire squadrons of UFOs in flight and a truck levitating above the freeway." Sheaffer later wrote that as late as 1977, Betty Hill would go on UFO vigils at least three times a week. One evening she was joined by UFO enthusiast John Oswald. When asked about Betty's continuing UFO observations, Oswald stated, "She is not really seeing UFOs, but she is calling them that." On the night they went out together, "Mrs. Hill was unable to distinguish between a landed UFO and a streetlight." In a later interview, Sheaffer recounts that Betty Hill wrote, "UFOs are a new science ... and our science cannot explain them." Robert Sheaffer released 48 pages of archived documents relating to Betty and Barney Hill, Benjamin Simon and Philip J. Klass on the Internet on December 23, 2015. In his 1990 article "Entirely Unpredisposed", Martin Kottmeyer suggested that Barney's memories revealed under hypnosis might have been influenced by "The Bellero Shield", an episode of the science fiction anthology series The Outer Limits which had been broadcast on February 10, 1964, about two weeks before Barney's first hypnotic session. The episode featured an unnamed extraterrestrial with large eyes who says, "In all the universes, in all the unities beyond the universes, all who have eyes have eyes that speak." The report from the regression featured a scenario that was in some respects similar to the television show. In part, Kottmeyer wrote: Wraparound eyes are an extreme rarity in science fiction films. I know of only one instance. They appeared on the alien of an episode of an old TV series The Outer Limits titled "The Bellero Shield". A person familiar with Barney's sketch in The Interrupted Journey and the sketch done in collaboration with the artist David Baker will find a "frisson" of "déjà vu" creeping up his spine when seeing this episode. The resemblance is much abetted by an absence of ears, hair, and nose on both aliens. Could it be by chance? Consider this: Barney first described and drew the wraparound eyes during the hypnosis session dated 22 February 1964. "The Bellero Shield" was first broadcast on 10 February 1964. Only twelve days separate the two instances. If the identification is admitted, the commonness of wraparound eyes in the abduction literature falls to cultural forces. When a different researcher asked Betty about The Outer Limits, she insisted she had "never heard of it". Kottmeyer also pointed out that some motifs in the Hills' account were present in the film Invaders from Mars (1953). In 2012 Jason Colavito pointed out that in fact "The Bellero Shield" was "the least important" of the three Outer Limits episodes that aired in the weeks prior to Barney Hill's February 22, 1964, recovery of "grey alien" memories. The episodes of February 3 and February 17 were even more reminiscent of Hill's story. The episode of February 3, 1964, titled "The Invisibles", featured an alien intelligence which orchestrates a conspiracy of human "hosts" (parasitized by the alien organism) and willing servants. The process of becoming a servant involves lying face-down on a table and having one's lower back scratched with a scalpel, then having an alien organism placed on the wound to see if it will attach. The surgical procedure is narrated in detail by an alien instructor, and is shown three times (although the camera sees only the protagonist's naked upper body and gritted teeth). Colavito states that "[t]he surgical scenes, including the partial nudity, recall the [anal] alien probing described by Barney Hill." The episode of February 17, 1964, titled "The Children of Spider County", featured a storyline involving the abduction of four men by an alien with wraparound eyes, which glow menacingly. Early in the episode the protagonist's car is stopped (in fact, wrecked) by the alien. The protagonist has always belonged to a socially outcast group; eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is half-alien himself. He is accompanied by his girlfriend, over the disapproval of her father. Colavito suggests that these similarities to Barney Hill's own biography go "beyond coincidental" and encouraged him to mingle the more fantastical elements of the story into his hypnosis-induced recollections. "The Children of Spider County" aired five days before Hill's February 22 hypnosis session. Meanwhile, Colavito also relates the Hills' recovered memories of aliens in "shiny black jackets" to the Twilight Zone episode of January 31, 1964, titled "Black Leather Jackets", in which three aliens disguised as humans in black leather jackets come to Earth, but one of them falls in love with a human girl. Coincidentally, Lee Kinsolving plays the alien in love with a human girl in both "The Children of Spider County" and "Black Leather Jackets". In popular media Barney Hill appeared in an episode of To Tell the Truth, episode airdate December 12, 1966. In 2004, Betty Hill's niece Kathleen Marden, with nuclear physicist and ufologist Stanton Friedman, authored Captured, concerning the case.[non-primary source needed] A fact-based account appears in the 2023 Dark Horse Comics series Blue Book: 1961, written by James Tynion IV with art by Michael Avon Oeming. The alleged abduction is the touchstone that historian Matthew Bowman uses in his 2023 book The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America to explore the zeitgeist of the times. See also References Book sources External links 43°54′31″N 71°39′50″W / 43.90861°N 71.66389°W / 43.90861; -71.66389
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamsteed_designation] \| [TOKENS: 845]
Contents Flamsteed designation A Flamsteed designation is a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. They are named after John Flamsteed, author of the Historia Coelestis Britannica, the first major star catalogue compiled with the aid of a telescope. Flamsteed’s own catalogue did not include what are now known as Flamsteed numbers, but its listing of stars in each constellation provided the basis for later astronomers to add them. Description Flamsteed designations for stars are similar to Bayer designations, except that they use numbers instead of Greek and Roman letters. Each star is assigned a number and the Latin genitive of the constellation it lies in (see 88 modern constellations for a list of constellations and the genitive forms of their names). Flamsteed designations were assigned to 2554 stars. The numbers were originally assigned in order of increasing right ascension within each constellation, but due to the effects of precession they are now slightly out of order in some places. This method of designating stars first appeared in a preliminary version of John Flamsteed's Historia Coelestis Britannica published by Edmond Halley and Isaac Newton in 1712 without Flamsteed's approval. The final version of Flamsteed's catalogue published in 1725 after his death omitted the numerical designations altogether. The numbers now in use were assigned by the French astronomer, Joseph Jérôme de Lalande and appeared in his 1783 almanac, Éphémérides des mouvemens célestes which contained a revised edition of Flamsteed's catalogue. Lalande noted in his Introduction that he got the idea from the unofficial 1712 edition. Flamsteed designations gained popularity throughout the eighteenth century, and are now commonly used when no Bayer designation exists. Where a Bayer designation with a Greek letter does exist for a star, it is usually used in preference to the Flamsteed designation. (Flamsteed numbers are generally preferred to Bayer designations with Roman letters.) Examples of well-known stars that are usually referred to by their Flamsteed numbers include 51 Pegasi, and 61 Cygni. Flamsteed designations are often used instead of the Bayer designation if the latter contains an extra attached number; for example, "55 Cancri" is more common than "Rho1 Cancri". There are examples of stars, such as 10 Ursae Majoris in Lynx, bearing Flamsteed designations for constellations in which they do not lie, just as there are for Bayer designations, because of the compromises that had to be made when the modern constellation boundaries were drawn up. Flamsteed's catalogue covered only the stars visible from Great Britain, and therefore stars of the far southern constellations have no Flamsteed numbers. Some stars, such as the nearby star 82 Eridani, were named in a major southern-hemisphere catalogue called Uranometria Argentina, by Benjamin Gould; these are Gould numbers, rather than Flamsteed numbers, and should be differentiated with a G, as in 82 G. Eridani. Except for a handful of cases, Gould numbers are not in common use. Similarly, Flamsteed-like designations assigned by other astronomers (for example, Hevelius) are no longer in general use. (A well-known exception is the globular cluster 47 Tucanae from Bode's catalogue.) 84 stars entered in Flamsteed's catalogue are errors and proved not to exist in the sky: All of them except 11 Vulpeculae were plotted on his star charts. List of constellations using Flamsteed star designations There are 52 constellations that primarily use Flamsteed designations. Stars are listed in the appropriate lists for the constellation, as follows: In addition, several stars in Puppis, and a small number of stars in Centaurus and Lupus, have been given Flamsteed designations. See also References External links
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_financial_officer] \| [TOKENS: 1265]
Contents Chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financial reporting, and, increasingly, the analysis of data. The CFO thus has ultimate authority over the finance unit and is the chief financial spokesperson for the organization. The CFO typically reports to the chief executive officer (CEO) and the board of directors and may additionally have a seat on the board. The CFO directly assists the chief operating officer (COO) on all business matters relating to budget management, cost–benefit analysis, forecasting needs, and securing of new funding. Some CFOs have the title CFOO for chief financial and operating officer. In most countries, finance directors (FD) typically report into the CFO, and FD is the level before reaching CFO. Legal requirement The appointment of a CFO or FD may be mandated by law. For example, in India, per the provisions of Section 203 of Companies Act 2013 every publicly listed firm having a paid up share capital of Rs. 10 Crores, requires a full time CFO. In the government sector this may be specified also: The US Chief Financial Officers Act, enacted in 1990, created a CFO in each of 23 federal agencies. (See also Office of Management and Budget and Office of Federal Financial Management.) Role The CFO serves as the financial authority in the organization. Significantly, the CFO holds ultimate responsibility for the day-to-day aspects of financial management, ensuring an operating environment that values cash flow, profit margins, and risk mitigation; tax management (and optimization) will be a parallel focus. The CFO thus has oversight of risk-, investment- and treasury management: the Chief Risk Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer will report to the CFO (or in smaller firms, the CFO assumes these roles). CFOs, in some organizations, will appoint a Chief Procurement Officer. The CFO also drives the company's long-term financial strategy. Here, they will be critically involved in determining the viability and (see below) direction of major capital investments. This extends - as relevant - to e.g. mergers and acquisitions, and to corporate actions more generally. Corresponding to these, the CFO is responsible for managing the company's capital structure; this entails identifying and maintaining the appropriate mix of equity and debt financing — if necessary raising capital via an equity- or debt issuance. This latter will include negotiating with investors, banks, and other financial institutions. See Strategic financial management and Capital budgeting. A major responsibility is financial reporting - and its related compliance (although many CFOs still spend much of their time in traditional accounting tasks such as transaction reporting). Included here — for listed companies — will be the various mandated security filings and shareholder reports. Typically, then, the CFO is expected to be a key player in stockholder education and communication. The Comptroller, Company Secretary, and Investor Relations Officer will also report to the CFO. CFOs are thus relied upon as the owners of financial data within organizations; increasingly, this includes business data more generally. In this role, then — as outlined above — the CFO's responsibilities extend to decision support, enabling the company to operate more effectively and efficiently; and relatedly, ensuring data integrity, and model transparency and accountability. The CFO and Chief Information Officer must therefore collaborate, sometimes sharing KPIs. This focus on data analytics to support decision-making (along with the rise of digital technologies) places pressure on CFOs to meet the expectations of their C-Suite colleagues. Here, many organizations have created a Finance function based on four pillars: The CFO was traditionally viewed as a financial "gatekeeper". Over time - as outlined - the position has become one of an advisor and strategic partner to the CEO. According to one source, "The CFO of tomorrow should be a big-picture thinker, rather than detail-oriented, outspoken rather than reserved, prefer to delegate rather than be hands-on, emphasize what gets done rather than how things are done, and make collaborative rather than unilateral decisions". The duties of a modern CFO, therefore, now straddle the traditional areas of financial stewardship, as well as the more progressive areas of strategic- and business leadership, with increasingly direct responsibility and oversight of operations. The relationship with the COO mirrors that of the CIO as above. This significant role-based transformation is best-evidenced by the "CEO-in-Waiting" status that many CFOs now hold. Here, CEOs increasingly expect their CFOs to be active participants in shaping the strategy of their organizations, including challenging the current strategy. CFOs thus play a critical role in shaping their company's strategies, functioning as a leader and team builder who sets the financial agenda for the organization, supports the CEO directly and provides timely advice to the board of directors. This is especially so in uncertain macroeconomic environments, where managing financial volatilities is a centerpiece for many companies' strategies. Indeed, the 1990s saw the rise of the strategic CFO, and many companies have created a chief strategy officer (CSO) position. The CFO is then as much a part of governance and oversight as the CEO, playing a fundamental role in the development and critique of strategic choices. Due to their importance, CFO departures—whether due to retirement, dismissal, or new opportunities—can significantly affect a company’s direction and stability, especially given the CFO’s growing role as a strategic partner to the CEO. Qualifications CFOs and FDs often hold a professional accounting qualification - the CPA, CA, CMA, or CIMA - along with its requisite bachelors and/or masters in accounting. The certification is specified given that responsibilities extend to tax and financial reporting. Similarly, financial managers are often qualified accountants.[citation needed] Often in larger companies, CFOs and FDs may hold additional postgraduate qualifications, such as a Master of Business Administration, or Master of Science in Finance; the Chartered Financial Analyst is also common. These complement the accounting perspective with more general strategic, leadership and financial market considerations, and give exposure to broader financial and operational issues. See also References Further reading External links
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Paranormal] \| [TOKENS: 55]
Category:Paranormal Subcategories This category has the following 20 subcategories, out of 20 total. Pages in category "Paranormal" The following 46 pages are in this category, out of 46 total. This list may not reflect recent changes.
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[SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_card] \| [TOKENS: 443]
Contents Birthday card A birthday card is a greeting card given or sent to a person to celebrate their birthday. Similar to a birthday cake, birthday card traditions vary by culture but the origin of birthday cards is unclear. The advent of computing and introduction of the internet and social media has led to the use of electronic birthday cards or even Facebook posts to send birthday messages. Meaning and research As written in the encyclopedia Celebrating Life Customs Around the World, birthday cards are the "most popular greeting card to send and account for around 60 percent of all greeting cards bought" (Williams). Birthday cards are an important part of different cultures, including, American culture. These cards deliver different meanings, both on a personal and cultural level. Research suggests that birthday cards may be "indicators of societal attitudes towards aging, communication of love, and gender-based expressiveness." For example, one study analyzing 150 birthday cards in 1981 found negative views on aging portrayed through humor. A 2017 study of online greeting cards found similar portrayals. Because of the ubiquity of the sentiments in cards, sociologist Dana Sawchuk recommended replicating this research with undergraduates as a form of active learning. In attempt to prevent high-risk drinking at 21st birthday celebrations in the United States, several public health studies have used birthday cards to try to modify drinking behavior. A 2009 survey of the attempts "indicated that the birthday card intervention was not successful at reducing drinking or consequences". History There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Greeks celebrated certain days as the birthday of particular gods and the book of Genesis contains the description of a pharaoh’s birthday party, but it was the Romans who began the custom of celebrating the birth of ordinary men. Wooden tablets found at Vindolanda on Hadrian’s wall, record an invitation, dictated by Claudia Severa, inviting her friend to a birthday celebration and they probably represent the earliest form of birthday card yet discovered.[citation needed] The mass-produced birthday card as we know it today, first made its appearance in mid-19th century Britain, shortly after the production of the first Christmas cards. Notable cards Notable birthday cards include: References Further reading
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