User:The Transhumanist
- User page undergoing expansion/revamp. Please excuse the blank section until it is completed. Thank you.
Introduction
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...
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- 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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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...) -
A revenue model is a framework for generating financial income. There can be a variety of ways for revenue generation such as the production model, manufacturing model, as well as the construction model. A revenue model identifies which revenue source to pursue, what value to offer, how to price the value, and who pays for the value. It is a key component of a company's business model. A revenue model primarily identifies what product or service will be created and sold in order to generate revenues.
Without a clear and well-defined revenue model new businesses will be more likely to struggle. By having a clear revenue model, a business can focus on a target audience, fund development plans for a product or service, establish marketing plans, open a line of credit and raise capital. (Full article...) -
Trichophyton is a genus of fungus, which includes the parasitic varieties that cause tinea, including athlete's foot, ringworm, jock itch, and similar infections of the nail, beard, skin and scalp. Trichophyton fungi are molds characterized by the development of both smooth-walled macro- and microconidia. Macroconidia are mostly borne laterally directly on the hyphae or on short pedicels, and are thin- or thick-walled, clavate to fusiform, and range from 4 to 8 by 8 to 50 μm in size. Macroconidia are few or absent in many species. Microconidia are spherical, pyriform to clavate or of irregular shape, and range from 2 to 3 by 2 to 4 μm in size. (Full article...) -
In futures studies and the history of technology, accelerating change is the observed exponential nature of the rate of technological change in recent history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change. (Full article...)
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The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes completely alien to humans, 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 that culminates in a powerful superintelligence, far surpassing all human intelligence.
Some scientists, including Stephen Hawking, have expressed concern that artificial superintelligence could result in human extinction. The consequences of a technological singularity and its potential benefit or harm to the human race have been intensely debated.
Prominent technologists and academics dispute the plausibility of a technological singularity and associated artificial intelligence explosion, including Paul Allen, Jeff Hawkins, John Holland, Jaron Lanier, Steven Pinker, Theodore Modis, Gordon Moore, and Roger Penrose. One claim is that artificial intelligence growth is likely to run into decreasing returns instead of accelerating ones. Stuart J. Russell and Peter Norvig observe that in the history of technology, improvement in a particular area tends to follow an S curve: it begins with accelerating improvement, then levels off (without continuing upward into a hyperbolic singularity). Consider, for example, the history of transportation, which experienced exponential improvement from 1820 to 1970, then abruptly leveled off. Predictions based on continued exponential improvement (e.g., interplanetary travel by 2000) proved false. (Full article...) -
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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Etruscan: Diomedes and Polyxena, from the Etruscan amphora of the Pontic group, c. 540–530 BCE – From Vulci
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.
In Britain and the United States, modern ceramics as an art took its inspiration in the early twentieth century from the Arts and Crafts movement, leading to the revival of pottery considered as a specifically modern craft. Such crafts emphasized traditional non-industrial production techniques, faithfulness to the material, the skills of the individual maker, attention to utility, and an absence of excessive decoration that was typical to the Victorian era.
The word "ceramics" comes from the Greek keramikos (κεραμεικός), meaning "pottery", which in turn comes from keramos (κέραμος) meaning "potter's clay". Most traditional ceramic products were made from clay (or clay mixed with other materials), shaped and subjected to heat, and tableware and decorative ceramics are generally still made this way. In modern ceramic engineering usage, ceramics is the art and science of making objects from inorganic, non-metallic materials by the action of heat. It excludes glass and mosaic made from glass tesserae.
There is a long history of ceramic art in almost all developed cultures, and often ceramic objects are all the artistic evidence left from vanished cultures, like that of the Nok in Africa over 2,000 years ago. Cultures especially noted for ceramics include the Chinese, Cretan, Greek, Persian, Mayan, Japanese, and Korean cultures, as well as the modern Western cultures. (Full article...) -
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. (Full article...) -
Web scraping, web harvesting, or web data extraction is data scraping used for extracting data from websites. Web scraping software may directly access the World Wide Web using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol or a web browser. While web scraping can be done manually by a software user, the term typically refers to automated processes implemented using a bot or web crawler. It is a form of copying in which specific data is gathered and copied from the web, typically into a central local database or spreadsheet, for later retrieval or analysis.
Scraping a web page involves fetching it and then extracting data from it. Fetching is the downloading of a page (which a browser does when a user views a page). Therefore, web crawling is a main component of web scraping, to fetch pages for later processing. Having fetched, extraction can take place. The content of a page may be parsed, searched and reformatted, and its data copied into a spreadsheet or loaded into a database. Web scrapers typically take something out of a page, to make use of it for another purpose somewhere else. An example would be finding and copying names and telephone numbers, companies and their URLs, or e-mail addresses to a list (contact scraping).
As well as contact scraping, web scraping is used as a component of applications used for web indexing, web mining and data mining, online price change monitoring and price comparison, product review scraping (to watch the competition), gathering real estate listings, weather data monitoring, website change detection, research, tracking online presence and reputation, web mashup, and web data integration.
Web pages are built using text-based mark-up languages (HTML and XHTML), and frequently contain a wealth of useful data in text form. However, most web pages are designed for human end-users and not for ease of automated use. As a result, specialized tools and software have been developed to facilitate the scraping of web pages. Web scraping applications include market research, price comparison, content monitoring, and more. Businesses rely on web scraping services to efficiently gather and utilize this data. (Full article...) -
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...) -
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...) -
Natural science or empirical science is a branch 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 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 Galilei, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton debated the benefits of a more mathematical as against a more experimental method in investigating nature. 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...) -
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. Similarly, a variety of apps make claims to assist in extending the life of their users, or predicting their lifespans. (Full article...) -
The branches of science, also referred to as sciences, scientific fields or scientific disciplines, are commonly divided into three major groups:
- Formal sciences: the study of formal systems, such as those under the branches of logic and mathematics, which use an a priori, as opposed to empirical, methodology. They study abstract structures described by formal systems.
- Natural sciences: the study of natural phenomena (including cosmological, geological, physical, chemical, and biological factors of the universe). Natural science can be divided into two main branches: physical science and life science (or biology).
- Social sciences: the study of human behavior in its social and cultural aspects.
Scientific knowledge must be grounded in observable phenomena and must be capable of being verified by other researchers working under the same conditions.
Natural, social, and formal science make up the fundamental sciences, which form the basis of interdisciplinarity - and applied sciences such as engineering and medicine. Specialized scientific disciplines that exist in multiple categories may include parts of other scientific disciplines but often possess their own terminologies and expertises. (Full article...) -
Help may refer to: (Full article...)
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Knowledge extraction is the creation of knowledge from structured (relational databases, XML) and unstructured (text, documents, images) sources. The resulting knowledge needs to be in a machine-readable and machine-interpretable format and must represent knowledge in a manner that facilitates inferencing. Although it is methodically similar to information extraction (NLP) and ETL (data warehouse), the main criterion is that the extraction result goes beyond the creation of structured information or the transformation into a relational schema. It requires either the reuse of existing formal knowledge (reusing identifiers or ontologies) or the generation of a schema based on the source data.
The RDB2RDF W3C group is currently standardizing a language for extraction of resource description frameworks (RDF) from relational databases. Another popular example for knowledge extraction is the transformation of Wikipedia into structured data and also the mapping to existing knowledge (see DBpedia and Freebase). (Full article...) -
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...) -
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...) -
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 in 1897 by James Hanson (chief of the Catalog Department), with assistance from Charles Martel 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...) -
James Burke (born 22 December 1936) is a broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer. He was one of the main presenters of the BBC1 science series Tomorrow's World from 1965 to 1971 and created and presented the television series Connections (1978), and its more philosophical sequel The Day the Universe Changed (1985), about the history of science and technology. The Washington Post has called him "one of the most intriguing minds in the Western world". (Full article...) -
Location of Asia
Asian cuisine encompasses several significant regional cooking styles of Asia: Central Asian, East Asian, North Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and West Asian. Cuisine is a distinctive way of cooking practices and customs, usually associated with a specific culture. Asia, as the largest and most populous continent, is home to many cultures, each with its own characteristic cuisine. Asian cuisine, also known as Eastern cuisine, is considered the "culture of food within a society" due to the beliefs, cooking methods, and the specific ingredients used throughout the entire process. Asian cuisines are also renowned for their spices. A key taste factor in Asian cuisine is “umami” flavor, a strong savoriness prominent in Asian cooking, which can be achieved through fermented food or meat extract.
Ingredients common to many cultures in East and Southeast Asia include rice, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, chilis, dried onions, soy, and tofu. Stir frying, steaming, and deep frying are common cooking methods.
While rice is common to most Asian cuisines, different varieties are popular in the various regions. Glutinous rice is ingrained in the culture, religious tradition and national identity of Laos. Basmati rice is popular in the Indian subcontinent, jasmine rice is often found across Southeast Asia, while long-grain rice is popular in China and short-grain in Japan and Korea.
Curry is a common dish in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Curry dishes have their origins in the Indian subcontinent. Countries in Indochina typically use a coconut milk base in their curries; countries in Southwest Asia typically use a yogurt base. (Full article...) -
Roboticists with three Mars rover robots. Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover, Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project. On the left is a Mars Exploration Rover (MER) test vehicle that is a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. On the right is a test rover for the Mars Science Laboratory, which landed Curiosity on Mars in 2012.
Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots.
Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer science, robotics focuses on robotic automation algorithms. Other disciplines contributing to robotics include electrical, control, software, information, electronic, telecommunication, computer, mechatronic, and materials engineering.
The goal of most robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Many robots are built to do jobs that are hazardous to people, such as finding survivors in unstable ruins, and exploring space, mines and shipwrecks. Others replace people in jobs that are boring, repetitive, or unpleasant, such as cleaning, monitoring, transporting, and assembling. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as technological advances continue; researching, designing, and building new robots serve various practical purposes. (Full article...) -
This glossary of philosophy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to philosophy and related disciplines, including logic, ethics, and theology. (Full article...)
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Prehistoric technology is technology that predates recorded history. History is the study of the past using written records. Anything prior to the first written accounts of history is prehistoric, including earlier technologies. About 2.5 million years before writing was developed, technology began with the earliest hominids who used stone tools, which they first used to hunt food, and later to cook.
There are several factors that made the evolution of prehistoric technology possible or necessary. One of the key factors is behavioral modernity of the highly developed brain of Homo sapiens capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem-solving. The advent of agriculture resulted in lifestyle changes from nomadic lifestyles to ones lived in homes, with domesticated animals, and land farmed using more varied and sophisticated tools. Art, architecture, music and religion evolved over the course of the prehistoric periods. (Full article...) -
A userscript manager, also known as a userscript engine, is a type of browser extension and augmented browsing technology that provides a user interface to run and organize userscripts. The main purpose of a userscript manager is to execute scripts on predetermined webpages as they are loaded, for example, running a userscript to modify only youtube.com pages. But, userscript managers do a lot more than execute scripts, and screen for the pages they are intended to run on. The most common operations performed by a userscript manager include installing, organizing, creating, copying, saving, deleting, and editing (including modifying webpage permissions of) userscripts.
Userscript managers use metadata that is embedded in a script's source code primarily to determine the websites it should execute on and the dependencies necessary for the script to run properly. Metadata can also include information that is useful to the user such as the script's name, author, description and version number.
Popular userscript managers include Tampermonkey, Greasemonkey, Violentmonkey, and Userscripts for Safari. The Gear browser for iOS has a userscript manager built in. (Full article...)
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Selected emerging technologies and related articles
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An image generated using StyleGAN that looks like a portrait of a young woman. This image was generated by an artificial neural network based on an analysis of a large number of photographs.
The Style Generative Adversarial Network, or StyleGAN for short, is an extension to the GAN architecture introduced by Nvidia researchers in December 2018, and made source available in February 2019.
StyleGAN depends on Nvidia's CUDA software, GPUs, and Google's TensorFlow, or Meta AI's PyTorch, which supersedes TensorFlow as the official implementation library in later StyleGAN versions. The second version of StyleGAN, called StyleGAN2, was published on February 5, 2020. It removes some of the characteristic artifacts and improves the image quality. Nvidia introduced StyleGAN3, described as an "alias-free" version, on June 23, 2021, and made source available on October 12, 2021. (Full article...) -
Hypothetical technology is technology that does not exist yet, but that could exist in the future. This article presents examples of technologies that have been hypothesized or proposed, but that have not been developed yet. An example of hypothetical technology is teleportation. (Full article...)
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Examples of different types of exoskeletons
An exoskeleton is a wearable device that augments, enables, assists, or enhances motion, posture, or physical activity through mechanical interaction with and force applied to the user’s body.
Other common names for a wearable exoskeleton include exo, exo technology, assistive exoskeleton, and human augmentation exoskeleton. The term exosuit is sometimes used, but typically this refers specifically to a subset of exoskeletons composed largely of soft materials. The term wearable robot is also sometimes used to refer to an exoskeleton, and this does encompass a subset of exoskeletons; however, not all exoskeletons are robotic in nature. Similarly, some but not all exoskeletons can be categorized as bionic devices. (Full article...) -
Air pollution is the presence of substances in the air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be gases, like ozone or nitrogen oxides, or small particles like soot and dust. Both outdoor and indoor air can be polluted.
Outdoor air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels for electricity and transport, wildfires, some industrial processes, waste management, demolition and agriculture. Indoor air pollution is often from burning firewood or agricultural waste for cooking and heating. Other sources of air pollution include dust storms and volcanic eruptions. Many sources of local air pollution, especially burning fossil fuels, also release greenhouse gases that cause global warming. However air pollution may limit warming locally. (Full article...) -
Millipede memory is a form of non-volatile computer memory. It promised a data density of more than 1 terabit per square inch (1 gigabit per square millimeter), which is about the limit of the perpendicular recording hard drives. Millipede storage technology was pursued as a potential replacement for magnetic recording in hard drives and a means of reducing the physical size of the technology to that of flash media.
IBM demonstrated a prototype millipede storage device at CeBIT 2005, and was trying to make the technology commercially available by the end of 2007. However, because of concurrent advances in competing storage technologies, no commercial product has been made available since then. (Full article...) -
The Stentrode device
Stentrode (Stent-electrode recording array) is a small stent-mounted electrode array permanently implanted into a blood vessel in the brain, without the need for open brain surgery. It is in clinical trials as a brain–computer interface (BCI) for people with paralyzed or missing limbs, who will use their neural signals or thoughts to control external devices, which currently include computer operating systems. The device may ultimately be used to control powered exoskeletons, robotic prosthesis, computers or other devices.
The device was conceived by Australian neurologist Thomas Oxley and built by Australian biomedical engineer Nicholas Opie, who have been developing the medical implant since 2010, using sheep for testing. Human trials started in August 2019 with participants who suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a type of motor neuron disease. Graeme Felstead was the first person to receive the implant. To date, eight patients have been implanted and are able to wirelessly control an operating system to text, email, shop and bank using direct thought through the Stentrode brain computer interface, marking the first time a brain-computer interface was implanted via the patient's blood vessels, eliminating the need for open brain surgery. (Full article...) -
A sample of bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide (BSCCO), which is currently one of the most practical high-temperature superconductors. Notably, it does not contain rare-earths. BSCCO is a cuprate superconductor based on bismuth and strontium. Thanks to its higher operating temperature, cuprates are now becoming competitors for more ordinary niobium-based superconductors, as well as magnesium diboride superconductors.
High-temperature superconductivity (high-Tc or HTS) is superconductivity in materials with a critical temperature (the temperature below which the material behaves as a superconductor) above 77 K (−196.2 °C; −321.1 °F), the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. They are "high-temperature" only relative to previously known superconductors, which function only closer to absolute zero. The first high-temperature superconductor was discovered in 1986 by IBM researchers Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Müller. Although the critical temperature is around 35.1 K (−238.1 °C; −396.5 °F), this material was modified by Ching-Wu Chu to make the first high-temperature superconductor with critical temperature 93 K (−180.2 °C; −292.3 °F). Bednorz and Müller were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1987 "for their important break-through in the discovery of superconductivity in ceramic materials". Most high-Tc materials are type-II superconductors.
The major advantage of high-temperature superconductors is that they can be cooled using liquid nitrogen, in contrast to previously known superconductors, which require expensive and hard-to-handle coolants, primarily liquid helium. A second advantage of high-Tc materials is they retain their superconductivity in higher magnetic fields than previous materials. This is important when constructing superconducting magnets, a primary application of high-Tc materials. (Full article...) -
Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are a class of nanoparticle that can be manipulated using magnetic fields. Such particles commonly consist of two components, a magnetic material, often iron, nickel and cobalt, and a chemical component that has functionality. While nanoparticles are smaller than 1 micrometer in diameter (typically 1–100 nanometers), the larger microbeads are 0.5–500 micrometer in diameter. Magnetic nanoparticle clusters that are composed of a number of individual magnetic nanoparticles are known as magnetic nanobeads with a diameter of 50–200 nanometers. Magnetic nanoparticle clusters are a basis for their further magnetic assembly into magnetic nanochains. The magnetic nanoparticles have been the focus of much research recently because they possess attractive properties which could see potential use in catalysis including nanomaterial-based catalysts, biomedicine and tissue specific targeting, magnetically tunable colloidal photonic crystals, microfluidics, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic particle imaging, data storage, environmental remediation, nanofluids, optical filters, defect sensor, magnetic cooling and cation sensors. (Full article...)
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A sign on the Hangzhou Metro advertising acceptance of the digital renminbi, the first CBDC adopted by a major economy (China)
A central bank digital currency (CBDC; also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank. It is also a liability of the central bank, unless it is dividend-yielding, then it is an ownership stake in the central bank, and is a new form of legal tender, unlike cash like retail CBDC which is the digitization of sovereign currency, which applies to physical banknotes, coin, and existing wholesale CBDC reserves that are used in the reverse repo and repo market.
The two primary categories of CBDCs are retail and wholesale. Retail CBDCs are designed for households and businesses to make payments for everyday transactions, whereas wholesale CBDCs are designed for financial institutions and operate similarly to central bank reserves. (Full article...) -
A cloaking device is a hypothetical or fictional stealth technology that can cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Fictional cloaking devices have been used as plot devices in various media for many years.
Developments in scientific research show that real-world cloaking devices can obscure objects from at least one wavelength of EM emissions. Scientists already use artificial materials called metamaterials to bend light around an object. However, over the entire spectrum, a cloaked object scatters more than an uncloaked object. (Full article...) -
Stem-cell therapy uses stem cells to treat or prevent a disease or condition. As of 2024[update], the only FDA-approved therapy using stem cells is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This usually takes the form of a bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, but the cells can also be derived from umbilical cord blood. Research is underway to develop various sources for stem cells as well as to apply stem-cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
Stem-cell therapy has become controversial following developments such as the ability of scientists to isolate and culture embryonic stem cells, to create stem cells using somatic cell nuclear transfer, and their use of techniques to create induced pluripotent stem cells. This controversy is often related to abortion politics and human cloning. Additionally, efforts to market treatments based on transplant of stored umbilical cord blood have been controversial. (Full article...) -
Pelareorep (previously known under the trademark Reolysin) is a proprietary isolate of the unmodified human reovirus being developed as a systemically administered immuno-oncological viral agent for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Pelareorep is an oncolytic virus, which means that it preferentially lyses cancer cells. Pelareorep also promotes an inflamed tumor phenotype through innate and adaptive immune responses. Preliminary clinical trials indicate that it may have anti-cancer effects across a variety of cancer types (including breast, colorectal and pancreatic, as well as multiple myeloma) when administered alone and in combination with other cancer therapies.
In April 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug designation to pelareorep for malignant glioma. In May 2017, the FDA granted Fast Track Designation for pelareorep in metastatic breast cancer. (Full article...) -
A microscope (from Ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós) 'small' and σκοπέω (skopéō) 'to look (at); examine, inspect') is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.
There are many types of microscopes, and they may be grouped in different ways. One way is to describe the method an instrument uses to interact with a sample and produce images, either by sending a beam of light or electrons through a sample in its optical path, by detecting photon emissions from a sample, or by scanning across and a short distance from the surface of a sample using a probe. The most common microscope (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses lenses to refract visible light that passed through a thinly sectioned sample to produce an observable image. Other major types of microscopes are the fluorescence microscope, electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and various types of scanning probe microscopes. (Full article...) -
Nanosensors are nanoscale devices that measure physical quantities and convert these to signals that can be detected and analyzed. There are several ways proposed today to make nanosensors; these include top-down lithography, bottom-up assembly, and molecular self-assembly. There are different types of nanosensors in the market and in development for various applications, most notably in defense, environmental, and healthcare industries. These sensors share the same basic workflow: a selective binding of an analyte, signal generation from the interaction of the nanosensor with the bio-element, and processing of the signal into useful metrics. (Full article...)
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An RF anechoic chamber used for EMC testing.
In materials science, radiation-absorbent material (RAM) is a material which has been specially designed and shaped to absorb incident RF radiation (also known as non-ionising radiation), as effectively as possible, from as many incident directions as possible. The more effective the RAM, the lower the resulting level of reflected RF radiation. Many measurements in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and antenna radiation patterns require that spurious signals arising from the test setup, including reflections, are negligible to avoid the risk of causing measurement errors and ambiguities. (Full article...) -
The general definition of a qubit as the quantum state of a two-level quantum system.
In quantum computing, a qubit (/ˈkjuːbɪt/) or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, one of the simplest quantum systems displaying the peculiarity of quantum mechanics. Examples include the spin of the electron in which the two levels can be taken as spin up and spin down; or the polarization of a single photon in which the two spin states (left-handed and the right-handed circular polarization) can also be measured as horizontal and vertical linear polarization. In a classical system, a bit would have to be in one state or the other. However, quantum mechanics allows the qubit to be in a coherent superposition of multiple states simultaneously, a property that is fundamental to quantum mechanics and quantum computing. (Full article...) -
A memristor (/ˈmɛmrɪstər/; a portmanteau of memory resistor) is a non-linear two-terminal electrical component relating electric charge and magnetic flux linkage. It was described and named in 1971 by Leon Chua, completing a theoretical quartet of fundamental electrical components which also comprises the resistor, capacitor and inductor.
Chua and Kang later generalized the concept to memristive systems. Such a system comprises a circuit, of multiple conventional components, which mimics key properties of the ideal memristor component and is also commonly referred to as a memristor. Several such memristor system technologies have been developed, notably ReRAM. (Full article...) -
A biosensor is an analytical device, used for the detection of a chemical substance, that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector.
The sensitive biological element, e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell receptors, enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, etc., is a biologically derived material or biomimetic component that interacts with, binds with, or recognizes the analyte under study. The biologically sensitive elements can also be created by biological engineering.
The transducer or the detector element, which transforms one signal into another one, works in a physicochemical way: optical, piezoelectric, electrochemical,
electrochemiluminescence etc., resulting from the interaction of the analyte with the biological element, to easily measure and quantify.
The biosensor reader device connects with the associated electronics or signal processors that are primarily responsible for the display of the results in a user-friendly way. This sometimes accounts for the most expensive part of the sensor device, however it is possible to generate a user friendly display that includes transducer and sensitive element (holographic sensor). The readers are usually custom-designed and manufactured to suit the different working principles of biosensors. (Full article...) -
Solar Millennium was a German company globally active in the renewable energy sector founded in 1998 in Erlangen, Germany, which is specialized in the designing and implementation of solar thermal power plants. The main activities are site selection, project development, planning, design and construction of parabolic trough power plants.
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) is investigating allegations of insider trading in the company's shares at Solar Millennium. According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, company founder Hannes Kuhn is said to have bought shares before Utz Claassen's engagement caused the share price to jump. (Full article...) -
A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet or mobile wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This can include purchasing items either online or at the point of sale in a brick and mortar store, using either mobile payment (on a smartphone or other mobile device) or (for online buying only) using a laptop or other personal computer. Money can be deposited in the digital wallet prior to any transactions or, in other cases, an individual's bank account can be linked to the digital wallet. Users might also have their driver's license, health card, loyalty card(s) and other ID documents stored within the wallet. The credentials can be passed to a merchant's terminal wirelessly via near field communication (NFC).
Increasingly, digital wallets are being made not just for basic financial transactions but to also authenticate the holder's credentials. For example, a digital wallet could verify the age of the buyer to the store while purchasing alcohol. The system has already gained popularity in Japan, where digital wallets are known as "wallet mobiles". In addition, a few US states have adapted digital driver's license and state IDs to be added to digital wallet in lieu of the physical card and it can be used at selected TSA checkpoints at airports, banking or enterprise. (Full article...) -
Front side of a hard disk with a capacity of 8 TB
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a type of non-volatile storage, retaining stored data when powered off. Modern HDDs are typically in the form of a small rectangular box, possible in a disk enclosure for portability.
Hard disk drives were introduced by IBM in 1956, and were the dominant secondary storage device for general-purpose computers beginning in the early 1960s. HDDs maintained this position into the modern era of servers and personal computers, though personal computing devices produced in large volume, like mobile phones and tablets, rely on flash memory storage devices. More than 224 companies have produced HDDs historically, though after extensive industry consolidation, most units are manufactured by Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. HDDs dominate the volume of storage produced (exabytes per year) for servers. Though production is growing slowly (by exabytes shipped), sales revenues and unit shipments are declining, because solid-state drives (SSDs) have higher data-transfer rates, higher areal storage density, somewhat better reliability, and much lower latency and access times. (Full article...) -
A man using an augmented reality headset to view a life-size virtual model of a building
Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted display. This experience is seamlessly interwoven with the physical world such that it is perceived as an immersive aspect of the real environment. In this way, augmented reality alters one's ongoing perception of a real-world environment, compared to virtual reality, which aims to completely replace the user's real-world environment with a simulated one. Augmented reality is typically visual, but can span multiple sensory modalities, including auditory, haptic, and somatosensory.
The primary value of augmented reality is the manner in which components of a digital world blend into a person's perception of the real world, through the integration of immersive sensations, which are perceived as real in the user's environment. The earliest functional AR systems that provided immersive mixed reality experiences for users were invented in the early 1990s, starting with the Virtual Fixtures system developed at the U.S. Air Force's Armstrong Laboratory in 1992. Commercial augmented reality experiences were first introduced in entertainment and gaming businesses. Subsequently, augmented reality applications have spanned industries such as education, communications, medicine, and entertainment. (Full article...) -
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary sub-field of computer science and computational linguistics focused on developing computer-based methods and technologies to translate spoken language into text. It is also known as automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer speech recognition, or speech-to-text (STT).
Speech recognition applications include voice user interfaces such as voice commands used in dialling, call routing, home automation, and controlling aircraft (usually called direct voice input). There are also productivity applications for speech recognition such as searching audio recordings and creating transcripts. Similarly, speech-to-text processing can allow users to write via dictation for word processors, emails, or data entry. (Full article...) -
Differential technological development is a strategy of technology governance aiming to decrease risks from emerging technologies by influencing the sequence in which they are developed. Using this strategy, societies would strive to delay the development of harmful technologies and their applications while accelerating the development of beneficial technologies, especially those that offer protection against harmful technologies. (Full article...)
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Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of drinking water, fresh water, raw water, or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of domestic, industrial, commercial or agricultural activities, surface runoff / storm water, and any sewer infiltration or sewer inflow". In everyday usage, wastewater is commonly a synonym for sewage (also called domestic wastewater or municipal wastewater), which is wastewater that is produced by a community of people.
As a generic term, wastewater may also describe water containing contaminants accumulated in other settings, such as: (Full article...)
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Selected global issues and related topics
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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. In any case, all contemporary biodiversity loss has been attributed to human activities.
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...) -
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. In any case, all contemporary biodiversity loss has been attributed to human activities.
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...) -
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...) -
Global distribution of dryland areas based on the aridity index computed over a 30-year average during 1981 to 2010. Typical deserts are indicated by the hyper-arid category (light yellow).
Desertification is a type of gradual land degradation of fertile land into arid desert due to a combination of natural processes and human activities.
The immediate cause of desertification is the loss of most vegetation. This is driven by a number of factors, alone or in combination, such as drought, climatic shifts, tillage for agriculture, overgrazing and deforestation for fuel or construction materials. Though vegetation plays a major role in determining the biological composition of the soil, studies have shown that, in many environments, the rate of erosion and runoff decreases exponentially with increased vegetation cover. Unprotected, dry soil surfaces blow away with the wind or are washed away by flash floods, leaving infertile lower soil layers that bake in the sun and become an unproductive hardpan.
At least 90% of the inhabitants of drylands live in developing countries, where they also suffer from poor economic and social conditions. This situation is exacerbated by land degradation because of the reduction in productivity, the precariousness of living conditions and the difficulty of access to resources and opportunities. (Full article...) -
Air pollution is the presence of substances in the air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be gases, like ozone or nitrogen oxides, or small particles like soot and dust. Both outdoor and indoor air can be polluted.
Outdoor air pollution comes from burning fossil fuels for electricity and transport, wildfires, some industrial processes, waste management, demolition and agriculture. Indoor air pollution is often from burning firewood or agricultural waste for cooking and heating. Other sources of air pollution include dust storms and volcanic eruptions. Many sources of local air pollution, especially burning fossil fuels, also release greenhouse gases that cause global warming. However air pollution may limit warming locally.
Air pollution kills 7 or 8 million people each year. It is a significant risk factor for a number of diseases, including stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and lung cancer. Particulate matter is the most deadly, both for indoor and outdoor air pollution. Ozone affects crops, and forests are damaged by the pollution that causes acid rain. Overall, the World Bank has estimated that welfare losses (premature deaths) and productivity losses (lost labour) caused by air pollution cost the world economy over $8 trillion per year. (Full article...) -
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, streaming media 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...) -
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.
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 to 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...) -
Global concentrations of health care resources, as depicted by the number of physicians per 10,000 individuals, by country. Data is sourced from a WHO indicator and is from 2017-2023.
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...) -
Tar sands in Alberta, 2008. Oil is one of the most used resources by humans.
Resource depletion occurs when a natural resource is consumed faster than it can be replenished. The value of a resource depends on its availability in nature and the cost of extracting it. By the law of supply and demand, the scarcer the resource the more valuable it becomes. There are several types of resource depletion, including but not limited to: wetland and ecosystem degradation, soil erosion, aquifer depletion, and overfishing. The depletion of wildlife populations is called defaunation.
It is a matter of research and debate how humanity will be impacted and what the future will look like if resource consumption continues at the current rate, and when specific resources will be completely exhausted. (Full article...) -
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[update]). 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...) -
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...) -
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...) -
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, convention centers (pictured here) were deemed to be ideal sites for temporary hospitals, due to their existing infrastructure (electrical, water, sewage). Hotels and dormitories were also considered appropriate because they can use negative pressure technology.
A pandemic (/pænˈdɛmɪk/ pan-DEM-ik) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial portion of the human population. Widespread endemic diseases with a stable number of infected individuals such as recurrences of seasonal influenza are generally excluded as they occur simultaneously in large regions of the globe rather than being spread worldwide.
Throughout human history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox. The Black Death, caused by the Plague, caused the deaths of up to half of the population of Europe in the 14th century. The term pandemic had not been used then, but was used for later epidemics, including the 1918 H1N1 influenza A pandemic—more commonly known as the Spanish flu—which is the deadliest pandemic in history. The most recent pandemics include the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost all these diseases still circulate among humans though their impact now is often far less.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 194 member states of the World Health Organization began negotiations on an International Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, with a requirement to submit a draft of this treaty to the 77th World Health Assembly during its 2024 convention. Further, on 6 May 2024, the White House released an official policy to more safely manage medical research projects involving potentially hazardous pathogens, including viruses and bacteria, that may pose a risk of a pandemic. (Full article...) -
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...) -
Solid waste after being shredded to a uniform size
Waste are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste product may become a by-product, joint product or resource through an invention that raises a waste product's value above zero.
Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others. (Full article...) -
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...) -
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...) -
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 exclusively 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 Late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions (lasting from 50,000 to 10,000 years ago), in which many large mammals – including 81% of megaherbivores – went extinct, 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...) -
Garbage floating in water, Circular Quay, Sydney, Australia
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...) -
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...) -
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...) -
Global monthly average total ozone amount
Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a lowered total amount of ozone in Earth's upper 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...) -
Overconsumption describes a situation where consumers overuse their available goods and services to where they cannot, or do not 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 had received, 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...) -
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...) -
A plot showing the length of software engineering tasks achievable by leading AI models with a 50% success rate; the data suggests an exponential rise.
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 researchers including Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Demis Hassabis, and Alan Turing, and AI company CEOs such as Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Sam Altman (OpenAI), and Elon Musk (xAI). 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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Did you know...
- ... that most of the population of Niamey has consisted of first- and second-generation rural migrants since the city was established?
- ... that the steps of Pohang Space Walk represent an ascent to an unreachable utopia?
- ... that the Antarctic lichen Buellia frigida has been to outer space?
- ... that nekonomics includes the leveraging of stray cat populations on islands to draw tourists?
- ... that the metaverse has been described as "a honeypot trap for architecture astronauts"?
- ... that Frederick L. Scarf developed the plasma-wave detector for the Voyager program, which recorded the "sounds of space", described as "an eerie symphony of hisses, pops, and whistles"?
- ... that the writer of "Crabs for Christmas" joked that it contributed to Baltimore's population decline?
- ... that King Faisal Street, one of the main thoroughfares in downtown Amman, has been used as a public space for national events and celebrations?
- ... that some of the optics for the James Webb Space Telescope were made at the NETPark science park in northern England?
- ... that to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Duster's Stratosphere, a vinyl copy of the album was launched into space?
- ... that the COSMOS field is the largest contiguous survey of the universe ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope?
- ... that, when five consecutive Ranger spacecraft failed, Harris Schurmeier was put in charge with a mandate to transform the program?
- ... that NASA promoted the "faster, better, cheaper" approach to spacecraft missions in the 1990s?
- ... that Sculpture Space lets artists create large-scale works in a former metalworking shop?
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Selected images that captured my attention
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An 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. -
A 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. -
NGC 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. -
Imagine waking up to this. Which makes me wonder whatever happened to the guy who took this photo. -
Crowds 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". -
The 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. -
The 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). -
Height 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. -
One 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. -
The 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. -
American 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. -
The 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. -
A 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. -
Burj 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. -
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A 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. -
Devastation 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. -
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The 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. -
The 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. -
A 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. -
Atlantic 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. -
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aurora 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. -
The 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. -
The 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. -
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The 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. -
Tracy 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. -
A 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. -
An 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. -
Astronaut 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. -
The "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. -
The 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. -
A Marginated Tortoise hatchling. -
Sandboarding 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. -
Crash 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. -
You are feeling very sleepy... -
The 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. -
Lucky 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. -
United 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. -
View from Notre-Dame de Paris. -
San 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. -
The 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. -
Glaucus 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.
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Trump news tracker
- 21 August 2025 – War on drugs, United States–Venezuela relations
- U.S. president Donald Trump deploys three guided-missile destroyers off the coast of Venezuela after the U.S. government authorized military operations against Latin American drug cartels, prompting an escalation of tensions between the United States and Venezuela. (CBS News)
- 18 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several other European leaders meet with U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C. to discuss pathways to peace negotiations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- 15 August 2025 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian president Vladimir Putin travels to Alaska to meet with United States president Donald Trump to discuss pathways to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the summit. (CNN)
- 11 August 2025 –
- U.S. president Donald Trump places the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia under federal government-control and orders 800 National Guard troops to enter Washington, D.C., allegedly to fight rising crime rates. (Reuters)
- 10 August 2025 – Russia–United States relations, Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- U.S. president Donald Trump announces that he will be meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, United States, for talks on August 15 to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. (The Atlantic) (BBC News)
- 8 August 2025 – War on drugs
- U.S. president Donald Trump signs an executive order commanding the U.S. military and other sectors of the federal government to take action against Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organisations, such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13. (Al Jazeera) (The New York Times)
- 8 August 2025 – Armenia–Azerbaijan relations
- The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan plan to sign a joint declaration at the White House in Washington, D.C., United States, committing to a peace deal facilitated by the Trump administration that would end nearly four decades of conflict between the two countries. (CNN)
- 6 August 2025 – India–United States relations, Tariffs in the second Trump administration
- U.S. president Donald Trump issues an executive order raising the total tariff on Indian imports to the United States to 50%, with an additional 25% that will take effect 21 days after August 7 due to its purchases of Russian oil. (BBC News)
- 1 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- U.S. president Donald Trump orders the deployment of two United States Navy nuclear submarines near Russia for potential military action against Russian forces in response to statements made by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation regarding Trump's previously-stated deadline for ending the war in Ukraine. (Reuters) (BBC News)
- 31 July 2025 –
- U.S. president Donald Trump signs an executive order restoring the Presidential Fitness Test in all public schools nationwide. (AP) (USA Today)
- 31 July 2025 – Tariffs in the second Trump administration, Liberation Day tariffs
- U.S. president Donald Trump announces revised tariff rates set to start on August 1, including a new 35% tariff on Canada. (Reuters)
- 28 July 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- U.S. president Donald Trump issues a new 12-day ultimatum to Russia to end the war in Ukraine. (BBC News)
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- 22 August 2025 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Gaza war
- Gaza Strip famine
- The UN has, via the UN-backed IPC, for the first time officially declared a famine in Gaza, especially in the Gaza City area. The OHCHR states the famine is the "direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government“ and "may also amount to the war crime of willful killing.“ Israel rejects any accusation of a famine in Gaza. [(ohchr)
- 21 August 2025 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Gaza war
- Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip
- At least 70 Palestinians are killed by Israeli airstrikes, including eight people in a house in Sabra suburb in Gaza City. (Reuters)
- An Israeli military database indicates that 83% of deaths in Gaza have been civilians. The Israeli military initially confirmed the database to the media but later disputed it without clarifying their retraction in response to questions from The Guardian. (The Guardian)
- Palestinian political violence
- A Palestinian gunman shoots an Israeli settler who was engaging in sheperding activities in the illegally Israeli-occupied West Bank. (The Jerusalem Post)
- 21 August 2025 – Colombian conflict
- August 2025 Colombia attacks
- At least six people are killed and more than 60 others are injured in a terrorist car bombing targeting the Marco Fidel Suárez Air Base on a busy street in Cali, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia. (BBC News) (BNO News)
- At least twelve Colombian police officers are killed and three others are injured when FARC dissidents shoot down a helicopter during an anti-narcotics operation in Amalfi, Antioquia Department, Colombia. (Euronews) (BNO News)
- 21 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks on civilians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- The Russian Armed Forces conduct a combined attack overnight, launching at least 570 drones and 40 hypersonic, ballistic, and cruise missiles across Ukraine, with two cruise missiles striking an American electronics factory in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast, injuring over a dozen people. (NPR) (DW)
- 21 August 2025 – War on drugs, United States–Venezuela relations
- U.S. president Donald Trump deploys three guided-missile destroyers off the coast of Venezuela after the U.S. government authorized military operations against Latin American drug cartels, prompting an escalation of tensions between the United States and Venezuela. (CBS News)
- 21 August 2025 – 2025 Pakistan floods
- At least 21 people are killed in flooding caused by heavy monsoons in Pakistan, including eleven in Gilgit-Baltistan and ten in Karachi, as the death toll for the flooding season increases to over 400. (Al Jazeera)
- 21 August 2025 –
- At least 47 people and 300 cattle are killed, 70 others are injured and over 56,000 are displaced during flooding in Niger. (Africanews)
- At least 15 people are killed and ten others are injured in a landslide in Manéah near Conakry, Guinea. (Barron's)
- Six people are killed in an accident in a confined space at a dairy farm in Weld County, Colorado, United States. (ABC News)
- At least five people are killed and 34 others are injured, including one critically, in an explosion at a fireworks storage facility in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. (Geo News) (Dawn)
- 21 August 2025 – Nord Stream pipelines sabotage
- Italian police arrest a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the months that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (CNN) (DW)
- 21 August 2025 –
- Polish president Karol Nawrocki vetoes a bill to combine an extension of household energy price freezes with relaxed regulations on building onshore wind farms, arguing that linking the two measures in one law was unacceptable. (Reuters)
- 20 August 2025 – Syrian civil war
- US intervention in the Syrian civil war
- American special forces carry out a raid in Northern Syria and kills an ISIS leader with the reported assistance of Syrian government forces. The slain ISIS leader was purportedly in succession to succeed as the caliph of ISIS's Syrian branch. (Fox News)
- 20 August 2025 – Gaza war
- Israeli invasion of Gaza
- Israeli defense minister Israel Katz approves a planned ground invasion to seize control of Gaza City. (The Jerusalem Post)
- 20 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Eastern front of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- A Russian MLRS rocket strike on a market in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, kills three people and injures four others, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. (Reuters)
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Shortly after midnight, a Russian military drone explodes when crashing in Osiny, Puławy County, Poland. (Euronews) (TVN24 in Polish)
- 20 August 2025 – Mexican drug war
- The Guatemalan Immigration Institute grants temporary humanitarian status to 161 Mexican nationals, including 92 adults and 69 children from Chiapas, allowing them to remain legally in Guatemala after fleeing cartel-related violence in the border municipality of Frontera Comalapa. (Anadolu Agency)
- 20 August 2025 –
- At least two people are killed and two others are injured in a rockfall on the Égratz Viaduct in Chamonix, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. (Le Dauphiné libéré in French)
- One person is killed and 19 others are injured, including three seriously, after a migrant shipwreck is found drifting off the southern coast of Mallorca, Spain. (Euronews)
- 20 August 2025 – China–India relations
- India and China agree to resume direct flights suspended since 2020, reopen designated border trade points and boost investment in their economies following talks in New Delhi between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and Indian officials, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi. (Reuters)
- 20 August 2025 – International sanctions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan–United Kingdom relations
- The United Kingdom imposes sanctions on eight individuals and entities accused of helping Russia evade Western sanctions through financial and cryptocurrency networks, including Kyrgyz firms linked to the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5. Kyrgyz president Sadyr Japarov has appealed to the UK regarding the sanctions. (Reuters)
- 20 August 2025 – United States and the International Criminal Court
- The United States Department of State imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court judges Nicolas Guillou and Kimberly Prost and deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem and Mame Mandiaye Niang over their involvement in cases concerning Israel and the United States. (Reuters)
- 20 August 2025 – 2025 New Zealand espionage case
- A New Zealand court-martial sentences a soldier to two years in military prison and orders his discharge after he pleads guilty to attempted espionage, possession of banned material, and unauthorized access to a military computer system, marking the country's first conviction for spying. (AP)
- 20 August 2025 –
- A man is detained on suspicion of murder after four bodies were found in the Seine river in Choisy-le-Roi, Île-de-France, France. (BBC News)
- Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada announces the arrest of 13 people, including three alleged gunmen, in connection with the May shooting that killed her personal secretary and an adviser. (Al Jazeera)
- Chinese leader Xi Jinping visits Lhasa, Tibet, for the second time during his general secretaryship to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibet Autonomous Region. (AP) (Reuters)
- 19 August 2025 – Gaza war
- Gaza war hostage crisis
- Israeli forces kill Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, a member of the Hamas military wing who was responsible for abducting the Bibas family in Nir Oz during the October 7 attacks. (The New York Times) (The Jerusalem Post)
- Hamas positively receives an Egyptian–Qatari-mediated 60-day ceasefire proposal, which is rejected by Israeli defense minister Israel Katz. (The New York Times)
- Israeli strikes kill at least 25 in Gaza, including in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. (The Times of Israel)
- 19 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure
- Russian forces launch 270 drones and ten missiles at critical infrastructure in Poltava and Chernihiv Oblasts, Ukraine. (Kyiv Post)
- 19 August 2025 – Nigerian bandit conflict
- At least 27 people are killed and several others are injured in a mass shooting by bandits at a mosque in Unguwan Mantau community, Katsina State, Nigeria. (Reuters)
- 19 August 2025 – Mexican drug war
- Six severed heads are discovered on a road that links the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala in Mexico. The La Barredora cartel is suspected to be behind the attack. (BBC News)
- 19 August 2025 – Sudanese civil war, Gaza war
- The United Nations reports that a record 383 aid workers were killed in the 2024 calendar year, up by 31% from 2023, including 181 who were killed in Gaza and 60 in Sudan. There have already been 265 aid workers killed so far this year. (DW)
- 19 August 2025 – 2025 Air Canada flight attendants strike
- Air Canada announces it will gradually restart operations tonight after it reached a tentative agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents the airline's over 10,000 flight attendants. (NPR)
- 19 August 2025 – 2025 Afghan deportation from Iran
- 2025 Herat road crash
- At least 79 people are killed, including 19 children, and three others are injured when an overcrowded passenger bus carrying migrants deported from Iran veers off a road and collides with a motorcycle and a truck before catching fire in Guzara District, Herat Province, Afghanistan. (BBC News) (The Washington Post)
- 19 August 2025 –
- Four people are killed and nearly a dozen others are injured in a fire at a warehouse in Los Guayos Municipality, Carabobo, Venezuela. (Cedar News)
- The Colombian Supreme Court of Justice overturns a lower court order placing former president Álvaro Uribe under house arrest while he appeals convictions for bribery and abuse of process, ruling that the measure will not apply until the appeal is resolved. (Reuters)
- The Peruvian Constitutional Court orders the suspension of all investigations into President Dina Boluarte, including probes into protest-related deaths, alleged illicit enrichment, and temporary absence from office, until her term ends in July 2026. (Reuters)
- 19 August 2025 – Constitutional crisis in Somalia
- Former Somali presidents Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed denounce the administration of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud for its management of public land in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, accusing it of violating constitutional safeguards and forcibly displacing impoverished families. (Hiiraan Online)
- 19 August 2025 –
- Eemeli Peltonen, a 30-year-old Finnish member of parliament, dies by suicide inside the Parliament House in Helsinki. (Yle)
- 18 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Attacks in Russia during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia is suspended after a Ukrainian drone attack on the Druzhba pipeline in Bryansk Oblast, Russia. Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó confirms the suspension. (Reuters)
- Kharkiv strikes, Zaporizhzhia strikes
- Russian missile strikes kill at least seven people in Kharkiv and three in Zaporizhzhia. (Reuters)
- 18 August 2025 – 2025 European and Mediterranean wildfires
- Spain deploys 500 army troops to help fight raging wildfires in the country as the death toll rises to four following the death of a firefighter in Castile and León. (BBC News)
- 18 August 2025 –
- The death toll from a fire and explosion at a gunpowder plant last week in Shilovsky District, Ryazan Oblast, Russia, rises to 24 with at least another 157 people injured. The government declares a day of mourning. (CBS News)
- 18 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- August 2025 European-White House crisis meeting
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and several other European leaders meet with U.S. president Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C. to discuss pathways to peace negotiations for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
- 18 August 2025 – Crime in Norway, Monarchy of Norway
- Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, is charged with 32 offences including rape and domestic violence. If found guilty, he may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. (France 24)
- 18 August 2025 – Mass shootings in the United States
- Two people are killed, including the gunman, and three others are injured in a mass shooting in Mount Carbon, West Virginia, United States. (AP)
- 18 August 2025 –
- Australian Federal Court judge Michael Lee fines national airline Qantas AU$90 million (US$59 million) for unlawfully outsourcing 1,820 ground staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the AU$120 million (US$78 million) compensation the airline has already agreed to pay its former employees. (AP)
- 18 August 2025 – By-elections to the 45th Canadian Parliament
- 2025 Battle River—Crowfoot federal by-election
- Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre is elected in a by-election in Battle River—Crowfoot, and returns to the House of Commons and his role as opposition leader after previously losing re-election during the 2025 Canadian federal election in Carleton. The seat was vacated by Conservative MP Damien Kurek to specifically give Poilievre an opportunity to return to Parliament. (The Globe and Mail)
- 17 August 2025 –
- Officials announce that the Gathering of Nations event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, will host its final pow-wow in 2026. (AP)
- 17 August 2025 – 2025 Air Canada flight attendants strike
- Air Canada suspends its plan to resume flights after cabin crew continued a strike despite a Canada Industrial Relations Board order and government-imposed arbitration, leaving operations halted and affecting more than 700 flights and about 130,000 daily passengers. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- 17 August 2025 – 2025 Sulawesi earthquake
- One person is killed and 29 people are injured when a Mw 5.8 undersea earthquake strikes near Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP) (Jawa Pos)
- 17 August 2025 –
- More than 40 people are reported missing and ten others are rescued when a boat carrying 50 people to a popular market capsizes on the Sokoto River near Goronyo, Sokoto State, Nigeria. (Reuters) (AP)
- At least seven people are killed and five others are injured when a cloudburst causes flash flooding and landslides in Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir, India. (Hindustan Times) (Daily Excelsior)
- 17 August 2025 – 2025 Crown Heights nightclub shooting
- Three people are killed and nine others are injured in a mass shooting at a nightclub in the Crown Heights neighborhood of New York City, United States. (Minnesota Star Tribune)
- 17 August 2025 – Ecuadorian conflict
- At least seven people are killed in a mass shooting at a billiard hall in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. (France 24)
- 17 August 2025 – Gaza war
- Gaza war hostage crisis
- Israeli hostage deal protests
- A general strike and mass protests calling for a hostage deal and ceasefire to end the Gaza war occur across Israel, involving approximately 2.5 million protesters across the country and 300,000 at the protest held in Hostages Square, Tel Aviv. At least 32 protesters are arrested. (Haaretz) (CBS News)
- 17 August 2025 – 2025 Bolivian general election
- Bolivians vote to elect a president, vice president, 130 members of the Chamber of Deputies, and 36 members of the Chamber of Senators. Preliminary results indicate a run-off between Senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira and former president Jorge Quiroga, ending the Movimiento al Socialismo's 20-year political dominance. (Reuters) (AP)
- 17 August 2025 – Horse racing in Great Britain
- The British Horseracing Authority announces a one-day strike on September 10 to protest a proposed increase in betting taxes from 15% to 21%. This is the first time the sport has ever voluntarily refused to race in modern history. (AP) (BBC Sport)
- 16 August 2025 – Kivu conflict
- Allied Democratic Forces insurgency
- At least 30 people are killed by suspected Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Forces rebels in Bapere, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (AP)
- 16 August 2025 – 2025 Air Canada flight attendants strike
- Canadian jobs minister Patty Hajdu orders binding arbitration between Air Canada and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. (BBC News)
- 16 August 2025 – 2025 Atlantic hurricane season
- Hurricane Erin intensifies to Category 5 strength while affecting several Caribbean islands. (NBC News)
- 16 August 2025 – 2025 Pakistan floods
- The death toll from yesterday's floods in Pakistan increases to at least 321. (Al Jazeera)
- 16 August 2025 – 2025 Air Kasaï Antonov An-2 crash
- Seven people are killed when an Air Kasaï Antonov An-2 aircraft crashes while being ferried near Kisangani, Democratic Republic of the Congo. (ASN) (Aviation24)
- 16 August 2025 –
- At least one person is killed and four others are injured, including two seriously, when a Mil Mi-8 military helicopter makes a hard landing during a rescue operation on Jengish Chokusu in Kyrgyzstan. (ASN)
- At least ten people are killed while two others are reported missing following a flash flood that hits a campsite in Urad Rear Banner, Inner Mongolia, China. (Reuters)
- Three people are killed, including the perpetrator, and another is injured in a mass shooting near a bar in Forio, Campania, Italy. (Leggo)
- 15 August 2025 – Islamic State insurgency in Puntland
- Puntland counter-terrorism operations
- Puntland Defense Forces take full control of the strategic Wangable Well in the northern Qandala district, Bari region, Puntland from ISIS, which had served as a base for the group’s senior leaders, militants, and their families. (Garowe Online) (Hiiraan Online)
- 15 August 2025 – 2025 Pakistan floods
- Five people are killed when a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashes in bad weather while carrying relief goods to rain-affected areas of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. (The Times of India)
- At least 189 people are killed, dozens are injured, dozens are reported missing, and structures are damaged and destroyed in flooding across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (Dawn) (Euronews)
- 15 August 2025 – 2025 Atlantic hurricane season
- The first hurricane of the 2025 season, Hurricane Erin, forms near the Leeward Islands. (CBS News)
- 15 August 2025 –
- Eighteen people are killed and nine others are injured when a bus plunges into a valley in Algiers, Algeria. (Bahrain News Agency)
- Eleven people are killed and 130 others are injured in an explosion and fire at a gunpowder plant in Shilovsky District, Ryazan Oblast, Russia. (CTV News) (The Kyiv Independent)
- A bus collides with a stationary truck in Bardhaman, West Bengal, India, killing ten people and injuring 35 others. (Hindustan Times)
- One person is killed and 27 others are injured, including two airlifted, when a train collides with a slurry tanker on a level crossing and derails between Tinglev and Sønderborg in the Region of Southern Denmark. (BBC News)
- The leaders of Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico announce the establishment of a tri-national nature reserve to preserve the Maya Forest. It will be the second-largest nature reserve in Latin America behind the Amazon rainforest. (AP)
- 15 August 2025 – Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2025 Russia–United States Summit
- Russian president Vladimir Putin travels to Alaska to meet with United States president Donald Trump to discuss pathways to bring an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not invited to the summit. (CNN)
- 15 August 2025 – Guinea-Bissau–Portugal relations
- Guinea-Bissau expels representatives of Portuguese news agency Lusa and public broadcaster RTP from the country. Portugal summons the Guinea-Bissauan ambassador over the move. (TRT World)
- 15 August 2025 – Crime in Sweden
- One person is killed and another is injured in a shooting outside a mosque in Örebro, Närke, Sweden. The suspect fled the scene and is at large. (Euronews)
- 15 August 2025 – Gwangbokjeol, 2025 South Korean presidential election
- South Korean president Lee Jae Myung holds a "de facto" inauguration ceremony, known as the "People's Mandate Ceremony", coinciding with the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, where he receives letters of appointment from 80 selected individuals. Lee took office on June 4 after winning the 21st presidential election without an official inauguration ceremony. (Anadolu Ajansı)
- 14 August 2025 – Myanmar civil war
- At least 21 people are killed and seven others are injured in a Tatmadaw airstrike on Mogok, Mandalay Region, Myanmar, controlled by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, with homes and religious buildings also damaged. (AP)
- 14 August 2025 – Somali Civil War
- At least three people are killed amid fierce clashes between security forces and local militants in Somalia's capital city Mogadishu due to tensions over residential building evictions and demolitions. (Garowe Online)
- 14 August 2025 – 2025 Kishtwar district flash flood
- At least 65 people are killed, while more than 167 others are injured, including 38 critically, and over 220 are reported missing following a massive cloudburst in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, India. (India TV) (Hindustan Times)
- 14 August 2025 –
- Three people are killed, including a child, and 109 others are injured, including three critically, by celebratory gunfire during Independence Day in Pakistan. Police arrest 86 suspects for their involvement and seize 68 illegal weapons. (The Express Tribune) (Dawn)
- 14 August 2025 – 2024–2025 Sudanese cholera epidemic
- According to the Sudanese government, at least 40 people have died of cholera in the Darfur region over the last week in the country's worst outbreak in years. (MSN)
- 14 August 2025 – North Korea–South Korea relations
- Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un, states in a KCNA article that the rumour that North Korea had removed the loudspeakers in the Korean Demilitarized Zone is false. (Al Jazeera) (The Independent)
- 14 August 2025 –
- Mali announces the arrest of two generals, other military officers, civilians, and a French national accused of plotting to destabilize the state, with authorities stating the alleged conspiracy began on August 1 and that investigations are ongoing. (AP)
- Pampanga State University officials suspend graduation ceremonies following a reported bomb threat in Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines. (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
- Former Peruvian president Martín Vizcarra is arrested after a judge investigating him for corruption orders five months of preventive detention. (Infobae)
- 13 August 2025 – Gaza war
- Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip
- Israeli forces launch a massive aerial bombardment on Gaza City, killing 123 people across the Gaza Strip, amid reports that the Israeli Army is about to enter the city. (BBC News) (RTÉ News)
- 13 August 2025 – Colombian conflict
- Three soldiers are killed and four others are injured in a drone attack by FARC dissidents on members of the Colombian Navy and Armed Forces who were manning a checkpoint on the Naya River in south-west Colombia. (BBC News)
- 13 August 2025 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Two children and a woman are killed by a mortar in Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, amidst fighting between the Pakistani military and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters. (AP)
- 13 August 2025 –
- Fashion retailer Claire's collapses into administration in the United Kingdom and Ireland, putting more than 2,150 jobs at risk, amid declining sales and strong competition from online shopping services. (BBC News)
- Canadian clothing company Gildan finalizes the details for its acquisition of American company Hanesbrands for US$2.2 billion. (AP)
- 13 August 2025 – 2025 Pacific typhoon season
- Typhoon Podul makes landfall in southern Taiwan, killing one person, injuring 112 people, leaving one missing, causing hundreds of flight cancellations, thousands of evacuations, school closures and blackouts. (Al Jazeera) (Focus Taiwan) (United Daily News)
- 13 August 2025 –
- Twenty-six people are killed and several others are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsizes off the coast of Lampedusa, Sicily, Italy. (Ansa) (AP)
- Thirteen people are killed and 50 others become ill, including 21 cases of blindness or impaired vision and some critically, from methanol poisoning in Kuwait. (Reuters)
- One person is killed and five others are injured when a hot air balloon carrying 34 people crashes near De Hoeve, Friesland, Netherlands. (NOS)
- 13 August 2025 – Humanitarian impact of the Sudanese civil war
- 2024–2025 Sudanese cholera epidemic
- Sudanese health authorities launch a ten-day cholera vaccination campaign in Khartoum targeting over 150,000 people to curb an outbreak that has caused more than 83,000 cases and 2,100 deaths nationwide since July 2024. (AP)
- 13 August 2025 – Australia–Vanuatu relations
- Australia and Vanuatu agree to implement a A$500 million (US$327 million) deal over the next decade to provide funding for economic development, security cooperation, labour mobility, and climate resilience. (Reuters)
- 13 August 2025 – Euthanasia in Uruguay
- The Uruguayan Chamber of Representatives votes 64–35 to decriminalize euthanasia. The bill moves to the Senate for approval. (Reuters)
- 13 August 2025 – Internal conflict in Peru
- Peruvian president Dina Boluarte signs into law a congressional bill granting amnesty to all military, police, and other self-defense personnel accused of human rights violations committed between 1980 and 2000. (The Guardian)
- 13 August 2025 –
- The Malaysian Federal Court rules that an addendum order allegedly allowing former prime minister Najib Razak to serve the remainder of his 1MDB-related prison sentence under house arrest exists, but refers the matter to the High Court to determine its validity. (Reuters)
- 12 August 2025 – Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- The Pakistani Armed Forces launches an operation in Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, to find insurgent hideouts. Over 100,000 civilians have been internally displaced. (AP)
- 12 August 2025 – China–United States trade war
- China and the United States extend their trade truce another 90 days to ease world tension after the international tariffs that went into effect after being signed on April 2. (AP) (The New York Times) (CNN)
- 12 August 2025 – Chinese property sector crisis
- The Evergrande Group announces it will be delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on August 22 after trading remained suspended for over 18 months following a court-ordered liquidation in January 2024, with the company owing more than US$300 billion and unable to present a viable debt restructuring plan. (Euronews)
- 12 August 2025 – 2025 European and Mediterranean wildfires
- A wildfire destroys centuries old chestnut trees and tourist buildings at the Las Médulas gold-mining site in Castilla y León, Spain. (El País)
- 12 August 2025 –
- Nine people are killed and seven others are injured in an explosion at a factory in Quatro Barras, Paraná state, Brazil. (BBC News)
- A van crashes into a metal fence after losing control on the Central Luzon Link Expressway near Tarlac City, Philippines, killing five and injuring nine others. (GMA)
- Four people, including a child, are killed after flash flooding displaces over 100 people and floods homes and businesses in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. US Interstate 24 is shut down and dozens of rescues are made to people stranded by flood waters along the I24/HWY153 corridor and around Hamilton Place Mall. (WTVC-TV)
- 12 August 2025 – Israeli settler violence
- Israeli settlers beat a Palestinian-American man to death in the West Bank. (NPR)
- 12 August 2025 –
- A Guatemalan court sentences six former police officers and child protection officials to prison terms of six to 25 years for homicide, mistreatment of minors, abuse of authority, and breach of duty in connection with a 2017 fire at an orphanage in San José Pinula that killed 41 girls and injured 15 others. (Reuters)
- Indian police arrest dozens of animal rights activists protesting at the India Gate in New Delhi against the Supreme Court's decision to remove over 5,000 stray dogs from the streets as New Delhi sees nearly 2,000 dog bites per day. (DW)
- The Seoul Central District Court issues an arrest warrant for former South Korean first lady and Yoon Suk Yeol's spouse Kim Keon Hee on three charges related to stock manipulation, allegations of accepting luxury gifts, and illegal political funding during the 2022 by-election. It is the first time in the country's history that a former presidential couple has been taken into custody. (The Guardian)
- In an effort to save the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya, an activist files a lawsuit against the Ritz-Carlton, which plans to open a 20-suite safari camp there. (Reuters)
- Red Bull GmbH finalizes the complete acquisition of the Newcastle Falcons rugby union club as its newest venture into another sport, following involvement in football, ice hockey, Formula One, and esports. (AP)
- 11 August 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Dobropillia offensive
- Russian forces launch a full-scale ground assault in the direction of Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast, with heavy clashes reported along multiple points on the front line. (UNN)
- 11 August 2025 – Sudanese civil war
- Darfur campaign
- At least 40 people are killed and 19 others are injured in attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on a famine-stricken displacement camp in Al-Fashir, North Darfur, Sudan. (CTV News)
- 11 August 2025 – Territorial disputes in the South China Sea
- A China Coast Guard vessel is damaged after colliding with a Chinese Navy ship while trying to expel a Philippine Coast Guard vessel from Scarborough Shoal. (Philippine News Agency)
- 11 August 2025 – 2025 Atlantic hurricane season
- Tropical Storm Erin forms in the Atlantic Ocean, killing seven people and leaving others missing in São Vicente, Cape Verde. (The Weather Channel) (CNN) (DTudo1Pouco)
- 11 August 2025 – 2025 Clairton Coke Works explosion
- Two people are killed and another ten people are injured in an explosion at the Clairton Coke Works U.S. Steel plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, United States. (AP) (WPXI-TV)
- 11 August 2025 –
- A botulism outbreak in southern Italy kills three people and hospitalizes at least 17 others following the consumption of contaminated meat and vegetables in Diamante, Calabria, and Cagliari, Sardinia, a week prior. (The Independent) (Berliner Morgenpost)
- 11 August 2025 – Australia–Palestine relations, International recognition of Palestine
- Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese announces that Australia will recognise Palestine as an independent country in September. (The Guardian)
- 11 August 2025 – Israel–Norway relations, Disinvestment from Israel
- The Norwegian Pension Fund divests from 11 Israeli companies and terminates its contracts with asset managers in Israel, following reports last week that it invested in an Israeli jet engine company that sold parts to the IDF. (Reuters)
- 11 August 2025 – Assassination of Miguel Uribe Turbay
- Colombian senator and presidential pre-candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay dies after he was shot in June. (Barron's)
- 11 August 2025 –
- Three people are killed in a shooting at a Target Corporation building in Austin, Texas, United States. (KVUE-TV)
- U.S. president Donald Trump places the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia under federal government-control and orders 800 National Guard troops to enter Washington, D.C., allegedly to fight rising crime rates. (Reuters)
- The United States Department of State formally designates the Balochistan Liberation Army as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in response to the killings of civilians in Balochistan, Pakistan. (Reuters)
- 10 August 2025 – Gaza war
- Killing of journalists in the Gaza war, Assassination of Anas Al-Sharif
- Seven people are killed, including five Al Jazeera journalists and prominent Palestinian journalist Anas Al-Sharif, in an Israeli strike near the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. (BBC News) (Al Jazeera)
- 10 August 2025 – 2025 Balıkesir earthquake
- A Mw6.1 earthquake strikes western Turkey, killing one person, injuring 35 others, trapping several and causing at least 16 buildings and two mosque minarets to collapse in Balıkesir Province and Manisa. (CNN Türkiye) (TRT Haber)
- 10 August 2025 –
- Six people are killed, including four children, in a two-alarm fire at a house in Waldorf, Maryland, United States. (WJZ-TV)
- Four people are killed and 16 others are injured due to a vehicle collision on the BR-452 highway in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil. (G1 Globo)
- More than 600 pilgrims in Baghdad, Iraq, are hospitalised with respiratory problems after inhaling chlorine as the result of a leak at a water treatment station. (MSN)
- 10 August 2025 – Russia–United States relations, Peace negotiations in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
- 2025 Russia–United States Summit
- U.S. president Donald Trump announces that he will be meeting Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, United States, for talks on August 15 to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. (The Atlantic) (BBC News)
- 10 August 2025 – Gaza war protests in the United Kingdom
- More than 500 people are detained by the Metropolitan Police in London, United Kingdom, under the Terrorism Act 2000 for attending a protest in support of the now proscribed organisation Palestine Action. (Sky News)
- 10 August 2025 –
- Eight people are killed and three others are injured in a mass shooting at a nightclub in Santa Lucía Canton, Guayas Province, Ecuador. (AP)
- 9 August 2025 –
- At least six Lebanese soldiers are killed in an explosion while removing munitions from a Hezbollah facility near the Israeli border. (Al Arabiya)
- 9 August 2025 – Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the twin bells of Urakami Cathedral, that were destroyed, are restored in Nagasaki. The anniversary is attended by about 2,600 people, including foreign dignitaries and survivors of the bombings. (AP) (CBC) (Sky News)
- 9 August 2025 – Foreign relations of Singapore
- Multiple national leaders attend celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Singaporean independence, including Bruneian sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto. (Al Jazeera) (The Jakarta Post) (The Star)
- 9 August 2025 – Haitian crisis
- The Haitian government announces a three-month state of emergency in the central and western regions of Haiti aiming to curb hunger and gang violence in the regions. (Al Jazeera) (AP)
- 9 August 2025 – Gaza war protests in the United Kingdom
- Metropolitan Police carry out the largest mass detainments in London's history, detaining at least 466 people for peacefully protesting the UK's ban on the pro-Palestine activist network Palestine Action. Protesters gathered in Parliament Square to denounce the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the criminalisation of support for Palestine Action, with many holding signs reading "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" before being forcibly removed by police. (Al Jazeera)
- 9 August 2025 –
- Two people are killed and five others are injured in a drive-by mass shooting in a busy area in Nassau, The Bahamas. (The Nassau Guardian)
- Former Chadian prime minister and leader of the Les Transformateurs party Succès Masra is sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined F.CFA 1 billion (US$1,775,200) after being convicted of disseminating racist and xenophobic messages that incited violence, a verdict his legal team plans to appeal. (Reuters)
Me (incomplete), described in userboxes...
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.png){kind=small}
History and contributions...
Awards and praise I've received over the years...
Tip of the day April 21, 2006: Thanks for helping a newbie!
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!
Barnstar
Barnstar
Award
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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! Kyo catmeow! 01:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC) |
!!!
<O.o --The Prophet Wizard of the Crayon Cake 01:45, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
- You're welcome. The Transhumanist 01:55, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Barnstar
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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 Kamope · 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)
How can I sum the above up....? Oh yes:
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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
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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...
This, the Golden Wiki Award, the highest attainment level of awards and barnstars, goes to you - The Transhumanist - for being one of the most helpful, kind, resourceful and generous Wikipedians I've had to utmost fortune to meet. Your contributions around the Wiki - at the WikiClassroom, in Dispute Resolution, at the Welcoming Committee, but most of all being a genuinely fun guy, are an amazing feat, and if half the trolls I'll undoubtedly meet after gaining my mop (thanks to you) took a leaf from your book, Wikipedia would be a nicer place.
My kindest possible regards,
Anthony 21:38, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
Barnstar
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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
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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
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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 |
:D
Hi there Trans Face!
X××x××pink×jellocreature××x××X (talk) 01:36, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
You won an award!
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X××x××pink×jellocreature××x××X (talk) awards you the unofficial funniness award!
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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:
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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
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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)
:)
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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)
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)
Nice work -- I will withdraw the AfD nom. – ukexpat (talk) 00:55, 15 March 2008 (UTC)
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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
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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
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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. LAAFan 01:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC) |
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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. Emir34 01:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC) |
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...
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The da Vinci Barnstar | |
| For helping me so many times. and for my wonderful userpage. Cheers, Zacharycrimsonwolf 04:08, 30 September 2008 (UTC) |
Guidance Star
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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!
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The Transhumanist has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, |
→ Dylan620 (Toolbox Alpha, Beta) 00:26, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
Happy The Transhumanist's Day!
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The Transhumanist has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, Cheers, 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!
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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)
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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
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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 :
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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. OffiikartTalk 13:54, 29 June 2011 (UTC) |
ps. I did put the page alert on my watchlist 
A barnstar for you!
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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
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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!
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!
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
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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
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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) |
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The Graphic Designer's Barnstar |
| Thanks for making Portal:Capsicum. Catfurball (talk) 19:38, 5 February 2019 (UTC) |
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The Graphic Designer's Barnstar |
| Thanks for making Portal:Peaches. Catfurball (talk) 21:11, 5 February 2019 (UTC) |
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The Graphic Designer's Barnstar |
| Thanks for creating Portal:Woodpeckers for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:15, 14 February 2019 (UTC) |
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The Graphic Designer's Barnstar |
| Thanks for creating Portal:Tyrant flycatchers for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:16, 14 February 2019 (UTC) |
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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) |
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The Graphic Designer's Barnstar |
| Thanks for creating Portal:Cotingas for me. Catfurball (talk) 19:07, 22 February 2019 (UTC) |
A barnstar for you!
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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
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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!
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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!
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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) |
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
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