User:The Transhumanist

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Introduction

Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf

Hi. My name is The Transhumanist.

As a transhumanist...

I love emerging and evolving technologies, and so...

I'm currently immersed in studying AI (particularly generative AI and reasoning engines), and big data.

I dabble in JavaScript, including writing user scripts from time to time.

My best user script so far, is SearchSuite...

SearchSuite provides further control over Wikipedia search results, such as on/off features to sort them, to present results one-per-line, and more. While it seems to work fairly well, there is definitely room for improvement. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

By the way, most of the scripts I've been working on are for building and augmenting outlines...

As an encyclopedist...

I'm interested in all knowledge, especially how to organize it so you can find whatever is most relevant at any given moment.

I've been around Wikipedia since the Fall of 2005, and have been working mostly on Wikipedia's structure, and its knowledge navigation systems, throughout that time.

Selected articles that I've worked on

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Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain (including mental pain), or injury.

Health can be promoted by encouraging healthful activities, such as regular physical exercise and adequate sleep, and by reducing or avoiding unhealthful activities or situations, such as smoking or excessive stress. Some factors affecting health are due to individual choices, such as whether to engage in a high-risk behavior, while others are due to structural causes, such as whether the society is arranged in a way that makes it easier or harder for people to get necessary healthcare services. Still, other factors are beyond both individual and group choices, such as genetic disorders. (Full article...)
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Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic environmental impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to fit the needs of society (as in the built environment) is causing severe effects including global warming, environmental degradation (such as ocean acidification), mass extinction and biodiversity loss, ecological crisis, and ecological collapse. Some human activities that cause damage (either directly or indirectly) to the environment on a global scale include population growth, neoliberal economic policies and rapid economic growth, overconsumption, overexploitation, pollution, and deforestation. Some of the problems, including global warming and biodiversity loss, have been proposed as representing catastrophic risks to the survival of the human species.

The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian geologist Alexey Pavlov, and it was first used in English by British ecologist Arthur Tansley in reference to human influences on climax plant communities. The atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term "Anthropocene" in the mid-1970s. The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution produced from human activity since the start of the Agricultural Revolution but also applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment. Many of the actions taken by humans that contribute to a heated environment stem from the burning of fossil fuel from a variety of sources, such as: electricity, cars, planes, space heating, manufacturing, or the destruction of forests. (Full article...)
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Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include old technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies are often perceived as capable of changing the status quo.

Emerging technologies are characterized by radical novelty (in application even if not in origins), relatively fast growth, coherence, prominent impact, and uncertainty and ambiguity. In other words, an emerging technology can be defined as "a radically novel and relatively fast growing technology characterised by a certain degree of coherence persisting over time and with the potential to exert a considerable impact on the socio-economic domain(s) which is observed in terms of the composition of actors, institutions and patterns of interactions among those, along with the associated knowledge production processes. Its most prominent impact, however, lies in the future and so in the emergence phase is still somewhat uncertain and ambiguous."

Emerging technologies include a variety of technologies such as educational technology, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

New technological fields may result from the technological convergence of different systems evolving towards similar goals. Convergence brings previously separate technologies such as voice (and telephony features), data (and productivity applications) and video together so that they share resources and interact with each other, creating new efficiencies. (Full article...)
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A block is a defensive tactic in chess in response to an attack, consisting of interposing a piece between the opponent's attacking piece and the piece being attacked. This type of blocking will only work if the attacking piece is a type that can move linearly an indefinite number of squares such as a queen, rook, or bishop and there is at least one empty square in the line between the attacking and attacked piece. Blocking is not an option when the attacking piece is directly adjacent to the piece it is attacking, or when the attacking piece is a knight (because knights "jump over other pieces" and cannot be blocked). When an opponent's attack on a piece is blocked, the blocking piece is to some extent pinned, either relatively or absolutely, until a future move by either side allows it to be unpinned.

A check on a king by an opponent's queen, rook, or bishop can sometimes be blocked by moving a piece to a square in line in between the opponent's checking piece and the checked king. The blocking piece is then absolutely pinned to the king by the attacking piece.

Another type of interposing in chess can involve placing a piece between two opponent's pieces where one of those pieces is protecting the other, or they are both protecting each other. This chess tactic can be called interference. (Full article...)
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An EXCOMM meeting during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a crisis between the United States and Soviet Union over ballistic missiles in Cuba

A crisis (pl.: crises; ADJ: critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning. More loosely, a crisis is a testing time for an emergency. (Full article...)
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The meaning of life pertains to the inherent significance or philosophical meaning of living (or existence in general). There is no consensus on a definitive answer, and thinking or discourse on the topic is sought in the English language through the question, "What is the meaning of life?" (or the related "Why are we here?" or "What is the purpose of existence?"). There have been many proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The search for life's meaning has produced much philosophical, scientific, theological, and metaphysical speculation throughout history. Different people and cultures believe different things for the answer to this question. Opinions vary on the usefulness of using time and resources in the pursuit of an answer. Excessive pondering can be indicative of, or lead to, an existential crisis.

The meaning of life can be derived from philosophical and religious contemplation of, and scientific inquiries about, existence, social ties, consciousness, and happiness. Many other issues are also involved, such as symbolic meaning, ontology, value, purpose, ethics, good and evil, free will, the existence of one or multiple gods, conceptions of God, the soul, and the afterlife. Scientific contributions focus primarily on describing related empirical facts about the universe, exploring the context and parameters concerning the "how" of life. Science also studies and can provide recommendations for the pursuit of well-being and a related conception of morality. An alternative, humanistic approach poses the question, "What is the meaning of my life?" (Full article...)
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The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable consequences for human civilization. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I. J. Good's intelligence explosion model of 1965, an upgradable intelligent agent could eventually enter a positive feedback loop of successive self-improvement cycles; more intelligent generations would appear more and more rapidly, causing a rapid increase ("explosion") in intelligence which would culminate in a powerful superintelligence, far surpassing all human intelligence.

The Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann (1903-1957) became the first known person to use the concept of a "singularity" in the technological context.

Alan Turing, often regarded as the father of modern computer science, laid a crucial foundation for contemporary discourse on the technological singularity. His pivotal 1950 paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", introduced the idea of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to or indistinguishable from that of a human.

Stanislaw Ulam reported in 1958 an earlier discussion with von Neumann "centered on the accelerating progress of technology and changes in human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue". Subsequent authors have echoed this viewpoint. (Full article...)
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Blood flow diagram of the human heart. Blue components indicate de-oxygenated blood pathways and red components indicate oxygenated blood pathways.

Cardiology (from Ancient Greek καρδίᾱ (kardiā) 'heart' and -λογία (-logia) 'study') is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease, and electrophysiology. Physicians who specialize in this field of medicine are called cardiologists, a sub-specialty of internal medicine. Pediatric cardiologists are pediatricians who specialize in cardiology. Physicians who specialize in cardiac surgery are called cardiothoracic surgeons or cardiac surgeons, a specialty of general surgery. (Full article...)
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Types of democracy refers to the various governance structures that embody the principles of democracy ("rule by the people") in some way. Democracy is frequently applied to governments (ranging from local to global), but may also be applied to other constructs like workplaces, families, community associations, and so forth.

Types of democracy can cluster around values. Some such types, defined as direct democracy (or participatory democracy, or deliberative democracy), promote equal and direct participation in political decisions by all members of the public. Others, including the many variants of representative democracy(Constitutional), favor more indirect or procedural approaches to collective self-governance (Defensive), where decisions are made by elected representatives rather than by the people directly.

Types of democracy can be found across time, space, and language. The foregoing examples are just a few of the thousands of refinements of, and variations on, the central notion of "democracy." (Full article...)
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Moore's law is an example of futurology; it is a statistical collection of past and present trends with the goal of accurately extrapolating future trends.

Futures studies, futures research or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will live and work in the future. Predictive techniques, such as forecasting, can be applied, but contemporary futures studies scholars emphasize the importance of systematically exploring alternatives. In general, it can be considered as a branch of the social sciences and an extension to the field of history. Futures studies (colloquially called "futures" by many of the field's practitioners) seeks to understand what is likely to continue and what could plausibly change. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, and to explore the possibility of future events and trends.

Unlike the physical sciences where a narrower, more specified system is studied, futurology concerns a much bigger and more complex world system. The methodology and knowledge are much less proven than in natural science and social sciences like sociology and economics. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science, and it is sometimes described as pseudoscience; nevertheless, the Association of Professional Futurists was formed in 2002, developing a Foresight Competency Model in 2017, and it is now possible to study it academically, for example at the FU Berlin in their master's course. To encourage inclusive and cross-disciplinary discussions about futures studies, UNESCO declared December 2 as World Futures Day. (Full article...)
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Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled biological limit of around 125 years. Several researchers in the area, along with "life extensionists", "immortalists", or "longevists" (those who wish to achieve longer lives themselves), postulate that future breakthroughs in tissue rejuvenation, stem cells, regenerative medicine, molecular repair, gene therapy, pharmaceuticals, and organ replacement (such as with artificial organs or xenotransplantations) will eventually enable humans to have indefinite lifespans through complete rejuvenation to a healthy youthful condition (agerasia). The ethical ramifications, if life extension becomes a possibility, are debated by bioethicists.

The sale of purported anti-aging products such as supplements and hormone replacement is a lucrative global industry. For example, the industry that promotes the use of hormones as a treatment for consumers to slow or reverse the aging process in the US market generated about $50 billion of revenue a year in 2009. The use of such hormone products has not been proven to be effective or safe. (Full article...)
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Two pieces of string under a light microscope

String is a long flexible structure made from fibers twisted together into a single strand, or from multiple such strands which are in turn twisted together. String is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects. It is also used as a material to make things, such as textiles, and in arts and crafts. String is a simple tool, and its use by humans is known to have been developed tens of thousands of years ago. In Mesoamerica, for example, string was invented some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, and was made by twisting plant fibers together. String may also be a component in other tools, and in devices as diverse as weapons, musical instruments, and toys. (Full article...)
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The Library of Congress Classification (LCC) is a system of library classification developed by the Library of Congress in the United States, which can be used for shelving books in a library. LCC is mainly used by large research and academic libraries, while most public libraries and small academic libraries use the Dewey Decimal Classification system. The classification was developed by James Hanson (chief of the Catalog Department), with assistance from Charles Martel, in 1897, while they were working at the Library of Congress. It was designed specifically for the purposes and collection of the Library of Congress to replace the fixed location system developed by Thomas Jefferson.

LCC has been criticized for lacking a sound theoretical basis; many of the classification decisions were driven by the practical needs of that library rather than epistemological considerations. Although it divides subjects into broad categories, it is essentially enumerative in nature. That is, it provides a guide to the books actually in one library's collections, not a classification of the world. (Full article...)
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An abdominous obese male
Weight: 182 kg/400 lbs
Height: 185 cm/6 ft 1 in
Body mass index: 53

Abdominal obesity, also known as central obesity and truncal obesity, is the human condition of an excessive concentration of visceral fat around the stomach and abdomen to such an extent that it is likely to harm its bearer's health. Abdominal obesity has been strongly linked to cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other metabolic and vascular diseases.

Visceral fat, central abdominal fat, and waist circumference show a strong association with type 2 diabetes.

Visceral fat, also known as organ fat or intra-abdominal fat, is located inside the peritoneal cavity, packed in between internal organs and torso, as opposed to subcutaneous fat, which is found underneath the skin, and intramuscular fat, which is found interspersed in skeletal muscle. Visceral fat is composed of several adipose depots including mesenteric, epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT), and perirenal fat. An excess of adipose visceral fat is known as central obesity, the "pot belly" or "beer belly" effect, in which the abdomen protrudes excessively. This body type is also known as "apple shaped", as opposed to "pear shaped" in which fat is deposited on the hips and buttocks.

Researchers first started to focus on abdominal obesity in the 1980s when they realized it had an important connection to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Abdominal obesity was more closely related with metabolic dysfunctions connected with cardiovascular disease than was general obesity. In the late 1980s and early 1990s insightful and powerful imaging techniques were discovered that would further help advance the understanding of the health risks associated with body fat accumulation. Techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging made it possible to categorize mass of adipose tissue located at the abdominal level into intra-abdominal fat and subcutaneous fat. (Full article...)
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Automatic taxonomy construction (ATC) is the use of software programs to generate taxonomical classifications from a body of texts called a corpus. ATC is a branch of natural language processing, which in turn is a branch of artificial intelligence.

A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially, a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. Among other things, a taxonomy can be used to organize and index knowledge (stored as documents, articles, videos, etc.), such as in the form of a library classification system, or a search engine taxonomy, so that users can more easily find the information they are searching for. Many taxonomies are hierarchies (and thus, have an intrinsic tree structure), but not all are.

Manually developing and maintaining a taxonomy is a labor-intensive task requiring significant time and resources, including familiarity of or expertise in the taxonomy's domain (scope, subject, or field), which drives the costs and limits the scope of such projects. Also, domain modelers have their own points of view which inevitably, even if unintentionally, work their way into the taxonomy. ATC uses artificial intelligence techniques to quickly automatically generate a taxonomy for a domain in order to avoid these problems and remove limitations. (Full article...)
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Figure 1. Compliant bonding a gold wire (Click to enlarge view)

Compliant bonding is used to connect gold wires to electrical components such as integrated circuit "chips". It was invented by Alexander Coucoulas in the 1960s. The bond is formed well below the melting point of the mating gold surfaces and is therefore referred to as a solid-state type bond. The compliant bond is formed by transmitting heat and pressure to the bond region through a relatively thick indentable or compliant medium, generally an aluminum tape (Figure 1). (Full article...)
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A userscript (or user script) is a program, usually written in JavaScript, for modifying web pages to augment browsing. Uses include adding shortcut buttons and keyboard shortcuts, controlling playback speeds, adding features to sites, and enhancing the browsing history.

On desktop browsers such as Firefox, userscripts are enabled by use of a userscript manager browser extension such as Tampermonkey or Greasemonkey. The Presto-based Opera-supported userscripts (referred to as User JavaScript) are placed in a designated directory. Userscripts are often referred to as Greasemonkey scripts, named after the original userscript manager for Firefox.

On Wikipedia, a user scripts feature is enabled for registered users that allows them to install userscripts to augment editing and viewing of the encyclopedia's pages. (Full article...)
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Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and reproducibility of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances.

Natural science can be divided into two main branches: life science and physical science. Life science is alternatively known as biology. Physical science is subdivided into branches: physics, astronomy, Earth science and chemistry. These branches of natural science may be further divided into more specialized branches (also known as fields). As empirical sciences, natural sciences use tools from the formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic, converting information about nature into measurements that can be explained as clear statements of the "laws of nature".

Modern natural science succeeded more classical approaches to natural philosophy. Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Bacon, and Newton debated the benefits of using approaches which were more mathematical and more experimental in a methodical way. Still, philosophical perspectives, conjectures, and presuppositions, often overlooked, remain necessary in natural science. Systematic data collection, including discovery science, succeeded natural history, which emerged in the 16th century by describing and classifying plants, animals, minerals, and so on. Today, "natural history" suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences. (Full article...)
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Visualization of various methodological approaches to gaining insights from meta data areas

Information science is an academic field which is primarily concerned with analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, movement, dissemination, and protection of information. Practitioners within and outside the field study the application and the usage of knowledge in organizations in addition to the interaction between people, organizations, and any existing information systems with the aim of creating, replacing, improving, or understanding the information systems.

Historically, information science is associated with informatics, computer science, data science, psychology, technology, documentation science, library science, healthcare, and intelligence agencies. However, information science also incorporates aspects of diverse fields such as archival science, cognitive science, commerce, law, linguistics, museology, management, mathematics, philosophy, public policy, and social sciences. (Full article...)
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Genius is a characteristic of original and exceptional insight in the performance of some art or endeavor that surpasses expectations, sets new standards for the future, establishes better methods of operation, or remains outside the capabilities of competitors. Genius is associated with intellectual ability and creative productivity. The term genius can also be used to refer to people characterised by genius, and/or to polymaths who excel across many subjects.

There is no scientifically precise definition of genius. When used to refer to the characteristic, genius is associated with talent, but several authors such as Cesare Lombroso and Arthur Schopenhauer systematically distinguish these terms. Walter Isaacson, biographer of many well-known geniuses, explains that although high intelligence may be a prerequisite, the most common trait that actually defines a genius may be the extraordinary ability to apply creativity and imaginative thinking to almost any situation.

In the early-19th century Carl von Clausewitz, who had a particular interest in what he called "military genius", defined "the essence of Genius" (German: der Genius) in terms of "a very high mental capacity for certain employments". (Full article...)
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Friendly artificial intelligence (friendly AI or FAI) is hypothetical artificial general intelligence (AGI) that would have a positive (benign) effect on humanity or at least align with human interests such as fostering the improvement of the human species. It is a part of the ethics of artificial intelligence and is closely related to machine ethics. While machine ethics is concerned with how an artificially intelligent agent should behave, friendly artificial intelligence research is focused on how to practically bring about this behavior and ensuring it is adequately constrained. (Full article...)
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This article explains terms used for the British Armed Forces' ordnance (weapons) and ammunition. The terms may have different meanings depending on their usage in another country's military. (Full article...)
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Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that matches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks. This contrasts with narrow AI, which is limited to specific tasks. Artificial superintelligence (ASI), on the other hand, refers to AGI that greatly exceeds human cognitive capabilities. AGI is considered one of the definitions of strong AI.

Creating AGI is a primary goal of AI research and of companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta. A 2020 survey identified 72 active AGI research and development projects across 37 countries.

The timeline for achieving AGI remains a subject of ongoing debate among researchers and experts. As of 2023, some argue that it may be possible in years or decades; others maintain it might take a century or longer; a minority believe it may never be achieved; and another minority claims that it is already here. Notable AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton has expressed concerns about the rapid progress towards AGI, suggesting it could be achieved sooner than many expect.

There is debate on the exact definition of AGI and regarding whether modern large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4 are early forms of AGI. AGI is a common topic in science fiction and futures studies. (Full article...)
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Help may refer to: (Full article...)
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The history of California can be divided into the Native American period (about 10,000 years ago until 1542), the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican period (1821–1848), and United States statehood (September 9, 1850–present). California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. After contact with, many of the Native Americans died from foreign diseases. Finally, in the 19th century there was a genocide by United States government and private citizens, which is known as the California genocide.

After the Portolá expedition of 1769–1770, Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California missions on or near the coast of Alta (Upper) California, beginning with the Mission San Diego de Alcala near the location of the modern day city of San Diego, California. During the same period, Spanish military forces built several forts (presidios) and three small towns (pueblos). Two of the pueblos would eventually grow into the cities of Los Angeles and San Jose. After Mexico's Independence was won in 1821, California fell under the jurisdiction of the First Mexican Empire. Fearing the influence of the Roman Catholic church over their newly independent nation, the Mexican government closed all of the missions and nationalized the church's property. They left behind a "Californio" population of several thousand families, with a few small military garrisons. After the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848, The Mexican Republic was forced to relinquish any claim to California to the United States.

The California Gold Rush of 1848–1855 attracted hundreds of thousands of ambitious young people from around the world. Only a few struck it rich, and many returned home disappointed. Most appreciated the other economic opportunities in California, especially in agriculture, and brought their families to join them. California became the 31st U.S. state in the Compromise of 1850 and played a small role in the American Civil War. Chinese immigrants increasingly came under attack from nativists; they were forced out of industry and agriculture and into Chinatowns in the larger cities. As gold petered out, California increasingly became a highly productive agricultural society. The coming of the railroads in 1869 linked its rich economy with the rest of the nation, and attracted a steady stream of settlers. In the late 19th century, Southern California, especially Los Angeles, started to grow rapidly. (Full article...)

Selected emerging technologies and related articles

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Tricorder from the original series

A tricorder is a fictional handheld sensor that exists in the Star Trek universe. The tricorder is a multifunctional hand-held device that can perform environmental scans, data recording, and data analysis; hence the word "tricorder" to refer to the three functions of sensing, recording, and computing. In Star Trek stories the devices are issued by the fictional Starfleet organization.

The original physical prop for the tricorder was designed by Wah Chang and appeared in "The Man Trap" in 1966, the first Star Trek episode to air. (Full article...)
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General concept for TDMR using multiple read elements

Two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) is a technology introduced in 2017 in hard disk drives (HDD) used for computer data storage. Most of the world's data is recorded on HDDs, and there is continuous pressure on manufacturers to create greater data storage capacity in a given HDD form-factor and for a given cost. In an HDD, data is stored using magnetic recording on a rotating magnetic disk and is accessed through a write-head and read-head (or read-element). TDMR allows greater storage capacity by advantageously combining signals simultaneously from multiple read-back heads to enhance the recovery of one or more data-tracks. In this manner, data can be stored with higher areal-density on the disks thus providing higher capacity in each HDD. TDMR is a read-back technology and thus applies equally well to future recording (writing) technologies such as heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR). (Full article...)
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Mineral wool insulation, 1600 dpi scan

Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with specially engineered methods or processes, as well as with suitable object shapes and materials.

Heat flow is an inevitable consequence of contact between objects of different temperature. Thermal insulation provides a region of insulation in which thermal conduction is reduced, creating a thermal break or thermal barrier, or thermal radiation is reflected rather than absorbed by the lower-temperature body. (Full article...)
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Industrial ecology (IE) is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems. The global industrial economy can be modelled as a network of industrial processes that extract resources from the Earth and transform those resources into by-products, products and services which can be bought and sold to meet the needs of humanity. Industrial ecology seeks to quantify the material flows and document the industrial processes that make modern society function. Industrial ecologists are often concerned with the impacts that industrial activities have on the environment, with use of the planet's supply of natural resources, and with problems of waste disposal. Industrial ecology is a young but growing multidisciplinary field of research which combines aspects of engineering, economics, sociology, toxicology and the natural sciences.

Industrial ecology has been defined as a "systems-based, multidisciplinary discourse that seeks to understand emergent behavior of complex integrated human/natural systems". The field approaches issues of sustainability by examining problems from multiple perspectives, usually involving aspects of sociology, the environment, economy and technology. The name comes from the idea that the analogy of natural systems should be used as an aid in understanding how to design sustainable industrial systems. (Full article...)
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Radio frequency (RF) and microwave filters represent a class of electronic filter, designed to operate on signals in the megahertz to gigahertz frequency ranges (medium frequency to extremely high frequency). It is component that is used in electronic systems to pass or reject specific frequencies and attenuate of unwanted signals within the microwave and RF range. This frequency range is the range used by most broadcast radio, television, wireless communication (cellphones, Wi-Fi, etc.), and thus most RF and microwave devices will include some kind of filtering on the signals transmitted or received. Such filters are commonly used as building blocks for duplexers and diplexers to combine or separate multiple frequency bands. (Full article...)
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Fig. 1. Schematic of plastic solar cells. PET – polyethylene terephthalate, ITO – indium tin oxide, PEDOT:PSS – poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), active layer (usually a polymer:fullerene blend), Al – aluminium.

An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells.
The molecules used in organic solar cells are solution-processable at high throughput and are cheap, resulting in low production costs to fabricate a large volume. Combined with the flexibility of organic molecules, organic solar cells are potentially cost-effective for photovoltaic applications. Molecular engineering (e.g., changing the length and functional group of polymers) can change the band gap, allowing for electronic tunability. The optical absorption coefficient of organic molecules is high, so a large amount of light can be absorbed with a small amount of materials, usually on the order of hundreds of nanometers. The main disadvantages associated with organic photovoltaic cells are low efficiency, low stability and low strength compared to inorganic photovoltaic cells such as silicon solar cells. (Full article...)
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Technicians preparing a body for cryopreservation in 1985

Cryonics (from Greek: κρύος kryos, meaning "cold") is the low-temperature freezing (usually at −196 °C or −320.8 °F or 77.1 K) and storage of human remains in the hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticism by the mainstream scientific community. It is generally viewed as a pseudoscience, and its practice has been characterized as quackery. Suspended animation is a popular subject in science fiction.

Cryonics procedures can begin only after the "patients" are clinically and legally dead. Procedures may begin within minutes of death, and use cryoprotectants to try to prevent ice formation during cryopreservation.^{[better source needed]} It is not possible to reanimate a corpse that has undergone vitrification, as this damages the brain, including its neural circuits. The first corpse to be frozen was that of James Bedford, in 1967. As of 2014, about 250 bodies had been cryopreserved in the United States, and 1,500 people had made arrangements for cryopreservation of their remains. (Full article...)
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Working principle of lithium-sulfur battery and "shuttle" effect

The lithium–sulfur battery (Li–S battery) is a type of rechargeable battery. It is notable for its high specific energy. The low atomic weight of lithium and moderate atomic weight of sulfur means that Li–S batteries are relatively light (about the density of water). They were used on the longest and highest-altitude unmanned solar-powered aeroplane flight (at the time) by Zephyr 6 in August 2008.

Lithium–sulfur batteries may displace lithium-ion cells because of their higher energy density and reduced cost. This is due to two factors. First the use of sulfur instead of a less energy dense and more expensive substances such as cobalt and/or iron compounds found in lithium-ion batteries. Secondly, the use of metallic lithium instead of intercalating lithium ions allows for much higher energy density, as less substances are needed to hold "lithium" and lithium is directly oxidized. Li–S batteries offer specific energies on the order of 550 Wh/kg, while lithium-ion batteries are in the range of 150–260 Wh/kg. (Full article...)
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Linimo (リニモ, Rinimo), formally the Aichi Rapid Transit Tobu Kyuryo Line (愛知高速交通東部丘陵線, Aichi Kōsoku Kōtsū Tōbu Kyūryō-sen) is a magnetic levitation train line in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, near the city of Nagoya. While primarily built to serve the Expo 2005 fair site, the line has since operated to serve the local community.

Linimo is owned and operated by the Aichi Rapid Transit Company, Ltd. (愛知高速交通株式会社, Aichi Kōsoku Kōtsū kabushiki-gaisha) and is the first commercial maglev in Japan to use the High Speed Surface Transport (HSST) type technology. It is also the world's first uncrewed commercial urban maglev. Linimo was the fourth overall commercial urban maglev operated in the world, predated by the Birmingham Maglev (1984–1995), the Berlin M-Bahn (1989–1991) and the Shanghai Maglev (opened in 2004). (Full article...)
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Various cameras and sensors being used in the ceiling of an Amazon Go store

A cashierless store (also called a till-less store, checkout-free store or just walk out store) is a store which allows customers to shop their products and leave without having to wait in line and pay at a checkout. Cashierless stores can currently be found in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. (Full article...)
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WW1 Mark V tank, in The Tank Museum

An armoured fighting vehicle (British English) or armored fighting vehicle (American English) (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured cars, assault guns, self-propelled artilleries, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and armoured personnel carriers (APC).

Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their characteristics and intended role on the battlefield. The classifications are not absolute; two countries may classify the same vehicle differently, and the criteria change over time. For example, relatively lightly armed armoured personnel carriers were largely superseded by infantry fighting vehicles with much heavier armament in a similar role. (Full article...)
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Swarm of open-source Jasmine micro-robots recharging themselves

Swarm robotics is the study of how to design independent systems of robots without centralized control. The emerging swarming behavior of robotic swarms is created through the interactions between individual robots and the environment. This idea emerged on the field of artificial swarm intelligence, as well as the studies of insects, ants and other fields in nature, where swarm behavior occurs.

Relatively simple individual rules can produce a large set of complex swarm behaviors. A key component is the communication between the members of the group that build a system of constant feedback. The swarm behavior involves constant change of individuals in cooperation with others, as well as the behavior of the whole group. (Full article...)
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Wind farm in Xinjiang, China

Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity generation.
Today, wind power is generated almost completely with wind turbines, generally grouped into wind farms and connected to the electrical grid.

In 2022, wind supplied over 2,304 TWh of electricity, which was 7.8% of world electricity.
With about 100 GW added during 2021, mostly in China and the United States, global installed wind power capacity exceeded 800 GW. 32 countries generated more than a tenth of their electricity from wind power in 2023 and wind generation has nearly tripled since 2015. To help meet the Paris Agreement goals to limit climate change, analysts say it should expand much faster – by over 1% of electricity generation per year. (Full article...)
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Analogue electronics (American English: analog electronics) are electronic systems with a continuously variable signal, in contrast to digital electronics where signals usually take only two levels. The term analogue describes the proportional relationship between a signal and a voltage or current that represents the signal. The word analogue is derived from the Greek word ανάλογος analogos meaning proportional. (Full article...)
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A model of a space fountain

A space fountain is a proposed form of an extremely tall tower extending into space. As known materials cannot support a static tower with this height, a space fountain has to be an active structure: A stream of pellets is accelerated upwards from a ground station. At the top it is deflected downwards. The necessary force for this deflection supports the station at the top and payloads going up the structure. A spacecraft could launch from the top without having to deal with the atmosphere. This could reduce the cost of placing payloads into orbit. Its largest downside is that the tower will re-enter the atmosphere if the accelerator fails and the stream stops. This risk could be reduced by several redundant streams.

The lower part of a pellet stream has to be in a vacuum tube to avoid excessive drag in the atmosphere. Similar to the top station, this tube can be supported by its own system of transferring momentum from a space-bound stream to a surface-bound stream. If the tube itself also accelerates the station-supporting stream, it would have to transfer additional momentum to an earth-bound stream in order to keep itself supported. The tube-supporting streams could also be designed to integrate with the station-supporting streams. (Full article...)
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Cattle feedlot in Colorado, United States

Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starting with the Neolithic Revolution when animals were first domesticated, from around 13,000 BC onwards, predating farming of the first crops. During the period of ancient societies like ancient Egypt, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs were being raised on farms.

Major changes took place in the Columbian exchange, when Old World livestock were brought to the New World, and then in the British Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century, when livestock breeds like the Dishley Longhorn cattle and Lincoln Longwool sheep were rapidly improved by agriculturalists, such as Robert Bakewell, to yield more meat, milk, and wool. A wide range of other species, such as horse, water buffalo, llama, rabbit, and guinea pig, are used as livestock in some parts of the world. Insect farming, as well as aquaculture of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans, is widespread. Modern animal husbandry relies on production systems adapted to the type of land available. Subsistence farming is being superseded by intensive animal farming in the more developed parts of the world, where, for example, beef cattle are kept in high-density feedlots, and thousands of chickens may be raised in broiler houses or batteries. On poorer soil, such as in uplands, animals are often kept more extensively and may be allowed to roam widely, foraging for themselves. Animal agriculture at modern scale drives climate change, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss. (Full article...)
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In computing, an interface is a shared boundary across which two or more separate components of a computer system exchange information. The exchange can be between software, computer hardware, peripheral devices, humans, and combinations of these. Some computer hardware devices, such as a touchscreen, can both send and receive data through the interface, while others such as a mouse or microphone may only provide an interface to send data to a given system. (Full article...)
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An oncolytic virus is a virus that preferentially infects and kills cancer cells. As the infected cancer cells are destroyed by oncolysis, they release new infectious virus particles or virions to help destroy the remaining tumour. Oncolytic viruses are thought not only to cause direct destruction of the tumour cells, but also to stimulate host anti-tumour immune system responses. Oncolytic viruses also have the ability to affect the tumor micro-environment in multiple ways.

The potential of viruses as anti-cancer agents was first realised in the early twentieth century, although coordinated research efforts did not begin until the 1960s. A number of viruses including adenovirus, reovirus, measles, herpes simplex, Newcastle disease virus, and vaccinia have been clinically tested as oncolytic agents. Most current oncolytic viruses are engineered for tumour selectivity, although there are naturally occurring examples such as reovirus and the senecavirus, resulting in clinical trials. (Full article...)
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A Nintendo DS Lite, the best-selling handheld console of all time and second overall

A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the console, screen, speakers, and controls in one unit, allowing players to carry them and play them at any time or place.

In 1976, Mattel introduced the first handheld electronic game with the release of Auto Race. Later, several companies—including Coleco and Milton Bradley—made their own single-game, lightweight table-top or handheld electronic game devices. The first commercially successful handheld console was Merlin from 1978, which sold more than 5 million units. The first handheld game console with interchangeable cartridges is the Milton Bradley Microvision in 1979. (Full article...)
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Sustainable urban design and innovation: Photovoltaic ombrière SUDI is an autonomous and mobile station that replenishes energy for electric vehicles using solar energy.
Environmental technology (envirotech) is the use of engineering and technological approaches to understand and address issues that affect the environment with the aim of fostering environmental improvement. It involves the application of science and technology in the process of addressing environmental challenges through environmental conservation and the mitigation of human impact to the environment.

The term is sometimes also used to describe sustainable energy generation technologies such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, etc. (Full article...)
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Possible scenario of smart and sustainable mobility

A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and to operate/provide services. Data can be collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, urban forestry, water supply networks, waste disposal, criminal investigations, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services. The foundation of a smart city is built on the integration of people, technology, and processes, which connect and interact across sectors such as healthcare, transportation, education, and infrastructure, etc. Smart cities are characterized by the ways in which their local governments monitor, analyze, plan, and govern the city. In a smart city, the sharing of data extends to businesses, citizens and other third parties who can derive benefit from using that data. The three largest sources of spending associated with smart cities as of 2022 were visual surveillance, public transit, and outdoor lighting.

Smart cities integrate information and communication technology (ICT), and devices connected to the Internet of things (IOT) network to optimize city services and connect to citizens. ICT can be used to enhance quality, performance, and interactivity of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to increase contact between citizens and government. Smart city applications manage urban flows and allow for real-time responses. A smart city may be more prepared to respond to challenges than one with a conventional "transactional" relationship with its citizens. Yet, the term is open to many interpretations. Many cities have already adopted some sort of smart city technology. ('Full article...)
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The Samsung Galaxy Fold is an Android-based foldable smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics. Unveiled on February 20, 2019, it was released on September 6, 2019, in South Korea. The device is capable of being folded open to expose a 7.3-inch tablet-sized flexible display, while its front contains a smaller "cover" display, intended for accessing the device without opening it. With the announcement of the Galaxy Z Flip, Samsung's foldable phones were made part of the Galaxy Z series. This also retroactively applies to the Galaxy Fold.

The Galaxy Fold received mixed pre-release reception, with praise for its innovative design, but criticism over the device's durability and longevity, and it was concluded that the Galaxy Fold was a proof of concept device for early adopters rather than a device suited for the mass market. Due to issues with the device's durability and susceptibility to damage, Samsung announced that it would recall the review units and delay the release of the Galaxy Fold indefinitely while it addressed the problems. Samsung officially detailed its design changes in July and released the phone in September 2019. The company claimed to have sold one million units since launch by December 2019, but Samsung later denied having sold 1 million units, and admitted having reported sales expectations as actual sales. (Full article...)
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ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, iter meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process similar to that of the Sun. It is being built next to the Cadarache facility in southern France. Upon completion of construction of the main reactor and first plasma, planned for 2033–2034, ITER will be the largest of more than 100 fusion reactors built since the 1950s, with six times the plasma volume of JT-60SA in Japan, the largest tokamak operating today.

The long-term goal of fusion research is to generate electricity. ITER's stated purpose is scientific research, and technological demonstration of a large fusion reactor, without electricity generation. ITER's goals are to achieve enough fusion to produce 10 times as much thermal output power as thermal power absorbed by the plasma for short time periods; to demonstrate and test technologies that would be needed to operate a fusion power plant including cryogenics, heating, control and diagnostics systems, and remote maintenance; to achieve and learn from a burning plasma; to test tritium breeding; and to demonstrate the safety of a fusion plant. (Full article...)
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Behavior-based robotics (BBR) or behavioral robotics is an approach in robotics that focuses on robots that are able to exhibit complex-appearing behaviors despite little internal variable state to model its immediate environment, mostly gradually correcting its actions via sensory-motor links. (Full article...)
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Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) was an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. This is distinct from Tim Berners-Lee's concept of the Semantic Web. Some technologists and journalists have contrasted it with Web 2.0, in which they claim user-generated content is controlled by a small group of companies referred to as Big Tech. The term "web3" was coined in 2014 by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and the idea gained interest in 2021 from cryptocurrency enthusiasts, large technology companies, and venture capital firms. The concepts of web3 were first represented in 2013.

Critics have expressed concerns over the centralization of wealth to a small group of investors and individuals, or a loss of privacy due to more expansive data collection. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey have argued that web3 only serves as a buzzword or marketing term. (Full article...)

Selected global issues and related topics

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Existential risk from artificial intelligence refers to the idea that substantial progress in artificial general intelligence (AGI) could lead to human extinction or an irreversible global catastrophe.

One argument for the importance of this risk references how human beings dominate other species because the human brain possesses distinctive capabilities other animals lack. If AI were to surpass human intelligence and become superintelligent, it might become uncontrollable. Just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill, the fate of humanity could depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence.

The plausibility of existential catastrophe due to AI is widely debated. It hinges in part on whether AGI or superintelligence are achievable, the speed at which dangerous capabilities and behaviors emerge, and whether practical scenarios for AI takeovers exist. Concerns about superintelligence have been voiced by computer scientists and tech CEOs such as Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Alan Turing, Elon Musk, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In 2022, a survey of AI researchers with a 17% response rate found that the majority believed there is a 10 percent or greater chance that human inability to control AI will cause an existential catastrophe. In 2023, hundreds of AI experts and other notable figures signed a statement declaring, "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war". Following increased concern over AI risks, government leaders such as United Kingdom prime minister Rishi Sunak and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an increased focus on global AI regulation. (Full article...)
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The dodo became extinct during the mid-to-late 17th century due to habitat destruction, overhunting, and predation by introduced mammals. It is an often-cited example of a human-driven extinction.

The Holocene extinction, also referred to as the Anthropocene extinction or the sixth mass extinction, is an ongoing extinction event caused by human activities during the Holocene epoch. This extinction event spans numerous families of plants and animals, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, impacting both terrestrial and marine species. Widespread degradation of biodiversity hotspots such as coral reefs and rainforests has exacerbated the crisis. Many of these extinctions are undocumented, as the species are often undiscovered before their extinctions.

Current extinction rates are estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than natural background extinction rates and are accelerating. Over the past 100–200 years, biodiversity loss has reached such alarming levels that some conservation biologists now believe human activities have triggered a mass extinction, or are on the cusp of doing so. As such, after the "Big Five" mass extinctions, the Holocene extinction event has been referred to as the sixth mass extinction. However, given the recent recognition of the Capitanian mass extinction, the term seventh mass extinction has also been proposed.

The Holocene extinction was preceded by the extinction of most large (megafaunal) animals during the Late Pleistocene (Quaternary megafaunal extinctions), a decline attributed at least in part to human (anthropogenic) activities. There continue to be strong debates about the relative importance of anthropogenic factors and climate change, but a recent review concluded that there is little evidence for a major role of climate change and "strong" evidence for human activities as the principal driver. Examples from regions such as New Zealand, Madagascar, and Hawaii have shown how human colonization and habitat destruction have led to significant biodiversity losses. (Full article...)
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The distribution of atmospheric ozone in partial pressure as a function of altitude

Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. There are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events in addition to these stratospheric events.

The main causes of ozone depletion and the ozone hole are manufactured chemicals, especially manufactured halocarbon refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), HCFCs, halons), referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by turbulent mixing after being emitted from the surface, mixing much faster than the molecules can settle. Once in the stratosphere, they release atoms from the halogen group through photodissociation, which catalyze the breakdown of ozone (O₃) into oxygen (O₂). Both types of ozone depletion were observed to increase as emissions of halocarbons increased.

Ozone depletion and the ozone hole have generated worldwide concern over increased cancer risks and other negative effects. The ozone layer prevents harmful wavelengths of ultraviolet (UVB) light from passing through the Earth's atmosphere. These wavelengths cause skin cancer, sunburn, permanent blindness, and cataracts, which were projected to increase dramatically as a result of thinning ozone, as well as harming plants and animals. These concerns led to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which bans the production of CFCs, halons, and other ozone-depleting chemicals. Over time, scientists have developed new refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP) to replace older ones. For example, in new automobiles, R-1234yf systems are now common, being chosen over refrigerants with much higher GWP such as R-134a and R-12. (Full article...)
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Unemployment rate, 2021

Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the reference period.

Unemployment is measured by the unemployment rate, which is the number of people who are unemployed as a percentage of the labour force (the total number of people employed added to those unemployed).

Unemployment can have many sources, such as the following: (Full article...)
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Women selling produce at a market in Lilongwe, Malawi

Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The availability of food for people of any class and state, gender or religion is another element of food security. Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family, at all times, have access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Individuals who are food-secure do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security includes resilience to future disruptions of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as droughts and floods, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security: a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food.

The concept of food security has evolved over time. The four pillars of food security include availability, access, utilization, and stability. In addition, there are two more dimensions that are important: agency and sustainability. These six dimensions of food security are reinforced in conceptual and legal understandings of the right to food. The World Food Summit in 1996 declared that "food should not be used as an instrument for political and economic pressure."

There are many causes of food insecurity. The most important ones are high food prices and disruptions in global food supplies for example due to war. There is also climate change, water scarcity, land degradation, agricultural diseases, pandemics and disease outbreaks that can all lead to food insecurity. (Full article...)
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Destruction, from The Course of Empire by Thomas Cole (1836)

Societal collapse (also known as civilizational collapse or systems collapse) is the fall of a complex human society characterized by the loss of cultural identity and of social complexity as an adaptive system, the downfall of government, and the rise of violence. Possible causes of a societal collapse include natural catastrophe, war, pestilence, famine, economic collapse, population decline or overshoot, mass migration, incompetent leaders, and sabotage by rival civilizations. A collapsed society may revert to a more primitive state, be absorbed into a stronger society, or completely disappear.

Virtually all civilizations have suffered such a fate, regardless of their size or complexity. Most never recovered, such as the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, the Maya civilization, and the Easter Island civilization. However, some of them later revived and transformed, such as China, Greece, and Egypt.

Anthropologists, historians, and sociologists have proposed a variety of explanations for the collapse of civilizations involving causative factors such as environmental degradation, depletion of resources, costs of rising complexity, invasion, disease, decay of social cohesion, growing inequality, extractive institutions, long-term decline of cognitive abilities, loss of creativity, and misfortune. However, complete extinction of a culture is not inevitable, and in some cases, the new societies that arise from the ashes of the old one are evidently its offspring, despite a dramatic reduction in sophistication. Moreover, the influence of a collapsed society, such as the Western Roman Empire, may linger on long after its death. (Full article...)
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Inclusive growth is economic growth that raises standards of livings for broad swaths of a population. It is widely accepted that inclusive growth is challenging to be achieved in the real world. Both the intangibility and long term perspective make it less desirable than other more conspicuous economic targets for policymakers.

There is a lack of a comprehensive and worldly recognised set of standards to systematically measure the inclusiveness of growth, which makes data collection and policy evaluation difficult. Proponents for inclusive growth warn that inequitable growth may have adverse political outcomes.

The definition of inclusive growth implies direct links between the macroeconomic and microeconomic determinants of the economy and economic growth. The microeconomic dimension captures the importance of structural transformation for economic diversification and competition, while the macro dimension refers to changes in economic aggregates such as the country’s gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP), total factor productivity, and aggregate factor inputs. (Full article...)
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Two Indian stamps which combine to symbolize gender equality

Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations, and needs equally, also regardless of gender. To avoid complication, other genders (besides women and men) will not be treated in this Gender equality article.

UNICEF (an agency of the United Nations) defines gender equality as "women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. It does not require that girls and boys, or women and men, be the same, or that they be treated exactly alike."
As of 2017, gender equality is the fifth of seventeen sustainable development goals (SDG 5) of the United Nations; gender equality has not incorporated the proposition of genders besides women and men, or gender identities outside of the gender binary. Gender inequality is measured annually by the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports. (Full article...)
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Changes in surface air temperature over the past 50 years. The Arctic has warmed the most, and temperatures on land have generally increased more than sea surface temperatures.

Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth’s climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming, has increased in concentration by about 50% since the pre-industrial era to levels not seen for millions of years.

Climate change has an increasingly large impact on the environment. Deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Amplified warming in the Arctic has contributed to thawing permafrost, retreat of glaciers and sea ice decline. Higher temperatures are also causing more intense storms, droughts, and other weather extremes. Rapid environmental change in mountains, coral reefs, and the Arctic is forcing many species to relocate or become extinct. Even if efforts to minimize future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include ocean heating, ocean acidification and sea level rise.

Climate change threatens people with increased flooding, extreme heat, increased food and water scarcity, more disease, and economic loss. Human migration and conflict can also be a result. The World Health Organization calls climate change one of the biggest threats to global health in the 21st century. Societies and ecosystems will experience more severe risks without action to limit warming. Adapting to climate change through efforts like flood control measures or drought-resistant crops partially reduces climate change risks, although some limits to adaptation have already been reached. Poorer communities are responsible for a small share of global emissions, yet have the least ability to adapt and are most vulnerable to climate change. (Full article...)
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Summary of major environmental-change categories that cause biodiversity loss. The data is expressed as a percentage of human-driven change (in red) relative to baseline (blue), as of 2021. Red indicates the percentage of the category that is damaged, lost, or otherwise affected, whereas blue indicates the percentage that is intact, remaining, or otherwise unaffected.

Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological diversity in a given area. The decrease can be temporary or permanent. It is temporary if the damage that led to the loss is reversible in time, for example through ecological restoration. If this is not possible, then the decrease is permanent. The cause of most of the biodiversity loss is, generally speaking, human activities that push the planetary boundaries too far. These activities include habitat destruction (for example deforestation) and land use intensification (for example monoculture farming). Further problem areas are air and water pollution (including nutrient pollution), over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change.

Many scientists, along with the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, say that the main reason for biodiversity loss is a growing human population because this leads to human overpopulation and excessive consumption. Others disagree, saying that loss of habitat is caused mainly by "the growth of commodities for export" and that population has very little to do with overall consumption. More important are wealth disparities between and within countries.

Climate change is another threat to global biodiversity. For example, coral reefs—which are biodiversity hotspots—will be lost by the year 2100 if global warming continues at the current rate. Still, it is the general habitat destruction (often for expansion of agriculture), not climate change, that is currently the bigger driver of biodiversity loss. Invasive species and other disturbances have become more common in forests in the last several decades. These tend to be directly or indirectly connected to climate change and can cause a deterioration of forest ecosystems. (Full article...)
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Human overpopulation (or human population overshoot) is the idea that human populations may become too large to be sustained by their environment or resources in the long term. The topic is usually discussed in the context of world population, though it may concern individual nations, regions, and cities.

Since 1804, the global living human population has increased from 1 billion to 8 billion due to medical advancements and improved agricultural productivity. Annual world population growth peaked at 2.1% in 1968 and has since dropped to 1.1%. According to the most recent United Nations' projections, the global human population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050 and would peak at around 10.4 billion people in the 2080s, before decreasing, noting that fertility rates are falling worldwide. Other models agree that the population will stabilize before or after 2100. Conversely, other researchers have found that national birth registries data from 2022 and 2023 that cover half the world's population indicate that the 2022 UN projections overestimated fertility rates by 10 to 20% and are already outdated, that the global fertility rate has possibly already fallen below the sub-replacement fertility level for the first time in human history, and that the global population will peak at approximately 9.5 billion by 2061. The 2024 UN projections report estimated that world population would peak at 10.29 billion in 2084 and decline to 10.18 billion by 2100, which was 6% lower than the UN had estimated in 2014.

Early discussions of overpopulation in English were spurred by the work of Thomas Malthus. Discussions of overpopulation follow a similar line of inquiry as Malthusianism and its Malthusian catastrophe, a hypothetical event where population exceeds agricultural capacity, causing famine or war over resources, resulting in poverty and depopulation. More recent discussion of overpopulation was popularized by Paul Ehrlich in his 1968 book The Population Bomb and subsequent writings. Ehrlich described overpopulation as a function of overconsumption, arguing that overpopulation should be defined by a population being unable to sustain itself without depleting non-renewable resources. (Full article...)
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Ocean acidification means that the average seawater pH value is dropping over time.

Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's ocean. Between 1950 and 2020, the average pH of the ocean surface fell from approximately 8.15 to 8.05. Carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the primary cause of ocean acidification, with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels exceeding 422 ppm (as of 2024). CO₂ from the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans. This chemical reaction produces carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) which dissociates into a bicarbonate ion (HCO−3) and a hydrogen ion (H⁺). The presence of free hydrogen ions (H⁺) lowers the pH of the ocean, increasing acidity (this does not mean that seawater is acidic yet; it is still alkaline, with a pH higher than 8). Marine calcifying organisms, such as mollusks and corals, are especially vulnerable because they rely on calcium carbonate to build shells and skeletons.

A change in pH by 0.1 represents a 26% increase in hydrogen ion concentration in the world's oceans (the pH scale is logarithmic, so a change of one in pH units is equivalent to a tenfold change in hydrogen ion concentration). Sea-surface pH and carbonate saturation states vary depending on ocean depth and location. Colder and higher latitude waters are capable of absorbing more CO₂. This can cause acidity to rise, lowering the pH and carbonate saturation levels in these areas. There are several other factors that influence the atmosphere-ocean CO₂ exchange, and thus local ocean acidification. These include ocean currents and upwelling zones, proximity to large continental rivers, sea ice coverage, and atmospheric exchange with nitrogen and sulfur from fossil fuel burning and agriculture.

A lower ocean pH has a range of potentially harmful effects for marine organisms. Scientists have observed for example reduced calcification, lowered immune responses, and reduced energy for basic functions such as reproduction. Ocean acidification can impact marine ecosystems that provide food and livelihoods for many people. About one billion people are wholly or partially dependent on the fishing, tourism, and coastal management services provided by coral reefs. Ongoing acidification of the oceans may therefore threaten food chains linked with the oceans. (Full article...)
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Global concentrations of health care resources, as depicted by the number of physicians per 10,000 individuals, by country. Data is sourced from a World Health Statistics 2010, a WHO report.^{[needs update]}

Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health professionals and allied health fields. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, optometry, audiology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and other health professions all constitute health care. The term includes work done in providing primary care, secondary care, tertiary care, and public health.

Access to health care may vary across countries, communities, and individuals, influenced by social and economic conditions and health policies. Providing health care services means "the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best possible health outcomes". Factors to consider in terms of health care access include financial limitations (such as insurance coverage), geographical and logistical barriers (such as additional transportation costs and the ability to take paid time off work to use such services), sociocultural expectations, and personal limitations (lack of ability to communicate with health care providers, poor health literacy, low income). Limitations to health care services affect negatively the use of medical services, the efficacy of treatments, and overall outcome (well-being, mortality rates).

Health systems are the organizations established to meet the health needs of targeted populations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a well-functioning health care system requires a financing mechanism, a well-trained and adequately paid workforce, reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, and well-maintained health facilities to deliver quality medicines and technologies. (Full article...)
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Changes in surface air temperature over the past 50 years. The Arctic has warmed the most, and temperatures on land have generally increased more than sea surface temperatures.

Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth’s climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming, has increased in concentration by about 50% since the pre-industrial era to levels not seen for millions of years.

Climate change has an increasingly large impact on the environment. Deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Amplified warming in the Arctic has contributed to thawing permafrost, retreat of glaciers and sea ice decline. Higher temperatures are also causing more intense storms, droughts, and other weather extremes. Rapid environmental change in mountains, coral reefs, and the Arctic is forcing many species to relocate or become extinct. Even if efforts to minimize future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include ocean heating, ocean acidification and sea level rise.

Climate change threatens people with increased flooding, extreme heat, increased food and water scarcity, more disease, and economic loss. Human migration and conflict can also be a result. The World Health Organization calls climate change one of the biggest threats to global health in the 21st century. Societies and ecosystems will experience more severe risks without action to limit warming. Adapting to climate change through efforts like flood control measures or drought-resistant crops partially reduces climate change risks, although some limits to adaptation have already been reached. Poorer communities are responsible for a small share of global emissions, yet have the least ability to adapt and are most vulnerable to climate change. (Full article...)
Image 15
Mushroom cloud from the 1954 explosion of Castle Bravo, the largest nuclear weapon detonated by the U.S.

A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radioactive fallout, with global consequences. Such a scenario envisages large parts of the Earth becoming uninhabitable due to the effects of nuclear warfare, potentially causing the collapse of civilization, the extinction of humanity, or the termination of most biological life on Earth. Global fallout from widespread testing of nuclear weapons has caused until 2000 up to 2.4 million deaths, with some calling this testing genocide or ecocide.

Besides the immediate destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, a nuclear winter, widespread radiation sickness from fallout, and/or the temporary (if not permanent) loss of much modern technology due to electromagnetic pulses. Some scientists, such as Alan Robock, have speculated that a thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on Earth, in part due to a long-lasting nuclear winter. In one model, the average temperature of Earth following a full thermonuclear war falls for several years by 7 – 8 °C (13 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit) on average.

Early Cold War-era studies suggested that billions of humans would survive the immediate effects of nuclear blasts and radiation following a global thermonuclear war. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War believe that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects, including environmental consequences, societal breakdown, and economic collapse. (Full article...)
Image 16
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the components of pollution, can be either foreign substances/energies or naturally occurring contaminants.

Although environmental pollution can be caused by natural events, the word pollution generally implies that the contaminants have a human source – that is, a source created by human activities, such as manufacturing, extractive industries, poor waste management, transportation or agriculture. Pollution is often classed as point source (coming from a highly concentrated specific site, such as a factory, mine, construction site), or nonpoint source pollution (coming from a widespread distributed sources, such as microplastics or agricultural runoff).

Many sources of pollution were unregulated parts of industrialization during the 19th and 20th centuries until the emergence of environmental regulation and pollution policy in the later half of the 20th century. Sites where historically polluting industries released persistent pollutants may have legacy pollution long after the source of the pollution is stopped. Major forms of pollution include air pollution, water pollution, litter, noise pollution, plastic pollution, soil contamination, radioactive contamination, thermal pollution, light pollution, and visual pollution. (Full article...)
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Overconsumption describes a situation where consumers overuse their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this is the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater than their marginal utility. The term overconsumption is quite controversial and does not necessarily have a single unifying definition. When used to refer to natural resources to the point where the environment is negatively affected, it is synonymous with the term overexploitation. However, when used in the broader economic sense, overconsumption can refer to all types of goods and services, including artificial ones, e.g., "the overconsumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning." Overconsumption is driven by several factors of the current global economy, including forces like consumerism, planned obsolescence, economic materialism, and other unsustainable business models, and can be contrasted with sustainable consumption.

Defining the amount of a natural resource required to be consumed for it to count as "overconsumption" is challenging because defining a sustainable capacity of the system requires accounting for many variables. A system's total capacity occurs at regional and worldwide levels, which means that specific regions may have higher consumption levels of certain resources than others due to greater resources without overconsuming a resource. A long-term pattern of overconsumption in any region or ecological system can cause a reduction in natural resources, often resulting in environmental degradation. However, this is only when applying the word to environmental impacts. When used in an economic sense, this point is defined as when the marginal cost of a consumer is equal to their marginal utility. Gossen's law of diminishing utility states that at this point, the consumer realizes the cost of consuming/purchasing another item/good is not worth the amount of utility (also known as happiness or satisfaction from the good) they'd receive, and therefore is not conducive to the consumer's wellbeing.

When used in the environmental sense, the discussion of overconsumption often parallels population size, growth, and human development: more people demanding a higher quality of living requires greater extraction of resources, which causes subsequent environmental degradation, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Currently, the inhabitants of high-wealth, "developed" nations consume resources at a rate almost 32 times greater than those of the developing world, making up most of the human population (7.9 billion people). However, the developing world is a growing consumer market. These nations are quickly gaining more purchasing power. The Global South, which includes cities in Asia, America, and Africa, is expected to account for 56% of consumption growth by 2030, meaning that if current trends continue, relative consumption rates will shift more into these developing countries, whereas developed countries would start to plateau. Sustainable Development Goal 12, "responsible consumption and production," is the main international policy tool with goals to abate the impact of overconsumption. (Full article...)
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The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the interlinked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, internet telephony, and file sharing.

The origins of the Internet date back to research that enabled the time-sharing of computer resources, the development of packet switching in the 1960s and the design of computer networks for data communication. The set of rules (communication protocols) to enable internetworking on the Internet arose from research and development commissioned in the 1970s by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Department of Defense in collaboration with universities and researchers across the United States and in the United Kingdom and France. The ARPANET initially served as a backbone for the interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the United States to enable resource sharing. The funding of the National Science Foundation Network as a new backbone in the 1980s, as well as private funding for other commercial extensions, encouraged worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies and the merger of many networks using DARPA's Internet protocol suite. The linking of commercial networks and enterprises by the early 1990s, as well as the advent of the World Wide Web, marked the beginning of the transition to the modern Internet, and generated sustained exponential growth as generations of institutional, personal, and mobile computers were connected to the internetwork. Although the Internet was widely used by academia in the 1980s, the subsequent commercialization of the Internet in the 1990s and beyond incorporated its services and technologies into virtually every aspect of modern life.

Most traditional communication media, including telephone, radio, television, paper mail, and newspapers, are reshaped, redefined, or even bypassed by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as email, Internet telephone, Internet radio, Internet television, online music, digital newspapers, and audio and video streaming websites. Newspapers, books, and other print publishing have adapted to website technology or have been reshaped into blogging, web feeds, and online news aggregators. The Internet has enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interaction through instant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking services. Online shopping has grown exponentially for major retailers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs, as it enables firms to extend their "brick and mortar" presence to serve a larger market or even sell goods and services entirely online. Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries. (Full article...)
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Seabirds killed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound. The spill in March 1989 dumped approximately 10.8 million US gallons of crude oil into the environment, killing over 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and numerous other wildlife. The Alaskan fishing industry also suffered tremendously as a result of the spill.

An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity. This point distinguishes environmental disasters from other disturbances such as natural disasters and intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings.

Environmental disasters show how the impact of humans' alteration of the land has led to widespread and/or long-lasting consequences. These disasters have included deaths of wildlife, humans and plants, or severe disruption of human life or health, possibly requiring migration. Some environmental disasters are the trigger source of more expansive environmental conflicts, where effected groups try to socially confront the actors responsible for the disaster. (Full article...)
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Map of the world's biodiversity hot spots, all of which are heavily threatened by habitat loss and degradation

Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease in biodiversity and species numbers. Habitat destruction is in fact the leading cause of biodiversity loss and species extinction worldwide.

Humans contribute to habitat destruction through the use of natural resources, agriculture, industrial production and urbanization (urban sprawl). Other activities include mining, logging and trawling. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, introduction of invasive species, ecosystem nutrient depletion, water and noise pollution are some examples. Loss of habitat can be preceded by an initial habitat fragmentation. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species. (Full article...)
Image 21
Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Maranhão state, 2016

Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. About 31% of Earth's land surface is covered by forests at present. This is one-third less than the forest cover before the expansion of agriculture, with half of that loss occurring in the last century. Between 15 million to 18 million hectares of forest, an area the size of Bangladesh, are destroyed every year. On average 2,400 trees are cut down each minute. Estimates vary widely as to the extent of deforestation in the tropics. In 2019, nearly a third of the overall tree cover loss, or 3.8 million hectares, occurred within humid tropical primary forests. These are areas of mature rainforest that are especially important for biodiversity and carbon storage.

The direct cause of most deforestation is agriculture by far. More than 80% of deforestation was attributed to agriculture in 2018. Forests are being converted to plantations for coffee, palm oil, rubber and various other popular products. Livestock grazing also drives deforestation. Further drivers are the wood industry (logging), urbanization and mining. The effects of climate change are another cause via the increased risk of wildfires (see deforestation and climate change).

Deforestation results in habitat destruction which in turn leads to biodiversity loss. Deforestation also leads to extinction of animals and plants, changes to the local climate, and displacement of indigenous people who live in forests. Deforested regions often also suffer from other environmental problems such as desertification and soil erosion. (Full article...)
Image 22
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass (and perhaps also everything else) on Earth while building many more of themselves, a scenario that has been called ecophagy (literally: "consumption of the environment"). The original idea assumed machines were designed to have this capability, while popularizations have assumed that machines might somehow gain this capability by accident.

Self-replicating machines of the macroscopic variety were originally described by mathematician John von Neumann, and are sometimes referred to as von Neumann machines or clanking replicators.
The term gray goo was coined by nanotechnology pioneer K. Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation. In 2004, he stated "I wish I had never used the term 'gray goo'." Engines of Creation mentions "gray goo" as a thought experiment in two paragraphs and a note, while the popularized idea of gray goo was first publicized in a mass-circulation magazine, Omni, in November 1986. (Full article...)
Image 23
Changes in surface air temperature over the past 50 years. The Arctic has warmed the most, and temperatures on land have generally increased more than sea surface temperatures.

Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth’s climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, the primary gas driving global warming, has increased in concentration by about 50% since the pre-industrial era to levels not seen for millions of years.

Climate change has an increasingly large impact on the environment. Deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Amplified warming in the Arctic has contributed to thawing permafrost, retreat of glaciers and sea ice decline. Higher temperatures are also causing more intense storms, droughts, and other weather extremes. Rapid environmental change in mountains, coral reefs, and the Arctic is forcing many species to relocate or become extinct. Even if efforts to minimize future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include ocean heating, ocean acidification and sea level rise.

Climate change threatens people with increased flooding, extreme heat, increased food and water scarcity, more disease, and economic loss. Human migration and conflict can also be a result. The World Health Organization calls climate change one of the biggest threats to global health in the 21st century. Societies and ecosystems will experience more severe risks without action to limit warming. Adapting to climate change through efforts like flood control measures or drought-resistant crops partially reduces climate change risks, although some limits to adaptation have already been reached. Poorer communities are responsible for a small share of global emissions, yet have the least ability to adapt and are most vulnerable to climate change. (Full article...)
Image 24
Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources to achieve later benefits". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broader viewpoint, an investment can be defined as "to tailor the pattern of expenditure and receipt of resources to optimise the desirable patterns of these flows". When expenditures and receipts are defined in terms of money, then the net monetary receipt in a time period is termed cash flow, while money received in a series of several time periods is termed cash flow stream.

In finance, the purpose of investing is to generate a return on the invested asset. The return may consist of a capital gain (profit) or loss, realised if the investment is sold, unrealised capital appreciation (or depreciation) if yet unsold. It may also consist of periodic income such as dividends, interest, or rental income. The return may also include currency gains or losses due to changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

Investors generally expect higher returns from riskier investments. When a low-risk investment is made, the return is also generally low. Similarly, high risk comes with a chance of high losses. Investors, particularly novices, are often advised to diversify their portfolio. Diversification has the statistical effect of reducing overall risk. (Full article...)
Image 25
Raw sewage and industrial waste in the New River as it passes from Mexicali (Mexico) to Calexico, California

Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants mix with these water bodies. Contaminants can come from one of four main sources. These are sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. Water pollution may affect either surface water or groundwater. This form of pollution can lead to many problems. One is the degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Another is spreading water-borne diseases when people use polluted water for drinking or irrigation. Water pollution also reduces the ecosystem services such as drinking water provided by the water resource.

Sources of water pollution are either point sources or non-point sources. Point sources have one identifiable cause, such as a storm drain, a wastewater treatment plant, or an oil spill. Non-point sources are more diffuse. An example is agricultural runoff. Pollution is the result of the cumulative effect over time. Pollution may take many forms. One would is toxic substances such as oil, metals, plastics, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants, and industrial waste products. Another is stressful conditions such as changes of pH, hypoxia or anoxia, increased temperatures, excessive turbidity, or changes of salinity). The introduction of pathogenic organisms is another. Contaminants may include organic and inorganic substances. A common cause of thermal pollution is the use of water as a coolant by power plants and industrial manufacturers.

Control of water pollution requires appropriate infrastructure and management plans as well as legislation. Technology solutions can include improving sanitation, sewage treatment, industrial wastewater treatment, agricultural wastewater treatment, erosion control, sediment control and control of urban runoff (including stormwater management). (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that the psychological inner space genre was a rebellion against the traditional focus of science fiction on literal outer space?
... that after significant modifications of the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou 6 is the world's largest active cargo spacecraft by capacity?
... that the metaverse has been described as "a honeypot trap for architecture astronauts"?
... that the FBI set up temporary offices in a museum on an aircraft carrier while investigating the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
... that five peregrine falcon chicks were released from the roof of an office building in Virginia in an unsuccessful attempt to combat an overpopulation of pigeons?
... that five percent of Barbados's population turned out to protest the death of Milton King in Cape Town police custody?
... that the Skyrocket Galaxy has been described by NASA as looking like a "July 4th skyrocket"?
... that the Apollo 16 Heat Flow Experiment was disabled when astronaut John Young tripped over a cable and tore it from its connector?
... that New Zealand's Big Lemon & Paeroa bottle was originally a replica space rocket?
... that the rural village of Neath, New South Wales, had a population of three Tok Pisin speakers in 2021?
... that Premana Premadi is the first Indonesian female astronomer to have an asteroid named in her honor?
... that the Antarctic lichen Buellia frigida has been to outer space?
... that the steps of Pohang Space Walk represent an ascent to an unreachable utopia?
... that Lillian V. Holdeman Moore identified a spike in hydrogen-gas-producing bacteria in Skylab astronauts?

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Selected images that captured my attention

Image 1Imagine waking up to this. Which makes me wonder whatever happened to the guy who took this photo.
Image 2The Door to Hell is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, which has been burning since 1971 when it was ignited by Soviet scientists who expected it to burn out within days. They were trying to prevent the release of poisonous gases. The name "Door to Hell" was given to the field by locals. The hot spots range over an area with a width of 60 metres (200 ft) and to a depth of about 20 metres (66 ft).
Image 3Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, on a concrete-floored dock at the port of Hvalba, which is in the Faroe Islands, north of the United Kingdom. Whaling in the Faroe Islands has been practised since at least the 10th century. It is strongly regulated by Faroese authorities and is approved by the International Whaling Commission.
Image 4Sand castle
Image 5aurora australis, as seen from the International Space Station. Aurorae are natural light displays in the sky caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude thermosphere. The particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by Earth's magnetic field into the atmosphere.
Image 6Tracy Caldwell Dyson in the Cupola module of the International Space Station, observing the Earth below during Expedition 24. Caldwell Dyson is an American chemist and astronaut. She was selected by NASA in 1998 and made her first spaceflight in August 2007 on the STS-118 mission aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Image 7A neutral density filter is a filter that reduces or modifies the intensity of all wavelengths or colors of light equally, giving no changes in hue of color rendition. The filter reduces the amount of light entering the lens, allowing the photographer to select combinations of aperture, exposure time and sensor sensitivity to avoid overexposed pictures. It would normally be attached to the lens, but is hand-held here to illustrate the effect.
Image 8The I-35W Mississippi River bridge was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Saint Anthony Falls of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Once the third-busiest bridge in the state, it suddenly collapsed on August 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring 145. Rescue of people stranded on the bridge was complete in three hours, while recovery of bodies—involving 75 local, state and federal agencies—took three weeks. An NTSB investigation cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, noting that a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets.
Image 9An overhead view of Skylab, the United States' first space station, in Earth orbit as photographed from the Skylab 4 Command and Service Modules. Skylab 4 was the last mission to Skylab and brought back its final crew; this photograph was the last one taken of the station before the mission re-entered Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979.
Image 10NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy located roughly 69 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Eridanus. In its core, the nucleus shows its own extraordinary and distinct "grand-design" spiral structure that is about 3,300 light-years long.
Image 11Sandboarding is a boardsport similar to snowboarding, but competitions take place on sand dunes rather than snow-covered mountains. Here, a member of the US Navy sandboards down a dune in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
Image 12The mushroom cloud caused by the detonation of the "Fat Man" bomb during the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945, rising approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) above the hypocenter.
Image 13The American Bison, or Buffalo, is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America, and once inhabited the Great Plains in massive herds. They were central to the lives of Native American tribes. This pile of bison skulls from the 1870s illustrates the extent of their slaughter in the 19th century by settlers: from a population of about 60 million in 1800 to as few as 750 in 1890. They have since been reintroduced into the wild and are no longer considered a high risk endangered species.
Image 14Crowds surrounding the Reflecting Pool, during the August 28 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. An estimated 200,000 to 500,000 people participated in the march, which featured Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It was a major factor leading to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The march was also condemned by the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X, who termed it the "farce on Washington".
Image 15A Marginated Tortoise hatchling.
Image 16Devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana during 2005, shown here looking down on Interstate 10 at West End Boulevard towards Lake Pontchartrain. Over 1,800 people were confirmed dead with 705 still missing. It was the costliest Atlantic hurricane in history causing around $86 billion in damage. This photo shows flooded roadways as the United States Coast Guard conducted initial damage assessment overflights of New Orleans on Monday, August 29, 2005. The city flooded due primarily to the failure of the levee system. Many who remained in their homes had to swim for their lives, wade through deep water, or remain trapped in their attics or on their rooftops.
Image 17The International Space Station (ISS) as seen from the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Zarya, the first module of the ISS launched in 1998, is seen in the foreground. Since then, twenty-six Space Shuttle flights have docked with the ISS to assemble various other modules and components, which include four pairs of solar arrays seen on each side.
Image 18A lava lake at Mount Nyiragongo, a volcano found in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lava lakes, which can form in three different ways, are large volumes of molten lava, usually basaltic, contained in a volcanic vent, crater, or broad depression. Persistent lava lakes such as the one at Nyiragongo, which is the largest to appear in recent times, are rare.
Image 19Crash landing of an F6F Hellcat into the port side 20mm gun gallery of the USS Enterprise, November 10, 1943. Lieutenant Walter L. Chewning, Jr., USNR, the Catapult Officer, is climbing up the plane's side to assist the pilot from the burning aircraft. The pilot, Ensign Byron M. Johnson, escaped without significant injury. Note the plane's ruptured belly fuel tank.
Image 20
Image 21The mushroom cloud from the Ivy Mike nuclear test, one of two tests conducted as part of Operation Ivy at the Pacific Proving Grounds on Elugelab in the Marshall Islands. Mike was the first successful full-scale test of a multi-megaton thermonuclear weapon, and it left an underwater crater 6,240 ft (1,900 m) wide and 164 ft (50 m) deep where the island had been.
Image 22The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was a magnitude 9.15, undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on December 26 2004. The earthquake generated a tsunami that killed more than 150,000 people around the Indian Ocean, making it one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. This photograph shows the tsunami as it reached Ao Nang, Thailand.
Image 23Glaucus atlanticus is a species of small, blue sea slug. This pelagic aeolid nudibranch floats upside down, using the surface tension of the water to stay up, and is carried along by the winds and ocean currents. The blue side of their body faces upwards, blending in with the blue of the water, while the grey side faces downwards, blending in with the silvery surface of the sea. G. atlanticus feeds on other pelagic creatures, including the Portuguese man o' war.
Image 24A man engaging in big wave surfing at Mavericks, located just north of Half Moon Bay, California. Big wave surfing is a discipline within surfing in which experienced surfers paddle into or are towed onto waves which are at least 20 ft (6.1 m) high, and is a hazardous activity, as surfers can be pushed far beneath the surface of the water after a wipeout.
Image 25Astronaut Buzz Aldrin saluting the flag of the United States, part of the Lunar Flag Assembly, during Apollo 11. The Lunar Flag Assembly was designed to survive a Moon landing and to appear to "wave" as it would in a breeze on Earth. This flag fell over when the Lunar Module Eagle took off.
Image 26View from Notre-Dame de Paris.
Image 27The "Baker" explosion, part of Operation Crossroads, a nuclear weapon test by the United States military at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia, on July 25, 1946. Its purpose was to test the effect of nuclear weapons on naval ships. It was the second US nuclear bomb set off since the bombing of Nagasaki.
Image 28Burj Khalifa is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and currently the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). It was designed to be the centerpiece of a large-scale, mixed-use development known as Downtown Dubai. Construction took over five years, and the skyscraper was officially opened in January 2010.
Image 29The Thinker
Image 30United States Navy personnel engage in Special Patrol Insertion/Extraction (SPIE) training between a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopter and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). SPIE involves either a person or goods being lowered from or raised to a helicopter via a cable above terrain on which landing would be difficult.
Image 31An animation of a cicada undergoing ecdysis, the molting of the exoskeleton in arthropods and related groups. Since the cuticula of these animals is inelastic, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The old, empty exoskeleton is called an exuvia. Within one or two hours, the cuticle hardens and darkens, during which time the animal grows, since growth is otherwise constrained by the rigidity of the exoskeleton. Each frame of this image was taken at one-minute intervals, with a 30-minute gap in middle while the cicada rested. The entire process took about 2 hours to complete.
Image 32San Francisco Bay shrouded in fog, as seen from the Marin Headlands looking east. The fog of San Francisco is a kind of sea fog, created when warm, moist air blows from the central Pacific Ocean across the cold water of the California Current, which flows just off the coast. The water is cold enough to lower the temperature of the air to the dew point, causing fog generation. In this photo, the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge can be seen poking through the fog, and the Bay Bridge is visible in the distance.
Image 33The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the freestanding bell tower of the Cathedral of Pisa, Italy. The third oldest structure in the city's Square of Miracles, it is known worldwide for its unintended tilt. The tower's tilt began during construction in the 12th century, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure's weight. The tilt gradually increased until the tower was stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) by efforts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The tower, which measures 55.86 metres (183.27 feet) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 metres (185.93 feet) on the high side, has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.
Image 34
Image 35One of two monkey selfies taken by Celebes crested macaques using equipment belonging to the British nature photographer David Slater. In mid-2014, the images' hosting on Wikimedia Commons was at the centre of a dispute over whether copyright could be held on artworks made by non-human animals. Slater argued that, as he had "engineered" the shot, he held copyright, while Wikimedia considered the photographs public domain on the grounds that they were made by an animal rather than a person. In December 2014, the United States Copyright Office stated that works by a non-human are not subject to US copyright, a view reaffirmed by a US federal judge in 2016.
Image 36The Pinwheel Galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy located 21 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It was first discovered by Pierre Méchain on March 27, 1781, and communicated to Charles Messier, who verified its position for inclusion in the Messier Catalogue as one of its final entries. This image, released on February 28, 2006, is composed of 51 individual exposures, as well as some extra ground-based photos. At the time of its release, it was the largest and most detailed image of a galaxy by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Image 37The Aqueduct of Segovia is a Roman aqueduct located in Segovia, Spain that transports water from the Rio Frio. It is thought to have been constructed during the 1st century CE. One of the most significant and best-preserved ancient monuments left on the Iberian Peninsula, the aqueduct is considered a symbol of Segovia and is present on the city's coat of arms.
Image 38Lucky Diamond Rich (b. 1971) is a New Zealand-born performance artist and street performer who holds the Guinness World Record for most tattooed man, taking the title from Tom Leppard in 2006. He is recognized by Guinness as being covered in tattoos over 100% of his body, including the inside of his eyelids, ears, and mouth.
Image 39American astronaut Eugene Cernan (born March 14, 1934), shown here on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission, the last time any human has set foot on it. In that final lunar landing mission, launched December 7, 1972, Cernan became "the last man on the moon" since he was the last to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module during its third and final extra-vehicular activity. Prior to this, Cernan had also gone into space twice on the Gemini 9A and Apollo 10 missions.
Image 40A swan created using modular origami, a paperfolding technique which uses two or more sheets of paper to create a larger and more complex structure than possible with single-piece origami techniques. Each individual sheet of paper is folded into a module, or unit, and then modules are assembled into an integrated flat shape or three-dimensional structure by inserting flaps into pockets created by the folding process. These insertions create tension or friction that holds the model together.
Image 41The Hubble Extreme Deep Field is an image of a small area of space in the constellation Fornax released by NASA on September 25, 2012. The successor to the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field, this image was compiled from 10 years of previous images with a total exposure time of two million seconds, or approximately 23 days.
Image 42The sperm whale is the largest toothed animal on Earth. The species was hunted extensively by humans throughout history, until protected by a worldwide moratorium on whaling starting in 1985–86.
Image 43You are feeling very sleepy...
Image 44A dust storm rushes towards a military camp as it rolls over Al Asad Airbase, Iraq, just before nightfall on April 27, 2005. A dust storm (or sandstorm) is a meteorological phenomenon common in dry, arid and semi-arid regions, usually the result of convection currents created by intense heating of the ground. These currents then carry clouds of sand over large distances.
Image 45Height comparison of notable statues: 1) Statue of Unity 240 m. 2) Spring Temple Buddha 153 m. 3) Statue of Liberty 93 m. 4) The Motherland Calls 91 m. 5) Christ the Redeemer 39.6 m. 6) Statue of David 5.17 m.

Trump news tracker

7 March 2025 – Stand Up for Science 2025: Organized demonstrations and walkouts of scientists take place across 30 cities in the United States and France in protest of the Donald Trump administration's grant budget and employment cuts to several government scientific agencies. (AP)
6 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: Following phone calls between United States President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump announces a pause on some tariffs on both Canada and Mexico until April 2. Sheinbaum states that Mexico will collaborate with the United States on migration and security issues, including controlling cross-border fentanyl smuggling. (ABC News) (DW) (CBC)
6 March 2025 –: U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. (CNBC)
5 March 2025 – Gaza war: The United States begins direct negotiations with Hamas over the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. President of the United States Donald Trump later threatens on Truth Social and X that the people of Gaza "are dead" unless they return the hostages "immediately". (Sky News) (Al Jazeera) (NBC News)
5 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: United States president Donald Trump announces a one-month temporary reprieve from tariffs for American automakers after receiving complaints from the Big Three: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. (NPR)
5 March 2025 – 2025 United States federal mass layoffs: The United States Department of Veteran Affairs announces it will lay off over 80,000 jobs to comply with the Trump administration's plans under the Department of Government Efficiency. (AP)
5 March 2025 – Somalia–United States relations: Somali military officials confirm that the Trump administration has halted all funding for Somalia's Danab Brigade special forces and cut billions in USAID grants to the country. (Hiiraan Online)
4 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports to the United States take effect, while an existing 10% tariff on all Chinese imports rises to 20% amid an ongoing trade war. (AP)
4 March 2025 – 2025 Donald Trump speech to a joint session of Congress: U.S. President Donald Trump announces the creation of the Office of Shipbuilding, as means to compete with China in the maritime transport industry. (The Wall Street Journal)
3 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: U.S. President Donald Trump pauses all U.S. military aid to Ukraine with immediate effect. (Bloomberg) (CNN)
2 March 2025 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine: United Kingdom prime minister Keir Starmer announces after a meeting of European Union leaders in London that a "coalition of the willing" is working on a Ukraine peace plan that they will present to U.S. president Donald Trump. (Sky News)
1 March 2025 – Executive orders in the second presidency of Donald Trump: United States President Donald Trump signs an executive order designating English as the country's official language. (The Guardian)

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8 March 2025 – Somali Civil War (2009–present): 2025 Shabelle offensive; Al Shabaab seizes the town of Cadale and some villages including Bushra Sheekh, Ceel Xarar and Xaruur, being at about 70 kilometers of Mogadishu. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud asks Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for help. Ethiopia sends ten thousand ENDF troops near the Ethiopia–Somalia border. (Idil News); Dozens of people are killed, including a senior police commander, as heavy fighting breaks out after Al-Shabaab fighters attack the Police Force. Al-Shabaab claims to have taken over new areas of Al-Kawthar and Boos-Hareeri in Middle Shabelle region, Hirshabelle State, Somalia. (Idil News)
8 March 2025 – Syrian civil war: Western Syria clashes; 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes; The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that groups attributed to the Syrian Ministry of Defense have killed over 750 Alawite civilians across several massacres in western Syria. (SOHR) (CTV News)
8 March 2025 – Gaza war: Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip; 2025 Gaza war ceasefire; Three Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, two by a drone strike in Rafah and one by gunfire in al-Tannour, Rafah Governorate. (Al Jazeera)
8 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine; A Russian ballistic missile strike on Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, kills at least eleven people and injures 37 others. (Reuters); A Russian Shahed drone strike on a business park in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Oblast, kills three people and wounds seven others. (Ukrinform)
8 March 2025 – Canada–China trade war: China announces that it will implement 100% tariffs on several Canadian agricultural exports including rapeseed and peas and 25% tariffs on pork and aquacultural products will be implemented on March 20, in retaliation against earlier tariffs instituted by Canada on Chinese electric vehicles and metal exports. (AP)
8 March 2025 – 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season: Cyclone Alfred; One person is confirmed killed and thirteen others are injured in floods caused by Cyclone Alfred as it passes through Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. (AP)
8 March 2025 –: Eight people are injured, including two critically, in a vehicle-ramming attack at a CarMax car dealership in Inglewood, California, United States. (NBC News)
7 March 2025 – Syrian civil war: Western Syria clashes; 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, March 2025 Western Syria clashes; A Syrian war monitor reports that Syrian security forces executed 52 Alawite men in Latakia province after clashes broke out the day prior against the new Syrian regime. (AFP via Al Arabiya) (AP)
7 March 2025 – Islamic State insurgency in Puntland: Puntland counter-terrorism operations, American military intervention in Puntland; The United States Army stationed in Puntland maintains its operations and will not pull out of the region in response to double ongoing operations in the fight against ISIS in Puntland's Bari Region. (Garowe Online)
7 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure; Russia launches an overnight missile and drone attack across Ukraine, damaging energy and gas infrastructure. Ukraine says that it shot down 34 of 67 missiles and 100 of 194 drones. (Reuters); Ukraine deploys its Dassault Mirage 2000 jets against Russian forces for the first time, with the jets intercepting several Russian cruise missiles with air-to-air missiles. (BBC News) (Politico)
7 March 2025 – South Sudanese Civil War: 2025 Nasir clashes; A UNMISS helicopter operator and approximently 27 South Sudanese soldiers are killed after being fired on by a local militia group while evacuating Nasir, South Sudan. (Reuters)
7 March 2025 – Somali Civil War: Al Shabaab militants carry out several attacks in Middle Shabelle, Hiiraan regions of Hirshabelle and Lower Shabelle region from South West State of Somalia. The group's main goal is to capture Mogadishu. (Mepa News); The Federal Government of Somalia bans most weapons and armored vehicles at Mogadishu Airport following U.S. warnings of Al-Shabaab threats to Mogadishu. (Garowe Online); Egyptair joins Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines in suspending flights to Mogadishu's Aden Adde airport following a U.S. warning about a potential imminent terrorist attack on the airport. (Mustaqbal Media)
7 March 2025 –: Hudson's Bay, Canada's oldest department store, files for creditor protection and intends to restructure. (CBC News); All trains running through the Gare du Nord railway station in Paris, France, including Eurostar trains from London and Brussels, are canceled due to the discovery of a World War II-era unexploded ordnance containing 200 kg (440 lb) of explosives near the rail tracks near the station. (The Independent) (DW); Argentina floods kill at least 10 in Bahía Blanca port city. (Reuters)
7 March 2025 – Stand Up for Science 2025: Organized demonstrations and walkouts of scientists take place across 30 cities in the United States and France in protest of the Donald Trump administration's grant budget and employment cuts to several government scientific agencies. (AP)
7 March 2025 – Canada–Philippines relations: Canada and the Philippines conclude negotiations on a visiting forces agreement. (Reuters)
7 March 2025 – 2025 United States federal mass layoffs: The Native American Rights Fund, on behalf of five Indigenous American students and three tribes, the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, and the Pueblo of Isleta, file a lawsuit against the United States Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) for alleged wrongful dismissals of BIE schoolteachers. (AP)
7 March 2025 – Arrest of Yoon Suk Yeol: The Seoul Central District Court lifts the arrest warrant for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol after his initial detention period expired. (DW)
7 March 2025 – Capital punishment in the United States: Convicted murderer Brad Sigmon is executed by firing squad at Broad River Correctional Institution in South Carolina, United States. He is the first inmate to be executed via firing squad since June 2010. (Sky News)
7 March 2025 – Proposed secession of Republika Srpska: Bosnian Serb police begin removing state police from their posts in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a move aimed at implementing separatist legislation signed into law by Republika Srpska leader Milorad Dodik. (Reuters)
7 March 2025 –: Twelve people are injured in a mass shooting at a pub in Toronto, Canada. Three suspects are at large. (BBC News)
6 March 2025 – Syrian civil war: Western Syria clashes; March 2025 Western Syria clashes; At least 16 members of the security forces and 28 Assad loyalists are killed in a series of ambushes and shootouts in Latakia Governorate, Syria. (Al Arabiya) (France 24); Four smuggling suspects are killed in clashes between Jordanian border forces and armed groups attempting to cross from Syria. (The New Arab); Save the Children says that landmines and unexploded ordnance in Syria have killed or injured at least 188 children since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. (Al Arabiya)
6 March 2025 – Russo-Ukrainian war: Military aid to Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian war; Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announces US$3.8 billion in national military funding for Ukraine in 2026, including $700 million in Dutch drone manufacturing. Norwegian and Polish leaders also announce increases in military aid for Ukraine. (ABC News)
6 March 2025 – Rohingya genocide: The United Nations World Food Programme announces that it will reduce the emergency food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from US$12.50 to $6 per person. (Al Jazeera)
6 March 2025 – Somali civil war: Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways temporarily suspend flights to Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, following security warnings from the United States embassy about potential terrorist attacks targeting the airport. (AeroTime) (Hiiraan Online)
6 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico; Following phone calls between United States President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump announces a pause on some tariffs on both Canada and Mexico until April 2. Sheinbaum states that Mexico will collaborate with the United States on migration and security issues, including controlling cross-border fentanyl smuggling. (ABC News) (DW) (CBC)
6 March 2025 – 2020s European re-armament: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announces that Spain will accelerate defense spending to 2% of its GDP in four years. (El Mundo)
6 March 2025 –: U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve funded exclusively with bitcoin seized in criminal and civil forfeiture cases. (CNBC)
6 March 2025 – 2025 Pocheon bombing: Two South Korean Air Force KF-16 jets erroneously release eight MK82 bombs over home territory in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, striking a residential area and multiple homes, injuring at least 15 people, four of them seriously. (Reuters)
6 March 2025 –: According to a report in the academic journal Science, the population of the 554 recorded species of butterflies in the U.S. have declined by 22% since 2000. (NPR)
6 March 2025 – France–Ukraine relations: French defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu says France will continue sharing military intelligence to Ukraine regarding the Russian invasion. (AP)
6 March 2025 –: The United States withdraws from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a program that helps emerging countries transition away from non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. (DW) (Reuters)
6 March 2025 – Sudanese civil war: The government of Sudan files a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice against the United Arab Emirates for its alleged support of the Rapid Support Forces and its complicity in genocide against the Masalit people in Darfur, Sudan. The UAE denies its involvement in Sudan and calls the lawsuit a "publicity stunt". (Middle East Eye) (Al Jazeera)
6 March 2025 –: The European Court of Justice fines Germany €34 million (US$36.7 million) for failing to implement a European Union law to protect whistleblowers by 2021. The Court also fines Czechia €2.3 million, Hungary €1.5 million, and Luxembourg and Estonia €500,000 each for the same reason. (DW); Six individuals, including retired general and far-right politician Radu Theodoru, are arrested on accusations of being involved in a Russian-backed coup d'état plot in Romania. (The Financial Times) (Politico)
6 March 2025 – 2025 in spaceflight: Starship flight test 8; SpaceX launches its eighth test flight of the Starship launch vehicle from Starbase in Texas, United States. The first stage was caught by the launch tower despite Raptor engine failures during landing, but the second stage failed during its burn, mirroring the last flight test in January. (Reuters); Intuitive Machines' space probe IM-2 Athena lands on Mons Mouton near the lunar south pole after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S., on February 27. (BBC News); An Ariane 6 rocket launches French military satellite CSO-3 from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. It is the first commercial launch of the Ariane 6 expendable launch system. (AP)
5 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Kryvyi Rih strikes; A Russian missile strikes a hotel in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, killing four people and injuring seven others. (Reuters); United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine; U.S. Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe announces that the United States has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
5 March 2025 – Gaza war: 2025 Gaza war ceasefire; The United States begins direct negotiations with Hamas over the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. President of the United States Donald Trump later threatens on Truth Social and X that the people of Gaza "are dead" unless they return the hostages "immediately". (Sky News) (Al Jazeera) (NBC News)
5 March 2025 – South Sudanese Civil War: 2025 Nasir clashes; Security forces in South Sudan arrest Puot Kang Chol, a senior member of the parliamentary opposition, minister of petroleum and mining, and army general, as well as multiple other opposition-aligned military officers. South Sudanese soldiers also surround vice president Riek Machar's house overnight before later withdrawing. (Reuters) (BBC News)
5 March 2025 – Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus: Russia's Federal Security Service says that it killed four Islamic State militants in Dagestan during a counterterrorism operation. (Reuters)
5 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico; United States president Donald Trump announces a one-month temporary reprieve from tariffs for American automakers after receiving complaints from the Big Three: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. (NPR)
5 March 2025 – 2025 United States federal mass layoffs: The United States Department of Veteran Affairs announces it will lay off over 80,000 jobs to comply with the Trump administration's plans under the Department of Government Efficiency. (AP)
5 March 2025 – 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season: Tropical Cyclone Alfred; Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announces the suspension of public transport services and the closure of 640 schools in South East Queensland, Australia, as Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall early Friday morning local time. (ABC News Australia)
5 March 2025 – 2025 Chugach Mountains avalanche: Three skiers are suspected to be killed after an avalanche trapped them under more than 30 feet of snow in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, United States. (CTV News) (USA Today)
5 March 2025 –: One person is killed and sixteen others are injured when a bridge collapses on the E42 highway in La Louvière, Hainaut Province, Belgium. (Reuters) (RTBF)
5 March 2025 – Somalia–United States relations: The U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu warns of imminent attack threats in Somalia, including at Aden Adde International Airport. Embassy personnel movements are suspended. (ABC News); Somali military officials confirm that the Trump administration has halted all funding for Somalia's Danab Brigade special forces and cut billions in USAID grants to the country. (Hiiraan Online)
5 March 2025 – Russia–United States relations: The United States Department of Defense denies previous media reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered a halt to offensive cyber operations and information operations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command. (The Hill)
5 March 2025 – 2025 California wildfires: January 2025 Southern California wildfires; In the U.S., Los Angeles County files a lawsuit against Southern California Edison, the electric utility company servicing most of Southern California, and alleges that the company's power system started the Eaton Fire, seeking to recover costs and damages sustained from the fire that damaged over 9,400 buildings and killed 17 people. (AP)
5 March 2025 – Mexican drug war: Mexican law enforcement announces they have seized 275,000 pills of fentanyl stored in boxes of nopales in Sonora. A man is arrested in connection to the seizure. (AP)
5 March 2025 –: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District Court of Vermont indicts and charges 25 Canadians for conspiracy to defraud elderly people in the United States out of US$21 million and charges five of those 25 with conspiracy to commit money laundering. (NPR)
4 March 2025 – Hezbollah–Israel conflict: Israeli invasion of Lebanon; An Israeli drone strike in Tyre, Lebanon, kills Haidar Hashem, the head of naval forces in Hezbollah's Radwan Force. (Times of Israel)
4 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine; A Ukrainian drone strikes an oil pipeline in Rostov Oblast, Russia, setting the pipeline ablaze for several hours before being put out by firefighters. Russia also reports its air defence units repelled another drone attack near Novoshakhtinsk. (Reuters)
4 March 2025 – 2024–present Serbian anti-corruption protests: Serbian National Assembly brawl; At least three Serbian lawmakers are injured after flares and smoke bombs were thrown into the National Assembly. Ana Brnabić, the President of the National Assembly, described the attack as terrorism. (CTV News)
4 March 2025 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: Militants belonging to a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban storm a Pakistan Army compound in Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, after two suicide bombers blow themselves up at the entrance, killing 12 civilians and wounding 30 others after nearby buildings collapsed. Six gunmen are also killed in the shootout. (Al Jazeera)
4 March 2025 – New People's Army rebellion: A Philippine Air Force FA-50PH fighter jet is reported missing during an overnight combat operation against insurgents in Bukidnon, Philippines. A search and rescue operation to locate the missing pilots is launched with both later being confirmed dead. (Reuters) (The Philippine Star)
4 March 2025 – Red Sea crisis: The Houthis claim to have shot down an American MQ-9 UAV, stating that it was conducting "hostile missions" over Al Hudaydah. The U.S. Air Force later confirms a loss of contact with the drone. (Al Arabiya)
4 March 2025 – Second Trump tariffs: 2025 United States trade war with Canada and Mexico; U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports to the United States take effect, while an existing 10% tariff on all Chinese imports rises to 20% amid an ongoing trade war. (AP); Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that he will impose a reciprocal 25% tariff on American goods worth up to US$155 billion. (Canada.ca); China–United States trade war; The Chinese Ministry of Finance announces 10–15% tariffs on a range of US food imports, set to start March 10. (Reuters)
4 March 2025 – 2025 Donald Trump speech to a joint session of Congress: U.S. President Donald Trump announces the creation of the Office of Shipbuilding, as means to compete with China in the maritime transport industry. (The Wall Street Journal)
4 March 2025 – March 2025 North American blizzard: A storm complex leaves over 400,000 people without power in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and brings severe weather to large portions of the Southern United States. (The New York Times)
4 March 2025 –: A light aircraft crashes into a garden in Plettenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, killing the pilot on board. (DW)
4 March 2025 – Iran–Turkey relations: Iran says Turkey's criticism of its foreign policy could lead to worsening ties after Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Iran risks plunging the Middle East into "disorder". (Al Arabiya); Turkey summons Iran's chargés d'affaires in Ankara after Iran's foreign ministry summoned Turkey's ambassador. (Al Arabiya)
4 March 2025 – 2025 Micronesian parliamentary election: Citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia vote to elect ten of the fourteen members of Congress. (Pacific Daily News)
4 March 2025 –: The roughly 3,500 km² iceberg A23a, the world's largest, runs aground in shallow waters off the coast of South Georgia in the Atlantic Ocean. (BBC News); Scientists from Colossal Biosciences create a new form of genetically modified woolly mice. (The Guardian)
3 March 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine; U.S. President Donald Trump pauses all U.S. military aid to Ukraine with immediate effect. (Bloomberg) (CNN)
3 March 2025 – Insurgency in Balochistan: A suicide bomber kills one person and wounds three others in Kalat, Balochistan, Pakistan. (AP News)
3 March 2025 – Western DR Congo clashes: The Congolese military announces that eight members of the Mobondo militia, including one of their leaders, were killed the previous day when an army patrol seized the group's headquarters in the Kwamouth Territory, Mai-Ndombe Province. (Radio Okapi)
3 March 2025 – 2024–25 Australian region cyclone season: Cyclone warnings are issued to residents of Brisbane, South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales as Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall on Thursday or early Friday local time. (The Guardian Australia)
3 March 2025 –: A bus rolls down a ravine after colliding with a truck in southern Bolivia, killing at least 31 people and injuring 22 others. (Reuters); At least 80 people are trapped inside a supermarket in Güímar, Tenerife, and dozens of cars are swept away to sea and stuck in mud in Gran Canaria after torrential rain caused floods across the Canary Islands in Spain. (Canaria Weekly) (The Sun)
3 March 2025 – 2025 Mannheim car incident: A car drives into a crowd of people near a Carnival market in Mannheim, Germany, killing two people and injuring 25 others, including fifteen seriously. A man has been arrested. (Euronews) (DW)
3 March 2025 –: A 70-year-old Arab Israeli man is killed and three others are injured in a mass stabbing at a bus station in Haifa, Israel. The perpetrator, an Israeli-Druze from Shfar'am, is killed by civilians present at the attack. (Al Jazeera) (DW) (The Times of Israel); The Holy See reports that Pope Francis has been diagnosed with "acute respiratory distress" as a result of bronchospasms and a build-up of bronchial mucus, after recovering from pneumonia and bronchitis several days ago. (VOA) (NPR)
2 March 2025 – Gaza war: 2025 Gaza war ceasefire; Israel agrees to a United States-led plan to extend the first phase of the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, during which half of the 59 remaining hostages will be released. Hamas rejects the proposal, insisting that the deal proceed with phase two, which includes the release of all remaining living hostages, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a permanent end to the war. (The Times of Israel)
2 March 2025 – 97th Academy Awards: The 97th Academy Awards take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, United States. Anora wins the most awards, taking five, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Mikey Madison. Adrien Brody wins Best Actor for The Brutalist. (Reuters); Anora director Sean Baker becomes the first person to win four Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Editing) for a single film, also tying Walt Disney's record for most Academy Awards won in a single ceremony. (The Independent)
2 March 2025 – 2025 Southeastern United States wildfires: Several wildfires erupt across South Carolina and North Carolina, United States, resulting in the evacuation of endangered towns, including several in the Myrtle Beach area. South Carolina governor Henry McMaster declares a state of emergency in response. (The New York Times) (NBC)
2 March 2025 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Coalition of the willing (Russo-Ukrainian War); United Kingdom prime minister Keir Starmer announces after a meeting of European Union leaders in London that a "coalition of the willing" is working on a Ukraine peace plan that they will present to U.S. president Donald Trump. (Sky News); Russia–United States relations; United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth orders a halt to offensive cyber operations and information operations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command. (NBC News)
2 March 2025 – 2025 Abkhazian presidential election: Acting leader of Abkhazia Badra Gunba is elected President with 55% of the votes. Georgia rejects the election, as it claims Abkhazia as part of its territory. (Reuters)
2 March 2025 –: Firefly Aerospace successfully lands the Blue Ghost Mission 1 on the Moon as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, delivering payloads to Mare Crisium with instruments to study lunar regoliths and the interactions between solar wind and Earth's magnetic field. (Space.com) (NASA)
1 March 2025 – War on terror: War against the Islamic State; Islamic State insurgency in Puntland; Puntland counter-terrorism operations; The Puntland Dervish Force captures an IS–Somalia base in Buqa Caleed, in the Cal Miskaad mountain range of Bari Region, Puntland, Somalia. (The Somali Digest) (Horseed Media); United States Central Command says that it has carried out a precision airstrike in Syria, targeting and killing Muhammed Yusuf Ziya Talay, a senior military leader in Hurras al-Din. (Al Arabiya)
1 March 2025 – Colombian conflict: 2025 Catatumbo clashes; Three men are found dead in a vehicle near the village of Orú in the Tibú municipality, Norte de Santander, Colombia, with one body dressed in a National Liberation Army (ELN) uniform. (El Heraldo de Colombia); After placing an ELN flag at the entrance of the municipality of Saravena, Arauca, the ELN detonate an improvised explosive device, targeting Colombian soldiers attempting to remove the flag. No casualties are reported. (El Heraldo de Colombia)
1 March 2025 – Gaza war: 2025 Gaza war ceasefire; The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is scheduled to expire today while talks on the second phase, which aims to end the war, remain inconclusive. (DW); Gaza Strip famine; Israel blocks the entry of all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza as the first phase of the ceasefire ends. (AP)
1 March 2025 – Kivu conflict: Allied Democratic Forces insurgency; Civil society groups in the Ituri Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, report that 23 people were killed and another 20 were taken hostage in raids by an Islamic State-affiliated faction of the Allied Democratic Forces militia over the past week. (Arab News)
1 March 2025 – Kurdish–Turkish conflict: Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency; The Kurdistan Workers' Party announces a ceasefire with Turkey after forty years of conflict. (Al Jazeera)
1 March 2025 – Syrian civil war: Druze–Syria clashes; At least one person is killed and approximately nine others are wounded in the Druze-majority city of Jaramana, following armed confrontations between local residents and security forces affiliated with the transitional government. In response, the Suwayda Military Council declares a state of alert, while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz instruct the Israel Defense Forces to "prepare to defend" the city. (ANHA) (Times of Israel)
1 March 2025 – Brit Awards 2025: At the 2025 Brit Awards, Charli XCX wins British Artist of the Year, while her album Brat wins British Album of the Year and her song "Guess" wins Song of the Year in collaboration with Billie Eilish. Ezra Collective wins Best British Group. (BBC News)
1 March 2025 –: A group of winter swimmers in Most, Czechia, set a new world record for the largest polar bear plunge with 2,461 participants. The previous record was 1,799 participants set in Mielno, Poland, in 2015. (AP); At least 37 people are killed and 30 others are injured when two passenger buses collide near Uyuni, Potosí department, Bolivia. (BBC News)
1 March 2025 – United Kingdom–Ukraine relations: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with UK prime minister Keir Starmer in London, where they sign off on a British loan of GB£2.26 billion to buy military supplies for Ukraine. (BBC)
1 March 2025 – 2025 Romanian presidential election: 2024–2025 Romanian election annulment protests; Tens of thousands of demonstrators hold a rally in Bucharest, Romania, in support of presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and demand that the second round of the annulled 2024 election is held instead of a new election. (AP)
1 March 2025 – Executive orders in the second presidency of Donald Trump: United States President Donald Trump signs an executive order designating English as the country's official language. (The Guardian)
1 March 2025 – Presidency of Yamandú Orsi: Yamandú Orsi and Carolina Cosse are inaugurated as the president and vice president of Uruguay in Montevideo. (Reuters)
1 March 2025 –: Italian nun Raffaella Petrini is sworn is as President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, becoming the first woman to assume one of the highest political offices in the Vatican. She succeeds Spanish cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga. (RTVE); At their annual general meeting in Northern Ireland, the International Football Association Board approves a new rule stating that beginning the following season, if a goalkeeper holds the ball for more than eight seconds, the opposing team is awarded a corner kick. (BBC)
28 February 2025 – 2025 Darul Uloom Haqqania bombing: Five people, including Hamid Ul Haq Haqqani, the head of a faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S) party and son of Sami-ul-Haq, are killed and twenty others are injured in a suicide bombing inside of a mosque in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (The Indian Express)
28 February 2025 – Mexican drug war: At least four people are shot dead in a mechanical workshop in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. This is the second massacre this week in the state, the other in Perote, which left three workers dead and one wounded. (La Jornada); Three policemen and a civilian are killed in two attacks in Guanajuato, Mexico, the first in Celaya and the second in Apaseo el Alto. (Revista Proceso)
28 February 2025 – Protests against the second presidency of Donald Trump: Economic Blackout; A 24-hour consumer spending boycott takes place across the United States, in protest of wealth and income inequality, high prices of essential goods, and the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives by the Trump administration. (AP)
28 February 2025 – 2025 United States federal mass layoffs: The United States Social Security Administration announces it will lay off over 7,000 jobs to align with President Donald Trump's executive order, despite its workforce already being at a 50-year low. (NPR)
28 February 2025 – 2024–25 South-West Indian Ocean cyclone season: Three people are killed as tropical cyclone Garance makes landfall in Réunion in the Indian Ocean. (AP)
28 February 2025 – 2025 disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: At least 60 fatalities and nearly 1,100 symptomatic cases are reported to be a result of a disease outbreak of unknown etiology in the Province of Équateur, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (CBS News)
28 February 2025 – 2025 Southwest United States measles outbreak: The number of measles cases in Texas, United States, increases to 146 with 20 people hospitalized, spanning nine counties in the state. (AP)
28 February 2025 – Ukraine–United States relations: Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine; 2025 Trump–Zelenskyy meeting; U.S. president Donald Trump, U.S. vice president JD Vance and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy end their talks early after their meeting in the White House turns into a "heated" exchange. Trump rejects any discussion of specific security guarantees for Ukraine, being interested solely in discussing the Ukraine–United States Mineral Resources Agreement. (Time) (AP); The U.S. State Department terminates U.S. support of Ukraine's energy grid restoration amid an ongoing energy crisis. (NBC)
28 February 2025 – Colombia–Israel relations, Israel–Malaysia relations, South Africa–Israel relations, Boycotts of Israel: Colombian president Gustavo Petro, Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa release a joint statement announcing they will close their ports to any ship carrying weapons supplied to Israel. (Middle East Monitor)
28 February 2025 – Democratic Republic of the Congo–Rwanda conflict: The East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) postpone the joint summit of their foreign ministers that would have agreed on a ceasefire plan for the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congolese and Rwanda governments never received invitations to the meeting. (Critical Threats Project)
28 February 2025 – Russia–United States relations: Russia appoints Alexander Darchiev as its new ambassador to the U.S. following talks between the two countries in Istanbul on restoring regular diplomatic contacts and embassy staffs. The post has been vacant for several months. (Barron's) (Interfax)
28 February 2025 –: Mexico extradites 29 alleged cartel members to the United States, including Rafael Caro Quintero, Miguel Treviño Morales, Omar Treviño Morales, Vicente Carrillo Fuentes and Jose Rodolfo Villarreal-Hernandez. (BBC News) (CBS News); Greeks organize a 24-hour nationwide general strike on the second anniversary of the Tempi train crash, Greece's deadliest railway disaster. (Reuters); Following the 2024 quota reform movement in Bangladesh, students who led the protests announce the formation of a new political party, the National Citizen Party, led by Nahid Islam, a student activist and the chief coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination movement. (DW); Microsoft announces it will shut down Skype in May 2025 to focus its support and development on Teams. (DW) (Bloomberg News)
27 February 2025 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Gaza war; 2025 Gaza war ceasefire; As part of the first stage of the ceasefire deal, Hamas releases the bodies of four Israeli hostages in return for the Israeli government releasing 617 Palestinian prisoners. The second phase of the ceasefire has not been negotiated. (DW); Thirteen people are injured in a car-ramming attack in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Israel. The suspect, a Palestinian residing in Ma'ale Iron, is later shot and killed by police after an attempted stabbing attack. (Times of Israel)
27 February 2025 – Kivu conflict: 2025 Bukavu offensive; 2025 Bukavu M23 rally bombings; A grenade attack at an M23 rally in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, celebrating their recent victory over government forces in the city, kills at least eleven people and wounds 65 others. (Reuters)
27 February 2025 – Kurdish–Turkish conflict: Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency; Jailed Kurdish leader and Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Öcalan calls for an end to the conflict with Turkey and asks the group to disarm and disband, amid peace efforts between the Turkish government and the PKK led by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party. (Rudaw) (Reuters) (DW)
27 February 2025 – Somali Civil War: Somali capital city Mogadishu enters a security lockdown after several mortars were fired toward Aden Adde International Airport during a visit from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. (Anadolu Agency); Somali forces regain control of Balad after Al-Shabaab launches a coordinated attack, detonating roadside bombs and briefly seizing the town. (Hiiraan Online)
27 February 2025 –: Villa Somalia security guards open fire on civilians at Lido Beach in Mogadishu while attempting to clear the beach ahead of a visit from Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, killing a teenage boy and wounding several others. (Idil News) (HBN)
27 February 2025 – Denmark–United States relations: Danish retailer group Salling Group, which operates around 34% of the retail market share in the country, announces it will start differentiating brands owned by European companies from American ones, in retaliation to U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed acquisition of Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm. (DW)
27 February 2025 –: A fire at a three-story residential building in Quezon City, Philippines, kills eight people and injures one other. (AP); Two people are killed when a Robinson R44 helicopter crashes on a private property in Uvalde, Texas, United States. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the accident. (KENS-TV); Two Russian tourists are killed in a shark attack while scuba diving in the Verde Island Passage off Batangas, Philippines. (Fox News)
27 February 2025 – United Kingdom–United States relations: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington, D.C., for talks that include the Russo-Ukrainian War peace negotiations. Starmer also presents a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump to visit London later this year. (NPR)
27 February 2025 – Persecution of Uyghurs in China: Forty Uyghur men detained in Thailand for over a decade are deported to China, despite concerns regarding their likely imprisonment. (Al Arabiya)
27 February 2025 –: The prosecutor's office in Paris, France, closes a criminal complaint case by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) against technology company Apple for alleged money laundering and deceptive business practices related to the purchase of minerals in the DRC from armed militias. It is one of the DRC's two lawsuits, with another in Belgium. (Reuters)
27 February 2025 – 2024 Austrian legislative election: The Social Democratic Party, the Austrian People's Party, and the NEOS party in Austria agree to form a coalition government, leaving out the far-right Freedom Party, who won the most seats in the National Council in the 2024 legislative election. The coalition agreement ends Austria's longest period without a government since World War II. (DW) (Euractiv)
27 February 2025 –: The Trump administration bans NASA scientists and US government officials from attending the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conference that started this week in Hangzhou, China, which are focused on the seventh IPCC Assessment Report on climate change. (Nature); Meta Platforms says it has fixed an error that resulted in Instagram users' Reels feeds displaying violent and graphic videos despite these users having content filters enabled. (Al Arabiya); OpenAI releases their latest large language model, GPT-4.5. (The Verge)

Me (incomplete), described in userboxes...

This user created the
User page design guide.

Outlines comprise bullets like these

This user started WikiProject Outlines.

This user started
Wikipedia's Help Project
(as User:Go for it!).

This user started
WikiProject Health and fitness (as User:Go for it!).

This user started WikiProject Indexes

This user started WikiProject Glossaries

This user proudly participates in WikiProject Lists

meso

This editor is a mesopedian.

This user is not a prose nazi and sees no problem with a list or a table being on an article.

A, B, and C

This user prefers the serial comma.

incl

This user is an inclusionist.

incr

This editor is an incrementalist.

even

This editor is an eventualist.

This user has been on Wikipedia for 19 years, 4 months and 26 days.

This user is a Wikipedia tipster.

This user uses AutoWikiBrowser to quickly make repetitive edits.

This user has made over
300,000 edits to Wikipedia.

This user has created over
500 Outlines in Wikipedia.

This user is interested in the digital revolution.

This user is an advanced writer in the MediaWiki language.

This user develops
user scripts;

Perl-2

This user is an intermediate Perl programmer.

js-2

This user is an intermediate JavaScript programmer.

re-3

This user writes advanced regular expressions.

This user thinks you can learn a lot by editing an encyclopedia.

This user is a transhumanist.

This user advocates humanism.

This user is a member of the
Geography WikiProject.

Globus

This user does not believe in borders, and is a World citizen.

This user is interested in the
Planet Earth.

This user is interested in history.

This user is interested in
Human Prehistory

This user is interested in
ancient civilizations.

This user is interested in
ancient Egypt.

This user is interested in ancient Greece.

This user is interested in ancient Rome.

History and contributions...

Awards and praise I've received over the years...

Tip of the day April 21, 2006: Thanks for helping a newbie!

Filmcom 14:36, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I just want to thank you for building on my tip and making it a true wikipedia tip of the day. I'm still learning a lot about how to do things around here, so your help was greatly appreciated! Keep up the great work, and keep on Going for it!

Smashing!

You've done a great job getting the Tip of the Day off the ground. As a result, I think you deserve this! smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 17:52, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

Award

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		Your kindess was not random, because you were kind enough to listen to my requests to fix my userpage. Your major kindness will not be ignored, as this BarnStar is my token of appreciation! K yo cat^meow! 01:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

!!!

<O.o --The Prophet Wizard of the Cray on Cake 01:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

You're welcome. The Transhumanist 01:55, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The da Vinci Barnstar
		Awarded to User:The Transhumanist. Sometimes those who take on large areas of wikipedia organisation seem to be taken for granted, and this is just to show that your work is appreciated by the community. Khukri ^{(talk . contribs)} 09:56, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

!

Cool signature K a mope · talk · contributions 12:58, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. The Transhumanist 05:52, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for the hints in your userpage tutorial. . I am a new user and familiar with HTML markup, but not so with Wikimark up. Your userpage tutorial really helped! Real96 06:14, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

You're welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. If you see any way to improve it, by all means, please feel free to do so. The Transhumanist 06:36, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

WC

How can I sum the above up....? Oh yes:

		The Original Barnstar
		For your revamp of The Welcoming Committee, and of the Welcome Page, I award you the original barnstar. Well done! Anthonycfc ^{[T • C]} 18:19, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

WOW!!

as a near- noob, this is by far the most detailed and useful article on wikipedia for me! Excellent! I really wish I had a user page like this after two years...Snailey! 15:42, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		For all your work with admin coaching, barnstar awarding, Wikipedia-expanding, and various administrative duties (if you can call all that political stuff we Wikipedians must wade through such a name), I, Sharkface217, hereby award you this Tireless Contributor Barnstar. Good job. S h a r k f a c e 2 1 7 19:36, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Just a few words...

TT, my friend, my mop would never have been gained without your incredible expertise. My kindest regards to you, and drop by as often as possible! Now, a little token of my appreciation...

My kindest possible regards,
Anthony 21:38, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Barnstar

		What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
		I award you this Brilliant Idea Barnstar for helping others to earn Barnstars and awards through your Award Center! • The Giant Puffin • 13:31, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Award

Hello The Transhumanist, (Hold on, can I say that or is it "Hello Transhumanist")
I was going to give you an award but there wasn't one good enough, so I made one better than any that has ever been seen before - This message. Yes, yes, I know, you don't think your worthy of it, but I assure you, you are the only one good enough for it - Pheonix 19:34, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

A Help:Contents Barnstar

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		As the top contributor to Help:Contents, you deserve this barnstar. Thank you! Jreferee ^(Talk) 05:59, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Original Barnstar
		For taking up the challenge and improving my command page, I, Sharkface217, hereby award you this Original Barnstar. Another feather in the Transhumanist cap, eh? :-P --Shark face217 21:37, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

:D

Hi there Trans Face! X××x××pink×jellocreature××x××X (talk) 01:36, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

You won an award!

	X××x××pink×jellocreature××x××X (talk) awards you the unofficial funniness award!

Fractional-reserve banking

You deserve a barnstar for your efforts. I can't think of anyone who has contributed more to Wikipedia, except maybe Jimbo. I'm not sure where to put this on your frontpage, so here it is:

		What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
		For boldly redirecting Debt-based monetary system to Criticisms of fractional-reserve banking, both saving it from deletion while defending Wikipedia from those who would violate WP:FRINGE, and being one of the most helpful editors on Wikipedia, in general. Zenwhat (talk) 03:41, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
		I, Diligent Terrier, award you this "Tireless Contributor Barnstar" for your work in starting the List of basic American Civil War topics article from scratch. Great Job! DiligentTerrier • talk \|sign here 22:17, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

My Userpage

Hi There First id like to thank you immensly for your pages about creating a decent userpage!! They are great and I would be lost without them!! Just one question, On my userpage i have a small welcome banner up the top. How do I make this text larger and change the font? Sorry if you have already covered this somewhere. Thanks in advanceCstubbies (talk) 12:40, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

A valuable service

I think you need recognition for doing the job of ten other editors, and doing it out of altruism and genuine belief in Wikipedia. Not many editors here have the same good attitude and provide the same service as you - I don't have any specific point to put across, but I thought you should just be prodded and reminded that you do a lot of good around here, in the hope you'll keep it up. Kudos! Seegoon (talk) 17:43, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

:)

		The Excellent Userpage Award
		Nice page. jaytur1 (talk · contribs) 12:13, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Welcoming committee

Just a note, I've made a minor update to your contributions. To reiterate my edit summary, you put in a tonne of effort there, and you deserve to be credited for it :) Feel free to revert, nonetheless. Regards, AGK (contact) 16:44, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

List of basic space exploration topics

Hi there TTH, Just wanted to thank you for your labors on this page, which is a great resource for us. Bill Wwheaton (talk) 17:48, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

You'd better hope there is a humour barnstar

... because you just gave me the biggest laugh in weeks. Good stuff giving that RfA spammer what-for here. αѕєηιηє ^t/_c 22:03, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

List of basic Canada topics

Nice work -- I will withdraw the AfD nom. – ukexpat (talk) 00:55, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Done

		The Barnstar of Recovery
		For saving List of basic Canada topics from being deleted, I - Milk's Favorite Cookie hereby award you this Barnstar! Congrats! - Milk's Favorite Cookie 01:16, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Fictional lists

The deletion review was approved for recreation: Wikipedia:Deletion review/Log/2008 March 10. Just letting you know, in case you weren't watchlisting it. I'm not sure what you have to do next to get the old version undeleted though (if that's what you wanted :) Nice catch on rescuing that grouping. -- Quiddity (talk) 00:21, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

'Tis for you

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		I've noticed the extra mile you've gone to help a new user, and I wanted you to know it hasn't gone unnoticed. Keep up the good work! Keeper \| 76 \| Disclaimer 16:40, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Barnstar

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		I award this barnstar to The Transhumanist, for being patient and taking four rounds of references from me, until they were all valid. LAA Fan 01:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		I award this barnstar to The Transhumanist, for putting funny stuff on his discussion page which led me to copy them and put some of those funny stuff on my website. Thanks. Emir 34 01:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

List_of_basic_France_topics

Hi Transhumanist, I wanted to note that I saw all of your work on the List of Basic France topics, and I appreciate it! Lazulilasher (talk) 02:12, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

From Zach...

		The da Vinci Barnstar
		For helping me so many times. and for my wonderful userpage. Cheers, Zacharycrimsonwolf 04:08, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

(next page...)

Guidance Star

		The Guidance Barnstar
		For helping me to find resources on humanism, which I will hopefully be able to use to improve the articles on it here as well! Scapler (talk) 02:39, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

Happy Transhumanist's Day!

The Transhumanist has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian,
so I've officially declared today as Transhumanist's Day!
For your incredible organization and leadership skills,
enjoy being the star of the day, dear The Transhumanist!

Signed,
Dylan (chat, work, ping, sign)

→ Dylan 620 (Toolbox Alpha, Beta) 00:26, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Happy The Transhumanist's Day!

The Transhumanist has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian,
and therefore, I've officially declared today as The Transhumanist's day!
For your history of dedicated work to the project,
enjoy being the Star of the day, The Transhumanist!

Cheers,
bibliomaniac 15
22:08, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

If you'd like to show off your awesomeness, you can use this userbox.

Congrats. :) –Juliancolton | ^Talk 23:44, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

I think...

...you need a barnstar for all of the hard work you have put into the WP:WPOOK!

		The Barnstar Barnstar
		You deserve two! at-210 ^{discovered elements ∞ what am I?} 20:21, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

Barnstar

Transhumanist my friend,

It's about time you deserve a barnstar for all your contributions to outlines on Wikipedia, and also for being the promoter that you are for outlines. If it wasn't for you we might not have outlines as they are, so it is my honor to present to you the Special Barnstar because no other barnstar could merit what you do for outlines on Wikipedia. :-) Burningview (talk) 03:42, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

		The Special Barnstar
		This barnstar is presented to Transhumanist for all the hard work, contributions, coordination, and promotion he does in advancing the idea, coverage, content, and quality of Outlines on Wikipedia. For this he deserves a Special Barnstar Burningview (talk) 03:42, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Well done

		The Special Barnstar
		This award is in appreciation of the excellent work you have done supporting the development of Outlines on Wikipedia Thruxton (talk) 18:59, 5 December 2010 (UTC)

Made me laugh

You once said in a AFD: "If you are building a robot, you can start with just the left pinky." I love that. Happy New Year! Jerry delusional ¤ kangaroo 20:34, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

another thanks

I appreciate you pointing me in the direction of a formatted signature. For some reason I couldn't find any reference to how it is done in the years I have been here. Cheers. ◦◦derekbd◦◦my talk◦◦ 12:16, 4 June 2011 (UTC)

Impressed

I just wanted to tell you (probably not the 1st ^^ ) that your are an incredible wikipedia member, your userpage is simply amazing and your contribution is...gigantic? huge? Incredible? not for the number edits (still high) but rather over the appropriateness of the things that you have created, especially the outline project. I wont give you another award, you already have billions, but simply a modest "Bravo!". -- Offiikart (Talk) 05:23, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks

Hi, thanks a lot for the barnstar, you are truly a user with whom it is pleasant to interact. I greatly appreciate your help, your tips and you recognition on the work done, even if only very minimal compared to the work you have done.

I think you, more than everyone else, deserve a special recognition. Here is the first Barnstar I ever awarded :

		The WikiProject Barnstar
		To *The Transhumanist* who created the outline project and tirelessly continues to improve it. A special thanks for your help and your recognition. Offiikart^Talk 13:54, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

ps. I did put the page alert on my watchlist

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Your fine contributions are not overlooked. You are a quality editor, and we are so glad you are here. Thanks to the user:Transhumanist! Pinkstrawberry02™^talk 01:49, 13 October 2011 (UTC)

Note to user getting this message: Please respond on Pinkstrawberry02's talk page. If for some reason you cannot, please send them a {{talkback}} and reply on your own talk page. Thanks for your understanding in this manner. See ya around the wiki!

barnstar

		The Chess Barnstar
		Awarded for many contributions to chess articles, especially the Outline of chess. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:34, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Thanks so much for your work on the Outline of domestic violence, it is so much better that it's astounding how far it's come along. Thanks for making my first outline "sing"! CaroleHenson (talk) 11:11, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

You're first one? Wonderful! I can't wait to see what you come up with next. And I also look forward to seeing what you have in store for this outline. Thank you for the barnstar. It's very nice to feel appreciated. The Transhumanist 22:10, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Wow! Thanks for your help on the Future studies project. I can't believe all the pages you've contributed to, but glad you found ours!... RealFuturist (talk) 17:09, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Copyeditor's Barnstar
	Thanks for the ndashes on the Apple outline article. Zach Vega (talk) 00:58, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

A cookie for you!

Many years ago, back before I had created my current account, I created a humble little userspace navigation menu based off of two of your menus from the User Page Design Center (initially 15, but ultimately 6). Over the years it has grown, but I don't know if I ever would have started it without seeing your menus first. I just want to thank you for putting the effort into creating those menus and then sharing them at the Design Center where they have been helpful for people like me. I hope you don't mind me borrowing from your hard work! Thanks again and take care! Michael Barera (talk) 03:30, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Thank you

		The Instructor's Barnstar
		This Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who have performed stellar work in the area of instruction & help for other editors. Just wanted to stop by and say this edit was something I wanted to do but simply did not have the "kahunas" to do so. Thank you for the bold edit :-) Moxy (talk) 07:25, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Diligence
	For your efforts on updating, improving and organising Outline of human anatomy LT910001 (talk) 06:39, 2 January 2014 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	For your work on "Outline of space science" Tetra quark ^{(don't be shy)} 05:55, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. The Transhumanist 07:45, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

A cup of coffee for you!

A cup of coffee for you! masum (talk) 06:10, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. The Transhumanist 06:56, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

At Tip-Of-The-Day: Thank you for your updates & guidance!

Greetings The Transhumanist,

Want to let you know the value of your insights & feedback!
Regards, JoeHebda (talk) 21:53, 19 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Keep up the good work. The Transhumanist 16:50, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Pony!

Pony!
Congratulations! For all your hard work on redirect repair at Glossary of North American horse racing and general wikignoming along the way of articles such as Easy Goer, you have received a pony! Ponies are cute, intelligent, cuddly, friendly (most of the time, though with notable exceptions), promote good will, encourage patience, and enjoy carrots. Treat your pony with respect and he will be your faithful friend! We need more wikipedia editors like you! Montanabw^(talk) 02:22, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

To send a pony or a treat to other wonderful and responsible editors, click here.

Thank you for being one of Wikipedia's top medical contributors!

please help translate this message into the local language

The Cure Award

In 2015 you were one of the top 300 medical editors across any language of Wikipedia. Thank you from Wiki Project Med Foundation for helping bring free, complete, accurate, up-to-date health information to the public. We really appreciate you and the vital work you do! Wiki Project Med Foundation is a user group whose mission is to improve our health content. Consider joining here, there are no associated costs, and we would love to collaborate further.

Thanks again :) -- Doc James along with the rest of the team at Wiki Project Med Foundation 03:59, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	Great work with the Outlines :) Pratyush (talk) 21:07, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Thank you. The Transhumanist 15:31, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Love the outlines

Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that I think your planet outlines are really cool. I have long thought it was a shame that only Wikipedians seem to know about Books or Portals, because they are really great tools for structuring knowledge (while everyone loves diving down the Wikipedia rabbit hole, we could really do with some better content organization). The outlines strike me as a great way to bring that sort content organization to mainspace, where it will actually reach a large number of readers. I notice that I am the first one to edit them besides yourself, and I hope you know that I do so with love.

		What a Brilliant Idea Barnstar
		Great idea with the outline articles - a great solution to a need for better mainspace-based content structuring! I see from WP:Outlines that you actually came up with this concept some years ago, but this is the first I've noticed it. A2soup (talk) 02:46, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

A Barnstar for you!

		The Portal Barnstar
		The Portal Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who have made significant contributions to topic portals. Awarded to Transhumanist for his overly enthusiastic efforts regarding the portal system and WikiProject Portals. – Lionel^(talk) 11:02, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

Transhumanist, thank you for your extraordinary efforts on behalf of portals. It reminds me of the time when a series of attacks on scientific bibliographies led to the formation of WikiProject Bibliographies. I don't understand why your detractors are so passionate about deleting portals, but your actions have been a model for how to deal with an attack constructively. RockMagnetist(talk) 16:10, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

A Barnstar for you!

		The Article Rescue Barnstar
		May all who see this barnstar know that The Transhumanist made a valiant and commendable effort for defending the portal namespace from deletion. It preserved countless hours of work initially invested into creating the content. Moreoever, The Transhumanist, is doing a yeoman's job in attempting to improve the content within with portal namespace. RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 00:24, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

@RightCowLeftCoast: Thank you. I feel honored. Please keep in mind that I have not been working alone. Credit goes to the nearly 400 editors who came forward to speak up for the keeping of portals. And although the RfC to delete all portals is over, the job of defending portals from deletion is not. For the portal namespace to be retained in the long term, the portals in it will need to be improved to a worthy quality level, otherwise we may see more deletion attempts. This task is far more than a single editor can handle. Fortunately, many editors have come forward to meet the challenge. Working to develop portals and the entire portal system, is a team of 80 editors who are diligently redesigning, upgrading, updating, and maintaining portals. They are the members of the Portals WikiProject, and without them there might be no portals. They are doing a wonderful job, and I am very proud of them. Thank you. — The Transhumanist 17:22, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Precious

thinking-related topics

Thank you for organising a list of thinking-related topics, for Shift work sleep disorder and the index of oral health and dental articles, for your thoughts and efforts regarding portals, and beginnings such as Portal:Thinking/Selected picture, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:53, 29 May 2018 (UTC)

Precious

portals

Thank you for your thoughts and efforts regarding portals, for the concept of outlines, for sectional redirects, for articles such as Life Extension Foundation, for service from 2006, including portal philosophy and user page design center, - repeating (1 & 4 June 2009): you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:54, 31 May 2018 (UTC)

Thank you. I looked, but couldn't figure out what 1 & 4 June 2009 were referring to. Just curious. — The Transhumanist 19:26, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Follow the link "awesome W." and look for your name: 2 others said it before me! --Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:48, 5 June 2018 (UTC)

Executive director of portals

		The Portal Barnstar
		Not sure if a simple barnstar can express the communities gratitude to the portal work that you're doing. Your an indispensable member of our community. Moxy (talk) 18:08, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Moxy, thank you. I'm honored, and I receive this praise for the team, without whom there would be very little progress on portals. They are literally transforming them into something new. I'm glad to be a part of that. — The Transhumanist 18:20, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

A Barnstar for you

		The Portal Barnstar
		The Portal Barnstar is awarded to Wikipedians who have made significant contributions to topic portals. Thanks for the great work you have been doing in the WikiProject. Dreamy Jazz ^{talk \| contribs} 22:15, 4 July 2018 (UTC)

You are welcome, formerly Wpgbrown. Nice new name. ;) — The Transhumanist 10:26, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Technical Barnstar
	Good to see others of the view we have as to the need to know more. Im a research person here just of this week and your views relate to my work here. take care. Tleesd (talk) 17:56, 5 September 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thank's for updating the Portal:Seventh-day Adventist Church. You deserve this star for your good work. Catfurball (talk) 15:28, 12 October 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Tireless Contributor Barnstar
	For your excellent work on Portals. Everyday the portal project improves. Your dedication and willingness to get people involved really pays off. Cannot wait to continue working with you and the Portal team. Thank you for your work. AmericanAir88^(talk) 00:30, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar
		Thank you for helping me in my first attempt in creating a portal page ‑‑V.S.(C)(T) 10:51, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

Some barnstars for you!

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for creating Portal:Hummingbirds when I asked for it. Keep doing a good job! Catfurball (talk) 00:01, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for making Portal:Capsicum. Catfurball (talk) 19:38, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for making Portal:Peaches. Catfurball (talk) 21:11, 5 February 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for creating Portal:Woodpeckers for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:15, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for creating Portal:Tyrant flycatchers for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:16, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for creating Portal:Plums, you do a great job creating portals. Catfurball (talk) 18:45, 21 February 2019 (UTC)

	The Graphic Designer's Barnstar
	Thanks for creating Portal:Cotingas for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:07, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Portal Barnstar
		For your tireless dedication to creating, maintaining, and improving portals, as well as your active involvement in making improvements to the system of portals itself. I'm sorry to hear that you're temporarily unable to create them, but your work is greatly appreciated 🙂 Brendon the Wizard ✉️ ✨ 14:17, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

A Barnstar for you

		The Original Barnstar
		message Ambuj Shukla 19:16, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

You have made immense contributions to outlines over the years, and have encouraged many more Wikipedians to follow your lead. The impact of your contributions are great. Keep doing the good work! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ambujshukla2004 (talk • contribs) 19:16, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

Thank you. — The Transhumanist 00:06, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

		The Outline Barnstar
		Hello The Transhumanist, you are receiving this award for the creation and continued dedication to WikiProject Outlines. You deserve this barnstar more than anyone. Jerium (talk) 19:18, 12 November 2023 (UTC)

A barnstar for you!

	The Barnstar of Good Humor
	I appreciate you reviving the User page design center! I used this when I was new. Also, everyone has a phases where they religiously obsess over their user page (especially userboxes), and this tool is a good way to show them how to have fun with it. Panini! • 🥪 23:59, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

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A barnstar for you!

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Precious

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Executive director of portals

A Barnstar for you

A barnstar for you!

A barnstar for you!