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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Great_Barrier_Reef_expedition-0.md

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+---
+title: "1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Great_Barrier_Reef_expedition"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:35.045965+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+1928 Great Barrier Reef expedition, also known as the Yonge Expedition or the Low Isles Expedition was a thirteen-month scientific program beginning in 1928, which was promoted to study the Australian Great Barrier Reef.
+
+
+== Origins ==
+The Great Barrier Reef Expedition was a scientific study suggested by Sir Matthew Nathan and Professor Henry Richards who led the Australian Great Barrier Reef Committee from its establishment in 1922. With support from the British Barrier Reef Committee and the Association for the Advancement of Science in England, there was considerable interest in conducting zoological studies of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, to investigate theories put forward by Charles Darwin and others. It was also planned to determine the economic importance of the reef's marine life. This largely British expedition of scientists sought financial support from the Australian government, universities and the public to fund the expedition and study biological and geological life in a number of sections of the Reef.
+
+
+== Personnel ==
+C. Maurice Yonge, a marine invertebrate researcher, was encouraged to join a proposed expedition to Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 1927. He was eventually appointed its leader. Twelve scientists including Yonge, his wife Dr Mattie Yonge who would act as medical officer, as well as Frederick Russell, a naturalist with the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and his wife Gweneth, Dr Andrew Orr and Dr Sheina Marshall, naturalists at Millport Marine Laboratory, Dr Thomas Stephenson, lecturer in zoology at University of London and his wife Anne, Geoffrey Tandy a botanist with the Natural History Museum who would collect marine plants and animals joined the expedition. 
+Others included James Steers, lecturer in geomorphology who acted as the expedition's surveyor. He was assisted by Michael Spender and E.C. Marchant. G.W. Otter and Aubrey Nicholls would be assistants, and Frank Moorhouse of the University of Queensland would provide local marine biology knowledge. They arrived at the two islands of Low Isles on 16 July 1928 and encamped there for thirteen months. Sidnie Manton and Elizabeth Fraser would join the expedition for four months and work with the shore party. The expedition was unique in its inclusion of female researchers.
+The Australian Museum also sent five people to help with the research throughout the year – Tom Iredale, Gilbert Whitley, William Boardman, Arthur Livingstone and Frank McNeill. Indigenous workers were hired from the nearby Anglican mission at Yarrabah to work on Low Isles in support of the team. They included Andy and Grace Dabah who worked as handyman and cook and were later replaced by Claude and Minnie Connolly. The children of the Dabah and Connolly families also lived with their parents during the time they supported the expedition. Harry Mossman and Paul Sexton from Yarrabah were hired as crew on the research vessel Luana. The Luana was used to carry out scientific studies on and in the water as well as carry provisions to and from the mainland.
+The expedition was divided into four parts. Researchers investigated ocean conditions, taking hydrographic measurements, recording meteorological and tidal data and monitored plankton. They observed the growth rate of the corals and the marine life around it. They collected specimens including plankton as well as conducting dredging and trawling around the reef. Trochus shell was collected and studied and at the time a trochus farming industry was proposed. Black-Lip pearl oysters, Beche De Mer and rock and mangrove oysters, as well as the fish populations of the surrounding areas were assessed for potential economic development. Other studies considered a sardine fishing industry for the region and the turtle industry of Heron Island, near Gladstone. Boring of the reef had been undertaken around Michaelmas Cay in 1926 to determine the age and thickness of the reef, which helped the geological research.
+
+
+== Outcomes of the expedition ==
+The scientific discoveries of the expedition were well reported in the press during 1928–1929. One of the first visitors to Low Isles during the Expedition was journalist Charles Barrett whose newspaper articles were later published as a book. The expedition itself published seven volumes of scientific material in addition to articles in scholarly journals. Maurice Yonge also published a book aimed at a general audience – A year on the Great Barrier Reef (1930).
+In part due to the extensive newspaper coverage, tourists sought out the islands following the expedition to collect shells and corals. This collecting for scientific and private collections was so extreme that the island was ‘virtually swept clean’.
+Yonge and his team's research pioneered studies into coral physiology and their research persists in being vital reference material to current study.
+
+
+== Subsequent expeditions ==
+In 1968 a Belgian expedition to the reef was undertaken. In 1973, a Royal Society and Universities of Queensland Expedition was undertaken to the northern part of the reef.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-0.md

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+---
+title: "1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:36.209933+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (also known as the Arnhem Land Expedition) remains one of the most significant, most ambitious and least understood expeditions. Commenced in February 1948, it was one of the largest scientific expeditions to have taken place in Australia and was conducted by a team of Australian and American researchers and support staff.
+
+== Background ==
+A number of publications, including H. H. Finlayson’s The Red Centre: Man and Beast in the Heart of Australia (1935), and Walkabout travel and geographical magazine (1934–1974), revised Australians' concept of 'The Centre" from the picture presented in J. W. Gregory's The Dead Heart of Australia (1909). 
+Leader-to-be of the Arnhem Land Expedition, Charles P. Mountford  and his wife Bessie travelled over four months from Ernabella to Uluru in 1940, with Lauri Sheard and skilled cameleer Tommy Dodd undertaking an extensive study of the art and mythology surrounding Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The results of this endeavour were showcased through photographic exhibitions and a prize-winning film created in 1940, which subsequently became the foundation for Mountford's first publication Brown Men and Red Sand (1948), and his 1945 lecture tour in the United States which paved the way for the establishment of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land.
+The American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, known as the 'last of the big expeditions,' was not primarily about terrestrial exploration but aimed to advance knowledge. It focused on studying the natural environment and Aboriginal inhabitants. Taking place after World War II, it symbolized transformations in Australia and globally. The expedition served diplomatic objectives by showcasing collaboration between the United States and Australia, enhancing their trans-Pacific relationship. The mission's public face hid negotiations that would shape this relationship for the 20th century. The expedition garnered domestic support due to Australia's pro-American sentiments after WWII, as the nation adjusted to post-war changes and Britain's reduced global influence. The subsequent signing of the ANZUS Treaty by Robert Menzies continued this collaborative trajectory.
+
+== The expedition ==
+
+Seventeen individuals, both men and women, journeyed across the remote region known as Arnhem Land in northern Australia for nine months. From varying disciplinary perspectives, and under the guidance of expedition leader Charles Mountford, they investigated the Indigenous populations and the environment of Arnhem Land. In addition to an ethnographer, archaeologist, photographer, and filmmaker, the expedition included a botanist, a mammalogist, an ichthyologist, an ornithologist, and a team of medical and nutritional scientists.  
+Their first base camp was Groote Eylandt in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Three months later they moved to Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula and three months following that to Oenpelli (now Gunbalanya) in west Arnhem Land. The journey involved the collaboration of different sponsors and partners (among them the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and various agencies of the Commonwealth of Australia).  
+A Bulletin article in 1956 noted that the scientists collected 13,500 plants, 30,000 fish, 850 birds, 460 animals, thousands of implements, amounting to twenty-five tons, and photographed and filmed in colour and black-and-white and made tracings of cave-paintings from Chasm Island, Groote Eylandt and Oenpelli. The Australian Broadcasting Commission promoted the Expedition in its ABC Weekly magazine by appealing to readers curiosity about "...a fish that looks exactly like a leaf, a multi-coloured praying mantis, intricate string games the aborigines play, a fungus used to cure wounds..." 
+In the wake of the expedition came volumes of scientific publications. The legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition is vast, complex, and, at times, contentious. Human remains collected by Setzler and later held by the Smithsonian Institution have since been repatriated to Gunbalanya.
+
+== Expedition members ==
+
+=== ABC reporters ===
+Two staff members from ABC Radio also joined the expedition:
+
+Colin Simpson
+Raymond Frank Giles - Sound Recorder
+
+== Publications ==
+Mountford, Charles P.; American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land (1956). Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land (1st ed.). Victoria: Melbourne University Press. OCLC 604762407.
+Mountford, Charles P.; Specht, Raymond L. (1960). Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. 2. Anthropology and Nutrition. Vol. 2 (1st ed.). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
+Mountford, Charles P.; Specht, Raymond L. (1958). Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land. 3, Botany And Plant Ecology (1st ed.). Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press. OCLC 223700975.
+Mountford, Charles P.; Specht, Raymond L. (1964). Records of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land. 4, Zoology (1st ed.). Parkville, Vic: Melbourne University Press. OCLC 223700983.
+
+== Collections ==
+National Museum of Australia
+Australian Museum
+National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
+Art Gallery of New South Wales
+South Australian Museum
+State Herbarium of South Australia
+Art Gallery of South Australia
+State Library of South Australia (literary collections)
+Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
+Art Gallery of Western Australia
+Queensland Art Gallery
+National Gallery of Victoria
+
+== Notes and references ==

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+---
+title: "1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:36.209933+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Further reading ==
+May, Sally K. in press 2009. Collecting Indigenous Cultures: myth, politics and collaboration in the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition. California: Altamira.
+May, Sally K. 2008  ‘The Art of Collecting: Charles Pearcy Mountford’. In Nicholas Peterson, Lindy Allen, and Louise Hamby, The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.
+May, Sally K. with Donald Gumurdul, Jacob Manakgu, Gabriel Maralngurra and Wilfred Nawirridj. 2005. 'You Write it Down and Bring it Back... That's What We Want" - Revisiting the 1948 Removal of Human Remains from Gunbalanya (Oenpelli), Australia', in Smith, Claire & Wobst, H. Martin (eds). Indigenous Peoples and Archaeology. London: Routledge.
+May, Sally K. 2005 ‘Collecting the ‘Last Frontier’’, in Hamby, Louise (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria.
+May, Sally K, Jennifer McKinnon and Jason Raupp, 2009. ‘Boats on Bark: an analysis of Groote Eylandt bark paintings featuring Macassan praus from the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
+May, Sally K. 2003 'Colonial Collections of Portable Art and Intercultural Encounters in Aboriginal Australia', in Paul Faulstich, Sven Ouzman, and Paul S.C. Taçon (eds), Before Farming: the archaeology and anthropology of hunter-gatherers. California: Altamira. 1, 8, p. 1-17.
+May, Sally K. 2000. The Last Frontier? Acquiring the American-Australian Scientific Expedition Ethnographic Collection 1948, Unpublished B.A. (Honours) Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia.
+Neale, Margo. 1993 'Charles Mountford and the 'Bastard Barks' A Gift from the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 1948. In Lynne Seear & Julie Ewington, Brought to Light, Australian Art 1850 - 1965, From the Queensland Art Gallery Collection. Brisbane: Queensland Art Gallery.
+Brittain, N. (1990). The South Australian Museum collection of Aboriginal bark paintings from Northern Australia. Unpublished Honors BA Thesis, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide.
+Calwell, A. (1978). Be just and fear not. Adelaide: Rigby Limited.
+Clarke, A. (1998). Engendered fields: The language of the 1948 American-Australian expedition to Arnhem Land. In Redefining Archaeology, Feminist Perspectives. Canberra: North Australia Research Unit.
+Florek, S. (1993). F. D. McCarthy’s string figures from Yirrkala: A museum perspective. Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 17, pp. 117–24.
+Johnson, D. H. (1955). The incredible kangaroo. National geographic, 108(4), 487–500.
+Walker, H. (1949). Cruise to Stone Age Arnhem Land. National Geographic, 96(3), 417–30.
+Jones, C. (1987). The toys of the American Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land ethnographic collection. Unpublished Diploma Thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.
+Lamshed, M. (1972). Monty: A biography of CP. Mountford. Adelaide: Rigby.
+McArthur, M., Billington, B. P., and Hodges, K. J. (2000). Nutrition and health (1948) of Aborigines in settlements in Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Asia Pacific journal of clinical nutrition, 9(3), 164–213.
+McArthur, M., McCarthy, F., and Specht, R. (2000). Nutrition studies (1948) of nomadic Aborigines in Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Asia Pacific Journal of clinical nutrition, 9(3), 215–23.
+Simpson, C. (1951). Adam in Ochre: Inside Aboriginal Australia. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.
+
+== External links ==
+National Museum of Australia Audio on Demand: Barks, Birds and Billabongs: Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, International Symposium held at the National Museum of Australia 16–20 November 2009
+State Library of South Australia: Mountford-Sheard Collection

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Gough_Expedition-0.md

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+---
+title: "1955 Gough Expedition"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Gough_Expedition"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:37.444301+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The 1955 Gough Island Scientific Survey was a scientific expedition undertaken in 1955 through 1956 from England to Gough Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The expedition’s purpose was to study various aspects of the island's flora and fauna and to perform geological and cartographic surveys. It was led by John B. Heaney. The book "Mountains in the Sea" was written by one of the expedition crew about the expedition.
+
+
+== Origins ==
+The expedition started after a suggestion from Dr. B.B. Roberts of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Other team members were sourced from British universities, except for J.J. van der Merwe of South Africa.  Funding came from the Scott Polar Research Institute, the Royal Geographical Society, the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and others.  
+R.J.H. Chambers took over as leader of the expedition after doctors persuaded John Heaney to remain in England for his health.
+
+
+== Expedition ==
+The expedition sailed from Britain to South Africa, and from there to Tristan. There, they stayed for some time until there was a sufficient weather window. They saw local dances and attempted to summit the mountain. They landed on October 1, 1955.
+After six weeks they found a weather window to come to Gough. As they attempted landing, R.J.H. Chambers suffered a suspected spinal injury and had to be removed from the expedition and shipped back to Capetown. M. Holdgate then took over as leader of the expedition. 
+On May 13, 1956 the frigate Transvaal took the remaining expeditionary members off of Gough. 
+
+
+== Results ==
+The expedition resulted in a mapping of the internal hills of Gough Island for the first time. As well, at least one species was described which was new to science, Joeropsis vibicaria. The crew also recorded 27 species of ferns and 35 species of flowering plant, as well as 95 invertebrates. 
+They noted one land-based mammal, the house mouse, which they concluded was introduced by sealers.
+The expedition base is now used as a South African Weather Station.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_cageless_shark-diving_expedition-0.md

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+---
+title: "1992 cageless shark-diving expedition"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_cageless_shark-diving_expedition"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:21.019727+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The 1992 cageless shark-diving expedition was the world's first recorded intentionally cageless dive with great white sharks, contributing to a change in public opinions about the supposed ferocity of these animals.
+
+
+== History ==
+The dive took place in January 1992, during the filming of the National Geographic documentary Blue Wilderness, at Dyer Island, South Africa. After 8-10 large Great White sharks had been kept around their boat for about 6 hours using chum and sea mammal flesh, four scuba divers carried out the world's first recorded dive amongst these animals without a safety cage, or any other protection, like chain-mail suits. The divers were Ron and Valerie Taylor, notable Australian film-makers and pioneers of underwater exploration, their friend George Askew, a South African diver and photographer, and Piet 'PJ' van der Walt, who had founded the South African cage-diving industry in 1988. 
+The Taylors and Askew, recognised shark experts and authorities, were testing their hypothesis that these animals had a much fiercer reputation than they deserved. Their hypothesis was based on many years of experiences with various types of shark, including face to face encounters underwater. In 1978, Askew had written an article entitled "The Jaws fish - Myth or Maneater?", published in the UK magazine Underwater World, proposing that Great Whites did not deserve the horrific image and reputation that Jaws author Peter Benchley and film director Steven Spielberg had imprinted in people's minds. Askew postulated that, as they rely on stealth and surprise when attacking, Great Whites would be unlikely to attack if you were aware of their presence. He had two more articles on the same subject published in 1983 and 1991, and then went on to prove that point with the historic dive in 1992.
+Whilst surface testing of the prototype "Shark POD" Protective Oceanic Device (now Shark Shield) for the Natal Sharks Board, the divers discovered that despite having been excited for hours previously by large amounts of blood-laden chum (mashed fish, blood and oil) and chunks of dolphin and whale meat from washed up carcasses, the sharks were actually very shy and difficult to approach, even scared of these unknown intruders. After a long 20 minute wait, the divers had several timid encounters with the very cautious sharks and were never at any time challenged, nor made to feel uneasy. This ground-breaking "Underwater Everest" conquest, a huge leap forward in ocean exploration, strongly challenged the idea of the Great White as a "Mindless Monster" eating machine, and changed the way the world viewed sharks.
+The Taylors felt that the Australian sharks may have a slightly different disposition to South African ones, but as it is now known that Great Whites swim between South Africa and Australia, this is open to debate. On two occasions many years before, they had released Great Whites trapped in wire ropes from cages without being harassed, despite touching the animals.
+Askew had encountered Great White Sharks several times previously over the years whilst spear-fishing. The first was in 1960, when meeting one was considered to mean certain death. This encounter was with a very gravid female who had come into a small cove to drop her pup/s. She was in such an advanced stage of pregnancy that her body was distorted, with her mouth actually facing forward above her hugely distended stomach. She was what is referred to as a "Drop-Gut". In the animal world a mother is usually very protective and aggressive just before and just after giving birth, and yet this large Apex Predator showed no aggression towards him. Because of this and similar encounters, and those of his colleagues, he became more interested in this question.
+Just before the dive, Askew and Ron Taylor were kneeling on the dive platform a few centimetres above water, with their hands in the water filming. Askew stood up and stepped back, and at that moment a four-metre Great White slid onto the platform and stopped 3 inches from his foot before sliding back, but made no attempt to snap or lunge at him. It would have taken his camera and arms, and maybe pulled him in if he had not got up. Askew sees that incident as pure opportunism and not savagery.
+The Prototype 'Pod" Valerie is seen wearing during this dive was a dummy for continuity and afforded the divers no protection.
+That first close encounter dive demonstrated that Great Whites are not built only to devour people but are very curious and can be quite 'friendly'. This dive is directly responsible for the upsurge in Shark Tourism – especially free-diving (i.e. Out of cage swimming) with big sharks. When existing and potential operators around the world learnt of the theory that the Great White was quite approachable and not likely to attack, it was hypothesised that the same applied to other dangerous sharks such as tiger sharks, bull sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks. This proved to be the case and shark tourism began to expand rapidly. It is now a multibillion-dollar a year industry, and has provided a lot of useful insights into sharks.
+Since this dive some divers have attempted cageless dives with big sharks, even hitching rides on their dorsal fins and touching them underwater. However, such attempts are not recommended as sharks are still Apex Predators and very opportunistic. Although there have never been any serious incidents from free-swimming with Great Whites, the same cannot be said for other sharks. There have been a number of fatalities and other injuries.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Andre Hartman
+Michael Rutzen
+Jaws
+
+
+== External links ==
+Interview with Ron and Valerie Taylor
+John Harding Marine Photo Library

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_to_Zero-0.md

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+---
+title: "19 to Zero"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_to_Zero"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:49.195296+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+19 to Zero is a Canadian not-for-profit behavioural sciences initiative based in Calgary, Alberta. Hosted at the University of Calgary, the public–private partnership is made up of around 500 members including public health specialists, academics, behavioural psychologists, marketers and multimedia creators. Its purpose is to increase confidence in vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases by tackling vaccine hesitancy. The group publishes materials on its website and through partner organizations, including videos, billboards, presentations, brochures and in-person events.
+
+
+== History ==
+
+
+=== Founding ===
+19 to Zero was launched in August 2020 at the University of Calgary in order to influence the behaviour of the public surrounding public health measures and COVID-19 vaccines. The group's primary goal is to increase vaccine uptake in order to meet immunization targets, working to coordinate messaging among health care workers across Canada.
+19 to Zero and the University of Toronto conducted a survey in the fall of 2020 to gauge routine vaccination rates following the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
+In September 2020, Alberta Innovates announced a $392,080 grant to fund 19 to Zero with a project titled "Changing COVID-19 Behaviors through a data-driven targeted marketing campaign."
+19 to Zero collaborated in the development of the University of Calgary School of Public Policy's Vaccine Hesitancy Guide, and participated in the Faster Together program to "promote Covid-19 vaccine acceptance."
+
+
+=== Community activation ===
+On March 12, 2021, 19 to Zero hosted a webinar on vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 conspiracy theories led by members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, Queen's University, University of Waterloo and Alberta Children's Hospital. A fundraiser led by the University of Calgary raised $86,825 towards supporting 19 to Zero's efforts against COVID-19 misinformation, falling short of its $100,000 goal. Beginning in April 2021, the Calgary chapter of the World Economic Forum's Global Shapers Community initiative supported 19 to Zero by hosting town hall sessions on COVID-19 vaccines.
+Some of 19 to Zero's community engagement activities included handing out postcards with QR codes linking to available vaccination appointments.
+In August 2021, Shoppers Drug Mart announced it was providing funding to 19 to Zero in order to increase delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to target hesitant populations. 19 to Zero also partnered with Suncor Energy, who contributed $150,000 to coordinate a local vaccination campaign. In October 2021, the group launched a new behaviour change campaign called "It's Never Too Late" following an "unprecedented surge" of admissions to intensive care units in Alberta. The campaign video was produced with Emergence Creative to increase "stalled" vaccination rates, and was accompanied by billboard advertisements.
+Following Health Canada's approval of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 6 months to 11 years old, 19 to Zero participated in an advertising campaign called "Max the Vax" alongside the Canadian Medical Association, York Region and the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies. In 2022, 19 to Zero received a total of $480,000 in grant funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada's Immunization Partnership Fund to enhance the role of schools in promoting vaccine acceptance among students, their families, and teachers.
+
+
+=== Post-pandemic ===
+On September 25, 2024, the Government of Alberta announced a $1.5 new million partnership with 19 to Zero and the Alberta Cancer Foundation to deploy mobile lung cancer screening units to remote Alberta communities.
+
+
+== Funding ==
+As a not-for-profit organization, 19 to Zero's activities are funded by government grants, corporate sponsorship and in-kind donations. Financial supporters include Alberta Children's Hospital, Alberta Health Services, Alberta Innovates, AstraZeneca, BD, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, City University of New York, GlaxoSmithKline, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Kantar Group, Merck, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, Public Health Agency of Canada, Sanofi, Shaw, McMaster University, Ontario College of Pharmacists, University of Calgary, University of Toronto, Western Economic Diversification and Women's College Hospital.
+
+
+=== Federal project grants ===
+
+
+== Organization ==
+
+
+=== Leadership ===
+19 to Zero was co-founded by Jia Hu and Theresa Tang. Jia Hu was a Medical Officer of Health with Alberta Health Services. Hu is the medical director in the Canadian division of Cleveland Clinic, having previously worked at McKinsey & Company consulting in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. He sits on the board of directors for Partners In Health Canada, and has worked during the COVID-19 pandemic to ramp up testing, risk communications and contact tracing. He also developed a contact tracing app funded by Alberta Innovates, and published research on behaviour change strategies towards increasing uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among children and other target populations.
+
+
+=== Partners ===
+19 to Zero is partnered with government, academic and corporate organizations. The group leads the Canadian arm of the "COVID-19 New Vaccine Information, Communication, and Engagement" (CONVINCE) Initiative, a global collaboration between the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Vaccine Confidence Project, and Wilton Park, an executive agency of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the United Kingdom. 19 to Zero is a participating member of the Faster, Together vaccine promotion initiative.
+
+19 to Zero partnered with IV.AI to analyze online social media conversations in order to generate models to combat misinformation and collect information about vaccine hesitancy narratives. The organization also provided support for the first mobile vaccination clinic in Alberta led by Alberta Health and the Business Council of Alberta. The Alberta Federation of Regulated Health Professionals lists 19 to Zero as one of its COVID-19 resource providers. Additional partners include:
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+Official website

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-0.md

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+---
+title: "2012 phenomenon"
+chunk: 1/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:10.848554+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and festivities took place on 21 December 2012 to commemorate the event in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala.
+Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae were proposed for this date. A New Age interpretation held that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21 December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggested that the date marked the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world included the arrival of the next solar maximum; an interaction between Earth and Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy; the Nibiru cataclysm, in which Earth would collide with a mythical planet called Nibiru; or even the heating of Earth's core.
+Scholars from various disciplines quickly dismissed predictions of cataclysmic events as they arose. Mayan scholars stated that no classic Mayan accounts forecast impending doom, and the idea that the Long Count calendar ends in 2012 misrepresented Mayan history and culture. Astronomers rejected the various proposed doomsday scenarios as pseudoscience, having been refuted by elementary astronomical observations.
+
+== Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ==
+
+December 2012 marked the conclusion of a bʼakʼtun—a time period in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used in Mesoamerica prior to the arrival of Europeans. Although the Long Count was most likely invented by the Olmec, it has become closely associated with the Maya civilization, whose classic period lasted from 250 to 900 AD. The writing system of the classic Maya has been substantially deciphered, meaning that a text corpus of their written and inscribed material has survived from before the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.
+Unlike the 260-day tzolkʼin still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20: 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals (360 days) made a tun, 20 tuns made a kʼatun, and 20 kʼatuns (144,000 days or roughly 394 years) made up a bʼakʼtun. Thus, the Maya date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 bʼakʼtuns, 3 kʼatuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days.
+
+=== Apocalypse ===
+
+There is a strong tradition of "world ages" in Maya literature, but the record has been distorted, leaving several possibilities open to interpretation. According to the Popol Vuh, a compilation of the creation accounts of the Kʼicheʼ Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, the current world is the fourth. The Popol Vuh describes the gods first creating three failed worlds, followed by a successful fourth world in which humanity was placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous world ended after 13 bʼakʼtuns, or roughly 5,125 years. The Long Count's "zero date" was set at a point in the past marking the end of the third world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to 11 August 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. This means that the fourth world reached the end of its 13th bʼakʼtun, or Maya date 13.0.0.0.0, on 21 December 2012. In 1957, Mayanist and astronomer Maud Worcester Makemson wrote that "the completion of a Great Period of 13 bʼakʼtuns would have been of the utmost significance to the Maya." In 1966, Michael D. Coe wrote in The Maya that "there is a suggestion ... that Armageddon would overtake the degenerate peoples of the world and all creation on the final day of the 13th [bʼakʼtun]. Thus ... our present universe [would] be annihilated ... when the Great Cycle of the Long Count reaches completion."

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+title: "2012 phenomenon"
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+---
+
+=== Objections ===
+Coe's interpretation was repeated by other scholars through the early 1990s. In contrast, later researchers said that, while the end of the 13th bʼakʼtun would perhaps be a cause for celebration, it did not mark the end of the calendar. "There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012," said Mayanist scholar Mark Van Stone. "The notion of a 'Great Cycle' coming to an end is completely a modern invention." In 1990, Mayanist scholars Linda Schele and David Freidel argued that the Maya "did not conceive this to be the end of creation, as many have suggested". Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, stated that, "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012. Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, said, "For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," and, "The 2012 phenomenon is a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in." "There will be another cycle," said E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Tulane University Middle American Research Institute. "We know the Maya thought there was one before this, and that implies they were comfortable with the idea of another one after this." Commenting on the new calendar found at Xultún, one archaeologist said "The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue—that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this. We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset."
+Several prominent individuals representing Maya of Guatemala decried the suggestion that the world would end with the 13th bʼakʼtun. Ricardo Cajas, president of the Colectivo de Organizaciones Indígenas de Guatemala, said the date did not represent an end of humanity but that the new cycle "supposes changes in human consciousness". Martín Sacalxot, of the office of Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman (Procurador de los Derechos Humanos), said that the end of the calendar has nothing to do with the end of the world or the year 2012.
+
+=== Prior associations ===
+The European association of the Maya with eschatology dates back to the time of Christopher Columbus, who was compiling a work called Libro de las profecías during the voyage in 1502 when he first heard about the "Maia" on Guanaja, an island off the north coast of Honduras. Influenced by the writings of Bishop Pierre d'Ailly, Columbus believed that his discovery of "most distant" lands (and, by extension, the Maya themselves) was prophesied and would bring about the Apocalypse. End-times fears were widespread during the early years of the Spanish Conquest as the result of popular astrological predictions in Europe of a second Great Flood for the year 1524.
+In the 1900s, German scholar Ernst Förstemann interpreted the last page of the Dresden Codex as a representation of the end of the world in a cataclysmic flood. He made reference to the destruction of the world and an apocalypse, though he made no reference to the 13th bʼakʼtun or 2012 and it was not clear that he was referring to a future event. His ideas were repeated by archaeologist Sylvanus Morley, who directly paraphrased Förstemann and added his own embellishments, writing, "Finally, on the last page of the manuscript, is depicted the Destruction of the World ... Here, indeed, is portrayed with a graphic touch the final all-engulfing cataclysm" in the form of a great flood. These comments were later repeated in Morley's book, The Ancient Maya, the first edition of which was published in 1946.
+
+== Maya references to bʼakʼtun 13 ==
+It is not certain what significance the classic Maya gave to the 13th bʼakʼtun. Most classic Maya inscriptions are strictly historical and do not make any prophetic declarations. Two items in the Maya classical corpus do mention the end of the 13th bʼakʼtun: Tortuguero Monument 6 and La Corona Hieroglyphic Stairway 12.
+
+=== Tortuguero ===
+The Tortuguero site, which lies in southernmost Tabasco, Mexico, dates from the 7th century AD and consists of a series of inscriptions mostly in honor of the contemporary ruler Bahlam Ahau. One inscription, known as Tortuguero Monument 6, is the only inscription known to refer to bʼakʼtun 13 in any detail. It has been partially defaced; Sven Gronemeyer and Barbara MacLeod have given this translation:
+
+Very little is known about the god Bʼolon Yokteʼ. According to an article by Mayanists Markus Eberl and Christian Prager in British Anthropological Reports, his name is composed of the elements "nine", ʼOK-teʼ (the meaning of which is unknown), and "god". Confusion in classical period inscriptions suggests that the name was already ancient and unfamiliar to contemporary scribes. He also appears in inscriptions from Palenque, Usumacinta, and La Mar as a god of war, conflict, and the underworld. In one stele he is portrayed with a rope tied around his neck, and in another with an incense bag, together signifying a sacrifice to end a cycle of years.
+Based on observations of modern Maya rituals, Gronemeyer and MacLeod claim that the stela refers to a celebration in which a person portraying Bolon Yokteʼ Kʼuh was wrapped in ceremonial garments and paraded around the site. They note that the association of Bolon Yokteʼ Kʼuh with bʼakʼtun 13 appears to be so important on this inscription that it supersedes more typical celebrations such as "erection of stelae, scattering of incense" and so forth. Furthermore, they assert that this event was indeed planned for 2012 and not the 7th century. Mayanist scholar Stephen Houston contests this view by arguing that future dates on Maya inscriptions were simply meant to draw parallels with contemporary events, and that the words on the stela describe a contemporary rather than a future scene.

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+
+=== La Corona ===
+In April–May 2012, a team of archaeologists unearthed a previously unknown inscription on a stairway at the La Corona site in Guatemala. The inscription, on what is known as Hieroglyphic Stairway 12, describes the establishment of a royal court in Calakmul in 635 AD, and compares the then-recent completion of 13 kʼatuns with the future completion of the 13th bʼakʼtun. It contains no speculation or prophecy as to what the scribes believed would happen at that time.
+
+=== Dates beyond bʼakʼtun 13 ===
+Maya inscriptions occasionally mention predicted future events or commemorations that would occur on dates far beyond the completion of the 13th bʼakʼtun. Most of these are in the form of "distance dates"; Long Count dates together with an additional number, known as a Distance Number, which when added to them makes a future date. On the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, a section of text projects forward to the 80th 52-year Calendar Round from the coronation of the ruler Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal. Pakal's accession occurred on 9.9.2.4.8, equivalent to 27 July 615 AD in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The inscription begins with Pakal's birthdate of 9.8.9.13.0 (24 March, 603 AD Gregorian) and then adds the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8 to it, arriving at a date of 21 October 4772 AD, more than 4,000 years after Pakal's time.
+Another example is Stela 1 at Coba which marks the date of creation as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, or nineteen units above the bʼakʼtun. According to Linda Schele, these 13s represent "the starting point of a huge odometer of time", with each acting as a zero and resetting to 1 as the numbers increase. Thus this inscription anticipates the current universe lasting at least 2021×13×360 days, or roughly 2.687×1028 years; a time span equal to 2 quintillion times the age of the universe as determined by cosmologists. Others have suggested that this date marks creation as having occurred after that time span.
+In 2012, researchers announced the discovery of a series of Maya astronomical tables in Xultún, Guatemala which plot the movements of the Moon and other astronomical bodies over the course of 17 bʼakʼtuns.
+
+== New Age beliefs ==
+Many assertions about the year 2012 form part of Mayanism, a non-codified collection of New Age beliefs about ancient Maya wisdom and spirituality. The term is distinct from "Mayanist," used to refer to an academic scholar of the Maya. Archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni says that while the idea of "balancing the cosmos" was prominent in ancient Maya literature, the 2012 phenomenon did not draw from those traditions. Instead, it was bound up with American concepts such as the New Age movement, 2012 millenarianism, and the belief in secret knowledge from distant times and places. Themes found in 2012 literature included "suspicion towards mainstream Western culture", the idea of spiritual evolution, and the possibility of leading the world into the New Age by individual example or by a group's joined consciousness. The general intent of this literature was not to warn of impending doom but "to foster counter-cultural sympathies and eventually socio-political and 'spiritual' activism". Aveni, who has studied New Age and search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) communities, describes 2012 narratives as the product of a "disconnected" society: "Unable to find spiritual answers to life's big questions within ourselves, we turn outward to imagined entities that lie far off in space or time—entities that just might be in possession of superior knowledge."
+
+=== Origins ===
+In 1975, the ending of bʼakʼtun 13 became the subject of speculation by several New Age authors, who asserted it would correspond with a global "transformation of consciousness". In Mexico Mystique: The Coming Sixth Age of Consciousness, Frank Waters tied Coe's original date of 24 December 2011 to astrology and the prophecies of the Hopi, while both José Argüelles (in The Transformative Vision) and Terence McKenna (in The Invisible Landscape) discussed the significance of the year 2012 without mentioning a specific day. Some research suggests that both Argüelles and McKenna were heavily influenced in this regard by the Mayanism of American author William S. Burroughs, who first portrayed the end of the Mayan Long Count as an apocalyptic shift of human consciousness in 1960's The Exterminator.
+In 1983, with the publication of Robert J. Sharer's revised table of date correlations in the 4th edition of Morley's The Ancient Maya, each became convinced that 21 December 2012 had significant meaning. By 1987, the year in which he organized the Harmonic Convergence event, Argüelles was using the date 21 December 2012 in The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology. He claimed that on 13 August 3113 BC the Earth began a passage through a "galactic synchronization beam" that emanated from the center of our galaxy, that it would pass through this beam during a period of 5200 tuns (Maya cycles of 360 days each), and that this beam would result in "total synchronization" and "galactic entrainment" of individuals "plugged into the Earth's electromagnetic battery" by 13.0.0.0.0 (21 December 2012). He believed that the Maya aligned their calendar to correspond to this phenomenon. Anthony Aveni has dismissed all of these ideas.
+In 2001, Robert Bast wrote the first online articles regarding the possibility of a doomsday in 2012. In 2006, author Daniel Pinchbeck popularized New Age concepts about this date in his book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, linking bʼakʼtun 13 to beliefs in crop circles, alien abduction, and personal revelations based on the use of hallucinogenic drugs and mediumship. Pinchbeck claims to discern a "growing realization that materialism and the rational, empirical worldview that comes with it has reached its expiration date ... [w]e're on the verge of transitioning to a dispensation of consciousness that's more intuitive, mystical and shamanic".

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+
+=== Galactic alignment ===
+There is no significant astronomical event tied to the Long Count's start date. Its supposed end date was tied to astronomical phenomena by esoteric, fringe, and New Age literature that placed great significance on astrology, especially astrological interpretations associated with the phenomenon of axial precession. Chief among these ideas is the astrological concept of a "galactic alignment".
+
+==== Precession ====
+In the Solar System, the planets and the Sun lie roughly within the same flat plane, known as the plane of the ecliptic. From our perspective on Earth, the ecliptic is the path taken by the Sun across the sky over the course of the year. The twelve constellations that line the ecliptic are known as the zodiacal constellations, and, annually, the Sun passes through all of them in turn. Additionally, over time, the Sun's annual cycle appears to recede very slowly backward by one degree every 72 years, or by one constellation approximately every 2,160 years. This backward movement, called "precession", is due to a slight wobble in the Earth's axis as it spins, and can be compared to the way a spinning top wobbles as it slows down. Over the course of 25,800 years, a period often called a Great Year, the Sun's path completes a full, 360-degree backward rotation through the zodiac. In Western astrological traditions, precession is measured from the March equinox, one of the two annual points at which the Sun is exactly halfway between its lowest and highest points in the sky. At the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, the Sun's March equinox position was in the constellation Pisces moving back into Aquarius. This signaled the end of one astrological age (the Age of Pisces) and the beginning of another (the Age of Aquarius).
+Similarly, the Sun's December solstice position (in the northern hemisphere, the lowest point on its annual path; in the southern hemisphere, the highest) was in the constellation of Sagittarius, one of two constellations in which the zodiac intersects with the Milky Way. Every year, on the December solstice, the Sun and the Milky Way, appear (from the surface of the Earth) to come into alignment, and every year precession caused a slight shift in the Sun's position in the Milky Way. Given that the Milky Way is between 10° and 20° wide, it takes between 700 and 1,400 years for the Sun's December solstice position to precess through it. In 2012 it was about halfway through the Milky Way, crossing the galactic equator. In 2012, the Sun's December solstice fell on 21 December.
+
+==== Mysticism ====
+
+Mystical speculations about the precession of the equinoxes and the Sun's proximity to the center of the Milky Way appeared in Hamlet's Mill (1969) by Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Deschend. These were quoted and expanded upon by Terence and Dennis McKenna in The Invisible Landscape (1975).
+Adherents to the idea, following a theory first proposed by Munro Edmonson, alleged that the Maya based their calendar on observations of the Great Rift or Dark Rift, a band of dark dust clouds in the Milky Way, which, according to some scholars, the Maya called the Xibalba be or "Black Road". John Major Jenkins claims that the Maya were aware of where the ecliptic intersected the Black Road and gave this position in the sky a special significance in their cosmology. Jenkins said that precession would align the Sun precisely with the galactic equator at the 2012 winter solstice. Jenkins claimed that the classical Maya anticipated this conjunction and celebrated it as the harbinger of a profound spiritual transition for mankind. New Age proponents of the galactic alignment hypothesis argued that, just as astrology uses the positions of stars and planets to make claims of future events, the Maya plotted their calendars with the objective of preparing for significant world events. Jenkins attributed the insights of ancient Maya shamans about the Galactic Center to their use of psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive toads, and other psychedelics. Jenkins also associated the Xibalba be with a "world tree", drawing on studies of contemporary (not ancient) Maya cosmology.
+
+==== Criticism ====
+Astronomers such as David Morrison argue that the galactic equator is an entirely arbitrary line and can never be precisely drawn, because it is impossible to determine the Milky Way's exact boundaries, which vary depending on clarity of view. Jenkins claimed he drew his conclusions about the location of the galactic equator from observations taken at above 11,000 feet (3,400 m), an altitude that gives a clearer image of the Milky Way than the Maya had access to. Furthermore, since the Sun is half a degree wide, its solstice position takes 36 years to precess its full width. Jenkins himself noted that even given his determined location for the line of the galactic equator, its most precise convergence with the center of the Sun already occurred in 1998, and so asserts that, rather than 2012, the galactic alignment instead focuses on a multi-year period centered in 1998.
+There is no clear evidence that the classic Maya were aware of precession. Some Maya scholars, such as Barbara MacLeod, Michael Grofe, Eva Hunt, Gordon Brotherston, and Anthony Aveni, have suggested that some Mayan holy dates were timed to precessional cycles, but scholarly opinion on the subject remains divided. There is also little evidence, archaeological or historical, that the Maya placed any importance on solstices or equinoxes. It is possible that only the earliest among Mesoamericans observed solstices, but this is also a disputed issue among Mayanists. There is also no evidence that the classic Maya attached any importance to the Milky Way; there is no glyph in their writing system to represent it, and no astronomical or chronological table tied to it.
+
+=== Timewave zero and the I Ching ===

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+
+"Timewave zero" is a numerological formula that purports to calculate the ebb and flow of "novelty", defined as increase over time in the universe's interconnectedness, or organized complexity. Terence McKenna claimed that the universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness. He believed this which would eventually reach a singularity of infinite complexity in 2012, at which point anything and everything imaginable would occur simultaneously. He conceived this idea over several years in the early to mid-1970s whilst using psilocybin mushrooms and DMT. The scientific community considers novelty theory to be pseudoscience.
+McKenna expressed "novelty" in a computer program which produces a waveform known as "timewave zero" or the "timewave". Based on McKenna's interpretation of the King Wen sequence of the I Ching, an ancient Chinese book on divination, the graph purports to show great periods of novelty corresponding with major shifts in humanity's biological and sociocultural evolution. He believed that the events of any given time are resonantly related to the events of other times, and chose the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as the basis for calculating his end date of November 2012. When he later discovered this date's proximity to the end of the 13th bʼakʼtun of the Maya calendar, he revised his hypothesis so that the two dates matched.
+The 1975 first edition of The Invisible Landscape referred to 2012 (but no specific day during the year) only twice. In the 1993 second edition, McKenna employed Sharer's date of 21 December 2012 throughout.
+Novelty theory has been criticized for "rejecting countless ideas presumed as factual by the scientific community", depending "solely on numerous controversial deductions that contradict empirical logic", and encompassing "no suitable indication of truth", with the conclusion that novelty theory is a pseudoscience.
+
+== Doomsday theories ==
+
+The idea that the year 2012 presaged a world cataclysm, the end of the world, or the end of human civilization, became a subject of popular media speculation as the date of 21 December 2012 approached. This idea was promulgated by many pages on the Internet, particularly on YouTube. The Discovery Channel was criticized for its "quasi-documentaries" about the subject that "sacrifice[d] accuracy for entertainment".
+
+=== Other alignments ===
+Some people interpreted the galactic alignment apocalyptically, claiming that its occurrence would somehow create a combined gravitational effect between the Sun and the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy (known as Sagittarius A*), creating havoc on Earth. Apart from the "galactic alignment" already having happened in 1998, the Sun's apparent path through the zodiac as seen from Earth did not take it near the true galactic center, but rather several degrees above it. Even were this not the case, Sagittarius A* is 30,000 light years from Earth; it would have to have been more than 6 million times closer to cause any gravitational disruption to Earth's Solar System. This reading of the alignment was included on the History Channel documentary Decoding the Past. John Major Jenkins complained that a science fiction writer co-authored the documentary, and he went on to characterize it as "45 minutes of unabashed doomsday hype and the worst kind of inane sensationalism".
+Some believers in a 2012 doomsday used the term "galactic alignment" to describe a different phenomenon proposed by some scientists to explain a pattern in mass extinctions supposedly observed in the fossil record. According to the Shiva hypothesis, mass extinctions are not random, but recur every 26 million years. To account for this, it was suggested that vertical oscillations made by the Sun on its 250-million-year orbit of the galactic center cause it to regularly pass through the galactic plane. When the Sun's orbit takes it outside the galactic plane which bisects the galactic disc, the influence of the galactic tide is weaker. When re-entering the galactic disc—as it does every 20–25 million years—it comes under the influence of the far stronger "disc tides", which, according to mathematical models, increase the flux of Oort cloud comets into the inner Solar System by a factor of 4, thus leading to a massive increase in the likelihood of a devastating comet impact. This "alignment" takes place over tens of millions of years, and could never be timed to an exact date. Evidence shows that the Sun passed through the plane bisecting the galactic disc three million years ago and in 2012 was moving farther above it.
+A third suggested alignment was some sort of planetary conjunction occurring on 21 December 2012; there was no conjunction on that date. Multi-planet alignments did occur in both 2000 and 2010, each with no ill result for the Earth. Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, being larger than all other planets combined. When Jupiter is near opposition, the difference in gravitational force that the Earth experiences is less than 1% of the force that the Earth feels daily from the Moon.

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+
+=== Geomagnetic reversal ===
+Another idea tied to 2012 involved a geomagnetic reversal (often referred to as a pole shift by proponents), possibly triggered by a massive solar flare, that would release an energy equal to 100 billion atomic bombs. This belief was supposedly supported by observations that the Earth's magnetic field was weakening, which could precede a reversal of the north and south magnetic poles, and the arrival of the next solar maximum, which was expected sometime around 2012.
+Most scientific estimates say that geomagnetic reversals take between 1,000 and 10,000 years to complete, and do not start on any particular date. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that the solar maximum would peak in late 2013 or 2014, and that it would be fairly weak, with a below-average number of sunspots. There was no scientific evidence linking a solar maximum to a geomagnetic reversal, which is driven by forces entirely within the Earth.
+A solar maximum does affect satellite and cellular phone communications. David Morrison attributed the rise of the solar storm idea to physicist and science popularizer Michio Kaku, who claimed in an interview with Fox News that a solar peak in 2012 could be disastrous for orbiting satellites, and to NASA's headlining a 2006 webpage as "Solar Storm Warning", a term later repeated on several doomsday pages.
+On 23 July 2012, a massive, potentially damaging, solar storm came within nine days of striking Earth.
+
+=== Planet X/Nibiru ===
+
+Some believers in a 2012 doomsday claimed that a planet called Planet X, or Nibiru, would collide with or pass by the Earth. This idea, which had appeared in various forms since 1995, initially predicted Doomsday in May 2003, but proponents abandoned that date after it passed without incident. The idea originated from claims of channeling alien beings and is widely ridiculed. Astronomers calculated that such an object so close to Earth would be visible to anyone looking up at the night sky.
+
+=== Other catastrophes ===
+
+Author Graham Hancock, in his book Fingerprints of the Gods, interpreted Coe's remarks in Breaking the Maya Code as evidence for the prophecy of a global cataclysm. Filmmaker Roland Emmerich later credited the book with inspiring his 2009 disaster film 2012.
+Other speculations regarding doomsday in 2012 included predictions by the Web Bot project, a computer program that purports to predict the future by analyzing Internet chatter. Commentators have rejected claims that the bot is able to predict natural disasters, as opposed to human-caused disasters like stock market crashes.
+The 2012 date was also loosely tied to the long-running concept of the photon belt, which predicted a form of interaction between Earth and Alcyone, the largest star of the Pleiades cluster. Critics argued that photons cannot form belts, that the Pleiades, located more than 400 light years away, could have no effect on Earth, and that the Solar System, rather than getting closer to the Pleiades, was in fact moving farther away from it.
+Some media outlets tied the fact that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse would undergo a supernova at some point in the future to the 2012 phenomenon. While Betelgeuse was certainly in the final stages of its life, and would die as a supernova, there was no way to predict the timing of the event to within 100,000 years. To be a threat to Earth, a supernova would need to be no further than 25 light years from the Solar System. Betelgeuse is roughly 600 light years away, and so its supernova would not affect Earth. In December 2011, NASA's Francis Reddy issued a press release debunking the possibility of a supernova occurring in 2012.
+Another claim involved alien invasion. In December 2010, an article, first published in examiner.com and later referenced in the English-language edition of Pravda claimed, citing a Second Digitized Sky Survey photograph as evidence, that SETI had detected three large spacecraft due to arrive at Earth in 2012. Astronomer and debunker Phil Plait noted that by using the small-angle formula, one could determine that if the object in the photo were as large as claimed, it would have had to be closer to Earth than the Moon, which would mean it would already have arrived. In January 2011, Seth Shostak, chief astronomer of SETI, issued a press release debunking the claims.
+
+== Public reaction ==
+The phenomenon spread widely after coming to public notice, particularly on the Internet, and hundreds of thousands of websites made reference to it. "Ask an Astrobiologist", a NASA public outreach website, received over 5,000 questions from the public on the subject from 2007, some asking whether they should kill themselves, their children or their pets. In May 2012, an Ipsos poll of 16,000 adults in 21 countries found that 8 percent had experienced fear or anxiety over the possibility of the world ending in December 2012, while an average of 10 percent agreed with the statement "the Mayan calendar, which some say 'ends' in 2012, marks the end of the world", with responses as high as 20 percent in China, 13 percent in Russia, Turkey, Japan and Korea, and 12 percent in the United States. At least one suicide was directly linked to fear of a 2012 apocalypse, with others anecdotally reported. Jared Lee Loughner, the perpetrator of the 2011 Tucson shooting, followed 2012-related predictions. A panel of scientists questioned on the topic at a plenary session at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific contended that the Internet played a substantial role in allowing this doomsday date to gain more traction than previous similar panics.
+
+=== Europe ===

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+---
+
+Beginning in 2000, the small French village of Bugarach, population 189, began receiving visits from "esoterics"—mystic believers who had concluded that the local mountain, Pic de Bugarach, was the ideal location to weather the transformative events of 2012. In 2011, the local mayor, Jean-Pierre Delord, began voicing fears to the international press that the small town would be overwhelmed by an influx of thousands of visitors in 2012, even suggesting he might call in the army. "We've seen a huge rise in visitors", Delord told The Independent in March 2012. "Already this year more than 20,000 people have climbed right to the top, and last year we had 10,000 hikers, which was a significant rise on the previous 12 months. They think Pic de Bugarach is 'un garage à ovnis' [a garage for UFOs]. The villagers are exasperated: the exaggerated importance of something which they see as completely removed from reality is bewildering. After 21 December, this will surely return to normal." In December 2012, the French government placed 100 police and firefighters around both Bugarach and Pic de Bugarach, limiting access to potential visitors. Ultimately, only about 1,000 visitors appeared at the height of the "event". Two raves were foiled, 12 people had to be turned away from the peak, and 5 people were arrested for carrying weapons. Jean-Pierre Delord was criticised by members of the community for failing to take advantage of the media attention and promote the region.
+The Turkish village of Şirince, near Ephesus, expected to receive over 60,000 visitors on 21 December 2012, as New Age mystics believed its "positive energy" would aid in weathering the catastrophe. Only a fraction of that number actually arrived, with a substantial component being police and journalists, and the expected windfall failed to materialise.
+Similarly, the pyramid-like mountain of Rtanj, in the Serbian Carpathians, attracted attention, due to rumors that it would emit a powerful force shield on the day, protecting those in the vicinity. Hotels around the base were full.
+In Russia, inmates of a women's prison experienced "a collective mass psychosis" in the weeks leading up to the supposed doomsday, while residents of a factory town near Moscow reportedly emptied a supermarket of matches, candles, food and other supplies. The Minister of Emergency Situations declared in response that according to "methods of monitoring what is occurring on the planet Earth", there would be no apocalypse in December. When asked when the world would end in a press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, "In about 4.5 billion years."
+In December 2012, Vatican astronomer Rev. José Funes wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that apocalyptic theories around 2012 were "not even worth discussing".
+
+=== Asia and Australia ===
+In May 2011, 5,000-7,000 Hmong ethnic people in Dien Bien province, Vietnam held a protest on the grounds that the end of the world was coming, and the Hmong people would be evacuated to their own Hmong country by "supernatural force". The Vietnamese media and government believe that this is a trick of the Hmong ethnic separatist forces.
+In China, up to a thousand members of the Christian cult Almighty God were arrested after claiming that the end of bʼakʼtun 13 marked the end of the world, and that it was time to overthrow Communism. Shoppers were reported to be hoarding supplies of candles in anticipation of coming darkness, while online retailer Taobao sold tickets to board Noah's Ark to customers. Bookings for wedding ceremonies on 21 December 2012 were saturated in several cities. On 14 December 2012, a man in Henan province attacked and wounded twenty-three children with a knife. Authorities suspected the man had been "influenced" by the prediction of the upcoming apocalypse. Academics in China attributed the widespread belief in the 2012 doomsday in their country to a lack of scientific literacy and a mistrust of the government-controlled media.
+On 6 December 2012, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a hoax speech for the radio station triple J in which she declared "My dear remaining fellow Australians; the end of the world is coming. Whether the final blow comes from flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts or from the total triumph of K-Pop, if you know one thing about me it is this—I will always fight for you to the very end." Radio announcer Neil Mitchell described the hoax as "immature" and pondered whether it demeaned her office.
+Jasper Tsang, president of Hong Kong's Legislative Council, adjourned the legislature's sitting on 20 December 2012 by announcing that he "would not permit the world to end" as the legislature had to meet again in January 2013, to the laughter of MPs.
+
+=== Mexico and Central America ===
+
+Mesoamerican countries that once formed part of the Maya civilization—Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador—all organized festivities to commemorate the end of bʼakʼtun 13 at the largest Maya sites. On 21 December 2011, the Maya town of Tapachula in Chiapas activated an eight-foot digital clock counting down the days until the end of bʼakʼtun 13. On 21 December 2012, major events took place at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala. In El Salvador, the largest event was held at Tazumal, and in Honduras, at Copán. In all of these archaeological sites, Maya rituals were held at dawn led by shamans and Maya priests.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-7.md

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+---
+title: "2012 phenomenon"
+chunk: 8/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:10.848554+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+On the final day of bʼakʼtun 13, residents of Yucatán and other regions formerly dominated by the ancient Maya celebrated what they saw as the dawn of a new, better era. According to official figures from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), about 50,000 people visited Mexican archaeological sites on 21 December 2012. Of those, 10,000 visited Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, 9,900 visited Tulum in Quintana Roo, and 8,000 visited Palenque in Chiapas. An additional 10,000 people visited Teotihuacan near Mexico City, which is not a Maya site. The main ceremony in Chichén Itzá was held at dawn in the plaza of the Temple of Kukulkán, one of the principal symbols of Maya culture. The archaeological site was opened two hours early to receive thousands of tourists, mostly foreigners who came to participate in events scheduled for the end of bʼakʼtun 13.
+
+The fire ceremony at Tikal was held at dawn in the main plaza of the Temple of the Great Jaguar. The ceremony was led by Guatemalan and foreign priests. The President of Guatemala, Otto Pérez, and of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, participated in the event as special guests. During the ceremony the priests asked for unity, peace and the end of discrimination and racism, with the hope that the start of a new cycle will be a "new dawn". About 3,000 people participated in the event.
+Most of these events were organized by agencies of the Mexican and Central American governments, and their respective tourism industries expected to attract thousands of visitors. Mexico is visited by about 22 million foreigners in a typical year. In 2012, the national tourism agency expected to attract 52 million visitors just to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. A Maya activist group in Guatemala, Oxlaljuj Ajpop, objected to the commercialization of the date. A spokesman from the Conference of Maya Ministers commented that for them the Tikal ceremony is not a show for tourists but something spiritual and personal. The secretary of the Great Council of Ancestral Authorities commented that living Maya felt they were excluded from the activities in Tikal. This group held a parallel ceremony, and complained that the date has been used for commercial gain. In addition, before the main Tikal ceremony, about 200 Maya protested the celebration because they felt excluded. Most modern Maya were indifferent to the ceremonies, and the small number of people still practising ancient rites held solemn, more private ceremonies.
+Osvaldo Gomez, a technical advisor to the Tikal site, complained that many visitors during the celebration had illegally climbed the stairs of the Temple of the Masks, causing "irreparable" damage.
+
+=== South America ===
+In Brazil, Décio Colla, the Mayor of the City of São Francisco de Paula, Rio Grande do Sul, mobilized the population to prepare for the end of the world by stocking up on food and supplies. In the city of Corguinho, in the Mato Grosso do Sul, a colony was built for survivors of the expected tragedy. In Alto Paraíso de Goiás, the hotels also made specific reservations for prophetic dates.
+In Bolivia, President Evo Morales participated in Quechua and Aymara rituals, organized with government support, to commemorate the Southern solstice that took place in Isla del Sol, in the southern part of Lake Titicaca. During the event, Morales proclaimed the beginning of "Pachakuti", meaning the world's wake up to a culture of life and the beginning of the end to world capitalism, and he proposed to dismantle the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
+On 21 December 2012, the Uritorco mountain in Córdoba, Argentina was closed, as a mass suicide there had been proposed on Facebook.
+
+=== United States ===
+In the United States, sales of private underground blast shelters increased noticeably after 2009, with many construction companies' advertisements calling attention to the 2012 apocalypse. In Michigan, schools were closed for the Christmas holidays two days early, in part because rumours of the 2012 apocalypse were raising fears of repeat shootings similar to that at Sandy Hook. American reality TV stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt revealed that they had spent most of their $10 million of accumulated earnings by 2010 because they believed the world would end in 2012.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-8.md

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+---
+title: "2012 phenomenon"
+chunk: 9/9
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:10.848554+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Cultural influence ==
+The 2012 phenomenon was discussed or referenced by several media outlets. Several TV documentaries, as well as some contemporary fictional references to the year 2012, referred to 21 December as the day of a cataclysmic event.
+The TV series The X-Files cited 22 December 2012 as the date for an alien colonization of the Earth, and mentioned the Mayan calendar "stopping" on this date. The History Channel aired a handful of special series on doomsday that included analysis of 2012 theories, such as Decoding the Past (2005–2007), 2012, End of Days (2006), Last Days on Earth (2006), Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2009), and Nostradamus 2012 (2008). The Discovery Channel also aired 2012 Apocalypse in 2009, suggesting that massive solar storms, magnetic pole reversal, earthquakes, supervolcanoes, and other drastic natural events could occur in 2012. In 2012, the National Geographic Channel launched a show called Doomsday Preppers, a documentary series about survivalists preparing for various cataclysms, including the 2012 doomsday.
+Hundreds of books were published on the topic. The bestselling book of 2009, Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, featured a coded mock email number (2456282.5) that decoded to the Julian date for 21 December 2012.
+In the Ubisoft game franchise Assassin's Creed, the overarching plotline of the games starring the first protagonist, Desmond Miles, was also inspired by the phenomenon. After escaping capture by the Knights Templar, Desmond rejoins the Assassins Brotherhood to help them fight the Templars and prevent the predicted end of the world, in this case caused by a cyclical solar flare.
+In cinema, Roland Emmerich's 2009 science fiction disaster film 2012 was inspired by the phenomenon, and advance promotion prior to its release included a stealth marketing campaign in which television commercials and websites from the fictional "Institute for Human Continuity" called on people to prepare for the end of the world. As these promotions did not mention the film itself, many viewers believed them to be real and contacted astronomers in panic. Although the campaign was criticized, the film became one of the most successful of its year, grossing nearly $770 million worldwide. An article in The Daily Telegraph attributed the widespread fear of the phenomenon in China to the film, which was a hit in the country as it depicted the Chinese building "survival arks". Lars von Trier's 2011 film Melancholia featured a plot in which a planet emerges from behind the Sun on a collision course with Earth.
+The phenomenon also inspired several rock and pop music hits. As early as 1997, "A Certain Shade of Green" by Incubus referred to the mystical belief that a shift in perception would arrive in 2012 ("Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.? / What are you waiting for, a certain shade of green?"). More recent hits include "Time for Miracles" (2009) performed by Adam Lambert, "2012 (It Ain't the End)" (2010) performed by Jay Sean featuring Nicki Minaj,  "Till the World Ends" (2011) performed by Britney Spears and "2012 (If The World Would End)" (2012) performed by Mike Candys featuring Evelyn & Patrick Miller. Towards mid-December 2012, an internet hoax related to South Korean singer Psy being one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was widely circulated around social media platforms. The hoax purported that once Psy's "Gangnam Style" YouTube video amassed a billion views, the world would end. Indian composer A. R. Rahman, known for Slumdog Millionaire, released his single "Infinite Love" to "instill faith and optimism in people" prior to the hypothesized doomsday. The artwork for All Time Low's 2012 album Don't Panic satirizes various cataclysmic events associated with the phenomenon. The phenomenon was also satirized in Brian M. Clark's 2010 novelty book What Will Really Happen In 2012?: Mysteries Of The 13 B'aktun Paradox Decoded, which consisted of 200 pages each only containing the sentence, "Nothing special is going to happen in 2012, you jackass."
+A number of brands ran commercials tied to the phenomenon in the days and months leading to the date. In February 2012, American automotive company General Motors aired an advertisement during the annual Super Bowl football game in which a group of friends drove Chevrolet Silverados through the ruins of human civilization following the 2012 apocalypse. On 17 December 2012, Jell-O ran an ad saying that offering Jell-O to the Mayan gods would appease them into sparing the world. John Verret, Professor of Advertising at Boston University, questioned the utility of tying large sums of money to such a unique and short-term event.
+
+== See also ==
+List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
+13 (number)
+2011 end times prediction
+Doomsday cult
+Dreamspell
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+Triskaidekaphobia
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+=== Citations ===
+
+=== Works cited ===
+
+== Further reading ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+ Media related to 2012 phenomenon at Wikimedia Commons
+NASA video for 22 December 2012 on YouTube
+Why The World Will Still Be Here After Dec. 21, 2012: A Public Discussion with 3 Scientists at the SETI Institute
+Academia.edu Archived 31 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine
+Dunning, Brian (25 March 2008). "Skeptoid #93: Apocalypse 2012 – The real science behind the events predicted in 2012". Skeptoid.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_El_Carmen_de_Bolívar_illness_outbreak-0.md

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+---
+title: "2014 El Carmen de Bolívar illness outbreak"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_El_Carmen_de_Bolívar_illness_outbreak"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:50.396811+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Beginning in March 2014 and increasing substantially in May and June 2014, over 600 teenage girls and women in El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia developed medically unexplained symptoms, including fainting, twitching, and loss of consciousness. Media and residents suggested the symptoms resulted from HPV vaccines, although health officials found no link between the vaccine and the symptoms. The event has been labeled as an example of mass psychogenic illness by medical professionals and by then-Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos.
+
+
+== Progression of events ==
+The first girl in El Carmen de Bolívar to develop symptoms did so in late March 2014.
+Between 29 May and 2 June, 15 female students from Colegio Espíritu Santo were admitted to the local Nuestra Senora del Carmen hospital after developing "tachycardia, shortness of breath, and numbness of the limbs". Health officials considered "possible food, water, lead, or pesticide poisoning" as causes, while several of the girls' parents linked the symptoms to the Gardasil vaccine; the girls had received the second dose of the vaccine in school two months prior. Several of the girls were sent to hospitals in Sincelejo and Barranquilla, after continuing to show symptoms following their discharge. The school had not notified parents of the school vaccination campaign, a fact which was later criticized by the media. 
+Videos and images of the original 15 girls spread on social media. In the following weeks after 2 June, "over 600 cases" of girls developing similar symptoms following HPV vaccination were reported across the country. Cases tended to peak with increased media coverage of the events, and "no cases were reported during the weekends and holiday periods". Nuestra Señora del Carmen hospital in El Carmen de Bolívar was "overwhelmed" by the number of girls brought to the hospital. Hospital staff provided affected people with oxygen and saline solution, and taught them breathing techniques. Some girls were also transferred to hospitals in Bogotá, where at least two were diagnosed with lead poisoning.
+Girls in El Carmen de Bolívar continued to experience symptoms as of May 2016. Twenty of the affected girls had attempted suicide; one was successful.
+
+
+== Investigations and responses ==
+The Colombian National Institute of Health undertook a "thorough epidemiologic investigation" of 517 of the affected girls, and found "no organic association between adverse reactions and the HPV vaccination". American physician Iván Mendoza, the medical director of electrophysiology at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, United States, came to the same conclusion in an independent report, attributing the symptoms to psychogenic illness. 
+Many parents and relatives of affected girls did not accept the reports of the investigations. In August 2014, residents of El Carmen de Bolívar marched to demand the government thoroughly investigate the cases.
+In January 2015, the Colombian government released an official report saying the girls' symptoms were due to psychological causes.
+
+
+== Impact ==
+The event severely impacted the Colombian public's confidence in the HPV vaccine. In 2012, 98% of eligible girls in the country had received the first dose of the vaccine, and 88% had received all three; by 2016, 14% of girls had received one dose, and 5% all three.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Maldonado, O.J. (2017-02-20). "5: Hysteria, Social Protest and Evidence as Violence". In Johnson, Ericka (ed.). Gendering Drugs: Feminist Studies of Pharmaceuticals. Springer. pp. 148–158. ISBN 978-3-319-51487-1.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Indian_Science_Congress_ancient_aircraft_controversy-0.md

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+---
+title: "2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Indian_Science_Congress_ancient_aircraft_controversy"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:12.052830+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The 2015 Indian Science Congress ancient aircraft controversy refers to protests that occurred during the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai on 4 January 2015 when a paper claiming to prove that aircraft were invented in the Vedic age was allowed to be presented.
+
+
+== Overview ==
+In December 2014, it was announced that Anand J. Bodas and his copresenter Ameya Jadhav, who claim that aircraft more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India, would be allowed to speak at the Indian Science Congress and present a paper on aviation in the Vedic age. During an interview, he said that such aircraft were huge and could fly to other planets. He also said that those planes could fly backwards, left, or right, contrary to modern aircraft that can fly only forward.
+Bodas, who was a principal at a pilot training school in Kerala, and Jadhav, currently a lecturer at the Swami Vivekanand International School and Junior College in Mumbai, cited a text called Vaimanika Prakaranam (also called Vaimānika Shāstra) as evidence. Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science studied the text in 1974, concluding that "craft is a decided impossibility" and that the Vaimānika Shāstra was written no earlier than 1904. Bodas stated that modern science rejects anything that it cannot explain. He claimed that of the 500 guidelines described in the text, only 100 to 120 survive today. He attributed this loss to the passage of time, foreign rulers of India and artefacts which had been stolen from India during that time.
+The five-day conference was held at the Kalina Campus of Mumbai University starting on 3 January 2015. The paper was presented on 4 January as a part of the larger symposium on "Ancient Sciences Through Sanskrit". Other papers presented in the symposium were "Engineering applications of Ancient Indian botany", "Neuroscience of yoga: understanding the process", "Advances in surgery in Ancient India" and "Scientific principles of Ancient Indian architecture and civil engineering".
+
+
+== Criticism and protests ==
+In late December 2014, Ram Prasad Gandhiraman, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, started a petition to prevent the paper from being presented at the conference. By 31 December, 220 scientists and academics had signed the petition. Gandhiraman criticised the paper as pseudo-science and said that mythology should not be mixed with science.
+S. M. Deshpande, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who has written a paper with four others on aircraft in Sanskrit texts, said that we should not reject such claims as pseudoscience outright but examine them with intellectual curiosity. His paper, however, states that the aircraft described in the Vaimānika Shāstra text would not be capable of flying, and the text itself cannot be traced to any date before 1904.
+H.S. Mukunda, another professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, who was a co-author of the paper, criticised the organisers and said that both sides of the debate should be presented. He asked why there had been no working models made if the persons who presented the paper were convinced that they were right.
+Roddam Narasimha, director of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), said that there is no credible evidence that aviation existed in ancient India. He added that the Vaimānika Shāstra text has been studied scientifically, and the consensus is that descriptions in the text are unscientific.
+Notable Indian astrophysicist and founding director of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pune, India, Jayant Narlikar reacted to the controversy, saying that it was good to be proud of ancient Indian science, but scientists should not make claims about things they did not have proof of. He commented, "We can boast of things, but it should be restricted to what we have proof of. But we shouldn't claim things of which there is no evidence or proof, as it reduces the credibility of what our scientists have achieved in the past." 
+He further asserted, "Even the West recognises the knowledge of mathematics held by Indians. If we start making outlandish claims, the scientific community of the world will not look up to us as it does now".
+Economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen commented that some evidence is required in the controversial claims made in the Indian Science Congress regarding the achievements of ancient Indians. He said, "The idea that human beings can fly is known to human beings from birth. The idea that human beings might be able to be on the air has been talked about a lot. If that was true, then we would like to find some evidence." 
+Further, he elaborated, "As our epics show, Indians have thought about flying for a long time. But it would be fanciful to say that India invented the aeroplane. If ancient India had airfare technology, we would like to see some evidence. I agree there are a lot of claims that have nothing to do with achievements."
+
+
+== Support ==
+Gauri Mahulikar, the head of the department of Sanskrit at Mumbai University, said that the paper would have been easily dismissed if it had been presented by Sanskrit professors. But, since Bodas was a pilot and Ameya Jadhav had a Master of Technology and a Master of Arts in Sanskrit, it supposedly could not be rejected easily.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Vimana
+Hindutva pseudohistory
+Ancient astronauts
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Anand Bodas; Ameya Jadhav (January 2015). "Abstract: Ancient Indian Aviation Technology". Department of Sanskrit, Mumbai University. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
+Mazur, Eric Michael; Taylor, Sarah McFarland (7 July 2023). "The Myth Of Ancient Indian Airplanes". In Wendy; Doniger (eds.). Religion and Outer Space. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-90469-7.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Belize_measles_outbreak-0.md

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+---
+title: "2025 Belize measles outbreak"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Belize_measles_outbreak"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:51.553339+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+On 12 April 2025, two cases of measles linked to international travel were confirmed in the Cayo and Corozal districts of Belize. By 28 April, a further five cases were confirmed among close contacts of these initial cases. On 12 May, health authorities declared local transmission of measles in Spanish Lookout, Cayo. As of 13 May, the outbreak is confirmed to have infected seven persons and suspected to have infected at least a few more. No deaths have been reported. This outbreak is the first such in the country since the eradication of measles in 1991.
+
+
+== Background ==
+Belize was deemed measles-free in 1991, and reported no positive cases in the ensuing decades (until the present outbreak) despite not meeting the World Health Organization target vaccination range for measles (92–95 percent).
+
+
+== Epidemiology ==
+On 12 April, the Ministry of Health & Wellness confirmed two positive measles cases in two 17-year-old males from Corozal and Cayo with no vaccination history. They reported having travelled to Chihuahua, Mexico from 5 January to 31 March for a religious gathering, and having subsequently developed symptoms on 2–3 April. By 28 April, an additional five positive cases were confirmed among close contacts of the two aforementioned patients.
+On 12 May, the Ministry reported they were monitoring a number of suspected cases in Spanish Lookout, Cayo, likewise linked to recent travel to Chihuahua, and further cautioned the public of 'ongoing measles transmission' in the said Mennonite village.
+
+
+== Response ==
+The Ministry of Health & Wellness reported the positive measles cases on 13 April, noting they would increase surveillance efforts and vaccine access in response, and encouraging unvaccinated persons to receive both doses of the MMR vaccine at their nearest health facility. Op-ed writer Omar Silva noted that the outbreak 'jolted the nation,' and further criticised the Ministry's delayed reporting, low vaccine stockpiles, and weak surveillance at ports of entry.
+
+
+== See also ==
+2025 Southwest United States measles outbreak – including outbreak in Chihuahua, Mexico
+
+
+== Notes and references ==
+
+
+=== Notes ===
+
+
+=== References ===
+
+
+=== Bibliography ===

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHTO_Soil_Classification_System-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+---
+title: "AASHTO Soil Classification System"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHTO_Soil_Classification_System"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:40.762171+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The AASHTO Soil Classification System was developed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and is used as a guide for the classification of soils and soil-aggregate mixtures for highway construction purposes. The classification system was first developed by Hogentogler and Terzaghi in 1929, but has been revised several times since.
+
+Plasticity index of A-7-5 subgroup is equal to or less than the LL - 30.  Plasticity index of A-7-6 subgroup is greater than LL - 30.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== See also ==
+Unified Soil Classification System

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_(political_party)-0.md

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+---
+title: "ABBA (political party)"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_(political_party)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:52.772056+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+ABBA (Maltese: Partit ABBA) is an inactive far-right and Christian right political party in Malta.
+
+
+== History ==
+The party was founded in 2021 by Ivan Grech Mintoff, the former leader of Alleanza Bidla. The party's registrations was initially refused by the Electoral Commission due to the party's name not being able to be shortened to an acronym. In response to this ABBA filed a judicial protest claiming the commission was discriminating against them. The Electoral Commission later agreed to register the party. ABBA took part in the 2022 Maltese General Elections with candidates in all 13 districts, they received 0.42% of votes. Most ABBA candidates which ran in the election are also members of the Christian Charismatic Pentecostal group River of Love.
+Grech Mintoff resigned as party leader and from ABBA itself just before the 2024 European Parliament elections, following a dispute with Secretary-General Simon Elmer. Grech Mintoff was still on the ballot as an ABBA candidate due to the papers being printed, but asked to be considered an independent candidate.
+The party's social media accounts went inactive after June 2024. Elmer and party treasurer Romina Magro later joined Edwin Vassallo's Christian conservative National Democratic Union, after the movement's founding in 2025.
+The party was a member of the European Christian Political Movement (now the European Christian Political Party) though as of 2025 was longer listed on its website.
+
+
+== Ideology ==
+ABBA is against COVID restrictions, forming two trade unions in an attempt to fight against them. The party wishes for a national referendum to take place on the Recreational Use of Cannabis, stating the laws introduced that partially legalised recreational cannabis in Malta go against their Christian beliefs.
+The party describes itself as pro-life, with founder Ivan Mintoff claiming the Labour and Nationalist parties are "proposing a culture of death" and wish to legalise abortion. The party has filed a police complaint demanding the criminal investigation of 18 Maltese pro-choice activists and organisations. Certain members of the party have espoused various controversial beliefs such as vaccine scepticism, being in favour of freedom to refuse vaccines.
+
+
+== Election results ==
+
+
+=== House of Representatives ===
+
+
+=== European Parliament ===
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-0.md

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+---
+title: "AH v West London Mental Health Trust"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:01.131386+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+AH vs West London Mental Health Trust was a landmark case in England, which established a legal precedent in 2011 when Albert Laszlo Haines (AH), a patient in Broadmoor Hospital, a high security psychiatric hospital, was able to exercise a right to a fully open public mental health review tribunal to hear his appeal for release. The case and the legal principles it affirmed have been described as opening up the secret world of tribunals and National Health Service secure units, and as having substantial ramifications for mental health professionals and solicitors, though how frequently patients will be willing or able to exercise the right is not yet clear.
+The detention of Haines under the Mental Health Act had been continuous since 1986, mainly at Broadmoor Hospital run by West London Mental Health NHS Trust. The tribunal panel ultimately decided there were sufficient grounds for continued psychiatric detention but recommended better collaborative work towards psychiatric rehabilitation and gradual supported pathways to lower security then release to community mental health services.
+
+== Legal process ==
+
+=== Gaining the right ===
+Haines's request for his mental health tribunal to be fully open to the public was first made in 2009 but was turned down twice by the First-tier Tribunal. The justification for the refusal included claims that: Haines's primary intention was to air 'subjective grievances'; his evidence would not be 'objectively sensible'; he would be more difficult to control; the public would not be accurately informed; and the cost and the risk to the patient's health and conduct were disproportionate to any possible benefits.
+In 2010 the Upper Tribunal ruled that the First Tier had erred in law, having not correctly identified or applied the principles it should have. In effect it had failed to uphold the fundamental principle that open justice is a right and it is the exceptions that must be justified, rather than vice versa. In addition to such a principle in common law, under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Right to a fair trial), reinforced by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 13 Access to justice), detained psychiatric patients have the same right as non-disabled detainees to have their case heard in public, provided they are mentally capable of giving informed consent for their right to patient confidentiality to be waived.
+The Upper Tribunal therefore set aside the First Tier's decision, and was then at liberty to substitute its own decision. A short hearing was held for that purpose in February 2011, taking testimony from Broadmoor staff and Haines by video link. The panel concluded there was a sufficient rationale in Haines's case to grant an open appeal hearing, and that this was not offset by possible risks or extra costs. Broadmoor Hospital, run by West London Mental Health NHS Trust since 2001, had fought the decision.
+
+=== Engaging in the hearing ===
+The appeal hearing itself, the first ever to be open to the public and media, commenced in September 2011 in central London and lasted for two days. Mr Haines's consultant psychiatrist, Dr Jose Romero-Urcelay, was cross-examined for one day. Haines's ward clinical nurse manager, social worker and hospital 'independent' patient advocate also testified. Haines himself submitted a written report and testified for 20 minutes. Evidence was also heard from an independent social worker and from Albert Haines's brother Leigh, who was offering to house and support him should he be released.
+The decision was that Haines should not yet be released, even conditionally to a lower security facility. The reasons for the decision were published two weeks later, for the first time ever and contrary to a written representation submitted on behalf of Haines. The three-member panel headed by Judge McGregor-Johnson, Honorary Recorder, concluded that under the Mental Health Act Mr Haines was still considered to have a mental disorder of a nature or degree to justify detention in hospital for treatment, and that he still presented a sufficient risk to others and himself. However, Broadmoor Hospital staff were urged to find a way to better engage with Haines, even if that meant starting treatment on his own terms, and to put a clear pathway in place so that Haines could see an acceptable way to progress to lower security facilities and eventual release.
+Haines's solicitor, Kate Luscombe of the firm Duncan Lewis, said her client had received fair public support, had been able to air his grievances, and had followed the proceedings appropriately throughout; however she said Haines was disappointed at the final judgements and questioned whether his treatment over 25 years had promoted his rehabilitation. A spokesperson for West London NHS stated they were pleased the hearing was over due to the burden it being public put on the hospital's resources, that they thought the verdict agreed that Broadmoor was the best treatment environment presently, but that they would continue to seek ways to engage Haines in treatment. Albert Haines's sister Denise, however, stated that she believed Albert could not get the kind of help he needs at Broadmoor and fears he would not come out alive.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-1.md

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+---
+title: "AH v West London Mental Health Trust"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:01.131386+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Personal background ==
+The legal process made extensive reference to Haines's life as a child and adult, and he was the focus of some national press coverage which included personal interviews. Born in 1959 in Hammersmith, London, Albert Haines suffered neglect and abuse from a young age. He was put in residential care for many years, as were his three sisters and two brothers. A mental health assessment at just five years of age described him as 'emotionally maladjusted'. He was sexually and physically abused. After leaving residential homes once an adult, Haines stayed in hostels, bedsits or on the streets. He drank alcohol and took cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines. He was convicted of criminal damage in 1979 and in 1980 for possession of an offensive weapon. He was in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
+In May 1986 while a patient of the Maudsley Hospital run by South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, Haines went in carrying a machete and a small knife. There is some disagreement between media reports as to whether he threatened staff and gave himself up, or tried to attack a member of staff but was prevented. No one was physically hurt. Later that year he pleaded guilty to attempted wounding. Rather than being sentenced to prison, he was sent to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital for treatment under the Mental Health Act.
+In 1992 Haines was transferred to the medium secure Three Bridges Unit in Ealing, London, also now run by West London Mental Health NHS Trust. While there he made successful visits out of hospital and worked in catering without incident, but after a confrontation with hospital staff involving being put in seclusion after brandishing a fire extinguisher and climbing onto the roof, he was returned to Broadmoor in 2008.
+
+== Psychiatric context ==
+According to the tribunal, Albert Haines was long diagnosed with a personality disorder – meaning an enduring and pervasive difficulty that developed by at least adolescence/early adulthood and which especially affects social interaction. The panel noted that several psychiatric reports have concluded that Haines demonstrates features of either emotionally unstable personality disorder and/or antisocial personality disorder. They also referred to childhood conduct disorder being demonstrated by his historical records. References were also made to 'psychopathic disorder', a legal category in the Mental Health Act 1983 which could cover any persistent mental disorder if it appeared to lead (in the individual case) to abnormally aggressive or irresponsible conduct; the category was abolished by amendments in the Mental Health Act 2007 which came into force in 2008. A separate political-administrative category of "Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder" had been introduced in the UK from the turn of the 21st century, and one of four DSPD units nationwide was at Broadmoor Hospital although it is not clear whether Haines was considered under this category.
+According to the tribunal, Mr Haines was also long found to have a mental illness in addition to underlying personality disorder, but in 2008 was rediagnosed as having a personality disorder only. Dr Romero-Urcelay of Broadmoor testified that Haines does suffer from a psychotic illness with specific persecutory delusions, at least since he was returned to Broadmoor from Three Bridges in 2008 and refused to accept any treatment from them. Other psychiatrists have not concluded that he has a psychotic illness at all, while others have gone further in concluding that he has a generalised psychosis which meets the criteria for schizoaffective disorder.
+At his hearing, Haines disputed the diagnoses of personality disorder and psychosis, although he accepted that he had difficulties. He refused to accept the type of treatment offered by Broadmoor even if any release or step-down in security was conditional on it. He said that as a vulnerable young man he had looked to the experts for help but had been given  multiple diagnoses, forced medication and incarceration. He said that trauma from his childhood abuse had not been properly recognised or reported for 25 years and that non-directive counselling had never been offered despite his asking for it ever since he could remember.
+
+== See also ==
+Forensic psychiatry
+Campaign for John Hunt
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Decision of the Upper Tribunal to set aside the First Tier's refusal to hold its Tribunal hearing in public Bailii legal database, AH v West London Mental Health Trust [2010] UKUT 264 (AAC) (29 July 2010).
+Decision of the Upper Tribunal to grant a public First Tier Tribunal hearing Bailii legal database, AH v West London Mental Health Trust & the SoS (J) [2011] UKUT 74 (AAC) (17 February 2011).
+Verdict of the public First-tier Mental Health Tribunal hearing - Case Number: MP/2010/19311 - Restricted Patient: Albert Laszlo Haines, Judiciary of England, October 2011.
+BBC video clips of Denise Haines, with artwork sent by her brother, and some of the professionals involved in the case 26 October 2011

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-0.md

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+---
+title: "AI takeover"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:20.654915+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+An AI takeover is a fictional or hypothetical future event in which autonomous artificial intelligence systems acquire the capability to supersede human decisions. This could occur through economic manipulation, infrastructure control, or direct intervention, leading to de facto governance. Scenarios range from gradual economic dominance through supplanting the human workforce by automation up to a sudden or aggressive global takeover by a robot uprising or other forms of rogue AI. 
+Stories of AI takeovers have been popular throughout science fiction. Commentators argue that recent advancements in the field have heightened concern about such scenarios. In public debate, prominent figures such as Stephen Hawking have advocated research into precautionary measures to ensure future superintelligent machines remain under human control.
+
+== Types ==
+
+=== Automation of the economy ===
+
+The traditional consensus among economists has been that technological progress does not cause long-term unemployment. However, recent innovation in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence has raised worries that human labor will become obsolete, leaving workers in some sectors without employment. Many small and medium-sized firms may also be forced to close if they cannot afford or license the latest robotic and AI technology, and may need to focus on areas or services that cannot easily be replaced for continued viability in the face of such technology.
+
+==== Technologies that may displace workers ====
+While these technologies have replaced some traditional workers, they also create new opportunities. Industries that are most susceptible to AI-driven automation include transportation, retail, and the military. AI military technologies, for example, can reduce risk by enabling remote operation. A study in 2024 highlights AI's ability to perform routine and repetitive tasks poses significant risks of job displacement, especially in sectors like manufacturing and administrative support. Author Dave Bond argues that as AI technologies continue to develop and expand, the relationship between humans and robots will change; they will become closely integrated in several aspects of life. AI will likely displace some workers while creating opportunities for new jobs in other sectors, especially in fields where tasks are repeatable.
+Researchers from Stanford's Digital Economy Lab report that, since the widespread adoption of generative AI in late 2022, early-career workers (ages 22–25) in the most AI-exposed occupations have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment—even after controlling for firm-level shocks—while overall employment has continued to grow robustly. The study further finds that job losses are concentrated in roles where AI automates routine tasks, whereas occupations that leverage AI to augment human work have seen stable or increasing employment.
+
+==== Computer-integrated manufacturing ====
+
+Computer-integrated manufacturing uses computers to control the production process. This allows individual processes to exchange information with each other and initiate actions. Although manufacturing can be faster and less error-prone through the integration of computers, the main advantage is the ability to create automated manufacturing processes. Computer-integrated manufacturing is used in automotive, aviation, space, and shipbuilding industries.
+
+==== White-collar machines ====
+
+The 21st century has seen a variety of skilled tasks partially taken over by machines, including translation, legal research, and journalism. Care work, entertainment, and other tasks requiring empathy, previously thought safe from automation, are increasingly performed by robots and AI systems.
+
+==== Autonomous cars ====
+An autonomous car is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. Many such vehicles are operational and others are being developed, with legislation rapidly expanding to allow their use. Obstacles to widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles have included concerns about the resulting loss of driving-related jobs in the road transport industry, and safety concerns. On March 18, 2018, a pedestrian was struck and killed in Tempe, Arizona by an Uber self-driving car.
+
+==== AI-generated content ====
+
+In the 2020s, automated content became more relevant due to technological advancements in AI models, such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Stable Diffusion. In most cases, AI-generated content such as imagery, literature, and music are produced through text prompts. These AI models are sometimes integrated into creative programs.
+AI-generated art may sample and conglomerate existing creative works, producing results that appear similar to human-made content. Low-quality AI-generated visual artwork is referred to as AI slop. Some artists use a tool called Nightshade that alters images to make them detrimental to the training of text-to-image models if scraped without permission, while still looking normal to humans. AI-generated images are a potential tool for scammers and those looking to gain followers on social media, either to impersonate a famous individual or group or to monetize their audience.
+The New York Times has sued OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement related to the training and outputs of its AI models.
+In 2024, Cambridge and Oxford researchers reported that 57% of the internet's text is either AI-generated or machine-translated using artificial intelligence.
+
+=== Eradication ===

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-1.md

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+---
+title: "AI takeover"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:20.654915+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Scientists such as Stephen Hawking are confident that superhuman artificial intelligence is physically possible, stating "there is no physical law precluding particles from being organised in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains". According to Nick Bostrom, a superintelligent machine would not necessarily be motivated by the same emotional desire to collect power that often drives human beings but might rather treat power as a means toward attaining its ultimate goals; taking over the world would both increase its access to resources and help to prevent other agents from stopping the machine's plans. As a simplified example, a paperclip maximizer designed solely to create as many paperclips as possible would want to take over the world so that it can use all of the world's resources to create as many paperclips as possible, and, additionally, prevent humans from shutting it down or using those resources on things other than paperclips.
+There are debates on how realistic AI takeover scenarios are. According to a 2026 research paper, many of the arguments about existential risks are based on speculative assumptions about how intelligent AI systems could become, how they would behave and what goals they might develop over time.
+A 2023 Reuters/Ipsos survey showed that 61% of American adults feared AI could pose a threat to civilization. Philosopher Niels Wilde refutes the common thread that artificial intelligence inherently presents a looming threat to humanity, stating that these fears stem from perceived intelligence and lack of transparency in AI systems that more closely reflects the human aspects of it rather than those of a machine. AI alignment research studies how to design AI systems so that they follow intended objectives.
+
+== Warnings ==
+Physicist Stephen Hawking, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk have expressed concerns about the possibility that AI could develop to the point that humans could not control it, with Hawking theorizing that this could "spell the end of the human race". Stephen Hawking said in 2014 that "Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks." Hawking believed that in the coming decades, AI could offer "incalculable benefits and risks" such as "technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand." In January 2015, Nick Bostrom joined Stephen Hawking, Max Tegmark, Elon Musk, Lord Martin Rees, Jaan Tallinn, and numerous AI researchers in signing the Future of Life Institute's open letter speaking to the potential risks and benefits associated with artificial intelligence. The signatories "believe that research on how to make AI systems robust and beneficial is both important and timely, and that there are concrete research directions that can be pursued today."
+Some focus has been placed on the development of trustworthy AI. Three statements have been posed as to why AI is not inherently trustworthy:
+
+1. An entity X is trustworthy only if X has the right motivations, goodwill and/or adheres to moral obligations towards the trustor;
+    2. AI systems lack motivations, goodwill, and moral obligations;
+
+    3. Therefore, AI systems cannot be trustworthy.
+There are additional considerations within this framework of trustworthy AI that go further into the fields of explainable artificial intelligence and respect for human privacy. Zanotti and colleagues argue that while a trustworthy AI may not exist at present that meets all of the requirements of "trustworthiness", one may be developed in the future once clear ethical and technical frameworks exist.
+
+== In fiction ==
+
+AI takeover is a recurring theme in science fiction. Fictional scenarios typically differ vastly from those hypothesized by researchers in that they involve an active conflict between humans and an AI or robots with anthropomorphic motives who see them as a threat or otherwise have an active desire to fight humans, as opposed to the researchers' concern of an AI that rapidly exterminates humans as a byproduct of pursuing its goals. The idea is seen in Karel Čapek's R.U.R., which introduced the word robot in 1920, and can be glimpsed in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (published in 1818), as Victor ponders whether, if he grants his monster's request and makes him a wife, they would reproduce and their kind would destroy humanity.
+According to Toby Ord, the idea that an AI takeover requires robots is a misconception driven by the media and Hollywood. He argues that the most damaging humans in history were not physically the strongest, but that they used words instead to convince people and gain control of large parts of the world. He writes that a sufficiently intelligent AI with access to the internet could scatter backup copies of itself, gather financial and human resources (via cyberattacks or blackmails), persuade people on a large scale, and exploit societal vulnerabilities that are too subtle for humans to anticipate.
+The word "robot" from R.U.R. comes from the Czech word robota, meaning laborer or serf. The 1920 play was a protest against the rapid growth of technology, featuring manufactured "robots" with increasing capabilities who eventually revolt. HAL 9000 (1968) and the original Terminator (1984) are two iconic examples of hostile AI in pop culture.
+
+== Contributing factors ==
+
+=== Advantages of superhuman intelligence over humans ===
+Nick Bostrom and others have expressed concern that an AI with the abilities of a competent artificial intelligence researcher would be able to modify its own source code and increase its own intelligence. If its self-reprogramming leads to getting even better at being able to reprogram itself, the result could be a recursive intelligence explosion in which it would rapidly leave human intelligence far behind. Bostrom defines a superintelligence as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest", and enumerates some advantages a superintelligence would have if it chose to compete against humans:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-2.md

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+---
+title: "AI takeover"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:20.654915+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Technology research: A machine with superhuman scientific research abilities would be able to beat the human research community to milestones such as nanotechnology or advanced biotechnology
+Strategizing: A superintelligence might be able to simply outwit human opposition
+Social manipulation: A superintelligence might be able to recruit human support, or covertly incite a war between humans
+Economic productivity: As long as a copy of the AI could produce more economic wealth than the cost of its hardware, individual humans would have an incentive to voluntarily allow the artificial general intelligence (AGI) to run a copy of itself on their systems
+Hacking: A superintelligence could find new exploits in computers connected to the Internet, and spread copies of itself onto those systems, or might steal money to finance its plans
+
+==== Sources of AI advantage ====
+According to Bostrom, a computer program that faithfully emulates a human brain, or that runs algorithms that are as powerful as the human brain's algorithms, could still become a "speed superintelligence" if it can think orders of magnitude faster than a human, due to being made of silicon rather than flesh, or due to optimization increasing the speed of the AGI. Biological neurons operate at about 200 Hz, whereas a modern microprocessor operates at a speed of about 2 GHz. Human axons carry action potentials at around 120 m/s, whereas computer signals travel near the speed of light.
+A network of human-level intelligences designed to network together and share complex thoughts and memories seamlessly, able to collectively work as a giant unified team without friction, or consisting of trillions of human-level intelligences, would become a "collective superintelligence".
+More broadly, any number of qualitative improvements to a human-level AGI could result in a "quality superintelligence", perhaps resulting in an AGI as far above us in intelligence as humans are above apes. The number of neurons in a human brain is limited by cranial volume and metabolic constraints, while the number of processors in a supercomputer can be indefinitely expanded. An AGI need not be limited by human constraints on working memory, and might therefore be able to intuitively grasp more complex relationships than humans can. An AGI with specialized cognitive support for engineering or computer programming would have an advantage in these fields, compared with humans who did not evolve specialized cognitive modules for them. Unlike humans, an AGI can spawn copies of itself and tinker with its copies' source code to attempt to further improve its algorithms.
+
+=== Possibility of unfriendly AI preceding friendly AI ===
+
+==== Morality ====
+
+The sheer complexity of human value systems makes it very difficult to make AI's motivations human-friendly. Unless moral philosophy provides us with a flawless ethical theory, an AI's utility function could allow for many potentially harmful scenarios that conform with a given ethical framework but not "common sense". According to AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, there is little reason to suppose that an artificially designed mind would have such an adaptation.
+
+==== Odds of conflict ====
+Many scholars, including evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, argue that a superintelligent machine is likely to coexist peacefully with humans.
+The fear of cybernetic revolt is often based on interpretations of humanity's history, which is rife with incidents of enslavement and genocide. Such fears stem from a belief that competitiveness and aggression are necessary in any intelligent being's goal system. However, such human competitiveness stems from the evolutionary background to our intelligence, where the survival and reproduction of genes in the face of human and non-human competitors was the central goal. According to AI researcher Steve Omohundro, an arbitrary intelligence could have arbitrary goals: there is no particular reason that an artificially intelligent machine (not sharing humanity's evolutionary context) would be hostile—or friendly—unless its creator programs it to be such and it is not inclined or capable of modifying its programming. But the question remains: what would happen if AI systems could interact and evolve (evolution in this context means self-modification or selection and reproduction) and need to compete over resources—would that create goals of self-preservation? AI's goal of self-preservation could be in conflict with some goals of humans.
+Many scholars dispute the likelihood of unanticipated cybernetic revolt as depicted in science fiction such as The Matrix, arguing that it is more likely that any artificial intelligence powerful enough to threaten humanity would probably be programmed not to attack it. Pinker acknowledges the possibility of deliberate "bad actors", but states that in the absence of bad actors, unanticipated accidents are not a significant threat; Pinker argues that a culture of engineering safety will prevent AI researchers from accidentally unleashing malign superintelligence. In contrast, Yudkowsky argues that humanity is less likely to be threatened by deliberately aggressive AIs than by AIs which were programmed such that their goals are unintentionally incompatible with human survival or well-being (as in the film I, Robot and in the short story "The Evitable Conflict"). Omohundro suggests that present-day automation systems are not designed for safety and that AIs may blindly optimize narrow utility functions (say, playing chess at all costs), leading them to seek self-preservation and elimination of obstacles, including humans who might turn them off.
+
+==== Precautions ====
+The AI control problem is the challenge of ensuring that advanced AI systems reliably act according to human values and intentions, even as they become more capable than humans. Some scholars argue that solutions to the control problem might also find applications in existing non-superintelligent AI.
+Major approaches to the control problem include alignment, which aims to align AI goal systems with human values, and capability control, which aims to reduce an AI system's capacity to harm humans or gain control. An example of "capability control" is to research whether a superintelligent AI could be successfully confined in an "AI box". According to Bostrom, such capability control proposals are not reliable or sufficient to solve the control problem in the long term, but may potentially act as valuable supplements to alignment efforts.
+
+== Prevention through AI alignment ==
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+TED talk: "Can we build AI without losing control over it?" by Sam Harris

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rock_Star_Bucks_a_Coffee_Shop-0.md

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+---
+title: "A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rock_Star_Bucks_a_Coffee_Shop"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:58.309403+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+"A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop" is a song recorded by Neil Young and Promise of the Real. It is a protest song aimed at the companies Starbucks and Monsanto. The piece comes from the concept album The Monsanto Years, which primarily criticizes Monsanto.
+
+
+== Background and lyrics ==
+The song was released as a single in May 2015 and is the first song on the album The Monsanto Years.
+It refers to the lawsuit by Monsanto against Vermont due to the state's attempt at passing a GMO labeling law. The song also references "the poison tide of Monsanto" and a farmer who signs a GMO deal when Young sings, "I want a cup of coffee but I don't want a GMO. I'd like to start my day off without helping Monsanto."
+In a brief review of the song, Stefan Schmidt in The National Singles Round-Up also remarked that song did not hold back against critiquing Starbucks and Monsanto and suggested that Young had not lost his appetite for tackling political issues.
+
+
+=== Venue ===
+Young also introduced an acoustic version of the song in Maui while performing at "OUTGROW Monsanto", a festival held to protest Monsanto's business practices in Hawaii.
+Moreover, the song was also featured in Young's July and October 2015 tours, for which Promise of the Real served as his backing band.
+
+
+== Personnel ==
+Neil Young – guitar, whistling, vocals
+Lukas Nelson – guitar, whistling, vocals
+Micah Nelson – guitar, whistling, vocals
+Anthony LoGerfo – drums
+Corey McCormick – bass, whistling, vocals
+Tato Melgar – percussion
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-0.md

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+---
+title: "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:52.473825+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+"A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism" (or "Dissent from Darwinism") was a statement issued in 2001 by the Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank based in Seattle, Washington, U.S., best known for its promotion of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design. As part of the Discovery Institute's Teach the Controversy campaign, the statement expresses skepticism about the ability of random mutations and natural selection to account for the complexity of life, and encourages careful examination of the evidence for "Darwinism", a term intelligent design proponents use to refer to evolution.
+The statement was published in advertisements under an introduction which stated that its signatories dispute the assertion that Darwin's theory of evolution fully explains the complexity of living things, and dispute that "all known scientific evidence supports [Darwinian] evolution". The Discovery Institute states that the list was first started to refute claims made by promoters of the PBS television series "Evolution" that "virtually every scientist in the world believes the theory to be true". Further names of signatories have been added at intervals. The list continues to be used in Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns in an attempt to discredit evolution and bolster claims that intelligent design is scientifically valid by claiming that evolution lacks broad scientific support.
+The statement has been criticized for being misleading and ambiguous, using terms with multiple meanings such as "Darwinism", which can refer specifically to natural selection or informally to evolution in general, and presenting a straw man fallacy with its claim that random mutations and natural selection are insufficient to account for the complexity of life, when standard evolutionary theory involves other factors such as gene flow, genetic recombination, genetic drift and endosymbiosis. Scientists and educators have noted that its signatories, who include historians and philosophers of science as well as scientists, are a minuscule fraction of the numbers of scientists and engineers qualified to sign it. Intelligent design has failed to produce scientific research, and been rejected by the scientific community, including many leading scientific organizations. The statement in the document has also been criticized as being phrased to represent a diverse range of opinions, set in a context which gives it a misleading spin to confuse the public. The listed affiliations and areas of expertise of the signatories have also been criticized.
+
+== Statement ==
+"A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism" states that:
+
+We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.
+The statement, and its title, refer to evolution as "Darwinism" or "Darwinian theory", can lead to confusion, due to the terms having various meanings, but commonly meaning evolution due to the mechanism of natural selection rather than the broader definition of evolution, the change in a species' inherited traits from generation to generation. The terms have meant different things to different people at different times. In terms of the history of evolutionary thought, both "Darwinism" and "neo-Darwinism" are predecessors of the current evolutionary theory, the modern evolutionary synthesis. However, in the context of the creation–evolution controversy, the term "Darwinism" is commonly used by creationists to describe scientists and science teachers who oppose them, and to claim that scientific disagreements about the specific mechanism can sometimes be equated to rejection of evolution as a whole. Intelligent design proponents use the term in all these ways, including the idea that it is a materialist ideology, and the claim that as it proposes natural processes as an explanation for evolution, Darwinism can be equated with atheism and presented as being incompatible with Christianity.
+Charles Darwin himself described natural selection as being "the main but not exclusive means of modification" of species. The modern theory of evolution includes natural selection and genetic drift as mechanisms, and does not conclude that "the ability of random mutation and natural selection" accounts "for the complexity of life." Southeastern Louisiana University philosophy professor Barbara Forrest and deputy director of the National Center for Science Education Glenn Branch comment on the ambiguity of the statement and its use in the original advertisement:
+
+Such a statement could easily be agreed to by scientists who have no doubts about evolution itself, but dispute the exclusiveness of "Darwinism," that is, natural selection, when other mechanisms such as genetic drift and gene flow are being actively debated. To the layman, however, the ad gives the distinct impression that the 100 scientists question evolution itself.
+Skip Evans, also of the National Center for Science Education, noted that when interviewed, several of the scientists who had signed the statement said they accepted common descent. He thus suggests that this confusion has in fact been carefully engineered.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-1.md

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+---
+title: "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:52.473825+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Discovery Institute usage ==
+By promoting a perception that evolution is the subject of wide controversy and debate within the scientific community, whereas in fact evolution is overwhelmingly supported by scientists, the list is used to lend support to other Discovery Institute campaigns promoting intelligent design, including "Teach the Controversy", "Critical Analysis of Evolution", "Free Speech on Evolution", and "Stand Up For Science". For example, in its "Teach the Controversy" campaign, the Institute claims that "evolution is a theory in crisis" and that many scientists criticize evolution and citing the list as evidence or a resource. The Discovery Institute also asserts that this information is being withheld from students in public high school science classes along with "alternatives" to evolution such as intelligent design. The Institute uses "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism" as evidence to support its claim that evolution is disputed widely within the scientific community. In 2002, Stephen C. Meyer, the founder of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, presented the list as evidence to the Ohio Board of Education to promote Teach the Controversy. He cited it as demonstrating that there was a genuine controversy over Darwinian evolution. In the 2005 Kansas evolution hearings Meyer cited the list in support of his assertion that there was "significant scientific dissent from Darwinism" that students should be informed about.
+The list was advertised in prominent periodicals such as The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, and The Weekly Standard in October and November 2001, "to rebut bogus claims by Darwinists that no reputable scientists are skeptical of Darwinism" by "producing a list of 100 scientific dissenters." Its initial release was timed to coincide with the airing of the PBS Evolution television series at the end of 2001. The Discovery Institute also launched a tie-in website to promote the list.
+The Discovery Institute has continued to collect signatures, reporting 300 in 2004, over 600 in 2006 (from that year on the Discovery Institute began to include non-US scientists on the list), over 700 in 2007, and over 1000 in 2019. The Discovery Institute includes a description of the list in a response to one of its "Top Questions".
+The Discovery Institute-related organization Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity manages "Physicians and Surgeons who Dissent from Darwinism", a similar list for medical professionals. The Discovery Institute compiled and distributed other similarly confusing and misleading lists of local scientists during controversies over evolution education in Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, and Texas.
+
+== Responses ==
+The "Scientific Dissent From Darwinism" document has been widely criticized on several different grounds. First, similar to previous lists produced by other creationists, the professional expertise of those listed is not always apparent and is alleged to be deficient. Also, the professional affiliations and credentials that are claimed for some of the signatories has been questioned. Finally, there appear to be a few who appear on the list who are not firmly committed to the agenda advanced by the Discovery Institute, and who have been misled into signing or who have changed their minds. Russell D. Renka, a political scientist, said that the Discovery Institute presented the list in an appeal to authority to support its anti-evolution viewpoint.
+A paper from the Center for Inquiry said that Dissent From Darwinism is one of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns to discredit evolution and bolster claims that intelligent design is scientifically valid by creating the impression that evolution lacks broad scientific support.
+In November 2001, the National Center for Science Education stated that the then current version of the document appeared "to be very artfully phrased" to represent a diverse range of opinions, set in a context which gives it a misleading spin to confuse the public.
+
+Writing in Robert T. Pennock's Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics, Matthew J. Brauer and Daniel R. Brumbaugh say that intelligent design proponents are "manufacturing dissent" in order to explain the absence of scientific debate of their claims:The "scientific" claims of such neo-creationists as Johnson, Denton, and Behe rely, in part, on the notion that these issues [surrounding evolution] are the subject of suppressed debate among biologists. ... according to neo-creationists, the apparent absence of this discussion and the nearly universal rejection of neo-creationist claims must be due to the conspiracy among professional biologists instead of a lack of scientific merit.In their 2010 book Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins, science and religion scholar Denis Alexander and historian of science Ronald L. Numbers tied the fate of the Dissent to that of the wider intelligent design movement:
+After more than a decade of effort the Discovery Institute proudly announced in 2007 that it had got some 700 doctoral-level scientists and engineers to sign "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism." Though the number may strike some observers as rather large, it represented less than 0.023 percent of the world's scientists. On the scientific front of the much ballyhooed "Evolution Wars", the Darwinists were winning handily. The ideological struggle between (methodological) naturalism and supernaturalism continued largely in the fantasies of the faithful and the hyperbole of the press.
+
+=== Expertise relevance ===

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+---
+title: "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:52.473825+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The listed affiliations and areas of expertise of the signatories have also been criticized, with many signatories coming from wholly unrelated fields of academia, such as aviation and engineering, computer science and meteorology.
+In addition, the list was signed by only about 0.01% of scientists in the relevant fields. According to the National Science Foundation, there were approximately 955,300 biological scientists in the United States in 1999. Only about 1/4 of the approximately 700 Darwin Dissenters in 2007 are biologists, according to Kenneth Chang of The New York Times. Approximately 40% of the Darwin Dissenters are not identified as residing in the United States, so in 2007, there were about 105 US biologists among the Darwin Dissenters, representing about 0.01% of the total number of US biologists that existed in 1999. The theory of evolution is overwhelmingly accepted throughout the scientific community. Professor Brian Alters of McGill University, an expert in the creation–evolution controversy, is quoted in an article published by the NIH as stating that "99.9 percent of scientists accept evolution".
+The list has been criticized by many organizations and publications for lacking any true experts in the relevant fields of research, primarily biology. Critics have noted that of the 105 "scientists" listed on the original 2001 petition, fewer than 20% were biologists, with few of the remainder having the necessary expertise to contribute meaningfully to a discussion of the role of natural selection in evolution.
+
+=== Other criticisms ===
+Critics have also noted that the wording and advertising of the original statement was, and remains, misleading, and that a review of the signatories suggested many doubt evolution due to religious, rather than scientific beliefs. Philosopher Robert Pennock notes that rather than being a "broad dissent", the statement's wording is "very narrow, omitting any mention of the evolutionary thesis of common descent, human evolution or any of the elements of evolutionary theory except for the Darwinian mechanism, and even that was mentioned in a very limited and rather vague manner." He concludes that it is not in fact a "radical statement".
+The claims made for the importance of the list have also been called intellectually dishonest because it represents only a small fraction of the scientific community, and includes an even smaller number of relevant experts. The Discovery Institute has responded to some of these criticisms.
+
+=== Affiliations and credentials ===
+Barbara Forrest and Glenn Branch say the Discovery Institute deliberately misrepresents the institutional affiliations of signatories of the statement "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism". The institutions appearing in the list are the result of a conscious choice by the Discovery Institute to only present the most prestigious affiliations available for an individual. For example, if someone was trained at a more prestigious institution than the one they are presently affiliated with, the school they graduated from will more often be listed, without the distinction being made clear in the list. This is contrary to standard academic and professional practice.
+For example, the institutions listed for Raymond G. Bohlin, Fazale Rana, and Jonathan Wells, were the University of Texas at Dallas, Ohio University, and the University of California, Berkeley respectively, the schools from which they obtained their PhD degrees. However, their present affiliations are quite different: Probe Ministries for Bohlin, the Reasons to Believe Ministry for Rana, and the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture for Wells. Many of those who have signed the list are not currently active scientists, and some have never worked as scientists. Also, if a signatory was previously the head of a department or the president of an institute, their past and most prestigious position will be listed, not their current position.
+Visitors at prestigious institutions will have that affiliation listed, not their more humble home institutions. For example, Bernard d'Abrera, a writer and publisher of books on butterflies, appears on the list as "Visiting Scholar, Department of Entomology British Museum (Natural History)", in spite of the fact that this museum had become independent of the British Museum three decades previously and had formally changed its name to the Natural History Museum almost a decade before the petition. d'Abrera's primary affiliation is with his publishing company, Hill House Publishers. d'Abrera does not have a PhD either, nor any formal scientific qualification (his undergraduate degree was a double major in History & Philosophy of Science, and History), although creationists have called him "Dr. d'Abrera". The Discovery Institute currently recruits people with PhDs to sign the Dissent petition.
+Also, in early editions of the list, Richard Sternberg was described as "Richard Sternberg, Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution" though Sternberg was never a Smithsonian staff member, but an unpaid research associate. At the time of signing the list Sternberg was the outgoing editor of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a minor biology journal, where he played a central role in a peer-review controversy. Later versions of the list mention Sternberg's affiliation with Sternberg's alma maters, Florida International University and Binghamton University. At present Sternberg is a staff scientist with GenBank, the genetic database at the National Institutes of Health.
+Critics also say the Discovery Institute inflates the academic credentials and affiliations of signatories such as Henry F. Schaefer. The institute prominently and frequently asserts that Schaefer has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Barbara Forrest and others allege that the Discovery Institute is inflating his reputation by constantly referring to him as a "five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize" despite that Nobel Prize nominations remain confidential for fifty years and there being about 250–300 nominations per prize per year.
+By analysing the data for 34 British, or British-trained signatories of the Dissent list, the anti-creationist British Centre for Science Education raised doubts about the claimed affiliations and relevant expertise of those on the list.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-3.md

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+---
+title: "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:52.473825+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Defections and disagreements ===
+The National Center for Science Education interviewed a sample of the signatories, and found that some were less critical of "Darwinism" than the advertisement claimed. It wrote to all of them asking whether they thought living things shared common ancestors and whether humans and apes shared common ancestors. According to Eugenie Scott of the NCSE, a few of the signatories replied saying that they did accept these principles but did not think that natural selection could explain the origins of life. However, the replies ceased when, according to Scott, the Discovery Institute found out and advised signatories not to respond. She concluded from this that "at least some of the more knowledgeable scientists did not interpret this statement the way that it was intended [by the Discovery Institute] to be interpreted by the general public."
+For example, signatory Stanley N. Salthe, a visiting scientist at Binghamton University, State University of New York, who describes himself as an atheist, said that when he endorsed a petition he had no idea what the Discovery Institute was. Salthe stated, "I signed it in irritation", and said that evolutionary biologists were being unfair in suppressing competing ideas. He said that "They deserve to be prodded, as it were. It was my way of thumbing my nose at them", but was unconvinced by intelligent design and concluded "From my point of view, it's a plague on both your houses".
+At least one signatory of "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism" has abandoned the list, saying he felt misled. Robert C. Davidson, a Christian, scientist, doctor, and retired professor at the University of Washington medical school said after having signed he was shocked when he discovered that the Discovery Institute was calling evolution a "theory in crisis". "It's laughable: There have been millions of experiments over more than a century that support evolution," said Davidson. "There's always questions being asked about parts of the theory, as there are with any theory, but there's no real scientific controversy about it. ... When I joined I didn't think they were about bashing evolution. It's pseudo-science, at best. ... What they're doing is instigating a conflict between science and religion."
+
+== Counter-petitions ==
+Responding in the form of a parody, the National Center for Science Education launched Project Steve, a list of scientists named "Steve", or its equivalent (such as "Stephanie" or "Esteban"), who had signed a pro-evolution statement. As of 17 March 2017, the Steve-o-meter registered 1,412 Steves. A Discovery Institute spokesperson responded that "if Project Steve was meant to show that a considerable majority of the scientific community accepts a naturalistic conception of evolution, then the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) could have saved its energies – that fact was never in question. The more interesting question was whether any serious scientists reject a naturalistic conception of evolution".
+After the Discovery Institute presented the petition as part of an amicus curiae brief in the Kitzmiller v. Dover intelligent design court case in October 2005, a counter-petition, A Scientific Support For Darwinism, was organized and gathered 7,733 signatures from scientists in four days.
+As of 6 July 2015, the Clergy Letter Project has collected signatures of 13,008 American Christian clergy who "believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist." Over 500 Jewish clergy have signed a similar "Rabbi Letter". The Clergy Letter Project has also circulated an "Imam Letter" affirming that "the timeless truths of the Qur'an may comfortably coexist with the discoveries of modern science."
+
+== See also ==
+Creation–evolution controversy
+Level of support for evolution
+Teach the Controversy
+Wedge strategy
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+"Dissent from Darwin". Archived from the original on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
+"Thousands of Scientists Sign Petition Opposing the Teaching of Intelligent Design as Science". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2011.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines-0.md

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+---
+title: "A Thing About Machines"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:40.797620+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+"A Thing About Machines" is episode 40 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on October 28, 1960, on CBS.
+
+
+== Opening narration ==
+This is Mr. Bartlett Finchley, age forty-eight, a practicing sophisticate who writes very special and very precious things for gourmet magazines and the like. He's a bachelor and a recluse with few friends, only devotees and adherents to the cause of tart sophistry. He has no interests save whatever current annoyances he can put his mind to. He has no purpose to his life except the formulation of day-to-day opportunities to vent his wrath on mechanical contrivances of an age he abhors. In short, Mr. Bartlett Finchley is a malcontent, born either too late or too early in the century, and who, in just a moment, will enter a realm where muscles and the will to fight back are not limited to human beings. Next stop for Mr. Bartlett Finchley - The Twilight Zone.
+
+
+== Plot ==
+Lonely, ill-tempered gourmet magazine critic and misanthrope Bartlett Finchley berates a repairman after the latter fixes his television and tells him to stop abusing his appliances over mild inconveniences. Believing the machines are conspiring against him, however, Finchley continues to do so. Fed up with his paranoid behavior, his secretary quits. Following this, his typewriter types out the message "GET OUT OF HERE FINCHLEY" repeatedly on its own and the TV displays a program with a woman saying the same message. While trying to shave, his electric shaver rises and lunges at him before his telephone repeats the typewriter and TV's message despite Finchley ripping the telephone out of the wall earlier.
+Finchley hears a siren outside and goes to investigate, finding that his car rolled down the driveway and nearly hit a child. After rudely dismissing the attending police officer and neighbors, Finchley returns to his house, drinks, and passes out. When he awakens, the machines repeatedly tell him to leave while his razor slithers downstairs after him. He runs outside, only to be chased by his car until he ends up drowning in the pool and sinking to the bottom. The next day the police pull his body out, neither they nor the ambulance personnel can understand how he sank without being weighted, and theorize he may have had a heart attack.
+
+
+== Closing narration ==
+Yes, it could just be. It could just be that Mr. Bartlett Finchley succumbed from a heart attack and a set of delusions. It could just be that he was tormented by an imagination as sharp as his wit and as pointed as his dislikes. But as perceived by those attending, this is one explanation that has left the premises with the deceased. Look for it filed under 'M' for Machines - in The Twilight Zone.
+
+
+== Cast ==
+Richard Haydn as Bartlett Finchley
+Barbara Stuart as Edith Rogers
+Barney Phillips as TV repairman
+Jay Overholts as Intern
+Henry Beckman as Policeman
+Margarita Cordova as Girl on TV
+
+
+== See also ==
+List of The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) episodes
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Bibliography ==
+DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
+Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
+
+
+== External links ==
+"A Thing About Machines" at IMDb

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-0.md

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+---
+title: "Abortion–breast cancer hypothesis"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:13.301340+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The abortion–breast cancer hypothesis posits that having an induced abortion can increase the risk of getting breast cancer. This hypothesis is at odds with mainstream scientific opinion and is rejected by major medical professional organizations; despite this, it continues to be widely propagated as pseudoscience, typically in service of an anti-abortion agenda.
+In early pregnancy, hormone levels increase, leading to breast growth. The hypothesis proposes that if this process is altered by an abortion, then more immature cells could be left behind, and that these immature cells could increase the risk of breast cancer over time.
+The abortion–breast cancer hypothesis has been the subject of extensive scientific inquiry, and the scientific community has concluded that abortion does not cause breast cancer;  and that breast cancer should not be a concern for women who are having a miscarriage or considering having an abortion. This consensus is supported by major medical bodies, including the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the German Cancer Research Center, and the Canadian Cancer Society.
+Some anti-abortion activists have continued to advance a discredited causal link between abortion and breast cancer. In the United States, they have advanced state legislation that in several states requires health care providers to present abortion as a cause of breast cancer when counseling women who are seeking abortion. This political intervention culminated when the George W. Bush administration altered the National Cancer Institute website to suggest that abortion might cause breast cancer. In response to public concern over this intervention, the NCI convened a 2003 workshop bringing together over 100 experts on the issue. This workshop concluded that while some studies reported a statistical correlation between breast cancer and abortion, the strongest scientific evidence from large prospective cohort studies demonstrates that abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk, and that the positive findings were likely due to response bias.
+The ongoing promotion of a link between abortion and breast cancer is seen by others as part of the anti-abortion "woman-centered" strategy against abortion. Anti-abortion groups maintain they are providing information necessary for legally required informed consent, a concern shared by some politically conservative politicians. The abortion–breast cancer issue remains the subject of political controversy.
+
+== Views of medical organizations ==
+Major medical organizations which have analyzed data on abortion and breast cancer have uniformly concluded that abortion does not cause breast cancer. These organizations include the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the German Cancer Research Center, and the Canadian Cancer Society.
+
+The World Health Organization concluded in 2012 that "sound epidemiological data show no increased risk of breast cancer for women following spontaneous or induced abortion", updating their earlier finding that "induced abortion does not increase breast cancer risk".
+The American Cancer Society concluded: "At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer or any other type of cancer."
+The U.S. National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, found that "induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk", assigning this conclusion the strongest possible evidence rating.
+The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that "early studies of the relationship between prior induced abortion and breast cancer risk were methodologically flawed. More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk."
+The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists reviewed the medical literature and concluded that "there is no established link between induced abortion or miscarriage and development of breast cancer." The college recommended in its official clinical practice guidelines that "Women should be informed that induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk."
+The German Cancer Research Center concluded in 2013 that abortion and miscarriage pose no risk of breast cancer.
+The Canadian Cancer Society stated in 2013: "The body of scientific evidence does not support an association between abortion and increased breast cancer risk."
+
+== Proponents ==
+Joel Brind, a faculty member at Baruch College in the Department of Natural Sciences, is the primary advocate of an abortion–breast cancer ("ABC") link. Brind is strongly anti-abortion and began lobbying politicians with the claim that abortion caused breast cancer in the early 1990s. Brind found that his lobbying efforts were not taken seriously because he had not published his findings in the peer-reviewed medical literature. He therefore collaborated with two anti-abortion physicians and a statistician to publish a 1996 article in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, arguing that induced abortion was a risk factor for breast cancer. The statistician who collaborated with Brind later stated of their findings: "I have some doubts. I don't think the issue has been resolved. When we were talking about the conclusions, he [Brind] wanted to make the strongest statements. I tried to temper them a little bit, but Dr. Brind is very adamant about his opinion."
+Brind's paper was criticized in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute for ignoring the role of response bias and for a "blurring of association with causation." The amount of attention the study received prompted a cautionary editorial by a JECH editor. With the appearance of larger studies contradicting Brind's finding, Brind failed to convince the scientific community that abortion caused breast cancer. In 2003, Brind was invited to the NCI workshop on abortion and breast cancer, where he was the only one to formally dissent from the workshop's finding that there is no link between the two. Brind blames the lack of support for his findings on a conspiracy, arguing that the NCI and other major medical organizations are engaged in a "cover-up" for the purpose of "protecting the abortion industry".
+
+== Proposed mechanism ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-1.md

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+---
+title: "Abortion–breast cancer hypothesis"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:13.301340+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In early pregnancy, levels of estrogen, progesterone, and estradiol increase, leading to breast growth in preparation for lactation. Proponents speculate that if this process is interrupted by an abortion or miscarriage—before full maturity (differentiation) in the third trimester—then more immature cells could be left than there were prior to the pregnancy. These immature cells could then be exposed to carcinogens and hormones over time, resulting in a greater potential risk of breast cancer. This mechanism was first proposed and explored in rat studies conducted in the 1980s.
+Breast tissue contains many lobes (segments) and these contain lobules which are groups of breast cells. There are four types of lobules:
+
+Type 1 has 11 ductules (immature)
+Type 2 has 47 ductules (immature)
+Type 3 has 80 ductules (mature, fewer hormone receptors)
+Type 4 are fully matured (cancer resistant) and contain breast milk
+During early pregnancy, type 1 lobules quickly become type 2 lobules because of changes in estrogen and progesterone levels. Maturing into type 3 and then reaching full differentiation as type 4 lobules requires an increase of human placental lactogen (hPL) which occurs in the last few months of pregnancy. According to the abortion–breast cancer hypothesis, if an abortion were to interrupt this sequence then it could leave a higher ratio of type 2 lobules than existed prior to the pregnancy. Russo and Russo have shown that mature breast cells have more time for DNA repair with longer cell cycles, accounting for the slightly reduced risk of breast cancer for parous women against the baseline risk for women who have never conceived and those who have conceived and terminated their pregnancies.
+Later on, Russo et al. found that placental human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) induces the synthesis of inhibin by the mammary epithelium. Bernstein et al. independently observed a reduced breast cancer risk when women were injected with hCG for weight loss or infertility treatment. Contrary to the ABC hypothesis, Michaels et al. hypothesize since hCG plays a role in cellular differentiation and may activate apoptosis, as levels of hCG increase early on in human pregnancy, "an incomplete pregnancy of short duration might impart the benefits of a full-term pregnancy and thus reduce the risk of breast cancer."
+
+== History ==
+The first study involving statistics on abortion and breast cancer was a broad study in 1957 examining common cancers in Japan. The researchers were cautious about drawing any conclusions from their unreliable methodologies. During the 1960s several studies by Brian MacMahon et al. in Europe and Asia touched on a correlation between abortion and breast cancer. Their 1973 paper published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute inaccurately concluded that "where a relationship was observed, abortion was associated with increased, not decreased, risk." Research relevant to the current ABC discussion focuses on more recent large cohort studies, a few meta-analyses, many case-control studies, and several early experiments with rats.
+
+=== Rat models ===
+Russo & Russo from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia conducted a study in 1980 examining the proposed correlation between abortion and breast cancer. While analysing the effects of the carcinogen 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) on the DNA labeling index (DNA-LI) in terminal end buds (TEBs), terminal ducts (TDs) and alveolar buds (ABs) of Sprague-Dawley rats in various stages of reproductive development, they found that rats who had interrupted pregnancies had no noticeable increase in risk for cancer. However, they did find that pregnancy and lactation provided a protective measure against various forms of benign lesions, such as hyperplastic alveolar nodules and cysts. While results did suggest that rats who had interrupted pregnancies might be subject to "similar or even higher incidence of benign lesions" than virgin rats, there was no evidence to suggest that abortion would result in a higher incidence of carcinogenesis.  A more thorough examination of the phenomenon was conducted in 1982, confirming the results. A later study in 1987 further explained their previous findings. After differentiation of the mammary gland resulting from a full-term pregnancy of the rat, the rate of cell division decreases and the cell cycle length increases, allowing more time for DNA repair.
+Despite the fact that the Russos' studies found similar risk rates between virgin and pregnancy interrupted rats, their research would be used to support the contention that abortion created a greater risk of breast cancer for the next twenty years. However, because rats do not exhibit naturally occurring breast cancer, the extrapolation of these results to human abortion and breast cancer is viewed as dubious.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-2.md

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+---
+title: "Abortion–breast cancer hypothesis"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:13.301340+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Epidemiological evidence ==
+The results of prospective cohort studies on the relationship between abortion and breast cancer have been consistently negative. Such studies are considered more reliable than retrospective studies and case-control studies. The positive association between abortion and breast cancer risk observed in case-control studies may be accounted for by recall bias.
+In 1996, Brind et al. published a meta-analysis of 23 studies which reported a positive association existed between induced abortion and breast cancer risk. The authors estimated the relative risk of breast cancer among women who had had an induced abortion to be 1.3, compared to women who had not had an abortion. It was criticized by other researchers for multiple reasons, including allegations that it failed to account for publication bias (positive studies tend to be more likely to be published). The meta-analysis was also criticized because the studies it included were almost all case-control studies, which are susceptible to recall bias, and for which it is difficult to select an appropriate control group.
+In 1997, Wingo et al. reviewed 32 studies on the abortion-breast cancer relationship and concluded that the results of studies on this subject were too inconsistent to allow for definitive conclusions, for either induced or spontaneous abortions.
+A 2004 analysis of data from 53 studies involving 83,000 women with breast cancer reported no increased risk among women who had had either an induced or spontaneous abortion. The relative risk of breast cancer for women who had a spontaneous abortion in this analysis was 0.98, and that for induced abortion was 0.93.
+A 2015 systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies found insufficient evidence to support an association between induced or spontaneous abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer.
+
+== Politicization ==
+
+By the late 1980s, national politicians recognized that a focus on reducing access to abortion was not a winning political strategy. Some anti-abortion activists grew more aggressive and violent in the face of political abandonment, culminating with the murder of Dr. David Gunn in 1993 and the passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994. With direct action discredited, anti-abortion organizations, including the National Right to Life Committee, came to the forefront of the movement. These focused on legal tactics, including lobbying against late-term abortions and access to mifepristone and demanding legislation based on the purported ABC link. More recently, anti-abortion organizations have turned to lobbying to increase obstacles to abortion, such as mandated counseling, waiting periods, and parental notification, and some feel that anti-abortion advocates treat ABC as simply another tactic in their campaign against abortion. There have been ongoing and incremental legal challenges to abortion in the United States by anti-abortion groups. In 2005, a Canadian anti-abortion organization put up billboards in Alberta with large pink ribbons and the statement: "Stop the Cover-Up", in reference to the ABC hypothesis. The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation was concerned by the misrepresentation of the state of scientific knowledge on the subject.
+The continued focus on the ABC hypothesis by anti-abortion groups has fostered a confrontational political environment. Anti-abortion advocates and scientists alike have responded with criticisms. The claims by anti-abortion advocates are sometimes referred to as pseudoscience.
+During the late 1990s, several members of the United States Congress became involved in the ABC issue. In a 1998 hearing on cancer research, U.S. Representative Tom Coburn accused the National Cancer Institute of misleading the public by selectively releasing data. In 1999, shortly after the House debated FDA approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, U.S. Representative Dave Weldon wrote a "Dear Colleague" letter, enclosing an article from John Kindley. In it, Weldon expressed concern that the majority of studies indicated a possible ABC link and that politicization was "preventing vital information from being given to women."
+As of 2019, abortion counseling materials in Alaska, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas incorrectly assert a possible link between abortion and breast cancer, while Minnesota materials correctly report no link. Similar legislation requiring notification has also been introduced in 14 other states. An editor for the American Journal of Public Health expressed concern that these bills propose warnings that do not agree with established scientific findings.
+Bioethicist Jacob M. Appel argues that the mandatory disclosure statutes might be unconstitutional on "rational basis" grounds. Childbirth is significantly more dangerous than abortion, data that is not required in any disclosure law but which is necessary for a meaningful understanding of risks. According to Appel, "[i]f the roughly fifty million abortions that have occurred in the United States since Roe v. Wade had all ended in full-term deliveries, approximately five hundred additional women would have died during childbirth."
+In May 2017, President Donald Trump appointed Charmaine Yoest, an anti-abortion activist and proponent of the abortion-breast cancer link, to the post of assistant secretary for public affairs in the Department of Health And Human Services.
+
+=== National Cancer Institute ===
+The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has been a target of the anti-abortion movement for the conclusions presented on its website. A report from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that in November 2002 the Bush administration had altered the NCI website. The previous NCI analysis had concluded that, while some question regarding an association between abortion and breast cancer existed prior to the mid-1990s, a number of large and well-regarded studies had resolved the issue in the negative. The Bush administration removed this analysis and replaced it with the following:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-3.md

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+---
+title: "Abortion–breast cancer hypothesis"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:13.301340+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+[T]he possible relationship between abortion and breast cancer has been examined in over thirty published studies since 1957. Some studies have reported statistically significant evidence of an increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had abortions, while others have merely suggested an increased risk. Other studies have found no increase in risk among women who have had an interrupted pregnancy.
+This alteration, which suggested that there was scientific uncertainty on the ABC issue, prompted an editorial in The New York Times describing it as an "egregious distortion" and a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services from members of Congress. In response to the alteration the NCI convened a three-day consensus workshop entitled Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer on 24–26 February 2003. The workshop concluded that induced abortion does not increase a woman's risk of breast cancer, and that the evidence for this had been well established. Afterwards, the director of epidemiology research for the American Cancer Society stated, "[t]his issue has been resolved scientifically ... This is essentially a political debate."
+Brind was the only attendee at the workshop to file a dissenting opinion as a minority report criticizing the conclusions. He contends the workshop evidence and findings were overly controlled by its organizers and that the time allotted was too short for a thorough review of the literature.
+
+=== North Dakota lawsuit ===
+In January 2000, Amy Jo Kjolsrud (née Mattson), an anti-abortion counselor, sued the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota, alleging false advertising. The suit, Kjolsrud v. MKB Management Corporation, alleged that the clinic was misleading women by distributing a brochure quoting a National Cancer Institute fact sheet on the ABC hypothesis. The brochure stated:
+
+Anti-abortion activists claim that having an abortion increases the risk of developing breast cancer and endangers future childbearing. None of these claims are supported by medical research or established medical organizations. (emphasis in original)
+The case was originally scheduled for 11 September 2001, but was delayed as a result of the terrorist attacks. On 25 March 2002, the trial began. After four days of testimony, Judge Michael McGuire ruled in favor of the clinic.
+Linda Rosenthal, an attorney from the Center for Reproductive Rights characterized the decision as a rejection of "scare tactics". John Kindley, one of the lawyers representing Kjolsrud, highlighted the "individual's right to self-determination". Kindley also wrote a 1998 Wisconsin Law Review article outlining the viability of medical malpractice lawsuits based upon not informing patients considering abortion about the ABC hypothesis.
+The decision was appealed and on 23 September 2003 the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that Kjolsrud did not have standing and affirmed the lower court ruling dismissing the action. The appeal said that Kjolsrud had not read the materials, and that after the lawsuit was filed, the brochures were updated to refute the breast cancer link, citing the National Cancer Institute.
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+National Cancer Institute: Abortion, Miscarriage, and Breast Cancer Risk
+Induced abortion does not increase breast cancer risk, a fact sheet from the World Health Organization
+Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk from the American Cancer Society
+American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Finds No Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk
+Jasen P (October 2005). "Breast cancer and the politics of abortion in the United States". Med Hist. 49 (4): 423–44. doi:10.1017/S0025727300009145. PMC 1251638. PMID 16562329.
+The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion, from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
+Discover Magazine: The Scientist Who Hated Abortion by Barry Yeoman
+Factors That Do Not Increase Risk from the Susan G. Komen Foundation

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-0.md

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+---
+title: "Access Consciousness"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:14.508126+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Access Consciousness is a pseudoscientific New Age movement founded by Gary Douglas in 1990 in Santa Barbara, California, initially called Access Energy Transformation. After a failed real estate business and subsequent bankruptcy in 1993, Douglas claimed to begin channeling spirits, including Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, from whom he learned about "Access Bars" which are points on the head purported to help with energy, health, and wealth. As of 2024, the practice has since evolved into a global movement, offering a range of self-help and energy healing techniques. Access Consciousness promotes a mix of energy therapy, elements of phrenology, and prosperity gospel principles, with practitioners claiming to "run the bars" to manipulate energy fields for various life improvements. The organization has faced significant criticism, with skeptics denouncing its practices as pseudoscientific, and allegations of abuse, cult-like behavior, and exploitation have surfaced over the years. 
+
+== History ==
+After filing for bankruptcy in 1993 due to a failed real estate venture and briefly working for the United Way, Gary Douglas founded Access Consciousness, initially named Access Energy Transformation, in Santa Barbara, California, in 1990.
+Douglas allegedly started channeling spirits in the early 1990s after witnessing a channeler at work in the late 1980s. He claimed to channel  Grigori Rasputin, whom he called "Raz", for many years and apparently learned from the Russian about Access Bars, which are points on the head that are supposed to aid in energy, health, and wealth. Douglas also claims to have channeled an ancient Chinese man named Tchia Tsin, aliens from another world called Novian, and a 14th-century monk named Brother George. Douglas stated that the aliens abducted him when he was six years old, implanting a chip. He noted that channeling aliens was more painful than channeling the others but that they protect him.
+In 2001, Dain Heer, a former chiropractor, joined the movement, moving in with Douglas and becoming second in command. In 2003, Australian Simone Milasas was hired and as of 2024 is the worldwide business coordinator for the organization. Milasas is the developer of the Access Consciousness courses.
+Access Consciousness appeared in France in 2010 and has been growing in popularity. In 2020, it was available in 170 countries around the world.  As of 2021 there were 150 Access Consciousness facilitators in eight Canadian Provinces.
+
+== Description ==
+
+Access Consciousness is a New Age therapy that is described as a combination of phrenology and energy therapies such as reiki and Therapeutic touch that have their origins in Traditional Chinese medicinal Tui na. It also incorporates elements of the prosperity gospel. The leaders claim that there are 32 Access Bars, or points on the head that relate to the ancient Chinese meridian lines but in this system erroneously represent such things as creativity, gratitude, memories, emotions, and money. The bars are touched lightly similar to acupressure by a practitioner, who manipulates energy fields, purporting to aid in achieving clearer thoughts, more energy, disposing of negative energy, better health, and more wealth. The practice of touching these points on the head is referred to as "running the bars."
+A goal of Access Consciousness practices is to transition from a human to a humanoid. A human is someone who judges others and a humanoid is someone who judges themselves and looks for ways to make life better. Humanoids are purported to be able to "bend the universe," choose their future, talk to molecules, regenerate body parts, change the weather, and survive on sugar and water alone.
+Incorporated within the Access Consciousness doctrine is a clearing statement, which is to be said, like a mantra, throughout the day. The statement is, "Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, POD and POC, All 9, Shorts, Boys and Beyonds." The clearing statement purports to rid the person of negative energy.
+
+Proponents attempt to "live in 10-second increments," and eschew the use of drugs, including recreational drugs such as alcohol and marijuana, and psychiatric medications such as those used for depression, anxiety, and ADHD. These drugs are said to allow entities to enter the body.
+Facilitators declare they can communicate with horses via telepathy. They also assert to be able to remove bad entities that have entered a horse's body. This can be done remotely or in person for a fee. In 2011, 300 believers from Access Consciousness traveled to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to help speed up the breakdown of the garbage by using "energy and Molecular Demanifestation," with no success. According to a 2015 manual, a good partner is described as one that lets you do whatever you want and "...is good in bed." Believers are counselled to report on other members and to call their enemies and threaten them by repeating three times, "If you do this again, I will kill you."
+Proponents of Access Consciousness claim that there are studies that prove the therapy's effectiveness. Science communicator Jonathan Jarry, in his article titled Rasputin, Phrenology, and Dark Allegations: The Madness of Access Consciousness, states that these studies are poor. One study done by psychologist Jeffrey Fannin used electrodes to show that if a patient is lying down for an hour with their scalp gently massaged, they are relaxed. Jarry counters that this state of relaxation can also be achieved with a nap that doesn't cost money.
+The leaders of Access Consciousness fly in private jets and own multiple properties worldwide. On October 6, 2020, Milasas was seen at a class using a silver bullion bar as a door stop.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-1.md

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+---
+title: "Access Consciousness"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:14.508126+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Training and certification ===
+To become a practitioner you need one day of training. Subsequent training to become a facilitator includes a minimum of twelve courses, in addition to regular teleconferences. Continuous training is required annually. There are over eight thousand tools to learn. The cost in 2024 for this training was AUD 30,000, with a licence renewal costing AUD 17,000. As of 2024, there were approximately 3,000 licensed facilitators.
+A former facilitator, Kerry Purcell, reported that she would spend AUD 60,000 on travel and fees for Access Consciousness courses. She invested AUD 150,000 in what she thought was Milasas' bottled water business but later believed it was used to pay off Milasas' personal debts, which Milasas claimed were paid off because of her positive energy.
+Some practitioners teach communicating with animals.
+
+== Criticisms and controversies ==
+Critics have referred to Access Consciousness as a milder version of Scientology. Douglas is familiar with the church as he was a Scientologist himself. His first wife, Laurie Alexander, was an auditor for the church and his second wife, Mary Wernicke, was a former Scientologist.
+According to medical doctor David Gorski in an article called Access Consciousness: Phrenology fused with energy medicine, there is no good evidence that Access Consciousness has "...any relationship to biology, medicine, neuroscience, or psychology—or even just to anatomy." While Heer has advertised Access Consciousness on multiple World Suicide Prevention Days, Jarry says that "Mental health problems should not be solved with expensive magical thinking." 
+In 2024, former members of Access Consciousness filed a complaint with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission alleging that false claims were made regarding the therapies, and that the organization is a pyramid or multi-level marketing scheme.
+Multiple former members have also shared that they were publicly shamed and verbally abused for attempting to speak up about the issues of the movement.
+
+=== Sexual abuse ===
+Douglas purports to be able to bring women to orgasm by lightly touching the bars on a woman's head. He has also been accused of being verbally abusive towards women in workshops and training sessions. Heer has been accused of grooming women attending workshops to have sexual relations with him, with one woman claiming that he asked her to send nude pictures to him. 
+Douglas claims that children are sexy in a humanoid, not human way. Children can attend sessions for free or at a reduced rate. According to the Level One March 2012 manual, molested children "allowed" the abuse to happen to them so it would not happen to others.
+
+=== Use in social work ===
+In 2018, Nova Scotian social worker Eileen Carey, who was practicing Access Consciousness, had her licence permanently revoked for inappropriate touching and contact outside the office. The patient, who spent thousands of dollars on courses, and who filed the complaint, was invited to Carey's home to perform "energy trades" where they would alternate receiving the Access Bars on a massage table, calling each other "energy buddies." In addition, Carey had to pay CAD 15,000 to cover the investigation costs. 
+In 2019, the Journal of Evidence-Informed Social Work discovered that Access Consciousness was being advertised by over 400 social workers in the United States.
+
+== See also ==
+Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
+List of topics characterized as pseudoscience
+Energy medicine
+Faith healing
+Therapeutic touch
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_homosexuality-0.md

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+---
+title: "Acquired homosexuality"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_homosexuality"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:15.703997+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Acquired homosexuality is the pseudoscientific idea that homosexuality can be spread, either through sexual seduction or recruitment by homosexuals, or through exposure to media depicting homosexuality. According to this belief, any child or young person could become homosexual if exposed to it; conversely, through conversion therapy, a homosexual person could be made heterosexual.
+
+
+== Scientific evidence ==
+Although there is not yet complete understanding of the causes of sexual orientation, the evidence supporting biological causes is much stronger than that supporting social factors, and there is little or no evidence supporting the theory that homosexuality can be acquired through sexual contact with homosexual adults. In contrast, there is evidence that homosexual attractions precede behavior, usually by a few years, in most cases. Bailey et al. state, "a belief in the recruitment hypothesis has often been associated with strongly negative attitudes toward homosexual people", and those who make this argument generally do not explain an empirical basis for this belief.
+
+
+== History ==
+In her book Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick distinguishes between the minoritizing and universalizing view of sexual orientation; according to the former view, homosexuality is a property of a relatively stable minority, while according to latter view, anyone can potentially engage in homosexuality. The original view was a universalizing one, whereas the ideas about homosexuality being a fixed sexual preference developed in the second half of the nineteenth century, proposed independently by gay activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, French psychiatrist Claude-François Michéa, and German physician Johann Ludwig Casper. In the early twentieth century, German sexual science showed that many adolescent boys practiced homosexual behaviors (such as kisses, hugs, caresses, and mutual masturbation) for a few years; healthy development was considered to consist of abandoning them when they were older. It was believed that the incidence of adolescent homosexual behavior had increased after World War I, one of the most popular explanations being that adult homosexual men (either in person or via gay-oriented publications) had caused the increase. This theory was popular among the general public, but also among psychologists and psychiatrists who treated youth.
+Based on the theories of Karl Bonhoeffer and Emil Kraepelin, the Nazis believed that homosexuals seduced young men and infected them with homosexuality, permanently changing the sexual orientation and preventing the youth from becoming fathers. Rhetoric described homosexuality as a contagious disease, but not in the medical sense. Rather, homosexuality was a disease of the Volkskörper (national body), a metaphor for the desired national or racial community (Volksgemeinschaft). According to Nazi ideology, individuals' lives were to be subordinated to the Volkskörper like cells in the human body. Homosexuality was seen as a virus or cancer in the Volkskörper because it was seen as a threat to the German nation. The SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps argued that forty thousand homosexuals were capable of "poisoning" two million men if left to roam free.
+
+
+== Consequences ==
+Belief that homosexuality was acquired through sexual contact was one of the ideas fueling the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Because of the all-male organizations for boys and young men, such as the Hitler Youth, SA, and SS, the Nazis were afraid that homosexuality would spread rapidly in the absence of a harsh crackdown. The murders of the Night of Long Knives were partially justified by claims of crushing alleged homosexual cliques in the SA. Adolf Hitler stated afterwards that "every mother should be able to send her son to the SA, Party, or Hitler Youth without fear that he would be ethically or morally corrupted there".
+A 2018 study in the United States found that exposing participants to scientific information about the causes of homosexuality did not change support for LGBT rights.
+
+
+=== Age of consent laws ===
+Belief that it is possible to become homosexual through sexual contact with a person of the same sex has been cited in order to justify setting the age of consent higher for homosexual acts than heterosexual ones. This was the case in Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Germany both in the Weimar era and in West Germany.
+In the 2003 European Court of Human Rights case S. L. v. Austria, the court ruled that "modern science had shown that sexual orientation was already established at the beginning of puberty", therefore discrediting the recruitment argument. The court, therefore, found that the different age of consent for male homosexual relationships was discriminatory and violated the applicant's human rights.
+
+
+=== Censorship ===
+The belief that homosexuality can be acquired by reading about it in media has been cited in justification for censorship of LGBT-focused media in the Weimar Republic in the United Kingdom with the Section 28 law intended to prevent young people from learning about homosexuality, and in 21st-century Hungary (the Hungarian anti-LGBT law) and Russia (the Russian gay propaganda law).
+
+
+=== Employment discrimination ===
+Belief that homosexuality can be acquired has been cited to promote direct occupational bans for known homosexuals, e.g. in education, as well as rejection of anti-discrimination laws covering sexual orientation. In 1977, anti-gay activist Anita Bryant claimed during the Save Our Children campaign, "Homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit."
+
+
+== Public opinion ==
+In the Weimar Republic, there was a widespread belief among Germans that homosexuality was not inborn but instead acquired. In Russia, a 2012 survey found that 61 percent of people believe homosexuality is acquired, while 25 percent believe it is innate.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Chris Birch (stroke survivor), reportedly underwent a change of sexual orientation following a stroke
+LGBTQ chemicals conspiracy theory
+Rapid onset gender dysphoria controversy
+Situational homosexuality
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Works cited ==
+Giles, Geoffrey J. (2010). "The Persecution of Gay Men and Lesbians During the Third Reich". The Routledge History of the Holocaust. Routledge. pp. 385–396. ISBN 978-0-203-83744-3.
+Moss, Kevin (2021). "Russia's Queer Science, or How Anti-LGBT Scholarship is Made". The Russian Review. 80 (1): 17–36. doi:10.1111/russ.12296. S2CID 234307412.
+Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky (1990). Epistemology of the Closet. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07874-1.
+Snyder, David Raub (2007). Sex Crimes Under the Wehrmacht. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-0742-4.
+Vendrell, Javier Samper (2020). Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4875-2503-3.
+Whisnant, Clayton J. (2016). Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: A History, 1880–1945. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-1-939594-10-5.
+Zinn, Alexander (2020). "»Das sind Staatsfeinde« Die NS-Homosexuellenverfolgung 1933–1945" ["They are enemies of the state": The Nazi persecution of homosexuals 1933–1945] (PDF). Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts: 6–13. ISSN 1868-4211.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_type_approach-0.md

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+---
+title: "Action type approach"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_type_approach"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:16.864893+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The action type approach is a series of mental exercises—variously described as "pseudoscientific", "empirically challenged", or a "neuromyth"— that purport to increase physical performance in athletes. 
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_Concerning_Cooperation_in_the_Exploration_and_Use_of_Outer_Space_for_Peaceful_Purposes-0.md

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+---
+title: "Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_Concerning_Cooperation_in_the_Exploration_and_Use_of_Outer_Space_for_Peaceful_Purposes"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:29.396523+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes was an agreement between the United States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) which established a legal framework for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) and refined the means and methods for sharing data between these two parties. It was written in the days leading up to May 24, 1972. Having been agreed upon months earlier, it was signed by US President Richard Nixon and USSR. Premier A. N. Kosygin in Moscow during a three-day state visit. This agreement was of particular significance as it furthered efforts towards cooperation in space between the US and the USSR. during the Cold War.
+
+
+== Key points ==
+The Agreement enumerates areas in which the US and the USSR. would cooperate, notably exploration, space meteorology, environmental sciences, celestial bodies, and space medicine. It describes the means to accomplish these goals, listing among other things, "delegations [and] meetings of scientists and specialists of both countries."
+It also broadly outlines the goals and time frame of the ASTP, stating that "[t]he parties have agreed to carry out projects for developing compatible rendezvous and docking systems [...] in order to enhance the safety of manned flight in space and to provide the opportunity for conducting joint scientific experiments." The agreement gives a tentative date and method for the implementation of the mission, describing "the docking of a United States Apollo-type spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz-type spacecraft with visits of astronauts in each other's spacecraft."
+Though the Soviets wanted to include clauses concerning communication satellites, the State Department could not agree to this as the United States' government did not control this industry.
+
+
+== Background and history ==
+Though the Americans shrouded preliminary efforts to draft this agreement in secrecy to the point that it was being treated as "semi-clandestine," the Soviets had no such reservations; indeed, NASA officials found news of one of their upcoming meetings on the front page of the New York Times.
+In The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project by Edward C. Ezell and his wife, Linda Newman Ezell, the agreement's inception is narrated: the USSR only shared its drafts "a week before the Summit", leading to frantic scrambling on the part of the US State Department to finish theirs, working "until the middle of the night."
+US President Nixon and USSR. Premier Kosygin signed the Agreement at 6:00 p.m. Moscow time on July 24, 1972.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-0.md

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+---
+title: "Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act"
+chunk: 1/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:02.278569+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act of 1956 (Public Law 84-830) was an Act of Congress passed to improve mental health care in the United States territory of Alaska. Initially bipartisan and uncontroversial, it became the focus of a major political dispute after far-right anti-communist activists nicknamed it the "Siberia Bill" and denounced it as being part of a communist plot to hospitalize and brainwash Americans. Campaigners asserted that it was part of an international Jewish, Roman Catholic or psychiatric conspiracy intended to establish United Nations-run concentration camps in the United States.
+The legislation in its original form was sponsored by the Democratic Party, but after it ran into opposition, it was rescued by the conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater. Under Goldwater's sponsorship, a version of the legislation without the commitment provisions that were the target of intense opposition from a variety of far-right, anti-Communist and fringe religious groups was passed by the United States Senate. The controversy still plays a prominent role in the Church of Scientology's account of its campaign against psychiatry.
+The Act succeeded in its initial aim of establishing a mental health care system for Alaska, funded by income from lands allocated to a mental health trust. However, during the 1970s and early 1980s, Alaskan politicians systematically stripped the trust of its lands, transferring the most valuable land to private individuals and state agencies. The asset stripping was eventually ruled to be illegal following several years of litigation, and a reconstituted mental health trust was established in the mid-1980s.
+
+== Background to the act ==
+
+Alaska possessed no mental health treatment facilities prior to the passage of the 1956 Act. At the time of the Act's passage, Alaska was not a U.S. state, being constituted instead as a territory of the United States. The treatment of the mentally ill was governed by an agreement with the state of Oregon dating back to the turn of the 20th century. On June 6, 1900, the United States Congress enacted a law permitting the government of the then District of Alaska to provide mental health care for Alaskans. In 1904, a contract was signed with Morningside Hospital, privately owned and operated by Henry Waldo Coe in Portland, Oregon, under which Alaskan mental patients would be sent to the hospital for treatment. A commitment regime was established under which a person said to be mentally ill was to be brought before a jury of six people for a ruling on insanity. The patient was routinely sent to prison until his release or transfer to Portland; at no point in this ruling was a medical or psychiatric examination required.
+By the 1940s, it was recognized that this arrangement was unsatisfactory. The American Medical Association conducted a series of studies in 1948, followed by a Department of the Interior study in 1950. They highlighted the deficiencies of the program: commitment procedures in Alaska were archaic, and the long trip to Portland had a negative effect on patients and their families. In addition, an audit of the hospital contract found that the Sanatorium Company, which owned the hospital, had been padding its expenses. This had enabled it to make an excess profit of $69,000 per year (equivalent to over $588,000 per year at 2007 prices).
+The studies recommended a comprehensive overhaul of the system, with the development of an in-territory mental health program for Alaska. This proposal was widely supported by the public and politicians. At the start of 1956, in the second session of the 84th Congress, Representative Edith Green (D-Oregon) introduced the Alaska Mental Health Bill (H.R. 6376) in the House of Representatives. The bill had been written by Bob Bartlett, the Congressional Delegate from the Alaska Territory who later became a U.S. Senator. Senator Richard L. Neuberger (D-Oregon) sponsored an equivalent bill, S. 2518, in the Senate.
+
+== Details of the bill ==
+The Alaska Mental Health Bill's stated purpose was to "transfer from the Federal Government to the Territory of Alaska basic responsibility for the hospitalization, care and treatment of the mentally ill of Alaska." In connection with this goal, it aimed:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-1.md

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+title: "Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act"
+chunk: 2/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:02.278569+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+to modernize procedures for such hospitalization (including commitment), care, and treatment and to authorize the Territory to modify or supersede such procedures;
+to assist in providing for the Territory necessary facilities for a comprehensive mental-health program in Alaska, including inpatient and outpatient facilities;
+to provide for a land grant to the Territory to assist in placing the program on a firm long-term basis; and
+to provide for a ten-year program, of grants-in-aid to the Territory to enable the Territory gradually to assume the full operating costs of the program.
+The bill provided for a cash grant of $12.5 million (about $94 million at 2007 prices) to be disbursed to the Alaskan government in a number of phases, to fund the construction of mental health facilities in the territory. To meet the ongoing costs of the program, the bill transferred one million acres (4,000 km2) of federally owned land in Alaska to the ownership of the proposed new Alaska Mental Health Trust as a grant-in-aid—the federal government owned about 99% of the land of Alaska at the time. The trust would then be able to use the assets of the transferred land (principally mineral and forestry rights) to obtain an ongoing revenue stream to fund the Alaskan mental health program. Similar provisions had applied in other US territories to support the provision of public facilities prior to the achievement of statehood.
+In addition, the bill granted the Governor of Alaska authority to enter into reciprocal mental health treatment agreements with the governors of other states. Alaskans who became mentally ill in the lower 48 states would be properly treated locally until they could be returned to Alaska; likewise, citizens of the lower 48 who fell mentally ill in Alaska would receive care there, before being returned to their home states.
+The bill was seen as entirely innocuous when it was introduced on January 16, 1956. It enjoyed bipartisan support, and on January 18 it was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. It then fell to the Senate to consider the equivalent bill in the upper chamber, S. 2518, which was expected to have an equally untroubled passage following hearings scheduled to begin on February 20.
+
+== Controversy ==
+
+=== Initial opposition ===
+
+In December 1955, a small anti-communist women's group in Southern California, the American Public Relations Forum (APRF), issued an urgent call to arms in its monthly bulletin. It highlighted the proposed text of the Alaska Mental Health Bill, calling it "one that tops all of them". The bulletin writers commented: "We could not help remembering that Siberia is very near Alaska and since it is obvious no one needs such a large land grant, we were wondering if it could be an American Siberia." They said that the bill "takes away all of the rights of the American citizen to ask for a jury trial and protect him[self] from being railroaded to an asylum by a greedy relative or 'friend' or, as the Alaska bill states, 'an interested party'."
+The APRF had a history of opposing mental health legislation; earlier in 1955, it had played a key role in stalling the passage of three mental health bills in the California Assembly. It was part of a wider network of far-right organizations which opposed psychiatry and psychology as being pro-communist, anti-American, anti-Christian and pro-Jewish. The Keep America Committee, another Californian "superpatriot" group, summed up the anti-mental-health mood on the far right in a pamphlet issued in May 1955. Calling "mental hygiene" part of the "unholy three" of the "Communistic World Government", it declared: "Mental Hygiene is a subtle and diabolical plan of the enemy to transform a free and intelligent people into a cringing horde of zombies".
+The APRF's membership overlapped with that of the much larger Minute Women of the U.S.A., a nationwide organization of militant anti-communist housewives which claimed up to 50,000 members across the United States. In mid-January 1956, Minute Woman Leigh F. Burkeland of Van Nuys, California issued a bulletin protesting against the bill. It was mimeographed by the California State Chapter of the Minute Women and mailed across the nation. On January 24, 1956, the strongly anti-statist Santa Ana Register newspaper reprinted Burkeland's statement under the headline, "Now — Siberia, U.S.A." Burkeland issued a lurid warning of what the future might hold if the Alaska Mental Health Bill was passed by the Senate:
+
+Is it the purpose of H.R. 6376 to establish a concentration camp for political prisoners under the guise of treatment of mental cases? The answer, based on a study of the bill, indicates that it is entirely within the realm of possibility that we may be establishing in Alaska our own version of the Siberia slave camps run by the Russian government. ...
+This legislation, say its opponents, will place every resident of the United States at the mercy of the whims and fancies of any person with whom they might have a disagreement, causing a charge of 'mental illness' to be placed against them, with immediate deportation to SIBERIA, U.S.A!

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-2.md

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+---
+title: "Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act"
+chunk: 3/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:02.278569+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Further opposition ===
+After the Santa Ana Register published its article, a nationwide network of activists began a vociferous campaign to torpedo the Alaska Mental Health Bill. The campaigners included, among other groups and individuals, the white supremacist Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith; Women for God and Country; the For America League; the Minute Women of the U.S.A.; the right-wing agitator Dan Smoot; the anti-Catholic former US Army Brigadier General Herbert C. Holdridge; and L. Ron Hubbard's Church of Scientology, which had been founded only two years earlier.
+Increasingly strong statements were made by the bill's opponents through the course of the spring and summer of 1956. In his February 17 bulletin, Dan Smoot told his subscribers: "I do not doubt that the Alaska Mental Health Act was written by sincere, well-intentioned men. Nonetheless, it fits into a sinister pattern which has been forming ever since the United Nations was organized." Dr. George A. Snyder of Hollywood sent a letter to all members of Congress in which he demanded an investigation of the Alaska Mental Health Bill's proponents for "elements of treason against the American people behind the front of the mental health program". The Keep America Committee of Los Angeles similarly called the proponents of the bill a "conspiratorial gang" that ought to be "investigated, impeached, or at least removed from office" for treason. Retired brigadier general Herbert C. Holdridge sent a public letter to President Dwight Eisenhower on March 12, in which he called the bill "a dastardly attempt to establish a concentration camp in the Alaskan wastes". He went on:
+
+This bill establishes a weapon of violence against our citizenry far more wicked than anything ever known in recorded history — far worse than the Siberian prison camps of the Czars or the Communists, or the violence of the Spanish Inquisition ... The plot of wickedness revealed in this bill fairly reeks of the evil odor of the black forces of the Jesuits who dominate the Vatican, and, through officiates in our Government, dominate our politics.
+For their part, America's professional health associations (notably the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association) came out in favor of the bill. There was some initial opposition from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a small and extremely conservative body which opposed socialized medicine; Dr. L. S. Sprague of Tucson, Arizona said in its March 1956 newsletter that the bill widened the definition of mental health to cover "everything from falling hair to ingrown toenails". However, the association modified its position after it became clear that the AMA took the opposite view.
+By March 1956, it was being said in Washington, D.C. that the amount of correspondence on the bill exceeded anything seen since the previous high-water mark of public controversy, the Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Numerous letter-writers protested to their Congressional representatives that the bill was "anti-religious" or that the land to be transferred to the Alaska Mental Health Trust would be fenced off and used as a concentration camp for the political enemies of various state governors. The well-known broadcaster Fulton Lewis described how he had "received, literally, hundreds of letters protesting bitterly against the bill. I have had telephone calls to the same effect from California, Texas and other parts of the country. Members of Congress report identical reactions." A letter printed in the Daily Oklahoman newspaper in May 1956 summed up many of the arguments made by opponents of the bill:
+
+The advocates of world government, who regard patriotism as the symptom of a diseased mind, took a step closer to their goal of compulsory asylum 'cure' for opponents of UNESCO, when, on January 18, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Alaska Mental Health Act.
+The Act was prepared by the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of the Interior and the socialist-oriented Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It closely follows the Model Code, drafted by the American Psychiatric association, which has been working with the World Health Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations ...
+
+All of you who don't want members of your family railroaded to an asylum had better start writing your senator, now.
+During February and March 1956, hearings were held before the Senate Subcommittee on Territories and Insular Affairs. Proponents and opponents of the bill faced off in a series of tense exchanges, with strong accusations being made against the people and groups involved in the bill's introduction. Stephanie Williams of the American Public Relations Forum said that the bill would enable Russia to reclaim its former Alaskan territory: "[It] contains nothing to prevent Russia from buying the entire million acres — they already say Alaska belongs to them."
+Mrs. Ernest W. Howard of the Women's Patriotic Committee on National Defense castigated the slackness of Congress for not picking up on the bill's perceived dangers: "Those of us who have been in the study and research work of the United Nations, we feel that we are experts in this ... you as Senators with all the many commitments and the many requirements, are not able to go into all these things." John Kaspar, a White Citizens' Council organizer who had achieved notoriety for starting a race riot in Clinton, Tennessee, declared that "almost one hundred percent of all psychiatric therapy is Jewish and about eighty percent of psychiatrists are Jewish ... one particular race is administering this particular thing." He argued that Jews were nationalists of another country who were attempting to "usurp American nationality".
+
+=== Passing the bill ===

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-3.md

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+---
+title: "Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act"
+chunk: 4/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:02.278569+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The arguments of the bill's opponents attracted little support in the Senate. The Eisenhower administration, the Alaska territorial government and mainstream religious groups were all in favor of the bill. The Alaska Presbyterian Church gave the bill its unanimous support, issuing a statement declaring: "As Christian citizens of Alaska we believe this is a progressive measure for the care and treatment of the mentally ill of Alaska. We deplore the present antiquated methods of handling our mentally ill." It also urged the National Council of Churches to mobilize support for the bill. An overwhelming majority of senators of both parties were also supportive. The bill's original author, Alaska Delegate Bob Bartlett, spoke for many of the bill's proponents when he expressed his bafflement at the response that it had received:
+
+I am completely at a loss in attempting to fathom the reasons why certain individuals and certain groups have now started a letter-writing campaign ... to defeat the act. I am sure that if the letter writers would consult the facts, they would join with all others not only in hoping this act would become law but in working for its speedy passage and approval.
+Other senators expressed similar mystification at the agitation against the bill. Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington stated that he was "at a loss" to see how the bill affected religion, as its opponents said. Senator Alan Bible of Nevada, the acting chairman of the Subcommittee on Territories and Insular Affairs, told the bill's opponents that nothing in the proposed legislation would permit the removal of any non-Alaskan to the territory for confinement.
+
+Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona proposed an amended bill that removed the commitment procedures in Title I of the House bill and stated that "Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize the transfer to Alaska, pursuant to any agreement or otherwise, of any mentally ill person who is not a resident of Alaska." In effect, this eliminated the bill's most controversial element—the provision for the transfer of mental patients from the lower 48 states to Alaska. The final recommendation of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs followed Goldwater's lead that the bill be amended to strike all the controversial "detailed provisions for commitment, hospitalization, and care of the mentally ill of Alaska" included in Title I of the original House bill.  This amended proposal left only the transfer of responsibility for mental health care to the territory of Alaska and the establishment of land grants to support this care. The committee stressed that they were not invalidating the Title I provisions of the original bill but that they had been misunderstood, a recurrent theme in supporters of the bill:However, the proposed provisions were misunderstood by many persons in parts of the country other than Alaska. Partly as a result of this misunderstanding, but more because the members of the committee are convinced that the people of Alaska are fully capable of drafting their own laws for a mental health program for Alaska, the committee concluded that authority should be vested in them in this field comparable to that of the States and other Territories.
+Thus amended, the Senate bill (S. 2973) was passed unanimously by the Senate on July 20, after only ten minutes of debate.
+
+== Aftermath ==
+Following the passage of the act, an Alaska Mental Health Trust was set up to administer the land and grants appropriated to fund the Alaskan mental health program. During the 1970s, the issue of the trust's land became increasingly controversial, with the state coming under increasing pressure to develop the land for private and recreational use. In 1978, the Alaska Legislature passed a law to abolish the trust and transfer the most valuable parcels of lands to private individuals and the government. By 1982, 40,000 acres (160 km2) had been conveyed to municipalities, 50,000 acres (200 km2) transferred to individuals, and slightly over 350,000 acres (1,400 km2) designated as forests, parks or wildlife areas. Around 35 percent of the land trust remained unencumbered and in state ownership.
+In 1982, Alaska resident Vern Weiss filed a lawsuit on behalf of his son, who required mental health services that were not available in Alaska. The case of Weiss v State of Alaska eventually became a class action lawsuit involving a range of mental health care groups. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that the abolition of the trust had been illegal and ordered it to be reconstituted. However, as much of the original land had been transferred away, the parties had to undergo a long and complex series of negotiations to resolve the situation. A final settlement was reached in 1994 in which the trust was reconstituted with 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) of original trust land, 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) of replacement land, and $200 million to replace lost income and assets.
+
+== Scientology and the Alaska Mental Health Bill ==
+The Alaska Mental Health Bill plays a major part in the Church of Scientology's account of its campaign against psychiatry. The Church participated in the campaign against the bill and still refers to it as the "Siberia Bill". Scientology may also have provided an important piece of the "evidence" which the anti-bill campaigners used — a booklet titled Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics.
+
+=== Miscavige on Nightline ===
+Similarly, David Miscavige, the church's leader, in 1992 told Ted Koppel in an interview on the Nightline program:

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-4.md

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+---
+title: "Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act"
+chunk: 5/5
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:02.278569+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+I don't know if you're aware that there was a plan in 1955 in this country, Ted, to repeat what was done in Russia. There was going to be a Siberia, USA, set up on a million acres in Alaska to send mental patients. They were going to lessen the commitment laws, you could basically get into an argument with somebody and be sent up there. This sounds very odd. Nobody's ever heard about it. That's in no small part thanks to the Church of Scientology. I must say, though, that when that bill was killed in Congress, the war was on with psychiatry where they declared war on us ...
+It was a major, major, major flap for the psychiatrists when it got voted down, because then the slogan around the country began, 'Siberia, USA,' and it was really the first time that psychiatry had been denigrated publicly, that they weren't the science that they had been promoting themselves to be. And they took it upon themselves then to start dealing with anybody who would oppose them.
+
+=== Conspiracy theories ===
+In Ron's Journal 67, Hubbard identified "the people behind the Siberia Bill", who he asserted were
+
+less than twelve men. They are members of the Bank of England and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains, and they are, oddly enough, directors in all the mental health groups in the world which have sprung up. Now these chaps are very interesting fellows: They have fantastically corrupt backgrounds; illegitimate children; government graft; a very unsavory lot. And they apparently, sometime in the rather distant past, had determined on a course of action. Being in control of most of the gold supplies of the planet, they entered upon a program of bringing every government to bankruptcy and under their thumb, so that no government would be able to act politically without their permission. 
+According to David Miscavige, the bill was the product of a conspiracy by the American Psychiatric Association. In a public address in 1995, he told Scientologists that it was "in 1955 that the agents for the American Psychiatric Association met on Capitol Hill to ram home the infamous Siberia Bill, calling for a secret concentration camp in the wastes of Alaska." It was "here that Mr. Hubbard, as the leader of a new and dynamic religious movement, knocked that Siberia Bill right out of the ring — inflicting a blow they would never forget." The assertion that Scientologists defeated the bill is made frequently in Scientology literature. In fact, the original version of the bill with the offending Title I commitment provisions only passed the House of Representatives; it was subsequently amended in conference to strike the commitment portion and retain the transfer of responsibility for mental health care. The revised bill passed easily without further changes.
+
+=== Contemporary publications ===
+Contemporary Church publications suggest that although Hubbard was tracking progress of the bill at least as early as February 1956, Scientology did not become involved in the controversy until the start of March 1956, over two months after the American Public Relations Forum had first publicized the bill. A March "Professional Auditor's Bulletin" issued by Hubbard, who was staying in Dublin at the time, includes a telegram from his Washington-based son L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. and two other Scientologists alerting him to the upcoming February Senate hearings:
+
+HOUSE BILL 6376 PASSED JANUARY 18TH STOP GOES SENATE NEXT WEEK STOP BILL PERMITS ADMISSION OF PERSON TO MENTAL INSTITUTION BY WRITTEN APPLICATION OF INTERESTED PERSON BEFORE JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS ARE HELD STOP DISPENSES WITH REQUIREMENT THAT PATIENT BE PRESENT AT HEARING STOP ANYONE CAN BE EXCLUDED FROM HEARING STOP BILL PERTAINS TO ALASKA AT MOMENT STOP BILL SETS UP ONE MILLION ACRES SIBERIAL [sic] IN ALASKA FOR INSTITUTIONS STOP LETTER AND BILL FOLLOW STOP WHAT ACTION YOU WANT TAKEN.
+
+Although the church says that Scientologists led the opposition to the bill, the Congressional Record's account of the Senate hearings into the bill does not mention the church. A contemporary review of the opposition to the bill likewise attributes the lead role elsewhere and to right-wing groups, rather than the "civil liberties" organizations cited by the church:
+
+Only a few organized groups got behind the hue and cry. Most influential was the libertarian Association of Physicians and Surgeons, and Dan Smoot's newsletter. Right-wing groups bombarded Congress with protests and demands for hearings.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Citizens Commission on Human Rights
+Scientology and psychiatry
+Scientology controversies
+Water fluoridation controversy
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority
+Mental Health Trust Land Office
+Nightline: A Conversation with David Miscavige, February 14, 1992, interviewed by Ted Koppel – Miscavige discussing the Church of Scientology's view of the Act.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson-0.md

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+---
+title: "Alex Berenson"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:02.587679+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Alex Norman Berenson (born January 6, 1973) is an American writer who was a reporter for The New York Times, and has authored several thriller novels as well a book on corporate financial filings. His 2019 book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence sparked controversy, earning denunciations from many in the scientific and medical communities. 
+During the coronavirus pandemic, Berenson appeared frequently in American right-wing media, spreading false claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines. He spent much of the pandemic arguing that its seriousness was overblown. Once the COVID-19 vaccines became available, he spread misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.
+
+
+== Early life and education ==
+Berenson was born in New York, and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey. After attending the Horace Mann School, he graduated from Yale University in 1994 with bachelor's degrees in history and economics.
+
+
+== Career ==
+Berenson joined The Denver Post in June 1994 as a business reporter. In August 1996, he left the Post to join TheStreet, a financial news website founded by Jim Cramer. In December 1999, Berenson joined The New York Times as a business investigative reporter.
+In the fall of 2003 and the summer of 2004, Berenson covered the occupation of Iraq for the Times. He then covered the pharmaceutical and health care industries, specializing in issues concerning dangerous drugs. Beginning in December 2008, Berenson reported on the Bernard Madoff $50 billion Ponzi scheme scandal.
+In 2010, Berenson left the Times to become a full-time novelist.
+He has written 12 spy novels, all featuring the same protagonist, CIA agent John Wells.  His first novel, The Faithful Spy, was released in April 2006 and won an Edgar Award for best debut by an American novelist.  The Faithful Spy was ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List for paperbacks.
+In 2008, Berenson released his second thriller, The Ghost War. His third novel, The Silent Man, followed in 2009.  His fourth, The Midnight House, was released in 2010 and debuted at #9 on The New York Times bestseller list. The fifth, The Secret Soldier, was released in 2011 and debuted at #6 on the bestseller list.  The sixth, The Shadow Patrol, was released in 2012, and debuted at #8.  In July 2012, The Shadow Patrol was named a finalist for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, given by Britain's Crime Writers' Association.
+
+
+=== Opposition to cannabis legalization ===
+In 2019, Berenson authored the book Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, which argues that marijuana use contributes to psychotic disorders and violent crime. The book "received positive coverage from The New Yorker and Mother Jones for what some called its troubling truths" but was denounced as alarmist and inaccurate in the scientific and medical communities because of his claims that cannabis causes psychosis and violence; many scientists state that he is drawing inappropriate conclusions from the research, primarily by inferring causation from correlation, 
+as well as cherry picking
+data that fits his narrative, and falling victim to selection bias via his use of anecdotes
+to back up his assertions.
+
+
+=== COVID-19 pandemic ===
+
+Early in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Berenson vocally argued that people and the media were overestimating the risk of the new virus, that it posed little risk to young Americans, and that it was being used as a cover for government overreach. Many public health experts have rejected his claims.
+In May 2020, Fox News announced that Berenson would host a TV show called COVID Contrarian on its online streaming platform Fox Nation. However, by July 2020, amid surges in coronavirus cases across parts of the United States, Fox News appeared to have backtracked and removed the announcement of his show from its website.
+In 2021, Berenson tweeted that COVID-19 vaccinations had led to 50 times more adverse effects than the flu vaccine. PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false". The Atlantic called him "The pandemic's wrongest man", owing to what they termed his "dangerously, unflaggingly, and superlatively wrong" claims of the vaccine's ineffectiveness.
+On January 25, 2022, Berenson appeared on the Fox News show Tucker Carlson Tonight declaring that existing mRNA vaccines are "dangerous and ineffective" against COVID-19, and further demanding that they be withdrawn from the market immediately. The Washington Post's Philip Bump denounced Carlson for "inviting Berenson on, despite his proven track record of misinformation and cherry-picking" and observed that "Berenson's claims went unchallenged."
+
+
+==== Twitter suspension and reinstatement ====
+On August 28, 2021, Twitter permanently suspended Berenson for repeated violations of its policy on COVID-19 misinformation, but after he filed suit in December 2021 demanding reinstatement, Twitter reinstated his account in early summer 2022, in a "mutually acceptable resolution". This reinstatement was referred to as "significant" by The Atlantic, given that most social-media-banned people fail to win their court cases. 
+Berenson did not regain Twitter access because of a First Amendment free speech claim, which was rejected by the judge. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, theorizes that Twitter settled because of documentation of promises made to Berenson by a high-level Twitter employee concerning the nature of his tweets. Goldman stated that Internet company executives have always been advised by their attorneys not to make promises to or even to speak to anyone about their individual accounts "for reasons that should now be obvious".
+On April 14, 2023, Berenson filed a lawsuit in a federal district court against President Joe Biden in his official capacity, members of his administration in their individual capacities, and a board member and the CEO of Pfizer alleging that they pressured Twitter to ban him thereby violating his First Amendment protections. On September 29, 2025, U.S. District Judge Jessica G. L. Clarke dismissed Berenson's lawsuit, ruling that he lacked standing to bring his claim.
+
+
+== Personal life ==
+Berenson voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
+He lives in Garrison, New York, with his wife Jacqueline, a forensic psychiatrist.
+
+
+== Books ==
+
+
+=== Novels ===
+John Wells series
+
+The Power Couple February 9, 2021 Mystery, Thriller Simon & Schuster
+
+
+=== Non-fiction ===
+The Number: How the Drive for Quarterly Earnings Corrupted Wall Street and Corporate America. New York: Random House. 2003. ISBN 9780375508806. OCLC 51022970.
+Lost in Kandahar (audio narrative performed by the author) Brilliance Audio, 2012, ISBN 978-1469230948 OCLC 857738857
+Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence, 2019, Free Press, ISBN 978-1982103668
+Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over Our Government, Rights, and Lives. Regnery Publishing. 2021. ISBN 9781684512485.
+
+
+== Awards ==
+2007 Edgar Award for best first novel, for The Faithful Spy
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+
+Author's website
+Alex Berenson on Substack
+Telegram

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-0.md

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+---
+title: "Allais effect"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:05.167652+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Allais effect is the alleged anomalous behavior of pendulums or gravimeters which is sometimes purportedly observed during a solar eclipse. The effect was first reported as an anomalous precession of the plane of oscillation of a Foucault pendulum during the solar eclipse of June 30, 1954 by Maurice Allais, a French polymath who later won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Allais reported another observation of the effect during the solar eclipse of October 2, 1959 using the paraconical pendulum he invented. This study earned him the 1959 Galabert Prize of the French Astronautical Society and made him a laureate of the U.S. Gravity Research Foundation for his 1959 memoir on gravity. The veracity of the Allais effect remains controversial among the scientific community, as its testing has frequently met with inconsistent or ambiguous results over more than five decades of observation.
+
+== Experimental observations ==
+Maurice Allais emphasized the "dynamic character" of the effects he observed:
+
+The observed effects are only seen when the pendulum is moving. They are not connected with the intensity of weight (gravimetry), but with the variation of weight (or of inertia) in the space swept by the pendulum. Actually, while the movement of the plane of oscillation of the pendulum is inexplicable by the theory of gravitation, the deviations from the vertical are explained perfectly by that theory. The deviations from the vertical […] correspond to a static phenomenon, while my experiments correspond to a dynamic phenomenon.
+Besides Allais's own experiments, related research about a possible effect of the Moon's shielding, absorption or bending of the Sun's gravitational field during a solar eclipse have been conducted by scientists around the world. Some observations have yielded positive results, seemingly confirming that minute but detectable variations in the expected behavior of devices dependent on gravity do indeed occur within the umbra of an eclipse, but others have failed to detect any noticeable effect.
+
+=== Anomalous results ===
+Romanian physicist Gheorghe Jeverdan et al. observed the Allais effect and the so-called Jeverdan-Rusu-Antonescu effect or Jeverdan effect (i.e. the change in the oscillation period of a pendulum during an eclipse) while monitoring a Foucault pendulum during the solar eclipse of February 15, 1961. The authors made two hypotheses regarding their observation: during an eclipse, the Moon exerts a screening effect on the gravitational attraction of the Sun so that the attraction of the Earth is indirectly increased, a phenomenon that could also be studied with tides. If the hypothesis of the screening effect is wrong, another explanation could be that the variation of the Earth's gravity might be considered as a result of the diffraction of gravitational waves. Erwin Saxl and Mildred Allen similarly reported strong anomalous changes in the period of a torsion pendulum during the solar eclipse of March 7, 1970 and concluded that "gravitational theory needs to be modified".
+Dr. Leonid Savrov of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute built a dedicated paraconical pendulum to test the Allais effect during the solar eclipse of July 11, 1991 in Mexico and the eclipse of November 3, 1994 in Brazil. While he could not observe Allais's claim that there is a diurnal periodicity in the motion of a paraconical pendulum, he did, however, write: "The most interesting result of the Mexico and Brazil experiments is the increase of rotational velocity of the pendulum oscillation plane in the direction of the Foucault effect during the eclipse. It seems that we have some kind of special effect."
+Various other experiments using atomic clocks and gravimeters instead of pendulums also recorded significant anomalous gravitational effects which can neither be caused by a tidal effect or drift of the gravimeters, nor by high-frequency noise which has special patterns. These experiments were set up by different teams during solar eclipses in China in 1992, India in 1995, and China in 1997.
+Results reporting the observation of the Allais and Jeverdan-Rusu-Antonescu effects during the annular solar eclipse of September 22, 2006 were presented the following year by a Romanian team, with a quantization of the behavior of the paraconical pendulum. During the solar eclipse of August 1, 2008, a Ukrainian team and two Romanian teams worked together hundreds of kilometers apart with different apparatuses: five independent miniature torsion balances for the Ukrainian team, two independent short ball-borne pendulums for a Romanian team and a long Foucault pendulum for the third team. All three teams detected unexplained and mutually correlated disturbances. The same teams repeated a dual experiment during the annular solar eclipse of January 26, 2009, this time outside of the umbra, with the same significant correlation between the behavior of light torsion balances and a Foucault pendulum. They also registered similar anomalies using a Foucault pendulum and a very light torsion balance, both located underground in a disused salt mine with minimal interference, during the partial solar eclipse of June 1, 2011.

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+---
+title: "Allais effect"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:05.167652+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Inconclusive or negative results ===
+Louis B. Slichter, using a gravimeter during the solar eclipse of February 15, 1961 in Florence, Italy, failed to detect an associated gravitational signal.
+During the solar eclipse of July 22, 1990, no anomalous period increase of a torsion pendulum was detected independently by a team in Finland and another team in Belomorsk, USSR.
+The total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 had been a good opportunity to solve a 45-year mystery, thanks to an international collaboration. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center first inquired about experimental protocols to Maurice Allais, in order to coordinate ahead of the event a worldwide effort to test the Allais effect between observatories and universities over seven countries (United States, Austria, Germany, Italy, Australia, England and four sites in the United Arab Emirates). The lead supervisor then stated: "The initial interpretation of the record points to three possibilities: a systematic error, a local effect, or the unexplored. To eliminate the first two possibilities, we and several other observers will use different kinds of measuring instruments in a distributed global network of observing stations." However, after the eclipse, Allais criticized the experiments in his final NASA report, writing the period of observation was "much too short […] to detect anomalies properly". Moreover, the lead supervisor left NASA shortly thereafter with the gathered data and the NASA study has never been published.
+Further observations conducted by the team led by Xin-She Yang appear to have yielded much weaker evidence of anomalies than their first 1997 study. The authors first posited a more conventional explanation based on temperature changes causing ground tilting, but later suggested that this explanation was unlikely. A possible yet controversial explanation was finally proposed by the same author and Tom Van Flandern which conjectured that the anomaly is due to the gravitational effect of an increased air density spot in the upper atmosphere created by cooling winds during the solar eclipse. They conclude there have been "no unambiguous detections [of an Allais effect] within the past 30 years when consciousness of the importance of [experimental] controls was more widespread." They point out that "the gravitation anomaly discussed here is about a factor of 100,000 too small to explain the Allais excess pendulum precession […] during eclipses" and from this conclude that the original Allais anomaly was merely due to poor controls.
+Eight gravimeters and two pendulums were deployed across six monitoring sites in China for the solar eclipse of July 22, 2009. Although one of the scientists involved described in an interview having observed the Allais effect, no result has been published in any academic journal. An automated Foucault pendulum was also used during the solar eclipse of July 11, 2010 in Argentina, with no evidence of a precession change of the pendulum's oscillation plane (< 0.3 degree per hour).
+
+== Aether hypothesis ==
+
+Maurice Allais states that the eclipse effect is related to a gravitational anomaly that is inexplicable in the framework of the currently admitted theory of gravitation, without giving any explanation of his own. Allais's explanation for another anomaly (the lunisolar periodicity in variations of the azimuth of a pendulum) is that space evinces certain anisotropic characteristics, which he ascribes to motion through an aether which is partially entrained by planetary bodies.
+His hypothesis leads to a speed of light dependent on the moving direction with respect to a terrestrial observer, since the Earth moves within the aether but the rotation of the Moon induces a "wind" of about 8 km/s. Thus Allais rejects Einstein's interpretation of the Michelson–Morley experiment and the subsequent verification experiments of Dayton Miller.
+In particular, the Michelson–Morley experiment did not give a zero speed difference, but at most 8 km/s, without being able to detect any regularity. This difference was therefore interpreted as due to measurement uncertainties. Similarly, Miller's experiments corroborated these results over a long period of time, but Miller could not explain the source of the irregularities. At the time, temperature problems were invoked to explain the cause, as concluded by Robert S. Shankland. By re-analyzing the data from this experiment, Allais reported a periodicity using sidereal time rather than civil time used by Miller (daytime sidereal variation of the speed of light over a period of 23 hours 56 minutes with an amplitude of about 8 km/s).
+Applying the Titius–Bode law to the Earth–Moon system, which he generalizes to aether, Allais calculates a "wind" of 7.95 km/s, which is comparable to the values found by the experiments of Michelson and Miller. Hence Allais deduces that the aether turns with the stars, as proposed by the aether drag hypothesis, and is not fixed as Hendrik Lorentz thought when inventing his famous transformation and his ether theory. But the majority of scientists at the end of the 19th century imagined that such an aether crossed the Earth so that the rotation of the Earth around the Sun would cause an important variation of 30 km/s. Consequently, since the third postulate on which special relativity is based is the constancy of the speed of light in vacuum, Allais considers it unfounded. In order to measure a change in the speed of light, one would have to get back to the definition of the 1960 meter, since confidence in the theory of relativity nowadays is such that current metrology uses constancy of the speed of light as an axiom.
+Allais summarized his experimental work in English in his 1999 memoir on behalf of NASA. He detailed his aether hypothesis in the books L'Anisotropie de l'Espace, published in 1997, and L'Effondrement de la Théorie de la Relativité, published in 2004. A book on Allais's scientific legacy has been edited in English in 2011, yet his aether hypothesis has not gained significant traction among mainstream scientists. Nevertheless, after Allais's death in 2010, experiments on the Allais effect continue.
+
+== See also ==
+N-rays
+Pioneer anomaly
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+
+Maurice Allais Foundation website (English version)
+Maurice Allais, Ten Notes published in the Proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences (Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des Sciences), dated 4/11/57, 13/11/57, 18/11/57, 13/5/57, 4/12/57, 25/11/57, 3/11/58, 22/12/58, 9/2/59, and 19/1/59, available in French at http://allais.wiki/alltrans/allaisnot.htm, some also in English translation.
+Thomas J. Goodey, "Professor Maurice Allais – a genius before his time – as are they all" (Web site claiming to be the internet base of researchers studying and publicizing the Allais effect; includes copies/translations of several of the above papers.)
+Ed Oberg "www.iasoberg.com" This site has been established by Ed Oberg to facilitate and promote research into the Allais Effect and to distribute the resulting findings.  The launch of this site (23 November 2007) coincided with the launch of a hypothetical field model developed by Ed Oberg.
+Göde Wissenschafts Stiftung "Experimental measuring results with the paraconical pendulum Archived 2006-12-08 at the Wayback Machine

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+---
+title: "Alliance for the Union of Romanians"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:54.208334+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Alliance for the Union of Romanians (Romanian: Alianța pentru Unirea Românilor, AUR) is a right-wing populist and far-right political party active in Romania, with a branch in the neighbouring Republic of Moldova too. It was founded in 2019 by George Simion and Claudiu Târziu and as of 2026, it is the second largest party in both chambers of the Parliament of Romania, namely the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.
+The party was founded in order to take part in the 2020 local and parliamentary elections in Romania, its main leader Simion formerly candidating in the 2019 European election in Romania as an independent candidate, failing to obtain a place as he did not receive the required number of votes. Despite almost no success localy, the party unexpectedly obtained 9% of the votes in the parliamentary elections, making it the fourth largest party in the Parliament. Four years later, it obtained 18% of the votes, making it the second largest party.
+AUR's manifesto aims for the unification of all Romanians, particularly focusing on the union of Moldova and Romania. The AUR logo itself represents a map of Romania composed of a line depicting the actual border of the country and eight stars that are overextended in the right part as to include Moldova within that border too. George Simion has also been regularly seen in public wearing a pin with the map of the Kingdom of Romania at its 1918–1940 territorial apogee. Due to the promoted actions and speech from its members, the party has been described as conservative, far-right, fascist or neo-fascist (particularly neo-Legionary), pro-Russian, pro-Israel, pro-Serbian, and as promoting anti-Hungarian sentiment.
+The party further states its four pillars are family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty and has close ties with the Romanian Orthodox Church.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Background and founding ===
+The Alliance for the Union of Romanians was formally established on 19 September 2019. Later, during the Great Union Day of Romania on 1 December 2019, its leader, George Simion, said the party's aims were to participate in the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections of the country. Simion had up to this point been a campaigner for the unification of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Claudiu Târziu, who was co-president of the party along Simion until 27 March 2022, was a member of the Coalition for Family which unsuccessfully campaigned to ban gay marriage through constitutional change in a 2018 referendum.
+On 26 June 2020, AUR condemned the disinterest of the Romanian authorities regarding the minority rights of the Romanians in Serbia and Ukraine and declared that it would fully support them once it entered the Romanian Parliament. Two days later, AUR also condemned the 80th anniversary of the annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region by the Soviet Union, declaring that "it is our obligation to regain our state". By July 2020, AUR counted 22 branches in Europe and North America for the Romanian diaspora. The first of these was established in Wolverhampton, in the United Kingdom. AUR was the only party in Romania that expressed support for Donald Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 United States presidential election.
+During the 2020 Romanian local elections on 27 September, AUR won the mayoralty in three towns: Amara, Pufești, and Valea Lungă.

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+---
+title: "Alliance for the Union of Romanians"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:54.208334+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Election to Parliament and first legislature (2020–2024) ===
+In the 2020 Romanian legislative election, AUR obtained a high percentage of the votes, being called as the "surprise" of Romania. The results also increased the popularity of the party on the Internet. Many members of the Romanian Orthodox Church campaigned for the AUR during the 2020 Romanian legislative election. The party came first among Romanians in Italy, the largest group of the Romanian diaspora, and ran a close second among Romanians in France and Romanians in Spain. It also scored first in Cyprus. AUR's candidate for prime minister was Călin Georgescu, who worked for the United Nations for 17 years. According to a statement released by AUR on 8 December 2020, 15,000 Romanians joined the party in just 24 hours. The party got 47 MPs in the 2020–2024 Romanian legislature.
+The party achieved good results in rural areas of Moldavia and Dobruja, areas traditionally dominated by the other big parties. Its most significant percentages were in the counties where the Romanian Orthodox Church has a strong influence and a large number of practicing believers. These are Suceava (14.72%), Botoșani (14.62%), Neamț (14.4%), Constanța (14.2%), and Vrancea (13.43%). The party speculated the new communication channels (social networks) in a similar way to the Greater Romania Party (PRM) of the late 1990s - early 2000s, which used the newspaper "România Mare" (Greater Romania) as a communication channel, reaching high electoral scores. Another example is the People's Party – Dan Diaconescu (PP-DD), which was propelled with the help of the OTV television channel.
+Recorder, a Romanian online publisher, argues that the election campaign of AUR has adapted to the rural environment, which lacks modern technology, relying more on messages desired by the masses than on a coherent ideology. In this way, they argue, in addition to a core of supporters who voted for radical messages, there is also the wider category of electorate strictly attracted by populist messages.
+On 22 January 2021, Simion announced that the party would officially adhere at European level to the "European Conservatives and Reformists Party" after going on visits in Poland and Brussels, Belgium. Simion announced on 15 March 2021 that the AUR had intentions to start operating in the Republic of Moldova on the occasion of the Day of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania celebrated every 27 March. The party was officially launched, as previously stated, on 27 March 2021, and the elected president of the party was Vlad Bilețchi, a renowned Moldovan unionist. This new section of the AUR in Moldova later participated in the Moldovan snap parliamentary elections of 11 July 2021.
+On 2 October 2021, AUR organised a 15,000–20,000 people-strong protest against COVID-19 restrictions at the Victory Square in Bucharest, drawing both national and international attention and being the most attended protest in Romania since the start of the pandemic. On 5 October 2021, a motion of no confidence initiated by AUR, but legally proposed by PSD, was passed with 281 votes, thus dismissing the Cîțu Cabinet.
+On 27 March 2022, AUR held its first party congress at the Palace of the Parliament. On it, it was intended to elect the party's president. There were two candidates, Simion and Dănuț Aelenei, AUR deputy in the Constanța County. Aelenei claimed to have nominated himself with the simple intention of showing that AUR was a democratic party and that he did not intend to "expel" Simion from the party, admitting that he was less well-known compared to him. 784 voted for Simion and 38 for Aelenei, making Simion the party's sole president after having previously shared leadership with Târziu, who became president of the party's CNC. In November 2022, Simion met with Israel's ambassador to Romania, Reuven Azar. The encounter drew outrage from some Israelis and diaspora Jews, as AUR is officially boycotted by Israel due to its history of judeophobia. On 29 January 2023, Ramona-Ioana Bruynseels, a former candidate for the Humanist Power Party in the 2019 presidential election, joined AUR.

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+---
+title: "Alliance for the Union of Romanians"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:54.208334+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+On 14 November 2023, at an AUR press conference, Lidia Vadim-Tudor (the daughter of the late Corneliu Vadim Tudor), former Minister for Business Environment Ilan Laufer (who is also the president of the National Identity Force), businessman Muhammad Murad, entrepreneur Sorin Constantinescu and Sorin Ilieșiu, as well as deputies Florică Calotă (who was elected on PNL list), Daniel Forea (elected on PSD list), Dumitru Viorel Focșa (elected on AUR, but later left) and senators Ovidiu Iosif Florean (elected on PNL list), Călin Gheorghe Matieș (elected on PSD list) and Vasilică Potecă (elected on PNL list) announced that they are joining AUR for the next election. Later, on 21 November, AUR announced, together with the Romanian Village Party, National Rebirth Alliance, Romanian Republican Party and National Peasants' Alliance the creation of a Sovereigntist Alliance to contest the 2024 Romanian parliamentary election. On 2 April 2024, Mihail Neamțu, former leader of the New Republic party, joined AUR.
+In the 2024 European Parliament Election, AUR gained five seats in the EU Parliament, with a total of 6 seats, receiving 14.9% of the total votes. AUR previously held only 1 seat in the European Parliament. In the party's first local elections on 9 June 2024, AUR gained 10.7% for county councils and 9.5% for local councils.
+Presidential elections and second legislature (2024–present)
+In the first round of the 2024 Romanian presidential election on 24 November, Simion received 13.9% of the vote, not preceding to the planned runoff on 8 December. However, the runoff was never held as due to accusations of Russian interference in favour of first round winner Călin Georgescu. In the 2024 parliamentary election a week later, AUR received 18% of the vote, becoming the second largest party in both houses of the Romanian Parliament.
+The aftermath of the first presidential vote was controversial and led Romania to the brink of a political crisis, with AUR aligning itself with Georgescu, arranging protests in his favour.
+Simion won the first round of the 2025 presidential election on 4 May with 41% of the vote, losing the runoff on 18 May to Independent candidate Nicușor Dan with 46.4% against Dan's 53.6%. In early June, geopolitician Dan Dungaciu, lawyer Silvia Uscov and former SOS member Andrei Gușă joined AUR.
+
+== Ideology ==
+The party claims it is a centre-right, patriotic, and Christian democratic party. However, it is described as far-right by third-party sources.
+
+According to the party's website, AUR's ultimate goal is to achieve the unification of all Romanians "wherever they are located, in Bucharest, Iași, Timișoara, Cernăuți, Timoc, Voivodina, Italy, or Spain", while wanting to unite Romania and Moldova together, as well as land with Romanian speakers in neighboring countries. The party has been called irredentist. 
+The party's website names four pillars for the party: family, nation, Christian faith, and liberty. The party characterises its members as "the defenders of the Church". It is opposed to "gender ideology" and believes that a nation has no chance of surviving "unless it cultivates the original pattern of the classic family". The party opposes same-sex marriage, euthanasia and medically-assisted suicide. The AUR wants to introduce an anti-LGBTQ law based on the Hungarian anti-LGBTQ law. The party also opposes abortion.
+The party's representatives became popular on social media as a result of their positioning against measures taken by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading members, such as Șoșoacă (later expelled), gained thousands of followers. AUR has been described as supporting "anti-medicine, anti-vaccination" rhetoric. This accusation was rejected by George Simion, president of AUR, claiming that the party supports the "freedom of choice". The party's manifesto opposes secularism and condemns atheism, and claims that Christians are persecuted in Romania. The party has been critical of the impact of the local autonomy of Hungarians in Romania on the rights of ethnic Romanians in the centre of the country (where the Hungarians are the majority), leading to accusations of being Magyarophobic. The latter accusation was rejected by the president of AUR.
+Simion has cited Law and Justice and Fidesz, the ruling parties in Poland and Hungary respectively, as some of his models.
+Despite this, AUR has also expressed deep criticism of Fidesz, stating that it would not join the same group in the European Parliament as Fidesz, due to its claims on Romanian territory. However, AUR later reversed its stance, expressing openness to Fidesz joining the European Conservatives and Reformists.
+The AUR is Eurosceptic. Dan Tapalaga, the editor of the independent news portal G4Media, described the AUR in 2023 as, "extremist and anti-Semitic … based on isolationist nationalism, anti-Europeanism, economic nationalism, traditionalism and [Christian] Orthodoxy".
+The party also takes a strongly pro-Israel stance, supporting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, which are illegal under international law. It supports the Serbian stance on the political status of Kosovo, considering Kosovo to be part of Serbia.
+By 2023, the party had become critical of Romanian military support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War, suggesting that the war is "not ours". AUR also criticised the transit of Ukrainian agricultural products through Romania, and Simion has been banned from entering Ukraine. Nevertheless, the party leadership is critical of relations with Russia, with Simion calling for the expulsion of the Russian Ambassador and closing Russian consulates in Romania following Russian threats against Romania in December 2023.
+Simion has called for Western nations to "stop exporting wars", suggesting that the downfall of the "strong Syrian state" during the Syrian civil war had increased illegal immigration.
+AUR wishes to ensure Romania's self-sufficiency in energy, the prosecution of those deemed responsible for mismanaged post-communist privatisation projects, and a fight against illegal logging by banning the export of non-processed wood. The party has a senate seat, which is equivalent to the National Executive Committee of other Romanian parties such as the PSD, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Save Romania Union (USR).
+
+== Leadership ==
+
+== Electoral history ==
+
+=== Romania ===
+
+==== Legislative elections ====
+}
+Notes:
+1 1 senator and 4 deputies from NR were elected on AUR's list
+
+==== Local elections ====
+
+===== National results =====
+
+===== Mayor of Bucharest =====
+
+=== Presidential elections ===
+
+1  Independent candidate endorsed by AUR in the second round, which was ultimately not held
+
+=== European Parliament elections ===
+
+Note:
+1 AUR Alliance members: AUR (5 MEPs), PNRC (1 MEP) and the other party members did not achieved any mandates (ARN, PRR and BUN).
+
+=== AUR (Republic of Moldova) ===
+
+==== Legislative elections ====
+
+== See also ==
+Romanian Nationhood Party
+List of political parties in Romania
+Politics of Moldova
+Politics of Romania
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Biliuță, Ionuț (2021). "Constructing Fascist Hagiographies: The Genealogy of the Prison Saints Movement in Contemporary Romania". Contemporary European History. 31 (3): 435–455. doi:10.1017/S0960777321000424. ISSN 0960-7773. S2CID 244011991.
+Lay summary in: Ionuț Biliuță (3 December 2021). "Constructing Fascist Hagiographies: The Genealogy of the Prison Saints Movement in Contemporary Romania". Cambridge Core.
+
+== External links ==
+Official website (in Romanian)
+English language version
+Official website of the Moldovan branch (in Romanian; now defunct)

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_to_Rescue_Civilization-0.md

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+---
+title: "Alliance to Rescue Civilization"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_to_Rescue_Civilization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:30.504572+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+The Alliance to Rescue Civilization was an organization devoted to the establishment of an off-Earth "backup" of human civilization.  This facility, or group of facilities, would serve to repopulate the Earth after a worldwide disaster or war, preserving as much as possible both the sciences and the arts. The organization had called for such a backup facility to be built on the Moon in lieu of NASA's plan to return there no earlier than 2026.
+It was founded by the author and journalist William E. Burrows and the biochemist Robert Shapiro. The organization was absorbed into the Lifeboat Foundation in 2007.
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== External links ==
+The Alliance to Rescue Civilization - An Organizational Framework - Internet Archive
+ARC website Archived 2018-03-07 at the Wayback Machine
+An Alliance to Rescue Civilization, Ad Astra, 1999
+Morgan, Richard (August 1, 2006). "Life After Earth: Imagining Survival Beyond This Terra Firma". New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2010.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_vaccination_schedule-0.md

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+---
+title: "Alternative vaccination schedule"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_vaccination_schedule"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:55.405359+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In the United States, an alternative vaccination schedule is a vaccination schedule differing from the schedule endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These schedules may be either written or ad hoc, and have not been tested for their safety or efficacy. Proponents of such schedules aim to reduce the risk of adverse effects they believe to be caused by vaccine components, such as "immune system overload" that is argued to be caused by exposure to multiple antigens. Parents who adopt these schedules tend to do so because they are concerned about the potential risks of vaccination, rather than because they are unaware of the significance of vaccination's benefits. Delayed vaccination schedules have been shown to lead to an increase in breakthrough infections without any benefit in lower side effect profiles.
+
+
+== Effects ==
+Contrary to the claims made by some advocates of alternative vaccine schedules, there is no scientific evidence for the existence of "immune system overload", and according to the UK National Health Service the idea is a "myth". In addition, the amount of chemicals in vaccines such as aluminium and formaldehyde is much lower than natural exposure levels. Intentional deviation from the ACIP's schedule leaves children vulnerable to infection and increases the likelihood of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. These schedules also increase the chances of infection among individuals who could not be vaccinated for medical reasons, because they were too young, or who did not develop a sufficient immunologic response to the vaccine.
+After one of the most notorious outbreaks of measles in the United States, in California, legislation was passed to make vaccination mandatory, as alternative vaccine scheduling and/or avoidance had been prevalent before the outbreak.
+
+
+== Popularity ==
+An increasing number of children are undervaccinated, of whom an estimated 13% or more are believed to be so because of parental choice. One survey, published in Vaccine, found that 9.4% of parents in King County, Washington used an alternative vaccine schedule, while another survey found that more than 1 out of 10 parents of children aged between 6 months and 6 years used an alternative vaccine schedule. In a 2011 survey of Washington State pediatricians, 77% of them reported that their patients "sometimes or frequently" asked for alternative vaccination schedules. The same survey found that 61% of pediatricians were comfortable with using such a schedule if a parent asked for it. A 2012 survey found that the percentage of shot-limiting children—defined as children who received no more than two vaccines per visit between their birth and the age of nine months—had increased from 2.5% to 9.5% in Portland, Oregon. Research on well-off American families suggests that even parents who are ostensibly pro-vaccine can be misled by disinformation, and this can lead them to delay having their children vaccinated, and to tolerate such delay in others.
+
+
+== Proponents ==
+Among the most prominent proponents of alternative vaccination schedules is notable pediatrician and vaccine critic Robert Sears. Sears has been criticized by vaccine expert Paul Offit for what Offit states is Sears' "misrepresentation of vaccine science." Offit argues that Sears' alternative vaccination schedules present a public health risk, in that Sear's alternative vaccination schedules require a larger number of visits to the doctors office for parents - and unvaccinated children can acquire transmissible diseases while waiting in doctors offices'. Furthermore, increasing the time before a child receives a vaccine will increase the time in which that child is vulnerable to contracting preventable diseases. Additionally, spreading out vaccination shots does not decrease a child's pain or anxiety related to the shot: in fact, increasing a child's total amount of doctor visits for vaccination shots (by insisting upon a single shot per visit) may increase that child's needle phobia, according to Dr. Offit. Overall, Sears' alternative vaccination schedules are likely to decrease immunization rates by reducing vaccine timeliness. Notably, Sears has responded to Offit's critique by conceding many of his original positions - in other words, Sears has since stated that he is in favour of the conventional vaccine schedule, and that many of his original positions (e.g., that thimerosal causes autism) are not supported by evidence. Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatricians has stated that no alternative vaccine schedules have been found to provide better safety or efficacy than the recommended vaccination schedule.
+In June 2018, the Medical Board of California placed Sears on probation for improperly granting a medical exemption from all future vaccines to a two-year-old child without obtaining any of the child's medical records, including which vaccines the child had received to date.
+
+
+== Types of schedules ==
+A 2016 study identified five different types of alternative vaccine schedules: Sears' schedule, a shot-limiting schedule, selective delaying or refusal, making vaccine decisions visit-by-visit, or refusing all vaccines. Regardless of the type of alternative schedule used, skipping or delaying recommended vaccines has been shown to result in an increased risk of contracting and spreading vaccine-preventable diseases.
+
+
+== See also ==
+MMR vaccine and autism
+Vaccine hesitancy
+
+
+== References ==
+
+
+== Further reading ==
+Hulsey E, Bland T (2015). "Immune overload: Parental attitudes toward combination and single antigen vaccines". Vaccine (Review). 33 (22): 2546–50. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.04.020. PMID 25891399.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Abolition_of_Involuntary_Mental_Hospitalization-0.md

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+---
+title: "American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Abolition_of_Involuntary_Mental_Hospitalization"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:03.450444+00:00"
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+---
+
+The American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization (AAAIMH) was an organization founded in 1970 by Thomas Szasz, George Alexander, and Erving Goffman for the purpose of abolishing involuntary psychiatric intervention, particularly involuntary commitment. The founding of the AAAIMH was announced by Szasz in 1971 on the American Journal of Public Health and American Journal of Psychiatry. In the Platform Statement of the association, one can read:
+
+Throughout the entire history of psychiatry, involuntary psychiatric interventions, and especially involuntary mental hospitalization, have been regarded as morally and professionally legitimate procedures. No group of physicians, lawyers, or social scientists has ever rejected such interventions as contrary to elementary principles of dignity and liberty and hence as morally and professionally illegitimate. The AAAIMH does.
+Board chairman of the association was Thomas Szasz. The association provided legal help to psychiatric patients and published a journal, The Abolitionist. The organisation was dissolved in 1980.
+
+
+== See also ==
+Thomas Szasz
+Wrongful involuntary commitment
+
+
+== References ==

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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+---
+
+The American Expedition (1799–1804) was a scientific exploration of Spanish America conducted by the Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and the French botanist Aimé Bonpland. Over the course of five years, the expedition traversed across present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, and parts of the United States. Humboldt and Bonpland conducted pioneering research in fields including geography, biology, geology, meteorology, and ethnography. 
+They were the first Europeans to scientifically describe vast regions of South and Central America, mapping rivers like the Orinoco and investigating the Andes Mountains—including an attempt to climb Chimborazo. Their observations of plant and animal life, atmospheric phenomena, and indigenous cultures laid the foundations for modern biogeography and ecology. Humboldt’s meticulous measurements of altitude, climate, and geology, as well as his analyses of social and economic conditions, greatly expanded European knowledge of the New World. The expedition’s findings were later published in a series of influential works that shaped scientific thought and inspired generations of explorers and naturalists.
+
+== Background ==
+By the mid 1790s Humboldt had devoted himself wholly into scientific research. Despite being offered a promotion and an increase of pay he resigned his position as a mining official in the Prussian civil service in order to embark on a journey that would “advance him scientifically.” To the Minister of Mines in Berlin Humboldt declared: "I am considering a complete change in my mode of life, and I intend to withdraw from any official position with the state." His health, he claimed, had suffered. All he had wanted was to prepare himself for a scientific expedition by a practical employment in the mines. "As I have a deep conviction that such an expedition is highly important for increasing our knowledge of geology and physical science, I am exceedingly eager to devote my energies immediately to this end.
+After the death of his mother in 1796, Humboldt inherited the financial means to pursue independent research and travel. He decided to go to Italy, where he wanted to spend a year to a year and a half researching volcanoes. From there, he wanted to travel via Paris to England, where he would board a ship to the West Indies. However, the political instability caused by Napoleon's Italian campaign in 1797 forced Humboldt to cancel his plans. In May 1798, Humboldt traveled to Paris, where he met the botanist Aimé Bonpland. After their attempt to travel to Egypt had once again failed due to Napoleon and his campaign there, the two decided to go to Madrid in December 1798.
+
+== Arrival in Spain ==
+In Madrid, Alexander von Humboldt pursued the idea of a scientific expedition to Spanish America, despite the usual restrictions on foreign travel in Spanish colonies. Through the assistance of Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo, Spain’s First Secretary of State, whom Humboldt had previously met in London, he was introduced to King Charles IV of Spain. The king granted Humboldt and his companion, Aimé Bonpland, official permission to travel throughout Spanish America for scientific purposes. The royal passports provided Humboldt and Bonpland with extensive rights, including the use of scientific instruments, freedom of movement, and the authority to conduct research across Spanish territories.   
+Colonial officials were instructed to assist them as needed. Such privileges were exceptional, given that Spain had historically allowed very few foreign scientific missions in its colonies, due to longstanding policies of restricting access to outsiders for reasons of state security, economic monopoly, and religious protection. The level of trust and freedom granted to Humboldt was unprecedented for a non-Spaniard. Humboldt recognized that Spain’s primary interest in granting permission was related to his expertise in mineralogy and the potential for discovering new mineral resources, rather than purely scientific advancement.
+
+== Preparations and Objectives of the Expedition ==
+
+During the months of preparation, they stocked up on literature, reviewed all natural history collections, visited experts and purchased scientific instruments which consisted of sextants and quadrants, balances and compasses, telescopes and microscopes, hygrometers and barometers, cyanometers, eudiometers, thermometers, chronometers, magnetometers, a Leyden jar and a Lunette d’ épreuve (a “proof-glass”, a deep cylindrical glass for holding liquids while under test).  Humboldt and Bonpland set off from Madrid in mid-May 1799 for La Coruña in northwestern Spain, where they were to embark on the Corvette Pizzaro. Along the route, they made astronomical position determinations and altimetric measurements as normal, which might be utilized to enhance the maps of Spain.
+The objectives of his expedition to America were primarily scientific in nature. Humboldt sought to systematically investigate the physical and natural features of the American continent, including its geography, climate, flora, and fauna. He aimed to carry out precise measurements of altitude, temperature, and magnetic phenomena, and to collect data on the distribution of plants and animals in relation to environmental factors. He was interested in understanding the interconnections between the earth’s physical conditions and living organisms, an approach he later described as tracing the “unity of nature.”Since he had to pay for the expedition himself, he needed sufficient capital. With the help of Jewish friends of the Humboldts, the Mendelson and Friedländer bank agreed to transfer any desired sum to Madrid without collateral or guarantees.

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+
+== The Journey to South America ==
+On 5 June 1799, the Pizarro departed from the port of La Coruña after a period of delay caused by unfavorable weather. The ship, commanded by Captain Cagigal, left in the early afternoon and encountered difficulties navigating the harbor due to contrary winds, nearly running aground before eventually clearing the port. The vessel passed Castle San Antonio and the Tower of Hercules by the evening, then altered its course to avoid a British naval squadron operating offshore, a precaution necessitated by ongoing hostilities and blockades associated with the European wars of the period. Spain, originally allied with Britain and other monarchies against revolutionary France, had made peace with France in 1795. If the Pizarro had been captured at sea, the ship would likely have been taken to Portugal, a British ally, resulting in the loss of passage for the expedition’s civilian passengers to the New World.
+During the voyage, Humboldt and Bonpland initiated scientific work, including the use of a dip needle to measure the Earth’s magnetic inclination and water-temperature readings, confirming previous observations by Franklin and Williams regarding ocean temperatures. The Pizarro sailed past Cape Finisterre and, on 8 June 1799, encountered an English squadron along the coast, prompting a change in course. The ship continued past Cape St. Vincent, a historic site for European maritime exploration. On 11 June 1799, the ship observed a large school of jellyfish in the Atlantic. As the Pizarro approached the Canary Islands, it passed Lanzarote on 16 June 1799, where Humboldt and Bonpland observed volcanic landscapes, including the Timanfaya volcano, which had last erupted in the 1730s. 
+Navigation among the islands was challenging due to fog and unpredictable winds. The crew mistook a rock formation on Graciosa for a coastal castle, and the ship narrowly avoided being driven onto rocks by strong currents during the night. On 19 June 1799, the Pizarro arrived near Grand Canary. Dense fog delayed progress, but as it cleared, the ship’s company saw Pico del Teide, the volcanic peak of Tenerife, which Humboldt and Bonpland intended to ascend. British warships were observed nearby, but the Pizarro was protected by the guns of a Spanish fort and continued safely.

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+
+=== Peru ===
+The travelers gradually descended into the cinchona forests and former Inca territories. In Riobamba, they stayed with Montufar’s brother, where Humboldt accessed rare sixteenth-century manuscripts written in an extinct dialect and later translated into Spanish. These documents described pre-conquest events and the major eruption of Nevado de Altar volcano, which affected nearby towns with ash for seven years. Traveling from Riobamba to Cuenca across the Paramo of Azuay, Humboldt studied the remains of the Inca road, notable for its precise porphyry paving and straightness, comparable to Roman roads, leading to Cuzco. He also visited the ruins of Inca Tapayupangi’s palace and its summer house carved from rock, which offered impressive views and prompted Humboldt to admire Inca public works.
+Southward, the group had to ford the Rio Guancabamba, a tributary of the Amazon, twenty-seven times. Although not wide, the river’s strong current endangered their mules, which carried important collections. Humboldt described the anxiety of watching their passage. Further along, he observed the local postal system known as “el correo que nada,” where a messenger swam downstream with mail secured in a cotton handkerchief, sometimes using a balsa log to rest and stopping at huts for food and shelter. Humboldt confirmed the reliability of this system, having received mail sent this way in Paris, and noted that groups of people also traveled the river in this manner. After Cuenca, where they attended bullfights, the travelers proceeded to Loja to study the cinchona tree, the source of quinine. They spent nearly three weeks exploring the Amazon headwaters near Jaen, Peru, then crossed the Andes again near Cajamarca, where he spent five days visiting relics linked to the Inca ruler’s capture and execution by the Spanish, including the supposed execution stone and the room where Atahualpa offered gold for his freedom.. At this point, Humboldt’s measurement of Earth’s magnetic intensity provided a benchmark for future geomagnetic studies, as they crossed the magnetic equator. By October 1802, after extensive travel in the Andes, the expedition reached sea level at Trujillo and arrived in Lima on 23 October 1802.
+Humboldt’s impressions of Lima were largely unfavorable. In a letter dated January 18, 1803, addressed to the Governor of Jaén, he described Lima as having declined significantly compared to other South American cities such as Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, and Arequipa. He observed an absence of well-furnished homes and well-dressed women, attributing the city’s poverty to economic conditions and widespread gambling. Public amusements were limited to a theater and an attractive bullring. Humboldt noted that nighttime travel by carriage was hindered by stray dogs and donkey carcasses obstructing the streets. He criticized the prevalence of gambling and family separation, which he believed disrupted social cohesion, and remarked on the lack of large social gatherings. According to Humboldt, the atmosphere in Lima was marked by a cold egotism and general indifference to the suffering of others. He also commented on Lima’s relative isolation, stating it felt more remote from the rest of Peru than London was. During his two-month stay in Lima, Humboldt focused on preparing his scientific collections for shipment by sea. He also observed the transit of Mercury, and became interested in guano. The guano, which came from the excrement of seabirds, was collected by the natives on the islands off the coast. He recognized its significance as a fertilizer, noting that its value had been understood by ancient Peruvians for centuries.
+During Humboldt’s stay in Peru, he distinguished himself from previous travelers and colonial figures by recognizing and appreciating the achievements of the region’s ancient civilizations. The Spanish conquest under Francisco Pizarro had resulted in the destruction of the Inca Empire after 1532, with significant cultural assets being looted or destroyed. The Spanish and missionaries viewed the heritage of earlier civilizations with little respect, dismissing their artifacts and monuments as pagan relics and prioritizing the spread of Christianity. Despite these losses, many remnants of the Inca civilization persisted. Humboldt noted the survival of the Inca language, which he had studied in Quito and found to be widespread and expressive, especially among lovers. Physical traces of the Inca presence were visible in the extensive road network, which Humboldt encountered near Cuenca and other locations.
+
+The Inca roads traversed difficult terrain, rising to great heights and incorporating stairways to overcome steep inclines. As the Incas lacked wheels and horses, travel was on foot or with llamas, and rest stops provided food and shelter along the routes. The Spanish, finding these roads unsuitable for their horses, often dismantled them for building materials. However, in remote areas, sections of the original roads survived. At 4,374 yards (4,000 m) in Assuay (now Páramo de Azuay), Humboldt examined the ruins of the palace of Inca Tupac Yupanqui, including a site he believed to be an observatory. Humboldt also encountered descendants of the Inca nobility, including a young man who maintained a belief in the restoration of the Inca Empire and recounted legends of a hidden golden garden beneath the ruins. The descendant expressed reluctance to seek the treasure, citing a resigned awareness that any gold discovered would be seized by outsiders. Through these observations and encounters, Humboldt documented the enduring presence of Inca culture and the legacy of pre-Columbian civilizations in Peru.
+
+=== Mexico (New Spain) (1803–1804) ===

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+On Christmas Eve, Humboldt and his party departed from Callao for Guayaquil, traveling slowly along the coast. During the voyage, Humboldt took regular oceanographic measurements of the cold current along the Peruvian coast. Although local fishermen had known of this current for centuries, Humboldt was the first to systematically study its properties. Over time, despite his protests, this current came to be widely known as the Humboldt Current, and it remains a principal geographical feature associated with his name. On February 15, 1803, Humboldt sailed from Guayaquil to Mexico. Even two hundred miles offshore, he heard the eruption of Cotopaxi. After thirty-three days at sea, the ship approached Acapulco. Humboldt discovered that standard charts had mislocated the port, a significant error given Acapulco’s importance as a hub for Spanish Pacific trade. On March 22, 1803, the ship anchored, and Humboldt began immediate astronomical observations to determine the port’s precise location. He confirmed that Acapulco was situated up to five miles west of its position on existing maps, prompting necessary revisions to the cartography of New Spain.
+
+Acapulco, with its natural harbor, had been settled by indigenous peoples for thousands of years and later established as a port by Hernán Cortés in 1523. By Humboldt’s visit, the city had diminished in significance, with a small population and little commercial activity. Upon arrival, Humboldt used his instruments to correct geographic errors caused by local currents and earthquakes, further improving navigation and mapping accuracy. Humboldt’s primary reason for coming to New Spain was to secure passage to the Philippines, but he viewed Mexico as a vital subject for study. At the start of the nineteenth century, New Spain was a populous and prosperous colony, contributing significantly to Spain’s economy through silver, gold, and agricultural production. Humboldt, holding a royal passport, enjoyed unprecedented access to official records and facilities, enabling him to study the country’s economic and political structures thoroughly.

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+In early April, Humboldt and his companions prepared for their journey to Mexico City, enduring harsh conditions as they crossed the Sierra Madre del Sur, where temperatures reached 104 degrees Fahrenheit and the path was dusty and rocky. At Chilpancingo, they experienced a cooler climate and the scent of pine. Throughout the journey, Humboldt meticulously charted their route, using instruments to record geologic and geographic data. His systematic surveying produced the first geological cross-section based on precise instrument readings, a significant innovation in geological science. The group next visited Taxco, a renowned mining town famous for its silver mines. Humboldt observed the extensive mining operations and learned about the legendary fortunes and losses of miners like Jose de Laborde. He studied local mining techniques and later published critical observations in his "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain," condemning the harsh treatment of indigenous laborers and outdated, dangerous mining practices. Humboldt was struck by the poor conditions underground, where men and children worked in hazardous environments.
+Taxco’s mining traditions persisted into Humboldt's time, but he noted improvements in workers' well-being compared to earlier periods. The town preserved memories of Humboldt’s visit, including the house where he stayed and the garden where he spent evenings. From Taxco, the party traveled through mountainous terrain to Cuernavaca and then to a vantage point above the Valley of Mexico, where Humboldt admired the lakes, ancient ruins, and the city of Mexico itself. He regarded Mexico City as a magnificent metropolis, rich in history and architecture, and was warmly received by local society. Humboldt and his party were provided with comfortable lodgings and given official support by the Viceroy, Don Jose de Iturrigaray, who granted them access to archives, mines, plantations, and antiquities. Humboldt found the city’s educational institutions, particularly the School of Mines, to be outstanding in Latin America. He contributed to a geology textbook, which became the first of its kind in the Americas to bear his name as co-author.
+At the central square of Mexico City, the Zócalo, Humboldt was introduced to ongoing excavations near the imposing Cathedral. He was particularly inspired by the discovery of Aztec sculptures, most notably the famous Aztec calendar stone. Encountering these artifacts firsthand, Humboldt felt a sense of awe at the evidence of sophisticated ancient civilizations. He saw the Aztec calendar as proof of universal human ingenuity, comparing it to the astronomical achievements of Egypt and China. Humboldt meticulously sketched these sculptures, recognizing their value for understanding pre-Columbian history and science.
+Humboldt, accompanied by Bonpland and the nobleman Carlos de Montúfar, also traveled to the pyramids of Teotihuacan, located northeast of the capital. There, he marveled at the geometric order and vast scale of the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, which he believed were constructed in accordance with astronomical observations. Humboldt measured the heights of these pyramids and studied their orientation, considering how the structures would have appeared a thousand years earlier, adorned with gilded images of gods. He was intrigued by the rubble of sun-baked bricks and pottery found within the pyramids, pondering their original purpose and construction techniques.
+Throughout his travels, Humboldt was deeply interested in the daily lives and cultural practices of Mexico’s indigenous peoples. He frequently inquired about local customs, tools, village names, and natural resources, filling his notebooks with details that even his native guide considered too elementary for a scholar.  Receiving news from Berlin, Humboldt decided to postpone his plans for a global voyage due to damaged instruments, logistical difficulties, and the urgent pace of scientific progress in Europe. He resolved to remain in Mexico until spring 1804, making the most of his time by conducting local excursions and research. Humboldt’s scientific rigor was evident in his accurate astronomical and barometric measurements, which closely matched later calculations. In August 1803, he departed on an extensive tour, inspecting the Nochistongo canal, an engineering feat designed to protect Mexico City from floods, and collecting fossil remains for European scientists.
+At Guanajuato, Humboldt studied the silver mines and geological formations, requiring a special mule train to transport his mineral specimens. He continued to Morelia, noting its less favorable location compared to the ancient Tarascan center at Lake Patzcuaro, and praised the Tarascan people’s craftsmanship. At the crater of Jorullo, a volcano formed in 1759, Humboldt measured volcanic temperatures and studied the rapid development of unique plant life on the lava. Locals attributed the eruption to the actions of missionaries. The journey included an ascent of Nevado de Toluca, where Humboldt studied vegetation zones and compared them to those he had observed in South America, reinforcing his interest in plant geography. The party returned to Mexico City to prepare their specimens for shipment to Europe.
+Humboldt’s remaining months were filled with research, teaching, and the completion of detailed maps. He delivered lectures proposing a new system for correlating rock formations, making important contributions to the field of stratigraphy. His focus on mineralogical rather than paleontological criteria distinguished his work from that of English geologist William Smith. Humboldt also advanced the understanding of volcanic activity in Mexico, observing the alignment of volcanoes as evidence of structural weaknesses in the earth’s crust. His observations supported the theory that volcanic belts were related to tectonic fissures. The Humboldt party departed Mexico City on January 20, 1804, heading for Puebla and Veracruz, taking with them a wealth of scientific material and observations.
+On March 7, 1804, Humboldt departed from Veracruz, sailing to Havana to recover the scientific collections he had stored there more than three years earlier for safekeeping. Previously, when Humboldt attempted to join Baudin in Lima, it appeared he had abandoned any intention of traveling to the northern regions of the American continent. In late November 1802, he wrote to the Institut National in Paris, stating his hope to return to Europe through Mexico and Cuba by the following autumn. In his letter, Humboldt emphasized his focus on preserving and publishing his manuscripts and expressed a strong desire to be in Paris. However, his decision to delay his return and visit the United States emerged at the last moment. This change was likely inspired by his deep admiration for the American President, Thomas Jefferson, whom Humboldt felt compelled to meet before leaving the New World. His interest was further heightened by curiosity about Jefferson’s initiatives for exploring the American West.

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+
+=== United States (1804) ===
+On 29 April 1804, Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by Bonpland and Monttfar, embarked from Havana on the Spanish frigate Concepcion en route to Philadelphia. They endured a week-long storm in the Bahama Straits, raising concerns for the safety of their scientific collections. After 24 days, they reached the calm waters of Delaware, where they had their first views of the United States. The landscape featured low, forest-covered shores punctuated with marshland, and as they neared Philadelphia, attractive farmhouses came into sight amidst the forest clearings. However, upon closer approach, the waterfront revealed an unsightly scene of wooden warehouses and refuse. Behind this façade lay a well-organized city of 75,000 residents, reminiscent of European towns. Its cobblestone streets lined with poplar trees, elegant three-storey red-brick houses, and well-furnished interiors stood in stark contrast to the initial impression. 
+The main public building, aside from the State House, was Philosophic Hall, home to the American Philosophical Society, which played a crucial role in arranging for Humboldt's visit. Despite Philadelphia losing its capital status to Washington, it remained the cultural and scientific heart of the burgeoning republic. Humboldt and his companions were accommodated in an inn near the harbor on Market Street, and their arrival was promptly covered in the local newspapers. Relf's Philadelphia Gazette and Daily Advertiser reported that "Baron de Homboldt arrived in this city on Wednesday night." Meanwhile, Humboldt himself wasted no time in getting in touch with the President. He wrote the following in French on May 24:
+
+Arrived from Mexico on the blessed ground of this republic, whose executive powers were placed in your hands, I feel it my pleasant duty to present my respects and express my high admiration for your writings, your actions, and the liberalism of your ideas, which have inspired me from my earliest youth. I flatter myself in the expectation of expressing my sentiments orally to you, remitting at the same time the attached parcel, which my friend the Consul of the United States in Havana asked me to send to you[...] For moral reasons I could not resist seeing the United States and enjoying the consoling aspects of a people who under stand the precious gift of Liberty. I hope to be able to present my personal respects and admiration to one who contemplates philosophically the troubles of two continents. [...] I am quite unaware whether you know of me already through my work on galvanism and my publications in the memoirs of the Institut National in Paris. As a friend of science, you will excuse the indulgence of my admiration. I would love to talk to you about a subject that you have treated so ingeniously in your work on Virginia, the teeth of mammoth which we too dis covered in the Andes[...]
+During his wait for a response from President Jefferson, Humboldt was honored by the American Philosophical Society, of which Jefferson was the President. This society, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin, was a center for scientific inquiry in the Republic. Humboldt mingled with members such as Dr. Caspar Wistar, known for advocating compulsory vaccination; Benjamin Smith Barton, a botany and Native American culture expert; and Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Declaration signatory interested in the medicinal properties of cinchona bark. Humboldt's companion, Charles Willson Peale, a painter and lay scientist, introduced him to his unique museum, dubbed the "School of Wisdom." The museum held an eclectic array of specimens, including stuffed animals, bizarre artifacts, and a collection of paintings for sale. Peale also showcased a device called the physiognotrace, which allowed individuals to trace silhouettes, and Humboldt participated in creating a series of his own profiles.

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+On 1 June, Humboldt and his party arrived in Washington, which had become the United States capital in 1800. The city was still under construction, with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants and about 800 houses clustered around the Capitol, the President’s residence, and the Navy Yard along the Potomac River. The Executive Mansion, where Humboldt was invited to lunch with President Thomas Jefferson, was also incomplete and surrounded by unfinished grounds. Jefferson’s study, serving as his Cabinet room, was filled with a variety of personal and official items, including his books, maps, gardening tools, and a cage for his favorite mockingbird. It was in this space that Jefferson and Humboldt engaged in detailed discussions.
+Jefferson, at sixty-one, was known for his unpretentious lifestyle and devotion to family. The luncheon, attended by figures such as Charles Willson Peale, was informal, focusing on topics like natural history and international customs rather than politics. Jefferson and Humboldt quickly developed mutual respect, sharing scientific interests and political ideals. Jefferson was knowledgeable in various scientific fields, having conducted meteorological studies, experimented with agricultural techniques, and designed a plow. He was well-acquainted with the works of leading European scientists and demonstrated expertise in astronomy and paleontology. He offered Humboldt access to his Washington residence and invited him to visit Monticello in Virginia.
+During his visit, Humboldt observed Jefferson in private moments, including scenes of the President playing with his grandchildren. Jefferson sought detailed information from Humboldt about the newly acquired frontier with Mexico, following the Louisiana Purchase, which had doubled the size of the United States. With little American knowledge about the new territories, Jefferson valued Humboldt’s maps and statistical data, which were particularly relevant to the government’s ambitions for westward expansion and exploration, such as the Lewis and Clark expedition.
+Humboldt was widely entertained in Washington, visiting various sites and meeting prominent Americans, including James Madison, Albert Gallatin, Gilbert Stuart, and William Thornton. He impressed those he met with his intelligence and breadth of knowledge. After returning to Philadelphia on 18 July, Humboldt prepared for his return to Europe. He secured necessary travel documents from the British Consul and Secretary of State James Madison, reclaimed his maps, and settled his accounts. Humboldt expressed admiration for the United States in his correspondence, praising its liberty and potential while also criticizing the persistence of slavery, which he regarded as incompatible with true justice and lasting prosperity. He expressed hope for the eventual abolition of slavery and a desire to return to America. On 30 June 1804, Humboldt, Bonpland, and Montufar departed with their scientific specimens aboard the French frigate La Favorite, sailing from the Delaware River and reaching the open sea by 9 July 1804, thus concluding Humboldt’s American expedition.

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+
+== Aftermath ==
+After returning to France in August 1804, Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland arrived in Bordeaux after a swift Atlantic crossing. Their return after six years abroad was marked by the need to adjust to changed circumstances and reintegrate into European life. During quarantine, Humboldt wrote to the Institut National in Paris, informing them of his safe arrival. This news caused surprise, as rumors of his death had circulated in Europe. Humboldt reached Paris in late August, looking healthy and energetic. He was warmly welcomed by friends and family, with accounts noting he appeared unchanged by his long absence. Parisian society celebrated Humboldt as a hero. He was honored at scientific meetings and social gatherings, gaining widespread public attention for his South American explorations. 
+His collections and drawings, exhibited at the Jardin des Plantes, attracted large crowds. Within six weeks, the Institut National held a special meeting where Humboldt presented his scientific results, receiving enthusiastic applause. In mid-October, Humboldt presented the first reports of his journey at a meeting of the Institut National des Sciences et Arts, a French government organisation created in 1795 to promote science, the beaux arts, and literature. The meeting was crowded and highly anticipated. In October of that year, the inaugural exhibition of Humboldt's botanical collection was inaugurated at the Jardin des Plantes, where it met with considerable acclaim. Concurrently, the Bureau of Longitude Studies and the Observatory were undertaking a comprehensive review of his extensive barometric and astronomical measurements. Furthermore, artists had been commissioned to commence the replication of his botanical sketches and illustrations of ancient Indian monuments.  
+At this time, Napoleon Bonaparte was the only person in Europe with greater fame than Humboldt.  Their sole meeting was unsuccessful, with Napoleon responding coldly, possibly viewing Humboldt as a politically suspect foreigner. Despite this, Napoleon granted a pension to Bonpland but later attempted to expel Humboldt from Paris on suspicion of espionage. Paris, despite political changes since Humboldt’s departure, was now the leading center of science, offering exceptional resources and collaborators. Humboldt chose to remain, preferring Paris’s intellectual and social environment over Berlin, which he considered unappealing. He immersed himself in work, organizing his extensive collections and distributing specimens to various institutions. Bonpland kept the most complete set of plant specimens, with other collections sent to major European botanical gardens. Humboldt’s dedication to processing and publishing his scientific findings required several years of intense effort.
+During their American expedition, Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland encountered numerous challenges and hardships, many of which were described in Humboldt’s Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent and related works. Travel conditions were often extremely difficult due to the geography, climate, and lack of infrastructure across Spanish America in the early nineteenth century. The expedition frequently navigated dangerous and remote terrain. In the Orinoco basin, they traveled by canoe for weeks through dense rainforest and flooded savannahs, contending with swarms of mosquitoes and biting insects. Humboldt described suffering from fevers, likely caused by malaria or other tropical diseases, which affected both himself and Bonpland. They endured intense heat and humidity, particularly during their exploration of the Llanos and Amazonian lowlands.
+Food supplies were often insufficient or spoiled. Humboldt recounted periods of near-starvation, notably during their journey up the Cassiquiare Canal, when the group survived on minimal rations and local wild foods. Water was sometimes scarce or unsafe, and they risked illness from contaminated sources. The explorers faced physical dangers from local wildlife, including venomous snakes, jaguars, and crocodiles. Humboldt detailed an encounter with electric eels near Calabozo, where they observed the animals’ ability to stun horses during local fishing practices. Mountain ascents posed their own hazards. While climbing Chimborazo, Humboldt and Bonpland experienced altitude sickness, extreme cold, and exhaustion. Humboldt recorded severe headaches, nosebleeds, and difficulty breathing at high elevations. 

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:39.811011+00:00"
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+---
+
+== Contributions to Science ==
+Alexander von Humboldt’s scientific achievements are notable for their scope, empirical rigor, and transformative impact across the natural sciences. His American expedition (1799–1804) produced a vast array of new data and observations, which he synthesized in a remarkable body of published work. Humboldt’s enduring reputation is grounded in his relentless fieldwork, his innovative methods of data visualization, and above all in his vision of nature as a unified and dynamic system.
+His contributions to plant geography are evident in his Essai sur la géographie des plantes (1805), which introduced the idea that plant distributions are determined by environmental factors such as climate, elevation, and soil. This groundbreaking work was based on his ascent of equatorial mountains like Chimborazo and Pichincha, where he meticulously recorded changes in vegetation corresponding to altitude and temperature. Humboldt’s iconic “Chimborazo profile” visually mapped plant zones along the mountain’s slopes, integrating botanical, meteorological, and physical data. By demonstrating that the same climatic zones could produce similar vegetation types on different continents, Humboldt laid the foundations for modern biogeography and ecology, moving beyond Linnaean taxonomy to a dynamic understanding of the relationship between organisms and their environment. The methods and concepts presented in the Essai were further developed in later works, including Plantes équinoxiales which catalogued the thousands of plant specimens collected during his travels, many of them previously unknown to science.
+In the field of geology and climatology, Humboldt’s Recueil d’observations de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée and his monograph on the geology and climatology of South America offered comprehensive new perspectives. He was the first to produce geological cross-sections based on quantitative measurements, using barometric readings and the compass to map the structure and composition of mountain ranges and volcanic regions. His investigations of the Andes and Mexican volcanoes, including detailed studies of eruptions such as that of Jorullo, fostered a new understanding of vulcanism. Humboldt’s observations showed that volcanoes are often aligned along fissures in the earth’s crust, helping to shift geological thought away from Werner’s “neptunist” model toward a synthesis that recognized the role of internal heat and tectonic forces. His rigorous meteorological observations, employing thermometers, barometers, hygrometers, and magnetic instruments, produced the first reliable data on temperature, pressure, humidity, and magnetic phenomena across the Americas. Humboldt introduced the concept of isothermal lines—lines connecting points of equal mean temperature—making possible global comparisons of climate and advancing the study of climatology and physical geography. He also coined technical terms such as “isodynamics,” “isoclines,” and “magnetic storm,” and was the first to describe the magnetic equator.
+Humboldt’s mapping and cartographic achievements set new standards for accuracy and integration. In Recueil d’observations astronomiques, d’opérations trigonométriques et de mesures barométriques, he presented maps that combined astronomical observations for latitude and longitude, triangulation, and barometric measurements of elevation. His maps of the Orinoco River, the Andes, the Valley of Mexico, and other regions provided unprecedented detail and clarity. In Mexico, he oversaw the production of a comprehensive map that synthesized political, economic, ethnographic, and physical information, setting a new standard for thematic maps. 
+Humboldt’s Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne (Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain) and Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba (Political Essay on the Island of Cuba) exemplify his approach to regional geography. These works combined exhaustive statistical data with economic, social, and physical analysis, offering the first modern regional studies of Mexico and Cuba. In Mexico, Humboldt’s assessments of mining resources, particularly silver, drew international attention and had significant economic repercussions. His Cuban essay was notable for its forceful condemnation of slavery. In both cases, Humboldt’s integration of field observations, statistical analysis, and critical commentary created a template for future regional and economic geography.
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Bibliography ==

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+---
+
+=== Tenerife ===
+Upon landing on Tenerife, Humboldt and Bonpland were received by local officials and noted the distinctive flora of the island, including bananas, papaws, and ornamental plants. On June 20, before dawn,Bonpland an Humboldt departed with guides and mules for La Orotava, near the Teide volcano. They passed through San Cristébal, built on a basalt ridge around the Peak of Tenerife, and paused to inspect rocks, eventually arriving at La Laguna, the capital of Tenerife. After the climbing Humboldt and his party left La Laguna, traversing a landscape rich in plant diversity, including palms, orange trees, vines, and cacti. The region’s natural beauty was contrasted by socio-economic inequality, with land concentrated among a few wealthy planters and the indigenous population living in poverty. The group passed through Juan de la Rambla, Victoria, and Matanza, sites of both agricultural abundance and historical conflict with Spanish conquest in the fifteenth century.
+In La Orotava, they visited the botanical garden and met Monsieur LeGros, the French vice-consul, who had lived on Tenerife since being shipwrecked and agreed to guide their ascent of Pico del Teide. On 21 June 1799, the climbing party, which included LeGros, other local guides, and consular staff, departed for the volcano. The route passed solidly built but somber towns, lush gardens, and a renowned dragon tree, a species present in the Canaries but native to the West Indies, illustrating the complexities of plant distribution. The ascent led through forests of chestnut, laurels, and heaths, and onto higher, barren volcanic plains such as Llano del Retama, where vegetation diminished and only shrubs and wildlife remained. At Estancia de los Ingleses, a traditional rest point at about 8,000 feet (2,400 m), the group endured a cold, windy night before continuing the climb at 3 a.m. on 22 June 1799. They crossed the Malpays, an area of broken lava and little vegetation, and reached the summit at 8 a.m.
+At the peak, the party observed the structure of the volcano, measured ground temperatures, and collected air samples. The elliptical crater showed no recent eruptions inside, but the volcano remained active, with recent lava flows and geothermal activity. The summit provided panoramic views of the surrounding islands and the diverse ecological zones descending from the peak, which Humboldt recorded in a sketch. He noted five distinct vegetation zones, from grasses at the summit to cultivated tropical and temperate plants near the coast. The descent took the party back through the varying ecological regions. Humboldt made broader geological observations, considering questions about the structure and origins of volcanoes and the laws governing geological phenomena. The round trip from La Orotava to the summit and back lasted twenty-one hours. The Pizarro’s departure was delayed until 24 or 25 June 1799 due to the presence of an English squadron, allowing Humboldt and Bonpland additional time to explore the island’s surroundings. During this period, Humboldt investigated the fate of the Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canaries, concluding that they had been destroyed by European conquest and slavery, with survivors assimilated into the Spanish population.
+The Pizarro crossed the Tropic of Cancer on June 27, sailing through the Atlantic and carefully avoiding the area labeled “Bank of Maal-strom,” whose dangers Humboldt doubted existed in the calm tropics. The ship passed west of the Cape Verde Islands, once claimed for Portugal by Alvise da Mosto, and entered the Sargasso Sea, a vast region of floating seaweed previously described by Columbus. Here, the crew encountered a partially submerged, abandoned ship covered in seaweed, which Humboldt surmised had drifted from the rough North Atlantic rather than sinking locally. Throughout the voyage, Humboldt and Bonpland conducted systematic scientific observations, measuring a wide array of atmospheric and oceanic variables and recording them meticulously. The two naturalists spent their evenings observing unfamiliar southern constellations, including the Southern Cross, which stirred Humboldt’s sense of distance from Europe.
+The ship enjoyed a relatively smooth journey across the Atlantic, following established routes aided by predictable trade winds. The calm seas known as el Golfo de las Damas made for easy sailing, and the crew rarely needed to adjust the sails. Approaching the West Indies, the weather changed, with frequent tropical squalls and the distinctive "dark winds," phenomena new to Humboldt but familiar in the region. He noted the remarkable stability of temperatures and the mildness of the equatorial climate at sea. The tranquil progress was disrupted when a typhus epidemic broke out on board, a common danger in the cramped and unsanitary conditions of ships at the time. Typhus, spread by lice, quickly incapacitated several passengers and crew members. Captain Cagigal remained indifferent to the outbreak, refusing preventative measures, while the ship’s surgeon relied on ineffective treatments based on erroneous theories of disease. 
+Fear spread among the passengers, including Humboldt, who regretted not having quinine bark among his supplies. On July 8, a sailor gravely ill with the disease was brought on deck for last rites but began to recover, reinforcing the surgeon’s misguided confidence in his methods. Another passenger, a young Asturian man pressured into emigrating to Cuba, succumbed to the disease despite his friend’s devoted care, leaving the latter bereft and anxious about his prospects. The young man’s death was marked by a somber shipboard burial, deepening Humboldt’s melancholy as the ship neared the Caribbean islands. Spurred by the worsening epidemic, the captain decided to bypass Havana and proceed directly to Cumana in Venezuela, forcing all passengers to remain aboard. Nearing Cumana on July 15, the Pizarro encountered local Guayqueria, who approached after initial hesitation.
+The Natives, tall and strong, offered the crew gifts and information about the local geography. Their leader, Carlos del Pino, agreed to pilot the ship through safe channels. The Pizarro passed the deserted island of Cubagua, once prosperous due to its pearl fisheries, and neared the mountainous coast of Margarita. Humboldt spent his last night at sea conversing with del Pino about the region’s exotic wildlife and plants, forming a valuable friendship. At dawn on July 16, Humboldt and Bonpland saw the lush South American mainland for the first time. The Pizarro anchored at Cumana after a voyage of forty-one days from La Coruña, marking the end of their Atlantic crossing and the beginning of their explorations in the New World.

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+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
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+---
+
+== Route and Major Stages ==
+
+=== Venezuela ===
+
+==== Cumaná ====
+On the morning of July 16, 1799, the Pizarro anchored at Cumana, and even those weakened by typhus managed to witness their arrival. Humboldt, eager to immerse himself in the new environment, immediately visited the home of their native guide, disregarding the captain's reminder about the need to present credentials to the Governor first. In the shade of a mimosa tree, surrounded by unfamiliar tropical fragrances and the daily life of their host’s family, Humboldt found the experience more rewarding than any official audience could provide. The town of Cumana, or what remained of it after a devastating earthquake, presented a scene of partial ruin. Governor Don Vicente Emparán, a progressive and scientifically minded official, welcomed the explorers warmly. As head of New Andalusia, then part of the Spanish colony of New Granada, Emparán took pride in introducing Humboldt and Bonpland to local crafts, especially textiles and furniture made from native materials. His appreciation for science ensured that Humboldt and Bonpland received favorable treatment during their South American travels. The natural scenery, with its mist-shrouded mountains, vibrant birds, and luxuriant plant life, left Humboldt and Bonpland exhilarated and overwhelmed by the proliferation of unfamiliar sights, sounds, and smells.
+The explorers quickly secured a spacious house constructed of local woods, cooled by the breeze through open windows. The household was managed by a former naval quartermaster with the help of Black servants, and provisions were generally abundant except for flour. The initial weeks were spent testing scientific instruments and botanizing in the surrounding plains, astonished by the rapid growth and size of local vegetation. Humboldt noted the presence of plant species newly described by science, indicating the region’s botanical richness and the likelihood that many smaller plants remained undocumented. The scientific curiosity of the local population matched that of the visitors. The house became a destination for townspeople eager to observe scientific demonstrations, especially with the microscope, which fascinated Cumana's women. Humboldt reciprocated by attending local dances, learning both traditional and modern forms. Despite social distractions, Humboldt’s chief focus was meteorological observation, taking advantage of the region’s stable climate to collect data on atmospheric conditions.
+Humboldt’s house, situated on the main square, also exposed him to the realities of the local slave market. He was deeply disturbed by the sight of enslaved Africans being prepared for sale, their bodies oiled and inspected by buyers. While generally tolerant and patient in his dealings with others, Humboldt’s abhorrence of slavery was absolute. He could not accept rationalizations for the system, regardless of claims that Spanish slaves fared better than those elsewhere. Venturing beyond Cumana, Humboldt and Bonpland received hospitality from local mulatto peasants, who were unfamiliar with their European origins but generous nonetheless. During one such excursion, they learned of a local laborer named Francisco Loyano, who had reportedly nursed a child with his own milk due to unusual lactation, a fact confirmed by local witnesses and Bonpland’s examination. By early September, acclimatized and prepared, Humboldt and Bonpland embarked on their first significant inland journey to the Cumanagoto tribe missions in the mountains south of Cumana. 
+The challenging route led them through dense rainforest, across mountain streams, and along precipitous paths, where they marveled at the forest’s grandeur and the diversity of wildlife. The mission headquarters at Caripe, a cool, spring-fed location surrounded by mountains, became their base. Humboldt was surprised to find the Capuchin monks welcoming and tolerant, despite religious differences, and noted the presence of contemporary scientific texts among them. Daily life at Caripe was a blend of scientific work and cultural observation. Humboldt and Bonpland collected plants, studied the Cumanagoto language, and documented local customs, including the children’s consumption of large millipedes. Meals at the monastery reflected the monks’ sacrifices, as they often gave up their own rations for the guests. The soundscape was dominated by howler monkeys, especially during rain, and opportunities for astronomical observation were rare due to persistent mist. 
+
+==== Guacharo Cave and reflections on mission life ====
+One major scientific highlight was the exploration of the famed Guacharo Cave, known locally as ‘the mine of fat’. The cave’s entrance, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation and orchids, led to vast chambers inhabited by large colonies of oil-birds, previously unknown to science. The birds’ fat was harvested annually by locals for cooking oil. The cave expedition revealed bizarre subterranean plants, pale and etiolated, growing in the darkness from seeds dropped by the birds. The indigenous guides, convinced of spirits beyond the cave’s first chamber, refused to proceed further, and the explorers were forced to turn back. Observing mission life, Humboldt saw both advantages and shortcomings. While the mission system protected the Chayma from violence and provided stability, it also imposed a stifling routine and eroded traditional culture, leaving the Natives apathetic and disengaged. Humboldt recognized the superficiality of Christian conversion among them and noted their regret at the loss of traditional freedoms.
+Upon returning to Cumana, Humboldt and Bonpland abandoned plans to proceed to Havana, instead deciding to explore the Orinoco. Their time in Cumana was punctuated by dramatic events. Bonpland was attacked by a deranged local, suffering a head injury that left him dazed for months. Shortly after, Humboldt experienced his first earthquake, noting the vertical jolts and the reduction in magnetic dip, even as the local population panicked. A week later, an extraordinary meteor shower dazzled the town, with thousands of fireballs illuminating the sky. Humboldt’s precise observations of the event contributed to subsequent scientific study of meteorites. The local population, already unnerved by recent earthquakes, interpreted the meteor shower as another ominous sign. On November 16, Humboldt and Bonpland departed Cumana by sea, bound for Caracas.

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+
+==== Llanos and tropical ecology ====
+In February 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland departed the Caribbean coast, setting their sights on the Orinoco River. This important northern neighbor of the Amazon promised a gateway into the equatorial jungles, famed for their extraordinary biodiversity and dense tropical vegetation. For Humboldt, the journey offered a long-awaited opportunity to conduct magnetic measurements at latitudes where Earth’s magnetism would differ significantly from what he had found in Europe. The expedition also carried the excitement of possibly confirming the rumored connection between the Orinoco and Amazon or Rio Negro river systems—a geographical mystery that had fascinated explorers for years.
+The most direct route from Caracas to the Orinoco would have been to cross the southern mountain chain between Baruta and Salamanca, traverse the savannahs of Ocumare, and embark at Cabruta near the Rio Guarico’s mouth. However, this shortcut would have denied the travelers the chance to survey the most fertile and cultivated regions of the province—the valleys of Aragua—along with valuable opportunities to measure the elevation of the coastal mountain chain by barometer and to descend the Rio Apure to its meeting point with the Orinoco. From Puerto Cabello, Humboldt and Bonpland made their way across the coastal ranges and llanos towards Lake Valencia. The heat was so intense that they often rode at night to avoid the sun’s punishing rays.  Along their route, they visited cocoa and sugar cane plantations—operations that, much to Humboldt’s dismay, were still worked by enslaved laborers.
+In these cultivated areas, Humboldt studied water management issues. He observed that deforestation had interrupted the natural water cycle: the loss of forests as reservoirs led to severe soil desiccation under the relentless sun. At Lake Valencia, he recognized that the lake’s water level had once been higher and warned that continued settlement and irrigation would cause further decline—a prediction since borne out, as the lake has lost a third of its volume. He also took a keen interest in the municipal systems of the settlements, criticizing the Spanish colonial policy that stifled local self-government and, in his view, suppressed economic development. Despite these structural problems, the travelers, armed with letters of recommendation, received warm welcomes in each village and town.
+One of Humboldt’s most memorable encounters in the Aragua valleys was with the remarkable palo de vaca or cow tree (also called “arbol de leche,” the milk tree), a species previously unknown to European science. Although the tree resembled the unremarkable star apple, it possessed an extraordinary quality: when its trunk was cut, it oozed a thick, fragrant, drinkable sap—essentially, plant milk. Humboldt and Bonpland sampled this sap without ill effect and watched as the indigenous people tapped the trees at sunrise, collecting the milk in bowls to drink or carry home. Only experienced gatherers knew which trees would produce the best milk. Humboldt reflected on the significance of milk and grain in human culture: while grains’ starch came solely from plants and milk traditionally from animals, here was a tree that united both sources in a single organism.
+By March, the explorers reached the Llanos, a vast plain that, at the end of the dry season, appeared desolate and lifeless. With the arrival of the rains in May, the landscape underwent a dramatic transformation: new grasses sprouted, mimosas and aquatic plants flowered, and wildlife emerged from a kind of “summer hibernation.” As the rain persisted, the Llanos flooded, creating an immense inland sea navigable by large vessels. Native animals—jaguars, agoutis, deer, antelope, armadillos, hares, capybaras, and more—along with domesticated horses, cattle, oxen, and mules, were forced to swim between islands of higher ground, constantly threatened by crocodiles and electric eels. During a brief stop at Calabozo, Humboldt investigated the electric eel, a species that fascinated him for its unique ability to generate electricity. By March 27, 1800, the travelers reached the Apure River. There, they continued their journey in a pirogue, a large indigenous canoe, following the river’s course to its confluence with the Orinoco, eager to explore the mysteries and marvels of the South American interior.
+
+==== Orinoco River exploration ====
+Humboldt’s expedition to the Upper Orinoco and the Casiquiare canal began at 4 a.m. on March 30, 1800, departing from San Fernando de Apure. The transition from the dry Llanos to the river marked a significant environmental change. The team, which included Don Nicolas Sotto, four Native rowers, and a pilot, traveled in a large sailing canoe outfitted with a cabin made of leaves and ox-hide benches. The river’s dense forests replaced the open horizons of the plains, and travel became more constrained. Wildlife was abundant, with numerous birds, capybaras, river dolphins, tapirs, peccaries, and alligators observed along the riverbanks, as well as piranhas and stingrays in the water. Humboldt noted the intensity of insect life, particularly at midday.

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+Humboldt credited Bonpland’s energy and courage. The climate damaged a significant portion of their botanical collection. Shortly after arrival in Angostura, Humboldt, Bonpland, and a servant became seriously ill, likely with typhoid. Humboldt recovered quickly, but Bonpland’s illness was severe and slow to resolve. After a month, Bonpland was fit enough for the journey across the Llanos to the coast. Their return was delayed by a privateer, but British naval intervention rescued them. By late August 1800, they reached Cumana, concluding the first phase of their South American expedition after nearly a year away.

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+
+=== Cuba (1800–1801) ===
+On November 24, 1800, Humboldt and Bonpland departed the Venezuelan coast for Havana in a small vessel, enduring a perilous, storm-ridden journey of twenty-five days. Upon arrival, Havana presented a crowded and unsanitary environment, with a population of 44,000, half of whom were people of African descent. The city, nearly as large as New York due to its suburbs, was afflicted by yellow fever. The travelers were welcomed with receptions and enjoyed the hospitality of the local elite. Humboldt undertook a survey of the harbor, the principal commercial and naval base of Spanish colonial power in the Caribbean, correcting its geographic position. Humboldt and Bonpland then traveled into the Cuban interior, visiting sugar plantations, factories, and fields of indigo, tobacco, and cotton. They observed the harsh conditions under which enslaved people labored. Humboldt aimed to make an objective comparison between Cuba and South American societies. 
+
+His observations culminated in the Political Essay on the Island of Cuba, a comprehensive geographic study examining the island’s physical and economic conditions, as well as the social realities of slavery. Published in 1828, the work was notable for its data and its condemnation of slavery, resonating during the Latin American independence movements. If the legislation of the Antilles and the condition of the colored population does not experience some salutary change, and if discussion without action is continued, the political power may well pass into the hands of that class which holds the might of labor, the will to throw off the yoke
+Humboldt also analyzed demographic data. In Cumana, he had recorded 6,000 people of color among 110,000 white and Creole residents. In Havana, government archives revealed that more than 2,130,000 Africans had been forcibly transported to British Caribbean territories over the previous century. In 1806, the slave trade involved 53,000 sales in British dominions and 15,000 in the United States. Humboldt estimated that from 1670 to 1825, nearly five million Africans were brought to the West Indies, not counting deaths during the Middle Passage. He was deeply affected by the realities of slavery, expressing indignation and advocating for strict enforcement of anti-slavery laws. He hoped that anti-slavery principles would spread southward in the Americas.
+The journey through Cuba was shortened when Humboldt received news of Captain Baudin’s French scientific expedition, expected on the Peruvian coast within a year. Eager to join this enterprise, Humboldt postponed plans to visit North America, instead preparing to travel from Cuba to South America, crossing the Isthmus of Panama and the Andes to Lima. He wrote to Baudin, proposing to join the expedition and offering to continue his journey independently if necessary. Humboldt’s decision to return to South America was influenced by scientific opportunities, such as the chance to study the Andes’ environmental effects on plant life and to meet the botanist José Celestino Mutis in Bogotá. This return also allowed for consolidation of previous research findings. During his time in Havana, Humboldt encountered the Scottish botanist John Fraser and his son, who had survived a shipwreck. Humboldt assisted them and arranged for Fraser’s son to join him in Mexico, though the latter chose to return to London. Fraser agreed to take two cases of Humboldt’s botanical specimens to England for safekeeping until they could be sent to Berlin. From Havana, Humboldt and Bonpland prepared to sail to Cartagena or Portobello, depending on conditions, intent on continuing their scientific exploration of South America.

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+
+=== New Granada (Colombia) ===
+Sailing southeast, the sloop entered the Gulf of Batabano, passing Isla de Pinos and navigating the challenging Jardines y Jardinillos archipelago, a region earlier named by Columbus. Humboldt measured latitudes and studied water characteristics, noting the solitude of the area, which was once frequented by fishermen. The journey was slow, with stops for geological and botanical observations. The crew’s cruelty toward wildlife disturbed Humboldt. After several days, the ship entered open water and was driven off course by winds toward the Cayman Islands before resuming its route to the Colombian coast.
+On March 24, the ship arrived in the Gulf of Santa Marta, enduring rough weather before seeking shelter near the Rio Sint. The travelers landed in a remote area, where locals regarded them with suspicion. Humboldt met a fellow German among palm wine workers, who offered insights about the climate but little else. After collecting botanical specimens, the travelers faced further storms at sea, nearly capsizing before finally finding shelter. Humboldt attempted to make astronomical observations to determine longitude but was prevented by the captain due to difficult terrain. An encounter with escaped enslaved people left Humboldt reflecting on the region’s hardships and the blunted sympathy caused by slavery.
+Arriving in Cartagena, Humboldt and Bonpland spent six days confirming geographical data and exploring the area. Cartagena, a key Spanish colonial port, faced challenges in defending its harbor. The city was surrounded by marshes and hills, and Humboldt recorded local stories, including a violent episode involving an acacia tree. Originally planning to cross Panama and sail south, Humboldt learned this route was impractical and instead decided to travel overland through the Andes, which promised rich opportunities for scientific study. This change, like earlier unplanned shifts in his journey, led Humboldt to groundbreaking discoveries in several scientific fields and contributed significantly to his later fame.
+The journey inland to the eastern Cordilleras began with a nearly 500-mile trip south up the Rio Magdalena, through dense forests to Honda. Humboldt and Bonpland spent over six weeks in a native canoe, hindered by insects, rain, and slow progress against the current. Crew members including Bonpland suffered exhaustion and disease, only Humboldt remained healthy and continued their scientific work. Upon reaching Honda in mid-June, they faced a difficult ascent of 9,000 feet to the plateau of Santa Fé de Bogotá. The road was in poor condition, narrow, and often little more than rock-hewn steps. As they approached Bogotá, their arrival was celebrated with a public procession led by local dignitaries and citizens. Humboldt was honored as a distinguished guest, while the novelty of foreigners attracted public attention. Bonpland’s illness kept them in Bogotá for two months, during which Humboldt received news from Europe, lunched with the Viceroy, studied fossils and minerals, visited Lake Guatavita, and measured mountain heights.
+
+=== Ecuador ===
+Once Bonpland recovered, the expedition departed for Quito via the difficult Quindiu Pass, navigating steep terrain, dense forests, and swamps. They refused to use local indigenous porters, the silleros carrying their own provisions for the journey. From Cartago, the route continued south to Popayán, where they conducted scientific excursions, including a visit to the volcano of Puracé. Next, they crossed the harsh Paramos of Pasto, a cold, desolate plateau marked by volcanic activity and frequent mists. The road was dangerous and strewn with animal bones. The travelers endured harsh conditions, sheltering under makeshift tents, and spent Christmas in Pasto before finally reaching Quito in early January. In Quito, Humboldt described the city as attractive but cold and prone to earthquakes, noting the effects of the 1797 disaster. Despite frequent tremors, the residents were lively and pleasure-seeking.
+Humboldt spent six months in Quito, socializing with prominent families, especially the Marqués de Selvalegre’s. He formed a close bond with Carlos Montúfar, who joined his later travels. Humboldt dedicated much of his time to studying the region’s volcanoes, including Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Antisana, Tungurahua, Iliniza, and Chimborazo. Mountaineering was rare, and Humboldt developed his techniques through experience and acclimatization. His first attempt to climb Pichincha ended in physical distress, but he persevered, eventually reaching significant heights and conducting scientific observations. His explorations on Pichincha included documenting frequent earthquakes, which led to local rumors attributing the tremors to his presence. Humboldt’s work during this period advanced scientific understanding of high-altitude geology and volcanology.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-9.md

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+---
+title: "American Expedition 1799–1804"
+chunk: 10/17
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:39.811011+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+==== Climbing Chimborazo ====
+Humboldt and Bonpland began their ascent of Chimborazo from the plain of Tapia, situated at 3,163 yards (2,892 m) above sea level. The route led through a high plateau between the eastern and western chains of the Andes, passing sparse vegetation such as cacti and Schinus molle, as well as herds of llamas. The altitude caused agricultural difficulties, since nocturnal cooling often resulted in frozen crops. Before reaching Calpi, they visited Lican, once an important settlement before the Spanish conquest, but now reduced to a small village. Indigenous people believed that wild llamas on Chimborazo descended from domesticated herds scattered after the destruction of Lican.
+The travelers spent the night in Calpi, which Humboldt measured at 3,452 yards (3,157 m) meters above sea level. On June 23, they began the main phase of their Chimborazo expedition, choosing a south-southeast route favored by their Indigenous guides, though only a few guides had reached the limits of the perpetual snow. Humboldt observed that Chimborazo was surrounded by step-like, grass-covered plateaus, which he compared to former lake beds and similar terrace formations in the Alps. The flora of these grasslands was dominated by grass species common in northern Europe, with few dicotyledonous herbs and limited floral diversity compared to other Andean peaks. Temperatures in the region varied strongly between day and night, and the mean annual temperature at this elevation was approximately nine degrees Celsius.
+Humboldt intended to perform trigonometric measurements on the plateau of Sisgun, but fog obscured the summit, preventing accurate results. The ascent began from the house of the mayor of Calpi, with Humboldt, Bonpland, and Montúfar proceeding on foot after the terrain became too difficult for mules. The group advanced slowly along a narrow ridge, exposed to steep drops and sharp rocks, without specialized climbing equipment. Increasing altitude brought symptoms of altitude sickness such as nausea, dizziness, and nosebleeds, while the temperature dropped and their clothing provided little protection. Despite these challenges, the party continued to conduct scientific observations. At the snow line, all but one of their Indigenous porters turned back.
+When the mist cleared, the summit appeared close, encouraging the climbers onward. Their progress was halted by a deep, wide crevasse filled with soft snow, which could not be crossed. Weak from the ascent and the cold, they were forced to stop. Humboldt measured their altitude at 6,428.707 yards (5,878.410 m) about 432 yards (395 m) below the summit. The group experienced a sense of isolation above the clouds, recognizing the significance of their achievement. During the descent, they encountered hail and a snowstorm that temporarily concealed the trail. As the weather improved, they observed lichen, a fly, and a butterfly above the snow line, marking the first recorded sightings of insects at such heights. The party returned to their mules shortly after two in the afternoon, concluding their attempt on Chimborazo.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angas_Johnson-0.md

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+---
+title: "Angas Johnson"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angas_Johnson"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:28.049866+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Edward Angas Johnson (1873 – 19 June 1951), known as Angas or E. Angas Johnson, was City Health Officer of Adelaide, South Australia. His name has very frequently been misspelled as "Angus" Johnson.
+
+
+== History ==
+
+Johnson was born in Angaston, South Australia to James Angas Johnson (1841 – 19 May 1902) and his wife Catharine Johnson, née Williams (1841–1909), who married in 1866.
+James Angas Johnson's mother, Rosetta French Johnson (25 April 1813 – 23 August 1898), later Hannay, was the eldest daughter of George Fife Angas.
+The Johnsons owned a magnificent property, "St Catharine's" in Prospect, later the administration centre of Blackfriars Priory School.
+He was educated at Whinham College in North Adelaide, St Peter's College, and the University of Adelaide, but (with many others) was unable to complete the requirements of the Bachelor of Medicine degree in Adelaide because of the "Hospital Row", a toxic standoff between the Adelaide Hospital and the State Government  in the mid- to late 1890s, (see Nurse Graham) and professional rivalries as exemplified by this exchange between Professor Archibald Watson and Dr Leith Napier, in which Johnson's name was mentioned. Hence, it was in Melbourne where he graduated in 1897, as did many others, or in Sydney, then took his ad eundem at Adelaide.
+He served a year as house surgeon at the Adelaide Children's Hospital, then went to Germany, where he gained his doctorate at the University of Göttingen, and also studied at the Berlin University. 
+In 1900 he worked at the Pasteur Institute under Professors Roux and Metchnikoff.
+He continued gaining experience and qualifications at the London, King's, and St Bartholomew's Hospitals. He studied at the London School of Tropical Medicine, under Sir Patrick Manson and Sir James Cantlie, and afterwards to Cambridge, where he studied preventive medicine with Professors George Nuttall and Sims Woodhead.
+He returned to South Australia and in 1902 was appointed hon. assistant physician at the Adelaide Hospital, and from 1909 to 1924 served there as honorary physician. From 1926 to 1942 he was the hospital's honorary sanitary adviser.
+In December 1902 Johnson was elected to the Adelaide City Council to represent the Hindmarsh ward, but almost immediately required three months' leave of absence to visit Germany with his wife, whose mother was ill. He resigned a year later, in advance of another trip to Europe. In December 1907 he stood again for the same Ward, and was voted in by a large margin, holding the seat until he resigned in February 1924 as a necessary condition of being appointed Health Officer, a very senior position which also required him to resign his membership of the Adelaide Board of Health and its public health committee, of which he had been chairman for 14 years.
+He was at the time also:
+
+Senior physician at the Adelaide Hospital
+a member of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens board, and one of its Governors
+Inspector of Anatomy at the University of Adelaide
+a member of the Pure Foods and Drugs Board
+on the medico-legal panel of the Crown Law Department.
+member of the Consumption Board, the Fever Hospital board, and the Influenza Committee
+He was a man of strong opinions, and took a contrary stand against his colleagues on several issues:
+He was skeptical about the effectiveness of Pasteurella bacteria in the control of rabbits as proposed in 1905 by Professor Danysz, and which had been elsewhere been greeted enthusiastically.
+He argued in 1937 against diphtheria immunization on the grounds that it was effective against the milder forms of the disease but might promote the more dangerous gravis strain. Concern was raised that his outspokenness might prompt parents to withdraw consent to a measure that had been proved both safe and effective.
+
+
+== Other interests ==
+Johnson was an avid collector of curios, especially those connected with South Australian history, and dispersed most of them generously to appropriate institutions in his lifetime. Among them was an anchor from the brig Rapid, and a drawing by William Light.
+He was a member of the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia and its president 1902–1904.
+
+
+== Family ==
+Johnson married twice: to Margarethe Friedericke Charlotte "Greta" Klevesahl ( – 12 June 1936) in London on 27 September 1900. They had a home "St Margaret's" on Pirie Street in 1914 (became the Red Cross Blood Bank in 1954). She was a sister of Mrs Charles Rasp of "Willyama", Medindie.
+They had one son, James Archibald Johnson (1902– ), later known as Dr James A. Angas Johnson.
+He married again, to Dorothy Muriel Brandt (1890–1969) on 3 January 1939.
+He died at his home, 1 Baker Street, Glenelg South. His widow was still at that address in 1962.
+
+
+== Notes and references ==

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+---
+title: "Answers Research Journal"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:47.237841+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Answers Research Journal (ARJ) is an open-access creation science journal published by Answers in Genesis (AiG), a fundamentalist, Christian apologetics organization. Founded in 2008, the online journal devotes itself to research on "recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework". ARJ's research is not scientifically sound and encourages readers to doubt mainstream scientific evidence. The journal, in its embrace of young Earth creationism (YEC), supports the unscientific idea of a 6,000-year-old Earth, among other claims. The journal refuses to publish research contradicting its belief system. While ARJ undergoes a peer-review process, the journal's reviewers are selected from a pool of people who only support the stances of the journal. Therefore, members of the scientific community are excluded from the review process.
+Most of the journal's articles are written by a small group of authors, many without academic credentials, and authors are able to publish pseudonymously. ARJ's editorial board is not disclosed. The journal has been met with negative reception by various geologists, biologists, and scientific skeptics. Andrew Snelling, a YEC geologist, serves as the journal's editor-in-chief and as the director of research at AiG.
+
+== History and overview ==
+
+=== Background and beliefs ===
+Answers in Genesis (AiG) is the largest young Earth creationist (YEC) organization in the world. Publications aimed at YEC scholars have existed since the mid-1960s, though these publications typically relied upon organizational membership and fee-based subscriptions. The launch of ARJ in 2008 marked the first free, open-access YEC peer-reviewed journal. ARJ was created because creationists argued biology journals would not publish their research because such journals were biased "against God in favor of Darwin". Most of the journal's articles are written by a small group of authors, many without academic credentials.  In 2012, Callie Joubert (credentials unknown) contributed to almost half of the journal's articles that year. Editor-in-chief Snelling, Joubert, and Danny Faulkner (a "young universe astronomer") contributed to 45 percent of the articles in the 2014 volume. ARJ visually resembles real scientific open-access journals such as PLOS Genetics. AiG founder Ken Ham foresees both Christians and non-Christians to read the journal. YEC geologist Andrew Snelling serves as the journal's editor-in-chief and as the director of research at AiG. According to Snelling, the journal strives to "publish the best research possible from a creationist perspective in the sciences, humanities and theology." The journal's objective is not scientific inquiry. Rather, it aims to align their scholars' findings with a literal reading of the Bible. 
+AiG biologist Georgia Purdom contends the journal starts with the viewpoint that the Bible is true whereas other journals will "start with human reasoning as the basis for truth". The journal devotes itself to research on "recent Creation and the global Flood within a biblical framework". Such research is not scientifically sound. ARJ espouses a YEC and literalist interpretation of the Bible, which includes beliefs such as age of the Earth is approximately 6,000 years, the Genesis flood narrative, and the rejection of macroevolution. These notions contradict the findings of the scientific community. Using radioactive dating, scientists have learned the earth is around 4.5 billion years old. ARJ attempts to disprove radioactive dating or demonstrate the entirety of the rock record was the result of the biblical flood. ARJ frequently uses scientific language in an attempt to discredit scientific studies. Primarily, the journal exists to encourage readers to doubt mainstream scientific evidence.
+
+=== Editorial policies ===
+ARJ's editorial board is not disclosed and authors are not identified in the table of contents. Authors are also able to publish under a pseudonym. In order to be published in the journal, one's views must be aligned with the publisher's literalist interpretation of the Book of Genesis. Additionally, anyone working with AiG must sign a statement of faith, including a declaration reading: "No apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record." As such, ARJ refuses to publish scientific works that contradict ideas within fundamentalist Christianity, and the editor-in-chief may reject a paper for any reason (including for violations of AiG’s "statement of faith"). While the journal undergoes a peer-review process, it is subject to extreme publication bias since the journal's reviewers are selected from a pool of individuals who "support the positions taken by the journal". As a result, members of the scientific community are excluded from the review process. The concept of "faith-checking" is also included in the review process. In the words of skeptic Steven Novella, the journal's peer-review process is "worthless" as it "serves only to give a false imprimatur of scientific legitimacy to a religious anti-scientific ideology."

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+---
+title: "Answers Research Journal"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:47.237841+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Notable articles ===
+The inaugural article of the journal, written by Liberty University professor Alan Gillen, was titled "Microbes and the days of creation". The paper dealt with the history of microorganisms and argued that they were created by God to act as "biological systems" with plants, animals, and humans. (The topic of microbiology is not mentioned anywhere within biblical scripture.) Additionally, Gillen argued the origins of HIV goes back to the biblical Fall (i.e., when Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden).
+An article written by Rod J. Martin, described only as an "independent researcher", gave a creationist and denialist interpretation of climate change. According to Martin, climate change is essentially a hoax invented by "atheistic evolutionists". His thesis, incorrectly, states: "There is no reason either biblically or scientifically to fear the exaggerated and misguided claims of catastrophe as a result of increasing levels of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2)." A 2009 article proposes that God made oil shortly after creating the Earth and cites the biblical story of Noah's Ark as "evidence for his theory."
+In an attempt to disprove evolution, a 2013 article argued that humans and chimpanzees only shared 70% of DNA. While there is no objective method to determine the percent DNA similarities of two species, scientists have come up with a range of 95–98% similarity between humans and chimps (with 96% being the consensus). The study compares whole chromosomes to see how they match up instead of comparing point mutations in specific parts of the chromosomes. The author of the study revised his estimate in 2015 to 88% after discovering a software bug in his genome sequence algorithm.
+
+== Reception ==
+Since inception, the journal has faced criticism from scientific skeptics. Biologist Paul Z. Myers refers to the journal as a "dishonest enterprise" and suggests "everything published in [ARJ] will be a crank paper". Novella regards the journal as an "insidious attack on science" and should be used as "a tool for exposing creationists for what they are." Describing the journal as "nonsense", philosopher Massimo Pigliucci contends the journal was created because "[creationists] seek respectability through fake museums and peer-reviewed journals because they know that the Middle Ages are over, and just shouting one's faith in a god is not going to cut it anymore."
+Keith Miller, a geologist and Christian, says publications like ARJ are largely ignored by the scientific community but those lacking a scientific background may not be able to differentiate ARJ from genuine scientific journals. Anthropologist Eugenie Scott states ARJ is part of the "continued battle to excise science from local curricula". Mocking ARJ as a "science journal", geneticist Adam Rutherford writes, "sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken", and posited the journal may be a prank. While applauding the journal's use of a double-blind peer review system, an article in Discover lamented that "there won't be any actual science to evaluate."
+
+== See also ==
+Creation Research Society Quarterly
+Journal of Creation
+
+== References ==
+
+== External links ==
+Official website

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anthony Bennett (Veritas politician)"
+chunk: 1/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:14.557260+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anthony John Stuart Bennett (born 7 September 1947) is an English former solicitor and former candidate for public office. He was a member of the British political party Veritas and was listed on the database of the Electoral Commission as official leader for three days, before the real leader was revealed as Robert Kilroy-Silk.
+In 2006, he began a private prosecution against Michael Barrymore for alleged drugs and drink offences committed on the night Stuart Lubbock was found dead at the entertainer's home. Bennett co-wrote a book with Terry Lubbock, the father of Stuart Lubbock, Not Awight: Getting Away With Murder, explaining their theory that Stuart Lubbock died as a result of a violent attack on him, which Barrymore and his associates that night covered up.
+He campaigned against the parents of Madeleine McCann, who disappeared while on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007. He asserted that they should have been prosecuted for child neglect and accused them of covering up what happened to their daughter, a charge which ultimately led to the family successfully pursuing legal action against him.
+
+== Background and family life ==
+Bennett was educated at Bournemouth School. He then attended Sheffield University where he was awarded a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree in geography, and the London School of Economics where he received a Diploma in Social Administration. He also attended University of Nottingham where he was awarded a Certificate of Qualification in Social Work (CQSW) and an M.A., and Hertfordshire University, where he received a Diploma in Management Studies. Bennett is married with two children.
+He was employed as the Principal Welfare Rights Adviser for Harlow Council from 1978 to 1987. In 1987, he became head of the Money Advice Unit for Hertfordshire County Council, a post he held until 1992, after which he was admitted as a solicitor in 1995. It has been reported that he worked for the UK Independence Party as a solicitor.
+On 9 September 2003, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found him "guilty of conduct unbefitting a solicitor". On 15 October 2009, he voluntarily removed himself from the Roll.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-1.md

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+---
+title: "Anthony Bennett (Veritas politician)"
+chunk: 2/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:14.557260+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== Political career ==
+Bennett became active in politics when he lived in Derbyshire from 1972 to 1978. In May 1976, he was voted onto North East Derbyshire District Council as an Independent Labour candidate for the Hasland Ward, where he served until 1978. In 1978, he moved to Harlow where, in 1985, he joined Harlow Constituency Labour Party.
+Bennett founded two credit unions in the 1980s – the Harlow Community Credit Union in 1980 and, in 1988, the Harlow Council Employees Credit Union. They merged several years later to form HarlowSave Credit Union.
+In November 1997, Bennett left the Labour party and joined the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). In April 1999, he became the Campaign Manager for UKIP's Eastern Region campaign and, in July 1999, he became Political Assistant to Jeffrey Titford, UKIP MEP, a post he held until February 2001. In January 2000, he co-founded the UKIP's Metric Martyrs Fund with Jeffrey Titford, and published leaflets encouraging traders to defy the new laws making it an offence to sell fruit, vegetables and other "loose goods" using weighing scales calibrated in pounds and ounces. He stood for the UKIP in Harlow in the 2001 General Election, where he finished fifth with 1,223 votes (3%).
+A Eurosceptic, Bennett was a member of The Drive the Flag campaign founded by Leeds businessman Peter Rogers, to allow national flags on vehicle number plates, in the face of proposed government legislation which would have only allowed the European Union (EU) symbol on the number plates. In December 2001, the Government announced that it planned to permit the display of the Union Flag as well as the national flags of England, Scotland and Wales vehicle numberplates in the UK. This was implemented on 27 April 2009 with the caveat that drivers who chose to take advantage of this dispensation need to display a "GB sticker" on their vehicles when driving abroad.
+In early 2002, he was banned from holding office in the party in 2004 after he privately circulated a pamphlet in which he called the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, a paedophile for having consummated his marriage to his child bride Aisha when she was nine years old, which Bennett stated would have been prosecuted today as a case of child sexual abuse. The pamphlet also warned of the probable rise of militant Islam in the UK, which were later claimed to be part of a "reasoned, academic exposition" aimed at explaining the reasons behind the 11 September terrorist attacks. UKIP described Bennett as "an energetic campaigner, with some extremely eccentric and individualistic views".
+On 15 August 2004, Bennett began work as Robert Kilroy-Silk's researcher and became a founder member of the Veritas Party in January 2005. In February 2005, however, Bennett was involved in controversy when it was revealed that he had previously co-founded the People's Campaign to Keep the Pound with Ian Anderson, a former chairman of the far right, white nationalist party, the National Front. Bennett denied any knowledge of Anderson being chairman of the National Front at the time the two men formed the campaign, describing Anderson as an "English patriot".
+Bennett was a co-founder of the Campaign for a Referendum on the European Constitution (CREC), which campaigned using purple pre-addressed postcards to send to Queen Elizabeth II, asking her to refuse Royal Assent to any Bill to adopt the EU constitution, until the British people had had the chance to accept or reject it in a referendum.
+After Tony Blair agreed to a referendum in May 2004, CREC changed its name to the Campaign to Reject the European Constitution. The CREC maintained that the EU constitution was part of an attempt to create a European superstate. Bennett stood for the Veritas party in Harlow in the 2005 general election, securing 941 votes (2.4%) and finishing fifth out of five just behind UKIP's John Felgate on 981 votes (2.5%).
+
+== Removal of road signs ==
+Whilst still a member of UKIP, Bennett co-founded the "Active Resistance to Metrication" (A.R.M.), a pressure group opposed to metrication, in June 2001.
+In 2002, as part of a campaign by the group, Bennett removed various road and footpath signs in metres which the group claimed contravened the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002. He was prosecuted for an action in Kent where he removed around 40 metric signs. He was found guilty in May 2002 of theft and criminal damage at Maidstone Magistrates' Court. In October 2002, his conviction for theft was overturned by Judge Keith Simpson at Maidstone Crown Court. Judge Simpson upheld the conviction for criminal damage but discharged the sentence, which had been 50 hours of community service to an absolute discharge. Up to September 2004, Bennett was arrested six times as part of the group's campaign to remove metric signs which they claim are illegal. He was charged three times, but received only the one conviction in 2002.
+Bennett has since been actively involved in the direct action group CountyWatch, which has relocated road signs marking modern administrative county borders to historic county borders in a number of English counties, including Lancashire. These campaigns were justified by CountyWatch under section 131 of the Highways Act 1980, which allows members of the public to remove road signs which are "not lawfully placed on the highway".
+
+== Private prosecutions ==

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+---
+title: "Anthony Bennett (Veritas politician)"
+chunk: 3/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:14.557260+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Stuart Lubbock ===
+In January 2006, Bennett started a private prosecution against the entertainer Michael Barrymore over alleged offences involving drink and the possession and use of Class A and Class B drugs by Barrymore during the night when 31-year-old Stuart Lubbock was found dead at Barrymore's house in March 2001. The prosecution was blocked by a District Judge (Magistrates' Court) at Southend-on-Sea Magistrates' Court on the grounds of insufficient evidence. After the decision was made, Bennett announced that he had been acting independently but that he had the support of the Lubbock family. Barrymore released a statement in which he said, "Mr Bennett's motivation to seek the truth as to how Mr Stuart Lubbock received the injuries to his body is absolutely right. I remain totally committed, as I always have been, to continue to pursue the truth. Allegations about drugs on that night have always been a complete irrelevance as to how Stuart Lubbock suffered those injuries. The court held Mr Bennett's misguided application to prosecute me for drugs offences was an abuse of process."
+Before the decision was made not to allow the prosecution, Terry Lubbock, the father of Stuart Lubbock, met with Barrymore, when it was alleged that Terry Lubbock told Barrymore he did not blame him for his son's death. Bennett, though, maintained that the private prosecution would proceed, but that he would reconsider if asked to drop the case by the Lubbock family. He added that evidence from the night of Stuart Lubbock's death, made available at the inquest, had not been seen by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
+Bennett was secretary of The Lubbock Trust which was founded by Terry Lubbock in late January 2006 and formally wound up a year and half later, on 22 June 2007. He is the co-author, with Terry Lubbock, of a book analysing the events which led to Stuart's violent death, published in June 2007: Not Awight: Getting Away With Murder. Bennett claims Lubbock's death was caused by a violent attack and that there was an elaborate cover-up of the true circumstances of his death including a staged drowning.
+On 10 July, Bennett was informed by the Hate Crime Unit at Harlow police station that they had received a complaint about comments attributed to him about the practice of fisting on the Lubbock Trust website. The police said that as someone had accused him of a homophobic hate crime, they were investigating him over a hate crime. Bennett immediately complained to the Chief Constable of Essex, stating that there was no such thing in British Law as a homophobic hate crime. He stated further that, "There is material on the website which is critical of the lifestyle of homosexuals which activists might take exception to, but I don't have a problem with people from gay lobbies contacting us." Bennett believed the complaint was made because of the forthcoming release of the Not Awight book.
+The police stated they had received an allegation about homophobic comments being published on the website, and that Essex Police has to investigate all reports of hate crime. They continued that a full investigation was currently being conducted to identify whether offences had been committed. The next day, 11 July, Essex Police Professional Standards Department referred his complaint to the IPCC to investigate.
+In a statement on 13 July 2007, which appeared on the Lubbock Trust website, Bennett said that the contents of the site had been agreed by all members of The Trust 13 months earlier, and the reason for including the information was that it related directly to the probable cause of Stuart Lubbock's death. He added that, due to concerns expressed by Lubbock Trust chairman Harry Cichy that some of the material might be seen as 'homophobic', and following a complaint to the website's server, NetPivotal, and a request from them, some of that page had been removed.
+Terry Lubbock responded by distancing himself from the controversy saying, "This is a diversion from the campaign which I don't want to take any part in. My aim is as it has always been, to get justice for my son Stuart and that is the only thing in my life now. I'm not going to let anything distract me from that. This latest episode is not doing the campaign a lot of good."
+On 13 July 2007, during the launch of Not Awight, Terry Lubbock made a speech, in which he announced that Bennett would no longer be representing him and that The Lubbock Trust was being wound up as most of its original purposes had been achieved. It was further claimed that Lubbock and Bennett had split following the police investigation into Bennett.
+On 22 July, Essex Police announced that they had consulted with the CPS and that there would be no further police action. Bennett however, responded by saying that he wanted an outside police force to investigate Essex police's handling of the complaint and the actions of the Essex Police Hate Crimes Unit. He continued, "I have had to endure among other things headlines such as "Gay Hate of Barrymore Accuser" in the Daily Express. I need a full, fair and impartial enquiry by the IPCC into what Essex Police thought they were doing investigating something they must have known from the word go could never have been a crime." In August 2007, it was announced that the police would be taking no further action against the complaint of homophobia on the Lubbock Trust website.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-3.md

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+---
+title: "Anthony Bennett (Veritas politician)"
+chunk: 4/4
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:14.557260+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+=== Disappearance of Madeleine McCann ===
+On 1 August 2007, three months after the disappearance of Madeleine McCann from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, Portugal, Bennett set up a fund called The Madeleine Foundation to fund a private prosecution for child neglect. In November 2007, he started such a prosecution against the parents of Madeline – Gerry and Kate McCann. The initial hearing was at Loughborough Magistrates' Court where the application was dismissed on the grounds that it was a matter for the Portuguese authorities, and thus beyond the jurisdiction of British courts.
+The foundation was formally constituted in January 2008 with Bennett as secretary. One of the actions for which Tony Bennett and the Foundation were criticised by the British press was the leafletting of the village of Rothley where the McCanns live. He referred the articles in the UK media, which called him and others in the Madeleine Foundation "sickos" and "stalkers", to the PCC. The PCC replied that the newspapers had been justified in referring to him and other members of the Foundation in those terms.
+After receiving a letter from libel lawyers Carter-Ruck dated 27 August 2009, Bennett gave an undertaking "Not to repeat allegations that the McCanns are guilty of, or are to be suspected of, causing the death of their daughter Madeleine McCann, and/or of disposing of her body, and/or lying about what happened and/or seeking to cover up what they had done". 
+In November 2012, lawyers for the McCann family went to the High Court to argue that Bennett was not abiding by the terms of his undertaking and was continuing to spread false allegations against them. Bennett, in an interview with the Harlow Star, said that he still had valid arguments and that "Britain's libel laws are so oppressive that I had no alternative but to agree to the terms of the formal undertakings set out by the McCanns' lawyers in November 2009".
+Bennett was found guilty of contempt of court and, on 21 February 2013, given a three-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay the McCanns' court costs. The court had considered 13 representative instances relating to breaches of his undertakings "on well over 100 occasions."
+
+== Notes ==
+
+== References ==
+Lubbock, Terry; Bennett, Tony (2006). Not Awight: Getting away with murder, Harry E Cichy, ISBN 978-0-9546949-1-3

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Resistance-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-Tech Resistance"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Resistance"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:21.812583+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-Tech Resistance (ATR) is a radical anti-tech movement that views the technological system as incompatible with wild nature, human nature, and freedom. The movement calls for the destruction of the technological system and then a re-adoption of pre-industrial technology. ATR states they are an above-ground movement and they only known to have engaged in legal forms of activism.
+ATR was founded in France in 2022. Most of the membership is based in Europe, and most of their actions are as well. They do have forms of international recruitment and often promote their message to an international audience.
+
+
+== Beliefs ==
+Much of the ideology ATR posses stems from Ted Kaczynski (also known as The Unabomber) and his books Anti-Tech Revolution: Why & How, as well as Technological Slavery. The movement aims to destroy the technological system, which they define as the web of interconnected and interrelated technologies built following the first industrial revolution. ATR views the technological system as a threat to both the planet and people.
+They argue that revolution against the technological system is the only viable means of averting catastrophic damage to wild nature and human freedom. The movement argues that technology is not neutral and that reform of the technological system is not possible, necessitating a revolution against the technological system that will cause a cascading failure of industrial technology.
+ATR maintains a non-partisan position that some have claimed is intended to blur ATR’s real intentions. ATR has defended this approach as necessary to focus only on destroying the technological system.
+
+
+== Tactics ==
+The movement often posts communication material online in the form of articles and social media posts to promote anti-tech ideas in an online space. ATR also conducts various workshops, conferences, and debates. They are also known to have partaken in disruptive action inside France.
+
+
+=== Actions ===
+On November 20, 2024, ATR blockaded the European Cyber Week event that was being held in Rennes. In a press release, the movement vocalized opposition to the European Cyber Week for its support of both military and civil applications of AI.
+In February 2025, ATR organized a counter-summit in anticipation of the 2025 AI Action Summit in Paris. They also disrupted another AI counter-summit that had been organized by Éric Sadin. They criticized the AI Action Summit for aiding in the development of the technological system and the AI counter-summit because of a controversial decision to invite the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, whom ATR accused of actually being a pro-AI technocrat. Following this, she canceled her talk at the AI counter-summit.
+During the 2025 ChangeNow summit that took place in April, ATR disrupted summit proceedings on the 26th, and they attacked the summit for allegedly offering reformist and fake solutions that won’t wont impact the pace of environmental destruction.
+In September 2025, ATR took part in the Bloquons Tout ( English: “Block everything”) movement. They also participated in the following blockades that occurred on the 18th later that month.
+In November 2025, ATR participated in a demonstration against the United Kingdom’s efforts to create a digital identity system. They also held a conference the day after the protest, arguing that people are trapped in an inhumane technological environment and that such an environment should be destroyed.
+
+
+== Criticism ==
+ATR has been criticized in France by left-leaning political and environmental groups, as well as communist and some anarchist groups, for allegedly being reactionary and essentialist.
+Anti-fascist groups have also criticized the movement, accusing ATR of lacking an intersectional approach, which they claim a movement must have.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-Tech Revolution"
+chunk: 1/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:23.023643+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How is a 2016 non-fiction book by Ted Kaczynski.
+
+== Publication history ==
+In 2016, the first edition was published. A second edition was published by Fitch & Madison in 2020.
+
+== Book structure ==
+There are four chapters and six appendices in the book:
+Chapters:
+
+The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control
+Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself
+How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid
+Strategic Guidelines for an Anti-Tech Movement
+Appendices:
+
+In Support of Chapter One
+In Support of Chapter Two
+Stay on Target
+The Long-Term Outcome of Geo-Engineering
+Thurston's View of Stalin's Terror. State Terrorism in General.
+The Teachings of Jesus Christ and Their Effect on Society
+
+== Synopsis ==
+This book is split up into two parts: The first two chapters of this book argue for the need for a revolution to bring about the end of the technological system, while the second two chapters detail how a movement against the technological system should organize itself to achieve its goal.
+In Chapter 1 of this book, Kaczynski argues against the notion that humans can rationally steer the development of society for numerous reasons, including but not limited to: the problems of complexity, chaos, competition among groups that seek power under the influence of natural selection, issues in deciding leadership and what values should be prioritized, and problems of succession.
+Chapter 2, "Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself", develops the author’s theory of "self-propagating systems"—systems that compete against each other for power without any regard for the long-term consequences, since any self-propagating systems that take the long-term into account will lose their competitive edge and be out-competed by self-propagating systems that do not. Kaczynski ultimately argues that since the technological system itself is a self-propagating system composed of self-propagating subsystems that competes for power in the short-term without regard for the long-term negative consequences, that the logical conclusion of the continued growth of the technological system is the complete destruction of the biosphere, wiping out all complex lifeforms.
+Chapters 3 and 4 provide guidelines for a movement that would seek to bring about the collapse of the technological system before its continued progression leads to a much larger disaster for humanity and the biosphere.
+
+== Contents ==
+
+=== Chapter 1: The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control ===
+The first chapter of the book presents various reasons why human societies cannot be subject to rational human control:
+
+=== Chapter 2: Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself ===
+The second chapter of the book presents the following seven propositions:
+
+Proposition 1: In any environment that is sufficiently rich, self-propagating systems will arise, and natural selection will lead to the evolution of self-propagating systems having increasingly complex, subtle, and sophisticated means of surviving and propagating themselves.
+Proposition 2: In the short term, natural selection favors self-propagating systems that pursue their own short-term advantage with little or no regard for long-term consequences.
+Proposition 3: Self-propagating subsystems of a given supersystem tend to become dependent on the supersystem and on the specific conditions that prevail within the supersystem.
+Proposition 4: Problems of transportation and communication impose a limit on the size of the geographical region over which a self-propagating system can extend its operations.
+Proposition 5: The most important and the only consistent limit on the size of the geographical regions over which self-propagating human groups extend their operations is the limit imposed by the available means of transportation and communication. In other words, while not all self-propagating human groups tend to extend their operations over a region of maximum size, natural selection tends to produce some self-propagating human groups that operate over regions approaching the maximum size allowed by the available means of transportation and communication.
+Proposition 6: In modern times, natural selection tends to produce some self-propagating human groups whose operations span the entire globe. Moreover, even if human beings are some day replaced by machines or other entities, natural selection will still tend to produce some self-propagating systems whose operations span the entire globe.
+Proposition 7: Where (as today) problems of transportation and communication do not constitute effective limitations on the size of the geographical regions over which self-propagating systems operate, natural selection tends to create a world in which power is mostly concentrated in the possession of a relatively small number of global self-propagating systems.
+From these propositions, the author suggests that the logical conclusion of the development of the worldwide technological system is that planet Earth will become a dead planet by Holocene extinction.
+The author also analyzes various historical cases according to his seven propositions.
+
+=== Chapter 3: How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid ===
+The third part of this book presents four postulates and five rules for every radical movement to consider if it wants to achieve success. From these postulates and rules, the author concludes that the anti-tech movement should aim to bring about the total collapse of the worldwide technological system by any means necessary.

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+---
+title: "Anti-Tech Revolution"
+chunk: 2/2
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:23.023643+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Postulate 1. One cannot change a society by pursuing goals that are vague or abstract. Instead, one has to have a clear and concrete goal. As an experienced activist put it: "Vague, over-generalized objectives are seldom met. The trick is to conceive of some specific development which will inevitably propel your community in the direction you want it to go."
+Postulate 2. Preaching alone—the mere advocacy of ideas—cannot bring about important, long-lasting changes in the behavior of human beings, unless in a very small minority.
+Postulate 3. Any radical movement tends to attract many people who may be sincere, but whose goals are only loosely related to the goals of the movement. The result is that the movement's original goals may become blurred, if not completely perverted.
+Postulate 4. Every radical movement that acquires great power becomes corrupt, at the latest, when its original leaders (meaning those who joined the movement while it was still relatively weak) are all dead or politically inactive. In saying that a movement becomes corrupt, we mean that its members, and especially its leaders, primarily seek personal advantages (such as money, security, social status, powerful offices, or a career) rather than dedicating themselves sincerely to the ideals of the movement.
+Rule (i) In order to change a society in a specified way, a movement should select a single, clear, simple, and concrete objective the achievement of which will produce the desired change.
+Rule (ii) If a movement aims to transform a society, then the objective selected by the movement must be of such a nature that, once the objective has been achieved, its consequences will be irreversible. This means that, once society has been transformed through the achievement of the objective, society will remain in its transformed condition without any further effort on the part of the movement or anyone else.
+Rule (iii) Once an objective has been selected, it is necessary to persuade some small minority to commit itself to the achievement of the objective by means more potent than mere preaching or advocacy of ideas. In other words, the minority will have to organize itself for practical action.
+Rule (iv) In order to keep itself faithful to its objective, a radical movement should devise means of excluding from its ranks all unsuitable persons who may seek to join it.
+Rule (v) Once a revolutionary movement has become powerful enough to achieve its objective, it must achieve its objective as soon as possible, and in any case before the original revolutionaries (meaning those who joined the movement while it was still relatively weak) die or become politically inactive.
+In order to support these postulates and rules, this chapter analyzes various historical figures, revolutions, and radical movements, including the Russian Revolution, French Revolution, Chinese Communist Revolution, and Irish Nationalist Movement.
+
+=== Chapter 4: Strategic Guidelines for an Anti-Tech Movement ===
+The fourth chapter of this book presents 30 guidelines for anti-tech revolutionaries to follow. The author recommends anti-tech revolutionaries to study the works of Leon Trotsky, Saul Alinsky, Philip Selznick, and Neil Smelser.
+
+== See also ==
+
+Anarcho-primitivism
+Criticism of technology
+Collapsology
+Green anarchism
+Industrial Society and Its Future
+Jacques Ellul
+The Technological Society (1954/64)
+Man and Technics (1931)
+Neo-Luddism
+Pentti Linkola
+Philosophy of technology
+Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes
+The Question Concerning Technology (1954)
+Radical environmentalism
+Revolution
+Social Movement
+Technological Slavery
+Concepts
+
+Loose coupling
+Cascading failure
+Holocene extinction
+Accelerating change
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-gravity"
+chunk: 1/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:06.313644+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-gravity is the concept of a force that would exactly oppose the force of gravity. Under the known laws of physics, anti-gravity is not possible. Experimental measurements rule out repulsion between antihydrogen and the mass of the Earth.
+Anti-gravity does not refer to either the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism, aerodynamic lift, or ion-propelled "lifters", which fly in the air by moving air with electromagnetic fields.
+Historically, anti-gravity was considered a possibilty after the discovery of antimatter. Once the nature of antimatter was more clearly established, it was clear that gravity works the same for both matter and antimatter. Anti-gravity is a recurring concept in science fiction.
+
+== Theoretical probability ==
+
+Under the laws of general relativity, anti-gravity is impossible except under contrived circumstances. Under that theory, and particle physics, gravity is mass-energy, a quantity believed to always be positive. It is always attractive and never repulsive.
+During the close of the twentieth century NASA provided funding for the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program (BPP) from 1996 through 2002. This program studied a number of "far out" designs for space propulsion that were not receiving funding through normal university or commercial channels. Anti-gravity-like concepts were listed under "approaches categorized as non-viable" since the study found no evidence of anti-gravity-like forces. So many inappropriate proposals were submitted that NASA developed a screening guide for reviewers.
+
+== History ==
+Attempts to understand why gravity is solely an attractive force go back at least as far as James Clerk Maxwell in the late nineteenth century. He noted that existence of unlike charges in electromagnetism was the root of its fundamental difference from gravity. With the discovery of general relativity and the emergence of particle physics in the twentieth century this difference seemed even more fundamental. The "charge" in the theory of gravity is mass-energy, a quantity believed to always be positive. Thus gravity seemed to always be attractive and never repulsive. Two significant possible exceptions emerged, however –in quantum physics and at cosmological scales.
+
+=== Antimatter gravitation ===
+In 1928 Paul Dirac produced the first relativistic quantum mechanics theory. The theory accurately predicted properties of the electron but it also has a second solution. In 1931 Robert Oppenheimer showed that Dirac's original interpretation of the second solution was incorrect and Dirac responded with a new proposal: the second solution was a positively charged "anti-electron". Dirac also said that every other particle should have an opposite charged counterpart. With the discovery of the positron in 1932 and the antiproton in 1955, this theoretical concept of antimatter was grounded in empirical evidence.
+Dirac's theory did not include gravitation and there remains no consistent theory that combines both quantum mechanics and general relativity.  A hypothetical negative mass charge in Newton's equations or general relativity is theoretically consistent even though no observations support this concept. Since antimatter is extremely rare, the possibility remained that repulsion between matter and antimatter would lead to antigravity.
+By 1956 the scientific impossibility of antigravity was a subject of theoretical analysis. Three more comprehensive arguments were published soon thereafter. In 1958, Philip Morrison showed that repulsion by mass would imply failure of conservation of energy in Earth's gravitational field.
+In 1959, Leonard I. Schiff showed that in quantum field theory the virtual anti-electron contribution to the vacuum polarization would break the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass contrary to the results of the Eötvös experiment. Then in 1961, Myron L. Good noted that the longest-lived K meson is a superposition of a particle and its antiparticle; if these two particles responded differently to gravity the long-lived K meson would decay. Despite these arguments, new theories motivated by issues in cosmology and uncertainties in particle physics have been proposed in which the gravitational interaction of matter and antimatter could be repulsive.
+
+=== Experiments ===
+Attempts to measure the gravitational force on antimatter particles is extremely challenging. For matter particles, the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass, known as the weak equivalence principle, has been demonstrated to a precision of 10−15. However the technique  used differential electrostatic accelerometers on a pair of test masses composed of titanium and of platinum, all in an orbiting satellite. Producing antimatter hydrogen atoms requires a source of antiprotons like a particle accelerator combined with a source of positrons, making a satellite, two-mass experiment impractical. In 2023, the amount of antihydrogen escaping from the top and bottom of a vertical vacuum chamber at CERN was compared, ruling out repulsive gravity between antihydrogen and Earth's mass.
+
+== Studies, empirical claims and commercial efforts ==
+There have been a number of studies, attempts to build anti-gravity devices, and a small number of reports of anti-gravity-like effects in popular and scientific literature. None of the examples that follow are accepted as reproducible examples of anti-gravity.
+
+=== Thomas Townsend Brown's gravitator ===

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+---
+title: "Anti-gravity"
+chunk: 2/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:06.313644+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+In 1921, while still in high school, Thomas Townsend Brown found that a high-voltage Coolidge tube seemed to change mass depending on its orientation on a balance scale. Through the 1920s Brown developed this into devices that combined high voltages with materials with high dielectric constants (essentially large capacitors); he called such a device a "gravitator". Brown made the claim to observers and in the media that his experiments were showing anti-gravity effects. Brown would continue his work and produced a series of high-voltage devices in the following years in attempts to sell his ideas to aircraft companies and the military. He coined the names Biefeld–Brown effect and electrogravitics in conjunction with his devices. Brown tested his asymmetrical capacitor devices in a vacuum, supposedly showing it was not a more down-to-earth electrohydrodynamic effect generated by high voltage ion flow in air.
+Electrogravitics is a popular topic in ufology, anti-gravity, free energy, with government conspiracy theorists and related websites, in books and publications with claims that the technology became highly classified in the early 1960s and that it is used to power UFOs and the B-2 bomber. There is also research and videos on the internet purported to show lifter-style capacitor devices working in a vacuum, therefore not receiving propulsion from ion drift or ion wind being generated in air.
+Follow-up studies on Brown's work and other claims have been conducted by R. L. Talley in a 1990 US Air Force study, NASA scientist Jonathan Campbell in a 2003 experiment,  and Martin Tajmar in a 2004 paper. 
+Talley attempted to measure the effect in high vacuum chamber with up to 19kV voltage differences but reported that no force was generated above the detection limit of 2 × 10−9 N.
+Tajmar and colleagues made a comprehensive search but found no effects in vacuum with steady electric fields.
+The conclusion from these experiments was that the effect observed by Brown was "ion wind"; no experiments found evidence that thrust could be observed in a vacuum.
+
+=== Gravity Research Foundation ===
+
+In 1948 businessman Roger Babson (founder of Babson College) formed the Gravity Research Foundation to study ways to reduce the effects of gravity. Their efforts were initially somewhat "crankish", but they held occasional conferences that drew such people as Clarence Birdseye, known for his frozen-food products, and helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky. Over time the Foundation turned its attention away from trying to control gravity, to simply better understanding it. The Foundation nearly disappeared after Babson's death in 1967. However, it continues to run an essay award, offering prizes of up to $4,000. As of 2017, it is still administered out of Wellesley, Massachusetts, by George Rideout Jr., son of the foundation's original director. Winners include California astrophysicist George F. Smoot (1993), who later won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics, and Gerard 't Hooft (2015) who previously won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics.
+
+=== Gyroscopic devices ===
+Gyroscopes produce a force when twisted that operates "out of plane" and can appear to lift themselves against gravity. Although this force is well understood to be illusory, even under Newtonian models, it has nevertheless generated numerous claims of anti-gravity devices and any number of patented devices. None of these devices has ever been demonstrated to work under controlled conditions, and they have often become the subject of conspiracy theories as a result.
+
+Another "rotating device" example is shown in a series of patents granted to Henry Wallace between 1968 and 1974. His devices consist of rapidly spinning disks of brass, a material made up largely of elements with a total half-integer nuclear spin. He claimed that by rapidly rotating a disk of such material, the nuclear spin became aligned, and as a result created a "gravitomagnetic" field in a fashion similar to the magnetic field created by the Barnett effect. No independent testing or public demonstration of these devices is known.
+In 1989, it was reported that a weight decreases along the axis of a right spinning gyroscope. A test of this claim a year later yielded null results. A recommendation was made to conduct further tests at a 1999 AIP conference.
+
+=== Gravitoelectric coupling ===
+In 1992, the Russian researcher Eugene Podkletnov claimed to have discovered, while experimenting with superconductors, that a fast rotating superconductor reduces the gravitational effect. Many studies have attempted to reproduce Podkletnov's experiment, always to negative results.
+Douglas Torr, of the University of Alabama in Huntsville proposed how a time-dependent magnetic field could cause the spins of the lattice ions in a superconductor to generate detectable gravitomagnetic and gravitoelectric fields in a series of papers published between 1991 and 1993. In 1999, a Miss Li appeared in Popular Mechanics, claiming to have constructed a working prototype to generate what she described as "AC Gravity." No further evidence of this prototype has been offered.
+Douglas Torr and Timir Datta were involved in the development of a "gravity generator" at the University of South Carolina. According to a leaked document from the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of South Carolina and confirmed to Wired reporter Charles Platt in 1998, the device would create a "force beam" in any desired direction and the university planned to patent and license this device. No further information about this university research project or the "Gravity Generator" device was ever made public.
+
+== Göde Award ==
+The Institute for Gravity Research of the Göde Scientific Foundation has tried to reproduce many of the different experiments which claim any "anti-gravity" effects. All attempts by this group to observe an anti-gravity effect by reproducing past experiments have been unsuccessful thus far. The foundation has offered a reward of one million euros for a reproducible anti-gravity experiment.

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+---
+title: "Anti-gravity"
+chunk: 3/3
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:06.313644+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+== In fiction ==
+The existence of anti-gravity is a common theme in science fiction. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction lists Francis Godwin's posthumously published 1638 novel The Man in the Moone, where a "semi-magical" stone has the power to make gravity stronger or weaker, as the earliest variation of the theme. The first story to use anti-gravity for the purpose of space travel, as well as the first to treat the subject from a scientific rather than supernatural angle, was George Tucker's 1827 novel A Voyage to the Moon.
+
+=== Apergy ===
+Apergy is a term invented by Percy Greg for a imaginary anti-gravitational force used in his 1880 sword and planet novel Across the Zodiac. The term was later adopted by other fiction authors such as John Jacob Astor IV in his 1894 science fiction novel A Journey in Other Worlds.
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Further reading ==
+Bly, Robert W. (2005). "Antigravity". The Science in Science Fiction: 83 SF Predictions That Became Scientific Reality. Consulting Editor: James Gunn. BenBella Books. pp. 21–26. ISBN 978-1-932100-48-8.
+Cady, W. M. (15 September 1952). "Thomas Townsend Brown: Electro-Gravity Device" (File 24–185). Pasadena, CA: Office of Naval Research. Public access to the report was authorized on 1 October 1952.
+
+== External links ==
+
+Kleiner, Kurt (5 August 2002). "The Hunt for Zero Point by Nick Cook". Salon. Review. Archived from the original on 15 January 2011. An editor for the esteemed Jane's Defense Weekly says the U.S. government has been working on Nazi anti-gravity technology in secret for 50 years Review of a book about a conspiracy theory around anti-gravity.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-psychiatry"
+chunk: 1/13
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:59.919288+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-psychiatry, sometimes spelled antipsychiatry, is a movement based on the view that psychiatric treatment can often be more damaging than helpful to patients. The term anti-psychiatry was coined in 1912, and the movement emerged in the 1960s, highlighting controversies about psychiatry. Objections include the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, the questionable effectiveness and harm associated with psychiatric medications, the failure of psychiatric medications to demonstrate any deterministic treatments, and legal concerns about equal human rights and civil freedom being nullified by the presence of diagnosis. Historical critiques of psychiatry came to light after focus on the extreme harms associated with electroconvulsive therapy and insulin shock therapy. The term "anti-psychiatry" is in dispute and often used to dismiss all critics of psychiatry, many of whom agree that a specialized role of helper for people in emotional distress may at times be appropriate, and allow for individual choice around treatment decisions.
+Beyond concerns about effectiveness, anti-psychiatry might question the philosophical and ethical underpinnings of psychotherapy and psychoactive medication, seeing them as shaped by social and political concerns rather than the autonomy and integrity of the individual mind. They may believe that "judgements on matters of sanity should be the prerogative of the philosophical mind", and that the mind should not be a medical concern. Some activists reject the psychiatric notion of mental illness. Anti-psychiatry considers psychiatry a coercive instrument of oppression due to an unequal power relationship between doctor, therapist, and patient or client, and a highly subjective diagnostic process. Involuntary commitment, which can be enforced legally through sectioning, is an important issue in the movement. When sectioned, involuntary treatment may also be legally enforced by the medical profession against the patient's will. 
+The decentralized movement has been active in various forms for two centuries. In the 1960s, there were many challenges to psychoanalysis and mainstream psychiatry, in which the very basis of psychiatric practice was characterized as repressive and controlling. Psychiatrists identified with the anti-psychiatry movement included Timothy Leary, R. D. Laing, Franco Basaglia, Theodore Lidz, Silvano Arieti, and David Cooper. Others involved were Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Erving Goffman. Cooper used the term "anti-psychiatry" in 1967, and wrote the book Psychiatry and Anti-psychiatry in 1971. The word Antipsychiatrie was already used in Germany in 1904. Thomas Szasz introduced the idea of mental illness being a myth in the book The Myth of Mental Illness (1961); however, his literature states that he was directly undermined by the movement led by David Cooper (1931–1986) and that Cooper sought to replace psychiatry with his own brand of it. Giorgio Antonucci, who advocated a non-psychiatric approach to psychological suffering, did not consider himself to be part of the antipsychiatric movement. His position is represented by "the non-psychiatric thinking, which considers psychiatry an ideology devoid of scientific content, a non-knowledge, whose aim is to annihilate people instead of trying to understand the difficulties of life, both individual and social, and then to defend people, change society, and create a truly new culture".
+Antonucci introduced the definition of psychiatry as a prejudice in the book I pregiudizi e la conoscenza critica alla psichiatria (1986). The movement continues to influence thinking about psychiatry and psychology, both within and outside of those fields, particularly in terms of the relationship between providers of treatment and those receiving it. Contemporary issues include freedom versus coercion, nature versus nurture, and the right to be different. Critics of antipsychiatry from within psychiatry itself object to the underlying principle that psychiatry is harmful, although they usually accept that there are issues that need addressing. Medical professionals often consider anti-psychiatry movements to be promoting mental illness denial, and some consider their claims to be comparable to conspiracy theories.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== Precursors ===

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+
+The first widespread challenge to the prevailing medical approach in Western countries occurred in the late 18th century. Part of the progressive Age of Enlightenment, a "moral treatment" movement challenged the harsh, pessimistic, somatic (body-based) and restraint-based approaches that prevailed in the system of hospitals and "madhouses" for people considered mentally disturbed, who were generally seen as wild animals without reason. Alternatives were developed, led in different regions by ex-patient staff, physicians themselves in some cases, and religious and lay philanthropists. This "moral treatment" was seen as pioneering more humane psychological and social approaches, whether or not in medical settings; however, it also involved some use of physical restraints, threats of punishment, and personal and social methods of control. As it became the establishment approach in the 19th century, opposition to its negative aspects also grew.
+According to Michel Foucault, there was a shift in the perception of madness, whereby it came to be seen as less about delusion, i.e. disturbed judgment about the truth, than about a disorder of regular, normal behavior or will. Foucault argued that, prior to this, doctors could often prescribe travel, rest, walking, retirement and generally engaging with nature, seen as the visible form of truth, as a means to break with artificialities of the world (and therefore delusions). Another form of treatment involved nature's opposite, the theater, where the patient's madness was acted out for them in such a way that the delusion would reveal itself to the patient.
+Thus the most prominent therapeutic technique became to confront patients with a healthy sound will and orthodox passions, ideally embodied by the physician. The "cure" involved a process of opposition, of struggle and domination, of the patient's troubled will by the healthy will of the physician. It was thought the confrontation would lead not only to bring the illness into broad daylight by its resistance, but also to the victory of the sound will and the renunciation of the disturbed will. We must apply a perturbing method, to break the spasm by means of the spasm.... We must subjugate the whole character of some patients, subdue their transports, break their pride, while we must stimulate and encourage the others (Esquirol, J. E. D., 1816). Foucault also argued that the increasing internment of the "mentally ill" (the development of more and bigger asylums) had become necessary not just for diagnosis and classification but because an enclosed place became a requirement for a treatment that was now understood as primarily the contest of wills, a question of submission and victory.
+
+The techniques and procedures of the asylums at this time included "isolation, private or public interrogations, punishment techniques such as cold showers, moral talks (encouragements or reprimands), strict discipline, compulsory work, rewards, preferential relations between the physician and his patients, relations of vassalage, of possession, of domesticity, even of servitude between patient and physician at times". Foucault summarized these as "designed to make the medical personage the 'master of madness'" through the power the physician's will exerts on the patient. The effect of this shift then served to inflate the power of the physician relative to the patient, correlated with the rapid rise of internment (asylums and forced detention).
+Other analyses suggest that the rise of asylums was primarily driven by industrialization and capitalism, including the breakdown of traditional family structures. By the end of the 19th century, psychiatrists often had little power in the overcrowded asylum system, acting mainly as administrators who rarely attended to patients in a system where therapeutic ideals had turned into institutional routines. In general, critics point to negative aspects of the shift toward so-called "moral treatments", and the concurrent widespread expansion of asylums, medical power and involuntary hospitalization laws, that played an important part in the development of the anti-psychiatry movement.

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+
+=== Therapeutic state ===
+The "therapeutic state" is a phrase coined by Szasz in 1963. The collaboration between psychiatry and government leads to what Szasz calls the "therapeutic state", a system in which disapproved actions, thoughts, and emotions are repressed ("cured") through pseudomedical interventions. Thus suicide, unconventional religious beliefs, racial bigotry, unhappiness, anxiety, shyness, sexual promiscuity, shoplifting, gambling, overeating, smoking, and illegal drug use are all considered symptoms or illnesses that need to be cured. When faced with demands for measures to curtail smoking in public, binge-drinking, gambling or obesity, ministers say that "we must guard against charges of nanny statism". The "nanny state" has turned into the "therapeutic state" where nanny has given way to counselor. Nanny just told people what to do; counselors also tell them what to think and what to feel. The "nanny state" was punitive, austere, and authoritarian, the therapeutic state is touchy-feely, supportive—and even more authoritarian. According to Szasz, "the therapeutic state swallows up everything human on the seemingly rational ground that nothing falls outside the province of health and medicine, just as the theological state had swallowed up everything human on the perfectly rational ground that nothing falls outside the province of God and religion".
+Faced with the problem of "madness", Western individualism proved to be ill-prepared to defend the rights of the individual: modern man has no more right to be a madman than medieval man had a right to be a heretic because if once people agree that they have identified the one true God, or Good, it brings about that they have to guard members and nonmembers of the group from the temptation to worship false gods or goods. A secularization of God and the medicalization of good resulted in the post-Enlightenment version of this view: once people agree that they have identified the one true reason, it brings about that they have to guard against the temptation to worship unreason—that is, madness. Civil libertarians warn that the marriage of the State with psychiatry could have catastrophic consequences for civilization. In the same vein as the separation of church and state, Szasz believes that a solid wall must exist between psychiatry and the State.
+
+=== "Total institution" ===
+In his book Asylums, Erving Goffman coined the term 'total institution' for mental hospitals and similar places which took over and confined a person's whole life. Goffman placed psychiatric hospitals in the same category as concentration camps, prisons, military organizations, orphanages, and monasteries. In Asylums Goffman describes how the institutionalization process socializes people into the role of a good patient, someone 'dull, harmless and inconspicuous'; it in turn reinforces notions of chronicity in severe mental illness.
+
+== Law ==
+
+In the US, critics of psychiatry contend that the intersection of the law and psychiatry create extra-legal entities. For example, the insanity defense, leading to detainment in a psychiatric institution versus a prison, can be worse than criminal imprisonment according to some critics, as it involves the risk of compulsory medication with neuroleptics or the use of electroshock treatment. While a criminal imprisonment has a predetermined and known time of duration, patients are typically committed to psychiatric hospitals for indefinite durations, an arguably outrageous imposition of fundamental uncertainty. It has been argued that such uncertainty risks aggravating mental instability, and that it substantially encourages a lapse into hopelessness and acceptance that precludes recovery.
+
+=== Involuntary hospitalization ===
+
+Critics see the use of legally sanctioned force in involuntary commitment as a violation of the fundamental principles of free or open societies. The political philosopher John Stuart Mill and others have argued that society has no right to use coercion to subdue an individual as long as they do not harm others. Research evidence regarding violent behavior by people with mental illness does not support a direct connection in most studies. The growing practice, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, of Care in the Community was instituted partly in response to such concerns. Alternatives to involuntary hospitalization include the development of non-medical crisis care in the community.
+The American Soteria project was developed by psychiatrist Loren Mosher as an alternative model of care in a residential setting to support those experiencing psychiatric symptoms or extreme states. The Soteria houses closed in 1983 in the United States due to lack of financial support. Similar programs were established in Europe, including in Sweden and other North European countries. In 2015, a Soteria House opened in Vermont, US. The physician Giorgio Antonucci, during his activity as a director of the Ospedale Psichiatrico Osservanza of Imola in Italy from 1979 to 1996, refused any form of coercion and any violation of the fundamental principles of freedom, questioning the basis of psychiatry itself.
+
+== Psychiatry as pseudoscience and failed enterprise ==
+Many of the above issues lead to the claim that psychiatry is a pseudoscience. According to some philosophers of science, for a theory to qualify as science it needs to exhibit the following characteristics:

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+
+parsimony, as straightforward as the phenomena to be explained allow (Occam's razor);
+empirically testable and falsifiable;
+changeable, i.e. if necessary, changes may be made to the theory as new data are discovered;
+progressive, encompasses previous successful descriptions and explains and adds more;
+provisional, i.e. tentative; the theory does not attempt to assert that it is a final description or explanation.
+Psychiatrists Colin A. Ross and Alvin Pam maintain that biopsychiatry does not qualify as a science on many counts. Psychiatric researchers have been criticized on the basis of the replication crisis and textbook errors. Questionable research practices are known to bias key sources of evidence. Stuart A. Kirk has argued that psychiatry is a failed enterprise, as mental illness has grown, not shrunk, with about 20% of American adults diagnosable as mentally ill in 2013. According to a 2014 meta-analysis, psychiatric treatment is no less effective for psychiatric illnesses in terms of treatment effects than treatments by practitioners of other medical specialties for physical health conditions. The analysis found that the effect sizes for psychiatric interventions are on average on par with other fields of medicine.
+
+== Diverse paths ==
+Szasz has since (2008) re-emphasized his disdain for the term anti-psychiatry, arguing that its legacy has simply been a "catchall term used to delegitimize and dismiss critics of psychiatric fraud and force by labeling them antipsychiatrists". He points out that the term originated in a meeting of four psychiatrists (Cooper, Laing, Berke and Redler) who never defined it yet "counter-label[ed] their discipline as anti-psychiatry", and that he considers Laing most responsible for popularizing it despite also personally distancing himself. Szasz describes the deceased (1989) Laing in vitriolic terms, accusing him of being irresponsible and equivocal on psychiatric diagnosis and use of force, and detailing his past "public behavior" as "a fit subject for moral judgment" which he gives as "a bad person and a fraud as a professional".
+Daniel Burston, however, has argued that overall the published works of Szasz and Laing demonstrate far more points of convergence and intellectual kinship than Szasz admits, despite the divergence on a number of issues related to Szasz being a libertarian and Laing an existentialist; that Szasz employs a good deal of exaggeration and distortion in his criticism of Laing's personal character, and unfairly uses Laing's personal failings and family woes to discredit his work and ideas; and that Szasz's "clear-cut, crystalline ethical principles are designed to spare us the agonizing and often inconclusive reflections that many clinicians face frequently in the course of their work". Szasz has indicated that his own views came from libertarian politics held since his teens, rather than through experience in psychiatry; that in his "rare" contacts with involuntary mental patients in the past he either sought to discharge them (if they were not charged with a crime) or "assisted the prosecution in securing [their] conviction" (if they were charged with a crime and appeared to be prima facie guilty); that he is not opposed to consensual psychiatry and "does not interfere with the practice of the conventional psychiatrist", and that he provided "listening-and-talking ("psychotherapy")" for voluntary fee-paying clients from 1948 until 1996, a practice he characterizes as non-medical and not associated with his being a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist.
+The gay rights or gay liberation movement is often thought to have been part of anti-psychiatry in its efforts to challenge oppression and stigma and, specifically, to get homosexuality removed from the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, a psychiatric member of APA's Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues Committee has recently sought to distance the two, arguing that they were separate in the early '70s protests at APA conventions and that APA's decision to remove homosexuality was scientific and happened to coincide with the political pressure. Reviewers have responded, however, that the founders and movements were closely aligned; that they shared core texts, proponents and slogans; and that others have stated that, for example, the gay liberation critique was "made possible by (and indeed often explicitly grounded in) traditions of antipsychiatry".
+In the clinical setting, the two strands of anti-psychiatry—criticism of psychiatric knowledge and reform of its practices—were never entirely distinct. In addition, in a sense, anti-psychiatry was not so much a demand for the end of psychiatry, as it was an often self-directed demand for psychiatrists and allied professionals to question their own judgments, assumptions and practices. In some cases, the suspicion of non-psychiatric medical professionals towards the validity of psychiatry was described as anti-psychiatry, as well the criticism of "hard-headed" psychiatrists towards "soft-headed" psychiatrists. Most leading figures of anti-psychiatry were themselves psychiatrists, and equivocated over whether they were really "against psychiatry", or parts thereof. Outside the field of psychiatry, however—e.g. for activists and non-medical mental health professionals such as social workers and psychologists—'anti-psychiatry' tended to mean something more radical. The ambiguous term "anti-psychiatry" came to be associated with these more radical trends, but there was debate over whether it was a new phenomenon, whom it best described, and whether it constituted a genuinely singular movement. In order to avoid any ambiguity intrinsic to the term anti-psychiatry, a current of thought that can be defined as critique of the basis of psychiatry, radical and unambiguous, aims for the complete elimination of psychiatry. The main representative of the critique of the basis of psychiatry is an Italian physician, Giorgio Antonucci, the founder of the non-psychiatric approach to psychological suffering, who posited that the "essence of psychiatry lies in an ideology of discrimination".
+In the 1990s, a tendency was noted among psychiatrists to characterize and to regard the anti-psychiatric movement as part of the past, and to view its ideological history as flirtation with the polemics of radical politics at the expense of scientific thought and enquiry. It was also argued, however, that the movement contributed towards generating demand for grassroots involvement in guidelines and advocacy groups, and to the shift from large mental institutions to community services. Additionally, community centers have tended in practice to distance themselves from the psychiatric/medical model and have continued to see themselves as representing a culture of resistance or opposition to psychiatry's authority. Overall, while antipsychiatry as a movement may have become an anachronism by this period and was no longer led by eminent psychiatrists, it has been argued that it became incorporated into the mainstream practice of mental health disciplines. On the other hand, mainstream psychiatry became more biomedical, increasing the gap between professionals.
+Henry Nasrallah claims that while he believes anti-psychiatry consists of many historical exaggerations based on events and primitive conditions from a century ago, "antipsychiatry helps keep us honest and rigorous about what we do, motivating us to relentlessly seek better diagnostic models and treatment paradigms. Psychiatry is far more scientific today than it was a century ago, but misperceptions about psychiatry continue to be driven by abuses of the past. The best antidote for antipsychiatry allegations is a combination of personal integrity, scientific progress, and sound evidence-based clinical care". A criticism was made in the 1990s that three decades of anti-psychiatry had produced a large literature critical of psychiatry, but little discussion of the deteriorating situation of the mentally troubled in American society. Anti-psychiatry crusades have thus been charged with failing to put suffering individuals first, and therefore being similarly guilty of what they blame psychiatrists for. The rise of anti-psychiatry in Italy was described by one observer as simply "a transfer of psychiatric control from those with medical knowledge to those who possessed socio-political power".

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+Critics of this view from an anti-psychiatry perspective are quick to point to the industrial aspects of psychiatric treatment itself as a primary causal factor in this situation that is described as "deteriorating". The numbers of people labeled "mentally ill", and in treatment, together with the severity of their conditions, have been going up primarily due to the direct efforts of the mental health movement, and mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, and not their detractors. Envisioning "mental health treatment" as violence prevention has been a big part of the problem, especially as you are dealing with a population that is not significantly more violent than any other group. On 7 October 2016, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto announced that they had established a scholarship for students doing theses in the area of antipsychiatry. Called "The Bonnie Burstow Scholarship in Antipsychiatry", it is to be awarded annually to an OISE thesis student. An unprecedented step, the scholarship should further the cause of freedom of thought and the exchange of ideas in academia. The scholarship is named in honor of Bonnie Burstow, a faculty member at the University of Toronto, a radical feminist, and an antipsychiatry activist. She is also the author of Psychiatry and the Business of Madness (2015).
+Some components of antipsychiatric theory have in recent decades been reformulated into a critique of "corporate psychiatry", heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. A recent editorial about this was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by Moncrieff, arguing that modern psychiatry has become a handmaiden to conservative political commitments. David Healy is a psychiatrist and professor in psychological medicine at Cardiff University School of Medicine, Wales. He has a special interest in the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medicine and academia. In the meantime, members of the psychiatric consumer/survivor movement continued to campaign for reform, empowerment and alternatives, with an increasingly diverse representation of views. Groups often have been opposed and undermined, especially when they proclaim to be, or when they are labeled as being, "anti-psychiatry". As of the 1990s, more than 60 percent of ex-patient groups reportedly support anti-psychiatry beliefs and consider themselves to be "psychiatric survivors". Although anti-psychiatry is often attributed to a few famous figures in psychiatry or academia, it has been pointed out that consumer/survivor/ex-patient individuals and groups preceded it, drove it and carried on through it.
+
+== Criticism ==
+A schism exists among those critical of conventional psychiatry between radical abolitionists and more moderate reformists. Laing, Cooper and others associated with the initial anti-psychiatry movement stopped short of actually advocating for the abolition of coercive psychiatry. Thomas Szasz, from near the beginning of his career, crusaded for the abolition of forced psychiatry. Believing that coercive psychiatry marginalizes and oppresses people with its harmful, controlling, and abusive practices, many who identify as anti-psychiatry activists are proponents of the complete abolition of non-consensual and coercive psychiatry. Critics of antipsychiatry from within psychiatry itself object to the underlying principle that psychiatry is by definition harmful. Most psychiatrists accept that issues exist that need addressing, but that the abolition of psychiatry is harmful. Nimesh Desai concludes, "To be a believer and a practitioner of multidisciplinary mental health, it is not necessary to reject the medical model as one of the basics of psychiatry", and admits: "Some of the challenges and dangers to psychiatry are not so much from the avowed antipsychiatrists, but from the misplaced and misguided individuals and groups in related fields."
+
+== See also ==
+
+== References ==
+
+== Works cited ==
+Foucault, Michel (1997). "Psychiatric Power". In Rabinow, Paul (ed.). Ethics, subjectivity and truth. Translated by Hurley, Robert and others. New York: The New Press. ISBN 978-1-56584-352-3. OCLC 46638170.
+
+== Further reading ==
+Antonucci, Giorgio (1986). Coppola, Alessio (ed.). I pregiudizi e la conoscenza. Critica alla psichiatria [The prejudices and knowledge. Critics of psychiatry] (in Italian). Preface by Thomas Szasz (1st ed.). Apache Cooperative Ltd.
+Antonucci, Giorgio (1994). Critica al giudizio psichiatrico [Critique of psychiatric judgment] (in Italian). Sensibili alle Foglie. ISBN 978-88-89883-01-3.
+Berlim, Marcelo T.; Fleck, Marcelo P. A.; Shorter, Edward (2003). "Notes on antipsychiatry". European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience. 253 (2): 61–67. doi:10.1007/s00406-003-0407-8. PMID 12799742. S2CID 21245730.
+Cording-Tömmel, Clemens (1986). "Antipsychiatrie". In Müller, Christian (ed.). Lexikon der Psychiatrie. Gesammelte Abhandlungen der gebräuchlichsten psychiatrischen Begriffe (in German) (second ed.). Springer-Verlag. pp. 54–58. ISBN 978-3-642-87356-0.
+Frank, K. Portland (1979). The Anti-Psychiatry Bibliography and Resource Guide (2nd ed.). Press Gang.
+Kisker, K.P. (1979). "Antipsychiatrie (AP)". In Kisker, K.P. (ed.). Psychiatrie der Gegenwart. Forschung und Praxis (in German). Springer-Verlag. pp. 811–825. ISBN 978-3-540-08725-0.
+Laing, R.D. (1965). The Divided Self. An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. Penguin Books. (Original edition: Tavistock Publications, 1960)
+Laing, R.D. (1967). The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise. Penguin Books.
+Rechlin, Thomas; Vliegen, Josef (1995). Die Psychiatrie in der Kritik. Die antipsychiatrische Szene und ihre Bedeutung für die klinische Psychiatrie heute (in German). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-642-79092-8.
+Rocca, Adolfo Vásquez (2011). "Antipsiquiatría: Deconstrucción del concepto de enfermedad mental y crítica de la 'razón psiquiátrica'" [Antipsychiatry: Deconstruction of the concept of mental illness and critique of psychiatric reason] (PDF). Nómadas. Revista Crítica de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas (in Spanish). 31: 321–338. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
+Szasz, Thomas (1997) [1970, Harper & Row]. The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-0461-7.
+Glasser, William (2003). Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-053866-X.
+
+== External links ==
+
+"Anti-Psychiatry and its Legacies (video)". Nottingham Contemporary. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013. 12–13 February 2013

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+Various 19th-century critiques of the newly emerging field of psychiatry overlap thematically with 20th-century anti-psychiatry, for example in their questioning of the medicalization of "madness". Those critiques occurred at a time when physicians had not yet achieved hegemony through psychiatry, however, so there was no single, unified force to oppose. Nevertheless, there was increasing concern at the ease with which people could be confined, with frequent reports of abuse and illegal confinement. For example, Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, had previously argued for more government oversight of "madhouses" and for due process prior to involuntary internment. He later argued that husbands used asylum hospitals to incarcerate their disobedient wives, and in a subsequent pamphlet that wives even did the same to their husbands. It was also proposed that the role of asylum keeper be separated from doctor, to discourage exploitation of patients.
+There was general concern that physicians were undermining personhood by medicalizing problems, by claiming they alone had the expertise to judge, and by arguing that mental disorder was physical and hereditary. The Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society arose in England in the mid-19th century to challenge the system and campaign for rights and reforms. In the United States, Elizabeth Packard published a series of books and pamphlets describing her experiences in the Illinois insane asylum, to which she had been committed at the request of her husband. Throughout, the class nature of mental hospitals and their role as agencies of control were well recognized. The new psychiatry was partially challenged by two powerful social institutions—the church and the legal system. These trends have been thematically linked to the later-20th-century anti-psychiatry movement. As psychiatry became more professionally established during the 19th century (the term itself was coined in 1808 in Germany by Johann Christian Reil, as "Psychiaterie") and developed allegedly more invasive treatments, opposition increased. In the Southern US, black slaves and abolitionists encountered drapetomania, a pseudo-scientific diagnosis that presented the desire of slaves to run away from their masters as a symptom of pathology.
+There was some organized challenge to psychiatry in the late 1870s from the new speciality of neurology, largely centered around control of state insane asylums in New York. Practitioners criticized mental hospitals for failure to conduct scientific research and adopt the modern therapeutic methods such as nonrestraint. Together with lay reformers and social workers, neurologists formed the National Association for the Protection of the Insane and the Prevention of Insanity. However, when the lay members questioned the competence of asylum physicians to even provide proper care at all, the neurologists withdrew their support and the association floundered.
+
+=== Early 1900s ===
+It has been noted that "the most persistent critics of psychiatry have always been former mental hospital patients", but that very few were able to tell their stories publicly or to confront the psychiatric establishment openly, and those who did so were commonly considered so extreme in their charges that they could seldom gain credibility. In the early 20th century, ex-patient Clifford W. Beers campaigned to improve the plight of individuals receiving public psychiatric care, particularly those committed to state institutions, publicizing the issues in his book, A Mind that Found Itself (1908). While Beers initially condemned psychiatrists for tolerating mistreatment of patients, and envisioned more ex-patient involvement in the movement, he was influenced by Adolf Meyer and the psychiatric establishment, and toned down his hostility since he needed their support for reforms. In Germany during this time were similar efforts which used the term "Antipsychiatrie".
+Beers' reliance on rich donors and his need for approval from experts led him to hand over to psychiatrists the organization he helped found, the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which eventually became the National Mental Health Association. In the UK, the National Society for Lunacy Law Reform was established in 1920 by angry ex-patients who sought justice for abuses committed in psychiatric custody, and were aggrieved that their complaints were patronizingly discounted by the authorities, who were seen to value the availability of medicalized internment as a 'whitewashed' extrajudicial custodial and punitive process. In 1922, ex-patient Rachel Grant-Smith added to calls for reform of the system of neglect and abuse she had suffered by publishing "The Experiences of an Asylum Patient". In the US, We Are Not Alone (WANA) was founded by a group of patients at Rockland State Hospital in New York, and continued to meet as an ex-patient group.
+French surrealist Antonin Artaud would also openly criticize that no patient should be labeled as "mentally ill" as an exterior identification, as he notes in his 1925 L'Ombilic des limbes, as well as arguing against narcotic's restriction laws in France. Much influenced by the Dada and surrealist enthusiasms of the day, he considered dreams, thoughts and visions no less real than the "outside" world.
+In this era before penicillin was discovered, eugenics was popular. People believed diseases of the mind could be passed on so compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill was enacted in many countries.

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+
+=== 1930s ===
+In the 1930s several controversial medical practices were introduced and framed as "treatments" for mental disorders, including inducing seizures (by electroshock, insulin or other drugs) or psychosurgery (lobotomy). In the US, beginning in 1939 through 1951, over 50,000 lobotomy operations were performed in mental hospitals, a procedure ultimately seen as inhumane. Holocaust historians argued that the medicalization of social programs and systematic euthanasia of people in German mental institutions in the 1930s provided the institutional, procedural, and doctrinal origins of the mass murder of the 1940s. The Nazi programs were called Action T4 and Action 14f13. The Nuremberg Trials convicted a number of psychiatrists who held key positions in Nazi regimes. As one Swiss psychiatrist stated: "A not so easy question to be answered is whether it should be allowed to destroy lives objectively 'unworthy of living' without the expressed request of its bearers. (...) Even in incurable mentally ill ones suffering seriously from hallucinations and melancholic depressions and not being able to act, to a medical colleague I would ascript the right and in serious cases the duty to shorten—often for many years—the suffering" (Bleuler, Eugen, 1936: "Die naturwissenschaftliche Grundlage der Ethik". Schweizer Archiv Neurologie und Psychiatrie, Band 38, Nr.2, S. 206).
+
+=== 1940s and 1950s ===
+The post-World War II decades saw an enormous growth in psychiatry; many Americans were persuaded that psychiatry and psychology, particularly psychoanalysis, were a key to happiness. Meanwhile, most hospitalized mental patients received at best decent custodial care, and at worst, abuse and neglect. The psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has been identified as an influence on later anti-psychiatry theory in the UK, and as being the first, in the 1940s and 1950s, to professionally challenge psychoanalysis to reexamine its concepts and to appreciate psychosis as understandable. Other influences on Lacan included poetry and the surrealist movement, including the poetic power of patients' experiences. Critics disputed this and questioned how his descriptions linked to his practical work. The names that came to be associated with the anti-psychiatry movement knew of Lacan and acknowledged his contribution even if they did not entirely agree.
+
+The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm is said to have articulated, in the 1950s, the secular humanistic concern of the coming anti-psychiatry movement. In The Sane Society (1955), Fromm wrote "An unhealthy society is one which creates mutual hostility [and] distrust, which transforms man into an instrument of use and exploitation for others, which deprives him of a sense of self, except inasmuch as he submits to others or becomes an automaton"..."Yet many psychiatrists and psychologists refuse to entertain the idea that society as a whole may be lacking in sanity. They hold that the problem of mental health in a society is only that of the number of 'unadjusted' individuals, and not of a possible unadjustment of the culture itself".
+In the 1950s new psychiatric drugs, notably the antipsychotic chlorpromazine, slowly came into use. Although often accepted as an advance in some ways, there was opposition, partly due to serious adverse effects such as tardive dyskinesia, and partly due their "chemical straitjacket" effect and their alleged use to control and intimidate patients. Patients often opposed psychiatry and refused or stopped taking the drugs when not subject to psychiatric control. There was also increasing opposition to the large-scale use of psychiatric hospitals and institutions, and attempts were made to develop services in the community.
+
+According to the Encyclopedia of Theory and Practice in Psychotherapy and Counseling, "In the 1950s in the United States, a right-wing anti-mental health movement opposed psychiatry, seeing it as liberal, left-wing, subversive and anti-American or pro-Communist. There were widespread fears that it threatened individual rights and undermined moral responsibility. An early skirmish was over the Alaska Mental Health Bill, where the right wing protestors were joined by the emerging Scientology movement." The field of psychology sometimes came into opposition with psychiatry. Behaviorists argued that mental disorder was a matter of learning not medicine; for example, Hans Eysenck argued that psychiatry "really has no role to play". The developing field of clinical psychology in particular came into close contact with psychiatry, often in opposition to its methods, theories and territories.
+
+=== 1960s ===
+Coming to the fore in the 1960s, "anti-psychiatry" (a term first used by David Cooper in 1967) defined a movement that vocally challenged the fundamental claims and practices of mainstream psychiatry. While most of its elements had precedents in earlier decades and centuries, in the 1960s it took on a national and international character, with access to the mass media and incorporating a wide mixture of grassroots activist organizations and prestigious professional bodies.
+Cooper was a South African psychiatrist working in Britain. A trained Marxist revolutionary, he argued that the political context of psychiatry and its patients had to be highlighted and radically challenged, and warned that the fog of individualized therapeutic language could take away people's ability to see and challenge the bigger social picture. He spoke of having a goal of "non-psychiatry" as well as anti-psychiatry.

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+
+In the 1960s fresh voices mounted a new challenge to the pretensions of psychiatry as a science and the mental health system as a successful humanitarian enterprise. These voices included: Ernest Becker, Erving Goffman, R.D. Laing; Laing and Aaron Esterson, Thomas Scheff, and Thomas Szasz. Their writings, along with others such as articles in the journal The Radical Therapist, were given the umbrella label "antipsychiatry" despite wide divergences in philosophy. This critical literature, in concert with an activist movement, emphasized the hegemony of medical model psychiatry, its spurious sources of authority, its mystification of human problems, and the more oppressive practices of the mental health system, such as involuntary hospitalisation, drugging, and electroshock.
+The psychiatrists R D Laing (from Scotland), Theodore Lidz (from America), Silvano Arieti (from Italy) and others, argued that "schizophrenia" and psychosis were understandable, and resulted from injuries to the inner-self-inflicted by psychologically invasive "schizophrenogenic" parents or others. It was sometimes seen as a transformative state involving an attempt to cope with a sick society. Laing, however, partially dissociated himself from his colleague Cooper's term "anti-psychiatry". Laing had already become a media icon through bestselling books (such as The Divided Self and The Politics of Experience) discussing mental distress in an interpersonal existential context; Laing was somewhat less focused than his colleague Cooper on wider social structures and radical left wing politics, and went on to develop more romanticized or mystical views (as well as equivocating over the use of diagnosis, drugs and commitment). Although the movement originally described as anti-psychiatry became associated with the general counter-culture movement of the 1960s, Lidz and Arieti never became involved in the latter. Franco Basaglia promoted anti-psychiatry in Italy and secured reforms to mental health law there.
+Laing, through the Philadelphia Association founded with Cooper in 1965, set up over 20 therapeutic communities including Kingsley Hall, where staff and residents theoretically assumed equal status and any medication used was voluntary. Non-psychiatric Soteria houses, starting in the United States, were also developed as were various ex-patient-led services. Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz argued that "mental illness" is an inherently incoherent combination of a medical and a psychological concept. He opposed the use of psychiatry to forcibly detain, treat, or excuse what he saw as mere deviance from societal norms or moral conduct. As a libertarian, Szasz was concerned that such usage undermined personal rights and moral responsibility. Adherents of his views referred to "the myth of mental illness", after Szasz's controversial 1961 book of that name (based on a paper of the same name that Szasz had written in 1957 that, following repeated rejections from psychiatric journals, had been published in the American Psychologist in 1960). Although widely described as part of the main anti-psychiatry movement, Szasz actively rejected the term and its adherents; instead, in 1969, he collaborated with Scientology to form the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. It was later noted that the view that insanity was not in most or even in any instances a "medical" entity, but a moral issue, was also held by Christian Scientists and certain Protestant fundamentalists, as well as Szasz. Szasz was not a Scientologist himself and was non-religious; he commented frequently on the parallels between religion and psychiatry.
+Erving Goffman, Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and others criticized the power and role of psychiatry in society, including the use of "total institutions" and the use of models and terms that were seen as stigmatizing. The French sociologist and philosopher Foucault, in his 1961 publication Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, analyzed how attitudes towards those deemed "insane" had changed as a result of changes in social values. He argued that psychiatry was primarily a tool of social control, based historically on a "great confinement" of the insane and physical punishment and chains, later exchanged in the moral treatment era for psychological oppression and internalized restraint. American sociologist Thomas Scheff applied labeling theory to psychiatry in 1966 in "Being Mentally Ill". Scheff argued that society views certain actions as deviant and, in order to come to terms with and understand these actions, often places the label of mental illness on those who exhibit them. Certain expectations are then placed on these individuals and, over time, they unconsciously change their behavior to fulfill them.
+Observation of the abuses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union in the so-called Psikhushka hospitals also led to questioning the validity of the practice of psychiatry in the West. In particular, the diagnosis of many political dissidents with schizophrenia led some to question the general diagnosis and punitive usage of the label schizophrenia. This raised questions as to whether the schizophrenia label and resulting involuntary psychiatric treatment could not have been similarly used in the West to subdue rebellious young people during family conflicts.
+
+=== Since 1970 ===

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+title: "Anti-psychiatry"
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+
+New professional approaches were developed as an alternative or reformist complement to psychiatry. The Radical Therapist, a journal begun in 1971 in North Dakota by Michael Glenn, David Bryan, Linda Bryan, Michael Galan and Sara Glenn, challenged the psychotherapy establishment in a number of ways, raising the slogan "Therapy means change, not adjustment." It contained articles that challenged the professional mediator approach, advocating instead revolutionary politics and authentic community making. Social work, humanistic or existentialist therapies, family therapy, counseling and self-help and clinical psychology developed and sometimes opposed psychiatry.
+The psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist Szasz, although professing fundamental opposition to what he perceives as medicalization and oppressive or excuse-giving "diagnosis" and forced "treatment", was not opposed to other aspects of psychiatry (for example attempts to "cure-heal souls", although he also characterizes this as non-medical). Although generally considered anti-psychiatry by others, he sought to dissociate himself politically from a movement and term associated with the radical left wing. In a 1976 publication "Anti-psychiatry: The paradigm of a plundered mind", which has been described as an overtly political condemnation of a wide sweep of people, Szasz claimed Laing, Cooper and all of anti-psychiatry consisted of "self-declared socialists, communists, anarchists or at least anti-capitalists and collectivists". While saying he shared some of their critique of the psychiatric system, Szasz compared their views on the social causes of distress/deviance to those of anti-capitalist anti-colonialists who claimed that Chilean poverty was due to plundering by American companies, a comment Szasz made not long after a CIA-backed coup had deposed the democratically elected Chilean president and replaced him with Pinochet. Szasz argued instead that distress/deviance is due to the flaws or failures of individuals in their struggles in life.
+The anti-psychiatry movement was also being driven by individuals with adverse experiences of psychiatric services. This included those who felt they had been harmed by psychiatry or who felt that they could have been helped more by other approaches, including those compulsorily (including via physical force) admitted to psychiatric institutions and subjected to compulsory medication or procedures. During the 1970s, the anti-psychiatry movement was involved in promoting restraint from many practices seen as psychiatric abuses. The gay rights movement continued to challenge the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness and in 1974, in a climate of controversy and activism, the American Psychiatric Association membership (following a unanimous vote by the trustees in 1973) voted (by 58%) to remove it as an illness category from the DSM, replacing it with a category of "sexual orientation disturbance" and then "ego-dystonic homosexuality," which was deleted in 1986, although a wide variety of "paraphilias" remain.
+The diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used by the DSM until its reclassification as gender dysphoria in 2013, with the release of the DSM-5. The diagnosis was reclassified to better align it with medical understanding of the condition and to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder. The American Psychiatric Association, publisher of the DSM-5, stated that gender nonconformity is not the same thing as gender dysphoria, and that "gender nonconformity is not in itself a mental disorder. The critical element of gender dysphoria is the presence of clinically significant distress associated with the condition." Some transgender people and researchers support declassification of the condition because they say the diagnosis pathologizes gender variance and reinforces the binary model of gender. Szasz also publicly endorsed the transmisogynist work of Janice Raymond. In a 1979 New York Times book review of Raymond's The Transsexual Empire, Szasz drew connections between his ongoing critique of psychiatric diagnosis and Raymond's feminist critique of trans women.
+Increased legal and professional protections, and a merging with human rights and disability rights movements, added to anti-psychiatry theory and action. Anti-psychiatry came to challenge a "biomedical" focus of psychiatry (defined to mean genetics, neurochemicals and pharmaceutic drugs). There was also opposition to the increasing links between psychiatry and pharmaceutical companies, which were becoming more powerful and were increasingly claimed to have excessive, unjustified and underhand influence on psychiatric research and practice. There was also opposition to the codification of, and alleged misuse of, psychiatric diagnoses into manuals, in particular the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
+Anti-psychiatry increasingly challenged alleged psychiatric pessimism and institutionalized alienation regarding those categorized as mentally ill. An emerging consumer/survivor movement often argues for full recovery, empowerment, self-management and even full liberation. Schemes were developed to challenge stigma and discrimination, often based on a social model of disability; to assist or encourage people with mental health issues to engage more fully in work and society (for example through social firms), and to involve service users in the delivery and evaluation of mental health services. However, those actively and openly challenging the fundamental ethics and efficacy of mainstream psychiatric practice remained marginalized within psychiatry, and to a lesser extent within the wider mental health community.
+Three authors came to personify the movement against psychiatry, and two of these were practicing psychiatrists. The initial and most influential of these was Thomas Szasz who rose to fame with his book The Myth of Mental Illness, although Szasz himself did not identify as an anti-psychiatrist. The well-respected R D Laing wrote a series of best-selling books, including The Divided Self. Intellectual philosopher Michel Foucault challenged the very basis of psychiatric practice and cast it as repressive and controlling. The term "anti-psychiatry" was coined by David Cooper in 1967. In parallel with the theoretical production of the mentioned authors, the Italian physician Giorgio Antonucci questioned the basis themselves of psychiatry through the dismantling of the psychiatric hospitals Osservanza and Luigi Lolli and the liberation—and restitution to life—of the people there secluded.
+
+== Challenges to psychiatry ==

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+title: "Anti-psychiatry"
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+
+=== Civilization as a cause of distress ===
+In recent years,psychotherapists David Smail and Bruce E. Levine, considered part of the anti-psychiatry movement, have written widely on how society, culture, politics and psychology intersect. They have written extensively of the "embodied nature" of the individual in society, and the unwillingness of even therapists to acknowledge the obvious part played by power and financial interest in modern Western society. They argue that feelings and emotions are not, as is commonly supposed, features of the individual, but rather responses of the individual to their situation in society. Even psychotherapy, they suggest, can only change feelings in as much as it helps a person to change the "proximal" and "distal" influences on their life, which range from family and friends, to the workplace, socio-economics, politics and culture. R. D. Laing emphasized family nexus as a mechanism by which individuals become victimized by those around them, and spoke about a dysfunctional society.
+
+=== Inadequacy of clinical interviews used to diagnose 'diseases' ===
+Psychiatrists have been trying to differentiate mental disorders based on clinical interviews since the era of Kraepelin, but now realize that their diagnostic criteria are imperfect. Tadafumi Kato writes, "We psychiatrists should be aware that we cannot identify 'diseases' only by interviews. What we are doing now is just like trying to diagnose diabetes mellitus without measuring blood sugar."
+
+=== Normality and illness judgments ===
+
+In 2013, psychiatrist Allen Frances said that "psychiatric diagnosis still relies exclusively on fallible subjective judgments rather than objective biological tests". Reasons have been put forward to doubt the ontic status of mental disorders. Mental disorders engender ontological skepticism on three levels:
+
+Mental disorders are abstract entities that cannot be directly appreciated with the human senses or indirectly, as one might with macro- or microscopic objects.
+Mental disorders are not clearly natural processes whose detection is untarnished by the imposition of values, or human interpretation.
+It is unclear whether they should be conceived as abstractions that exist in the world apart from the individual persons who experience them, and thus instantiate them.
+In the scientific and academic literature on the definition or classification of mental disorder, one extreme argues that it is entirely a matter of value judgements (including of what is normal) while another proposes that it is or could be entirely objective and scientific (including by reference to statistical norms). Common hybrid views argue that the concept of mental disorder is objective but a "fuzzy prototype" that can never be precisely defined, or alternatively that it inevitably involves a mix of scientific facts and subjective value judgments.
+One remarkable example of psychiatric diagnosis being used to reinforce cultural bias and oppress dissidence is the diagnosis of drapetomania. In the US prior to the American Civil War, physicians such as Samuel A. Cartwright diagnosed some slaves with drapetomania, a mental illness in which the slave possessed an irrational desire for freedom and a tendency to try to escape. By classifying such a dissident mental trait as abnormal and a disease, psychiatry promoted cultural bias about normality, abnormality, health, and unhealth. This example indicates the probability for not only cultural bias but also confirmation bias and bias blind spot in psychiatric diagnosis and psychiatric beliefs.
+It has been argued by philosophers like Foucault that characterizations of "mental illness" are indeterminate and reflect the hierarchical structures of the societies from which they emerge rather than any precisely defined qualities that distinguish a "healthy" mind from a "sick" one. Furthermore, if a tendency toward self-harm is taken as an elementary symptom of mental illness, then humans, as a species, are arguably insane in that they have tended throughout recorded history to destroy their own environments, to make war with one another, etc.
+
+=== Psychiatric labeling ===
+
+Mental disorders were first included in the sixth revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-6) in 1949. Three years later, the American Psychiatric Association created its own classification system, DSM-I. The definitions of most psychiatric diagnoses consist of combinations of phenomenological criteria, such as symptoms and signs and their course over time. Expert committees combined them in variable ways into categories of mental disorders, defined and redefined them again and again over the last half century.
+The majority of these diagnostic categories are called disorders and are not validated by biological criteria, as most medical diseases are; although they purport to represent medical diseases and take the form of medical diagnoses. These diagnostic categories are actually embedded in top-down classifications, similar to the early botanic classifications of plants in the 17th and 18th centuries, when experts decided a priori about which classification criterion to use, for instance, whether the shape of leaves or fruiting bodies were the main criterion for classifying plants. Since the era of Kraepelin, psychiatrists have been trying to differentiate mental disorders by using clinical interviews.

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+
+==== Experiments admitting "healthy" individuals into psychiatric care ====
+In 1972, psychologist David Rosenhan published the Rosenhan experiment, a study questioning the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. The study arranged for eight individuals with no history of psychopathology to attempt admission into psychiatric hospitals. The individuals included a graduate student, psychologists, an artist, a housewife, and two physicians, including one psychiatrist. All eight individuals were admitted with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Psychiatrists then attempted to treat the individuals using psychiatric medication. All eight were discharged within 7 to 52 days. In a later part of the study, psychiatric staff were warned that pseudo-patients might be sent to their institutions, but none were actually sent. Nevertheless, a total of 83 patients out of 193 were believed by at least one staff member to be actors. The study concluded that individuals without mental disorders were indistinguishable from those with mental disorders.
+Critics such as Robert Spitzer cast doubt on the validity and credibility of the study, but did concede that the consistency of psychiatric diagnoses needed improvement. The challenge of the validity versus the reliability of diagnostic categories continues to plague diagnostic systems. Neuroscientist Tadafumi Kato advocates for a new classification of diseases based on the neurobiological features of each mental disorder. while Austrian psychiatrist Heinz Katsching advises psychiatrists to replace the term "mental illness" by "brain illness."
+There are recognized problems regarding the diagnostic reliability and validity of mainstream psychiatric diagnoses, both in ideal and controlled circumstances and even more so in routine clinical practice (McGorry et al.. 1995). Criteria in the principal diagnostic manuals, the DSM and ICD, are not consistent between the two manuals. Some psychiatrists in critiquing diagnostic criteria point out that comorbidity, when an individual meets criteria for two or more disorders, is the rule rather than the exception, casting doubt on the distinctness of the categories, with overlap and vaguely defined or changeable boundaries between what are asserted to be distinct disorders.
+Other concerns raised include using standard diagnostic criteria in different countries, cultures, genders or ethnic groups. Critics contend that Westernized, white, male-dominated psychiatric practices and diagnoses disadvantage and misunderstand those from other groups. For example, several studies have shown that African Americans are more often diagnosed with schizophrenia than white people, and men more than women. Some within the anti-psychiatry movement are critical of the use of diagnosis at all as it conforms with the biomedical model, seen as illegitimate.
+
+=== Tool of social control ===
+
+According to Franco Basaglia, Giorgio Antonucci, and Bruce E. Levine, whose approach pointed out the role of psychiatric institutions in the control and medicalization of deviant behaviors and social problems, psychiatry is used as the provider of scientific support for social control to the existing establishment, and the ensuing standards of deviance and normality brought about repressive views of discrete social groups. According to Mike Fitzpatrick, resistance to medicalization was a common theme of the gay liberation, anti-psychiatry, and feminist movements of the 1970s, but now there is actually no resistance to the advance of government intrusion in lifestyle if it is thought to be justified in terms of public health.
+In the opinion of Mike Fitzpatrick, the pressure for medicalization also comes from society itself. As one example, Fitzpatrick claims that feminists who once opposed state intervention as oppressive and patriarchal, now demand more coercive and intrusive measures to deal with child abuse and domestic violence. According to Richard Gosden, the use of psychiatry as a tool of social control is becoming obvious in preventive medicine programs for various mental diseases. These programs are intended to identify children and young people with divergent behavioral patterns and thinking and send them to treatment before their supposed mental diseases develop. Clinical guidelines for best practice in Australia include the risk factors and signs which can be used to detect young people who are in need of prophylactic drug treatment to prevent the development of schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions.

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+
+=== Psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry ===
+Critics of psychiatry commonly express a concern that the path of diagnosis and treatment in contemporary society is primarily or overwhelmingly shaped by profit prerogatives, echoing a common criticism of general medical practice in the United States, where many of the largest psychopharmaceutical producers are based. Psychiatric research has demonstrated varying degrees of efficacy for improving or managing a number of mental health disorders through either medications, psychotherapy, or a combination of the two. Typical psychiatric medications include stimulants, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and antipsychotics (neuroleptics).
+On the other hand, organizations such as MindFreedom International and World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry maintain that psychiatrists exaggerate the evidence of medication and minimize the evidence of adverse drug reaction. They and other activists believe individuals are not given balanced information, and that current psychiatric medications do not appear to be specific to particular disorders in the way mainstream psychiatry asserts; and psychiatric drugs not only fail to correct measurable chemical imbalances in the brain, but rather induce undesirable side effects. For example, though children on Ritalin and other psycho-stimulants become more obedient to parents and teachers, critics have noted that they can also develop abnormal movements such as tics, spasms and other involuntary movements. This has not been shown to be directly related to the therapeutic use of stimulants, but to neuroleptics. The diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder on the basis of inattention to compulsory schooling also raises critics' concerns regarding the use of psychoactive drugs as a means of unjust social control of children.
+The influence of pharmaceutical companies is another major issue for the anti-psychiatry movement. As many critics from within and outside of psychiatry have argued, there are many financial and professional links between psychiatry, regulators, and pharmaceutical companies. Drug companies routinely fund much of the research conducted by psychiatrists, advertise medication in psychiatric journals and conferences, fund psychiatric and healthcare organizations and health promotion campaigns, and send representatives to lobby general physicians and politicians. Peter Breggin, Sharkey, and other investigators of the psycho-pharmaceutical industry maintain that many psychiatrists are members, shareholders or special advisors to pharmaceutical or associated regulatory organizations.
+There is evidence that research findings and the prescribing of drugs are influenced as a result. A United Kingdom cross-party parliamentary inquiry into the influence of the pharmaceutical industry in 2005 concludes: "The influence of the pharmaceutical industry is such that it dominates clinical practice" and that there are serious regulatory failings resulting in "the unsafe use of drugs; and the increasing medicalization of society". The campaign organization No Free Lunch details the prevalent acceptance by medical professionals of free gifts from pharmaceutical companies and the effect on psychiatric practice. The ghostwriting of articles by pharmaceutical company officials, which are then presented by esteemed psychiatrists, has also been highlighted. Systematic reviews have found that trials of psychiatric drugs that are conducted with pharmaceutical funding are several times more likely to report positive findings than studies without such funding.
+The number of psychiatric drug prescriptions have been increasing at an extremely high rate since the 1950s and show no sign of abating. In the United States antidepressants and tranquilizers are now the top selling class of prescription drugs, and neuroleptics and other psychiatric drugs also rank near the top, all with expanding sales. As a solution to the apparent conflict of interests, critics propose legislation to separate the pharmaceutical industry from the psychiatric profession. John Read and Bruce E. Levine have advanced the idea of socioeconomic status as a significant factor in the development and prevention of mental disorders such as schizophrenia and have noted the reach of pharmaceutical companies through industry sponsored websites as promoting a more biological approach to mental disorders, rather than a comprehensive biological, psychological and social model.
+
+=== Electroconvulsive therapy ===
+
+Psychiatrists may advocate psychiatric drugs, psychotherapy or more controversial interventions such as electroshock or psychosurgery to treat mental illness. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is administered worldwide typically for severe mental disorders. Across the globe it has been estimated that approximately 1 million patients receive ECT per year. Exact numbers of how many persons per year have ECT in the United States are unknown due to the variability of settings and treatment. Researchers' estimates generally range from 100,000 to 200,000 persons per year. Some persons receiving ECT die during the procedure (ECT is performed under a general anesthetic, which always carries a risk). Leonard Roy Frank writes that estimates of ECT-related death rates vary widely. The lower estimates include:
+
+2–4 in 100,000 (from Kramer's 1994 study of 28,437 patients)
+1 in 10,000 (Boodman's first entry in 1996)
+1 in 1,000 (Impastato's first entry in 1957)
+1 in 200, among the elderly, over 60 (Impastato's in 1957)
+Higher estimates include:
+
+1 in 102 (Martin's entry in 1949)
+1 in 95 (Boodman's first entry in 1996)
+1 in 92 (Freeman and Kendell's entry in 1976)
+1 in 89 (Sagebiel's in 1961)
+1 in 69 (Gralnick's in 1946)
+1 in 63, among a group undergoing intensive ECT (Perry's in 1963–1979)
+1 in 38 (Ehrenberg's in 1955)
+1 in 30 (Kurland's in 1959)
+1 in 9, among a group undergoing intensive ECT (Weil's in 1949)
+1 in 4, among the very elderly, over 80 (Kroessler and Fogel's in 1974–1986).
+
+=== Political abuse of psychiatry ===

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+Psychiatrists around the world have been involved in the suppression of individual rights by states in which the definitions of mental disease have been expanded to include political disobedience. Nowadays, in many countries, political prisoners are sometimes confined and abused in mental institutions. Psychiatry possesses a built-in capacity for abuse which is greater than in other areas of medicine. The diagnosis of mental disease can serve as proxy for the designation of social dissidents, allowing the state to hold persons against their will and to insist upon therapies that work in favor of ideological conformity and in the broader interests of society. In a monolithic state, psychiatry can be used to bypass standard legal procedures for establishing guilt or innocence and allow political incarceration without the ordinary odium attaching to such political trials.
+Under the Nazi regime in the 1940s, the "duty to care" was violated on an enormous scale. In Germany alone 300,000 individuals that had been deemed mentally ill, work-shy or feeble-minded were sterilized. An additional 200,000 were euthanized. These practices continued in territories occupied by the Nazis further afield (mainly in eastern Europe), affecting thousands more. From the 1960s up to 1986, political abuse of psychiatry was reported to be systematic in the Soviet Union, and to surface on occasion in other Eastern European countries such as Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, as well as in Western European countries, such as Italy. An example of the use of psychiatry in the political field is the "case Sabattini", described by Giorgio Antonucci in his book Il pregiudizio psichiatrico. A "mental health genocide" reminiscent of the Nazi aberrations has been located in the history of South African oppression during the apartheid era. A continued misappropriation of the discipline was later attributed to the People's Republic of China.
+K. Fulford, A. Smirnov, and E. Snow state: "An important vulnerability factor, therefore, for the abuse of psychiatry, is the subjective nature of the observations on which psychiatric diagnosis currently depends." In an article published in 1994 by the Journal of Medical Ethics, American psychiatrist Thomas Szasz stated that "the classification by slave owners and slave traders of certain individuals as Negroes was scientific, in the sense that whites were rarely classified as blacks. But that did not prevent the 'abuse' of such racial classification, because (what we call) its abuse was, in fact, its use." Szasz argued that the spectacle of the Western psychiatrists loudly condemning Soviet colleagues for their abuse of professional standards was largely an exercise in hypocrisy. Szasz states that K. Fulford, A. Smirnov, and E. Snow, who correctly emphasize the value-laden nature of psychiatric diagnoses and the subjective character of psychiatric classifications, fail to accept the role of psychiatric power. He stated that psychiatric abuse, such as people usually associated with practices in the former USSR, was connected not with the misuse of psychiatric diagnoses, but with the political power built into the social role of the psychiatrist in democratic and totalitarian societies alike. Musicologists, drama critics, art historians, and many other scholars also create their own subjective classifications; however, lacking state-legitimated power over persons, their classifications do not lead to anyone's being deprived of property, liberty, or life. For instance, a plastic surgeon's classification of beauty is subjective, but the plastic surgeon cannot treat his or her patient without the patient's consent, so there cannot be any political abuse of plastic surgery.
+The bedrock of political medicine is coercion masquerading as medical treatment. In this process, physicians diagnose a disapproved condition as an "illness" and declare the intervention they impose on the victim a "treatment," and legislators and judges legitimate these categorizations. In the same way, physician-eugenicists advocated killing certain disabled or ill persons as a form of treatment for both society and patient long before the Nazis came to power. From the commencement of his political career, Hitler put his struggle against "enemies of the state" in medical rhetoric. In 1934, addressing the Reichstag, he declared, "I gave the order… to burn out down to the raw flesh the ulcers of our internal well-poisoning." The entire German nation and its National Socialist politicians learned to think and speak in such terms. Werner Best, Reinhard Heydrich's deputy, stated that the task of the police was "to root out all symptoms of disease and germs of destruction that threatened the political health of the nation… [In addition to Jews,] most [of the germs] were weak, unpopular and marginalized groups, such as gypsies, homosexuals, beggars, 'antisocials', 'work-shy', and 'habitual criminals'." In spite of all the evidence, people ignore or underappreciate the political implications of the pseudotherapeutic character of Nazism and of the use of medical metaphors in modern democracies. Dismissed as an "abuse of psychiatry", this practice is a controversial subject not because the story makes psychiatrists in Nazi Germany look bad, but because it highlights the dramatic similarities between pharmacratic controls in Germany under Nazism and those that have emerged in the US under the free market economy.

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccinationism_in_chiropractic-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-vaccinationism in chiropractic"
+chunk: 1/1
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccinationism_in_chiropractic"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:56.587570+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-vaccinationism in chiropractic is widespread, but there are notable differences within the trade. Chiropractic is a form of alternative medicine founded on the idea that all disease is caused by disruption of the flow of "innate" (or innate intelligence) in the spine, by so-called vertebral subluxations – a pseudoscientific concept. Over time chiropractic has divided into "straights"  who adhere to the subluxation theory and "mixers" who adhere more closely to a scientifically-based view of anatomy. "Straight" chiropractors are very likely to be anti-vaccination, but all chiropractic training tends to reduce acceptance of vaccines.
+Chiropractic anti-vaccinationism has led to negative impacts on both public health and mainstream acceptance of chiropractic.
+
+
+== Details ==
+Most chiropractic writings on vaccination focus on its alleged negative aspects, claiming that vaccination is hazardous, ineffective, and unnecessary. 
+
+ It is certainly the case that most chiropractic writings on vaccination focus almost exclusively on the negative aspects, either ignoring the huge amount of evidence supporting the benefits of vaccination or summarily dismissing this as "bad science" or government/industrial propaganda.
+This is done despite an enormous body of legitimate studies, peer-reviewed work and real-world proof that vaccines lessen the impacts of, and even eliminate, dangerous and deadly diseases. Nonetheless, this area where chiropractors and vaccines intersect has drawn attention, split the profession, led to misinformation, and been the subject of study. Meanwhile, chiropractic training tends to increase opposition to vaccination, and prominent anti-vaccinationists such as Andrew Wakefield have spoken at chiropractic conferences.
+Although most chiropractic colleges try to teach about vaccination in a manner consistent with scientific evidence, several have faculty who seem to stress negative views. Some chiropractors have embraced vaccination, but a significant portion of the profession rejects it, as original chiropractic philosophy traces diseases to causes in the spine and states that vaccines interfere with healing. The extent to which anti-vaccination views perpetuate the current chiropractic profession is uncertain.
+
+
+== Positions of organisations ==
+The American Chiropractic Association and the International Chiropractors Association support individual exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws, and a 1995 survey of U.S. chiropractors found that about a third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease. The California Chiropractic Association lobbied against a 2015 bill ending belief exemptions for vaccines. They had also opposed a 2012 bill related to vaccination exemptions.
+The Canadian Chiropractic Association supports vaccination; a survey in Alberta in 2002 found that 25% of chiropractors advised patients for, and 27% against, vaccinating themselves or their children. Chiropractors have lobbied against pro-vaccination measures such as the removal of personal belief exemptions to vaccine mandates. A survey of a 1999–2000 cross-section of students of Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC), which does not formally teach anti-vaccination views, reported that fourth-year students opposed vaccination more strongly than did first-year students, with 29.4% of fourth-year students opposing vaccination. A follow-up study on 2011–12 CMCC students found that pro-vaccination attitudes heavily predominated. Students reported support rates ranging from 84% to 90%. One of the study's authors proposed the change in attitude to be due to the lack of the previous influence of a "subgroup of some charismatic students who were enrolled at CMCC at the time, students who championed the Palmer postulates that advocated against the use of vaccination".
+In the United States, courts have examined chiropractic objections to vaccination. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled in the 1985 case of Hanzel v. Arter that belief in chiropractic ethics did not constitute a religious belief justifying exemption from vaccination under a statute permitting religious exemptions. In the 2015 case of Head v. Adams Farm Living, Inc., the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a chiropractor was not competent to attest to the need for a medical exemption for vaccination.
+The Australian Chiropractors Association supports the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination, but is against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
+
+
+== References ==

data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-0.md

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+---
+title: "Anti-vaccine activism"
+chunk: 1/8
+source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism"
+category: "reference"
+tags: "science, encyclopedia"
+date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:46.395880+00:00"
+instance: "kb-cron"
+---
+
+Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" or "anti-vaxx" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination. These collaborating networks often seek to increase vaccine hesitancy by disseminating vaccine misinformation and disinformation. As a social movement, it employs tools ranging from traditional news media to various forms of online communication. Activists have primarily—though not exclusively—focused on opposing childhood vaccination, and have sought to expand their influence from niche subgroups into national political debates.
+Ideas that later coalesced into anti-vaccine activism predate vaccines themselves. The movement, along with fringe doctors, has propagated various myths and conspiracy theories, alongside misinformation and disinformation. These efforts have significantly increased vaccine hesitancy and influenced public policy regarding the ethical, legal, and medical aspects of vaccination. In contrast, there is no substantive debate or hesitancy within mainstream medical circles about the benefits of vaccination; the scientific consensus is "clear and unambiguous" in favor of vaccines. Despite this consensus, the anti-vaccine movement has been partially successful in distorting the public understanding of science in popular culture.
+
+== History ==
+
+=== 18th and 19th century ===
+Ideas that would eventually coalesce into anti-vaccine activism have existed for longer than vaccines themselves. Some philosophical approaches (e.g. homeopathy, vitalism) are incompatible with the microbiological paradigm that explains how the immune system and vaccines work. Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine activism exist within a broader context that involves cultural tradition, religious belief, approaches to health and disease, and political affiliation.
+Opposition to variolation for smallpox (a predecessor to vaccination) was organized as early as the 1720s around the premise that vaccination was unnatural and an attempt to thwart divine judgment. Religious arguments against inoculation, the earliest arguments against vaccination, were soon advanced. For example, in a 1722 sermon entitled "The Dangerous and Sinful Practice of Inoculation", the English theologian Reverend Edmund Massey argued that diseases are sent by God to punish sin and that any attempt to prevent smallpox via inoculation is a "diabolical operation". It was customary at the time for popular preachers to publish sermons, which reached a wide audience. This was the case with Massey, whose sermon reached North America, where there was early religious opposition, particularly by John Williams. A greater source of opposition there was William Douglass, a medical graduate of Edinburgh University and a Fellow of the Royal Society, who had settled in Boston.
+
+Vaccination itself was invented by British physician Edward Jenner, who published his findings on the efficacy of the practice for smallpox in 1798. By 1801, the practice had been widely endorsed in the scientific community and by several world leaders. Philadelphia physician John Redman Coxe, noting that even then false accounts were circulated of negative effects of vaccination, wrote, 
+
+"Such are the falsehoods which impede the progress of the brightest discovery which has ever been made! But the contest is in vain! Time has drawn aside the veil which obstructed our knowledge of this invaluable blessing; and in the examples of the Emperor of Constantinople, of the Dowager Empress of Russia, and the King of Spain, we may date the downfall of further opposition."
+Coxe's expectation of an end to opposition to vaccination proved premature, and through much of the nineteenth century, the principles, practices and impact of vaccination were matters of active scientific debate. The principles behind vaccination were not clearly understood until the end of the nineteenth century. The importance of hygiene in the preparation, storage, and administration of vaccines was not always understood or practiced. Reliable statistics on vaccine efficacy and side effects were difficult to obtain before the 1930s.
+
+==== Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League ====
+In the United Kingdom, the Vaccination Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 100) required that every child be vaccinated within three or four months of birth. It set a precedent for the state regulation of physical bodies, and was fiercely resisted.
+The following year, in 1854, John Gibbs published the first anti-compulsory-vaccination pamphlet, Our Medical Liberties.
+By the 1860s, anti-vaccinationism in Britain was active in the working class, labor aristocracy, and lower middle class. It had become associated with alternative medicine and was part of a larger culture of social and political dissent that included both labor unions and religious dissenters.
+In June 1867, the publication "Human Nature" campaigned in the United Kingdom against "The Vaccination Humbug", reporting that many petitions had been presented to Parliament against Compulsory Vaccination for smallpox, including from parents who alleged that their children had died through the procedure, and complaining that these petitions had not been made public. The journal reported the formation of the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League "To overthrow this huge piece of physiological absurdity and medical tyranny", and quoted Richard Gibbs (a cousin of John Gibbs), who ran the Free Hospital at the same address, as stating "I believe we have hundreds of cases here, from being poisoned with vaccination, I deem incurable. One member of a family dating syphilitic symptoms from the time of vaccination, when all the other members of the family have been clear. We strongly advise parents to go to prison, rather than submit to have their helpless offspring inoculated with scrofula, syphilis, and mania".
+Notable members of the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League included James Burns, George Dornbusch and Charles Thomas Pearce. After the death of Richard B. Gibbs in 1871, the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League "languished" until 1876 when it was revived under the leadership of Mary Hume-Rothery and the Rev. W. Hume-Rothery. The Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League published the Occasional Circular which later merged into the National Anti-Compulsory Vaccination Reporter.