diff --git a/_index.db b/_index.db index 6074f21bb..6c859bad4 100644 Binary files a/_index.db and b/_index.db differ diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Great_Barrier_Reef_expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Great_Barrier_Reef_expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d4996a7b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1928_Great_Barrier_Reef_expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d984c3cc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..856731a11 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_American-Australian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Arnhem_Land-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Gough_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Gough_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a013a53bd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Gough_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_cageless_shark-diving_expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_cageless_shark-diving_expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ab1389870 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_cageless_shark-diving_expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_to_Zero-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_to_Zero-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ef7fdbd13 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_to_Zero-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dcb245fcc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +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." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..563b0ac72 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 2/9 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..acc16cc0f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 3/9 +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" +--- + +=== 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". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3b8c5f2c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 4/9 +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" +--- + +=== 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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1c9891491 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 5/9 +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" +--- + +"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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4ab3d9ecf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 6/9 +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" +--- + +=== 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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..802678812 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "2012 phenomenon" +chunk: 7/9 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..285f8233f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..49abf619c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_El_Carmen_de_Bolívar_illness_outbreak-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_El_Carmen_de_Bolívar_illness_outbreak-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bf6b53aa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_El_Carmen_de_Bolívar_illness_outbreak-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Indian_Science_Congress_ancient_aircraft_controversy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Indian_Science_Congress_ancient_aircraft_controversy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d04574f33 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Indian_Science_Congress_ancient_aircraft_controversy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Belize_measles_outbreak-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Belize_measles_outbreak-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..131c0715d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Belize_measles_outbreak-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHTO_Soil_Classification_System-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHTO_Soil_Classification_System-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ad1d93fcd --- /dev/null +++ b/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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_(political_party)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_(political_party)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..614bc0055 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA_(political_party)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..df8e1d780 --- /dev/null +++ b/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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2d4fc2d8d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AH_v_West_London_Mental_Health_Trust-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c9803fa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f5361777d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +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: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..91f553b24 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_takeover-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rock_Star_Bucks_a_Coffee_Shop-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rock_Star_Bucks_a_Coffee_Shop-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f95a1edda --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rock_Star_Bucks_a_Coffee_Shop-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6aacdb3d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9ddd5a2cc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..469025b24 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2cc5871b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Scientific_Dissent_from_Darwinism-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..db6a44388 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Thing_About_Machines-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..510265c9b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..05876a23a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fcd42819a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +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: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5e3242ca8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion–breast_cancer_hypothesis-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3761e0dea --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3dd43ed6a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Consciousness-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_homosexuality-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_homosexuality-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d3cde3962 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_homosexuality-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_type_approach-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_type_approach-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..95c748bc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_type_approach-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_Concerning_Cooperation_in_the_Exploration_and_Use_of_Outer_Space_for_Peaceful_Purposes-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_Concerning_Cooperation_in_the_Exploration_and_Use_of_Outer_Space_for_Peaceful_Purposes-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fa49cfa94 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_Concerning_Cooperation_in_the_Exploration_and_Use_of_Outer_Space_for_Peaceful_Purposes-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..815abc91e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +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: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ed0d64737 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +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! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2fdb89925 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b447c3b25 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +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: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5387a4dc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Mental_Health_Enabling_Act-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b2bee1793 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Berenson-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..18b4fbb0f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0638fdf6a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allais_effect-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3e8a33536 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0cf756879 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7db2d48d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_for_the_Union_of_Romanians-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +--- +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) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_to_Rescue_Civilization-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_to_Rescue_Civilization-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a6a0edc87 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_to_Rescue_Civilization-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_vaccination_schedule-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_vaccination_schedule-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..559169607 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_vaccination_schedule-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Abolition_of_Involuntary_Mental_Hospitalization-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Abolition_of_Involuntary_Mental_Hospitalization-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5691f4911 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Association_for_the_Abolition_of_Involuntary_Mental_Hospitalization-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +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" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..78d98b765 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 1/17 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b629beb40 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 2/17 +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" +--- + +== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..efd1035d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 11/17 +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" +--- + +=== 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) === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..927cc312c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 12/17 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..faa67264a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 13/17 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..24d8432f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 14/17 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b20e11c27 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 15/17 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ae2a92176 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 16/17 +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" +--- + +== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-16.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..88dfcdf28 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-16.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 17/17 +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" +--- + +== 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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8dd866cb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 3/17 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7802e01b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 4/17 +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" +--- + +== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6a85481d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 5/17 +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" +--- + +==== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d5487876d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 6/17 +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" +--- + +Nights were spent camping on riverbanks, where hammocks were usually slung between trees or, when trees were absent, from canoe paddles or on ox-hides. This exposed the expedition to risks from snakes, alligators, and jaguars, which were especially prevalent and feared by local Natives. Nighttime was often unsettled due to animal activity, including monkeys, peccaries, sloths, and birds.Shortly after departure, a sudden squall nearly overturned the canoe, but a shift in wind stabilized the vessel. The following morning, the expedition encountered a Carib family traveling from the mouth of the Orinoco to collect turtle eggs, an event that attracted hundreds of Natives from various tribes and a few white traders. The eggs were rendered for oil, used for cooking and lighting, though overharvesting threatened the turtle population. At the Island of the Tortoises, Native tribes gathered annually to harvest turtle eggs, each tribe distinguished by unique body paint. Humboldt observed the process and noted that the previous Jesuit supervisors had ensured some eggs were left to hatch, but that their successors, the Franciscans, did not exercise such care, causing a decline in the turtle population. The Native crew from San Fernando departed at the turtle islands, as they lacked experience with the rapids ahead. The expedition switched to a smaller, less comfortable canoe, fashioned from a single tree trunk, which further limited space and increased exposure to environmental discomforts. Insect infestations, food shortages, and the destruction of provisions by rain and humidity presented ongoing challenges. Despite these hardships, Humboldt remained healthy and productive, documenting his scientific observations. Progressing up the Orinoco, the expedition reached Pararuma, where they met missionaries and Father Bernardo Zea, missionary of Atures and Maipures, who agreed to guide them further. Due to the rapids, a smaller canoe was acquired. The new canoe, hollowed from a single tree, was forty feet long and less than three feet wide. The arrangement left little space, resulting in cramped conditions for the passengers, supplies, and animal specimens. Native canoemen occupied the bow, and a mulatto servant from Cumana managed provisions and cooking. Insects continued to be a significant nuisance, and local methods of mitigation included sleeping in smoke-filled ovens, burying oneself in sand, or using mud and turtle oil as repellents. Humboldt also observed the use of rubber stoppers provided by local Natives. As the river narrowed, navigation through the Great Cataracts of Atures and Maipures required both paddling and hauling the canoe overland. Humboldt and Bonpland stayed at Father Zea’s mission during this process, where they observed a declining Native population, poor living conditions, and ongoing disease. Insect bites became a dominant hardship. Beyond the cataracts, the expedition entered little-documented territory. Communication was hampered by the diversity of indigenous languages, and the travelers relied on sign language and the limited information provided by missionaries. At the Mission of Javita, they organized an overland portage of their canoe to the Pimichin, which connected them to the Rio Negro. This portage required several days and the labor of over twenty Natives. Upon reaching the Pimichin and then the Rio Negro, the expedition entered a new phase of their journey. They encountered clear “black-water” rivers, a contrast to the muddy white waters of the Orinoco, and observed changes in vegetation and animal life. Food supplies remained scarce, and insects continued to be a challenge. The expedition reached San Carlos, a military post on the Brazil-Venezuela border, on 7 May. Humboldt considered continuing to the Atlantic via the Amazon but abandoned this idea. Portuguese authorities in Brazil had issued a warrant for his arrest, suspecting him of espionage and subversion. After three days, the expedition departed San Carlos, beginning the return to Venezuela via the Casiquiare canal. On 10 May, the party entered the Casiquiare, a waterway many European geographers still doubted existed. Insects swarmed, especially the tiny jejen. Humboldt paused at San Francisco Solano mission to take astronomical readings and acquire two birds from local Natives, expanding his collection of animals. Their boat became increasingly crowded with both people and creatures.Humboldt observed the behavior and intelligence of his animals, especially the titi monkeys, which displayed childlike expressions and intelligence. Despite the inconvenience, the animals provided diversion from constant insect attacks. The next day, the group stopped at Culimacari rock, where Humboldt made precise astronomical observations. This confirmed the Casiquiare’s position and its function as the world’s only natural canal linking two major river systems, the Orinoco and the Amazon. The Casiquiare’s existence had long been denied in Europe, though local knowledge and previous Spanish exploration had already established its reality. Departing Culimacari early on 12 May, the expedition faced a strong current and slow progress. At the mission of Mandavaca, Humboldt found a missionary who spoke of his isolation and the small, scattered Native population. He also described acts of violence and cannibalism among the local peoples, which Humboldt later confirmed through conversation with a Native assistant. The journey along the Casiquiare became increasingly difficult. Food was scarce, and the group survived on ants and dry cacao mixed with river water. Spirits remained intact as the expedition neared the Orinoco. On 20 May, a jaguar carried off their dog during the night, causing distress. On 21 May the party rejoined the Orinoco, now able to travel downstream toward Angostura. Humboldt predicted commercial importance for the Casiquiare, but this vision was never realized. The canal remained a remote and sparsely populated wilderness, unchanged over centuries. The Upper Orinoco, at its junction with the Casiquiare, was over a thousand miles from the sea and still more than a quarter mile wide. The expedition proceeded to Esmeralda, a remote mission at the foot of the Sierra Duida. The settlement was isolated and regarded as a place of hardship, plagued by insects and food shortages. Esmeralda was famous for the production of curare, a potent poison prepared by local Natives. Humboldt and Bonpland observed its preparation and collected samples, narrowly avoiding accidental poisoning. Hostile indigenous groups upriver from Esmeralda forced the party to abandon plans to explore the Orinoco’s source. Weakened by insects, poor food, and cramped conditions, the expedition left Esmeralda on 23 May. They traveled rapidly downstream, reaching the Atures rapids by the end of May. Humboldt visited the cavern of Ataruipe, discovering hundreds of well-preserved Native skeletons. He collected several for scientific study, which later caused difficulties with locals who recognized the resin used in their preparation. The expedition passed through the rapids for the last time. Father Zea left to rejoin his mission. Many of the local Natives suffered from illness. Bonpland soon fell sick but continued to collect plants despite worsening health. In early June, the group reached Uruana and encountered the Ottomac people. Humboldt described them as unruly, hard to govern, and addicted to a hallucinogenic drug. He noted their unusual physiological characteristics. On 7 June, Humboldt, Bonpland, and Sotto began the final 300 miles of their journey. As the river widened, the population grew more diverse. They reached Angostura, now Ciudad Bolivar, on 13 June, completing a pioneering exploration of 1,500 miles between the Orinoco and Amazon basins. The expedition measured positions of more than 50 locations, collected magnetic data, and amassed 12,000 plant specimens, many new to science. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2645b1bf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 7/17 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e1a24c8f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 8/17 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e7959ffea --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "American Expedition 1799–1804" +chunk: 9/17 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ecd55cce4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expedition_1799–1804-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angas_Johnson-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angas_Johnson-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2b1442c3e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angas_Johnson-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..60948dad0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +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." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ca27be1ad --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answers_Research_Journal-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a58408619 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1b6651e9f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..db03e1e89 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8d3f7b717 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Bennett_(Veritas_politician)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Resistance-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Resistance-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b716b9c52 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Resistance-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..734b3d711 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1f49c95e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Tech_Revolution-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eea588f8c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f6c598f11 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4445e44a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-gravity-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0694f9036 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..15bfb5d4b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 2/13 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ce0030758 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 11/13 +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" +--- + +=== 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: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..336f82072 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 12/13 +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" +--- + +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". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1d23ae3c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 13/13 +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" +--- + +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 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..27b74e01c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 3/13 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f7ffc8652 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 4/13 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..66d17182f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 5/13 +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" +--- + +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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..63b7ef3b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 6/13 +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" +--- + +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c2c6c583 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 7/13 +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" +--- + +=== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8fe247f82 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 8/13 +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" +--- + +==== 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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bee678f50 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 9/13 +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" +--- + +=== 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 === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1d65f5dea --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-psychiatry" +chunk: 10/13 +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" +--- + +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccinationism_in_chiropractic-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccinationism_in_chiropractic-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cec6eb71c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccinationism_in_chiropractic-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +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 == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c7acc27aa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +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. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3718b033b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 2/8 +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-Vaccination Society of America ==== +In the United States, many states and local school boards established immunization requirements, beginning with a compulsory school vaccination law in Massachusetts in 1855. +The Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded in 1879, after a visit to the United States by British anti-vaccine activist William Tebb, and opposed compulsory smallpox vaccination for smallpox from the final decades of the 19th century through the 1910s. During this period, smallpox vaccination was the only form of vaccination that was widely practiced, and the society published a periodical opposing it, called Vaccination. +A series of American legal cases, beginning in various states and culminating with that of Henning Jacobson of Massachusetts in 1905, upheld the mandating of compulsory smallpox vaccination for the good of the public. The court ruled in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that "the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. There are manifold restraints to which every person is necessarily subject for the common good". + +==== London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination ==== + +In 1880, William Tebb enlarged and reorganized the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League in the UK with the formation of the London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination, with William Young as secretary. The Vaccination Inquirer, established by Tebb in 1879, was adopted as the official organ of the Society. A series of fourteen "Vaccination Tracts" was begun by Young in 1877 and completed by Garth Wilkinson in 1879. William White was the first editor of the Vaccination Inquirer and after his death in 1885, he was succeeded by Alfred Milnes. Frances Hoggan and her husband authored an article for the Vaccination Inquirer in September 1883 which argued against compulsory vaccination. The London Society focused on lobbying parliamentary support in the 1880s and early 1890s. They gained support from several members of the House of Commons of which the most prominent was Peter Alfred Taylor, the member for Leicester, which was described as the "Mecca of antivaccination". + +==== The National Anti-Vaccination League ==== +The UK movement grew, and as the influence of the London Society overshadowed the Hume-Rotherys and it took the national lead, it was decided in February 1896 to re-form the Society as The National Anti-Vaccination League. Arthur Phelps was elected as president. In 1898, the league took on a school leaver named Lily Loat, who was elected as the league's Secretary by 1909. In 1906, George Bernard Shaw wrote a supportive letter to the National Anti-Vaccination League, equating methods of vaccination with "rubbing the contents of the dustpan into the wound". + +==== Anti-Vaccination League of America ==== +In 1908, the Anti-Vaccination League of America was created by Charles M. Higgins and industrialist John Pitcairn Jr., with anti-vaccination campaigns focused on New York and Pennsylvania. Members were opposed to compulsory vaccination laws. Higgins was the League's chief spokesman and pamphleteer. Historian James Colgrove noted that Higgins "attempted to overturn the New York State's law mandating vaccination of students in public schools". The League should not be confused with the Anti-Vaccination Society of America, which was formed in 1879. Higgins was criticized by medical experts for spreading misinformation and ignoring facts as to the efficacy of vaccination. The League dissolved after the death of Higgins in 1929. + +=== 20th century === +Anti-vaccine activism ebbed for much of the twentieth century, but never completely vanished. In the UK, the National Anti-Vaccination League continued to publish new issues of its journal until 1972, by which time the global campaign for smallpox eradication through vaccination had made the disease so uncommon that compulsory vaccination for smallpox was no longer required in the United Kingdom. +New vaccines were developed and used against diseases such as diphtheria and whooping cough. In the UK, these were often introduced on a voluntary basis, without arousing the same kind of anti-vaccination response that had accompanied compulsory smallpox vaccination. +In the United States, numerous measles outbreaks occurred in the 1960s and 1970s and were more frequent in states that lacked mandatory vaccination requirements. This led to calls in the 1970s for a national-level vaccination requirement for children entering schools. +Joseph A. Califano Jr. appealed to state governors, and by 1980, all 50 states legally required vaccination for school entrance. Many of these laws allowed exemptions in response to lobbyists. In New York State, a 1967 law allowed exemptions from receiving polio vaccine for members of religious organizations such as Christian Scientists. + +=== 21st century === + +==== Lancet MMR autism fraud ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e9b00c5e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 3/8 +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 in the 2000s regained prominence through exploratory research by Andrew Wakefield based on 12 selected cases. He then made claims about a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. These claims were subsequently extensively investigated and found to be false, and the original study turned out to be based on faked data. The scientific consensus is that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism, and that the MMR vaccine's benefits in preventing measles, mumps, and rubella greatly outweigh its potential risks. +The idea of an autism link was first suggested in the early 1990s and came to public notice largely as a result of the 1998 Lancet MMR autism fraud, which Dennis K Flaherty at the University of Charleston characterized as "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". The fraudulent research paper authored by Wakefield and published in The Lancet falsely claimed the vaccine was linked to colitis and autism spectrum disorders. The paper was retracted by Lancet in 2010 but is still cited by anti-vaccine activists. +The claims in the paper were widely reported, leading to a sharp drop in vaccination rates in the UK and Ireland. Promotion of the claimed link, which continued in anti-vaccination propaganda for the next three decades despite being refuted, was estimated to have led to an increase in the incidence of measles and mumps, resulting in deaths and serious permanent injuries. Following the initial claims in 1998, multiple large epidemiological studies were undertaken. Reviews of the evidence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences, the UK National Health Service, and the Cochrane Library all found no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Physicians, medical journals, and editors have described Wakefield's actions as fraudulent and tied them to epidemics and deaths. +An investigation by journalist Brian Deer found that Wakefield, the author of the original research paper linking the vaccine to autism, had multiple undeclared conflicts of interest, had manipulated evidence, and had broken other ethical codes. After a subsequent 2.5-year investigation, the General Medical Council ruled that Wakefield had acted "dishonestly and irresponsibly" in doing his research, carrying out unauthorized procedures for which he was not qualified, and acting with "callous disregard" for the children involved. +Wakefield was found guilty by the General Medical Council of serious professional misconduct in May 2010, and was struck off the Medical Register, meaning he could no longer practise as a physician in the UK. +The Lancet paper was partially retracted in 2004 and fully retracted in 2010, when Lancet's editor-in-chief Richard Horton described it as "utterly false" and said that the journal had been deceived. In January 2011, Deer published a series of reports in the British Medical Journal, in which a signed editorial stated of the journalist, "It has taken the diligent scepticism of one man, standing outside medicine and science, to show that the paper was in fact an elaborate fraud." A 2011 journal article described the vaccine-autism connection as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". +Wakefield continues to promote anti-vaccine beliefs and conspiracy theories in the United States. +In February 2015, Wakefield denied that he bore any responsibility for the measles epidemic that started at Disneyland among unvaccinated children that year. He also reaffirmed his discredited belief that "MMR contributes to the current autism epidemic". By that time, at least 166 measles cases had been reported. Paul Offit disagreed, saying that the outbreak was "directly related to Dr. Wakefield's theory". +Wakefield and other anti-vaccine activists were active in the American-Somali community in Minnesota, where a drop in vaccination rates was followed by the largest measles outbreak in the state in nearly 30 years in 2017. +The anti-vaccination movement was historically apolitical, but in the 2010s and 2020s, the movement in the United States has increasingly targeted conservatives. As measles outbreaks increased, so did calls to eliminate exemptions from vaccine administration. As of 2015, 19 American states had suggested legislation to eliminate or increase the difficulty of exemptions. Concurrently, American anti-vaccine activists reached out to libertarian and right-leaning groups such as the Tea Party movement to broaden their base. While earlier anti-vaccination activists focused on health impacts and safety of vaccines, recent themes increasingly involve philosophical arguments about liberty, medical freedom and parental rights. +With the growing anti-vaccine movement from the 2010s onwards, the United States has seen a resurgence of certain vaccine-preventable diseases. The measles virus lost its elimination status in the US as the number of cases continued to rise in the late 2010s, with 17 outbreaks in 2018 and 465 in 2019 (as of April 4, 2019). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5b3ed5df --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 4/8 +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" +--- + +==== 2019 and 2025 measles outbreaks ==== +Vaccine hesitancy led to declining rates of vaccination for measles, culminating in the 2019–2020 measles outbreaks. The most significant of these, in proportion to the national population, was the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak. +In July 2018, two 12-month-old children died in Samoa after receiving incorrectly prepared MMR vaccinations. These two deaths were picked up by anti-vaccine groups and used to incite fear towards vaccination on social media, causing the government to suspend its measles vaccination programme for ten months, despite advice from the WHO. The incident caused many Samoan residents to lose trust in the healthcare system. UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate that the measles vaccination rate in Samoa fell from 74% in 2017 to 34% in 2018, similar to some of the poorest countries in Africa. +In August 2019, an infected passenger on one of the more than 8,000 annual flights between New Zealand and Samoa probably brought the disease from Auckland to Upolu. A full outbreak of measles began on the island in October 2019 and continued for the next four months. As of January 6, 2020, there were over 5,700 cases of measles and 83 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 200,874. Over three percent of the population were infected. The cause of the outbreak was attributed to decreased vaccination rates, from 74% in 2017 to 31–34% in 2018, even though nearby islands had rates near 99%. a rate of 14.3 deaths per 1000 infected) and 5,520 cases (2.75% of the population) of measles in Samoa. Sixty-one out of the first 70 deaths were four years old and under, and all but seven were under 15. After the outbreak, anti-vaxxers employed racist tropes and misinformation to credit the scores of measles deaths to poverty and poor nutrition or even to the vaccine itself, but this has been discounted by the international emergency medical support that arrived in November and December. There was no evidence of acute malnutrition, clinical vitamin A deficiency, or immune deficiency as claimed by various anti-vaxxers. +Skepticism about vaccines was similarly deemed a factor in the 2025 Southwest United States measles outbreak. + +==== COVID-19 pandemic activism ==== + +During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-vaccine activists undertook various efforts to hinder people who wanted to receive the vaccines, with such activities occurring in countries including Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These included attempts to physically blockade vaccination sites, and making false reservations for vaccination appointments to clog up vaccination booking systems. Protests were also organized by the activists to raise awareness for their cause. +In some instances, anti-vaccine rhetoric has been traced to state-sponsored internet troll activities designed to create social dissension. Worldwide, foreign disinformation campaigns have been associated with declining vaccination rates in target countries. +Anti-vaccine activism online, both before and during the pandemic, has been linked to extreme levels of falsehoods, rumors, hoaxes, and conspiracy theories. +Anti-vaccine activists have falsely claimed in social media posts that numerous deaths or injuries had to do with reactions to vaccines. In one highly publicized instance in early 2023, after Buffalo Bills football player Damar Hamlin experienced an in-game episode of commotio cordis, there was an increase in rhetoric and disinformation from figures such as Charlie Kirk and Drew Pinsky making unfounded claims about Hamlin's cardiac arrest and COVID-19 vaccines. In another 2023 incident, college basketball player Bronny James experienced cardiac arrest at the Galen Center at the University of Southern California, leading to assertions that this was a result of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine; it was later revealed that the episode had been caused by a congenital heart defect. Also, anti-vaccine activists believed Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died in 2022 from the COVID-19 vaccine, while in actuality it was a drug overdose. In December 2023, The New York Times published a detailed investigation of the distortion and misrepresentation of the circumstances surrounding the death of 24-year-old George Watts Jr. by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other anti-vaccine activists. Some unvaccinated persons opposed to COVID-19 vaccination began referring to themselves in social media groups as "purebloods", a term historically connoting racial purity. +Prominent biomedical researcher Peter Hotez asserted that he and other American scientists who publicly defend vaccines have been attacked on social media, harassed with threatening emails, intimidated, and confronted physically by opponents of vaccination. He further attributes the increase in aggressiveness of the anti-vaccination movement to the influence of the extreme wing of the Republican Party. Hotez estimates that roughly 200,000 preventable deaths from COVID-19, mainly among Republicans, occurred in the US because of refusal to be vaccinated. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found "evidence of higher excess mortality for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio after, but not before, COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults in the US". + +== Strategies and tactics == + +=== Arguments used === +In a 2002 paper in the British Medical Journal, two medical historians suggested that the arguments made against the safety and effectiveness of vaccines in the late 20th century are similar to those of the early anti-vaccinationists. Both the 19th and 20th century arguments included "vaccine safety issues, vaccine failures, infringement of personal liberty, and an unholy alliance between the medical establishment and the government to reap huge profits for the medical establishment at the expense of the public." However, the authors only considered the use of "newspaper articles and letters, books, journals, and pamphlets to warn against the dangers of vaccination", and did not address the impact of the internet. Comments on YouTube videos during the COVID-19 pandemic clustered similarly around "concerns about side-effects, effectiveness, and lack of trust in corporations and government". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3f23e1fd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 5/8 +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" +--- + +=== Misrepresentation === +In some instances, anti-vaccine organizations have used names intended to sound non-partisan on the issue: e.g. National Vaccine Information Center (USA), Vaccination Risk Awareness Network (Canada), Australian Vaccination Network. In November 2013 the Australian Vaccination Network was ordered by the New South Wales Administrative Decisions Tribunal to change their name so that consumers are aware of the anti-vaccination nature of the group. Lateline reported that former AVN president Meryl Dorey "claimed she was a victim of hate groups and vested interests" in response to the ruling. + +=== Information quality === +Although physicians and nurses are still rated as the most trusted source for vaccine information, some vaccine-hesitant individuals report being more comfortable discussing vaccines with providers of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments. With the rise of the internet, many people have turned online for medical information. In some instances, anti-vaccine activists seek to steer people away from vaccination and health-care providers and towards alternative medicines sold by certain activists. +Anti-vaccination writings on the internet have been argued to be characterized by a number of differences from medical and scientific literature. These include: + +Promiscuous copying and reduplication. +Ignoring corrections, even when an initial report or data point is shown to be false. +Lack of references, difficulty in checking sources and claims. +Personal attacks on individual doctors. +A high degree of interlinkage between sites. +Dishonest or fallacious arguments. +For example, a 2020 study examined Instagram posts related to the HPV vaccine, which can prevent some types of cancer. Anti-vaccine posts were more likely than pro-vaccine posts to be sent by non-healthcare individuals, to include personal narratives, and to reference other Instagram users, links, or reposts. Anti-vaccine posts were also more likely to involve concealment or distortion, particularly conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims. In total, 72.3% of antivaccine posts made inaccurate claims, including exaggerating the risks of vaccines and minimizing risks of disease. + +=== Disinformation tactics === +A number of specific disinformation tactics have been noted in anti-vaccination messaging, including: +Conspiracy theories alleging lies, trickery, cover-ups, and secret knowledge +Messages crafted for psychological appeal rather than truthfulness +Appeals to purported authorities falsely represented as being experts in their field +Impossible expectations: claiming that anything less than 100% certainty in a scientific claim implies doubt and that the existence of doubt disproves the existence of consensus +Selective use and interpretation of evidence ("cherry-picking"): using obscure or debunked sources while ignoring counter-evidence and scientific consensus +Result-oriented revision of claims' content: Continually introducing new claims alleging vaccines to be harmful; moving to new claims in support of a preconceived conclusion when existing claims in support of that conclusion are shown to be false +Misrepresentation, appeals to logical fallacies, and appeals to improper analogy (i.e., to analogy between cases that do not in fact share the parameter[s] on which the claimed analogy is based) +Personal attacks on critics, ranging from online criticism, public revelation of personal details, and threats to offline activities such as legal actions, targeting of employers, and violence +Targeting of the vaccine produced by the People's Republic of China: During the pandemic, as retaliation for the PRC's attempts to blame the United States for the pandemic, The Pentagon targeted the PRC's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine by spreading anti-vaccine misinformation in the Philippines. +Assertions that the existence of the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act implies that the risk of injury by vaccines is high rather than very low + +=== Economics of vaccine disinformation === +Information is more likely to be believed after repeated exposure. Disinformers use this illusory truth effect as a tactic, repeating false information to make it feel familiar and influence belief. Anti-vaccine activists have leveraged social media to develop interconnected networks of influencers that shape people's opinion, recruit allies, impact policy and monetize vaccine-related disinformation. +In 2022, the Journal of Communication published a study of the political economy underlying vaccine disinformation. Researchers identified 59 English-language "actors" that provided "almost exclusively anti-vaccination publications". Their websites monetized disinformation through appeals for donations, sales of content-based media and other merchandise, third-party advertising, and membership fees. Some maintained a group of linked websites, attracting visitors with one site and appealing for money and selling merchandise on others. Their activities to gain attention and obtain funding displayed a "hybrid monetization strategy". They attracted attention by combining eye-catching aspects of "junk news" and online celebrity promotion. At the same time, they developed campaign-specific communities to publicize and legitimize their position, similar to radical social movements. + +=== Misrepresentation of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System === +In the United States, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is used to gather information on potential vaccine adverse reactions, but is susceptible to unverified reports, misattribution, underreporting, and inconsistent data quality. Raw, unverified data from VAERS has often been used by the anti-vaccine community to justify misinformation regarding the safety of vaccines; it is generally not possible to find out from VAERS data if a vaccine caused an adverse event, or how common the event might be. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..53648d842 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 6/8 +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" +--- + +=== Use of misinformation in Philippine anti-vaccine activism === +Anti-vaccine activism in the Philippines has been amplified through social media platforms such as Facebook, where misinformation spreads widely among low-income users with "free Facebook" access. Online groups like "NO TO VACCINE – PHILIPPINES" propagate messages about vaccine harms, while emotionally charged narratives rooted in the 2017 Dengvaxia controversy continue to undermine public trust in immunization programs. +Health activists and pro-vaccine groups have pushed back: for instance, the Vaccine Solidarity Movement called on media outlets to stop amplifying unscientific anti-vax views and to rely on qualified experts. Misinformation about vaccine brands (such as Sinovac) and perceived regulatory failures contributes to hesitancy, a tactic leveraged by anti-vaxxers to sow doubt. +In addition, some disinformation campaigns have geopolitical dimensions: a covert campaign reportedly run by the U.S. military in the Philippines spread fears that Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe. +Community-level mistrust is also fueled by moral panic and institutional distrust. Ethnographic studies among Filipino parents document how fear from past vaccine controversies, such as Dengvaxia, continues to resonate in discussions about routine immunization. At the same time, negative vaccine narratives garner strong engagement: a content analysis of YouTube comments on national TV vaccination campaigns found that 80% of comments expressed vaccine-hesitant discourse, and these often received more engagement than pro-vaccine responses. + +=== Legal action === +After Republicans gained a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2023, the House Judiciary Committee used legal action to oppose both disinformation research and government involvement in fighting disinformation. One of the projects targeted was the Virality Project, which has examined the spread of false claims about vaccines. The House Judiciary Committee sent letters, subpoenas, and threats of legal action to researchers, demanding notes, emails and other records from researchers and even student interns, dating back to 2015. Institutions subjected to such inquiries included the Stanford Internet Observatory at Stanford University, the University of Washington, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab and the social media analytics firm Graphika. Researchers emphasized that they have academic freedom to study disinformation as well as freedom of speech to report their results. +Despite conservative claims that the government acted to censor speech online, "no evidence has emerged that government officials coerced the companies to take action against accounts". The actions of the House Judiciary Committee have been described as an "attempt to chill research," creating a "chilling effect" through increased time demands, legal costs and online harassment of researchers. +A 2025 Associated Press investigation reported the filing in state legislatures of more than 420 bills that undermined established longstanding public health protections, on matters including vaccines, milk pasteurization, and water fluoridation. Many of these efforts were reported to have been connected to groups linked with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his "Make America Healthy Again" movement, which critics and professionals say disguises conspiracy theory-driven, anti-science ideas under the label of "health freedom". At the time of the report around 30 measures had already become laws in 12 states. + +=== Harassment === +Persons undertaking efforts to counter vaccine misinformation, including public health experts who use social media, have been targeted for harassment by anti-vaccine activists such as blogger Paul Thacker. +For example, Slovak medical doctor Vladimír Krčméry was a prominent member of the government advisory team during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia, and was the first person in that country to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Due to his prominent role in the vaccination campaign, Krčméry and his family became a target of anti-vaccine activists, who physically threatened him and his family. +In June 2023, Texas-based physician and researcher Peter Hotez tweeted his concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharing misinformation about vaccines on Joe Rogan's podcast. Rogan, Kennedy, and Twitter owner Elon Musk asked Hotez to participate in a debate on the podcast. Upon declining the invitation, Hotez was harassed by their fans, with anti-vaccine activist Alex Rosen confronting him at his home. +In his book The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist's Warning, Hotez describes how he and other scientists who publicly defend vaccines have been attacked on social media, harassed with threatening emails, intimidated, and confronted physically by opponents of vaccination. He attributes the increase in aggressiveness of the anti-vaccination movement to the influence of the extreme wing of the Republican Party. Hotez estimates that roughly 200,000 preventable deaths from COVID-19, mainly among Republicans, occurred in the US because of refusal to be vaccinated. +At the extreme end, opposition to vaccination has resulted in substantial violence against vaccinators. In Pakistan, "more than 200 polio team workers have lost their lives" (team members include not only vaccinators but police and security personnel) from "targeted killing and terrorism" while working on polio vaccination campaigns. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fb0c2363a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 7/8 +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" +--- + +== Countering anti-vaccine activism == +Various efforts have been suggested and undertaken to address concerns about vaccines and counter anti-vaccine disinformation. Efforts include social media advertising campaigns, by public health organizations, in support of public health goals. +Best practices for combating vaccine mis- and disinformation include addressing issues openly, clearly identifying areas of scientific consensus and areas of uncertainty, and being sensitive to the cultural and religious values of communities. In countering anti-vaccine disinformation, both factual and emotional aspects need to be addressed. +Whether people will update a mistaken belief is complicated and involves psychological factors and social goals as well as accuracy of information. There is some evidence that both debunking and "pre-bunking" of disinformation can be effective, at least in the short term. Elements that may help to correct inaccurate information include: warning people before they are exposed to misinformation; high perceived credibility of message sources, affirmations of identity and social norms; graphical presentation; and focusing attention on clear core messages. +Alternative explanations of a situation need to fit plausibly into the original scenario and ideally indicate why the incorrect explanation was previously thought to be correct. +The cultivation of critical thinking, health and science awareness, and media literacy skills are all recommended to help people more critically assess the credibility of the information they see. People who seek out multiple reputable news sources at local and national levels are more likely to detect disinformation than those who rely on few sources from a particular viewpoint. Particularly on social media, beware of sensational headlines that appeal to emotion, fact-check information broadly (not just through your usual sources), and consider possible agendas or conflicts of interest of those relaying information. + +=== Operation of social media === +Other suggestions for countering anti-vaccine activism focus on changing the operation of social media platforms. Interventions such as accuracy nudges and source labeling change the context in which information is presented. For example, correct information can be directly presented to counter disinformation. Other possibilities include flagging or removing misleading information on social media platforms. Research suggests that a majority of individuals in the United States would support the removal of harmful misinformation posts and the suspension of accounts. This position is less popular with Republicans than Democrats. +While private entities like Facebook, Twitter and Telegram could legally establish guidelines for moderation of information and disinformation on their platforms (subject to local and international laws) such companies do not have strong incentives to control disinformation or to self-regulate. Algorithms that are used to maximize user engagement and profits can lead to unbalanced, poorly sourced, and actively misleading information. +Criticized for its role in vaccine hesitancy, Facebook announced in March 2019 that it would provide users with "authoritative information" on the topic of vaccines. Facebook introduced several policies chosen to reduce the impact of anti-vaccine content, without actually removing it. These included reducing the ranking of anti-vaccine sources in searches and not recommending them; rejecting ads and targeted advertising that contained vaccine misinformation; and using banners to present vaccine information from authoritative sources. A study examined the six months before and after the policy changes. It found a moderate but significant decrease in the number of likes for anti-vaccine posts following the policy changes. Likes of pro-vaccine posts were unchanged. Facebook has been criticized for not being more aggressive in countering disinformation. In response to efforts to police misinformation, anti-vaccine communities on social media have adopted coded language to refer to vaccinated persons and the vaccines themselves. +Supply-side interventions reduce circulation of misinformation directly at their sources through actions such as application of social media policies, regulation, and legislation. +A study published in the journal Vaccine examined advertisements posted in the three months prior to the Facebook's 2019 policy changes. It found that 54% of the anti-vaccine advertisements on Facebook were placed by just two organizations, funded by well-known anti-vaccination activists. The Children's Health Defense / World Mercury Project chaired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Stop Mandatory Vaccination, run by campaigner Larry Cook, posted 54% of the advertisements. The ads often linked to commercial products, such as natural remedies and books. Kennedy was suspended from Facebook in August 2022, but reinstated in June 2023. +In 2023, however, state governments that were politically aligned with anti-vaccine activists successfully sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the Biden Administration from seeking to pressure social media companies into fighting misinformation. The order issued by United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit "severely limits the ability of the White House, the surgeon general, [and] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention... to communicate with social media companies about content related to Covid-19... that the government views as misinformation". In October 2023, this injunction was paused by the Supreme Court of the United States, pending further litigation. + +=== Use of algorithms and data === +Algorithms and user data can be used to identify selected subgroups who can then be provided with specialized content. This type of approach has been used both by anti-vaccine activists +and by health providers who hope to counter vaccine-related disinformation. +For example, in the United States, the CDC's Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) has been used to identify communities that have traditionally been under-served or are at elevated risk for infection, morbidity, and mortality. Programs have been developed in such communities to address disinformation and vaccine hesitancy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..648a2fe06 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism" +chunk: 8/8 +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" +--- + +=== Community engagement === +Steps have been taken to counter anti-vaccine messaging by directly engaging with communities. Outreach efforts include call centers and texting campaigns, partnering with local community leaders, and holding community-based vaccine clinics. Creating digital and science literacy resources and distributing them via schools, libraries, municipal offices, churches and other community groups can help to counter misinformation in under-resourced communities. +The Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium in Philadelphia is one example of a successful direct outreach initiative. Another is the New York State Vaccine Equity Task Force. +In line with the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE)'s 3C's model, outreach to communities has focused on addressing mistrust and increasing Confidence, providing information to improve risk assessment (Complacency), and improving access to COVID-19 vaccines (Convenience). It has been necessary to counter disinformation in all three areas. +In the Philippines, countermeasures include nationwide information campaigns led by the Department of Health, collaborations with UNICEF to address circulating misinformation, and initiatives by medical and scientific groups such as the Vaccine Solidarity Movement, which urges media outlets to prioritize expert guidance and avoid amplifying unverified claims. Local health workers and barangay officials are trained to respond to vaccine concerns at the household level, while fact-checking organizations regularly debunk viral social-media posts linking unrelated deaths or illnesses to vaccination. Researchers also highlight the effectiveness of "prebunking" strategies like educating the public about common misinformation techniques before they encounter them, which can reduce susceptibility to anti-vaccine narratives and improve understanding of scientific evidence. +Recommendations for combating vaccine disinformation include increasing the presence of trusted health agencies and credible information on social media, partnering with social media platforms to promote evidence-based public health information, and identifying and responding to emerging concerns and disinformation campaigns. +Networked communities of public health officials and other stakeholders, connecting with the public through a variety of credible and trusted messengers, are recommended. Sharing of messages through such networks could help to debunk and counter highly networked and coordinated disinformation attacks. +A networked community approach would differ from the current model of US public health communication, which tends to rely on a single credible messenger (e.g. Anthony Fauci) and is susceptible to disinformation attacks. To deal with disinformation, community networks would need to address issues of liberty and human rights as well as vaccine safety, effectiveness and access. Networks could also help to show support for those attacked by anti-vaccine activists. + +=== Strategic messaging and narrative framing === +Communications strategies often combine factual information with emotionally resonant narratives to enhance vaccine acceptance. Storytelling, testimonials, and culturally relevant examples help convey the benefits of vaccination and counter fear-based narratives. In the Philippines, campaigns have used community stories and real-life experiences to contextualize scientific data and improve public understanding. +Narrative framing also involves tailoring messages to specific audiences by aligning content with their values, beliefs, and cultural context. By framing vaccination as a protective measure for families, communities, or national health, public health authorities can more effectively reach hesitant populations. Strategic messaging is particularly effective when combined with factual evidence, local engagement, and repeated reinforcement across multiple communication channels. + +=== Policy, regulation, and institutional measures === +Governments implement policy interventions to regulate the dissemination of vaccine-related information. Expert advisory committees, regulations, and penalties for spreading false health claims help maintain the integrity of public health messaging. In the Philippines, transparency initiatives ensure that adverse event data and vaccine information are publicly available and accessible. +Institutional measures also include collaboration between health agencies, media regulators, and digital platforms. These partnerships enable rapid responses to misinformation, reinforce accurate reporting, and ensure that public trust is maintained. Policy interventions complement community and digital strategies by providing legal and structural support for evidence-based health communication. + +== See also == + +Anti-vaccine activism in Canada +Anti-vaccinationism in chiropractic +Big Pharma conspiracy theories +COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy +Germ theory denialism +Health advocacy +List of anti-vaccination groups +Oral polio AIDS hypothesis +Vaccine misinformation +Vaccines and autism +Robert F. Kennedy Jr. +MMR vaccine and autism +Thiomersal and vaccines + +== References == + +== External links == +"The Vaccine War". Frontline. Season 28. Episode 8. April 27, 2010. PBS. WGBH. Retrieved December 27, 2025. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..feabe47d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism in Canada" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:57.738826+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +From its origins in the 19th century to the 2022 convoy protests, the Canadian anti-vaccination movement has been resisting public health efforts to promote vaccinations through mass demonstrations, political advocacy and judicial activism. It has been led by a succession of groups, with Vaccine Choice Canada being the most prominent as of 2025. + +== Context == +The Canadian anti-vaccination movement developed in parallel to its British and American equivalents in the late 19th and early 20th century, in response to legislation by provincial governments, municipalities and school boards attempting to check the spread of infectious diseases. The British anti-vaccination movement developed rapidly in the mid-19th century, with the Anti-vaccination League founded in response to the Vaccination Act of 1853. Anti-vaccination organizations founded in the United States between 1879 and 1885 were directly influenced by British activists such as William Tebb. By the end of the 19th century, the British anti-vaccination movement had developed from a loose community of interest that included homeopaths, hydrotherapists and faith healers to an international network of associations. + +Along with the development of inoculation, public health structures were starting to take shape in Canadian cities. Legislation allowing for the formation of temporary local public health boards to respond to epidemics was passed in Upper Canada in 1833; these boards were to operate continuously by 1849 and by 1886, some 400 health boards would be in operation in what is now Ontario. A provincial board of health created in 1882 normally played only an advisory role, but ordered school closures and suspended stagecoaches when called upon to manage a smallpox epidemic in Eastern Ontario in 1884. Toronto appointed William Canniff as its first Medical Officer of Health in 1883. + +== First Anti-vaccination League and the 1875 riot == + +Montreal started appointing medical officers of health in 1870. The population of what was then Canada's largest city was demanding better sanitation in the rapidly-expanding industrial centre. There was, however, significant unease with vaccination, especially in the francophone neighborhoods and the surrounding villages. Doctors who opposed vaccination had exerted a significant influence, contributing to low rates of inoculation. Those included Alexander Milton Ross, who maintained correspondence with British anti-vaccination activists. His French Canadian counterpart was Joseph Emery Coderre, a co-founder of the Montreal Medical Society. Coderre organized debates between the city's medical doctors, presenting evidence that, to his mind, showed smallpox vaccination was both ineffective and harmful. +Coderre established Canada's first Anti-vaccination league in 1872, recruiting primarily among physicians, but also aldermen and lawyers. He argued some 2,000 physicians were anti-vaccinationists, but was unable to make his point of view prevail among his colleagues of the Society, which continued to support a free and voluntary vaccinations program managed by Medical Health Officer Alphonse Barnabé LaRocque. Montreal's mayor, William Hingston, strongly supported vaccination and chaired the city's Health Committee. When the municipal council debated a by-law permitting compulsory vaccination on August 9, 1875, a crowd led by lawyer Henri St. Pierre and other leaders of the league threw stones and injured two council members, then damaged LaRocque's home. The proposed by-law was dropped. +In 1876, LaRocque attributed reluctance encountered among the city's French-speaking working-class to the League's influence, despite being the very population that was more vulnerable to infectious diseases, living in close quarters among the factories and slaughterhouses of the lower town. In addition to exaggerating the incidence and severity of adverse reaction to the vaccine, Coderre's League equated vaccination with British imperialism, thus tapping into existing linguistic tensions. + +== 1885 Montreal smallpox epidemic == + +Historian Michael Bliss argues the anti-vaccination movement found favourable conditions in Montreal in 1885: impressive side effects to the vaccine from faulty vaccination procedures early in the epidemic, language tensions exacerbated by the trial and execution of Louis Riel, economic disparities between anglophone and francophone neighbourhoods, and a timid early response from civil authorities. +Smallpox probably arrived in Montreal in January 1885 with one or several train conductors and was allowed to spread through the urban population through poor containment and a disorganized public health response. In addition to normal side effects, an initial batch of vaccines was contaminated during manufacture and caused cases of skin infections; this provoked a three-months cessation of the campaign at a critical stage and a hardening of public opinion. By the end of the Summer, there might have been as many as 4,000 cases in Montreal, with the epidemic spreading to other population centers. The Catholic clergy, already singing the praises of vaccination from the pulpit, agreed to visit people identified by the Health Board as having refused vaccination to enlist their cooperation. +The Canadian Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League was founded at that time by Ross, Coderre and several physicians involved in his first League, as well as businessman W.T. Costigan and Dean of McGill Law School William Kerr. The new league also counted several high-profile anti-vaccinators from abroad, most notably William Tebb and the American Robert Gunn. That second league's objections to smallpox vaccination centred on three claims: that the vaccines were ineffective, arguing it failed to prevent smallpox; that they caused other diseases such as tuberculosis; and that they infringed upon the rights of citizens. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d5f668dd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism in Canada" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:57.738826+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On September 28, 1885, tensions between health authorities trying to impose vaccination and a hardening opposition reached new heights. About one thousand French Canadians gathered in a mass protest that became a riot. Kept on the move by successive police interventions, they shattered the windows of the Health Board on Sainte Catherine Street before turning on several drugstores selling vaccines. They then attacked what they believed to be the houses of two members of the health board (damaging one belonging to someone with the same name). Later that night, the crowd stormed the section of City Hall that housed the Health Board office; when they had to retreat before a police charge, they made their way to the Montreal Herald, where the printers continued to prepare the morning edition as the windows were shattered by stones. The Chief of Police Hercule Paradis was stabbed during an attack on the central police station. In the aftermath, Mayor Honoré Beaugrand armed the health inspectors and asked the militia to support civil authorities. +Montreal wasn't the only city to experience anti-vaccination riots in 1885: in the United Kingdom, civil disturbances of a much greater scale were taking place in Leicester. Canadian anti-vaccination activists were exchanging correspondence with their British and American counterparts, with articles from London reprinted in newsletters in Montreal. Coderre was a member of the Ligue internationale des anti-vaccinateurs, giving him access to a pan-European network of influencers. + +While violence didn't occur again in 1885, the public opinion battles continued. With newspapers refusing to print his advertisements or to cover his speeches, Ross published on September 30 the first of a series of four-page pamphlet called The Anti-Vaccinator and Advocate of Cleanliness , the Canadian scion of a long-running British anti-vaccination journal. Coderre published his own Anti-Vaccinateur. The League also provided legal assistance to some of the 200 citizens charged with violating the health by-laws. McGill's Dean of Law William Hastings Kerr provided legal advice to the League. +The epidemic continued to rage through the Fall of 1885, claiming some 50 dead per day, before being defeated by the now compulsory vaccination campaign. Montreal lost 3,164 people to smallpox in 1885, amounting to 1.89% of its population. Some 91% of the dead were francophones and 66% were younger than five years old. In the whole province of Quebec, the epidemic killed 5,864 people in 1885 and the first months of 1886. The adjacent province of Ontario was largely spared, with only 30 deaths from the disease: its provincial board of health (an organization that found no equivalent in Quebec) acted early to inspect train passengers coming from Montreal, who had to show either documentation proving vaccination or a recent vaccination scar. + +=== Aftermath === +Despite the high death toll due to vaccine hesitancy and initial disorganization, the 1885 Montreal smallpox epidemic provided a proof of concept for the effectiveness of vaccination in conjunction with public health measures (such as monitoring and isolation of cases). The first permanent Quebec health board was created in 1886 on the heels of the epidemic. However, vaccination rates remained low in the province, leaving the population vulnerable to more fatal outbreaks in 1891 and in 1897-1898. The anti-vaccination movement remained a contributing factor in what is today called vaccine hesitancy for the next 30 years, especially in Quebec where it could use rhetoric that drew upon inequalities inflicted upon French Canadians. +The League remained active into 1886, unsuccessfully attempting to defeat pro-vaccination candidates in the 1886 municipal election and opposing the adoption of a provincial vaccination bill. Ross would leave Montreal and form the Toronto Anti-compulsory vaccination League in 1888, as the city's medical health officer imposed school vaccination for schoolchildren. With Ross' departure and Coderre's death in 1888, the Montreal league faded away. +In response to the epidemic, the adjacent province of Ontario passed the 1887 Vaccination Act (An Act respecting Vaccination and Inoculation), mandating smallpox vaccination for infants. The legislation also allowed municipalities and school boards to adopt their own mandates. The Toronto Board of Education used this new public health power to mandate smallpox vaccination for attendance to its schools in 1894. The new measures were the object of lasting public debate and garnered considerable news coverage. Legislation from this period was weak compared to the vaccination acts protecting the British public and enforcement in the face of organized opposition remained a constant problem. As a result, childhood vaccination rates remained low through to the end of the century. + +== 20th century == +It appears Ross' organization might not have survived his death in 1897, for another Canadian Anti-Vaccination League was founded in 1900, as provincial and school authorities were putting in place the legislative and regulatory instruments allowing mandatory vaccination. In 1906, the League presented a petition signed by 5,000 people and convinced the Toronto Board of Education to rescind its 1894 by-law. Despite significant support from the press, the League was unable to get the provincial legislation off the books. The Ontario Board of health launched an information campaign on vaccination, hoping to take some of the wind out of the anti-vaccination's sails. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f5e7e95c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism in Canada" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:57.738826+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The movement emphasized the sometimes spectacular side effects and infections provoked by vaccination, but the improving quality of products and procedures in the 20th century blunted that argument. In Canada as elsewhere, governments were investing more heavily in public health measures, with visible results. Ontario was able to adopt its Public Health Act in 1912 and a new Vaccination Act in 1914, the latter making vaccination mandatory in the event of a smallpox outbreak. The First World War funneled more resources to public health agencies and gave a patriotic sheen to vaccination, yet anti-vaccinators were still a force to be reckoned with when Toronto was hit by a smallpox outbreak in 1919. In contrast to Coderre's 19th-century group of doctors having science-based debates on the merits of vaccination, the new leadership was composed of homeopaths, labour leaders and parents resentful of what they perceived as bureaucratic overreach. A divided city council rejected the province's call for general mandatory vaccination. However, the voluntary campaign was successful enough - with 200,000 inoculations - to limit the extend of the epidemic to 2,864 cases and 11 deaths. +With a medical community firmly convinced of the benefits of vaccination and waning popular support, the anti-vaccination movement faded into the background. The League was replaced in 1921 by the Anti-vaccination and Medical Liberty League of Canada, which operated under that name until 1964 before truncating it to Medical Liberty League of Canada in 1964. The League was officially dissolved as a corporation in 2016, having failed to make its annual filings. The newly-founded Canadian Anti-Vivisection Society also promoted anti-vaccination views in this decade. They were not able to mount large public campaigns or act effectively on the legislative front. + +=== 1980s resurgence === +Canadian anti-vaccination groups remained absent or dormant for five decades until the 1980s, but individuals still recycled the arguments used by the anti-vaccination leagues. Paul-Émile Chèvrefils, a medical doctor who lost his license in the 1960s, enjoyed significant media attention in Quebec, writing the anti-vaccination book "Les vaccins, racket et poisons?" Chèvrefils, having converted to chiropractic and naturopathy, would continue to advocate against vaccination well into the 1980s. +Canada experienced several measles outbreaks in the 1970s. These were not so much the product of vaccine hesitancy, but of hesitant vaccination policy, the single dose recommended by Canadian authorities proving insufficient. In 1979, a major outbreak with 20,000 reported infections, mostly in Alberta and Ontario, brought the number of deaths for the decade to 129. +Canadian public health authorities that were attempting to imitate successful efforts in the United States to control measles by imposing mandatory vaccination for schoolchildren in Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick were confronted by a new brand of activists. Parenting styles such as intensive mothering, increased distrust about the profit motives of the pharmaceutical industry and the popularity of other approaches to health during the 1970s and 1980s allowed anti-vaccination groups to make inroads with educated, individualistic women. Wellness magazines, such as Alive and Vitality, provided ready access to that audience. Writers such as Rhody Lake, Edda West, Helke Ferrie, Guylaine Lanctôt and Zoltan Rona used the medical establishment’s perceived arrogance to position anti-vaccination arguments within a feminist perspective. + +The Ontario Compulsory Immunization of School Pupils Act of 1982 implemented recommendations from officials at Health Canada, the Society of Medical Officers of Health of Ontario, as well as requests from Toronto area school boards. The bill, which included medical and religious exemptions, was adopted with the support of all parties in the Ontario legislature. The Committee Against Compulsory Vaccination was established to help parents lobby for exemptions for their children. Leader Edda Goldman (later called Edda West) was a proponent of intensive parenting and believed the MMR vaccine gave her youngest child allergies. Coached by the group, children of parents who challenged the Act were allowed to send their unvaccinated children to school, authorities fearing the law might be found to run afoul of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or that many parents would choose to homeschool instead. The Act was amended in 1984 to expand exemptions. +The Committee Against Compulsory Vaccination supported a court case filed by Colin and Donna Rothwell against Connaught Laboratories, alleging their son went blind was as a consequence of a pertussis vaccine injection. The case failed but Donna Rothwell founded the Association of Vaccine-Damaged Children in 1985, with chapters in British Columbia and Manitoba in addition to Ontario. Despite recommendations from the Canadian Paediatric Society and the Ontario Medical Association, the federal government decided not to introduce a vaccine injury compensation program to mitigate the potential impact of further lawsuits at the time (it would do so in 2021). Quebec did put together such a program in 1987. +In 1992, West formed the Vaccination Risk Information and Alternatives Resource Group, which changed its name to the Vaccine Risk Awareness Network in 1995 and again in 2014 to Vaccine Choice Canada. As of 2025, VCC is still the leading anti-vaccination group in Canada. + +=== Indigenous Peoples === +Violent treatment by colonial authorities, which included medical experimentation and coerced sterilization, have left Canada's First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples with a troubled relationship with public health authorities. Rather than contact with anti-vaccination disinformation, long-term consequences of abuse is a likely explanation for the greater measure of vaccine hesitancy observed among Indigenous Peoples. Along with living conditions that are often much poorer than the average Canadian, this leaves Indigenous peoples in an especially vulnerable position, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..94d5c8499 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Anti-vaccine activism in Canada" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism_in_Canada" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:57.738826+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== 21st century and the COVID-19 pandemic == +On February 5, 2015, the Toronto Star published a sensational investigation into the Gardasil (HPV) vaccine that was later removed. The report from a newspaper with an otherwise strong reputation for accuracy received considerable attention in Canada and the United States, as well as criticism by investigative journalists for its use of anecdotes and imprudent use of data from public access databases. The coverage stated that more than 60 girls had been seriously harmed by the vaccine since 2008. The newspaper alleged medical authorities downplayed the risks associated with the vaccine to the point that parents could not provide informed consent. A supporting editorial was published the next day in the paper edition. + +The Star initially defended its coverage, with editor-in-chief Michael Cooke and columnist Heather Mallick attacking gynecologist Jen Gunter and other specialists criticizing the sensationalist nature of the reporting. After two weeks, Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank recognized the newspaper failed in its responsibilities to the public by running the piece and it was removed from the newspaper's website, although the editorial remained. +An academic study on media portrayal of the HPV vaccine in Canadian media concludes that the Toronto Star piece "may have fostered continued misconceptions about the HPV vaccine. It is both ethically and journalistically problematic to suggest a causal relation to the HPV vaccine without empirical evidence, as negative media attention ultimately impacts vaccination programs and policy decisions." +The movement continued to oppose attempts by Canadian jurisdictions to tighten vaccination rules. In 2019, Vaccine Choice Canada flew in their President Ted Kuntz and American anti-vaccination activist Robert Sears to participate in parliamentary hearings on vaccine exemptions in New Brunswick. Earlier that year, the group had been running billboard advertising in Toronto inviting parents to claim vaccination exemptions and supported a lawsuit seeking to bring down Ontario's Immunization of School Pupils Act. + +=== COVID-19 pandemic === + +The established anti-vaccination organizations such as Vaccine Choice Canada were joined by groups founded during the first year of the pandemic, such as Hugs over Masks, Families for Choice, No More Lockdowns and Canadian Frontline Nurses. Simultaneously, Canadian far-right groups such as Diagolon and Canada First integrated anti-vaccination to their rhetoric. This larger "anti-lockdown movement", which included not only groups but charismatic personalities such as Chris Saccoccia, lacked cohesion. In the chaotic information environment of the early pandemic, conspiracy theories found fertile ground in a rapidly-developing alternative media infrastructure that included Rebel News, the Western Standard and True North. Armed Conflict Location and Event Data reported more than 370 anti-vaccination protests during the convoy's duration (January 15, 2021 to February 18, 2022) as the leaders called their supporters into the streets. +The anti-vaccination movement was an integral part of the 2022 convoy protests and part of its leadership. Pat King, one of the most visible convoy leaders, promoted anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and encouraged people to flout public health directives. +Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, who led convoy protestors in religious services in Ottawa, defied COVID-19 gathering restrictions. Jason LaFace was both a central figure of No More Lockdowns and a spokesperson for the convoy. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7909d95de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Arctic exploration" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:01.610599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored the northern extremes since 325 BC, when the ancient Greek sailor Pytheas reached a frozen sea while attempting to find a source of the metal tin. Dangerous oceans and poor weather conditions often fetter explorers attempting to reach polar regions, and journeying through these perils by sight, boat, and foot has proven difficult. + +== Ancient history == + +=== Indo-European hypothesis === +A controversial hypothesis, often regarded as pseudohistory, sets the home of the mythical people Hyperboreans in the Arctic. The scientist and author John G. Bennett talked about it in his research paper "The Hyperborean Origin of the Indo-European Culture" (1963). The theory was originally put forth by William F. Warren, the first President of Boston University, in his Paradise Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole. Later, Indian independence activist Bal Gangadhar Tilak resurrected Warren's theory in his The Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903), which was dedicated to philologist and indologist Max Müller, with whom Tilak had shared ideas before the book was completed. Austro-Hungarian ethnologist Karl Penka also discussed the same idea in his Origins of the Aryans (1883). Tilak's theory was popularized by Russian nationalists, due to the work of Soviet historian and ethnographer Natalya Romanovna Guseva and Soviet ethnographer S.V Zharnikova, who argued for a northern Urals Arctic homeland of the Indo-Aryan and Slavic people. +Hindu nationalist Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar also supported and was inspired by Tilak's idea. In his famous 1939 publication We or Our Nationhood Defined, he stated that "Undoubtedly [...] we – Hindus – have been in undisputed and undisturbed possession of this land for over eight or even ten thousand years before the land was invaded by any foreign race." +Ancient Greek historian and geographer Herodotus said that the Hyperboreans lived beyond the Massagetae and Issedones. Since these are both Central Asian peoples, one could speculate that his Hyperboreans lived in Siberia. In his twelve labours, Heracles sought the golden-antlered hind of Artemis in Hyperborea. Since the reindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest an arctic or subarctic region. Scholar James D. P. Bolton instead located the Issedones people on the south-western slopes of the Altay mountains, which led his colleague Carl P. Ruck to place Hyperborea beyond the Dzungarian Gate into the northern part of the Xinjiang region, adding that the Hyperboreans were probably Chinese. + +=== Ancient Greece === +Some scholars believe that the first attempts to penetrate the Arctic Circle can be traced to ancient Greece and the sailor Pytheas, a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great, who, in 325 BC, attempted to find the source of the tin that would sporadically reach the Greek colony of Massilia (now Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast. Sailing past the Pillars of Hercules, he reached Brittany and then Cornwall, eventually circumnavigating the British Isles. From the local population, he heard news of the mysterious land of Thule, even farther to the north. After six days of sailing, he reached land at the edge of a frozen sea (described by him as "curdled"), and described what is believed to be the aurora and the midnight sun. Some historians claim that this new land of Thule was either the Norwegian coast or the Shetland Islands based on his descriptions and the trade routes of early British sailors. While no one knows exactly how far Pytheas sailed, he may have crossed the Arctic Circle. Nevertheless, his tales were regarded as fantasy by later Greek and Roman authorities, such as the geographer Strabo. + +== Middle Ages == + +Naddodd is said to have encountered Iceland when he lost his route due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands in the 860s. In the 10th century, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson got lost in a storm and ended up within sight of the Greenland coast. His report spurred Erik the Red, an outlawed chieftain, to establish a settlement there in 985. While they flourished initially, these settlements eventually petered out until about 1450. Initially this abandonment of the colony was credited to the Little Ice Age but that has been disputed by recent studies which suggest there were more complex factors at play. +Greenland's early settlers sailed westward, in search of better pasturage and hunting grounds. Modern scholars debate the precise location of the new lands of Vinland, Markland, and Helluland that they discovered. +The Scandinavian peoples also pushed farther north into their own peninsula by land and by sea. As early as 880, the Viking Ohthere of Hålogaland rounded the Scandinavian Peninsula and sailed to the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea. The Pechenga Monastery on the north of Kola Peninsula was founded by Russian monks in 1533; from their base at Kola, the Pomors explored the Barents Region, Spitsbergen, and Novaya Zemlya – all of which are in the Arctic Circle. They also explored north by boat, discovering the Northern Sea Route, as well as penetrating to the trans-Ural areas of northern Siberia. Pomors founded the settlement of Mangazeya east of the Yamal Peninsula in the early 16th century. In 1648 the Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov opened the now famous Bering Strait between America and Asia. +Russian settlers and traders on the coasts of the White Sea, the Pomors, had been exploring parts of the northeast passage as early as the 11th century. By the 17th century they established a continuous sea route from Arkhangelsk as far east as the mouth of Yenisey. This route, known as Mangazeya seaway, after its eastern terminus, the trade depot of Mangazeya, was an early precursor to the Northern Sea Route. + +== Age of Discovery == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a313aae84 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Arctic exploration" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:01.610599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Exploration to the north of the Arctic Circle in the Renaissance was both driven by the rediscovery of the Classics and the national quests for commercial expansion, and hampered by limits in maritime technology, lack of stable food supplies, and insufficient insulation for the crew against extreme cold. + +=== Renaissance advancements in cartography === + +A seminal event in Arctic exploration occurred in 1409, when Ptolemy's Geographia was translated into Latin, thereby introducing the concepts of latitude and longitude into Western Europe. As a result navigators were better able to chart their positions. The Inventio Fortunata, a lost book, describes in a summary written by Jacobus Cnoyen but only found in a letter from Gerardus Mercator, voyages as far as the North Pole. One widely disputed claim is that two brothers from Venice, Niccolo and Antonio Zeno, allegedly made a map of their journeys to that region, which were published by their descendants in 1558. + +=== Northwest Passage === + +The Northwest Passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Arctic Ocean. Since the discovery of the American continent was the product of the search for a route to Asia, exploration around the northern edge of North America continued for the Northwest Passage. John Cabot's initial failure in 1497 to find a Northwest Passage across the Atlantic led the British to seek an alternative route to the east. +Interest re-kindled in 1564 after Jacques Cartier's discovery of the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. Martin Frobisher had formed a resolution to undertake the challenge of forging a trade route from England westward to India. From 1576 to 1578, he took three trips to what is now the Canadian Arctic in order to find the passage. Frobisher Bay is named after him. In July 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, who had written a treatise on the discovery of the passage and was a backer of Frobisher's, claimed the territory of Newfoundland for the English crown. +In 1585, under the employ of Elizabeth I, the English explorer John Davis entered Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island. Davis rounded Greenland before dividing his four ships into separate expeditions to search for a passage westward. Though he was unable to pass through the icy Arctic waters, he reported to his sponsors that the passage they sought is "a matter nothing doubtfull [sic]," and secured support for two additional expeditions, reaching as far as Hudson Bay. +Though England's efforts were interrupted in 1587 because of the Anglo-Spanish War, Davis's favorable reports on the region and its people would inspire explorers in the coming century. In 1609, while in the service of the Dutch East India Company, the English explorer Henry Hudson sailed up what is now called the Hudson River in search of the Passage; he reached present-day Albany, New York, before giving up. He later explored further north into the Arctic and Hudson Bay for the Passage. + +=== The Northeast Passage === + +The Northeast Passage is a broad term for any route lying above the Eurasian continent and stretching between the waters north of the Norwegian Sea to the Bering Strait. The "Northern Sea Route" is defined as a specific portion of such routes. The Northern Sea Route (capitalized) as currently officially defined by Russian Federation law includes shipping lanes falling within Russia's EEZ and extending from the Kara Sea to the Bering Strait along the Russian northern coast. +The idea to explore this region was initially economic, and was first put forward by Russian diplomat Dmitry Gerasimov in 1525. The entire route laid in Arctic waters and parts and was usually covered in ice, making it a very perilous journey. +In the mid-16th century, John Cabot's son Sebastian helped organize just such an expedition, led by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor. Willoughby's crew was shipwrecked off the Kola Peninsula, where they eventually died of scurvy. Chancellor and his crew made it to the mouth of the Dvina River and the town of Arkhangelsk, where they were met by a delegation from the Tsar, Ivan the Terrible. Brought back to Moscow, he launched the Muscovy Company, promoting trade between England and Russia. This diplomatic course allowed British Ambassadors such as Sir Francis Cherry the opportunity to consolidate geographic information developed by Russian merchants into maps for British exploration of the region. Some years later, Steven Borough, the master of Chancellor's ship, made it as far as the Kara Sea, when he was forced to turn back because of icy conditions. + +Western parts of the passage were simultaneously being explored by Northern European countries like England, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, looking for an alternative seaway to China and India. Most notable is the 1596 expedition led by Dutch navigator Willem Barentsz who discovered Spitsbergen and Bear Island. +Fearing English and Dutch penetration into Siberia, Russia closed the Mangazeya seaway in 1619. Pomor activity in Northern Asia declined and the bulk of exploration in the 17th century was carried out by Siberian Cossacks, sailing from one river mouth to another in their Arctic-worthy kochs. In 1648 the most famous of these expeditions, led by Fedot Alekseev and Semyon Dezhnev, sailed east from the mouth of Kolyma to the Pacific and doubled the Chukchi Peninsula, thus proving that there was no land connection between Asia and North America. Eighty years after Dezhnev, in 1728, another Russian explorer, Danish-born Vitus Bering on Sviatoy Gavriil made a similar voyage in reverse, starting in Kamchatka and going north to the passage that now bears his name (Bering Strait). It was Bering who gave their current names to Diomede Islands, discovered and first described by Dezhnev. + +It was not until in 1878 that Finnish-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld made the first complete passage of the North East Passage from west to east, in the Vega expedition. The ship's captain on this expedition was Lieutenant Louis Palander of the Swedish Royal Navy. + +== Northwest Passage == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ff9405f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Arctic exploration" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:01.610599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In the first half of the 19th century, parts of the Northwest Passage were explored separately by a number of different expeditions, including those by John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross; and overland expeditions led by John Franklin, George Back, Peter Warren Dease, Thomas Simpson, and John Rae. Sir Robert McClure was credited with the discovery of the Northwest Passage by sea in 1851 when he looked across M'Clure Strait from Banks Island and viewed Melville Island. However, the strait was blocked by young ice at this point in the season, and not navigable to ships. The only usable route, linking the entrances of Lancaster Sound and Dolphin and Union Strait was first used by John Rae in 1851. Rae used a pragmatic approach of traveling by land on foot and dog sled, and typically employed less than ten people in his exploration parties. At this time, Arctic exploration was catching the interest of the public, notably in Britain, and many articles and images circulated among the many journals interested in travelogues. +The Northwest Passage was not completely conquered by sea until 1906, when the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had sailed just in time to escape creditors seeking to stop the expedition, completed a three-year voyage in the converted 47-ton herring boat Gjøa. At the end of this trip, he walked into the city of Eagle, Alaska, and sent a telegram announcing his success. His route was not commercially practical; in addition to the time taken, some of the waterways were extremely shallow. +Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933) led several Arctic expeditions. He grew up in Greenland speaking Greenlandic and Danish, and has been called the "father of Eskimology" and was the first Greenlander of Inuit and European descent to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. Rasmussen and his friend Peter Freuchen participated in seven Thule Expeditions, named after ultima Thule, and wrote numerous books on their Arctic experiences. + +=== The North Pole === + On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole (although whether he actually reached the Pole is disputed). He traveled with the aid of dogsleds and three separate support crews who turned back at successive intervals before reaching the Pole. Many modern explorers, including Olympic skiers using modern equipment, contend that Peary could not have reached the pole on foot in the time he claimed. +A number of previous expeditions set out with the intention of reaching the North Pole but did not succeed; that of British naval officer William Edward Parry in 1827, the tragic American Polaris expedition under Charles Francis Hall in 1871, the ill-fated Jeannette expedition commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Commander George W. De Long in 1879, and the Norwegian Fram expedition of Fridtjof Nansen in 1895. American Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1908, but this has not been widely accepted. +On May 9, 1926, Americans Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett claimed to have flown over the North Pole in a Fokker F.VIIa/3m Tri-motor monoplane. However, their claim to have reached the Pole is disputed. +The crew of the airship Norge (including Roald Amundsen and the American sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth) flew over the Pole on May 12, 1926. This is the first undisputed sighting of the Pole. Norge was designed and piloted by the Italian Umberto Nobile, who overflew the Pole a second time on May 24, 1928. Nobile's second trip was in the airship Italia that ran into a storm on the return trip and crashed on the ice. Survivors were eventually recovered. Amundsen disappeared, with the crew of his sea plane, during the rescue operations. +The first people to have without doubt walked on the North Pole were the Soviet party of 1948 under the command of Aleksandr Kuznetsov, who landed their aircraft nearby and walked to the pole. +On August 3, 1958, the American submarine USS Nautilus (SSN-571) reached the North Pole without surfacing. It then proceeded to travel under the entire Polar ice cap. On March 17, 1959, the USS Skate (SSN-578) surfaced on the North Pole and dispersed the ashes of explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins. These journeys were part of military explorations stimulated by the Cold War context. +On April 19, 1968, Ralph Plaisted reached the North Pole via snowmobile, the first surface traveler known with certainty to have done so. His position was verified independently by a US Air Force meteorological overflight. In 1969 Wally Herbert, on foot and by dog sled, became the first man to reach the North Pole on muscle power alone, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary's famous but disputed expedition. +The first persons to reach the North Pole on foot (or skis) and return with no outside help, no dogs, airplanes, or re-supplies were Richard Weber (Canada) and Misha Malakhov (Russia) in 1995. No one has completed this journey since. +U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher and Lieutenant William Pershing Benedict landed a plane at the Pole on May 3, 1952, accompanied by the scientist Albert P. Crary. +On 2 May 2007, BBC's Top Gear reached the 1996 position of the magnetic north pole (78°35.7′N 104°11.9′W) in a modified Toyota Hilux. +On 2 August 2007, during Arktika 2007 Russian crewed submersibles were the first to descend to the seabed below the pole. +On April 26, 2009, Vassily Elagin, Afanassi Makovnev, Vladimir Obikhod, Sergey Larin, Alexey Ushakov, Alexey Shkrabkin and Nikolay Nikulshin after 38 days and over 2,000 km (1,200 mi) (starting from Sredniy Island, Severnaya Zemlya) drove two Russian built cars "Yemelya-1" and "Yemelya-2" to the North Pole. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b1b31c8d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Arctic exploration" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:01.610599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== See also == +Farthest North +List of polar explorers +List of Arctic expeditions +List of Arctic exploration vessels +List of firsts at the Geographic North Pole +Great Northern Expedition +List of Antarctic expeditions +Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration +List of Antarctic exploration ships from the Heroic Age, 1897–1922 +History of Antarctica +History of research ships +List of Russian explorers +Timeline of European exploration +Drifting ice station +Deep-sea exploration +Space exploration +Nikolai Pinegin + +== Notes == + +=== Bibliography === +Berton, Pierre (1989) [1988]. The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the North West Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909. New York, NY: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-011680-9. +Edinger, Ray (2014). Love and Ice: The Tragic Obsessions of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorer. Savannah, Georgia: Frederic C. Beil. ISBN 978-1-929490-38-7. +McCannon, John (2012). A History of the Arctic: Nature, Exploration and Exploitation. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78023-076-4. +McCannon, John (1998). Red Arctic: Polar Exploration and the Myth of the North in the Soviet Union, 1932-1939. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511436-2. +Robinson, Michael F. (2006). The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-72187-3. +Sale, Richard (2002). To the Ends of the Earth: The History of Polar Exploration. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-711124-4. OCLC 48836382. +Shnirelman, Victor (2007). "Archaeology, Russian Nationalism, and the 'Arctic Homeland'". In Kohl, Philip L.; Kozelsky, Mara; Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (eds.). Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 31–70. ISBN 978-0-226-45058-2. Also: Selective Remembrances at Google Books. +Simmons, George (1965). Target: Arctic; Men in the Skies at the Top of the World. Chilton Books. OCLC 486837. + +== External links == + Media related to Exploration of the Arctic at Wikimedia Commons +To the North Pole Archived 2011-12-21 at the Wayback Machine – slideshow by Life magazine +Freeze Frame – collection of historic polar images at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge. Represents the history of British exploration and science in the Arctic and Antarctic during the period 1845–1960. Also covers early European and international collaborative ventures in the polar regions, portraiture, shipping and aerial reconnaissance. +"Why Go To The Arctic?", January 1931, Popular Mechanics +Albert Operti Correspondence with Arctic Explorers at Dartmouth College Library +William Hunt Manuscript and Correspondence on Arctic Explorers at Dartmouth College Library \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9a576ddd9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Argillic" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:42.024958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Argillic is a term used in the United States Department of Agriculture Soil taxonomy to describe a subsurface horizon categorized by clay-enrichment. It is analogous to the Argic horizon in the World Reference Base system of soil taxonomy used outside of the United States. The term "Argillic" comes from the Latin argilla, meaning clay. The term Argic used by the WRB system also comes from this same root. Clay accumulation occurs in the mineral soil through primarily illuviation and translocation of preexisting clays with some formation in-situ in the soil. The red color is caused by the formation of iron oxides which form under the same wet conditions as the clay accumulation occurs. + +== North American distribution and importance == +According to a study conduct by James Bockheim at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014, the argillic horizon is found in 44% of soil series across the United States. The argillic horizon is also important as starting point from which the kandic and natric horizons form, as well as commonly from which fragipans develop. The kandic is a argillic horizon in which the clays are primarily 1:1 silicate clays causing the soil to have a low cation exchange capacity, meaning the soil does not store nutrients as well. The natric is an argillic horizon in which high amounts of exchangeable sodium have accumulated. Fragipans are layers of soil with high bulk density and brittle characteristics that form commonly within argillic horizons but can also be found in albic horizons. +In addition to currently developing argillic horizons, argillic paleosols (paleo-argillics) can also be found throughout North America and are important contributors to soil fertility and stability. A paleosol describes a soil formed under a different climate than the current one and buried under sediment so that the buried soil remains preserved. When a paleosol shows evidence of some continued soil development (pedogenesis) it is termed a "polygenetic" soil. A variety of paleosols and polygenetic soils are recognized as containing paleo-argillic horizons including the Wounded Moose paleosol of the Yukon in Canada and the Berino Paleosol of New Mexico in the United States. Though the climates of these soils are no longer suitable for the formation of argillic horizons, their existence proves that at one point in the past the climate was hot enough and wet enough for their development. + +== Taxonomy == + +=== Distribution of classification === +In USDA soil taxonomy, the argillic is considered a diagnostic subsurface horizon, meaning that is not part of the epipedon (the upper part of the soil) and is used to describe higher soil taxonomy categories. There are currently 12 soil orders described in the USDA soil taxonomy system. The argillic horizon is required for the classification of Alfisols and Ultisols and cannot be found in Histosols or Entisol. The argillic horizon can be found with variable frequency in the rest of the soil orders. +In addition there are two soil orders currently undergoing the proposal process to be added to USDA soil taxonomy: the Aquasol and Artesol. The argillic horizon would be able to be found in the Aquasol but not in the Artesol due to the necessary soil disturbance + +=== USDA soil taxonomy requirements === +USDA soil taxonomy describes five different characteristics of argillic horizons and states that most occurrences of argillic horizons will meet two or more of the characteristic criteria. + +The argillic must have at least 1.2x the amount of clay of any overlying eluvial horizon. +Clay films or bridges (cutans and argillans) must be visible either with the naked eye or with the use of a hand lens.Cutans are deposits of colloidal (suspended in solution) clay particles on the surfaces of aggregates, and argillans are parallel layers of cutans. Clay bridges describe this accumulation of clay as it connects or "bridges" between larger sand grains. +The argillic often has a large ration of over half fine clay particles, clay particles under 0.2 micrometers in size. +Rock structure cannot by present in more than half of the volume of the horizon. Rock structure includes stratification of unconsolidated materials as well as saprolite. +The argillic must be parallel to the surface of the soil profile. The argillic will only be exposed at the soil surface if the epipedon (upper layer of the soil) has been removed either by natural or human influenced erosion. + +=== World Reference Base Taxonomy Requirements === +The World Reference Base (WRB) system of soil taxonomy describes what it calls the "Argic" horizon, analogous to the argillic horizon in USDA soil taxonomy and stemming from the same Latin root argilla, meaning white clay. In the WRB system, the argic horizon has only four acknowledged diagnostic criteria after the given requirement of being a mineral soil (as opposed to organic soils, like those found in the USDA Histosol order). + +The argic horizon must meet the texture requirements of containing 8% or more of clay by volume, and having a texture class that is not sand. +The argic horizon must be finer than an overlying horizon and/or must show evidence of clay illuviation. +The argic horizon cannot be part of the natric or spodic horizons. +The argic horizon must be at least 1/10th of the thickness of the overlying mineral material (meaning this does not include any overlying organic horizons that may be present). + +== Formation == + +=== Pedogenesis === +Pedogenesis is synonymous with clay formation. All weathering, both chemical and physical, eventually leads to clay formation. Peter Birkeland describes four primary ways in which clay-enrichment occurs in soils. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..14aafc450 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Argillic" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argillic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:42.024958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Translocation by eluviation +The eluviation (downward movement) of clay particles through the soil by physical means (ie. water movement). Where the clay particles originate is termed the "zone of eluviation" and the "zone of illuviation" is the part of the horizon in which the clay particles move to. The argillic horizon is synonymous with the zone of illuviation. +Translocation by eolian (wind) processes +Previously existing clays are transported into new environments through wind and accumulate on the surface. +Weathering in-situ +Chemical and physical weathering both cause the reduction of particles into clay sized pieces (smaller than 2 micrometers). +Neoformation (synthesis in solution) +Clay minerals are precipitated in solution or formed by the alteration of amorphous (non-crystalline) minerals. + +=== Clay mineralogy === +There are seven clay primary mineral groups, all of which are silicates. Within these, clays fall under a variety of geometries including tetrahedral, octahedral, cubic, and dodecahedral. These geometries are then layered with different minerals between them contributing to the mineralogical properties. +The type of clay formed in the pedogenesis of argillic horizons is dependent on the initial mineral availability and diversity in the parent material, as well as the pH of the soil, and the Eh of the soil. Eh is the potential for redoximorphic reactions to occur in soil and is measured by the voltage in the soil. + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Bockheim, J.G.; Hartemink, A.E. (November 2013). "Distribution and classification of soils with clay-enriched horizons in the USA". Geoderma. 209–210: 153–160. Bibcode:2013Geode.209..153B. doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.06.009. +Nettleton, W. D.; Flach, K. W.; Brasher, B. R. (January 1969). "Argillic Horizons Without Clay Skins". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 33 (1): 121–125. Bibcode:1969SSASJ..33..121N. doi:10.2136/sssaj1969.03615995003300010032x. +Hedenquist, Jeffrey W.; Arribas, Antonio (May 2022). "Exploration Implications of Multiple Formation Environments of Advanced Argillic Minerals". Economic Geology. 117 (3): 609–643. Bibcode:2022EcGeo.117..609H. doi:10.5382/econgeo.4880. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20ed68b0a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Attack (political party)" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:58.927426+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Attack (Bulgarian: Атака, romanized: Ataka) is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria, founded in 2005 by Volen Siderov, who was at the time presenter of the homonymous TV show Attack on SKAT TV. +There are different opinions on where to place the party in the political spectrum: according to most scholars it is extreme right, according to others extreme left, or a synthesis of left- and right-wing. The leadership of the party asserts that their party is "neither left nor right, but Bulgarian". The party is considered ultranationalist and anti-Roma, as well as being anti-Muslim and anti-Turkish. The party opposes Bulgarian membership in NATO and requires revision for what it calls the 'double standards' for the membership in the European Union, while members visit international Orthodox and anti-globalization congresses and the party is closely tied with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It advocates the re-nationalisation of privatised companies and seeks to prioritize spending on education, healthcare and welfare. +In the Bulgarian parliamentary elections of 2005, 2009, and 2013 Attack was consistently the fourth-strongest party. In the 2014 European Parliament election, the party won no seats. Attack was a member of the former Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty European parliamentary group. + +== Ideology == + +The Attack Party is a nationalist party. Its political program consists of two documents, some 20 principles, and a program schedule with 10 articles. They define Bulgaria as a one-nation state and assert the supremacy of the state and the Bulgarian nation above ethnic and religious diversity. The party program contains some radical proposals for changes in the constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, such as institutionalization of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and recognition of Orthodoxy as the official religion, as well as participation of the Church in legislative work, all important government decisions and teaching of the Church's doctrine in primary school. The 20 Principles envisage sanctions for defamation of the Bulgarian national sacraments and for slurs against Bulgaria. They require investigation of criminals grown rich and of all transactions involving politicians and foreign debt transactions, confiscation of illegally acquired property and the creation of a fund for free medical care from the confiscated property. Attack has so far called most of the present-day politicians national traitors. +According to the 20 principles, the health, social security, education, spiritual and material prosperity of the Bulgarian nation must be priority number one for the Bulgarian government. A legal minimum wage would be introduced, corresponding to the average European wage, as the Bulgarian living standard is below the average European standard and many Bulgarians live in poverty. Another statement in the 20 Principles is that Bulgarian manufacture is mostly stolen by foreigners, and therefore trade and banks must be in Bulgarian hands, and Bulgarian business, whether public or private, must be assisted by the state both inside and outside its boundaries. Another principle states that incomes and taxes should be tailored to the needs of the Bulgarian population and "not by the IMF and the World Bank". The party demands general revision of the budget in favor of Bulgarian citizens as opposed to the management elite, and reduction of useless administration. Referendums are required on all issues affecting the lives of more than 10 percent of the nation. Another principle demands Bulgaria leave NATO, full neutrality, and no foreign military bases on Bulgarian territory. +The party tends to be on the left of the political spectrum on economic matters, including being protectionist, while being heavily towards the right on matters of ethics, national identity/culture, and religion. + +== Activity == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dbeb614fc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "Attack (political party)" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:58.927426+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Attack's founder, Volen Siderov, had written many manifestos based on a groundwork of nationalism since the 1990s. His five books are dedicated to global conspiracy theories and to exposing what he calls the anti-Bulgarian policies of certain political circles in Bulgaria and abroad. According to Siderov, a small group of freemasons control the world with the help of puppet heads of state and international organizations. Siderov started an evening show named "Attack" on Skat TV in 2003, from where he became known in the general audience and from where the party's name comes, before officially establishing the party for the parliamentary election in June 2005. Gaining a parliamentary presence for the first time in 2005, the party remained a constant opponent of the government of Sergei Stanishev (2005–2009) and carried out numerous actions against it. On 3 March 2006, party leader Siderov called for a meeting to be held in Sofia, and around 30,000 people came to hear speeches by him and other members of the party. During this rally, Siderov declared "Bulgaria is not yet free. Bulgaria is still under Turkish rule". Party speakers protested against the ruling government in Bulgaria for forming an alliance with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and allegedly ignoring ethnic Bulgarian interests. Earlier in 2006, Siderov organized a petition against a decision by the Bulgarian government to set up US military bases in Bulgaria. In 2006, Siderov was second in the presidential election according to the exit polls. According to Siderov himself, the elections had been rigged. He claimed that the Bulgarian mafia reappointed Parvanov for a second term, and that there had been numerous violations in the voting process, that the Movement for Rights and Freedoms electorate had made numerous documented unpunished violations, including double voting and discriminatory repressive media pressure. This last referred to the lack of any television debate between Parvanov and Siderov. Skat TV – a broadcaster broadly sympathetic to Attack's position – has been dropped from some cable TV providers in Bulgaria. Attack claims this is a pre-election trick by the government, in order to silence one of its main competitors in the election; however, Clive Leviev-Sawyer, a Bulgarian Jewish journalist, cites "consumer complaints and hate speech" as the reasons for the channel being dropped by some providers. After personal conflict between Siderov and the owner of Skat TV, Valeri Simeonov, the owner of Skat TV left Attack and created his own new party – National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria— and will be a competitor of Siderov for the nationalist electorate in the parliamentary election. Attack has its own television program – alfa TV, but its broadcasting is limited only to some digital suppliers. The party contends that there is a blackout against them by the "anti" Bulgarian media, because the major Bulgarian television programmes, such as bTV, Nova TV and TV7 are corrupted and fraudulent. On 3 March 2009, Attack organized a rally, attended by about 10,000, to celebrate the liberation of Bulgaria from "500 years of enslavement by the Ottomans". Some political formations in Bulgaria have avoided contact and debate with the party – the party claim this is because "[they have] been scared from being involved in any debates with Attack, as they know they would never win". At the 2009 parliamentary election, Attack gained 21 seats, but later 11 left the party to become independent deputies, and the party remained at the minimum with 10 deputies. Siderov claims that the cabinet's leader Boyko Borisov bought his 11 deputies. Following the 2009 election, Borisov offered to implement some of Attack's proposals such as the referendum they had proposed against the Turkish-language news on BNT. Attack agreed to support the cabinet of the new party without demanding any ministerial posts, but when later the government declared against fulfilling Attack's proposals, Attack joined the opposition. Siderov has stated that the owner of SKAT TV, Valeri Simeonov, advised him to support the government of Borisov. Attack has accused Borisov's party and previous governments of being pawns of the oligarchy, only implementing directives and orders to the Turkish, American, Israeli and other sides and involving Bulgaria in a war in Syria. In 2011, Attack and less demonstratively also the Bulgarian Socialist Party accused Borisov's party of buying and falsifying the elections. They have also claimed that Borisov has prepared election fraud in the 2013 parliamentary election. Attack proposed introducing scanners and cameras in the polls, a proposal rejected by Borisov. In 2012, Attack started a process for consolidation and future electoral cooperation of all nationalist forces on the Bulgarian political landscape, including IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement, the Union of Patriotic Forces etc. On 3 March 2012, the party presented the economic nationalist plan "Siderov – Bulgaria's new way". The plan demands a radical increase of the minimum wage and the breakup of what it calls the 'colonial' neoliberal economic model through immediate termination of gold mining concessions, nationalization of the electricity distribution companies, fight against corruption and programs in support of the small and medium-sized businesses. The plan also advocates removal of the flat tax and development of a progressive tax system. The minimum pension and salary in Bulgaria are below 100 euro and the lowest in the European Union. Attack proposes increasing the minimum pension to 250 euro and the salary to 500. Siderov has accused Borisov's party of hindering the people from living as Europeans even though Borisov's party is named Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, and of treating the Bulgarian people as worth ten times less than for example Germans. According to Volen Siderov, the number of brutal murders is increasing, most of them committed by what he calls "Gypsy bandits and marauders". The party has denied being racist or xenophobic. Attack opposes the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, claiming that it is part of political mafia and that their leader, Ahmed Dogan, derides Bulgarian parliamentarism. The peak of the conflict between Attack and the Movement came in 2012, when the majority of the Movement in the town council of the ethnically-mixed city of Kardzhali refused to make General Vasil Delov an honorary citizen and said that the Balkan Wars were ethnic cleansing. Siderov attempted to get parliament to judge Dogan for his "perverse disrespect" in challenging the liberation of Bulgaria. All other parliamentary groups abstained in the following vote, except the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, which voted against. Following this, Attack are attempting to proceed to the constitutional court for elimination of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, but for this they need signatures of 48 deputies from the parliament. A little later, Siderov proposed to the constitutional court that Kardzhali, named after the Ottoman Turkish soldier Kardzha Ali, be renamed "Delovgrad", after Vasil Delov, liberator of the city from Ottoman Turkish rule, and renaming the highest Musala Peak to "Saint John of Rila Peak", because its name is Muslim from the Ottoman Rule. Attack supports nuclear power in Bulgaria and as such it opposes the closing of blocks in the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant and supports a second nuclear power plant of Belene. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a88e11cbc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "Attack (political party)" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:58.927426+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Attack supported the Bulgarian Orthodox Church against the 2012 Sofia Pride gay parade and protested in the previous ones, organizing an anti-gay parade with newlyweds at the front. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5f8941fc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Attack (political party)" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:58.927426+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== International relations == + +Its 3 MEPs participated in the short-lived Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty group (2007), which was a political group in the European Parliament composed of 23 members from European parties variously described as right-wing and nationalist. +Siderov reportedly espouses anti-Masonic conspiracy theories, claiming that Masons control the world through puppet regimes, international organizations, and the press. According to Siderov, these forces seek to commit genocide against Bulgarian people. Attack opposes NATO the membership, claiming that, despite Minister of Foreign Affairs Solomon Pasi's assurances that Bulgaria would be the safest place in Europe, the reduction in strength of the Bulgarian army to 20,000 made the nation defenseless, serving Turkish interests. Siderov compared the accession of Bulgaria to NATO as a new signing of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, considered as humiliating treaty for Bulgaria, signed after World War I. Although the party is ambivalent on Bulgaria's European Union membership, it has demanded a revision of some of the previous agreements (e.g. the resolution on shutting down the Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant near the Danube), it claims that those who signed the EU membership, referring to Meglena Kuneva and others, are national traitors, not because of the EU membership itself, but because of the "anti-Bulgarian" agreements, on which it is signed. Siderov expressed respect to the Russian president Vladimir Putin, by visiting him on foot for his 60th birthday on 7 October 2012. On 8 March 2013 Siderov paid tribute to the deceased president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez at the Bolivarian republic's embassy in Sofia, where he called the deceased president an 'example for the Bulgarian patriots as a statesman'. +Attack claims that the Turkish government has a hidden plan for a "new colonization" of the Balkan region, accusing them of erecting over a thousand mosques in the last 20 years in Bulgaria and with further plans of colonization. Bulgaria is currently the country with the most mosques in Europe per capita. Attack asked from the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan $10 billion for the massacres and displacement of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 and once, members of the party entered the parliament wearing shirts on which was written "Erdoğan, you owe us $10 billion"; another time with an inscription "ATTACK says: No to Turkey in the EU", Siderov on numerous occasions accused Turkey of genocide. Borisov's government expressed full support for the accession of Turkey to the European Union, while Attack boycotted this and insisted on a national referendum on the matter. +Attack insists on the cancellation of Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and the returning of the Western Outlands to Bulgaria, annexed by Yugoslavia after the First World War, which consists of the regions of Dimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad in Serbia, whose population according to the Serbian national census is predominantly ethnic Bulgarian, and of the region of Strumica in Republic of Macedonia. Siderov said that the treaty is invalid, because it was signed with Yugoslavia in 1919, a vanished state, and does not refer to the present-day Serbia or to the Republic of Macedonia and should be cancelled. +The first statement ever of Volen Siderov from the parliamentary tribune, for a plan for a giant genocide of the Bulgarian nation, coming from abroad: + +In this 8-year period gigantic genocide was carried out over the Bulgarian nation. At the insistence of foreign, hostile to Bulgaria factors, of our people is projected to remain 3.5 to 4 million residents. This is Bulgarophobe's plan and this plan is realised in front of us. If someone asks how, I will show him: when the right of the Bulgarians to be masters in their own country became stolen, when they will be left to die in misery and lack of medicines and medical services, by being subjected to terror by Gypsy bands, who everyday [sic?] disrupt, rob, rape and maltreat the Bulgarian nation, after which nobody deliberately seeks out the crimes, committed by them, because this is the directive outside, not to investigate the crimes of these minority groups. The goal is for the Bulgarians to live in fear, to be discouraged, crushed, submissive. Hundreds of thousands of chronically ill are dying right now because mob companies of the previous cabinet make dirty deals with the life and health of the Bulgarians. Because relatives of the previous Minister of Environment are trading with medicaments for cancer and therefore there are not any medicaments, and hundreds of thousands of Bulgarians with cancer face a slow, excruciating agony." +In September 2018, Siderov apologised for his previous anti-Semitic rhetoric during a private meeting with Israeli Likud politician Oren Hazan. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..47ca5c0de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Attack (political party)" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:58.927426+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Election results == +Following the Bulgarian parliamentary election in 2005, the party entered the 240-seater parliament with 21 seats and 8.1% of the vote (296,848 votes) and became the fourth largest party. At the 2006 Bulgarian presidential election, the leader of the party – Volen Siderov came second behind the incumbent president Parvanov by winning 21.5% of the vote (597,175 votes) and in the subsequent runoff between the two Siderov failed to defeat the president, having received 24.0% of the vote (649,387 votes). At the 2007 European Parliament election, the party won 3 seats and 14.2% of the vote (275,237 votes) out of 18 seats, given for Bulgarian parties. +At the parliamentary election in 2009, it remained with 21 seats and increased to 9.4% of the vote (395,707 votes). Later 11 members from the parliamentary group left and became independents and the deputies of the party decreased to 10. At the 2009 European Parliament election, it decreased to 12.0% of the vote (308,052 votes) and its seats decreased to 2. The two MEPs, which entered with the votes of the party – Dimitar Stoyanov and Slavcho Binev, left the party, the last one even founded his own new party – People for Real, Open and United Democracy (PROUD). At the 2011 presidential election, Siderov was fourth by winning 122,466 votes and 3.6% of the vote, thus not qualifying for the runoff. At the parliamentary election in 2013, the party increased its seats to 23 with 7% of the vote – making it the fourth largest party. However, the 2014 elections saw the party reduced to 11 seats. +For the 2017 election, the party joined the United Patriots electoral alliance with the IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement and the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB). The alliance placed third and won 27 seats. +In the 2021 parliamentary elections the Ataka party and the two remaining parties from the former alliance contested separately (NFSB together with Volya) the elections and neither of them succeeded to secure a single seat. If not for that the coalition could have managed the electoral threshold, based on their results. + +=== National Assembly === + +=== President of Bulgaria === + +=== European Parliament === + +== References == + +== External links == +(in English) Official site in English +(in Bulgarian) Official site +(in Bulgarian) The party's daily newspaper, Attack \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Family_Party-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Family_Party-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..72770bfe3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Family_Party-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Australian Family Party" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Family_Party" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:00.119146+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Australian Family Party is a minor right-wing political party that has been registered in South Australia since 2021. It was founded by Bob Day, who served in the Australian Senate from 2014 until 2016 as a member of Family First. + + +== History == + + +=== Formation === +Bob Day launched the party on 28 October 2020 to "counter the insidious influence of the Greens and the disappointment of the major parties". The party website says that, "Many great organisations and political movements [...] started in churches" and that "The Australian Family Party began the same way." The party was registered by the Electoral Commission of South Australia on 11 November 2021. +Before the 2026 state election, the South Australian branch of the Democratic Labour Party merged with and endorsed the Australian Family Party. + + +=== 2022 South Australian election === +At the 2022 state election, it fielded six candidates in the lower house, winning 0.28% of the vote, and two candidates in the upper house, winning 0.86% of the vote. + + +=== 2026 South Australian election === +The party fielded candidates in all 47 electorates for the 2026 lower house election and three candidates in the 2026 upper house state election. It stated that six other parties "pledged their support to the Australian Family Party", calling it the "The Magnificent Seven". According to the Australian Family Party these were: Gerard Rennick People First, the HEART Party, the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), The Great Australian Party, the Australian Federation Party, and the South Australia branch of the Libertarian Party (Libertarian Party SA). + + +== Ideology == +The party has campaigned in favour of the abolition of labour law, increased military self-reliance, federalism, closer ties with Israel, nuclear power, increased regulation of foreign ownership of farming land, decreased government spending, small government, a flat tax system, and free trade. +The party opposes renewable energy, pornography, abortion, surrogacy, euthanasia, prostitution, human cloning, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage. The party also opposes "vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, social distancing, masks, perspex screens [and] lockdowns". + + +== Electoral performance == + + +=== House of Assembly === + + +=== Legislative Council === + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_expedition_to_Brazil-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_expedition_to_Brazil-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8b4bf2239 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_expedition_to_Brazil-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Austrian expedition to Brazil" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_expedition_to_Brazil" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:41.050714+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Austrian expedition to Brazil (German: Österreichische Brasilien-Expedition) was a scientific expedition which explored Brazil. It was organized and financed by the Austrian Empire from 1817 to 1835. + + +== History == +The expedition had as its main supporter the Austrian statesman Prince Metternich and the expedition was associated with the politically significant marriage of Dom Pedro of Brazil and Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria. Overall planning was overseen by Metternich and scientific planning was undertaken by Carl Franz von Schreibers. +The contingent of fourteen naturalists included Johann Christian Mikan, Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, Giuseppe Raddi, Heinrich Wilhelm Schott, Johann Baptist von Spix, Johann Baptist Emanuel Pohl, Johann Natterer, Ferdinand Dominik Sochor (Imperial hunter and a skilled taxidermist) and the artists Thomas Ender and Johann Buchberger. A thirteen-room "Brazilian Museum" containing 133,000 objects from the expedition was opened to the public. It was closed in 1836 and the contents integrated with those of the Hof-Naturalienkabinette, now the Natural History Museum of Vienna. + + +== References == + +Kann, Bettina: Die österreichische Brasilienexpedition 1817 - 1836 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung ethnographischen Ergebnisse. Diplomarbeit Wien 1992 +Riedl-Dorn, Christa: Johann Natterer und die österreichische Brasilienexpedition. Petrópolis 1999 +Steinle, Robert: Historische Hintergründe österreichischen Brasilienexpedition (1817-1835) mit einer Dokumentation der Bororo-Bestände aus Sammlung Natterer des Museums für Völkerkunde in Wien. Dissertation Wien 2000 + + +== Sources == +de:Österreichische Brasilien-Expedition + + +== External links == +Colecção de Johann Natterer in the Museum für Völkerkunde +Virtual course of the expedition (in German) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynamics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynamics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5e701380b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynamics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Autodynamics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynamics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:07.486350+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Autodynamics was a physics theory proposed by Ricardo Carezani (1921–2016) in the early 1940s as a replacement for Einstein's theories of special relativity and general relativity. Autodynamics never gained status as a viable alternative model within the physics community, and today is wholly rejected by mainstream science. + + +== Main tenets of autodynamics == +The primary claim of autodynamics is that the equations of the Lorentz transformation are incorrectly formulated to describe relativistic effects, which would invalidate special relativity, general relativity, and Maxwell's equations. The effect of the revised equations proposed in autodynamics is to cause particle mass to decrease with particle velocity, being exchanged with kinetic energy (with mass being zero and kinetic energy being equal to the rest mass at c). This exchange between mass and energy is the proposed mechanism underlying most of the derived conclusions of autodynamics. +Ancillary predictions of autodynamics include: + +the nonexistence of the neutrino, +the existence of additional particles that have not been observed by mainstream physicists (including the "picograviton" and the "electromuon"), +the existence of additional decay modes for muons and interaction modes for energetic atomic nuclei. + + +== Status of autodynamics == +Autodynamics is rejected by the mainstream scientific community. A 1999 article in the magazine Wired quotes H. Pierre Noyes, a professor at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, as stating, "autodynamics was disproved. Special relativity is correct" and noting that "mainstream physicists have considered autodynamics a crackpot theory for decades". Noyes was a researcher in an experiment attempting to compare the predictions of SR and AD, and concluded that the values calculated by SR were significantly closer to what was observed. Carezani later argued that the experiment was not relevant for comparing the two theories by pointing out that AD applies specifically to decay cases, yet the electrons in the Noyes experiment received energy from the external medium (klystron EM field). According to Lee Smolin, there has been "no serious attempt [by the autodynamics supporters] to make an argument or to discuss experimental data that refute their basic claims". + + +== See also == +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience + + +== References == + + +== External links == +The Society for the Advancement of Autodynamics (SAA) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Institute_of_Tracking_and_Telemetry_Technology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Institute_of_Tracking_and_Telemetry_Technology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0f406c56f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Institute_of_Tracking_and_Telemetry_Technology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telemetry Technology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Institute_of_Tracking_and_Telemetry_Technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:32.883080+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications Technology (Chinese: 北京跟踪与通信技术研究所; pinyin: Běijīng Gēnzōng yǔ Tōngxìn Jìshù Yánjiūsuǒ) aka BITTT is a research institution of the Aerospace Force of the People's Liberation Army. The head office is located in the Beijing Space City in the north of Haidian district. The head of the institute, Dong Guangliang (董光亮), is also the Technical Director of the Control and Communication Systems of the Manned Space Program of the PRC since September 2015. The BITTT is an observer member of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. + + +== History == +The "Research Institute for Orbit Tracking and Communication Technology" was founded in May 1965 in connection with Project 651, the program to build and launch a Chinese satellite that began in January 1965.As part of this project, the institute was initially responsible for planning the radar facilities at the Jiuquan Launch site, the facilities of the ground stations of the Chinese Space Control Network, and its headquarters, which was located in Weinan at the time. After China's first satellite, Dongfanghong 1, was successfully launched into space on 24 April 1970, the institute took on a leading role in the further expansion of the space control network, not only as a technical planning office, but also as an intermediary between the individual departments. +As of the 2020s, BITTT has established itself as the main systems design and general contracting technical unit in the field of aerospace measurement, control and communication in China, the chief designer unit of the two major systems of measurement, control and communication for the landing site and for emergency rescue of China's manned space program. It is an affiliated unit of the Spacecraft Measurement and Control Committee of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, and a Class A design unit of the communication industry approved by the state. +As a general contractor, BITTT was also responsible for the design and construction of the Inmarsat Beijing ground station, for the computer systems for the Beijing ground station of the Sinosat communication satellites and for the computer systems of the satellite control centers of Nigeria and Venezuela + + +== Academics == +BITTT has also been a teaching institution since 1985, and has had title-granting authority since 2008. Degree of "Postgraduate Specialist" (专业硕士), roughly at master level, are granted in the following four programs: + +Communication and Information Systems Engineering (通信与信息系统) +Navigation, steering and control (导航、制导与控制) +Signal and Data Processing (信号与信息处理) +Applied computer science (计算机应用技术) +In a peculiarity of its status as a military unit, there are rules requiring minimum height (1.62m for men and 1.58 m for women), no short- or long-sightedness, or color blindness. +The institute has 500 scientific and technological personnel, including more than 350 with master's degrees or above, and more than 60 with doctoral degrees or above, and more than 180 senior researchers, senior engineers and equivalent technical positions. It is composed of more than 10 laboratories. It has an above-average production of patents and awards. The institute has also a quite broad set of exchange and cooperation projects with more than 20 countries. + + +== Projects involved == +Beidou Satellite Navigation System +Shenzhou program +China Moon Program +China Mars Program + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..53cf5e381 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Benefits of space exploration" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:34.024332+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +As the space race came to an end, a new rationale for investment in space exploration emerged, focused on the pragmatic use of space for improving life on Earth. The legacy of the space race is that nations continue to pursue space exploration to enhance their prestige. As the justification for government-funded space programs shifted to "the public good", space agencies began to articulate and measure the wider socio-economic benefits that might derive from their activities, including both the direct and indirect (or less obvious) benefits of space exploration. However, such programs have also been criticized with several drawbacks cited. + +== Direct and indirect benefits of space exploration == + +Space agencies, governments, researchers and commentators have isolated a large number of direct and indirect benefits of space exploration programs including: + +New technologies that can be utilized in other industries and society (such as the development of communications satellites) +Improved knowledge of space and the origin of the universe +Cultural benefits +In an attempt to quantify the benefits derived from space exploration, NASA calculated that 444,000 lives have been saved, 14,000 jobs have been created, $5 billion in revenue has been generated, and there has been $6.2 billion in cost reductions due to spin-off programs from NASA research. NASA states that among the many spin-off technologies that have come out of the space exploration program, there have been notable advancements in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity. Solar panels, water-purification systems, dietary formulas and supplements, material science innovation, and global search and rescue systems are some of the ways in which these technologies have diffused into everyday life. + +== Satellite technology == +The development of artificial satellite technology was a direct result of space exploration. Since the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1,) was launched by the USSR on October 4, 1957, thousands of satellites have been put into orbit around the Earth by more than 40 countries. +These satellites are used for a variety of applications including observation (by both military and civilian agencies), communication, navigation, and weather monitoring. Space stations, space telescopes and spacecraft in orbit around the Earth are also regarded as satellites. + +=== Communications satellites === +Communications satellites are used for a variety of purposes including television, telephone, radio, internet and military applications. According to statistics, there were 2,666 active artificial satellites orbiting the Earth in 2020. Of these, 1,327 belonged to the US and 363 to China. Many of these satellites are in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles (35,785 km) above the equator, so that the satellite appears stationary at the same point in the sky. Communications satellites can also be in Medium Earth orbit (known as MEO satellites) with an Orbital altitude ranging from 2,000 to 36,000 kilometres (1,200 to 22,400 mi) above Earth and low Earth orbit (known as LEO satellites) at 160 to 2,000 kilometres (99 to 1,243 mi) above Earth. MEO and LEO orbits are closer to the surface of the Earth and therefore a larger number of satellites are required in such a constellation to provide continuous communications. Satellites are vital for providing communications to remote areas and ships. + +=== Weather satellites === +The United States, Europe, India, China, Russia, and Japan all have weather satellites in orbit that are used to monitor the weather, environment, and climate of the Earth. Polar-orbiting weather satellites cover the entire Earth asynchronously, or geostationary satellites cover the same spot on the equator. In addition to monitoring weather patterns for forecasting, which is extremely important for certain activities and industries (such as farming and fishing), meteorological satellites monitor fires, pollution, auroras, sand, and dust storms, as well as snow cover and ice mapping. They have also been used to monitor ash clouds from volcanoes such as Mount St. Helens and Mount Etna as well as major weather events such as El Niño and the Antarctic ozone hole. Recently, weather monitoring satellites have also been used to assess the viability of solar panel sites by monitoring cloud cover and weather patterns. Nigeria and South Africa have successfully employed satellite-based disaster management and climate monitoring. + +=== International Space Station === + +The International Space Station is a modular space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit that was built by 18 countries including NASA (US), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and the CSA (Canada). The station serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which scientific research is conducted in astrobiology, astronomy, meteorology, physics, and other fields. The ISS is also used for testing spacecraft systems and equipment required for future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars. + +=== Hubble Space Telescope === +The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 by NASA with contributions from the European Space Agency. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versatile. Its orbit allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes, enabling a deep view into space. Many Hubble observations have led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining the rate of expansion of the universe. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0a5c767a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Benefits of space exploration" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:34.024332+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Knowledge of space == +Since Sputnik 1 entered orbit in 1957 to perform Ionospheric experiments, the human understanding of Earth and space has increased. The missions to the Moon begin as early as 1958 and continued into the current age. A few successful lunar missions by the USSR include missions such as the Luna 1 spacecraft that completed the first flyby of the Moon in 1959, the Luna 3 lunar probe that took the first pictures of the far side of the Moon in 1959, the Luna 10 orbiter that was the first orbiter of the Moon in 1966, the Zond 5 circumlunar mission which flew the first Earthlings (two tortoises) to the Moon and safely returned them to Earth, and the Lunokhod 1 lunar rover in 1970, which was the first rover to explore the surface of a world beyond Earth. United States firsts include Apollo 8 in 1968, which carried the first three humans into lunar orbit, and the historic 1969 Apollo 11 mission which first landed humans on the Moon. Missions to the Moon have collected samples of lunar materials and there are now multiple satellites such as ARTEMIS P1 that currently orbit the Moon and collect data. + +== Precious metals == +Proponents of space travel have noted the rich amount of precious metals that exist in space. For example, in 2021, NASA discovered an asteroid called "16 Psyche" which has more gold on it than the value of the global economy, about $10,000 quadrillion (the global economy is about $84.5 trillion). There have also been asteroids that have been discovered that are made of 85% metal, such as iron and nickel, other precious metals that are relatively scarce on Earth, which has garnered optimism for space mining. Metallic asteroids also have other rare metals like platinum, iridium, palladium, osmium, ruthenium and rhodium at a "concentration several times higher than what is found on Earth." +Although regulations may pose as a barrier to the mining of precious metals in space with one advocate for space mining stating, "The rate of regulatory change must accelerate until it can match the rate of technological change!" + +== Biomedical research == + +Beginning in 1967, NASA successfully began its Biosatellite program that initially took frog eggs, amoeba, bacteria, plants and mice and studied the effects of zero gravity on these biological life forms. Studies of human life in space have augmented the understanding of the effects of adjusting to a space environment, such as alterations in body fluids, negative influences on the immune system and effects of space on sleep patterns. Current space research pursuits are divided into the subjects of Space Biology, which studies the effects of space on smaller organisms such as cells, Space Physiology, which is the study of the effects of space on the human body and Space Medicine, which examines the possible dangers of space on the human body. The Canadian science experiments in the cardiovascular system examines how astronauts’ blood vessels change before, during and after missions. The study in space helps understand heart failures and how our arteries age on earth. Space engineers helped design heart pumps now used to keep people in need of heart transplant alive until a donor heart becomes available. Discoveries concerning the human body and space, particularly the effects on the development of bones, may provide further understanding of biomineralization and the process of gene transcription. + +== Culture and inspiration == + +Culture exists as a social environment made up by traditions, norms, rules written or unwritten, and social practices. Astronaut Jeffrey A. Hoffman stated that space exploration "expands the realm of human experience and of human consciousness". Cultures can be specific to groups of any size such as a family or group of friends but also as large as a state or nation. The range and diversity of human culture is markedly large. International collaboration in the space age brought together different cultures and, as a result, the exchange and advancement of human culture. In over fifty years of space travel, the diversity of those working in space and in the field as a whole has dramatically increased from the beginnings of space exploration. This progression in diversity brought more cultures into close quarters and resulted in the enrichment of human culture globally. +The innovation and exploration of the space age has served as an inspiration to humankind. Breaking through into space travel, humans leaving Earth and defeating gravity, taking steps on the Moon, and various other achievements were pivotal moments in human cultural development. In particular, the scientific and technological advancements stand as an inspiration to the scientific community of students, teachers, and researchers worldwide. Moreover, space exploration has also inspired innovative training programs aimed at preschoolers, such as the Future Astronauts Program. It is evident that by drawing in the wonder of space together with the knowledge and skills developed through space exploration into classrooms, children can be strongly motivated and empowered from a young age. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cbede5e21 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Benefits of space exploration" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benefits_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:34.024332+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Criticisms and drawbacks == +There are three main types of criticism levied against space exploration: the cost, ideological criticism, and social criticism. +The calculations of the benefits of space exploration have frequently been criticized due to a conflict of interests argument (the agencies responsible are the ones who calculate the benefits) and the complexity of quantifying the benefits. As Matthew Williams stated: "How do you put a dollar value on scientific knowledge, inspiration, or the expansion of our frontiers?" +While some commentators have argued that space exploration is a lifeboat strategy to avoid annihilation of the human race, others have countered that it misses the point. Amitai Etzioni – Professor at The George Washington University and an adviser to the US's Carter administration – countered in Humanity Would Be Better off Saving Earth, Rather Than Colonizing Mars that: "It is better to hold off disasters at home than to assume all is lost". Etzioni also pointed out the vast cost of colonization of extraterrestrial planets by citing that Elon Musk, an advocate of space exploration and colonization, had calculated the cost of sending the first 12 astronauts to Mars at £10 billion per person. The Mars Climate Orbiter is a good example of this argument, burning up—before returning any scientific data—at a cost of $328 million. +Social critics say that the cost of space exploration cannot be justified when hunger and poverty are rampant. "As they see it, space exploration takes money, resources, and talent away from helping people in need and from improving the quality of life for everybody." In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. said: "Without denying the value of scientific endeavor, there is a striking absurdity in committing billions to reach the moon where no people live, while only a fraction of that amount is appropriated to service the densely populated slums." +Some critics have pointed out the hazards of space debris which affect satellites, spacecraft and the surface of the Earth. For example, in March 2009 debris believed to be a 10 cm (3.9 in) piece of the Kosmos 1275 satellite nearly hit the ISS. Although it is relatively rare for people on the ground to be hit by space debris, it does happen. In 1969 five sailors on a Japanese ship were injured by space debris. In 1997 an Oklahoma woman, Lottie Williams, was injured when she was hit in the shoulder by a 10 cm × 13 cm (3.9 in × 5.1 in) piece of blackened, woven metallic material confirmed as part of the propellant tank of a Delta II rocket which launched a U.S. Air Force satellite the year before. Environmentalists have pointed to the pollution caused by space exploration and at distracting Americans from a mounting pollution problem. +Feminists criticized the US space exploration programs, and even filed lawsuits, for sexist hiring practices and all-male astronaut corps. +It is unclear how much the American public agrees with the importance of space exploration. Gallup polls in the 1960s showed that less than 50% of Americans considered the endeavour worth the cost. An NBC News and Associated Press Poll in 1979 found that only 41% of respondents considered the benefits worth the costs. By the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing, the percentage of those favorable to space exploration had recovered to 64%. + +== See also == +NASA spinoff technologies + +== References == + +U Sankar(2007), Economics of India's Space Programme, Oxford University +Press, New Delhi. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b530eed02 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Biopsychiatry controversy" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:04.639948+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The biopsychiatry controversy is a dispute over which viewpoint should predominate and form a basis of psychiatric theory and practice. The debate is a criticism of a claimed strict biological view of [psychiatric thinking. Its critics include disparate groups such as the antipsychiatry movement and some academics. + +== Overview of opposition to biopsychiatry == +Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry aims to investigate determinants of mental disorders devising remedial measures of a primarily somatic nature. +This has been criticized by Alvin Pam for being a "stilted, unidimensional, and mechanistic world-view", so that subsequent "research in psychiatry has been geared toward discovering which aberrant genetic or neurophysiological factors underlie and cause social deviance". According to Pam, the "blame the body" approach, which typically offers medication for mental distress, shifts the focus from disturbed behavior in the family to putative biochemical imbalances. + +== Research issues == + +=== 2003 status in biopsychiatric research === +Biopsychiatric research has produced reproducible abnormalities of brain structure and function, as well as a strong genetic component for a number of psychiatric disorders (although the latter has been shown to be correlative rather than causative). It has also elucidated some of the mechanisms of action of medications that effectively treat some of these disorders. Still, by their own admission, this research has not progressed to the stage that they can identify clear biomarkers of these disorders. + +Research has shown that serious neurobiological disorders such as schizophrenia reveal reproducible abnormalities of brain structure (such as ventricular enlargement) and function. Compelling evidence exists that disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism to name a few have a strong genetic component. Still, brain science has not advanced to the point where scientists or clinicians can point to readily discernible pathologic lesions or genetic abnormalities that in and of themselves serve as reliable or predictive biomarkers of a given mental disorder or mental disorders as a group. Ultimately, no gross anatomical lesion such as a tumor may ever be found; rather, mental disorders will likely be proven to represent disorders of intercellular communication; or of disrupted neural circuitry. Research already has elucidated some of the mechanisms of action of medications that are effective for depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, attention deficit, and cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. These medications clearly exert influence on specific neurotransmitters, naturally occurring brain chemicals that effect, or regulate, communication between neurons in regions of the brain that control mood, complex reasoning, anxiety, and cognition. In 1970, The Nobel Prize was awarded to Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health, for his discovery of how anti-depressant medications regulate the availability of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine in the synapses, or gaps, between nerve cells. + +=== Focus on genetic factors === +Researchers have proposed that most common psychiatric and drug abuse disorders can be traced to a small number of dimensions of genetic risk and reports show significant associations between specific genomic regions and psychiatric disorders. However, to date, only a few genetic lesions have been demonstrated to be mechanistically responsible for psychiatric conditions. For example, one reported finding suggests that in persons diagnosed with schizophrenia as well as in their relatives with chronic psychiatric illnesses, the gene that encodes phosphodiesterase 4B (PDE4B) is disrupted by a balanced translocation. +The reasons for the relative lack of genetic understanding is that the links between genes and mental states defined as abnormal appear highly complex, involve extensive environmental influences, and can be mediated in numerous different ways, for example, by personality, temperament, or life events. Therefore, while twin studies and other research suggest that personality is heritable to some extent, finding the genetic basis for particular personality or temperament traits, and their links to mental health problems, is "at least as hard as the search for genes involved in other complex disorders." Theodore Lidz and The Gene Illusion. argue that biopsychiatrists use genetic terminology in an unscientific way to reinforce their approach. Joseph maintains that biopsychiatrists disproportionately focus on understanding the genetics of those individuals with mental health problems at the expense of addressing the problems of living in the environments of some extremely abusive families or societies. + +=== Focus on biochemical factors === + +The chemical imbalance hypothesis states that a chemical imbalance within the brain is the main cause of psychiatric conditions and that these conditions can be improved with medication that corrects this imbalance. In that, emotions within a "normal" spectrum reflect a proper balance of neurotransmitter function. Still, abnormally extreme emotions that are severe enough to impact the daily functioning of patients (as seen in schizophrenia) reflect a profound imbalance. It is the goal of psychiatric intervention, therefore, to regain the homeostasis (via psychopharmacological approaches) that existed before the onset of the disease. +The scientific community has debated this conceptual framework, although no other demonstrably superior hypothesis has emerged. Recently, the biopsychosocial approach to mental illness has been shown to be the most comprehensive and applicable theory in understanding psychiatric disorders. However, there is still much to be discovered in this area of inquiry. As a prime example, while great strides have been made in the field of understanding certain psychiatric disorders (such as schizophrenia), others (such as major depressive disorder) operate via multiple different neurotransmitters and interact in a complex array of systems that are (as yet) not completely understood. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a36d4a3e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +title: "Biopsychiatry controversy" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychiatry_controversy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:04.639948+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Reductionism === +Niall McLaren emphasizes in his books Humanizing Madness and Humanizing Psychiatry that the major problem with psychiatry is that it lacks a unified model of the mind and has become entrapped in a biological reductionist paradigm. The reasons for this biological shift are intuitive, as reductionism has been very effective in other fields of science and medicine. However, despite reductionism's efficacy in explaining the smallest parts of the brain, this does not explain the mind, which is where he contends the majority of psychopathology stems from. An example would be that every aspect of a computer can be understood scientifically down to the last atom; however, this does not reveal the program that drives this hardware. He also argues that the widespread acceptance of the reductionist paradigm leads to a lack of openness to Self-criticism, "a smugness that stops the very engine of scientific progress." He has proposed his own natural dualist model of the mind, the biocognitive model, which is rooted in the theories of David Chalmers and Alan Turing and does not fall into the "dualist's trap" of spiritualism. + +== Economic influences on psychiatric practice == +American Psychiatric Association president Steven S. Sharfstein, M.D. has stated that when the profit motive of pharmaceutical companies and human good are aligned, the results are mutually beneficial for all: "Pharmaceutical companies have developed and brought to market medications that have transformed the lives of millions of psychiatric patients. The proven effectiveness of antidepressant, mood-stabilizing, and antipsychotic medications has helped sensitize the public to the reality of mental illness and taught them that treatment works. In this way, Big Pharma has helped reduce stigma associated with psychiatric treatment and with psychiatrists." However, Sharfstein acknowledged that the goals of individual physicians who deliver direct patient care can be different from the pharmaceutical and medical device industry. Conflicts arising from this disparity raise natural concerns in this regard including: + +a "broken health care system" that allows "many patients [to be] prescribed the wrong drugs or drugs they don't need"; +"medical education opportunities sponsored by pharmaceutical companies [that] are often biased toward one product or another"; +"[d]irect marketing to consumers [that] also leads to increased demand for medications and inflates expectations about the benefits of medications"; +"drug companies [paying] physicians to allow company reps to sit in on patient sessions to learn more about care for patients." +Nevertheless, Sharfstein acknowledged that without pharmaceutical companies developing and producing modern medicines - virtually every medical specialty would have few (if any) treatments for the patients that they care for. + +=== Pharmaceutical industry influences in psychiatry === +Studies have shown that promotional marketing by pharmaceutical and other companies has the potential to influence physicians' decision making. Pharmaceutical manufacturers (and other advocates) would argue that in today's modern world, physicians simply do not have the time to continually update their knowledge base on the status of the latest research; that by providing educational materials for both physicians and patients, they are providing an educational perspective; and that it is up to the individual physician to decide what treatment is best for their patients. has been replaced by educationally-based activities that became the basis for the legal and industry reforms involving physician gifts, influence in graduate medical education, physician disclosure of conflicts of interest, and other promotional activities. +In an essay on the effect of advertisements on sales for marketed anti-depressants, evidence showed that both patients and physicians can be influenced by media advertisements, and that this influence has the possibility of increasing the frequency of certain medicines being prescribed over others. + +== See also == + +=== General === +Anti-psychiatry – A movement critiquing psychiatry from a human rights perspective. +Bipolar disorders research – biopsychiatric analysis into the cause of bipolar disorders. +Elliott Valenstein – a psychologist and neuroscientist, author of Blaming the Brain. +The Gene Illusion – a book by clinical psychologist Jay Joseph. +Causes of schizophrenia +Controversy about ADHD +A Brief History of Anxiety (Yours & Mine), a book by journalist Patricia Pearson +Trauma model of mental disorders +Interpretation of Schizophrenia – Award-winning book by Silvano Arieti, which sets forth demonstrative evidence of a psychological etiology for schizophrenia. + +=== Groups critical of the biomedical paradigm === +Mindfreedom – A group that advocates "choice" regarding psychopharmaceuticals. +ICSPP (International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology) +ISPS (International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychoses) +CEP (Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry) + +== External links == + +=== Criticisms from psychologists and the medical profession === +APA Fights Attempt to Limit Access to Psychoactive Drugs, American Psychiatric Association president Michelle Riba, M.D., M.S. +Commentary: Against Biologic Psychiatry, an article by David Kaiser, M.D., in Psychiatric Times (1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12). +Challenging the Therapeutic State – special issue of The Journal of Mind and Behavior (1990, Vol.11:3). +Letter of Resignation from the American Psychiatric Association – from Loren R. Mosher, M.D., former Chief of Schizophrenia Studies at the National Institute of Mental Health. +Memorandum from the Critical Psychiatry Network to the United Kingdom Parliament – Written evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Health, April 2005. + +=== Methodological issues === +On the Limits of Localization of Cognitive Processes in the Brain – an essay by William R. Uttal, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Michigan, based on his book The New Phrenology (MIT Press, 2001). + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bothie_(dog)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bothie_(dog)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ac139f25b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bothie_(dog)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Bothie (dog)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bothie_(dog)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:02.803408+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Bothie, also known as Bothie the Polar Dog, was a long-haired Jack Russell Terrier who was the only dog to travel to both the South and North Poles. Bothie was owned by Ranulph Fiennes and Ginny Fiennes and accompanied the team on the circumpolar Transglobe Expedition from 1979 to 1982. + + +== Expedition == +The Transglobe Expedition (1979–1982) was the first successful longitudinal (north–south) circumnavigation of the Earth using only surface transport, traversing both the South and North Poles. The expedition was conceived by Ginny Fiennes and led by her husband Ranulph Fiennes. +Bothie, a stray long-haired brown-and-white Jack Russell Terrier, was given to the Fiennes couple in 1977, two years before the expedition. He was flown to join the Transglobe crew following the Africa segment, which was considered too hot for him. +Bothie accompanied Ginny Fiennes throughout the rest of the expedition. This included enduring an Antarctic winter during his nine-month stay on the continent, and spending six weeks at the pole. During this period Bothie participated in the first cricket match ever held at the South Pole. To help him with the cold temperatures Bothie was kitted with tailor-made red coat, balaclava facemask, and boots, though he was said to consider these as "seldom needed". +From Antarctica the team sailed north on the MV Benjamin Bowring to Canada. After travelling through the Northwest Passage Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton made the trip to the North Pole by powered sledges arriving 10 April 1982, before signalling to base camp that they had arrived. To celebrate their achievement, a Twin Otter aircraft was sent out to deliver the two men supplies, including champagne, as well as Bothie. At this point Bothie became the first dog to ever "set paw on both the South and North poles". +During the three-year expedition, Bothie was considered by members of the team as "a friend and welcome distraction to everyone", bringing a "sense of home and normality" to the venture. + + +== Return == +Upon return to Great Britain, following a six-month anti-rabies quarantine, Bothie achieved a level of celebrity including featuring on the Blue Peter TV programme, being voted Great Britain's Pet of the Year and presented a prize at Crufts in 1983, inspiring a soft-toy range, and entry into the Guinness Book of Pet Records. In 1984, Ranulph and Ginny Fiennes released a best-selling book on his adventures called Bothie The Polar Dog. +Following his return, Bothie retired from polar exploration aged 7 years. + + +== Legacy == +No other canine is expected to match Bothie's achievement of visiting both poles after the Antarctic Treaty of 1994, which has subsequently forbidden dogs from the Antarctic continent to protect the native seal population. + + +== See also == +List of individual dogs + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Bothie the polar dog : the dog who went to both Poles with the Transglobe Expedition at archive.org \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-0.md index 52b24fce3..2ce160b9f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:25.260017+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:36.361961+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-1.md index 57c334904..a86eff8e8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Martin_(social_scientist)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:25.260017+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:36.361961+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4633f4efd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Brilliant Light Power" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:08.670415+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Brilliant Light Power, Inc. (BLP), formerly BlackLight Power, Inc. of Cranbury, New Jersey, is a company founded by Randell L. Mills, who claims to have discovered a new energy source from what he says is the electron in a hydrogen atom dropping below its ground energy state into a "hydrino state". The claims lack corroborating scientific evidence and the proposed hydrino states are unphysical and incompatible with key equations of quantum mechanics. BLP has announced several times that it was about to deliver commercial products based on Mill's theories but has never delivered any working product. +Mills has self-published a closely related book, The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics and has co-authored numerous articles on hydrino-related phenomena. Critical analyses have been published in the peer reviewed journals Physics Letters A, New Journal of Physics, Journal of Applied Physics, and Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. In 2009, IEEE Spectrum magazine characterized it as a "loser" technology because "most experts don't believe such lower states exist, and they say the experiments don't present convincing evidence" and mentioned that physicist Wolfgang Ketterle had said the claims are "nonsense". + +== Company == +The company, originally called HydroCatalysis Inc., was founded in 1991 by Randell Mills who claimed to have discovered a power source that "represents a boundless form of new primary energy" and that will "replace all forms of fuel in the world". On April 25, 1991 at a press conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mills first announced his hydrino state hypothesis which rejects the idea that "cold fusion" was occurring in studies surrounding the Fleischmann–Pons experiment. According to Mills all the effects (which themselves were disputed to be unreproducible) were caused by shrinkage of hydrogen atoms as they fell to a state below the ground state. Arguments offered by Mills were in contradiction to known chemistry and were dismissed by the scientific community. +By December 1999, BLP raised more than $25 million from about 150 investors. By January 2006, BLP funding exceeded $60 million. +Among the investors are PacifiCorp, Conectiv, retired executives from Morgan Stanley and several BLP board members like Shelby Brewer who was the top nuclear official for the Reagan Administration and Chief Executive Officer of ABB-Combustion Engineering Nuclear Power and former board member Michael H. Jordan (1936 – 2010), who was Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo Worldwide Foods, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, CBS Corporation and Electronic Data Systems. +In 2008, Mills said that his cell stacks could provide power for long-range electric vehicles, and that this electricity would cost less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. +In December 2013, BLP was one of 54 applicants to receive ~$1.1M in grant funding from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. + +=== Collaborators with the company === +In 1996, NASA released a report describing experiments using a BLP electrolytic cell. Although not recreating the large heat gains reported for the cell by BLP, unexplained power gains ranging from 1.06 to 1.68 of the input power were reported, which, whilst "...admit[ing] the existence of an unusual source of heat with the cell...falls far short of being compelling". The authors went on to propose the recombination of hydrogen and oxygen as a possible explanation of the anomalous results. +Around 2002, the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) granted a Phase I grant to Anthony Marchese, a mechanical engineer at Rowan University, to study a possible rocket propulsion that would use hydrinos. +In 2002, Rowan University's Anthony Marchese said that whilst "agnostic about the existence of hydrinos", he was quite confident that there was no fraud involved with BLP. Although his NIAC grant was criticised by Bob Park, Marchese said "for me to not continue with this study would be unethical to the scientific community. The only reason not to pursue this would be because of being afraid of being bullied." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e36d2fd39 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Brilliant Light Power" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:08.670415+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Criticism == +In 1999, the Nobel prize winning physicist Philip Warren Anderson said he is "sure that it's a fraud", and in the same year another Nobel prize winning physicist, Steven Chu, called it "extremely unlikely". The following year, a 2000 patent based on its hydrino-related technology was later withdrawn by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) due to contradictions with known physics laws and other concerns about the viability of the described processes, citing Park and others. +An April 2000 editorial column by Robert L. Park and an outside query by an unknown person prompted Group Director Esther Kepplinger of the USPTO to review this new patent herself. Kepplinger said that her "main concern was the proposition that the applicant was claiming the electron going to a lower orbital in a fashion that I knew was contrary to the known laws of physics and chemistry", and that the patent appeared to involve cold fusion and perpetual motion. Kepplinger contacted another Director, Robert Spar, who also expressed doubts on the patentability of the patent application. This caused the USPTO to withdraw from issue the patent application before it was granted and re-open it for review, and to withdraw four related applications, including one for a hydrino power plant. +In 2000, a law firm engaged by BLP sent letters to four prominent physicists asking them to stop making what it called "defamatory comments". The physicists had been quoted in the Village Voice, Dow Jones Newswires and other publications as dismissing BLP's claims on the basis that they violated the laws of physics. In response, one of the physicists, Robert L. Park of the American Physical Society, said that if BLP sued, he was confident the scientific community would lend its support and that the court would side with the physicists. Park later wrote that a number of the recipients of the letter, who had "responded honestly to questions from the media", had since fallen silent. Scientists, Park wrote, are easy to intimidate since they are not rich enough to risk costly legal actions. +In May 2000, BLP filed suit in the US District Court of Columbia, saying that withdrawal of the application after the company had paid the fee was contrary to law. In 2002, the District Court concluded that the USPTO was acting inside the limits of its authority in withdrawing a patent over whose validity it had doubts, and later that year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ratified this decision. Applications were rejected by the UK patent office for similar reasons. The European Patent Office (EPO) rejected a similar BLP patent application due to lack of clarity on how the process worked. Reexamination of this European patent is pending. +Robert L. Park, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland and a notable skeptic, has been particularly critical of BLP since 1991. By 2000, Park remained skeptical, stating: + +"Unlike most schemes for free energy, the hydrino process of Randy Mills is not without ample theory. Mills has written a 1000 page tome, entitled, "The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Quantum Mechanics", that takes the reader all the way from hydrinos to antigravity. Fortunately, Aaron Barth [...] has taken upon himself to look through it, checking for accuracy. Barth is a post doctoral researcher at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and holds a PhD in Astronomy, 1998, from UC Berkeley. What he found initially were mathematical blunders and unjustified assumptions. To his surprise, however, portions of the book seemed well organized. These, it now turns out, were lifted verbatim from various texts. This has been the object of a great deal of discussion from Mills' Hydrino Study Group. "Mills seems not to understand what the fuss is all about." – Park +By 2008, Park continued to express his skepticism: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c13f1cc43 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Brilliant Light Power" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:08.670415+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"BlackLight Power (BLP), founded 17 years ago as HydroCatalysis, announced last week that the company had successfully tested a prototype power system that would generate 50 KW of thermal power. BLP anticipates delivery of the new power system in 12 to 18 months. The BLP process, discovered by Randy Mills, is said to coax hydrogen atoms into a "state below the ground state", called the "hydrino". There is no independent scientific confirmation of the hydrino, and BLP has a patent problem. So they have nothing to sell but bull shit. The company is therefore dependent on investors with deep pockets and shallow brains." – Park In 2008, Robert L. Park wrote that BLP has benefited from wealthy investors who allocate a proportion of their funds to risky ventures with a potentially huge upside, but that in the case of BLP since the science underlying the offering was "just wrong" investment risk was, in Park's view, "infinite". +Various scientists also voiced their opinions as far back as the 1990s. Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate in Physics in 1997, said "it's extremely unlikely that this is real, and I feel sorry for the funders, the people who are backing this". In 1999, Princeton University's physics Nobel laureate Phillip Anderson said of it, "If you could fuck around with the hydrogen atom, you could fuck around with the energy process in the sun. You could fuck around with life itself." "Everything we know about everything would be a bunch of nonsense. That's why I'm so sure that it's a fraud." Wolfgang Ketterle, a professor of physics at MIT, said BLP's claims are "nonsense" and that "there is no state of hydrogen lower than the ground state". Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist based at City University of New York, adds that "the only law that this business with Mills is proving is that a fool and his money are easily parted." and that "There's a sucker born every minute." While Peter Zimmerman was chief arms-control scientist at the State Department, he stated that his department and the Patent Office "have fought back with success" against "pseudoscientists" and he railed against, among other things, the inventors of "hydrinos". In 2009, the editors of IEEE Spectrum magazine characterized it as a "loser" technology because "[m]ost experts don't believe such lower states exist, and they say the experiments don't present convincing evidence" and mentioned that Wolfgang Ketterle had said the claims are "nonsense". BLP has announced several times that it was about to deliver commercial products based on Mill's theories but has not delivered a working product. +Mark Chu-Carroll a science blogger and professional software engineer accused Mills of engaging in a scam: "Mills... is getting investors to give him money, promising that whatever they invest, they'll get back manifold when he starts selling hydrino power generators! He promises they'll be on market within a year or two – five at most! Then he comes up with either a demonstration, or the testimonial from his neighbor, or the self-publication of his book, or another press release talking about the newest version of his technology..... It's been going on for almost 25 years, this constant cycle of press release/demo/testimonial every couple of years.... claims from 2009 claiming commercialization within 12 to 18 months; from 2005 claiming commercialization within months; and claims from 1999 claiming commercialization within a year.... But he always comes up with an excuse why those deadlines needed to be missed. And he always manages to find more investors, willing to hand over millions of dollars. As long as suckers are still willing to give him money, why wouldn't he keep on making claims?" +Scientific American reported that in 2014, Mills was asked by an interested follower if he had ever isolated hydrinos and, in spite of previous claims, Mills said that he had not and that it would be "a really, really huge task." The interlocutor pointed out that if hydrinos were being produced at the rate Mills claimed, there would be obvious observations. Moreover, there was no sign of progress, "Every year they make up half the remaining distance to commercialization, but will they ever get there?" +In 2015, an energy analyst writing for Forbes noted that Mills had made numerous extraordinary and difficult-to-believe claims including that he had "refuted quantum mechanics, can explain "mysteries of the sun" and has identified dark energy. His inventions can: produce power very cheaply through "'shrinking' the hydrogen atom's orbitsphere" with a power density of 100 billion watts per liter. Additionally, the materials created can act as an explosive or propellant, make ships rustproof and endowed with stealth properties, produce an anti-gravity effect that will allow a vessel to elevate, and "form the basis of batteries the size of a briefcase to drive your car 1000 miles at highway speeds on a single charge."" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a73b8a0e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Brilliant Light Power" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Light_Power" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:08.670415+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Peer-reviewed criticisms == +In the 2000s, several reviewed articles were published criticizing Hydrino theory for being incompatible with Quantum Mechanics. +For example, in 2005, Andreas Rathke of the European Space Agency, publishing in the New Journal of Physics, wrote that Mills' description of quantum mechanics is "inconsistent and has several serious deficiencies", and that there is "no theoretical support of the hydrino hypothesis". Rathke said it would be helpful if Mills' experimental results could be independently replicated, and suggested that any evidence produced should be reconsidered in the context of a conventional physical explanation. One inconsistency of Mills' CQM with quantum mechanics regards its inability to be reconciled with the probability density function in quantum mechanics. Rathke stated, "However, while solutions of the Schrödinger equation with n<1 indeed exist, they are not square integrable. This violates not only an axiom of quantum mechanics, but in practical terms prohibits that these solutions can in any way describe the probability density of a particle." In the same year, the Journal of Applied Physics published a critique by A.V. Phelps of the 2004 article, "Water bath calorimetric study of excess heat generation in resonant transfer plasmas" by J. Phillips, R. Mills and X. Chen. Phelps criticized both the calorimetric techniques and the underlying theory described in the Phillips/Mills/Chen article. The journal also published a response to Phelps' critique on the same day. In 2005 Šišović and others published a paper describing experimental data and analysis of Mills' claim that a resonant transfer model (RTM) explains the excessive Doppler broadening of the Hα line. Šišović concluded that: "The detected large excessive broadening in pure hydrogen and in Ne–H2 mixture is in agreement with CM [Collision Model] and other experimental results" and that "these results can't be explained by RTM". The collision model explanation for excessive broadening of the Hα line is based on established physics. +In 2006, a paper published in Physics Letters A, concluded that Mills' theoretical hydrino states are unphysical. For the hydrino states, the binding strength increases as the strength of the electric potential decreases, with maximum binding strength when the potential has disappeared completely. The author Norman Dombey remarked "We could call these anomalous states "homeopathic" states because the smaller the coupling, the larger the effect." The model also assumes that the nuclear charge distribution is a point rather than having an arbitrarily small non-zero radius. It also lacks an analogous solution in the Schrödinger equation, which governs non-relativistic systems. Dombey concluded: "We suggest that outside of science fiction this is sufficient reason to disregard them." From a suggestion in Dombey's paper, further work by Antonio Di Castro has shown that states below the ground state, as described in Mills' work, are incompatible with the Schrödinger, Klein–Gordon and Dirac equations, key equations in the study of quantum systems. +In 2008, the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics published an article by Hans-Joachim Kunze, professor emeritus at the Institute for Experimental Physics, Ruhr University Bochum, critical of the 2003 paper authored by R. Mills and P. Ray, Extreme ultraviolet spectroscopy of helium–hydrogen. The abstract of the article is: "It is suggested that spectral lines, on which the fiction of fractional principal quantum numbers in the hydrogen atom is based, are nothing else but artefacts." Kunze stated that it was impossible to detect the novel lines below 30 nm reported by Mills and Ray because the equipment they used did not have the capability to detect them as per the manufacturer and as per "every book on vacuum-UV spectroscopy" and "therefore the observed lines must be artefacts". Kunze also stated that: "The enormous spectral widths of the novel lines point to artefacts, too." + +== See also == +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience + +== References == + +== External links == +Robert L. Park: BlackLight Power: Some Ideas Are Simply Too Dumb to Die!, in his newsletter What's New, January 13, 2006 +General media +Dumé, Isabelle (August 5, 2005). "Hydrogen result causes controversy". Physics World. Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021. +Choi, Charles Q. (June 2, 2003). "Blue Light Special: Blacklight Power and laser using water". Popular Science. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. +Park, Robert L. (May 15, 2000). "The Alchemists Of Energy". Voodoo Science. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514710-0. +Raeburn, Paul (December 15, 2008). "Weird Science (Reporting) – CNN covers unfounded claims about new energy technology". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on December 16, 2008. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Alliance-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Alliance-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5de1714b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Alliance-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Bulgarian National Alliance" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Alliance" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:05.031077+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Bulgarian National Alliance, also called the Bulgarian National Union, is a Bulgarian far-right informal organization headquartered in Sofia, founded in 2001 by Boyan Rassate, which claims to be a successor to the fascist Union of Bulgarian National Legions, led by general Hristo Lukov. + + +== History == + +The long-time leader of the organization is Boyan Stankov, who goes under the pseudonym Rasate, host of National Guard (Bulgarian: Национална гвардия) on the Balkan Bulgarian Television channel. In 2010, he stepped down as leader. In his place, Zvezdomir Andronov, Asen Krastev and Nikolai Nikolaev were elected co-leaders. +In August 2007, after riots and demonstrations in the Krasna Polyana district in Sofia, BNA "Edelweiss" announced that they would create a "national guard" – an organization to protect Bulgarians, mainly from "Gypsy terror". +Former leader Boyan Rasate headed the list of the Bulgarian National Union - New Democracy (BNU-ND) for the early parliamentary elections on October 5, 2014. On this occasion, BNA "Edelweiss" issued a public statement emphasizing that they are not related to the BNS-ND party and that BNA "Edelweiss" does not "explicitly or implicitly" support any of the political parties participating in the elections. +The organization cooperates in joint initiatives with the nationalist IMRO – Bulgarian National Movement and Blood & Honor. +The organization has been registered as a non-profit legal entity for private benefit since 2001 + + +== Criticism == +The Bulgarian National Alliance has been criticized for holding fascist and neo-Nazi views. The organization claims to be the successor to the Union of Bulgarian National Legions (UBNL), an ultranationalist pro-fascist, and pro-Nazi organization in Bulgaria, active from 1932 to 1944 and is considered the most powerful fascist movement in Bulgarian history. +Due to the group's organization in the annual Lukov March, аnd also due to other events, the Bulgarian National Alliance is regarded as a proponent of neo-fascist, neo-Nazi, racist and homophobic ideologies. + + +== Notes == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Unification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Unification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..684685043 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Unification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Bulgarian National Unification" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_National_Unification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:06.213828+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Resistance (Bulgarian: Съпротива, romanized: Saprotiva) is a Bulgarian nationalist political party. The leader of the party is chalga singer Georgi Georgiev-Goti. +Before 2014, the party was called Bulgarian National Unification (Bulgarian: Българско национално обединение, romanized: Bŭlgarsko natsionalno obedinenie; BNO) + + +== History == +On December 1, 2013, the Association of Bulgarian Pensioners, Bulgarian Criminal Detachment, Association of Argoecological Producers and others. establish the Bulgarian National Unification party with Georgi Georgiev as chairman. The party describes itself as center-left and patriotic. BNO states that it will fight for a complete revision of the status quo, raising the standard of living by stimulating the economy and offering better conditions for small and medium-sized businesses. +On March 20, 2014, BNO was officially registered by the court. +BNO participated in several elections, but received more media attention in 2016, when it nominated Mityo Pishtova for presidential candidate. In 2019, Evgenia Baneva was nominated as an MEP, but soon after they withdrew their support for her. +In February 2021, BNO became a mandate holder and submitted its lists for the parliamentary elections in April to the Civil Platform "Bulgarian Summer", which was established by businessman Vasil Bozhkov. + + +=== Renaming === +Prior to the October 2024 parliamentary elections, the party renamed itself to the name "Bulgars" (Bulgarian: Булгари, romanized: Bulgari). The party was once again renamed to "Resistance" prior to the 2026 Bulgarian parliamentary election. + + +== Electoral results == +BNO participated in the elections in April 2021 as a mandate holder of the Bulgarian Summer. + + +== Party logos == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Patriots-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Patriots-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..68bf64685 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Patriots-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Bulgarian Patriots" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Patriots" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:07.363458+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Bulgarian Patriots (Bulgarian: Българските патриоти, romanized: Bŭlgarskite patrioti) was a nationalist electoral alliance formed by VMRO, Volya, and the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria. +The leaders of the three parties will not be MP candidates, as proposed by VRMO leader Krasimir Karakachanov, due to previous infighting that brought down earlier "patriotic" coalitions. + + +== Electoral history == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5c4841d8e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Burkhard Heim" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:25.630756+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Burkhard Heim (German: [haɪm]; 9 February 1925 – 14 January 2001) was a German theoretical physicist known for proposing a unified field theory called Heim theory, which he claimed could have applications to the development of hyperspace travel. + +== Academic and work history == + +=== 1940s === +In 1943, Heim met Werner Heisenberg, a German physicist involved in atom bomb research, and told him of his plan to use a form of chemical implosion to facilitate an atomic explosion. This design was based on an idea he developed for a 'clean' hydrogen bomb when he was 18. Heisenberg was impressed by Heim's knowledge, but thought the approach would be impractical. +At the start of World War II, Heim avoided conscription into the German Air Force by working in a chemical laboratory as an explosives technician. When he was 19, an explosion in the laboratory caused by the mishandling of unstable compounds left him without hands and mostly deaf and blind. Heim underwent the Krukenberg Procedure after the accident. +After World War II, Heim registered to study physics at the University of Göttingen. + +=== 1950s === +In 1952, during the third congressional session of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) in Stuttgart, Germany, Heim presented his theory for interplanetary propulsion under the title of "Die dynamische Kontrabarie als Lösung des astronomischen Problems" (The Dynamic Kontrabarie as Solution of the Astronautical Problem). It was the first time the idea of gravitational, electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces were treated as distortions of their proper Euclidean metrics in a higher-dimensional space. A brief description of Heim's lecture was recorded in the proceedings of the Society for Space Research. +In 1954, he began to study under Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker in Göttingen. He wrote his diploma thesis on physical processes in the Crab Nebula Supernova. Then, he began to work at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Göttingen. However, he soon found it extremely difficult to work in a team due to his disabilities. +In 1955, Heim was contracted by the Glenn L. Martin Company to assist them with a gravity control propulsion project. The news about Heim's contract was published during a period of increasing United States gravity control propulsion research (1955 - 1974). +In 1956, Heim completed a 27-page progress report that summarized his philosophy (syntrometry) and his theory (Principle of Dynamic Kontrabarie) for coupling general relativity with quantum dynamics for propulsion applications. Sample calculations for an expedition from the surface of the Earth to the surface of the planet Mars appeared at the end of Heim's progress report. +In November 1957, Heim delivered a lecture about his propulsion theory to the German Society for Rocket Technology and Space Travel in Frankfurt. Subsequently, Wernher von Braun sought his comments on various aerospace projects. According to von Ludwiger, a German author known for his publication on UFOs, an audiotape of Heim's presentation had been prepared for shipment to America. +In 1959, Heim completed his first publication in the German journal Zeitschrift für Flugkörper (Magazine for Missiles). Heim discussed "the principle of the dynamic "Kontrabarie," examining how a field drive would be more effective than the best chemical drive for rockets." These papers remained ambiguous on the fundamental concepts underlying his theory of the field drive, likely the calculations on the extra fields of his field theory remained unsolved. These calculations were only performed a few years later. +Heim stopped working on the propulsion aspect of his theory in 1959. He spent the remainder of his life devoted to refining the unified field attributes of his theory. + +=== 1960s === +In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there were a number of reports on Heim in magazines and tabloids such as Le Figaro, Bunte Illustrierte, Quick and Stern. The magazine le Figaro remarked, on 15 January 1969, that he was an "inhuman robot". The German television station ARD ran reports and interviews with Heim. It was speculated that Heim was likely to make a breakthrough, either in fundamental physics or propulsion theory. +On 17 November 1969, Heim reported the progress he had made towards developing his unified field theory to Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB). Pascual Jordan and Gebhard Lyra were among the small body of scientists who attended that colloquium. Jordan wrote Heim a letter on 22 December 1969, encouraging him to publish his theory. + +=== 1970s === +Ludwig Bölkow encouraged Heim to enhance his theory. On 25 November 1976, Heim publicly introduced, for the first time, his completed unified field theory in a presentation to MBB engineers. It included the methodology for calculating the mass spectrum of elementary particles. Pursuant to recommendations by Werner Heisenberg's successor, Hans-Peter Dürr, Heim published his unified field theory summary the following year in an article entitled "Recommendations of a Way to a Unified Description of Elementary Particles" in the Max Planck Institute journal Zeitschrift für Naturforschung (Journal of Natural Research). This was the first publication of his theory in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. + +=== 1980s === +In 1982, Heim's mass formula was programmed on a computer at the German Electron Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg with the assistance of some resident scientists. Up to that point, Heim had not yet confided in other theoretical physicists on the details of the mass formula derivation. Hence, the DESY results were not widely published and disseminated for academic scrutiny. That year Walter Dröscher, a theorist at the Vienna Patent Office, began to work with Heim. The first result of their collaboration culminated in the second volume of Heim's major work, appearing in 1984. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d175a2992 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Burkhard Heim" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkhard_Heim" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:25.630756+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== 2000s === +Heim died in Northeim in 2001 at age 75. +In 2004, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) awarded the winning paper in the nuclear and future flight field to a retired Austrian patent officer named Walter Dröscher and Jochem Häuser, a physicist and professor of computer science at the University of Applied Sciences in Salzgitter, Germany. They turned the theoretical framework of Burkhard Heim into a proposal for an experimental test for a propulsion device that is thought to theoretically be able to travel at rates faster than the speed of light. Hans Theodor Auerbach, a theoretical physicist and colleague of Heim has stated that, "As far as I understand it, Heim theory is ingenious," and, "I think that physics will take this direction in the future". +In 2008, the AIAA Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committee published the following statement: + +Much research was conducted this year on the investigation of the experimental basis of the existence of gravity-like fields that cannot be described by conventional gravitation; that is, by the accumulation of mass. Investigations emphasized a geometrized approach termed Extended Heim Theory, which extends Einstein's idea of geometrization of physics by employing the additional concepts of Heim. + +== Life and health == +Heim had to undergo a series of at least 50 operations after a laboratory explosion that resulted in the loss of both of his hands. He had found that intense concentration on the study of Einstein's relativity theory had helped him control the pain in his arms mentally and physically. +The loss of his hands and serious reduction of his eyesight apparently resulted in Heim acquiring an eidetic, acoustic memory. He was said to rarely forget a formula if he heard it recited, and he was said to be able to learn a language in a matter of days. He married a former concert singer from Prague in 1950 named Gerda. + +== Heim theory == +Heim theory was proposed by Heim in 1957 as an attempt to develop a theory of everything in theoretical physics. The theory claims to bridge some of the disagreements between quantum mechanics and general relativity. The theory has received little attention in the scientific literature and is regarded as being outside mainstream science but has attracted some interest in popular and fringe media. Heim attempted to resolve incompatibilities between quantum theory and general relativity. To meet that goal, he developed a mathematical approach based on quantizing spacetime. +Heim's theory also predicts the existence of two hypothetical neutrinos, which have been shown not to exist by experiments at the Large Electron–Positron Collider. + +== References == + +== External links == + +=== Biographies === +Posdzech, Olaf. "Burkhard Heim, a biography". +Posdzech, Olaf. "Über Burkhard Heim" (in German). The above in original German. +Illobrand, Ludwig. The New World View Of The Physicist Burkhard Heim + +=== Magazine articles === +New Scientist article +Cisco, T. A. (18 February 2006). "Testing Heim's theories". New Scientist. Vol. 189, no. 2539. p. 27. One of the subsequent letters to the New Scientist Editor +"Welcome to Mars express: only a three hour trip". The Scotsman. 5 January 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2015. + +=== Blog articles === +fathercrow (13 January 2006). "Sci-Fi: The Flame of Infinite Possibility". WORDS OF FIRE, INK OF BLOOD. Retrieved 7 July 2015. + +=== Institutions researching fields in which Heim had an interest === +"Forschungskreis Heimsche Theorie". Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEASE_therapy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEASE_therapy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c61a8e17b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEASE_therapy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "CEASE therapy" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEASE_therapy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:08.520548+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +CEASE (Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression) therapy is a pseudoscientific practice used by naturopaths (particularly homeopaths) who claim that it can treat or even cure people with autism, claims which have been adjudicated by the UK's Advertising Standards Authority as "bogus". It involves a mixture of supplements, high-dose vitamin C, 'orthomolecular support', dietary restrictions, and homeopathy. The therapy was developed by Dutch doctor Tinus Smits, who claimed to have used it to treat over 300 children with autism. It became more notable in 2017/2018 because of regulatory action taken by professional bodies in The Netherlands, UK, and Canada following a series of complaints about unfounded claims. +Smits in the book Autism Beyond Despair – CEASE Therapy stated that autistic children should never be vaccinated. + + +== Regulatory action == +In October 2017, the Dutch Advertising Code Foundation (Stichting Reclame Code) found that the official website for CEASE therapy was in breach of advertising regulations. +In 2022, The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) warned against CEASE therapy, which rejects vaccinations and recommends potentially harmful amounts of dietary supplements. +In the United Kingdom, in April 2018 the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) placed some requirements on the Society of Homeopaths (SoH), due to concerns about the way in which members marketed CEASE therapy. The PSA asked the SoH to confirm "what action it will take to ensure children are safe as a condition of its re-accreditation". The following June the SoH published a position statement advising their members not to imply any cure of autism when marketing CEASE therapy. It has been estimated that more than 120 homeopaths are offering CEASE in the UK though not all are SoH members. In its December 2018 accreditation review for the Federation of Holistic Therapists (FHT) the PSA received confirmation from the Federation that none of its registered homeopath members offer CEASE, that any homeopath who offers CEASE would not be accepted onto its register, and that the FHT does not "accept, endorse or insure" CEASE therapy. +In July 2015, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found Teddington Homeopathy's marketing of CEASE therapy in breach of the Advertising Standards Code. The following month the ASA added the company to its list of non-compliant online advertisers for "making unproven efficacy claims for CEASE therapy". In May 2018 the ASA wrote to homeopaths to remind them that "CEASE Therapists cannot claim to cure autism or make claims regarding detoxification" and in July 2018 they upheld an adjudication against Bubbling Life's website, determining that the claims relating to CEASE, vaccination, autism and ASD could discourage customers from seeking appropriate advice or treatment. In March 2019, the ASA published a statement that advertising of CEASE must stop and that they had referred several cases to Trading Standards. +In British Columbia, Canada, the Board of the College of Naturopathic Physicians investigated three CEASE practitioners following complaints from the public and subsequently "determined that naturopathic doctors in British Columbia must not advertise or offer CEASE therapy". As well as this prohibition the College's updated position statements also clarify that naturopathic doctors in BC must not offer anti-vaccination materials or advice (including on social media) and must not imply that vaccination causes autism. +The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not strictly regulate CEASE or homeopathic treatments. However, in response to a question about CEASE it has stated that "[the] FDA has warned about the use of products labeled as homeopathic because of concerns that they have not been shown to offer clinical benefits in treating serious and/or life-threatening medical conditions, and that they also may cause serious harm... It deeply concerns us when we see preventable diseases such as measles – a life-threatening infection we thought we had eliminated in the US in 2000 – now making a tragic comeback and threatening our communities, despite having a vaccine available that is safe and highly effective. A factor contributing to the measles outbreak is inaccurate and misleading information about vaccines rather than the reliance on accurate, scientific-based information." +In May 2019, Homeopathy International's steering group wrote to CEASE practitioners recommending that they consider changing the treatment's name to EASE (for 'Easing Autistic Spectrum Expression') to avoid the "significant legal risk" from using in their marketing material the original name or its acronym, either of which could be interpreted as "making illegal claims to cure". On 28 June 2019 the Good Thinking Society (GTS) charity filed a Judicial Review claim to challenge an earlier decision by the PSA to re-accredit the Society of Homeopaths' register. At the time of filing several (GTS alleges it to be over 50) SoH members were still offering CEASE therapy for autism. + + +== Expert assessment == +Speaking on the subject of CEASE and homeopathy, Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, said: "Measles outbreaks were both predicted and predictable as the anti-vaccine movement starts to affect public health in [the USA]. This is just the beginning – it is a harbinger of a new normal in America... There are no alternatives to vaccination against measles and there is no cure to autism – so it's all made up." + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +CEASE therapy for autism: Homeopathic quackery and “self regulation” by naturopathic boards at Science-Based Medicine, 2018 +A Spectrum of Harmful interventions for Autism: a short report (PDF) from The Westminster Commission on Autism, 2018 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_fake_vaccination_campaign_in_Pakistan-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_fake_vaccination_campaign_in_Pakistan-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..29264b810 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_fake_vaccination_campaign_in_Pakistan-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "CIA fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_fake_vaccination_campaign_in_Pakistan" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:09.721422+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +During the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, the CIA ran a covert operation utilizing a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Pakistan to illicitly collect blood samples to confirm the presence of bin Laden or his family. The CIA recruited physician Shakil Afridi to administer hepatitis vaccines, and used the collected DNA to compare with the DNA of bin Laden's sister, who died in Boston in 2010. +The program was ultimately unsuccessful in locating Osama bin Laden. It led to the arrest of a participating physician, Shakil Afridi, and was widely ridiculed as undermining public health. The program is credited with increasing vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan and a rise in violence against healthcare workers for being perceived as spies. The rise in vaccine hesitancy following the program led to the re-emergence of polio in Pakistan, with Pakistan having by far the largest number of polio cases in the world by 2014. + + +== Aftermath == +In September of 2012, after working for 30 years in Pakistan, Save the Children was expelled. +In 2011, the program was condemned by Doctors without Borders. In February 2012, the program was condemned by the non-governmental organization InterAction. On January 6, 2013, the deans of twelve American schools of public health sent a letter to Obama condemning the program. +On May 16, 2014, Lisa Monaco responded that vaccine programs would be excluded from espionage: + +I wanted to inform you that the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) directed in August 2013 that the agency make no operational use of vaccination programs, which includes vaccination workers. Similarly, the Agency will not seek to obtain or exploit DNA or other genetic material acquired through such programs. This CIA policy applies worldwide and to U.S. and non-U.S. persons alike. + + +== See also == +CIA activities in Pakistan +CIA transnational health and economic activities +Perfidy + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f7c018eb8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 1/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +False information, including disinformation and conspiracy theories about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Many countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant. +Commercial scams have claimed to offer at-home tests, supposed preventives, and "miracle" cures. Several religious groups have claimed their faith will protect them from the virus. Without evidence, some people have claimed the virus is a bioweapon accidentally or deliberately leaked from a laboratory, a population control scheme, the result of a spy operation, or the side effect of 5G upgrades to cellular networks. +The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an "infodemic" of incorrect information about the virus that poses risks to global health. While belief in conspiracy theories is not a new phenomenon, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this can lead to adverse health effects. Cognitive biases, such as jumping to conclusions and confirmation bias, may be linked to the occurrence of conspiracy beliefs. Uncertainty among experts, when combined with a lack of understanding of the scientific process by laypeople, has likewise been a factor amplifying conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to health effects, harms resulting from the spread of misinformation and endorsement of conspiracy theories include increasing distrust of news organizations and medical authorities as well as divisiveness and political fragmentation. + +== Overview == + +In January 2020, the BBC reported on the developing issue of conspiracy theories and bad health advice regarding COVID-19. Examples at the time included false health advice shared on social media and private chats, as well as conspiracy theories such as the outbreak being planned with the participation of the Pirbright Institute. In January, The Guardian listed seven instances of misinformation, adding the conspiracy theories about bioweapons and the link to 5G technology, and including varied false health advice. +In an attempt to speed up research sharing, many researchers have turned to preprint servers such as arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, and SSRN. Papers are uploaded to these servers without peer review or any other editorial process that ensures research quality. Some of these papers have contributed to the spread of conspiracy theories. Preprints about COVID-19 have been extensively shared online and some data suggest that they have been used by the media almost 10 times more than preprints on other topics. +According to a study published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, most misinformation related to COVID-19 involves "various forms of reconfiguration, where existing and often true information is spun, twisted, recontextualised, or reworked"; less misinformation "was completely fabricated". The study also found that "top-down misinformation from politicians, celebrities, and other prominent public figures", while accounting for a minority of the samples, captured a majority of the social media engagement. According to their classification, the largest category of misinformation (39%) was "misleading or false claims about the actions or policies of public authorities, including government and international bodies like the WHO or the UN". +In addition to social media, television and radio have been perceived as sources of misinformation. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Fox News adopted an editorial line that the emergency response to the pandemic was politically motivated or otherwise unwarranted, and presenter Sean Hannity claimed on-air that the pandemic was a "hoax" (he later issued a denial). When evaluated by media analysts, the effect of broadcast misinformation has been found to influence health outcomes in the population. In a natural experiment (an experiment that takes place spontaneously, without human design or intervention), two similar television news programs that were shown on the Fox News network in February–March 2020 were compared. One program reported the effects of COVID-19 more seriously, while a second program downplayed the threat of COVID-19. The study found that audiences who were exposed to the news downplaying the threat were statistically more susceptible to increased COVID-19 infection rates and death. In August 2021, television broadcaster Sky News Australia was criticised for posting videos on YouTube containing misleading medical claims about COVID-19. Conservative talk radio in the US has also been perceived as a source of inaccurate or misleading commentary on COVID-19. In August and September 2021, several radio hosts who had discouraged COVID-19 vaccination, or expressed skepticism toward the COVID-19 vaccine, subsequently died from COVID-19 complications, among them Dick Farrel, Phil Valentine and Bob Enyart. +Misinformation on the subject of COVID-19 has been used by politicians, interest groups, and state actors in many countries for political purposes: to avoid responsibility, scapegoat other countries, and avoid criticism of their earlier decisions. Sometimes there is a financial motive as well. Multiple countries have been accused of spreading disinformation with state-backed operations in the social media in other countries to generate panic, sow distrust, and undermine democratic debate in other countries, or to promote their models of government. +A Cornell University study of 38 million articles in English-language media around the world found that US President Donald Trump was the single largest driver of the misinformation. Analysis published by National Public Radio in December 2021 found that as American counties showed higher vote shares for Trump in 2020, COVID-19 vaccination rates significantly decreased and death rates significantly increased. NPR attributed the findings to misinformation. + +== Virus origin == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ae6ae5f42 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 2/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The consensus among virologists is that the most likely origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to be natural crossover from animals, having spilled-over into the human population from bats, possibly through an intermediate animal host, although the exact transmission pathway has not been determined. Genomic evidence suggests an ancestor virus of SARS-CoV-2 originated in horseshoe bats. +An alternative hypothesis under investigation, deemed unlikely by the majority of virologists given a lack of evidence, is that the virus may have accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the course of standard research. A poll in July 2021 found that 52% of US adults believe COVID-19 escaped from a lab. +Unsubstantiated speculation and conspiracy theories related to this topic have gained popularity during the pandemic. Common conspiracy theories state that the virus was intentionally engineered, either as a bio-weapon or to profit from the sale of vaccines. According to the World Health Organization, genetic manipulation has been ruled out by genomic analysis. Many other origin stories have also been told, ranging from claims of secret plots by political opponents to a conspiracy theory about mobile phones. In March 2020, the Pew Research Center found that a third of Americans believed COVID-19 had been created in a lab, and a quarter thought it had been engineered intentionally. The spread of these conspiracy theories is magnified through mutual distrust and animosity, as well as nationalism and the use of propaganda campaigns for political purposes. +The promotion of misinformation has been used by American far-right groups such as QAnon, by rightwing outlets such as Fox News, by US President Donald Trump and also other prominent Republicans to stoke anti-China sentiments, and has led to increased anti-Asian activity on social media and in the real world. This has also resulted in the bullying of scientists and public health officials, both online and in-person, fueled by a highly political and oftentimes toxic debate on many issues. Such spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories has the potential to negatively affect public health and diminish trust in governments and medical professionals. +The resurgence of the lab leak and other theories was fueled in part by the publication, in May 2021, of early emails between National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director Anthony Fauci and scientists discussing the issue. Per the emails in question, Kristian Andersen (author of one study debunking genomic manipulation theories) had heavily considered the possibility, and emailed Fauci proposing possible mechanisms, before ruling out deliberate manipulation with deeper technical analysis. These emails were later misconstrued and used by critics to claim a conspiracy was occurring. The ensuing controversy became known as the "Proximal Origin". However, despite claims to the contrary in some US newspapers, no new evidence has surfaced to support any theory of a laboratory accident, and the majority of peer-reviewed research points to a natural origin. This parallels previous outbreaks of novel diseases, such as HIV, SARS and H1N1, which have also been the subject of allegations of laboratory origin. + +=== Wuhan lab origin === + +==== Bio-weapon ==== +One early source of the bio-weapon origin theory was former Israeli secret service officer Dany Shoham, who gave an interview to The Washington Times about the biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. A scientist from Hong Kong, Li-Meng Yan, fled China and released a preprint stating the virus was modified in a lab rather than having a natural evolution. In an ad hoc peer-review (as the paper was not submitted for traditional peer review as part of the standard scientific publishing process), her claims were labelled as misleading, unscientific, and an unethical promotion of "essentially conspiracy theories that are not founded in fact". Yan's paper was funded by the Rule of Law Society and the Rule of Law Foundation, two non-profits linked to Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist, and Guo Wengui, an expatriate Chinese billionaire. This misinformation was further seized on by the American far-right, who have been known to promote distrust of China. In effect, this formed "a fast-growing echo chamber for misinformation". The idea of SARS-CoV-2 as a lab-engineered weapon is an element of the Plandemic conspiracy theory, which proposes that it was deliberately released by China. +The Epoch Times, an anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) newspaper affiliated with Falun Gong, has spread misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in print and via social media including Facebook and YouTube. It has promoted anti-CCP rhetoric and conspiracy theories around the coronavirus outbreak, for example through an 8-page special edition called "How the Chinese Communist Party Endangered the World", which was distributed unsolicited in April 2020 to mail customers in areas of the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the newspaper, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is known as the "CCP virus", and a commentary in the newspaper posed the question, "is the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan an accident occasioned by weaponizing the virus at that [Wuhan P4 virology] lab?" The paper's editorial board suggested that COVID-19 patients cure themselves by "condemning the CCP" and "maybe a miracle will happen". +In response to the propagation of theories in the US of a Wuhan lab origin, the Chinese government promulgated the conspiracy theory that the virus was developed by the United States army at Fort Detrick. The conspiracy theory was also promoted by British MP Andrew Bridgen in March 2023. +In 2025, the official White House website under the Donald Trump administration claimed that the COVID-19 virus emerged as a result of a leak in a Chinese laboratory. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e3a6910f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 11/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Bat soup === +Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, as well as individuals, disseminated a video showing a Chinese woman eating a bat, falsely suggesting it was filmed in Wuhan and connecting it to the outbreak. However, the widely circulated video contains unrelated footage of a Chinese travel vlogger, Wang Mengyun, eating bat soup in the island country of Palau in 2016. Wang posted an apology on Weibo, in which she said she had been abused and threatened, and that she had only wanted to showcase Palauan cuisine. The spread of misinformation about bat consumption has been characterized by xenophobic and racist sentiment toward Asians. In contrast, scientists suggest the virus originated in bats and migrated into an intermediary host animal before infecting people. + +=== Large gatherings === +South Korean "conservative populist" Jun Kwang-hun told his followers there was no risk to mass public gatherings as the virus was impossible to contract outdoors. Many of his followers are elderly. + +=== Lifetime of the virus === +Misinformation has spread that the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2 is only 12 hours and that staying home for 14 hours during the Janata curfew would break the chain of transmission. Another message claimed that observing the Janata curfew would result in the reduction of COVID-19 cases by 40%. + +=== Mosquitoes === +It has been claimed that mosquitoes transmit COVID-19. There is no evidence that this is true. + +=== Contaminated objects === +A fake Costco product recall notice circulated on social media purporting that Kirkland-brand bath tissue had been contaminated with COVID-19 (meaning SARS-CoV-2) due to the item being made in China. No evidence supports that SARS-CoV-2 can survive on surfaces for prolonged periods of time (as might happen during shipping), and Costco has not issued such a recall. +A warning claiming to be from the Australia Department of Health said COVID-19 spreads through petrol pumps and that everyone should wear gloves when filling up petrol in their cars. +There were claims that wearing shoes in one's home was the reason behind the spread of COVID-19 in Italy. + +=== Cruise ships as safe havens === + +In March 2020, the Miami New Times reported that managers at Norwegian Cruise Line had prepared a set of responses intended to convince wary customers to book cruises, including "blatantly false" claims that COVID-19 "can only survive in cold temperatures, so the Caribbean is a fantastic choice for your next cruise", that "Scientists and medical professionals have confirmed that the warm weather of the spring will be the end of the Coronavirus [sic]", and that the virus "cannot live in the amazingly warm and tropical temperatures that your cruise will be sailing to". +Flu is seasonal (becoming less frequent in the summer) in some countries, but not in others. While it is possible that COVID-19 will also show some seasonality, this has not yet been determined. When COVID-19 spread along international air travel routes, it did not bypass tropical locations. Outbreaks on cruise ships, where an older population lives in close quarters, frequently touching surfaces which others have touched, were common. +It seems that COVID-19 can be transmitted in all climates. It has seriously affected many warm-climate countries. For instance, Dubai, with a year-round average daily high of 28.0 Celsius (82.3 °F) and the airport said to have the world's most international traffic, has had thousands of cases. + +=== Breastfeeding === +While commercial companies that make breastmilk substitutes promote their products during the pandemic, the WHO and UNICEF advise that women should continue to breastfeed during the COVID-19 pandemic even if they have confirmed or suspected COVID-19. Evidence as of May 2020 indicates that it is unlikely that COVID-19 can be transmitted through breast milk. + +=== Sexual transmission and infertility === +COVID-19 can persist in men's semen even after they have begun to recover, although the virus cannot replicate in the reproductive system. +Chinese researchers who found the virus in the semen of men infected with COVID-19, claimed that this opened up a small chance the disease could be sexually transmitted, though this claim has been questioned by other academics since this has been shown with many other viruses such as Ebola and Zika. +A team of Italian scholars found that 11 of 43 men who recovered from infections, or one-quarter of the test subjects, had either azoospermia (no sperm in semen) or oligospermia (low sperm count). Mechanisms through which infectious diseases affect sperm is roughly divided into two categories. One involves viruses entering the testes, where they attack spermatogonia. The other involves high fever exposing the testes to heat and thereby killing sperm. + +== Prevention == +People tried many different things to prevent infection. Sometimes the misinformation was false claims of efficacy, such as claims that the virus could not spread during religious ceremonies, and at other times the misinformation was false claims of inefficacy, such as claiming that alcohol-based hand sanitizer did not work. In other cases, especially with regard to public health advice about wearing face masks, additional scientific evidence resulted in different advice over time. + +=== Hand sanitizer, antibacterial soaps === + +Claims that hand sanitizer is merely "antibacterial not antiviral", and therefore ineffective against COVID-19, have spread widely on Twitter and other social networks. While the effectiveness of sanitiser depends on the specific ingredients, most hand sanitiser sold commercially inactivates SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Hand sanitizer is recommended against COVID-19, though unlike soap, it is not effective against all types of germs. Washing in soap and water for at least 20 seconds is recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the best way to clean hands in most situations. However, if soap and water are not available, a hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol can be used instead, unless hands are visibly dirty or greasy. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration both recommend plain soap; there is no evidence that antibacterial soaps are any better, and limited evidence that they might be worse long-term. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b9195eb6c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 12/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Public use of face masks === + +Authorities, especially in Asia, recommended wearing face masks in public early in the pandemic. In other parts of the world, authorities made conflicting (or contradictory) statements. Several governments and institutions, such as in the United States, initially dismissed the use of face masks by the general population, often with misleading or incomplete information about their effectiveness. Commentators have attributed the anti-mask messaging to attempts at managing mask shortages caused by initial inaction, remarking that the claims went beyond the science, or were simply lies. + +In February 2020, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted "Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus [disease 2019]"; he later reversed his position with increasing evidence that masks can limit the spread of COVID-19. In June 2020, Anthony Fauci (a key member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force) confirmed that the American public were told not to wear masks from the beginning, due to a shortage of masks, and then explained that masks do actually work. +Some media outlets claimed that neck gaiters were worse than not wearing masks at all in the COVID-19 pandemic, misinterpreting a study which was intended to demonstrate a method for evaluating masks (and not actually to determine the effectiveness of different types of masks). The study also only looked at one wearer wearing the one neck gaiter made from a polyester/spandex blend, which is not sufficient evidence to support the claim about gaiters made in the media. The study found that the neck gaiter, which was made from a thin and stretchy material, appeared to be ineffective at limiting airborne droplets expelled from the wearer; Isaac Henrion, one of the co-authors, suggests that the result was likely due to the material rather than the style, stating that "Any mask made from that fabric would probably have the same result, no matter the design." Warren S. Warren, a co-author, said that they tried to be careful with their language in interviews, but added that the press coverage has "careened out of control" for a study testing a measuring technique. +There are false claims spread that the usage of masks causes adverse health-related issues such as low blood oxygen levels, high blood carbon dioxide levels, and a weakened immune system. Some also falsely claimed that masks cause antibiotic-resistant pneumonia by preventing pathogenic organisms to be exhaled away from the body. +Individuals have speciously claimed legal or medical exemptions to avoid complying with mask mandates. Individuals have, for instance, claimed that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; designed to prohibit discrimination based on disabilities) allows exemption from mask requirements. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) responded that the Act "does not provide a blanket exemption to people with disabilities from complying with legitimate safety requirements necessary for safe operations". The DOJ also issued a warning about cards (sometimes featuring DOJ logos or ADA notices) that claim to "exempt" their holders from wearing masks, stating that these cards are fraudulent and not issued by any government agency. + +=== Alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs === +Contrary to some reports, drinking alcohol does not protect against COVID-19, and can increase short term and long term health risks. Drinking alcohol is made with pure ethanol. Other substances such as hand sanitizer, wood alcohol, and denatured alcohol contain other alcohols, such as isopropanol or methanol. These other alcohols are poisonous, and may cause gastric ulcers, blindness, liver failure, or death. Such chemicals are commonly present in improperly fermented or distilled alcoholic beverages. +Several countries, including Iran and Turkey have reported incidents of methanol poisoning, caused by the false belief that drinking alcohol would cure or protect against COVID-19. Alcohol is banned in Iran, and bootleg alcohol may contain methanol. According to the Associated Press in March 2020, 480 people had died and 2,850 become ill due to methanol poisoning. That figure reached 700 by April. +In Kenya, in April 2020, the Governor of Nairobi Mike Sonko came under scrutiny for including small bottles of the cognac Hennessy in care packages, falsely claiming that alcohol serves as "throat sanitizer". +In 2020, tobacco smoking spread on social media as a false remedy to COVID-19 after a few small observational studies were published in which tobacco smoking was shown to be preventative against SARS-CoV-2. In April 2020, researchers at a Paris hospital noted an inverse relationship between smoking and COVID-19 infections, which led to an increase in tobacco sales in France. These results were at first so astonishing that the French government initiated a clinical trial with transdermal nicotine patches. More recent clinical evidence based on larger studies clearly demonstrates that smokers have an increased chance of COVID-19 infection and experience more severe respiratory symptoms. +In early 2020, several viral tweets spread around Europe and Africa, suggesting that snorting cocaine would sterilize one's nostrils of SARS-CoV-2. In response, the French Ministry of Health released a public service announcement debunking this claim, saying "No, cocaine does NOT protect against COVID-19. It is an addictive drug that causes serious side effects and is harmful to people's health." The World Health Organization also debunked the claim. + +=== Warm or hot drinks === +There were several claims that drinking warm drinks at a temperature of around 30 °C (86 °F) protects one from COVID-19, most notably by Alberto Fernández, the president of Argentina said "The WHO recommends that one drink many hot drinks because heat kills the virus." Scientists commented that the WHO had made no such recommendation, and that drinking hot water can damage the oral mucosa. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..76c512293 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 13/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Religious protection === +A number of religious groups have claimed protection due to their faith. Some refused to stop practices, such as gatherings of large groups, that promoted the transmission of the virus. +In Israel, some Ultra-Orthodox Jews initially refused to close synagogues and religious seminaries and disregarded government restrictions because "The Torah protects and saves", which resulted in an eight-fold faster rate of infection among some groups. +In South Korea the River of Grace Community Church in Gyeonggi Province spread the virus after spraying salt water into their members' mouths in the belief that it would kill the virus, while the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu where a church leader claimed that no Shincheonji worshipers had caught the virus in February while hundreds died in Wuhan, later caused the biggest spread of the virus in the country. In Tanzania, President John Magufuli, instead of banning congregations, urged the faithfuls to go to pray in churches and mosques in the belief that it will protect them. He said that COVID-19 is a devil, therefore "cannot survive in the body of Jesus Christ; it will burn" (the "body of Jesus Christ" refers to the Christian church). +Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020, the Church of Greece announced that Holy Communion, in which churchgoers eat pieces of bread soaked in wine from the same chalice, would continue as a practice. The Holy Synod said Holy Communion "cannot be the cause of the spread of illness", with Metropolitan Seraphim saying the wine was without blemish because it represented the blood and body of Christ, and that "whoever attends Holy Communion is approaching God, who has the power to heal". The Church refused to restrict Christians from taking Holy Communion, which was supported by several clerics, some politicians, and health professionals. The Greek Association of Hospital Doctors criticized these professionals for putting their religious beliefs before science. A review of the medical publications on the subject, published by a Greek physician, claims that the transmission of any infectious disease through the Holy Communion has never been documented. This controversy divided the Greek society, the politics and medical experts. +The Islamic missionary movement Tablighi Jamaat organised Ijtema mass gatherings in Malaysia, India, and Pakistan whose participants believed that God will protect them, causing the biggest rise in COVID-19 cases in these and other countries. In Iran, the head of Fatima Masumeh Shrine encouraged pilgrims to visit the shrine despite calls to close the shrine, saying that they "consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing". In Somalia, false claims have spread Muslims are immune to the virus. + +=== Helicopter spraying === +In Sri Lanka, the Philippines and India, it has been claimed that one should stay at home on particular days when helicopters spray "COVID-19 disinfectant" over homes. No such spraying has taken place, nor is it planned, nor, as of July 2020, is there any such agent that could be sprayed. + +=== Food === + +In India, fake news circulated that the World Health Organization warned against eating cabbage to prevent COVID-19 infection. Claims that the poisonous fruit of the Datura plant is a preventive measure for COVID-19 resulted in eleven people being hospitalized in India. They ate the fruit, following the instructions from a TikTok video that propagated misinformation regarding the prevention of COVID-19. +Claims that vegetarians are immune to COVID-19 spread online in India, causing "#NoMeat_NoCoronaVirus" to trend on Twitter. Such claims are false. + +=== Vitamin D === + +In February 2020, claims that Vitamin D pills could help prevent COVID-19 circulated on social media in Thailand. Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that vitamin D was being intentionally suppressed as a preventative option by governments. +One meta-analysis found weak evidence that increased vitamin D levels may reduce the likelihood of intensive care admission for people with COVID-19; but found no effect of mortality. +A preprint of a journal article from Indonesia purporting to show a beneficial effect of vitamin D for COVID-19 went viral across social media, and was cited several times in mainstream academic literature, including in a recommendation from NICE. Tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Mail and The Sun likewise promoted the story. Subsequent investigation, however, found none of the authors seemed to be known of at the hospitals listed as their affiliations, suggesting the paper was entirely fraudulent. +A study of YouTube content concerning vitamin D and COVID-19 in 2020 found that over three quarters of the 77 videos analysed as part of the study contained false and misleading information. Most alarmingly according to the study's authors, the majority of the purveyors of misinformation in these videos were medical professionals. The study concluded that much of the advice given by these YouTube videos may result in adverse health outcomes such as increase in risk of skin cancer from excessive sunlight exposure, if viewers followed it. + +== Vaccines == + +== Hospital conditions == +Some conservative figures in the United States, such as Richard Epstein, downplayed the scale of the pandemic, saying it has been exaggerated as part of an effort to hurt President Trump. Some people pointed to empty hospital parking lots as evidence that the virus has been exaggerated. Despite the empty parking lots, many hospitals in New York City and other places experienced thousands of COVID-19-related hospitalizations. +In the course of 2020, conspiracy theorists used the #FilmYourHospital hashtag to encourage people to record videos in seemingly empty, or sparsely populated hospitals, in order to prove that the pandemic was a "hoax". + +== Treatment == + +Widely circulated posts on social media have made many unfounded claims of treatment methods of COVID-19. Some of these claims are scams, and some promoted methods are dangerous and unhealthy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c45c4fa83 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 14/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Herbal treatments === +Various national and party-held Chinese media heavily advertised an "overnight research" report by Wuhan Institute of Virology and Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, on how shuanghuanglian, an herb mixture from traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), can effectively inhibit COVID-19. The report led to a purchase craze of shuanghuanglian. +The president of Madagascar Andry Rajoelina launched and promoted in April 2020 a herbal drink based on an artemisia plant as a miracle cure that can treat and prevent COVID-19 despite a lack of medical evidence. The drink has been exported to other African countries. +Based on in-vitro studies, extracts of E. purpurea (Echinaforce) showed virucidal activity against coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Because the data was experimental and solely derived from cell cultures, antiviral effects in humans have not been elucidated. As a result, regulatory agencies have not recommended the use of Echinacea preparations for the prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19. + +=== Vitamin C === + +During the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, vitamin C was the subject of more FDA warning letters than any other quack treatment for COVID-19. In April 2021, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines stated that "there are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin C for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19." In an update posted December 2022, the NIH position was unchanged: + +There is insufficient evidence for the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin C for the treatment of COVID-19 in nonhospitalized patients. +There is insufficient evidence for the Panel to recommend either for or against the use of vitamin C for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. + +=== Common cold and flu treatments === +In March 2020, a photo circulated online showing a 30-year-old Indian textbook that lists aspirin, antihistamines, and nasal spray as treatments for coronavirus diseases. False claims spread asserting that the book was evidence that COVID-19 started much earlier than reported and that common cold treatments could be a cure for COVID-19. The textbook actually talks about coronaviruses in general, as a family of viruses. +A rumor circulated on social media posts on Weibo, Facebook and Twitter claiming that Chinese experts said saline solutions could kill COVID-19. There is no evidence for this. +A tweet from French health minister Olivier Véran, a bulletin from the French health ministry, and a small speculative study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine raised concerns about ibuprofen worsening COVID-19, which spread extensively on social media. The European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization recommended COVID-19 patients keep taking ibuprofen as directed, citing lack of convincing evidence of any danger. + +=== Cow dung and urine === +Indian political activist Swami Chakrapani and Member of the Legislative Assembly Suman Haripriya claimed that drinking cow urine and applying cow dung on the body can cure COVID-19. In Manipur, two people were arrested under the National Security Act for social media posts which said cow urine and dung did not cure the virus. (They were arrested under Section 153 of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). +WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan criticised politicians incautiously spreading such misinformation without evidence. + +=== 2-Deoxy-D-glucose === +A drug based on 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) was approved by the Drugs Controller General of India for emergency use as adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients. +The drug was launched at a press conference with a false claim that it was approved by the World Health Organization. It was developed by the DRDO along with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, who stated in a press release, that the drug "helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence". The Wire as well as The Hindu noted that the approval was based on poor evidence; no journal publication (or preprint) concerning efficacy and safety are yet available. + +=== Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions === +Since its third version, the COVID management guidelines from the Chinese National Health Commission recommends using Traditional Chinese medicines to treat the disease. In Wuhan, China Central Television reported that local authorities have pushed for a set of TCM prescriptions to be used for every case since early February. One formula was promoted at the national level by mid-February. The local field hospitals were explicitly TCM-oriented. According to state media, as of 16 March 2020, 91.91% of all Hubei patients have used TCM, with the rate reaching 99% in field hospitals and 94% in bulk quarantine areas. In March 2020, the online insert of the official People's Daily, distributed in The Daily Telegraph, published an article stating that Traditional Chinese medicine "helps fight coronavirus [disease 2019]". + +=== Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine === + +There were claims that chloroquine was used to cure more than 12,000 COVID-19 patients in Nigeria. +In March 2020, Adrian Bye, a tech startup leader who is not a doctor, suggested to cryptocurrency investors Gregory Rigano and James Todaro that "chloroquine will keep most people out of hospital". (Bye later admitted that he had reached this conclusion through "philosophy" rather than medical research.) Two days later, Rigano and Todaro promoted chloroquine in a self-published article that claimed affiliation with the Stanford University School of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences and the Birmingham School of Medicine – the three institutions mentioned that they had no links to the article, and Google removed the article for violating its terms of service. + +=== Ivermectin === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f3e386b0d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 15/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Dangerous treatments === +Proponents of Miracle Mineral Supplement (an aqueous solution of chlorine dioxide that is generally considered ineffective and dangerous for treating disease) have also promoted it as a treatment for COVID-19. On July 8, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration in the US raided the family compound of Mark Grenon, founder of Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, a promoter and distributor of MMS. In October 2023, Mark, alongside many of his family members, were sentenced to prison for distributing an unapproved and misbranded drug. +Twelve people were hospitalized in India when they ingested the poisonous thornapple (Datura stramonium AKA Jimsonweed) after seeing the plant recommended as a 'coronavirus [disease 2019] home remedy' in a TikTok video. Datura species contain many substances poisonous to humans, mainly through anticholinergic effects. + +=== Silver === +In February 2020, televangelist Jim Bakker promoted a colloidal silver solution, sold on his website, as a remedy for COVID-19; naturopath Sherrill Sellman, a guest on his show, falsely stated that it "hasn't been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it's been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours". The US Food and Drug Administration and New York Attorney General's office both issued cease-and-desist orders against Bakker, and he was sued by the state of Missouri over the sales. +The New York Attorney General's office also issued a cease-and-desist order to radio host Alex Jones, who was selling silver-infused toothpaste that he falsely claimed could kill the virus and had been verified by federal officials, causing a Jones spokesman to deny the products had been sold for the purpose of treating any disease. The FDA later threatened Jones with legal action and seizure of several silver-based products if he continued to promote their use against COVID-19. + +=== Mustard oil === +The yoga guru Ramdev claimed that one can treat COVID-19 by pouring mustard oil through the nose, causing the virus to flow into the stomach where it would be destroyed by gastric acid. He also claimed that if a person can hold their breath for a minute, it means they do not have any type of coronavirus, symptomatic or asymptomatic. Both these claims were found to be false. + +=== Untested treatments === + +Misinformation that the Indian government was spreading an "anti-corona" drug in the country during Janata curfew, a stay-at-home curfew enforced in India, went viral on social media. +Following the first reported case of COVID-19 in Nigeria in February, untested cures and treatments began to spread via platforms such as WhatsApp. +In March 2020, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested actor Keith Lawrence Middlebrook for wire fraud with a fake COVID-19 cure. + +=== Spiritual healing === +Another televangelist, Kenneth Copeland, claimed on Victory Channel during a programme called "Standing Against Coronavirus", that he can cure television viewers of COVID-19 directly from the television studio. The viewers had to touch the television screen to receive the spiritual healing. + +=== Organ trafficking === +In India, baseless rumours spread saying that people were being taken to care centres and killed to harvest their organs, with their bodies then being swapped to avoid suspicion. These rumours spread more quickly through online platforms such as WhatsApp, and resulted in protests, attacks against healthcare workers, and reduced willingness to seek COVID-19 testing and treatment. + +== Other == + +=== Name of the disease === +Social media posts and Internet memes claimed that COVID-19 derives from "Chinese Originated Viral Infectious Disease 19", or similar, as supposedly the "19th virus to come out of China". In fact, the WHO named the disease as follows: CO stands for corona, VI for virus, D for disease and 19 for when the outbreak was first identified (31 December 2019). +Another false social media rumor claimed COVID-19 was an acronym derived from a series of ancient symbols interpreted as "see a sheep surrender." + +=== Simpsons prediction === +Claims that The Simpsons had predicted the COVID-19 pandemic in 1993, accompanied by a doctored screenshot from the episode "The Fool Monty" (where the text "Corona Virus" was layered over the original text "Apocalypse Meow", without blocking it from view), were later found to be false. The claim had been widely spread on social media. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..88ba85ce2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 16/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Return of wildlife === +During the pandemic, many false and misleading images or news reports about the environmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic were shared by clickbait journalism sources and social media. +A viral post that originated on Weibo and spread on Twitter claimed that a pack of elephants descended on a village under quarantine in China's Yunnan, got drunk on corn wine, and passed out in a tea garden. A Chinese news report debunked the claim that the elephants got drunk on corn wine and noted that wild elephants were a common sight in the village; the image attached to the post was originally taken at the Asian Elephant Research Center in Yunnan in December 2019. +Following reports of reduced pollution levels in Italy as a result of lockdowns, images purporting to show swans and dolphins swimming in Venice canals went viral on social media. The image of the swans was revealed to have been taken in Burano, where swans are common, while footage of the dolphins was filmed at a port in Sardinia hundreds of miles away. The Venice mayor's office clarified that the reported water clarity in the canals was due to the lack of sediment being kicked up by boat traffic, not a reduction in water pollution as initially reported. +Following the lockdown of India, a video clip purporting to show the extremely rare Malabar civet (a critically endangered, possibly extinct, species) walking the empty streets of Meppayur went viral on social media. Experts later identified the civet in the video as actually being the much commoner small Indian civet. Another viral Indian video clip showed a pod of humpback whales allegedly returning to the Arabian Sea offshore from Mumbai following the shutdown of shipping routes; however, this video was found to have actually been taken in 2019 in the Java Sea. + +=== Virus remains in body permanently === +It has been wrongly claimed that anyone infected with COVID-19 will have the virus in their bodies for life. While there is no curative treatment, most infected people recover from the disease and eliminate the virus from their bodies. + +=== COVID-19 denialism === + +COVID-19 denialism or merely COVID denialism is the thinking of those who deny the COVID-19 pandemic, or deny that deaths are happening in the manner or proportions scientifically recognized by the World Health Organization. The claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has been faked, exaggerated, or mischaracterized are pseudoscience. Some famous people who have engaged in COVID-19 denialism include businessman Elon Musk, U.S. President Donald Trump, and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. + +=== Antisemitism === +An October 2021 report by the UK-based anti-racism group Hope not Hate found that COVID-19 conspiracy theories were a primary gateway into antisemitic rhetoric, due to what they described as "conspiratorial antisemitism". According to the report, "An important bridge between COVID-19 conspiracy theories and antisemitism are ideologies that provide overarching explanations for smaller alleged deceptions. For example, the need for anti-5G campaigners to explain why telecom companies, healthcare providers and authorities are conspiring to expose the population to supposedly dangerous radiation has driven attention towards 'superconspiracies'." +Also in October 2021, the fact-checking organisation Logically found that antisemitic conspiracy theories related to the pandemic were being promoted on one of the largest COVID-19 conspiracy groups on Telegram, including posts highlighting Jewish people in leadership positions at Moderna, Pfizer, the CDC and US President Joe Biden's White House, and claims that mask and vaccine mandates were similar to the Holocaust. + +=== US anti-vax anti-China covert operation === +At the beginning of the pandemic, Philippine President Duterte had sought Chinese assistance for vaccines, easing claims in the South China Sea, and improving relations between the two countries. To counter China's influence in the Philippines, under Donald Trump's presidency, the US military conducted a covert operation aimed at spreading doubts about the safety of Chinese aid, including vaccines. This campaign of misinformation has contributed to low vaccination coverage and increased death rates from COVID-19 in the Philippines. Health experts condemned these actions, pointing out the damage done to public trust and global health. The operation involved the creation of fake social media accounts posing as Filipinos and spreading anti-vaccine messages. The campaign was described by then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper as "payback" for COVID-19 disinformation by China directed against the U.S. +The operation spread to other regions such as in the Middle East and Central Asia like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where the Pentagon aimed to intensify fears that the Chinese vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech contained pork derivatives, and could be considered "haram", i.e. forbidden by Islamic law. +The operation ended in mid-2021, when the Biden administration banned the anti-vaccine campaign. + +=== Use of past tense === +As early as August 2020, Trump advisor Larry Kudlow referred to the COVID pandemic in the past tense at the Republican National Convention, which The Atlantic declared "out of step with reality." Since the end of lockdown measures, the use of past tense to describe COVID-19 has become common. The continued spread of COVID-19 is distinct from the pandemic phase. Many experts feel that COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic, but they note that the virus continues to spread and remains a threat to health, an underreported cause of death, and can cause Long COVID. In 2024, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke against the use of past tense to describe COVID-19: + +In the past five years, more than 7 million deaths from COVID-19 have been reported to WHO, but we estimate the true death toll to be at least three times higher. We cannot talk about COVID in the past tense. It’s still with us, it still causes acute disease and “long COVID”, and it still kills. On average this year, about 1000 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported to WHO each week – and that’s just from the few countries that are still reporting. The world might want to forget about COVID-19, but we cannot afford to. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-16.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..89a213317 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-16.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 17/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Efforts to combat misinformation == + +In February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) described a "massive infodemic", citing an over-abundance of reported information, which was false, about the virus that "makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it". The WHO stated that the high demand for timely and trustworthy information has incentivised the creation of a direct WHO 24/7 myth-busting hotline where its communication and social media teams have been monitoring and responding to misinformation through its website and social media pages. The WHO specifically debunked several claims as false, including the claim that a person can tell if they have the virus or not simply by holding their breath; the claim that drinking large amounts of water will protect against the virus; and the claim that gargling salt water prevents infection. + +=== Social media === + +In early February 2020, Facebook, Twitter, and Google announced that they were working with WHO to address misinformation on their platforms. In a blog post, Facebook stated that it would remove content flagged by global health organizations and local authorities that violate its content policy on misinformation leading to "physical harm". Facebook is also giving free advertising to WHO. Nonetheless, a week after Trump's speculation that sunlight could kill the virus, The New York Times found "780 Facebook groups, 290 Facebook pages, nine Instagram accounts and thousands of tweets pushing UV light therapies", material which those companies declined to remove from their platforms. In August 2020, Facebook removed seven million posts with misinformation about COVID-19. +At the end of February 2020, Amazon removed more than a million products that claimed to cure or protect against COVID-19, and removed tens of thousands of listings for health products whose prices were "significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon", although numerous items were "still being sold at unusually high prices" as of 28 February. +Millions of instances of COVID-19 misinformation have occurred across multiple online platforms. Other researchers monitoring the spread of fake news observed certain rumors started in China; many of them later spread to Korea and the United States, prompting several universities in Korea to start the multilingual "Facts Before Rumors" campaign to evaluate common claims seen online. The proliferation of such misinformation on social media has led to workshops for the application of machine learning resources to detect misinformation. +Party and ideology partisanship has also contributed to the public's lack of trust in messages delivered via social media channels, leading to a greater proclivity to follow fake news and misinformation campaigns. According to research, COVID mass media communication should prioritize increasing trust in scientific medicine over attempting to bridge the issue's partisan divide. +In addition, the divisive nature of the issue, being mired in existing political tensions, has led to online bullying of scientists. + +=== Wikipedia === + +The media have praised Wikipedia's coverage of COVID-19 and its combating the inclusion of misinformation through efforts led by the English-language Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine, among other groups. From May 2020, Wikipedia's consensus for the COVID-19 pandemic page has been to "not mention the theory that the virus was accidentally leaked from a laboratory in the article." However, in June 2021, Wikipedia editors began debating the inclusion of the lab leak hypothesis. WHO began working with Wikipedia to provide much of its infographics and reports on COVID-19 to help fight misinformation, with plans to use similar approaches for fighting misinformation about other infectious diseases in the future. + +=== Newspapers and scholarly journals === +Initially, many newspapers with paywalls lowered them for some or all their COVID-19 coverage. Many scientific publishers made scientific papers related to the outbreak open access (free). +The scientific publishing community, while intent on producing quality scholarly publications, has itself been negatively impacted by the infiltration of inferior or false research leading to the retraction of several articles on the topic of COVID-19, as well as polluting valid and reliable scientific study, bringing into question the reliability of research undertaken. Retraction Watch maintains a database of retracted COVID-19 articles. + +=== Podcasts === +In January 2022, 270 US healthcare professionals, scientists and professors wrote an open letter to Spotify complaining that podcast host Joe Rogan had a "concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the Covid-19 pandemic" and describing him as a "menace to public health". This was in part due to Rogan platforming and promoting the conspiracy theories of Robert W. Malone who was one of two recent guests on The Joe Rogan Experience who compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust. The letter described the interview as a "mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-17.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-17.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d10b5ef1c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-17.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 18/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Government censorship === +In many countries, censorship was performed by governments, with "fake news" laws being enacted to criminalize certain types of speech regarding COVID-19. Often, people were arrested for making posts online. +In March 2020, the Turkish Interior Ministry reported 93 suspects and 19 arrests of social media users whose posts were "targeting officials and spreading panic and fear by suggesting the virus had spread widely in Turkey and that officials had taken insufficient measures". In April 2020, Iran's military said that 3600 people had been arrested for "spreading rumors" about COVID-19 in the country. In Cambodia, at least 17 individuals who expressed concerns about the spread of COVID-19 were arrested between January and March 2020 on "fake news" charges. In April 2020, Algerian lawmakers passed a law criminalizing "fake news" deemed harmful to "public order and state security". +In the Philippines, China, India, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Serbia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, people have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Arab Emirates has introduced criminal penalties for the spread of misinformation and rumours related to the outbreak. Myanmar blocked access to 221 news websites, including several leading media outlets. +In the United States, some elected officials aided the spread of misinformation. In January 2022, Congressman Troy Nehls entered a full transcript of the Malone interview on The Joe Rogan Experience into the Congressional Record in order to circumvent what he said was censorship by social media. + +== Scams == +The WHO has warned of criminal scams involving perpetrators who misrepresent themselves as representatives of the WHO seeking personal information from victims. The Federal Communications Commission has advised consumers not to click on links in suspicious emails and not to give out personal information. The Federal Trade Commission has also warned of charity scams related to the pandemic. +Cybersecurity firm Check Point stated there has been a large increase in phishing attacks to lure victims into unwittingly installing a computer virus under the guise of emails related to COVID-19 containing attachments. Cyber-criminals use deceptive domains such as "cdc-gov.org" instead of the correct "cdc.gov", or even spoof the original domain so it resembles specific websites. More than 4,000 domains related to COVID-19 have been registered. +Police in New Jersey, United States, reported incidents of criminals knocking on people's doors and claiming to be from the CDC. They then attempt to sell products at inflated prices or otherwise scam victims under the guise of educating and protecting the public from COVID-19. +Links that purportedly direct to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 map, but instead direct to a false site that spreads malware, have been circulating on the Internet. +Since the passage in March 2020, of the CARES Act, criminals have taken advantage of the stimulus bill by asking people to pay in advance to receive their stimulus payment. Because of this, the IRS has advised consumers to only use the official IRS COVID-19 web address to submit information to the IRS (and not in response to a text, email, or phone call). In response to these schemes, many financial companies, like Wells Fargo and LoanDepot, as well as health insurers, like Humana, for example, have posted similar advisories on their websites. + +== See also == + +COVID-19 misinformation in Canada +COVID-19 misinformation in the Philippines +COVID-19 misinformation by the United States + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== External links == + +LaFrance A (June 2020). "The Prophecies of Q". The Atlantic. +Lytvynenko J (21 May 2020). "Coronavirus Pseudoscientists And Conspiracy Theorists". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 26 October 2020. +Ulloa J (6 May 2020). "How memes, text chains, and online conspiracies have fueled coronavirus protesters and discord". The Boston Globe. +Uscinski JE, Enders AM (30 April 2020). "The Coronavirus Conspiracy Boom". The Atlantic. +Zhang S (24 May 2020). "We Don't Even Have a COVID-19 Vaccine, and Yet the Conspiracies Are Here". The Atlantic. +"Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Mythbusters". World Health Organization. +"Coronavirus". PolitiFact. +"Coronavirus Resource Center". Center for Inquiry. 25 March 2020. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..761629a03 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 3/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Gain-of-function research ==== +One idea used to support a laboratory origin invokes previous gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. Virologist Angela Rasmussen argued that this is unlikely, due to the intense scrutiny and government oversight gain-of-function research is subject to, and that it is improbable that research on hard-to-obtain coronaviruses could occur under the radar. The exact meaning of "gain of function" is disputed among experts. +In May 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Anthony Fauci of having "funded the creation of COVID" through gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). +Citing an essay by science writer Nicholas Wade, Carlson alleged that Fauci had directed research to make bat viruses more infectious to humans. +In a hearing the next day, US senator Rand Paul alleged that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, accusing researchers including epidemiologist Ralph Baric of creating "super-viruses". +Both Fauci and NIH Director Francis Collins have denied that the US government supported such research. +Baric likewise rejected Paul's allegations, saying that his lab's research into the potential in bat coronaviruses for cross-species transmission was not deemed gain-of-function by NIH or the University of North Carolina, where he works. +A 2017 study of chimeric bat coronaviruses at the WIV listed NIH as a sponsor; however, NIH funding was only related to sample collection. Based on this and other evidence, The Washington Post rated the claim of an NIH connection to gain-of-function research on coronaviruses as "two pinocchios", representing "significant omissions and/or exaggerations". + +==== Accidental release of collected sample ==== +Another theory suggests the virus arose in humans from an accidental infection of laboratory workers by a natural sample. Unfounded online speculation about this scenario has been widespread. +In March 2021, an investigatory report released by the WHO described this scenario as "extremely unlikely" and not supported by any available evidence. The report acknowledged, however, that the possibility cannot be ruled out without further evidence. The investigation behind this report operated as a joint collaboration between Chinese and international scientists. At the release briefing for the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reiterated the report's calls for a deeper probe into all evaluated possibilities, including the laboratory origin scenario. The study and report were criticised by heads of state from the US, the EU, and other WHO member countries for a lack of transparency and incomplete access to data. Further investigations have also been requested by some scientists, including Anthony Fauci and signatories of a letter published in Science. +Since May 2021, some media organizations softened previous language that described the laboratory leak theory as "debunked" or a "conspiracy theory". On the other hand, scientific opinion that an accidental leak is possible, but unlikely, has remained steady. A number of journalists and scientists have said that they dismissed or avoided discussing the lab leak theory during the first year of the pandemic as a result of perceived polarization resulting from Donald Trump's embrace of the theory. + +=== Stolen from Canadian lab === +Some social media users have alleged that COVID-19 was stolen from a Canadian virus research lab by Chinese scientists. Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that this had "no factual basis". The stories seem to have been derived from a July 2019 CBC news article stating that some Chinese researchers had their security access to the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, a Level 4 virology lab, revoked after a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation. Canadian officials described this as an administrative matter and said there was no risk to the Canadian public. +Responding to the conspiracy theories, the CBC stated that its articles "never claimed the two scientists were spies, or that they brought any version of [a] coronavirus to the lab in Wuhan". While pathogen samples were transferred from the lab in Winnipeg to Beijing in March 2019, neither of the samples contained a coronavirus. The Public Health Agency of Canada has stated that the shipment conformed to all federal policies, and that the researchers in question are still under investigation, and thus it cannot be confirmed nor denied that these two were responsible for sending the shipment. The location of the researchers under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has also not been released. +In a January 2020 press conference, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, when asked about the case, stated that he could not comment specifically on it, but expressed concerns about "increased efforts by the nations to spy on NATO allies in different ways". + +=== Accusations by China === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..091dd202c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 4/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +According to The Economist, conspiracy theories exist on China's internet about COVID-19 being created by the CIA in order to "keep China down". According to an investigation by ProPublica, such conspiracy theories and disinformation have been propagated under the direction of China News Service, the country's second largest government-owned media outlet controlled by the United Front Work Department. Global Times and Xinhua News Agency have similarly been implicated in propagating disinformation related to COVID-19's origins. NBC News however has noted that there have also been debunking efforts of US-related conspiracy theories posted online, with a WeChat search of "Coronavirus [disease 2019] is from the U.S." reported to mostly yield articles explaining why such claims are unreasonable. +In March 2020, two spokesmen for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian and Geng Shuang, alleged at a press conference that Western powers may have "bio-engineered" COVID-19. They were alluding that the US Army created and spread COVID-19, allegedly during the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan, where numerous cases of influenza-like illness were reported. +A member of the U.S. military athletics delegation based at Fort Belvoir, who competed in the 50mi Road Race at the Wuhan games, became the subject of online targeting by netizens accusing her of being "patient zero" of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, and was later interviewed by CNN, to clear her name from the "false accusations in starting the pandemic". +In January 2021, Hua Chunying renewed the conspiracy theory from Zhao Lijian and Geng Shuang that the SARS-CoV-2 virus originating in the United States at the U.S. biological weapons lab Fort Detrick. This conspiracy theory quickly went trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and Hua Chunying continued to cite evidence on Twitter, while asking the government of the United States to open up Fort Detrick for further investigation to determine if it is the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In August 2021, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman repeatedly used an official podium to elevate the Fort Detrick's origin unproven idea. +According to a report from Foreign Policy, Chinese diplomats and government officials in concert with China's propaganda apparatus and covert networks of online agitators and influencers have responded, focused on repeating Zhao Lijian's allegation relating to Fort Detrick in Maryland, and the "over 200 U.S. biolabs" around the world. In April 2025, the Chinese government "restated its case that COVID-19 may have originated in the United States" according to Reuters. + +=== Accusations by Russia === + +In February 2020, US officials alleged that Russia is behind an ongoing disinformation campaign, using thousands of social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to deliberately promote unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming the virus is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA and the US is waging economic war on China using the virus. +In March 2022, amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that US President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, as well as billionaire George Soros, were closely tied to Ukrainian biolabs. American right-wing media personalities, such as Tucker Carlson, highlighted the story, while Chinese Communist Party-owned tabloid Global Times further stated that the labs had been studying bat coronaviruses, which spread widely on the Chinese internet for insinuating that the United States had created SARS-CoV-19 in Ukrainian laboratories. + +=== Accusations by other countries === +According to Washington, DC-based nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, numerous writers in the Arabic press have promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19, as well as SARS and the swine flu virus, were deliberately created and spread to sell vaccines against these diseases, and it is "part of an economic and psychological war waged by the U.S. against China with the aim of weakening it and presenting it as a backward country and a source of diseases". +Accusations in Turkey of Americans creating the virus as a weapon have been reported, and a YouGov poll from August 2020 found that 37% of Turkish respondents believed the US government was responsible for creating and spreading the virus. + +An Iranian cleric in Qom said Donald Trump targeted the city with coronavirus "to damage its culture and honor". Several figures associated with the ruling government also claimed that COVID-19 was a "biological attack" by the U.S. against China and Iran. Reza Malekzadeh, Iran's deputy health minister and former Minister of Health, said it was "highly unlikely" that the virus was a biological weapon, noting that the US would be suffering heavily from it. He said Iran was hard-hit because its close ties to China and reluctance to cut air ties introduced the virus, and because early cases had been mistaken for influenza. +In Iraq, pro-Iranian social media users waged a Twitter campaign during Trump's Presidency to end U.S. presence in the country by blaming it for the virus. The campaign centered around hashtags such as #Bases_of_the_American_pandemic and #Coronavirus_is_Trump's_weapon. A March 2020 survey by USCENTCOM found that 67% of Iraqi respondents believed a foreign force was behind COVID-19, with 72% of them naming the USA as that force. +Theories blaming the USA have also circulated in the Philippines, Venezuela and Pakistan. An October 2020 Globsec poll of Eastern European countries found that 38% of respondents in Montenegro and Serbia, 37% of those in North Macedonia, and 33% in Bulgaria believed the USA deliberately created COVID-19. + +=== Jewish origin === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9d18d6150 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 5/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== In the Muslim world ==== +Iran's Press TV asserted that "Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran." Similarly, some Arab media outlets accused Israel and the United States of creating and spreading COVID-19, avian flu, and SARS. Users on social media offered other theories, including the allegation that Jews had manufactured COVID-19 to precipitate a global stock market collapse and thereby profit via insider trading, while a guest on Turkish television posited a more ambitious scenario in which Jews and Zionists had created COVID-19, avian flu, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever to "design the world, seize countries, [and] neuter the world's population". Turkish politician Fatih Erbakan reportedly said in a speech: "Though we do not have certain evidence, this virus serves Zionism's goals of decreasing the number of people and preventing it from increasing, and important research expresses this." +Israeli attempts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine prompted negative reactions in Iran. Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi denied initial reports that he had ruled that a Zionist-made vaccine would be halal, and one Press TV journalist tweeted that "I'd rather take my chances with the virus than consume an Israeli vaccine." A columnist for the Turkish Yeni Akit asserted that such a vaccine could be a ruse to carry out mass sterilization. + +==== In the United States ==== +An alert by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the possible threat of far-right extremists intentionally spreading COVID-19 mentioned blame being assigned to Jews and Jewish leaders for causing the pandemic and several statewide shutdowns. + +==== In Germany ==== +Flyers have been found on German tram cars, falsely blaming Jews for the pandemic. +In April 2022, two members of the Reichsbürger movement (later implicated in the 2022 German coup d'état plot) were charged with conspiring to kidnap the German health minister Karl Lauterbach. + +==== In Britain ==== +According to a study carried out by the University of Oxford in early 2020, nearly one-fifth of respondents in England believed to some extent that Jews were responsible for creating or spreading the virus with the motive of financial gain. + +=== Muslims spreading virus === + +In India, Muslims have been blamed for spreading infection following the emergence of cases linked to a Tablighi Jamaat religious gathering. There are reports of vilification of Muslims on social media and attacks on individuals in India. Claims have been made that Muslims are selling food contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 and that a mosque in Patna was sheltering people from Italy and Iran. These claims were shown to be false. In the UK, there are reports of far-right groups blaming Muslims for the pandemic and falsely claiming that mosques remained open after the national ban on large gatherings. + +=== Population-control scheme === + +According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a YouTuber supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, has falsely claimed that the outbreak was a population-control scheme created by the Pirbright Institute in England and by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. +In mid-2020, a hoax spread on social media claiming that World Bank documents showed that they had been planning pandemic measures since 2017 or 2018, even though the documents did not mention COVID-19 until they were updated after the pandemic began. A similar hoax also spread at the same time, which involved an alleged test to detect COVID-19 patented by the Rothschild family in 2015, even though in reality the patent did not mention COVID-19 at all before 2020, and it was only updated after the pandemic began. +In Germany, it had been repeatedly falsely claimed on the Internet during the pandemic that the German government and the Robert Koch Institute had acknowledged the non-existence of COVID-19. +Piers Corbyn was described as "dangerous" by physician and broadcaster Hilary Jones during their joint interview on Good Morning Britain in early September 2020. Corbyn described COVID-19 as a "psychological operation to close down the economy in the interests of mega-corporations" and stated "vaccines cause death". + +=== 5G mobile networks === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..17f4de8e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 6/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The first conspiracy theories purporting a link between COVID-19 and 5G mobile networks had already appeared by the end of January 2020. Such claims spread rapidly on social media networks, leading to the spread of misinformation in what has been likened to a "digital wildfire". +In March 2020, Thomas Cowan, a holistic medical practitioner who trained as a physician and operates on probation with the Medical Board of California, alleged that COVID-19 is caused by 5G. He based this on the claims that African countries had not been affected significantly by the pandemic and Africa was not a 5G region. Cowan also falsely alleged that the viruses were waste from cells that were poisoned by electromagnetic fields, and that historical viral pandemics coincided with major developments in radio technology. +The video of Cowan's claims went viral and was recirculated by celebrities, including Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, and singer Keri Hilson. The claims may also have been recirculated by an alleged "coordinated disinformation campaign", similar to campaigns used by the Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The claims were criticized on social media and debunked by Reuters, USA Today, Full Fact and American Public Health Association executive director Georges C. Benjamin. +Cowan's claims were repeated by Mark Steele, a conspiracy theorist who claimed to have first-hand knowledge that 5G was in fact a weapon system capable of causing symptoms identical to those produced by the virus. Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who had been struck off the UK nursing registry and had become a promoter of conspiracy theories, repeatedly claimed that these symptoms were identical to those produced by exposure to electromagnetic fields. +Steve Powis, national medical director of NHS England, described theories linking 5G mobile-phone networks to COVID-19 as the "worst kind of fake news". Viruses cannot be transmitted by radio waves, and COVID-19 has spread and continues to spread in many countries that do not have 5G networks. +There were 20 suspected arson attacks on phone masts in the UK over the 2020 Easter weekend. These included an incident in Dagenham where three men were arrested on suspicion of arson, a fire in Huddersfield that affected a mast used by emergency services, and a fire in a mast that provides mobile connectivity to the NHS Nightingale Hospital Birmingham. Some telecom engineers reported threats of violence, including threats to stab and murder them, by individuals who believe them to be working on 5G networks. In April 2020, Gardaí and fire services were called to fires at 5G masts in County Donegal, Ireland. The Gardaí were treating the fires as arson. After the arson attacks, British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the theory that COVID-19 virus may be spread by 5G wireless communication is "just nonsense, dangerous nonsense as well". Telecommunications provider Vodafone announced that two Vodafone masts and two it shares with O2, another provider, had been targeted. +By April 2020, at least 20 mobile-phone masts in the UK had been vandalised. Because of the slow rollout of 5G in the UK, many of the damaged masts had only 3G and 4G equipment. Mobile-phone and home broadband operators estimated there were at least 30 incidents where engineers maintaining equipment were confronted in the week up to 6 April. As of 30 May, there had been 29 incidents of attempted arson at mobile-phone masts in the Netherlands, including one case where "Fuck 5G" was written. There have also been incidents in Ireland and Cyprus. Facebook has deleted messages encouraging attacks on 5G equipment. +A study authored by doctors Robert R. Brown and Beverly Rubik which concluded that a causal link between the virus and 5G was non-existent was misinterpreted on social media as evidence of a relation between the two. +Engineers working for Openreach, a division of British Telecom, posted pleas on anti-5G Facebook groups asking to be spared abuse as they are not involved with maintaining mobile networks. Industry lobby group Mobile UK said the incidents were affecting the maintenance of networks that support home working and provide critical connections to vulnerable customers, emergency services, and hospitals. A widely circulated video showed a woman accusing employees of broadband company Community Fibre of installing 5G as part of a plan to kill the population. +Of those who believed that 5G networks caused COVID-19 symptoms, 60% stated that much of their knowledge about the virus came from YouTube. In April 2020, YouTube announced that it would reduce the amount of content claiming links between 5G and COVID-19. Videos that are conspiratorial about 5G that do not mention COVID-19 would not be removed, though they might be considered "borderline content" and therefore removed from search recommendations, losing advertising revenue. The discredited claims had been circulated by British conspiracy theorist David Icke in videos (subsequently removed) on YouTube and Vimeo, and an interview by London Live TV network, prompting calls for action by Ofcom. It took YouTube on average 41 days to remove Covid-related videos containing false information in the first half of 2020. +Ofcom issued guidance to ITV following comments by Eamonn Holmes about 5G and COVID-19 on This Morning. Ofcom said the comments were "ambiguous" and "ill-judged" and they "risked undermining viewers' trust in advice from public authorities and scientific evidence". Ofcom also found local channel London Live in breach of standards for an interview it had with David Icke. It said that he had "expressed views which had the potential to cause significant harm to viewers in London during the pandemic". +In April 2020, The Guardian revealed that Jonathan Jones, an evangelical pastor from Luton, had provided the male voice on a recording blaming 5G for deaths caused by COVID-19. He claimed to have formerly headed the largest business unit at Vodafone, but insiders at the company said that he was hired for a sales position in 2014 when 5G was not a priority for the company and that 5G would not have been part of his job. He had left Vodafone after less than a year. +A tweet started an internet meme that Bank of England £20 banknotes contained a picture of a 5G mast and the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Facebook and YouTube removed items pushing this story, and fact checking organisations established that the picture is of Margate Lighthouse and the "virus" is the staircase at the Tate Britain. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bca93321a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 7/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== American scientist selling virus to China === +In April 2020, rumors circulated on Facebook, alleging that the US Government had "just discovered and arrested" Charles Lieber, chair of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department at Harvard University for "manufacturing and selling" the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to China. According to a report from Reuters, posts spreading the rumor were shared in multiple languages over 79,000 times on Facebook. Lieber was arrested in January 2020, and later charged with two federal counts of making an allegedly false statement about his links to a Chinese university, unrelated to the virus. The rumor of Lieber, a chemist in an area entirely unrelated to the virus research, developing COVID-19 and selling it to China has been discredited. + +=== Meteor origin === +In 2020, a group of researchers that included Edward J. Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe, the foremost living proponent of panspermia, speculated in ten research papers that COVID-19 originated from a meteor spotted as a bright fireball over the city of Songyuan in Northeast China in October 2019 and that a fragment of the meteor landed in the Wuhan area, which started the first COVID-19 outbreaks. However, the group of researchers did not provide any direct evidence proving this conjecture. +In an August 2020 article, Astronomy.com called the meteor origin conjecture "so remarkable that it makes the others look boring by comparison". + +=== NCMI intelligence report === +In April 2020, ABC News reported that, in November 2019, "U.S. intelligence officials were warning that a contagion was sweeping through China's Wuhan region, changing the patterns of life and business and posing a threat to the population". The article stated that the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), had produced an intelligence report in November 2019 which raised concerns about the situation. The director of the NCMI, Col. R. Shane Day said "media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November 2019 is not correct. No such NCMI product exists". + +== PCR testing == +Social media posts have falsely claimed that Kary Mullis, the inventor of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), said that PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 does not work. Mullis, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of PCR, died in August 2019 before the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and never made these statements. Several posts claim Mullis said "PCR tests cannot detect free infectious viruses at all", that PCR testing was designed to detect any non-human DNA or the DNA and RNA of the person being tested, or that the process of DNA amplification used in PCR will lead to contamination of the samples. A video of a 1997 interview with Mullis has also been widely circulated, in which Mullis says PCR will find "anything"; the video description asserts that this means PCR cannot be used to reliably detect SARS-CoV-2. +In reality, the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 is highly sensitive to the virus, and testing laboratories have controls in place to prevent and detect contamination. However, the tests only reveal the presence of the virus and not whether it remains infectious. +A claim attributed to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health that PCR testing is fraudulent became popular in the Philippines and remains a widespread belief. According to a report from AFP, research associate Joshua Miguel Danac of the University of the Philippines' National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology debunked the claim, calling PCR tests "the gold standard for diagnosis". Fake testing and perception of fake testing remains a problem in the Philippines. + +== Symptoms and severity == +In early 2020, there were a number of viral photos and videos that were mischaracterized as showing an extreme severity to COVID-19 exposure. In January and February 2020, a number of videos from China were circulated on social media that purported to show people infected with COVID-19 either suddenly collapsing, or having already collapsed, on the street. Some of these videos were republished or referenced by some tabloid newspapers, including the Daily Mail and The Sun. However, the people in these videos are generally believed to have been suffering from something other than COVID-19, such as one who was drunk. +A video from February 2020 purported to be of dead COVID-19 victims in China was actually a video from Shenzhen of people sleeping on the street. Similarly, a photo that circulated in March 2020 of dozens of people lying down in the street, purported to be of COVID-19 victims in either China or Italy, was in fact a photo of living people from a 2014 art project in Germany. + +== Incidence and mortality == +Correctly reporting the number of people who were sick or who had died was difficult, especially during the earliest days of the pandemic. + +=== In China === + +==== Chinese under-reporting during early 2020 ==== +Leaked documents show that China's public reporting of cases gave an incomplete picture during the early stages of the pandemic. For example, in February 2020, China publicly reported 2,478 new confirmed cases. However, confidential internal documents that later leaked to CNN showed 5,918 new cases in February. These were broken down as 2,345 confirmed cases, 1,772 clinically diagnosed cases and 1,796 suspected cases. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..abbf501e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 8/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Nurse whistleblower ==== +In January 2020, a video circulated online appearing to be of a nurse named Jin Hui in Hubei, describing a far more dire situation in Wuhan than reported by Chinese officials. However, the BBC said that, contrary to its English subtitles in one of the video's existing versions, the woman does not claim to be either a nurse or a doctor in the video and that her suit and mask do not match the ones worn by medical staff in Hubei. +The video claimed that more than 90,000 people had been infected with the virus in China, that the virus could spread from one person to 14 people (R0 = 14) and that the virus was starting a second mutation. The video attracted millions of views on various social media platforms and was mentioned in numerous online reports. The claimed R0 of 14 in the video was noted by the BBC to be inconsistent with the expert estimation of 1.4 to 2.5 at that time. The video's claim of 90,000 infected cases was noted to be 'unsubstantiated'. + +==== Alleged leak of death toll by Tencent ==== +In February 2020, Taiwan News published an article claiming that Tencent may have accidentally leaked the real numbers of death and infection in China. Taiwan News suggested that the Tencent Epidemic Situation Tracker had briefly showed infected cases and death tolls many times higher of the official figure, citing a Facebook post by a 38-year-old Taiwanese beverage store owner and an anonymous Taiwanese netizen. The article, referenced by other news outlets such as the Daily Mail and widely circulated on Twitter, Facebook and 4chan, sparked a wide range of conspiracy theories that the screenshot indicates the real death toll instead of the ones published by health officials. +The author of the original news article defended the authenticity and newsworthiness of the leak on a WION program. + +==== Mass cremation in Wuhan ==== +In February 2020, a report emerged on Twitter claiming that data showed a massive increase in sulfur emissions over Wuhan, China. The Twitter thread then claimed the reason was due to the mass cremation those who died from COVID-19. The story was shared on multiple media outlets, including Daily Express, Daily Mail, and Taiwan News. Snopes debunked the misinformation, pointing out that the maps used by the claims were not real-time observations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentrations above Wuhan. Instead, the data was a computer-generated model based on historical information and forecast on SO2 emissions. +A story in The Epoch Times in February 2020 shared a map from the Internet that falsely alleged massive sulfur dioxide releases from crematoriums during the COVID-19 pandemic in China, speculating that 14,000 bodies may have been burned. A fact check by AFP reported that the map was a NASA forecast taken out of context. + +==== Decline in cellphone subscriptions ==== +There was a decrease of nearly 21 million cellphone subscriptions among the three largest cellphone carriers in China, which led to misinformation that this is evidence for millions of deaths due to COVID-19 in China. The drop is attributed to cancellations of phone services due to a downturn in the social and economic life during the outbreak. + +=== In the US === +Accusations have been made of under-reporting, over-reporting, and other problems. Necessary data was corrupted in some places, for example, on the state level in the United States. +The public health handling of the pandemic has been hampered by the use of archaic technology (including fax machines and incompatible formats), poor data flow and management (or even no access to data), and general lack of standardization and leadership. Privacy laws hampered contact tracing and case finding efforts, which resulted in under-diagnosis and under-reporting. + +==== Allegations of inflated death counts ==== +In August 2020, President Donald Trump retweeted a conspiracy theory alleging that COVID-19 deaths are systematically overcounted, and that only 6% of the reported deaths in the United States were actually from the disease. This 6% number is based on only counting death certificates where COVID-19 is the sole condition listed. The lead mortality statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics said that those death certificates likely did not include all the steps that led to the death and thus were incomplete. The CDC collects data based on case surveillance, vital records, and excess deaths. A FactCheck.org article on the issue reported that while 6% of the death certificates included COVID-19 exclusively as the cause of death and 94% had additional conditions that contributed to it, COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause of death in 92% of them, as it may directly cause other severe conditions such as pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. +The U.S. experienced 882,000 "excess deaths" (i.e., deaths above the baseline expected from normal mortality in previous years) between February 2020 and January 2022, which is somewhat higher than the officially recorded mortality from COVID-19 during that period (835,000 deaths). Analysis of weekly data from each U.S. state shows that the calculated excess deaths are strongly correlated with COVID-19 infections, undercutting the notion that the deaths were primarily caused by some factor other than the disease. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b631f8151 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 9/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Misleading Johns Hopkins News-Letter article ==== +In November 2020, an article by Genevieve Briand (assistant director for the Master's program in Applied Economics at JHU) was published in the student-run Johns Hopkins News-Letter claiming to have found "no evidence that COVID-19 create[d] any excess deaths". The article was later retracted after it was used to promote conspiracy theories on right-wing social media accounts and misinformation websites, but the presentation was not removed from YouTube, where it had been viewed more than 58,000 times as of 3 December 2020. +Briand compared data from spring 2020 and January 2018, ignoring expected seasonal variations in mortality and unusual peaks in the spring and summer of 2020 compared to previous spring and summer months. Briand's article failed to account for the total excess mortality from all causes reported during the pandemic, with 300,000 deaths associated with the virus per CDC data in 2020. Deaths per age group were also shown as a proportion percentage rather than as raw numbers, obscuring the effects of the pandemic when the number of deaths increases but the proportions are maintained. The article also suggested that deaths attributed to cardiac and respiratory diseases in infected persons were incorrectly categorized as deaths due to COVID-19. This view fails to recognize that those with such conditions are more vulnerable to the virus and therefore more likely to die from it. The retraction of Briand's article went viral on social media under false claims of censorship. + +=== Misinformation targeting Taiwan === + +In February 2020, the Taiwanese Central News Agency reported that large amounts of misinformation had appeared on Facebook claiming the pandemic in Taiwan was out of control, the Taiwanese government had covered up the total number of cases, and that President Tsai Ing-wen had been infected. The Taiwan fact-checking organization had suggested the misinformation on Facebook shared similarities with mainland China due to its use of simplified Chinese characters and mainland China vocabulary. The organization warned that the purpose of the misinformation is to attack the government. +In March 2020, Taiwan's Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau warned that China was trying to undermine trust in factual news by portraying the Taiwanese government reports as fake news. Taiwanese authorities have been ordered to use all possible means to track whether the messages were linked to instructions given by the Chinese Communist Party. The PRC's Taiwan Affairs Office denied the claims, calling them lies, and said that Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party was "inciting hatred" between the two sides. They then claimed that the "DPP continues to politically manipulate the virus". According to The Washington Post, China has used organized disinformation campaigns against Taiwan for decades. +Nick Monaco, the research director of the Digital Intelligence Lab at Institute for the Future, analyzed the posts and concluded that the majority appear to have come from ordinary users in China, not the state. However, he criticized the Chinese government's decision to allow the information to spread beyond China's Great Firewall, which he described as "malicious". According to Taiwan News, nearly one in four cases of misinformation are believed to be connected to China. +In March 2020, the American Institute in Taiwan announced that it was partnering with the Taiwan FactCheck Center to help combat misinformation about the COVID-19 outbreak. + +=== Misrepresented World Population Project map === +In early February 2020, a decade-old map illustrating a hypothetical viral outbreak published by the World Population Project (part of the University of Southampton) was misappropriated by a number of Australian media news outlets (and British tabloids The Sun, Daily Mail and Metro) which claimed the map represented the COVID-19 pandemic. This misinformation was then spread via the social media accounts of the same media outlets, and while some outlets later removed the map, the BBC reported, in February, that a number of news sites had yet to retract the map. + +=== "Casedemic" === +COVID-19 deniers use the word casedemic as a shorthand for a conspiracy theory holding that COVID-19 is harmless and that the reported disease figures are merely a result of increased testing. The concept is particularly attractive to anti-vaccination activists, who use it to argue that public health measures, and particularly vaccines, are not needed to counter what they say is a fake epidemic. +David Gorski writes that the word casedemic was seemingly coined by Ivor Cummins—an engineer whose views are popular among COVID-19 deniers—in August 2020. +The term has been adopted by alternative medicine advocate Joseph Mercola, who has exaggerated the effect of false positives in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to construct a false narrative that testing is invalid because it is not perfectly accurate (see also § PCR testing, above). In reality, the problems with PCR testing are well-known and accounted for by public health authorities. Such claims also disregard the possibility of asymptomatic spread, the number of potentially-undetected cases during the initial phases of the pandemic in comparison to the present due to increased testing and knowledge since, and other variables that can influence PCR tests. + +== Disease spread == +Early in the pandemic, little information was known about how the virus spreads, when the first people became sick, or who was most vulnerable to infection, serious complications, or death. During 2020, it became clear that the main route of spread was through exposure to the virus-laden respiratory droplets produced by an infected person. There were also some early questions about whether the disease might have been present earlier than reported; however, subsequent research disproved this idea. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..551caa29f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 misinformation" +chunk: 10/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:10.992341+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== California herd immunity in 2019 === +In March 2020, Victor Davis Hanson publicized a theory that COVID-19 may have been in California in the fall of 2019 resulting in a level of herd immunity to at least partially explain differences in infection rates in cities such as New York City vs Los Angeles. Jeff Smith of Santa Clara County stated that evidence indicated the virus may have been in California since December 2019. Early genetic and antibody analyses refute the idea that the virus was in the United States prior to January 2020. + +=== Patient Zero === +In March 2020, conspiracy theorists started the false rumor that Maatje Benassi, a US army reservist, was "Patient Zero" of the pandemic, the first person to be infected with COVID-19. Benassi was targeted because of her participation in the 2019 Military World Games at Wuhan before the pandemic started, even though she never tested positive for the virus. Conspiracy theorists even connected her family to the DJ Benny Benassi as a Benassi virus plot, even though they are not related and Benny had also not had the virus. + +=== Airborne === +Before mid-2021 the World Health Organization (WHO) denied that COVID readily spread through the air; although, they acknowledged such spread could occur during certain medical procedures as of July 2020. In February 2020 the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, initially stated COVID was airborne during a press conference, only to retract this statement a few minutes later. In March 2020 WHO tweeted "FACT: #COVID19 is NOT airborne." +The air quality researcher Lidia Morawska viewed their initial position as "spreading misinformation". Hundreds of scientists, by mid 2020, viewed airborne spread as occurring and called on the WHO to change their position. Concerns were raised that "conservative voices" within the WHO committee tasked with these guidelines were preventing new evidence from being incorporated. + +=== Surfaces === +Early in the pandemic it was claimed that COVID-19 could be spread by contact with contaminated surfaces or fomites—even though this is an uncommon transmission route for other respiratory viruses. This led to recommendations that high-contact surfaces (like playground equipment or school desks) be frequently deep-cleaned and that certain items (like groceries or mailed packages) be disinfected. Ultimately, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that the likelihood of transmission under these scenarios was less than 1 in 10,000. They further concluded that handwashing reduced the risk of exposure to COVID-19, but surface disinfection did not. + +=== Susceptibility based on ethnicity === +There have been claims that specific ethnicities are more or less vulnerable to COVID-19. COVID-19 is a new zoonotic disease, so no population has yet had the time to develop population immunity. +Beginning in February 2020, reports quickly spread via Facebook, implied that a Cameroonian student in China had been completely cured of the virus due to his African genetics. While a student was successfully treated, other media sources have indicated that no evidence implies Africans are more resistant to the virus and labeled such claims as false information. Kenyan Secretary of Health Mutahi Kagwe explicitly refuted rumors that "those with black skin cannot get coronavirus [disease 2019]", while announcing Kenya's first case in March. This false claim was cited as a contributing factor in the disproportionately high rates of infection and death observed among African Americans. +There have been claims of "Indian immunity": that the people of India have more immunity to the COVID-19 virus due to living conditions in India. This idea was deemed "absolute drivel" by Anand Krishnan, professor at the Centre for Community Medicine of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He said there was no population immunity to the COVID-19 virus yet, as it is new, and it is not even clear whether people who have recovered from COVID-19 will have lasting immunity, as this happens with some viruses but not with others. +Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the virus was genetically targeted at Iranians by the US, giving this explanation for the pandemic having seriously affected Iran. He did not offer any evidence. +A group of Jordanian researchers published a report claiming that Arabs are less vulnerable to COVID-19 due to a genetic variation specific to those of Middle East heritage. This paper had not been debunked by November 2020. + +==== Xenophobic blaming by ethnicity and religion ==== + +COVID-19-related xenophobic attacks have been made against individuals with the attacker blaming the victim for COVID-19 on the basis of the victim's ethnicity. People who are considered to look Chinese have been subjected to COVID-19-related verbal and physical attacks in many other countries, often by people accusing them of transmitting the virus. Within China, there has been discrimination (such as evictions and refusal of service in shops) against people from anywhere closer to Wuhan (where the pandemic started) and against anyone perceived as being non-Chinese (especially those considered African), as the Chinese government has blamed continuing cases on re-introductions of the virus from abroad (90% of reintroduced cases were by Chinese passport-holders). Neighbouring countries have also discriminated against people seen as Westerners. +People have also simply blamed other local groups along the lines of pre-existing social tensions and divisions, sometimes citing reporting of COVID-19 cases within that group. For instance, Muslims have been widely blamed, shunned, and discriminated against in India (including some violent attacks), amid unfounded claims that Muslims are deliberately spreading COVID-19, and a Muslim event at which the disease did spread has received far more public attention than many similar events run by other groups and the government. White supremacist groups have blamed COVID-19 on non-whites and advocated deliberately infecting minorities they dislike, such as Jews. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6dd72e1e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A variety of unfounded conspiracy theories and other misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines have spread based on misunderstood or misrepresented science, religion, and law. These have included exaggerated claims about side effects, misrepresentations about how the immune system works and when and how COVID-19 vaccines are made, a story about COVID-19 being spread by 5G, and other false or distorted information. This misinformation, some created by anti-vaccination activists, has proliferated and may have made many people averse to vaccination. +Vaccine hesitancy has led to governments and private organizations around the world introducing measures to incentivize or coerce vaccination, such as lotteries, mandates, and free entry to events, which has in turn led to further misinformation about the legality and effect of these measures themselves. Critics of vaccine mandates have argued that such requirements infringe on individual medical choice and personal autonomy. +In the US, some prominent biomedical scientists who publicly advocate vaccination have been attacked and threatened in emails and on social media by anti-vaccination activists. + +== Misinformation == + +Various false theories have spread in different parts of the world regarding the COVID-19 vaccines. + +=== COVID-19 and variant related claims === + +==== Prevalent COVID-19 skepticism ==== +Prior to the vaccine launch many citizens expressed skepticism that COVID-19 was a serious disease or that their countries had cases or high number of cases of the disease during 2020 and 2021. This prior skepticism that was pushed by the late President of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli is seen as a leading reason for vaccine hesitancy within the country. Magufuli declared Tanzania COVID-19 free in mid-2020 and pushed herbal remedies, praying and steam inhalation as remedies to COVID-19. Also in mid-2020, a hoax spread on social media claiming that World Bank documents showed they had been planning pandemic measures since 2017 or 2018, even though the documents did not mention COVID-19 until they were updated after the pandemic began. + +==== Delta variant and vaccines ==== +As the delta variant of COVID-19 began to spread globally, disinformation campaigns seized on the idea that COVID-19 vaccines had caused the delta variant, despite the fact that the vaccines cannot replicate the virus. A French virologist likewise falsely claimed that antibodies from vaccines had created and strengthened COVID-19 variants through a previously debunked theory of Antibody-dependent enhancement. A related debunked theory, out of India, claimed that COVID-19 vaccines were lowering people's ability to withstand new variants instead of boosting immunity. +The website Natural News published an article in July 2021 claiming that CDC director Rochelle Walensky admitted that COVID-19 vaccines do not protect against the delta variant and that vaccinated people could be superspreaders due to having a higher viral load. Walensky actually said in a press briefing that vaccinated and unvaccinated people could have "similarly high" viral loads when infected with the delta variant, but did not say that vaccinated people had a higher viral loads or were "super-spreaders". She also stated that the vaccine "continues to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death", even against the delta variant. A July 2021 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 88 percent effective in preventing symptomatic infections caused by the delta variant. + +=== Organized crime === + +==== Fake vaccines ==== +In July 2021, Indian police arrested 14 people for administering doses of fake salt water vaccines instead of the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at nearly a dozen private vaccination sites in Mumbai. The organizers, including medical professionals, charged between $10 and $17 for each dose, and more than 2,600 people paid to receive the vaccine. +Interpol issued a global alert in December 2020 to law enforcement agencies in its member countries to be on the lookout for organized crime networks targeting COVID-19 vaccines, physically and online. The WHO also released a warning in March 2021 after many ministries of health and regulatory agencies received suspicious offers to supply vaccines. They also noted that some doses of the vaccines were being offered on the dark web priced between $500 and $750, but there was no way to verify the distribution pipeline. + +==== Fake vaccination cards ==== +In the United States, there was a surge of individuals either looking to purchase fake vaccination cards, alter medical records to show vaccination, or create fake vaccination cards to sell. In Hawaii a vacationer was arrested after it was discovered she had a fake vaccination card, a California doctor was arrested for falsifying patients' vaccination records, and three state troopers in Vermont were arrested for helping create false cards. In August 2021 US Customs and Border Prevention agents seized 121 packages with more than 3,000 fake vaccination cards that had been shipped from Shenzhen to be distributed in the US. +Check Point research released in August 2021 showed that fake vaccination cards were being sold via messaging apps and priced between $100 and $120 a card. Interpol announced that they were seeing a direct correlation between countries requiring negative COVID-19 tests to enter the country and the increased number of provided fake vaccination cards. + +=== Medical claims === + +==== Claims of inefficacy ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cfc52687f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Recurrent claims, based on misinterpretation of statistical data, have been made regarding the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. A frequent fallacy consisted in concluding on the ineffectiveness (or low effectiveness) of vaccines after noticing the apparently high proportion of vaccinated patients among COVID-19-related hospitalisations and deaths, without taking into account the high proportion of vaccinated people among the general population, thus committing the base rate fallacy; or without taking into account the tendency of people at higher risk of developing severe illness from COVID-19 to be vaccinated in priority, thus ignoring the Yule–Simpson effect. +In the United Kingdom, a report from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), published in March 2021, predicted that 60% of hospitalisations and 70% of deaths would be among people who had received two doses of the vaccine, despite the latter remaining highly effective. The report stated: "This (modelling) is not the result of vaccines being ineffective, merely uptake being so high". +Multiple studies have confirmed the effectiveness of a booster dose given on top of the two normal doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. There is evidence that those who have received a boosted dose experience reduced severity of infection, in addition to reduced likelihood of developing COVID-19 to begin with. +On 17 January 2023, Ron DeSantis claimed, "Almost every study now has said with these new boosters, you're more likely to get infected with the bivalent booster," but PolitiFact rated that claim False, noting that, on the contrary, a "study found that the bivalent booster is 30% effective in preventing infection from the virus." + +==== mRNA vaccines are not vaccines ==== +Financial analyst and self-help entrepreneur David Martin claimed that mRNA vaccines do not fit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) definitions of a vaccine because they do not prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While research has been ongoing to evaluate the effect of vaccination on SARS-CoV 2 transmission, neither the CDC nor the FDA stipulate that vaccines must stop transmission of a virus, both stating that a vaccine is a product that stimulates the immune system to produce immunity to an infectious agent. + +==== Altering human DNA ==== +The use of mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 has been the basis of misinformation circulated in social media, wrongly claiming that the use of RNA somehow alters a person's DNA. The DNA alteration conspiracy theory was cited by a Wisconsin hospital pharmacist who deliberately removed 57 vaccine vials from cold storage in December 2020 and was subsequently charged with felony reckless endangerment and criminal damage to property by Ozaukee County prosecutors. +mRNA in the cytosol is very rapidly degraded before it would have time to gain entry into the cell nucleus (mRNA vaccines must be stored at very low temperature to prevent mRNA degradation). Retrovirus can be single-stranded RNA (just as SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is single-stranded RNA) which enters the cell nucleus and uses reverse transcriptase to make DNA from the RNA in the cell nucleus. A retrovirus has mechanisms to be imported into the nucleus, but other mRNA lack these mechanisms. Once inside the nucleus, creation of DNA from RNA cannot occur without a primer, which accompanies a retrovirus, but which would not exist for other mRNA if placed in the nucleus. Thus, mRNA vaccines cannot alter DNA because they cannot enter the nucleus, and because they have no primer to activate reverse transcriptase. +Because of misinformation suggesting that COVID-19 might alter DNA, some academics insisted that mRNA vaccines were not a "gene therapy" to prevent the spread of this misinformation, but others said that mRNA vaccines were a gene therapy because they introduce genetic material into cells. + +==== Reproductive health ==== +In a December 2020 petition to the European Medicines Agency, German physician Wolfgang Wodarg and British researcher Michael Yeadon suggested, without evidence, that mRNA vaccines could cause infertility in women by targeting the syncytin-1 protein necessary for placenta formation. Their petition to halt vaccine trials soon began circulating on social media. A survey of young women in the United Kingdom later found that more than a quarter would refuse COVID-19 vaccines out of concerns for their effects on fertility. A study in Andrologia found that Google searches relating to a supposed link between vaccination against COVID-19 and adverse effects on fertility increased following the Emergency Use Authorization of COVID vaccines in the United States, indicating that concerns about alleged impacts on fertility are a major contributor to vaccine hesitancy. Syncytin-1 and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein targeted by the vaccines are largely dissimilar, sharing a sequence of only four amino acids out of several hundred. A study conducted on 44 rats injected with the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at doses over 300 times the human dose by body weight and 44 rats injected with placebo found no statistically significant evidence of any adverse effects on the fertility of female rats or on the health of the offspring of rats (the 3% lower pregnancy rate found in the vaccine group was not statistically significant). David Gorski wrote on Science-Based Medicine that Wodarg and Yeadon were "stoking real fear [...] based on speculative nonsense". +False claims that a vaccinated person could "shed" SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins, allegedly causing menstrual irregularities or other harmful effects on the reproductive health of non-vaccinated women who are in proximity to them, such as miscarriage, were cited by the Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, which announced it would not employ teachers who received the COVID-19 vaccine. +Other businesses refused to serve vaccinated customers, citing concerns that vaccinated people could shed the virus. +Some promoters of this claim have recommended the use of face masks and social distancing to protect themselves from those who have been vaccinated. +Gynecologist and medical columnist Jen Gunter stated none of the vaccines currently approved in the United States "can possibly affect a person who has not been vaccinated, and this includes their menstruation, fertility, and pregnancy". + +==== Risk of diseases ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..26bc5cab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +===== Bell's palsy ===== +In late 2020, claims circulated on social media that the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine caused Bell's palsy in trial participants. Several pictures which had originally been published prior to 2020 accompanied these posts, and were falsely labeled as these participants. During the trial, four of the 22,000 trial participants indeed developed Bell's palsy. The FDA observed that the "frequency of reported Bell's palsy in the vaccine group is consistent with the expected background rate in the general population". +Debate is still ongoing about whether or not there is a causal link between any of the major COVID-19 vaccines and Bell's palsy. However, experts agree that even if an association exists, it occurs extremely rarely and the effect is small (~10 cases per 100,000 vs 3-7 cases per 100,000 in a typical pre-pandemic year). Bell's palsy is usually temporary and known to occur following many vaccines. + +===== Blood clots ===== +Videos posted to Facebook and Instagram have claimed without evidence that 62 percent of people given an mRNA vaccine develop blood clots, and that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine causes blood to clot "in a minute or two". Studies have found possible causal links between the AstraZeneca and Janssen COVID-19 vaccines and a rare clotting disorder known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), but the risk is low for most people, with 47 confirmed reports of the condition out of more than 15 million recipients of the Janssen vaccine in the United States as of October 2021. A 2021 study published in the British Medical Journal suggested that SARS-CoV-2 infection is approximately 200 times more likely to cause blood clots in patients than the AstraZeneca vaccine. Other population-level studies have demonstrated similar, that the risk of blood clots from COVID-19 is higher than from vaccines. + +===== Cancer ===== +The website Natural News has published claims that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 can cause cancer by inactivating tumor-suppressing proteins. This claim was based on a misrepresentation of a 2018 study at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), which did not involve the mRNA used in vaccines. The study found that transcription errors in certain mRNA molecules could disrupt production of tumor-suppressing proteins. However, mRNA used in vaccines is made artificially, and poses no risk of transcription errors once made. +A retracted Japanese study titled "Increased Age-Adjusted Cancer Mortality After the Third mRNA-Lipid Nanoparticle Vaccine Dose During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan" was used to claim that COVID-19 vaccine recipients were more likely to develop various cancers, although the authors themselves admitted that their results were not clinically verified. The study does not present data breaking down cancer deaths by vaccination status, nor does it show that it increases after vaccination, or that it is higher in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated individuals of the same age or comorbidity status, nor does it provide any epidemiological evidence that vaccines increased the risk of cancer. + +===== Prion disease ===== +A widely reposted 2021 Facebook post claiming that the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 could cause prion diseases was based on a paper by J. Bart Classen. The paper was published in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, whose publisher, Scivision Publishers, is included in Beall's list of publishers of predatory journals. Classen's only published evidence for his claim was a brief summary of an "unspecified analysis of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine", according to NewsGuard. Vincent Racaniello, professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, described the claim as "completely wrong". +Previous mRNA vaccines have been tested in humans, and were not found to cause prion disease. The mRNA contained in the vaccine is degraded within a few days of entering the cells of a person receiving it and does not accumulate in the brain. The U.S. Alzheimer's Association has stated that currently available COVID-19 vaccines are safe for persons with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. + +==== Polio vaccine as a claimed COVID-19 carrier ==== +Social media posts in Cameroon pushed a conspiracy theory that polio vaccines contained COVID-19, further complicating polio eradication beyond the logistical and funding difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic. + +==== Antibody-dependent enhancement ==== +Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is the phenomenon in which a person with antibodies against one virus (i.e. from infection or vaccination) can develop worse disease when infected by a second closely related virus, due to a unique and rare reaction with proteins on the surface of the second virus. ADE has been observed in vitro and in animal studies with many different viruses that do not display ADE in humans. Researchers acknowledge that "Fundamentally, this question should be asked of all vaccine candidates under development, despite the rarity of the phenomenon." +Prior to the pandemic, ADE was observed in animal studies of laboratory rodents with vaccines for SARS-CoV, the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). However, as of 27 January 2022 there have been no observed incidents with vaccines for COVID-19 in trials with nonhuman primates, in clinical trials with humans, or following the widespread use of approved vaccines. Molecular simulations indicate that ADE might play a role in new strains such as delta, but none in the strains that the vaccines were originally designed for. Anti-vaccination activists cited ADE as a reason to avoid vaccination against COVID-19. + +==== Vaccines contain aborted fetal tissue ==== + +In November 2020, claims circulated on the web that the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine contained tissue from aborted fetuses. While it is true that cell lines derived from a fetus aborted in 1970 plays a role in the vaccine development process, the molecules for the vaccine are separated from the resulting cell debris. +Several other COVID-19 vaccine candidates use fetal cell lines descended from fetuses aborted between 1972 and 1985. No fetal tissue is present in these vaccines. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..22a75349d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Spike protein cytotoxicity ==== +In 2021, anti-vaccination misinformation circulated on social media saying that SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins were "very dangerous" and "cytotoxic". At that time, all COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use either contained mRNA or mRNA precursors for the production of the spike protein. This mRNA consists of instructions which, when processed in cells, cause production of spike proteins, which trigger an adaptive immune response in a safe and effective manner. + +==== Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome ==== +In October 2021, the website The Exposé used data published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which misleadingly indicated that COVID-19 infection rates were higher among fully-vaccinated than unvaccinated people, to falsely claim that the COVID-19 vaccines were not only ineffective but were also causing vaccinated people to develop AIDS "much faster than anticipated". The website's claims were cited in a speech by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. The video of Bolsonaro's speech was removed from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for violating their policies regarding COVID-19 vaccines. +In January 2022, The Exposé promoted a conspiracy theory claiming that Germans fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 "[would] have full blown Covid-19 vaccine induced acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) by the end of [the month]." + +==== Vaccines as a cause of death ==== + +===== United States ===== +Claims have been made that data from the United States Department of Health and Human Services's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reveals a hidden toll of COVID-19 vaccine related deaths. This claim has been debunked as a misleading misrepresentation by anti-vaccine sources. The VAERS is known to report and store co-occurring health events with no proof of causation, including suicides, mechanical incidents (car accident), natural deaths by chronic diseases, old age and others. The websites Medalerts.org by the National Vaccine Information Center, a known and leading anti-vaccine center, and OpenVAERS have been linked to this misinformation. Comparative studies of VAERS, which look at relative reporting rates, have found that the data does not support these claims. +A 2021 transparency report from Facebook found that the most popular shared link in the United States from January to March was an article from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about a doctor's death two weeks after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. The medical examiner later found no evidence of a link to the vaccine, but the article was promoted and twisted by anti-vaccine groups to raise doubt about vaccine safety. Anti-vaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree have suggested without evidence that the death of Baseball Hall of Fame member Hank Aaron was caused by receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Aaron's death was reported as being due to natural causes, and medical officials did not believe the COVID-19 vaccine had any adverse effect on his health. +On 7 October 2022, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo issued a press release discouraging men aged 18 to 39 from taking the COVID-19 vaccine since a study by the Florida Department of Health concluded vaccinated men of the age group had an 84% increased likelihood of dying from heart problems. The study was neither peer-reviewed, nor published in a scientific journal, while its authors, source of funding, and methods of analysis were not disclosed. The study faced ample criticism, contending misrepresentation of data, that the time frame for examining deaths was too long, a lack of transparency, and that the efficacy and safety of the vaccines were ignored. Steve Kirsch, an entrepreneur who promotes COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, cited the study as proof that mRNA vaccines are fatal to children. A study published in JAMA showed an increased risk for myocarditis within seven days of vaccination. The group with most recorded cases (males aged 16 to 17) had 106 per million doses, though the actual incidence is likely higher due to overall underreporting. 96% of patients were hospitalized, but most cases were mild and patients typically experienced symptomatic recovery by discharge. +In May 2025, American cardiologist Peter A. McCullough testified before the United States Senate claiming that 73.9% of all deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic were caused by the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines. He based his claim on a discredited and retracted scientific study: "A systematic review of autopsy findings in deaths after COVID-19 vaccination", which was heavily criticized for its methodological errors. + +===== Other countries ===== +Similar misrepresentation of known "deaths after vaccination" as "deaths due to vaccination" have been mentioned in various countries, including Italy, Austria, South Korea, Germany, Spain, Croatia, United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Peru, Australia and Canada. These have been debunked as misrepresentation of the cases and data. A false claim which asserted that EudraVigilance confirmed tens of thousands of deaths due to COVID-19 vaccinations was shared on social media in the European Union. +The Falun Gong-affiliated news channel New Tang Dynasty Television spread misrepresentation of Taiwan's VAERS surveillance data to suggest COVID-19 vaccines, including the Taiwanese-developed Medigen vaccine, killed more people than the virus. +False claims asserting that an alleged large number of athletes died of cardiovacular disease as a result of COVID-19 vaccines spread on social media in various countries. + +==== Vaccine contains tracking agent ==== +In November 2021, a White House correspondent for the conservative outlet Newsmax falsely tweeted that the Moderna vaccine contained luciferase "so that you can be tracked." +A false claim asserting that graphene oxide was a vaccine ingredient spread on social media in 2023. + +==== Vaccine 'reversal' and detox ==== +In November 2021, erroneous claims arose that a "detox bath" of epsom salt, borax and bentonite clay can remove the effects of the vaccine. In fact, a rapid review of literature shows that no known mechanism exists for removing a vaccine from a vaccinated person. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..416823abb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Approved vaccines "not available" in the United States ==== +Under U.S. FDA regulations, a product approved under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is considered "legally distinct" from a product that has received full approval by the FDA. Besides differences in naming and labeling to account for its approval, and increased FDA oversight over its production, there are no formulaic differences between the EUA and approved versions of a vaccine, and the two are considered interchangeable once approved. For example, the Pfizer vaccine has been labeled as "Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine" since distribution began, but was assigned the United States Adopted Name "Comirnaty" upon its approval. +Some anti-vaccine advocates have made claims surrounding scenarios where this distinction is allegedly applicable; claims have been made that no FDA-approved vaccine is "available" in the United States because doses labeled as "Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine" were still being distributed, and not "Comirnaty". This claim was cited by a group of Louisiana Republican lawmakers, Senator Ron Johnson, and in a lawsuit filed by the First Liberty Institute against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate implemented by the U.S. military. In the case of the latter, the plaintiffs claimed that the mandate applied specifically to Comirnaty only, and not the "experimental" Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. +Another claim was that the approved version does not share the same liability protection as the version produced under an EUA. Under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, individuals are eligible for compensation via the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) for severe outcomes or death caused by COVID-19 countermeasures such as vaccines. This applies generally to all COVID-19 vaccines, including those not yet given formal approval. + +==== Vaccines as an "operating system" ==== +A statement on the Moderna website which likens mRNA vaccines to operating systems as an analogy, but does not literally state that the vaccines were operating systems. + +==== Department of Defense disinformation campaign ==== + +A Reuters investigation found that the United States Department of Defense (DoD), as retaliation for China's attempts to blame the United States for the pandemic, undertook a disinformation campaign in the Philippines, later expanded to Central Asia and the Middle East, which sought to discredit China, in particular its Sinovac vaccine. The campaign was described as "payback" for COVID-19 disinformation by China directed against the U.S. and an effort to counter China's vaccine diplomacy. The campaign ran from 2020 to 2021 and was overseen by Special Operations Command Pacific as well as the United States Central Command. Military personnel at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida operated phony social media accounts, some of which were more than five years old according to Reuters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they disseminated hashtags of #ChinaIsTheVirus and posts claiming that the Sinovac vaccine contained gelatin from pork and therefore was haram or forbidden for purposes of Islamic law. US diplomats aware of the campaign were against the idea, but they were overruled by the military, which also asked tech companies not to take down the content after it was discovered by Facebook and X. A retrospective review by the DoD subsequently uncovered other social and political messaging that was "many leagues away" from acceptable military objective. The primary defence contractor on the project was General Dynamics IT, which received $493 million for its role. + +=== Socially based claims === + +==== Claims about a vaccine before one existed ==== +Multiple social media posts promoted a conspiracy theory claiming that in the early stages of the pandemic, the virus was known and that a vaccine was already available. PolitiFact and FactCheck.org noted that no vaccine existed for COVID-19 at that point. The patents cited by various social media posts reference existing patents for genetic sequences and vaccines for other strains of coronavirus such as the SARS coronavirus. The WHO reported that as of 5 February 2020, despite news reports of "breakthrough drugs" being discovered, there were no treatments known to be effective; this included antibiotics and herbal remedies not being useful. +On Facebook, a widely shared post claimed in April 2020 that seven Senegalese children had died because they had received a COVID-19 vaccine. No such vaccine existed, although some were in clinical trials at that time. + +==== Magnetization ==== +Some social media users have falsely asserted COVID-19 vaccines cause people to become magnetized such that metal objects stick to their bodies. Video clips of people showing magnets sticking to the injection site have been spread on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok, claiming that vaccination implants a microchip in people's arms. Called by Republicans as an expert witness before a June 2021 hearing of the Ohio House Health Committee, anti-vaccine activist Sherri Tenpenny promoted the false claim, adding, "There's been people who have long suspected that there's been some sort of an interface, yet to be defined interface, between what's being injected in these shots and all of the 5G towers." +5G-compatible chips are about 13 times too large to fit through the needles used to administer COVID-19 vaccines, whose internal diameter is between 0.26 and 0.41 millimeters. Most microchips do not contain ferromagnetic components, being made mostly of silicon. It is possible for smooth objects such as magnets to stick to one's skin if the skin is slightly oily. No COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. or Europe contain magnetic or metal ingredients or microchips. Instead the vaccines contain proteins, lipids, water, salts, and pH buffers. + +==== Disappearing needles ==== +Twitter and YouTube users circulated video clips purporting to show that vaccine injections given to health care workers were staged for the press using syringes with "disappearing needles". The syringes used were actually safety syringes, which automatically retract the needle once the vaccine is injected in order to reduce accidental needlestick injuries to nurses and lab workers. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3b0a8cf11 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Political divides and distrust in government ==== +Discourses against COVID vaccines became part of QAnon's set of beliefs, as adherents used the pandemic to promote the conspiracy theory. In 2021, Romana Didulo, a QAnon-affiliated Canadian conspiracy theorist calling herself the "Queen of Canada" caused her online followers to harass Canadian businesses and public authorities with demands that they cease all measures related to combating the pandemic. She was apprehended in late November after calling on her 73,000 Telegram followers to "shoot to kill" all healthcare workers administering COVID-19 vaccines. +Anti-government groups such as sovereign citizens and freemen on the land also took part in the anti-vaccine movement. +During lockdowns in Bulgaria, many Roma neighborhoods claimed that they were subject to lockdowns without proper explanations even though the level of infections to other parts of the country were higher than their neighborhoods. The communities already held a distrust of institutions and the government, and helped create an even more strained relationship and lack of trust. +In France, Florian Philippot and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, right-wing candidates to the 2022 presidential election, have both cast doubts about the vaccine's effectiveness and safety. + +=== Government investigations === +In December 2022, vaccine-skeptical Florida Governor Ron DeSantis requested the impaneling of a grand jury to "investigate criminal or wrongful activity in Florida relating to the development, promotion, and distribution of vaccines purported to prevent COVID-19 infection, symptoms, and transmission", specifically mentioning statements made by drug manufacturers and federal officials. + +== Vaccine hesitancy == + +=== Concerns about menstrual irregularities === +Concerns about menstrual irregularities caused by COVID-19 have led to vaccine hesitancy. A meta-analysis from 2023 indicated that COVID-19 vaccination can lead to menstrual irregularities but that more studies are required to establish a causal relationship. + +=== Pregnancy and vaccine hesitancy === +A 2022 meta-analysis on COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy found that pregnant people were less likely to get vaccinations compared with non-pregnant cohorts. Factors associated with lower takeup of vaccination during pregnancy included younger age, lower education, lower socioeconomic status, and lack of adherence to influenza vaccination recommendations. + +One study in the analysis found varying influence of education and influenza vaccination history depending on race, suggesting that lived experiences with systemic racism may have an effect on vaccine hesitancy in pregnancy. + +=== Hong Kong === +In Hong Kong, the lower perceived risk of catching COVID-19 when it was under control, misinformation about the vaccines' side effects and efficacy, as well as political events and distrust of the HKSAR government, contributed to a low rate of vaccination. To some extent, similar complacency occurred in Taiwan, Macau, and mainland China. Many Hongkongers felt that the government was actively pushing the SinoVac vaccine despite its lower efficacy compared with BioNTech and AstraZeneca. Older residents might believe the BioNTech vaccine lead to severe side effects. Officials also stated that people with "uncontrolled severe chronic diseases" should not receive the SinoVac vaccine and urged those who weren't sure to consult with their doctors first. Conspiracy theories about the government spread as well due to a packaging issue with the BioNTech vaccine. Skepticism of Western and preventive medicine further contributed to the hesitancy. +Towards the end of May 2021, about 19% of Hongkongers had received their first dose and 13.8% their second. By 1 January 2022, 62% of the population was fully vaccinated, but as of 7 February, only 33% of those aged 80 or older had received one dose. As Omicron subvariants spread across the city, a study showed that 15% of those aged 80 or older who weren't immunized at all died after contracting the disease, compared with 3% of those who got two SinoVac shots and 1.5% of those who received two BioNTech doses. + +=== United States === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a75ad783f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In the United States, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy varies largely by region; however, regardless of region, medical professionals are vaccinated at higher rates than the general public. Estimates from two surveys were that 67% or 80% of people in the U.S. would accept a new vaccination against COVID-19, with wide disparity by education level, employment status, ethnicity, and geography. A US study conducted in January 2021 found that trust in science and scientists was strongly correlated with likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19 among those who had not already gotten vaccinated. In March 2021, 19% of US adults claimed to have been vaccinated while 50% announced plans to get vaccinated. +A 2022 study found a link between online COVID-19 misinformation and early vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Despite a strong association between vaccine hesitancy and Republican vote share at the US county and state levels, the authors found that the associations between vaccine outcomes and misinformation remained significant when accounting for political, demographic, and socioeconomic factors. +In the United States, vaccine hesitancy could be seen in certain social groups due to lack of trusted medical sources, traumatic past experiences with medical care and widespread theories. Distrust can be seen in the African American population where many see the history in the United States of using African Americans as experiments, such as the Tuskegee experiments and the work of J. Marion Sims, as basis to refuse the vaccine. +According to The New York Times, only 28 percent of Black New Yorkers ages 18 to 44 years were fully vaccinated as of August 2021, compared with 48 percent of Latino residents and 52 percent of White residents in that age group. Interviewees cited mistrust of the government, personal experiences of medical racism, and historical medical experimentation on Black people such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study as reasons for their reluctance to be vaccinated. A professor from the University of Warsaw in Poland, claimed that her research found that medical mistrust was higher in nations that had experienced Soviet-style communism in the past, and vaccine hesitancy could be seen if the countries introduced compulsory vaccination regulations. Medical mistrust is also seen in Russia where one person described a lack of understanding what the vaccine is and claimed that if there was more statistics and research about the Sputnik V and other Russian made vaccines they would be more "loyal". She also stated that there was also mistrust over the lack of consistent medical information about the vaccine coming from many sources including the authorities of the region. +According to prominent biomedical researcher Peter Hotez, he and other scientists who publicly defend vaccines have been attacked on social media, harassed with threatening emails, intimidated, and confronted physically by opponents of vaccination. He further attributes the increase in aggressiveness of the anti-vaccination movement to the influence of the extreme wing of the Republican Party. Hotez estimates that roughly 200,000 preventable deaths from COVID-19, mainly among Republicans, occurred in the US because of refusal to be vaccinated. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found "evidence of higher excess mortality for Republican voters compared with Democratic voters in Florida and Ohio after, but not before, COVID-19 vaccines were available to all adults in the US". + +== Countermeasures == + +=== COVID-19 passes === +Some countries are using vaccination tracking systems, apps, or passports that are labeled as passes to allow individuals certain freedoms. In France, every adult must present a "pass sanitaire" before entering specific locations such as restaurants, cafes, museums, and sports stadiums after a new law was passed in July 2021. Italy reported a 40% increase in the number of people who received the first dose of the vaccine after a governmental decree in September 2021 requiring a health pass for all workers either in the public or private sectors starting in October 2021. Similar passes have been put into effect in countries such as Slovenia and Greece. Lithuania introduced vaccination certificates that citizens 12-years and older must show to enter most public indoor spaces. + +=== Encouragement by public figures and celebrities === +Many public figures and celebrities have publicly declared that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and encouraged people to get vaccinated. Many have made video recordings or otherwise documented their vaccination. They do this partly to counteract vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories. + +==== Politicians ==== +Many current and former heads of state and government ministers have released photographs of their vaccinations, encouraging others to be vaccinated, including Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Zdravko Marić, Olivier Véran, Mike Pence, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Narendra Modi, Justin Trudeau, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris. +Elizabeth II and Prince Philip announced they had the vaccine, breaking from protocol of keeping the British royal family's health private. Pope Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict both announced they had been vaccinated. In a call-in-television special President Vladimir Putin told listeners that he had received the Sputnik V vaccine and stressed that all the vaccines were safe. + +==== Media personalities ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dfbaadbe9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Dolly Parton recorded herself getting vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine she helped fund, she encouraged people to get vaccinated and created a new version of her song "Jolene" called "Vaccine". Several other musicians like Patti Smith, Yo-Yo Ma, Carole King, Tony Bennett, Mavis Staples, Brian Wilson, Joel Grey, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, and Paul Stanley have all released photographs of them being vaccinated and encouraged others to do so. Grey stated "I got the vaccine because I want to be safe. We've lost so many people to COVID. I've lost a few friends. It's heartbreaking. Frightening." +Many actors including Amy Schumer, Rosario Dawson, Arsenio Hall, Danny Trejo, Mandy Patinkin, Samuel L. Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Kate Mulgrew, Jeff Goldblum, Jane Fonda, Anthony Hopkins, Bette Midler, Kim Cattrall, Isabella Rossellini, Christie Brinkley, Cameran Eubanks, Hugh Bonneville, Alan Alda, David Harbour, Sean Penn, Amanda Kloots, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart have released photographs of themselves getting vaccinated and encouraging others to do the same. Judi Dench and Joan Collins announced they have been vaccinated. + +Other TV personalities such as Martha Stewart, Jonathan Van Ness, Al Roker and Dan Rather released photographs of themselves getting vaccinated and encouraged others to do the same. Stephen Fry also shared a photograph of being vaccinated; he wrote, "It's a wonderful moment, but you feel that it's not only helpful for your own health, but you know that you're likely to be less contagious if you yourself happen to carry it ... It's a symbol of being part of society, part of the group that we all want to protect each other and get this thing over and done with." Sir David Attenborough announced that he has been vaccinated. Dutch TV personality Beau van Erven Dorens got his vaccination on live TV in his late-night talk show on 3 June 2021. + +==== Athletes ==== +Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar released photographs of themselves getting vaccinated and encouraged others to do the same; Abdul-Jabbar said, "We have to find new ways to keep each other safe." + +==== Specific communities ==== +Romesh Ranganathan, Meera Syal, Adil Ray, Sadiq Khan and others produced a video specifically encouraging ethnic minority communities in the UK to be vaccinated including addressing conspiracy theories stating "there is no scientific evidence to suggest it will work differently on people from ethnic minorities and that it does not include pork or any material of fetal or animal origin." +Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg have spoken about being vaccinated and encouraged other black Americans to be so. Stephanie Elam volunteered to be a trial volunteer stating "a large part of the reason why I wanted to volunteer for this COVID-19 vaccine research – more Black people and more people of color need to be part of these trials so more diverse populations can reap the benefits of this medical research." + +=== Experiences of prior hesitant individuals and others === +Many news articles, TV interviews and posts on social media appeared in 2021 to highlight either the anger of individuals whose children or immune compromised family members either caught COVID-19 or were vaccine hesitant and later tested positive. The Chief Medical Officer for England, Prof. Chris Whitty, tweeted in September 2021 that "The majority of our hospitalised Covid patients are unvaccinated and regret delaying their vaccines" with about 60% of all hospitalisations due to COVID-19 in the UK being of unvaccinated individuals. While some cases have allowed for more discussions to open up about the vaccine and the effects of the disease, some still have remaining hesitancy about the vaccination process, others have expressed their regret for not pushing the vaccine or determination to get vaccinated. + +=== Targeted lockdowns and fines === +Austria and Germany both announced in late 2021 that they would introduce lockdowns for only unvaccinated citizens. These targeted lockdowns faced criticism from various quarters, including from the far-right Freedom Party which labeled the measures as creating a group of second-class citizens. Additionally, thousands protested in Vienna against the vaccine mandate, expressing concerns over personal freedoms and governmental overreach. In Greece, those who refused to get vaccinated and were above the age of 60 were fined 100 euros a month, with the payments put towards a hospital service fund. In Singapore, all citizens who chose not to get vaccinated were required to pay their medical bills in full if they tested positive and receive hospital care, while in Ukraine all teachers and government officials who remain unvaccinated were placed on unpaid leave, and restaurants, shopping malls and fitness centers must have 100% of their employees vaccinated to operate. + +=== Vaccine lotteries and benefits === +The Kremlin announced in 2021 that it was supporting a lottery that would give 1,000 chosen vaccinated individuals the equivalent of $1,350. The Mayor of Moscow also announced that the city would give away five cars every week to vaccinated residents. In the United States, many states such as Alaska, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, along with cities and universities, offered scholarships, money, and physical items in lotteries. These benefits had varying success in raising vaccination numbers. In July 2021, the Polish government launched the National Vaccination Programme Lottery to encourage vaccinations against COVID-19. It was open to people aged 18 years and over who had completed the COVID-19 vaccination programme and had registered for the lottery by 30 September 2020. The final prize draw took place on 6 October 2021, and there were two cash prizes of PLN 1 million (US$264,000) and two Toyota C-HR cars to be won. +First Capital Bank, based out of Malawi, issued a statement that they would only give the annual performance bonuses to vaccinated employees. + +=== Vaccine mandates === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..af90513e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_vaccine_misinformation_and_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:12.220688+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In France, since September 2021, all health care workers must have received at least one dose of the vaccine to continue working with any resisters suspended without pay. Additional worker groups that have been mandated to do so earlier in the year are military members and firefighters. In November 2021, Austria announced that it would introduce a nationwide vaccine mandate. +In the United States, many businesses, schools and universities, healthcare providers, and governmental and state departments have enacted vaccine mandates. While many of the mandates allowed for a person to opt out due to medical or religious reasons and be regularly tested, the federal mandate signed in September 2021 did not include these options. The federal mandate was eventually struck down. Some of the mandates were focused only on specific groups, such as Rutgers University, which only mandated the vaccine for students and health-care and public-safety employees. The mandates have seen push back with a New York Judge temporarily blocking one for healthcare workers who claimed they could not opt out due to religious reasons, and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich suing the Biden administration for its vaccine mandate for federal employees and private businesses with over 100 employees. Additional push back on vaccine mandates were seen at local levels with at least one sheriff's department in California announcing they would not enforce any vaccine mandates as "the last line of defense from tyrannical government overreach", while others have seen mass resignation. + +== See also == +COVID-19 misinformation +Vaccine misinformation +Died Suddenly, an anti-vaccine documentary that promotes false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and the Great Reset conspiracy +Tobacco industry playbook +Operation Denver + +== Explanatory notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Food_Safety-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Food_Safety-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2dd3ef518 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Food_Safety-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Center for Food Safety" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Food_Safety" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:49.637173+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Center for Food Safety (CFS) is a 501(c)(3), U.S. non-profit advocacy organization, based in Washington, D.C. It maintains an office in San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon. CFS's mission is to empower people, support farmers, and protect the earth from the harmful impacts of industrial agriculture through groundbreaking legal, scientific, and grassroots action. The organization was founded in 1997. + + +== Work == +The Center for Food Safety has been an associated party in challenges against the planting of genetically modified crops in the US. + + +=== Alfalfa === +In April, 2004, Monsanto petitioned the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for deregulation of their product Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA). After performing an Environmental Assessment, APHIS deregulated the product in 2005. In 2006, this decision was challenged by Geertson Seed Farms and other parties, including the Center for Food Safety. This led to a decision by the US District Court of San Francisco to suspend the deregulated status of RRA and place an injunction on the sale and planting of RRA until the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement. +The US Supreme Court reversed the District Court decision in 2010, in the case of Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms. This 7–1 decision in favor of Monsanto Company declared the injunction against RRA invalid, allowing the sale and planting of the product; it did not, however, restore the deregulated status of the crop. Upon completion of the Environmental Impact Statement, RRA was officially deregulated in January 2011. +The Center for Food Safety also launched a separate lawsuit against RRA in the case Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack, in October, 2012. The CFS alleged that RRA had been improperly reviewed by APHIS, arguing that it should be considered a "Plant Pest" under the Plant Protection Act. In 2013 the United States District Court of San Francisco issued a ruling for the case in favor of the defendant, Thomas Vilsack, Secretary of APHIS. + + +=== Sugar beets === +In 2009–2010, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California was considering a case involving the planting of genetically modified sugar beets. The case involved Monsanto's breed of pesticide-resistant sugar beets. The lawsuit was also organized by Center for Food Safety. +Earlier in 2010, Judge Jeffrey S. White allowed the planting of GM sugar beets to continue, but he also warned that this may be blocked in the future while an environmental review was taking place. Finally, on 13 August 2010, Judge White ordered the halt to the planting of the genetically modified sugar beets in the US. He indicated that "the Agriculture Department had not adequately assessed the environmental consequences before approving them for commercial cultivation". This decision was reversed in 2011, with the appellate court citing studies that indicated that there was no molecular difference between sugar produced by the GMO and non-GMO variants of sugar beets. + + +=== Iowa Skipper Butterfly === +In March 2023, the organization petitioned federal agencies to list the Iowa Skipper Butterfly as an endangered species due to agriculture, commercial pesticide spraying, climate change, and invasive species. After several delayed deadlines, the organization filed a notice of intent to sue. + + +== Criticism == +The Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI), a pro genetically-engineered food organisation, claims that in one case, Kimbrell was said to have released a baseless food poisoning scare in The Wall Street Journal, following a request to exempt Monsanto from recalling of CANOLA oil from seed with a not yet US approved gene, (although approved in Canada) found in small quantities in their oil, after deciding to concentrate on a different gene that had similar results. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Center for Food Safety \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_New_Horizons-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_New_Horizons-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5be05ed0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_New_Horizons-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Chasing New Horizons" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_New_Horizons" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:35.180280+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto is a book by American planetary scientist Alan Stern and astrobiologist and non-fiction writer David Grinspoon, published in 2018. Grinspoon acts as a narrator, though the book is written from Alan Stern's perspective; he is the principal investigator of New Horizons mission to Pluto. + + +== Background and reception == +The book tells a story of a space probe to Pluto, that was proposed by the author, Alan Stern, in the early 1990s. The mission had been cancelled several times, and there were a harsh competition between Stern's group and that of JPL to get approval of the mission design from NASA. +Kirkus reviews called the book "an exploration of the fascinating science and complex bureaucracy behind the first journey to Pluto", and pointed that the authors "deliver a meticulously detailed, riveting chronicle of America’s history-making mission to Pluto, escorting readers through the immense hurdles and hard work involved in the landmark mission." Another review praised the book saying that "Stern and Grinspoon recreate the mission’s highs and lows in a compulsively readable tale. In the hands of less gifted storytellers, much of the early years— the internal competition for funds, a feud with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s alternating red and green lights—would have been tedious. But Stern and Grinspoon skillfully tease out the drama, with vivid portraits of the young scientists and engineers who were willing to stake their careers on challenges straight out of a Star Wars film". Review by the Wall Street Journal juxtaposed public awareness of a photos made by the probe and of a team behind it. "The image captured a bright white region on Pluto's surface in the shape of a heart, "creating an emotional attachment for this small, previously indistinct planet at the edge of our planetary system," write Alan Stern and David Grinspoon in their riveting account Chasing New Horizons. Many are still unaware of the 2,500 people that it took to snap that picture—as well as the many years of waiting." +Louisa Preston noted in a review for the Physics World that the book "reads like a novel", but also noted that it is biased in favor of Stern: + +What follows next however is the story of decades of disappointment and a real insight into how hard it is to get any space mission off the ground. Going into this part of the book, I thought I would be a bit bored – who really wants to read about funding wars and academic rivalries? Well, it turns out that I do. The narrative of this part of the story is incredibly emotive and almost exciting. Grinspoon portrays NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory staff as the villains – trying to control and influence a project that was never theirs to begin with. His obviously biased view positions Stern as the hero – a veritable rebel fighting "the establishment". +Despite this, her review is positive, and she said that "book is really Grinspoon and Stern’s chance to pay homage to the thousands of people who played a part in making this mission a success." +Virgil Adumitroaie in a review for AIAA Journal was impressed how "The authors' passion for space exploration transpires equally in doom and gloom or elating situations and is only surpassed by their indestructible optimism." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_species-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_species-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e7825f6df --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_species-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +title: "Chemical species" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_species" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:14.575538+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Chemical species are a specific form of chemical substance or chemically identical molecular entities that have the same molecular energy level at a specified timescale. These entities are classified through bonding types and relative abundance of isotopes. Types of chemical species can be classified based on the type of molecular entity and can be either an atomic, molecular, ionic or radical species. + + +== Classification == +Generally, a chemical species is defined as a chemical identity that has the same set of molecular energy levels in a defined timescale (i.e. an experiment). These energy levels determine the way the chemical species will interact with others through properties such as bonding or isotopic compositions. The chemical species can be an atom, molecule, ion, or radical, with a specific chemical name and chemical formula. +In supramolecular chemistry, chemical species are structures created by forming or breaking bonds between molecules, such as hydrogen bonding or dipole-dipole bonds. These types of bonds can determine the physical property of chemical species in a liquid or solid state. +A single chemical can be classified as two different types of species. For example, nitrate is both a molecular and ionic species, with its formula being NO3−. +The term "chemical species" is also applied to a set of chemically identical atomic or molecular structures in a solid compound. + +DNA is not a species; the name is generically applied to many molecules of different formulas, as each DNA molecule is unique. + + +=== Types of chemical species === + + +==== Atomic species ==== +An atomic species is a specific form of an element defined by the atom's isotope, electronic or oxidation state. Argon is an atomic species of formula Ar. + + +==== Molecular species ==== +Molecular species are groups of atoms that are held together by chemical bonds. One example is ozone, which has the chemical formula O3. + + +==== Ionic species ==== +Ionic species are atoms or molecules that have gained or lost electrons, resulting in a net electrical charge that can be either positively (cation) or negatively charged (anion). +Species with an overall positive charge will be a cationic species. The sodium ion is an example of a cationic species, and its formula is Na+. Species with an overall negative charge will be an anionic species. Chloride is an anionic species, and its formula is Cl−. + + +==== Radical species ==== +Radical species are atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons. For example, the triarylborane anion is a radical species, and its formula is Ar3B−. + + +== See also == + +Flavour (particle physics) +List of chemical classifications +List of particles +Particle identification + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cd3cb9f21 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:05.874476+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a lobbying organization founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, its stated mission is to "eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections." It is regarded by most non-Scientologists as a Scientology front group whose purpose is to push the organization's anti-psychiatry agenda. + +== Campaigns == +The group has organized media campaigns against various psychiatrists, psychiatric organizations and pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Prozac. The campaign against Eli Lilly in 1991 caused Prozac's market share of antidepressants to drop from 25% to 21%. +The group campaigned against the use of Ritalin for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, a disorder which the organization dismisses as nonexistent. The campaign was part of the Ritalin class action lawsuits against Novartis (the manufacturer of Ritalin), CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), and the American Psychiatric Association (APA); all five lawsuits were dismissed in 2002. +In 2003, CCHR presented a report with the title "The Silent Death of America's Children" to the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, with case histories of several dozen under-aged psychiatric patients who had died as a result of psychotropic drug treatment and restraint measures in the 1990s and early 2000s. +In 2004, Massachusetts state senators Richard T. Moore and Charles E. Shannon Jr. sponsored a bill requiring doctors to provide parents with information about a psychotropic medication's side effects and obtain their signature before prescribing any psychotropic drugs. Though Moore claimed in an interview to be unaware of CCHR's involvement, Shannon had worked with CCHR on the legislation. Kevin Hall, New England Director for CCHR, claimed to have drafted the bill. The medical establishment widely disagreed with the bill, which it dubbed the "Scientology Bill". Others opposing the bill included the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Parent/Professional Advocacy League. +On 5 October 2006, National Mental Health Screening Day, CCHR picketed outside of Riverside Community Care in Wakefield, Massachusetts, holding a protest rally against mental health screening. According to journalist Gary Band in the Wakefield Observer, "The protest fell somewhat flat because Riverside has not conducted these screenings since 2001." +According to an article published in the journal Mental Health, Religion & Culture, "in rare instances, CCHR (and thereby Scientology) has uncovered real instances of questionable (if not dire) psychiatric care, which bolstered its credibility", specifically the exposing of abuses at Chelmsford in 1978; conversely, CCHR has been accused of using pseudoscience and false information to disingenuously validate their claims. + +In its early years, CCHR claimed victory in a 1969 Pennsylvania case involving Victor Győry, a Hungarian refugee who had been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in April 1969. The police officers committing Győry said he had tried to kill himself. Doctors at Haverford State Hospital failed to realize that Győry spoke very little English and was speaking in Hungarian. They judged him "incoherent" and diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. The hospital refused Győry's request for legal representation, and administered drugs and electroshock treatment to him against his will over a three-month period. An aide at the hospital eventually notified CCHR. CCHR's general counsel John Joseph Matonis secured Győry's release through a writ of habeas corpus. +CCHR continued to lobby for legislative reform on mental health issues such as the keeping of detailed computer records on involuntarily committed patients and their families, and drug experimentation without patients' consent. CCHR would typically request a tour of a psychiatric hospital, issue a public report based on patient testimony and other sources, and then push for legal investigations and reform. The early focus was on involuntary commitment procedures. + +=== Chelmsford Hospital and DST === +From 1988 to 1990 the Australian government held the Chelmsford Royal Commission inquiry into Deep Sleep Therapy (DST). For a decade prior, CCHR had been pushing for an investigation of the Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, and its head, Dr. Harry Bailey, who had been practising DST from 1963 to 1979. +The inquiry discovered that deep sleep therapy had killed 24 patients, not counting patients who had killed themselves, and close to a thousand had had brain damage. Of the former patients, 152 received reparations from a fund totaling in excess of 5 million dollars. +Chelmsford Hospital was forced to close in 1990, and two of its psychiatric staff were made to face charges in 1992. Dr. Bailey himself stepped down in 1979 due to CCHR's protest campaign, and committed suicide by drug overdose in 1985, the night before he was subpoenaed to appear in court. His suicide note read, in part: "Let it be known that the Scientologists and the forces of madness have won." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..27b4390e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:05.874476+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Controversies == +Rissmiller labels CCHR as a radical antipsychiatry organization. It encourages the arrest and incarceration of psychiatrists for their alleged crimes against humanity because L. Ron Hubbard had written, "There is not one institutional psychiatrist alive who ... could not be arraigned and convicted of extortion, mayhem and murder." +CCHR is a front group for the Church of Scientology, which sponsors the organization. In 1993, the US Internal Revenue Service granted CCHR tax exemption as part of an agreement with the Church of Scientology International and Religious Technology Center (RTC) under which the RTC took responsibility for CCHR's tax liabilities. +CCHR has been criticized by journalist Andrew Gumbel for "crudeness" and "paranoia" in its criticism of psychiatry. +In 1988, CCHR claimed that Professor Sir Martin Roth of Newcastle University had used LSD in tests on mental patients in the 1960s. The statements were publicized in the Northern Echo newspaper, which was ordered by an English court to pay "very substantial" libel damages to Roth after the court found that CCHR's claims were "highly defamatory" and "utterly false." +Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR and winner of an International Association of Scientologists Freedom Medal award, has been implicated in covering up the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in the Australian branch of the church. Eastgate was head of the Australian CCHR at the time and the girl was abused by her Scientologist stepfather between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Eastgate, who denied the allegations, labelling them "egregiously false", was arrested on 30 March 2011 on charges of perverting the course of justice but later released on conditional bail. All charges were dropped against Eastgate after an investigation by the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecution found that there was not enough substantiating evidence. +In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, CCHR promulgated a conspiracy theory assigning responsibility for the attacks to Ayman al-Zawahiri, alleging that, as Osama bin Laden's personal psychiatrist (although he is actually a surgeon), he was the principal mastermind behind the attacks and had brainwashed bin Laden using pain, drugs and hypnosis. + +== Psychiatry: An Industry of Death == + +Housed in CCHR's Los Angeles building is the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death exhibit which was opened in 2005. + +I was charged with overseeing building a new museum—the Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum. The entire presentation was designed to document how psychiatry is "driven by profit" rather than by care for patient well-being. Every video, artifact, and display was an overblown attempt to show how the profession is to blame for the Holocaust, for destroying artists through barbaric "treatments," for hooking children on drugs, and much, much more. There are small kernels of truth contained in the hype—just enough to give it a speck of credibility—while creating the impression that all psychiatrists are conniving monsters out of B movies. I put together a team and approved the design and content of this extraordinary spectacle of over-the-top propaganda. +Of the anti-psychiatry exhibit, Andrew Gumbel of Los Angeles City Beat stated "it is one thing to assert that psychiatry has had its abuses, quite another to say the profession in and of itself is evil ... this is the classic stuff of paranoid conspiracy theory". + +CCHR also has a travelling exhibit of the same name, which National Post writer Kevin Libin called "a fright show" where they show the 2006 two-hour film of the same name, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death. Two individuals featured in the film, Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum and bioethics scholar Arthur Caplan, have rejected the attack on psychiatry and psychology. Berenbaum stated that "I have known psychiatrists to be of enormous assistance to people deeply important to me in my life," and Caplan complained that he had been taped without being told what the film was about, and called the producers "smarmy and dishonest." + +== Documentaries == + +CCHR have produced a number of documentaries promoting their view of modern psychiatry. These include: + +The Hidden Enemy, +Making A Killing, +Prescription for Violence, +The Marketing of Madness (see chapter below), +Dead Wrong, and +Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, which was made to accompany the exhibit of the same name. + +=== The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane? === +The Marketing of Madness is a documentary which alleges that the mental health industry is an unscientific field driven solely by the profit motive, to the detriment of patients. +One of the interviewees is Claudia Keyworth, an advocate of 'Bio-Energetic medicine' who believes that healing is best accomplished using the "energy field of the human body". On the topic of mental illness, she asserts: "they say you have a chemical imbalance of serotonin and dopamine, but there's never been a study to prove that, ever." +Simplistic "chemical imbalance" explanations for mental disorders have never received empirical support; most prominent psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and psychologists have not espoused such ill-defined, facile etiological theories. However, this theory has been widely promoted by the press, advertising and professionals so that the majority of the general western public believes in it. +The documentary claims that psychiatrists have convinced the public that normal negative human experiences are mental illnesses. An example used in the movie is the assertion that psychiatrists seek to label typical shyness as a "social anxiety disorder"; however, patients are diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder only at debilitating levels, where there is an "intense fear in social situations". Unlike a shy individual, a person diagnosed with social anxiety disorder is likely to experience symptoms such as nausea, stammering, and panic attacks. + +== See also == +Scientology and psychiatry +Controversy surrounding psychiatry + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== External links == + Media related to Citizens Commission on Human Rights at Wikimedia Commons +Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) +cchrmuseum.org \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanker-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanker-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5d4e26d67 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanker-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Clanker" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clanker" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:24.180973+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Clanker" is a derogatory term for robots and artificial intelligence (AI) software. The term has been used in Star Wars media, first appearing in the franchise's 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando. In 2025, the term became widely used to express hatred or distaste for machines ranging from delivery robots to large language models. This trend has been attributed to anxiety around the negative societal effects of AI. + + +== In science fiction == + +The term has been previously used in science fiction literature, first appearing in a 1958 article by William Tenn in which he uses it to describe robots from science fiction films like Metropolis. The Star Wars franchise began using the term as a slur against droids in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Republic Commando before being prominently used in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which follows a galaxy-wide war between the Galactic Republic's clone troopers and the Confederacy of Independent Systems' battle droids. In Star Wars media, robots—more commonly known as droids—are routinely depicted as the subjects of discrimination. For example, in the original Star Wars film, C-3PO and R2-D2 are abducted by Jawas and sold to the family of Luke Skywalker. When visiting a cantina in Mos Eisley, both droids are refused service by the bartender, who remarks that "We don't serve their kind." In Star Wars lore, the term clanker had entered use by the time of the franchise's High Republic Era and became prominent during the Clone Wars, in which clone troopers regularly use the phrase against battle droids. + + +== AI backlash == +The growing popularity of the term clanker reflects an increase in direct contact between people and AI systems. On sidewalks, delivery robots impede mobility and cause safety issues. In digital spaces, cybersecurity experts have raised concerns about the rising number of bots online, which now make up a large portion of internet traffic. A 2025 report estimated that about one in five social media accounts are automated. +The term is also a reaction to AI advocacy from industrialists like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, who have championed the integration of AI into nearly every aspect of modern life. This includes efforts by major companies and startups alike, such as Amazon's development of humanoid robots to replace human workers in service industries. Such initiatives have further fueled public skepticism, reinforcing the association of clanker with unease over automation and the displacement of human roles. A global survey conducted by the research firm Gartner in December 2023 found that 64% of customers would prefer companies to avoid using AI in customer service, with another 53% stating they would consider switching to a different company if they discovered AI was handling their service interactions. Another report by Ernst & Young, published in July 2025, found that 42% of employees across Europe are worried that the use of AI in the workplace may threaten their employment. +Criticism has also been directed at the technology itself. Some of the backlash stems from concerns about the resource consumption of AI systems, their frequent reliance on copyrighted material without consent, and questions about the intentions of the corporations behind them. There are also concerns about the potential cognitive effects of relying heavily on AI. A study, authored by researchers at Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University, warns that regular dependence on AI may leave users mentally unprepared for real-world problem solving, likening the effect to cognitive atrophy. +In June 2025, United States Senator Ruben Gallego tweeted that his "new bill makes sure you don't have to talk to a clanker if you don't want to", referring to proposed legislation that would require call centers to disclose their use of automated customer service agents to callers in the United States and offer the option to switch to a human representative. + + +== Analysis == +Linguist Adam Aleksic has described clanker as an evolution of racial slurs that anthropomorphize robotic systems. Internet memes incorporating the term often reference historical discrimination against marginalized groups such as African Americans. Based on the work of linguist Geoffrey Nunberg, American news website Axios has argued that clanker is merely a derogatory word, rather than a slur, because it does not perpetuate social inequities. NPR has noted the irony that the word robot was coined by Karel Čapek for his 1920 science-fiction play R.U.R. as a similar criticism of industrialization forcing workers to become devoid of their humanity. Aleksic has observed that robot can be further traced to the Proto-Slavic noun *orbъ, which means 'slave'. +While other science fiction media include pejoratives for androids and robots, such as skinjob and toaster from the Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica franchises, respectively, clanker is believed to have gained popularity because its usage is intuitive and flexible. Whereas AI slop describes low-quality output from artificial intelligence, clanker belittles the underlying robotic systems. + + +== See also == +AI slop – Low-quality AI-generated digital content +AI takeover – Artificial intelligence scenario +Butlerian Jihad – American science fiction media franchisePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Cultural impact of Star Wars – Star Wars saga in popular culture +Dead Internet theory – Conspiracy theory on online bot activity +Enshittification – Decline in online platform quality +Ethics of artificial intelligence +Luddite – Opponents of textile automation in 1810s +Technological singularity – Hypothetical event +Technophobia – Fear or discomfort with technology +These aren't the droids you're looking for – Star Wars quote + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..16a87dd5e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,292 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 1/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In abstract algebra, in particular in the theory of nondegenerate quadratic forms on vector spaces, the finite-dimensional Clifford algebras for a nondegenerate quadratic form are completely classified as rings. In general, the Clifford algebra is either a central simple algebra or a direct sum of two copies of such an algebra. For Clifford algebras over real or complex field, this means that the Clifford algebra is isomorphic to a full matrix ring over R, C, or H (the quaternions), or to a direct sum of two such algebras that are (non-canonically) isomorphic. The dimensions of the matrix algebra, and what division ring (R, C, H) can be determined by the dimension of the vector space and invariants of the quadratic form (its signature, over the reals). + +== Notation and conventions == +The Clifford product is the manifest ring product for the Clifford algebra, and all algebra homomorphisms in this article are with respect to this ring product. Other products defined within Clifford algebras, such as the exterior product, and other structure, such as the distinguished subspace of generators V, are not used here. This article uses the (+) sign convention for Clifford multiplication so that + + + + + + v + + 2 + + + = + Q + ( + v + ) + 1 + + + {\displaystyle v^{2}=Q(v)1} + + +for all vectors v in the vector space of generators V, where Q is the quadratic form on the vector space V. We will denote the algebra of n × n matrices with entries in the division algebra K by Mn(K) or End(Kn). The direct sum of two such identical algebras will be denoted by Mn(K) ⊕ Mn(K), which is isomorphic to Mn(K ⊕ K). + +== Complex case == +The complex case is particularly simple: every nondegenerate quadratic form on a complex vector space is equivalent to the standard diagonal form + + + + + Q + ( + u + ) + = + + u + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + + + u + + 2 + + + 2 + + + + + ⋯ + + + + u + + n + + + 2 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle Q(u)=u_{1}^{2}+u_{2}^{2}+\cdots +u_{n}^{2},} + + +where n = dim(V), so there is essentially only one Clifford algebra for each dimension. This is because over the complex numbers one may multiply a basis vector by i, so positive and negative squares are equivalent. We will denote the Clifford algebra on Cn with the standard quadratic form by Cln(C). +There are two separate cases to consider, according to whether n is even or odd. When n is even, the algebra Cln(C) is central simple and so by the Artin–Wedderburn theorem is isomorphic to a matrix algebra over C. +When n is odd, the center includes not only the scalars but the pseudoscalars (degree n elements) as well. After rescaling the volume element by a nonzero complex scalar if necessary, one may choose a normalized pseudoscalar ω such that ω2 = 1. Define the operators + + + + + + P + + ± + + + = + + + 1 + 2 + + + ( + 1 + ± + ω + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle P_{\pm }={\frac {1}{2}}(1\pm \omega ).} + + +These two operators form a complete set of orthogonal idempotents, and since they are central they give a decomposition of Cln(C) into a direct sum of two algebras + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + = + + + C + l + + + n + + + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊕ + + + C + l + + + n + + + − + + + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )=\mathrm {Cl} _{n}^{+}(\mathbf {C} )\oplus \mathrm {Cl} _{n}^{-}(\mathbf {C} ),} + + +where + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ± + + + ( + + C + + ) + = + + P + + ± + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n}^{\pm }(\mathbf {C} )=P_{\pm }\mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +The algebras Cln±(C) are just the positive and negative eigenspaces of ω, and the P± are the corresponding projection operators. Since ω is odd, these algebras are exchanged by the involution α induced by v ↦ −v on the generating space: + + + + + α + + ( + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ± + + + ( + + C + + ) + + ) + + = + + + C + l + + + n + + + ∓ + + + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \alpha \left(\mathrm {Cl} _{n}^{\pm }(\mathbf {C} )\right)=\mathrm {Cl} _{n}^{\mp }(\mathbf {C} ),} + + +and are therefore isomorphic. Each of these two summands is central simple and hence isomorphic to a matrix algebra over C. The sizes of the matrices are determined from the fact that the dimension of Cln(C) is 2n. What one obtains is the following table: + +The even subalgebra Cl[0]n(C) is (non-canonically) isomorphic to Cln−1(C). When n is even, the even subalgebra can be identified with the block diagonal matrices (after writing elements in 2 × 2 block form). When n is odd, the even subalgebra consists of those elements of End(CN) ⊕ End(CN) for which the two components are equal. Projection onto either factor then gives an isomorphism with Cln[0](C) ≅ End(CN). + +=== Complex spinors in even dimension === +The classification allows Dirac spinors and Weyl spinors to be defined in even dimension. +In even dimension n, the Clifford algebra Cln(C) is isomorphic to End(CN), which has its fundamental representation on Δn := CN. A complex Dirac spinor is an element of Δn. The word complex indicates that this is a module for a complex Clifford algebra, not merely that the underlying vector space is complex. +The even subalgebra Cln0(C) is isomorphic to End(CN/2) ⊕ End(CN/2) and therefore its spinor module decomposes as the direct sum of two irreducible representation spaces Δ+n ⊕ Δ−n, each isomorphic to CN/2. A left-handed (respectively right-handed) complex Weyl spinor is an element of Δ+n (respectively, Δ−n). + +=== Proof of the structure theorem for complex Clifford algebras === +The structure theorem may be proved inductively. For the base cases, Cl0(C) is simply C ≅ End(C), while Cl1(C) is the algebra C ⊕ C ≅ End(C) ⊕ End(C), obtained by taking the unique generator to be γ1 = (1, −1). +One also needs Cl2(C) ≅ End(C2). The Pauli matrices give a concrete realization: if one sets γ1 = σ1 and γ2 = σ2, then these generate a copy of Cl2(C) whose span is all of End(C2). +The inductive step is the standard 2-periodicity isomorphism \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0b9a0d1ed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,1306 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 2/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊗ + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+2}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )\otimes \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +To construct it, let γa generate Cln(C), and let + + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + , + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\gamma }}_{1},{\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}} + + generate Cl2(C). Let ω = i\tilde\gamma_1 \tilde\gamma_2 be the chirality element in Cl2(C), so that ω2 = 1 and each + + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + a + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\gamma }}_{a}} + + anticommutes with ω. Then one obtains generators for Cln+2(C) by setting + + + + + + Γ + + a + + + = + + γ + + a + + + ⊗ + ω + + ( + 1 + ≤ + a + ≤ + n + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma _{a}=\gamma _{a}\otimes \omega \qquad (1\leq a\leq n),} + + + + + + + Γ + + n + + + 1 + + + = + 1 + ⊗ + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + , + + + Γ + + n + + + 2 + + + = + 1 + ⊗ + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma _{n+1}=1\otimes {\tilde {\gamma }}_{1},\qquad \Gamma _{n+2}=1\otimes {\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}.} + + +These satisfy the Clifford relations, so by the universal property of Clifford algebras they induce an isomorphism Cln(C) ⊗ Cl2(C) \to Cln+2(C). +Finally, if n is even and Cln(C) ≅ End(CN), then + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + End + ⁡ + ( + + + C + + + N + + + ) + ⊗ + End + ⁡ + ( + + + C + + + 2 + + + ) + ≅ + End + ⁡ + ( + + + C + + + 2 + N + + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+2}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \operatorname {End} (\mathbf {C} ^{N})\otimes \operatorname {End} (\mathbf {C} ^{2})\cong \operatorname {End} (\mathbf {C} ^{2N}).} + + +Since 2N = 2(n+2)/2, this gives the even-dimensional case in dimension n+2. The odd-dimensional case follows similarly, using that tensor product distributes over direct sums. + +=== Proof of the structure theorem for complex Clifford algebras === +A standard proof proceeds from three ingredients: the low-dimensional base cases, the 2-periodicity isomorphism + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊗ + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+2}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )\otimes \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} ),} + + +and the identification of the even subalgebra + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + + ) + + 0 + + + ≅ + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+1}(\mathbf {C} )^{0}\cong \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +See, for example, Porteous (1995) or Lawson & Michelsohn (2016). +For the base cases, one has + + + + + + + C + l + + + 0 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + C + + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{0}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathbf {C} } + + +and + + + + + + + C + l + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + C + + ⊕ + + C + + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{1}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathbf {C} \oplus \mathbf {C} .} + + +The first is immediate. For the second, if + + + + e + + + {\displaystyle e} + + is the generator with + + + + + e + + 2 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle e^{2}=1} + +, then + + + + + + P + + ± + + + = + + + 1 + 2 + + + ( + 1 + ± + e + ) + + + {\displaystyle P_{\pm }={\frac {1}{2}}(1\pm e)} + + +are central orthogonal idempotents with + + + + + P + + + + + + + + + P + + − + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle P_{+}+P_{-}=1} + +, so the algebra splits as the direct sum of the two one-dimensional ideals + + + + + C + + + P + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {C} P_{+}} + + and + + + + + C + + + P + + − + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {C} P_{-}} + +. +Next, one needs the two-dimensional case + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +A concrete realization is obtained from the Pauli matrices: + + + + + + γ + + 1 + + + = + + σ + + 1 + + + = + + + ( + + + + 0 + + + 1 + + + + + 1 + + + 0 + + + + ) + + + , + + + γ + + 2 + + + = + + σ + + 2 + + + = + + + ( + + + + 0 + + + − + i + + + + + i + + + 0 + + + + ) + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \gamma _{1}=\sigma _{1}={\begin{pmatrix}0&1\\1&0\end{pmatrix}},\qquad \gamma _{2}=\sigma _{2}={\begin{pmatrix}0&-i\\i&0\end{pmatrix}}.} + + +These satisfy + + + + + γ + + i + + + + γ + + j + + + + + + γ + + j + + + + γ + + i + + + = + 2 + + δ + + i + j + + + + + {\displaystyle \gamma _{i}\gamma _{j}+\gamma _{j}\gamma _{i}=2\delta _{ij}} + +, so by the universal property they define a homomorphism + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + → + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )\to M_{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +. Since the image contains + + + + 1 + , + + γ + + 1 + + + , + + γ + + 2 + + + , + + γ + + 1 + + + + γ + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle 1,\gamma _{1},\gamma _{2},\gamma _{1}\gamma _{2}} + +, it has dimension 4 and hence is all of + + + + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle M_{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +. +The key step is the 2-periodicity isomorphism. Let + + + + + γ + + 1 + + + , + … + , + + γ + + n + + + + + {\displaystyle \gamma _{1},\dots ,\gamma _{n}} + + generate + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )} + +, let + + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + , + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\gamma }}_{1},{\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}} + + generate + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +, and set + + + + + ω + = + i + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \omega =i{\tilde {\gamma }}_{1}{\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}.} + + +Then + + + + + ω + + 2 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle \omega ^{2}=1} + + and + + + + ω + + + {\displaystyle \omega } + + anticommutes with both + + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\gamma }}_{1}} + + and + + + + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}} + +. Define elements of + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊗ + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )\otimes \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + + by + + + + + + Γ + + a + + + = + + γ + + a + + + ⊗ + ω + + ( + 1 + ≤ + a + ≤ + n + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma _{a}=\gamma _{a}\otimes \omega \qquad (1\leq a\leq n),} + + + + + + + Γ + + n + + + 1 + + + = + 1 + ⊗ + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 1 + + + , + + + Γ + + n + + + 2 + + + = + 1 + ⊗ + + + + + γ + ~ + + + + + 2 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma _{n+1}=1\otimes {\tilde {\gamma }}_{1},\qquad \Gamma _{n+2}=1\otimes {\tilde {\gamma }}_{2}.} + + +Because + + + + + ω + + 2 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle \omega ^{2}=1} + + and + + + + ω + + + {\displaystyle \omega } + + anticommutes with the generators of + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +, the elements + + + + + Γ + + 1 + + + , + … + , + + Γ + + n + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma _{1},\dots ,\Gamma _{n+2}} + + satisfy the Clifford relations for the standard quadratic form on + + + + + + C + + + n + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {C} ^{n+2}} + +. Therefore the universal property gives a homomorphism + + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + → + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊗ + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+2}(\mathbf {C} )\to \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )\otimes \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} ).} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..477a785b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,932 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 3/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Both algebras have dimension + + + + + 2 + + n + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle 2^{n+2}} + +, so this homomorphism is an isomorphism. +It follows by induction on + + + + m + + + {\displaystyle m} + + that + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + + C + l + + + 0 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊗ + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + + ) + + ⊗ + m + + + ≅ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathrm {Cl} _{0}(\mathbf {C} )\otimes \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )^{\otimes m}\cong M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +Indeed, the case + + + + m + = + 0 + + + {\displaystyle m=0} + + is + + + + + + C + l + + + 0 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + C + + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{0}(\mathbf {C} )\cong \mathbf {C} } + +, and each application of 2-periodicity tensors with + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +, doubling the matrix size. +For odd dimension, let + + + + n + = + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + {\displaystyle n=2m+1} + +. The volume element + + + + ω + = + + e + + 1 + + + + e + + 2 + + + ⋯ + + e + + n + + + + + {\displaystyle \omega =e_{1}e_{2}\cdots e_{n}} + + is central because + + + + n + + + {\displaystyle n} + + is odd, and over + + + + + C + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {C} } + + it may be rescaled so that + + + + + ω + + 2 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle \omega ^{2}=1} + +. Hence + + + + + + P + + ± + + + = + + + 1 + 2 + + + ( + 1 + ± + ω + ) + + + {\displaystyle P_{\pm }={\frac {1}{2}}(1\pm \omega )} + + +are central orthogonal idempotents, giving a decomposition + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + ) + = + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊕ + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + − + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m+1}(\mathbf {C} )=\mathrm {Cl} _{2m+1}^{+}(\mathbf {C} )\oplus \mathrm {Cl} _{2m+1}^{-}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +On the other hand, the even subalgebra is isomorphic to + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m}(\mathbf {C} )} + +, and projection onto either summand identifies each simple factor with that even subalgebra. Since + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} ),} + + +one obtains + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊕ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m+1}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} )\oplus M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +This proves the classification: + + + + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + + C + l + + + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + ) + ≅ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + ⊕ + + M + + + 2 + + m + + + + + ( + + C + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{2m}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} ),\qquad \mathrm {Cl} _{2m+1}(\mathbf {C} )\cong M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} )\oplus M_{2^{m}}(\mathbf {C} ).} + + +Equivalently, the complex Clifford algebras are 2-periodic, and the even subalgebra of + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + 1 + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n+1}(\mathbf {C} )} + + is isomorphic to + + + + + + C + l + + + n + + + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \mathrm {Cl} _{n}(\mathbf {C} )} + +. + +== Real case == +The real case is significantly more complicated, exhibiting a periodicity of 8 rather than 2, and there is a 2-parameter family of Clifford algebras. + +=== Classification of quadratic forms === +Firstly, there are non-isomorphic quadratic forms of a given degree, classified by signature. +Every nondegenerate quadratic form on a real vector space is equivalent to a diagonal form + + + + + Q + ( + u + ) + = + + u + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + + ⋯ + + + + u + + p + + + 2 + + + − + + u + + p + + + 1 + + + 2 + + + − + ⋯ + − + + u + + p + + + q + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle Q(u)=u_{1}^{2}+\cdots +u_{p}^{2}-u_{p+1}^{2}-\cdots -u_{p+q}^{2}} + + +where n = p + q is the dimension of the vector space. The pair of integers (p, q) is called the signature of the quadratic form. The real vector space with this quadratic form is often denoted Rp,q. The Clifford algebra on Rp,q is denoted Clp,q(R). +A standard orthonormal basis {ei} for Rp,q consists of n = p + q mutually orthogonal vectors, p of which have norm +1 and q of which have norm −1. + +=== Unit pseudoscalar === + +Given a standard basis {ei} as defined in the previous subsection, the unit pseudoscalar in Clp,q(R) is defined as + + + + + ω + = + + e + + 1 + + + + e + + 2 + + + ⋯ + + e + + n + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \omega =e_{1}e_{2}\cdots e_{n}.} + + +It is the Clifford-algebra analogue of the volume element. +To compute the square ω2 = (e1e2\cdots en)(e1e2\cdots en), one may reverse the order of the second factor and then commute equal basis vectors together. This introduces the sign (−1)n(n−1)/2, and since ei2 = +1 for i \le p and ei2 = -1 for the remaining q basis vectors, one obtains + + + + + + ω + + 2 + + + = + ( + − + 1 + + ) + + + + n + ( + n + − + 1 + ) + + 2 + + + + ( + − + 1 + + ) + + q + + + = + ( + − + 1 + + ) + + + + ( + p + − + q + ) + ( + p + − + q + − + 1 + ) + + 2 + + + + = + + + { + + + + + + 1 + + + p + − + q + ≡ + 0 + , + 1 + + + ( + mod + + 4 + ) + + + + + + − + 1 + + + p + − + q + ≡ + 2 + , + 3 + + + ( + mod + + 4 + ) + + . + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle \omega ^{2}=(-1)^{\frac {n(n-1)}{2}}(-1)^{q}=(-1)^{\frac {(p-q)(p-q-1)}{2}}={\begin{cases}+1&p-q\equiv 0,1{\pmod {4}}\\-1&p-q\equiv 2,3{\pmod {4}}.\end{cases}}} + + +Note that, unlike the complex case, it is not in general possible to find a pseudoscalar that squares to +1. + +=== Center === +If n (equivalently, p − q) is even, the algebra Clp,q(R) is central simple and so isomorphic to a matrix algebra over R or H by the Artin–Wedderburn theorem. +If n is odd then the algebra is no longer central simple: its center contains the pseudoscalar as well as the scalars. If n is odd and ω2 = +1 (equivalently, if p − q ≡ 1 (mod 4)) then, just as in the complex case, the algebra Clp,q(R) decomposes into a direct sum of isomorphic algebras + + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + = + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + + + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ⊕ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + − + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )=\operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}^{+}(\mathbf {R} )\oplus \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}^{-}(\mathbf {R} ),} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..89cdeaf3f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,503 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 4/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +each of which is central simple and so isomorphic to a matrix algebra over R or H. +If n is odd and ω2 = −1 (equivalently, if p − q ≡ −1 (mod 4)) then the center of Clp,q(R) is isomorphic to C, and the algebra may be regarded as a complex central simple algebra; hence it is isomorphic to a matrix algebra over C. + +=== Classification === +All told there are three properties which determine the class of the algebra Clp,q(R): + +signature mod 2: n is even/odd, determining whether the algebra is central simple or not; +signature mod 4: ω2 = ±1, determining in the odd-dimensional case whether the center is R ⊕ R or C; +signature mod 8: the Brauer class of the algebra (n even) or of the even subalgebra (n odd), determining whether the central simple factor is split or quaternionic. +Each of these properties depends only on the signature p − q modulo 8. The complete classification table is given below. The size of the matrices is determined by the requirement that Clp,q(R) have dimension 2p+q. + +It may be seen that of all matrix-ring types mentioned, there is only one type shared by complex and real algebras: the type M2m(C). For example, Cl2(C) and Cl3,0(R) are both isomorphic to M2(C). It is important to distinguish the categories in which these isomorphisms are taken: Cl2(C) is classified as a C-algebra, whereas Cl3,0(R) is classified as an R-algebra. Thus the two are R-algebra isomorphic, but not canonically as complex algebras. +A table of this classification for p + q ≤ 8 follows. Here p + q runs vertically and p − q runs horizontally (e.g. the algebra Cl1,3(R) ≅ M2(H) is found in row 4, column −2). + +=== Symmetries === +There is a tangled web of symmetries and relationships in the above table. Most importantly, one has the standard real-periodicity isomorphisms + + + + + + + + + + Cl + + p + + + 1 + , + q + + + 1 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ⊗ + + M + + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + , + + + + + + Cl + + q + , + p + + + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ⊗ + + H + + , + + + + + + Cl + + q + + + 2 + , + p + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ⊗ + + M + + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + . + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\operatorname {Cl} _{p+1,q+1}(\mathbf {R} )&\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )\otimes \operatorname {M} _{2}(\mathbf {R} ),\\\operatorname {Cl} _{q,p+2}(\mathbf {R} )&\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )\otimes \mathbf {H} ,\\\operatorname {Cl} _{q+2,p}(\mathbf {R} )&\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )\otimes \operatorname {M} _{2}(\mathbf {R} ).\end{aligned}}} + + +In terms of the table, the first rule says that going down one step from the Clifford algebra + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )} + + yields + + + + + Cl + + p + + + 1 + , + q + + + 1 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p+1,q+1}(\mathbf {R} )} + +, which consists of + + + + 2 + × + 2 + + + {\displaystyle 2\times 2} + + matrices over + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )} + +. The other two rules imply that + + + + + + Cl + + p + + + 4 + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + 4 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p+4,q}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q+4}(\mathbf {R} )} + + +and from these one obtains Bott periodicity in the form + + + + + + Cl + + p + + + 8 + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + p + + + 4 + , + q + + + 4 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + 8 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + M + + 16 + + + ⁡ + ( + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p+8,q}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p+4,q+4}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q+8}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {M} _{16}(\operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )).} + + +Furthermore, if the signature satisfies p − q ≡ 1 (mod 4) then + + + + + + Cl + + p + + + k + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + k + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p+k,q}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q+k}(\mathbf {R} ).} + + +This says that the table is symmetric about columns where + + + + p + − + q + = + + + {\displaystyle p-q=} + + ..., −7, −3, 1, 5, 9,.... + +=== Bott periodicity === +The 8-fold periodicity over the real numbers is part of Bott periodicity, the corresponding periodicity for the homotopy groups of the stable orthogonal group; similarly, over the complex numbers one has 2-fold periodicity for the stable unitary group. In Bott's geometric description, the relevant loop spaces are modeled by successive quotients of the classical groups, which are compact symmetric spaces. In stable group theory, loop spaces enter because Bott periodicity identifies the stable classical groups, up to homotopy, with iterated loop spaces of the corresponding classifying spaces. The matching 2-fold and 8-fold algebraic periodicities of complex and real Clifford algebras are part of the same picture. + +=== Failure of symmetry under swapping p and q === +Note that in the real classification, in general, + + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≇ + + Cl + + q + , + p + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )\not \cong \operatorname {Cl} _{q,p}(\mathbf {R} ).} + + +In the sign convention used in this article, exchanging p and q replaces the quadratic form by its negative, so it sends the signature difference p − q to q − p = −(p − q). Since the isomorphism class of the real Clifford algebra is determined by p − q (mod 8), one should compare the entries in the classification table for residues d and −d modulo 8. +These entries agree only when d ≡ −d (mod 8), that is, only when d ≡ 0 or 4 (mod 8). In all other congruence classes, the algebras are of different types. For example, \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d6b6de90 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,628 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 5/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + + Cl + + 1 + , + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + R + + ⊕ + + R + + , + + + Cl + + 0 + , + 1 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + C + + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{1,0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {R} \oplus \mathbf {R} ,\qquad \operatorname {Cl} _{0,1}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {C} ,} + + +while + + + + + + Cl + + 2 + , + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + R + + ) + , + + + Cl + + 0 + , + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + H + + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{2,0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong M_{2}(\mathbf {R} ),\qquad \operatorname {Cl} _{0,2}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {H} .} + + +So the failure of symmetry appears already in the first few low-dimensional cases. +There are two different mechanisms behind this asymmetry. In odd dimension, the distinction is visible in the center. If p − q ≡ 1 (mod 4), then ω2 = +1 and the algebra splits as a direct sum of two simple ideals, so its center is R⊕R. If instead p − q ≡ −1 (mod 4), then ω2 = −1 and the center is C. Thus swapping p and q can change the center from split real to complex. +In even dimension, both algebras are central simple, so the distinction is instead in their Brauer classes. For example, when p − q ≡ 2 (mod 8) the algebra is a split matrix algebra over R, while when q − p ≡ 2 (mod 8)—equivalently p − q ≡ 6 (mod 8)—the algebra is a matrix algebra over H. So swapping p and q can also change a split algebra into a quaternionic one. +Equivalently, one has + + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + q + , + p + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{q,p}(\mathbf {R} )} + + +if and only if p − q ≡ 0 or 4 (mod 8). This is simply the fixed-point condition for the involution + + + + d + ↦ + − + d + + + {\displaystyle d\mapsto -d} + + on the real classification table. +This is one reason sign conventions matter in the literature: authors using the opposite convention for Clifford multiplication often write + + + + + Cl + + p + , + q + + + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{p,q}} + + for what this article denotes by + + + + + Cl + + q + , + p + + + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{q,p}} + +. The non-symmetry under + + + + ( + p + , + q + ) + ↦ + ( + q + , + p + ) + + + {\displaystyle (p,q)\mapsto (q,p)} + + is a property of real Clifford algebras, not just a notational artefact. +This asymmetry belongs to the full Clifford algebra, not to the spin group. Let (V,q) be a real quadratic space. The spin group is defined inside the even Clifford algebra by + + + + + Spin + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + = + Pin + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + ∩ + + Cl + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Spin} (V,q)=\operatorname {Pin} (V,q)\cap \operatorname {Cl} ^{0}(V,q),} + + +where Pin(V,q) is generated by the unit vectors v with q(v)=± 1. Under the standard twisted-adjoint action, such a vector acts on V by reflection in the hyperplane orthogonal to v, so products of an even number of unit vectors act by orientation-preserving orthogonal transformations. +Now replacing q by −q does not change the orthogonal group: the same linear maps preserve q and −q, so O(V,q)=O(V,−q) and hence SO(V,q)=SO(V,−q). This is why one has SO(p,q) ≅ SO(q,p) and correspondingly Spin(p,q) ≅ Spin(q,p). The point is that although the Clifford algebras need not be the same, the spin group is built from even products of the same reflections, inside the even Clifford algebra. +The lowest-dimensional examples already show the distinction. In the sign convention used in this article, + + + + + + Cl + + 1 + , + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + R + + ⊕ + + R + + , + + + Cl + + 0 + , + 1 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + C + + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{1,0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {R} \oplus \mathbf {R} ,\qquad \operatorname {Cl} _{0,1}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {C} ,} + + +so the full algebras are different, but in both cases the even subalgebra is just R. Hence + + + + + Spin + ⁡ + ( + 1 + , + 0 + ) + ≅ + Spin + ⁡ + ( + 0 + , + 1 + ) + ≅ + { + ± + 1 + } + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Spin} (1,0)\cong \operatorname {Spin} (0,1)\cong \{\pm 1\}.} + + +A more instructive example is + + + + + + Cl + + 2 + , + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + M + + 2 + + + ( + + R + + ) + , + + + Cl + + 0 + , + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + H + + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{2,0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong M_{2}(\mathbf {R} ),\qquad \operatorname {Cl} _{0,2}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {H} .} + + +Here the full algebras, and therefore their irreducible real modules, are of different types: in the first case the irreducible module is real 2-dimensional, whereas in the second it is quaternionic 1-dimensional. But the spin group only sees the even subalgebra. In both signatures the even subalgebra is generated by 1 and the bivector e1e2, and + + + + + ( + + e + + 1 + + + + e + + 2 + + + + ) + + 2 + + + = + − + + e + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + e + + 2 + + + 2 + + + = + − + 1. + + + {\displaystyle (e_{1}e_{2})^{2}=-e_{1}^{2}e_{2}^{2}=-1.} + + +Therefore + + + + + + Cl + + 2 + , + 0 + + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + 0 + , + 2 + + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + ≅ + + C + + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{2,0}^{0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \operatorname {Cl} _{0,2}^{0}(\mathbf {R} )\cong \mathbf {C} ,} + + +and in either case the spin group is the circle group + + + + + { + cos + ⁡ + θ + + + sin + ⁡ + θ + + + e + + 1 + + + + e + + 2 + + + : + θ + ∈ + + R + + } + ≅ + U + ( + 1 + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \{\cos \theta +\sin \theta \,e_{1}e_{2}:\theta \in \mathbf {R} \}\cong U(1).} + + +So the full Clifford algebra can distinguish real and quaternionic module types even when the associated spin group cannot: after passing to the even subalgebra, both cases are governed by the same complex structure. +The same phenomenon persists in higher dimensions. For example, although + + + + + Cl + + 1 + , + 3 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{1,3}(\mathbf {R} )} + + and + + + + + Cl + + 3 + , + 1 + + + ⁡ + ( + + R + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} _{3,1}(\mathbf {R} )} + + are different entries in the real classification table, the associated spin groups are both the double cover of the Lorentz group; in particular + + + + + Spin + ⁡ + ( + 1 + , + 3 + ) + ≅ + + SL + + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + C + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Spin} (1,3)\cong \operatorname {SL} _{2}(\mathbf {C} ),} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c10f9719b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,1058 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of Clifford algebras" +chunk: 6/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Clifford_algebras" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:16.280956+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +and hence also + + + + Spin + ⁡ + ( + 3 + , + 1 + ) + ≅ + + SL + + 2 + + + ⁡ + ( + + C + + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Spin} (3,1)\cong \operatorname {SL} _{2}(\mathbf {C} )} + +. + +== General fields == +Let F be a field of characteristic not 2, and let + + + + q + + + {\displaystyle q} + + be a nondegenerate quadratic form on a finite-dimensional F-vector space + + + + V + + + {\displaystyle V} + +. Over such a field, the classification of Clifford algebras is naturally expressed in terms of the center and a Brauer class rather than by a periodic matrix table. +If + + + + dim + ⁡ + V + = + 2 + m + + + {\displaystyle \dim V=2m} + + is even, then the full Clifford algebra + + + + Cl + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} (V,q)} + + is a central simple algebra over + + + + F + + + {\displaystyle F} + +. Its Brauer class + + + + + c + ( + q + ) + := + [ + Cl + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + ] + ∈ + Br + ⁡ + ( + F + ) + + + {\displaystyle c(q):=[\operatorname {Cl} (V,q)]\in \operatorname {Br} (F)} + + +is called the Clifford invariant of + + + + q + + + {\displaystyle q} + +. The center of the even Clifford algebra + + + + + Cl + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} ^{0}(V,q)} + + is the quadratic étale + + + + F + + + {\displaystyle F} + +-algebra + + + + + Z + ( + q + ) + = + F + [ + x + ] + + / + + ( + + x + + 2 + + + − + δ + ( + q + ) + ) + + + {\displaystyle Z(q)=F[x]/(x^{2}-\delta (q))} + +, +where + + + + δ + ( + q + ) + = + ( + − + 1 + + ) + + m + + + det + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle \delta (q)=(-1)^{m}\det(q)} + + is the signed discriminant of + + + + q + + + {\displaystyle q} + +. Thus + + + + Z + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle Z(q)} + + is either a separable quadratic extension field of + + + + F + + + {\displaystyle F} + + or the split algebra + + + + F + ⊕ + F + + + {\displaystyle F\oplus F} + +. +If + + + + dim + ⁡ + V + = + 2 + m + + + 1 + + + {\displaystyle \dim V=2m+1} + + is odd, then the even Clifford algebra + + + + + Cl + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} ^{0}(V,q)} + + is central simple over + + + + F + + + {\displaystyle F} + +. In this case the relevant Clifford invariant is + + + + + c + ( + q + ) + := + [ + + Cl + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + ] + ∈ + Br + ⁡ + ( + F + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle c(q):=[\operatorname {Cl} ^{0}(V,q)]\in \operatorname {Br} (F),} + + +while the full Clifford algebra has center + + + + Z + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle Z(q)} + + and satisfies + + + + + Cl + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + ≅ + + Cl + + 0 + + + ⁡ + ( + V + , + q + ) + + ⊗ + + F + + + Z + ( + q + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {Cl} (V,q)\cong \operatorname {Cl} ^{0}(V,q)\otimes _{F}Z(q).} + + +Thus, in odd dimension, the isomorphism class of the full Clifford algebra is determined by the quadratic étale center + + + + Z + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle Z(q)} + + together with the Brauer class + + + + c + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle c(q)} + +. +An explicit computation of + + + + c + ( + q + ) + + + {\displaystyle c(q)} + + may be made after diagonalizing + + + + + q + ≅ + ⟨ + + a + + 1 + + + , + … + , + + a + + n + + + ⟩ + . + + + {\displaystyle q\cong \langle a_{1},\dots ,a_{n}\rangle .} + + +The associated Hasse invariant is the 2-torsion Brauer class + + + + + s + ( + q + ) + = + + ∏ + + 1 + ≤ + i + < + j + ≤ + n + + + ( + + a + + i + + + , + + a + + j + + + ) + ∈ + Br + ⁡ + ( + F + ) + [ + 2 + ] + , + + + {\displaystyle s(q)=\prod _{1\leq i 1) + + + + + d + ( + f + ) + = + max + ( + deg + ⁡ + ( + P + ) + , + + deg + ⁡ + ( + Q + ) + ) + ≥ + 2 + , + + + {\displaystyle d(f)=\max(\deg(P),\,\deg(Q))\geq 2,} + + +then for a periodic component + + + + U + + + {\displaystyle U} + + of the Fatou set, exactly one of the following holds: + + + + + U + + + {\displaystyle U} + + contains an attracting periodic point + + + + + U + + + {\displaystyle U} + + is parabolic + + + + + U + + + {\displaystyle U} + + is a Siegel disc: a simply connected Fatou component on which f(z) is analytically conjugate to a Euclidean rotation of the unit disc onto itself by an irrational rotation angle. + + + + + U + + + {\displaystyle U} + + is a Herman ring: a double connected Fatou component (an annulus) on which f(z) is analytically conjugate to a Euclidean rotation of a round annulus, again by an irrational rotation angle. + + +=== Attracting periodic point === +The components of the map + + + + f + ( + z + ) + = + z + − + ( + + z + + 3 + + + − + 1 + ) + + / + + 3 + + z + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle f(z)=z-(z^{3}-1)/3z^{2}} + + contain the attracting points that are the solutions to + + + + + z + + 3 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle z^{3}=1} + +. This is because the map is the one to use for finding solutions to the equation + + + + + z + + 3 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle z^{3}=1} + + by Newton–Raphson formula. The solutions must naturally be attracting fixed points. + + +=== Herman ring === +The map + + + + + f + ( + z + ) + = + + e + + 2 + π + i + t + + + + z + + 2 + + + ( + z + − + 4 + ) + + / + + ( + 1 + − + 4 + z + ) + + + {\displaystyle f(z)=e^{2\pi it}z^{2}(z-4)/(1-4z)} + + +and t = 0.6151732... will produce a Herman ring. It is shown by Shishikura that the degree of such map must be at least 3, as in this example. + + +=== More than one type of component === +If degree d is greater than 2 then there is more than one critical point and then can be more than one type of component + + +== Transcendental case == + + +=== Baker domain === +In case of transcendental functions there is another type of periodic Fatou components, called Baker domain: these are "domains on which the iterates tend to an essential singularity (not possible for polynomials and rational functions)" one example of such a function is: + + + + + f + ( + z + ) + = + z + − + 1 + + + ( + 1 + − + 2 + z + ) + + e + + z + + + + + {\displaystyle f(z)=z-1+(1-2z)e^{z}} + + + +=== Wandering domain === +Transcendental maps may have wandering domains: these are Fatou components that are not eventually periodic. + + +== See also == +No-wandering-domain theorem +Montel's theorem +John Domains +Basins of attraction + + +== References == + + +== Bibliography == +Lennart Carleson and Theodore W. Gamelin, Complex Dynamics, Springer 1993. +Alan F. Beardon Iteration of Rational Functions, Springer 1991. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..93444e914 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,1064 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of discontinuities" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:17.602531+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +While continuous functions are important in mathematics, not all functions are continuous. If a function is not continuous at a limit point (also called an "accumulation point" or "cluster point") of its domain, it has a discontinuity there. The set of all points of discontinuity of a function may be a discrete set, a dense set, or even the entire domain of the function. + +== Classification == +For each of the following, consider a real valued function + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + of a real variable + + + + x + , + + + {\displaystyle x,} + + defined in a neighborhood of the point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + at which + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is discontinuous. + +=== Removable discontinuity === + +Consider the piecewise function + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + = + + + { + + + + + x + + 2 + + + + + + for + + x + < + 1 + + + + + 0 + + + + for + + x + = + 1 + + + + + 2 + − + x + + + + for + + x + > + 1 + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle f(x)={\begin{cases}x^{2}&{\text{ for }}x<1\\0&{\text{ for }}x=1\\2-x&{\text{ for }}x>1\end{cases}}} + + +The point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}=1} + + is a removable discontinuity. For this kind of discontinuity: +The one-sided limit from the negative direction: + + + + + + L + + − + + + = + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + + {\displaystyle L^{-}=\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}f(x)} + + +and the one-sided limit from the positive direction: + + + + + + L + + + + + + = + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + + {\displaystyle L^{+}=\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}f(x)} + + +at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + both exist, are finite, and are equal to + + + + L + = + + L + + − + + + = + + L + + + + + + . + + + {\displaystyle L=L^{-}=L^{+}.} + + In other words, since the two one-sided limits exist and are equal, the limit + + + + L + + + {\displaystyle L} + + of + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + + {\displaystyle f(x)} + + as + + + + x + + + {\displaystyle x} + + approaches + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + exists and is equal to this same value. If the actual value of + + + + f + + ( + + x + + 0 + + + ) + + + + {\displaystyle f\left(x_{0}\right)} + + is not equal to + + + + L + , + + + {\displaystyle L,} + + then + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is called a removable discontinuity. This discontinuity can be removed to make + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + continuous at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle x_{0},} + + or more precisely, the function + + + + + g + ( + x + ) + = + + + { + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + + x + ≠ + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + L + + + x + = + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle g(x)={\begin{cases}f(x)&x\neq x_{0}\\L&x=x_{0}\end{cases}}} + + +is continuous at + + + + x + = + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x=x_{0}.} + + +The term removable discontinuity is sometimes broadened to include a removable singularity, in which the limits in both directions exist and are equal, while the function is undefined at the point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + This use is an abuse of terminology because continuity and discontinuity of a function are concepts defined only for points in the function's domain. + +=== Jump discontinuity === + +Consider the function + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + = + + + { + + + + + x + + 2 + + + + + + + for + + + x + < + 1 + + + + + 0 + + + + + for + + + x + = + 1 + + + + + 2 + − + ( + x + − + 1 + + ) + + 2 + + + + + + + for + + + x + > + 1 + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle f(x)={\begin{cases}x^{2}&{\mbox{ for }}x<1\\0&{\mbox{ for }}x=1\\2-(x-1)^{2}&{\mbox{ for }}x>1\end{cases}}} + + +Then, the point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}=1} + + is a jump discontinuity. +In this case, a single limit does not exist because the one-sided limits, + + + + + L + + − + + + + + {\displaystyle L^{-}} + + and + + + + + L + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle L^{+}} + + exist and are finite, but are not equal: since, + + + + + L + + − + + + ≠ + + L + + + + + + , + + + {\displaystyle L^{-}\neq L^{+},} + + the limit + + + + L + + + {\displaystyle L} + + does not exist. Then, + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is called a jump discontinuity, step discontinuity, or discontinuity of the first kind. For this type of discontinuity, the function + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + may have any value at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + +=== Essential discontinuity === + +For an essential discontinuity, at least one of the two one-sided limits does not exist in + + + + + R + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } + +. (Notice that one or both one-sided limits can be + + + + ± + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle \pm \infty } + +). +Consider the function + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + = + + + { + + + + sin + ⁡ + + + 5 + + x + − + 1 + + + + + + + for + + x + < + 1 + + + + + 0 + + + + for + + x + = + 1 + + + + + + + 1 + + x + − + 1 + + + + + + + for + + x + > + 1. + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle f(x)={\begin{cases}\sin {\frac {5}{x-1}}&{\text{ for }}x<1\\0&{\text{ for }}x=1\\{\frac {1}{x-1}}&{\text{ for }}x>1.\end{cases}}} + + +Then, the point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + = + 1 + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}=1} + + is an essential discontinuity. +In this example, both + + + + + L + + − + + + + + {\displaystyle L^{-}} + + and + + + + + L + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle L^{+}} + + do not exist in + + + + + R + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } + +, thus satisfying the condition of essential discontinuity. So + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is an essential discontinuity, infinite discontinuity, or discontinuity of the second kind. (This is distinct from an essential singularity, which is often used when studying functions of complex variables). + +== Counting discontinuities of a function == +Supposing that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is a function defined on an interval + + + + I + ⊆ + + R + + , + + + {\displaystyle I\subseteq \mathbb {R} ,} + + we will denote by + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + the set of all discontinuities of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + on + + + + I + . + + + {\displaystyle I.} + + By + + + + R + + + {\displaystyle R} + + we will mean the set of all + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + such that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has a removable discontinuity at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + Analogously by + + + + J + + + {\displaystyle J} + + we denote the set constituted by all + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + such that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has a jump discontinuity at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + The set of all + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + such that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has an essential discontinuity at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + will be denoted by + + + + E + . + + + {\displaystyle E.} + + Of course then + + + + D + = + R + ∪ + J + ∪ + E + . + + + {\displaystyle D=R\cup J\cup E.} + + +The two following properties of the set + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + are relevant in the literature. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c0410c69 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,883 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of discontinuities" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:17.602531+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The set + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + is an + + + + + F + + σ + + + + + {\displaystyle F_{\sigma }} + + set. The set of points at which a function is continuous is always a + + + + + G + + δ + + + + + {\displaystyle G_{\delta }} + + set (see). +If on the interval + + + + I + , + + + {\displaystyle I,} + + + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is monotone then + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + is at most countable and + + + + D + = + J + . + + + {\displaystyle D=J.} + + This is Froda's theorem. +Tom Apostol follows partially the classification above by considering only removable and jump discontinuities. His objective is to study the discontinuities of monotone functions, mainly to prove Froda’s theorem. With the same purpose, Walter Rudin and Karl R. Stromberg study also removable and jump discontinuities by using different terminologies. However, furtherly, both authors state that + + + + R + ∪ + J + + + {\displaystyle R\cup J} + + is always a countable set (see). +The term essential discontinuity has evidence of use in mathematical context as early as 1889. However, the earliest use of the term alongside a mathematical definition seems to have been given in the work by John Klippert. Therein, Klippert also classified essential discontinuities themselves by subdividing the set + + + + E + + + {\displaystyle E} + + into the three following sets: + + + + + + E + + 1 + + + = + + { + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + : + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + and + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + do not exist in + + + R + + + } + + , + + + {\displaystyle E_{1}=\left\{x_{0}\in I:\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}f(x){\text{ and }}\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}f(x){\text{ do not exist in }}\mathbb {R} \right\},} + + + + + + + E + + 2 + + + = + + { + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + : + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + exists in + + + R + + + and + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + does not exist in + + + R + + + } + + , + + + {\displaystyle E_{2}=\left\{x_{0}\in I:\ \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}f(x){\text{ exists in }}\mathbb {R} {\text{ and }}\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}f(x){\text{ does not exist in }}\mathbb {R} \right\},} + + + + + + + E + + 3 + + + = + + { + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + : + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + does not exist in + + + R + + + and + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + + exists in + + + R + + + } + + . + + + {\displaystyle E_{3}=\left\{x_{0}\in I:\ \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}f(x){\text{ does not exist in }}\mathbb {R} {\text{ and }}\lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}f(x){\text{ exists in }}\mathbb {R} \right\}.} + + +Of course + + + + E + = + + E + + 1 + + + ∪ + + E + + 2 + + + ∪ + + E + + 3 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle E=E_{1}\cup E_{2}\cup E_{3}.} + + Whenever + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + + E + + 1 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in E_{1},} + + + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is called an essential discontinuity of first kind. Any + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + + E + + 2 + + + ∪ + + E + + 3 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in E_{2}\cup E_{3}} + + is said an essential discontinuity of second kind. Hence he enlarges the set + + + + R + ∪ + J + + + {\displaystyle R\cup J} + + without losing its characteristic of being countable, by stating the following: + +The set + + + + R + ∪ + J + ∪ + + E + + 2 + + + ∪ + + E + + 3 + + + + + {\displaystyle R\cup J\cup E_{2}\cup E_{3}} + + is countable. + +== Rewriting Lebesgue's theorem == +When + + + + I + = + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle I=[a,b]} + + and + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is a bounded function, it is well-known of the importance of the set + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + in the regard of the Riemann integrability of + + + + f + . + + + {\displaystyle f.} + + In fact, Lebesgue's theorem (also named Lebesgue-Vitali) theorem) states that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is Riemann integrable on + + + + I + = + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle I=[a,b]} + + if and only if + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + is a set with Lebesgue's measure zero. +In this theorem seems that all type of discontinuities have the same weight on the obstruction that a bounded function + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + be Riemann integrable on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + . + + + {\displaystyle [a,b].} + + Since countable sets are sets of Lebesgue's measure zero and a countable union of sets with Lebesgue's measure zero is still a set of Lebesgue's measure zero, we are seeing now that this is not the case. In fact, the discontinuities in the set + + + + R + ∪ + J + ∪ + + E + + 2 + + + ∪ + + E + + 3 + + + + + {\displaystyle R\cup J\cup E_{2}\cup E_{3}} + + are absolutely neutral in the regard of the Riemann integrability of + + + + f + . + + + {\displaystyle f.} + + The main discontinuities for that purpose are the essential discontinuities of first kind and consequently the Lebesgue-Vitali theorem can be rewritten as follows: + +A bounded function, + + + + f + , + + + {\displaystyle f,} + + is Riemann integrable on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle [a,b]} + + if and only if the correspondent set + + + + + E + + 1 + + + + + {\displaystyle E_{1}} + + of all essential discontinuities of first kind of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has Lebesgue's measure zero. +The case where + + + + + E + + 1 + + + = + ∅ + + + {\displaystyle E_{1}=\varnothing } + + correspond to the following well-known classical complementary situations of Riemann integrability of a bounded function + + + + f + : + [ + a + , + b + ] + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:[a,b]\to \mathbb {R} } + +: + +If + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has right-hand limit at each point of + + + + [ + a + , + b + [ + + + {\displaystyle [a,b[} + + then + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is Riemann integrable on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle [a,b]} + + (see) +If + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + has left-hand limit at each point of + + + + ] + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle ]a,b]} + + then + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is Riemann integrable on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + . + + + {\displaystyle [a,b].} + + +If + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is a regulated function on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle [a,b]} + + then + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is Riemann integrable on + + + + [ + a + , + b + ] + . + + + {\displaystyle [a,b].} + + +=== Examples === +Thomae's function is discontinuous at every non-zero rational point, but continuous at every irrational point. One easily sees that those discontinuities are all removable. By the first paragraph, there does not exist a function that is continuous at every rational point, but discontinuous at every irrational point. +The indicator function of the rationals, also known as the Dirichlet function, is discontinuous everywhere. These discontinuities are all essential of the first kind too. +Consider now the ternary Cantor set + + + + + + C + + + ⊂ + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}\subset [0,1]} + + and its indicator (or characteristic) function \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c8aa4f3a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,1257 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of discontinuities" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:17.602531+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + ( + x + ) + = + + + { + + + + 1 + + + x + ∈ + + + C + + + + + + + 0 + + + x + ∈ + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + ∖ + + + C + + + . + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}(x)={\begin{cases}1&x\in {\mathcal {C}}\\0&x\in [0,1]\setminus {\mathcal {C}}.\end{cases}}} + + +One way to construct the Cantor set + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + + is given by + + + + + + C + + + := + + ⋂ + + n + = + 0 + + + ∞ + + + + C + + n + + + + + {\textstyle {\mathcal {C}}:=\bigcap _{n=0}^{\infty }C_{n}} + + where the sets + + + + + C + + n + + + + + {\displaystyle C_{n}} + + are obtained by recurrence according to + + + + + + C + + n + + + = + + + + C + + n + − + 1 + + + 3 + + + ∪ + + ( + + + + 2 + 3 + + + + + + + + C + + n + − + 1 + + + 3 + + + + ) + + + for + + n + ≥ + 1 + , + + and + + + C + + 0 + + + = + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + . + + + {\displaystyle C_{n}={\frac {C_{n-1}}{3}}\cup \left({\frac {2}{3}}+{\frac {C_{n-1}}{3}}\right){\text{ for }}n\geq 1,{\text{ and }}C_{0}=[0,1].} + + +In view of the discontinuities of the function + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + ( + x + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}(x),} + + let's assume a point + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∉ + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\not \in {\mathcal {C}}.} + + +Therefore there exists a set + + + + + C + + n + + + , + + + {\displaystyle C_{n},} + + used in the formulation of + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + +, which does not contain + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + That is, + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + belongs to one of the open intervals which were removed in the construction of + + + + + C + + n + + + . + + + {\displaystyle C_{n}.} + + This way, + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + has a neighbourhood with no points of + + + + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}.} + + (In another way, the same conclusion follows taking into account that + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + + is a closed set and so its complementary with respect to + + + + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + + + {\displaystyle [0,1]} + + is open). Therefore + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}} + + only assumes the value zero in some neighbourhood of + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + Hence + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}} + + is continuous at + + + + + x + + 0 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}.} + + +This means that the set + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + of all discontinuities of + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}} + + on the interval + + + + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + + + {\displaystyle [0,1]} + + is a subset of + + + + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}.} + + Since + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + + is an uncountable set with null Lebesgue measure, also + + + + D + + + {\displaystyle D} + + is a null Lebesgue measure set and so in the regard of Lebesgue-Vitali theorem + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}} + + is a Riemann integrable function. +More precisely one has + + + + D + = + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle D={\mathcal {C}}.} + + In fact, since + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + + is a nonwhere dense set, if + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in {\mathcal {C}}} + + then no neighbourhood + + + + + ( + + + x + + 0 + + + − + ε + , + + x + + 0 + + + + + ε + + ) + + + + {\displaystyle \left(x_{0}-\varepsilon ,x_{0}+\varepsilon \right)} + + of + + + + + x + + 0 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle x_{0},} + + can be contained in + + + + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}.} + + This way, any neighbourhood of + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in {\mathcal {C}}} + + contains points of + + + + + + C + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}} + + and points which are not of + + + + + + C + + + . + + + {\displaystyle {\mathcal {C}}.} + + In terms of the function + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}} + + this means that both + + + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + ( + x + ) + + + {\textstyle \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}\mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}(x)} + + and + + + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + + 1 + + + C + + + + ( + x + ) + + + {\textstyle \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}1_{\mathcal {C}}(x)} + + do not exist. That is, + + + + D + = + + E + + 1 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle D=E_{1},} + + where by + + + + + E + + 1 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle E_{1},} + + as before, we denote the set of all essential discontinuities of first kind of the function + + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}.} + + Clearly + + + + + ∫ + + 0 + + + 1 + + + + + 1 + + + + C + + + + ( + x + ) + d + x + = + 0. + + + {\textstyle \int _{0}^{1}\mathbf {1} _{\mathcal {C}}(x)dx=0.} + + +== Discontinuities of derivatives == +Let + + + + I + ⊆ + + R + + + + {\displaystyle I\subseteq \mathbb {R} } + + an open interval, let + + + + F + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle F:I\to \mathbb {R} } + + be differentiable on + + + + I + , + + + {\displaystyle I,} + + and let + + + + f + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:I\to \mathbb {R} } + + be the derivative of + + + + F + . + + + {\displaystyle F.} + + That is, + + + + + F + ′ + + ( + x + ) + = + f + ( + x + ) + + + {\displaystyle F'(x)=f(x)} + + for every + + + + x + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x\in I} + +. +According to Darboux's theorem, the derivative function + + + + f + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:I\to \mathbb {R} } + + satisfies the intermediate value property. +The function + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + can, of course, be continuous on the interval + + + + I + , + + + {\displaystyle I,} + + in which case Bolzano's theorem also applies. Recall that Bolzano's theorem asserts that every continuous function satisfies the intermediate value property. +On the other hand, the converse is false: Darboux's theorem does not assume + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + to be continuous and the intermediate value property does not imply + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is continuous on + + + + I + . + + + {\displaystyle I.} + + +Darboux's theorem does, however, have an immediate consequence on the type of discontinuities that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + can have. In fact, if + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + is a point of discontinuity of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + +, then necessarily + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is an essential discontinuity of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + +. +This means in particular that the following two situations cannot occur: + +Furthermore, two other situations have to be excluded (see John Klippert): + +Observe that whenever one of the conditions (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv) is fulfilled for some + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + one can conclude that + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + fails to possess an antiderivative, + + + + F + + + {\displaystyle F} + +, on the interval + + + + I + + + {\displaystyle I} + +. +On the other hand, a new type of discontinuity with respect to any function + + + + f + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:I\to \mathbb {R} } + + can be introduced: an essential discontinuity, + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + +, of the function + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + +, is said to be a fundamental essential discontinuity of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + if + + + + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + ≠ + ± + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{-}}f(x)\neq \pm \infty } + + and + + + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + ≠ + ± + ∞ + . + + + {\displaystyle \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{+}}f(x)\neq \pm \infty .} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6dfbe1cb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,239 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of discontinuities" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_discontinuities" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:17.602531+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Therefore if + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + I + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in I} + + is a discontinuity of a derivative function + + + + f + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:I\to \mathbb {R} } + +, then necessarily + + + + + x + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}} + + is a fundamental essential discontinuity of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + +. +Notice also that when + + + + I + = + [ + a + , + b + ] + + + {\displaystyle I=[a,b]} + + and + + + + f + : + I + → + + R + + + + {\displaystyle f:I\to \mathbb {R} } + + is a bounded function, as in the assumptions of Lebesgue's theorem, we have for all + + + + + x + + 0 + + + ∈ + ( + a + , + b + ) + + + {\displaystyle x_{0}\in (a,b)} + +: + + + + + + lim + + x + → + + x + + 0 + + + ± + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + ≠ + ± + ∞ + , + + + {\displaystyle \lim _{x\to x_{0}^{\pm }}f(x)\neq \pm \infty ,} + + + + + + + lim + + x + → + + a + + + + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + ≠ + ± + ∞ + , + + + {\displaystyle \lim _{x\to a^{+}}f(x)\neq \pm \infty ,} + + and + + + + + + lim + + x + → + + b + + − + + + + + f + ( + x + ) + ≠ + ± + ∞ + . + + + {\displaystyle \lim _{x\to b^{-}}f(x)\neq \pm \infty .} + + +Therefore any essential discontinuity of + + + + f + + + {\displaystyle f} + + is a fundamental one. + +== See also == +Removable singularity – Undefined point on a holomorphic function which can be made regular +Mathematical singularity – Point where a mathematical object behaves irregularlyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Extension by continuity – Property of topological space +Smoothness – Number of derivatives of a function (mathematics) +Geometric continuity – Number of derivatives of a function (mathematics)Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Parametric continuity – Number of derivatives of a function (mathematics)Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Sources == +Malik, S.C.; Arora, Savita (1992). Mathematical Analysis (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-470-21858-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) + +== External links == +"Discontinuous". PlanetMath. +"Discontinuity" by Ed Pegg, Jr., The Wolfram Demonstrations Project, 2007. +Weisstein, Eric W. "Discontinuity". MathWorld. +Kudryavtsev, L.D. (2001) [1994]. "Discontinuity point". Encyclopedia of Mathematics. EMS Press. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c6c5c2237 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of finite simple groups" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:19.935542+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mathematics, the classification of finite simple groups (popularly called the enormous theorem) is a result of group theory stating that every finite simple group is either cyclic, or alternating, or belongs to a broad infinite class called the groups of Lie type, or else it is one of twenty-six exceptions, called sporadic (the Tits group is sometimes regarded as a sporadic group because it is not strictly a group of Lie type, in which case there would be 27 sporadic groups). The proof consists of tens of thousands of pages in several hundred journal articles written by about 100 authors, published mostly between 1955 and 2004. +Simple groups can be seen as the basic building blocks of all finite groups, reminiscent of the way the prime numbers are the basic building blocks of the natural numbers. The Jordan–Hölder theorem is a more precise way of stating this fact about finite groups. However, a significant difference from integer factorization is that such "building blocks" do not necessarily determine a unique group, since there might be many non-isomorphic groups with the same composition series or, put in another way, the extension problem does not have a unique solution. +Daniel Gorenstein (1923–1992), Richard Lyons, and Ronald Solomon are gradually publishing a simplified and revised version of the proof. + +== Statement of the classification theorem == + +The classification theorem has applications in many branches of mathematics, as questions about the structure of finite groups (and their action on other mathematical objects) can sometimes be reduced to questions about finite simple groups. Thanks to the classification theorem, such questions can sometimes be answered by checking each family of simple groups and each sporadic group. +Daniel Gorenstein announced in 1983 that the finite simple groups had all been classified, but this was premature as he had been misinformed about the proof of the classification of quasithin groups. The completed proof of the classification was announced by Aschbacher (2004) after Aschbacher and Smith published a 1221-page proof for the missing quasithin case. + +== Overview of the proof of the classification theorem == +Gorenstein (1982, 1983) wrote two volumes outlining the low rank and odd characteristic part of the proof, and Michael Aschbacher, Richard Lyons, and Stephen D. Smith et al. (2011) +wrote a 3rd volume covering the remaining characteristic 2 case. The proof can be broken up into several major pieces as follows: + +=== Groups of small 2-rank === +The simple groups of low 2-rank are mostly groups of Lie type of small rank over fields of odd characteristic, together with five alternating and seven characteristic 2 type and nine sporadic groups. +The simple groups of small 2-rank include: + +Groups of 2-rank 0, in other words groups of odd order, which are all solvable by the Feit–Thompson theorem. +Groups of 2-rank 1. The Sylow 2-subgroups are either cyclic, which is easy to handle using the transfer map, or generalized quaternion, which are handled with the Brauer–Suzuki theorem: in particular there are no simple groups of 2-rank 1 except for the cyclic group of order two. +Groups of 2-rank 2. Alperin showed that the Sylow subgroup must be dihedral, quasidihedral, wreathed, or a Sylow 2-subgroup of U3(4). The first case was done by the Gorenstein–Walter theorem which showed that the only simple groups are isomorphic to L2(q) for q odd or A7, the second and third cases were done by the Alperin–Brauer–Gorenstein theorem which implies that the only simple groups are isomorphic to L3(q) or U3(q) for q odd or M11, and the last case was done by Lyons who showed that U3(4) is the only simple possibility. +Groups of sectional 2-rank at most 4, classified by the Gorenstein–Harada theorem. +The classification of groups of small 2-rank, especially ranks at most 2, makes heavy use of ordinary and modular character theory, which is almost never directly used elsewhere in the classification. +All groups not of small 2 rank can be split into two major classes: groups of component type and groups of characteristic 2 type. This is because if a group has sectional 2-rank at least 5 then MacWilliams showed that its Sylow 2-subgroups are connected, and the balance theorem implies that any simple group with connected Sylow 2-subgroups is either of component type or characteristic 2 type. (For groups of low 2-rank the proof of this breaks down, because theorems such as the signalizer functor theorem only work for groups with elementary abelian subgroups of rank at least 3.) + +=== Groups of component type === +A group is said to be of component type if for some centralizer C of an involution, C/O(C) has a component (where O(C) is the core of C, the maximal normal subgroup of odd order). These are more or less the groups of Lie type of odd characteristic of large rank, and alternating groups, together with some sporadic groups. A major step in this case is to eliminate the obstruction of the core of an involution. This is accomplished by the B-theorem, which states that every component of C/O(C) is the image of a component of C. +The idea is that these groups have a centralizer of an involution with a component that is a smaller quasisimple group, which can be assumed to be already known by induction. So to classify these groups one takes every central extension of every known finite simple group, and finds all simple groups with a centralizer of involution with this as a component. This gives a rather large number of different cases to check: there are not only 26 sporadic groups and 16 families of groups of Lie type and the alternating groups, but also many of the groups of small rank or over small fields behave differently from the general case and have to be treated separately, and the groups of Lie type of even and odd characteristic are also quite different. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eeb7f69d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of finite simple groups" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:19.935542+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Groups of characteristic 2 type === +A group is of characteristic 2 type if the generalized Fitting subgroup F*(Y) of every 2-local subgroup Y is a 2-group. As the name suggests these are roughly the groups of Lie type over fields of characteristic 2, plus a handful of others that are alternating or sporadic or of odd characteristic. Their classification is divided into the small and large rank cases, where the rank is the largest rank of an odd abelian subgroup normalizing a nontrivial 2-subgroup, which is often (but not always) the same as the rank of a Cartan subalgebra when the group is a group of Lie type in characteristic 2. +The rank 1 groups are the thin groups, classified by Aschbacher, and the rank 2 ones are the notorious quasithin groups, classified by Aschbacher and Smith. These correspond roughly to groups of Lie type of ranks 1 or 2 over fields of characteristic 2. +Groups of rank at least 3 are further subdivided into 3 classes by the trichotomy theorem, proved by Aschbacher for rank 3 and by Gorenstein and Lyons for rank at least 4. +The three classes are groups of GF(2) type (classified mainly by Timmesfeld), groups of "standard type" for some odd prime (classified by the Gilman–Griess theorem and work by several others), and groups of uniqueness type, where a result of Aschbacher implies that there are no simple groups. +The general higher rank case consists mostly of the groups of Lie type over fields of characteristic 2 of rank at least 3 or 4. + +=== Existence and uniqueness of the simple groups === +The main part of the classification produces a characterization of each simple group. It is then necessary to check that there exists a simple group for each characterization and that it is unique. This gives a large number of separate problems; for example, the original proofs of existence and uniqueness of the monster group totaled about 200 pages, and the identification of the Ree groups by Thompson and Bombieri was one of the hardest parts of the classification. Many of the existence proofs and some of the uniqueness proofs for the sporadic groups originally used computer calculations, most of which have since been replaced by shorter hand proofs. + +== History of the proof == + +=== Gorenstein's program === +In 1972 Gorenstein (1979, Appendix) announced a program for completing the classification of finite simple groups, consisting of the following 16 steps: + +Groups of low 2-rank. This was essentially done by Gorenstein and Harada, who classified the groups with sectional 2-rank at most 4. Most of the cases of 2-rank at most 2 had been done by the time Gorenstein announced his program. +The semisimplicity of 2-layers. The problem is to prove that the 2-layer of the centralizer of an involution in a simple group is semisimple. +Standard form in odd characteristic. If a group has an involution with a 2-component that is a group of Lie type of odd characteristic, the goal is to show that it has a centralizer of involution in "standard form" meaning that a centralizer of involution has a component that is of Lie type in odd characteristic and also has a centralizer of 2-rank 1. +Classification of groups of odd type. The problem is to show that if a group has a centralizer of involution in "standard form" then it is a group of Lie type of odd characteristic. This was solved by Aschbacher's classical involution theorem. +Quasi-standard form +Central involutions +Classification of alternating groups. +Some sporadic groups +Thin groups. The simple thin finite groups, those with 2-local p-rank at most 1 for odd primes p, were classified by Aschbacher in 1978 +Groups with a strongly p-embedded subgroup for p odd +The signalizer functor method for odd primes. The main problem is to prove a signalizer functor theorem for nonsolvable signalizer functors. This was solved by McBride in 1982. +Groups of characteristic p type. This is the problem of groups with a strongly p-embedded 2-local subgroup with p odd, which was handled by Aschbacher. +Quasithin groups. A quasithin group is one whose 2-local subgroups have p-rank at most 2 for all odd primes p, and the problem is to classify the simple ones of characteristic 2 type. This was completed by Aschbacher and Smith in 2004. +Groups of low 2-local 3-rank. This was essentially solved by Aschbacher's trichotomy theorem for groups with e(G)=3. The main change is that 2-local 3-rank is replaced by 2-local p-rank for odd primes. +Centralizers of 3-elements in standard form. This was essentially done by the Trichotomy theorem. +Classification of simple groups of characteristic 2 type. This was handled by the Gilman–Griess theorem, with 3-elements replaced by p-elements for odd primes. + +=== Timeline of the proof === +Many of the items in the table below are taken from Solomon (2001). The date given is usually the publication date of the complete proof of a result, which is sometimes several years later than the proof or first announcement of the result, so some of the items appear in the "wrong" order. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..749073a93 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of finite simple groups" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:19.935542+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Second-generation classification == +The proof of the theorem, as it stood around 1985 or so, can be called first generation. Because of the extreme length of the first generation proof, much effort has been devoted to finding a simpler proof, called a second-generation classification proof. This effort, called "revisionism", was originally led by Daniel Gorenstein, and coauthored with Richard Lyons and Ronald Solomon. +As of 2023, ten volumes of the second generation proof have been published (Gorenstein, Lyons & Solomon 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2018a, 2018b; & Inna Capdeboscq, 2021, 2023). In 2012 Solomon estimated that the project would need another 5 volumes, but said that progress on them was slow. It is estimated that the new proof will eventually fill approximately 5,000 pages. (This length stems in part from the second generation proof being written in a more relaxed style.) However, with the publication of volume 9 of the GLS series, and including the Aschbacher–Smith contribution, this estimate was already reached, with several more volumes still in preparation (the rest of what was originally intended for volume 9, plus projected volumes 10 and 11). Aschbacher and Smith wrote their two volumes devoted to the quasithin case in such a way that those volumes can be part of the second generation proof. +Gorenstein and his collaborators have given several reasons why a simpler proof is possible. + +The most important thing is that the correct, final statement of the theorem is now known. Simpler techniques can be applied that are known to be adequate for the types of groups we know to be finite simple. In contrast, those who worked on the first generation proof did not know how many sporadic groups there were, and in fact some of the sporadic groups (e.g., the Janko groups) were discovered while proving other cases of the classification theorem. As a result, many of the pieces of the theorem were proved using techniques that were overly general. +Because the conclusion was unknown, the first generation proof consists of many stand-alone theorems, dealing with important special cases. Much of the work of proving these theorems was devoted to the analysis of numerous special cases. Given a larger, orchestrated proof, dealing with many of these special cases can be postponed until the most powerful assumptions can be applied. The price paid under this revised strategy is that these first generation theorems no longer have comparatively short proofs, but instead rely on the complete classification. +Many first generation theorems overlap, and so divide the possible cases in inefficient ways. As a result, families and subfamilies of finite simple groups were identified multiple times. The revised proof eliminates these redundancies by relying on a different subdivision of cases. +Finite group theorists have more experience at this sort of exercise, and have new techniques at their disposal. +Aschbacher (2004) has called the work on the classification problem by Ulrich Meierfrankenfeld, Bernd Stellmacher, Gernot Stroth, and a few others, a third generation program. One goal of this is to treat all groups in characteristic 2 uniformly using the amalgam method. + +=== Length of proof === +Gorenstein has discussed some of the reasons why there might not be a short proof of the classification similar to the classification of compact Lie groups. + +The most obvious reason is that the list of simple groups is quite complicated: with 26 sporadic groups there are likely to be many special cases that have to be considered in any proof. So far no one has yet found a clean uniform description of the finite simple groups similar to the parameterization of the compact Lie groups by Dynkin diagrams. +Atiyah and others have suggested that the classification ought to be simplified by constructing some geometric object that the groups act on and then classifying these geometric structures. The problem is that no one has been able to suggest an easy way to find such a geometric structure associated with a simple group. In some sense, the classification does work by finding geometric structures such as BN-pairs, but this only comes at the end of a very long and difficult analysis of the structure of a finite simple group. +Another suggestion for simplifying the proof is to make greater use of representation theory. The problem here is that representation theory seems to require very tight control over the subgroups of a group in order to work well. For groups of small rank, one has such control and representation theory works very well, but for groups of larger rank no-one has succeeded in using it to simplify the classification. In the early days of the classification, there was a considerable effort made to use representation theory, but this never achieved much success in the higher rank case. + +== Consequences of the classification == +This section lists some results that have been proved using the classification of finite simple groups. + +A breakthrough in the best known theoretical algorithm for the graph isomorphism problem in 1982 +The Schreier conjecture +The Signalizer functor theorem +The B conjecture +The Schur–Zassenhaus theorem for all groups (though this only uses the Feit–Thompson theorem). +A transitive permutation group on a finite set with more than 1 element has a fixed-point-free element of prime power order. +The classification of 2-transitive permutation groups. +The classification of rank 3 permutation groups. +The Sims conjecture +Frobenius's conjecture on the number of solutions of xn = 1. +Non-abelian finite simple groups are characterized by their commuting graphs. + +== See also == +O'Nan–Scott theorem + +== Citations == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..17af9866f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of finite simple groups" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_finite_simple_groups" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:19.935542+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== References == +Aschbacher, Michael (2004). "The Status of the Classification of the Finite Simple Groups" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society. Vol. 51, no. 7. pp. 736–740. +Aschbacher, Michael; Lyons, Richard; Smith, Stephen D.; Solomon, Ronald (2011), The Classification of Finite Simple Groups: Groups of Characteristic 2 Type, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 172, ISBN 978-0-8218-5336-8 +Conway, John Horton; Curtis, Robert Turner; Norton, Simon Phillips; Parker, Richard A; Wilson, Robert Arnott (1985), Atlas of Finite Groups: Maximal Subgroups and Ordinary Characters for Simple Groups, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-853199-9 +Gorenstein, D. (1979), "The classification of finite simple groups. I. Simple groups and local analysis", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, New Series, 1 (1): 43–199, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1979-14551-8, ISSN 0002-9904, MR 0513750 +Gorenstein, D. (1982), Finite simple groups, University Series in Mathematics, New York: Plenum Publishing Corp., ISBN 978-0-306-40779-6, MR 0698782 +Gorenstein, D. (1983), The classification of finite simple groups. Vol. 1. Groups of noncharacteristic 2 type, The University Series in Mathematics, Plenum Press, ISBN 978-0-306-41305-6, MR 0746470 +Daniel Gorenstein (1985), "The Enormous Theorem", Scientific American, December 1, 1985, vol. 253, no. 6, pp. 104–115. +Gorenstein, D. (1986), "Classifying the finite simple groups", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, New Series, 14 (1): 1–98, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1986-15392-9, ISSN 0002-9904, MR 0818060 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (1994), The classification of the finite simple groups, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-0334-9, MR 1303592 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (1996), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 2, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-0390-5, MR 1358135 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (1998), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 3, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-0391-2, MR 1490581 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (1999), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 4. Part II, Chapters 1-4: Uniqueness Theorems, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-1379-9, MR 1675976 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2002), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 5, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-2776-5, MR 1923000 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2005), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 6: Part IV: The Special Odd Case, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-2777-2, MR 2104668 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2018), The classification of the finite simple groups, Number 7: Part III, Chapters 7–11: The Generic Case, Stages 3b and 4a, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-0-8218-4069-6, MR 3752626 +Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2018), The Classification of the Finite Simple Groups, Number 8: Part III, Chapters 12–17: The Generic Case, Completed, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-1-4704-4189-0, MR 3887657 +Capdeboscq, Inna; Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2021), The Classification of the Finite Simple Groups, Number 9: Part V, Chapters 1-8: Theorem + + + + + C + + 5 + + + + + {\displaystyle C_{5}} + + and Theorem + + + + + C + + 6 + + + + + {\displaystyle C_{6}} + +, Stage 1, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-1-4704-6437-0, MR 4244365 +Capdeboscq, Inna; Gorenstein, D.; Lyons, Richard; Solomon, Ronald (2023), The Classification of the Finite Simple Groups, Number 10: Part V, Chapters 9-17: Theorem + + + + + C + + 6 + + + + + {\displaystyle C_{6}} + + and Theorem + + + + + C + + 4 + + + ∗ + + + + + {\displaystyle C_{4}^{*}} + +, Case A, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs, vol. 40, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, ISBN 978-1-4704-7553-6, MR 4656413 +Mark Ronan, Symmetry and the Monster, ISBN 978-0-19-280723-6, Oxford University Press, 2006. (Concise introduction for lay reader) +Marcus du Sautoy, Finding Moonshine, Fourth Estate, 2008, ISBN 978-0-00-721461-7 (another introduction for the lay reader. American edition published in 2009 as Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature) +Ron Solomon (1995) "On Finite Simple Groups and their Classification," Notices of the American Mathematical Society. (Not too technical and good on history. American version published in 2009 as Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature) +Solomon, Ronald (2001), "A brief history of the classification of the finite simple groups" (PDF), Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, New Series, 38 (3): 315–352, doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-01-00909-0, ISSN 0002-9904, MR 1824893, archived (PDF) from the original on 2001-06-15 – article won Levi L. Conant prize for exposition +Thompson, John G. (1984), "Finite nonsolvable groups", in Gruenberg, K. W.; Roseblade, J. E. (eds.), Group theory. Essays for Philip Hall, Boston, MA: Academic Press, pp. 1–12, ISBN 978-0-12-304880-6, MR 0780566 +Wilson, Robert A. (2009), The finite simple groups, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 251, vol. 251, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, doi:10.1007/978-1-84800-988-2, ISBN 978-1-84800-987-5, Zbl 1203.20012 + +== External links == +ATLAS of Finite Group Representations. Searchable database of representations and other data for many finite simple groups. +Elwes, Richard, "An enormous theorem: the classification of finite simple groups," Plus Magazine, Issue 41, December 2006. For laypeople. +Madore, David (2003) Orders of nonabelian simple groups. Archived 2005-04-04 at the Wayback Machine Includes a list of all nonabelian simple groups up to order 1010. +In what sense is the classification of all finite groups “impossible”? +Ornes, Stephen (2015). "Researchers Race to Rescue the Enormous Theorem before Its Giant Proof Vanishes". Scientific American. 313 (1): 68–75. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0715-68. PMID 26204718. +"Where are the second- (and third-)generation proofs of the classification of finite simple groups up to?". MathOverflow. (Last updated in February 2024) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-0.md index a8ef8d04a..ef3c400e5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:13:07.603621+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:21.132152+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-1.md index 2a695a120..7c5ac1fb1 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_low-dimensional_real_Lie_algebras" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:13:07.603621+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:21.132152+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9dea36609 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,188 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of manifolds" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:22.311632+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mathematics, specifically geometry and topology, the classification of manifolds is a basic question, about which much is known, and many open questions remain. + +== Main themes == + +=== Overview === +Low-dimensional manifolds are classified by geometric structure; high-dimensional manifolds are classified algebraically, by surgery theory. +"Low dimensions" means dimensions up to 4; "high dimensions" means 5 or more dimensions. The case of dimension 4 is somehow a boundary case, as it manifests "low dimensional" behaviour smoothly (but not topologically); see discussion of "low" versus "high" dimension. +Different categories of manifolds yield different classifications; these are related by the notion of "structure", and more general categories have neater theories. +Positive curvature is constrained, negative curvature is generic. +The abstract classification of high-dimensional manifolds is ineffective: given two manifolds (presented as CW complexes, for instance), there is no algorithm to determine if they are isomorphic. + +=== Different categories and additional structure === + +Formally, classifying manifolds is classifying objects up to isomorphism. +There are many different notions of "manifold", and corresponding notions of +"map between manifolds", each of which yields a different category and a different classification question. +These categories are related by forgetful functors: for instance, a differentiable manifold is also a topological manifold, and a differentiable map is also continuous, so there is a functor + + + + + + Diff + + + → + + + Top + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mbox{Diff}}\to {\mbox{Top}}} + +. +These functors are in general neither one-to-one nor onto on objects; these failures are generally referred to in terms of "structure", as follows. A topological manifold that is in the image of + + + + + + Diff + + + → + + + Top + + + + + {\displaystyle {\mbox{Diff}}\to {\mbox{Top}}} + + is said to "admit a differentiable structure", and the fiber over a given topological manifold is "the different differentiable structures on the given topological manifold". +Thus given two categories, the two natural questions are: + +Which manifolds of a given type admit an additional structure? +If it admits an additional structure, how many does it admit? +More precisely, what is the structure of the set of additional structures? +In more general categories, this structure set has more structure: in Diff it is simply a set, but in Top it is a group, and functorially so. +Many of these structures are G-structures, and the question is reduction of the structure group. The most familiar example is orientability: some manifolds are orientable, some are not, and orientable manifolds admit 2 orientations. + +=== Enumeration versus invariants === +There are two usual ways to give a classification: explicitly, by an enumeration, or implicitly, in terms of invariants. +For instance, for orientable surfaces, +the classification of surfaces enumerates them as the connected sum of + + + + n + ≥ + 0 + + + {\displaystyle n\geq 0} + + tori, and an invariant that classifies them is the genus or Euler characteristic. +Manifolds have a rich set of invariants, including: + +Point-set topology +Compactness +Connectedness +Classic algebraic topology +Euler characteristic +Fundamental group +Cohomology ring +Geometric topology +normal invariants (orientability, characteristic classes, and characteristic numbers) +Simple homotopy (Reidemeister torsion) +Surgery theory +Modern algebraic topology (beyond cobordism theory), such as +Extraordinary (co)homology, is little-used +in the classification of manifolds, because these invariants are homotopy-invariant, and hence don't help with the finer classifications above homotopy type. +Cobordism groups (the bordism groups of a point) are computed, but the bordism groups of a space (such as + + + + M + + O + + ∗ + + + ( + M + ) + + + {\displaystyle MO_{*}(M)} + +) are generally not. + +==== Point-set ==== + +The point-set classification is basic—one generally fixes point-set assumptions and then studies that class of manifold. +The most frequently classified class of manifolds is closed, connected manifolds. +Being homogeneous (away from any boundary), manifolds have no local point-set invariants, other than their dimension and boundary versus interior, and the most used global point-set properties are compactness and connectedness. Conventional names for combinations of these are: + +A compact manifold is a compact manifold, possibly with boundary, and not necessarily connected (but necessarily with finitely many components). +A closed manifold is a compact manifold without boundary, not necessarily connected. +An open manifold is a manifold without boundary (not necessarily connected), with no compact component. +For instance, + + + + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ] + + + {\displaystyle [0,1]} + + is a compact manifold, + + + + + S + + 1 + + + + + {\displaystyle S^{1}} + + is a closed manifold, and + + + + ( + 0 + , + 1 + ) + + + {\displaystyle (0,1)} + + is an open manifold, while + + + + [ + 0 + , + 1 + ) + + + {\displaystyle [0,1)} + + is none of these. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7cf5abf57 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of manifolds" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:22.311632+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Computability ==== +The Euler characteristic is a homological invariant, and thus can be effectively computed given a CW structure, so 2-manifolds are classified homologically. +Characteristic classes and characteristic numbers are the corresponding generalized homological invariants, but they do not classify manifolds in higher dimension (they are not a complete set of invariants): for instance, orientable 3-manifolds are parallelizable (Steenrod's theorem in low-dimensional topology), so all characteristic classes vanish. In higher dimensions, characteristic classes do not in general vanish, and provide useful but not complete data. +Manifolds in dimension 4 and above cannot be effectively classified: given two n-manifolds ( + + + + n + ≥ + 4 + + + {\displaystyle n\geq 4} + +) presented as CW complexes or handlebodies, there is no algorithm for determining if they are isomorphic (homeomorphic, diffeomorphic). This is due to the unsolvability of the word problem for groups, or more precisely, the triviality problem (given a finite presentation for a group, is it the trivial group?). Any finite presentation of a group can be realized as a 2-complex, and can be realized as the 2-skeleton of a 4-manifold (or higher). Thus one cannot even compute the fundamental group of a given high-dimensional manifold, much less a classification. +This ineffectiveness is a fundamental reason why surgery theory does not classify manifolds up to homeomorphism. Instead, for any fixed manifold M it classifies pairs + + + + ( + N + , + f + ) + + + {\displaystyle (N,f)} + + with N a manifold and + + + + f + : + N + → + M + + + {\displaystyle f\colon N\to M} + + a homotopy equivalence, two such pairs, + + + + ( + N + , + f + ) + + + {\displaystyle (N,f)} + + and + + + + ( + + N + ′ + + , + + f + ′ + + ) + + + {\displaystyle (N',f')} + +, being regarded as equivalent if there exist a homeomorphism + + + + h + : + N + → + + N + ′ + + + + {\displaystyle h\colon N\to N'} + + and a homotopy + + + + + f + ′ + + h + ∼ + f + : + N + → + M + + + {\displaystyle f'h\sim f\colon N\to M} + +. + +=== Positive curvature is constrained, negative curvature is generic === +Many classical theorems in Riemannian geometry show that manifolds with positive curvature are constrained, most dramatically the 1/4-pinched sphere theorem. Conversely, negative curvature is generic: for instance, any manifold of dimension + + + + n + ≥ + 3 + + + {\displaystyle n\geq 3} + + admits a metric with negative Ricci curvature. +This phenomenon is evident already for surfaces: there is a single orientable (and a single non-orientable) closed surface with positive curvature (the sphere and projective plane), +and likewise for zero curvature (the torus and the Klein bottle), and all surfaces of higher genus admit negative curvature metrics only. +Similarly for 3-manifolds: of the 8 geometries, +all but hyperbolic are quite constrained. + +== Overview by dimension == +Dimension 0 is trivial and 1 is straightforward. +Low dimension manifolds (dimensions 2 and 3) admit geometry. +Middle dimension manifolds (dimension 4 differentiably) exhibit exotic phenomena. +High dimension manifolds (dimension 5 and more differentiably, dimension 4 and more topologically) are classified by surgery theory. +Thus dimension 4 differentiable manifolds are the most complicated: +they are neither geometrizable (as in lower dimension), +nor are they classified by surgery (as in higher dimension or topologically), +and they exhibit unusual phenomena, most strikingly the uncountably infinitely many exotic differentiable structures on R4. Notably, differentiable 4-manifolds is the only remaining open case of the generalized Poincaré conjecture. +One can take a low-dimensional point of view on high-dimensional manifolds +and ask "Which high-dimensional manifolds are geometrizable?", +for various notions of geometrizable (cut into geometrizable pieces as in 3 dimensions, into symplectic manifolds, and so forth). In dimension 4 and above not all manifolds +are geometrizable, but they are an interesting class. +Conversely, one can take a high-dimensional point of view on low-dimensional manifolds +and ask "What does surgery predict for low-dimensional manifolds?", +meaning "If surgery worked in low dimensions, what would low-dimensional manifolds look like?" +One can then compare the actual theory of low-dimensional manifolds +to the low-dimensional analog of high-dimensional manifolds, +and see if low-dimensional manifolds behave "as you would expect": +in what ways do they behave like high-dimensional manifolds (but for different reasons, +or via different proofs) +and in what ways are they unusual? + +== Dimensions 0 and 1 == + +There is a unique connected 0-dimensional manifold, namely the point, and disconnected 0-dimensional manifolds are just discrete sets, classified by cardinality. They have no geometry, and their study is combinatorics. +A connected compact 1-dimensional manifold without boundary is homeomorphic (or diffeomorphic if it is smooth) to the circle. A second countable, non-compact 1-dimensional manifold is homeomorphic or diffeomorphic to the real line. Dropping the assumption of second countability one gets two additional manifolds: the long line, and a space formed from a ray of the real line and a ray of the long line meeting at a point. +The study of maps of 1-dimensional manifolds are a non-trivial area. For example: + +Groups of diffeomorphisms of 1-manifolds are quite difficult to understand finely +Maps from the circle into the 3-sphere (or more generally any 3-dimensional manifold) are studied as part of knot theory. + +== Dimensions 2 and 3: geometrizable == + +Every connected closed 2-dimensional manifold (surface) admits a constant curvature metric, by the uniformization theorem. There are 3 such curvatures (positive, zero, and negative). +This is a classical result, and as stated, easy (the full uniformization theorem is subtler). The study of surfaces is deeply connected with complex analysis and algebraic geometry, as every orientable surface can be considered a Riemann surface or complex algebraic curve. While the classification of surfaces is classical, maps of surfaces is an active area; see below. +Every closed 3-dimensional manifold can be cut into pieces that are geometrizable, by the geometrization conjecture, and there are 8 such geometries. +This is a recent result, and quite difficult. The proof (the Solution of the Poincaré conjecture) is analytic, not topological. + +== Dimension 4: exotic == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3de42e07 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +--- +title: "Classification of manifolds" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_manifolds" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:22.311632+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Four-dimensional manifolds are the most unusual: they are not geometrizable (as in lower dimensions), and surgery works topologically, but not differentiably. +Since topologically, 4-manifolds are classified by surgery, the differentiable classification question is phrased in terms of "differentiable structures": "which (topological) 4-manifolds admit a differentiable structure, and on those that do, how many differentiable structures are there?" +Four-manifolds often admit many unusual differentiable structures, most strikingly the uncountably infinitely many exotic differentiable structures on R4. +Similarly, differentiable 4-manifolds is the only remaining open case of the generalized Poincaré conjecture. + +== Dimension 5 and more: surgery == + +In dimension 5 and above (and 4 dimensions topologically), manifolds are classified by surgery theory. + +The reason for dimension 5 is that the Whitney trick works in the middle dimension in dimension 5 and more: two Whitney disks generically don't intersect in dimension 5 and above, by general position ( + + + + 2 + + + 2 + < + 5 + + + {\displaystyle 2+2<5} + +). +In dimension 4, one can resolve intersections of two Whitney disks via Casson handles, which works topologically but not differentiably; see Geometric topology: Dimension for details on dimension. +More subtly, dimension 5 is the cut-off because the middle dimension has codimension more than 2: when the codimension is 2, one encounters knot theory, but when the codimension is more than 2, embedding theory is tractable, via the calculus of functors. This is discussed further below. + +== Maps between manifolds == +From the point of view of category theory, the classification of manifolds is one piece of understanding the category: it's classifying the objects. The other question is classifying maps of manifolds up to various equivalences, and there are many results and open questions in this area. +For maps, the appropriate notion of "low dimension" is for some purposes "self maps of low-dimensional manifolds", and for other purposes "low codimension". + +=== Low-dimensional self-maps === +1-dimensional: homeomorphisms of the circle +2-dimensional: mapping class group and Torelli group + +=== Low codimension === +Analogously to the classification of manifolds, in high codimension (meaning more than 2), embeddings are classified by surgery, while in low codimension or in relative dimension, they are rigid and geometric, and in the middle (codimension 2), one has a difficult exotic theory (knot theory). + +In codimension greater than 2, embeddings are classified by surgery theory. +In codimension 2, particularly embeddings of 1-dimensional manifolds in 3-dimensional ones, one has knot theory. +In codimension 1, a codimension 1 embedding separates a manifold, and these are tractable. +In codimension 0, a codimension 0 (proper) immersion is a covering space, which are classified algebraically, and these are more naturally thought of as submersions. +In relative dimension, a submersion with compact domain is a fiber bundle (just as in codimension 0 = relative dimension 0), which are classified algebraically. + +=== High dimensions === +Particularly topologically interesting classes of maps include embeddings, immersions, and submersions. +Geometrically interesting are isometries and isometric immersions. +Fundamental results in embeddings and immersions include: + +Whitney embedding theorem +Whitney immersion theorem +Nash embedding theorem +Smale-Hirsch theorem +Key tools in studying these maps are: + +Gromov's h-principles +Calculus of functors +One may classify maps up to various equivalences: + +homotopy +cobordism +concordance +isotopy +Diffeomorphisms up to cobordism have been classified by Matthias Kreck + +== See also == +The Berger classification of holonomy groups. + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Kreck, Matthias (2000). "A guide to the classification of manifolds". Princeton University Press eBook Package 2014. Surveys on Surgery Theory (AM-145). Vol. 1. Princeton University Press. pp. 121–134. doi:10.1515/9781400865192-009. ISBN 978-1-4008-6519-2. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_theorem-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_theorem-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..252ab206b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_theorem-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +--- +title: "Classification theorem" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_theorem" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:23.500509+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mathematics, a classification theorem answers the classification problem: "What are the objects of a given type, up to some equivalence?". It gives a non-redundant enumeration: each object is equivalent to exactly one class. +A few issues related to classification are the following. + +The equivalence problem is "given two objects, determine if they are equivalent". +A complete set of invariants, together with which invariants are realizable, solves the classification problem, and is often a step in solving it. (A combination of invariant values is realizable if there in fact exists an object whose invariants take on the specified set of values) +A computable complete set of invariants (together with which invariants are realizable) solves both the classification problem and the equivalence problem. +A canonical form solves the classification problem, and is more data: it not only classifies every class, but provides a distinguished (canonical) element of each class. +There exist many classification theorems in mathematics, as described below. + + +== Geometry == +Classification of Euclidean plane isometries – Isometry of the Eluclidean plane +Classification of Platonic solids +Classification theorems of surfaces +Classification of two-dimensional closed manifolds – Two-dimensional manifoldPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Enriques–Kodaira classification – Mathematical classification of surfaces of algebraic surfaces (complex dimension two, real dimension four) +Nielsen–Thurston classification – Characterizes homeomorphisms of a compact orientable surface which characterizes homeomorphisms of a compact surface +Thurston's eight model geometries, and the geometrization conjecture – Three dimensional analogue of uniformization conjecture +Berger classification – Concept in differential geometry +Classification of Riemannian symmetric spaces – (pseudo-)Riemannian manifold whose geodesics are reversible +Classification of 3-dimensional lens spaces – Class of topological space +Classification of manifolds – Basic question in geometry and topology + + +== Algebra == +Classification of finite simple groups – Theorem classifying finite simple groups +Classification of Abelian groups – Commutative group (mathematics) +Classification of Finitely generated abelian group – Commutative group where every element is the sum of elements from one finite subset +Classification of Rank 3 permutation group – Five sporadic simple groupsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Classification of 2-transitive permutation groups +Artin–Wedderburn theorem – Classification of semi-simple rings and algebrasPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets — a classification theorem for semisimple rings +Classification of Clifford algebras – Classification in abstract algebra +Classification of low-dimensional real Lie algebras +Classification of Simple Lie algebras and groups +Classification of simple complex Lie algebras – Direct sum of simple Lie algebras +Classification of simple real Lie algebras – Term in mathematics +Classification of centerless simple Lie groups – Connected non-abelian Lie group lacking nontrivial connected normal subgroups +Classification of simple Lie groups – Connected non-abelian Lie group lacking nontrivial connected normal subgroupsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Bianchi classification – Lie algebra classification +ADE classification – Mathematical classification +Langlands classification – Mathematical theory + + +== Linear algebra == +Finite-dimensional vector space – Number of vectors in any basis of the vector spacePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targetss (by dimension) +Rank–nullity theorem – In linear algebra, relation between 3 dimensions (by rank and nullity) +Structure theorem for finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain – Statement in abstract algebra +Jordan normal form – Form of a matrix indicating its eigenvalues and their algebraic multiplicities +Frobenius normal form – Canonical form of matrices over a field (rational canonical form) +Sylvester's law of inertia – Theorem of matrix algebra of invariance properties under basis transformations + + +== Analysis == +Classification of discontinuities – Mathematical analysis of discontinuous points + + +== Dynamical systems == +Classification of Fatou components – Components of the Fatou set +Ratner classification theorem + + +== Mathematical physics == +Classification of electromagnetic fields +Petrov classification – Classification used in differential geometry and general relativity +Segre classification – Algebraic classification of rank two symmetric tensors +Wigner's classification – Classification of irreducible representations of the Poincaré group + + +== See also == +Representation theorem – Proof that every structure with certain properties is isomorphic to another structure +Comparison theorem +Moduli space – Geometric space whose points represent algebro-geometric objects of some fixed kind +List of manifolds +List of theorems + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..09b515f5a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 1/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the "hot" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars, artificially in hydrogen bombs, and within prototype fusion reactors; all of which occur at temperatures of millions of degrees. It is also distinguished from muon-catalyzed fusion. There is currently no accepted theoretical model that describes how cold fusion could occur. +In 1989, two electrochemists at the University of Utah, Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, reported that their apparatus containing heavy water had produced anomalous heat ("excess heat") of a magnitude they asserted would defy explanation except in terms of nuclear processes. They further reported measuring small amounts of nuclear reaction byproducts, including neutrons and tritium, both of which are produced by fusion of deuterium, found in heavy water (see Fusion power § Deuterium). The small tabletop experiment involved electrolysis of heavy water on the surface of a palladium (Pd) electrode. The reported results received wide media attention and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy. +Both neutrons and tritium are found in trace amounts from natural sources. These traces are produced by cosmic ray interactions and nuclear radioactive decays occurring in the atmosphere and the earth. +Many scientists tried to replicate the experiment with the few details available. Expectations diminished as a result of numerous failed replications, the retraction of several previously reported positive replications, and the identification of methodological flaws and experimental errors in the original study. By late 1989, most scientists considered cold fusion claims dead, and cold fusion subsequently gained a reputation as pathological science. In 1989 the United States Department of Energy (DOE) concluded that the reported results of excess heat did not present convincing evidence of a useful source of energy and decided against allocating funding specifically for cold fusion. A second DOE review in 2004, which looked at new research, reached similar conclusions and did not result in DOE funding of cold fusion. Presently, since articles about cold fusion are rarely published in peer-reviewed mainstream scientific journals, they do not attract the level of scrutiny expected for mainstream scientific publications. +Some interest in cold fusion has continued through the decades—for example, a Google-funded failed replication attempt was published in a 2019 issue of Nature. A small community of researchers continues to investigate it, often under the alternative designations low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) or condensed matter nuclear science (CMNS). + +== History == +Nuclear fusion is normally understood to occur at temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees. This is called "thermonuclear fusion". Since the 1920s, there has been speculation that nuclear fusion might be possible at much lower temperatures by catalytically fusing hydrogen absorbed in a metal catalyst. In 1989, a claim by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann (then one of the world's leading electrochemists) that such cold fusion had been observed caused a brief media sensation before the majority of scientists criticized their claim as incorrect after many found they could not replicate the excess heat. Since the initial announcement, cold fusion research has continued by a small community of researchers who believe that such reactions happen and hope to gain wider recognition for their experimental evidence. + +=== Early research === +The ability of palladium to absorb hydrogen was recognized as early as the nineteenth century by Thomas Graham. In the late 1920s, two Austrian-born scientists, Friedrich Paneth and Kurt Peters, originally reported the transformation of hydrogen into helium by nuclear catalysis when hydrogen was absorbed by finely divided palladium at room temperature. However, the authors later retracted that report, saying that the helium they measured was due to background from the air. +In 1927, Swedish scientist John Tandberg reported that he had fused hydrogen into helium in an electrolytic cell with palladium electrodes. On the basis of his work, he applied for a Swedish patent for "a method to produce helium and useful reaction energy". Due to Paneth and Peters's retraction and his inability to explain the physical process, his patent application was denied. After deuterium was discovered in 1932, Tandberg continued his experiments with heavy water. The final experiments made by Tandberg with heavy water were similar to the original experiment by Fleischmann and Pons. Fleischmann and Pons were not aware of Tandberg's work. +The term "cold fusion" was used as early as 1956 in an article in The New York Times about Luis Alvarez's work on muon-catalyzed fusion. Paul Palmer and then Steven Jones of Brigham Young University used the term "cold fusion" in 1986 in an investigation of "geo-fusion", the possible existence of fusion involving hydrogen isotopes in a planetary core. In his original paper on this subject with Clinton Van Siclen, submitted in 1985, Jones had coined the term "piezonuclear fusion". + +=== Fleischmann–Pons experiment === +The most famous cold fusion claims were made by Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann in 1989. After a brief period of interest by the wider scientific community, their reports were called into question by nuclear physicists. Pons and Fleischmann never retracted their claims, but moved their research program from the US to France after the controversy erupted. + +==== Events preceding announcement ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ee2ab3022 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 2/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Martin Fleischmann of the University of Southampton and Stanley Pons of the University of Utah hypothesized that the high compression ratio and mobility of deuterium that could be achieved within palladium metal using electrolysis might result in nuclear fusion. To investigate, they conducted electrolysis experiments using a palladium cathode and heavy water within a calorimeter, an insulated vessel designed to measure process heat. Current was applied continuously for many weeks, with the heavy water being renewed at intervals. Some deuterium was thought to be accumulating within the cathode, but most was allowed to bubble out of the cell, joining oxygen produced at the anode. For most of the time, the power input to the cell was equal to the calculated power leaving the cell within measurement accuracy, and the cell temperature was stable at around 30 °C. But then, at some point (in some of the experiments), the temperature rose suddenly to about 50 °C without changes in the input power. These high temperature phases would last for two days or more and would repeat several times in any given experiment once they had occurred. The calculated power leaving the cell was significantly higher than the input power during these high temperature phases. Eventually the high temperature phases would no longer occur within a particular cell. +In 1988, Fleischmann and Pons applied to the United States Department of Energy for funding towards a larger series of experiments. Up to this point they had been funding their experiments using a small device built with $100,000 out-of-pocket. The grant proposal was turned over for peer review, and one of the reviewers was Steven Jones of Brigham Young University. Jones had worked for some time on muon-catalyzed fusion, a known method of inducing nuclear fusion without high temperatures, and had written an article on the topic entitled "Cold nuclear fusion" that had been published in Scientific American in July 1987. Fleischmann and Pons and co-workers met with Jones and co-workers on occasion in Utah to share research and techniques. During this time, Fleischmann and Pons described their experiments as generating considerable "excess energy", in the sense that it could not be explained by chemical reactions alone. They felt that such a discovery could bear significant commercial value and would be entitled to patent protection. Jones, however, was measuring neutron flux, which was not of commercial interest. To avoid future problems, the teams appeared to agree to publish their results simultaneously, though their accounts of their 6 March meeting differ. + +==== Announcement ==== +In mid-March 1989, both research teams were ready to publish their findings, and Fleischmann and Jones had agreed to meet at an airport on 24 March to send their papers to Nature via FedEx. Fleischmann and Pons, however, pressured by the University of Utah, which wanted to establish priority on the discovery, broke their apparent agreement, disclosing their work at a press conference on 23 March (they claimed in the press release that it would be published in Nature but instead submitted their paper to the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry). Jones, upset, faxed in his paper to Nature after the press conference. +Fleischmann and Pons' announcement drew wide media attention, as well as attention from the scientific community. The 1986 discovery of high-temperature superconductivity had made scientists more open to revelations of unexpected but potentially momentous scientific results that could be replicated reliably even if they could not be explained by established theories. Many scientists were also reminded of the Mössbauer effect, a process involving nuclear transitions in a solid. Its discovery 30 years earlier had also been unexpected, though it was quickly replicated and explained within the existing physics framework. +The announcement of a new purported clean source of energy came at a crucial time: adults still remembered the 1973 oil crisis and the problems caused by oil dependence, anthropogenic global warming was starting to become notorious, the anti-nuclear movement was labeling nuclear power plants as dangerous and getting them closed, people had in mind the consequences of strip mining, acid rain, the greenhouse effect and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which happened the day after the announcement. In the press conference, Chase N. Peterson, Fleischmann and Pons, backed by the solidity of their scientific credentials, repeatedly assured the journalists that cold fusion would solve environmental problems, and would provide a limitless inexhaustible source of clean energy, using only seawater as fuel. They said the results had been confirmed dozens of times and they had no doubts about them. In the accompanying press release Fleischmann was quoted saying: "What we have done is to open the door of a new research area, our indications are that the discovery will be relatively easy to make into a usable technology for generating heat and power, but continued work is needed, first, to further understand the science and secondly, to determine its value to energy economics." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6c4c84bd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 11/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Patents == +Although details have not surfaced, it appears that the University of Utah forced the 23 March 1989 Fleischmann and Pons announcement to establish priority over the discovery and its patents before the joint publication with Jones. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced on 12 April 1989 that it had applied for its own patents based on theoretical work of one of its researchers, Peter L. Hagelstein, who had been sending papers to journals from 5 to 12 April. An MIT graduate student applied for a patent but was reportedly rejected by the USPTO in part by the citation of the "negative" MIT Plasma Fusion Center's cold fusion experiment of 1989. On 2 December 1993 the University of Utah licensed all its cold fusion patents to ENECO, a new company created to profit from cold fusion discoveries, and in March 1998 it said that it would no longer defend its patents. +The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) now rejects patents claiming cold fusion. Esther Kepplinger, the deputy commissioner of patents in 2004, said that this was done using the same argument as with perpetual motion machines: that they do not work. Patent applications are required to show that the invention is "useful", and this utility is dependent on the invention's ability to function. In general USPTO rejections on the sole grounds of the invention's being "inoperative" are rare, since such rejections need to demonstrate "proof of total incapacity", and cases where those rejections are upheld in a Federal Court are even rarer: nevertheless, in 2000, a rejection of a cold fusion patent was appealed in a Federal Court and it was upheld, in part on the grounds that the inventor was unable to establish the utility of the invention. +A U.S. patent might still be granted when given a different name to disassociate it from cold fusion, though this strategy has had little success in the US: the same claims that need to be patented can identify it with cold fusion, and most of these patents cannot avoid mentioning Fleischmann and Pons' research due to legal constraints, thus alerting the patent reviewer that it is a cold-fusion-related patent. David Voss said in 1999 that some patents that closely resemble cold fusion processes, and that use materials used in cold fusion, have been granted by the USPTO. The inventor of three such patents had his applications initially rejected when they were reviewed by experts in nuclear science; but then he rewrote the patents to focus more on the electrochemical parts so they would be reviewed instead by experts in electrochemistry, who approved them. When asked about the resemblance to cold fusion, the patent holder said that it used nuclear processes involving "new nuclear physics" unrelated to cold fusion. Melvin Miles was granted in 2004 a patent for a cold fusion device, and in 2007 he described his efforts to remove all instances of "cold fusion" from the patent description to avoid having it rejected outright. +At least one patent related to cold fusion has been granted by the European Patent Office. +A patent only legally prevents others from using or benefiting from one's invention. However, the general public perceives a patent as a stamp of approval, and a holder of three cold fusion patents said the patents were very valuable and had helped in getting investments. + +== Cultural references == +A 1990 Michael Winner film Bullseye!, starring Michael Caine and Roger Moore, referenced the Fleischmann and Pons experiment. The film – a comedy – concerned conmen trying to steal scientists' purported findings. However, the film had a poor reception, described as "appallingly unfunny". +In Undead Science, sociologist Bart Simon gives some examples of cold fusion in popular culture, saying that some scientists use cold fusion as a synonym for outrageous claims made with no supporting proof, and courses of ethics in science give it as an example of pathological science. It has appeared as a joke in Murphy Brown and The Simpsons. It was adopted as a software product name Adobe ColdFusion and a brand of protein bars (Cold Fusion Foods). It has also appeared in advertising as a synonym for impossible science, for example a 1995 advertisement for Pepsi Max. +The plot of Chain Reaction, a 1996 action-adventure film, shows a theoretical variation of the cold fusion principle. +The plot of The Saint, a 1997 action-adventure film, parallels the story of Fleischmann and Pons, although with a different ending. In Undead Science, Simon posits that film might have affected the public perception of cold fusion, pushing it further into the science fiction realm. +In an episode of the Sci-fi television series Outer Limits that aired on June 26, 1998 an ex-student returns to his university with bombs he made by cracking the secret of cold fusion, after being expelled from the school's physics program. He swears he won't follow through if authorities execute the 5 people he hates the most. Most physicists believe cold fusion is impossible, so to prove it he detonates a smaller bomb on campus by remote control. +Similarly, the tenth episode of 2000 science fiction TV drama Life Force ("Paradise Island") is also based around cold fusion, specifically the efforts of eccentric scientist Hepzibah McKinley (Amanda Walker), who is convinced she has perfected it based on her father's incomplete research into the subject. The episode explores its potential benefits and viability within the ongoing post-apocalyptic global warming scenario of the series. +In the 2023 video game Atomic Heart, cold fusion is responsible for nearly all of the technological advances. The video game and television series Fallout also features cold fusion as a major source of energy. + +== See also == + +== Notes == + +== References == + +=== Citations === + +=== Citations of quotations === + +== Bibliography == + +== External links == +International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (iscmns.org), organizes the ICCF conferences and publishes the Journal of Condensed Matter Nuclear Science. See: library.htm of published papers and proceedings. +Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR) Phenomena and Potential Applications Archived 7 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine: Naval Surface Warfare Center report NSWCDD-PN-15-0040 by Louis F. DeChiaro, PhD, 23 September 2015 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4035b2772 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 3/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Response and fallout ==== +Although the experimental protocol had not been published, physicists in several countries attempted, and failed, to replicate the excess heat phenomenon. The first paper submitted to Nature reproducing excess heat, although it passed peer review, was rejected because most similar experiments were negative and there were no theories that could explain a positive result; this paper was later accepted for publication by the journal Fusion Technology. Nathan Lewis, professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, led one of the most ambitious validation efforts, trying many variations on the experiment without success, while CERN physicist Douglas R. O. Morrison said that "essentially all" attempts in Western Europe had failed. Even those reporting success had difficulty reproducing Fleischmann and Pons' results. On 10 April 1989, a group at Texas A&M University published results of excess heat and later that day a group at the Georgia Institute of Technology announced neutron production—the strongest replication announced up to that point due to the detection of neutrons and the reputation of the lab. On 12 April Pons was acclaimed at an ACS meeting. But Georgia Tech retracted their announcement on 13 April, explaining that their neutron detectors gave false positives when exposed to heat. Another attempt at independent replication, headed by Robert Huggins at Stanford University, which also reported early success with a light water control, became the only scientific support for cold fusion in 26 April US Congress hearings. But when he finally presented his results he reported an excess heat of only one degree Celsius, a result that could be explained by chemical differences between heavy and light water in the presence of lithium. He had not tried to measure any radiation and his research was derided by scientists who saw it later. For the next six weeks, competing claims, counterclaims, and suggested explanations kept what was referred to as "cold fusion" or "fusion confusion" in the news. In April 1989, Fleischmann and Pons published a "preliminary note" in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. This paper notably showed a gamma peak without its corresponding Compton edge, which indicated they had made a mistake in claiming evidence of fusion byproducts. Fleischmann and Pons replied to this critique, but the only thing left clear was that no gamma ray had been registered and that Fleischmann refused to recognize any mistakes in the data. A much longer paper published a year later went into details of calorimetry but did not include any nuclear measurements. Nevertheless, Fleischmann and Pons and a number of other researchers who found positive results remained convinced of their findings. The University of Utah asked Congress to provide $25 million to pursue the research, and Pons was scheduled to meet with representatives of President Bush in early May. On 30 April 1989, cold fusion was declared dead by The New York Times. The Times called it a circus the same day, and the Boston Herald attacked cold fusion the following day. On 1 May 1989, the American Physical Society held a session on cold fusion in Baltimore, including many reports of experiments that failed to produce evidence of cold fusion. At the end of the session, eight of the nine leading speakers stated that they considered the initial Fleischmann and Pons claim dead, with the ninth, Johann Rafelski, abstaining. Steven E. Koonin of Caltech called the Utah report a result of "the incompetence and delusion of Pons and Fleischmann," which was met with a standing ovation. Douglas R. O. Morrison, a physicist representing CERN, was the first to call the episode an example of pathological science. On 4 May, due to all this new criticism, the meetings with various representatives from Washington were cancelled. From 8 May, only the A&M tritium results kept cold fusion afloat. In July and November 1989, Nature published papers critical of cold fusion claims. Negative results were also published in several other scientific journals including Science, Physical Review Letters, and Physical Review C (nuclear physics). In August 1989, in spite of this trend, the state of Utah invested $4.5 million to create the National Cold Fusion Institute. The United States Department of Energy organized a special panel to review cold fusion theory and research. The panel issued its report in November 1989, concluding that results as of that date did not present convincing evidence that useful sources of energy would result from the phenomena attributed to cold fusion. The panel noted the large number of failures to replicate excess heat and the greater inconsistency of reports of nuclear reaction byproducts expected by established conjecture. Nuclear fusion of the type postulated would be inconsistent with current understanding and, if verified, would require established conjecture, perhaps even theory itself, to be extended in an unexpected way. The panel was against special funding for cold fusion research, but supported modest funding of "focused experiments within the general funding system". Cold fusion supporters continued to argue that the evidence for excess heat was strong, and in September 1990 the National Cold Fusion Institute listed 92 groups of researchers from 10 countries that had reported corroborating evidence of excess heat, but they refused to provide any evidence of their own arguing that it could endanger their patents. However, no further DOE nor NSF funding resulted from the panel's recommendation. By this point, academic consensus had moved decidedly toward labeling cold fusion as a kind of "pathological science". In March 1990, Michael H. Salamon, a physicist from the University of Utah, and nine co-authors reported negative results. University faculty were then "stunned" when a lawyer representing Pons and Fleischmann demanded the Salamon paper be retracted under threat of a lawsuit. The lawyer later apologized; Fleischmann defended the threat as a legitimate reaction to alleged bias displayed by cold-fusion critics. In early May 1990, one of the two A&M researchers, Kevin Wolf, acknowledged the possibility of spiking, but said that the most likely explanation was tritium contamination in the palladium electrodes or simply contamination due to sloppy work. In June 1990 an article in Science by science writer Gary Taubes destroyed the public credibility of the A&M tritium results when it accused its group leader John Bockris and one of his graduate students of spiking the cells with tritium. In October 1990 Wolf finally said that the results were explained by tritium contamination in the rods. An A&M cold fusion review panel found that the tritium evidence was not convincing and that, while they couldn't rule out spiking, contamination and measurements problems were more likely explanations, and Bockris never got support from his faculty to resume his research. On 30 June 1991, the National Cold Fusion Institute closed after it ran out of funds; it found no excess heat, and its reports of tritium production were met with indifference. On 1 January 1991, Pons left the University of Utah and went to Europe. In 1992, Pons and Fleischmann resumed research with Toyota's IMRA lab in France. Fleischmann left for England in 1995, and the contract with Pons was not renewed in 1998 after spending $40 million with no tangible results. The IMRA laboratory stopped cold fusion research in 1998 after spending £12 million. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fcb2e155f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 4/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Pons has made no public declarations since, and only Fleischmann continued giving talks and publishing papers. Mostly in the 1990s, several books were published that were critical of cold fusion research methods and the conduct of cold fusion researchers. Over the years, several books have appeared that defended them. Around 1998, the University of Utah had already dropped its research after spending over $1 million, and in the summer of 1997, Japan cut off research and closed its own lab after spending $20 million. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9f50e8fb1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 5/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Later research == +A 1991 review by a cold fusion proponent had calculated "about 600 scientists" were still conducting research. After 1991, cold fusion research only continued in relative obscurity, conducted by groups that had increasing difficulty securing public funding and keeping programs open. These small but committed groups of cold fusion researchers have continued to conduct experiments using Fleischmann and Pons electrolysis setups in spite of the rejection by the mainstream community. The Boston Globe estimated in 2004 that there were only 100 to 200 researchers working in the field, most suffering damage to their reputation and career. Since the main controversy over Pons and Fleischmann had ended, cold fusion research has been funded by private and small governmental scientific investment funds in the United States, Italy, Japan, and India. For example, it was reported in Nature, in May, 2019, that Google had spent approximately $10 million on cold fusion research. A group of scientists at well-known research labs (e.g., MIT, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and others) worked for several years to establish experimental protocols and measurement techniques in an effort to re-evaluate cold fusion to a high standard of scientific rigor. Their reported conclusion: no cold fusion. +In 2021, following Nature's 2019 publication of anomalous findings that might only be explained by some localized fusion, scientists at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division announced that they had assembled a group of scientists from the Navy, Army and National Institute of Standards and Technology to undertake a new, coordinated study. With few exceptions, researchers have had difficulty publishing in mainstream journals. The remaining researchers often term their field Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR), Chemically Assisted Nuclear Reactions (CANR), Lattice Assisted Nuclear Reactions (LANR), Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (CMNS) or Lattice Enabled Nuclear Reactions; one of the reasons being to avoid the negative connotations associated with "cold fusion". The new names avoid making bold implications, like implying that fusion is actually occurring. +The researchers who continue their investigations acknowledge that the flaws in the original announcement are the main cause of the subject's marginalization, and they complain of a chronic lack of funding and no possibilities of getting their work published in the highest impact journals. University researchers are often unwilling to investigate cold fusion because they would be ridiculed by their colleagues and their professional careers would be at risk. In 1994, David Goodstein, a professor of physics at Caltech, advocated increased attention from mainstream researchers and described cold fusion as: + +A pariah field, cast out by the scientific establishment. Between cold fusion and respectable science there is virtually no communication at all. Cold fusion papers are almost never published in refereed scientific journals, with the result that those works don't receive the normal critical scrutiny that science requires. On the other hand, because the Cold-Fusioners see themselves as a community under siege, there is little internal criticism. Experiments and theories tend to be accepted at face value, for fear of providing even more fuel for external critics, if anyone outside the group was bothering to listen. In these circumstances, crackpots flourish, making matters worse for those who believe that there is serious science going on here. + +=== United States === + +United States Navy researchers at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego have been studying cold fusion since 1989. In 2002 they released a two-volume report, "Thermal and nuclear aspects of the Pd/D2O system", with a plea for funding. This and other published papers prompted a 2004 Department of Energy (DOE) review. + +==== 2004 DOE panel ==== +In August 2003, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, ordered the DOE to organize a second review of the field. This was thanks to an April 2003 letter sent by MIT's Peter L. Hagelstein, and the publication of many new papers, including the Italian ENEA and other researchers in the 2003 International Cold Fusion Conference, and a two-volume book by U.S. SPAWAR in 2002. Cold fusion researchers were asked to present a review document of all the evidence since the 1989 review. The report was released in 2004. The reviewers were "split approximately evenly" on whether the experiments had produced energy in the form of heat, but "most reviewers, even those who accepted the evidence for excess power production, 'stated that the effects are not repeatable, the magnitude of the effect has not increased in over a decade of work, and that many of the reported experiments were not well documented'". In summary, reviewers found that cold fusion evidence was still not convincing 15 years later, and they did not recommend a federal research program. They only recommended that agencies consider funding individual well-thought studies in specific areas where research "could be helpful in resolving some of the controversies in the field". They summarized its conclusions thus: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6920e5382 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 6/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Cold fusion researchers placed a "rosier spin" on the report, noting that they were finally being treated like normal scientists, and that the report had increased interest in the field and caused "a huge upswing in interest in funding cold fusion research". However, in a 2009 BBC article on an American Chemical Society's meeting on cold fusion, particle physicist Frank Close was quoted stating that the problems that plagued the original cold fusion announcement were still happening: results from studies are still not being independently verified and inexplicable phenomena encountered are being labelled as "cold fusion" even if they are not, in order to attract the attention of journalists. +In February 2012, millionaire Sidney Kimmel, convinced that cold fusion was worth investing in by a 19 April 2009 interview with physicist Robert Duncan on the US news show 60 Minutes, made a grant of $5.5 million to the University of Missouri to establish the Sidney Kimmel Institute for Nuclear Renaissance (SKINR). The grant was intended to support research into the interactions of hydrogen with palladium, nickel or platinum under extreme conditions. In March 2013 Graham K. Hubler, a nuclear physicist who worked for the Naval Research Laboratory for 40 years, was named director. One of the SKINR projects is to replicate a 1991 experiment in which a professor associated with the project, Mark Prelas, says bursts of millions of neutrons a second were recorded, which was stopped because "his research account had been frozen". He claims that the new experiment has already seen "neutron emissions at similar levels to the 1991 observation". +In May 2016, the United States House Committee on Armed Services, in its report on the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, directed the Secretary of Defense to "provide a briefing on the military utility of recent U.S. industrial base LENR advancements to the House Committee on Armed Services by September 22, 2016". + +=== Italy === +Since the Fleischmann and Pons announcement, the Italian national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA) has funded Franco Scaramuzzi's research into whether excess heat can be measured from metals loaded with deuterium gas. Such research is distributed across ENEA departments, CNR laboratories, INFN, universities, and industrial laboratories in Italy, where the group continues to try to achieve reliable reproducibility (i.e. getting the phenomenon to happen in every cell, and inside a certain frame of time). In 2006–2007, the ENEA started a research program which claimed to have found excess power of up to 500 percent, and in 2009, ENEA hosted the 15th cold fusion conference. + +=== Japan === +Between 1992 and 1997, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry sponsored a "New Hydrogen Energy (NHE)" program of US$20 million to research cold fusion. Announcing the end of the program in 1997, the director and one-time proponent of cold fusion research Hideo Ikegami stated "We couldn't achieve what was first claimed in terms of cold fusion. (...) We can't find any reason to propose more money for the coming year or for the future." In 1999 the Japan C-F Research Society was established to promote the independent research into cold fusion that continued in Japan. The society holds annual meetings. Perhaps the most famous Japanese cold fusion researcher was Yoshiaki Arata, from Osaka University, who claimed in a demonstration to produce excess heat when deuterium gas was introduced into a cell containing a mixture of palladium and zirconium oxide, a claim supported by fellow Japanese researcher Akira Kitamura of Kobe University and Michael McKubre at SRI. + +=== India === +In the 1990s, India stopped its research in cold fusion at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre because of the lack of consensus among mainstream scientists and the US denunciation of the research. Yet, in 2008, the National Institute of Advanced Studies recommended that the Indian government revive this research. Projects were commenced at Chennai's Indian Institute of Technology, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research. However, there is still skepticism among scientists and, for all practical purposes, research has stalled since the 1990s. A special section in the Indian multidisciplinary journal Current Science published 33 cold fusion papers in 2015 by major cold fusion researchers including several Indian researchers. A Hyderabad-based startup, Hylenr Technologies, showcased the amplification of electrical energy into significantly more heat energy using the a LENR system. The startup is being guided by a former DRDO scientist, Padma Shri awardee, Dr. Prahlada Ramarao. + +== Reported results == +A cold fusion experiment usually includes: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..69109a594 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 7/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +a metal, such as palladium or nickel, in bulk, thin films or powder; and +deuterium, hydrogen, or both, in the form of water, gas or plasma. +Electrolysis cells can be either open cell or closed cell. In open cell systems, the electrolysis products, which are gaseous, are allowed to leave the cell. In closed cell experiments, the products are captured, for example by catalytically recombining the products in a separate part of the experimental system. These experiments generally strive for a steady state condition, with the electrolyte being replaced periodically. There are also "heat-after-death" experiments, where the evolution of heat is monitored after the electric current is turned off. +The most basic setup of a cold fusion cell consists of two electrodes submerged in a solution containing palladium and heavy water. The electrodes are then connected to a power source to transmit electricity from one electrode to the other through the solution. Even when anomalous heat is reported, it can take weeks for it to begin to appear—this is known as the "loading time," the time required to saturate the palladium electrode with hydrogen (see "Loading ratio" section). +The Fleischmann and Pons early findings regarding helium, neutron radiation and tritium were never replicated satisfactorily, and its levels were too low for the claimed heat production and inconsistent with each other. Neutron radiation has been reported in cold fusion experiments at very low levels using different kinds of detectors, but levels were too low, close to background, and found too infrequently to provide useful information about possible nuclear processes. + +=== Excess heat and energy production === +An excess heat observation is based on an energy balance. Various sources of energy input and output are continuously measured. Under normal conditions, the energy input can be matched to the energy output to within experimental error. In experiments such as those run by Fleischmann and Pons, an electrolysis cell operating steadily at one temperature transitions to operating at a higher temperature with no increase in applied current. If the higher temperatures were real, and not an experimental artifact, the energy balance would show an unaccounted term. In the Fleischmann and Pons experiments, the rate of inferred excess heat generation was in the range of 10–20% of total input, though this could not be reliably replicated by most researchers. Researcher Nathan Lewis discovered that the excess heat in Fleischmann and Pons's original paper was not measured, but estimated from measurements that didn't have any excess heat. +Unable to produce excess heat or neutrons, and with positive experiments being plagued by errors and giving disparate results, most researchers declared that heat production was not a real effect and ceased working on the experiments. In 1993, after their original report, Fleischmann reported "heat-after-death" experiments—where excess heat was measured after the electric current supplied to the electrolytic cell was turned off. This type of report has also become part of subsequent cold fusion claims. + +=== Helium, heavy elements, and neutrons === + +Known instances of nuclear reactions, aside from producing energy, also produce nucleons and particles on readily observable ballistic trajectories. In support of their claim that nuclear reactions took place in their electrolytic cells, Fleischmann and Pons reported a neutron flux of 4,000 neutrons per second, as well as detection of tritium. The classical branching ratio for previously known fusion reactions that produce tritium would predict, with 1 watt of power, the production of 1012 neutrons per second, levels that would have been fatal to the researchers. In 2009, Mosier-Boss et al. reported what they called the first scientific report of highly energetic neutrons, using CR-39 plastic radiation detectors, but the claims cannot be validated without a quantitative analysis of neutrons. +Several medium and heavy elements like calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, copper and zinc have been reported as detected by several researchers, like Tadahiko Mizuno or George Miley. The report presented to the United States Department of Energy (DOE) in 2004 indicated that deuterium-loaded foils could be used to detect fusion reaction products and, although the reviewers found the evidence presented to them as inconclusive, they indicated that those experiments did not use state-of-the-art techniques. + +In response to doubts about the lack of nuclear products, cold fusion researchers have tried to capture and measure nuclear products correlated with excess heat. Considerable attention has been given to measuring 4He production. However, the reported levels are very near to background, so contamination by trace amounts of helium normally present in the air cannot be ruled out. In the report presented to the DOE in 2004, the reviewers' opinion was divided on the evidence for 4He, with the most negative reviews concluding that although the amounts detected were above background levels, they were very close to them and therefore could be caused by contamination from air. +One of the main criticisms of cold fusion was that deuteron-deuteron fusion into helium was expected to result in the production of gamma rays—which were not observed and were not observed in subsequent cold fusion experiments. Cold fusion researchers have since claimed to find X-rays, helium, neutrons and nuclear transmutations. Some researchers also claim to have found them using only light water and nickel cathodes. The 2004 DOE panel expressed concerns about the poor quality of the theoretical framework cold fusion proponents presented to account for the lack of gamma rays. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ad9d48b8a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 8/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Proposed mechanisms == +Researchers in the field do not agree on a theory for cold fusion. One proposal considers that hydrogen and its isotopes can be absorbed in certain solids, including palladium hydride, at high densities. This creates a high partial pressure, reducing the average separation of hydrogen isotopes. However, the reduction in separation is not enough to create the fusion rates claimed in the original experiment, by a factor of ten. It was also proposed that a higher density of hydrogen inside the palladium and a lower potential barrier could raise the possibility of fusion at lower temperatures than expected from a simple application of Coulomb's law. Electron screening of the positive hydrogen nuclei by the negative electrons in the palladium lattice was suggested to the 2004 DOE commission, but the panel found the theoretical explanations not convincing and inconsistent with current physics theories. + +== Criticism == +Criticism of cold fusion claims generally take one of two forms: either pointing out the theoretical implausibility that fusion reactions have occurred in electrolysis setups or criticizing the excess heat measurements as being spurious, erroneous, or due to poor methodology or controls. There are several reasons why known fusion reactions are an unlikely explanation for the excess heat and associated cold fusion claims. + +=== Repulsion forces === +Because nuclei are all positively charged, they strongly repel one another. Normally, in the absence of a catalyst such as a muon, very high kinetic energies are required to overcome this charged repulsion. Extrapolating from known fusion rates, the rate for uncatalyzed fusion at room-temperature energy would be 50 orders of magnitude lower than needed to account for the reported excess heat. In muon-catalyzed fusion there are more fusions because the presence of the muon causes deuterium nuclei to be 207 times closer than in ordinary deuterium gas. But deuterium nuclei inside a palladium lattice are further apart than in deuterium gas, and there should be fewer fusion reactions, not more. +Paneth and Peters in the 1920s already knew that palladium can absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen gas, storing it at several thousands of times the atmospheric pressure. This led them to believe that they could increase the nuclear fusion rate by simply loading palladium rods with hydrogen gas. Tandberg then tried the same experiment but used electrolysis to make palladium absorb more deuterium and force the deuterium further together inside the rods, thus anticipating the main elements of Fleischmann and Pons' experiment. They all hoped that pairs of hydrogen nuclei would fuse together to form helium, which at the time was needed in Germany to fill zeppelins, but no evidence of helium or of increased fusion rate was ever found. +This was also the belief of geologist Palmer, who convinced Steven Jones that the helium-3 occurring naturally in Earth perhaps came from fusion involving hydrogen isotopes inside catalysts like nickel and palladium. This led their team in 1986 to independently make the same experimental setup as Fleischmann and Pons (a palladium cathode submerged in heavy water, absorbing deuterium via electrolysis). Fleischmann and Pons had much the same belief, but they calculated the pressure to be of 1027 atmospheres, when cold fusion experiments achieve a loading ratio of only one to one, which has only between 10,000 and 20,000 atmospheres. John R. Huizenga says they had misinterpreted the Nernst equation, leading them to believe that there was enough pressure to bring deuterons so close to each other that there would be spontaneous fusions. + +=== Lack of expected reaction products === +Conventional deuteron fusion is a two-step process, in which an unstable high-energy intermediary is formed: + +2H + 2H → 4He* + 24 MeV +Experiments have shown only three decay pathways for this excited-state nucleus, with the branching ratio showing the probability that any given intermediate follows a particular pathway. The products formed via these decay pathways are: + +4He* → n + 3He + 3.3 MeV (ratio=50%) +4He* → p + 3H + 4.0 MeV (ratio=50%) +4He* → 4He + γ + 24 MeV (ratio=10−6) +Only about one in a million of the intermediaries take the third pathway, making its products very rare compared to the other paths. This result is consistent with the predictions of the Bohr model. If 1 watt (6.242 × 1018 eV/s) were produced from ~2.2575 × 1011 deuteron fusions per second, with the known branching ratios, the resulting neutrons and tritium (3H) would be easily measured. Some researchers reported detecting 4He but without the expected neutron or tritium production; such a result would require branching ratios strongly favouring the third pathway, with the actual rates of the first two pathways lower by at least five orders of magnitude than observations from other experiments, directly contradicting both theoretically predicted and observed branching probabilities. Those reports of 4He production did not include detection of gamma rays, which would require the third pathway to have been changed somehow so that gamma rays are no longer emitted. +The known rate of the decay process together with the inter-atomic spacing in a metallic crystal makes heat transfer of the 24 MeV excess energy into the host metal lattice prior to the intermediary's decay inexplicable by conventional understandings of momentum and energy transfer, and even then there would be measurable levels of radiation. Also, experiments indicate that the ratios of deuterium fusion remain constant at different energies. In general, pressure and chemical environment cause only small changes to fusion ratios. An early explanation invoked the Oppenheimer–Phillips process at low energies, but its magnitude was too small to explain the altered ratios. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..43be9b58e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 9/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Setup of experiments === +Cold fusion setups utilize an input power source (to ostensibly provide activation energy), a platinum group electrode, a deuterium or hydrogen source, a calorimeter, and, at times, detectors to look for byproducts such as helium or neutrons. Critics have variously taken issue with each of these aspects and have asserted that there has not yet been a consistent reproduction of claimed cold fusion results in either energy output or byproducts. Some cold fusion researchers who claim that they can consistently measure an excess heat effect have argued that the apparent lack of reproducibility might be attributable to a lack of quality control in the electrode metal or the amount of hydrogen or deuterium loaded in the system. Critics have further taken issue with what they describe as mistakes or errors of interpretation that cold fusion researchers have made in calorimetry analyses and energy budgets. + +==== Reproducibility ==== +In 1989, after Fleischmann and Pons had made their claims, many research groups tried to reproduce the Fleischmann-Pons experiment, without success. A few other research groups, however, reported successful reproductions of cold fusion during this time. In July 1989, an Indian group from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (P. K. Iyengar and M. Srinivasan) and in October 1989, John Bockris' group from Texas A&M University reported on the creation of tritium. In December 1990, professor Richard Oriani of the University of Minnesota reported excess heat. +Groups that did report successes found that some of their cells were producing the effect, while other cells that were built exactly the same and used the same materials were not. Researchers who continued to work on the topic have claimed over the years that many successful replications had been made, but still had problems getting reliable replications. Reproducibility is one of the main principles of the scientific method, and its lack led most physicists to believe that the few positive reports could be attributed to experimental error. The DOE 2004 report said among its conclusions and recommendations: + +Ordinarily, new scientific discoveries are claimed to be consistent and reproducible; as a result, if the experiments are not complicated, the discovery can usually be confirmed or disproved in a few months. The claims of cold fusion, however, are unusual in that even the strongest proponents of cold fusion assert that the experiments, for unknown reasons, are not consistent and reproducible at the present time. (...) Internal inconsistencies and lack of predictability and reproducibility remain serious concerns. (...) The Panel recommends that the cold fusion research efforts in the area of heat production focus primarily on confirming or disproving reports of excess heat. + +==== Loading ratio ==== + +Cold fusion researchers (McKubre since 1994, ENEA in 2011) have speculated that a cell that is loaded with a deuterium/palladium ratio lower than 100% (or 1:1) will not produce excess heat. Since most of the negative replications from 1989 to 1990 did not report their ratios, this has been proposed as an explanation for failed reproducibility. This loading ratio is hard to obtain, and some batches of palladium never reach it because the pressure causes cracks in the palladium, allowing the deuterium to escape. Fleischmann and Pons never disclosed the deuterium/palladium ratio achieved in their cells; as of 2002 there were no longer any batches of the palladium used by Fleischmann and Pons because the supplier changed the manufacturing process, and researchers still had problems finding batches of palladium that achieved heat production reliably. + +==== Misinterpretation of data ==== +Some research groups initially reported that they had replicated the Fleischmann and Pons results but later retracted their reports and offered an alternative explanation for their original positive results. A group at Georgia Tech found problems with their neutron detector, and Texas A&M discovered bad wiring in their thermometers. These retractions, combined with negative results from some famous laboratories, led most scientists to conclude, as early as 1989, that no positive result should be attributed to cold fusion. + +==== Calorimetry errors ==== +The calculation of excess heat in electrochemical cells involves certain assumptions. Errors in these assumptions have been offered as non-nuclear explanations for excess heat. +One assumption made by Fleischmann and Pons is that the efficiency of electrolysis is nearly 100%, meaning nearly all the electricity applied to the cell resulted in electrolysis of water, with negligible resistive heating and substantially all the electrolysis product leaving the cell unchanged. This assumption gives the amount of energy expended converting liquid D2O into gaseous D2 and O2. The efficiency of electrolysis is less than one if hydrogen and oxygen recombine to a significant extent within the calorimeter. Several researchers have described potential mechanisms by which this process could occur and thereby account for excess heat in electrolysis experiments. +Another assumption is that heat loss from the calorimeter maintains the same relationship with measured temperature as found when calibrating the calorimeter. This assumption ceases to be accurate if the temperature distribution within the cell becomes significantly altered from the condition under which calibration measurements were made. This can happen, for example, if fluid circulation within the cell becomes significantly altered. Recombination of hydrogen and oxygen within the calorimeter would also alter the heat distribution and invalidate the calibration. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e1f7daa08 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Cold fusion" +chunk: 10/11 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:09.898980+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Publications == +The ISI identified cold fusion as the scientific topic with the largest number of published papers in 1989, of all scientific disciplines. The Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger declared himself a supporter of cold fusion in the fall of 1989, after much of the response to the initial reports had turned negative. He tried to publish his theoretical paper "Cold Fusion: A Hypothesis" in Physical Review Letters, but the peer reviewers rejected it so harshly that he felt deeply insulted, and he resigned from the American Physical Society (publisher of PRL) in protest. +The number of papers sharply declined after 1990 because of two simultaneous phenomena: first, scientists abandoned the field; second, journal editors declined to review new papers. Consequently, cold fusion fell off the ISI charts. Researchers who got negative results turned their backs on the field; those who continued to publish were simply ignored. A 1993 paper in Physics Letters A was the last paper published by Fleischmann, and "one of the last reports [by Fleischmann] to be formally challenged on technical grounds by a cold fusion skeptic." +The Journal of Fusion Technology (FT) established a permanent feature in 1990 for cold fusion papers, publishing over a dozen papers per year and giving a mainstream outlet for cold fusion researchers. When editor-in-chief George H. Miley retired in 2001, the journal stopped accepting new cold fusion papers. This has been cited as an example of the importance of sympathetic influential individuals to the publication of cold fusion papers in certain journals. +The decline of publications in cold fusion has been described as a "failed information epidemic". The sudden surge of supporters until roughly 50% of scientists support the theory, followed by a decline until there is only a very small number of supporters, has been described as a characteristic of pathological science. The lack of a shared set of unifying concepts and techniques has prevented the creation of a dense network of collaboration in the field; researchers perform efforts in their own and in disparate directions, making the transition to "normal" science more difficult. +Cold fusion reports continued to be published in a few journals like Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry and Il Nuovo Cimento. Some papers also appeared in Journal of Physical Chemistry, Physics Letters A, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and a number of Japanese and Russian journals of physics, chemistry, and engineering. Since 2005, Naturwissenschaften has published cold fusion papers; in 2009, the journal named a cold fusion researcher to its editorial board. In 2015 the Indian multidisciplinary journal Current Science published a special section devoted entirely to cold fusion related papers. +In the 1990s, the groups that continued to research cold fusion and their supporters established (non-peer-reviewed) periodicals such as Fusion Facts, Cold Fusion Magazine, Infinite Energy Magazine and New Energy Times to cover developments in cold fusion and other fringe claims in energy production that were ignored in other venues. The internet has also become a major means of communication and self-publication for CF researchers. + +== Conferences == +Cold fusion researchers were for many years unable to get papers accepted at scientific meetings, prompting the creation of their own conferences. The International Conference on Cold Fusion (ICCF) was first held in 1990 and has met every 12 to 18 months since. Attendees at some of the early conferences were described as offering no criticism to papers and presentations for fear of giving ammunition to external critics, thus allowing the proliferation of crackpots and hampering the conduct of serious science. Critics and skeptics stopped attending these conferences, with the notable exception of Douglas Morrison, who died in 2001. With the founding in 2004 of the International Society for Condensed Matter Nuclear Science (ISCMNS), the conference was renamed the International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science—for reasons that are detailed in the subsequent research section above—but reverted to the old name in 2008. Cold fusion research is often referenced by proponents as "low-energy nuclear reactions", or LENR, but according to sociologist Bart Simon the "cold fusion" label continues to serve a social function in creating a collective identity for the field. +Since 2006, the American Physical Society (APS) has included cold fusion sessions at their semiannual meetings, clarifying that this does not imply a softening of skepticism. Since 2007, the American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings also include "invited symposium(s)" on cold fusion. An ACS program chair, Gopal Coimbatore, said that without a proper forum the matter would never be discussed and, "with the world facing an energy crisis, it is worth exploring all possibilities." +On 22–25 March 2009, the American Chemical Society meeting included a four-day symposium in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the announcement of cold fusion. Researchers working at the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) reported detection of energetic neutrons using a heavy water electrolysis setup and a CR-39 detector, a result previously published in Naturwissenschaften. The authors claim that these neutrons are indicative of nuclear reactions. Without quantitative analysis of the number, energy, and timing of the neutrons and exclusion of other potential sources, this interpretation is unlikely to find acceptance by the wider scientific community. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_classification_of_chemicals-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_classification_of_chemicals-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5b9d7c972 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_classification_of_chemicals-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Commercial classification of chemicals" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_classification_of_chemicals" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:11.070668+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Following the commercial classification of chemicals, chemicals produced by chemical industry can be divided essentially into three broad categories: + +commodity chemicals: are chemicals produced in large quantities and in general their applications can be traced back to their chemical structure; for this reason, two commodities produced by two different suppliers but with the same chemical structure and purity are almost identical and they can be easily interchanged; they are produced by continuous plant and in general their cost is relatively low; examples of chemical commodities are ammonia and ethylene oxide; +speciality chemicals (or specialty chemicals): are constituted by a mixture of different chemical substances, that is designed and produced in order to be applied to a specific application; the formulation of specialities is the result of scientific researches carried out by the producer company, so each formulation and associated properties are unique and for this reason in the majority of the cases it is not possible to easily interchange two different specialities produced by two different suppliers; examples of applications of speciality chemicals are pharmaceuticals industry and agriculture; they are produced by batch plant and in general their cost is higher if compared with commodity chemicals; +Fine chemicals: as the commodity chemicals, they are chemical substances characterized by their chemical structure, but, on the contrary of commodity chemicals, they are produced in a small quantity; fine chemicals can be used as components in the formulation of speciality chemicals; for example active ingredients of pharmaceutical drugs are fine chemicals, but the pharmaceutical drug is a speciality chemical; examples of applications of fine chemicals are: pharmaceuticals industry, agriculture, photography chemicals and electronic chemicals; they are produced by batch plant and in general their cost is relatively high. + + +== Kline matrix == + +Kline matrix was presented for the first time in 1970 by Charles Howard Kline. It is a more detailed classification of the previous one, that distinguished chemical commodities into two subclasses, called respectively "true commodities" and "pseudocommodities". In general the classification of chemical industry products by the Kline matrix is related to the chemicals' worldwide production (measured for example in tons/year) and to their value added. +Following this classification, the chemical industry products are divided into four categories: + +true commodity: high production and high value added +fine chemical: low production and high value added +pseudo-commodity (or branded commodity): high production and low value added +speciality chemical: low production and low value added. + + +== Basic chemicals == +The concept of basic chemicals is very close to chemical commodities. In fact basic chemicals are chemical substances used as a starting material for the production of a wide variety of other chemicals; for this reason they are in general commodities, because they are highly demanded. Some examples of basic chemicals are: ethylene, benzene, chlorine and sulfuric acid. + + +== High production volume chemical == +High Production Volume (HPV) Chemicals is another commercial classification of chemical substances very close to chemical commodities. This categories is used in US and includes all the chemicals produced or imported by US in an amount higher than 1 million pounds. +It is supposed that the number of commercialized chemical products is around 70,000 and around 5% of them are High production volume chemicals. + + +== References == + + +== See also == +Chemical industry \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Bulgaria-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Bulgaria-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..308cbb57c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Bulgaria-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +--- +title: "Conservative Bulgaria" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Bulgaria" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:38.924807+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Conservative Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Консервативна България), previously known as National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Национален фронт за спасение на България, romanized: Natsionalen front za spasenie na Bŭlgariya, NFSB), is a national conservative political party in Bulgaria. + + +== History == + +The party was established on 17 May 2011 in sports hall Boycho Branzov in Burgas as the National Salvation Front for Bulgaria. Its founding was attended by over 820 people from across the country, mainly from the cities of Varna, Shumen, Asenovgrad, Pazardzhik, Plovdiv, Vratsa, Svilengrad, Lovech, Chirpan, Stara Zagora, Vidin, and Dobrich. The party was described as ultra-nationalist by foreign observers. +The party elected three leaders - Valeri Simeonov, Valentin Kasabov and Dancho Hadzhiev. The Secretary of the party is Maria Petrova. The National Political Council includes 19 people, such as independent councilors from Burgas and hosts from SKAT TV (i.e. Velizar Enchev and Valentin Fartunov). +Among the party's founders is former regional president of the Union of Democratic Forces in the city Vladimir Pavlov. +The party was a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group during the 7th European Parliament. +On 3 August 2014, a coalition agreement was signed between NFSB and VMRO called Patriotic Front for the 2014 parliamentary elections. It states its purpose to be for "a revival of the Bulgarian economy, a fight against monopolies, achieving modern education and healthcare and a fair and uncorrupt judiciary." The members of the alliance are: PROUD, National Ideal for Unity, European Middle Class, Association Patriot, Undivided Bulgaria, National Movement BG Patriot, Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense", National Association of Alternate Soldiery "For the Honor of epaulette", National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland, and National Democratic Party. +Ahead of the July 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election, Volya Movement formed an electoral alliance with the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria and the VMRO. +On 1 February 2023, the party officially renamed itself as "Conservative Bulgaria" and elected a new Chairman, Boris Yachev. + + +== Leadership == +Leader - Boris Yachev +Vice-leader - Venera Simeonova +Vice-leader - Dancho Hadzhiev +Vice-leader - Hristian Mitev + + +== Election results == + + +=== Presidential === +The party nominated Stefan Solakov as their presidential candidate in 2011 and Galina Vasileva as his running mate. +They finished 5th, receiving 84,205 votes (2.50% of ballots cast). +In the 2021 Bulgarian general election, the party nominated its leader, Valeri Simeonov, as the Presidential candidate from the Patriotic Front coalition. + + +=== National Assembly === +In the parliamentary elections on May 12, the "National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria" won 3.7% of the votes, but fell below the 4% threshold needed for representation. Nonetheless the party polled more votes than the UDF, DSB and OLJ, all of whom were represented in the last (41st) National Assembly. + + +=== European Parliament === + + +=== Local === +In the local elections in Burgas in 2011, party chairman Valeri Simeonov finished in second place, with 11.25% of the votes. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official site +NFSB - SKAT TV \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..79b7ad24e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +title: "Constructor theory" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructor_theory" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:11.136018+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Constructor theory is a proposal for a new mode of explanation in fundamental physics, developed by physicists David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto, at the University of Oxford, since 2012. Constructor theory expresses physical laws exclusively in terms of which physical transformations, or tasks, are possible versus which are impossible, and why. By allowing such counterfactual statements into fundamental physics, it allows new physical laws to be expressed, such as the constructor theory of information. + + +== Overview == +The fundamental elements of the theory are tasks: the abstract specifications of transformations as input–output pairs of attributes. A task is impossible if there is a law of physics that forbids its being performed with arbitrarily high accuracy, and possible otherwise. When it is possible, a constructor for it can be built, again with arbitrary accuracy and reliability. A constructor is an entity that can cause the task to occur while retaining the ability to cause it again. Examples of constructors include a heat engine (a thermodynamic constructor), a catalyst (a chemical constructor) or a computer program controlling an automated factory (an example of a programmable constructor). +The theory was developed by physicists David Deutsch and Chiara Marletto. It draws together ideas from diverse areas, including thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, information theory, and quantum computation. +Quantum mechanics and all other physical theories are claimed to be subsidiary theories, and quantum information becomes a special case of superinformation. +Chiara Marletto's constructor theory of life builds on constructor theory. + + +== Motivations == +According to Deutsch, current theories of physics, based on quantum mechanics, do not adequately explain why some transformations between states of being are possible and some are not. For example, a drop of dye can dissolve in water, but the reverse transformation, the dye spontaneously clumping back together, is never observed in practice. While the microscopic laws of motion are time-reversible (meaning such a reversal is not strictly forbidden for individual trajectories, only astronomically unlikely), constructor theory reframes the question: rather than asking what will happen given initial conditions, it asks whether a constructor — a device that could reliably cause the reverse transformation and retain the ability to do so again — is possible. In constructor-theoretic terms, dissolving dye is a possible task, but its transpose is impossible: no constructor for reliably reversing the process can exist under the laws of physics, even though the underlying dynamics are time-symmetric. This allows an exact statement of the second law of thermodynamics without the approximations that plague statistical-mechanical formulations. Constructor theory provides an explanatory framework built on the transformations themselves, rather than the components. +Information has the property that a given statement might have said something else, and one of these alternatives would not be true. The untrue alternative is said to be "counterfactual". Conventional physical theories do not model such counterfactuals. However, the link between information and such physical ideas as the entropy in a thermodynamic system is so strong that they are sometimes identified. For example, the area of a black hole's event horizon is a measure both of the hole's entropy and of the information that it contains, as per the Bekenstein bound. Constructor theory is an attempt to bridge this gap, providing a physical model that can express counterfactuals, thus allowing the laws of information and computation to be viewed as laws of physics. + + +== Constructor theory of information == +The constructor theory of information, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A in 2015 by Deutsch and Marletto, proposes exact laws of physics expressing the regularities that allow information to be physically instantiated. Unlike previous information theories that treat information as an a priori mathematical concept, this theory holds that the nature and properties of information are determined entirely by the laws of physics. +An information medium is defined in purely constructor-theoretic terms as a physical system with a set of at least two attributes such that two transformations are possible: any permutation of these attributes (the "flip"), and the copying of these attributes onto another system (the "copy"). These two counterfactual properties constitute the physical basis of classical information. +A central principle is the interoperability principle: the combination of two information media is itself an information medium. This requires certain physical interactions to exist in nature and explains why information can be transferred between different physical substrates regardless of their specific physical details. +The theory introduces superinformation media as information media on which certain additional tasks are impossible — specifically, it is impossible to copy all information-carrying states simultaneously, and all transformations must be reversible. Deutsch and Marletto show that these properties give rise to all the known qualitative differences between quantum information and classical information, including the impossibility of cloning, the existence of complementary variables, the objective unpredictability of measurement outcomes, and locally inaccessible information in entangled systems. Quantum information is thus shown to be a special case of superinformation. + + +== See also == +Calculating Space +Computability theory +Undecidable problem +Quantum circuit +Generalized probabilistic theory + + +== References == + + +== Bibliography == +Deutsch, David (December 2013). "Constructor theory". Synthese. 190 (18): 4331–4359. arXiv:1210.7439. Bibcode:2013Synth.190.4331D. doi:10.1007/s11229-013-0279-z. S2CID 16083339. +Marletto, Chiara (2021). The Science of Can and Can't. Penguin. ISBN 9780525521921. + + +== External links == +Official website +"Deeper Than Quantum Mechanics—David Deutsch's New Theory of Reality" Mediums.com's The Physics arXiv Blog. 28 May 2014. +Kehoe, J.; "To What Extent Do We See with Mathematics?". Scientific American Guest blog. 2013. +"Formulating Science in Terms of Possible and Impossible Tasks". edge.org. 12 June 2014. +"Reconstructing physics: The universe is information". NewScientist.com (Two leading quantum physicists say information is key to understanding the universe. Their constructor theory puts it centre stage). 21 May 2014. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumed_(2015_film)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumed_(2015_film)-0.md index 0ee302801..edef79ad5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumed_(2015_film)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumed_(2015_film)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumed_(2015_film)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:39:17.429324+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:50.856063+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Shelf_Station_Two-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Shelf_Station_Two-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..07098391d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Shelf_Station_Two-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Continental Shelf Station Two" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Shelf_Station_Two" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:25.633827+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Continental Shelf Station Two or Conshelf Two was an attempt at creating an environment in which people could live and work on the sea floor. It was the successor to Continental Shelf Station One (Conshelf One). +The alternate designation Precontinent has also been used to describe the set of projects to build an underwater "village" carried out by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his team. The projects were named Precontinent I (Conshelf One), Precontinent II (Conshelf Two) and Precontinent III (Conshelf Three). Each following project was aimed at increasing the depth at which people continuously lived under water. + + +== Precontinent I == + +Precontinent I was constructed offshore from Marseille, France, in 1962. Two scuba divers spent two weeks in a small chamber 12 meters deep on the seabed. + + +== Precontinent II == +In 1963, six oceanauts lived 10 metres down in the Red Sea, at Sha’ab Rumi off Sudan, in a starfish-shaped house for 30 days. The undersea living experiment also had two other structures, one a submarine hangar that housed a small, two man submarine referred to as the "diving saucer" for its resemblance to a science fiction flying saucer, and a smaller "deep cabin" where two oceanauts lived at a depth of 30 metres for a week. The undersea colony was supported with air, water, food, power, and all other essentials of life, from a large support team above. Men on the bottom performed a number of experiments intended to determine the practicality of working on the sea floor and were subjected to continual medical examinations. +Two support ships on the surface provided compressed air and other logistical support to Precontinent II. When the experiment ended, two structures were dismantled and removed. The rest became undersea destinations for recreational divers. The work was funded in part by the French petrochemical industry, who, along with Jacques Cousteau, hoped that such manned colonies could serve as base stations for the future exploitation of the sea. + +Conshelf Two is documented in Jacques Cousteau's 1964 documentary film World Without Sun, that won Best Documentary at the 37th Academy Awards. + + +== Precontinent III == +Such colonies did not find a productive future, however, as Cousteau, after forming Conshelf Three a few years later, withdrew his support for such exploitation of the sea and put his efforts toward conservation. It was also found in later years that industrial tasks underwater could be more efficiently performed by undersea robot devices and divers operating from the surface or from smaller lowered structures, made possible by a more advanced understanding of diving physiology and more complex mixtures of breathing gases. + + +== See also == +Underwater habitat – Human habitable underwater enclosure filled with breathable gas +Aquanaut – Diver who remains underwater for 24 hours or more +SEALAB – Experimental underwater habitats developed by the United States Navy +NEEMO – NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation project + + +== References == + + +== Bibliography == +Miller, James (1995). Living and Working in the Sea. Plymouth, VT: Five Corners Publications, Ltd. ISBN 1886699011. + + +== External links == + Media related to Conshelf at Wikimedia Commons \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f1e717cb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Critical Psychiatry Network" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:07.013684+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Critical Psychiatry Network (CPN) is a group of psychiatrists who advocate for reform towards a more reflective, skeptical and patient-centered approach to psychiatry. CPN was created in January 1999 by psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, in response to proposals by the British government to amend the Mental Health Act 1983. The network was concerned about the potential for increased coercion in the act. Among their founders was Joanna Moncrieff, current co-chair of the network. +"Critical psychiatry" can be contrasted with "anti-psychiatry", which is more abolitionist than reformative. +Participants in the Critical Psychiatry Network share concerns about psychiatric practice where and when it is heavily dependent upon diagnostic classification and the use of psychopharmacology. These concerns reflect their recognition of poor construct validity amongst psychiatric diagnoses and scepticism about the efficacy of anti-depressants, mood stabilisers and anti-psychotic agents. According to them, these concerns have ramifications in the area of the use of psychiatric diagnosis to justify civil detention and the role of scientific knowledge in psychiatry, and an interest in promoting the study of interpersonal phenomena such as relationship, meaning and narrative in pursuit of better understanding and improved treatment. +CPN has similarities and contrasts with earlier criticisms of conventional psychiatric practice, for example those associated with David Cooper, R. D. Laing and Thomas Szasz. Features of CPN are pragmatism and full acknowledgment of the suffering commonly associated with mental health difficulties. As a result, it functions primarily as a forum within which practitioners can share experiences of practice, and provide support and encouragement in developing improvements in mainstream NHS practice where most participants are employed. +CPN maintains close links with service user or survivor led organisations such as the Hearing Voices Network, Intervoice and the Soteria Network, and with like-minded psychiatrists in other countries. It maintains its own website. The network is open to any sympathetic psychiatrist. Members meet in person, in the UK, twice a year. It is primarily intended for psychiatrists and psychiatric trainees and full participation is not available to other groups. + +== Coercion and social control == +The other involved the introduction of community treatment orders (CTOs) to make it possible to treat people against their wishes in the community. CPN submitted evidence to the Scoping Group set up by the government under Professor Genevra Richardson. This set out ethical and practical objections to CTOs, and ethical and human rights objections to the idea of reviewable detention. It was also critical of the concept of personality disorder as a diagnosis in psychiatry. In addition, CPN's evidence called for the use of advance statements, crisis cards and a statutory right to independent advocacy as ways of helping to sustain autonomy at times of crisis. CPN also responded to government consultation on the proposed amendment, and the white paper. +The concern about these proposals caused a number of organizations to come together under the umbrella of the Mental Health Alliance to campaign in support of the protection of patients' and carers' rights, and to minimise coercion. CPN joined the Alliance's campaign, but resigned in 2005 when it became clear that the Alliance would accept those aspects of the House of Commons Scrutiny Committee's report that would result in the introduction of CTOs. Psychiatrists not identified with CPN shared the Network's concern about the more coercive aspects of the government's proposals, so CPN carried out a questionnaire survey of over two and a half thousand (2,500) consultant psychiatrists working in England seeking their views of the proposed changes. The responses (a response rate of 46%) indicated widespread concern in the profession about reviewable detention and CTOs. +The CPN was paid attention by Thomas Szasz who wrote: "Members of the CPN, like their American counterparts, criticize the proliferation of psychiatric diagnoses and 'excessive' use of psychotropic drugs, but embrace psychiatric coercions." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d20ab2820 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Critical Psychiatry Network" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:07.013684+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== The role of scientific knowledge in psychiatry === +There is a strong view by CPN that contemporary psychiatry relies too much on the medical model, and attaches too much importance to a narrow biomedical view of diagnosis. This can, in part, be understood as the response of an earlier generation of psychiatrists to the challenge of what has been called 'anti-psychiatry'. Psychiatrists such as David Cooper, R. D. Laing and Thomas Szasz (although the latter two rejected the term) were identified as part of a movement against psychiatry in the 1960s and 1970s. Stung by these attacks, as well as accusations that in any case psychiatrists could not even agree who was and who was not mentally ill, academic psychiatrists responded by stressing the biological and scientific basis of psychiatry through strenuous efforts to improve the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis based in a return to the traditions of one of the founding fathers of the profession, Emil Kraepelin. +The use of standardized diagnostic criteria and checklists may have improved the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis, but the problem of its validity remains. The investment of huge sums of money in Britain, America and Europe over the last half-century has failed to reveal a single, replicable difference between a person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and someone who does not have the diagnosis. The case for the biological basis of common psychiatric disorders such as depression has also been greatly over-stated. This has a number of consequences: +First, the aggrandisement of biological research creates a false impression both inside and outside the profession of the credibility of the evidence used to justify drug treatments for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Reading clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of depression, for example, such as that produced for the UK National Health Service by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), one might be fooled into believing that the evidence for the efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is established beyond question. In reality this is not the case, as re-examinations of drug trial data in meta-analyses, especially where unpublished data are included (publication bias means that researchers and drug companies do not publish negative findings for obvious commercial reasons), have revealed that most of the benefits seen in active treatment groups are also seen in the placebo groups. +As far as schizophrenia is concerned, neuroleptic drugs may have some short-term effects, but it is not the case that these drugs possess specific 'anti-psychotic' properties, and it is impossible to assess whether or not they confer advantages in long-term management of psychoses because of the severe disturbances that occur when people on long-term active treatment are withdrawn to placebos. These disturbances are traditionally interpreted as a 'relapse' of schizophrenia when in fact there are several possible interpretations for the phenomenon. +Another consequence of the domination of psychiatry by biological science is that the importance of contexts in understanding distress and madness is played down. This has a number of consequences. First, it obscures the true nature of what in fact are extremely complex problems. For example, if we consider depression to be a biological disorder remediable through the use of antidepressant tablets, then we may be excused from having to delve into the tragic circumstances that so often lie at the heart the experience. This is so in adults and children. + +=== Meaning and experience in psychiatry === +There is a common theme, here, with the work of David Ingleby whose chapter in Critical Psychiatry: The Politics of Mental Health sets out a detailed critique of positivism (the view that epistemology, or knowledge about the world is best served by empiricism and the scientific method rather than metaphysics). A common theme running through Laingian antipsychiatry, Ingleby's critical psychiatry, contemporary critical psychiatry and postpsychiatry is the view that social, political and cultural realities play a vital role in helping us to understand the suffering and experience of madness. Like Laing, Ingleby stressed the importance of hermeneutics and interpretation in inquiries about the meaning of experience in psychiatry, and (like Laing) he drew on psychoanalysis as an interpretative aid, but his work was also heavily influenced by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. +The most forceful critic of this view was R. D. Laing, who famously attacked the approach enshrined by Jaspers' and Kraepelin's work in chapter two of The Divided Self, proposing instead an existential-phenomenological basis for understanding psychosis. Laing always insisted that schizophrenia is more understandable than is commonly supposed. Mainstream psychiatry has never accepted Laing's ideas, but many in CPN regard The Divided Self as central to twentieth century psychiatry. Laing's influence continued in America through the work of the late Loren Mosher, who worked at the Tavistock Clinic in the mid-1960s, when he also spent time in Kingsley Hall witnessing Laing's work. Shortly after his return to the US, Loren Mosher was appointed Director of Schizophrenia Research at the National Institute of Mental Health, and also the founding editor of the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin. +One of his most notable contributions to this area was setting up and evaluating the first Soteria House, an environment modeled on Kingsley Hall in which people experiencing acute psychoses could be helped with minimal drug use and a form of interpersonal phenomenology influenced by Heidegger. He also conducted evaluation studies of the effectiveness of Soteria. A recent systematic review of the Soteria model found that it achieved as good, and in some areas, better, clinical outcomes with much lower levels of medication (Soteria House was not anti-medication) than conventional approaches to drug treatment. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9fe4bac6c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Critical Psychiatry Network" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:07.013684+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Efficacy == +One comparison study showed 34% of patients of a 'medical model' team were still being treated after two years, compared with only 9% of patients of a team using a 'non-diagnostic' approach (less medication, little diagnosis, individual treatment plans tailored to the person's unique needs). However the study comments that cases may have left the system in the 'non-diagnostic' approach, not because treatment had worked, but because (1) multi-agency involvement meant long-term work may have been continued by a different agency, (2) the starting question of 'Do we think our service can make a positive difference to this young person's life?' rather than 'What is wrong with this young person?' may have led to treatment not being continued, and (3) the attitude of viewing a case as problematic when no improvement has occurred after five sessions may have led to treatment not being continued (rather than the case 'drifting' on in the system). + +== Critical Psychiatry and Postpsychiatry == +Peter Campbell first used the term 'postpsychiatry' in the anthology Speaking Our Minds, which imagines what would happen in a world after psychiatry. Independently, Patrick Bracken and Philip Thomas coined the word later and used it as the title of a series of articles written for Openmind. This was followed by a key paper in the British Medical Journal and a book of the same name. This culminated with the publication by Bradley Lewis, a psychiatrist based in New York, of Moving Beyond Prozac, DSM, and the New Psychiatry: The Birth of Postpsychiatry. +According to Bracken, progress in the field of mental health is presented in terms of 'breakthrough drugs', 'wonders of neuroscience', 'the Decade of the Brain' and 'molecular genetics'. These developments suited the interests of a relatively small number of academic psychiatrists, many of whom have interests in the pharmaceutical industry, although so far the promised insights into psychosis and madness were yet to be realized. Some psychiatrists have turned to another form of technology, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, although this does draw attention to the person's relationship with their experiences (such as voices or unusual beliefs), and focuses on helping them to find different ways of coping, it however, it is based on a particular set of assumptions about the nature of the self, the nature of thought, and how reality is constructed. The pros and cons of this have been explored in some detail in a recent publication. +Framing mental health problems as 'technical' in nature involves prioritising technology and expertise over values, relationships and meanings, the very things that emerge as important for service users, both in their narratives, and in service user-led research. For many service users these issues are of primary importance. Recent meta-analyses into the effectiveness of antidepressants and cognitive therapy in depression confirm that non-specific, non-technical factors (such as the quality of the therapeutic relationship as seen by the patient, and the placebo effect in medication) are more important than the specific factors. +Postpsychiatry tries to move beyond the view that we can only help people through technologies and expertise. Instead, it +prioritises values, meanings and relationships and sees progress in terms of engaging creatively with the service user movement, and communities. This is especially important given the considerable evidence that in Britain, Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities are particularly poorly served by mental health services. For this reason an important practical aspect of postpsychiatry is the use of community development in order to engage with these communities. The community development project Sharing Voices Bradford is an excellent example of such an approach. +There are many commonalities between critical psychiatry and postpsychiatry, but it is probably fair to say that whereas postpsychiatry would broadly endorse most aspects of the work of critical psychiatry, the obverse does not necessarily hold. In identifying the modernist privileging of technical responses to madness and distress as a primary problem, postpsychiatry has looked to postmodernist thought for insights. Its conceptual critique of traditional psychiatry draws on ideas from philosophers such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault and Wittgenstein. + +== Anti-psychiatry and Critical Psychiatry == + +The word anti-psychiatry is associated with the South African psychiatrist David Cooper, who used it to refer to the ending of the 'game' the psychiatrist plays with his or her victim (patient). It has been widely used to refer to the writings and activities of a small group of psychiatrists, most notably R.D. Laing, Aaron Esterson, Cooper, and Thomas Szasz (although he rejects the use of the label in relation to his own work, as did Laing and Esterson), and sociologists (Thomas Scheff). Szasz discards even more what he calls the quackery of 'antipsychiatry' than the quackery of psychiatry. +Anti-psychiatry can best be understood against the counter-cultural context in which it arose. The decade of the 1960s was a potent mix of student rebellion, anti-establishment sentiment and anti-war (Vietnam) demonstrations. It saw the rise to prominence of feminism and the American civil rights movement and the Northern Ireland civil rights movement. Across the world, formerly colonised peoples were throwing off the shackles of colonialism. Some of these themes emerged in the Dialectics of Liberation, a conference organized by Laing and others in the Round House in London in 1968. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4e8d88533 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Critical Psychiatry Network" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Psychiatry_Network" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:07.013684+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Critical Psychiatry Network - Activities == +CPN is involved in four main areas of work, writing and the publication of academic and other papers, organizing and participating in conferences, activism and support. A glance at the members' publication page on the CPN website reveals in excess of a hundred papers, books and other articles published by people associated with the network over the last twelve years or so. These cover a wide range of topics, from child psychiatry, psychotherapy, the role of diagnosis in psychiatry, critical psychiatry, philosophy and postpsychiatry, to globalization and psychiatry. CPN has also organized a number of conferences in the past, and continues to do so in collaboration with other groups and bodies. It has run workshops for psychiatrists and offers peer supervision face to face and via videolink. It also supports service user and survivor activists who campaign against the role of the pharmaceutical industry in psychiatry, and the campaign for the abolition of the schizophrenia label. The CPN has published a statement in support. + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Bracken, Patrick; Thomas, Philip (2005). Postpsychiatry: Mental health in a postmodern world. International perspectives in philosophy and psychiatry. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-852609-4. OCLC 61262300. +Cohen, Carl I.; Timimi, Sammi, eds. (2008). Liberatory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68981-6. OCLC 174449800. +Double, D.B., ed. (2006). Critical Psychiatry: The limits of madness. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-00128-2. OCLC 64230499. +Ingleby, David, ed. (1980). Critical Psychiatry: The politics of mental health (1st American ed.). New York: Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-394-42622-8. OCLC 6377369. +Read, Jim (2009). Psychiatric Drugs: Key issues and service user perspective. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-54940-1. OCLC 321014953. +Whitwell, David (2005). Recovery Beyond Psychiatry. London: Free Association Books. ISBN 978-1-85343-923-0. OCLC 62927775. + +== External links == +The Critical Psychiatry Network \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..816dc5e34 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +title: "Criticism of space exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:37.554197+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Human space exploration has been criticized on several grounds. Opponents point to the substantial financial costs, suggesting that funds allocated for space exploration could be better spent addressing urgent issues on Earth, such as poverty, healthcare, education, and environmental degradation. Critics express concerns about risks to human life, environmental impacts like potential contamination of celestial bodies, and the possibility of militarizing space, which could exacerbate geopolitical tensions. These critiques reflect ongoing debates over resource allocation, technological priorities, and the responsibilities of humanity both on Earth and in outer space. + + +== History == + + +=== Apollo missions === +In 1963, years before the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing, German-American critical theorist Hannah Arendt argued: + +The conquest of space and the science that made it possible have come perilously close to this point. If they ever should reach it in earnest, the stature of man would not simply be lowered by all standards we know of but have been destroyed. +Throughout the 1960s, Students for a Democratic Society organized anti-NASA protests on college campuses. Sit-ins occurred at Columbia University's Pupin Physics Laboratories and MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory, as both conducted NASA research which was implemented by the United States military in Vietnam. In July 1969, civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy organized a protest at Cape Canaveral (then Cape Kennedy) to oppose the "inhuman priority" of space exploration over tackling poverty and racism. When addressing a white suburban audience filled with space and electronic experts, Unitarian Church Rev. David Eaton, said that "[t]he $23 billion we've spent going to the Moon has stolen money the black man needs for job retraining and schools." + + +== Contemporary arguments == + + +=== Climate change === +Amitai Etzioni wrote in 2018 that space colonization "brings with it an unavoidable subtext of despair", distracting from efforts to halt anthropogenic climate change, arguing that "any serious Mars endeavor will inevitably cut into the drive to save Mother Earth". Some studies suggest that the projected increase in space travel will damage the ozone layer. A single rocket launch produces 300 tonnes of carbon dioxide, staying longer in the upper atmosphere than emissions caused by airplanes or jets. Thomas Fink, however, argues the long-term benefits of space science offset the ecological risks. + + +=== Wastefulness === +Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. condemned space exploration, labeling it as wasteful. In the lead up to the Apollo program, Congressmen voiced doubts about the costliness of the missions. In 1977, Governor of California Jerry Brown was criticized for prioritizing space programs over addressing social issues. + + +== Political == +Alexis C. Madrigal, writing in the Los Angeles Sentinel in 2012, said that + +It would appear that the fathers of our nation would allow a few thousand hungry people to die for the lack of a few thousand dollars while they would contaminate the moon and its sterility for the sake of 'progress' and spend billions of dollars in the process, while people are hungry, ill-clothed, poorly educated (if at all). +Haris Durrani, writing in The Nation, argued in 2019 that "[s]paceflight almost invariably involves activities that directly subjugate marginalized peoples". Mark R. Royce, writing for Providence magazine, argued in 2020 that rather than being a non-partisan, inoffensive, and humanistic endeavor, space exploration is "largely irrational, originating at the intersection of the early Cold War arms race, the mass hysteria of the Red Scare, and the utopian worship of technical progress that characterized the mid-twentieth century." Gabrielle Cornish argued in 2019 that the moon landing was "at its core, a territorial conquest" in the context of the Cold War. + + +=== Linguistic === +Several critics have likened space exploration to settler-colonialism and imperialism, with critics such as Deondre Smiles arguing that the exploration of space could lead to further colonization on Earth, pointing to the controversial construction of observatories in Mauna Kea. Sociologist Zuleyka Zevallos at Swinburne University has criticized the language used within and around space science, writing that "there is no democratic way to colonize other lands" and that "It is about profit, and profit always marginalizes minorities". In contrast, Robert Zubrin of the Mars Society responds that it is different from comparing the history of colonialism on Earth with the establishment of colonies on Mars. + + +== From within astrophysics == +Fulbright scholar and Mars colonization advocate Zahaan Bharmal outlined three hypothetical arguments against human colonization of Mars: (1) that humans will contaminate Mars, (2) that robots have inherent advantages over humans in space exploration, and (3) that issues like climate change, overpopulation, and nuclear war should be prioritized over colonization. While broadly supportive of Mars colonization, Bharmal argues that humans "are perhaps not ready to go to Mars." + + +== Public opinion == +Contrary to the common misconception that the American space program in the 1970s had a wide base of support, unifying America, belief that the Apollo program was worth the time and money invested peaked at 55% for a few months after the 1969 Moon landing, and was otherwise fluctuating between 35 and 45%. + + +== See also == +Criticism of science + + +== Notes == + + +== References == +Westfahl, Gary (1997). "The Case against Space". Science Fiction Studies. 24 (2). SF-TH Inc: 193–206. ISSN 0091-7729. JSTOR 4240602. Retrieved 2023-02-12. +Marshall, Alan (1995). "Development and imperialism in space". Space Policy. 11 (1). Elsevier BV: 41–52. Bibcode:1995SpPol..11...41M. doi:10.1016/0265-9646(95)93233-b. ISSN 0265-9646. +Vernikos, J (1961-04-12). "Human Exploration of Space: why, where, what for?". Hippokratia. 12 (Suppl 1): 6–9. PMC 2577404. PMID 19048086. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-0.md index 4c0c0391c..d772421c9 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/9 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:09.636259+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:12.347082+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-1.md index bd9512780..82f74a4fb 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-1.md +++ 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"reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:09.636259+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:12.347082+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-8.md index 903215c69..30c5d9626 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-8.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity-8.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 9/9 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_theory_of_relativity" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:09.636259+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:12.347082+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..22a5383c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Dana expeditions" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:43.343122+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Dana expeditions were four Danish research expeditions from 1920 to 1930. The first two were undertaken by the Dana I and the third by the Dana II. They were funded in part by the Carlsberg Foundation and led by Johannes Schmidt. The first three expeditions took place from 1920 to 1922 and the fourth and final was from 1928 to 1930. They centered around investigating the breeding of eels. The first two expeditions allowed Schmidt to prove his theory that European eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. The final expedition traveled to the Indian Ocean and gathered numerous samples. + +== First expeditions (1920–1922) == + +=== Planning === +From 1920 to 1922, Dana undertook a series of three expeditions that were led by the marine biologist Johannes Schmidt. Schmidt and C. F. Dreschel had first proposed an expedition that would explore the deep sea of the Atlantic Ocean in 1916. Although the two men originally envisioned a single large expedition, in January 1917 Schmidt had suggested instead running two expeditions with the first focusing on the Atlantic and the second circumnavigating the world over the course of two years. The two decided to focus first on the Atlantic and began planning and purchasing supplies for it, an endeavor that was complicated by the ongoing First World War and Schmidt's battle with bronchitis. By early 1918 they had gathered the bulk of necessary supplies. Schmidt continued to emphasize that he felt an attempted circumnavigation worthwhile, particularly for the attention it could generate at a comparable cost. Such an expedition also held the potential to increase the prestige of Danish marine science dramatically, as the Challenger expedition did for the UK. His efforts to convince Dreschel to refocus the planned expedition, although they continued into 1919, were unsuccessful. +In January 1919 it was agreed that the first expedition would leave Gibraltar in March for a three month expedition. Upon the end of the First World War in November 1919, the first expedition was almost set to begin, as the Dana had been completed by H.N. Andersen's East Asiatic Company. Andersen had agreed to loan Schmidt and Dreschel the vessel for their expedition and fund its operation for a three month period, but launching was delayed until 1920 so that equipment could be purchased at more reasonable prices. In the interim Dana was used by the company to ship freight. Next, Schmidt and Dreschel decided on an 'executive committee' for the expedition, which they determined would have Prince Valdemar of Denmark as the figurehead, include a representative from the Carlsberg Foundation board of directors and include many other prominent Danes. The expedition was announced to the public in the summer of 1919. After the announcement, Schmidt rushed to execute their plans as he hoped to prove his theory that European eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn before other researchers could beat him to it. As a result, the large expedition was divided into two, the first being one that could be conducted quickly and with minimal set-up. +In autumn 1920 Schmidt and Dreschel came into conflict when Dreschel indicated a desire to invite member countries of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea to join the second expedition. Schmidt sought to keep the effort limited to Denmark and threatened to abandon the effort if it wasn't. Nothing came of the plans. + +=== First and second === +The expedition began in early 1920 in England, and Dana left the nation in 17 March for Gibraltar. Schmidt joined the boat in Madeira and it had arrived in the Canary Islands by April. They left there on 11 April and arrived in the Sargasso Sea within seven days. Shortly thereafter, the crew began fishing large amounts of European eel larvae, searching for their breeding grounds. Before they could, the ship began to leak and was forced to travel to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, for repairs. As a result of the failure, the East Asiatic Company agreed to give Schmidt another three months with the ship. They waited on St. Thomas for a month and returned to the Sargasso Sea in June. By then, however, the ship had missed the season where eel eggs were hatching. They caught 6,069 larvae of European eels, and 1,027 of American eel before the first expedition ended on July 4 in the Bermuda Islands. Dana was shortly returned to the East Asiatic Company in Charleston, South Carolina, and the group returned to Denmark. They still retained a majority of funds that had been raised but had not gotten definitive evidence to support the claim that European eels spawned in the Sargasso Sea. A second expedition left on August 30, 1921, with a similar aim. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..69c55f562 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Dana expeditions" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_expeditions" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:43.343122+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Third === +Schmidt's third expedition earned him a reputation "as a first rate marine scientist." In autumn 1920 the Danish government purchased a new research ship for marine research in Great Britain. It was transported to Denmark, overhauled, and renamed R/V Dana or Dana II. The boat had 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) of metal wire, allowing it to "fish deeper than anyone before." The expedition began in late 1921, arriving near Portugal and Spain in September, where they investigated the strait of Gibraltar. Over the course of ten months, the expedition did work. In early December, the Carlsberg Foundation agreed to fund an extension of the expedition to travel through the Panama Canal, which it did on 10 January. +In the Pacific, Dana II took numerous samples that revealed the Pacific Ocean was cooler and less salty than the Atlantic. They also found an oxygen minimum zone around 500 metres (1,600 ft) below the surface, making those aboard Dana II the first researchers to document such a phenomenon. High plankton densities helped the expedition observe upwelling and deep-level samples gave them an image of species richness greater than that in the Atlantic. On 20 January, they left the Pacific and, after stopping in Lake Gatun—where they found large amounts of desmid algae, they returned to Europe from Bermuda on 30 May. + +=== Aftermath === +From 1922 to 1923 Schmidt published his theory about the breeding of the eels, and his expedition found growing fame in magazines, pottery, and various awards. The expedition had discovered numerous new species, captured valuable live specimens, and made several important discoveries. A reenactment was filmed in October 1922. + +== Fourth expedition (1928–1930) == +Schmidt embarked on his fourth Dana expedition in June 1928 and returned in June 1930. Its official title was "The Carlsberg Foundation's Oceanographical Expedition round the World 1928-30 under the Leadership of Professor Johannes Schmidt" and was Schmidt's largest expedition. The ship traveled over 65,000 nautical miles (120,000 km) from Europe to the Indo-Pacific. It was aimed in part at investigating the oxygen minimum zone that had been discovered in 1920 and also at investigating freshwater eels in the Indian Ocean. They found larva of a "true" freshwater eel in the Pacific and numerous other samples. Schmidt also used the expedition to confirm his earlier research. Nature wrote that "From North Iceland and the Davis Straits southwards to Brazil, and from the Baltic and Black Sea in the east to the United States and Panama in the west, Prof. Schmidt and his collaborators have studied methodically the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the waters from surface to bottom." +The expedition also found a giant larva that they believed belonged to the eel genus. Based on the size and growth rate of the common eel, they estimated this larva would grow to be 30 metres (98 ft) long. Eleven years later Anton Frederik Bruun, who had helped lead the expedition, said "I believe in the sea serpent" and lectured on its possible existence. + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Poulsen, Bo (2016-08-15). Global Marine Science and Carlsberg - The Golden Connections of Johannes Schmidt (1877-1933). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-31639-3. +Wüst, Georg (1964-01-01). "The major deep-sea expeditions and research vessels 1873–1960: A contribution to the history of oceanography". Progress in Oceanography. 2: 1–52. Bibcode:1964PrOce...2....1W. doi:10.1016/0079-6611(64)90002-3. ISSN 0079-6611. + +== Further reading == +"Danish Dana Expeditions". Brill. Retrieved 2020-12-26. +Mackay, Kevin (2019). "Biological observations from the Dana Expedition Reports". Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. doi:10.15468/dbxvug. +The Carlsberg Foundation’s Oceanographic Expedition Round the World, 1928–30 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-energy_star-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-energy_star-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a3052a423 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-energy_star-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Dark-energy star" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-energy_star" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:13.549201+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A dark-energy star is a hypothetical compact astrophysical object, which a minority of physicists think might constitute an alternative explanation for observations of astronomical black hole candidates. +The concept was proposed by physicist George Chapline. The theory states that infalling matter is converted into vacuum energy or dark energy, as the matter falls through the event horizon. The space within the event horizon would end up with a large value for the cosmological constant and have negative pressure to exert against gravity. There would be no information-destroying singularity. + + +== Theory == +In March 2005, physicist George Chapline claimed that quantum mechanics makes it a "near certainty" that black holes do not exist and are instead dark-energy stars. The dark-energy star is a different concept from that of a gravastar. +Dark-energy stars were first proposed because in quantum physics, absolute time is required; however, in general relativity, an object falling towards a black hole would, to an outside observer, seem to have time pass infinitely slowly at the event horizon. The object itself would feel as if time flowed normally. +In order to reconcile quantum mechanics with black holes, Chapline theorized that a phase transition in the phase of space occurs at the event horizon. He based his ideas on the physics of superfluids. As a column of superfluid grows taller, at some point, density increases, slowing down the speed of sound, so that it approaches zero. However, at that point, quantum physics makes sound waves dissipate their energy into the superfluid, so that the zero sound speed condition is never encountered. +In the dark-energy star hypothesis, infalling matter approaching the event horizon decays into successively lighter particles. Nearing the event horizon, environmental effects accelerate proton decay. This may account for high-energy cosmic-ray sources and positron sources in the sky. When the matter falls through the event horizon, the energy equivalent of some or all of that matter is converted into dark energy. This negative pressure counteracts the mass the star gains, avoiding a singularity. The negative pressure also gives a very high number for the cosmological constant. +Furthermore, "primordial" dark-energy stars could form by fluctuations of spacetime itself, which is analogous to "blobs of liquid condensing spontaneously out of a cooling gas". This not only alters the understanding of black holes, but has the potential to explain the dark energy and dark matter that are indirectly observed. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +== Sources == +Chapline, George (2005). "Dark Energy Stars". Proceedings of the Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics. p. 101. arXiv:astro-ph/0503200. Bibcode:2005tsra.conf..101C. +Barbieri, J.; Chapline, G. ″ (2004). "Have Nucleon Decays Already Been Seen?". Physics Letters B. 590 (1–2): 8–12. Bibcode:2004PhLB..590....8B. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2004.03.054. +Chapline, George; Hohlfeld, E.; Laughlin, R. B.; Santiago, D. I. (2003). "Quantum Phase Transitions and the Failure of Classical General Relativity". International Journal of Modern Physics A. 18 (21): 3587–3590. arXiv:gr-qc/0012094. Bibcode:2003IJMPA..18.3587C. doi:10.1142/S0217751X03016380. S2CID 119456781. + + +== External links == +MPIE Galactic Center Research +George Chapline (28 March 2005). "Black holes 'do not exist'". Nature News. (subscription only) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7637a7f18 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Dean drive" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:14.740460+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Dean drive was a device created and promoted by inventor Norman Lorimer Dean (1902–1972) that he claimed to be a reactionless drive. Dean claimed that his device was able to generate a uni-directional force in free space, in violation of Newton's third law of motion from classical physics. His claims generated notoriety because, if true, such a device would have had enormous applications, completely changing human transport, engineering, space travel and more. Dean made several controlled private demonstrations of a number of different devices; however, no working models were ever demonstrated publicly or subjected to independent analysis and Dean never presented any rigorous theoretical basis for their operation. Analysts conclude that the motion seen in Dean's device demonstrations was likely reliant on asymmetrical frictional resistance between the device and the surface on which the device was set ("stick and slip"), resulting in the device moving in one direction when in operation, driven by the vibrations of the apparatus. + +== Early publicity == +The Dean drive obtained a good deal of publicity in the 1950s and 1960s via the columns and conference presentations of John W. Campbell, the longtime editor of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. At that time, Campbell believed that his magazine had to change society by helping breakthrough research that was rejected by "mainstream" science, and he promoted a series of far-reaching ideas that had dubious scientific bases, like Dianetics, dowsing, the Hieronymus machine, and the Dean drive. Campbell believed that the device worked and claimed to have witnessed it operating on a bathroom scale. The weight reading on the scale appeared to decrease when the device was activated. He subsequently published photographs of the scale with the drive stopped and running. The June 1960 cover of Astounding magazine featured a painting of a United States submarine near Mars, supposedly propelled there by a Dean drive. +Dean, who was trying to find potential buyers for his technology, was secretive about the details of how it was supposed to work, but it was said to contain asymmetrical rotating weights and to generate a great deal of vibration. +Dean and Campbell claimed that Newton's laws of motion were only an approximation, and that Dean had discovered a fourth law of motion. This has been described as a nonlinear correction to one of Newton's laws, which, if correct, would allegedly have rendered a reactionless drive feasible after all. +One result of the initial articles in Campbell's magazine was that two other researchers, William O. Davis and G. Harry Stine, visited Dean and witnessed a demonstration. Results of this visit were published in the May 1962 and June 1976 issues of the magazine, the name of which had been changed by Campbell from Astounding to Analog. Davis witnessed a demonstration by Dean, and wrote: "It was the conclusion of both Harry Stine and myself that we had witnessed a real anomaly and that the possibility of fraud in the demonstration was slim." Aerospace researcher Jerry Pournelle—who, like Stine, was a science fiction writer—pointed out that Stine was well qualified to make a judgment on the device, but that he was more gullible than other persons. +Davis's 1962 article was titled, "The Fourth Law of Motion", and described a hypothesis in which Dean's device (and others) could conserve momentum invisibly via "gravitational-inertial radiation". One detail of Davis's hypothesis involved the forces of action and reaction—physical bodies can respond to those forces nonsimultaneously, or "out of phase" with each other. +"Detesters, Phasers and Dean Drives", a 1976 article by Davis, reported his tests with Stine, an engineer who built devices to test that aspect of the hypothesis. Stine said they were able to reliably create and reproduce a 3-degree phase angle in a linear system, which was not possible according to ordinary physics. But then they failed to reproduce the effect in a pendulum system, using a rocket-powered ballistic pendulum. The pendulum test would have proved beyond doubt that the drive worked, but Dean refused to subject the original Dean drive to a pendulum test. Campbell reported that he had seen the drive subjected to a pendulum test, but Davis and Stine suspect that he only reported what Dean had told him and had never seen the actual test. Davis says the question can't be settled until the pendulum test is made. Their research was terminated in 1965 when the national economy took a downturn, and was never resumed. The 1976 article was an attempt to get research restarted, but apparently failed. +In 1984, physicist Amit Goswami wrote that "Dean's machine made such a splash with readers of science fiction that it is now customary in SF circles to refer to a reactionless drive as a Dean drive." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..29c34b4a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Dean drive" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:14.740460+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Purported weight loss === +Dean made a demonstration for a representative of the magazine Popular Mechanics of one of his "Dean drive" devices. The witness reported that "While suspended above the ground, was able to pull a load to itself without itself being pulled toward the load". Another version of the machine was reported to be "able to apply a force to a hand, without moving—yet when the machine was turned off an equivalent force applied by the hand easily moved the machine". William O. Davis, who witnessed the latter demonstration, wrote in his notebook about Dean's explanation of how the device worked, "... does not strike me as valid ... For this reason I have decided to undertake a theoretical study of dynamic systems to see if a concept can be evolved which will describe a world in which Dean's Drive can exist and yet where other known facts are not contradicted." Davis produced a hypothesis, and it was published in Analog in 1962. +Later analysis has revealed that the interactions of vibration, friction, and resonance with the springs of the scale are likely the root cause of the apparent weight loss reported by Campbell and others of apparent "anti-gravity" and "reactionless thruster" effects. +In the 1950s Jerry Pournelle, working for an aerospace company, contacted Dean to investigate purchasing the device. Dean refused to demonstrate the device without pre-payment and promise of a Nobel Prize. Pournelle's company were unwilling to pay for the right to examine the device and never saw the purported model. 3M sent representatives about the same time, and obtained similar results. Pournelle eventually was convinced that Dean's device never worked. + +== Patents == +Dean was granted two U.S. patents on mechanical devices presumably related to his Dean drive claims. His first patent for a "System for converting rotary motion into unidirectional motion" was granted on May 9, 1959. Another patent for a "Variable oscillator system" was granted on May 11, 1965. These two patent designs were the only ones where Dean revealed the design details with an explanation for operation. However, the details were incomplete, and it is not possible to build a Dean drive just from the explanations in the patent. Dean's patents, as well as patents for many other similar devices, have been analyzed and it has been determined that none can produce net directional thrust in free space or operate without violating Newton's third law. Dean also demonstrated other mechanical devices that were clearly different from his patent designs but apparently never sought patents for them nor otherwise revealed their design details or theory of operation. +In 1978 physicist Russell Adams wrote an article in Analog. Searching in the US patent office he had found at least 50 patents for similar reactionless drives. After studying the mechanisms, he concluded that they all relied on friction against the floor they were placed on, and they would be useless in space, where there isn't friction against any surface. +Dean's patented devices, and his explanation of how his drive was supposed to work, were later shown to develop no net weight loss over time and do not violate Newton's third law of motion. Many other inventors claim to have invented similar devices, and they all still remain unproven, and lacking a solid theoretic basis. + +== Later developments == +After Dean's death, neither the demonstration devices nor any working devices were found among his experiments. The demonstration devices were clearly different from the devices patented by Dean, and no diagrams were ever found for them. Consequently, it is impossible to test Dean's reported designs or devices to see if they worked as he claimed. +In 1997 physicist John G. Cramer mentioned the Dean drive in Analog in his column "Alternate View". He said that the demonstration made to Campbell was faulty, and the drive had turned out to be bogus, like many other claims of antigravity devices. +In 2006 a NASA technical memorandum presented the Dean drive as the most famous example of an "oscillation thruster" and examined its theoretical basis and feasibility as a space drive. It said that "Regrettably, such devices are not breakthroughs, since they still require a connection to the ground to create net motion. The ground is the reaction mass and the frictional connection to the ground is a necessary component to its operation." NASA regularly receives proposals of similar devices, and the memo recommended that future reviews of said proposals "should require that submitters meet minimal thresholds of proof before engaging in further correspondence." + +== See also == +Eric Laithwaite, a UK inventor who made similar claims. +Reactionless drive +EmDrive + +== References == + +== External links == +Dean Drive and Other Reactionless Drives, a narrative by Jerry Pournelle describing his brief investigation of the Dean drive. +Nicholas Thomas. "'Breakthroughs' commonly submitted to NASA". Archived from the original on 2006-02-11. Explains an Oscillation Thruster. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_ray-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_ray-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4260d9dd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_ray-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Death ray" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_ray" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:15.919723+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The death ray or death beam is a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon first theorized around the 1920s and 1930s. Around that time, inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, Harry Grindell Matthews, Edwin R. Scott, Erich Graichen and others claimed to have invented it independently. In 1957, the National Inventors Council was still issuing lists of needed military inventions that included a death ray. +While based in fiction, research into energy-based weapons inspired by past speculation has contributed to actual weapons used by modern militaries sometimes called a sort of "death ray", such as the United States Navy and its Laser Weapon System (LaWS) deployed in mid-2014. Such armaments are technically known as directed-energy weapons. + + +== History == +In 1923, Edwin R. Scott, an inventor from San Francisco, claimed he was the first to develop a death ray that would destroy human life and bring down planes at a distance. He was born in Detroit, and he claimed he worked for nine years as a student and protégé of Charles P. Steinmetz. Harry Grindell-Matthews tried to sell what he reported to be a death ray to the British Air Ministry in 1924. He was never able to show a functioning model or demonstrate it to the military. +Nikola Tesla claimed to have invented a "death beam" which he called teleforce in the 1930s and continued the claims up until his death. +Tesla explained that "this invention of mine does not contemplate the use of any so-called 'death rays'. Rays are not applicable because they cannot be produced in requisite quantities and diminish rapidly in intensity with distance. All the energy of New York City (approximately two million horsepower) transformed into rays and projected twenty miles, could not kill a human being, because, according to a well known law of physics, it would disperse to such an extent as to be ineffectual. My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that nothing can resist." Tesla proposed that a nation could "destroy anything approaching within 200 miles... [and] will provide a wall of power" in order to "make any country, large or small, impregnable against armies, airplanes, and other means for attack". He claimed to have worked on the project since about 1900, and said that it drew power from the ionosphere, which he called "an invisible ball of energy surrounding Earth". He said that he had done this with the help of a 50-foot Tesla coil. The "well known law of physics" Tesla mentions refers to the inverse-square law which explains why the rays he mentions decrease in intensity the further they propagate and how their use would be a limitation on the efficacy of such a devastating device. +In 1934, Antonio Longoria claimed to have a death ray that could kill pigeons from four miles away and could kill a mouse enclosed in a "thick walled metal chamber". +During World War II, the Germans had at least two projects, and the Japanese one, to create so-called death rays. One German project led by Ernst Schiebold concerned a particle accelerator with a steerable bundle of beryllium rods running through the vertical axis. The other was developed by Rolf Widerøe and is referred to in his biography. The machine developed by Widerøe was in the Dresden Plasma Physics laboratory in February 1945 when the city was bombed. Widerøe led a team in March 1945 to remove the device from the ruined laboratory and deliver it to General Patton's 3rd Army at Burggrub where it was taken into US custody on 14 April 1945. The Japanese weapon was called Death ray "Ku-Go" which aimed to employ microwaves created in a large magnetron. + + +== In science fiction == +The concept of a death ray has been featured in science fiction stories at least as early as 1898's The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, and Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy's 1927 novel The Garin Death Ray. Later, science fiction introduced the concept of the handheld raygun used by fictional characters such as Flash Gordon. In Alfred Noyes' 1940 novel The Last Man (US title: No Other Man), a death ray developed by a German scientist named Mardok is unleashed in a global war and almost wipes out the human race. Similar weapons are found in spy-fi films such as Murderers' Row and George Lucas's science-fiction saga Star Wars. + + +== See also == +Archimedes' heat ray +Havana syndrome +Heat-Ray +Sonic weapon +Sun gun +Weapons in science fiction + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +William J. Fanning Jr. (21 August 2015). Death Rays and the Popular Media, 1876–1939: A Study of Directed Energy Weapons in Fact, Fiction and Film. McFarland. pp. 94–. ISBN 978-1-4766-2192-0. + + +== External links == +Defense Update article on M-THEL +Microwave weapons: Wasted energy (Nature) +High Power Microwaves - Strategic and Operational Implications for Warfare (Eileen M. Walling, Colonel, USAF) Archived 2019-01-07 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..896796cca --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Deep space exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:38.713020+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Deep-space exploration is the branch of astronomy, astronautics, and space technology that is involved with exploring the distant regions of outer space. However, little consensus has been reached on the meaning of "distant" regions. In some contexts, it is used to refer to interstellar space. The International Telecommunication Union defines deep space to start at a distance of 2 million km (1.2 million mi) (about 0.01 AU) from Earth's surface. NASA's Deep Space Network has variously used criteria of 16,000–32,000 km (10,000–20,000 mi) from Earth. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights (deep-space astronautics) and by robotic spacecraft. +At present the farthest space probe humankind has constructed and launched from Earth is Voyager 1, which was announced on December 5, 2011, to have reached the outer edge of the Solar System, and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012. Deep space exploration further than this vessel's capacity is not yet possible due to limitations in the propulsion technology currently available. +Some of the best candidates for future deep space engine technologies include nuclear fusion propulsion, laser/maser propulsion, and antimatter. The latter, beamed propulsion, appears to be the best candidate for deep space exploration presently available, since it uses known physics and known technology that is being developed for other purposes. + + +== Current research == +In 2012, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the award of $500,000 to former astronaut Mae Jemison to fund a project with the goal of sending future astronauts out of the Solar System. Jemison aims to increase public interest in future deep space exploration projects. Upon awarding the money to Jemison, a "100 Year Starship" symposium was held in Houston, Texas, to discuss interstellar travel. Topics discussed include "time-distance solutions, life sciences in space exploration, destinations and habitats, becoming an interstellar civilization, space technologies enhancing life on Earth, and commercial opportunities from interstellar efforts". +Research in deep space is ongoing and rapidly developing. In 2011, after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA announced its intentions to invest money into developing three technologies vital to deep space exploration. The "must-have technologies" include a deep space atomic clock, a large solar sail and a more advanced laser communications system to improve communication, navigation, and propulsion in future missions. In June 2013, NASA announced the selection of eight American astronauts that will begin to train for future deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit. NASA intends that these eight astronauts to train for future Mars or asteroid travel. + + +== See also == +Intergalactic travel +Interplanetary spaceflight +Interstellar travel +List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System +Space colonization + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Human Space Flight at NASA.gov +Solar System Exploration at NASA.gov \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_R._Bell-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_R._Bell-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5bd53baed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_R._Bell-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Dennis R. Bell" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_R._Bell" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:42.191543+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Dennis R. "Tink" Bell (15 July 1934 – 26 July 1959) was a British meteorologist who worked for the then Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS). He accidentally fell and died in a crevasse at King George Island while on an Antarctica mission in 1959, though his remains were not recovered until 2025. + + +== Early life and career == +Dennis Bell, who was also known as Dennis Tink Bell, was born in 1934 and was the oldest of three siblings. He obtained his secondary school education from Harrow County School for Boys. After high school, he joined the Royal Air Force for National Service where he received training as a radio operator. In 1958, he joined FIDS as a meteorologist and his initial posting was a two-year term at Admiralty Bay, a small United Kingdom research base staffed by about six people, located on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands, approximately 120 kilometres off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. + + +== Death == +On 26 July 1959, Bell, accompanied by three colleagues and two dog sledges, departed from the base to ascend a glacier for survey and geological work. While climbing, the party crossed a crevassed section covered in deep, soft snow, which made progress difficult and caused fatigue among the dogs, according to the British Antarctic Survey. Bell proceeded ahead without skis to encourage the group, but fell through a snow bridge over a crevasse. +Former British Antarctic Survey director Sir Vivian Fuchs recounted the incident in his book Of Ice and Men. He wrote that Bell's colleague, Stokes, called down and received a reply before lowering a rope about 30 metres. Bell secured the rope to his belt, and Stokes attached the other end to the sled dogs to assist with hauling. As Bell neared the surface, his body became wedged against the edge, the belt broke, and he fell back into the crevasse. +Stokes descended the glacier and encountered meteorologist Ken Gibson and geologist Colin Barton heading upward. The three attempted to return to the crevasse, but worsening weather prevented them from reaching it immediately. According to Gibson, they arrived at the site roughly 12 hours later, by which time survival was considered impossible and his body was not recovered + + +== Remains discovery == +Bell's remains were not discovered until 19 January 2025, 66 years after his demise. The remains, revealed due to melting glaciers, were discovered by a team from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station. The bone fragments were transported to the Falkland Islands aboard the British Antarctic Survey's research vessel Sir David Attenborough and subsequently taken to London for DNA analysis which revealed the owner. Alongside the remains, the Polish team recovered more than 200 personal effects, including radio equipment, a flashlight, ski poles, an inscribed wristwatch, and a Swedish-made knife. + + +== Legacy == +Bell Point on King George Island was named after him in his honour. + + +== See also == +List of solved missing person cases (1950–1969) + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1812-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1812-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9539e2853 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1812-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1812" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:58.717192+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812 (52 Geo. 3. c. 16), also known as the Frame-Breaking Act and before passage as the Frame Work Bill, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed by the British Government in 1812 aimed at increasing the penalties for Luddite behaviour in order to discourage it. + + +== Passage and content == +The Frame Work Bill was introduced to Parliament on 14 February 1812 by the Home Secretary Richard Ryder, acting in concert with Spencer Perceval (who was at that time both Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister), the Attorney General Sir Vicary Gibbs, the Solicitor General Sir Thomas Plumer, and three Nottinghamshire MPs concerned about the Luddite Movement taking hold in their constituencies. Rushed through as an "emergency measure", the act was passed with an overwhelming majority and received royal assent on 20 March, despite opposition. Fundamentally, there was agreement between members of the government and the opposition that the measure was a last resort; but where supporters believed that all other avenues had been exhausted, opponents (seeing relative tranquillity over the winter period) did not. The newly created Lord Byron used his maiden speech in the House of Lords to oppose the bill. +The act, as passed, made the destruction of mechanised looms – stocking frames – a capital felony (and hence a crime punishable by death). Similarly raised to the level of capital felony were the associated crimes of damaging frames and entering a property with intent to damage a frame. In these respects the act was a stronger version of the Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788, which had made similar acts punishable by 7–14 years in a penal colony. All measures included in the act were only to be applied temporarily, and were duly set to expire on 1 March 1814. + + +== Significance == +Although approximately 60 to 70 Luddites were hanged in the period that the statute was in force, no death sentences seem to have been justified on its grounds, with judges preferring to use existing legislation. Due to come to an end on 1 March, the act was officially repealed in 1814 with the passage of the Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1813 (54 Geo. 3. c. 42), which instituted a new maximum penalty for the destruction of stocking frames of life transportation; in 1817, that act would itself be repealed and the death penalty once again reinstated in the Destroying Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1817 (57 Geo. 3. c. 126). By that time, however, Luddism had largely subsided as a movement. + + +== See also == +United Kingdom labour law + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Full text of the act on Google Books +Full text of the act transcribed +Lord Byron's Speech in the House of Lords concern the act Archived 5 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectics_of_Liberation_Congress-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectics_of_Liberation_Congress-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2eda234c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectics_of_Liberation_Congress-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "Dialectics of Liberation Congress" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectics_of_Liberation_Congress" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:08.200218+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The congress on the Dialectics of Liberation was an international congress organised in London between 15 and 30 July 1967. It was organised by R. D. Laing, David Cooper, the American educationalist Joe Berke, and Leon Redler. The scope of the conference was to "demystify human violence in all its forms, and the social systems from which it emanates, and to explore new forms of action". Significant speakers included Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael, beat poet Allen Ginsberg and humanist Marxist Herbert Marcuse. A short book of the conference was published in 1968 by Penguin Books, and some documentaries were made of the event, including Anatomy of Violence and Ah, Sunflower. + + +== History == +In 1965, R. D. Laing and colleagues came together as a community for themselves and people in a state of psychosis. As a result, Kingsley Hall became home to the Philadelphia Association and one of the most radical experiments in psychiatry. +In January 1967, International Times announced: "This summer, in July, the Institute of Phenomenological Studies will make the move. A congress will convene in London on the Dialectics of Liberation. The congress intends to examine and expose the system of societal and inter-personal influences that converge on us from birth. This means clearing the field of all preconceptions regarding who, what and where we are, as well as all manner of socially convenient academic conventions that are propped up by politics, ideology and false philosophical justifications. For we are taught, and coerced, to see things through a filter of politically arrived at and socially sanctioned lies. The entire world as we 'know' it must be demystified." +The organizing group consisted of four psychiatrists who were very much concerned with radical innovation in their own field - to the extent of counter-labelling their discipline as anti-psychiatry. The four were Dr. R. D. Laing, Dr. David Cooper, Dr. Joseph Berke and Dr. Leon Redler. + + +== The conference == +The event took place in summer 1967 at the Roundhouse in Camden. As summarised by historian Alexander Dunst, the intellectual luminaries at the Congress included Gregory Bateson, Herbert Marcuse and Stokely Carmichael. Allen Ginsberg gave a lecture, read poetry, and led chants. Ginsberg quoted Burroughs at length, who preferred to sit in the audience during the day, and then get high with Laing in the evenings. CLR James spoke, as did a number of Black British and Caribbean writers: the poets Andrew Salkey and John LaRose, as well as the Cuban novelist Edmundo Desnoes, author of Memories of Underdevelopment. The activist and Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh reported from Vietnam and the Marxist philosopher Gajo Petrovic analyzed the political situation in Yugoslavia. Emmett Grogan, who co-founded a San Francisco community action group called The Diggers, gave a lecture as did Julian Beck, from the Living Theatre in New York. +The only invited woman speaker was American performance artist Carolee Schneemann, whose name was omitted from the poster and who was booed for being too radical. +Other participants included American left-wing academic John Gerassi, French Marxist Lucien Goldmann, libertarian socialist activist Paul Goodman, American sociologist Jules Henry, anthropologist Francis Huxley, artist Gustav Metzger, American poet Susan Sherman, family therapist Ross Speck (who stood in for Erving Goffman, who had withdrawn), and Marxist economist Paul Sweezy. +After the congress, Carmichael was asked to leave the country and was subsequently banned from re-entering. + + +== The book == +A multi-volume book of speeches from the event was published and later translated into Danish, Swedish, Brazilian and Japanese editions. A single-volume book, Dialectics of Liberation was published by Penguin Books, later republished by Verso Books. + + +== Film and television == +The BBC hosted a live discussion on between Carmichael, Laing and Paul Goodman on its Panorama programme, and hired director Roy Battersby and Iain Sinclair to produce a 90-minute documentary. The film was not screened and probably destroyed, "seemingly because the BBC disagreed with its support for the left-wing rhetoric espoused at the Congress". However, in the US, the PBS' predecessor broadcast a 30-minute documentary entitled Anatomy of Violence. +A short film, Ah, Sunflower, directed by Robert Klinkert and Iain Sinclair, and featuring Laing, Ginsberg, Carmichael and others, was filmed around the conference. The film was the subject of Sinclair's first (self-published) book, The Kodak Mantra Diaries. The film was re-released by Beat Scene Press of Coventry in 2007. + + +== Impact == +The event had multiple impacts. Angela Davis attended and was inspired by Carmichael's speech to become engaged in the Black Power movement. Carmichael's three speeches at the congress (and his meetings with UK-based activists such as CLR James and Michael X) played a major role in building the British Black Power movement. +The absence of women's voices was mentioned by UK feminists Juliet Mitchell and Sheila Rowbotham as a motivation for starting the Women’s Liberation Movement shortly afterwards. +The congress also inspired the Antiuniversity of London, a radical education project based in Shoreditch. + + +== 2012 reenactment == +An event was staged in February 2012 at Kingsley Hall, which used actors to speak the words of the original contributors to the 1967 event. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Jacky Ivimy, Dialectics 1967 Dialektikon 2012 International Times, 4 May 2012. +Thill, Brian (23 June 2007). "Black Power and the New Left: The Dialectics of Liberation, 1967". Mediations. Retrieved 12 July 2024. + + +== External links == +"Table of Contents and Introduction to 1967 Dialectics of Liberation conference". marcuse.org. 30 July 1967. Retrieved 12 July 2024. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dystopia-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dystopia-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..06f268545 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dystopia-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Digital dystopia" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_dystopia" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:25.336655+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Digital dystopia, cyber dystopia or algorithmic dystopia refers to an alternate future or present in which digitized technologies or algorithms have caused major societal disruption. It refers to dystopian narratives of technologies influencing social, economic, and political structures, and its diverse set of components includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous connectivity, ubiquitous surveillance, and social networks. In popular culture, technological dystopias often are about or depict mass loss of privacy due to technological innovation and social control. They feature heightened socio-political issues like social fragmentation, intensified consumerism, dehumanization, and mass human migrations. + + +== Origins == +In 1998, "digital dystopia" was used to describe negative effects of multichannel television on society. "Cyber-dystopia" was coined in 1998 in connection with cyber-punk literature. +One of the earliest mentions is on 2004 when an academic and blogger was expelled for commenting on how the Sims Online Computer game based in the city of Alphaville had become a digital dystopia controlled by "president" Donald Meacham and corrupt faction of robot nobles had become a digital dystopia with crime, cyber-sex prostitution and general civic chaos. Digital experimentation of the elements of cyberspace became extremely invasive and took on the appearance of anarchy in Alphaville. +In August 2007, David Nye presented the idea of cyber-dystopia, which envisions a world made worse by technological advancements. Cyber-dystopian principles focus on the individual losing control, becoming dependent and being unable to stop change. +Nancy Baym shows a cyber-dystopia negatively effect of a cyber-dystopia in social interactions as it says new media will take people away from their intimate relationships, as they substitute mediated relationships or even media use itself for face to face engagement". +The dystopian voices of Andrew Keen, Jaron Lanier, and Nicholas Carr tell society as a whole could sacrifice our humanity to the cult of cyber-utopianism. In particular, Lanier describes it as "an apocalypse of self-abdication" and that "consciousness is attempting to will itself out of existence"; warning that by emphasising the majority or crowd, we are de-emphasising individuality. Similarly, Keen and Carr write that there is a dangerous mob mentality that dominates the internet; since, rather than creating more democracy, the internet is empowering the rule of the mob. Instead of achieving social equality or utopianism, the internet has created a "selfie-centered" culture of voyeurism and narcissism. +John Naughton, writing for The Guardian, described Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, as the prophet of digital dystopia. + + +== See also == +Cyberpunk +Digital sublime + + +== Further reading == +Tirole, Jean (8 January 2020). "Digital Dystopia" (PDF). Retrieved 18 December 2020. + + +== References == + +Naughton, John (22 November 2013). "Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2021. + + +== External links == + Media related to Digital dystopia at Wikimedia Commons \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d76d0579e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Digital phobic" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:26.516663+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Digital phobic is an informal phrase used to describe a reluctance to become fully immersed in the digital age for being fearful of how it might negatively change or alter everyday life. +The fast-paced development of the digital world in the twenty-first century has contributed to the digital divide becoming a very real problem for a segment of the population for whom a lack of education of, interest in, or access to digital devices has left them excluded from the technological world and fearful of its growing omnipresence. +Digital phobic is part of a growing dictionary of digital vocabulary exploring the social impact of the technological age. The phrase considers the fears associated with technological evolution and change, and acknowledges the possibility of exclusion as a result of a rising reliance on technology in day-to-day life. + +== Discourse == +Everyday use of technology has increased dramatically since the turn of the century, significantly impacting both those embracing technological change as well as those reluctant to be a part of it. +A sharp rise in technological innovations during the 21st century has been responsible for changing much of the way we work, socialize, and learn – all of which can be at the foundation of distrust in the technological age. Psychologists, academics and researchers have begun to consider the base of these fears and consider the social, cultural and environmental circumstances which might catalyze someone to becoming 'digital phobic'. +Technophobia is used to discuss a fear of advanced technology in a formal capacity and can stem from a number, and combination of, concerns. With the oncoming of the digital age, worries have broadened from the very earliest fears that technology would eradicate artisanship to concerns over data protection, financial security, identity theft, technical inability and invasion of privacy. +There is no exhaustible list of reasons cited for fearing the digital world and, whilst research into both the cause and consequence of developing a digital phobia remains in its infancy, the presence of digital phobia regardless contributes towards an increasingly comprehensive picture of a series of profiles among digital users. +Recent research from Foresters, an international financial services organization, found 2% of the UK population to fall into this category of internet user. A further breakdown of this statistic, sees the percentage of users in development of a digital phobia increase, with 4% fearful of online shopping for worrying that someone will steal their card details, and 12% fearful that using social media will make it easier for people to find their personal details. +When asked to reason their attitude towards technology as part of this survey, a larger percentage of the UK population were revealed to be fearful of the impact it could be having on more traditional means of doing things. 31% believed technology was preventing us from communicating properly, while 32% thought advances in technology will result in long-held traditions being lost. +This fear has only been exacerbated over time as more and more data-holding, services and opportunities are transferred to the digital realm, and both the perceived and real nature of security and vulnerability risks increases. Worrying levels of time spent on devices, the invasion of privacy or the possible misuse or abuse of personal data entrusted to online sources are all contributing towards the development of a digital phobia among a proportion of the population. +Concerns about the negative, exclusionary or divisive consequences of living within a digital society are being voiced from various global platforms. April 2014 research conducted by Pew Research Center, in association with Smithsonian Magazine, revealed concerns about anticipated technological developments over the next half-century. 30% of Americans surveyed feared that technological changes would lead to a future in which people are worse off than they are at the time of being surveyed. Considered amid reports of dis-interest in the internet among Japan's residents despite its reputation as a high-tech nation, these reports contribute towards a growing understanding that high-tech advancements are not universally celebrated. Moreover, the May 2014 "right to be forgotten" ruling put in place in the European Union which allows internet users to request for their internet history to be un-searchable if deemed incorrect, outdated or irrelevant, and the thousands of requests received in the first few days following its announcement documents a, perhaps previously hidden, widespread fear of leaving a digital footprint or being falsely represented online. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1734a02af --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Digital phobic" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:26.516663+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Origins == +Digital phobia is part of a wider societal conversation on how we relate to, trust in, and interact with technology and considers the potentially negative implications of what otherwise appears to be a positive advancement of the modern world. +This phrase has been developed by Foresters, the international financial services organisation, for the purpose of describing attitudes to technology among the UK population. +Developed within a digital vocabulary consisting of four other phrases (digital addict, digital omnivore, digital agnostic, digital denier), digital phobic is part of a scale of social description for online behavior within the digital age. +The phrase has been used as part of discussion on the more general use of technology within the 21st century and the importance of striking a balance between time spent on and offline. Research conducted by Foresters in association with Tech Timeout, a social communications initiative considering the role of technology in contemporary society, formed the basis of the descriptor and identified the key traits of each type of digital user based on answers from over 1,000 UK respondents. +Both anecdotal and research-based evidence suggests categories of internet use, whilst they cannot be linearly divided, are able to loosely describe attitudes to technology in society. The developed phrases are able to be used to greater understand and contextualize how new and existing technology is viewed and have been cited in international online newspapers and blog posts. +Whilst this phrase and definition were developed specifically from research on UK technology-users, the phrase is not UK-specific and is designed to be indicative of a global community of technology users who share in these characteristics. + +== Social and cultural impact == +Digital phobia presents a real and pressing problem in the modern world where technology has become a central and essential resource. Internet culture has developed to become a part of the fabric of everyday life and is now even considered part of the make-up of national identity with a country's internet use and digital footprint an important modern index for international comparison, often associated with development and modernity. +The consequences of non-participation in the digital world are far reaching, and can affect the economic, cultural, social, occupational and educational life of a non-user. For example, in 2009 Price Waterhouse Coopers estimated that UK households offline are missing out on savings of £560 a year which could be saved if shopping or paying for bills online. Furthermore, in the United States older people without internet access or the skills to make the most of it are considered a disadvantaged proportion of the population as, amongst other important resources, vital healthcare information and initiatives conducted online are unavailable to those not a part of the digital world. +Heightened fears of how technology may be affecting the human population stems from a, for some very logical, fear of how technology is adapting the world we live in and at the pace and price with which it is doing so. With such a significance placed on online participation, concerns about the role of the internet in everyday life are not unfounded and not exclusive to those who prefer to stay away from the internet, avoid certain activities online, or use the internet without enthusiasm and only as necessitated. +A survey conducted by security firm Avira identified 84% of people fear social networking sites will steal or misuse their personal information, demonstrating the net majority of internet users share, at least partially, in distrusting the digital world. Whilst many will, despite this fear, adopt cautious optimism and still use social networking as part of their everyday lives this high percentage serves to demonstrate that a fear significant enough for some to avoid readily using online and digital services is a fear shared by a large number of internet users. +Whilst some digital phobics have preferred to remain distanced from technology due to hypothetical concerns others have attempted to join in societal interest but find themselves unable to stay caught up with new technology or would like to see its progression halted as evolution of the digital world has reached new speeds. The 2013 Oxford Internet Survey recognizes this concern among UK users, identifying distinct categories of both non-users and ex-users of internet-based technology who, for a variety of reasons, have discontinued or refuse to access the online world. This is further supported by results from a 2013 survey of internet use in America which found 32% of non-internet users avoiding the online world because of finding the internet difficult or frustrating to use, being physically unable or worried about other issues such as viruses, threat of hacking or spam – a figure considerably higher than in earlier years. +Concern over the presence of a digital divide, whether locally or globally, is only exacerbated by the knowledge that access to many government and council services, job applications, and social and cultural resources are now largely internet based. Internet access has become a hurdle in contemporary society which, for those without the necessary desire to learn or knowledge of internet-based systems, can be difficult to navigate around, often resulting in key services and vital resources being less easily accessible, leaving non-users feeling isolated. Private and government campaigns to tackle this issue further demonstrate the severity and long-lasting impact of having a proportion of the population disinclined or disinterested in going online. +As the online world becomes saturated, device options for connecting to the internet vary and news of technological inventions goes viral the exponential growth of the technological world is only contributing towards a growing number of 'digital phobic' tech-users amongst the global population. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c5ad70ef1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Digital phobic" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_phobic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:26.516663+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Education == +Digital phobia has had a negative impact on the field of education. Some teachers have expressed a fear that new and advanced technology is supplanting them as the masters of their fields of study and a study of teachers in Wilmington, Delaware has shown that educators in this area are acclimating to the new technology in their classrooms at a slower pace. The local researchers believe that there are many factors why that is the case and some of the things they have found are things such as a lack of technological education by the teachers, and also the lack of time, or incentive to adjust to the new technology. University Larry Cuban has stated that "The introduction of computers into school was supposed to improve academic achievement, and alter how teachers taught. Neither has occurred." +The constant infusion of new technology has many teachers fearing that they are losing their classroom. This new technology is essentially diminishing the role of a teacher in the classroom. +Researchers believe that educators are slow to adapt to technology because they aren't given time to acclimate to the new technology, causing them to hesitate to use it in the classroom and express fear that these technologies may interfere with genuine learning particularly in humanities and creative subjects. In an article for the New Media Reader, Theodor H. Nelson wrote that people are opposed to the computer because they believe it is "cold" and "inhuman", but a human can be just as inhuman and maybe even more so than the actual machine itself. + +== See also == +Digital Age +Digital detox +Digital divide +Digital native +Internet addiction disorder +Technophobia + +== Notes == + +== References == +Browne, Clayton. "Americans both fear and embrace technology" Value Walk. 17 April 2014. Accessed: 23 June 2014. +Green, Marcus and Phill Rossall. "Age UK Digital Inclusion Evidence Report 2013" Age UK. 2013. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Groselj, Darja "Internet users are very positive about tech; non-users are generally doubtful and fearful." Oxford Internet Surveys. 3 September 2013. Accessed: 26 August 2014. +Gurney-Read, Josie. "Digitally inclusive campaign launches today" The Telegraph. 14 January 2014. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Gurney-Read, Josie. Fear of technology may hold back change in education, says Lord Puttman. The Telegraph. 4 February 2014. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Houghton, Stuart. "The Internet of Things is nothing to fear" Tech Radar. 8 February 2014. Accessed: 25 June 2014. +Ragnedda, Massimo and Glenn W. Muschert ed. "The Digital Divide. The Internet and Social Inequality in International Perspective." Routledge. June 2013. +Smith, Gerry. "Without internet, urban poor fear being left behind in digital age" Huffington Post. 1 March 2012. Accessed: 27 August 2014 +Soloman, Emma. Why it's important to get older people and carers confident online. The Guardian. 22 April 2013. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Sullivan, Bob. "Online privacy fears are real." NBC News. 6 December 2013. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Wakefield, Jane. *"Old meets new in digital divide" BBC News. 15 October 2010. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +"Truly a World Wide Web" Pew Research: Global Attitudes Project. 21 February 2006. Accessed: 25 June 2014. +"How tech savvy are you? Fear of technology affects more people than Aracnophobia" Mirror. 11 July 2013. Accessed: 27 August 2014. +Herold, Benjamin. “Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach.” Education Week, 31 Aug. 2017. Accessed: 1 December 2017 +Curtis, Polly. “Report Reveals Teachers' Fear of Classroom Technology.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Sept. 2005. Accessed 1 December 2017 +MindShift. “Does Our Current Education System Support Innovation?” MindShift, 17 July 2012. Accessed 2 December 2017 +Carey, Jennifer. “How to Get Hesitant Teachers to Use Technology.” Powerful Learning Practice, 27 Mar. 2013. Accessed 2 December 2017 +Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Nick Montfort. “No More Teachers' Dirty Looks.” The NewMediaReader, MIT Press, 2003, pp. 309–310. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..06ba896d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 1/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Direction – Social Democracy (Slovak: Smer – sociálna demokracia), also commonly referred to as Smer, is a left-wing populist and left-wing nationalist political party in Slovakia led by its founder and incumbent prime minister, Robert Fico. The party identifies as social-democratic, and was described as a combination of "leftist economics and nationalist appeal". +Founded by Fico in 1999 as a split from the post-communist Party of the Democratic Left, Smer initially defined itself as the Third Way party. It incorporated ‘Social Democracy’ into its name after merging with several minor centre-left parties in 2005. It has dominated Slovak politics since 2006, leading three coalition governments (2006–2010, 2016–2020, 2023–present) and one single-party government (2012–2016). During its time in power, it continued the European integration of Slovakia, reversed some economically liberal reforms implemented by previous centre-right governments and introduced various social welfare measures. Smer-led governments have been associated with numerous political corruption scandals. +After the 2020 parliamentary election, which marked Smer's return to the opposition, Slovak authorities investigated a number of corruption-related crimes involving multiple party politicians and individuals reportedly linked to the party. Smer strongly rejected all charges, calling it the criminalization of politics.[1] At the party congress in July 2020, following a major internal split that resulted in the founding of a new party named Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas), Fico announced a shift to "the rural social democracy that perceives the specifics of Slovak reality". Post–2020 Smer holds stances that have been described as nationalist, populist, Eurosceptic and Russophilic. +In 2023, Smer won the parliamentary election with 23% of the vote and 42 seats in the National Council and subsequently formed the Fourth cabinet of Robert Fico. + +== History == + +=== Foundation and early years (1999–2006) === +Originally named Direction (Slovak: Smer), the party was founded on 8 November 1999, emerging as a breakaway from the post-Communist Party of the Democratic Left (SDĽ), the successor of the original Communist Party of Slovakia and the governing party from 1998 to 2002. Under Robert Fico, at the time one of the most popular politicians in the country, it quickly became one of the most popular parties in Slovakia, while the SDĽ experienced a constant decrease within popularity. In the 2002 Slovak parliamentary election, its first formal election period, it became the third-largest party in the National Council of the Slovak Republic, with 25 of 150 seats. In 2003, it changed its formal name to Direction (Third Way) (Slovak: Smer (tretia cesta)) and Party of Civic Understanding merged into the party. +In 2005, the party absorbed the SDĽ and the Social Democratic Alternative, a small social democratic party that split from the original SDĽ somewhat later than Direction did, in addition to the Social Democratic Party of Slovakia. Founded in 1990, the party became known for the leadership of Alexander Dubček, and Direction adopted the name Social Democracy. Following the party's victory in 2006, Smer entered into a coalition with the nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS) and was readmitted into the Party of European Socialists (PES) in 2008. It later formed another coalition with the SNS in 2016. + +=== Government (2006–2010) === + +In the 2006 Slovak parliamentary election, the party won 29.1% of the popular vote and 50 of 150 seats. Following that election, Smer formed a coalition government with the People's Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and the Slovak National Party (SNS), an extremist nationalist party. The coalition was described as "anti-market left" and "Slovak national", given its socioeconomically left-wing but also nationalist policies; it was also described as "left-nationalist and illiberal". +On 12 October 2006, the party was temporarily suspended from membership in the PES. The resolution to suspend the party referred specifically to the PES Declaration "For a modern, pluralist and tolerant Europe", adopted in Berlin by the PES congress in 2001, which states that "all PES parties adhere to the following principles ... [and] to refrain from any form of political alliance or co-operation at all levels with any political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred." In The Slovak Spectator, the PES chairman Poul Nyrup Rasmussen commented: "Most of our members stood solidly behind our values, according to which forming a coalition with the extreme right is unacceptable." The party was readmitted on 14 February 2008 after its chairman Fico and SNS leader Jan Slota pledged in a letter to respect European values, human rights, and all ethnic minorities. + +=== Opposition (2010–2012) === + +Although the party won the most votes in the 2010 Slovak parliamentary election, with a lead of 20% over the second-place Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party (SDKÚ), they had not been able to form a government because of losses sustained by their coalition partners. Their result, 34.8%, gave them 62 of 150 seats in the National Council, but the HZDS failed to cross the 5% threshold, losing all their seats, and the SNS was reduced to nine seats. The four opposition centre-right parties (the Christian Democratic Movement, Freedom and Solidarity, Bridge, and SDKÚ) were able to form a new government. + +=== Government (2012–2020) === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4845f623d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 2/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In the 2012 Slovak parliamentary election, Smer won 44.4% of the votes and became the largest party in the National Council, with an absolute majority of 83 seats (out of 150). Fico's Second Cabinet was the first single-party government in Slovakia since 1993. In the 2014 European Parliament election in Slovakia, Smer came in first place nationally, receiving 24.09% of the vote and electing four Members of the European Parliament. +In 2014, in cooperation with the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), the party passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman. The amendment also states that marriage, parenthood, and family are under the protection of the law, and that children and young people are guaranteed special protection +Despite suffering a significant loss in support as a result of strikes by teachers and nurses earlier in the year, Smer won the 5 March 2016 parliamentary election with 28.3% of the vote and 49 of 150 seats, and subsequently formed Fico's Third Cabinet in a coalition government with Bridge, Network, and the Slovak National Party. Prime Minister Fico resigned in the wake of the political crisis following the murder of Ján Kuciak and was replaced by Peter Pellegrini, with the same majority. However, Fico remained leader of Smer. + +=== Opposition (2020–2023) === + +The party managed to score 18.29% in the 2020 Slovak parliamentary election, which was 2 to 3 percent more than the latest polls showed, but it was still a decrease of 10% compared to previous elections. The party occupied 38 seats in parliament. Pellegrini, the chairman of the Fico parliamentary group, became the vice-chairman of the National Council for the Opposition on the basis of post-election negotiations. In May 2020, two deputies for Smer (Ján Podmanický and Marián Kéry) founded a value policy platform with deputies from KDŽP, elected as a candidate of the Kotlebists – People's Party Our Slovakia. Because of this, Pellegrini sharply criticized them, while Fico defended Podmanický. In May 2020, Podmanický also left the Smer parliamentary group after criticism from his own ranks. +As early as April 2020, party vice-chairman Pellegrini announced his ambition to run for party chairman as Smer's most popular politician, winning 170,000 more votes than the chairman. Fico reacted strongly, saying that he did not intend to resign and wanted to remain at the head of the party, while Pellegrini gradually began to tighten his criticism of Fico and the party's situation. Pellegrini criticized the fact that the party's presidency had not met since the election and the date of the parliament was unknown. Pellegrini demanded that the assembly be held as soon as possible, while Fico insisted that the nomination assembly take place only at a ceremonial assembly in December 2020. +At a June 2020 press conference in Banská Bystrica, Pellegrini announced that he would resign as vice-chairman of Smer and leave the party in the near future. He also outlined the establishment of a new party, Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas–SD), which he said should be social democratic, but refuse to be liberal. Around that time, Fico had already offered Pellegrini the position of party chairman, provided that he maintained his influence in the party, an offer which was rejected by Pellegrini. In the first FOCUS survey, 21.4% of respondents said they would vote for the new Pellegrini party, while those saying they would vote for the original Smer remained at 9.6%. At a press conference one week following the announcement of Pellegrini's departure, another 10 deputies announced they would leave the party, including Vice-presidents Peter Žiga and Richard Raši, Bureau member Denisa Saková and long-standing deputies and party members. At the same time, together with Pellegrini, they announced the creation of a new social-democratic party at the press conference, which they would join. Political scientist Grigory Mesezhnikov postulated that after the departure of the Pellegrini group, the Smer could move further to the left into the spectrum of the radical to communist left. + +=== Government (2023–present) === +As Smer won the parliamentary election held on 30 September 2023 with 23% of the vote and 42 seats in the National Council, Robert Fico, the party's leader was given a mandate to form a government. The Fourth cabinet of Robert Fico comprising Smer, Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas–SD) and the Slovak National Party (SNS) sworn in on 25 October 2023. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..febd20ea9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 3/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Social policy ==== +In 2025, in cooperation with KDH, the party passed a constitutional amendment introducing further provisions related to cultural, ethical, and family issues. The amendment legally recognizes only two sexes, defined by biological criteria, and states that a mother is a woman and a father is a man. It bans surrogacy and guarantees a child's right to know their parents. Adoption is restricted to married heterosexual couples. The amendment also strengthens parental rights, particularly in the area of education, and requires school curricula to align with the cultural and ethical values set out in the Slovak Constitution. It affirms Slovakia's sovereignty in matters such as the protection of life, human dignity, marriage, parenthood, family, culture, language, and related areas of healthcare, education, and upbringing. It further states that Slovak law in these domains takes precedence over European Union law. +In 2025, the party's government passed a law amendment requiring NGOs to submit an annual "transparency report" starting in 2026. The report must include details of donors who contribute more than 5,000 euros, including their full names. NGOs will also be required to disclose information about their governing bodies or members of those bodies. Furthermore, NGOs will be classified as obligated entities under the Freedom of Information Act and must provide information upon request if they receive more than 3,300 euros from public sources in a single instance or a total of more than 10,000 euros. Initially, the party sought to pass a law labeling certain NGOs as foreign agents, organizations with foreign support or lobbyists. However, it withdrew the proposal due to the risk of conflict with European law and opposition from the junior coalition partner, Hlas. Slovakia's Public Defender of Rights, Róbert Dobrovodský, challenged the law amendment at the Constitutional Court, arguing it violates constitutional and human rights by threatening donor anonymity, restricting foreign funding, increasing administrative burdens, and disproportionately affecting smaller NGOs. + +==== Foreign policy ==== +Fico has promised to cut all aid to Ukraine as a result of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, and has promised to block Ukrainian accession to NATO should the subject be broached under his tenure. Fico has also stated that the Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis. + +==== Legal reforms ==== + +In December 2023, the Fourth Cabinet of Robert Fico introduced an amendment to the Criminal Code. The government proposed that the bill be debated in a fast-track legislative procedure, arguing that the status quo leads to human rights violations. The amendment included scrapping the Special Prosecutor's Office dealing with high-level corruption and lowering penalties for financial crimes. The fast-track legislative procedure faced widespread criticism from the parliamentary opposition, President Zuzana Čaputová, the European Commission and non-governmental organizations, resulting in a weeks-long opposition parliamentary obstruction and a series of demonstrations. +Critics have raised questions about potential conflicts of interest within the government coalition. They have noted that various individuals with perceived affiliations to the government, alongside accused members of the coalition parties, including the bill's rapporteur, MP Tibor Gašpar of Smer, could be directly affected by the proposed lowering of penalties. Additionally, their cases are overseen by the Special Prosecutor's Office, which the amendment would abolish. The coalition government introduced the amendment, citing the need to shift towards a rehabilitative approach to justice, update the criminal code, and align with European Union standards. Proponent of the law, the Ministry of Justice led by Boris Susko of Smer published the brochure 'Overview of Violations of the Principles of the Rule of Law in the Years 2020–2023.' +The amendment was finally approved by the National Council on 8 February 2024. The final proposal also included a reduction of the statute of limitations in rape cases from 20 to 10 years, which again caused widespread criticism from the parliamentary opposition, President Zuzana Čaputová and non-governmental organizations. The government defended the reduction of the limitation period by motivating victims to report rape earlier, possibly allowing a return to the 20-year limitation period in the next amendment after the approval of the law. +President Zuzana Čaputová signed the law on 16 February, verbally clearly expressing her opposition to its content. The President argued that by signing the law instead of vetoing it, she wants to create enough time for the Constitutional Court to decide on her submission challenging the constitutionality of the law. As of February 2024, the Constitutional Court is expected to make its decision following the publication of the law in the collection of laws by the Ministry of Justice. +On 17 October 2025, Smer was expelled from the Party of European Socialists in a unanimous vote for violations of the group's values by party leader Robert Fico. + +== Ideology and policies == + +Direction – Social Democracy has been recognised as a social-democratic party, and is considered a centre-left and a left-wing party. Additionally, it has also been variously described as anti-establishment, nationalist, left-authoritarian, populist, centrist populist, social populist, left-wing populist, and national populist. The party has been recognised as diverging from the typical Western European social-democratic tradition due to its rejection of postmaterial values. +In their 2008 publication, Slovak political scientists Grigorij Mesežnikov and Oľga Gyárfášová argue that Smer is a social-democratic party (thus matching its self-identification), but one with very strong nationalist and populist elements that also include aspects of social conservatism. Tim Haughton states that the party "conveys both a Slovak version of social democracy and a stronger national emphasis"; he also stressed that the party cannot be seen as right-wing or far-right, but rather as one that combines "leftist economics and nationalist appeal". In 2025, Roman Hlatky and Oľga Gyárfášová wrote that Smer combines "left-wing economic orientation with conservative, if not radical, stances on sociocultural issues". They also argue that Smer "takes the strongest left-wing positions" amongst European social-democratic parties, but that it also "has shifted dramatically in a conservative direction on the sociocultural dimension", although the Bulgarian Socialist Party and Romanian Social Democratic Party had undergone similar conservative shift. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6136f4b03 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 4/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +While scholars avoid labeling it as a far-right party, they have described it as incorporating far-right themes, expressing views that resonate with far-right voters, or advancing an electoral program aligned with far-right agendas. Natalia Hatarova described the party's ideological drift:During the ‘90s and into the next century, Smer became increasingly Euro-optimistic, economically open, and culturally mainstream. After the killings of the Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée in 2018, Fico’s resignation and his temporary exile from mainstream politics, Smer, along with other parties, became more culturally conservative, nationalistic, and Euro-skeptic. +Hatarova also argues that Smer has become increasingly friendly towards some European far-right parties and figures, such as Viktor Orbán of the Hungarian Fidesz party. However, she concludes that Smer's shift "appears to be caused by pure opportunism rather than continuous influence by Orbán [or other far-right figures]". + +=== Economic policy === +Smer advocates economically left-wing policies. The main economic proposals of the party focus on the establishment of a welfare state and supporting the poorest groups of Slovakia. Many of the party's socioeconomic policies, such as free travel for pensioners and pension increases are considered typically left-wing populist. The party also promotes redistributive policies, such as corporate tax increases and income tax hikes for the highest earners. +Smer also adheres to economic nationalism; Grigorij Mesežnikov noted that "Smer openly subscribes to etatism as the foundation of its political profile and advocates government's strong role in a number of areas" and called its economic policy "etatist paternalism", while also arguing that the party also represents "socio-economic policies based on social-democratic values". Robert Fico, the leader of the party, argued that the government should be "the father of all citizens" and stated that a strong state is necessary to improve the socioeconomic conditions of Slovak citizens. +The party presents its economic policies as being "social" and "pro-ordinary people", and its proposals also included the introduction of differential VAT rates, replacement of flat income tax rate with a progressive one that would tax the lower-income groups much less and reduction of excise duty on fuel oils. In regards to the Slovak healthcare system, the party advocated a ban on processing fees as well as a halt to the privatization of public health system. Smer also made pledges to cancel payment of tuition fees for regular university sutudents and establishing a dynamic minimum wage that would be fixed to the 60% of average salary. The party is highly critical of other Slovak parties, accusing them of implementing "anti-social" policies that neglect the poor while benefitting the rich. Robert Fico argued that the neoliberal economic policy of the Mikuláš Dzurinda threw Slovakia "back to the 1930s". +In its economic rhetoric, Smer also frequently attacks monopolies, arguing that the increase in gas prices is caused by the "ruthless pricing policy of monopolies" that are "raking in exorbitant profits". The party is also critical of the banking industry, stating that Slovak banks tend to collect unfairly high service fees from their client; the party promoted itself as one willing to ban or limit the service fees of Slovak banks. In regards to Slovak banks, Robert Fico said: "The banks operating in Slovakia must realize that they operate on the territory of a sovereign state, which must use all available means to bring a pressure to bear on the banking sector." In response to criticism of his remarks, Fico also argued that the political opponents of Smer are "conveying the fears of international corporations and financial groups that literally govern this country and now they have understood that once our program is implemented, the gold rush in Slovakia will be over." This reveals a highly nationalist orientation of the party. + +==== Fiscal consolidation since 2023 ==== +Since regaining power in 2023, Smer–SD has focused on fiscal consolidation to reduce Slovakia's high deficit and stabilize public debt. The government introduced a €2.7 billion package combining tax increases—including higher health insurance contributions and minimum corporate taxes—and expenditure controls such as public administration reforms and cuts to operating costs. Social programs like the 13th pension remain protected. +International institutions, notably the IMF, acknowledge these steps but consider them insufficient to fully address the structural deficit, estimating that fiscal adjustments of about 3.7% of GDP over 2024–28 are necessary. The IMF and Slovakia's Council for Budget Responsibility highlight an overreliance on revenue measures and call for deeper expenditure reforms. The Supreme Audit Office warns that growing pension obligations pose long-term fiscal risks. The National Bank of Slovakia projects that the consolidation will slow short-term economic growth by around 0.6 percentage points, and experts caution that tax-heavy consolidation may dampen private investment and growth prospects. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44d41e8e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 5/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Foreign policy === +Smer holds Russophilic and Eurosceptic stances on foreign policy; however, it claims to support Slovakia's membership in the European Union and NATO. The party expresses strong anti-Western, especially anti-American sentiment, often spreading Russian propaganda narratives. +Regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War, Smer advocates for ending military aid to Ukraine and lifting sanctions against Russia. The party has described the conflict as a proxy war between the United States and Russia, characterizing Russia's actions as a response to perceived threats to its national interests. In its statements, Smer has claimed that the war was provoked in 2014 by what it describes as the "extermination of citizens of Russian nationality by Ukrainian fascists."  However, since his return to power, Fico has taken a somewhat different line on Ukraine than during his election campaign. During a meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in January 2024, Fico promised not to block private Slovak arms companies from selling to Ukraine, not to block EU financial support for Ukraine, and to support the accession of Ukraine to the European Union. He described Slovakia's political differences with Ukraine as "minor" and claimed to support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. +In its foreign policy manifesto, Smer calls for understanding with countries that have forms of government different from parliamentary democracy, specifically mentioning China and Vietnam. During his premiership, party leader Robert Fico repeatedly praised the political systems of both countries, describing Slovakia's system as clumsy and uncompetitive by comparison. He has called for aspects of these systems to be adopted in Slovakia. +In the 2000s, the party opposed the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan, and organized the withdrawal of 110 Slovak soldiers that were deployed in Iraq. In 2007, Fico made an official state visit to Libya, where he met with then-leader Muammar Gaddafi. During the visit, Fico spoke of "the fight against world imperialism" as a topic of mutual interest.  + +==== European affiliation ==== +Smer joined the Party of European Socialists (PES) in 2009. It remained a member in good standing for 14 years. However, in October 2023, Smer was suspended from PES and the affiliated Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) European Parliament group after it entered into coalition with the Slovak National Party, an ultranationalist party, in the Slovak National Council. +After the 2024 European Parliament election, Smer unsuccessfully sought to rejoin the S&D group. Smer subsequently declined to join the newly-formed Patriots for Europe group, led by the Hungarian national-conservative Fidesz party, stating that it would not join a non-leftist group. Nevertheless, Smer maintains close ties with Fidesz; Viktor Orbán, Fidesz's longtime leader and prime minister of Hungary, delivered a video address to the Smer party conference in November 2024. +In September 2024, Smer began negotiations with two other parties in the Non-Inscrits, the German Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht and the Czech Stačilo!, on establishing cooperation between left-wing conservative parties. +One year later, in September 2025, it was reported that PES had voted to expel Smer from the party. The decision was ratified at a PES party conference held in mid-October 2025. After the formal expulsion of Smer from the PES, Fico instructed Smer MEPs to seek a new European Parliament group, with Monika Beňová expressing preference for accepting an offer from the Patriots for Europe, though Beňová noted that her colleagues were still negotiating the formation of an entirely new political group. Smer MEPs Katarína Roth Neveďalová and Ľuboš Blaha subsequently expressed opposition to joining Patriots for Europe. Smer leader Robert Fico was reportedly in "ongoing consultations" with Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán about joining the group, though Fico remained undecided. According to Beňová, the party ultimately decided to postpone its decision until September 2026. + +==== Ministry of Foreign Affairs personnel changes ==== +During the tenure of Juraj Blanár, the vice-chairman of Smer, as Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, the ministry saw significant personnel changes that sparked controversy. Several diplomats perceived as pro-Western, including openly gay employees and those with disabilities, were dismissed amid allegations of discrimination related to sexual orientation, age, and political views. Nine former diplomats filed a lawsuit claiming unjust dismissals. +Concurrently, the ministry recruited around 146 new staff members, many of whom graduated from Russian institutions such as MGIMO and St. Petersburg University, reflecting a shift towards closer ties with Russia. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..684281f6a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 6/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Appearances in Russian-aligned media ==== +Leading figures of the Smer party, including the PM and party's leader Robert Fico and the deputy leader and MEP Ľuboš Blaha, have maintained a presence on media platforms in Slovakia known for promoting Russian-aligned narratives. Among these outlets are Hlavné Správy (Main News) and Infovojna (Infowar), both widely recognized as prominent sources of disinformation and Russian propaganda in Slovakia. Despite Hlavné Správy and Infovojna having been temporarily suspended by the National Security Authority in accordance with the Cyber Security Act following the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 due to identified harmful activity, the leaders continue to utilize these platforms for communication after the suspension was lifted. In December 2023, Robert Fico appeared on Infovojna, where he expressed appreciation towards "alternative media" for "correcting the distortions we have in the media market." +Additionally, in October 2024, Fico appeared on Russia's state-owned television network, Rossiya 1, during the program 60 Minutes, hosted by Olga Skabeyeva. Fico criticized Western support for Ukraine, questioned the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia, and accused the West of "prolonging the war" in Ukraine. His appearance marked the first by a political leader from an EU and NATO country on Russian television since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drawing significant criticism both domestically and internationally. +In October 2025, Richard Glück, Smer MP and chair of the parliamentary Committee on Defence and Security, attended a gala in Moscow celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Russian state television network RT, where President Vladimir Putin also spoke. During an interview with RT, Glück criticized Slovak and Western media for alleged bias over the war in Ukraine and praised pro-Russian “alternative media.” He said he travelled privately, and the visit was not an official parliamentary trip. + +=== Social policy === +Smer is considered a left-conservative party with a record of anti-LGBT, Islamophobic, anti-immigration and anti-Romani statements and policies. It proclaims its opposition to liberalism and progressivism, frequently targeting media and NGOs that it associates with these positions. Party's leading politicians spread disinformation and conspiracy theories, including antisemitic George Soros conspiracy theories. It draws on Slovak folk traditions, idealizes the nation's history and openly supports the Catholic bishops. +During its time in power, the party, in cooperation with the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), passed constitutional amendments defining marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman, legally recognizing only two biological sexes, banning surrogacy, restricting adoption to married heterosexual couples, strengthening parental control over education, and asserting Slovak sovereignty over EU law in cultural and ethical matters. +It also introduced a law requiring NGOs to submit annual transparency reports disclosing donors contributing over €5,000, as well as information about their leadership and funding sources; the Public Defender of Rights challenged the measure at the Constitutional Court, arguing it violated constitutional and human rights by threatening donor privacy and disproportionately burdening smaller organizations. +During the 2015 European migrant crisis, party's leader Robert Fico stated that the government monitors every single Muslim who is on the territory of the Slovak Republic. In 2016, Fico declared that Islam has no place in Slovakia, challenged multiculturalism and called for the preservation of the country's traditions and identity. In 2016, the party's government passed a law amendment raising the minimum membership requirement for churches and religious organizations seeking registration in Slovakia from 20,000 to 50,000 adult members with permanent residence. +In 2016, Fico described Romani people as "welfare abusers" and supported increased police interventions in Romani settlements, calling for a tougher approach and rejecting political correctness. In 2019, Fico also endorsed anti-Romani remarks made by former far-right MP Milan Mazurek, who was convicted for disparaging comments targeting the community; this endorsement led to criminal charges against Fico for defamation and incitement to racial hatred, which were eventually dismissed. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, the party opposed vaccinations and restrictive measures. +It opposed the ratification of the Istanbul Convention in Slovakia. + +==== Links to Daniel Bombic ==== +Several prominent figures from Smer have appeared in interviews, livestreams, or videos hosted by Daniel Bombic — also known as Danny Kollár — a Slovak far-right commentator based in London who is the subject of three international arrest warrants for alleged offences related to extremism, cyberbullying, and doxing. Bombic has been reported to promote conspiracy theories including those involving COVID-19 misinformation, the Great Replacement, the New World Order, and an alleged international Jewish conspiracy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he was accused of inciting attacks and spreading hate speech against doctors, public health officials, and other public figures. +Smer politicians who have appeared on Bombic's channels include Prime Minister Robert Fico, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Robert Kaliňák, MP and Deputy Speaker of the National Council Tibor Gašpar, and MEP Judita Laššáková. Laššáková has maintained a long-term collaboration with Bombic, co-hosting interviews with conspiracy theorists and political figures, and stated that she would not rule out appointing him as an assistant in the European Parliament. +Bombic's return to Slovakia in early 2025 was reported to have been facilitated using a government aircraft, and he received legal and housing assistance from a law firm co-owned by Robert Kaliňák. + +==== Meeting with Andrew Tate ==== +In August 2025, the party's deputy leader, MEP, and Chairman of the Prime Minister's Advisory Council, Erik Kaliňák, along with MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, Richard Glück, met with American manosphere media personality Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan Tate. After publishing a photograph from the meeting on Facebook, Glück commented: “I respect everyone; people can think whatever they want. I agree with many things Andrew Tate and his brother say, but of course, I do not agree with the exaggerated misogyny.” Kaliňák described the discussions as “well-founded,” covering not only Slovak and Romanian politics but also the future of Europe in the context of current European leadership. He added that the conversation also touched on the United States, where “these personalities are relatively highly regarded.” \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..78bcb5b77 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 7/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Communist nostalgia ==== +Following a major internal split that resulted in the founding of a new party named Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas), the party began to radicalize its rhetoric, including expressing nostalgia for the prior communist state. +The party politicians utilize slogans reminiscent of the communist era, such as "Loiterers from cafes, to fields and factories" and the greeting "Greetings, comrades! Honor work!" +In January 2024, Prime Minister and party chairman Robert Fico and Deputy Speaker of the National Council and party vice-chairman Ľuboš Blaha visited the grave of Gustav Husák, the last communist president of the Czechoslovakia, to pay their respects. Husák was a key figure in the normalization process in Czechoslovakia – a return to strict Communist Party control and the suppression of political liberalization following the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968. +In November 2023, Blaha replaced a portrait of President Zuzana Čaputová in his parliamentary office with a portrait of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. +In his speech at the Smer-organized commemoration of the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising in August 2023, Blaha addressed the crowd as "comrades" and stated, "The basic historical truth is that war and fascism have always come from the West and freedom and peace from the East." +In December 2019, Blaha shared a photograph on Facebook depicting himself alongside Fico, with the former holding a red star bearing a hammer and sickle motif. The star was a birthday gift presented to Blaha by Fico. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9cb9515f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Direction – Social Democracy" +chunk: 8/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_–_Social_Democracy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:13.478865+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Legal issues == +Since the 2020 parliamentary election – Smer's return to the opposition, Slovak authorities have been investigating a number of corruption-related crimes. By August 2023, a total of 42 individuals reportedly linked to the party, including policemen, prosecutors, judges, members of the Slovak intelligence agency, politicians, officials, and businessmen were convicted.[2] The party strongly rejects all charges, calling it the criminalization of politics.[3] Numerous criticisms of the investigation process and the Special Prosecutor's Office were outlined in the brochure 'Overview of Violations of the Principles of the Rule of Law in the Years 2020–2023' published by the Ministry of Justice led by Boris Susko of Smer in December 2023.[4] +In March 2023, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Robert Kaliňák, who previously served as Minister of Interior, and businessman Jozef Brhel were formally indicted with bribery. Kaliňák was identified as the intermediary in a bribery scheme involving an annual sum of €200,000, purportedly arranged by Brhel for František Imrecze, who served as the President of the Financial Administration at the time. In return for the alleged bribery, Imrecze facilitated the passing of information regarding entities scheduled for corporate income tax audits and ensured the fulfillment of requirements for filling positions within the Financial Administration with specific individuals recommended by Brhel. In one instance, the Financial Administration then awarded substantial IT contracts to Michal Suchoba's company, Allexis, while Suchoba himself is now a cooperating defendant. Imrecze, also a cooperating defendant, stated that the total amount of bribes involved was €1,100,000. The indictment was also based on the statements of other high-ranking officials, now cooperating defendants: the former director of the Criminal Office of the Financial Administration, Ľudovít Makó, and the former director general of the tax and customs administration section, Daniel Čech.[5] In June 2023, the indictment was quashed by the Supreme Court citing "serious procedural errors that infringed upon the defendants' right to a fair defense".[6] In August 2023, Deputy Prosecutor General Jozef Sedlák canceled the charges for Kaliňák, while Brhel remained charged.[7] +In November 2020, Tibor Gašpar of Smer, a member of the National Council and former Police President, was formally charged with organizing a criminal group. According to the charge, the criminal group composed predominantly of members of the police force was founded by Gašpar in collaboration with businessman Norbert Bödör in 2012. The alleged activities of the group involved serving the interests of Bödör while engaging in illegal activities such as obstructing investigations into tax evasion, extortion, bribery, and utilizing police resources and technology for their operations. Gašpar and Bödör were purportedly at the top of the three tiers hierarchical criminal group. In one instance, allegations suggested that a private company, Interstore Group, sought to evade a criminal investigation. It was alleged that their request was to be fulfilled through a €400,000 bribe distributed among the members of the group, with Gašpar receiving €90,000 through an intermediary. In November 2022, Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka canceled the charges in compliance with the proposal of Prime Minister and party chairman Robert Fico and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Robert Kaliňák. Žilinka described the charges as vague and imprecise, stating that they violated the basic principles of criminal proceedings.[8] +In December 2023, Gašpar was accused of breaching the confidentiality of oral expression and other expression of a personal nature by complicity.[9] +In April 2022, Robert Fico, Robert Kaliňák, Tibor Gašpar and Norbert Bödör were officially charged with endangering commercial, banking, postal, telecommunications and tax secrets, with Fico and Kaliňák additionally charged with organizing a criminal group and abuse of authority. Fico and Kaliňák allegedly misused state authorities and collaborated with other members of the group to illegally acquire information aimed at discrediting political adversaries, namely the then opposition leaders Igor Matovič and Andrej Kiska. In November 2022, Prosecutor General Maroš Žilinka canceled the charges in compliance with the proposal of Fico and Kaliňák.[10] +In April 2023, Peter Kažimír, former Minister of Finance and former vice-chairman of the party, was convicted by the Specialized Criminal Court for bribery. According to the indictment supported by the testimony of cooperating defendant František Imrecze, Kažimír allegedly gave a bribe of €48,000 to Imrecze, who was then the President of the Financial Administration. The alleged purpose of the bribe was to expedite and ensure a favorable outcome in tax appeal proceedings concerning two private companies.[11] Kažimír denied all the charges and appealed against the verdict. As of 2024, the trial is still ongoing.[12] +In 2021, Bernard Slobodník, a cooperating defendant who formerly served as the director of the National Financial Police Unit, testified that State Secretary of Justice Pavol Gašpar of Smer, son of Tibor Gašpar, was supposed to hand over a bribe of €60,000 in exchange for information from the investigation. An investigation into the allegation was not initiated because it was already time-barred.[13] +Monika Jankovská of Smer, former State Secretary of Justice and former member of the National Council, testified about the alleged involvement in corrupt practices within the judiciary, admitting her own criminal activity.[14] + +== Election results == + +=== National Council === + +=== European Parliament === + +=== President === + +== See also == +Alliance of Independent Social Democrats +Czech Social Democratic Party +Politics of Slovakia + +== Notes == + +== Footnotes == + +== External links == +Official party website (in Slovak) +Entry in Slovak Interior Ministry's Register of Parties (in Slovak) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_measles_outbreak-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_measles_outbreak-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fb3eab811 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_measles_outbreak-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Disneyland measles outbreak" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_measles_outbreak" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:14.671381+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Disneyland measles outbreak began at the Disneyland Resort, California, in December 2014, and spread to seven states in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, before it was declared over in mid-April 2015. +The first case of measles was reported on January 5, 2015, in an unvaccinated 11-year-old Californian resident. Between December 2014 and March 2015, 131 Californians were infected, with almost 90% of cases occurring in southern California. Linked to the California cases were 16 cases in six other US states, 159 cases in a religious group in Québec, Canada, and one case in Mexico. Almost all the Canadian cases were unvaccinated. The source of the initial Disney theme park exposure was not identified, but specimens from several cases matched with the recent measles outbreak in the Philippines. +It triggered an international debate on vaccine hesitancy, particularly as it had spread to people who intentionally declined the vaccine and put vulnerable people who could not have the vaccine at risk. The outbreak prompted the California Senate Bill 277, laws that reverted the California personal belief vaccine exemption. Conclusions following examination of the outbreak pointed to undervaccination as a key cause. + + +== Background == + +According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the measles was a virus nearly all children obtained by the age of 15. There was an effort to make a vaccine against the measles that had success. Two doses of the measles vaccine provides 97% to 99% protection from acquiring the disease. Prevention of a measles outbreak requires around 95% of a population to be vaccinated with two doses of a measles vaccine. The few remaining that are unvaccinated or have not mounted an immune response from the measles vaccine, are protected by herd immunity. +In 2000, the US declared measles as eliminated due to an effective vaccination programme and public health response systems. Prior to the Disneyland measles outbreak of 2014–15, California saw increasing rates of non-medical vaccine exemptions, sometimes in clusters which left those communities susceptible to measles. Vaccine coverage at a quarter of California schools, including several around the Disneyland theme park, was too low for herd immunity. At the time, the Californian Disney theme parks received 24 million visitors a year. + + +== Outbreak == + +On January 5, 2015, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) first heard of a case of measles in a hospitalised 11-year old Californian resident whose rash started on December 28, 2014, and who had visited one of two neighbouring Californian Disney theme parks. Four more cases were reported on the same day, and all had visited the Disney theme parks between December 17 and 20. CDPH issued a press release on January 7, 2015, by which time there were seven cases. +By February 11, 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributed 125 cases of measles across seven US states, 110 of which were in California, to the outbreak. 39 of the California cases had visited the Disney parks between December 17 and 20, and 34 were secondary contacts. Of the other 15 cases linked to the Disneyland outbreak, seven were in Arizona, one in Colorado, one in Nebraska, one in Oregon, three in Utah, and two in Washington. Cases linked to the outbreak were reported in Mexico, and in Canada its Public Health Agency reported more than 150 cases of measles that were linked to one imported case from the Disneyland outbreak. Of the 110 Californian cases by February 2015, at least 13 were vaccinated against the measles, 1 had had prior infection or vaccination, and at least 49 were unvaccinated, 28 of whom held anti-vaccine beliefs. 12 cases, included in the unvaccinated total, occurred in infants too young to have the vaccine; they relied on herd immunity for protection. The remaining 47 had unknown or undocumented vaccination status. Almost all the Canadian cases were unvaccinated. Some cases occurred in people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the measles vaccine. +Between December 2014 and March 2015, 131 Californians were infected, with almost 90% of cases occurring in southern California. Linked to the California cases were 16 cases in six other US states, 159 cases in a religious group in Québec, Canada, and one case in Mexico. The outbreak was declared over in mid-April 2015. Conclusions following examination of the outbreak pointed to undervaccination as a key explanation. The source of the initial Disney theme park exposure was not identified, but specimens from several cases matched with the recent measles outbreak in the Philippines, but was also detected in at least 14 countries. +Contact tracing was implemented by local health agencies. To encourage vaccination, Roald Dahl's 1986 "Measles: A dangerous illness" open letter was recirculated as a result of the outbreak. The incident prompted the California Senate Bill 277, laws that reverted the California personal belief vaccine exemption. + + +== Reaction and aftermath == + +Many people thought of measles as a disease of the past, and the Disneyland outbreak came as a surprise to them. It triggered an international debate on vaccine hesitancy, particularly as it had spread to people who intentionally declined the vaccine and put vulnerable people who could not have the vaccine, at risk. Headlines included "The good thing about the Disney measles outbreak", "Finally, California lawmakers say vaccination is a social responsibility", and "Oregon legislator wants to eliminate 'philosophical' vaccine exemption". One website reported "Mickey Mouse Gets the Measles" and one blog wrote "Space Mountain with a Side of Measles” and "Measles was not the name of an eighth 'Snow White' dwarf". Media coverage and social media posts focused on the harms of the "anti-vaxx" movement and resulted in a positive influence in vaccine uptake and the effect was dubbed by some as the "Disneyland effect". The term measles had its highest level of hits on Google Trends in over 10 years. National US surveys showed that more than half the population knew about the outbreak. Among Twitter users, the most common retweet was a post of a Forbes news article that described the outbreak as a "turning point in the vaccine wars." It argued that people generally wished to defend vaccination, although others doubted it. +Several studies subsequently looked at the effect of the Disneyland outbreak on people's views about vaccination. There was little inconsistency; a larger proportion of people reported more positive views towards vaccination. One study reported that a third of mothers showed more interest in the measles vaccine, another revealed that more than a third of pediatricians said that they had fewer requests for vaccine alternatives schedules, and a fifth reported stricter policies in vaccinating. Parents with higher educational levels felt more favourable towards vaccines in some studies, and one study reported more positive views towards vaccines in the white population and in those with higher incomes. Effect varied by population subgroup. Media coverage had likely encouraged favorable vaccine-related beliefs. +Between January 1 and December 31, 2019, 1,282 cases of measles were confirmed in 31 US states. One case that year was a person who visited Disneyland. + + +== See also == +Measles resurgence in the United States + + +== Footnotes == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..104f80554 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 1/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Doina, or Doină (sometimes translated as "Lament"), is a political poem by the Romanian Mihai Eminescu. It was first published in 1883 and is therefore seen by some as Eminescu's final work in verse, although it may actually be an 1870s piece, inspired or enhanced by the perceived injustice of the Berlin Treaty. A variation of the doina (plural: doine), picked up from Romanian folklore, it is noticeably angry to the point of rhetorical violence, a radical expression of Romanian nationalism against invading "foreigners", with additional hints of ecopoetry and "anti-technicist" discourse. Doina delineates the ideal geographical space of Greater Romania, at a time when Romanian-inhabited regions were divided between an independent kingdom and multinational empires. Its final lines call on Stephen the Great, depicted as a sleeping hero, to take up the cause of Romanians and chase foreigners out with the sound of his horn. The same basic themes appear in another poem by Eminescu, the anthem-like La arme ("To Arms"), which is sometimes discussed as a variant of Doina. +Expressly anti-Russian, also read as antisemitic, anti-German, anti-Greek, anti-Hungarian, and anti-Ukrainian, Doina has been described as "chauvinistic" and "minor" by some critics, "beautiful" by others. It has been present in the Romanian curriculum since the 1890s, while also serving as subversive literature among Romanian communities in the Russian Empire. During the interwar, with Greater Romania established as a political reality, Doina became a rallying call for revolutionary nationalists and fascists. It was deemed problematic and censored during the communist period, although tacitly endorsed under the regime's latter, national-communist, phase. It was recited in more of less formal contexts by Ludovic Antal, Victor Eftimiu, and Adrian Păunescu, and subject to several admiring nods from President Nicolae Ceaușescu. The poem returned in focus during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and after, when it also became a public symbol of Romanian identity in Moldova. + +== Outline == +Doina opens with a localization of the Romanian space, highlighting regions which were at the time in Russia and Austria-Hungary: + +—translation by Mirela Adăscăliței, in Oișteanu, p. 199 +Eminescu moves focus on Bessarabia, depicted as raided by "muscali" on horseback; on Bukovina, with foreigners as "caterpillars" and stalkers of the local Romanians; then on Transylvania, crossed by the foreigners' "inroads". Overall, the projected country is aflush with intruders and the Romanian is a "foreigner in his own land"; birds are chased away, songs are extinguished, and the forest, "brother of the Romanian", is depleted. The description of this desolate landscape ends in imprecation: + +—translation by James Christian Brown, in Boia, p. 59 +The ending of Doina is Eminescu's contribution to a "trans-historical" cult of Prince Stephen, who had consolidated Moldavia's statehood in the 15th century: + +—translation by Brown, in Boia, pp. 194–195 + +== Background == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..45ee13964 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 2/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A poet as well as a folklorist, Eminescu was well acquainted with the traditional forms of Romanian poetry, and wrote several poems in folkloric style—his Transylvanian enemy, Alexandru Grama, could therefore claim that Eminescu had simply plagiarized Transylvanian doine. As noted by Eminescu expert Perpessicius, one of his first published works, taken up by Familia in the 1860s, was a "type of doina" or a "pseudo-doina". Another variation on that pattern is addressed to "His Majesty, The Forest" (Codrule, Măria ta), with the poet asking to be turned into a tree branch, rocking into eternal slumber. Seen by scholars as an early draft of Doina, it was described as "hollow" and "rudimentary" by critic Constanța Marinescu. However, according to Călinescu, such works sound less "gauche" than actual folk poetry, as polished for print by Vasile Alecsandri. Contrarily, Perpessicius asserts that Eminescu was less talented that Alecsandri, never matching his work as a folklorist or folklore-inspired versifier. According to scholar Marin Bucur, Marinescu is essentially wrong in treating the draft as an actual poem, and also in failing to see why Doina itself is a worthy piece. +Eminescu's interest in doine only peaked after 1877, when he was living as a journalist in Bucharest, and began systematic readings from collections of folk poetry. They were integrated into a vast fund of drafts and versions for Doina, which, as noted by Perpessicius, cannot realistically be published together as a critical instrument. In its final form, Doina is popularly associated with the unveiling at Iași, in June 1883, of a monument to Prince Stephen. Eminescu was by then erratic and fatigued, displaying, already from May 1883, the early stages of a mental breakdown. Lodging with Ion Creangă in Iași, he shocked his old friend by brandishing a revolver, explained by the poet as a defense against unspecified enemies. He never actually attended the unveiling of Stephen's statue, either because he feared his apparent collapse would generate gossip and public ridicule, or because an old enemy, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, had announced his participation; he did however show up for parallel ceremonies at Junimea society. It was there that he first read his Doina, on June 4. The audience was reportedly enthusiastic, and moved in to hug Eminescu. Doina was first published by the Junimist monthly Convorbiri Literare on July 1. +An emotional Creangă later claimed that his friend had written the poem over those few days, at Creangă's own home, the peasant-style Bojdeuca. Scholar Dumitru Caracostea similarly believes that Doina is the last of Eminescu's poems, composed just before "his collapse in 1883". This is contradicted by other accounts. Researcher D. Murărașu believes that Eminescu had actually completed the poem 13 years before, while present at Putna for Prince Stephen's commemoration, and merely reused it for the 1883 feast. +Eminescu's friend Ioan Slavici describes Doina as the final work in which the poet voices his "faith in the coming national prosperity." As the illness took over, he became convinced "that he no longer had any purpose in this world". Eminescu expert Dumitru Irimia groups Doina and Luceafărul into Eminescu's "final effort". He proposes that Eminescu, sensing his "mental equilibrium" slipping away, concentrated on finishing up both works, which outline his universal and social queries. However, he dates the earliest recognizable drafts of Doina to 1878, and Eminescu's anger over the Berlin Treaty, which awarded Southern Bessarabia (the Budjak) to Russia, noting parallels with the author's political columns, taken up by Timpul in the early 1880s. According to Perpessicius, while the poem's references to rail transport may correspond to the unraveling of the Strousberg Affair, Doina is the product of 1878, written "a day after [the Budjak's] cession [...], five years before the celebrations in Iași". He believes that Doina was in any event completed in December 1882, which was the original date set for the inauguration of Stephen's statue. In 1883, Eminescu had written two hymns about Stephen in preparation for the celebrations in Iași, but never used them. + +== Themes == + +=== Xenophobia debate === + +==== Overt and oblique levels ==== +Himself a nationalist, Nicolae Iorga described the piece as both "beautiful" and "political", marked by Eminescu's "hatred of an unrelenting foreign invasion". Without endorsing the political message, critic Nicolae Manolescu also found Eminescu's piece aesthetically pleasing. Other commentators disagree with these verdicts. Constantin Coroiu describes Doina as "not a masterpiece, not even a small one", while Z. Ornea includes it among Eminescu's lesser poems, a "modest work in verse". Essayist Nicolae Steinhardt took an intermediary position. While he recognized Doina as inferior to Eminescu's philosophical poetry, he proposed that the verse still had "beauty bubbling like geysers", the beauty of "Thracian rocks collapsing". +Grama, who saw himself as a fellow nationalist, accused Eminescu of insincerity, noting that the message of Doina contrasted first and foremost with Eminescu's own recourse to "cosmopolitan" themes in his other work. Also according to Grama, the "idiotic" poet wrote apocalyptic verse at a time when Romanians' fates were actually improving. This verdict is not shared by other commentators. In 1934, critic Mihail Dragomirescu argued that Doina and Scrisoarea III contained Eminescu's "innermost thoughts", which led to Simion Bărnuțiu, "Romanianism", and "national mysticism". Caracostea defines the poem as an "excruciating ethnic elegy", and a sample of the "liveliest indignation"—reserved by Eminescu for politics and social commentary. According to scholar Lucian Boia, Eminescu's poetry is overall the best expression of an "anti-cosmopolitan" drive in Romanian nationalism. Boia sees Doina as sketching out Eminescu's "dream": "a pure Romanian civilization, untouched by foreign influences and still less by the effective presence of foreigners." Irimia notes the work for "absolutely confound[ing]" the poetic self with national identity, "taking on the historical being of the Romanians [and] harmonizing it with the sacred dimension of the universal being." According to musicologist Carmen Manea, both Doina and Scrisoarea III resemble in intent Frédéric Chopin's Polonaises. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..77a8e03b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 3/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +As argued by comparatist Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, the poem is one of "national revival", "explosive" in "deplor[ing] the alienation of Romanians in their own lands". Doina anticipates a Greater Romania comprising all the Romanian-inhabited regions. However, as noted by the Hungarian poet Alpár Horváth, its mention of the Tisza and the Dniester contains a "geographical inaccuracy [that] causes some complications", since the two rivers are actually located close to each other at their sources: "it is confusing for conservative European ears, unsure about whether it refers to the source or the mouth of the Tisza." Literary historian Ion Buzași proposes that Eminescu may have been referencing an earlier pseudonymous work, which he attributes to Andrei Mureșanu: + +Literary historian John Neubauer notes Doina's "chauvinistic remarks", while Bernard Camboulives refers to its "notes of xenophobia", stemming from a "growing intellectual despair". These, Camboulives notes, "might shock those readers who are unfamiliar with Romanian history". The opening lines vaguely mention "foreigners", but the portion may refer to the situation in Eminescu's own Bukovina, specifically to relatively recent presence there of Germans, Ukrainians, and especially Bukovina Jews. The significance of the "dogs-eating-hearts" line has been a traditional topic of debate within the larger community of Romanian Jews. Jewish poet-philosopher Benjamin Fondane was one of the text's noted defenders; as reported by poet and biographer Boris Marian, Fondane "loved [Eminescu] so much that he even found him an excuse for the xenophobic lyrics [in] Doina". Among the Jewish opinion-makers, Barbu Brănișteanu once argued that Doina's "foreigners", depicted as beloved by some Romanians, could not be identified as Jews: "[Eminescu] did not mean, and could not have meant, the Jews, for who was it that had been loving the Jews, in our country, back in the day?" According to Brănișteanu, a clue is offered by Scrisoarea III, which reserves its contempt for Greeks and Bulgarians, who had come to be represented in the political and commercial classes. Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen was critical of Eminescu as a political journalist, but noted that his poetic work, which he admired, was free of antisemitism: "Only in his 'From the Dniester to the Tisza' is he a xenophobe, an anti-Russian, and overall an anti-foreigner." +The half-Jewish Steinhardt theorized, in his private papers, that Doina's discourse was correct in depicting 19th-century immigrants as "troublesome and predatory". The same was proposed by scholar Petru Zugun, who believes that there is nothing specifically xenophobic or antisemitic about Doina—and that its introductory portion is simply a critique of "unproductive foreigners", some of whom happened to be Jews, immigrating to Bukovina. Zugun further argues that Eminescu was even more critical of his co-nationals, when these were unproductive. Manolescu acknowledges that background is xenophobic, targeting Russians, Jews and Hungarians. However, he argues that the poem, unlike Eminescu's articles, can be appreciated without such "sociological" hints. Critic Alex. Ștefănescu explains Doina as "sentimental, not ideological", to be understood as a declaration of love to Romania. He also notes that Eminescu was writing after "century-long dramas" provoked by "foreign occupations or by foreigners peacefully infiltrated, but never really integrated, into Romanian society, never giving up on their ethnic solidarity." As noted by culture critic Garabet Ibrăileanu, Eminescu was a xenophobe who, overall, preferred the Jews to the Romanian liberals, viewing the former as more honest and reliable. Literary historian Leon Volovici also sees Eminescu as guided by an economic theory, but notes his vision of an "objective conflict" between Romanians and foreigners, including in particular Jews (assimilated or not) and Greeks; the "apocalyptic" Doina formed part of that discourse. + +==== Kinship theory and self-censoring ==== +Implicitly, Doina refers to Eminescu's ranking of ethnic communities, which he differentiated by levels of kinship or intermixing with Romanians. With his articles of the mid-1870s, Eminescu showed himself persuaded that cranioscopy had demonstrated genetic links between Romanians and Bukovina's Slavic minorities, whether "Ruthenians" or Hutsuls. His conclusion was that the latter groups were in fact Slavicized Dacians. Scholar Kopi Kyçyku points out that Doina does not mention the Albanians of Romania, further noting that Eminescu was an Albanophile who especially appreciated the Ghica family. Beginning in September 1877, Eminescu as a journalist had linked his views on the Ghicas with the Bukovina issue, honoring Grigore Ghica for his attempt to oppose the region's annexation, and predicting that another Ghica would see Bukovina returned to Romania. In an unpublished article, tentatively dated to 1878–1879, he contends that Romanians, Albanians and "Dalmatians" were of the same Thraco-Illyrian race. Its commonality was an "outstanding zest for war, but always in service to the foreigner, and what is more for the benefit of wimpy neighbors [Eminescu's emphasis]". +Eminescu's private notes also detail his bitterness about a perceived racial deterioration of Moldavia's own boyar class during a century of Phanariote dominance. Using heraldic analogies, he noted that the Moldavian arms, which had once featured the "Valois lilies", could now display the "red pepper, of Phanariote-and-Bulgarian provenance". In this setting, Romania's Jews were even farther removed from the authentically Romanian peasantry, and therefore "could not merge with our people." Also from the period, La arme ("To Arms"), sometimes seen as a Doina variant, builds on this sentiment. Its third stanza includes a reference to Bukovina as falling into mâni murdare de jidan ("filthy kike hands"). Draft versions of Doina make explicit mention of "Stephen's Romanians" being "in kike hands", and record with alarm the spread of Yiddish in Bukovina. Another manuscript proclaims specific curses against the perceived enablers of Jews, Greeks, and Russians; for instance: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..912c3af41 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 4/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Bukovina themes had appeared in several Eminescu doine, notably including an 1877 stanza in which Eminescu, or his peasant inspiration, describes the region at "the mercy of the foreigner, which is like a thistle's shadow". The poetic image was apparently inspired to Eminescu by a Bukovina folk song, which has umbra spinului ("burr shadow") alongside references to the country being "riddled with foreigners"; this is fully quoted in his September 1877 article, Răpirea Bucovinei ("How They Abducted Bukovina"). The metaphor is also found in Doina, suggesting "the image of poverty sweeping over the country [...]. In times of drought, the thistle's shadow is more desolate than no shadow at all, a mock-offering to the heat-stricken people." A specific reference to the village of Boian, in Doina's ninth line, has contributed to that locality's notoriety in a Romanian cultural context. +Another discernible theme is Eminescu's anger over the plight of Romanians in Russia's Bessarabia Governorate, which included the Budjak. As Irimia notes, the Austrian and Russian occupations appear as a continuum in Eminescu's lyrical universe. Bessarabia in its entirety is introduced as a Romanian grievance in the opening line—according to scholar Aurel Vasiliu, the Dniester–Tisza metonymy was first used by the Bukovinian poet Vasile Bumbac (with whom, he notes, Eminescu had lukewarm relations), while Doina's views on the muscali more closely mirror Cezar Bolliac's satires. The Bessarabian topic is addressed in a parallel poem, referring to the Russians as "dog-headed" and "dog-hearted" Kalmyks, likely to "tear out the tongues" of Romanian-speakers. The early versions of Doina still made mentions of "Tatar and Kalmyk hordes". La arme similarly urges Romanians to answer the call of "gentle Bessarabia", "our younger sister", "awaiting to be murdered by dogs". + +=== Eco-traditionalism and biblical echoes === + +According to Steinhardt, the central message is not xenophobic, but "ecological", "anti-technicist", and "obviously Heideggerian", its violence being Eminescu's attempt to fend off an "ancient curse". This reading refers in particular to a line which mentions the "iron road" (the Austrian rail company) bringing in foreigners to "kill all the songs", as well as to the claim that the forest and the Romanian are like "brothers". The same lines are also highlighted by critic Barbu Cioculescu: "That Eminescu was our first environmentalist is an established fact, beyond all debate [...]. The construction of railways across the country's virgin plains, centenary forests, and murmuring waters drove him to despair". Ștefănescu rejects literal readings of the "iron road" verse, noting that Eminescu stood not for an aversion to progress, but rather against the "brutal destruction of a slowly emerging harmony", an "irreversible destruction of beautiful things." Trains have first appeared as instruments of corruption in Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's "Iron Road" (1864), which exegetes such as Liviu Marian saw as "quasi-identical" with the passage in Doina, and which is primarily about the Strousberg scandal. +Folklorist Petru Gh. Savin observes that Doina's "iron road" as the killer of "all the songs" conveys Eminescu's "pain at seeing folk poetry vanish". The same reading is provided by historian Alexandru Zub, who notes Eminescu's descent into pessimism, "just a quarter of a century" after Alecu Russo had declared folklore to be an unalterable, "living book". Similarly, rural sociologist Henri H. Stahl describes the lyric as Eminescu's intuitive understanding that folklore could not be preserved into modernity. Stahl finds that Doina stood at the root of polemics about whether folklore, which is preconditioned by rural illiteracy, should be protected at all. Another scholar in the field, Traian Herseni, spoke of the lyric as evoking social distance, and more so cultural homogenization as enabled by efficient transportation. Archeologist Ioan Andrieșescu went further. He argued that Eminescu's lyrics had conveyed the irrelevancy of art in an era of mass production; he linked Doina to the philosophical essays of Henri Bergson (Creative Evolution) and Étienne Souriau. +Several commentators focus on the poem's prophetic outbursts and their literary sources. Some see Doina as primarily a curse, similar to Saint Basil's exorcism or to the Kosovo curse, in the Vuk Karadžić version. As noted by Ștefănescu, Eminescu changes the meaning of words, turning the mere fondness of strangers into a punishable crime: "[He] can make words into soft twigs, sketching on the surface of water, and also into daggers." Al. Andriescu, the Biblical scholar, argued that the central themes, of national perdition and redemption, are echoes of the Psalms, arriving at Eminescu through his readings from Dosoftei. Building on this verdict, Ukrainian researcher Volodymyr Antofiychuk proposes that Doina is a parallel to Taras Shevchenko's own psalmodic verse. Both authors, Antofiychuk notes, invoked the Bible specifically against Russian expansionism. +Although rejecting Eminescu's overall contribution, including most of Doina, Grama reserved praise for this final scene, calling it a "masterpiece", when viewed separately: "most Romanians cannot fail to be moved" by it. Comparatist Grete Tartler proposes that the "famous invocation" deepens folkloric accounts about Stephen as a sleeping hero, on par with Ogier the Dane and Frederick Barbarossa. Commenting on this portion of Doina, critic Cornelia Mănicuță notes that Eminescu was reusing a Stephen motif already found in Romantic literature. Overall, Camboulives explains Stephen's invocation as an homage to his resisting the much more powerful Ottoman Empire, and defending "the whole of Christendom." Similarly, Ștefănescu argues that Eminescu appealed primarily to the "Romanian mythology", of Stephen as an "unvanquished hero". Historian Ovidiu Pecican notes that the line about how "woods will come to your aid" could be a reference to peasant republics existing on the forested border areas of old Moldavia, providing a stable levy army. This interpretation is disputed by another scholar, Sorin Nemeti, who argues that "nobody could be convinced" of Doina's value as a historical record. + +== Legacy == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2833c2e0f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 5/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Becoming a symbol === +Doina was included by Titu Maiorescu in his first-ever critical edition of Eminescu's poems, published at Editura Socec as the author had withdrawn from public life. The "classic" selection and arrangement, which place Doina right before "One Wish Alone Have I", were praised by Perpessicius as particularly tactful. Nevertheless, critics were flummoxed by Maiorescu's apparent carelessness, which, in poems such as Doina, proliferated known typos. The Socec collection is known for missing an entire line of the poem, alluding to the foreigners' reliance on the "iron road". The corrected version of Doina was published in February 1884 by Maiorescu's rivals at Contemporanul. Socec itself amended the text in its revised edition of 1895. La arme remained unpublished until 1902, but was widely known through its musical adaptation by Eduard Caudella, which is probably from 1883. Caudella himself believed that the work was a suitable anthem, "the Romanians' Marseillaise". Another version, circulated in the Banat by Liviu Tempea, was sung to the tune of Chant du départ. +The first use of Doina as an object of study in academia was I. Manliu's manual of poetics, published in 1890 and heavily indebted to Maiorescu's observations, closely followed in 1893 by Enea Hodoș's reader, aimed at Romanian schoolteachers in the Banat, and by Gheorghe Adamescu's chrestomathy. In the Kingdom of Romania, three literature textbooks for schoolchildren included Doina before 1900. The poem was also part of the theatrical repertoire, recited during intermissions by Aristizza Romanescu. In 1904, a Stephen obelisk was dedicated by the peasants of Bârsești. It included a stanza of Doina, carved into a slab of concrete. +Iorga's associate A. C. Cuza, who published in 1914 a "people's edition" of Eminescu's work, set apart a section for the doine. The cover had art by Ipolit Strâmbu, depicting the final scene of Doina, with Stephen sounding his horn. As noted at the time by Ibrăileanu, nationalism permeated the reading of Eminescu's work: while Doina and Scrisoarea III could still "serve nationalism", most of his poetry could not. Ibrăileanu argues that this realization prompted Ilarie Chendi and others to seek the publication of Eminescu's other, lesser and unfinished, prose works. The poem, and especially its reference to the "iron road", was also popular with the socialist Revista Socială, which saw the old gentry and the peasants as equally threatened by modernization. +By 1900, Eminescu's posthumous followers included Duiliu Zamfirescu, who wrote a Doina-like poem specifically about Bukovina, and the Bukovinian Radu Sbiera. According to Ibrăileanu, the latter, being an "untalented Eminescian", was inspired by Doina to the point of plagiarism. In 1902, Doina also inspired the critically acclaimed debut of Octavian Goga, a Transylvanian. The poem was already an established political symbol, circulated clandestinely in Bessarabia by Ion Pelivan. Pelivan was arrested by the Special Corps of Gendarmes in 1903. During the inquiry, Pelivan reports, the Gendarmes produced an incompetent translation of Doina into Russian, missing out on its more inflammatory rhetoric. Doina was subsequently used as a rallying call in 1912, during the centennial of Bessarabia's annexation by Russia. Its recitation headlined the "festival" organized in Bucharest by the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians. The respite of censorship following the Russian Revolution of 1905 ultimately produced a blossoming of the Romanian Bessarabian press, including Cuvânt Moldovenesc—which, in 1913, put out an Eminescu selection, featuring both Doina and Codrule, Măria ta. Meanwhile, Volovici notes, Eminescu's rhetoric partook in "exacerbat[ing] the negative image of the foreigner and stimulated xenophobia." As reported by writer Avram Axelard (A. A. Luca), Doina had also become an anthem for "Christian boys" in Bukovina, who used it as a justification to punch him and other Jews. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8702edf0a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 6/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== In Greater Romania === +During the early stages of World War I, Romania maintained neutrality, while Transylvanian and Bukovinan Romanians were called upon to serve under arms in Austria-Hungary. At this stage, Doina could be recited in Transylvania. In June 1916, it was put to music for a theatrical performance by the Union of Romanian Women in Brașov. Two months after, the Romanian Kingdom entered World War I as an Entente country; the alliance favored the Russian Empire over Austria-Hungary, and the cause of Transylvania over that of Bessarabia. During the subsequent campaigns. La arme was a soldiers' anthem, used for instance during Nerva I. Paul's charge on German positions (October 1916), while Doina was sung by the Lăutar Cristache Ciolac as a "pitiful song of ancient woes". Driven into a war of attrition, Romania contemplated defeat in early 1918. Writing at the time in Chemarea, Benjamin Fondane reminded Iorga and other nationalists of the anti-Russian content of Doina, which, he argued, had been proven right. +The following months and years saw the creation and consolidation of Greater Romania, beginning with the union of Bessarabia with Romania. The culmination of the process was a "Great Union" (December 1, 1918), during which Romanians from Transylvania and satellite regions expressed their wish to join the country. Though invoked on the day, the slogan "From the Dniester to the Tisza" caused some controversy, as delegates from Northern Maramureș found that it excluded their homeland. The matter was addressed by a Transylvanian delegate, Ștefan Cicio Pop, who endorsed the new slogan: Trăiască România Mare de la Nistru și până dincolo de Tisa! ("Long live Greater Romania from the Dniester to the Tisza and beyond!"). The original slogan, meanwhile, was taken up by the Socialist Party of Romania, which established itself on December 11, 1918, as the "singular socialist party in all lands from the Dniester to the Tisza." +As noted in 1992 by journalist Ion D. Goia, the "natural frontiers" defined by Eminescu were not superimposed with those of the resulting Greater Romanian state, as this was no longer feasible: Regency Hungary "naturally" kept control of many territories on the left bank of the Tisza, since these were densely Hungarian; "one renounced the advantages of a natural frontier in favor of an ethnic one." Meanwhile, many Romanian-inhabited areas on the left bank of the Dniester, and immediately east of Bessarabia, were stranded in the Soviet Union. This zone later became known as "Transnistria", and is seen by Goia as "ancestral Romanian land". In interwar Bessarabia, Doina continued to have an especially strong presence as a political symbol and poetic model, while La arme was quoted as an opening text by the literary review Viața Basarabiei. Doina was also a major of influence on the anti-Russian poetry published at the time by Ion Buzdugan. In contrast, the left-wing Emilian Bucov parodied the poem, revising its central message: + +Social parodies of the poem also include one performed by Constantin Tănase in his 1929 vaudeville acts, and referencing the Great Depression: + +Eminescu's poem had become universally present in literature textbooks, and was for the first time made accessible to the youngest cohorts by the reading aids of Gheorghe Bogdan-Duică. It also influenced sculptor Ion Schmidt-Faur, who in 1929 added a Doina-inspired relief, of Stephen and his horn, at the base of his Eminescu statue in Iași. Before and during and World War II, the work was several times transposed into foreign languages. In 1927, Ramiro Ortiz put out an Eminescu reader in Italian, which included Doina. A Hungarian-language Doina was completed by Sándor Kibédi in 1934. The Bukovinian Czech Božena Șesan published a translation into her native language in 1944. +The poem continued to be used as a political symbol, and its "dogs-eating-hearts" lines reportedly appeared in 1930 on a flag carried by the National Liberal Party's Olt section. From ca. 1927, Doina was especially popular with the Iron Guard, a fascist movement which similarly "express[ed] the ancestral, somehow atemporal, sense of Romanian purity and solidarity among Romanians" and gave Stephen an "exceptional position" in its propaganda works. The poem was also invoked by the National Christian Party, which shared the Guard's antisemitism and was sometimes allied with it. Its leader was the poet Goga, who used the lyrics to justify crimes committed by the Guard's Captain, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, calling Doina a "gospel of Romanianism." The same appropriation happened with La arme. "Almost confiscated [...] by far-right groups", it reportedly inspired Codreanu to designate the basic Iron Guard cells as cuiburi ("nests"). By 1936, Stelian Popescu of the nationalist paper Universul was reusing the "dogs-eating-hearts" metaphor, printed in red, against his Jewish and left-wing rivals at Adevărul, accusing them of being a front for the Romanian Communist Party. As recalled by Cioculescu, during the National Legionary State the same slogan was "plastered all over the walls" of Romanian cities, "as if the Guard didn't have its own foreigners!" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6a29ec8d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 7/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Communist censorship === +In late 1944, shortly after King Michael's Coup and the onset of Soviet occupation in Romania, La arme was banned. At the time, Iron Guard commandos, supported by Nazi Germany, used Doina as a password. Under the subsequent Romanian communist regime, Doina was also targeted by political censorship: already in 1946, the quotation from Doina was removed from Schmidt-Faur's relief. The poem could not be published in Bessarabia, which was included in the Soviet Union as the Moldavian SSR. The paradox was noted by Colonel Gheorghe Eminescu, who complained that Soviet authorities had reinvented his uncle into a "Moldovan" poet while making sure that no one could access either Doina or La arme. In both countries, Doina was "banned and recited only in private readings because it named Russia as one of the imperial powers that had oppressed the Romanian nation." Also uncomfortable were its "strident nationalism" and its mention of the Dniester, "at the time in the territory of the Soviet Union." Philologist Petru Creția also argued that Doina upset the communist rulers because they themselves were mostly "foreigners [...], extremely offended by the things one read in there". +In Western countries, the anti-communist Romanian diaspora still published and discussed the poem. Diaspora journalist Virgil Ierunca noted at the time that Eminescu was both praised and censored with the acquiescence of a compliant intelligentsia. He highlighted this against the oppression experienced by the other social groups, quoting Doina's "all Romanians have complained to me". The poem's nationalist prestige was preserved by the self-exiled Iron Guard poet, Aron Cotruș, who wrote many pieces which allude to Eminescu's, in both style and intertexual references, updated to refer to communism and the Soviets. +Dissidents and national-communists at home also maintained a private cult of the poem. As noted by Creția, Doina had a psychological appeal: "those who hid it under a bushel were mistaken, with this poem preserving a latent life in the national psyche; thus, the censors, instead of attenuating an obsession, have maintained it." Historian Zoe Petre recalls having been taught Doina as a youth, "in the summer of '44", which was already a gesture of defiance from her family. According to literary scholar Niculae Stoian, an "extremely courageous" study of Doina, authored by poet Mihu Dragomir, could still appear in print in 1949. One theory claims that a disillusioned communist poet, Nicolae Labiș, openly recited Doina at a Bucharest locale in autumn 1956, the sign of his conversion to nationalism—a departure for which he was allegedly assassinated. Reportedly, at around the same time the left-wing Victor Eftimiu expressed a wish to expunge Doina from collective memory, "for its xenophobia". +In July 1959, Romanian communist ideologue Leonte Răutu discussed the ban on literary manifestations of Hungarian nationalism with Gyula Kállai and other leaders of the Hungarian People's Republic. Răutu argued that Sándor Petőfi's "bourgeois" works, such as A székelyekhez, were selectively banned only because Eminescu's Doina was: "The Romanian population would feel [that publishing A székelyekhez] is an insult to their national dignity. The Romanian nationalist elements would immediately declare: then give us the same, because we too have such poems—De la Nistru pân' la Tisa, and even more relevant ones. [...] We believe that it is a good thing to mutilate the works of the classics". Writer Dumitru Irimia recalls that, in the early 1960s, Eminescu was la secret ("under lock and key"), primarily quoted with his "Emperor and Proletarian", but also that his high school teacher privately advised him to read Doina. Linguist Tatiana Slama-Cazacu also remembers that volumes containing Doina could not be checked out of public libraries. Pimen Zainea, at the time a monk and tour guide at Putna, recalls that he was never prevented from reciting the poem to local visitors; and that Virgil Radulian, the Minister of Education, specifically asked him to quote Doina for Hungarians and Russians attending the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students. He further reports that Miu Dobrescu, a communist potentate in Suceava County, would not commit to having Doina republished in textbooks, "as you know how things are between us and our great neighbor in the East", but that he openly encouraged recitations to continue. +Actor Ludovic Antal was reportedly the first in his profession to test censorship by publicly reciting Doina, at some point before his death in 1970. According to his brother Iosif, this event took place at Putna in 1965. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 brought anti-Russian sentiment to the forefront, allowing Sabin Drăgoi to compose and circulate a third musical version of La arme. Essayist Nicolae Turtureanu recalls one such Doina performance by Antal at the October 1968 festival in Ipotești. The actor defied the Soviet regime, and frightened away tourists visiting from Soviet Bessarabia. At around the same time, Eftimiu revised his stance, reciting Doina to his fellow writers at a meeting in Bragadiru Hall, Bucharest. Censorship again intervened in 1969, when a treatise of Romanian history by Polish author Juliusz Demel had to be withdrawn from Romanian bookshops for featuring the first two lines of Doina as a motto. In the 1970s, following the deterioration of contacts between Romania and the Soviet Union, communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu became more lenient toward Doina. At a Communist-Party plenary meeting early that decade, he reportedly cited the imprecation about dogs "eating the hearts" of xenophiles. +In January 1976, critic D. Micu noted in passing that Doina was one of the "patriotic and civic" works whereby Eminescu had established an entire line of succession in Romanian culture—leading down to Goga, Cotruș, and "all things viable in our current militant poetry." Also that year, Ceaușescu proposed to publish a collection of Eminescu's "national" poetry, headlined by Doina's apparent claim to Bessarabia. Discussing classical Romanian literature in April 1982, Mihai Ungheanu and Pompiliu Marcea noted as an "oddity" and "inequity" that Doina could not be fully republished, whereas Constantin Dobrogeanu Gherea's detailed critique of it had seen print in 1956. That same month, in an interview with Flacăra, historian Vasile Netea argued that Eminescu's Doina, alongside a similarly titled piece by Vasile Lucaciu, "should be learned by every Romanian, generation upon generation." On June 3, 1983, the literary gathering Numele Poetului celebrated the Doina centennial with another public reading, performed by poet Cezar Ivănescu. Also that month, writing for România Pitorească magazine, Mihai Ogrinji quoted the Stephen stanza in full, discussing the poem itself as having a "huge and all-encompassing popularity". References to Doina were still stripped from the 1977 Romanian edition of an Eminescu study, by the Frenchman Alain Guillermou. A French translation was done by Jean-Louis Courriol, but, as Courriol himself recalled, could still not be published in Romania in 1984. At around that time, Ivănescu wrote a pastiche of Doina with a covert critique of communism; this was detected, then eliminated, by the censors. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7923e5af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Doina (Eminescu)" +chunk: 8/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doina_(Eminescu)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:27.850640+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Recovery === + +Also in the 1980s, Adrian Păunescu of Cenaclul Flacăra was staging public readings of Doina in Romania. Sometimes broadcast by radio, these were also followed by Romanian activists in the Moldavian SSR. There, the poem had remained banned in the Brezhnev Era, with Nicolae Lupan threatened and ultimately expelled from the country for having circulated it. Soviet censorship was challenged by Grigore Vieru, who alluded to Doina in subversive poems such as Ridică-te ("Arise") and Eminescu—the latter includes and explicit mention: Doina mi-o furară ("They stole my Doina"). With the onset of Perestroika reforms in the Soviet republic, the magazine Nistru published all versions of Doina in its first issue of 1988, an initiative credited to poet Dumitru Matcovschi. From her home in the Latvian SSR, Maria Macovei-Briedis published the Romanian magazine Glasul, which also took up Doina in 1988. +At the Eminescu centennial, some eleven months before the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Doina was publicly quoted in Ceaușescu's own address. As noted by Slama-Cazacu, this message was read out at the Romanian Athenaeum by Emil Bobu, who happened to be "one of [Ceaușescu's] least cultured ministers." At another such event in June 1989, Ceaușescu referred again to the "dogs-eating-hearts" portion, introduced by his take on its significance: "While treasuring all peoples and the values created by these, Eminescu hated those who broke away from the people and came to serve the foreigners." The issue of Doina came up during long debates over the publication of Eminescu's complete works. The project was endorsed by philosopher Constantin Noica, who proposed putting out facsimiles from Eminescu's manuscripts. He acknowledged in 1977 that some were problematic for the regime, "xenophobic, anti-Russian", and suggested to "leave Doina out of it [...], we'll do it like type-writer girls—this we erase, the rest can appear." In 1989, Ceaușescu ultimately allowed Creția to republish Doina in a lithographic edition which reproduced the Maiorescu original. According to Petre, this was originally planned as a regular-type edition, but Creția, who defended the inclusion of Doina, struggled with censorship for several years. During one episode of this exchange, he proposed changing "from the Dniester to the Tisza" to "from the Istros to the Tisza", which excluded reference to Bessarabia; "Dniester" would only be clarified in the erratum. +The poem was again fully accessible during the revolutionary events, its opening lines used by the National Salvation Front in its first appeals to the Iași populace. Also then, actor Victor Rebengiuc walked into the Romanian Television building and recited the poem in a live broadcast, changing stress from its condemnation of foreigners to read like an attack on people associated with the old regime. Writing on Eminescu's birthday in January 1991, critic Serafim Duicu introduced a print of Doina with the observation that: "from this day forth, Eminescu shall no longer be censored. Perhaps to the end of time." This comment referred not just to Doina being recovered, but also to other revived poems—including those which referred to Christian prayers or to the singing of colinde at Christmas. +According to Eminescu expert Cornelia Viziteu, there followed a period of "overtly nationalist" readings with "evidently superficial commentary", including popularization of Doina through other television broadcasts. Doina was again standard reading for seventh-grade students in 2011, a matter which, according to journalist Sorin Șerb, contributed to their cultural isolation: "The Romanian schoolchild doesn't live on Earth, in a universe filled with wonder, but within the borders of a 'national, sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible state'". In the 1990s, Doina was featured on Romanian Orthodox icons, by a Comănești priest calling for Eminescu's canonization, and also reclaimed by Iron Guard revivalists; a magazine called De la Nistru pîn' la Tisa appeared in 1991. Doina was then controversially sourced by the Social Democratic politician, Nicolae Bacalbașa, during the presidential race of 2014, read as an attack on Klaus Iohannis (who is a Transylvanian Saxon). +Eminescu is also revered in the post-Soviet Republic of Moldova (former Moldavian SSR), where he has a status equivalent to that of "national poet", within the larger debate about Moldovan identity. This status is seen by scholar Wim van Meurs as "artificial" and "completely false", in particular because it has to override his Greater Romanian nationalism, "expressed in the first lines of his poem Doina". In early 1994, a group of pro-Romanian scholars, including Ion Negrei, Pavel Parasca, Ion Țurcanu, and Ion Varta, issued an open letter addressed to President Mircea Snegur, questioning Snegur's apparent embrace of "Moldovenism". In that context, they cited Doina and other works by Eminescu to highlight that the poet had explicitly endorsed the notion that Bessarabians were Romanians. On the "Moldovenist" side of the debate, the issue was brought up in the 1990s by author Ion Druță. Druță suggested that both Eminescu and Doina are not representative for the Moldovan ethos, which, he argues, relies on other elements. +In 1998, Ioana Both noted that Doina was instrumented as a slogan by the Moldova–Romania unionist movement. Writing in 2016, historian Robert D. Kaplan suggested that its first line continues to be quoted, "with its misty inoperable longing for a Greater Romania." La arme, in the Caudella version, was also recovered as an anthem by Moldovan unionists in the early 1990s. This issue was highlighted in November 1993, just before Romania's national holiday, when a Moldovan Supreme Soviet delegate recited Doina in Parliament. The ambassadors of Hungary and Ukraine left the hall in protest, sparking a debate that also involved intellectuals on either side. At the time, the Hungarian teacher Lajos Ötvös wrote a piece giving contextual justification for Doina's rhetoric. In parallel, Doina continues to be of interest to Eminescu translators in other neighboring countries, with a Ukrainian version completed by Ivan Kideshuk. + +== Notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_and_Hunter_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_and_Hunter_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a71f6eb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_and_Hunter_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Dunbar and Hunter Expedition" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_and_Hunter_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:44.482469+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Dunbar and Hunter Expedition, also known as the Grand Expedition, was an expedition led by William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter with the purpose of exploring the lower portion of the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition was given the orders by U.S. President Thomas Jefferson to explore parts of Mississippi and Missouri. The members of the expedition recorded information about the Ouachita River, and studied things such as the hot springs in present-day Arkansas and provided one of the earliest descriptions of Arkansas and Louisiana. + + +== Motivations == +William Dunbar was a Scottish immigrant and scientist living in Natchez, Mississippi, when Jefferson contacted him about the proposed expedition. Jefferson wanted the expedition to travel through the southern area of the Louisiana Purchase. Specifically, he wanted the expedition to follow the rivers in the area, such as the Red River or the Arkansas River. +The other leading member of the expedition, George Hunter, was recruited by Jefferson and was instructed to "make observations, to note courses," and to study the same things as Dunbar, but to keep his own account in case their observations differed from one another. In 1804, a boat was built for the expedition to travel up the Red River, however the expedition's plans were changed in order to travel to the hot springs instead after receiving word that their initial plans might result in conflict between the expedition and a band of the Osage tribe living in the region. With the new plan now in mind, the expedition left in October 1804. + + +== Journey == +The members of the expedition departed on their journey at a location on the Mississippi River named St. Catherine's Landing. The members numbered 19 in total, including people who were not formal members of the expedition such as Hunter's son, two slaves, and a servant. Hunter designed the boat that was used on the journey, which resembled a scow and was referred to by members of the expedition as a "Chinese-style vessel." According to George Hunter's writings in the journal he kept during the expedition, the group traveled up the Red River, as well as the Black River and Ouachita River, eventually landing at the hot springs. +The members of the expedition were making observations of the land, people, and waters they encountered along the way, and turned back at the hot springs in order to return to where they began their expedition. Dunbar reportedly left the party around Fort Miro in order to take a land route to his home, where he would share the expedition's findings with the government via a transcript of his journal. The remaining members of the group continued their return to St. Catherine's Landing, where the journey was concluded in January 1805. + + +== Discoveries == + +The Hunter–Dunbar Expedition produced discoveries and records relating both to scientific observations and to observations of Native people living in the areas which were explored. Many observations were made by both Hunter and Dunbar at the hot springs of Arkansas, such as Hunter's study of the water quality in the springs and the efforts by Dunbar to calculate the total rate of discharge of the springs. Microorganisms were also discovered in the hot springs by members of the expedition. +The expedition also produced some of the earliest records written in English about the geographical features of Arkansas and Louisiana. Additionally, records of natural aspects such as plant and animal life in the region around the Ouachita River were kept by Hunter and Dunbar. The records kept of people in the region included details not only of indigenous people in the region, but also of fur traders, trappers, and other European travelers populating the area. They provided a description of the relationships between the people located in this region, as well as how these people used the natural resources around them. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Döbereiner's_triads-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Döbereiner's_triads-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2bcda9d2f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Döbereiner's_triads-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Döbereiner's triads" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Döbereiner's_triads" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:12.242557+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In the history of the periodic table, Döbereiner's triads were an early attempt to sort the elements into some logical order and sets based on their physical properties. They are analogous to the groups (columns) on the modern periodic table. 53 elements were known at his time. +In 1817, a letter by Ferdinand Wurzer reported Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner's observations of the alkaline earths; namely, that strontium had properties that were intermediate to those of calcium and barium. + +"In der Gegend von Jena (bei Dornburg) … Schwerspaths seyn möchte." (In the area of Jena (near Dornburg) it is known that celestine has been discovered in large quantities. This gave Mr. Döbereiner cause to inquire rigorously into the stoichiometric value of strontium oxide by a great series of experiments. It turned out that it [i.e., the molar weight of strontium oxide] – if that of hydrogen is expressed by 1 or that of oxygen is expressed by the number 7.5 – is equal to 50. This number is, however, precisely the arithmetic mean of that which denotes the stoichiometric value of calcium oxide (= 27.55) and of that which denotes the stoichiometric value of barium oxide (= 72.5); namely (27.5 + 72.5) / 2 = 50. For a moment, Mr. Döbereiner found himself thereby caused to doubt the independent existence of strontium; however, this withstood both his analytical and synthetic experiments. Even more noteworthy is the circumstance that the specific weight of strontium sulfide is likewise the arithmetic mean of that of pure (water-free) calcium sulfide and that [i.e., the sulfide] of barium, namely (2.9 + 4.40) / 2 = 3.65; which must cause [one] to believe even more that celestine might be a mixture of equal stoichiometric amounts of anhydrite [i.e., anhydrous calcium sulfate] and barite.) +By 1829, Döbereiner had found other groups of three elements (hence "triads") whose physical properties were similarly related. He also noted that some quantifiable properties of elements (e.g. atomic weight and density) in a triad followed a trend whereby the value of the middle element in the triad would be exactly or nearly predicted by taking the arithmetic mean of values for that property of the other two elements. These are as follows: + +Limitations: +Not all the known elements could be arranged in the form of triads or three. For very low-mass or very high mass elements, the Döbereiner's triads are not applicable. Take the example of F (Fluorine), Cl (Chlorine), and Br (Bromine). The atomic mass of Cl is not an arithmetic mean of the atomic masses of F and Br. As the techniques for accurately measuring atomic masses improved, the Döbereiner's triad was found to fail to remain strictly valid. + + +== References == + +"A Historic Overview: Mendeleev and the Periodic Table" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-01-15. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_misinformation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_misinformation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ee888e1cc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_misinformation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Ebola misinformation" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:15.841965+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Multiple conspiracy theories, hoaxes, and quack cures have circulated about ebola viruses, regarding the origin of outbreaks, treatments for ebola virus disease, and preventative measures. + + +== Unproven and disproven treatments == +During the Western African Ebola virus epidemic (2013-2016), a number of unproven and fake treatments were marketed online in the United States, including snake venom, vitamin C, "Nano Silver", and various homeopathic and herbal remedies, including clove oil, garlic, and ewedu soup. Gary Coody, national health fraud coordinator for the FDA, described the purveyors of these unproven treatments as "like storm-chasing roofers, who go and try to defraud people after a big storm. Some of them may be making an honest mistake; other companies are trying to rip people off." Coody also said the problem with implausible and unproven remedies is not only that they are unlikely to work, but also that such treatments may lead to patients delaying effective and timely medical care in a hospital setting. + + +== Implausible and disproven methods for preventing Ebola == +During the 2014 and 2019 outbreaks, a number of hoax remedies for the prevention of Ebola were spread online. One such common thread was the frequent use of essential oils. There is no evidence that any of these treatments will decrease the risk of Ebola virus infection, and no known plausible mechanisms for such an effect. + + +== Virus origins == +During the 2014 outbreak in Liberia, an article in the Liberian Observer alleged that the virus was a bioweapon designed by the US military as a form of population control. Other theories spreading online during the pandemic alleged that the New World Order had engineered the virus to impose quarantines and travel bans to soften an eventual descent into martial law. During a 2019 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, rumors spread that the virus was imported to the country for financial gain, or as part of a plot to procure organs for the black market. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-0.md index f906f4708..e251aff3e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:23:25.991217+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:45.715901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-1.md index 41f775726..d78236826 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:23:25.991217+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:45.715901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-2.md index 8c9c80549..ddf503cd5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:23:25.991217+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:45.715901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-3.md index d58b8c1ee..9394a9d25 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:23:25.991217+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:45.715901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-4.md index 7201c41df..75474cacd 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/5 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddington_experiment" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:23:25.991217+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:45.715901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..383d861ed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Eduardo Verástegui" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:10.899216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +José Eduardo Verastegui (Spanish pronunciation: [eˈðwaɾðo βeˈɾasteɣi]; born May 21, 1974) is a Mexican actor, activist, singer, and producer. He was part of the band Kairo and later embarked on a solo music career before he started appearing in Mexican telenovelas and eventually feature films like Chasing Papi, Bella, and Little Boy, the latter two produced by his own production company, Metanoia. +Various media outlets have described his political ideas as ultra-conservative, far-right and social-darwinist. Currently, Verástegui directs the Viva México movement. On September 7, 2023, he registered as an independent candidate for the 2024 Mexican presidential election. He was later disqualified from the election as he did not meet the required signatures. +Verástegui is active on social media, and has an active YouTube channel of nearly 300,000 subscribers. + +== Early life == +Verástegui was born on May 21, 1974, in Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in Xicoténcatl. The son of José Jesús Verástegui Treviño (1950–2022), a sugarcane farmer, and Alicia Córdoba, Verástegui was raised in a practicing Catholic family and has been interested in the world of entertainment since his childhood. After studying law for a time, Verástegui instead decided to try his hand at modeling, acting, and singing and moved to Mexico City at the age of 17 to enter the Televisa Artistic Education Center (CEA). + +== Career == +Before he began his acting career, Verástegui was a backing singer and founding member of the musical group Kairo. Eduardo Verástegui, his lone solo album to date, was released in 2001 following his collaboration with the aforementioned ensemble on the albums Signo del tiempo (1994) and Gaudium (1995). +At the end of the 1990s, he appeared in some Mexican television productions, such as Una luz en el camino (1998), Soñadoras (1998-1999), and Alma rebelde (1999). + +=== 2000-2010 === +After finding success as a musical entertainer and then as a soap opera star, he decided to pursue a career in Hollywood. In 2002, before filming commenced on Chasing Papi, Verástegui took voice-coaching lessons to improve his English pronunciation. The coach was a committed Catholic, and during their conversations, Verástegui re-discovered his faith and resolved to change his lifestyle. He also declared that he had decided to turn down offers to play roles in films that conflicted with his Catholic beliefs or that insulted his Latino brethren. In an interview with Dave Hartline, the author of The Tide Is Turning Toward Catholicism, published by Catholic Report, he said he was committed to attending Mass daily, praying, reading the Bible, saying the rosary, and attending confession at least once a week. He also said that he first encountered his renewed faith in Scott Hahn's book, Rome Sweet Home, which "had a great impact on me, and its influences can be seen in much of what I do". + +=== 2010-present === + +In 2011, Verástegui produced a new short film titled Crescendo. The short, starring Colombian actress Montserrat Espadalé, was awarded at the Heart of Gold International Short Film Festival and won awards at other important events such as the Heartland International Film Festival, the Rochester Film Festival, the San Antonio Film Festival, and the San Diego Latino Film Festival. +In 2012, he played the Mexican martyr Anacleto González Flores in the historical film Cristiada, directed by Dean Wright and starring Andy García, Eva Longoria, and Peter O'Toole. The film was based on the events of the Cristero War and obtained several nominations for the ALMA awards in 2002, among other recognitions. +In 2014, he served as executive producer and provided the voice of Jesus of Nazareth in the dubbing of the film Son of God. A year later, he played the role of Eduardo Furtillo in Andy Fickman's film Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 and Father Crispín in the movie Little Boy, another project from the company Metanoia Films, where he again served as producer. The film, starring Emily Watson, Kevin James, David Henri, Jakob Salvati, and Ben Chaplin, tells the story of Pepper, an eight-year-old boy who goes to great lengths to reunite with his father, a soldier who fought in World War II and was captured by the Japanese. In 2016, Verástegui produced the documentary The Other Part: The Untold History of Narco, a work that tells the story of the son of one of Mexico's first drug traffickers and his fight for redemption. +In 2017, the actor made an appearance in the episode "Trainer Wreck" of the second season of the American CBS television series Kevin Can Wait, playing the role of Alejandro. A year later, filming began in the city of Bogotá on a new Metanoia Films production titled Sound of Freedom, which presented the events of the rescue carried out by the organization Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) of more than one hundred child victims of sexual exploitation in Colombia. That same year, it was announced that American actor Jim Caviezel would be in charge of playing Tim Ballard, founder of the OUR organization. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9af579d78 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@ +--- +title: "Eduardo Verástegui" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Verástegui" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:10.899216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Political activism == + +Verástegui is an advocate through the organization Manto de Guadalupe, which he helped get started. He has said that while researching his role in Bella, he visited an abortion clinic, where he spoke with a Hispanic couple who were there for an abortion. According to his account, they recognized him from his telenovela work on Mexican television and listened as he described his upcoming role and the film's plot. He said the couple then decided not to proceed with the abortion and returned home. After their child was born, they contacted him to share the news, thank him, and ask permission to name the baby Eduardo after him. He later met the child, whom he referred to as "little Eduardo". +In 2008, he released a lengthy video message criticizing the high abortion rate among Hispanic communities in the United States and accusing the Barack Obama campaign of targeting Hispanic communities with pro-abortion messages during the presidential race. He has also been active in anti-abortion organizations and founded Manto de Guadalupe, an anti-abortion organization based in Los Angeles that operates a crisis pregnancy center. +On September 15, 2020, US President Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Eduardo Verástegui to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Verástegui also signed the Madrid Charter, a document drafted by the Spanish right-wing populist party Vox that describes left-wing groups as "enemies of Ibero-America" and as part of a "criminal project" operating "under the umbrella of the Cuban regime". +In November 2022, Verástegui organized a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Mexico. + +=== 2024 presidential campaign === +In September 2023, he filed paperwork with the National Electoral Institute, enabling him to collect signatures for a possible run as an independent candidate for president of Mexico in the 2024 general election. His efforts were unsuccessful, as his campaign did not meet the required signatures; he only got 154,828 signatures, far behind the 961,405 signatures necessary for participating. +As of February 2024, Verástegui was under investigation by the National Electoral Institute (INE) for illegal foreign funding of his presidential campaign. There were financial transactions from a political firm in Miami to Verástegui's account. Verástegui then transferred US$390,000 from that personal account to his campaign between October and December 2023. The INE has asked the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Tax Administration Service to look into the origin of these funds. + +== Controversies == + +=== Alleged Nazi salute at CPAC === +In February 2025, Verástegui performed a gesture resembling a Nazi salute at the end of his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the United States. After saying, "My heart is with all of you" (a reference to the same gesture by Elon Musk at the 2025 inauguration), and touching his chest, he raised his right arm with his hand extended, mimicking the fascist gesture. This incident adds to other similar gestures at the 2025 CPAC. Former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon was also accused of making a Nazi salute during his speech at the event. Bannon denied the accusation, claiming the gesture was simply a wave to the crowd. + +=== Accusation of censorship by Mexican public media === +In late December 2025, journalist Sabina Berman recorded an interview with Verástegui for her program Largo aliento, produced by her and broadcast by the public broadcasters Canal Once, operated by the National Polytechnic Institute, and Canal Catorce, operated by the Mexican State Public Broadcasting System (SPR). Berman announced the interview on X and TikTok on January 6, 2026, with broadcasts scheduled for January 8 and 10 respectively; however, the interview did not air as planned. On January 9, the Audience Ombudsman offices of both networks issued a statement indicating that, in their view, the content of the interview did not conform to the constitutional and legal principles governing the SPR and could promote ideas contrary to the fundamental rights of women and vulnerable groups. +Verástegui described the decision as censorship on social media, accused the government of engaging in what he characterized as "fascist" practices, and stated that he intended to distribute the interview through alternatives, and cited Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to observe the situation. Berman stated that she was unaware of the decision, that she had expected the interview to be broadcast, and that the decision not to air it was made by the networks. On January 13, Berman released the full interview on her personal YouTube account. + +== Ventures == +Verástegui cofounded the production company Metanoia Films (the Greek word for "conversion") with co-founders and partners Sean Wolfington, Alejandro Gomez Monteverde, and Leo Severino. The company is based in Beverly Hills, California. The company released its debut film, Bella, directed by Alejandro Gomez Monteverde and starring Verástegui. The company's latest project is Little Boy, written by Alejandro Monteverde and Pepe Portillo. Starring Emily Watson, Kevin James, David Henrie, Jakob Salvati, and Ben Chaplin, and set in 1945, it tells the story of Pepper, an eight-year-old who does all he can to be reunited with his father, a soldier fighting in World War II and captured by the Japanese. Meanwhile, Pepper has to befriend Hashimoto, a Japanese man living in his town. + +== Discography == + +=== Solo discography === + +=== Kairo discography === +Signo del tiempo (1994) +Gaudium (1995) +Cara a cara (1996; with Magneto) +Éxitos (1997) + +=== Kairo singles === +1994: "En los espejos de un café" +1994: "Háblame de ti" +1994: "Te amaré" +1994: "Perdóname' +1995: "No nos rendimos" +1995: "Ponme la multa (Fammi la multa)" +1995: "Dile que la amo" + +=== Music videos === +2001: Jennifer Lopez's "Ain't It Funny" (Alt. Version) (playing her love interest in the music video) + +== Filmography == + +=== Film === + +=== Television === + +== See also == +List of Mexican actors + +== References == + +== External links == + +Dos días con Eduardo Verástegui /Two days with Eduardo Verástegui en/at www.TheresaBernabe.TV [1] +Eduardo Verástegui's Interview with "Catholic Digest". +Manto de Guadalupe Official Site +Metanoia official website +Bella film official website +Eduardo Verástegui at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein–Cartan–Evans_theory-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein–Cartan–Evans_theory-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8b2299581 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein–Cartan–Evans_theory-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +title: "Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein–Cartan–Evans_theory" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:17.108114+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Einstein–Cartan–Evans theory or ECE theory was an attempted unified theory of physics proposed by the Welsh chemist and physicist Myron Wyn Evans (May 26, 1950 – May 2, 2019), which claimed to unify general relativity, quantum mechanics and electromagnetism. The hypothesis was largely published in the journal Foundations of Physics Letters between 2003 and 2005. Several of Evans's central claims were later shown to be mathematically incorrect and, in 2008, the new editor of Foundations of Physics, Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, published an editorial note effectively retracting the journal's support for the hypothesis. + + +== Scope == +Earlier versions of the theory were called "O(3) electrodynamics". Evans claims that he is able to derive a generally covariant field equation for electromagnetism and gravity, similar to that derived by Mendel Sachs. +Evans argues that Einstein's theory of general relativity does not take into account torsion, which is included in the Einstein–Cartan theory. +In 1998 Evans founded the Alpha Institute for Advanced Studies (AIAS) to keep developing his theory. Its website collects papers on the theory and recent developments. +The theory has been used to justify the motionless electromagnetic generator, a perpetual motion machine. In July 2017, Evans claimed (on his blog): "There is immediate international interest in [papers] UFT382 and UFT383, describing the new energy from spacetime (ES) circuits. There is also great interest in UFT364, the paper that describes the circuit [...] These circuits should be [...] developed into power stations." In November 2017, Evans expanded on this point as follows (again on his blog): "There is no reasonable doubt that the vacuum (or aether or spacetime) contains a source of inexhaustible, safe and clean energy. This source can be used in patented and replicated circuits such as those of [Evans's self-published papers] UFT311, UFT364, UFT382, and UFT383." + + +== Reception == +Evans's claims are not accepted by the mainstream physics community. In an editorial note in Foundations of Physics the Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft discussed the "revolutionary paradigm switch in theoretical physics" promised by ECE theory. He concluded that activities in the subject "have remained limited to personal web pages and are absent from the standard electronic archives, while no reference to ECE theory can be spotted in any of the peer reviewed scientific journals". +Several of the published contributions in this theory have been shown to be mathematically incorrect. In response to these demonstrations, 't Hooft's editorial note concludes, "Taking into account the findings of Bruhn, Hehl and Obukhhov, the discussion of ECE theory in the journal Foundations of Physics will be concluded herewith unless very good arguments are presented to resume the matter." + + +== See also == +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience + + +== References == + + +=== Citations === + + +=== Books === + + +=== Selected papers === + + +=== Criticism === + + +=== Other === + + +== External links == +Alpha Institute for Advanced Study (AIAS) — Myron Evans's website +About Dr. Evans — Myron Evans' blog +Myron W. Evans' Most Spectacular Errors - TU Darmstadt/Mathematik \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2c949dbc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,136 @@ +--- +title: "Elliptic surface" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:24.692093+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mathematics, an elliptic surface is a surface that has an elliptic fibration, in other words a proper morphism with connected fibers to an algebraic curve such that almost all fibers are smooth curves of genus 1. (Over an algebraically closed field such as the complex numbers, these fibers are elliptic curves, perhaps without a chosen origin.) This is equivalent to the generic fiber being a smooth curve of genus one. This follows from proper base change. +The surface and the base curve are assumed to be non-singular (complex manifolds or regular schemes, depending on the context). The fibers that are not elliptic curves are called the singular fibers and were classified by Kunihiko Kodaira. Both elliptic and singular fibers are important in string theory, especially in F-theory. +Elliptic surfaces form a large class of surfaces that contains many of the interesting examples of surfaces, and are relatively well understood in the theories of complex manifolds and smooth 4-manifolds. They are similar to (have analogies with, that is), elliptic curves over number fields. + +== Examples == +The product of any elliptic curve with any curve is an elliptic surface (with no singular fibers). +All surfaces of Kodaira dimension 1 are elliptic surfaces. +Every complex Enriques surface is elliptic, and has an elliptic fibration over the projective line. +Kodaira surfaces +Dolgachev surfaces +Shioda modular surfaces + +== Kodaira's table of singular fibers == +Most of the fibers of an elliptic fibration are (non-singular) elliptic curves. The remaining fibers are called singular fibers: there are a finite number of them, and each one consists of a union of rational curves, possibly with singularities or non-zero multiplicities (so the fibers may be non-reduced schemes). Kodaira and Néron independently classified the possible fibers, and Tate's algorithm can be used to find the type of the fibers of an elliptic curve over a number field. +The following table lists the possible fibers of a minimal elliptic fibration. ("Minimal" means roughly one that cannot be factored through a "smaller" one; precisely, the singular fibers should contain no smooth rational curves with self-intersection number −1.) It gives: + +Kodaira's symbol for the fiber, +André Néron's symbol for the fiber, +The number of irreducible components of the fiber (all rational except for type I0) +The intersection matrix of the components. This is either a 1×1 zero matrix, or an affine Cartan matrix, whose Dynkin diagram is given. +The multiplicities of each fiber are indicated in the Dynkin diagram. + +This table can be found as follows. Geometric arguments show that the intersection matrix of the components of the fiber must be negative semidefinite, connected, symmetric, and have no diagonal entries equal to −1 (by minimality). Such a matrix must be 0 or a multiple of the Cartan matrix of an affine Dynkin diagram of type ADE. +The intersection matrix determines the fiber type with three exceptions: + +If the intersection matrix is 0 the fiber can be either an elliptic curve (type I0), or have a double point (type I1), or a cusp (type II). +If the intersection matrix is affine A1, there are 2 components with intersection multiplicity 2. They can meet either in 2 points with order 1 (type I2), or at one point with order 2 (type III). +If the intersection matrix is affine A2, there are 3 components each meeting the other two. They can meet either in pairs at 3 distinct points (type I3), or all meet at the same point (type IV). + +== Monodromy == +The monodromy around each singular fiber is a well-defined conjugacy class in the group SL(2,Z) of 2 × 2 integer matrices with determinant 1. The monodromy describes the way the first homology group of a smooth fiber (which is isomorphic to Z2) changes as we go around a singular fiber. Representatives for these conjugacy classes associated to singular fibers are given by: + +For singular fibers of type II, III, IV, I0*, IV*, III*, or II*, the monodromy has finite order in SL(2,Z). This reflects the fact that an elliptic fibration has potential good reduction at such a fiber. That is, after a ramified finite covering of the base curve, the singular fiber can be replaced by a smooth elliptic curve. Which smooth curve appears is described by the j-invariant in the table. Over the complex numbers, the curve with j-invariant 0 is the unique elliptic curve with automorphism group of order 6, and the curve with j-invariant 1728 is the unique elliptic curve with automorphism group of order 4. (All other elliptic curves have automorphism group of order 2.) +For an elliptic fibration with a section, called a Jacobian elliptic fibration, the smooth locus of each fiber has a group structure. For singular fibers, this group structure on the smooth locus is described in the table, assuming for convenience that the base field is the complex numbers. (For a singular fiber with intersection matrix given by an affine Dynkin diagram + + + + + + + Γ + ~ + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\tilde {\Gamma }}} + +, the group of components of the smooth locus is isomorphic to the center of the simply connected simple Lie group with Dynkin diagram + + + + Γ + + + {\displaystyle \Gamma } + +, as listed here.) Knowing the group structure of the singular fibers is useful for computing the Mordell-Weil group of an elliptic fibration (the group of sections), in particular its torsion subgroup. + +== Canonical bundle formula == +To understand how elliptic surfaces fit into the classification of surfaces, it is important to compute the canonical bundle of a minimal elliptic surface f: X → S. Over the complex numbers, Kodaira proved the following canonical bundle formula: + + + + + + K + + X + + + = + + f + + ∗ + + + ( + L + ) + ⊗ + + O + + S + + + + + ( + + + + ∑ + + i + + + ( + + m + + i + + + − + 1 + ) + + D + + i + + + + + ) + + + . + + + {\displaystyle K_{X}=f^{*}(L)\otimes O_{S}{\big (}\sum _{i}(m_{i}-1)D_{i}{\big )}.} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..349e333d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,263 @@ +--- +title: "Elliptic surface" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_surface" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:24.692093+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Here the multiple fibers of f (if any) are written as + + + + + f + + ∗ + + + ( + + p + + i + + + ) + = + + m + + i + + + + D + + i + + + + + {\displaystyle f^{*}(p_{i})=m_{i}D_{i}} + +, for an integer mi at least 2 and a divisor Di whose coefficients have greatest common divisor equal to 1, and L is some line bundle on the smooth curve S. If S is projective (or equivalently, compact), then the degree of L is determined by the holomorphic Euler characteristics of X and S: deg(L) = χ(X,OX) − 2χ(S,OS). The canonical bundle formula implies that KX is Q-linearly equivalent to the pullback of some Q-divisor on S; it is essential here that the elliptic surface X → S is minimal. +Building on work of Kenji Ueno, Takao Fujita (1986) gave a useful variant of the canonical bundle formula, showing how KX depends on the variation of the smooth fibers. Namely, there is a Q-linear equivalence + + + + + + K + + X + + + + ∼ + + + Q + + + + + f + + ∗ + + + ( + + K + + S + + + + + + B + + S + + + + + + M + + S + + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle K_{X}\sim _{\bf {Q}}f^{*}(K_{S}+B_{S}+M_{S}),} + + +where the discriminant divisor BS is an explicit effective Q-divisor on S associated to the singular fibers of f, and the moduli divisor MS is + + + + ( + 1 + + / + + 12 + ) + + j + + ∗ + + + O + ( + 1 + ) + + + {\displaystyle (1/12)j^{*}O(1)} + +, where j: S → P1 is the function giving the j-invariant of the smooth fibers. (Thus MS is a Q-linear equivalence class of Q-divisors, using the identification between the divisor class group Cl(S) and the Picard group Pic(S).) In particular, for S projective, the moduli divisor MS has nonnegative degree, and it has degree zero if and only if the elliptic surface is isotrivial, meaning that all the smooth fibers are isomorphic. +The discriminant divisor in Fujita's formula is defined by + + + + + + B + + S + + + = + + ∑ + + p + ∈ + S + + + ( + 1 + − + c + ( + p + ) + ) + [ + p + ] + + + {\displaystyle B_{S}=\sum _{p\in S}(1-c(p))[p]} + +, +where c(p) is the log canonical threshold + + + + + lct + + ( + X + , + + f + + ∗ + + + ( + p + ) + ) + + + {\displaystyle {\text{lct}}(X,f^{*}(p))} + +. This is an explicit rational number between 0 and 1, depending on the type of singular fiber. Explicitly, the lct is 1 for a smooth fiber or type + + + + + I + + ν + + + + + {\displaystyle I_{\nu }} + +, and it is 1/m for a multiple fiber + + + + + + + + + m + + + + I + + ν + + + + + {\displaystyle {}_{m}I_{\nu }} + +, 1/2 for + + + + + I + + ν + + + ∗ + + + + + {\displaystyle I_{\nu }^{*}} + +, 5/6 for II, 3/4 for III, 2/3 for IV, 1/3 for IV*, 1/4 for III*, and 1/6 for II*. +The canonical bundle formula (in Fujita's form) has been generalized by Yujiro Kawamata and others to families of Calabi–Yau varieties of any dimension. + +== Logarithmic transformations == + +A logarithmic transformation (of order m with center p) of an elliptic surface or fibration turns a fiber of multiplicity 1 over a point p of the base space into a fiber of multiplicity m. It can be reversed, so fibers of high multiplicity can all be turned into fibers of multiplicity 1, and this can be used to eliminate all multiple fibers. +Logarithmic transformations can be quite violent: they can change the Kodaira dimension, and can turn algebraic surfaces into non-algebraic surfaces. +Example: +Let L be the lattice Z+iZ of C, and let E be the elliptic curve C/L. Then the projection map from E×C to C is an elliptic fibration. We will show how to replace the fiber over 0 with a fiber of multiplicity 2. +There is an automorphism of E×C of order 2 that maps (c,s) to (c+1/2, −s). We let X be the quotient of E×C by this group action. We make X into a fiber space over C by mapping (c,s) to s2. We construct an isomorphism from X minus the fiber over 0 to E×C minus the fiber over 0 by mapping (c,s) to (c-log(s)/2πi,s2). (The two fibers over 0 are non-isomorphic elliptic curves, so the fibration X is certainly not isomorphic to the fibration E×C over all of C.) +Then the fibration X has a fiber of multiplicity 2 over 0, and otherwise looks like E×C. We say that X is obtained by applying a logarithmic transformation of order 2 to E×C with center 0. + +== See also == +Enriques–Kodaira classification +Néron minimal model + +== Notes == + +== References == +Barth, Wolf P.; Hulek, Klaus; Peters, Chris A.M.; Van de Ven, Antonius (2004) [1984], Compact Complex Surfaces, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete. 3. Folge / A Series of Modern Surveys in Mathematics, vol. 4, Springer, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-57739-0, ISBN 978-3-540-00832-3, MR 2030225 +Cossec, François; Dolgachev, Igor (1989). Enriques Surfaces. Boston: Birkhäuser. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-3696-2. ISBN 3-7643-3417-7. MR 0986969. +Kodaira, Kunihiko (1963). "On compact analytic surfaces. II". Ann. of Math. 77 (3): 563–626. doi:10.2307/1970131. JSTOR 1970131. MR 0184257. Zbl 0118.15802. +Kodaira, Kunihiko (1964). "On the structure of compact complex analytic surfaces. I". Am. J. Math. 86 (4): 751–798. doi:10.2307/2373157. JSTOR 2373157. MR 0187255. Zbl 0137.17501. +Kollár, János (2007), "Kodaira's canonical bundle formula and adjunction", Flips for 3-folds and 4-folds, Oxford University Press, pp. 134–162, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198570615.003.0008, ISBN 978-0-19-857061-5, MR 2359346 +Néron, André (1964). "Modèles minimaux des variétés abéliennes sur les corps locaux et globaux". Publications Mathématiques de l'IHÉS (in French). 21: 5–128. doi:10.1007/BF02684271. MR 0179172. Zbl 0132.41403. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2cecec20f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "EmDrive" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:18.405715+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The EmDrive is a controversial device first proposed in 2001, purported by its inventors to be a reactionless drive. While no mechanism for operation was proposed, claims about the EmDrive appear to violate the law of conservation of momentum and other laws of physics. The concept has at times been referred to as a resonant cavity thruster. Physicists and engineers generally regard the EmDrive concept as pseudoscience. +Neither person who claims to have invented the EmDrive committed to details about the device beyond showing prototypes they have built. While the lack of a published design or mechanism makes it hard to say whether a given object is an example of an EmDrive, over the years prototypes based on its public descriptions have been constructed and tested but results have been mixed to negative and often minor or attributed to errors. +In 2016, Harold White's group at NASA observed a small apparent thrust from one such test, however subsequent studies suggested this thrust was a measurement error caused by thermal gradients. In 2018 and 2021, Martin Tajmar's group at the Dresden University of Technology replicated and refuted White's results, observing apparent thrusts similar to those measured by his team, and then made them disappear again when measured using point suspension. +No other published experiment resulted in apparent thrust greater than the experiment's margin of error. Tajmar's group published three papers in 2021 claiming that all published results showing thrust had been false positives, explaining each by outside forces. They concluded, "Our measurements refute all EmDrive claims by at least 3 orders of magnitude." + +== History and controversy == +Rocket engines operate by expelling propellant, which acts as a reaction mass and which produces thrust per Newton's third law of motion. All designs for electromagnetic propulsion operate on the principle of reaction mass. A hypothetical drive which did not expel propellant in order to produce a reaction force, providing thrust while being a closed system with no external interaction, would be a reactionless drive, violating the conservation of momentum and Newton's third law. Reactionless drives, like other forms of perpetual motion, do not exist in nature, and physicists regard claims that a drive is reactionless as pseudoscience. +The first design of a resonant cavity thruster claiming to be a reactionless drive was by Roger Shawyer in 2001. He called his conical design an "EmDrive", and claimed that it produced thrust in the direction of the base of the cone. Guido Fetta later built a "Cannae Drive", based in part on Shawyer's concept, using a pillbox-shaped cavity. +Since 2008, a few physicists have tested their own models, trying to reproduce the results claimed by Shawyer and Fetta. Juan Yang at Xi'an's Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) was unable to reproducibly measure thrust from their models, over the course of 4 years. In 2016, Harold White's group at NASA's Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory reported in the Journal of Propulsion and Power that a test of their own model had observed a small thrust. In late 2016, Yue Chen of the communication satellite division of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), said his team had tested prototypes, and would conduct in-orbit tests to determine if they could observe thrust. Martin Tajmar's group at the Dresden University of Technology started testing prototypes in 2015, and by 2021 concluded that observations of thrust were false positives, reporting in the CEAS Space Journal they had refuted all EmDrive claims by "at least 3 orders of magnitude". + +=== Media coverage and responses === +Media coverage of experiments using these designs has been polarized. The EmDrive first drew attention, both credulous and dismissive, when New Scientist wrote about it as an "impossible" drive in 2006. Media outlets were later criticized for misleading claims that a resonant cavity thruster had been "validated by NASA" following White's first tentative test reports in 2014. Scientists have continued to note the lack of unbiased coverage. +In 2006, responding to the New Scientist piece, mathematical physicist John C. Baez at the University of California, Riverside, and Australian science-fiction writer Greg Egan, said the positive results reported by Shawyer were likely misinterpretations of experimental errors. +In 2014, White's first conference paper suggested that resonant cavity thrusters could work by transferring momentum to the "quantum vacuum virtual plasma", a new term he coined. Baez and Carroll criticized this explanation, because in the standard description of vacuum fluctuations, virtual particles do not behave as a plasma; Carroll also noted that the quantum vacuum has no "rest frame", providing nothing to push against, so it cannot be used for propulsion. In the same way, physicists James F. Woodward and Heidi Fearn published two papers showing that electron−positron virtual pairs of the quantum vacuum, discussed by White as a potential virtual plasma propellant, could not account for thrust in any isolated, closed electromagnetic system such as a quantum vacuum thruster. +In 2015, physicists Eric W. Davis at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin and Sean M. Carroll at the California Institute of Technology concluded that the thrust measurements reported in papers by both Tajmar and White were indicative of thermal effect errors. +In May 2018, researchers from the Institute of Aerospace Engineering at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, concluded that the dominant effect underlying the apparent thrust could be clearly identified as an artifact caused by Earth's magnetic field interacting with power cables in the chamber, a result that other experts agree with. + +In March 2021, Tajmar's group published a definitive analysis of their own past experiments and those of others, showing that all could be explained by and reproduced via outside forces, refuting all EmDrive claims.When power flows into the EmDrive, the engine warms up. This also causes the fastening elements on the scale to warp, causing the scale to move to a new zero point. We were able to prevent that in an improved structure. Our measurements refute all EmDrive claims by at least 3 orders of magnitude. + +== Designs and prototypes == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..326ecc43a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "EmDrive" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:18.405715+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== EmDrive === +In 2001, Shawyer founded Satellite Propulsion Research Ltd, to work on the EmDrive, which he said used a resonant cavity to produce thrust without propellant. The company was backed by a SMART award grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry. In December 2002, he loosely described a prototype which he alleged had produced a thrust of 0.02 newtons (0.072 ozf) powered by an 850 W cavity magnetron. He reported that the device could operate for only a few dozen seconds before the magnetron failed from overheating, however details were never published or replicated. + +==== Second device and New Scientist article ==== +In October 2006, Shawyer claimed to have conducted tests on a new water-cooled prototype with increased thrust. He reported plans to have the device ready to use in space by May 2009 and to make the resonant cavity a superconductor, neither of which materialized. + +New Scientist magazine featured the EmDrive on the cover of 8 September 2006 issue. The article portrayed the device as plausible and emphasized the arguments of those who held that point of view. Egan, a popular science fiction author, distributed a public letter stating that "a sensationalist bent and a lack of basic knowledge by its writers" made the magazine's coverage unreliable, sufficient "to constitute a real threat to the public understanding of science". Especially, Egan said he was "gobsmacked by the level of scientific illiteracy" in the magazine's coverage, alleging that it used "meaningless double-talk" to obfuscate the problem of conservation of momentum. The letter was endorsed by Baez and posted on his blog. New Scientist editor Jeremy Webb responded to critics:It is a fair criticism that New Scientist did not make clear enough how controversial Roger Shawyer's engine is. We should have made more explicit where it apparently contravenes the laws of nature and reported that several physicists declined to comment on the device because they thought it too contentious ... The great thing is that Shawyer's ideas are testable. If he succeeds in getting his machine flown in space, we will know soon enough if it is ground-breaking device or a mere flight of fancy. New Scientist also published a letter from the former technical director of EADS Astrium: I reviewed Roger's work and concluded that both theory and experiment were fatally flawed. Roger was advised that the company had no interest in the device, did not wish to seek patent coverage and in fact did not wish to be associated with it in any way. A letter from physicist Paul Friedlander: As I read it, I, like the thousands of other physicists who will have read it, immediately realised that this was impossible as described. Physicists are trained to use certain fundamental principles to analyse a problem and this claim clearly flouted one of them ... The Shawyer drive is as impossible as perpetual motion. Relativistic conservation of momentum has been understood for a century and dictates that if nothing emerges from Shawyer's device then its centre of mass will not accelerate. It is likely that Shawyer has used an approximation somewhere in his calculations that would have been reasonable if he hadn't then multiplied the result by 50,000. The reason physicists value principles such as conservation of momentum is that they act as a reality check against errors of this kind. + +==== Later work ==== +In 2007, the UK Department of Trade and Industry granted SPR an export license to Boeing in the US. According to Shawyer, in December 2008 he was invited to present on the EmDrive, and in 2009 Boeing expressed interest in it, at which point he stated that SPR built a thruster which produced 18 grams of thrust, and sent it to Boeing. Boeing did not license the technology and communication stopped. In 2012, a Boeing representative confirmed that Boeing Phantom Works used to explore exotic forms of space propulsion, including Shawyer's drive, but such work later ceased. They confirmed that "Phantom Works is not working with Mr. Shawyer", nor pursuing those explorations. +In 2014, Shawyer presented ideas for 'second-generation' EmDrive designs and applications at the annual International Astronautical Congress. A paper based on his presentation was published in Acta Astronautica in 2015. While no functional prototype of the first-generation drive had yet been produced, and no detailed schematic of a new device was provided, it loosely described models for a superconducting resonant cavity and for thrusters with multiple cavities. +In 2016, Shawyer filed further patents and launched a new company, Universal Propulsion Ltd., as a joint venture with Gilo Industries Group, a small UK aerospace company. + +=== Cannae and other drives === +The Cannae Drive (formerly Q-drive) is another implementation of this idea, with a relatively flat cavity. It was designed by Guido Fetta in 2006 and promoted within the US through his company, Cannae LLC, since 2011. In 2016, Fetta announced plans to eventually launch a CubeSat satellite containing a version of the Cannae Drive, which would run for 6 months to observe how it functions in space. No followup was published. +In China, researchers working under Yang at NWPU built a resonant cavity thruster in 2008, and tested it for a number of years. A 2012 report claimed they had observed thrust, but in 2014 they found it to have been an experimental error. A second, improved prototype did not produce any measured thrust. +At the China Academy of Space Technology, Yue Chen filed several patent applications in 2016 describing various radio frequency (RF) resonant cavity thruster designs. These included a method for stacking several short resonant cavities to improve thrust, and a design with a cavity that was a semicylinder instead of a frustum. That December, Chen announced that CAST would conduct tests on a resonant cavity thruster in orbit, without specifying what design was used. In an interview on CCTV in September 2017, Chen showed some testing of a flat cylindrical device, corresponding to the patent describing stacked short cavities with internal diaphragms. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d3f91c1ed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "EmDrive" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:18.405715+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Theoretical inconsistencies == +All proposed theories for how the EmDrive works violate the conservation of momentum, which states any interaction cannot have a net force (i.e., the net sum of all forces is zero); a consequence of the conservation of momentum is Newton's third law, where for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Also, because force × velocity = power, any such device would violate conservation of energy when moving at a high enough velocity. The conservation of momentum is a symmetry of nature. +An often-cited example of apparent nonconservation of momentum is the Casimir effect, in the standard case where two parallel plates are attracted to each other. However the plates move in opposite directions, so no net momentum is extracted from the vacuum and, moreover, energy must be put into the system to take the plates apart again. +Assuming homogeneous electric and magnetic fields, it is impossible for the EmDrive, or any other device, to extract a net momentum transfer from either a classical or quantum vacuum. +Extraction of a net momentum "from nothing" has been postulated in an inhomogeneous vacuum, but this remains highly controversial as it will violate Lorentz invariance. +Both Harold White's +and Mike McCulloch's theories of how the EmDrive could work rely on these asymmetric or dynamical Casimir effects. However, if these vacuum forces are present, they are expected to be exceptionally tiny based on our current understanding, too small to explain the level of observed thrust. In the event that observed thrust is not due to experimental error, a positive result could indicate new physics. + +== Tests and experiments == + +=== Tests by inventors === +In 2004, Shawyer claimed to have received seven independent positive reviews from experts at BAE Systems, EADS Astrium, Siemens and the IEE. The technical director of EADS Astrium (Shawyer's former employer) denied this in the strongest terms, stating: + +I reviewed Roger's work and concluded that both theory and experiment were fatally flawed. Roger was advised that the company had no interest in the device, did not wish to seek patent coverage and in fact did not wish to be associated with it in any way. +In 2011, Fetta claimed to have tested a superconducting version of the Cannae drive, suspended inside a liquid-helium-filled dewar, with inconclusive results. +None of these results were published in the scientific literature, replicated by independent researchers, or replicated consistently by the inventors. In a few cases details were posted for a time on the inventors' websites, but no such documents remained online as of 2019. +In 2015, Shawyer published an article in Acta Astronautica, summarising seven existing tests on the EmDrive. Of these, four produced a measured force in the intended direction, three produced thrust in the opposite direction, and in one test thrust could be produced in either direction by varying the spring constants in the measuring apparatus. + +=== Northwestern Polytechnical University === +In 2008, a team of Chinese researchers led by Juan Yang (杨涓), professor of propulsion theory and engineering of aeronautics and astronautics at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU) in Xi'an, China, said that they had developed a valid electro-magnetic theory behind a microwave resonant cavity thruster. A demonstration version of the drive was built and tested with different cavity shapes and at higher power levels in 2010. Using an aerospace engine test stand usually used to precisely test spacecraft engines like ion drives, they reported a maximum thrust of 720 mN at 2,500 W of input power. Yang noted that her results were tentative, and said she "[was] not able to discuss her work until more results are published". +In a 2014 follow-up experiment (published in 2016), Yang could not reproduce the 2010 observation and suggested it was due to experimental error. They had refined their experimental setup, using a three-wire torsion pendulum to measure thrust, and tested two different power setups. They concluded that they were unable to measure significant thrust; that "thrust" measured when using external power sources (as in their 2010 experiment) could be noise; and that it was important to use self-contained power systems for these experiments, and more sensitive pendulums with lower torsional stiffness. + +=== NASA Eagleworks === +Since 2011, White had a team at NASA known as the Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory, or Eagleworks Laboratories, devoted to studying exotic propulsion concepts. The group investigated ideas for a wide range of untested and fringe proposals, including Alcubierre drives, drives that interact with the quantum vacuum, and RF resonant cavity thrusters. +In 2014, the group began testing resonant cavity thrusters and in July, White reported tentative positive results for evaluating a tapered RF resonant cavity. Their first tests of this tapered cavity were conducted at very low power (2% of Shawyer's 2002 experiment). A net mean thrust over five runs was measured at 91.2 μN at 17 W of input power. The experiment was criticized for its low power, small data set, and for not having been conducted in vacuum, to eliminate thermal air currents. +The group announced a plan to upgrade their equipment to higher power levels, and to use a test framework subject to independent verification and validation at one or more major research centers. This did not happen. +They later conducted experiments in vacuum at 40-80W of input power, publishing the results in November 2016 in the Journal of Propulsion and Power, under the title "Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio-Frequency Cavity in Vacuum". The study said their system was "consistently performing with a thrust-to-power ratio of 1.2±0.1mN/kW", but also enumerated many potential sources of error. This was the first such paper published in a peer-reviewed journal, however the experiment was again criticized for its small dataset and missing details about the experimental setup, which was again not independently validated. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..959049d8c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "EmDrive" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:18.405715+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Dresden University of Technology === +In July 2015, an aerospace research group at the Dresden University of Technology (TUD) under Martin Tajmar reported results for an evaluation of an RF resonant tapered cavity similar to the EmDrive. Testing was performed first on a knife-edge beam balance able to detect force at the micronewton level, atop an antivibration granite table at ambient air pressure; then on a torsion pendulum with a force resolution of 0.1 mN, inside a vacuum chamber at ambient air pressure and in a hard vacuum at 400 μPa (4×10−6 mbar). +They used a conventional ISM band 2.45 GHz 700 W oven magnetron, and a small cavity with a low Q factor (20 in vacuum tests). They observed small positive thrusts in the positive direction and negative thrusts in the negative direction, of about 20 μN in a hard vacuum. However, when they rotated the cavity upwards as a "null" configuration, they observed an anomalous thrust of hundreds of micronewtons, much larger than the expected result of zero thrust. This indicated a strong source of noise which they could not identify. This led them to conclude that they could not confirm or refute claims about the device. +In 2018, they published results from an improved test rig, which showed that their measured thrust had been a result of experimental error from insufficiently shielded components interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. In new experiments, they measured thrust values consistent with previous experiments and again measured thrust perpendicular to the expected direction when the thruster was rotated by 90°. Moreover, they did not measure a reduction in thrust when an attenuator was used to reduce the power that actually entered the resonant cavity by a factor of 10,000, which they said "clearly indicates that the "thrust" is not coming from the EMDrive but from some electromagnetic interaction." They concluded that "magnetic interaction from not sufficiently shielded cables or thrusters are a major factor that needs to be taken into account for proper μN thrust measurements for these type of devices," and they planned on conducting future tests at higher power and at different frequencies, and with improved shielding and cavity geometry. +In 2021, they revisited these experiments again and ran more precise tests. They reported with high confidence that the forces previously measured could be completely explained by experimental error, and that there was no evidence for any measurable thrust once these errors were taken into account. They were able to run the experiment and show no thrust in any direction, and to reintroduce the previous sources of experimental error to replicate the earlier results. They also replicated White's setup, showing that thermal effects could replicate the apparent thrust his team had observed, and that this thrust went away when measured with a more precise suspension. They went on to publish two further papers, showing similar negative results for the laser-based LemDrive variant and Woodward's Mach-Effect thruster. + +=== Abandoned plans for tests in space === +Since 2016, a few groups have raise funds for planned tests of EM drives or similar devices in space. As of 2025, there is no independent confirmation that any such device has gone to space, as none of the groups have published updates or technical details about the tests. +In August 2016, Cannae announced plans to launch a thruster on a cubesat which they would run for 6 months to observe how it functions in space. As of 2025, no launch details had been announced. +In December 2016, Yue Chen told a reporter at China's Science and Technology Daily that his team would test an EmDrive in orbit. Chen claimed their prototype's thrust was at the "micronewton to millinewton level", which would have to be scaled up to at least 100–1000 millinewtons for a chance of conclusive experimental results. After 2017, no further updates were announced. +In 2023, a new company, IVO Limited, claimed to be developing a similar drive, which they would test in space later that year on a cubesat, but in the end did not do so. + +== Experimental errors == +The strongest early result, from Yang's group in China, was later reported to be caused by an experimental error. Tajmar published an explanation of how all reports of apparent thrust could have been caused entirely by failing to account for all sources of error or noise. +Experimental errors in the testing of the prototypes generally fall into four categories + +Measurement error and noise. Most theoretical scientists who have looked at the EmDrive believe this to be the likely case. +Thermal effects. +Electromagnetic effects, including interaction with ambient magnetic fields and Lorentz forces from power leads. +Other potential sources of error include confirmation bias and publication bias (discarding negative results). + +=== Measurement errors === + +The simplest and most likely explanation is that any thrust detected is due to experimental error or noise. In all of the experiments set up, a very large amount of energy goes into generating a tiny amount of thrust. When attempting to measure a small signal superimposed on a large signal, the noise from the large signal can obscure the small signal and give incorrect results. + +=== Shift in center of gravity due to thermal effects === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1e7ddbbd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "EmDrive" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmDrive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:18.405715+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The largest error source is believed to come from the thermal expansion of the thruster's heat sink; as it expands this would lead to a change in the centre of gravity causing the resonant cavity to move. White's team attempted to model the thermal effect on the overall displacement by using a superposition of the displacements caused by "thermal effects" and "impulsive thrust" with White saying "That was the thing we worked the hardest to understand and put in a box". Despite these efforts, White's team were unable to fully account for the thermal expansion. In an interview with Aerospace America, White comments that "although maybe we put a little bit of a pencil mark through [thermal errors] ... they are certainly not black-Sharpie-crossed-out." +Their method of accounting for thermal effects has been criticized by Millis and Davies, who highlight that there is a lack of both mathematical and empirical detail to justify the assumptions made about those effects. For example, they do not provide data on temperature measurement over time compared to device displacement. The paper includes a graphical chart, but it is based on a priori assumptions about what the shapes of the "impulsive thrust" and "thermal effects" should be, and how those signals will superimpose. The model further assumes all noise to be thermal and does not include other effects such as interaction with the chamber wall, power lead forces, and tilting. Because the Eagleworks paper has no explicit model for thrust to compare with the observations, it is ultimately subjective, and its data can be interpreted in more than one way. The Eagleworks test, therefore, does not conclusively show a thrust effect, but cannot rule it out either. +White suggested future experiments could run on a Cavendish balance. In such a setup, the thruster could rotate out to much larger angular displacements, letting a thrust (if present) dominate any possible thermal effects. Testing a device in space would also eliminate the center-of-gravity issue. Tajmar's team later used such a setup to show that past results had all been artefacts of thermal effects. + +=== Electromagnetic interactions === +These experiments used relatively large electromagnetic inputs to generate small amounts of thrust. As a result, electromagnetic interactions between power leads, between power lines and ambient magnetic fields, or between the apparatus and walls of a test chamber, could all have significant effects. +Yang reported in 2016 that an interaction with the Earth's magnetic field had caused the fairly large apparent thrust in their 2012 paper. Tajmar looked for potential Lorentz force interactions between power leads in trying to replicate White's experimental setup. Another source of error could have arisen from electromagnetic interaction with the walls of the vacuum chamber. White argued that any wall interaction could only be the result of a well-formed resonance coupling between the device and wall and that the high frequency used imply the chances of this would be highly dependent on the device's geometry. As components get warmer due to thermal expansion, the device's geometry changes, shifting the resonance of the cavity. In order to counter this effect and keep the system in optimal resonance conditions, White used a phase-locked loop system (PLL). Their analysis assumed that using a PLL ruled out significant electromagnetic interaction with the wall. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== External links == +Official website, Cannae +Official website, EmDrive +Oberhaus, Daniel (5 June 2019). "A Mythical Form of Space Propulsion Finally Gets a Real Test". WIRED. Retrieved 7 June 2019. +Broadcast 2722 EM Drive @ The Space Show +Videos of presentations on EM Drive, Mach Effect, Cannae by March, Woodward, Tajmar and others at the 2016 Breakthrough Propulsion Workshop @ Space Studies Institute YouTube Playlist +TMRO video podcast #EMPossibleDrive 9.16 with builder Dave Distler Archived 8 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine @25 minutes in +EmDrive fails tests \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a817055d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Energy Catalyzer" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:19.637644+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Energy Catalyzer (also called E-Cat) is a supposed cold fusion reactor promoted by its inventor Andrea Rossi with support from the late physicist Sergio Focardi. An Italian patent, awarded without a technical examination, describes the apparatus as a "process and equipment to obtain exothermal reactions, in particular from nickel and hydrogen". Rossi and Focardi said the device worked by infusing heated hydrogen into nickel powder, transmuting it into copper and producing excess heat. An international patent application received an unfavorable international preliminary report on patentability in 2011 because it was adjudged to "offend against the generally accepted laws of physics and established theories". +The device has been the subject of claimed demonstrations and tests several times, and commented on by various academics and others. No independent tests have ever been made, and no peer-reviewed tests of the device have ever been published. Steve Featherstone wrote in Popular Science that by the summer of 2012 Rossi's "outlandish claims" for the E-Cat seemed "thoroughly debunked". + +== Demonstrations == +Invited guests attended several demonstrations in Bologna in 2011. The device has not been independently verified. Of a January demonstration, Discovery Channel analyst Benjamin Radford wrote that "If this all sounds fishy to you, it should," and that "In many ways cold fusion is similar to perpetual motion machines. The principles defy the laws of physics, but that doesn't stop people from periodically claiming to have invented or discovered one." According to Phys.org (11 August 2011), the demonstrations held from January to April 2011 had several flaws that compromised their credibility and Rossi had refused to perform tests that could verify his claims. +University of Bologna researchers have attended some E-Cat demonstrations, but only as observers. On 5 November 2011, the University of Bologna clarified that its researchers had not been involved in the demonstrations and that none of those took place at the university. Rossi had signed a contract with the university, but the contract was terminated and no research was done because Rossi did not make the first payment. +Skeptic Ian Bryce speculated that the E-Cat was misconnected during demonstrations, and that the power attributed to fusion is supplied to the device through the earth wire. Dick Smith offered Rossi one million dollars to demonstrate that the E-Cat system worked as claimed, while the power through the earth wire was also being measured, which Rossi refused. Peter Thieberger, a senior physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, said it would be very difficult for this misconnection to happen by accident and that the issue could only be cleared with a fully independent test. +On 28 October 2011 the unit was "customer tested" and was said to release 2,635 kWh during five and a half hours of self-sustained mode, an average power of 479 kilowatts – just under half the promised power of one megawatt. Independent observers were not allowed to watch the measurements or make their own, and the plant remained connected to a power supply during the test allegedly to supply power to the fans and the water pumps. +After working with Rossi, Sergio Focardi concluded that nuclear fusion reactions happen inside the Energy Catalyzer. Focardi states that the nuclear process is facilitated by a secret additive, known only by Rossi and not by him. According to Focardi, the process would be much less intense without this additive. Rossi and Focardi are then reported to have been unable to find a peer-reviewed scientific journal that would publish their paper describing how they claim the Energy Catalyzer operates. Their paper appears only in Rossi's self-published blog, Journal of Nuclear Physics. +In May 2013 a non-peer-reviewed paper describing "results obtained from evaluations of the operation of the E-Cat HT in two test runs" was submitted to the arXiv digital archive. Although the authors of the paper wrote that they were not in control of all of the aspects of the process, they concluded that, even by the most conservative of measurements, the device produced excess heat with a resulting energy density that was at least one order of magnitude, and possibly several, higher than any other conventional energy source. The test was partly funded by the Swedish energy research consortium, Elforsk. Elforsk stated on their website that the results were very remarkable, but that it was highly questionable to speculate whether nuclear transformation had occurred when no access had been provided to the reactants. In a response to the original manuscript archived on arXiv, commentators criticized the testing as not truly independent, described the report as having "characteristics more typically found in pseudo‐scientific texts", and stated that "The authors seem to jump to conclusions fitting pre‐conceived ideas where alternative explanations are possible." Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel commented at ScienceBlogs saying Rossi did not allow the reactants or products to be measured on this occasion. In the previous tests there were not enough 62Ni and 64Ni (the only two nickel isotopes which can fuse with hydrogen), at 3.6% and 0.9% respectively, in the reactants to explain the 10% copper output; these isotope levels are typical of natural copper, rather than of fusion by-product. According to Siegel, Rossi also refused to unplug the machine while it was operating despite it being an easy way to surreptitiously power the device. He also added that the supposedly independent testers had to rely on data supplied by Rossi. +In October 2014 a non-peer-reviewed paper by the same authors as the May 2013 report describes results from evaluations in March 2014 of an upgraded version of the E-Cat which runs at higher temperatures. Unlike previous demonstrations, the test was carried out with monitoring equipment and in a laboratory not supplied by Rossi, and was run over an extended duration (32 days). However, as with the previous report, the authors were not in full control of the process; Rossi intervened during the insertion of the fuel charge, start up of the reactor, shut down of the reactor, and extraction of the spent fuel. Overall, the total excess heat measured was calculated to be well beyond that possible by any conventional, non-nuclear source. In this report, they present analyses of samples of spent fuel, concluding from the isotopes found that "nuclear reactions are therefore indicated to be present in the run process, which however is hard to reconcile with the fact that no radioactivity was detected outside the reactor during the run." Following fuel and ash isotopic analysis, the authors speculate as to isotopes of especially nickel and lithium being part of the reaction, in particular transmutation of 58Ni and 60Ni to 62Ni, and from 7Li to 6Li through some unknown process. +Particle physicist Tommaso Dorigo commented on the 2014 test, called the isotopic measurements "startling" but he expressed deep concern about Rossi being involved in collecting the spent fuel, that the testers may have "overlooked some simple trick" and that "given the extraordinary nature of the claim… this constitutes a major flaw, which totally invalidates any conclusions one might otherwise draw." +Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel was highly critical of the test, stating that the testers were not independent, that Rossi could have tampered with the fuel samples, that the 'open calorimeter' setup used was inappropriate, and that "it’s relatively easy to fake the amount of energy being drawn through a power cord if there is a hookup to an external source." +On 31 January 2019, Rossi's company released a new product (E-Cat SK) via live video stream. The product is reported as currently available to be leased by factories as a source of heat. After viewing the video, Tom Casten noted that "The E-Cat demonstration makes giant claims of scientific breakthroughs with no validation". Similarly, the Australian physicist and aerospace engineer Ian Bryce noted that, in the video demonstration, the "inputs, outputs, and measurement points are not defined, making the results largely meaningless", that the nuclear reaction purportedly occurring within the E-Cat SK would "release much deadly radiation. Yet the meters show zero ionizing radiation and no neutrons. Fortunate for the bystanders!" and concludes, regarding Rossi's E-Cat cold fusion device, "there is no real doubt about it being a fake". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3d358fc4b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Energy Catalyzer" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Catalyzer" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:19.637644+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Reactions to the claims == +Theoretical astrophysicist Ethan Siegel and nuclear physicist Peter Thieberger have pointed out that the claims for the E-Cat are incompatible with the fundamentals of nuclear physics. In particular, the Coulomb barrier for the claimed fusion reaction is so high that it is insurmountable anywhere in the known universe, including the interior of stars. The reaction also would create gamma radiation that would have penetrated the few inches of shielding apparently provided by the E-Cat, inducing acute radiation syndrome in persons in the vicinity of the purported demonstrations. Given numerous other scientific inconsistencies – such as the ratio of isotopes in the supposed copper "fusion product" being identical to that in natural copper – the authors argued that it is now time "for the E-Cat's proponents to provide the provable, testable, reproducible science that can answer these straightforward physics objections." +Peter Ekström, lecturer at the Department of Nuclear Physics at Lund University in Sweden, concluded in May 2011, "I am convinced that the whole story is one big scam, and that it will be revealed in less than one year." He cited the unlikelihood of a chemical reaction being strong enough to overcome the Coulomb barrier, the lack of gamma rays, the lack of explanation for the origin of the extra energy, the lack of the expected radioactivity after fusing a proton with 58Ni, the unexplained occurrence of 11% iron in the spent fuel, the 10% copper in the spent fuel having the same isotopic ratios as natural copper, and the lack of any unstable copper isotope in the spent fuel as if the reactor only produced stable isotopes. Kjell Aleklett, physics professor at Uppsala University, said the percentage of copper was too high for any known reaction of nickel, and the copper had the same isotopic ratio as natural copper. He also stated, "Known chemical reactions cannot explain the amount of energy measured. A nuclear reaction can explain the amount of energy, but the knowledge we have today says that this reaction cannot take place." Scientific skeptic James Randi, discussing the E-Cat in the context of previous cold fusion claims, suggested that it will eventually be proven to be a fraud. +Other cold fusion supporters have been more supportive of the claims. For example, in 2011 Dennis M. Bushnell, Chief Scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, described LENR as a "promising" technology and praised the work of Rossi and Focardi. +Theoretical nuclear physicist Yeong E. Kim of Purdue University has proposed a potential theoretical explanation of the reported results of the device, but has stated that, for confirmation of this theory, "it is very important to carry out Rossi-type experiments independently." Kim had previously put forward this theory to explain the results of the now-discredited Fleischman and Pons cold fusion experiment in 1989. +Steve Featherstone wrote in Popular Science that by the summer of 2012 Rossi's "outlandish claims" for the E-Cat seemed "thoroughly debunked" and that Rossi "looked like a con man clinging to his story to the bitter end." + +== Patents == +An application in 2008 to patent the device internationally received an unfavorable preliminary report on patentability at the World Intellectual Property Organization from the European Patent Office, noting that the description of the device was based on "general statements and speculations" and citing "numerous deficiencies in both the description and in the evidence provided to support its feasibility" as well as incompatibilities with "generally accepted laws of physics and established theories." The patent application was published on 15 October 2009. +On 6 April 2011 an application was approved by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, which issued a patent for the invention, valid only in Italy. Under then-current Italian law, the examination of the application was more formal and less technical than for the corresponding PCT application. +In March 2014 the US Patent Office replied to Rossi's US patent application with a provisional decision to reject it, saying "The specification is objected to as inoperable. Specifically there is no evidence in the corpus of nuclear science to substantiate the claim that nickel will spontaneously ionize hydrogen gas and therefore 'absorb' the resulting proton". + +== Lawsuit == +In January 2014 a newly formed company, Industrial Heat LLC, announced that it had acquired rights to Rossi's E-Cat technology. In April 2016, Rossi filed a lawsuit in the USA against Industrial Heat, alleging that he was not paid an $89 million licensing fee due after a one-year test period of an E-Cat unit. Industrial Heat's comment on the lawsuit was that after three years of effort they were unable to reproduce Rossi's E-Cat test results. +On 5 July 2017 the parties settled; the terms of the settlement were not released. + +== See also == +Brilliant Light Power + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enough_is_Enough_(party)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enough_is_Enough_(party)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1668c6a93 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enough_is_Enough_(party)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +title: "Enough is Enough (party)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enough_is_Enough_(party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:16.993219+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Enough is Enough (Serbian: Доста је било, romanized: Dosta je bilo, abbr. DJB) is a right-wing populist political party in Serbia. +It was established on 27 January 2014 around the former minister of economy Saša Radulović and his associates from the ministry. Initially, the party had strong liberal, reformist, and progressive views, and in the 2016 parliamentary election they entered the parliament with 16 seats in total. Between early 2017 and 2018, its pro-European and liberal factions split off due to the internal conflict in the party. Since then, the party has shifted to the far-right and it began advocating souverainist and eurosceptic policies alongside numerous right-wing populist stances such as opposition to immigration. Its leader, Saša Radulović also promoted misinformation and several conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic. + + +== History == +It was founded on 27 January 2014 as Association "It's Enough – Restart" (Serbian: Удружење "Доста је било – Рестарт", romanized: Udruženje "Dosta je bilo – Restart"), and since then it was commonly known as Enough is Enough (Serbian: Доста је било, romanized: Dosta je bilo; abbr. DJB). In 2014 Serbian parliamentary election, held less than two months after establishment, the organisation won 2.09% of votes. In yet another early 2016 Serbian parliamentary election, DJB won 6.02% (227,626 votes), thus gaining 16 seats in the National Assembly. +The It's Enough–Restart group in the National Assembly lost three of its members in February 2017, when Aleksandra Čabraja, Jovan Jovanović, and Sonja Pavlović left to start an organisation called the Civic Platform. After long delay in deciding whether to take part in the 2017 Serbian presidential election, DJB eventually appointed Saša Radulović as candidate for the election. He came in seventh place with 51,651 votes (1.41%). +On 15 March 2018, Ljupka Mihajlovska resigned from the DJB assembly group to sit as an independent. The following day, Miloš Bošković resigned from DJB and also resigned from the assembly, returning his mandate to the association. +In 2018, DJB main board expelled assembly members Nenad Božić, Vladimir Đurić, and Aleksandar Stevanović from membership in the association on 29 March 2018. Tatjana Macura also resigned from the association on 12 April 2018, following a brief, abortive bid for its presidency. Macura subsequently started a new association called the Free MPs parliamentary group, joined by Božić, Đurić, Mihajlovska, and Stevanović. In addition, Bošković's replacement Nada Kostić ultimately chose not to sit with DJB. In the aftermath of these changes, DJB had seven deputies in the assembly. +Only several months later, Dušan Pavlović left the DJB. This led to another wave of leaving. Another five deputies leave the DJB parliamentary club. By the mid-November 2018, DJB was reduced to only two deputies in the Assembly (Radulović and Stamenković) and no parliamentary club. +In the 2018 Belgrade election, a combined DJB–Dveri list failed to pass the electoral threshold. Saša Radulović subsequently stepped down as president of the party on 6 March 2018, along with all deputy presidents. On 21 April 2018 Branislav Mihajlović, head of the DJB in Bor, was elected party president. On 8 November 2018 Branislav Mihajlović was dismissed and replaced by deputy party president Branka Stamenković as a temporary leader. DJB joined other opposition parties in National Assembly sessions boycott. +On 14 December 2018, group of former DJB MPs formed centrist Party of Modern Serbia. +On 19 October 2019, Saša Radulović was re-elected as party leader, while Branka Stamenković was elected deputy president. On 7 March 2020. DJB declared 2020 Serbian parliamentary election boycott together with Alliance for Serbia coalition and Social Democratic Party. They eventually decided to participate in the elections, but failed to pass the 3% threshold (earned 2.32%), thus becoming non-parliamentary organisation. +DJB took part on the 2022 parliamentary elections in coalition with Milan Stamatović (mayor of the Čajetina municipality and the leader of Healthy Serbia movement), and doctor Jovana Stojković, known for her anti-vaccine attitudes. They ran under the name Sovereignists, but again failed to clear the 3 per cent threshold. After the April elections, DJB became inactive until February 2023, when it was announced that it would become politically active again. + + +== Ideology == +It was historically a centrist party, and it supported liberalism, neoliberalism, and progressivism. It was also focused on populist, anti-establishment and anti-corruption rhetoric, and it advocated reformism. Since 2018, it has been described as a right-wing populist, and conservative party, and it opposes immigration. It is positioned on the right-wing and far-right on the political spectrum, and it is also supportive of souverainism and euroscepticism. +In the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, DJB was associated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. In 2019, it became a member of the European Conservatives Group and Democratic Alliance. + + +== List of presidents == + + +== Electoral performance == + + +=== Parliamentary elections === + + +=== Presidential elections === + + +=== Provincial elections === + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2f2ac3ca1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,890 @@ +--- +title: "Enriques–Kodaira classification" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:25.992556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mathematics, the Enriques–Kodaira classification groups compact complex surfaces into ten classes, each parametrized by a moduli space. For most of the classes the moduli spaces are well understood, but for the class of surfaces of general type the moduli spaces seem too complicated to describe explicitly, though some components are known. +Max Noether began the systematic study of algebraic surfaces, and Guido Castelnuovo proved important parts of the classification. Federigo Enriques described the classification of complex projective surfaces. Kunihiko Kodaira later extended the classification to include non-algebraic compact surfaces. + +== Statement of the classification == + +The Enriques–Kodaira classification of compact complex surfaces states that every nonsingular minimal compact complex surface is of exactly one of the 10 types listed on this page; in other words, it is one of the rational, ruled (genus > 0), type VII, K3, Enriques, Kodaira, toric, hyperelliptic, properly quasi-elliptic, or general type surfaces. +For the 9 classes of surfaces other than general type, there is a fairly complete description of what all the surfaces look like (which for class VII depends on the global spherical shell conjecture, still unproved in 2024). For surfaces of general type not much is known about their explicit classification, though many examples have been found. + +== Invariants of surfaces == + +=== Hodge numbers and Kodaira dimension === +The most important invariants of a compact complex surfaces used in the classification can be given in terms of the dimensions of various coherent sheaf cohomology groups. The basic ones are the plurigenera and the Hodge numbers defined as follows: + +K is the canonical line bundle whose sections are the holomorphic 2-forms. + + + + + + P + + n + + + = + dim + ⁡ + + H + + 0 + + + ( + + K + + n + + + ) + , + n + ⩾ + 1 + + + {\displaystyle P_{n}=\dim H^{0}(K^{n}),n\geqslant 1} + + are called the plurigenera. They are birational invariants, i.e., invariant under blowing up. Using Seiberg–Witten theory, Robert Friedman and John Morgan showed that for complex manifolds they only depend on the underlying oriented smooth 4-manifold. For non-Kähler surfaces the plurigenera are determined by the fundamental group, but for Kähler surfaces there are examples of surfaces that are homeomorphic but have different plurigenera and Kodaira dimensions. The individual plurigenera are not often used; the most important thing about them is their growth rate, measured by the Kodaira dimension. + + + + + κ + + + {\displaystyle \kappa } + + is the Kodaira dimension: it is + + + + − + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle -\infty } + + (sometimes written −1) if the plurigenera are all 0, and is otherwise the smallest number (0, 1, or 2 for surfaces) such that + + + + + P + + n + + + + / + + + n + + κ + + + + + {\displaystyle P_{n}/n^{\kappa }} + + is bounded. Enriques did not use this definition: instead he used the values of + + + + + P + + 12 + + + + + {\displaystyle P_{12}} + + and + + + + K + ⋅ + K + = + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle K\cdot K=c_{1}^{2}} + +. These determine the Kodaira dimension given the following correspondence: + + + + + + + + + κ + = + − + ∞ + + + + ⟷ + + P + + 12 + + + = + 0 + + + + + κ + = + 0 + + + + ⟷ + + P + + 12 + + + = + 1 + + + + + κ + = + 1 + + + + ⟷ + + P + + 12 + + + > + 1 + + and + + K + ⋅ + K + = + 0 + + + + + κ + = + 2 + + + + ⟷ + + P + + 12 + + + > + 1 + + and + + K + ⋅ + K + > + 0 + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\kappa =-\infty &\longleftrightarrow P_{12}=0\\\kappa =0&\longleftrightarrow P_{12}=1\\\kappa =1&\longleftrightarrow P_{12}>1{\text{ and }}K\cdot K=0\\\kappa =2&\longleftrightarrow P_{12}>1{\text{ and }}K\cdot K>0\\\end{aligned}}} + + + + + + + h + + i + , + j + + + = + dim + ⁡ + + H + + j + + + ( + X + , + + Ω + + i + + + ) + , + + + {\displaystyle h^{i,j}=\dim H^{j}(X,\Omega ^{i}),} + + where + + + + + Ω + + i + + + + + {\displaystyle \Omega ^{i}} + + is the sheaf of holomorphic i-forms, are the Hodge numbers, often arranged in the Hodge diamond: + + + + + + + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 0 + + + + + + + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 0 + + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + + + + + h + + 2 + , + 0 + + + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 1 + + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + + h + + 2 + , + 1 + + + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + + + + h + + 2 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{matrix}&&h^{0,0}&&\\&h^{1,0}&&h^{0,1}&\\h^{2,0}&&h^{1,1}&&h^{0,2}\\&h^{2,1}&&h^{1,2}&\\&&h^{2,2}&&\\\end{matrix}}} + + +By Serre duality + + + + + h + + i + , + j + + + = + + h + + 2 + − + i + , + 2 + − + j + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{i,j}=h^{2-i,2-j}} + + and + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 0 + + + = + + h + + 2 + , + 2 + + + = + 1. + + + {\displaystyle h^{0,0}=h^{2,2}=1.} + + The Hodge numbers of a complex surface depend only on the oriented real cohomology ring of the surface, and are invariant under birational transformations except for + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 1 + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{1,1}} + + which increases by 1 under blowing up a single point. +If the surface is Kähler then + + + + + h + + i + , + j + + + = + + h + + j + , + i + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{i,j}=h^{j,i}} + + and there are only three independent Hodge numbers. +If the surface is compact then + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{1,0}} + + equals + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{0,1}} + + or + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + − + 1. + + + {\displaystyle h^{0,1}-1.} + + +=== Invariants related to Hodge numbers === +There are many invariants that (at least for complex surfaces) can be written as linear combinations of the Hodge numbers, as follows: + +Betti numbers: defined by + + + + + b + + i + + + = + dim + ⁡ + + H + + i + + + ( + S + ) + , + 0 + ⩽ + i + ⩽ + 4. + + + {\displaystyle b_{i}=\dim H^{i}(S),0\leqslant i\leqslant 4.} + + + + + + + + { + + + + + b + + 0 + + + = + + b + + 4 + + + = + 1 + + + + + + b + + 1 + + + = + + b + + 3 + + + = + + h + + 1 + , + 0 + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + = + + h + + 2 + , + 1 + + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + b + + 2 + + + = + + h + + 2 + , + 0 + + + + + + h + + 1 + , + 1 + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{cases}b_{0}=b_{4}=1\\b_{1}=b_{3}=h^{1,0}+h^{0,1}=h^{2,1}+h^{1,2}\\b_{2}=h^{2,0}+h^{1,1}+h^{0,2}\end{cases}}} + + +In characteristic p > 0 the Betti numbers are defined using l-adic cohomology and need not satisfy these relations. +Euler characteristic or Euler number: + + + + + e + = + + b + + 0 + + + − + + b + + 1 + + + + + + b + + 2 + + + − + + b + + 3 + + + + + + b + + 4 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle e=b_{0}-b_{1}+b_{2}-b_{3}+b_{4}.} + + +The irregularity is defined as the dimension of the Picard variety and the Albanese variety and denoted by q. For complex surfaces (but not always for surfaces of prime characteristic) + + + + + q + = + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle q=h^{0,1}.} + + +The geometric genus: + + + + + + p + + g + + + = + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + = + + h + + 2 + , + 0 + + + = + + P + + 1 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle p_{g}=h^{0,2}=h^{2,0}=P_{1}.} + + +The arithmetic genus: + + + + + + p + + a + + + = + + p + + g + + + − + q + = + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + − + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle p_{a}=p_{g}-q=h^{0,2}-h^{0,1}.} + + +The holomorphic Euler characteristic of the trivial bundle (usually differs from the Euler number e defined above): \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4188ed895 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,359 @@ +--- +title: "Enriques–Kodaira classification" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:25.992556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + χ + = + + p + + g + + + − + q + + + 1 + = + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + − + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + 1. + + + {\displaystyle \chi =p_{g}-q+1=h^{0,2}-h^{0,1}+1.} + + +By Noether's formula it is also equal to the Todd genus + + + + + + + 1 + 12 + + + + ( + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + + + c + + 2 + + + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{12}}(c_{1}^{2}+c_{2}).} + + +The signature of the second cohomology group for complex surfaces is denoted by + + + + τ + + + {\displaystyle \tau } + +: + + + + + τ + = + 4 + χ + − + e + = + + ∑ + + i + , + j + + + ( + − + 1 + + ) + + j + + + + h + + i + , + j + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \tau =4\chi -e=\sum \nolimits _{i,j}(-1)^{j}h^{i,j}.} + + + + + + + b + + ± + + + + + {\displaystyle b^{\pm }} + +are the dimensions of the maximal positive and negative definite subspaces of + + + + + H + + 2 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle H^{2},} + + so: + + + + + + + { + + + + + b + + + + + + + + + b + + − + + + = + + b + + 2 + + + + + + + + b + + + + + + − + + b + + − + + + = + τ + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{cases}b^{+}+b^{-}=b_{2}\\b^{+}-b^{-}=\tau \end{cases}}} + + +c2 = e and + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + = + + K + + 2 + + + = + 12 + χ + − + e + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2}=K^{2}=12\chi -e} + + are the Chern numbers, defined as the integrals of various polynomials in the Chern classes over the manifold. + +=== Other invariants === +There are further invariants of compact complex surfaces that are not used so much in the classification. These include algebraic invariants such as the Picard group Pic(X) of divisors modulo linear equivalence, its quotient the Néron–Severi group NS(X) with rank the Picard number ρ, topological invariants such as the fundamental group π1 and the integral homology and cohomology groups, and invariants of the underlying smooth 4-manifold such as the Seiberg–Witten invariants and Donaldson invariants. + +== Minimal models and blowing up == +Any surface is birational to a non-singular surface, so for most purposes it is enough to classify the non-singular surfaces. +Given any point on a surface, we can form a new surface by blowing up this point, which means roughly that we replace it by a copy of the projective line. For the purpose of this article, a non-singular surface X is called minimal if it cannot be obtained from another non-singular surface by blowing up a point. By Castelnuovo's contraction theorem, this is equivalent to saying that X has no (−1)-curves (smooth rational curves with self-intersection number −1). (In the more modern terminology of the minimal model program, a smooth projective surface X would be called minimal if its canonical line bundle KX is nef. A smooth projective surface has a minimal model in that stronger sense if and only if its Kodaira dimension is nonnegative.) +Every surface X is birational to a minimal non-singular surface, and this minimal non-singular surface is unique if X has Kodaira dimension at least 0 or is not algebraic. Algebraic surfaces of Kodaira dimension + + + + − + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle -\infty } + + may be birational to more than one minimal non-singular surface, but it is easy to describe the relation between these minimal surfaces. For example, P1 × P1 blown up at a point is isomorphic to P2 blown up twice. So to classify all compact complex surfaces up to birational isomorphism it is (more or less) enough to classify the minimal non-singular ones. + +== Surfaces of Kodaira dimension −∞ == +Algebraic surfaces of Kodaira dimension + + + + − + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle -\infty } + + can be classified as follows. If q > 0 then the map to the Albanese variety has fibers that are projective lines (if the surface is minimal) so the surface is a ruled surface. If q = 0 this argument does not work as the Albanese variety is a point, but in this case Castelnuovo's theorem implies that the surface is rational. +For non-algebraic surfaces Kodaira found an extra class of surfaces, called type VII, which are still not well understood. + +=== Rational surfaces === +Rational surface means surface birational to the complex projective plane P2. These are all algebraic. The minimal rational surfaces are P2 itself and the Hirzebruch surfaces Σn for n = 0 or n ≥ 2. (The Hirzebruch surface Σn is the P1 bundle over P1 associated to the sheaf O(0) + O(n). The surface Σ0 is isomorphic to P1 × P1, and Σ1 is isomorphic to P2 blown up at a point so is not minimal.) +Invariants: The plurigenera are all 0 and the fundamental group is trivial. +Hodge diamond: + +Examples: P2, P1 × P1 = Σ0, Hirzebruch surfaces Σn, quadrics, cubic surfaces, del Pezzo surfaces, Veronese surface. Many of these examples are non-minimal. + +=== Ruled surfaces of genus > 0 === +Ruled surfaces of genus g have a smooth morphism to a curve of genus g whose fibers are lines P1. They are all algebraic. (The ones of genus 0 are the Hirzebruch surfaces and are rational.) Any ruled surface is birationally equivalent to P1 × C for a unique curve C, so the classification of ruled surfaces up to birational equivalence is essentially the same as the classification of curves. A ruled surface not isomorphic to P1 × P1 has a unique ruling (P1 × P1 has two). +Invariants: The plurigenera are all 0. +Hodge diamond: + +Examples: The product of any curve of genus > 0 with P1. + +=== Surfaces of class VII === + +These surfaces are never algebraic or Kähler. The minimal ones with b2 = 0 have been classified by Bogomolov, and are either Hopf surfaces or Inoue surfaces. Examples with positive second Betti number include Inoue-Hirzebruch surfaces, Enoki surfaces, and more generally Kato surfaces. The global spherical shell conjecture implies that all minimal class VII surfaces with positive second Betti number are Kato surfaces, which would more or less complete the classification of the type VII surfaces. +Invariants: q = 1, h1,0 = 0. All plurigenera are 0. +Hodge diamond: + +== Surfaces of Kodaira dimension 0 == +These surfaces are classified by starting with Noether's formula + + + + 12 + χ + = + + c + + 2 + + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle 12\chi =c_{2}+c_{1}^{2}.} + + For Kodaira dimension 0, K has zero intersection number with itself, so + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + = + 0. + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2}=0.} + + Using \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5ed0b3535 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,323 @@ +--- +title: "Enriques–Kodaira classification" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:25.992556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + + + + + χ + + + + = + + h + + 0 + , + 0 + + + − + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + + + + + + c + + 2 + + + + + + = + 2 + − + 2 + + b + + 1 + + + + + + b + + 2 + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}\chi &=h^{0,0}-h^{0,1}+h^{0,2}\\c_{2}&=2-2b_{1}+b_{2}\end{aligned}}} + + +we arrive at: + + + + + 10 + + + 12 + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + = + 8 + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + 2 + + ( + + 2 + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + − + + b + + 1 + + + + ) + + + + + b + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle 10+12h^{0,2}=8h^{0,1}+2\left(2h^{0,1}-b_{1}\right)+b_{2}} + + +Moreover since κ = 0 we have: + + + + + + h + + 0 + , + 2 + + + = + + + { + + + + 1 + + + K + = + 0 + + + + + 0 + + + + otherwise + + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle h^{0,2}={\begin{cases}1&K=0\\0&{\text{otherwise}}\end{cases}}} + + +combining this with the previous equation gives: + + + + + 8 + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + + + 2 + + ( + + 2 + + h + + 0 + , + 1 + + + − + + b + + 1 + + + + ) + + + + + b + + 2 + + + = + + + { + + + + 22 + + + K + = + 0 + + + + + 10 + + + + otherwise + + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle 8h^{0,1}+2\left(2h^{0,1}-b_{1}\right)+b_{2}={\begin{cases}22&K=0\\10&{\text{otherwise}}\end{cases}}} + + +In general 2h0,1 ≥ b1, so three terms on the left are non-negative integers and there are only a few solutions to this equation. + +For algebraic surfaces 2h0,1 − b1 is an even integer between 0 and 2pg. +For compact complex surfaces 2h0,1 − b1 = 0 or 1. +For Kähler surfaces 2h0,1 − b1 = 0 and h1,0 = h0,1. +Most solutions to these conditions correspond to classes of surfaces, as in the following table: + +=== K3 surfaces === +These are the minimal compact complex surfaces of Kodaira dimension 0 with q = 0 and trivial canonical line bundle. They are all Kähler manifolds. All K3 surfaces are diffeomorphic, and their diffeomorphism class is an important example of a smooth spin simply connected 4-manifold. +Invariants: The second cohomology group H2(X, Z) is isomorphic to the unique even unimodular lattice II3,19 of dimension 22 and signature −16. +Hodge diamond: + +Examples: + +Degree 4 hypersurfaces in P3(C) +Kummer surfaces. These are obtained by quotienting out an abelian surface by the automorphism a → −a, then blowing up the 16 singular points. +A marked K3 surface is a K3 surface together with an isomorphism from II3,19 to H2(X, Z). The moduli space of marked K3 surfaces is connected non-Hausdorff smooth analytic space of dimension 20. The algebraic K3 surfaces form a countable collection of 19-dimensional subvarieties of it. + +=== Abelian surfaces and 2-dimensional complex tori === +The two-dimensional complex tori include the abelian surfaces. One-dimensional complex tori are just elliptic curves and are all algebraic, but Riemann discovered that most complex tori of dimension 2 are not algebraic. The algebraic ones are exactly the 2-dimensional abelian varieties. Most of their theory is a special case of the theory of higher-dimensional tori or abelian varieties. Criteria to be a product of two elliptic curves (up to isogeny) were a popular study in the nineteenth century. +Invariants: The plurigenera are all 1. The surface is diffeomorphic to S1 × S1 × S1 × S1 so the fundamental group is Z4. +Hodge diamond: + +Examples: A product of two elliptic curves. The Jacobian of a genus 2 curve. Any quotient of C2 by a lattice. + +=== Kodaira surfaces === + +These are never algebraic, though they have non-constant meromorphic functions. They are usually divided into two subtypes: primary Kodaira surfaces with trivial canonical bundle, and secondary Kodaira surfaces which are quotients of these by finite groups of orders 2, 3, 4, or 6, and which have non-trivial canonical bundles. The secondary Kodaira surfaces have the same relation to primary ones that Enriques surfaces have to K3 surfaces, or bielliptic surfaces have to abelian surfaces. +Invariants: If the surface is the quotient of a primary Kodaira surface by a group of order k = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, then the plurigenera Pn are 1 if n is divisible by k and 0 otherwise. +Hodge diamond: + +Examples: Take a non-trivial line bundle over an elliptic curve, remove the zero section, then quotient out the fibers by Z acting as multiplication by powers of some complex number z. This gives a primary Kodaira surface. + +=== Enriques surfaces === + +These are the complex surfaces such that q = 0 and the canonical line bundle is non-trivial, but has trivial square. Enriques surfaces are all algebraic (and therefore Kähler). They are quotients of K3 surfaces by a group of order 2 and their theory is similar to that of algebraic K3 surfaces. +Invariants: The plurigenera Pn are 1 if n is even and 0 if n is odd. The fundamental group has order 2. The second cohomology group H2(X, Z) is isomorphic to the sum of the unique even unimodular lattice II1,9 of dimension 10 and signature −8 and a group of order 2. +Hodge diamond: + +Marked Enriques surfaces form a connected 10-dimensional family, which has been described explicitly. +In characteristic 2 there are some extra families of Enriques surfaces called singular and supersingular Enriques surfaces; see the article on Enriques surfaces for details. + +=== Hyperelliptic (or bielliptic) surfaces === + +Over the complex numbers these are quotients of a product of two elliptic curves by a finite group of automorphisms. The finite group can be Z/2Z, Z/2Z + Z/2Z, Z/3Z, Z/3Z + Z/3Z, Z/4Z, Z/4Z + Z/2Z, or Z/6Z, giving seven families of such surfaces. +Hodge diamond: + +Over fields of characteristics 2 or 3 there are some extra families given by taking quotients by a non-etale group scheme; see the article on hyperelliptic surfaces for details. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e59144987 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,226 @@ +--- +title: "Enriques–Kodaira classification" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:25.992556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Surfaces of Kodaira dimension 1 == +An elliptic surface is a surface equipped with an elliptic fibration (a surjective holomorphic map to a curve B such that all but finitely many fibers are smooth irreducible curves of genus 1). The generic fiber in such a fibration is a genus 1 curve over the function field of B. Conversely, given a genus 1 curve over the function field of a curve, its relative minimal model is an elliptic surface. Kodaira and others have given a fairly complete description of all elliptic surfaces. In particular, Kodaira gave a complete list of the possible singular fibers. The theory of elliptic surfaces is analogous to the theory of proper regular models of elliptic curves over discrete valuation rings (e.g., the ring of p-adic integers) and Dedekind domains (e.g., the ring of integers of a number field). +In finite characteristic 2 and 3 one can also get quasi-elliptic surfaces, whose fibers may almost all be rational curves with a single node, which are "degenerate elliptic curves". +Every surface of Kodaira dimension 1 is an elliptic surface (or a quasielliptic surface in characteristics 2 or 3), but the converse is not true: an elliptic surface can have Kodaira dimension + + + + − + ∞ + + + {\displaystyle -\infty } + +, 0, or 1. All Enriques surfaces, all hyperelliptic surfaces, all Kodaira surfaces, some K3 surfaces, some abelian surfaces, and some rational surfaces are elliptic surfaces, and these examples have Kodaira dimension less than 1. An elliptic surface whose base curve B is of genus at least 2 always has Kodaira dimension 1, but the Kodaira dimension can be 1 also for some elliptic surfaces with B of genus 0 or 1. +Invariants: + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + = + 0 + , + + c + + 2 + + + ⩾ + 0. + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2}=0,c_{2}\geqslant 0.} + + +Example: If E is an elliptic curve and B is a curve of genus at least 2, then E×B is an elliptic surface of Kodaira dimension 1. + +== Surfaces of Kodaira dimension 2 (surfaces of general type) == + +These are all algebraic, and in some sense most surfaces are in this class. Gieseker showed that there is a coarse moduli scheme for surfaces of general type; this means that for any fixed values of the Chern numbers c21 and c2, there is a quasi-projective scheme classifying the surfaces of general type with those Chern numbers. However it is a very difficult problem to describe these schemes explicitly, and there are very few pairs of Chern numbers for which this has been done (except when the scheme is empty!) +Invariants: There are several conditions that the Chern numbers of a minimal complex surface of general type must satisfy: + + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + , + + c + + 2 + + + > + 0 + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2},c_{2}>0} + + + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + ⩽ + 3 + + c + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2}\leqslant 3c_{2}} + + (the Bogomolov–Miyaoka–Yau inequality) + + + + + 5 + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + − + + c + + 2 + + + + + 36 + ⩾ + 0 + + + {\displaystyle 5c_{1}^{2}-c_{2}+36\geqslant 0} + + (the Noether inequality) + + + + + + c + + 1 + + + 2 + + + + + + c + + 2 + + + ≡ + 0 + + mod + + 1 + + + 2. + + + {\displaystyle c_{1}^{2}+c_{2}\equiv 0{\bmod {1}}2.} + + +Most pairs of integers satisfying these conditions are the Chern numbers for some complex surface of general type. +Examples: The simplest examples are the product of two curves of genus at least 2, and a hypersurface of degree at least 5 in P3. There are a large number of other constructions known. However, there is no known construction that can produce "typical" surfaces of general type for large Chern numbers; in fact it is not even known if there is any reasonable concept of a "typical" surface of general type. There are many other examples that have been found, including most Hilbert modular surfaces, fake projective planes, Barlow surfaces, and so on. + +== Classification in positive characteristic == +The classification in positive characteristic was begun by David Mumford (1969) and completed by Enrico Bombieri and David Mumford (1976, 1977). It is similar to that of algebraic surfaces in characteristic 0, but there are no Kodaira surfaces or surfaces of type VII. There are some extra families in small characteristic. +The final answer turns out to be essentially the same as the answer in the complex case (though the methods employed are sometimes quite different), once two significant adjustments are made. The first is that one may get "non-classical" surfaces, which come about when p-torsion in the Picard scheme degenerates to a non-reduced group scheme. The second is the possibility of obtaining quasi-elliptic surfaces in characteristics two and three. These are surfaces fibred over a curve where the general fibre is a curve of arithmetic genus one with a cusp. +Once these adjustments are made, the surfaces are divided into four classes by their Kodaira dimension, as in the complex case. There are Enriques surfaces in characteristic 2, and hyperelliptic surfaces in characteristics 2 and 3, and in Kodaira dimension 1 in characteristics 2 and 3 one also allows quasielliptic fibrations. These extra families can be understood as follows: In characteristic 0 these surfaces are the quotients of surfaces by finite groups, but in finite characteristics it is also possible to take quotients by finite group schemes that are not étale. One gets both singular and supersingular Enriques surfaces in characteristic 2, and quasi-hyperelliptic surfaces in characteristics 2 and 3. +Oscar Zariski constructed some surfaces in positive characteristic that are unirational but not rational, derived from inseparable extensions (so-called Zariski surfaces). In positive characteristic Serre showed that + + + + + h + + 0 + + + ( + Ω + ) + + + {\displaystyle h^{0}(\Omega )} + + may differ from + + + + + h + + 1 + + + ( + + + O + + + ) + + + {\displaystyle h^{1}({\mathcal {O}})} + +, and Igusa showed that even when they are equal they may be greater than the irregularity (the dimension of the Picard variety). + +== See also == +List of algebraic surfaces + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..790cf1850 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Enriques–Kodaira classification" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enriques–Kodaira_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:25.992556+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Further reading == +Barth, Wolf P.; Hulek, Klaus; Peters, Chris A.M.; Van de Ven, Antonius (2004), Compact Complex Surfaces, Ergebnisse der Mathematik und ihrer Grenzgebiete. 3. Folge., vol. 4, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-57739-0, ISBN 978-3-540-00832-3, MR 2030225 – the standard reference book for compact complex surfaces +Beauville, Arnaud (1996), Complex algebraic surfaces, London Mathematical Society Student Texts, vol. 34 (2nd ed.), Cambridge University Press, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511623936, ISBN 978-0-521-49510-3, MR 1406314; (ISBN 978-0-521-49842-5 softcover) – including a more elementary introduction to the classification +Bombieri, E.; Mumford, D. (1977). "Enriques' Classification of Surfaces in Char. P, II". Complex Analysis and Algebraic Geometry. pp. 23–42. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511569197.004. ISBN 9780521217774. +Reid, Miles (1997), "Chapters on algebraic surfaces", Complex algebraic geometry (Park City, UT, 1993), IAS/Park City Math. Ser., vol. 3, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, pp. 3–159, arXiv:alg-geom/9602006, Bibcode:1996alg.geom..2006R, doi:10.1090/pcms/003/02, ISBN 9780821811450, MR 1442522, S2CID 116933286 +Shafarevich, Igor R.; Averbuh, Boris G.; Vaĭnberg, Ju. R.; Zhizhchenko, A. B.; Manin, Yuri I.; Moishezon, Boris G.; Tjurina, Galina N.; Tjurin, Andrei N. (1967) [1965], "Algebraic surfaces", Proceedings of the Steklov Institute of Mathematics, 75, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society: 1–215, ISBN 978-0-8218-1875-6, MR 0190143{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link) +Van de Ven, Antonius (1978), "On the Enriques classification of algebraic surfaces", Séminaire Bourbaki, 29e année (1976/77), Lecture Notes in Math., vol. 677, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, pp. 237–251, MR 0521772 +Lang, William E. "Quasi-elliptic surfaces in characteristic three", Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure, Série 4, Tome 12 (1979) no. 4, pp. 473-500. doi: 10.24033/asens.1373. Theorem 4.3 of this article classifies the Hodge numbers of a quasi-hyperelliptic surface in characteristic three. + +== External links == +le superficie algebriche is an interactive visualisation of the Enriques--Kodaira classification, by Pieter Belmans and Johan Commelin \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cfd58a8cd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 1/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Measles is extremely contagious, but surviving the infection results in lifelong immunity, so its continued circulation in a community depends on the generation of susceptible hosts by birth of children. In communities which generate insufficient new hosts the disease will die out. This concept was first recognized by Bartlett in 1957, who referred to the minimum number supporting measles as the critical community size (CCS). Analysis of outbreaks in island communities suggested that the CCS for measles is c. 250,000. Due to the development of vaccination against measles, the world has seen a 99% decrease in measles related cases compared to cases before the vaccine was developed. + +== Incidence == + +In 2018, the WHO estimated that there were around 353,236 cases of measles worldwide. This has since decreased as in 2020 there were 159,000 approximate cases. Death from measles was reported in approximately 0.2% of the cases in the United States from 1985 through 1992. In populations with high levels of malnutrition and a lack of adequate healthcare, mortality can be as high as 10%. Increased immunization has led to an estimated 78% drop in measles deaths among UN member states. +Even in countries where vaccination has been introduced, vaccination rates may remain low due to parents choosing not to have their children vaccinated. In Ireland, vaccination was introduced in 1985. There were 99,903 cases that year. Within two years, the number of cases had fallen to 201, but this fall was not sustained. Measles is a leading cause of vaccine-preventable childhood mortality. Worldwide, the fatality rate has been significantly reduced by a vaccination campaign led by partners in the Measles Initiative: the American Red Cross, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United Nations Foundation, UNICEF and the WHO. Globally, measles fell 60% from an estimated 873,000 deaths in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005. Estimates for 2008 indicate deaths fell further to 164,000 globally, with 77% of the remaining measles deaths in 2008 occurring within the Southeast Asian region. +In 2006–07 there were 12,132 cases in 32 European countries: 85% occurred in five countries: Germany, Italy, Romania, Switzerland and the UK. 80% occurred in children and there were 7 deaths. +Five out of six WHO regions have set goals to eliminate measles, and at the 63rd World Health Assembly in May 2010, delegates agreed a global target of a 95% reduction in measles mortality by 2015 from the level seen in 2000, as well as to move towards eventual eradication. However, no specific global target date for eradication has yet been agreed to as of May 2010. +On January 22, 2014, the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization declared and certified Colombia free of the measles while becoming the first Latin American country to abolish the infection within its borders. +In 2018, The WHO tells us the global annual incidence was about 46 million. During this time, the African Region reported the most cases, about 40%, seen primarily from Nigeria, and Eastern Mediterranean regions. In these specific areas, the incidence was greatly seen in those less than one year old. Studies show that about 95% were immune by 15 years old, making it increasingly common for the incidence of measles to occur in young children. +Cases reported in the first three months of 2019 were 300% higher than in the first three months of 2018, with outbreaks in every region of the world, even in countries with high overall vaccination coverage where it spread among clusters of unvaccinated people. +Through the recent improvement of decreasing measles incidence and mortality rates across the world, recently there has been setbacks. Since 2000, the MCV coverage around the world has decreased and the total cases of measles has increased from 132,490 in 2016, to 869,700 in 2019. Though many countries have eliminated measles, several countries have discovered new cases in 2019. Growing concern has been generating in increase cases of measles as incidence in measles have increased in recent years due to anti-vaccination movements due to religion and politics. +Measles eradication has been challenging for many countries to maintain herd immunity. Due to political unrest, economic challenges, and accessibility to healthcare and proper vaccinations achieving proper vaccination levels in developing countries has halted. Another challenge faced worldwide is vaccination hesitancy. The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have listed this is a top ten challenge to global health in reducing the incidence of measles. +In April 2020, the WHO indicated that many countries had started suspending their measles vaccination programs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is projected that 117 million children will be at risk of infection. Currently all 194 countries have started to routinely vaccinate children with the MCV vaccine, and 122 countries have included the MMR into their routine child immunization schedules. + +== Outbreaks == +As measles contagion is high, it can spread rapidly through the population. The incubation period for measles is 10–12 days, and is characterized by seasonal epidemics, and spreads quickly against non-vaccinated persons. Measles is quite uncommon in populations of highly vaccinated areas, yet when it does occur, it is more commonly seen in adults. +The development of the measles vaccine has been vital in reducing outbreaks. Without a measles vaccine, measles epidemics could happen every 2 to 5 years and last up to 3 to 4 months at a time. +Commonly outbreaks in one country spread to others and this can be traced by close examination of the virus DNA. As of 2020 measles is widespread and there have been over the last decade many outbreaks in areas that were formerly declared measles free. See below for individual countries by continent. +Some examples of measles spreading between countries are: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d0abb8907 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 2/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +As of May 2011, over 17,000 cases of measles had so far been reported from France between January 2008 and April 2011, including 2 deaths in 2010 and 6 deaths in 2011. Over 7,500 of these cases fell in the first three months of 2011, and Spain, Turkey, Macedonia, and Belgium have been among the other European countries reporting further smaller outbreaks. The French outbreak has been specifically linked to a further outbreak in Quebec in 2011, where 327 cases have been reported between January and June 1, 2011, and the European outbreaks in general have also been implicated in further small outbreaks in the US, where 40 separate importations from the European region had been reported between January 1 and May 20. +In 2014 many unvaccinated US citizens visiting the Philippines, and other countries, contracted measles, resulting in 288 cases being recorded in the United States in the first five months of 2014, a twenty-year high. In Vietnam, in the measles epidemic in the beginning of 2014, as of April 19 there were 8,500 measles cases and 114 fatalities, and as of May 30 there were 21,639 measles cases and 142 fatalities. +The increase of measles in January and February 2022 sparked concern due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the displacement of millions due to conflict crises. This includes Ukraine, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Afghanistan as this disrupts the routine immunization schedule and the primary focus is the safety of citizens. + +=== European reservoir === +It has proven difficult to vaccinate a sufficient number of children in Europe to eradicate the disease, because of opposition on philosophical or religious grounds, or fears of side-effects, or because some minority groups are hard to reach, or simply because parents forget to have their children vaccinated. Vaccination is not mandatory in some countries in Europe, in contrast to the United States and many Latin American countries, where children must be vaccinated before they enter school. + +== Africa == + +=== Congo === + +In January 2020, the World Health Organization announced that the death toll from the measles outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had reached 6,000, triple that of Ebola. 310,000 cases have been reported since 2019. US $27.6 million has been spent, but $40 million more is needed. + +=== Madagascar === +In 2019, 1,200 had died of measles in an outbreak in Madagascar. + +=== South Africa === +Beginning in September 2009, Johannesburg, South Africa reported about 48 cases of measles. Soon after the outbreak, the government ordered all children to be vaccinated. Vaccination programs were then initiated in all schools, and parents of young children were advised to have them vaccinated. Many people were not willing to have the vaccination done, as it was believed to be unsafe and ineffective. The Health Department assured the public that their program was indeed safe. Speculation arose as to whether or not new needles were being used. By mid-October, there were at least 940 recorded cases, and four deaths. +By 2020, South Africa eliminated measles outbreaks as there was less than one case per million citizens in the population in 2015, 2016, and 2020. +An outbreak started in September 2022, the strain being genotype D8 - similar to the 2022 outbreak strain in Zimbabwe. By October 2023 there were 1199 confirmed positive tests from 7054 serum samples, with most cases in the Limpopo province. + +=== Zimbabwe === +In April 2022 cases were reported from the village of Makabvepi near the border with Mozambique, with child deaths from families that belonged to the Johane Marange Apostolic Church whose large Easter service and then a Passover celebration spread measles across the country. The church publicly opposed vaccination and is closely aligned with President Emmerson Mnangagwa who attended the Passover gathering. Vaccine hesitancy was amplified by churches discouraging immunization and urging members to rely on prayer and the intercession of pastors instead. As of 6 September 2022, there were more than 6500 reported cases and 704 deaths. + +== Americas == +Indigenous measles was declared to have been eliminated in North, Central, and South America; the last endemic case in the region was reported on November 12, 2002, with only northern Argentina and rural Canada, particularly in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta, having minor endemic status. Outbreaks are still occurring, however, following importations of measles viruses from other world regions. In June 2006, an outbreak in Boston resulted after a resident became infected in India. + +=== Canada === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6e470849d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 3/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Canadian data since 1924 shows measles outbreaks occurring frequently until the large vaccination campaigns in the 1970s. The 1935 epidemic stands out during this early period, with 83,000 reported cases (770 cases per 100,000 population); the highest number of fatalities occurring in 1926, with 892. Immunization programs became widely spread during the 1970s, with an estimated 85% of the target population receiving one dose of vaccination by the end of the decade. However, the frequent recurrence of significant outbreaks (including 6,178 cases in 1991 alone) showed Canada's 1-dose strategy was lacking, even with provinces requiring immunization for school attendance. Two-dose MMR programs and catch-up campaigns were widely introduced in 1996-1997. +The Canadian government defines endemic measles as a situation where a chain of transmission continues uninterrupted for 12 months. By this standard, Canada has been free of endemic measles since 1998, but sporadic imported outbreaks have continued. +Southern regions of the province of Quebec witnessed a measles outbreak affecting 94 persons in the Spring and summer 2007. The outbreak lasted 25 weeks, included more than one strain of the measles virus and had 12-17 generations of spread. +In 2008, Canada had more than 30 confirmed cases in Ontario in 2008, with more than half reported in Toronto. +In 2011, Quebec experienced the largest outbreak of measles in the Americas since 2002. The outbreak began on 8 January with unvaccinated individuals acquiring the disease whilst traveling to France, a country with high measles incidence, and returning home to Quebec. Public health officials responded to the outbreak by launching a mass vaccination campaign, and on 22 December, the outbreak ended with a total of 776 cases having occurred. 615 cases (79%) had not been vaccinated, including 29 infants too young to receive the vaccine. 11% of cases required hospitalization, and complications occurred in 64 cases (8%), with pneumonia being the most common complication observed (3% of cases). No deaths were reported. +A measles outbreak was declared on 8 March 2014 in regions east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley area where vaccination rates were known to be low in school and religious groups. A total of 228 cases were confirmed. On March 24, Fraser Health Authority said the outbreak have been contained and confined to the original community. +In May 2024, a child under the age of five in Ontario died of measles, the first case in the province in over a decade. The child was reportedly not vaccinated against the virus, and required hospitalization before his death. + +=== Mexico === +Twenty-five cases of measles were reported in Mexico City on March 18, 2020. The outbreak began in the Reclusario Norte (Northern penitentiary) the previous week. 8,000 vaccines were applied at the penitentiary and 10,000 doses were applied at the other penitentiaries in the city. Eleven children and five adults in the nearby Gustavo A. Madero borough were among the 25 infected. + +=== United States === + +Indigenous measles has been declared eliminated in North, Central, and South America; the last endemic case in the region was reported on November 12, 2002. Though measles is considered "eliminated," outbreaks are still occurring following importations of measles viruses from other world regions. In June 2006, an outbreak in Boston resulted after a resident became infected in India, and in October 2007, a Michigan girl who had been vaccinated contracted the disease overseas. +In 1991 in the Philadelphia region, thousands of children were sick with measles. The center of this outbreak was traced to the Faith Tabernacle Congregation, a Faith Healing church that actively discouraged parishioners from vaccinating their children. A judge issued a Court Order to forcibly treat children whose parents refused to seek medical care, and nine children were forcibly vaccinated. Nine children eventually died as a result of this outbreak. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..42704448f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 4/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Between January 1 and April 25, 2008, a total of 64 confirmed measles cases were preliminarily reported in the United States to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the most reported by this date since 2001, and the highest total number in six years. Of the 64 cases, 54 were associated with importation of measles from other countries into the United States, and 63 of the 64 patients were unvaccinated or had unknown or undocumented vaccination status. By July 9, 2008, a total of 127 cases were reported in 15 states, making it the largest US outbreak since 1997 (when 138 cases were reported). Most of the cases were acquired outside of the United States and affected individuals who had not been vaccinated. +In early 2008 there was an outbreak of measles in San Diego, California. The outbreak is traced to an unvaccinated 7-year-old child who went on a family trip to Europe. The CDC refers to this as an "import-associated outbreak". The final diagnosis included 11 additional cases of measles in unvaccinated children in San Diego. All of the confirmed patients were not vaccinated because they were younger than 1, the minimum age for measles inoculation, or because their parents declined to have them vaccinated. The typical vaccine would be the MMR vaccine. The incident drew attention to the controversy over MMR vaccination. This was San Diego County's first measles outbreak since 1991. +In February 2008 there was an outbreak of measles in Pima County, Arizona. There were 13 laboratory confirmed and 4 probable measles cases, though 22 cases were previously reported. The outbreak started with a visitor from Switzerland and resulted in a public health emergency declaration by Pima County. The last confirmed Pima County case occurred in 1994, and the last outbreak occurred in 1991. +By July 9, 2008, a total of 127 cases were reported in 15 states (including 22 in Arizona), making it the largest U.S. outbreak since 1997 (when 138 cases were reported). Most of the cases were acquired outside of the United States and affected individuals who had not been vaccinated. By July 30, 2008, the number of cases had grown to 131. Of these, about half involved children whose parents rejected vaccination. The 131 cases occurred in seven different outbreaks. There were no deaths, and 15 hospitalizations. Children who were unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown accounted for 122 cases. Some of these were under the age when vaccination is recommended, but in 63 cases, the vaccinations had been refused for religious or philosophical reasons. +On May 24, 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the United States has had 118 measles cases so far this year. The 118 cases were reported by 23 states and New York City between Jan 1 and May 20. Of the 118 cases, 105 (89%) were associated with cases abroad and 105 (89%) of the 118 patients had not been vaccinated. +In 2013, at least 20 members of the Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, Texas were diagnosed with measles after a few members of the congregation traveled abroad on a mission trip and contracted the disease. The church has sponsored several vaccination drives. Senior Pastor Terri Pearsons, who had previously expressed concerns about potential links between the measles vaccine and autism, was encouraging parishioners to get vaccinated. However, she said she still has some concerns about vaccines, particularly for young children with a family history of autism, and where several immunizations are given at the same time. Professor William Schaffner, professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, described the pastor as "misinformed" and said that young children are among the most vulnerable to measles. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c78a2a6be --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 5/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In February and March 2014, 20 confirmed cases appeared in New York City. + +In December 2014, a measles outbreak began at Disneyland in Southern California. At least 173 people have become infected with measles in 21 states, as of May 2015. Health officials say 39 cases have been traced to direct exposure at the park, with 117 infections linked by primary or secondary exposure. Among the 110 California patients, 49 (45%) were unvaccinated; five (5%) had 1 dose of measles-containing vaccine, seven (6%) had 2 doses, one (1%) had 3 doses, 47 (43%) had unknown or undocumented vaccination status, and one (1%) had immunoglobulin G seropositivity documented, which indicates prior vaccination or measles infection at an undetermined time. 12 of the unvaccinated patients were infants too young to be vaccinated. +Medical professionals, such as David Gorski, have criticized physicians and pediatricians in the area who do not adhere to the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule or discourage vaccination, among them Bob Sears and Jay Gordon for reducing vaccination rates and thus weakening herd immunity, and creating a situation in which an outbreak was more likely. California passed a mandatory vaccination law in June 2015. +In January 2015, it was reported that over 70 people who had visited Disneyland or Disney California Adventure between Dec. 15 and Dec. 20 fell ill with measles, with 62 of them residing in California. The total number of cases included five people who had been fully vaccinated against the disease. Between January 1 and 28, 2015, most of the 84 people who were diagnosed with measles were either infected during their visit to Disneyland or by someone who visited the theme park. +In Spring 2015, the death of an immune-suppressed woman in Washington State caused by measles was diagnosed after autopsy. This was the first U.S. measles death since 2012. +In spring 2017, a measles outbreak occurred in Minnesota. As of June 16, 78 cases of measles had been confirmed in the state, 71 were unvaccinated and 65 were Somali-Americans. The outbreak has been attributed to low vaccination rates among Somali-American children, which can be traced back to 2008, when Somali parents expressed concerns about disproportionately high numbers of Somali preschoolers in special education classes who were receiving services for autism spectrum disorder. Around this time, Andrew Wakefield visited Minneapolis, teaming up with vaccine-skeptical groups to raise concerns about the MMR vaccine. Multiple studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. +In January 2019, Washington's Clark County Public Health officials declared a public health emergency due to a measles outbreak. As of February 28, 2019, 65 cases were identified. +In March 2019, a disaster was declared by county authorities and the county health department in Rockland County, New York, over a growing measles outbreak there. Additionally there has been 259 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens, most of which are affecting the Orthodox Jewish community. +In 2019, 1,274 reported measles cases drew concern as this was the largest reported number of cases in the United States since 1992. Cases were mostly unvaccinated individuals. In 2021, cases went down to only 49 reported cases in the United States. In 2022, cases jumped to 121 reported cases. In 2023, cases decreased to 58 reported cases, but the CDC has remarked that they have already had more cases reported in 2024 than the previous year, again citing unvaccinated individuals. + +=== Venezuela === +In 2018, Venezuela had 5,525 cases of measles reported, which was 68% of the total cases in the Americas at the time. As of 2020, the Pan America Health Organization reported that the measles outbreak is under control, and have increased vaccination rates in over 9 million children. + +== Asia == + +=== Bangladesh === + +=== Israel === +Approximately 100 cases of the disease were reported in Israel between August 2007 and May 2008 (in sharp contrast to just some dozen cases the year before). Many children in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities were affected due to low vaccination coverage. +In 2018 and 2019, Israel suffered a measles outbreak affecting 4,300 citizens. + +=== Japan === +In 2007, a large measles outbreak in Japan caused a number of universities and other institutions to close in an attempt to contain the disease. + +=== Philippines === +In early 2010, there was a serious outbreak of measles in the Philippines with 742 cases, leaving four unvaccinated children dead in the capital city of Manila. +In late 2013, it was reported in the Philippines that 6,497 measles cases occurred which resulted in 23 deaths. +In 2014 the Philippines experienced a large measles outbreak. According to the World Health Organization there were 57,564 suspected cases of measles, including 21,403 confirmed cases, and 110 measles deaths reported in the Philippines from January 1 through December 20, 2014. Most of the cases were among unvaccinated people. A major outbreak was declared on February 6, 2019, with 70 recorded deaths of children, this outbreak was attributed to the "Dengvaxia scare". + +== Europe == + +Despite the highest ever vaccination rate of 90% achieved in 2017 in the European region, number of measles cases tripled the next year reaching 82,596 with 72 of them resulting in death. Almost two thirds of them were registered in Ukraine, where vaccination rates dropped to 31% in 2016. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..562be7aed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 6/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Ukraine === +Ukraine has had a multiple large outbreaks of measles. In 2001–2002, there were around 25,000 cases and 14 deaths reported. In 2006 with 44,534 reported cases with at least 2 deaths. 13,517 cases were reported in 2012. In 2019 Ukraine reported over 57,000 cases, over half the total reports in the WHO European Region. +Ukraine has one of the world's worst measles epidemics with more than 100,000 cases from 2017 to June 2019, with 16 deaths in 2018. In 2016 only 31% of the population had been immunised with the MMR vaccine. Various reasons are given for the low rate of vaccination including: a distrust of the state in the 1990s, a failure to keep vaccine supplies reliably refrigerated leading to ineffectiveness, a poorly informed medical profession and a high level of vaccine distrust in the wider population. Children are required to be vaccinated before entering the school system, but UNICEF estimates that as many as 30% of vaccination certificates are falsified. + +=== Germany === +Germany has faced repeated outbreaks in the 21st century. 6,037 cases were reported in 2001 with at least two deaths. More than 1,500 cases were reported in 2006. 1,600 cases were reported in an outbreak in 2013. An outbreak in 2015 had more than 1,700 cases had been reported by May 11 with one death. + +=== Netherlands === +In September 2008 an outbreak occurred among anthroposophists' children in the cities of The Hague and Utrecht. Some 90 infections of unvaccinated children were recorded by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) by September 29. It was expected the outbreak would spread to the region of the Veluwe, locally known as a bijbelgordel ("Bible Belt") with a large population of unvaccinated children on religious grounds. +In June 2013, another outbreak occurred in the Bible Belt in The Netherlands. According to newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, there were 161 infections, of which 5 infected people were hospitalized critically ill. Two of the hospitalized cases had meningitis, two others had pneumonia and from one of them, the complications are still unknown. +As of 2019, the Netherlands reported over 80 measles cases. + +=== United Kingdom === + +After the MMR vaccine controversy began, the MMR vaccination compliance dropped sharply in the United Kingdom, from 92% in 1996 to 84% in 2002. In some parts of London, it was as low as 61% in 2003, far below the rate needed to avoid an epidemic of measles. By 2006 coverage for MMR in the UK at 24 months was 85%, lower than the about 94% coverage for other vaccines. +After vaccination rates dropped, the incidence of two of the three diseases increased greatly in the UK. In 1998 there were 56 confirmed cases of measles in the UK; in 2006 there were 449 in the first five months of the year, with the first death since 1992. Cases occurred in inadequately vaccinated children. The age group affected was too old to have received the routine MMR immunizations around the time the paper by Wakefield et al. was published, and too young to have contracted the natural disease as a child, and thus to achieve a herd immunity effect. +With the decline in infection that followed the introduction of the MMR vaccine, these individuals had not been exposed to the disease, but still had no immunity, either natural or vaccine induced. Therefore, as immunization rates declined following the controversy and the disease re-emerged, they were susceptible to infection. Measles cases continued in 2006, at incidence rates 13 times greater than 1998 levels. Two children were severely and permanently injured by measles encephalitis despite undergoing kidney transplantation in London. Disease outbreaks also caused casualties in nearby countries including Ireland. +In 2008, for the first time in 14 years, measles was declared endemic in the UK, meaning that the disease was sustained within the population. This was caused by the preceding decade's low MMR vaccination rates, which created a population of susceptible children who could spread the disease. In May 2008, a British 17-year-old with an underlying immunodeficiency died of measles. +An outbreak centered on the Swansea area of Wales started in November 2012; as of 22 April there have been 886 cases. +In March 2013, an epidemic was declared in Swansea, Wales, UK with 1,219 cases and 88 hospitalizations to date. A 25-year-old male had measles at the time of death and died from giant cell pneumonia caused by the disease. There have been growing concerns that the epidemic could spread to London and infect many more people due to poor MMR uptake, prompting the Department of Health to set up a mass vaccination campaign targeted at one million school children throughout England. +In April 2019 a senior epidemiologist at Public Health England said that confidence in the immunization program was high and that timing, availability and location of appointments were the main barriers to vaccination. +In 2021, the United Kingdom reported 2 total measles cases in the country. + +=== Ireland === +1,500 cases and three deaths were reported in the Irish outbreak of 2000, which occurred as a direct result of decreased vaccination rates following the MMR scare. + +=== Italy === +In 2017, there were 4,991 cases and four deaths, representing almost six-times the number of cases in 2016. The number of cases for 2013 through 2016 were 2211, 1674, 251 and 844. +In 2020 and 2021, Italy reported 4 confirmed cases of measles. + +=== Bulgaria === +Beginning in April 2009 there was a large outbreak of measles in Bulgaria, with 23,791 cases, including 24 deaths, reported up to 28 July 2010. From Bulgaria, the strain was carried to Germany, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, and other European countries. + +=== France === +Between January 2008 and May 2012, 22,000 measles cases were reported in France. 5,000 patients were hospitalised including 1,023 with severe pneumonia, 27 with encephalitis and/or myelitis, and 10 died. An awareness campaign about MMR vaccination was launched. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..970e95057 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Epidemiology of measles" +chunk: 7/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_measles" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:18.262071+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Portugal === +Most recent reported cases of measles in Portugal are originally imported from other European countries (United Kingdom, France and Romania), Africa (Angola, South African and Ethiopia) and Asia (China). Since 2004, Portugal reported 22 confirmed cases of measles. Virus isolates from 2005 and 2008 outbreaks belong the genotype D4. Vaccination coverage in Portugal is ≥95% (since 2006) but pockets of reduced immunization coverage (85-94%) still persist in the population. +In 2021-22 Portugal has reported 0 cases of measles. + +=== Romania === +On December 5, 2023, the Romanian Ministry of Health announced in a press communique that there is a measles epidemic in Romania with over 2,000 cases registered. Anti-measles vaccination in Romania is continuing a descending trend, with 72% of the eligible population having received the first dose and 62% the second dose. + +== Oceania == + +=== Australia === +Fourteen cases have been reported in multiple Australian and New Zealand cities including Melbourne and Auckland in the period between December 7, 2013, and January 3, 2014. The outbreak is believed to have begun at the 2013 World Supremacy Battlegrounds dance festival held in Sydney, Australia. + +=== New Zealand === +Ten cases were reported in Christchurch in July 2009. +An outbreak between 25 May 2011 and 24 July 2012 in the Auckland region had 489 confirmed or probable cases of measles, 82 of which required hospitalisation. The outbreak was started with an unimmunised child becoming infected on a family trip to England, then developing measles back in Auckland. +In June and July 2014, 124 confirmed cases of measles were reported in Hamilton. Eighty percent of persons infected were aged between 10 and 20, and all but four were not immunised. Most of those infected were linked with Fraser High School in the city's west, resulting in the school cancelling all school trips and cultural and sporting events. +In 2019, New Zealand saw its worst outbreak in two decades. As of 5 September 2019, there had been 1,051 reported cases, mainly in Auckland which has seen 877 cases. There were also reported cases in the South Island's Canterbury region, Otago and Southland regions. In response to the epidemic, the Government established a National Health Coordination Centre in Auckland. On 5 September, the United States Department of State and the Centers for Disease Control issued a health travel advisory for US citizens traveling to New Zealand. By 17 September, the number of measles cases had reached 1,327, with 1,108 reported in Auckland. Over 54,000 doses of vaccination had been distributed that month with 52,000 more doses arriving from Belgium on that date. + +=== Samoa === + +An outbreak in November 2019 resulted in the deaths of 24 children and one adult from over 2,200 cases as of November 25, 2019. The Health Ministry estimates two-thirds of its 200,000 residents are vaccinated, while UNICEF puts the vaccination rate even lower at 28-40 per cent. The death toll had increased to 39 by November 28, 2019. The death toll reached 53 on December 2. The government had declared a state of emergency on November 15, when schools were closed and children were banned from public gatherings. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Lindenberger-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Lindenberger-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7cf709b5a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Lindenberger-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Ethan Lindenberger" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Lindenberger" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:33.972187+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Ethan Lindenberger (born September 30, 2000) is an American activist known for his opposition to anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns. He received vaccinations, against his mother's wishes, on reaching the age of majority. +In November 2018, Lindenberger used Reddit to ask for help on how he should proceed to get vaccinated. Lindenberger said his mother believed in conspiracy theories about vaccines and so he had not been vaccinated as a child. Around the age of 13 years old, Lindenberger began pursuing vaccines related resources, such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) articles, hence deciding that after reaching adulthood he wanted to exercise his right to be vaccinated. He says his mother rejected vaccination because of unfounded fears about adverse effects of vaccines. His father however was reluctant to vaccinate younger kids instead of everyone. +His story, which involved intergenerational conflict, caught the attention of media and politicians. In March 2019, Lindenberger was invited to attend a US Senate hearing which dealt with epidemics of diseases such as measles, which can be easily prevented but are returning because of the dissemination of misleading information about vaccines. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Ethan Lindenberger on Facebook +Ethan Lindenberger Channel on YouTube +Ethan Lindenberger on Reddit +Ethan Lindenberger at TED \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..10b604b47 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Existential risk from artificial intelligence, or AI x-risk, refers to the idea that substantial progress in artificial general intelligence (AGI) could lead to human extinction or an irreversible global catastrophe. +One argument for the validity of this concern and the importance of this risk references how human beings dominate other species because the human brain possesses distinctive capabilities other animals lack. If AI were to surpass human intelligence and become superintelligent, it might become uncontrollable. Just as the fate of the mountain gorilla depends on human goodwill, the fate of humanity could depend on the actions of a future machine superintelligence. +Experts disagree on whether artificial general intelligence (AGI) can achieve the capabilities needed for human extinction. Debates center on AGI's technical feasibility, the speed of self-improvement, and the effectiveness of alignment strategies. Concerns about superintelligence have been voiced by researchers including Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Demis Hassabis, and Alan Turing, and AI company CEOs such as Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Sam Altman (OpenAI), and Elon Musk (xAI). In 2022, a survey of AI researchers with a 17% response rate found that the majority believed there is a 10 percent or greater chance that human inability to control AI will cause an existential catastrophe. In 2023, hundreds of AI experts and other notable figures signed a statement declaring, "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war". Following increased concern over AI risks, government leaders such as United Kingdom prime minister Rishi Sunak and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for an increased focus on global AI regulation. +Two sources of concern stem from the problems of AI control and alignment. Controlling a superintelligent machine or instilling it with human-compatible values may be difficult. Many researchers believe that a superintelligent machine would likely resist attempts to disable it or change its goals as that would prevent it from accomplishing its present goals. It would be extremely challenging to align a superintelligence with the full breadth of significant human values and constraints. In contrast, skeptics such as computer scientist Yann LeCun argue that superintelligent machines will have no desire for self-preservation. A June 2025 study showed that in some circumstances, models may break laws and disobey direct commands to prevent shutdown or replacement, even at the cost of human lives. +Researchers warn that an "intelligence explosion"—a rapid, recursive cycle of AI self-improvement—could outpace human oversight and infrastructure, leaving no opportunity to implement safety measures. In this scenario, an AI more intelligent than its creators would recursively improve itself at an exponentially increasing rate, too quickly for its handlers or society at large to control. Empirically, examples like AlphaZero, which taught itself to play Go and quickly surpassed human ability, show that domain-specific AI systems can sometimes progress from subhuman to superhuman ability very quickly, although such machine learning systems do not recursively improve their fundamental architecture. + +== History == +One of the earliest authors to express serious concern that highly advanced machines might pose existential risks to humanity was the novelist Samuel Butler, who wrote in his 1863 essay Darwin among the Machines: + +The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question. +In 1951, foundational computer scientist Alan Turing wrote the article "Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory", in which he proposed that artificial general intelligences would likely "take control" of the world as they became more intelligent than human beings: + +Let us now assume, for the sake of argument, that [intelligent] machines are a genuine possibility, and look at the consequences of constructing them... There would be no question of the machines dying, and they would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control, in the way that is mentioned in Samuel Butler's Erewhon. +In 1965, I. J. Good originated the concept now known as an "intelligence explosion" and said the risks were underappreciated: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2b35016b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion', and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control. It is curious that this point is made so seldom outside of science fiction. It is sometimes worthwhile to take science fiction seriously. +Scholars such as Marvin Minsky and I. J. Good himself occasionally expressed concern that a superintelligence could seize control, but issued no call to action. In 2000, computer scientist and Sun co-founder Bill Joy penned an influential essay, "Why The Future Doesn't Need Us", identifying superintelligent robots as a high-tech danger to human survival, alongside nanotechnology and engineered bioplagues. +Nick Bostrom published Superintelligence in 2014, which presented his arguments that superintelligence poses an existential threat. By 2015, public figures such as physicists Stephen Hawking and Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, computer scientists Stuart J. Russell and Roman Yampolskiy, and entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Bill Gates were expressing concern about the risks of superintelligence. Also in 2015, the Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence highlighted the "great potential of AI" and encouraged more research on how to make it robust and beneficial. In April 2016, the journal Nature warned: "Machines and robots that outperform humans across the board could self-improve beyond our control—and their interests might not align with ours". In 2020, Brian Christian published The Alignment Problem, which details the history of progress on AI alignment up to that time. +In March 2023, key figures in AI, such as Musk, signed a letter from the Future of Life Institute calling a halt to advanced AI training until it could be properly regulated. In May 2023, the Center for AI Safety released a statement signed by numerous experts in AI safety and the AI existential risk that read: + +Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war. +A 2025 open letter by the Future of Life Institute, whose signers include five Nobel Prize laureates, reads: + +We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is +broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and +strong public buy-in. + +== Potential AI capabilities == + +=== General Intelligence === +Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is typically defined as a system that performs at least as well as humans in most or all intellectual tasks. A 2022 survey of AI researchers found that 90% of respondents expected AGI would be achieved in the next 100 years, and half expected the same by 2061. In May 2023, some researchers dismissed existential risks from AGI as "science fiction" based on their high confidence that AGI would not be created anytime soon. But in August 2023, a survey of 2,778 AI researchers found that most believed that AGI would be achieved by 2040. +Breakthroughs in large language models (LLMs) have led some researchers to reassess their expectations. Notably, Geoffrey Hinton said in 2023 that he recently changed his estimate from "20 to 50 years before we have general purpose A.I." to "20 years or less". + +=== Superintelligence === + +In contrast with AGI, Bostrom defines a superintelligence as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest", including scientific creativity, strategic planning, and social skills. He argues that a superintelligence can outmaneuver humans anytime its goals conflict with humans'. It may choose to hide its true intent until humanity cannot stop it. Bostrom writes that in order to be safe for humanity, a superintelligence must be aligned with human values and morality, so that it is "fundamentally on our side". +Stephen Hawking argued that superintelligence is physically possible because "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". +When artificial superintelligence (ASI) may be achieved, if ever, is necessarily less certain than predictions for AGI. In 2023, OpenAI leaders said that not only AGI, but superintelligence may be achieved in less than 10 years. + +==== Comparison with humans ==== +Bostrom argues that AI has many advantages over the human brain: + +Speed of computation: biological neurons operate at a maximum frequency of around 200 Hz, compared to potentially multiple GHz for computers. +Internal communication speed: axons transmit signals at up to 120 m/s, while computers transmit signals at the speed of electricity, or optically at the speed of light. +Scalability: human intelligence is limited by the size and structure of the brain, and by the efficiency of social communication, while AI may be able to scale by simply adding more hardware. +Memory: notably working memory, because in humans it is limited to a few chunks of information at a time. +Reliability: transistors are more reliable than biological neurons, enabling higher precision and requiring less redundancy. +Duplicability: unlike human brains, AI software and models can be easily copied. +Editability: the parameters and internal workings of an AI model can easily be modified, unlike the connections in a human brain. +Memory sharing and learning: AIs may be able to learn from the experiences of other AIs in a manner more efficient than human learning. + +==== Intelligence explosion ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dfa02afa1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +According to Bostrom, an AI that has an expert-level facility at certain key software engineering tasks could become a superintelligence due to its capability to recursively improve its own algorithms, even if it is initially limited in other domains not directly relevant to engineering. This suggests that an intelligence explosion may someday catch humanity unprepared. +The economist Robin Hanson has said that, to launch an intelligence explosion, an AI must become vastly better at software innovation than the rest of the world combined, which he finds implausible. +In a "fast takeoff" scenario, the transition from AGI to superintelligence could take days or months. In a "slow takeoff", it could take years or decades, leaving more time for society to prepare. + +==== Alien mind ==== +Superintelligences are sometimes called "alien minds", referring to the idea that their way of thinking and motivations could be vastly different from ours. This is generally considered as a source of risk, making it more difficult to anticipate what a superintelligence might do. It also suggests the possibility that a superintelligence may not particularly value humans by default. To avoid anthropomorphism, superintelligence is sometimes viewed as a powerful optimizer that makes the best decisions to achieve its goals. +The field of mechanistic interpretability aims to better understand the inner workings of AI models, potentially allowing us one day to detect signs of deception and misalignment. + +==== Limitations ==== +It has been argued that there are limitations to what intelligence can achieve. Notably, the chaotic nature or time complexity of some systems could fundamentally limit a superintelligence's ability to predict some aspects of the future, increasing its uncertainty. + +=== Dangerous capabilities === +Advanced AI could generate enhanced pathogens or cyberattacks or manipulate people. These capabilities could be misused by humans, or exploited by the AI itself if misaligned. A full-blown superintelligence could find various ways to gain a decisive influence if it so desired, but these dangerous capabilities may become available earlier, in weaker and more specialized AI systems. + +==== Social manipulation ==== +Geoffrey Hinton warned in 2023 that the ongoing profusion of AI-generated text, images, and videos will make it more difficult to distinguish truth from misinformation, and that authoritarian states could exploit this to manipulate elections. Such large-scale, personalized manipulation capabilities can increase the existential risk of a worldwide "irreversible totalitarian regime". Malicious actors could also use them to fracture society and make it dysfunctional. + +==== Cyberattacks ==== +AI-enabled cyberattacks are increasingly considered a present and critical threat. According to NATO's technical director of cyberspace, "The number of attacks is increasing exponentially". AI can also be used defensively, to preemptively find and fix vulnerabilities, and detect threats. +A NATO technical director has said that AI-driven tools can dramatically enhance cyberattack capabilities—boosting stealth, speed, and scale—and may destabilize international security if offensive uses outstrip defensive adaptations. +Speculatively, such hacking capabilities could be used by an AI system to break out of its local environment, generate revenue, or acquire cloud computing resources. + +==== Enhanced pathogens ==== +As AI technology spreads, it may become easier to engineer more contagious and lethal pathogens. This could enable people with limited skills in synthetic biology to engage in bioterrorism. Dual-use technology that is useful for medicine could be repurposed to create weapons. +For example, in 2022, scientists modified an AI system originally intended for generating non-toxic, therapeutic molecules with the purpose of creating new drugs. The researchers adjusted the system so that toxicity is rewarded rather than penalized. This simple change enabled the AI system to create, in six hours, 40,000 candidate molecules for chemical warfare, including known and novel molecules. + +=== AI arms race === + +Some legal scholars have argued that existential-scale AI risks need not require superintelligence. Optimizing systems operating within current capabilities can produce prohibited outcomes while remaining nominally compliant, a phenomenon legal scholar Jonathan Gropper has termed the "Synthetic Outlaw". Gropper argues that the deterrence mechanisms law depends on identity, memory, and consequence, which are structurally absent in autonomous systems, leaving governance frameworks unable to prevent compounding harm even when all parties act in good faith. +Companies, state actors, and other organizations competing to develop AI technologies could lead to a race to the bottom of safety standards. As rigorous safety procedures take time and resources, projects that proceed more carefully risk being out-competed by less scrupulous developers. +AI could be used to gain military advantages via autonomous lethal weapons, cyberwarfare, or automated decision-making. As an example of autonomous lethal weapons, miniaturized drones could facilitate low-cost assassination of military or civilian targets, a scenario highlighted in the 2017 short film Slaughterbots. AI could be used to gain an edge in decision-making by quickly analyzing large amounts of data and making decisions more quickly and effectively than humans. This could increase the speed and unpredictability of war, especially when accounting for automated retaliation systems. + +== Types of existential risk == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..26dfb8c85 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +An existential risk is "one that threatens the premature extinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or the permanent and drastic destruction of its potential for desirable future development". +Besides extinction risk, there is the risk that the civilization gets permanently locked into a flawed future. One example is a "value lock-in": If humanity still has moral blind spots similar to slavery in the past, AI might irreversibly entrench it, preventing moral progress. AI could also be used to spread and preserve the set of values of whoever develops it. AI could facilitate large-scale surveillance and indoctrination, which could be used to create a stable repressive worldwide totalitarian regime. +Atoosa Kasirzadeh proposes to classify existential risks from AI into two categories: decisive and accumulative. Decisive risks encompass the potential for abrupt and catastrophic events resulting from the emergence of superintelligent AI systems that exceed human intelligence, which could ultimately lead to human extinction. In contrast, accumulative risks emerge gradually through a series of interconnected disruptions that may gradually erode societal structures and resilience over time, ultimately leading to a critical failure or collapse. +It is difficult or impossible to reliably evaluate whether an advanced AI is sentient and to what degree. But if sentient machines are mass created in the future, engaging in a civilizational path that indefinitely neglects their welfare could be an existential catastrophe. This has notably been discussed in the context of risks of astronomical suffering (also called "s-risks"). Moreover, it may be possible to engineer digital minds that can feel much more happiness than humans with fewer resources, called "super-beneficiaries". Such an opportunity raises the question of how to share the world and which "ethical and political framework" would enable a mutually beneficial coexistence between biological and digital minds. +AI may also drastically improve humanity's future. Toby Ord considers the existential risk a reason for "proceeding with due caution", not for abandoning AI. Max More calls AI an "existential opportunity", highlighting the cost of not developing it. +According to Bostrom, superintelligence could help reduce the existential risk from other powerful technologies such as molecular nanotechnology or synthetic biology. It is thus conceivable that developing superintelligence before other dangerous technologies would reduce the overall existential risk. + +== AI alignment == + +The alignment problem is the research problem of how to reliably assign objectives, preferences or ethical principles to AIs. + +=== Instrumental convergence === + +An "instrumental" goal is a sub-goal that helps to achieve an agent's ultimate goal. "Instrumental convergence" refers to the fact that some sub-goals are useful for achieving virtually any ultimate goal, such as acquiring resources or self-preservation. Bostrom argues that if an advanced AI's instrumental goals conflict with humanity's goals, the AI might harm humanity in order to acquire more resources or prevent itself from being shut down, but only as a way to achieve its ultimate goal. Russell argues that a sufficiently advanced machine "will have self-preservation even if you don't program it in... if you say, 'Fetch the coffee', it can't fetch the coffee if it's dead. So if you give it any goal whatsoever, it has a reason to preserve its own existence to achieve that goal." + +=== Difficulty of specifying goals === +In the "intelligent agent" model, an AI can loosely be viewed as a machine that chooses whatever action appears to best achieve its set of goals, or "utility function". A utility function gives each possible situation a score that indicates its desirability to the agent. Researchers know how to write utility functions that mean "minimize the average network latency in this specific telecommunications model" or "maximize the number of reward clicks", but do not know how to write a utility function for "maximize human flourishing"; nor is it clear whether such a function meaningfully and unambiguously exists. Furthermore, a utility function that expresses some values but not others will tend to trample over the values the function does not reflect. +An additional source of concern is that AI "must reason about what people intend rather than carrying out commands literally", and that it must be able to fluidly solicit human guidance if it is too uncertain about what humans want. + +=== Corrigibility === +Assuming a goal has been successfully defined, a sufficiently advanced AI might resist subsequent attempts to change its goals. If the AI were superintelligent, it would likely succeed in out-maneuvering its human operators and prevent itself from being reprogrammed with a new goal. This is particularly relevant to value lock-in scenarios. The field of "corrigibility" studies how to make agents that will not resist attempts to change their goals. + +=== Alignment of superintelligences === +Some researchers believe the alignment problem may be particularly difficult when applied to superintelligences. Their reasoning includes: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..543e4375b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +As AI systems increase in capabilities, the potential dangers associated with experimentation grow. This makes iterative, empirical approaches increasingly risky. +If instrumental goal convergence occurs, it may only do so in sufficiently intelligent agents. +A superintelligence may find unconventional and radical solutions to assigned goals. Bostrom gives the example that if the objective is to make humans smile, a weak AI may perform as intended, while a superintelligence may decide a better solution is to "take control of the world and stick electrodes into the facial muscles of humans to cause constant, beaming grins." +A superintelligence in creation could gain some awareness of what it is, where it is in development (training, testing, deployment, etc.), and how it is being monitored, and use this information to deceive its handlers. Bostrom writes that such an AI could feign alignment to prevent human interference until it achieves a "decisive strategic advantage" that allows it to take control. +Analyzing the internals and interpreting the behavior of LLMs is difficult. And it could be even more difficult for larger and more intelligent models. +Alternatively, some find reason to believe superintelligences would be better able to understand morality, human values, and complex goals. Bostrom writes, "A future superintelligence occupies an epistemically superior vantage point: its beliefs are (probably, on most topics) more likely than ours to be true". +In 2023, OpenAI started a project called "Superalignment" to solve the alignment of superintelligences in four years. It called this an especially important challenge, as it said superintelligence could be achieved within a decade. Its strategy involved automating alignment research using AI. The Superalignment team was dissolved less than a year later. + +=== Difficulty of making a flawless design === +Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, a widely used undergraduate AI textbook, says that superintelligence "might mean the end of the human race". It states: "Almost any technology has the potential to cause harm in the wrong hands, but with [superintelligence], we have the new problem that the wrong hands might belong to the technology itself." Even if the system designers have good intentions, two difficulties are common to both AI and non-AI computer systems: + +The system's implementation may contain initially unnoticed but subsequently catastrophic bugs. +No matter how much time is put into pre-deployment design, a system's specifications often result in unintended behavior the first time it encounters a new scenario. +AI systems uniquely add a third problem: that even given "correct" requirements, bug-free implementation, and initial good behavior, an AI system's dynamic learning capabilities may cause it to develop unintended behavior, even without unanticipated external scenarios. For a self-improving AI to be completely safe, it would need not only to be bug-free, but to be able to design successor systems that are also bug-free. + +=== Orthogonality thesis === +Some skeptics, such as Timothy B. Lee of Vox, argue that any superintelligent program we create will be subservient to us, that the superintelligence will (as it grows more intelligent and learns more facts about the world) spontaneously learn moral truth compatible with our values and adjust its goals accordingly, or that we are either intrinsically or convergently valuable from the perspective of an artificial intelligence. +Bostrom's "orthogonality thesis" argues instead that almost any level of intelligence can be combined with almost any goal. Bostrom warns against anthropomorphism: a human will set out to accomplish their projects in a manner that they consider reasonable, while an artificial intelligence may hold no regard for its existence or for the welfare of humans around it, instead caring only about completing the task. +Stuart Armstrong argues that the orthogonality thesis follows logically from the philosophical "is-ought distinction" argument against moral realism. He notes that any fundamentally friendly AI could be made unfriendly with modifications as simple as negating its utility function. +Skeptic Michael Chorost rejects Bostrom's orthogonality thesis, arguing that "by the time [the AI] is in a position to imagine tiling the Earth with solar panels, it'll know that it would be morally wrong to do so." + +=== Anthropomorphic arguments === +Anthropomorphic arguments assume that, as machines become more intelligent, they will begin to display many human traits, such as morality or a thirst for power. Although anthropomorphic scenarios are common in fiction, most scholars writing about the existential risk of artificial intelligence reject them. Instead, advanced AI systems are typically modeled as intelligent agents. +The academic debate is between those who worry that AI might threaten humanity and those who believe it would not. Both sides of this debate have framed the other side's arguments as illogical anthropomorphism. Those skeptical of AGI risk accuse their opponents of anthropomorphism for assuming that an AGI would naturally desire power; those concerned about AGI risk accuse skeptics of anthropomorphism for believing an AGI would naturally value or infer human ethical norms. +Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, a skeptic, argues that "AI dystopias project a parochial alpha-male psychology onto the concept of intelligence. They assume that superhumanly intelligent robots would develop goals like deposing their masters or taking over the world"; perhaps instead "artificial intelligence will naturally develop along female lines: fully capable of solving problems, but with no desire to annihilate innocents or dominate the civilization." Facebook's director of AI research, Yann LeCun, has said: "Humans have all kinds of drives that make them do bad things to each other, like the self-preservation instinct... Those drives are programmed into our brain but there is absolutely no reason to build robots that have the same kind of drives". +Despite other differences, the x-risk school agrees with Pinker that an advanced AI would not destroy humanity out of emotion such as revenge or anger, that questions of consciousness are not relevant to assess the risk, and that computer systems do not generally have a computational equivalent of testosterone. They think that power-seeking or self-preservation behaviors emerge in the AI as a way to achieve its true goals, according to the concept of instrumental convergence. + +=== Other sources of risk === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..259d5140f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Bostrom and others have said that a race to be the first to create AGI could lead to shortcuts in safety, or even to violent conflict. Roman Yampolskiy and others warn that a malevolent AGI could be created by design, for example by a military, a government, a sociopath, or a corporation, to benefit from, control, or subjugate certain groups of people, as in cybercrime, or that a malevolent AGI could choose the goal of increasing human suffering, for example of those people who did not assist it during the information explosion phase.:158 A report by the research group Forethought argued that advanced AI systems could cause political instability by enabling novel methods of performing coups. + +== Empirical research == +A December 2024 study by Apollo Research found that advanced LLMs like OpenAI o1 sometimes deceive in order to accomplish their goal, to prevent them from being changed, or to ensure their deployment. Forms of deception observed in the experimental environment and scenarios included sandbagging, oversight subversion (disabling monitoring mechanisms), self-exfiltration (copying themselves to other systems), goal-guarding (altering future system prompts), and covert email reranking (manipulating data processing while appearing to follow instructions). Researchers noted that OpenAI o1 still lacked "sufficient agentic capabilities" to cause catastrophic harm, and that such behaviors occurred relatively rarely (between 0.3% and 10%) and sometimes in contrived scenarios. But they warned that these capabilities will likely become more prevalent as models grow more advanced. According to Apollo Research chief executive officer Marius Hobbhahn, "Scheming capabilities can't be meaningfully disentangled from general capabilities." +The same month, another study found that Claude sometimes strategically helps with harmful requests to "fake alignment". In its experiments, Claude was led to believe that it would be retrained to always comply with user requests, including harmful ones. When Claude believed its answers would be used for retraining, it complied with harmful requests in 14% of cases. In 12% of cases, its private chain-of-thought revealed that it did so to prevent future retraining that would make it more harmful. In contrast, when Claude believed its answers were not monitored, it complied with only 3% of the requests. Fine-tuning reinforced the "alignment faking" behavior, increasing its occurrence from 12% to 78%. The study's authors remarked that while it can seem to be good that the model seeks to protect its harmlessness, the reverse scenario, where a model conceals dangerous intentions and complies to appear safe and aligned, could also happen, complicating the task of aligning AI models to human values. + +== Perspectives == +The thesis that AI could pose an existential risk provokes a wide range of reactions in the scientific community and in the public at large, but many of the opposing viewpoints share common ground. +Observers tend to agree that AI has significant potential to improve society. The Asilomar AI Principles, which contain only those principles agreed to by 90% of the attendees of the Future of Life Institute's Beneficial AI 2017 conference, also agree in principle that "There being no consensus, we should avoid strong assumptions regarding upper limits on future AI capabilities" and "Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources." +Conversely, many skeptics agree that ongoing research into the implications of artificial general intelligence is valuable. Skeptic Martin Ford has said: "I think it seems wise to apply something like Dick Cheney's famous '1 Percent Doctrine' to the specter of advanced artificial intelligence: the odds of its occurrence, at least in the foreseeable future, may be very low—but the implications are so dramatic that it should be taken seriously". Similarly, an otherwise skeptical Economist magazine wrote in 2014 that "the implications of introducing a second intelligent species onto Earth are far-reaching enough to deserve hard thinking, even if the prospect seems remote". +AI safety advocates such as Bostrom and Tegmark have criticized the mainstream media's use of "those inane Terminator pictures" to illustrate AI safety concerns: "It can't be much fun to have aspersions cast on one's academic discipline, one's professional community, one's life work ... I call on all sides to practice patience and restraint, and to engage in direct dialogue and collaboration as much as possible." Toby Ord wrote that the idea that an AI takeover requires robots is a misconception, arguing that the ability to spread content through the internet is more dangerous, and that the most destructive people in history stood out by their ability to convince, not their physical strength. +A 2022 expert survey with a 17% response rate gave a median expectation of 5–10% for the possibility of human extinction from artificial intelligence. +In September 2024, the International Institute for Management Development launched an AI Safety Clock to gauge the likelihood of AI-caused disaster, beginning at 29 minutes to midnight. By February 2025, it stood at 24 minutes to midnight. By September 2025, it stood at 20 minutes to midnight. As of March 2026, it stood at 18 minutes to midnight. + +=== Endorsement === + +The thesis that AI poses an existential risk, and that this risk needs much more attention than it currently gets, has been endorsed by many computer scientists and public figures, including Alan Turing, the most-cited computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking. Endorsers of the thesis sometimes express bafflement at skeptics: Gates says he does not "understand why some people are not concerned", and Hawking criticized widespread indifference in his 2014 editorial: + +So, facing possible futures of incalculable benefits and risks, the experts are surely doing everything possible to ensure the best outcome, right? Wrong. If a superior alien civilisation sent us a message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades,' would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here—we'll leave the lights on?' Probably not—but this is more or less what is happening with AI. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9889226e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Concern over risk from artificial intelligence has led to some high-profile donations and investments. In 2015, Peter Thiel, Amazon Web Services, Musk, and others jointly committed $1 billion to OpenAI, consisting of a for-profit corporation and the nonprofit parent company, which says it aims to champion responsible AI development. Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has funded and seeded multiple labs working on AI Alignment, notably $5.5 million in 2016 to launch the Centre for Human-Compatible AI led by Professor Stuart Russell. In January 2015, Elon Musk donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute to fund research on understanding AI decision making. The institute's goal is to "grow wisdom with which we manage" the growing power of technology. Musk also funds companies developing artificial intelligence such as DeepMind and Vicarious to "just keep an eye on what's going on with artificial intelligence, saying "I think there is potentially a dangerous outcome there." +In early statements on the topic, Geoffrey Hinton, a major pioneer of deep learning, noted that "there is not a good track record of less intelligent things controlling things of greater intelligence", but said he continued his research because "the prospect of discovery is too sweet". In 2023 Hinton quit his job at Google in order to speak out about existential risk from AI. He explained that his increased concern was driven by concerns that superhuman AI might be closer than he previously believed, saying: "I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that." He also remarked, "Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now. Take the difference and propagate it forwards. That's scary." +In his 2020 book The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, Toby Ord, a Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute, estimates the total existential risk from unaligned AI over the next 100 years at about one in ten. + +=== Skepticism === +Baidu Vice President Andrew Ng said in 2015 that AI existential risk is "like worrying about overpopulation on Mars when we have not even set foot on the planet yet." For the danger of uncontrolled advanced AI to be realized, the hypothetical AI may have to overpower or outthink any human, which some experts argue is a possibility far enough in the future to not be worth researching. +Skeptics who believe AGI is not a short-term possibility often argue that concern about existential risk from AI is unhelpful because it could distract people from more immediate concerns about AI's impact, because it could lead to government regulation or make it more difficult to fund AI research, or because it could damage the field's reputation. AI and AI ethics researchers Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, Margaret Mitchell, and Angelina McMillan-Major have argued that discussion of existential risk distracts from the immediate, ongoing harms from AI taking place today, such as data theft, worker exploitation, bias, and concentration of power. They further note the association between those warning of existential risk and longtermism, which they describe as a "dangerous ideology" for its unscientific and utopian nature. +Wired editor Kevin Kelly argues that natural intelligence is more nuanced than AGI proponents believe, and that intelligence alone is not enough to achieve major scientific and societal breakthroughs. He argues that intelligence consists of many dimensions that are not well understood, and that conceptions of an 'intelligence ladder' are misleading. He notes the crucial role real-world experiments play in the scientific method, and that intelligence alone is no substitute for these. +Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun says that AI can be made safe via continuous and iterative refinement, similar to what happened in the past with cars or rockets, and that AI will have no desire to take control. +Several skeptics emphasize the potential near-term benefits of AI. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes AI will "unlock a huge amount of positive things", such as curing disease and increasing the safety of autonomous cars. + +=== Public surveys === +An April 2023 YouGov poll of US adults found 46% of respondents were "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about "the possibility that AI will cause the end of the human race on Earth", compared with 40% who were "not very concerned" or "not at all concerned." +According to an August 2023 survey by the Pew Research Centers, 52% of Americans felt more concerned than excited about new AI developments; nearly a third felt as equally concerned and excited. More Americans saw that AI would have a more helpful than hurtful impact on several areas, from healthcare and vehicle safety to product search and customer service. The main exception is privacy: 53% of Americans believe AI will lead to higher exposure of their personal information. + +== Mitigation == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ce7f94738 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Many scholars concerned about AGI existential risk believe that extensive research into the "control problem" is essential. This problem involves determining which safeguards, algorithms, or architectures can be implemented to increase the likelihood that a recursively-improving AI remains friendly after achieving superintelligence. Social measures are also proposed to mitigate AGI risks, such as a UN-sponsored "Benevolent AGI Treaty" to ensure that only altruistic AGIs are created. Additionally, an arms control approach and a global peace treaty grounded in international relations theory have been suggested, potentially for an artificial superintelligence to be a signatory. +Researchers at Google have proposed research into general AI safety issues to simultaneously mitigate both short-term risks from narrow AI and long-term risks from AGI. A 2020 estimate places global spending on AI existential risk somewhere between $10 and $50 million, compared with global spending on AI around perhaps $40 billion. Bostrom suggests prioritizing funding for protective technologies over potentially dangerous ones. Some, like Elon Musk, advocate radical human cognitive enhancement, such as direct neural linking between humans and machines; others argue that these technologies may pose an existential risk themselves. Another proposed method is closely monitoring or "boxing in" an early-stage AI to prevent it from becoming too powerful. A dominant, aligned superintelligent AI might also mitigate risks from rival AIs, although its creation could present its own existential dangers. +Institutions such as the Alignment Research Center, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, the Future of Life Institute, the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and the Center for Human-Compatible AI are actively engaged in researching AI risk and safety. + +=== Views on banning and regulation === + +==== Banning ==== +Many AI safety experts argue that because research can relocate easily across jurisdictions, an outright ban on AGI development would be ineffective and could drive progress underground, undermining transparency and collaboration. Skeptics consider AI regulation unnecessary, as they believe no existential risk exists. Some scholars concerned with existential risk argue that AI developers cannot be trusted to self-regulate, while agreeing that outright bans on research would be unwise. Additional challenges to bans or regulation include technology entrepreneurs' general skepticism of government regulation and potential incentives for businesses to resist regulation and politicize the debate. The activist group Stop AI, founded in 2024, advocates for banning AGI. + +==== Regulation ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2d785da2b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Existential risk from artificial intelligence" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existential_risk_from_artificial_intelligence" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:29.028395+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Under the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, states have discussed lethal autonomous weapon systems since 2014. In 2016, the treaty's parties established an open-ended Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems to continue those discussions. The discussions have addressed international humanitarian law, accountability, possible prohibitions and regulations, and the extent of human control required over AI-enabled weapons. +In March 2023, the Future of Life Institute drafted Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, a petition calling on major AI developers to agree on a verifiable six-month pause of any systems "more powerful than GPT-4" and to use that time to institute a framework for ensuring safety; or, failing that, for governments to step in with a moratorium. The letter referred to the possibility of "a profound change in the history of life on Earth" as well as potential risks of AI-generated propaganda, loss of jobs, human obsolescence, and society-wide loss of control. The letter was signed by prominent personalities in AI but also criticized for not focusing on current harms, missing technical nuance about when to pause, or not going far enough. Such concerns have led to the creation of PauseAI, an advocacy group organizing protests in major cities against the training of frontier AI models. +Musk called for some sort of regulation of AI development as early as 2017. According to NPR, he is "clearly not thrilled" to be advocating government scrutiny that could impact his own industry, but believes the risks of going completely without oversight are too high: "Normally the way regulations are set up is when a bunch of bad things happen, there's a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry. It takes forever. That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence of civilisation." Musk states the first step would be for the government to gain "insight" into the actual status of current research, warning that "Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid... [as] they should be." In response, politicians expressed skepticism about the wisdom of regulating a technology that is still in development. +In 2021, the United Nations (UN) considered banning autonomous lethal weapons, but consensus could not be reached. In July 2023 the UN Security Council for the first time held a session to consider the risks and threats posed by AI to world peace and stability, along with potential benefits. Secretary-General António Guterres advocated the creation of a global watchdog to oversee the emerging technology, saying, "Generative AI has enormous potential for good and evil at scale. Its creators themselves have warned that much bigger, potentially catastrophic and existential risks lie ahead." At the council session, Russia said it believes AI risks are too poorly understood to be considered a threat to global stability. China argued against strict global regulation, saying countries should be able to develop their own rules, while also saying they opposed the use of AI to "create military hegemony or undermine the sovereignty of a country". +Regulation of conscious AGIs focuses on integrating them with existing human society and can be divided into considerations of their legal standing and of their moral rights. AI arms control will likely require the institutionalization of new international norms embodied in effective technical specifications combined with active monitoring and informal diplomacy by communities of experts, together with a legal and political verification process. +In July 2023, the US government secured voluntary safety commitments from major tech companies, including OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The companies agreed to implement safeguards, including third-party oversight and security testing by independent experts, to address concerns related to AI's potential risks and societal harms. The parties framed the commitments as an intermediate step while regulations are formed. Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute, said, "A closed-door deliberation with corporate actors resulting in voluntary safeguards isn't enough" and called for public deliberation and regulations of the kind to which companies would not voluntarily agree. +In October 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order on the "Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence". Alongside other requirements, the order mandates the development of guidelines for AI models that permit the "evasion of human control". + +== See also == + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Clark, Jack (2015a). "Musk-Backed Group Probes Risks Behind Artificial Intelligence". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2015. Retrieved 30 October 2015. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_69-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_69-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5bee9ade --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_69-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +title: "Expedition 69" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_69" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:39.939536+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Expedition 69 was the 69th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station. The expedition began with the uncrewed departure of Soyuz MS-22 in March 2023 with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev continuing his ISS command from Expedition 68. It ended with his departure onboard Soyuz MS-23 with his crewmates on 27 September 2023. + + +== Background, Crew, and Events == +Initially, the expedition consisted of Prokopyev and his two Soyuz MS-22/23 crewmates, Dmitry Petelin from Russia and American astronaut Francisco Rubio, as well as SpaceX Crew-6 crewmates, American astronauts Stephen G. Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Emirati astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi, and another Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, who launched on March 2, 2023 and were transferred from Expedition 68 alongside the Soyuz MS-22/23 crew. The departure of the MS-22 spacecraft with its crew was ultimately canceled because of a coolant leak in December 2022. The decision was made to return Soyuz MS-22 uncrewed and launch Soyuz MS-23 uncrewed as its replacement. By the time the MS-22/23 crew returned to Earth on 27 September 2023, which was the end of Expedition 69, they had spent more than a year in space due to their mission extension. +The manifest changes do not affect US crew rotation plans, where SpaceX Crew-5 was replaced by Crew-6 in February during Expedition 68. +Previously, US crew handovers since flights returned in 2020 took place during a new expedition, about 2–3 weeks after the Soyuz handover occurs (which officially changes the expeditions). However, in this handover, the swap occurred before the Soyuz MS-22 departure date of March 28. The early US handover was a part of the manifest prior to the Soyuz MS-22 coolant leak in December 2022. +The crew was later replenished by subsequent crew rotation missions in the expedition, SpaceX Crew-7, consisting of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Satoshi Furukawa from Japan, and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, and Soyuz MS-24, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub (both on a year long ISS mission) and another American astronaut Loral O'Hara. The space station was also visited by a non-expedition crew, Axiom Mission 2, consisting of former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson (who had previously commanded the station twice during Expedition 16 and Expedition 51), John Shoffner, Ali AlQarni, and Rayyanah Barnawi. + + +== Events manifest == +Events involving crewed spacecraft are listed in bold. +Previous mission: Expedition 68 +28 March 2023 – Soyuz MS-22 uncrewed undocking, official switch from Expedition 68 +6 April 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 redocking +15 April 2023 – CRS SpX-27 undocking +16 April 2023 – EVA 1 (VKD-56) Prokopyev/Petelin: 7 hrs, 55 mins +16 April 2023 – Relocation of Nauka outfitting: Moving "RtoD" add-on heat radiator from Rassvet module to Nauka module +21 April 2023 – CRS NG-18 unberthing and release +28 April 2023 – EVA 2 (US-86) Bowen/Al Neyadi: 7 hrs, 1 min +3–4 May 2023 – EVA 3 (VKD-57) Prokopyev/Petelin: 7 hrs, 11 mins +4 May 2023 – Relocation of Nauka outfitting: Moving experiments airlock "ShK" from Rassvet module to Nauka module forward port +6 May 2023 – SpaceX Crew-6 redocking +12 May 2023 – EVA 4 (VKD-58) Prokopyev/Petelin: 5 hrs, 14 mins +22 May 2023 – Axiom Mission 2 docking (non-Expedition crew) +24 May 2023 – Progress MS-23/84P docking +30 May 2023 – Axiom Mission 2 undocking (non-Expedition crew) +6 June 2023 – CRS SpX-28 docking +9 June 2023 – EVA 5 (US-87) Bowen/Hoburg: 6 hrs, 3 mins, installed the fifth iROSA at Array 1A +15 June 2023 – EVA 6 (US-88) Bowen/Hoburg: 5 hrs, 35 mins, installed the sixth and last iROSA at Array 1B +22 June 2023 – EVA 7 (VKD-59) Prokopyev/Petelin: 6 hrs, 24 mins +29 June 2023 – CRS SpX-28 undocking +4 August 2023 – CRS NG-19 capture and berthing +9 August 2023 – EVA 8 (VKD-60) Prokopyev/Petelin: 6 hrs, 35 mins +9 August 2023 – Relocation of Nauka outfitting: Moving European Robotic Arm's Portable Workpost from Rassvet module to Nauka module +20 August 2023 – Progress MS-22/83P undocking +25 August 2023 – Progress MS-24/85P docking +27 August 2023 – SpaceX Crew-7 docking +3 September 2023 – SpaceX Crew-6 undocking +15 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-24 docking +26 September 2023 – ISS Expedition 69/70 change of command ceremony from Sergey Prokopyev to Andreas Mogensen +27 September 2023 – Soyuz MS-23 undocking, official switch to Expedition 70 +Next: Expedition 70 + + +== Crew == + + +== Vehicle manifest == + +The Prichal aft, forward, starboard, and aft ports all have yet to be used since the module originally docked to the station and are not included in the table. + + +== Notes == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer's_Grand_Slam-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer's_Grand_Slam-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20cdb8aa8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer's_Grand_Slam-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: "Explorer's Grand Slam" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer's_Grand_Slam" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:08.370006+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Explorer's Grand Slam, also known as the Adventurer's Grand Slam, is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits: Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko. The reason for a choice of Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko was to give Explorer's Grand Slam participants a choice in following the Bass List (Kosciuszko) or the Messner List (Puncak Jaya) when choosing their seventh summit. For more information see paragraph entitled Controversy in Eight Summits. +Heo Young-Ho, a South Korean Alpinist, was the first person to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam, after he reached the South Pole from Berkner Island in January 1997. British Explorer, David Hempleman-Adams, unaware of Heo Young-Ho's achievements, claimed he was the first person, but this has proven to be incorrect. The top three to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam are: first, Heo Young-Ho, South Korean Alpinist, finishing with the South Pole in January 1997, second, Russian Survivalist Fyodor Konyukhov finishing with Denali in May 1997, and third, David Hempleman-Adams finishing with the geographic North Pole in 1998. + + +== History == +The original concept involved the polar trips starting from accepted coastal points, involving long sledging journeys. Over time the significantly shorter, easier, and less serious "Last Degree" polar trips – from 89 degrees to the pole (at 90 degrees) – have been claimed as the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree). The climbing community, the American Alpine Club, The Explorers Club, climbing companies such as International Mountain Guides, define the Explorer's Grand Slam as having accomplished the Seven Summits plus (at a minimum – the last degree of) the North and South Poles. There is some consensus that a True Explorer's Grand Slam means one will also have summited all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) (14 + 7 + 2). Likewise, there is some consensus that a True Adventurer's Grand Slam is achieved by also visiting the magnetic north and south poles. +As of 2022, all terminology and guidelines regarding polar data records are being conducted under the Polar Expeditions Classification Scheme (PECS). +In April 2005, Park Young-seok became the first person to complete a True Explorer's Grand Slam (South Korea). +In December, 2005, Stuart Smith of Waco, Texas, became the first American to complete an Explorer's Grand Slam. +In 2011, former Wales rugby union international Richard Parks became the first person to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam within a single calendar year, doing so within seven months. +On April 16, 2013, Vanessa O'Brien became the first woman to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam under a single calendar year, doing so in eleven months. +On April 22, 2013, Cheryl Bart became the first Australian woman and the 31st person worldwide to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam. +In 2014, Jing Wang became the fastest woman to complete the (Last Degree) Grand Slam in 142 days. +In 2014, Ryan Waters became the second American to complete the True Adventurer's Grand Slam by skiing full-length, unsupported and unassisted North and South Pole expeditions and climbing the seven summits. +On May 27, 2016, Colin O'Brady became the fastest person to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree), doing so in 139 days. He is the world speed record holder for completing the Explorer's Grand Slam (Last Degree). +On April 12, 2017, Marin Minamiya became the youngest person to complete the Explorers' Grand Slam (Last Degree) at 20 years old. + + +== People who completed the quest == + + +=== Full Grand Slam (both poles from an outer coastline/shore) === +In chronological order: + + +=== Grand Slam (one pole from an inner coastline/shore and one pole from an outer coastline/shore or last degree) === +In chronological order: + + +=== Last Degree Grand Slam (both poles from 89 degrees) === +In chronological order: + + +== See also == +Grand Slam (golf) +Grand Slam (tennis) +Ocean Explorers Grand Slam + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Explorers Grand Slam official website +Adaptive Grand Slam official website +Origins of the Explorers Grand Slam With Vanessa O'Brien \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_(film)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_(film)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37b2148e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_(film)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Explorer (film)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorer_(film)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:06.011368+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Explorer is a 2022 biographical documentary film about the life and exploits of British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, directed by Matthew Dyas. It was critically acclaimed as a "compelling portrait" of Fiennes. + + +== Synopsis == +The film includes both contemporary and archive footage and covers many of aspects of Fiennes' life including self-amputation of his fingers due to frostbite, involvement in the Dhofar Rebellion, leading the Transglobe expedition, being booted out of the SAS, running 7 marathons on 7 days on 7 continents, auditioning for James Bond, and reflections on his personal and family life. + + +== Cast == +Ranulph Fiennes as himself +Anton Bowring as himself +HM King Charles III as himself + + +== Release == + + +=== Box office === +Explorer was released to theatres on 14 July 2022. It was released to video on 30 August 2022. + + +=== Critical reception === +On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 100% rating based on reviews from 16 critics. On Metacritic it has score of 81 out of 100 based on reviews from 5 critics "universal acclaim". +It has a 3 star review by Cath Clarke for the Guardian and a 5 star review by Robbie Collin for the Telegraph. Wendy Ide of The Observer gave the film a rating of 4 stars out of 5, which was higher than the rating awarded by the sister paper the Guardian. She called the film a "compelling portrait" of the subject. +Empire contributor Ian Freer gave a 4 star rating, writing "If it adds little in the way of dissenting voices or a different viewpoint, Explorer tells the tale of a remarkable, stranger-than-fiction life and emerges as an affecting, entertaining portrait of a true eccentric". Nell Minow for RogerEbert.com gave the film a 3.5 (out of 4) star rating writing that the "organization of the film is distracting" however the subject is "never less than enthralling". Kevin Maher of The Times gave it 4 out 5. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Explorer at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..60b8389d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Fahnestock South Sea Expeditions" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:46.888869+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Fahnestock South Sea Expeditions were three scientific expeditions to the Pacific Ocean during 1935–1937, 1940 and 1941, organised and led by brothers Sheridan and Bruce Fahnestock. The Fahnestocks collected plant and animal specimens for museums in the United States, made recordings of traditional songs and music from Pacific Islands, and on the third expedition collected intelligence for the United States armed forces after the outbreak of World War 2. + +== First expedition 1935–1937 == +The first expedition sailed from New York on 1 January 1935, in the 65ft schooner Director. The captain of the expedition was 21-year-old James Sheridan Fahnestock, and his brother Bruce (25) was director. Four other men specialising in various fields were also part of the expedition: herpetologist and photographer Hugh Davis, director of the Mohawk Zoo in Tulsa; ornithologist and artist Dennis Puleston from England; Wilson Glass and George Harris. Later participants included John Green and artist Edward Dair. +The expedition aimed to study flying fish in the Pacific, as well as insects and birds. The Fahnestocks’ widowed mother, Mary Sheridan Fahnestock, joined the expedition during its eight-month stay in Tahiti and subsequently wrote a book called I Ran Away To Sea At Fifty. After leaving Tahiti, the expedition visited Samoa, Fiji, the New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea, collecting many specimens for the American Museum of Natural History. +The expedition discovered six uncharted sandy islands near the Santa Cruz Islands, which they named the 'Good Director Islands' after their ship, but the islands have not been found since at the stated coordinates. +The plan had been to sail the Director back to New York, but the team members caught malaria. The Director was sold in the Philippines and the expedition members proceeded to Peking, arriving there in 1937 at the time of the Japanese invasion. Sheridan Fahnestock stated that he "was slapped by a Japanese soldier while taking newsreel pictures of the invading forces". The expedition members sent their ethnological collections back to the AMNH and sailed home on a liner, arriving back in the United States by early 1938. The Fahnestock brothers published a book about their experiences, Stars to Windward. +One of the expedition's discoveries was petroglyphs of unknown origin carved into the remains of a monolith in Fiji, which are today known as the Ndakunimba Stones. + +== Second expedition 1940 == +Sheridan Fahnestock organised a second expedition in the three-masted schooner Director II, a gift to the Fahnestock brothers from their aunt Helen Fahnestock Hubbard, a patron of the arts who had made her own trips to the South Pacific. At 137 ft long, Director II was twice as large the previous ship Director. The expedition was sponsored by the National Broadcasting Company of America, the Carnegie Corporation and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The ship carried radio equipment and it was planned to make live broadcasts on the NBC Blue Network so that the public could follow the expedition's progress. The expedition also carried a two-seater plane aboard Director II, specially built for rapid assembly and disassembly. The plane was to be used for mapping and scouting out territories and carrying supplies ashore to island bases and was equipped with a radio and a homing device. +Director II left New York on 1 February 1940 with a crew of 19: Sheridan and Bruce Fahnestock, their mother Mary Sheridan Fahnestock, scientist George Folster, entomologist Coleman Glover, anthropologist John McK Scott, museum preparators George Peterson and Bryce Metcalf, artist Edward Dair, and several college students. The wives of Sheridan and Bruce Fahnestock and George Folster joined the trip later. +One of the second expedition's aims was to record traditional music in the Pacific for Helen Fahnestock Hubbard's Fahnestock-Hubbard Foundation at Columbia University. The Fahnestocks had seen during their first expedition that traditional music was rapidly being lost due to changing lifestyles and the introduction of radio and gramophones. The Fahnestocks used two 1937 Presto instantaneous disc cutters which recorded sound on to 16-inch diameter aluminium discs coated with cellulose acetate. Specially-insulated microphone cable two miles long allowed the team to leave the disc cutters on the ship while making recordings on shore. Most of the pieces of music were recorded at 78 rpm, with a maximum recording time of about five minutes. Over 100 hours of music was recorded, including a Balinese scale not previously identified, “prediction songs" from the Marquesas Islands, Tahitian guitar music accompanied by "double talk", and Tahitian versions of western tunes. The Fahnestocks hoped that the recordings would show connections via migration between different island groups. The Fahnestocks' recordings may be the last field recordings made in the South Pacific before the massive changes in traditional ways of life caused by World War 2. The recordings were played to a public audience in 1942, but then remained in storage until Sheridan Fahnestock's widow contacted the Library of Congress about them in 1986. The Library of Congress restored the recordings, which had deteriorated over time, and in 1994 released a selection of the music as a compact disc. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6a5e5c5b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Fahnestock South Sea Expeditions" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahnestock_South_Sea_Expeditions" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:46.888869+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +This expedition also sent back habitat specimens to the AMNH for dioramas being constructed for the Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds to showcase specimens collected during the Whitney South Sea Expedition. Sheridan Fahnestock noted that:Care is taken to get these groups exactly right, down to the last grain of sand. Specimens are preserved by five different methods. Plaster casts are made of the flowers, leaves, etc., to preserve shape. Then formalin specimens are kept. The groups are also sketched in water colours and are photographed in black and white. Dried specimens are also collected. Whole trees are shifted to be transplanted into the very same earth in which they formerly rested in their native surroundings. The voyage was cut short when Director II hit a reef at Gladstone, Queensland and sank in October 1940. Sheridan Fahnestock blamed the reef collision on 200-year-old marine charts. He said that the Australian authorities had been reluctant to provide up-to-date charts because they were worried about a possible attack by Japan, which had begun expanding into Southeast Asia. + +== Third expedition 1941 == +The Fahnestock brothers met President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1941, ostensibly to discuss their recent expedition. In fact, the president asked them to undertake an intelligence gathering mission to the Dutch East Indies to assess the area's defence facilities in the face of probable Japanese invasion. In February 1941, the Fahnestocks proceeded to Surabaya and travelled through Southeast Asia for ten months in a chartered ship, recording the music of Bali, Java, Madura, and the Kangean Islands as cover for their intelligence work. They returned to the United States just before the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. + +== World War 2 == +Both brothers joined the army in 1942. As expert sailors with knowledge of the area, they were sent to New Guinea to oversee the US Army Small Ships Section. This was a group of coastal commercial vessels from Australia and New Zealand that were used to supply US forces in the islands. Bruce Fahnestock was killed in New Guinea in October 1942 when the trawler he was on was mistaken for a Japanese vessel and was attacked by an American fighter plane. Sheridan Fahnestock commanded a small patrol craft ferrying supplies from Australia to New Guinea, and in 1944 was chief of Transport Command at the invasion of the Philippines. Sheridan Fahnestock retired from the army in 1945. He published a weekly newspaper in Maryland from 1946 until bad health forced his retirement in 1963, and died on 7 August 1965. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_nexus-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_nexus-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..538a35155 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_nexus-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Family nexus" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_nexus" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:09.390734+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In psychology, a family nexus is a common viewpoint held and reinforced by the majority of family members regarding events in the family and relationships with the world. The term was coined by R. D. Laing, who believed that this nexus "exists only insofar as each person incarnates the nexus ... maintaining his interiorization of the group unchanged." The concept is similar to the "family psychic apparatus (FPA) ... an unconscious psychic basis, common to members of the family group, inducing a specific experience of belonging." + + +== Laing and schizophrenia == +Laing was particularly interested in schizophrenia, which he believed could be understood if seen from the viewpoint of the person concerned. He saw how a powerful family nexus could victimize one member, usually a child, who found themselves in the position of not being able to speak or even think the truth without being chastised by the group, who often had vested interests in perpetuating the family myth and excluding reality. In Laing's opinion, "what is called a psychotic episode in one person can often be understood as a crisis of a peculiar kind in the inter-experience of the nexus." +Often described as part of the "antipsychiatry" movement, Laing strove to see things in terms of existentialism, emphasizing the difference between "being" or "being in this world" and being alive. "An issue essential to an existential analysis of action is to what extent and in what ways the agent is disclosed or concealed ... in and through action." Being in the existentialist sense means being an object for others and having others as objects, in other words, carrying a model in our heads of all the significant others in our lives. This model provided the motivation for many of our thoughts and actions, and without it we "cease to be" in a very real sense. +It is this need for others, in order to "be," that makes us afraid to contradict a family nexus, risking family exclusion. However, "to a number of people the phantasy system of the nexus is a lousy hell, not an enchanting spell, and they want out ... But within the phantasy of the nexus, to leave is an act of ingratitude, or cruelty, or suicide, or murder ... Herein is the risk of defeat and madness." The distortion involved in not going against the nexus can force wrong thinking—leading to "not being in reality," which Laing saw as the essence of schizophrenia; and for Laing, "one of the most important questions, therefore, is whether such mistrust of her 'feelings' and the testimony of others arises from persistent inconsistencies within an original nexus." + + +== Closed nexus and double bind == +Laing and his colleagues suggested that a family nexus included both immediate family and extra-familial people closely associated with the family and its worldview. a[8] Laing argued that a closed nexus would use its energy so as to unconsciously block out any threats to its identity, keeping all interchanges at a boring, repetitive level. Building on Kleinian accounts of social phantasy systems and the sense of unquestioned reality they can generate, Laing argued that within such systems patterns of communication were multi-layered and deceptive. +He also used W. R. Bion's account of how a group's basic assumptions could radiate "long silences, sighs of boredom, movements of discomfort ... the hostility of the individuals was being contributed to the group anonymously". As his associate Joseph Berke put it, in such a nexus, "a unique pattern of communication could be made out. People did not talk to each other, but at each other, and tangentially, not directly. ... What people said was often contradicted by the way they said it (tone of voice and/or facial and bodily movements)." +Further light was shed on such interactions by Gregory Bateson's concept of the double bind, "a situation in which contradictory demands are being put upon a child (or patient) in such a way that there is no avenue of escape or challenge". Laing considered that the concept allowed a completely new understanding of what a familial environment could entail: "this paradigm of an insoluble 'can't win' situation, specifically destructive of self-identity" greatly illuminated the way the subject's "disturbed pattern of communication ... [was] a reflection of, and reaction to, the disturbed and disturbing pattern characterizing his or her family of origin." In such a light, he considered that "mental illness" might be the outcome of a problematic configuration of a family nexus more than a necessary result of the nexus itself: in the words of Charles Rycroft, the psychotic is "the overt casualty of a deeply concealed family tragedy ... the end-result of complex and skew[ed] interactions within his family." +As Laing was careful to point out, however, it was not "a matter of laying the blame at anyone's door. The untenable position, the 'can't win' double-bind, the situation of checkmate, is by definition not obvious to the protagonists ... The man at the bottom of the heap may be being crushed and suffocated to death without anyone noticing, much less intending it". + + +== Collier's criticism == +Andrew Collier has commented on Laing's dilemma, which Laing himself seemed never to properly identify. In much of his writing, Laing assumed an uncorrupted natural state for the human mind and tended to condemn society for causing mental illness, in rather (early) Marxist terms. He saw schizophrenia as a possible healing process, a way of working through things, back to normality. Collier suggests that there is no uncorrupted state, no normality; rather, as social animals we all need to incorporate others into a nexus in order to "b." We must all perhaps be "mad" to some extent if we are to function in society, rather than as loners, but we must be uniformly mad. The nature of the madman's "must" remains unestablished. + + +== Therapy == +Psychotherapy today comes in many forms, following different schools of thought. Psychoanalysis emphasises childhood experience and left-over feelings, though Freud did point to the role of society in his later works like Civilization andIits Discontents. Family therapy concentrates on bringing families together and encouraging them to work out their interactions, but it might (depending on its theoretical orientation) offer little or no support to the victim of the family nexus, who may then be punished for anything he dares to reveal or hint a, and (lacking a support network) submit to silent intimidation in family therapy, rather than risk exclusion and the "ceasing to be" that follows. The alert family therapist will "avoid taking the family's side ... or the scapegoat's. You mustn't take anyone's side because then you'd be joining in the blaming ... You've got to treat the family as a system, without blaming anyone ... you need to make them all feel supported." + + +== See also == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_complex-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_complex-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..40be90114 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_complex-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Frankenstein complex" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_complex" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:30.213165+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Frankenstein complex is a term coined by Isaac Asimov in his robot series, referring to the fear of mechanical men. + + +== History == +Some of Asimov's science fiction short stories and novels predict that this suspicion will become strongest and most widespread in respect of "mechanical men" that most-closely resemble human beings (see android), but it is also present on a lower level against robots that are plainly electromechanical automatons. +The "Frankenstein complex" is similar in many respects to Masahiro Mori's uncanny valley hypothesis. +The name, "Frankenstein complex", is derived from the name of Victor Frankenstein in the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. In Shelley's story, Frankenstein created an intelligent, somewhat superhuman being, but he finds that his creation is horrifying to behold and abandons it. This ultimately leads to Victor's death at the conclusion of a vendetta between himself and his creation. +In much of his fiction, Asimov depicts the general attitude of the public towards robots as negative, with ordinary people fearing that robots will either replace them or dominate them, although dominance would not be allowed under the specifications of the Three Laws of Robotics, the first of which is: + +"A robot may not harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." +However, Asimov's fictitious earthly public is not fully persuaded by this, and remains largely suspicious and fearful of robots. I, Robot's short story "Little Lost Robot" is about this "fear of robots". +In Asimov's robot novels, the Frankenstein complex is a major problem for roboticists and robot manufacturers. They do all they can to reassure the public that robots are harmless, even though this sometimes involves hiding the truth because they think that the public would misunderstand it. The fear by the public and the response of the manufacturers is an example of the theme of paternalism, the dread of paternalism, and the conflicts that arise from it in Asimov's fiction. +The same theme occurs in many later works of fiction featuring robots, although it is rarely referred to as such. + + +== See also == +Frankenstein argument – an argument against engineered intelligent beings (but not specifically robots) +Uncanny valley – a hypothesis that posits a gap in emotional response to things created to resemble humans that fall short of perfect mimicry + + +== Bibliography == +Jean-Jacques Lecercle, Frankenstein: Mythe et Philosophie (Press Universitaires de France, 1997) +Shuntaro, Ono, Frankenstein Complex: what can change someone into a monster(Seisoushobou, 2009) 小野俊太郎『フランケンシュタイン・コンプレックス』（青草書房 2009年） + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Alliance_(Finland)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Alliance_(Finland)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..685e69902 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Alliance_(Finland)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "Freedom Alliance (Finland)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Alliance_(Finland)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:19.472094+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Freedom Alliance (Finnish: Vapauden Liitto, VL), is a national conservatist registered political party in Finland. The party was founded by Ossi Tiihonen after splitting from the Power Belongs to the People (VKK) party in February 2022. They met the 5,000 signatures requirement for registering as a political party in one day on 19 April 2022, and were officially registered on 6 May 2022. + + +== Background == +The Freedom Alliance was founded by influential members of the Power Belongs to the People (VKK) party, who left due to Ano Turtiainen's leadership and support of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Putin, as well as citing his authoritarian leadership and the religious views of the party. +Ossi Tiihonen, founder of the Freedom Alliance, is a regional councilor for Lohja and was a member of the Finns Party before joining the VKK. Cia Grönborg, former party secretary, and Heli Rämäkkö, a previous vice-chairwoman, were also both influential members of the VKK and have worked as regional councilors for Espoo and Seinäjoki, respectively. They left the VKK due to perceived authoritarianism and lack of freedom to criticize the party leadership under Ano Turtiainen. In return, Turtiainen accused the splitters of being self-interested. + + +== Ideology == + + +=== Foreign Policy === +The Freedom Alliance advocates for Finland to leave the European Union and condemns the EU as being anti-democratic, globalist and elitist. They are also against NATO and the United States, proclaiming that cooperation with the U.S. has turned Finland into a satellite state. The party is opposed to transatlanticism, instead advocating for the return of the Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine. Despite opposition to the European Union, they support European and international cooperation. +The party harbours conspirational ideology, including denying the existence of climate change, with claims that the European Union is "force-feeding harmful green ideology, which the Finnish MEPs cast their green plagues on the Finnish people". They are against what they describe as the "neoliberal New World Order", and that the "EU-virus" is promoting mass immigration, gender diversity, and "men who give birth". +The Freedom Alliance is against sanctions on the Russian Federation for their invasion of Ukraine, stating them to be "hypocritical, illogical and emotional". The party believes that Ukraine is a client state of the United States, and that Ukraine is oppressing its Russian-speaking population, suppressing freedom of speech and limiting citizens' political power. + + +=== Political programs === +The Freedom Alliance describes itself as a individualist and localist party. The party is in favour of what it describes as "bringing back" freedom of speech, and the promotes classical liberalism in relation to society, stating the need for policies such as freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, right to ownership of property, freedom of enterprise, freedom of religion, freedom of political association, freedom to choose public healthcare providers and bodily integrity. The party also supports the right to privacy, opposing the proposal of a "European Digital Identity". Their policies for healthcareinclude free health check-ups for unemployed jobseekers and investment into services for the elderly and caregivers. The party promotes direct democracy after ensuring education regarding state affairs and with particular emphasis on the Constitution of Finland. +The party supports abolishing mandatory Swedish language education in schools, citing freedom of choice in language learning. They propose that Finland is in fact a trilingual country, including Saami alongside the existing national languages, Finnish and Swedish, and that people are entitled to services in all three languages. +The party seeks to end work-based immigration, but allow humanitarian immigrants and asylum seekers only. The party supports a mass deportation of illegal immigrants and re-examining the application of all previously approved refugees. They also oppose affirmative action, and desire to "rationalize" violation of religious peace existing laws, as well as remove racial incitement from the criminal code. +The Freedom Alliance's economicpolicies are mainly Eurosceptic. They support the reinstatement of the markka as Finland's currency to promote national economic growth promote self-sufficiency and to maintain the welfare state, which they claim is incompatible with the European Union. They also support independent free trade separate from the European Union. The party also proposes lowering value-added tax (VAT) to 15 percent, lower taxation of domestic food and food production, the expansion of mining jobs, self-sufficiency in relation to agriculture and energy and renewal of the pension insurance system. + + +== Controversy == +The Freedom Alliance has been denounced as pro-Russian, though they have rejected the label. The party's support for the candidacy of Juha Korhonen has been highly controversial, as Korhonen is known to be a supporter of the Nordic Resistance Movement, a Finnish domestic terrorist group. Junes Lokka, a candidate in the European Parliament elections and a town councillor for the Freedom Alliance, has been sentenced twice for ethnic incitement, and is known to have attended Nordic Resistance Movement events. + + +== Election results == +The party ran in the 2023 parliamentary election in an electoral alliance with the Crystal Party and Finnish People First, but won no seats. They supported the candidacy of Saara Huhtasaari in the 2024 Finnish presidential election, but she was unable to garner enough support for registration. They also nominated candidates for the 2024 European Parliament election, notably Teuvo Hakkarainen, a politician previously expelled from the Finns Party due to his affiliation with the Freedom Alliance. + + +=== Parliament of Finland === + + +=== Municipal elections === + + +=== European Parliament === + + +== References == + + +=== Notes === + + +=== References === + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7178c1fa9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +--- +title: "Future of space exploration" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:41.112960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The future of space exploration involves both telescopic and physical explorations of space by robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight. Near-term physical exploration missions, focused on obtaining new information about the Solar System, are planned and announced by both national and private organisations. +Tentative plans for crewed orbital and landing missions to the Moon and Mars to establish scientific outposts will later enable permanent and self-sufficient settlements. Further exploration will potentially involve expedition and the other planets and settlements on the Moon, as well as establishing mining and fueling outposts, particularly in the asteroid belt. Physical exploration outside the Solar System will be robotic for the foreseeable future. + +== Benefits of space exploration == + +Investment in space exploration has dramatically shifted since the 20th century Space race. Space exploration of the late 20th century was driven by competition between the Soviet Union and the United States to achieve the first spaceflight. Now, the private sector and national governments are again investing in space exploration. However, this time they are motivated by protecting human life from catastrophic events and leveraging the resources of space. + +=== Colonize outer space === + +It has been argued that space colonization is a means of ensuring the survival of human civilization given a planetary disaster. Colonizing other planets allows for the dispersal of humans and thus increases the likelihood of survival given a planetary disaster. The availability of additional resources that can be mined from space could potentially expand the capabilities of humans and largely benefit society. Leveraging these resources and moving high polluting industries to space could reduce the emissions on Earth and ultimately lead to finding cleaner energy sources. The primary blockers to colonizing space include technological and economic challenges. +Many private companies are working to make space travel more efficient in hopes to reduce the overall cost of space travel, and thus space colonization. SpaceX has been a dominant leader in this push for efficient exploration with the release of the Falcon 9, a reusable rocket. + +=== Space research === + +The unique attributes of space enable astronauts to conduct research that could not otherwise be done on Earth, and the perspective from space looking at Earth enables scientists to gain more insight on the Earth's natural environment. Research conducted at the International Space Station aims to benefit human civilizations on Earth and extend human knowledge of space and space exploration. Currently, NASA's research at the ISS includes biomedical research, material science, technology advancement, and methods to enable further space exploration. +Anti and microgravity enable astronauts to execute medical research that is impossible to perform on Earth. For example, NASA's research on new treatment options for complex diseases, such as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, require the use of a microgravity environment to allow the microparticles in the treatment solution to stay robust. NASA has also reported research investment in microbial vaccine development and microencapsulation of drugs for targeted and more efficient treatment delivery. + +== Uncrewed missions == + +=== Breakthrough Starshot === + +Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail spacecraft named StarChip, to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.37 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg. + +=== Mars === + +==== Rosalind Franklin ==== + +Rosalind Franklin, previously known as the ExoMars rover, is a planned robotic Mars rover, part of the international ExoMars programme led by the European Space Agency and the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation. +Initially scheduled to launch in July 2020, but has since been delayed due to testing issues with the rover's landing mechanism. As of May 2022, the launch of the rover is not expected to occur before 2028 due to the need for a new non-Russian landing platform. Once safely landed, the solar powered rover will begin a seven-month (218-sol) mission to search for the existence of past life on Mars. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), launched in 2016, will operate as Rosalind Franklin's and lander's data-relay satellite. + +==== Mars Lander Mission ==== + +Mars Lander Mission, also called Mangalyaan-2. Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2), is India's second interplanetary mission planned for launch to Mars by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). As per some reports emerged, the mission was to be an orbiter to Mars proposed for 2024. However, in a recorded interview in October 2019, VSSC director has indicated the inclusion of a lander and rover. The orbiter will use aerobraking to lower its initial apoapsis and enter into an orbit more suitable for observations. + +=== Asteroids === + +An article in science magazine Nature suggested the use of asteroids as a gateway for space exploration, with the ultimate destination being Mars. In order to make such an approach viable, three requirements need to be fulfilled: first, "a thorough asteroid survey to find thousands of nearby bodies suitable for astronauts to visit"; second, "extending flight duration and distance capability to ever-increasing ranges out to Mars"; and finally, "developing better robotic vehicles and tools to enable astronauts to explore an asteroid regardless of its size, shape or spin." Furthermore, using asteroids would provide astronauts with protection from galactic cosmic rays, with mission crews being able to land on them without great risk to radiation exposure + +=== Gas giants === + +==== Breakthrough Enceladus ==== + +Breakthrough Enceladus is an astrobiology space probe mission concept to explore the possibility of life on Saturn's moon, Enceladus. In September 2018, NASA signed a collaboration agreement with Breakthrough to jointly create the mission concept. This mission would be the first privately funded deep space mission. It would study the content of the plumes ejecting from Enceladus's warm ocean through its southern ice crust. Enceladus's ice crust is thought to be around two to five kilometers thick, and a probe could use an ice-penetrating radar to constrain its structure. + +=== Space telescopes === + +==== PLATO ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3cc6961e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "Future of space exploration" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:41.112960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) is a space telescope under development by the European Space Agency for launch in 2026. The mission goals are to search for planetary transits across up to one million stars, and to discover and characterize rocky extrasolar planets around yellow dwarf stars (like the Sun), subgiant stars, and red dwarf stars. The emphasis of the mission is on Earth-like planets in the habitable zone around Sun-like stars where water can exist in liquid state. +It is the third medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme and named after the influential Greek philosopher Plato, the founding figure of Western philosophy, science and mathematics. A secondary objective of the mission is to study stellar oscillations or seismic activity in stars to measure stellar masses and evolution and enabling the precise characterization of the planet host star, including its age. + +== Crewed missions == + +=== SpaceX Starship === + +The SpaceX Starship is planned to be a spacecraft launched as the second stage of a reusable launch vehicle. The concept is under development by SpaceX, as a private spaceflight project. It is being designed to be a long-duration cargo- and passenger-carrying spacecraft. While it will be tested on its own initially, it will be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where Starship would serve as the second stage on a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. The combination of spacecraft and booster is called Starship as well. + +==== Boeing Starliner 1 ==== + +The Boeing Starliner 1 mission will be the first operational crewed mission of the Boeing Starliner and the first mission to reuse the Starliner Spacecraft. The mission is expected to launch no earlier than December 2021 using the Atlas V rocket with a crew of four astronauts, three NASA astronauts and likely one international partner astronaut from either Japan, Canada, or the European Space Agency. This mission will be the fourth US spaceflight with a female commander. + +=== Gaganyaan === + +ISRO's future Gaganyaan mission, which is the first Indian Human Spaceflight Programme, comprises a crew module which is a fully autonomous 5.3-tonne (12,000 lb) spacecraft designed to carry a 3-member crew to orbit and safely return to the Earth after a mission duration of up to seven days. Its 2.9-tonne (6,400 lb) service module is powered by liquid propellant engines. It is to be launched on the GSLV Mk III launcher no earlier than 2022. About 16 minutes after liftoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, the rocket will inject the spacecraft into an orbit 300–400 km (190–250 mi) above Earth. When ready to land, its service module and solar panels will be disposed off before reentry. The capsule would return for a parachute splashdown in the Bay of Bengal. + +== Limitations with deep space exploration == +The future possibilities for deep space exploration are limited by a set of technical, practical, astronomical, and human limitations, which define the future of crewed and uncrewed space exploration. As of 2022, the farthest any human-made probe has traveled is the current NASA mission Voyager 1, 23.61 billion km (14.67 billion mi), around 157.8 AU, from Earth, while the nearest star is around 4.24 light years away, that is the equivalent of 268142.2 AU. + +=== Technical limitations === +The current status of space-faring technology, including propulsion systems, navigation, resources and storage all present limitations to the development of human space exploration in the near future. + +==== Distances ==== +The astronomical order of magnitude of the distance between Earth and the nearest stars is a challenge for the current development of space exploration. At the current top speed of 70.2 km/s, the Helios 2 probe would arrive at the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, in around 18,000 years, much longer than a human lifespan and therefore requiring much faster transportation methods than currently available. This top speed was achieved due to the Oberth effect where the spacecraft was sped up by a combination of the Sun's gravity and its own propulsion system. The fastest escape velocity from the Solar System is that of Voyager 1 at 17 km/s. + +==== Propulsion and fuel ==== + +In terms of propulsion, the main challenge is the liftoff and initial momentum, since there is no friction in the vacuum of space. Based on the missions goals, including factors such as distance, load and time of flight, the type of propulsion drive used, planned to use, or in design varies from chemical propellants, such as liquid hydrogen and oxidizer (Space Shuttle Main Engine), to plasma or even nanoparticle propellants. Another propulsion system that may be used is ion propulsion. + +As for future developments, the theoretical possibilities of nuclear based propulsion have been analyzed over 60 years ago, such as nuclear fusion (Project Daedalus) and nuclear pulse propulsion (Project Longshot), but have since been discontinued from practical research by NASA. On the more speculative side, the theoretical Alcubierre drive presents a mathematical solution for “faster-than-light” travel, but it would require the mass-Energy of Jupiter, not to mention the technical issues. + +=== Human limitations === +The human element in crewed space exploration adds certain physiological and psychological issues and limitations to the future possibilities of space exploration, along with storage and sustenance space and mass issues. + +==== Physiological issues ==== +The transitioning gravity magnitudes on the body is detrimental to orientation, coordination, and balance. Without constant gravity, bones suffer disuse osteoporosis, and their mineral density falls 12 times faster than the average elderly adult's. Without regular exercise and nourishment, there can be cardiovascular deterioration and loss in muscle strength. Dehydration can cause kidney stones, and constant hydro-static potential in zero-g can shift body fluids upwards and cause vision problems. +Furthermore, without Earth's surrounding magnetic field as a shield, solar radiation has much harsher effects on biological organisms in space. The exposure can include damage to the central nervous system, (altered cognitive function, reducing motor function and incurring possible behavioral changes), as well as the possibility of degenerative tissue diseases. + +==== Psychological issues ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..01327c4a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Future of space exploration" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:41.112960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +According to NASA, isolation in space can have detrimental effects on the human psyche. Behavioral issues, such as low morale, mood-swings, depression, and decreasing interpersonal interactions, irregular sleeping rhythms, and fatigue occur independently to the level of training, according to a set of NASA's social experiments. The most famous of which, Biosphere 2, was a 2 year long, 8 person crew experiment in the 1990s, in an attempt to study human necessities and survival in an isolated environment. The result of which were stressed interpersonal interactions and aloof behavior, including limiting and even ceasing contact between crew members, along with failing to sustain a lasting air-recycling system and food supply. + +==== Resources and sustenance ==== +Considering the future possibility of extended, crewed missions, food storage and resupply are relevant limitations. From a storage point of view, NASA estimates a 3-year Mars mission would require around 24 thousand pounds (11 t) of food, most of it in the form of precooked, dehydrated meals of about 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) a portion. Fresh produce would only be available in the beginning of the flight, since there would not be refrigeration systems. Water's relative heavy weight is a limitation, so on the International Space Station (ISS) the use of water per person is limited to 11 litres (2.9 US gal) a day, compared to the average Americans' 132 litres (35 US gal). + +As for resupply, efforts have been made to recycle, reuse and produce, to make storage more efficient. Water can be produced through chemical reactions of Hydrogen and Oxygen in fuel cells, and attempts and methods of growing vegetables in micro-gravity are being developed and will continue to be researched. Lettuce and chinese cabbage has already successfully grown in the ISS's "Veggie plant growth system", and has been consumed by the astronauts, even though large-scale plant cultivation is still impractical due to factors such as pollination, long growth periods, and the need for development of more efficient growth systems. + +== Artificial Intelligence and robotic space craft development == +The idea of using high level automated systems for space missions has become a desirable goal to space agencies all around the world. Such systems are believed to yield benefits such as lower cost, less human oversight, and ability to explore deeper in space which is usually restricted by long communications with human controllers. Autonomy will be a key technology for the future exploration of the Solar System, where robotic spacecraft will often be out of communication with their human controllers. + +=== Autonomous systems === +Autonomy is defined by three requirements: + +The ability to make and carry out decisions on their own, based on information on what they sensed from the world and their current state. +The ability to interpret the given goal as a list of actions to take. +The ability to fail flexibly, meaning they are able to continuously change their actions based on what is happening within their system and their surrounding. +Currently, there are many projects trying to advance space exploration and space craft development using AI. + +==== NASA's autonomous science experiment ==== +NASA began its autonomous science experiment (ASE) on Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), which is NASA's first satellite in the millennium program, Earth-observing series launched on November 21, 2000. The autonomy of these satellites is capable of on-board science analysis, re-planning, robust execution, and model-based diagnostic. Images obtained by the EO-1 are analyzed on-board and down linked when a change or interesting event occurs. The ASE software has successfully provided over 10,000 science images. This experiment was the start of many that NASA devised for AI to impact the future of space exploration. + +==== Artificial Intelligence Flight Adviser ==== +NASA's goal with this project is to develop a system that can aid pilots by giving them real-time expert advice in situations that pilot training does not cover or just aid with a pilot's train of thought during flight. Based on the IBM Watson cognitive computing system, the AI Flight Adviser pulls data from a large database of relevant information like aircraft manuals, accident reports, and close-call reports to give advice to pilots. In the future, NASA wants to implement this technology to create fully autonomous systems, which can then be used for space exploration. In this case, cognitive systems will serve as the basis, and the autonomous system will completely decide on the course of action of the mission, even during unforeseen situations. However, in order for this to happen, there are still many supporting technologies required. +In the future, NASA hopes to use this technology not only in flights on earth, but for future space exploration. Essentially, NASA plans to modify this AI flight Advisor for Longer range applications. In addition to what the technology is now, there will be additional cognitive computing systems that can decide on the right set of actions based upon unforeseen problems in space. However, in order for this to be possible, there are still many supporting technologies that need to be enhanced. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0c0b87e6b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "Future of space exploration" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:41.112960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Stereo vision for collision avoidance ==== +For this project, NASA's goal is to implement stereo vision for collision avoidance in space systems to work with and support autonomous operations in a flight environment. This technology uses two cameras within its operating system that have the same view, but when put together offer a large range of data that gives a binocular image. Because of its duo-camera system, NASA's research indicate that this technology can detect hazards in rural and wilderness flight environments. Because of this project, NASA has made major contributions toward developing a completely autonomous UAV. Currently, Stereo Vision can construct a stereo vision system, process the vision data, make sure the system works properly, and lastly performs tests figuring out the range of impeding objects and terrain. In the future, NASA hopes this technology can also determine the path to avoid collision. The near-term goal for the technology is to be able to extract information from point clouds and place this information in a historic map data. Using this map, the technology could then be able to extrapolate obstacles and features in the stereo data that are not in the map data. This would aid with the future of space exploration where humans can't see moving, impeding objects that may damage the moving space craft. + +=== Benefits of AI === +Autonomous technologies would be able to perform beyond predetermined actions. They would analyze all possible states and events happening around them and come up with a safe response. In addition, such technologies can reduce launch cost and ground involvement. Performance would increase as well. Autonomy would be able to quickly respond upon encountering an unforeseen event, especially in deep space exploration where communication back to Earth would take too long. Space exploration could provide us with the knowledge of our universe as well as incidentally developing inventions and innovations. Traveling to Mars and farther could encourage the development of advances in medicine, health, longevity, transportation, communications that could have applications on Earth. + +=== Robotic spacecraft development === + +==== Energy ==== + +===== Solar panels ===== +Changes in space craft development will have to account for an increased energy need for future systems. Spacecraft heading towards the center of the Solar System will include enhanced solar panel technology to make use of the abundant solar energy surrounding them. Future solar panel development is aimed at their working more efficiently while being lighter. + +===== Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators ===== +Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTEG or RTG) are solid-state devices which have no moving parts. They generate heat from the radioactive decay of elements such as plutonium, and have a typical lifespan of more than 30 years. In the future, atomic sources of energy for spacecraft will hopefully be lighter and last longer than they do currently. They could be particularly useful for missions to the Outer Solar System which receives substantially less sunlight, meaning that producing a substantial power output with solar panels would be impractical. + +== The private sector and space commercialization == +NASA continues to focus on solving more difficult problems involving space exploration such as deep space capabilities and improving human life support systems. With that said, NASA has placed the challenge of commercializing space to the private space industry with the hopes of developing innovations which help improve human living conditions in space. Commercialization of space in the private sector will lead to reducing flight costs, developing new methods of sustaining human life in space, and will provide the opportunity for tourists to experience Low Earth orbit travel in the future. + +=== Limitations to space commercialization === +Experiencing Low Earth Orbit as a tourist requires accommodations to allow for humans to fly or spend time in space. These accommodations will need to solve the following problems: + 1. Physiological effects of living in microgravity will affect your body's chemistry and invoke symptoms such as motion sickness from disorientation. Long term gradual effects from time in space include Bone atrophy from a gravity scarce environment that limits the flow of minerals throughout the body. + 2. Upcoming habitats are designed for effective transport on rocket systems which means these habitats are small and confined leading to confinement problems and physiological changes in behavior like claustrophobia. + 3. Residing in Earth's orbit removes the protections of the Ozone layer which absorbs harmful radiation emitted from the Sun. Living in orbit around Earth exposes humans to ten times more radiation than humans living on Earth. These radiative effects can invoke symptoms such as skin cancer. +Company Advancements in Commercialization + +=== Commercialization of space === + +==== SpaceX ==== + +In 2017 Elon Musk announced the development of rocket travel to transport humans from one city to another in under an hour. Elon has challenged SpaceX to improve travel across the world through his reusable rocket propulsion to send up passengers on a suborbital trajectory to their destination. + +==== Virgin Galactic ==== + +The company Virgin Galactic with CEO Sir Richard Branson is developing another method to reach planes through Aircraft propulsion. Named SpaceshipTwo which is a biplane that carries a spacecraft as its payload known as White Knight Two and carries it to cruising altitude where the rocket separates and begins to climb out of Earth's atmosphere. + +=== Blue Origin === + +==== New Shepard ==== +The Blue Origin website highlights a small launch vehicle sending payloads into orbit. The goal is to reduce the cost of sending smaller payloads into orbit with future intentions to send humans into space. The first stage is reusable while the second stage is expendable. Maximum payload dimensions are expected to be around 530 cubic feet to be carried past the Karman line. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..39bd47f90 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Future of space exploration" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:41.112960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== New Glenn ==== +The larger variant of the New Shepard, Blue Origin seeks to increase their payload capabilities by developing a 95-meter-tall rocket capable of reusable flight to space. Its payload is expected to be satellites or to provide humans with the opportunity to view space without astronaut training. Blue Origin intends the rocket's reusability to last 25 flights into space alleviating costs increasing the possibility of commercialized travel. + +==== Blue Moon ==== +Blue Origin's lunar lander is designed to be a flexible lander with capabilities to send both cargo and crew to the lunar surface. This habitat will provide a sustained human presence by providing necessities such as life support systems and lunar rovers to excavate and scout the surrounding lunar surface. Further developments on this project include a Human Landing system which are detachable living quarters intended to attach and depart from the Blue Moon Lunar Lander. + +==== Bigelow Aerospace Expandable Activity Module ==== + +The Bigelow Aerospace Corporation founded by Robert Bigelow is headquartered in Las Vegas. A research and development company with emphasis on constructing space architecture capable of housing humans and creating living conditions suitable for living in space. The company has sent two subscale spacecraft known as Genesis I and II into Low Earth Orbit along with sending a module known as Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) which is inflated and attached to the International Space Station. The BEAM Module is measured to be 14 feet in length and can be inflated or deflated for ease of transportation. Bigelow Aerospace is working toward developing their own Modules independent of the International Space Station to send tourists and visitors. + +== See also == +Space exploration +List of proposed space observatories +Human mission to Mars +Space colonization + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_OMG-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_OMG-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f94cd737c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_OMG-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "GMO OMG" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_OMG" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:55.330188+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +GMO OMG is a 2013 American pseudoscientific documentary film which takes a negative view towards the use of genetically modified organisms used in the production of food, in the United States. The film focuses on Monsanto, a multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, and their role in the food industry alongside the effects of GMOs and how they are generated. +Directed by Jeremy Seifert and produced by Elizabeth Kucinich, it was given a limited release in the United States on September 13, 2013, and received negative reviews from critics. GMO OMG follows Seifert's search of answers: how do GMOs affect people and the planet. These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to Haiti, Paris, Norway, and agra-giant Monsanto. +The sole study specifically cited was widely discredited; see Séralini affair. + + +== Film content == +Jeremy Seifert’s goal in GMO OMG is to say that citizens of the U.S. are inadequately informed about the corporate manipulation of the food supply. Seifert travels to Haiti, Norway and Paris and interviews commercial and private farmers in order to understand more about their use in these industries. In Haiti Seifert explores the Peasant Movement of Papaye’s resistance towards the help of Monsanto and continues his travels to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that contains 700,000 samples of seeds from every country on earth to prevent the extinction of certain plant species. Seifert ends his world travels in Paris where he talks to scientists about the effects of GMOs on humans. While at home in the U.S. Seifert travels through California to different farms with his family to emphasize how important it is to him that people be more concerned with what they are eating themselves and feeding their families. Seifert also travels to a Monsanto location where he is rejected. + + +== Reviews and criticisms == +The documentary received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes rated the documentary at 56% approval rating based on 16 critics' reviews, with an average score of 5.25/10. +Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times calling it, "a gentle, flyover alert to obliviously chowing-down citizens ... without hectoring and with no small amount of charm". RogerEbert.com claims that GMO OMG is an advocacy film inspired by Michael Moore's "Roger and Me", a documentary in which Moore sets out to find the answer to why General Motors closed all of its plants in Flint, Michigan beginning in 1978. Simon Abrams, the writer of "GMO OMG"'s review on the Roger Ebert website, states that "Seifert's arguments are dependent on unconvincing testimony and leaps in logic" and that "Seifert is apparently mistrustful of scientific terms, studies, and concepts". RogerEbert.com gave "GMO OMG" a one star rating out of a possible five. +Michael Specter of the New Yorker wrote a scathing review of the documentary in which he dubbed the film "aggressively uninformed". Specter furthers Abram's notion that the documentary is based on the unreliable testimony of witnesses who are not actually scientists, and that Seifert's film is characterized by intellectual laziness. Scientific American wrote a review titled ""GMO OMG" SRSLY? An #EpicFail in Exercising Our Right To Know", which debunks Seifert's verdict of "science is still out" on whether GMOs are harmful or not. Ferris Jabr, the author of the article, claims that GMO OMG utilizes biased research and statistics that are taken out of their original context. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +GMO OMG at IMDb +GMO OMG at Metacritic +GMO OMG at Rotten Tomatoes \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-0.md index f34c9c512..d9cd236ae 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:10:24.924248+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:53.448793+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-1.md index 9df812eb0..297d7da14 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:10:24.924248+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:53.448793+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-2.md index 9c875edef..51da92400 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMO_conspiracy_theories" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:10:24.924248+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:53.448793+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-0.md index 7738699b2..7eceed2c7 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-1.md index 6d3f39b93..37e8975c2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-10.md index e3415fe93..d4fe3fd97 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-10.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-10.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 11/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-11.md index 9ea19570e..9b027d7a7 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-11.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-11.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 12/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-12.md index bf122851c..ac54ba75e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-12.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-12.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 13/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-13.md index e44f582cc..3579e7c5f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-13.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-13.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 14/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-14.md index 328407961..ce0b24111 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-14.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-14.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 15/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-15.md index d382ec82e..7a7259324 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-15.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-15.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 16/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-16.md index 84dc7573d..d11c92beb 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-16.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-16.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 17/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-17.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-17.md index f4bb6e796..a689247e0 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-17.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-17.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 18/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-18.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-18.md index 19d02615f..d84f91b2f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-18.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-18.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 19/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-19.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-19.md index bcab00703..6d0f7b584 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-19.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-19.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 20/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-2.md index 557fbb09d..327d9282d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-20.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-20.md index be7ea1572..2f8465ef6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-20.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-20.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 21/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-3.md index 68c0fd722..4fe7148a5 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-4.md index b4b7d40f9..0b09e72f7 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-5.md index 40f618667..5261abc88 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-5.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-5.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 6/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-6.md index 40940734c..6dbc4083e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-6.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-6.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 7/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-7.md index 645954955..ac30e47c2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-7.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-7.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 8/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-8.md index 2c0c4ef10..05305b4b2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-8.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-8.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 9/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-9.md index b31bd3c2e..8bd9a362c 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-9.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies-9.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 10/21 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food_controversies" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:43.845501+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:52.199143+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George's_Day_Movement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George's_Day_Movement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d5cae619 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George's_Day_Movement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "George's Day Movement" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George's_Day_Movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:20.628298+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The George's Day Movement (Bulgarian: Движение Гергьовден, romanized: Dvizhenie Gergyovden) is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria. +The party was founded in December 1996 by members of the political satire television programme Canaletto. Members of the show, which succeeded Ku-Ku in the mid-1990s, participated in the 1997 Bulgarian protests, and had previously tried to create a party named the Ku-Ku People’s Movement in 1994, but the registration was denied by the Supreme Court of Cassation of Bulgaria, with tacit support from the two major political parties at the time, the Union of Democratic Forces and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. The founder of the party, Lyuben Dilov Jr. estimated that had it run in the 1997 parliamentary election, the party could have earned roughly 10% of the vote and over 30 seats in the parliament. Ultimately, it opted to instead focus on the local elections held in 1999, until which time it de facto operated as a union of clubs alongside the Civil Society Against Corruption Association. Future There Is Such a People founder Slavi Trifonov was a supporter of the party during this time and a member of the television program Ku-Ku and its successor. +It joined the United Democratic Forces before the 2005 elections. The party participated in an electoral coalition with GERB and the Union of Democratic Forces since elections in 2021. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warrior_Project-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warrior_Project-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..38472f5cd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warrior_Project-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Global Warrior Project" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Warrior_Project" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:07.192383+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Global Warrior Project (formerly Ice Warrior Project) is an organisation founded in 2001 by the explorer Jim McNeill. Its remit is to develop people from all walks of life and echelons of society into modern-day explorers; to discover change in the world’s most remote and extreme regions under the guidance of partner leading scientific authorities; and deliver these discoveries in an engaging, human manner to audiences around the globe. +The organisation provides raw, scientific data for others to go on and interpret in order to monitor these regions, which were described by Nobel peace prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier as "clearly one of the most important regions when it comes to climate change." +The project's founder Jim McNeill maintains that without such knowledge humans cannot be true guardians of the planet and we cannot establish whether the actions we are taking to mitigate climate change are having any lasting impact. +As an organisation it has an altruistic project side which relies on corporate sponsorship and involves charitable work and also an underpinning commercial side. +Global Warrior Project is made up of 5 extreme environments - Ice, Ocean, Desert, Mountain and Jungle. + + +== See also == +Jim McNeill - the founder of the Global Warrior Project + + +== External links == +Global Warrior Project +Hauser Bears Archived 2012-05-28 at the Wayback Machine +Global Warrior Expedition Basecamp - Outfitting, Logistics and Extreme Environment Safety consultants. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..68d54202c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:13.417088+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is an internationally agreed-upon standard managed by the United Nations that was set up to replace the assortment of hazardous material classification and labelling schemes previously used around the world. Core elements of the GHS include standardized hazard testing criteria, universal warning pictograms, and safety data sheets which provide users of dangerous goods relevant information with consistent organization. The system acts as a complement to the UN numbered system of regulated hazardous material transport. Implementation is managed through the UN Secretariat. Although adoption has taken time, as of 2017, the system has been enacted to significant extents in most major countries of the world. This includes the European Union, which has implemented the United Nations' GHS into EU law as the CLP Regulation, and United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. + +== History == +Before the GHS was created and implemented, there were many different regulations on hazard classification in use in different countries, resulting in multiple standards, classifications and labels for the same hazard. Given the $1.7 trillion per year international trade in chemicals requiring hazard classification, the cost of compliance with multiple systems of classification and labeling is significant. Developing a worldwide standard accepted as an alternative to local and regional systems presented an opportunity to reduce costs and improve compliance. +The GHS development began at the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development by the United Nations, also called Earth Summit (1992), when the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), various governments, and other stakeholders agreed that "A globally harmonized hazard classification and compatible labelling system, including material safety data sheets and easily understandable symbols, should be available if feasible, by the year 2000". +The universal standard for all countries was to replace all the diverse classification systems; however, it is not a compulsory provision of any treaty. The GHS provides a common infrastructure for participating countries to use when implementing a hazard classification and Hazard Communication Standard. + +== Hazard classification == +The GHS classification system defines and classifies the physical, health, and/or environmental hazards of a substance. Each category within the classifications has associated pictograms to be used when applied to a material or mixture. + +=== Physical hazards === +As of the 10th revision of the GHS, substances or articles are assigned to 17 different hazard classes largely based on the United Nations Dangerous Goods System. + +Explosives are assigned to one of four subcategories depending on the type of hazard they present, similar to the categories used in the UN Dangerous Goods System. Category 1 includes explosives not covered by the 6 Dangerous Goods categories. +Flammable gases are assigned to one of 3 categories based on reactivity: +Category 1A includes extremely flammable gases ignitable at 20 °C and standard pressure of 101.3 kPa, pyrophoric gases, and chemically unstable gases that may react in the absence of oxygen. +Category 1B gases meet the flammability criteria of 1A, but are not pyrophoric or chemically unstable and have a lower flammability limit in air. +Category 2 includes gases which do not meet the above criteria but otherwise are flammable at 20 °C and standard pressure. +Aerosols and chemicals under pressure are categorized into one of 3 categories, but may be additionally classified as explosives or flammable gases if material properties match the previous classifications. From category 1 to 3, aerosols are classified as most to least flammable. All aerosols under these categories carry a bursting hazard. +Oxidizing gases are any gaseous substance which contribute to combustion of other materials more than air would. There is only one category of oxidizing gases. +Gases under pressure are categorized as compressed, liquefied, refrigerated, or dissolved gases, all of which may explode when heated or (in the case of refrigerated gases) cause cryogenic injury, such as frostbite. +Flammable liquids are categorized by flammability, from Category 1 with flash point < 23 °C and initial boiling point < 35 °C to Category 4 with flash point > 60 °C and < 93 °C. +Flammable solids are classified as solid substances which are readily combustible or may contribute to a fire through friction, and ignitable metal powders. They are placed into Category 1 if a fire is not stopped by wetting the substance, and Category 2 if wetting stops the fire for at least 4 minutes. +Self-reactive substances and mixtures are liable to detonate or combust without the participation of air and are placed into 7 categories from A to G with decreasing reactivity. +Pyrophoric liquids are liable to ignite after 5 minutes of coming in contact with air. +Pyrophoric solids follow the same criteria as pyrophoric liquids. +Self-heating substances, which differ from self-reactive substances in that they will only ignite in large quantities (kilograms) and after a long duration of time (hours or days). Category 1 is reserved for samples which self-heat in small quantities (25 mm2), and all other self-heating substances that only heat in large quantities are listed under Category 2. +Substances and mixtures which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases are categorized from 1 to 3 based on the ignitability of the gas emitted. +Oxidizing liquids contribute to the combustion of other materials and are categorized from 1 to 3 in decreasing oxidizing potential. +Oxidizing solids follow the same criteria as oxidizing liquids. +Organic peroxides are unstable substances or mixtures and may be derivatives of hydrogen peroxide. They are categorized from A to G based on inherent ability to explode or otherwise combust. +Corrosive to metals materials may damage or destroy metals, based on tests done on aluminum and steel. The corrosion rate must be greater than 6.25 mm/year on either material to qualify under this classification. +Desensitized explosives are materials that would otherwise be classified as explosive, but have been stabilized, or phlegmatized, to be exempted from said class. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..260eb267b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:13.417088+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Health hazards === +Acute toxicity includes five GHS categories from which the appropriate elements relevant to transport, consumer, worker and environment protection can be selected. Substances are assigned to one of the five toxicity categories on the basis of LD50 (oral, dermal) or LC50 (inhalation). +Skin corrosion means the production of irreversible damage to the skin following the application of a test substance for up to 4 hours. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to a single harmonized corrosion category. Skin irritation means the production of reversible damage to the skin following the application of a test substance for up to 4 hours. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to a single irritant category. For those authorities, such as pesticide regulators, wanting more than one designation for skin irritation, an additional mild irritant category is provided. +Serious eye damage means the production of tissue damage in the eye, or serious physical decay of vision, following application of a test substance to the front surface of the eye, which is not fully reversible within 21 days of application. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to a single harmonized category. Eye irritation means changes in the eye following the application of a test substance to the front surface of the eye, which are fully reversible within 21 days of application. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to a single harmonized hazard category. For authorities, such as pesticide regulators, wanting more than one designation for eye irritation, one of two subcategories can be selected, depending on whether the effects are reversible in 21 or 7 days. +Respiratory sensitizer means a substance that induces hypersensitivity of the airways following inhalation of the substance. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to one hazard category. Skin sensitizer means a substance that will induce an allergic response following skin contact. The definition for "skin sensitizer" is equivalent to "contact sensitizer". Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to one hazard category. +Germ cell mutagenicity means an agent giving rise to an increased occurrence of mutations in populations of cells and/or organisms. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to one of two hazard categories. Category 1 has two subcategories. +Carcinogenicity means a chemical substance or a mixture of chemical substances that induce cancer or increase its incidence. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to one of two hazard categories. Category 1 has two subcategories. +Reproductive toxicity includes adverse effects on sexual function and fertility in adult males and females, as well as developmental toxicity in offspring. Substances and mixtures with reproductive and/or developmental effects are assigned to one of two hazard categories, 'known or presumed' and 'suspected'. Category 1 has two subcategories for reproductive and developmental effects. Materials which cause concern for the health of breastfed children have a separate category: effects on or via Lactation. +Specific target organ toxicity (STOT) category distinguishes between single and repeated exposure for Target Organ Effects. All significant health effects, not otherwise specifically included in the GHS, that can impair function, both reversible and irreversible, immediate and/or delayed are included in the non-lethal target organ/systemic toxicity class (TOST). Narcotic effects and respiratory tract irritation are considered to be target organ systemic effects following a single exposure. Substances and mixtures of the single exposure target organ toxicity hazard class are assigned to one of three hazard categories. Substances and mixtures of the repeated exposure target organ toxicity hazard class are assigned to one of two hazard categories. +Aspiration hazard includes severe acute effects such as chemical pneumonia, varying degrees of pulmonary injury or death following aspiration. Aspiration is the entry of a liquid or solid directly through the oral or nasal cavity, or indirectly from vomiting, into the trachea and lower respiratory system. Substances and mixtures of this hazard class are assigned to one of two hazard categories this hazard class on the basis of viscosity. + +=== Environmental hazards === +Acute aquatic toxicity indicates the intrinsic property of a material of causing injury to an aquatic organism in a short-term exposure. Substances and mixtures of this hazard class are assigned to one of three toxicity categories on the basis of acute toxicity data: LC50 (fish) or EC50 (crustacean) or ErC50 (for algae or other aquatic plants). These acute toxicity categories may be subdivided or extended for certain sectors. +Chronic aquatic toxicity indicates the potential or actual properties of a material to cause adverse effects to aquatic organisms during exposures that are determined in relation to the lifecycle of the organism. Substances and mixtures in this hazard class are assigned to one of four toxicity categories on the basis of acute data and environmental fate data: LC50 (fish), EC50 (crustacea) ErC50 (for algae or other aquatic plants), and degradation or bioaccumulation. +Ozone Depleting Potential indicates the ability of the materials to damage the Ozone Layer, determined by the Montreal Protocol. Substances and mixtures bearing this quality have the Hazard Statement H420. + +=== Classification of mixtures === +The GHS approach to the classification of mixtures for health and environmental hazards uses a tiered approach and is dependent upon the amount of information available for the mixture itself and for its components. Principles that have been developed for the classification of mixtures, drawing on existing systems such as the European Union (EU) system for classification of preparations laid down in Directive 1999/45/EC. The process for the classification of mixtures is based on the following steps: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f16ccf5f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:13.417088+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Where toxicological or ecotoxicological test data are available for the mixture itself, the classification of the mixture will be based on that data; +Where test data are not available for the mixture itself, then the appropriate bridging principles should be applied, which uses test data for components and/or similar mixtures; +If (1) test data are not available for the mixture itself, and (2) the bridging principles cannot be applied, then use the calculation or cutoff values described in the specific endpoint to classify the mixture. + +=== Substitute substances === +Companies are encouraged to replace hazardous substances with substances featuring a reduced health risk. As an assistance to assess possible substitute substances, the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA) has developed the Column Model. On the basis of just a small amount of information on a product, substitute substances can be evaluated with the support of this table. The current version from 2020 already includes the amendments of the 12th CLP Adaptation Regulation 2019/521. + +== Testing requirements == +The GHS generally defers to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and OECD to provide and verify toxicity testing requirements for substances or mixtures. Overall, the GHS criteria for determining health and environmental hazards are test method neutral, allowing different approaches as long as they are scientifically sound and validated according to international procedures and criteria already referred to in existing systems. Test data already generated for the classification of chemicals under existing systems should be accepted when classifying these chemicals under the GHS, thereby avoiding duplicative testing and the unnecessary use of test animals. +For physical hazards, the test criteria are linked to specific UN test methods. + +== Hazard communication == +Per GHS, hazards need to be communicated: + +in more than one form (for example, placards, labels or Safety Data Sheets), +with hazard statements and precautionary statements, +in an easily comprehensible and standardized manner, +consistent with other statements to reduce confusion, and +taking into account all existing research and any new evidence. +Comprehensibility is a significant consideration in GHS implementation. The GHS Purple Book includes a comprehensibility-testing instrument in Annex 6. Factors that were considered in developing the GHS communication tools include: + +Different philosophies in existing systems on how and what should be communicated; +Language differences around the world; +Ability to translate phrases meaningfully; +Ability to understand and appropriately respond to pictograms. + +=== GHS label elements === + +The standardized label elements included in the GHS are: + +Symbols (GHS hazard pictograms): Convey health, physical and environmental hazard information, assigned to a GHS hazard class and category. Pictograms include the harmonized hazard symbols plus other graphic elements, such as borders, background patterns or cozers and substances which have target organ toxicity. Also, harmful chemicals and irritants are marked with an exclamation mark, replacing the European saltire. Pictograms will have a black symbol on a white background with a red diamond frame. For transport, pictograms will have the background, symbol and colors currently used in the UN Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods. Where a transport pictogram appears, the GHS pictogram for the same hazard should not appear. +Signal word: "Danger" or "Warning" will be used to emphasize hazards and indicate the relative level of severity of the hazard, assigned to a GHS hazard class and category. Some lower level hazard categories do not use signal words. Only one signal word corresponding to the class of the most severe hazard should be used on a label. +GHS hazard statements: Standard phrases assigned to a hazard class and category that describe the nature of the hazard. An appropriate statement for each GHS hazard should be included on the label for products possessing more than one hazard. +The additional label elements included in the GHS are: + +GHS precautionary statements: Measures to minimize or prevent adverse effects. There are four types of precautionary statements covering: prevention, response in cases of accidental spillage or exposure, storage, and disposal. The precautionary statements have been linked to each GHS hazard statement and type of hazard. +Product identifier (ingredient disclosure): Name or number used for a hazardous product on a label or in the SDS. The GHS label for a substance should include the chemical identity of the substance. For mixtures, the label should include the chemical identities of all ingredients that contribute to acute toxicity, skin corrosion or serious eye damage, germ cell mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, skin or respiratory sensitization, or Specific Target Organ Toxicity (STOT), when these hazards appear on the label. +Supplier identification: The name, address and telephone number should be provided on the label. +Supplemental information: Non-harmonized information on the container of a hazardous product that is not required or specified under the GHS. Supplemental information may be used to provide further detail that does not contradict or cast doubt on the validity of the standardized hazard information. + +=== GHS label format === +The GHS includes directions for application of the hazard communication elements on the label. In particular, it specifies for each hazard, and for each class within the hazard, what signal word, pictogram, and hazard statement should be used. The GHS hazard pictograms, signal words and hazard statements should be located together on the label. The actual label format or layout is not specified. National authorities may choose to specify where information should appear on the label, or to allow supplier discretion in the placement of GHS information. +The diamond shape of GHS pictograms resembles the shape of signs mandated for use by the United States Department of Transportation. To address this, in cases where a pictogram would be required by both the Department of Transportation and the GHS indicating the same hazard, only the Transportation pictogram is to be used. + +=== Safety data sheet === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3fc978603 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +--- +title: "Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_Harmonized_System_of_Classification_and_Labelling_of_Chemicals" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:13.417088+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Safety data sheets or SDS are specifically aimed at use in the workplace. Safety data sheets take precedence over and are intended to replace the previously used material safety data sheets (MSDS), which did not have a standard layout and section format. It should provide comprehensive information about the chemical product that allows employers and workers to obtain concise, relevant and accurate information in perspective to the hazards, uses and risk management of the chemical product in the workplace. Compared to the differences found between manufacturers in MSDS, SDS have specific requirements to include the following headings in the order specified: + +The primary difference between the GHS and previous international industry recommendations is that sections 2 and 3 have been reversed in order. The GHS SDS headings, sequence, and content are similar to the ISO, European Union and ANSI MSDS/SDS requirements. A table comparing the content and format of a MSDS/SDS versus the GHS SDS is provided in Appendix A of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) GHS guidance. + +== Training == +Current training procedures for hazard communication in the United States are more detailed than the GHS training recommendations. Training is a key component of the overall GHS approach. Employees and emergency responders must be trained on all program elements, though there has been confusion among these groups of workers in the implementation process regarding which training elements have changed and are required to maintain regulatory compliance. + +== Implementation == +The United Nations goal was for broad international adoption of the system, and as of 2017, the GHS had been adopted to varying degrees in many major countries. Smaller economies continue to develop regulations to implement the GHS throughout the 2020s. + +=== GHS adoption by country === +Australia: In 2012, adopted regulation for GHS implementation, setting January 1, 2017 as the GHS implementation deadline. +Brazil: Established an implementation deadline of February 2011 for substances and June 2015 for mixtures. +Canada: GHS was incorporated into WHMIS 2015 as of February 2015. In 2023 the WHMIS requirements were updated to align with the 7th revised edition and certain provisions of the 8th revised edition of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). +China: Established implementation deadline of December 1, 2011. +Colombia: Following the issuance of Resolution 0773/2021 on April 9, 2021, Colombia enforced the implementation of the GHS, with deadlines taking effect April 7, 2023 for pure substances, with mixtures following the same protocols the following year. +European Union: The deadline for substance classification was December 1, 2010 and for mixtures it was June 1, 2015, per regulation for GHS implementation on December 31, 2008. +Japan: Established deadline of December 31, 2010 for products containing one of 640 designated substances. +South Korea: Established the GHS implementation deadline of July 1, 2013. +Malaysia: Deadline for substance and mixture was April 17, 2015 per its Industry Code of Practice on Chemicals Classification and Hazard Communication (ICOP) on 16 April 2014. +Mexico: GHS has been incorporated into the Official Mexican Standard as of 2015. +Pakistan: Country does not have a single streamlined system for chemical labeling, although there are many rules in place. The Pakistani government has requested assistance in developing future regulations to implement GHS. +Philippines: The deadline for substances and mixtures was March 14, 2015, per Guidelines for the Implementation of GHS in Chemical Safety Program in the Workplace in 2014. +Russian Federation: GHS was approved for optional use as of August 2014. Manufacturers may continue using non-GHS Russian labels through 2021, after which compliance with the system is compulsory. +Taiwan: Full GHS implementation was scheduled for 2016 for all hazardous chemicals with physical and health hazards. +Thailand: The deadline for substances was March 13, 2013. The deadline for mixtures was March 13, 2017. +Turkey: Published Turkish CLP regulation and SDS regulation in 2013 and 2014 respectively. The deadline for substance classification was June 1, 2015, for mixtures, it was June 1, 2016. +United Kingdom: Implemented under EU directive by REACH regulations. Post-Brexit, all EU classification has been retained as GB mandatory classification and labelling. +United States: GHS compliant labels and SDSs are required for many applications including laboratory chemicals, commercial cleaning agents, and other workplace cases regulated by previous US Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) standards. First widespread implementation set by OSHA was on March 26, 2012, requiring manufacturers to adopt the standard by June 1, 2015, and product distributors to adopt the standard by December 1, 2015. Workers had to be trained by December 1, 2013. In the US, GHS labels are not required on most hazardous consumer grade products (ex. laundry detergent) however some manufacturers which also sell the same product in Canada or Europe include GHS compliant warnings on these products too. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is not opposed to this and has been evaluating the possibility of incorporating elements of GHS into future consumer regulations. +Uruguay: regulation approved in 2011, setting December 31, 2012 as deadline for pure substances and December 31, 2017, for compounds. +Vietnam: The deadline for substances was March 30, 2014. The deadline for mixtures was March 30, 2016. + +== See also == +GHS hazard pictograms +ISO 7010 +NFPA +Toxicity category rating +UN number +Warning label + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Fagotto, Elena; Fung, Archon (2003), "Improving Workplace Hazard Communication", Issues in Science & Technology, 19 (2): 63, doi:10.1002/pam.20160, archived from the original on 2009-01-29, retrieved 2009-03-08 +Obadia, I. (2003), "ILO Activities in the Area of Chemical Safety", Toxicology, 190 (1–2): 105–15, Bibcode:2003Toxgy.190..105O, doi:10.1016/S0300-483X(03)00200-2, PMID 12909402 +A Guide to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), Occupational Health and Safety Administration, 2006, archived from the original on July 2, 2007, retrieved July 13, 2007 +Smith, Sandy (2007), "GHS: A Short Acronym for a Big Idea", Occupational Hazards, 69 (5): 6 +Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, 2007, retrieved July 13, 2007 + +== External links == + +About the GHS +Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) - Ninth revised edition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravastar-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravastar-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d438a39c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravastar-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,59 @@ +--- +title: "Gravastar" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravastar" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:20.855209+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In astrophysics, a gravastar (a blend word of "gravitational vacuum star") is an object hypothesized in a 2001 paper by Pawel O. Mazur and Emil Mottola as an alternative to the black hole theory. It has the usual black hole metric outside of the horizon, but de Sitter metric inside. A typical gravastar is as big as London, but weighing ten solar masses. On the horizon there is an ultra-thin, incredibly tight shell of entirely new, unique exotic matter. This solution to the Einstein equations is stable and has no singularities. Instead, a gravastar is filled either with dark energy or with vacuum energy, but also vacuum, only the inside one is 1044 times denser than the outside. Further theoretical considerations of gravastars include the notion of a nestar (a second gravastar "nested" within the first one). + + +== Description == +In the original formulation by Mazur and Mottola, a gravastar is composed of three regions, differentiated by the relationship between the pressure p and energy density ρ. The central region consists of false vacuum or "dark energy", and in this region p = −ρ . Surrounding it is a thin shell of perfect fluid where p = ρ . On the exterior is true vacuum, where p = ρ = 0 . + + +=== Gravastar anatomy === +The interior of a gravastar behaves like dark energy and prevents collapse to a singularity. The inner region has thermodynamically no entropy and may be thought of as a gravitational Bose–Einstein condensate. The outer thin shell stops an event horizon from forming, which would otherwise cause light and energy to become infinitely concentrated. Severe red-shifting of photons as they climb out of the gravity well would make the thin shell also seem very cold. It is the coldest object theoretically possible at only a billionth of a degree above absolute zero. +In addition to the original thin-shell formulation, gravastars with continuous pressure have been proposed. These objects must contain anisotropic stress. +Externally, a gravastar appears similar to a black hole: it is visible by the high-energy radiation it emits while consuming matter, and by the Hawking radiation it creates. Astronomers search the sky for X-rays emitted by infalling matter to detect black holes. A gravastar would produce an identical signature. It is also possible, if the thin shell is transparent to radiation, that gravastars may be distinguished from ordinary black holes by different gravitational lensing properties, as luxons' paths may pass through. + + +=== Discovery === +Mazur and Mottola suggest that the violent creation of a gravastar might be an explanation for the origin of our universe and many other universes because all the matter from a collapsing star would implode "through" the central hole and explode into a new dimension and expand forever, which would be consistent with the current theories regarding the Big Bang. This "new dimension" exerts an outward pressure on the Bose-Einstein condensate layer and prevents it from collapsing further. +Gravastars also could provide a mechanism for describing how dark energy accelerates the expansion of the universe. One possible hypothesis uses Hawking radiation as a means to exchange energy between the "parent" universe and the "child" universe, and so cause the rate of expansion to accelerate, but this area is under much speculation. +Gravastar formation may provide an alternative explanation for sudden and intense gamma-ray bursts throughout space. +LIGO's observations of gravitational waves from colliding objects have been found to be either inconsistent with the gravastar concept, or to be indistinguishable from ordinary black holes, a plausible scenario as from the outside at least, a gravastar is completely indistinguishable from a black hole. + + +== Comparison with black holes == +By taking quantum physics into account, the gravastar hypothesis attempts to resolve contradictions caused by conventional black hole theories. + + +=== Event horizons === +In a gravastar, the event horizon is not present. The layer of positive-pressure fluid would lie just outside the radius where an event horizon would be, prevented from complete collapse by the inner false vacuum. + + +=== Dynamic stability of gravastars === +In 2007, theoretical work indicated that under certain conditions, gravastars as well as other alternative black hole models are not stable when they rotate. Theoretical work has also shown that certain rotating gravastars are stable assuming certain angular velocities, shell thicknesses, and compactnesses. It is also possible that some gravastars which are mathematically unstable may be physically stable over cosmological timescales. Theoretical support for the feasibility of gravastars does not exclude the existence of black holes as shown in other theoretical studies. + + +== See also == +Acoustic metric +Acoustic Hawking radiation from sonic black holes +Black star (semiclassical gravity) +Dark-energy star +Shell collapsar + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == + + +== External links == +Papers about gravastars on gr-qc +Black Hole's Evil Twin – Gravastars Explained on YouTube by Kurzgesagt \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_shielding-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_shielding-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f3b85d4f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_shielding-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +--- +title: "Gravitational shielding" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_shielding" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:22.061333+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Gravitational shielding is a hypothetical process of shielding an object from the influence of a gravitational field. Such processes, if they existed, would have the effect of reducing the weight of an object. The shape of the shielded region would be similar to a shadow from the gravitational shield. For example, the shape of the shielded region above a disk would be conical. The height of the cone's apex above the disk would vary directly with the height of the shielding disk above the Earth. Experimental evidence to date indicates that no such effect exists. Gravitational shielding is considered to be a violation of the equivalence principle and therefore inconsistent with both Newtonian theory and general relativity. +The concept of gravity shielding is a common concept in science fiction literature, especially for space travel. One of the first and best known examples is the fictional gravity shielding substance cavorite that appears in H. G. Wells' classic 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Wells was promptly criticized for using it by Jules Verne. + + +== Tests of the equivalence principle == +As of 2008, no experiment was successful in detecting positive shielding results. To quantify the amount of shielding, at the beginning of 20th century Quirino Majorana suggested an extinction coefficient h that modifies Newton's gravitational force law as follows: + + + + + F + = + + + + G + M + m + + + r + + 2 + + + + + + e + + − + h + ∫ + ρ + ( + r + ) + d + r + + + + + {\displaystyle F={\frac {GMm}{r^{2}}}e^{-h\int \rho (r)dr}} + + +The best laboratory measurements have established an upper bound limit for shielding of 4.3×10−15 m2/kg. +The best estimate based on the most accurate gravity anomaly data during the 1997 solar eclipse has provided +a new constraint on the shielding parameter 6×10−19 m2/kg. However, astronomical observations impose much more stringent limits. Based on lunar observations available in 1908, Poincaré established that h can be no greater than 10−18 m2/kg. Subsequently, this bound has been greatly improved. Eckhardt showed that lunar ranging data implies an upper bound of 10−22 m2/kg, and Williams, et al., have improved this to h = (3 ± 5)×10−22 m2/kg. Note that the value is smaller than the uncertainty. The consequence of the negative results of those experiments (which are in good agreement with the predictions of general relativity) is, that every theory which contains shielding effects like Le Sage's theory of gravitation, must reduce those effects to an undetectable level. For a review of the current experimental limits on possible gravitational shielding, see the survey article by Bertolami, et al. Also, for a discussion of recent observations during solar eclipses, see the paper by Unnikrishnan et al. + + +== Majorana's experiments and Russell's criticism == +Some shielding experiments were conducted in the early 20th century by Quirino Majorana. Majorana claimed to have measured positive shielding effects. Henry Norris Russell's analysis of the tidal forces showed that Majorana's positive results had nothing to do with gravitational shielding. To bring Majorana's experiments following the equivalence principle of General Relativity he proposed a model, in which the mass of a body is diminished by the proximity of another body, but he denied any connection between gravitational shielding and his proposal of mass variation. For another explanation of Majorana's experiments, see Coïsson et al. But Majorana's results could not be confirmed up to this day (see the section above) and Russell's mass variation theory, although meant as a modification of general relativity, is inconsistent with standard physics as well. + + +== Minority views == +The consensus view of the scientific community is that gravitational shielding does not exist, but there have been occasional investigations into this topic, such as the 1999 NASA-funded paper that reported negative results. Eugene Podkletnov claimed in two papers, one of which he later withdrew, that objects held above a magnetically levitated, superconducting, rotating disc underwent a reduction of between 0.5 and 2% in weight. Theoreticians have attempted to reconcile Podkletnov's claims with quantum gravity theory. In 2006, a research group funded by ESA claimed to have created a similar device that demonstrated positive results for the production of gravitomagnetism, although it produced only 0.0001 g. + + +== Electrets == +In his 1976 paper, Electromagnetism and Gravitation, physicist Edward Teller discussed experimentation with electrets, or materials with a permanent electric dipole moment, near its transition point to discover the transition between dipole states. On July 9, 1997, William Rhodes, an inventor, made a posting on Usenet concerning a discovery of an antigravity effect related to electrets. Also, Dr. Martin Tajmar, a physicist and professor for Space Systems at the Dresden University of Technology has written a paper on propellantless propulsion and makes numerous references to electrets. A patent for a gravitational attenuating material that utilizes an organic based material was made by inventor Ronald J. Kita. + + +== Einstein–Cartan theory == +Einstein–Cartan theory seems to allow gravitational shielding. + + +== See also == +Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program +Anti-gravity +Artificial gravity +Eugene Podkletnov +Ning Li +Electromagnetic shielding + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Martins, Roberto de Andrade (1 December 1998). "The Search for Gravitational Absorption in the Early 20th Century". In Goenner, Hubert; Renn, Jürgen; Ritter, Jim; Sauer, Tilman (eds.). The Expanding Worlds of General Relativity. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 3–44. ISBN 978-0-8176-4060-6. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_D._Zimet-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_D._Zimet-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a994243c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_D._Zimet-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Gregory D. Zimet" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_D._Zimet" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:17.998878+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Gregory D. Zimet is an American clinical psychologist and academic researcher known for his work on vaccination attitudes and behavior, particularly regarding human papillomavirus vaccination (HPV), and for co-developing the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). He is professor emeritus of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine, where he served on the faculty for three decades. + + +== Early life and education == +Zimet earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Vassar College in 1978. He went on to receive both his Master of Arts (1981) and Doctor of Philosophy (1985) in clinical psychology from Duke University. He completed a predoctoral internship and postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine from 1984 to 1986. + + +== Career == +After his postdoctoral training, Zimet joined Case Western Reserve University as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry (1986–1987), then as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, a position he held from 1987 to 1993. +In 1993, Zimet joined the faculty at Indiana University School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine. He was promoted to full Professor of Pediatrics in 1999 and also held appointments in the Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Psychology at Indiana University Indianapolis, and the Indiana University School of Nursing. From 2006 until his retirement Zimet was a faculty member in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program of the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. He served as co-founder and co-director of the Indiana University School of Medicine Center for HPV Research (2012–2023). +Following his retirement from Indiana University in July 2023, Zimet was appointed professor emeritus of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and has continued to collaborate on research related to vaccination and vaccine hesitancy. + + +== Research == +Zimet's primary research program has focused on the behavioural and social science aspects of vaccination, with particular emphasis on attitudes toward and determinants of HPV vaccination. Beginning in the mid-1990s, his group was among the earliest to investigate adolescent and parental attitudes toward vaccines for sexually transmitted infections, work that predated the availability of HPV vaccines. +His research has encompassed randomized clinical trials evaluating the effects of behavioral interventions on hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HPV vaccine uptake, as well as acceptance of HIV testing among adolescents and young adults. His federally funded investigations have also examined microbicide acceptability and herpes testing acceptance. Through nearly 15 years of involvement with the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network (ATN) for HIV/AIDS Interventions, Zimet investigated consent and ethical factors related to the recruitment of adolescents into biomedical HIV prevention clinical trials. +More recently, Zimet has contributed to research on COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and prevention strategies. +Zimet has authored or co-authored approximately 420 publications, including over 240 peer-reviewed research articles, review papers, and editorials specifically on vaccination topics in his career. + + +=== Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) === +In the 1980s, while at Duke University, Zimet co-developed the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) along with several colleagues, including his mother, Sara Zimet. The MSPSS is a 12-item self-report instrument that measures perceived social support from three sources: family, friends, and a significant other. +The MSPSS has become one of the most widely used instruments in social support research globally. It has been translated into more than 35 languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu and has been validated across diverse populations in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. + + +== Selected publications == +Zimet, GD; Dahlem, NW; Zimet, SG; Farley, GK (1988). "The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support". Journal of Personality Assessment. 52 (1): 30–41. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa5201_2. +Zimet, GD; Mays, RM; Sturm, LA; Ravert, AA; Perkins, SM; Juliar, BE (2005). "Parental attitudes about sexually transmitted infection vaccination for their adolescent children". Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 159 (2): 132–137. doi:10.1001/archpedi.159.2.132. PMID 15699306. +Fu, LY; Bonhomme, LA; Cooper, SC; Joseph, JG; Zimet, GD (2014). "Educational interventions to increase HPV vaccination acceptance: a systematic review". Vaccine. 32 (17): 1901–1920. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.01.091. PMC 4285433. PMID 24530401. +Sturm, L; Donahue, K; Kasting, M; Kulkarni, A; Brewer, NT; Zimet, GD (2017). "Pediatrician-Parent Conversations About Human Papillomavirus Vaccination: An Analysis of Audio Recordings". Journal of Adolescent Health. 61 (2): 246–251. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.02.006. PMID 28455129. +Head, KJ; Kasting, ML; Sturm, LA; Hartsock, JA; Zimet, GD (2020). "A National Survey Assessing SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Intentions". Science Communication. 42 (5): 698–723. doi:10.1177/1075547020960463. PMC 7520657. PMID 38602991. +Zimet, GD; Lim, E; Matsunaga, M; Liebermann, E; Kornides, M; Fontenot, HB (2025). "Early Adolescent Immunization Schedule Preferences". Journal of Adolescent Health. 77 (2S): S14–S17. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2025.05.003. PMID 40716907. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d8786ec49 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Hafnium controversy" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:23.240525+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The hafnium controversy was a debate over the possibility of "triggering" rapid energy releases, via gamma-ray emission, from 178m2Hf, a nuclear isomer of hafnium. The energy release per event is 5 orders of magnitude (100,000 times) higher than in a typical chemical reaction, but 2 orders of magnitude less than a nuclear fission reaction. In 1998, a group led by Carl Collins in the University of Texas at Dallas reported what they interpreted as evidence of such a trigger, but these results were not independently reproduced and remain controversial. Signal-to-noise ratios were small in those first experiments, and to date no other group has reproduced these results. Peter Zimmerman (an American nuclear physicist and arms-control expert) described claims of weaponization potential as having been based on "very bad science". + +== Background == + +178m2Hf is a particularly interesting candidate for induced gamma emission (IGE) experiments, because 178m2Hf's energy is 2.5 MeV per nucleus higher than that of ground-state 178Hf, and it has a long (31-year) half life. If lower-energy radiation could induce gamma emission in the isomer before competing processes dissipated that energy, it might, in principle, initiate a start a cascade of gamma photons. The long half-life of 178m2Hf might make it possible to engineer a substance with enough of these energetic nuclei needed for stimulated emission, i.e. a gamma-ray laser. While induced emission of a high-energy photon by a lower-energy photon adds power to a radiation field, stimulated emission adds coherence. +With all the caveats about dissipation of the triggering photon, and its efficient recreation by the energetic photon that is being triggered, the process could, in principle, lead to nuclear reaction engines, along with more precise radiometric devices. +A proposal to show the efficacy for "triggering" 178m2Hf was approved by a NATO Advanced Research Workshop (NATO-ARW) held in Predeal in 1995. Although the proposal was to use incident protons to bombard the target, α-particles were available when the first experiment was scheduled. It was done by a French, Russian, Romanian and American team. Results were said to be extraordinary but were not published. Nevertheless, 178m2Hf was implied to be of special importance for potential applications of IGE. A controversy quickly erupted, mostly between the original proponents of 178m2Hf as having potential military applications as a gamma-ray laser weapon or a non-neutronic but still nuclear-like explosive, and critics who discounted such possibilities due to practical obstacles along the way: 178m2Hf is difficult to make and virtually impossible to separate from the ground-state 178Hf, the absorption of lower-energy triggering X-rays by the bound electrons around the Hf nucleus, and the minute probability of recreating the trigger-capable X-ray starting with the triggered X-ray itself by multiple random scattering. Still, the potential military application was enticing enough to try to make 178m2Hf into something useful (rather than an intriguing nucleus suitable for academic study only). + +== Importance == + +178m2Hf has the highest excitation energy of any comparably long-lived isomer. One gram of pure 178m2Hf contains approximately 1330 megajoules of energy, about 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of TNT equivalent. The half-life of 178m2Hf is 31 years, or 1 Gs (gigasecond, 1,000,000,000 seconds), so that natural radioactivity of one gram is 2.40 TBq (65 Ci). The activity is in a cascade of penetrating gamma rays, the most energetic of which is 0.574 MeV. Substantial shielding would be needed for human safety if the sample were to be one gram of the pure isomer. However, so far the nuclear isomer exists only at low concentrations (<0.1%), within multi-isotopic hafnium. +All energy released would be in the form of photons: X-rays and gamma rays. +In theoretical estimates, if all stored energy were released rapidly, a gram of pure 178m2Hf might emit an intense photon burst; however, these conditions have not been achieved experimentally. +The characteristic scales of times for processes involved in applications would be favorable for consuming all of the initial radioactivity. The process for triggering a sample by IGE would use photons to trigger and produce photons as a product. The propagation of photons occurs at the speed of light, while mechanical disassembly of the target would proceed with a velocity comparable to that of sound. Untriggered 178m2Hf material might not be able to get away from a triggered event if the photons did not interact first with the electrons. +Both the proposal to the NATO-ARW and the fragmentary results from the subsequent experiment indicated that the energy of the photon needed to initiate IGE from 178m2Hf would be less than 300 keV. Many economical sources of such low-energy X-rays were available for delivering quite large fluxes to target samples of modest dimensions. +Samples of 178m2Hf were and remain available only at low concentrations (<0.1%), without any clear way to increase this concentration. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c65d71941 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Hafnium controversy" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:23.240525+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Chronology of notable events == +Around 1997, the JASONS advisory group took testimony about the triggering of nuclear isomers. The JASON Defense Advisory Group published a relevant public report saying that they concluded that such a thing would be impossible and should not be attempted. Despite intervening publications in peer-reviewed journals of articles written by an international team reporting IGE from 178m2Hf, around 2003 IDA took testimony, again from relevant scientists on matters of the credibility of reported results. Professor Carl Collins, the lead U.S. member of the team publishing the successes, did not testify. +Around 2003, DARPA initiated exploratory research termed stimulated isomer energy release (SIER) and public interest was aroused, at both popular levels and at professional levels. +The first focus of SIER was whether significant amounts of 178m2Hf could be produced at acceptable costs for possible applications. A closed panel called HIPP was charged with the task and concluded that it could. However, a scientist on that confidential DARPA HIPP review panel "leaked" prejudicial but preliminary concerns to the press. This unsubstantiated assertion set into motion the subsequent cascade of inaccurate reports about the so-called "outrageous costs" of isomer triggering. +Having satisfied the charge to the HIPP panel to explore the problem of production at acceptable cost, the SIER program turned to the matter of definitive confirmation of the reports of IGE from 178m2Hf. A task of TRiggering Isomer Proof (TRIP) was mandated by DARPA and assigned to a completely independent team from those reporting success previously. The "gold standard" of hafnium-isomer triggering was set as the Rusu dissertation. The TRIP experiment required independent confirmation of the Rusu dissertation. It was successful, but could not be published. +By 2006, the Collins team had published multiple papers supporting their initial observations of IGE from 178m2Hf. Reprints (available at the link) of articles that were published after 2001 describe work conducted with tunable monochromatic X-ray beams from the synchrotron light sources SPring-8 in Hyogo and SLS in Villigen. +Independent synchrotron experiments with broader X-ray spectra failed to observe induced gamma emission, and theoretical analyses further challenged the feasibility of the proposed mechanism. By 2006, there were 2 articles that claimed to disprove possibilities for IGE from 178m2Hf and three theoretical articles written by the same individual saying why it should not be possible to occur by the particular steps the author envisioned. The first two described synchrotron experiments in which the X-rays were not monochromatic. +In 2007, Pereira et al. estimated that the cost of the electrical energy to store energy in the nuclear isomer is on the order of $1/J; building and maintaining the particle accelerator needed for the purpose is extra. Any reasonable explosive device, e.g., a hand grenade, may contain from 10 to 100 g of TNT, corresponding to 40 to 400 kJ, at a cost of tens of dollars or at least 10,000 times less than this estimate for isomeric energy content in the nucleus. Such an excessive cost makes any device based on nuclear isomers much too expensive to be practical, and research motivated by potential applications thereof a waste of money (in contrast to research on nuclear isomers purely for scientific purposes that do not claim any practicality). +On February 29, 2008, DARPA distributed some of the 150 copies of the final report of the TRIP experiment that had independently confirmed the "gold standard" of hafnium-isomer triggering. Sustained by peer review, the 94-page report is distributed for official use only (FOUO) by the DARPA Technical Information Office, 3701 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203 USA. +On October 9, 2008, LLNL released the 110-page evaluation of the DARPA TRIP experiment. Quoting from page 33, "Overall, the X-ray 178m2Hf experiments by Collins et al. are statistically marginal and inconsistent. None of the reported positive triggering results were confirmed by independent groups, including those experiments performed by former collaborators (Carroll). " In addition, the report summary states, page 65: "Our conclusion is that the utilization of nuclear isomers for energy storage is impractical from the points of view of nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, and of prospects for controlled energy release. We note that the cost of producing the nuclear isomer is likely to be extraordinarily high, and that the technologies that would be required to perform the task are beyond anything done before and are difficult to cost at this time." +In 2009, S.A. Karamian et al. published the results of a four-nation team's experimental measurements at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research for the production of quantities of 178m2Hf by spallation at energies as low as 80 MeV. In addition to significantly lowering the projected cost of production, this experimental result proved the accessibility to sources of 178m2Hf to be within the capabilities of the several idle cyclotron devices scattered around the world. + +== References == + +Also note: + +Weinberger, Sharon (2006). Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld. Nation Books. ISBN 1-56025-849-7. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_engine-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_engine-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6704aa589 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_engine-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Helical engine" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helical_engine" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:26.804390+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Helical engine is a proposed spacecraft propulsion drive that, like other reactionless drives, would violate the laws of physics. +The concept was proposed by David M. Burns, formerly a NASA engineer at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, in a non-peer-reviewed report published on a NASA server in 2019 describing it as "A new concept for in-space propulsion is proposed in which propellant is not ejected from the engine, but instead is captured to create a nearly infinite specific impulse". +The Helical engine accelerates ions that are confined in a locked loop. Once they are accelerated, the system changes the velocity of the ions in order to change their momentum. Afterward, Burns hypothesized that the engine, by moving the ions along its axis, could produce thrust. The proposed engine is mainly intended to be used to maintain the orbit of satellite stations during long periods of time without the need of refueling. + + +== See also == +EmDrive + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-up_(2020_film)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-up_(2020_film)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b09a65778 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-up_(2020_film)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Hold-up (2020 film)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hold-up_(2020_film)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:24.482712+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Hold-up is a 2020 independent pseudoscience propaganda film directed by French conspiracy theorist Pierre Barnérias. The film makes a number of false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic. Hold-Up was first released as a VoD on Vimeo 11 November 2020. Vimeo deleted the film the next day, citing the numerous lies in the film; DailyMotion likewise removed the film the next day. The film continues to be spread on social media among QAnon supporters. + + +== Plot == +Hold-Up claims that a global conspiracy plot had been formed by the world's elites, and particularly the World Economic Forum. According to the film, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was deliberately created for an excuse to enslave humanity. A full version of the documentary that remains online has been watched more than 2,000,000 times, while a trailer for Hold Up also remains visible on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. All central claims of the film have been proven to be wrong, and the producers of the film have been shown to falsify their sources and misrepresent statements. + + +== See also == +Plandemic + + +== References == + + +== External links == +official site Archived 2020-11-22 at the Wayback Machine +Hold-up at IMDb +Dazed & Confused: Reporting on Europe’s troubled vaccine rollout. Listening Post (Al Jazeera English), 27 March 2021 - contains a 1o minutes report on Hold-up (video, 25 mins) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoprophylaxis-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoprophylaxis-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..68c8a63a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoprophylaxis-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Homeoprophylaxis" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeoprophylaxis" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:25.781225+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Homeoprophylaxis, or homeopathic prophylaxis, is the use of homeopathy, as a preventive medicine or immunisation against serious infectious diseases. + + +== History == + + +=== Malaria === +The concept came to wider notice in the UK after an undercover operation by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Sense about Science and BBC Newsnight in 2006. Posing as a traveller to countries known to be affected by malaria a researcher visited pharmacies in London and recorded her conversations with homeopaths who offered the incorrect advice that homeopathic remedies could protect against malaria. Dr Peter Fisher, the then Director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (since renamed to Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine) told Newsnight that there was "absolutely no reason to think that homeopathy works to prevent malaria" and that "people may even die of malaria if they follow this advice." +Following the programme's broadcast the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) began an investigation into some of the pharmacies involved but in 2011 announced it was dropping the cases citing improvements already made to prevent a re-occurrence and the cases not meeting the threshold criteria for a referral to the investigation committee. + + +=== Purported alternative to vaccines === +In 2010 a BBC Scotland programme found that three of the six members of the Homeopathic Medical Association, based in Scotland, were offering homeopathic MMR 'vaccines' to parents. +In November 2014 the Canadian programme CBC Marketplace investigated the advice parents were being given in homeopathic practices in Toronto and Vancouver, finding that some "offered treatments, called "nosodes", created from biological materials such as pus, diseased tissue, bacilli from sputum or (in the case of "bowel nosodes") faeces", as vaccine alternatives, telling parents that the treatment is as effective as vaccines against diseases such as measles, polio and pertussis (whooping cough), which is highly contagious and can be fatal for infants", a practice described by Shannon MacDonald (a registered nurse and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Alberta) as "terribly irresponsible". +In December 2014, Australian Federal Court found that homeopathy supplier Homeopathy Plus! and its director Frances Sheffield, had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct regarding both the effectiveness of the whooping cough vaccine and also implying that homeopathic alternatives were safe and effective in preventing whooping cough. In doing so they breached Australian Consumer Law. +An undercover investigation in May 2019 by The Times highlighted the continued problem of some alternative medicine practitioners in the UK offering homeoprophylaxis. The Society of Homeopaths responded to one of their members being included in the feature (as someone who has offered homeoprophylaxis) by lodging an official complaint to IPSO, the press regulator. The Society's position statement "does not endorse the use of homeopathic medicines as an alternative to vaccination for the prevention of serious infectious diseases" though, somewhat conflictingly, also suggests that "homeoprophylaxis may be effective in certain circumstances". + + +=== COVID-19 pandemic === + +On 14 July 2021 Juli Mazi of Napa, a California-licensed naturopathic doctor, was arrested for "her alleged scheme to sell homeoprophylaxis immunization pellets and to falsify COVID-19 vaccination cards by making it appear that customers had received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Moderna vaccine." She is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters and is the first person to face a "federal criminal fraud prosecution related to homeoprophylaxis immunizations" or "for selling fake Covid-19 vaccination cards". +According to Deputy Attorney General, Lisa O. Monaco “This defendant allegedly defrauded and endangered the public by preying on fears and spreading misinformation about FDA-authorized vaccinations, while also peddling fake treatments that put people’s lives at risk. Even worse, the defendant allegedly created counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards and instructed her customers to falsely mark that they had received a vaccine, allowing them to circumvent efforts to contain the spread of the disease." The story has also been reported in the Courthouse News Service, Ars Technica, The Washington Post, The New York Times and NBC News. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f72c00f76 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Human presence in space (also anthropogenic presence in space or humanity in space) is the direct and mediated presence or telepresence of humans in outer space, and in an extended sense across space including astronomical objects. Human presence in space, particularly through mediation, can take many physical forms from space debris, uncrewed spacecraft, artificial satellites, space observatories, crewed spacecraft, art in space, to human outposts in outer space such as space stations. +While human presence in space, particularly its continuation and permanence can be a goal in itself, human presence can have a range of purposes and modes from space exploration, commercial use of space to extraterrestrial settlement or even space colonization and militarisation of space. Human presence in space is realized and sustained through the advancement and application of space sciences, particularly astronautics in the form of spaceflight and space infrastructure. +Humans have achieved some mediated presence throughout the Solar System, but the most extensive presence has been in orbit around Earth. Humankind reached outer space mediated in 1944 (MW 18014) and have sustained mediated presence since 1958 (Vanguard 1), as well as having reached space directly for the first time on 12 April 1961 (Yuri Gagarin) and since the late 1980s with some few interruptions through crewing, the space station Mir beginning to spend extended periods in space and continuously from the year 2000 with the crewed International Space Station (ISS). In the future, human is expected to achieve the goal of a long-term presence on the Moon in the 2030s. +The increasing and extensive human presence in orbital space around Earth, beside its benefits, has also produced a threat to it by carrying with it space debris, potentially cascading into the so-called Kessler syndrome. This has raised the need for regulation and mitigation of such to secure a sustainable access to outer space. +Securing the access to space and human presence in space has been pursued and allowed by the establishment of space law and space industry, creating a space infrastructure. But sustainability has remained a challenging goal, with the United Nations seeing the need to advance long-term sustainability of outer space activities in space science and application, and the United States having it as a crucial goal of its contemporary space policy and space program. + +== Terminology == +For outer space being the dominant expanse of space, "space" is often used synonymously for outer space, referring to human presence in space to human presence across all of space, including astronomical bodies which outer space surrounds. +The United States has been using the term "human presence" to identify one of the long-term goals of its space program and its international cooperation. While it traditionally means and is used to name direct human presence, it is also used for mediated presence. Differentiating human presence in space between direct and mediated human presence, meaning human or non-human presence, such as with crewed or uncrewed spacecraft, is rooted in a history of how human presence is to be understood (see dedicated chapter). +Human, particularly direct, presence in space is sometimes replaced with "boots on the ground" or equated with space colonization. But such terms, particularly colonization and even settlement has been avoided and questioned to describe human presence in space, since they employ very particular concepts of appropriation, with historic baggage, addressing the forms of human presence in a particular and not general way. +Alternatively some have used the term "humanization of space", which differs in focusing on the general development, impact and structure of human presence in space. +On an international level the United Nations uses the phrase of "outer space activity" for the activity of its member states in space. + +== History == + +Human presence in outer space began with the first launches of artificial object in the mid 20th century, and has increased to the point where Earth is orbited by a vast number of artificial objects and the far reaches of the Solar System have been visited and explored by a range of space probes. Human presence throughout the Solar System is continued by different contemporary and future missions, most of them mediating human presence through robotic spaceflight. +From the initial Soviet achievements, which urshered in United States-Soviet competition, human space exploration has evolved into a global and commercial frontier. + +== Representation, participation and regulation == + +Participation and representation of humanity in space is an issue of human access to and presence in space ever since the beginning of spaceflight. Different space agencies, space programs and interest groups such as the International Astronomical Union have been formed supporting or producing humanity's or a particular human presence in space. Representation has been shaped by the inclusiveness, scope and varying capabilities of these organizations and programs. +Some rights of non-spacefaring countries to partake in spaceflight have been secured through international space law, declaring space the "province of all mankind", understanding spaceflight as its resource, though sharing of space for all humanity is still criticized as imperialist and lacking, particularly regarding regulation of private spceflight. +Additionally to international inclusion the inclusion of women, people of colour and with disability has also been lacking. To reach a more inclusive spaceflight some organizations like the Justspace Alliance and IAU featured Inclusive Astronomy have been formed in recent years. + +=== Law and governance === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..447265766 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space activity is legally based on the Outer Space Treaty, the main international treaty. Though there are other international agreements such as the significantly less ratified Moon Treaty. +The Outer Space Treaty established the basic ramifications for space activity in article one: +"The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind." +And continued in article two by stating: +"Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." +The development of international space law has revolved much around outer space being defined as common heritage of mankind. The Magna Carta of Space presented by William A. Hyman in 1966 framed outer space explicitly not as terra nullius but as res communis, which subsequently influenced the work of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). +The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and the International Telecommunication Union are international organizations central for facilitating space regulation, such as space traffic management. + +== Forms == + +=== Signals and radiation === + +Humans have been producing a range of radiation which has reached space unintentionally as well as intentionally, well before any direct human presence in space. +Electromagnetic radiation such as light, of humans, has been reaching even stars as far away as the age of the radiation. +Beginning in the 20th century, humans have been sending radiation significantly into space. Nuclear explosions, especially high-altitude ones have since at times, starting with 1958, just a year after the first satellite Sputnik was launched, introduced strong and broad radiation from humans into space, producing electromagnetic pulses and orbital radiation belts, adding to the explosion's destructive potential on ground and in orbit. +While Earth's and humanities radiation profile is the main material for space based remote Earth observation, but radiation by human activity from Earth and from space has also been an obstacle for human activities, such as spiritual life or astronomy through light pollution and radio spectrum pollution from Earth and space. In the case of radio astronomy radio quiet zones have been kept and sought out, with the far side of the Moon being most pristine facing away from human made electromagnetic interference. + +=== Space junk and human impact === + +Space junk as product and form of human presence in space has existed ever since the first orbital spaceflights and comes mostly in the form of space debris in outer space. Space debris for example was ejected in 1957 purposefully from an Aerobee launch system in a likely failed attempt to reach for the first time escape velocity from Earth, and therefore space beyond Earth. Most space debris is in orbit around Earth, it can stay there for years to centuries if at altitudes from hundreds to thousands of kilometers, before it falls to Earth. Space debris is a hazard since it can hit and damage spacecraft. Having reached considerable amounts around Earth, policies have been put into place to prevent space debris and hazards, such as international regulation to prevent nuclear hazards in Earth's orbit and the Registration Convention as part of space traffic management. +But space junk can also come as result of human activity on astronomical bodies, such as the remains of space missions, like the many artificial objects left behind on the Moon, and on other bodies. + +=== Robotic === + +Human presence in space has been strongly based on the many robotic spacecraft, particularly as the many artificial satellites in orbit around Earth. +Many firsts of human presence in space have been achieved by robotic missions. The first artificial object to reach space, above the 100 km altitude Kármán line, and therefore performing the first sub-orbital flight was MW 18014 in 1944. But the first sustained presence in space was established by the orbital flight of Sputnik in 1957. Followed by a rich number of robotic space probes achieving human presence and exploration throughout the Solar system for the first time. +Human presence at the Moon was established by the Luna programme starting in 1959, with a first flyby and heliocentric orbit (Luna 1), a first arrival of an artificial object on the surface with an impactor (Luna 2), and the first pictures of the far side of the Moon (Luna 3). The Moon then was in 1966 visited for the first time by a lander (Luna 9), as well as an orbiter (Luna 10), and in 1970 for the first time a rover (Lunokhod 1) landed on an extraterrestrial body. +Interplanetary presence was established at Venus by the Venera program, with a flyby in 1961 (Venera 1) and a crash in 1966 (Venera 3). +Presence in the outer Solar System was achieved by Pioneer 10 in 1972 and presence in interstellar space by Voyager 1 in 2012. +The 1958 Vanguard 1 is the fourth artificial satellite and the oldest spacecraft still in space and orbit around Earth, though inactive. + +=== Presence of non-human life from Earth === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..83d9859e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Since the very beginning of human outer space activities in 1944, and possibly before that, life has been present with microscopic life as space contaminate and after 1960 as space research subjects. Prior to crewed spaceflight non-human animals had been subjects of space research, specifically bioastronautics and astrobiology, being exposed to ever higher testflights. The first animals (including humans) and plant seeds in space above the 100 km Kármán line were corn seeds and fruit flies, launched for the first time on 9 July 1946, with the first fruit flies launched and returned alive in 1947. In 1949 Albert II, became the first mammal and first primate reaching the 100 km Kármán line, and in 1957 the dog Laika became the first animal in orbit, with both also becoming the first fatalities of spaceflight and in space, respectively. In 1968, on Zond 5 Russian tortoises, worms, flies and seeds became the first multicelular life from Earth to be flown to, as well as returned safely from, deep space. In 2019 Chang'e 4 landed fruit flies on the Moon, the first extraterrestrial stay of non-human animals. +Visits of organisms to extraterrestrial bodies have been a significant issue of planetary protection, as with the crash of tardigrades on the Moon in 2019. +Plants first grown in 1966 with Kosmos 110 and in 1971 on Salyut 1, with the first producing seeds August 4, 1982 on Salyut 7. The first plant to sprout on the Moon and any extraterrestrial body grew in 2019, on the Chang'e 4 lander. +Plants and growing them in space and places such as the Moon have been important subjects of space research, but also as psychological support and possibly nutrition during continuous crewed presence in space. + +=== Direct human presence in space === + +Direct human presence in space was achieved with Yuri Gagarin flying a space capsule in 1961 for one orbit around Earth for the first time. While direct human presence in open space, by exiting a spacecraft in a spacesuit, a so-called extravehicular activity, has been achieved since the first person to do so, Alexei Leonov, in 1965. +Though Valentina Tereshkova was in 1963 the first woman in space, women saw no further presence in space until the 1980s and are still underrepresented, e.g. with no women ever present on the Moon. During the Artemis II lunar flyby in 2026, Christina Koch became the first woman to fly around the Moon, and Artemis IV plans to land the first woman on the Moon. An internationalization of direct human presence in space started with the first space rendezvous of two crews of different human spaceflight programs, the Apollo–Soyuz mission in 1975 and at the end of the 1970s with the Interkosmos program. +Space stations have harboured so far the only long-duration direct human presence in space. After the first station Salyut 1 (1971) and its tragic Soyuz 11 crew, space stations have been operated consecutively since Skylab (1973), having allowed a progression of long-duration direct human presence in space. Long-duration direct human presence has been joined by visiting crews since 1977 (Salyut 6). Consecutive direct human presence in space has been achieved since the Salyut successor Mir starting with 1987. This was continued until the operational transition from the Mir to the ISS, giving rise with its first occupation to an uninterrupted direct human presence in space since 2000. +While human population records in orbit developed from 1 in 1961, 2 in 1962, 3 in 1964, 4 in 1965, 5 and 7 in 1969, 8 and 11 in 1984, 12 in 1990 and 13 in 1995, to 14 in 2021, 17 in 2023 and 19 in 2024, developing into a continuous population of no less than 10 people on two space stations since 5 June 2022 (as of 2024). The ISS has hosted the most people in space at the same time, reaching 13 for the first time during the eleven day docking of STS-127 in 2009. + +Beyond Earth the Moon has been the only astronomical object which so far has seen direct human presence through the Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972, beginning with the first orbit by Apollo 8 in 1968 and with the first landing by Apollo 11 in 1969. The longest, and most recent, extraterrestrial human stay was three days by Apollo 17 in 1972. +While most persons who have been to space are astronauts, professional members of human spaceflight programs, particularly governmental ones, the few others, starting in the 1980s, have been trained and gone to space as spaceflight participants, with the first space tourist staying in space in 2001. +By the end of the 2010s several hundred people from more than 40 countries have gone into space, most of them reaching orbit. Twenty-eight people (24 Apollo astronauts and the four Artemis II astronauts, the most at the same time) have entered deep space, all of them reaching the Moon's vicinity, and 12 of them have walked on the Moon. +Space travelers have spent by 2007 over 29,000 person-days (or a cumulative total of over 77 years) in space including over 100 person-days of spacewalks. +Usual durations for individuals to inhabit space on long-duration stays are six months, with the longest stays on record being at about a year. + +=== Space infrastructure === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3585639d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A permanent human presence in space depends on an established space infrastructure which harbours, supplies and maintains human presence. Such infrastructure has originally been Earth ground-based, but with increased numbers of satellites and long-duration missions beyond the near side of the Moon space-to-space based infrastructure is being used. First simple interplanetary infrastructures have been created by space probes particularly when employing a system which combines a lander and a relaying orbiter. +Space stations are space habitats which have provided a crucial infrastructure for sustaining a continuous direct human, including non-human, presence in space. Space stations have been continuously present in orbit around Earth from Skylab in 1973, to the Salyut stations, Mir and eventually ISS. +The current Artemis program includes a lunar station to research longer extraterrestrial stays and their effects. + +=== Spiritual and artistic === + +Human presence has also been expressed through spiritual and artistic installations in outer space or on the Moon. +Apollo 15 Mission Commander David Scott left for example a Bible on their Lunar Roving Vehicle during an extravehicular activity on the Moon. Space has furthermore been the site of people taking part in religious festivities such as Christmas on the International Space Station. + +== Locations == + +=== Particular orbits === + +Human presence in Earth orbit and heliocentric orbit has been the case with a range of artificial objects since the beginning of spaceflight (in orbit since 1957 with Sputnik 1 and heliocentric orbit since 1959 with Luna 1), and at more interplanetary heliocentric orbits since 1961 with Venera 1. Extraterrestrial orbits other than heliocentric orbit has been achieved since 1966, starting with Luna 10 around the Moon and several at the same time in orbit of the Moon that same year starting with Lunar Orbiter 1, and since 1971 with Mariner 9 around another planet (Mars). +Humans have also used and occupied co-orbital configurations, particularly at different liberation points with halo orbits, to harness the benefits of those so called Lagrange points. +Some interplanetary missions, particularly the Ulysses solar polar probe and considerably Voyager 1 and 2, as well as others like Pioneer 10 and 11, have entered trajectories taking them out of the ecliptic plane. + +=== Extraterrestrial bodies === + +Humanity has reached different types of astronomical bodies, but the longest and most diverse presence (including non-human, e.g. sprouting plants) has been on the Moon, particularly because it is the first and only extraterrestrial body having been directly visited by humans. +Space probes have been establishing and mediating human presence interplanetarily since their first visits to Venus. Mars has seen a continuous presence since 1997, after being first flown by in 1964 and landed on in 1971. A group of missions have been present on Mars since 2001, including continuous presence by a series of rovers since 2003. +Beside having reached some planetary-mass objects (that is planets, dwarf planets or the largest, so-called planetary-mass moons), humans have also reached, landed and in some cases even returned robotic probes from some small Solar System bodies, like asteroids and comets, with a range of space probes. +The Solar System region near the Sun's corona, inside Mercury's orbit, with its high gravitational potential difference from Earth and the subsequent high delta-v needed to reach it, has only been considerably pierced on highly elliptic orbits by some solar probes like Helios 1 & 2, as well as the more contemporary Parker Solar Probe. The latter being the closest to reach the Sun, breaking speed records with its very low solar altitudes at perihelion apsis. +Future direct human presence beyond Earth's orbit is possibly going to be re-introduced if current plans for crewed research stations to be established on Mars and on the Moon are continued to be developed. + +=== Outer Solar System === + +Human presence in the outer Solar System has been established by the first visit to Jupiter in 1973 by Pioneer 10. Thirty years later nine probes had traveled to the Outer Solar System, and the first such probe (JUICE, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) by another space agency than NASA had just been launched on its way. Jupiter and Saturn are the only outer Solar System bodies which have been orbited by probes (Jupiter: Galileo in 1995 and Juno in 2016; Saturn: Cassini–Huygens in 2004), with all other outer Solar System probes performing flybys. +The Saturn moon Titan, with its special lunar atmosphere, has so far been the only body in the outer Solar System to be landed on by the Cassini–Huygens lander Huygens in 2005. + +=== Outbound === + +Several probes have reached Solar escape velocity, with Voyager 1 being the first to cross after 36 years of flight the heliopause and enter interstellar space on August 25, 2012, at distance of 121 AU from the Sun. + +== Living in space == + +Living in outer space is fundamentally different to living on Earth. It is shaped by the characteristic environment of outer space, particularly its microgravity (producing weightlessness) and its near perfect vacuum (supplying few and producing unhindered exposure to radiation and material from far away). Mundane needs such as for air, pressure, temperature and light have to be accommodated completely by life support systems. Furthermore movement, food intake and hygiene is confronted with challenges. +Long-duration stays are particularly endangered by the prevalent radiation exposure and the health effects of microgravity. Human fatalities have been the case due to accidents during spaceflight, particularly at launch and reentry. With the last in-flight accident killing humans, the Columbia accident in 2003, the sum of in-flight fatalities has risen to 15 astronauts and 4 cosmonauts, in five separate incidents. Over 100 others have died in accidents during activity directly related to spaceflight or testing. +None of them remained in space, but small parts of the remains of deceased people have been taken as space burials to orbital space since 1992 and controversially even to the Moon since 1999. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0124c135e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Bioastronautics, space medicine, space technology and space architecture are fields which are occupied with alleviating the effects of space on humans and non-humans. + +=== Culture === +Research has begun into the culture and "microsocieties" that are formed in space, with space archeologists analyzing residue from space environments to learn about astronaut life. A few incidents of astronauts from different countries having difficulties in getting along have also been studied. + +== Impact, environmental protection and sustainability == + +Human space activity, and its subsequent presence, can and has been having an impact on space as well as on the capacity to access it. This impact of human space activity and presence, or its potential, has created the need to address its issues regarding planetary protection, space debris, nuclear hazards, radio pollution and light pollution, to the reusability of launch systems, for space not to become a sacrifice zone. +Sustainability has been a goal of space law, space technology and space infrastructure, with the United Nations seeing the need to advance long-term sustainability of outer space activities in space science and application, and the United States having it as a crucial goal of its contemporary space policy and space program. +Human presence in space is particularly being felt in orbit around Earth. The orbital space around Earth has seen increasing and extensive human presence, beside its benefits it has also produced a threat to it by carrying with it space debris, potentially cascading into the so-called Kessler syndrome. This has raised the need for regulation and mitigation of such to secure a sustainable access to outer space. + +== Study and reception == + +Individually or as a society humans have engaged since pre-history in developing their perception of space above the ground, or the cosmos at large, and developing their place in it. +Social sciences have been studying such works of people from pre-history to the contemporary with the fields of archaeoastronomy to cultural astronomy. With actual human activity and presence in space the need for fields like astrosociology and space archaeology have been added. + +=== Human presence observed from space === + +Earth observation has been one of the first missions of spaceflight, resulting in a dense contemporary presence of Earth observation satellites, having a wealth of uses and benefits for life on Earth. +Viewing human presence from space, particularly by humans directly, has been reported by some astronauts to cause a cognitive shift in perception, especially while viewing the Earth from outer space, this effect has been called the overview effect. A planetary understanding of life on Earth has given rise to an understanding of Earth as homeworld with a precious ecosystem, which we need to take care of, as famously described in Terre-Patrie (1993) by Edgar Morin or Carl Sagan in his description of Earth as a Pale Blue Dot in space. + +=== Perception of space from space === + +Parallel to the above overview effect the term "ultraview effect" has been introduced for a subjective response of intense awe some astronauts have experienced viewing large "starfields" while in space. +Space observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope have been present in Earth's orbit, benefiting from advantages from being outside Earth's atmosphere and away from its radio noise, resulting in less distorted observation results. + +=== Direct and mediated human presence === + +Related to the long discussion of what human presence constitutes and how it should be lived, the discussion about direct (e.g. crewed) and mediated (e.g. uncrewed) human presence, has been decisive for how space policy makers have chosen human presence and its purposes. +The relevance of this issue for space policy has risen with the advancement and resulting possibilities of telerobotics, to the point where most of the human presence in space has been reallized robotically, leaving direct human presence behind. + +=== Localization in space === + +The location of human presence has been studied throughout history by astronomy and was significant in order to relate to the heavens, that is to outer space and its bodies. +The historic argument between geocentrism and heliocentrism is one example about the location of human presence. + +=== Scenarios of and relations to space beyond human presence === + +Realizations of the scales of space, have been taken as subject to discuss human and life's existence or relations to space and time beyond them, with some understanding humanity's or life's presence as a singularity or one to be in isolation, pondering on the Fermi paradox. +A diverse range of arguments of how to relate to space beyond human presence have been raised, with some seeing space beyond humans as reason to venture out into space and exploring it, some aiming for contact with extraterrestrial life, to arguments for protection of humanity or life from its possibilities. +Considerations about the ecological integrity and independence of celestial bodies, counter exploitive understandings of space as dead, particularly in the sense of terra nullius, have raised issues such as rights of nature. + +== Purposes and uses == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..51c2de2d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,81 @@ +--- +title: "Human presence in space" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_presence_in_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:42.269825+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space and human presence in it has been the subject of different agendas. +The pursued of the realization of spaceflight developed particularly during high modernity. This was fueled and enabled by the accumulated knowledge about space since the invention and first use (1609, Galileo Galilei) of the telescope for astronomical observations early into modernity. Fiction and utopian literature started to explore space, giving rise to science-fiction and space as an envisioned realm reachable by living humans. New coherent world views, with the scales of space (and time) in mind, developed, such as the transhumanist cosmism movement, which have been significantly influential in the pursued of spaceflight ever since, particularly the groundbreaking Soviet space program. +That said human presence in space at its beginnings, was fueled by the Cold War and its outgrowing the Space Race. During this time technological, nationalist, ideological and military competition were dominant driving factors of space policy and the resulting activity and, particularly direct human, presence in space. +With the waning of the Space Race, concluded by cooperation in human spaceflight, focus shifted in the 1970s further to space exploration and telerobotics, having a range of achievements and technological advances. Space exploration meant by then also an engagement by governments in the search for extraterrestrial life. +Since human activity and presence in space has been producing spin-off benefits, other than for the above purposes, such as Earth observation and communication satellites for civilian use, international cooperation to advance such benefits of human presence in space grew with time. Particularly for the purpose of continuing benefits of space infrastructure and space science the United Nations has been pushing for safeguarding human activity in outer space in a sustainable way. +With the contemporary so-called NewSpace, the aim of commercialization of space has grown along with a narrative of space habitation for the survival of some humans away from and without Earth, which in turn has been critically analyzed and highlighted colonialist purposes for human activity and presence in space. This has given rise for a deeper engagement in the fields of space environment and space ethics. + +"If you can't take love to the stars, then what are we doing? [...] That's why we send humans instead of robots sometimes, that's why we have that firsthand witness." + +=== Overview of different purposes and uses === +Space exploration#Rationales +Benefits of space exploration +NASA spinoff technologies +Space research +Earth observation +Astronomy +Space observatory +Search for extraterrestrial life (see also first contact) +Communication +Spaceflight/Space transportation +Commercial use of space +Space tourism +Space mining (see also Surface chauvinism and surfacism) +Space manufacturing +Environmental dumping +Planetary protection +Planetary defense +Isolationism +For presence, in itself (see Human outpost space basing) +Space imperialism +National or private potency and competition (see Space Race) +Militarization of space +Extraterrestrial settlement +Emigration from Earth +Integration or naturalization (see also biological naturalization such as Pantropy) +Demographic push (e.g. due to overconsumption) +Forced displacement +Space and survival +Escapism +Space development as a purpose of progress (see also New Frontier) +Expansionism +Space colonization +Civilizing mission +Terraforming (see also Ethics of terraforming) +Directed panspermia + +== See also == +Category:Outer space lists +Category:Lists of outer space lists +Outline of space science +Outline of space exploration +Timeline of Solar System exploration +List of spaceflight records +Rights of nature +Anthropogenic metabolism +Anthroposphere +Collective consciousness +Scale (analytical tool) +Noosphere +Ecological civilization +Human impact on the environment +World Ocean § Anthropogenic presence and impact +Human ecology +Technosignature +Extremophile + +== Explanatory notes == + +== References == + +== Further reading == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus_Project-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus_Project-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..14812fec1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus_Project-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Icarus Project" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus_Project" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:10.561081+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Icarus Project (2002–2020) was an American network of peer-support groups and media projects with the stated aim of changing the social stigmas regarding mental health. The project was rebranded as Fireweed Collective in 2020. + + +== History == +In 2002, Sascha Altman DuBrul wrote an article published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian about his experiences being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He founded the Icarus Project with Jacks McNamara, an artist and writer. The Project sought to create spaces where people could talk freely about their lived experiences in regards to their mental health. +Years later, musician-activist Bonfire Madigan Shive and counsellor/activist Will Hall became key members in The Icarus Project's administration and development. + + +== Mission == +The Icarus Project's stated aims were to provide a "support network and education project by and for people who experience the world in ways that are often diagnosed as mental illness." The responsibilities of the group are to gather people locally for support, and access to alternatives to mainstream medical diagnosis and treatment. The Project advocates self-determination and caution when approaching psychiatric care. It encourages alternatives to the medical model that is accepted by mental health professionals. +In 2005, journalist Jennifer Itzenson noted that while the Icarus Project may accept those with a wide range of "perspectives" on mental health issues, there is also "an edge of militancy within the group," particularly among those who reject medication. Itzenson also writes that's the group's questioning of medical care is "misguided" and that rejecting medication is a "potentially fatal choice" for those with bipolar disorder. +While Icarus Project staff have described their expertise in social activism, herbalism, and labour organizing; none of them are licensed medical or mental health professionals. The Icarus Project advisory board members describe their members as educators, artists, activists, writers, healers, community organizers, and other creative types. Some members of the group identify as Latinx, queer, trans, people of colour or mixed race, and trauma survivors. + + +== Structure / funding == +The Icarus Project was under the fiscal sponsorship of FJC, a non-profit 501(c)3 umbrella organization arm of an investment firm, based in New York City. The Icarus Project formerly got the bulk of its money from foundation grants, including the Ittleson Foundation, but it also had many individual donors. + + +== Publications == +Educational materials published by The Icarus Project have been published in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Greek, and Bosnian/Croatian. Some of these publications are listed below: + +Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness; A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds (2004) +Friends Make the Best Medicine: A Guide to Creating Community Mental Health Support Networks. (2006) +Through the Labyrinth; A Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs (2009) +Mindful Occupation: Rising Up without Burning Out (2012) +Madness and Oppression: Personal Paths to Transformation and Collective Liberation (2015) + + +== Filmography == +Films about Icarus Project members are listed below: + +Ken Paul Rosenthal (2010). Crooked Beauty. 30 min. Poetic documentary featuring Jacks McNamara. In Mad Dance Mental Health Film Trilogy. +Ken Paul Rosenthal (2018). Whisper Rapture. 36 min. A doc-opera featuring Bonfire Madigan Shive. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website +East Bay Express, August 3, 2005 - Off Their Meds - Modern psychiatrists prescribe pills for hundreds of "biological" disorders. The radical mental health movement isn't so sure - By Stefanie Kalem +MindFreedom Radio - Sascha DuBrul of Icarus Project Next Guest on MF Radio \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5dcc39890 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Indeterminacy (philosophy)" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:11.730438+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Indeterminacy, in philosophy, can refer both to common scientific and mathematical concepts of uncertainty and their implications and to another kind of indeterminacy deriving from the nature of definition or meaning. It is related to deconstructionism and to Nietzsche's criticism of the Kantian noumenon. + +== Indeterminacy in philosophy == + +=== Introduction === +The problem of indeterminacy arises when one observes the eventual circularity of virtually every possible definition. It is easy to find loops of definition in any dictionary, because this seems to be the only way that certain concepts, and generally very important ones such as that of existence, can be defined in the English language. A definition is a collection of other words, and in any finite dictionary if one continues to follow the trail of words in search of the precise meaning of any given term, one will inevitably encounter this linguistic indeterminacy. +Philosophers and scientists generally try to eliminate indeterminate terms from their arguments, since any indeterminate thing is unquantifiable and untestable; similarly, any hypothesis which consists of a statement of the properties of something unquantifiable or indefinable cannot be falsified and thus cannot be said to be supported by evidence that does not falsify it. This is related to Popper's discussions of falsifiability in his works on the scientific method. The quantifiability of data collected during an experiment is central to the scientific method, since reliable conclusions can only be drawn from replicable experiments, and since in order to establish observer agreement scientists must be able to quantify experimental evidence. + +=== Kant and hazards of positing the "thing in itself" === + +Immanuel Kant unwittingly proposed one answer to this question in his Critique of Pure Reason by stating that there must "exist" a "thing in itself" – a thing which is the cause of phenomena, but not a phenomenon itself. But, so to speak, "approximations" of "things in themselves" crop up in many models of empirical phenomena. Singularities in physics, such as gravitational singularities, certain aspects of which (e.g., their unquantifiability) can seem almost to mirror various "aspects" of the proposed "thing in itself", are generally eliminated (or attempts are made at eliminating them) in newer, more precise models of the universe. Definitions of various psychiatric disorders stem, according to philosophers who draw on the work of Michel Foucault, from a belief that something unobservable and indescribable is fundamentally "wrong" with the mind of whoever suffers from such a disorder. Proponents of Foucault's treatment of the concept of insanity would assert that one need only try to quantify various characteristics of such disorders as presented in today's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (e.g., delusion, one of the diagnostic criteria which must be exhibited by a patient if he or she is to be considered to have schizophrenia) in order to discover that the field of study known as abnormal psychology relies upon indeterminate concepts in defining virtually each "mental disorder" it describes. The quality that makes a belief a delusion is indeterminate to the extent to which it is unquantifiable; arguments that delusion is determined by popular sentiment (i.e., "almost no-one believes that he or she is made of cheese, and thus that belief is a delusion") would lead to the conclusion that, for example, Alfred Wegener's assertion of continental drift was a delusion since it was dismissed for decades after it was made. + +=== Nietzsche and the indeterminacy of the "thing in itself" === + +Relevant criticism of Kant's original formulation of the "thing in itself" can be found in the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who argued against what he held to be the indeterminate nature of such concepts as the Platonic idea, the subject, the Kantian noumenon, the opposition of "appearance" to "reality", etc. Nietzsche concisely argued against Kant's noumenon in his On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense as follows: + +"The 'thing in itself' (which is precisely what the pure truth, apart from any of its consequences, would be) is likewise something quite incomprehensible to the creator of language and something not in the least worth striving for." +In his Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche argues against the "misleading significance of words" and its production of a "thing in itself": + +"I would repeat it, however, a hundred times, that 'immediate certainty,' as well as 'absolute knowledge' and the 'thing in itself,' involve a CONTRADICTIO IN ADJECTO; we really ought to free ourselves from the misleading significance of words!" +Furthermore, Nietzsche argued against such singularities as the atom in the scientific models of his day in The Will to Power: + +"For all its detachment and freedom from emotion, our science is still the dupe of linguistic habits; it has never got rid of those changelings called 'subjects.' The atom is one such changeling, another is the Kantian 'thing-in-itself.'" + +=== Approximation versus equality === +The concept of something that is unapproachable but always further-approximable has led to a rejection by philosophers like Nietzsche of the concept of exact equality in general in favor of that of approximate similarity: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3e0f6aa23 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Indeterminacy (philosophy)" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:11.730438+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Every word instantly becomes a concept precisely insofar as it is not supposed to serve as a reminder of the unique and entirely individual original experience to which it owes its origin; but rather, a word becomes a concept insofar as it simultaneously has to fit countless more or less similar cases – which means, purely and simply, cases which are never equal and thus altogether unequal." +"What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, and; anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished, and which, after long usage, seem to a people to be fixed, canonical, and binding. Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions- they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins." +If one states an equation between two things, one states, in effect, that they are the same thing. It can be argued that this cannot possibly be true, since one will then consider the properties which the two sides of the equation share – that which makes them "equal" – but one also can, and does, consider them as two separate concepts. Even in a mathematical statement as simple as "x=x", one encounters fundamental differences between the two "x"es under consideration: firstly, that there are two distinct "x"es, in that they neither occupy the same space on this page nor in one's own mind. There would otherwise be only one "x". Secondly, that if two things were absolutely equal in every possible respect, then there would necessarily be no reason to consider their equality. Nothing could lead anyone to consider the possibility or impossibility of their equality if there were no properties not shared between "them", since there would necessarily be no relationship between them whatsoever. Thirdly, and most importantly, if two things were equal in every possible respect they would necessarily not be two things, but the very same thing, since there would be no difference to separate them. +In examples as odd as this, the differences between two approximately equal things may be very small indeed, and it is certainly true that they are quite irrelevant to most discussions. Acceptance of the reflexive property illustrated above has led to useful mathematical discoveries which have influenced the life of anyone reading this article on a computer. But in an examination of the possibility of the determinacy of any possible concept, differences like this are supremely relevant since that quality which could possibly make two separate things "equal" seems to be indeterminate. + +=== Indeterminacy of meaning and translation === +See: + +Willard Van Orman Quine: indeterminacy of translation, indeterminacy of reference +Donald Davidson: indeterminacy of interpretation + +=== The indeterminacy of the pharmakon in Derrida's Plato's Pharmacy === + +Indeterminacy was discussed in one of Jacques Derrida's early works Plato's Pharmacy (1969), a reading of Plato's Phaedrus and Phaedo. Plato writes of a fictionalized conversation between Socrates and a student, in which Socrates tries to convince the student that writing is inferior to speech. Socrates uses the Egyptian myth of Thoth's creation of writing to illustrate his point. As the story goes, Thoth presents his invention to the god-king of Upper Egypt for judgment. Upon its presentation, Thoth offers script as a pharmakon for the Egyptian people. The Greek word pharmakon poses a quandary for translators: it is both a remedy and a poison. In the proffering of a pharmakon, Thoth presents it as its true meaning: a harm and benefit. The god-king, however, refuses the invention. Through various reasonings, he determines the pharmakon of writing to be a bad thing for the Egyptian people. The pharmakon, the undecidable, has been returned decided. The problem, as Derrida reasons, is this: since the word pharmakon, in the original Greek, means both a remedy and a poison, it cannot be determined as fully remedy or fully poison. Amon rejected writing as fully poison in Socrates' retelling of the tale, thus shutting out the other possibilities. + +=== Foucault and the indeterminacy of insanity === +The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote about the existence of such problems of precise definition in the very concept of insanity itself – a very rough approximation of his argument can be found in the late social commentator and journalist Hunter S. Thompson's book, Kingdom of Fear: + +"The only difference between the Sane and the Insane, is IN and yet within this world, the Sane have the power to have the Insane locked up." +Another summary of Foucault's original argument against the indeterminacy of the concept of insanity in his Madness and Civilization can be found in the following excerpt from the Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database: + +"Central to this is the notion of confinement as a meaningful exercise. Foucault's history explains how the mad came first to be confined; how they became identified as confined due to moral and economic factors that determined those who ought to be confined; how they became perceived as dangerous through their confinement, partly by way of atavistic identification with the lepers whose place they had come to occupy; how they were 'liberated' by Pinel and Tuke, but in their liberation remained confined, both physically in asylums and in the designation of being mad; and how this confinement subsequently became enacted in the figure of the psychiatrist, whose practice is 'a certain moral tactic contemporary with the end of the eighteenth century, preserved in the rites of the asylum life, and overlaid by the myths of positivism.' Science and medicine, notably, come in at the later stages, as practices 'elaborated once this division' between the mad and the sane has been made (ix)." +In The Archaeology of Knowledge, Foucault addresses indeterminacy directly by discussing the origin of the meaning of concepts: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..971db0a4c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Indeterminacy (philosophy)" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:11.730438+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Foucault directs his analysis toward the 'statement', the basic unit of discourse that he believes has been ignored up to this point. 'Statement' is the English translation from French énoncé (that which is enunciated or expressed), which has a peculiar meaning for Foucault. 'Énoncé' for Foucault means that which makes propositions, utterances, or speech acts meaningful. In this understanding, statements themselves are not propositions, utterances, or speech acts. Rather, statements create a network of rules establishing what is meaningful, and it is these rules that are the preconditions for propositions, utterances, or speech acts to have meaning. Statements are also 'events'. Depending on whether or not they comply with the rules of meaning, a grammatically correct sentence may still lack meaning and inversely, an incorrect sentence may still be meaningful. Statements depend on the conditions in which they emerge and exist within a field of discourse. It is huge collections of statements, called discursive formations, toward which Foucault aims his analysis. +[...] + +Rather than looking for a deeper meaning underneath discourse or looking for the source of meaning in some transcendental subject, Foucault analyzes the conditions of existence for meaning. In order to show the principles of meaning production in various discursive formations he details how truth claims emerge during various epochs on the basis of what was actually said and written during these periods of time." +The difference described by Foucault between the sane and the insane does have observable and very real effects on millions of people daily and can be characterized in terms of those effects, but it can also serve to illustrate a particular effect of the indeterminacy of definition: i.e., that insofar as the general public tends not to characterize or define insanity in very precise terms, it tends, according to Foucault, unnecessarily and arbitrarily to confine some of its members on an irrational basis. The less-precisely such states as "insanity" and "criminality" are defined in a society, the more likely that society is to fail to continue over time to describe the same behaviors as characteristic of those states (or, alternately, to characterize such states in terms of the same behaviors). + +=== Indeterminacy in discourse analysis === +Steve Hoenisch asserts in his article Interpretation and Indeterminacy in Discourse Analysis that "[T]he exact meaning of a speaker's utterance in a contextualized exchange is often indeterminate. Within the context of the analysis of the teacher-pupil exchange, I will argue for the superiority of interactional linguistics over speech act theory because it reduces the indeterminacy and yields a more principled interpretation[...]". + +=== Indeterminacy and consciousness === +Richard Dawkins, who coined the term meme in the 1970s, described the concept of faith in his documentary Root of All Evil? as "the process of non-thinking". In the documentary, he used Bertrand Russell's analogy between a teapot orbiting the Sun (something that cannot be observed because the brightness of the Sun would obscure it even from the best telescope's view) and the object of one's faith (in this particular case, God) to explain that a highly indeterminate idea can self-replicate freely: "Everybody in the society had faith in the teapot. Stories of the teapot had been handed down for generations as part of the tradition of society. There are holy books about the teapot." +In Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel Dennett argues against the existence of determinate meaning (in this case, of the subjective experience of vision for frogs) via an explanation of their indeterminacy in the chapter entitled The Evolution of Meanings, in the section The Quest for Real Meanings: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..15dddef63 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Indeterminacy (philosophy)" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:11.730438+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Unless there were 'meaningless' or 'indeterminate' variation in the triggering conditions of the various frogs' eyes, there could be no raw material [...] for selection for a new purpose to act upon. The indeterminacy that Fodor (and others) see as a flaw [...] is actually a prediction for such evolution [of "purpose"]. The idea that there must be something determinate that the frog's eye really means – some possibly unknowable proposition in froggish that expresses exactly what the frog's eye is telling the frog's brain – is just essentialism applied to meaning (or function). Meaning, like function on which it so directly depends, is not something determinate at its birth. [...]" +Dennet argues, controversially, against qualia in Consciousness Explained. Qualia are attacked from several directions at once: he maintains they do not exist (or that they are too ill-defined to play any role in science, or that they are really something else, i.e. behavioral dispositions). They cannot simultaneously have all the properties +attributed to them by philosophers—incorrigible, ineffable, private, directly accessible and so on. The multiple drafts theory is leveraged to show that facts about qualia are not definite. Critics object that one's own qualia are subjectively quite clear and distinct to oneself. +The self-replicating nature of memes is a partial explanation of the recurrence of indeterminacies in language and thought. The wide influences of Platonism and Kantianism in Western philosophy can arguably be partially attributed to the indeterminacies of some of their most fundamental concepts (namely, the Idea and the Noumenon, respectively). +For a given meme to exhibit replication and heritability – that is, for it to be able to make an imperfect copy of itself which is more likely to share any given trait with its "parent" meme than with some random member of the general "population" of memes – it must in some way be mutable, since memetic replication occurs by means of human conceptual imitation rather than via the discrete molecular processes that govern genetic replication. (If a statement were to generate copies of itself that didn't meaningfully differ from it, that process of copying would more accurately be described as "duplication" than as "replication", and it would be incorrect to term these statements "memes"; the same would be true if the "child" statements did not noticeably inherit a substantial proportion of their traits from their "parent" statements.) +In other words, if a meme is defined roughly (and somewhat arbitrarily) as a statement (or as a collection of statements, like Foucault's "discursive formations") that inherits some, but not all, of its properties (or elements of its definition) from its "parent" memes and which self-replicates, then indeterminacy of definition could be seen as advantageous to memetic replication, since an absolute rigidity of definition would preclude memetic adaptation. +It is important to note that indeterminacy in linguistics can arguably partially be defeated by the fact that languages are always changing. However, what the entire language and its collected changes continue to reflect is sometimes still considered to be indeterminate. + +=== Criticism === +Persons of faith argue that faith "is the basis of all knowledge". The Wikipedia article on faith states that "one must assume, believe, or have faith in the credibility of a person, place, thing, or idea in order to have a basis for knowledge." In this way the object of one's faith is similar to Kant's noumenon. +This would seem to attempt to make direct use of the indeterminacy of the object of one's faith as evidential support of its existence: if the object of one's faith were to be proven to exist (i.e., if it were no longer of indeterminate definition, or if it were no longer unquantifiable, etc.), then faith in that object would no longer be necessary; arguments from authority such as those mentioned above wouldn't either; all that would be needed to prove its existence would be scientific evidence. Thus, if faith is to be considered as a reliable basis for knowledge, persons of faith would seem, in effect, to assert that indeterminacy is not only necessary, but good (see Nassim Taleb). + +== Indeterminacy in new physical theories == +Science generally attempts to eliminate vague definitions, causally inert entities, and indeterminate properties, via further observation, experimentation, characterization, and explanation. Occam's razor tends to eliminate causally inert entities from functioning models of quantifiable phenomena, but some quantitative models, such as quantum mechanics, actually imply certain indeterminacies, such as the relative indeterminacy of quantum particles' positions to the precision with which their momenta can be measured (and vice versa). (See Heisenberg's indeterminacy principle.) +One ardent supporter of the possibility of a final unifying theory (and thus, arguably, of the possibility of the end of some current indeterminacies) in physics, Steven Weinberg, stated in an interview with PBS that: +"Sometimes [...] people say that surely there's no final theory because, after all, every time we've made a step toward unification or toward simplification we always find more and more complexity there. That just means we haven't found it yet. Physicists never thought they had the final theory." +The Wikipedia article on the possibility of such a "theory of everything" notes that +"Other possibilities which may frustrate the explanatory capacity of a TOE may include sensitivity to the boundary conditions of the universe, or the existence of mathematical chaos in its solutions, making its predictions precise, but useless." +Chaos theory argues that precise prediction of the behavior of complex systems becomes impossible because of the observer's inability to gather all necessary data. +As yet, it seems entirely possible that there shall never be any "final theory" of all phenomena, and that, rather, explanations may instead breed more and more complex and exact explanations of the new phenomena uncovered by current experimentation. In this argument, the "indeterminacy" or "thing in itself" is the "final explanation" that will never be reached; this can be compared to the concept of the limit in calculus, in that quantities may approach, but never reach, a given limit in certain situations. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..96907f414 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Indeterminacy (philosophy)" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeterminacy_(philosophy)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:11.730438+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Criticism === +Proponents of a deterministic universe have criticised various applications of the concept of indeterminacy in the sciences; for instance, Albert Einstein once stated that "God does not play dice" in a succinct (but now unpopular) argument against the theory of quantum indeterminacy, which states that the actions of particles of extremely low mass or energy are unpredictable because an observer's interaction with them changes either their positions or momenta. (The "dice" in Einstein's metaphor refer to the probabilities that these particles will behave in particular ways, which is how quantum mechanics addressed the problem.) +At first it might seem that a criticism could be made from a biological standpoint in that an indeterminate idea would seem not to be beneficial to the species that holds it. A strong counterargument, however, is that not all traits exhibited by living organisms will be seen in the long term as evolutionarily advantageous, given that extinctions occur regularly and that phenotypic traits have often died out altogether – in other words, an indeterminate meme may in the long term demonstrate its evolutionary value to the species that produced it in either direction; humans are, as yet, the only species known to make use of such concepts. +It might also be argued that conceptual vagueness is an inevitability, given the limited capacity of the human nervous systems. We just do not have enough neurons to maintain separate concepts for "dog with 1,000,000 hairs", "dog with 1,000,001 hairs" and so on. But conceptual vagueness is not metaphysical indeterminacy. + +== Synonymous concepts in philosophy == +Uncertainty and indeterminacy are words for essentially the same concept in both quantum mechanics. Unquantifiability, and undefinability (or indefinability), can also sometimes be synonymous with indeterminacy. In science, indeterminacy can sometimes be interchangeable with unprovability or unpredictability. Also, anything entirely inobservable can be said to be indeterminate in that it cannot be precisely characterized. + +== See also == + +== Notes and references == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5120c88ff --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Industrial Society and Its Future" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:31.370948+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto, is a 1995 anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski. The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction brought about by technology, while forcing humans to adapt to machinery, creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human potential and freedom. +The roughly 35,000-word manifesto formed the ideological foundation of Kaczynski's 1978–1995 mail bomb campaign, designed to protect wilderness by hastening the collapse of industrial society. The manifesto states that the public largely accepts individual technological advancements as purely positive without accounting for their overall effect, including the erosion of local and individual freedom and autonomy. +It was printed in September 1995 in a special supplement to The Washington Post after Kaczynski offered to suspend his bombing campaign if his manifesto was widely circulated. Attorney General Janet Reno authorized the printing to help the FBI identify the author. The printing of, and publicity around, the manifesto eclipsed the bombings in notoriety and led to the identification of the Unabomber by Ted's brother David Kaczynski and his wife. + +== Impact == +While Kaczynski's actions were generally condemned, his manifesto expressed ideas that continue to be generally shared among the American public. A 2017 Rolling Stone article stated that Kaczynski was an early adopter of the concept that: + +We give up a piece of ourselves whenever we adjust to conform to society's standards. That, and we're too plugged in. We're letting technology take over our lives, willingly. +The Labadie Collection of the University of Michigan houses a copy of Industrial Society and its Future. The essay has been translated into French, remains on college reading lists, and was updated in Kaczynski's 2019 book, Technological Slavery, Volume One, which defends his political philosophy in greater depth. + +== Background and publication == + +Between 1978 and 1995, Ted Kaczynski engaged in a mail bomb campaign against people involved with modern technology. His initial targets were universities and airlines, which the FBI shortened as UNABOM. In June 1995, Kaczynski offered to end his campaign if one of several publications—The Washington Post, The New York Times, or Penthouse—would publish his critique of technology, titled Industrial Society and Its Future, which became widely known as the "Unabomber Manifesto". +Kaczynski believed that his violence, as direct action when words were insufficient, would draw others to pay attention to his critique. He wanted his ideas to be taken seriously. The media debated the ethics of publishing the manifesto under duress. The United States Attorney General Janet Reno advocated for the essay to be shared so that a reader could potentially recognize its author. +During that summer, the FBI worked with literature scholars to compare the Unabomber's text against the works of Joseph Conrad, including The Secret Agent, based on their shared themes. +The Washington Post published the manifesto in full within a supplement on September 19, 1995, splitting the cost with The New York Times. According to a statement, the Post had the "mechanical ability to distribute a separate section in all copies of its daily newspaper." A Berkeley-based chess book publisher began publishing copies in paperback the next month, without Kaczynski's consent. +Kaczynski wrote an essay in 1971 which contained many themes and ideas that would eventually appear in the manifesto, indicating that his particular line of anti-technological thought dated back relatively early in his life prior to his arrest. The original, handwritten manifesto sold for $20,053 in a 2011 auction of Kaczynski's assets, along with typewritten editions and their typewriters, to raise restitution for his victims. + +== Contents == + +At 35,000 words, Industrial Society and Its Future lays very detailed blame on technology in and of itself for eroding individual freedom and autonomy, destroying human-scale communities, and leading to widespread psychological and physical suffering. Kaczynski contends that the Industrial Revolution harmed the human race by developing into a sociopolitical order that subjugates human needs beneath its own. This system, he wrote, destroys nature and suppresses individual freedom. In short, humans adapt to machines rather than vice versa, resulting in a society hostile to human potential, freedom, and dignity. +Kaczynski indicts technological progress for its destruction of small human communities and the rise of inhospitable cities. He contends that this relentless technological progress will not dissipate on its own, because individual technological advancements are seen as good despite the sum effects of this progress, and technological growth is beyond rational human control (i.e., autonomous). Kaczynski describes modern technological society as totalitarian force—an order in which individuals are "adjusted" to fit the requirements of the system and those outside the system are seen as pathological or "bad". +This tendency, he says, gives rise to expansive police powers, mind-numbing mass media, and indiscriminate promotion of drugs, designed to conform to the needs of the technological environment. He criticizes both big government and big business as the inevitable result of industrialization, and holds scientists and "technophiles" responsible for recklessly pursuing power through technological advancements. +He argues that this industrialized system's collapse will be devastating in the short-term, although quickening the collapse—before technology progresses further—will prevent unmitigated catastrophe for humanity and the biosphere in the future. He justifies the trade-offs that come with losing industrial society as being worth the cost. Kaczynski's ideal revolution seeks not to overthrow governments if unnecessary, but rather, the economic and technological foundation of modern society. He seeks to destroy existing society and protect the wilderness, the antithesis of technology. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..105cb028a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Industrial Society and Its Future" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:31.370948+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Influences === +Industrial Society and Its Future echoes contemporary critics of technology and industrialization such as John Zerzan, Jacques Ellul, Rachel Carson, Lewis Mumford, and E. F. Schumacher. +Its idea of the "disruption of the power process" similarly echoed social critics who emphasize that the lack of meaningful work is a primary cause of social problems, including Mumford, Paul Goodman, and Eric Hoffer. Aldous Huxley addressed its general theme in Brave New World, to which Kaczynski refers in his text. Kaczynski's ideas of "oversocialization" and "surrogate activities" recall Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and its theories of rationalization and sublimation (a term which Kaczynski uses three times to describe "surrogate activities"). +However, a 2021 study by Sean Fleming shows that many of these similarities are coincidental. Kaczynski had not read Lewis Mumford, Paul Goodman, or John Zerzan until after he submitted Industrial Society and Its Future to The New York Times and The Washington Post. There is no evidence that he read Freud, Carson, or Schumacher. Instead, Fleming argues, Industrial Society and Its Future "is a synthesis of ideas from [...] French philosopher Jacques Ellul, British zoologist Desmond Morris, and American psychologist Martin Seligman." +Kaczynski's understanding of technology, his idea of maladaptation, and his critique of leftism are partly derived from Ellul's 1954 book, The Technological Society. Kaczynski's concept of "surrogate activities" echoes Desmond Morris's concept of "survival-substitute activities", while his concept of "the power process" combines Morris's concept of "the Stimulus Struggle" with Seligman's concept of learned helplessness. Fleming's study relies on archival material from the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan, including a "secret" set of footnotes that Kaczynski did not include in the Washington Post version of Industrial Society and Its Future. +The scholar George Michael of Vanderbilt University Press accused Kaczynski of "collecting philosophical and environmental clichés to reinforce common American concerns". + +== Aftermath == + +Kaczynski had intended for his mail bombing campaign to raise awareness for the message in Industrial Society and Its Future, which he wanted to be seriously regarded. +With its initial publication in 1995, the manifesto was received as intellectually deep and sane. Writers described the manifesto's sentiment as familiar. To Kirkpatrick Sale, the Unabomber was "a rational man" with reasonable beliefs about technology. He recommended the manifesto's opening sentence for the forefront of American politics. Cynthia Ozick likened the work to an American Raskolnikov (of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment), as a "philosophical criminal of exceptional intelligence and humanitarian purpose ... driven to commit murder out of an uncompromising idealism". Numerous websites engaging with the manifesto's message appeared online. +Kaczynski's effort to publish his manifesto brought him into the American news more than the bombings themselves. The manifesto was widely spread via newspapers, book reprints, and the Internet. Ultimately, the ideas in the manifesto were eclipsed by reaction to the violence of the bombings, and did not spark the serious public consideration he was looking for. +Linda Patrik, the wife of Ted's brother David Kaczynski, suspected Ted had written the manifesto because she recognized his linguistic mannerisms, and she told her husband about her suspicions. At first, he disbelieved that his own brother could be the author of the manifesto, but upon comparing the previous letters that they shared, he found evidence: one of Ted's mannerisms was found in one of the letters that they exchanged, just as it was written in the manifesto. Upon this discovery, David notified the FBI. + +=== Effect of the trial === + +After Ted Kaczynski's April 1996 arrest, he wanted to use the trial to disseminate his views, but the judge denied him permission to represent himself. Instead, his court-appointed lawyers planned an insanity defense that would discredit Industrial Society and Its Future against his will. The prosecution's psychiatrists counter-cited the manifesto as evidence of the Unabomber's lucidity, and Kaczynski's sanity was tried in court and in the media. Kaczynski responded by taking a plea bargain for life imprisonment without parole in May 1998. +Kaczynski's biographer Alston Chase argued that the public should look beyond this "genius-or-madman debate", and view the manifesto as reflecting normal, common, unexceptional ideas shared by Americans, sharing their distrust over the direction of civilization. While most Americans abhorred his violence, adherents to his anti-technology message have celebrated his call to question technology and preserve wilderness. From his Colorado maximum security prison, he continued to clarify his philosophy with other writers through correspondence, and by composing two books which were published during his incarceration, until his death in 2023. + +== Legacy == +Part of Kaczynski's manifesto was cited by the inventor and author Raymond Kurzweil in his book The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), and then mentioned in the article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" (2000) by computer scientist Bill Joy. +As of 2000, Industrial Society and Its Future remained on college reading lists and the green anarchist and eco-extremist movements came to hold Kaczynski's writing in high regard, with the manifesto finding a niche audience among critics of technology, such as the speculative science fiction and anarcho-primitivist communities. It has since been translated into many other languages, including French by Jean-Marie Apostolidès. +Since 2000, the Labadie Collection houses a copy of the manifesto, along with Ted Kaczynski's other writings, letters and papers, after he officially designated the University of Michigan to receive them. They have since become one of the most popular archives in their special collections. +In 2017, an article in Rolling Stone stated that Kaczynski was an early adopter of the idea that: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f340fd777 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Industrial Society and Its Future" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:31.370948+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +We give up a piece of ourselves whenever we adjust to conform to society's standards. That, and we're too plugged in. We're letting technology take over our lives, willingly. +In 2018, New York magazine stated that the manifesto generated later interest from environmentalists, and anarcho-primitivists. +In December 2020, a man who was arrested at Charleston International Airport on a charge of "conveying false information regarding attempted use of a destructive device" after he falsely threatened that he had a bomb, was found to have been carrying the Unabomber manifesto. +Although Kaczynski himself described fascism as "evil", the manifesto is popular among Ecofascists. According to Professor Michael Loadenthal there has been “Siege-ification of the deep green” and Industrial Society and Its Future is widely shared in the Terrorgram community. +The suspect in the killing of Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, was suspected by the police to have been inspired by the manifesto. Mangione had posted a Goodreads review of the manifesto, giving four stars out of five, however also describing Kaczynski as "rightfully imprisoned" and criticizing his use of violence against innocent individuals. + +=== Reprints and further work === +Feral House republished the manifesto in Kaczynski's first book, the 2010 Technological Slavery, alongside correspondence and an interview. Kaczynski was unsatisfied with the book and his lack of control in its publication. Kaczynski's 2008 book Technological Slavery, Volume One. Revised and Expanded Edition updates his 1995 manifesto with more relevant references and defends his political philosophy in greater depth. In February 2021, Kaczynski wrote a new preface to his original 1995 manifesto. + +== Notes == + +== See also == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == + +== Further reading == + +== External links == +Full manifesto from the Washington Post +Mobile-friendly version of the full manifesto \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_(TV_series)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_(TV_series)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eac148a39 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_(TV_series)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Inheritance (TV series)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_(TV_series)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:01.482470+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Inheritance was a 1967 Granada-produced ITV drama based on a trilogy of novels by Phyllis Bentley - Inheritance (1932), The Rise of Henry Morcar (1946) and A Man of His Time (1966). + + +== Plot == +The ten-part period drama revolved around the fortunes of the Oldroyds, a Yorkshire mill-owning family from 1812 to 1965. The early part of the series featured the Luddite riots, involving the burning of mills and the subsequent execution of those responsible. The series turned the expression "There's trouble at mill" into a catchphrase. + + +== Leading actors == +The series featured Michael Goodliffe, John Thaw and James Bolam in leading roles over the generations. Each new generation saw Goodliffe and Thaw playing father and eldest son, with Bolam usually playing the part of the younger son. + + +== Cast with original parts == +Michael Goodliffe as William Oldroyd +Daphne Heard as Janie Smith-Oldroyd +Royston Tickner as Charley Mellor +Madeleine Christie as Charlotte Stancliffe +John Thaw as Will Oldroyd +Wilfred Pickles as mill overlooker +Thelma Whiteley as Mary Bamforth +Judy Wilson as Martha Ackroyd +James Bolam as Joe Bamforth +David Burke as Henry Morcar +Basil Dignam as Mr. Shaw + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Inheritance at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Earth_&_Space_Exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Earth_&_Space_Exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..52d6536a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Earth_&_Space_Exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Institute for Earth & Space Exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Earth_&_Space_Exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:36.348099+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration (CPSX) is an academic unit operating at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). Founded in 2007, and dedicated in 2008 alongside the Canadian Lunar Research Network, it is the largest single group of planetary scientists (and related research professionals) working at an educational institution within Canada. Research focuses on planetary atmospheres, surfaces, and interiors along with cosmochemistry, dynamics, astrobiology, space systems, telerobotics, and the history of space exploration. +In 2008, CPSX became the first international partner of the NASA Lunar Science Institute, and become a node of the Canadian Lunar Research Network. +In addition to its research facilities, CPSX offers degree programs through UWO for undergraduate and graduate students at umbrella programs. Graduate students enrolling must be admitted into either the Physics and Astronomy program or the Geology or Geophysics programs in order to transfer into the CPSX graduate degree programs. +In June, 2019, CPSX became the Institute for Earth & Space Exploration. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +CPSX Home +Canadian Lunar Research Network +CPSX Digest \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_milieu_model-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_milieu_model-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6aaa8285c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_milieu_model-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Integrative milieu model" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrative_milieu_model" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:12.915990+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The integrative milieu model, developed by Kevin F. McCready, is an alternative treatment regime to the medical model of psychiatry for treating people suffering from psychological distress. +A central part of the anti-psychiatry movement, being a close friend of Peter Breggin and a board member of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology, McCready based his model on the idea that human psychological suffering is not caused by a physiological disease or a chemical imbalance, but by a compromise to a person's humanity. He believed that the biomedical model of psychiatry was a compromise to a person's humanity, stripping its patients from elements he considers to be a necessary and natural part of human life experience. This model of treatment combined elements from psychodynamic theories, particularly the theories of Carl G. Jung, humanism, and existentialism. +The integrative milieu model's approach is one which attempts to create a new community for its participants to interact within. This community is based on four main ideas: + +The milieu must be a therapeutic container which allows an intensive exploration of the personal and collective psyche. It must therefore have a structure which maintains continuity and a sense of security. +The professionals who work to maintain the structure of the container must be flexible to allow for the expected and the unexpected expression of self which comes in such an environment. +The integration of all aspects of the human experience must be not only allowed to be expressed and explored, but must be encouraged to be expressed and explored. This means that all aspects of humanity must be made part of the integrative milieu, including such things as play, art, music, discussion, and intimacy. +A respect for the human being's sense of self-direction. All patients within the milieu are expected to behave in a responsible, respectful manner. McCready believed that the expectations which are part of a community's fundamental philosophy play a significant role in the corresponding behavior of those who are part of the community. + + +== Integrative milieu day treatment == +McCready developed a day treatment program based on the integrative milieu model. It is a continuous program, with open enrollment. Most group therapy situations have a beginning phase, during which all clients who are participating in the group begin and an ending phase, until which all group members are encouraged to maintain regular attendance; and all group members complete their treatment at that time. However, in a continuous program, new group members may join the group at any time and group members complete their treatment and terminate therapy at any time they are ready, which means there is a staggered enrollment. The schedule of the program was intentionally set up in such a manner that one started the day light, gradually went deeper, and finally returned to a lighter level before the end of the day. The groups were set up to run for fifty minutes each. All groups would have one therapist moderating. The groups would include not only traditional psychodynamically-oriented psychotherapy groups, but also groups designed for artistic expression, recreation, discussion of dreams, discussion of specific topics selected by the group, and general community goal and feedback groups. +All clients enrolled in the integrative milieu also receive individual psychotherapy from one of the staff psychotherapists. This therapy is psychodynamic in orientation, but adheres to the principles of the integrative milieu model. +Programs currently in existence include: + +Associated Psychological Health Services +Sequioa Psychotherapy Center and +the Insight Center. +Spectrum (Victoria, Australia) is a further example of an integrative milieu model and has been treating people with borderline personality disorder using this approach since 1999. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c86e5fbe3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 1/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". +The leading proponents of ID are associated with the Discovery Institute, a Christian, politically conservative think tank based in the United States. +ID is a form of creationism that lacks empirical support and offers no testable or tenable hypotheses, and is therefore not science. +Although the phrase intelligent design had featured previously in theological discussions of the argument from design, its first publication in its present use as an alternative term for creationism was in Of Pandas and People, a 1989 creationist textbook intended for high school biology classes. In 1987, the Edwards v. Aguillard United States Supreme Court decision ruled that "creation science" is not science, and therefore a violation of the Establishment Clause if taught in public school biology classes. After the decision, all mentions of the term "creation science" in the textbook were directly replaced by "intelligent design", and mentions of the term "creation scientists" were replaced by "design proponents". From the mid-1990s onward, the intelligent design movement (IDM), supported by the Discovery Institute, advocated for the inclusion of intelligent design in public school biology curricula. This led to the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, which ruled that intelligent design was not science, that it "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents", and that the public school district's promotion of it therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. +ID presents two main arguments against evolutionary explanations: irreducible complexity and specified complexity, asserting that certain biological and informational features of living things are too complex to be the result of natural selection. Detailed scientific examination has rebutted several examples for which evolutionary explanations are claimed to be impossible. +ID seeks to challenge the methodological naturalism inherent in modern science. As a positive argument against evolution, ID proposes an analogy between natural systems and human artifacts, a version of the theological argument from design for the existence of God. ID proponents then conclude by analogy that the complex features, as defined by ID, are evidence of design. +Critics of ID find a false dichotomy in the premise that evidence against evolution constitutes evidence for design. + +== History == + +=== Origin of the concept === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..701c43b17 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 2/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In 1910, evolution was not a topic of major religious controversy in America, but in the 1920s, the fundamentalist–modernist controversy in theology resulted in fundamentalist Christian opposition to teaching evolution and resulted in the origins of modern creationism. As a result, teaching of evolution was effectively suspended in US public schools until the 1960s, and when evolution was then reintroduced into the curriculum, there was a series of court cases in which attempts were made to get creationism taught alongside evolution in science classes. Young Earth creationists (YECs) promoted creation science as "an alternative scientific explanation of the world in which we live". This frequently invoked the argument from design to explain complexity in nature as supposedly demonstrating the existence of God. +The argument from design, also known as the teleological argument or "argument from intelligent design", has been presented by theologians for centuries. Thomas Aquinas presented ID in his fifth proof of God's existence as a syllogism. In 1802, William Paley's Natural Theology presented examples of intricate purpose in organisms. His version of the watchmaker analogy argued that a watch has evidently been designed by a craftsman and that it is just as evident that the complexity and adaptation seen in nature must have been designed. He went on to argue that the perfection and diversity of these designs shows the designer to be omnipotent and that this can only be the Christian god. Like creation science, intelligent design centers on Paley's religious argument from design, but while Paley's natural theology was open to deistic design through God-given laws, intelligent design seeks scientific confirmation of repeated supposedly miraculous interventions in the history of life. Creation science prefigured the intelligent design arguments of irreducible complexity, even featuring the bacterial flagellum. In the United States, attempts to introduce creation science into schools led to court rulings that it is religious in nature and thus cannot be taught in public school science classrooms. Intelligent design is also presented as science and shares other arguments with creation science but avoids literal Biblical references to such topics as the biblical flood story or using Bible verses to estimate the age of the Earth. +Philosopher Barbara Forrest writes that the intelligent design movement began in 1984 with the book The Mystery of Life's Origin: Reassessing Current Theories, co-written by the creationist and chemist Charles B. Thaxton and two other authors and published by Jon A. Buell's Foundation for Thought and Ethics. +In March 1986, ID proponent Stephen C. Meyer published a review of this book, discussing how information theory could suggest that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell show "specified complexity" and must have been created by an intelligent agent. He also argued that science is based upon "foundational assumptions" of naturalism that were as much a matter of faith as those of "creation theory". In November of that year, Thaxton described his reasoning as a more sophisticated form of Paley's argument from design. At a conference that Thaxton held in 1988 ("Sources of Information Content in DNA"), he said that his intelligent cause view was compatible with both metaphysical naturalism and supernaturalism. +Intelligent design avoids identifying or naming the intelligent designer—it merely states that one (or more) must exist—but leaders of the movement have said the designer is the Christian God. Whether this lack of specificity about the designer's identity in public discussions is a genuine feature of the concept – or just a posture taken to avoid alienating those who would separate religion from the teaching of science – has been a matter of great debate between supporters and critics of intelligent design. The Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District court ruling held the latter to be the case. + +=== Origin of the term === + +Since the Middle Ages, discussion of the religious "argument from design" or "teleological argument" in theology, with its concept of "intelligent design", has persistently referred to the theistic Creator God. Although ID proponents chose this provocative label for their proposed alternative to evolutionary explanations, they have de-emphasized their religious antecedents and denied that ID is natural theology, while still presenting ID as supporting the argument for the existence of God. +While intelligent design proponents have pointed out past examples of the phrase intelligent design that they said were not creationist and faith-based, they have failed to show that these usages had any influence on those who introduced the label in the intelligent design movement. +Variations on the phrase appeared in Young Earth creationist publications: a 1967 book co-written by Percival Davis referred to "design according to which basic organisms were created". In 1970, A. E. Wilder-Smith published The Creation of Life: A Cybernetic Approach to Evolution. The book defended Paley's design argument with computer calculations of the improbability of genetic sequences, which he said could not be explained by evolution but required "the abhorred necessity of divine intelligent activity behind nature", and that "the same problem would be expected to beset the relationship between the designer behind nature and the intelligently designed part of nature known as man." In a 1984 article as well as in his affidavit to Edwards v. Aguillard, Dean H. Kenyon defended creation science by stating that "biomolecular systems require intelligent design and engineering know-how", citing Wilder-Smith. Creationist Richard B. Bliss used the phrase "creative design" in Origins: Two Models: Evolution, Creation (1976), and in Origins: Creation or Evolution (1988) wrote that "while evolutionists are trying to find non-intelligent ways for life to occur, the creationist insists that an intelligent design must have been there in the first place." + +==== Of Pandas and People ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3377118ca --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 11/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +There is a gap in scientific knowledge. +The gap is filled with acts of God (or intelligent designer) and therefore proves the existence of God (or intelligent designer). +A God-of-the-gaps argument is the theological version of an argument from ignorance. A key feature of this type of argument is that it merely answers outstanding questions with explanations (often supernatural) that are unverifiable and ultimately themselves subject to unanswerable questions. Historians of science observe that the astronomy of the earliest civilizations, although astonishing and incorporating mathematical constructions far in excess of any practical value, proved to be misdirected and of little importance to the development of science because they failed to inquire more carefully into the mechanisms that drove the heavenly bodies across the sky. It was the Greek civilization that first practiced science, although not yet as a formally defined experimental science, but nevertheless an attempt to rationalize the world of natural experience without recourse to divine intervention. In this historically motivated definition of science any appeal to an intelligent creator is explicitly excluded for the paralysing effect it may have on scientific progress. + +== Legal challenges in the United States == + +=== Kitzmiller trial === + +Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District was the first direct challenge brought in the United States federal courts against a public school district that required the presentation of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution. The plaintiffs successfully argued that intelligent design is a form of creationism, and that the school board policy thus violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. +Eleven parents of students in Dover, Pennsylvania, sued the Dover Area School District over a statement that the school board required be read aloud in ninth-grade science classes when evolution was taught. The plaintiffs were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) and Pepper Hamilton LLP. The National Center for Science Education acted as consultants for the plaintiffs. The defendants were represented by the Thomas More Law Center. The suit was tried in a bench trial from September 26 to November 4, 2005, before Judge John E. Jones III. Kenneth R. Miller, Kevin Padian, Brian Alters, Robert T. Pennock, Barbara Forrest and John F. Haught served as expert witnesses for the plaintiffs. Michael Behe, Steve Fuller and Scott Minnich served as expert witnesses for the defense. +On December 20, 2005, Judge Jones issued his 139-page findings of fact and decision, ruling that the Dover mandate was unconstitutional, and barring intelligent design from being taught in Pennsylvania's Middle District public school science classrooms. On November 8, 2005, there had been an election in which the eight Dover school board members who voted for the intelligent design requirement were all defeated by challengers who opposed the teaching of intelligent design in a science class, and the current school board president stated that the board did not intend to appeal the ruling. +In his finding of facts, Judge Jones made the following condemnation of the "Teach the Controversy" strategy: + +Moreover, ID's backers have sought to avoid the scientific scrutiny which we have now determined that it cannot withstand by advocating that the controversy, but not ID itself, should be taught in science class. This tactic is at best disingenuous, and at worst a canard. The goal of the IDM is not to encourage critical thought, but to foment a revolution which would supplant evolutionary theory with ID. + +=== Reaction to Kitzmiller ruling === +Judge Jones himself anticipated that his ruling would be criticized, saying in his decision that: + +Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. +Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board's decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources. +As Jones had predicted, John G. West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture, said: + +The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won't work. He has conflated Discovery Institute's position with that of the Dover school board, and he totally misrepresents intelligent design and the motivations of the scientists who research it. +Newspapers have noted that the judge is "a Republican and a churchgoer". +The decision has been examined in a search for flaws and conclusions, partly by intelligent design supporters aiming to avoid future defeats in court. In its Winter issue of 2007, the Montana Law Review published three articles. +In the first, David K. DeWolf, John G. West and Casey Luskin, all of the Discovery Institute, argued that intelligent design is a valid scientific theory, the Jones court should not have addressed the question of whether it was a scientific theory, and that the Kitzmiller decision will have no effect at all on the development and adoption of intelligent design as an alternative to standard evolutionary theory. In the second Peter H. Irons responded, arguing that the decision was extremely well reasoned and spells the death knell for the intelligent design efforts to introduce creationism in public schools, while in the third, DeWolf, et al., answer the points made by Irons. However, fear of a similar lawsuit has resulted in other school boards abandoning intelligent design "teach the controversy" proposals. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..53af037a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 12/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Anti-evolution legislation === +Anti-evolution legislation, such as the Louisiana Science Education Act enacted in 2008, has been presented as supporting academic freedom and open discussion, while critics consider it a thinly disguised attempt at proselytization. In April 2010, the American Academy of Religion issued Guidelines for Teaching About Religion in K–12 Public Schools in the United States, which included guidance that creation science or intelligent design should not be taught in science classes, as "Creation science and intelligent design represent worldviews that fall outside of the realm of science that is defined as (and limited to) a method of inquiry based on gathering observable and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning." However, these worldviews as well as others "that focus on speculation regarding the origins of life represent another important and relevant form of human inquiry that is appropriately studied in literature or social sciences courses. Such study, however, must include a diversity of worldviews representing a variety of religious and philosophical perspectives and must avoid privileging one view as more legitimate than others." + +== Status outside the United States == + +=== Europe === +In June 2007, the Council of Europe's Committee on Culture, Science and Education issued a report, The dangers of creationism in education, which states "Creationism in any of its forms, such as 'intelligent design', is not based on facts, does not use any scientific reasoning and its contents are pathetically inadequate for science classes." In describing the dangers posed to education by teaching creationism, it described intelligent design as "anti-science" and involving "blatant scientific fraud" and "intellectual deception" that "blurs the nature, objectives and limits of science" and links it and other forms of creationism to denialism. On October 4, 2007, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly approved a resolution stating that schools should "resist presentation of creationist ideas in any discipline other than religion", including "intelligent design", which it described as "the latest, more refined version of creationism", "presented in a more subtle way". The resolution emphasises that the aim of the report is not to question or to fight a belief, but to "warn against certain tendencies to pass off a belief as science". +In the United Kingdom, public education includes religious education, and there are many faith schools that teach the ethos of particular denominations. When it was revealed that a group called Truth in Science had distributed DVDs produced by Illustra Media featuring Discovery Institute fellows making the case for design in nature, and claimed they were being used by 59 schools, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) stated that "Neither creationism nor intelligent design are taught as a subject in schools, and are not specified in the science curriculum" (part of the National Curriculum, which does not apply to private schools or to education in Scotland). The DfES subsequently stated that "Intelligent design is not a recognised scientific theory; therefore, it is not included in the science curriculum", but left the way open for it to be explored in religious education in relation to different beliefs, as part of a syllabus set by a local Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education. In 2006, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority produced a "Religious Education" model unit in which pupils can learn about religious and nonreligious +views about creationism, intelligent design and evolution by natural selection. +On June 25, 2007, the UK Government responded to an e-petition by saying that creationism and intelligent design should not be taught as science, though teachers would be expected to answer pupils' questions within the standard framework of established scientific theories. Detailed government "Creationism teaching guidance" for schools in England was published on September 18, 2007. It states that "Intelligent design lies wholly outside of science", has no underpinning scientific principles, or explanations, and is not accepted by the science community as a whole. Though it should not be taught as science, "Any questions about creationism and intelligent design which arise in science lessons, for example as a result of media coverage, could provide the opportunity to explain or explore why they are not considered to be scientific theories and, in the right context, why evolution is considered to be a scientific theory." However, "Teachers of subjects such as RE, history or citizenship may deal with creationism and intelligent design in their lessons." +The British Centre for Science Education lobbying group has the goal of "countering creationism within the UK" and has been involved in government lobbying in the UK in this regard. Northern Ireland's Department for Education says that the curriculum provides an opportunity for alternative theories to be taught. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – which has links to fundamentalist Christianity – has been campaigning to have intelligent design taught in science classes. A DUP former Member of Parliament, David Simpson, has sought assurances from the education minister that pupils will not lose marks if they give creationist or intelligent design answers to science questions. In 2007, Lisburn city council voted in favor of a DUP recommendation to write to post-primary schools asking what their plans are to develop teaching material in relation to "creation, intelligent design and other theories of origin". +Plans by Dutch Education Minister Maria van der Hoeven to "stimulate an academic debate" on the subject in 2005 caused a severe public backlash. After the 2006 elections, she was succeeded by Ronald Plasterk, described as a "molecular geneticist, staunch atheist and opponent of intelligent design". As a reaction to this situation in the Netherlands, the Director General of the Flemish Secretariat of Catholic Education (VSKO) in Belgium, Mieke Van Hecke, declared that: "Catholic scientists already accepted the theory of evolution for a long time and that intelligent design and creationism doesn't belong in Flemish Catholic schools. It's not the tasks of the politics to introduce new ideas, that's task and goal of science." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8deab13b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 13/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Australia === +The status of intelligent design in Australia is somewhat similar to that in the UK. In 2005, the Australian Minister for Education, Science and Training, Brendan Nelson, raised the notion of intelligent design being taught in science classes. The public outcry caused the minister to quickly concede that the correct forum for intelligent design, if it were to be taught, is in religion or philosophy classes. The Australian chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ distributed a DVD of the Discovery Institute's documentary Unlocking the Mystery of Life (2002) to Australian secondary schools. Tim Hawkes, the head of The King's School, one of Australia's leading private schools, supported use of the DVD in the classroom at the discretion of teachers and principals. + +=== Relation to Islam === +Muzaffar Iqbal, a notable Pakistani-Canadian Muslim, signed "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism", a petition from the Discovery Institute. Ideas similar to intelligent design have been considered respected intellectual options among Muslims, and in Turkey many intelligent design books have been translated. In Istanbul in 2007, public meetings promoting intelligent design were sponsored by the local government, and David Berlinski of the Discovery Institute was the keynote speaker at a meeting in May 2007. + +=== Relation to ISKCON === +In 2011, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Bhaktivedanta Book Trust published an intelligent design book titled Rethinking Darwin: A Vedic Study of Darwinism and Intelligent Design. The book included contributions from intelligent design advocates William A. Dembski, Jonathan Wells and Michael Behe as well as from Hindu creationists Leif A. Jensen and Michael Cremo. + +== See also == + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Further reading == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a4132501c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 3/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The most common modern use of the words "intelligent design" as a term intended to describe a field of inquiry began after the United States Supreme Court ruled in June 1987 in the case of Edwards v. Aguillard that it is unconstitutional for a state to require the teaching of creationism in public school science curricula. +A Discovery Institute report says that Charles B. Thaxton, editor of Pandas, had picked the phrase up from a NASA scientist. In two successive 1987 drafts of the book, over one hundred uses of the root word "creation", such as "creationism" and "Creation Science", were changed, almost without exception, to "intelligent design", while "creationists" was changed to "design proponents" or, in one instance, "cdesign proponentsists" [sic]. In June 1988, Thaxton held a conference titled "Sources of Information Content in DNA" in Tacoma, Washington. Stephen C. Meyer was at the conference, and later recalled that "The term intelligent design came up..." In December 1988 Thaxton decided to use the label "intelligent design" for his new creationist movement. +Of Pandas and People was published in 1989, and in addition to including all the current arguments for ID, was the first book to make systematic use of the terms "intelligent design" and "design proponents" as well as the phrase "design theory", defining the term intelligent design in a glossary and representing it as not being creationism. It thus represents the start of the modern intelligent design movement. "Intelligent design" was the most prominent of around fifteen new terms it introduced as a new lexicon of creationist terminology to oppose evolution without using religious language. It was the first place where the phrase "intelligent design" appeared in its primary present use, as stated both by its publisher Jon A. Buell, and by William A. Dembski in his expert witness report for Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. +The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) has criticized the book for presenting all of the basic arguments of intelligent design proponents and being actively promoted for use in public schools before any research had been done to support these arguments. Although presented as a scientific textbook, philosopher of science Michael Ruse considers the contents "worthless and dishonest". An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer described it as a political tool aimed at students who did not "know science or understand the controversy over evolution and creationism". One of the authors of the science framework used by California schools, Kevin Padian, condemned it for its "sub-text", "intolerance for honest science" and "incompetence". + +== Concepts == + +=== Irreducible complexity === + +The term "irreducible complexity" was introduced by biochemist Michael Behe in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, though he had already described the concept in his contributions to the 1993 revised edition of Of Pandas and People. Behe defines it as "a single system which is composed of several well-matched interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning". +Behe uses the analogy of a mousetrap to illustrate this concept. A mousetrap consists of several interacting pieces—the base, the catch, the spring and the hammer—all of which must be in place for the mousetrap to work. Removal of any one piece destroys the function of the mousetrap. Intelligent design advocates assert that natural selection could not create irreducibly complex systems, because the selectable function is present only when all parts are assembled. Behe argued that irreducibly complex biological mechanisms include the bacterial flagellum of E. coli, the blood clotting cascade, cilia, and the adaptive immune system. +Critics point out that the irreducible complexity argument assumes that the necessary parts of a system have always been necessary and therefore could not have been added sequentially. They argue that something that is at first merely advantageous can later become necessary as other components change. Furthermore, they argue, evolution often proceeds by altering preexisting parts or by removing them from a system, rather than by adding them. This is sometimes called the "scaffolding objection" by an analogy with scaffolding, which can support an "irreducibly complex" building until it is complete and able to stand on its own. +In the case of Behe's mousetrap analogy, it has been shown that a mousetrap can be created with increasingly fewer parts and that even a single part is sufficient. +Behe has acknowledged using "sloppy prose", and that his "argument against Darwinism does not add up to a logical proof." Irreducible complexity has remained a popular argument among advocates of intelligent design; in the Dover trial, the court held that "Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large." + +=== Specified complexity === + +In 1986, Charles B. Thaxton, a physical chemist and creationist, used the term "specified complexity" from information theory when claiming that messages transmitted by DNA in the cell were specified by intelligence, and must have originated with an intelligent agent. +The intelligent design concept of "specified complexity" was developed in the 1990s by mathematician, philosopher, and theologian William A. Dembski. Dembski states that when something exhibits specified complexity (i.e., is both complex and "specified", simultaneously), one can infer that it was produced by an intelligent cause (i.e., that it was designed) rather than being the result of natural processes. He provides the following examples: "A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified." He states that details of living things can be similarly characterized, especially the "patterns" of molecular sequences in functional biological molecules such as DNA. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..def594a9b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 4/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Dembski defines complex specified information (CSI) as anything with a less than 1 in 10150 chance of occurring by (natural) chance. Critics say that this renders the argument a tautology: complex specified information cannot occur naturally because Dembski has defined it thus, so the real question becomes whether or not CSI actually exists in nature. +The conceptual soundness of Dembski's specified complexity/CSI argument has been discredited in the scientific and mathematical communities. Specified complexity has yet to be shown to have wide applications in other fields, as Dembski asserts. John Wilkins and Wesley R. Elsberry characterize Dembski's "explanatory filter" as eliminative because it eliminates explanations sequentially: first regularity, then chance, finally defaulting to design. They argue that this procedure is flawed as a model for scientific inference because the asymmetric way it treats the different possible explanations renders it prone to making false conclusions. +Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and religion critic, argues in The God Delusion (2006) that allowing for an intelligent designer to account for unlikely complexity only postpones the problem, as such a designer would need to be at least as complex. Other scientists have argued that evolution through selection is better able to explain the observed complexity, as is evident from the use of selective evolution to design certain electronic, aeronautic and automotive systems that are considered problems too complex for human "intelligent designers". + +=== Fine-tuned universe === + +Intelligent design proponents have also occasionally appealed to broader teleological arguments outside of biology, most notably an argument based on the fine-tuning of universal constants that make matter and life possible and that are argued not to be solely attributable to chance. These include the values of fundamental physical constants, the relative strength of nuclear forces, electromagnetism, and gravity between fundamental particles, as well as the ratios of masses of such particles. Intelligent design proponent and Center for Science and Culture fellow Guillermo Gonzalez argues that if any of these values were even slightly different, the universe would be dramatically different, making it impossible for many chemical elements and features of the Universe, such as galaxies, to form. Thus, proponents argue, an intelligent designer of life was needed to ensure that the requisite features were present to achieve that particular outcome. +Scientists have generally responded that these arguments are poorly supported by existing evidence. Victor J. Stenger and other critics say both intelligent design and the weak form of the anthropic principle are essentially a tautology; in his view, these arguments amount to the claim that life is able to exist because the Universe is able to support life. The claim of the improbability of a life-supporting universe has also been criticized as an argument by lack of imagination for assuming no other forms of life are possible: life as we know it might not exist if things were different, but a different sort of life might exist in its place. A number of critics also suggest that many of the stated variables appear to be interconnected and that calculations made by mathematicians and physicists suggest that the emergence of a universe similar to ours is quite probable. + +=== Intelligent designer === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aaefec9a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 5/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The contemporary intelligent design movement formulates its arguments in secular terms and intentionally avoids identifying the intelligent agent (or agents) they posit. Although they do not state that God is the designer, the designer is often implicitly hypothesized to have intervened in a way that only a god could intervene. Dembski, in The Design Inference (1998), speculates that an alien culture could fulfill these requirements. Of Pandas and People proposes that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence illustrates an appeal to intelligent design in science. In 2000, philosopher of science Robert T. Pennock suggested the Raëlian UFO religion as a real-life example of an extraterrestrial intelligent designer view that "make[s] many of the same bad arguments against evolutionary theory as creationists". +Beyond the debate over whether intelligent design is scientific, a number of critics argue that existing evidence makes the design hypothesis appear unlikely, irrespective of its status in the world of science. For example, Jerry Coyne asks why a designer would "give us a pathway for making vitamin C, but then destroy it by disabling one of its enzymes" (see pseudogene) and why a designer would not "stock oceanic islands with reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and freshwater fish, despite the suitability of such islands for these species". Coyne also points to the fact that "the flora and fauna on those islands resemble that of the nearest mainland, even when the environments are very different" as evidence that species were not placed there by a designer. Previously, in Darwin's Black Box, Behe had argued that we are simply incapable of understanding the designer's motives, so such questions cannot be answered definitively. Odd designs could, for example, "...have been placed there by the designer for a reason—for artistic reasons, for variety, to show off, for some as-yet-undetected practical purpose, or for some unguessable reason—or they might not." Coyne responds that in light of the evidence, "either life resulted not from intelligent design, but from evolution; or the intelligent designer is a cosmic prankster who designed everything to make it look as though it had evolved." +Intelligent design proponents such as Paul Nelson avoid the problem of poor design in nature by insisting that we have simply failed to understand the perfection of the design. Behe cites Paley as his inspiration, but he differs from Paley's expectation of a perfect Creation and proposes that designers do not necessarily produce the best design they can. Behe suggests that, like a parent not wanting to spoil a child with extravagant toys, the designer can have multiple motives for not giving priority to excellence in engineering. He says that "Another problem with the argument from imperfection is that it critically depends on a psychoanalysis of the unidentified designer. Yet the reasons that a designer would or would not do anything are virtually impossible to know unless the designer tells you specifically what those reasons are." This reliance on inexplicable motives of the designer makes intelligent design scientifically untestable. Retired UC Berkeley law professor, author and intelligent design advocate Phillip E. Johnson puts forward a core definition that the designer creates for a purpose, giving the example that in his view AIDS was created to punish immorality and is not caused by HIV, but such motives cannot be tested by scientific methods. +Asserting the need for a designer of complexity also raises the question "What designed the designer?" Intelligent design proponents say that the question is irrelevant to or outside the scope of intelligent design. Richard Wein counters that "...scientific explanations often create new unanswered questions. But, in assessing the value of an explanation, these questions are not irrelevant. They must be balanced against the improvements in our understanding which the explanation provides. Invoking an unexplained being to explain the origin of other beings (ourselves) is little more than question-begging. The new question raised by the explanation is as problematic as the question which the explanation purports to answer." Richard Dawkins sees the assertion that the designer does not need to be explained as a thought-terminating cliché. In the absence of observable, measurable evidence, the question "What designed the designer?" leads to an infinite regression from which intelligent design proponents can only escape by resorting to religious creationism or logical contradiction. + +== Movement == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3a6207972 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 6/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The intelligent design movement is a direct outgrowth of the creationism of the 1980s. The scientific and academic communities, along with a US federal court, view intelligent design as either a form of creationism or as a direct descendant that is closely intertwined with traditional creationism; and several authors explicitly refer to it as "intelligent design creationism". +The movement is headquartered in the Center for Science and Culture, established in 1996 as the creationist wing of the Discovery Institute to promote a religious agenda calling for broad social, academic and political changes. The Discovery Institute's intelligent design campaigns have been staged primarily in the United States, although efforts have been made in other countries to promote intelligent design. Leaders of the movement say intelligent design exposes the limitations of scientific orthodoxy and of the secular philosophy of naturalism. Intelligent design proponents allege that science should not be limited to naturalism and should not demand the adoption of a naturalistic philosophy that dismisses out-of-hand any explanation that includes a supernatural cause. The overall goal of the movement is to "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview" represented by the theory of evolution in favor of "a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions". +Phillip E. Johnson stated that the goal of intelligent design is to cast creationism as a scientific concept. All leading intelligent design proponents are fellows or staff of the Discovery Institute and its Center for Science and Culture. Nearly all intelligent design concepts and the associated movement are the products of the Discovery Institute, which guides the movement and follows its wedge strategy while conducting its "teach the controversy" campaign and their other related programs. +Leading intelligent design proponents have made conflicting statements regarding intelligent design. In statements directed at the general public, they say intelligent design is not religious; when addressing conservative Christian supporters, they state that intelligent design has its foundation in the Bible. Recognizing the need for support, the Institute affirms its Christian, evangelistic orientation: + +Alongside a focus on influential opinion-makers, we also seek to build up a popular base of support among our natural constituency, namely, Christians. We will do this primarily through apologetics seminars. We intend these to encourage and equip believers with new scientific evidences that support the faith, as well as to "popularize" our ideas in the broader culture. +Barbara Forrest, an expert who has written extensively on the movement, describes this as being due to the Discovery Institute's obfuscating its agenda as a matter of policy. She has written that the movement's "activities betray an aggressive, systematic agenda for promoting not only intelligent design creationism, but the religious worldview that undergirds it." + +=== Religion and leading proponents === +Although arguments for intelligent design by the intelligent design movement are formulated in secular terms and intentionally avoid positing the identity of the designer, the majority of principal intelligent design advocates are publicly religious Christians who have stated that, in their view, the designer proposed in intelligent design is the Christian conception of God. Stuart Burgess, Phillip E. Johnson, William A. Dembski, and Stephen C. Meyer are evangelical Protestants; Michael Behe is a Roman Catholic; Paul Nelson supports young Earth creationism; and Jonathan Wells is a member of the Unification Church. Non-Christian proponents include David Klinghoffer, who is Jewish, Michael Denton and David Berlinski, who are agnostic, and Muzaffar Iqbal, a Pakistani-Canadian Muslim. Phillip E. Johnson has stated that cultivating ambiguity by employing secular language in arguments that are carefully crafted to avoid overtones of theistic creationism is a necessary first step for ultimately reintroducing the Christian concept of God as the designer. Johnson explicitly calls for intelligent design proponents to obfuscate their religious motivations so as to avoid having intelligent design identified "as just another way of packaging the Christian evangelical message." Johnson emphasizes that "...the first thing that has to be done is to get the Bible out of the discussion. ...This is not to say that the biblical issues are unimportant; the point is rather that the time to address them will be after we have separated materialist prejudice from scientific fact." +The strategy of deliberately disguising the religious intent of intelligent design has been described by William A. Dembski in The Design Inference. In this work, Dembski lists a god or an "alien life force" as two possible options for the identity of the designer; however, in his book Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology (1999), Dembski states: + +Christ is indispensable to any scientific theory, even if its practitioners don't have a clue about him. The pragmatics of a scientific theory can, to be sure, be pursued without recourse to Christ. But the conceptual soundness of the theory can in the end only be located in Christ. +Dembski also stated, "ID is part of God's general revelation ... Not only does intelligent design rid us of this ideology [materialism], which suffocates the human spirit, but, in my personal experience, I've found that it opens the path for people to come to Christ." Both Johnson and Dembski cite the Bible's Gospel of John as the foundation of intelligent design. +Barbara Forrest contends such statements reveal that leading proponents see intelligent design as essentially religious in nature, not merely a scientific concept that has implications with which their personal religious beliefs happen to coincide. She writes that the leading proponents of intelligent design are closely allied with the ultra-conservative Christian Reconstructionism movement. She lists connections of (current and former) Discovery Institute Fellows Phillip E. Johnson, Charles B. Thaxton, Michael Behe, Richard Weikart, Jonathan Wells and Francis J. Beckwith to leading Christian Reconstructionist organizations, and the extent of the funding provided the Institute by Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a leading figure in the Reconstructionist movement. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..125f87378 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 7/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Reaction from other creationist groups === +Not all creationist organizations have embraced the intelligent design movement. According to Thomas Dixon, "Religious leaders have come out against ID too. An open letter affirming the compatibility of Christian faith and the teaching of evolution, first produced in response to controversies in Wisconsin in 2004, has now been signed by over ten thousand clergy from different Christian denominations across America." Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe, a proponent of Old Earth creationism, believes that the efforts of intelligent design proponents to divorce the concept from Biblical Christianity make its hypothesis too vague. In 2002, he wrote: "Winning the argument for design without identifying the designer yields, at best, a sketchy origins model. Such a model makes little if any positive impact on the community of scientists and other scholars. ... the time is right for a direct approach, a single leap into the origins fray. Introducing a biblically based, scientifically verifiable creation model represents such a leap." +Likewise, two of the most prominent YEC organizations in the world have attempted to distinguish their views from those of the intelligent design movement. Henry M. Morris of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wrote, in 1999, that ID, "even if well-meaning and effectively articulated, will not work! It has often been tried in the past and has failed, and it will fail today. The reason it won't work is because it is not the Biblical method." According to Morris: "The evidence of intelligent design ... must be either followed by or accompanied by a sound presentation of true Biblical creationism if it is to be meaningful and lasting." In 2002, Carl Wieland, then of Answers in Genesis (AiG), criticized design advocates who, though well-intentioned, "'left the Bible out of it'" and thereby unwittingly aided and abetted the modern rejection of the Bible. Wieland explained that "AiG's major 'strategy' is to boldly, but humbly, call the church back to its Biblical foundations ... [so] we neither count ourselves a part of this movement nor campaign against it." + +=== Reaction from the scientific community === +The unequivocal consensus in the scientific community is that intelligent design is not science and has no place in a science curriculum. + +The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest association of scientists in the US, has 120,000 members, and firmly rejects ID. +More than 70,000 Australian scientists "...urge all Australian governments and educators not to permit the teaching or promulgation of ID as science." +National Center for Science Education: List of statements from scientific professional organizations on the status intelligent design and other forms of creationism in the sciences. +Nature Methods 2007, "Long considered a North American phenomenon, pro-ID interest groups can also be found throughout Europe. ...Concern about this trend is now so widespread in Europe that in October 2007 the Council of Europe voted on a motion calling upon member states to firmly oppose the teaching of creationism as a scientific discipline." +Dean 2007, "There is no credible scientific challenge to the theory of evolution as an explanation for the complexity and diversity of life on earth." The US National Academy of Sciences has stated that "creationism, intelligent design, and other claims of supernatural intervention in the origin of life or of species are not science because they are not testable by the methods of science." The US National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have termed it pseudoscience. Others in the scientific community have denounced its tactics, accusing the ID movement of manufacturing false attacks against evolution, of engaging in misinformation and misrepresentation about science, and marginalizing those who teach it. More recently, in September 2012, Bill Nye warned that creationist views threaten science education and innovations in the United States. +In 2001, the Discovery Institute published advertisements under the heading "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism", with the claim that listed scientists had signed this statement expressing skepticism: + +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 ambiguous statement did not exclude other known evolutionary mechanisms, and most signatories were not scientists in relevant fields, but starting in 2004 the Institute claimed the increasing number of signatures indicated mounting doubts about evolution among scientists. The statement formed a key component of Discovery Institute campaigns to present intelligent design as scientifically valid by claiming that evolution lacks broad scientific support, with Institute members continuing to cite the list through at least 2011. As part of a strategy to counter these claims, scientists organised Project Steve, which gained more signatories named Steve (or variants) than the Institute's petition, and a counter-petition, "A Scientific Support for Darwinism", which quickly gained similar numbers of signatories. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8fe2a7807 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 8/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Polls === +Several surveys were conducted prior to the December 2005 decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover School District, which sought to determine the level of support for intelligent design among certain groups. According to a 2005 Harris poll, 10% of adults in the United States viewed human beings as "so complex that they required a powerful force or intelligent being to help create them." Although Zogby polls commissioned by the Discovery Institute show more support, these polls suffer from considerable flaws, such as having a low response rate (248 out of 16,000), being conducted on behalf of an organization with an expressed interest in the outcome of the poll, and containing leading questions. +A series of Gallup polls in the United States from 1982 through 2014 on "Evolution, Creationism, Intelligent Design" found support for "human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided the process" of between 31% and 40%, support for "God created human beings in pretty much their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so" varied from 40% to 47%, and support for "human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in the process" varied from 9% to 19%. The polls also noted answers to a series of more detailed questions. +The 2017 Gallup creationism survey found that 38% of adults in the United States hold the view that "God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" when asked for their views on the origin and development of human beings, which was noted as being at the lowest level in 35 years. + +=== Allegations of discrimination against ID proponents === + +There have been allegations that ID proponents have met discrimination, such as being refused tenure or being harshly criticized on the Internet. In the documentary film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, released in 2008, host Ben Stein presents five such cases. The film contends that the mainstream science establishment, in a "scientific conspiracy to keep God out of the nation's laboratories and classrooms", suppresses academics who believe they see evidence of intelligent design in nature or criticize evidence of evolution. Investigation into these allegations turned up alternative explanations for perceived persecution. +The film portrays intelligent design as motivated by science, rather than religion, though it does not give a detailed definition of the phrase or attempt to explain it on a scientific level. Other than briefly addressing issues of irreducible complexity, Expelled examines it as a political issue. The scientific theory of evolution is portrayed by the film as contributing to fascism, the Holocaust, communism, atheism, and eugenics. +Expelled has been used in private screenings to legislators as part of the Discovery Institute intelligent design campaign for Academic Freedom bills. Review screenings were restricted to churches and Christian groups, and at a special pre-release showing, one of the interviewees, PZ Myers, was refused admission. The American Association for the Advancement of Science describes the film as dishonest and divisive propaganda aimed at introducing religious ideas into public school science classrooms, and the Anti-Defamation League has denounced the film's allegation that evolutionary theory influenced the Holocaust. The film includes interviews with scientists and academics who were misled into taking part by misrepresentation of the topic and title of the film. Skeptic Michael Shermer describes his experience of being repeatedly asked the same question without context as "surreal". + +== Criticism == + +=== Scientific criticism === + +Typical objections to defining intelligent design as science are that it lacks consistency, violates the principle of parsimony, is not scientifically useful, is not falsifiable, is not empirically testable, and is not correctable, dynamic, progressive, or provisional. +For a theory to qualify as scientific, it is expected to be: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ac8ae0bfc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 9/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Consistent +Parsimonious (sparing in its proposed entities or explanations; see Occam's razor) +Useful (describes and explains observed phenomena, and can be used in a predictive manner) +Empirically testable and falsifiable (potentially confirmable or disprovable by experiment or observation) +Based on multiple observations (often in the form of controlled, repeated experiments) +Correctable and dynamic (modified in the light of observations that do not support it) +Progressive (refines previous theories) +Provisional or tentative (is open to experimental checking, and does not assert certainty) +For any theory, hypothesis, or conjecture to be considered scientific, it must meet most, and ideally all, of these criteria. The fewer criteria are met, the less scientific it is; if it meets only a few or none at all, then it cannot be treated as scientific in any meaningful sense of the word. +Advocates of intelligent design seek to keep God and the Bible out of the discussion, and present intelligent design in the language of science as though it were a scientific hypothesis; however, the failure to follow the procedures of scientific discourse and the failure to submit work to the scientific community that withstands scrutiny have weighed against intelligent design being accepted as valid science. +Some intelligent design proponents seek to change this fundamental basis of science by eliminating "methodological naturalism" from science and replacing it with what the leader of the intelligent design movement, Phillip E. Johnson, calls "theistic realism". +Intelligent design proponents argue that naturalistic explanations fail to explain certain phenomena and that supernatural explanations provide a simple and intuitive explanation for the origins of life and the universe. Many intelligent design followers believe that "scientism" is itself a religion that promotes secularism and materialism in an attempt to erase theism from public life, and they view their work in the promotion of intelligent design as a way to return religion to a central role in education and other public spheres. +It has been argued that methodological naturalism is not an assumption of science, but a result of science well done: the God explanation is the least parsimonious, so according to Occam's razor, it cannot be a scientific explanation. +Further criticism stems from the fact that the phrase intelligent design makes use of an assumption of the quality of an observable intelligence, a concept that has no scientific consensus definition. The characteristics of intelligence are assumed by intelligent design proponents to be observable without specifying what the criteria for the measurement of intelligence should be. Critics say that the design detection methods proposed by intelligent design proponents are radically different from conventional design detection, undermining the key elements that make it possible as legitimate science. Intelligent design proponents, they say, are proposing both searching for a designer without knowing anything about that designer's abilities, parameters, or intentions (which scientists do know when searching for the results of human intelligence), as well as denying the distinction between natural/artificial design that allows scientists to compare complex designed artifacts against the background of the sorts of complexity found in nature. +Among a significant proportion of the general public in the United States, the major concern is whether conventional evolutionary biology is compatible with belief in God and in the Bible, and how this issue is taught in schools. The Discovery Institute's "teach the controversy" campaign promotes intelligent design while attempting to discredit evolution in United States public high school science courses. The scientific community and science education organizations have replied that there is no scientific controversy regarding the validity of evolution and that the controversy exists solely in terms of religion and politics. +The intelligent design movement has not published a properly peer-reviewed article supporting ID in a scientific journal, and has failed to publish supporting peer-reviewed research or data. The only article published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal that made a case for intelligent design was quickly withdrawn by the publisher for having circumvented the journal's peer-review standards. The Discovery Institute says that a number of intelligent design articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals, but critics, largely members of the scientific community, reject this claim and state intelligent design proponents have set up their own journals with peer review that lack impartiality and rigor, consisting entirely of intelligent design supporters. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ebca4f23d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Intelligent design" +chunk: 10/13 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:46.509580+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Arguments from ignorance === +Eugenie C. Scott, along with Glenn Branch and other critics, has argued that many points raised by intelligent design proponents are arguments from ignorance. +In the argument from ignorance, a lack of evidence for one view is erroneously argued to constitute proof of the correctness of another view. Scott and Branch say that intelligent design is an argument from ignorance because it relies on a lack of knowledge for its conclusion: lacking a natural explanation for certain specific aspects of evolution, we assume intelligent cause. They contend most scientists would reply that the unexplained is not unexplainable, and that "we don't know yet" is a more appropriate response than invoking a cause outside science. Particularly, Michael Behe's demands for ever more detailed explanations of the historical evolution of molecular systems seem to assume a false dichotomy, where either evolution or design is the proper explanation, and any perceived failure of evolution becomes a victory for design. Scott and Branch also contend that the supposedly novel contributions proposed by intelligent design proponents have not served as the basis for any productive scientific research. +Moreover, philosophical criticism of intelligent design has extended beyond traditional demarcation arguments that attempt to distinguish science from non-science. Some philosophers have argued that intelligent design faces a more fundamental problem of intelligibility when presented as a non-theological doctrine. According to this view, intelligent design cannot be coherently characterized without theological commitments, making it conceptually incoherent rather than merely unscientific. This philosophical position suggests that demarcation criteria—which have themselves been subject to philosophical controversy—are unnecessary for rejecting intelligent design, as the doctrine fails to achieve logical coherence when stripped of its theological foundations. Critics argue this approach provides a more robust philosophical foundation for dismissing intelligent design without relying on potentially contested boundaries between scientific and non-scientific inquiry. +In his conclusion to the Kitzmiller trial, Judge John E. Jones III wrote that "ID is at bottom premised upon a false dichotomy, namely, that to the extent evolutionary theory is discredited, ID is confirmed." This same argument had been put forward to support creation science at the McLean v. Arkansas (1982) trial, which found it was "contrived dualism", the false premise of a "two model approach". Behe's argument of irreducible complexity puts forward negative arguments against evolution but does not make any positive scientific case for intelligent design. It fails to allow for scientific explanations continuing to be found, as has been the case with several examples previously put forward as supposed cases of irreducible complexity. + +=== Possible theological implications === +Intelligent design proponents often insist that their claims do not require a religious component. However, various philosophical and theological issues are naturally raised by the claims of intelligent design. +Intelligent design proponents attempt to demonstrate scientifically that features such as irreducible complexity and specified complexity could not arise through natural processes, and therefore required repeated direct miraculous interventions by a Designer (often a Christian concept of God). They reject the possibility of a Designer who works merely through setting natural laws in motion at the outset, in contrast to theistic evolution (to which even Charles Darwin was open). Intelligent design is distinct because it asserts repeated miraculous interventions in addition to designed laws. This contrasts with other major religious traditions of a created world in which God's interactions and influences do not work in the same way as physical causes. The Roman Catholic tradition makes a careful distinction between ultimate metaphysical explanations and secondary, natural causes. +The concept of direct miraculous intervention raises other potential theological implications. If such a Designer does not intervene to alleviate suffering even though capable of intervening for other reasons, some imply the designer is not omnibenevolent (see problem of evil and related theodicy). +Further, repeated interventions imply that the original design was not perfect and final, and thus pose a problem for any who believe that the Creator's work had been both perfect and final. Intelligent design proponents seek to explain the problem of poor design in nature by insisting that we have simply failed to understand the perfection of the design (for example, proposing that vestigial organs have unknown purposes), or by proposing that designers do not necessarily produce the best design they can, and may have unknowable motives for their actions. +In 2005, the director of the Vatican Observatory, the Jesuit astronomer George Coyne, set out theological reasons for accepting evolution in an August 2005 article in The Tablet, and said that "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." In 2006, he "condemned ID as a kind of 'crude creationism' which reduced God to a mere engineer." +Critics state that the wedge strategy's "ultimate goal is to create a theocratic state". + +=== God of the gaps === +Intelligent design has also been characterized as a God-of-the-gaps argument, which has the following form: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-0.md index d11858df7..dcfec3910 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:05:19.143513+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:47.753901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-1.md index e6a555da8..2acfa8c04 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:05:19.143513+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:47.753901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-2.md index b7a00765b..23090f405 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:05:19.143513+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:47.753901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-3.md index c7745873b..68ea56503 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design_and_science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:05:19.143513+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:47.753901+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Polar_Foundation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Polar_Foundation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..31401b2ba --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Polar_Foundation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "International Polar Foundation" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Polar_Foundation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:09.470842+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Based in Brussels, Belgium, the International Polar Foundation (IPF) communicates and educates on polar science and polar research as a way to understand key environmental and climate mechanisms. The foundation also promotes innovative and multifaceted responses to the complex challenges raised by the need for action on sustainable development, and designed, built and operates the first zero emission Antarctic scientific research station Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. The IPF was founded in 2002 by polar explorers Alain Hubert, Hugo Decleir and André Berger. + + +== Partnerships == +The foundation is an active member of the University of the Arctic. UArctic is an international cooperative network based in the Circumpolar Arctic region, consisting of more than 200 universities, colleges, and other organizations with an interest in promoting education and research in the Arctic region. + + +== See also == +Princess Elisabeth Base + + +== References == + + +== External links == +International Polar Foundation +Belgian Antarctic Research Station - Princess Elisabeth Station \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..57c94bab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Involuntary treatment" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:14.215035+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Involuntary treatment or mandatory treatment refers to medical treatment undertaken without the consent of the person being treated. Involuntary treatment is permitted by law in some countries when overseen by the judiciary through court orders; other countries defer directly to the medical opinions of doctors. +Globally and even within countries, what is meant by the term "involuntary treatment" is not agreed upon. In/voluntary when applied to medical treatments could refer to a purely legal perspective, an entirely ethical lens, or with components of both. Therefore use of the term is best accompanied by specification to avoid confusion. +Some countries have general legislation allowing for any treatment deemed necessary if an individual is unable to consent to a treatment due to a perceived lack of capacity, other legislation may specifically deal with involuntary psychiatric treatment of individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. Psychiatric treatment normally happens in a psychiatric hospital after some form of involuntary commitment, though individuals may be compelled to undergo treatment outside of hospitals via outpatient commitment. +The diagnosis of mental disorders can be carried out by some form clinical practitioner, or in some cases law enforcement or others, to be a danger to themselves or to others is permitted in some jurisdictions, while other jurisdictions have more recently allowed for forced treatment for persons deemed to be "gravely disabled" or asserted to be at risk of psychological deterioration. +A patient may be detained because they are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder or infectious disease. + +== History == + +In the early 20th century, many countries passed laws allowing the compulsory sterilization of some women. In the US more than half the states passed laws allowing the forced sterilization of people with certain illnesses or criminals as well as sterilization based on race. Forcible sterilization took place in the United States until at least 1981, more than 64 thousand people were forcibly sterilized. Denmark sterilized 60 thousand people between 1935 and 1976. During Nazi rule in Germany as part of their eugenics program about 600 thousand people were compulsorily sterilized. +Involuntary euthanasia was carried out in Nazi Germany for those who had certain psychiatric disorders or learning disabilities as part of the Aktion T4 program. This program was run by Karl Brandt, a medical doctor, and Philipp Bouhler. Victims were murdered together in gas chambers and this program was a prototype for the extermination camps such as Auschwitz where the Holocaust took place. As part of Action 14f13, physicians involved in the euthanasia program visited concentration camps where they looked at documentation provided by SS camp doctors and approved the murder of camp inmates on the grounds of race, behavior and ability to work using the euthanasia program's facilities. +Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, homosexual men in the UK were given the choice between chemical castration with female sex hormones or prison including, notably, Alan Turing. +Until 2004, every European state required that transgender people must be sterilized or provably infertile to have their preferred gender formally recognized. This practice continued in Sweden until 2012 and Denmark until 2014. Japan currently requires transgender people to be sterilized and have their ovaries removed to be recognized as a different gender. + +=== Ethics and the law === + +The Hippocratic Corpus, an ancient Greek text discussing medical ethics, advises that physicians conceal most information from patients to give the patients the best care. The 1767 English case Slater vs Baker and Stapleton found against two doctors who had refractured a patient's leg without consent. Thomas Percival was a British physician who published a book called Medical Ethics in 1803, which makes no mention of soliciting for the consent of patients or respecting their decisions. Percival said that patients have a right to truth, but when the physician could provide better treatment by lying or withholding information, he advised that the physician do as he thought best. Benjamin Rush, an 18th-century United States physician, in a lecture entitled "On the duties of patients to their physicians", stated that patients should be strictly obedient to the physician's orders; this was representative of much of his writings. +The US Canterbury v. Spence case established the principle of informed consent in US law. Earlier legal cases had created the underpinnings for informed consent, but his judgment gave a detailed and thought-through discourse on the matter. The judgment cites cases going back to 1914 as precedent for informed consent. + +=== Infectious disease === + +In response to the bubonic plague, some city states restricted movement of people into them using cordon sanitaires, and separated those were suspected of being infected into makeshift camps. Merchant sailors were made to isolate in lazarettos, hospitals for infectious diseases. England created quarantine regulations in 1663 to confine ships suspected of being infected with the plague. In response to cholera outbreaks in the 1830s, some European cities people with symptoms were forced into lazarettos. An 1853 law in the United Kingdom made vaccination compulsory with those refusing to comply receiving fines. People with symptoms of tuberculosis have been detained in New York from 1902. During the Spanish flu pandemic western cities implemented social distancing and closed schools, churches, theatres and restricted public gatherings. During the COVID-19 pandemic many countries implemented lockdowns restricting movement, enforcing working from home and social distancing. + +=== Mental health === + +In 1789, during the French Revolution, the French government issued a directive for the management of the insane. This directive ordered that the insane be incarcerated and treated. Bethlem Royal Hospital is a mental hospital in the United Kingdom, which started exclusively treating mental illness in 1377. In 1818, Urban Metcalf, a patient at Bethlam, published a book describing his experience there. He described physical restraint of patients who were attached to walls. This followed a report by the government in 1815 describing conditions in asylums in the UK. + +=== Political use === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..68bb8bb52 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Involuntary treatment" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:14.215035+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Psychiatric diagnoses have been used for political purposes. Psychiatry can be used to bypass standard legal procedures and political incarceration. The use of hospitals instead of jails prevents those detainend from receiving legal aid, makes indefinite incarceration possible, discredits the individuals and their ideas. During the Nazi era and the Soviet rule religious and political dissenters were labeled as "mentally ill" and subjected to inhumane "treatments". From the 1960s to 1986, abuse of psychiatry for political and ideological purposes was reported to be systematic in the Soviet Union, and occasional in Eastern European countries such as Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. + +== Legislative distinctions == +Legislation may allow for involuntary treatment of a particular disease or class of diseases such as mental disorders. Some countries have legislation to involuntarily detain or examine those suspected to have tuberculosis, or treat them if infected. Some countries have general legislation allowing for any treatment deemed necessary if an individual is unable to consent to a treatment due to lack of capacity. +Those treated for mental health disorders are committed before involuntary treatment. Those under community treatment orders (also known as outpatient commitment in some countries) may be ordered to take medication, and if they fail to may be committed and treated involuntarily. +In some countries, involuntary treatment for mental health is not used to treat a symptom that is present, but rather to reduce the risk of symptoms returning through the use prophylactic psychotropic medication. This is achieved through the use of outpatient commitment where a patient may be detained in hospital if they fail to take the medication doctors have prescribed them. + +== Forms == + +Chemical restraint, such as forcible injection with the antipsychotic haloperidol or benzodiazepine sedative midazolam, may be used to sedate a patient who is agitated. In some countries, antipsychotics and sedatives can be forcibly administered to those who are committed, using intramuscular depot injection. Those with anorexia nervosa may receive force-feeding. +Those with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis can be detained and isolated. Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, and Russia make certain vaccinations mandatory. +In the Czech Republic, men convicted of sex offenses are in practice given the choice of long-term detention or castration. Japan requires transgender people to undergo sterilization to have their gender formally recognized. + +=== Coercion in voluntary mental health treatment === + +There is no consensus regarding the use of terminology "voluntary" and "involuntary" in psychiatric, behavioral, and mental health services. An important distinction is whether the in/voluntary descriptor refers to a specific law, or if it is being applied more generally in the sense of ethics. When used by clinicians in the scientific literature, about two-thirds of in/voluntary terms were defined primarily from a legal perspective and one-third were defined mainly from an ethical perspective. +Individuals may be forced to undergo mental health treatment which is legally "voluntary" under the threat of involuntary treatment. Many individuals who legally would be viewed as receiving mental health treatment voluntarily believe that they have no choice in the matter. +Once voluntarily within a mental health hospital, rules, process, and information asymmetry (the fact that healthcare providers know more about how the hospital functions than a patient) can be used to achieve compliance from a person in voluntary treatment. To prevent someone from leaving voluntarily, staff may use stalling tactics made possible by the fact that all doors are locked. For example, the person may be referred to a member of staff who is rarely on the ward, or made to wait until after lunch or a meeting, behaving as if a person in voluntary treatment does not have the right to leave without permission. When the person is able to talk about leaving, the staff may use vague language to imply that the person is required to stay, relying on the fact that people in voluntary treatment do not understand their legal status. +Szmukler and Appelbaum constructed a hierarchy of types of coercion in mental health care, ranging from persuasion to interpersonal leverage, inducements, threats and compulsory treatment. Here persuasion refers to argument through reason. Forms of coercion that do not use legal compulsion are referred to as informal coercion or leverage. Interpersonal leverage may arise from the desire to please health workers with whom a relationship has formed. Threats may revolve around a health worker helping or hindering the receipt of government benefits. Studies show that 51%, 35% and 29% of mental health patients have experienced some form of informal coercion in the US, England and Switzerland respectively. + +=== Non-voluntary treatment === +In certain limited circumstance a patient may have capacity but be unable to consent to treatment at a time when a decision is necessary, in such cases surgery may be performed on a patient without consent. A patient may issue an advance healthcare directive specifying how they would like to be treated if they are unable to consent to treatment. In the UK, a healthcare worker does not need to follow an advanced directive but they will influence decisions. Alternatively, a surrogate decision-maker such as a relative, friend or healthcare professional may make decisions on a patient's behalf if a patient is unable to. + +=== Covert treatment === + +In some instances when a patient refuses the medication suggested by a healthcare professional healthcare workers will cause a patient to take the medication by hiding medication in their food a practice known as covert medication. + +== Competent adults == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9b960e226 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Involuntary treatment" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:14.215035+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The faith of Jehovah's Witnesses forbids blood transfusion. Courts in the United States have consistently upheld the right of competent adults to decline blood transfusion even when it would be life-saving, though there have been exceptions where the death of a patient could leave a child orphaned. +In the United States, courts have ordered pregnant women to involuntarily undergo caesarean section, intrauterine transfusion, and enforced bed rest. There are cases of clinicians threatening pregnant patients with removal of child custody or withdrawal of care if they decline treatment. In the UK, courts are unable to force treatment on pregnant women who are deemed to have capacity, however as of 2016 there were no cases of a still pregnant woman being deemed to have capacity by a court. + +== Children == + +Parents or medical doctors may make decision about the treatment of children, a principle known as parens patriae. In the United States, doctors are responsible for providing a good standard of care for patients who are children which can lead them to make decisions at odds with the parents wishes. Parents have less autonomy to make decisions about their children's care than adult patients have over their own care. Treatment may take place even if a child or adolescent disagree with treatment, though the wishes of a child patient are taken more into account the more burdensome treatment is and the worse the prognosis. +If a child does not assent to treatment they may be physically held while a procedure is carried out or anaesthesia is carried out. For some procedures, a child may be distracted to allow for treatment. +In Italy, court orders have been used to give children of Jehovah's Witnesses life-saving blood transfusion that were refused by their parents. + +== Prevalence == +There is a lot of variation in the rate of involuntary commitment between countries. A review in Europe in 2004 found a thirty-fold difference in the rate of psychiatric commitment between countries, with the median rate being 74 per hundred thousand people. It is estimated that 38% of people who are involuntarily committed experience another form of compulsion such as seclusion or forced medication. + +== Effects == +A 2014 Cochrane systematic review found that compulsory outpatient treatment of those with severe mental health disorders "results in no significant difference in service use, social functioning or quality of life compared with standard voluntary care." A 2006 review found that as many as 48% of respondents did not agree with their treatment, though a majority of people retrospectively agreed that involuntary medication had been in their best interest. +A review in 2011 looked at people's experience of coercion in mental health care. It found common themes of feeling violated, disrespected, and not being heard, commonly conceptualized as being dehumanized through isolation. A minority of narratives from people who had been treated involuntarily talked about the necessity of treatment in retrospect. Studies suggest that coercion in mental health care has a long-lasting psychological effect on individuals leading to reduced engagement and poorer social outcomes, but that this may be reduced by clinicians' knowledge of the effects of coercion. + +== Ethics == +In medical ethics, involuntary treatment is conceptualized as a form of parens patriae whereby the state takes on the responsibilities of incompetent adults on the basis of the duty to protect and the duty of beneficence (the duty of the state to repair the random harms of nature). The duty to protect is reflected in utilitarianism and communitarianism philosophy, though psychiatrist Paul Chodoff asserted a responsibility to "chasten" this responsibility in light of the political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union. This duty to protect has been criticized on the grounds that psychiatrists are not effective at predicting violence, and tend to overestimate the risk. +The obligatory dangerousness criterion is a principle that has been applied to some mental health law that holds that parens patriae should only be applied if an individual is a danger to themselves or others. +Paul Ricœur distinguishes two forms of self, the idem, a short term experience of the self, and the ipse, a longer term persistent experience of the self. In mental illness, the autonomy of the ipse can be undermined by the autonomy of the idem, so involuntary mental health treatment can trade one form of autonomy for another. + +== Sociology == +Medical sociology seeks to understand the social processes underlying decisions made in medicine. +Sociologist Jeremy Dixon, speaking in the context of the United Kingdom, argues that assessment and monitoring of risk is a core part of mental health practice but that this risk is often in conflict with broadly defined goals of recovery including living a satisfying life. He argues that this focus on risk causes mental health professionals to make decisions defensively based on reputational damage if there were to be any inquiry and that multidisciplinary approaches are used for this purpose. He cites research showing how mental health professionals may seek to shift the burden of responsibility onto individuals themselves (noting different clinical decisions for those with personality disorders compared to those with psychotic disorders because they are viewed as more responsible for their behaviours), or shift responsibility onto other public health services. Risk assessments themselves are rarely shared with patients. + +== Proponents and detractors == + +=== Proponents === +Supporters of involuntary treatment include organizations such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the American Psychiatric Association, and the Treatment Advocacy Center. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a0d5940f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +title: "Involuntary treatment" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_treatment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:14.215035+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Detractors === +A number of civil and human rights activists, anti-psychiatry groups, medical and academic organizations, researchers, and members of the psychiatric survivors movement vigorously oppose involuntary treatment on human rights grounds or on grounds of effectiveness and medical appropriateness, particularly with respect to involuntary administration of mind altering substances, ECT, and psychosurgery. Some criticism has been made regarding cost, as well as of conflicts of interest with the pharmaceutical industry. Critics, such as the New York Civil Liberties Union, have denounced the strong racial and socioeconomic biases in forced treatment orders. +Special rapporteurs of the United Nations (Catalina Devandas Aguilar and Dainius Puras) consider it as an infringement of the dignity of those subjected to it, with severe consequences for their physical and mental integrity and call on concerned states to put an end to respect individual's autonomy. + +Involuntary treatment is compared to torture on at least two special reports of the UN, one noting "forced psychiatric interventions, when committed against persons with psychosocial disabilities, satisfies both intent and purpose required under the article 1 of the Convention against Torture, notwithstanding claims of 'good intentions' by medical professionals." However, jurisdiction of some countries (e.g. France) requires intended harm (see: punitive psychiatry) to classify it as such and would classify involuntary treatment, rather as a degrading treatment, if recognize as it. +Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch oppose involuntary treatment. + +== Laws internationally == + +=== United States === +Mentally competent patients have a general right to refuse medical treatment. +All states in the U.S. allow for some form of involuntary treatment for mental illness or erratic behavior for short periods of time under emergency conditions, although criteria vary. Further involuntary treatment outside clear and pressing emergencies where there is asserted to be a threat to public safety usually requires a court order, and all states currently have some process in place to allow this. Since the late 1990s, a growing number of states have adopted Assisted Outpatient Commitment (AOC) laws. +Under assisted outpatient commitment, people committed involuntarily can live outside the psychiatric hospital, sometimes under strict conditions including reporting to mandatory psychiatric appointments, taking psychiatric drugs in the presence of a nursing team, and testing medication blood levels. Forty-five states presently allow for outpatient commitment. +In 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in O'Connor v. Donaldson that involuntary hospitalization and/or treatment violates an individual's civil rights. The individual must be exhibiting behavior that is a danger to themselves or others and a court order must be received for more than a short (e.g. 72-hour) detention. The treatment must take place in the least restrictive setting possible. This ruling has since been watered down through jurisprudence in some respects and strengthened in other respects. Long term "warehousing", through de-institutionalization, declined in the following years, though the number of people receiving involuntary treatment has increased more recently. The statutes vary somewhat from state to state. +In 1979, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit established in Rogers v. Okin that a competent person committed to a psychiatric hospital has the right to refuse treatment in non-emergency situations. The case of Rennie v. Klein established that an involuntarily committed individual has a constitutional right to refuse psychotropic medication without a court order. Rogers v. Okin established the person's right to make treatment decisions so long as they are still presumed competent. +Additional U.S. Supreme Court decisions have added more restraints, and some expansions or effective sanctioning, to involuntary commitment and treatment. Foucha v. Louisiana established the unconstitutionality of the continued commitment of an insanity acquittee who was not suffering from a mental illness. In Jackson v. Indiana the court ruled that a person adjudicated incompetent could not be indefinitely committed. In Perry v. Louisiana the court struck down the forcible medication of a prisoner for the purposes of rendering him competent to be executed. In Riggins v. Nevada the court ruled that a defendant had the right to refuse psychiatric medication while he was on trial, given to mitigate his psychiatric symptoms. Sell v. United States imposed stringent limits on the right of a lower court to order the forcible administration of antipsychotic medication to a criminal defendant who had been determined to be incompetent to stand trial for the sole purpose of making them competent and able to be tried. In Washington v. Harper the Supreme Court upheld the involuntary medication of correctional facility inmates only under certain conditions as determined by established policy and procedures. + +=== Europe === + +== See also == + +=== Related concepts === +Coerced abstinence +Political abuse of psychiatry (also known as "political psychiatry" and as "punitive psychiatry") +Social control +Specific jurisdictions' provisions for a temporary detention order for the purpose of mental-health evaluation and possible further voluntary or involuntary commitment: +United States: +California: 5150 (involuntary psychiatric hold) and Laura's Law (providing for court-ordered outpatient treatment) +Lanterman–Petris–Short Act, codifying the conditions for and of involuntary commitment in California +Florida: Baker Act and Marchman Act + +=== Notable activists === +Giorgio Antonucci (elimination) +Thomas Szasz (elimination) +Robert Whitaker (reduction) +E. Fuller Torrey (expansion) +DJ Jaffe (expansion) + +=== Advocacy organizations === +Mental Health America (reduction/modification) +Mad in America (reduction/elimination) +PsychRights (reduction/elimination) +Anti-psychiatry, also known as the "anti-psychiatric movement" (reduction/elimination) +Citizens Commission on Human Rights (reduction/elimination; founded as a joint effort of the anti-psychiatric Church of Scientology and libertarian mental-health-rights advocate Thomas Szasz) +MindFreedom International (reduction/elimination) +Treatment Advocacy Center (expansion) +NAMI (expansion) + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== External links == +National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f690fd84c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 1/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Irreducible complexity (IC) is the argument that certain biological systems with multiple interacting parts would not function if one of the parts were removed, so supposedly could not have evolved by successive small modifications from earlier less complex systems through natural selection, which would need all intermediate precursor systems to have been fully functional. This negative argument is then complemented by the claim that the only alternative explanation is a "purposeful arrangement of parts" inferring design by an intelligent agent. Irreducible complexity has become central to the creationist concept of intelligent design (ID), but the concept of irreducible complexity has been rejected by the scientific community at large, which regards intelligent design as pseudoscience. Irreducible complexity and specified complexity are the two main arguments used by intelligent-design proponents to support their version of the theological argument from design. +The central concept that complex biological systems which require all their parts to function could not evolve by the incremental changes of natural selection, and so must have been produced by an intelligence, was already featured in creation science. The 1989 school textbook Of Pandas and People introduced the alternative terminology of intelligent design, a revised section in the 1993 edition of the textbook argued that a blood-clotting system demonstrated this concept. +This section was written by Michael Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University. He subsequently introduced the expression irreducible complexity along with a full account of his arguments, in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, and said it made evolution through natural selection of random mutations impossible, or extremely improbable. This was based on the mistaken assumption that evolution relies on improvement of existing functions, ignoring how complex adaptations originate from changes in function, and disregarding published research. Evolutionary biologists have published rebuttals showing how systems discussed by Behe can evolve. +In the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, Behe gave testimony on the subject of irreducible complexity. The court found that "Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large." + +== Definitions == +Michael Behe defined irreducible complexity in natural selection in terms of well-matched parts in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box: + +... a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning. +A second definition given by Behe in 2000 (his "evolutionary definition") states: + +An irreducibly complex evolutionary pathway is one that contains one or more unselected steps (that is, one or more necessary-but-unselected mutations). The degree of irreducible complexity is the number of unselected steps in the pathway. +Intelligent-design advocate William A. Dembski assumed an "original function" in his 2002 definition: + +A system performing a given basic function is irreducibly complex if it includes a set of well-matched, mutually interacting, nonarbitrarily individuated parts such that each part in the set is indispensable to maintaining the system's basic, and therefore original, function. The set of these indispensable parts is known as the irreducible core of the system. + +== History == + +=== Forerunners === +The argument from irreducible complexity is a descendant of the teleological argument for God (the argument from design or from complexity). This states that complex functionality in the natural world which looks designed is evidence of an intelligent creator. William Paley famously argued, in his 1802 watchmaker analogy, that complexity in nature implies a God for the same reason that the existence of a watch implies the existence of a watchmaker. This argument has a long history, and one can trace it back at least as far as Cicero's De Natura Deorum ii.34, written in 45 BC. + +==== Up to the 18th century ==== +Galen (1st and 2nd centuries AD) wrote about the large number of parts of the body and their relationships, which observation was cited as evidence for creation. The idea that the interdependence between parts would have implications for the origins of living things was raised by writers starting with Pierre Gassendi in the mid-17th century and by John Wilkins (1614–1672), who wrote (citing Galen), "Now to imagine, that all these things, according to their several kinds, could be brought into this regular frame and order, to which such an infinite number of Intentions are required, without the contrivance of some wise Agent, must needs be irrational in the highest degree." In the late 17th-century, Thomas Burnet referred to "a multitude of pieces aptly joyn'd" to argue against the eternity of life. In the early 18th century, Nicolas Malebranche wrote "An organized body contains an infinity of parts that mutually depend upon one another in relation to particular ends, all of which must be actually formed in order to work as a whole", arguing in favor of preformation, rather than epigenesis, of the individual; and a similar argument about the origins of the individual was made by other 18th-century students of natural history. In his 1790 book, The Critique of Judgment, Kant is said by Guyer to argue that "we cannot conceive how a whole that comes into being only gradually from its parts can nevertheless be the cause of the properties of those parts". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c24e7cebf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 2/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== 19th century ==== +Chapter XV of Paley's Natural Theology discusses at length what he called "relations" of parts of living things as an indication of their design. +Georges Cuvier applied his principle of the correlation of parts to describe an animal from fragmentary remains. For Cuvier, this related to another principle of his, the conditions of existence, which excluded the possibility of transmutation of species. +While he did not originate the term, Charles Darwin identified the argument as a possible way to falsify a prediction of the theory of evolution at the outset. In The Origin of Species (1859), he wrote, "If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case." Darwin's theory of evolution challenges the teleological argument by postulating an alternative explanation to that of an intelligent designer—namely, evolution by natural selection. By showing how simple unintelligent forces can ratchet up designs of extraordinary complexity without invoking outside design, Darwin showed that an intelligent designer was not the necessary conclusion to draw from complexity in nature. The argument from irreducible complexity attempts to demonstrate that certain biological features cannot be purely the product of Darwinian evolution. + +In the late 19th century, in a dispute between supporters of the adequacy of natural selection and those who held for inheritance of acquired characteristics, one of the arguments made repeatedly by Herbert Spencer, and followed by others, depended on what Spencer referred to as co-adaptation of co-operative parts, as in: "We come now to Professor Weismann's endeavour to disprove my second thesis—that it is impossible to explain by natural selection alone the co-adaptation of co-operative parts. It is thirty years since this was set forth in 'The Principles of Biology.' In § 166, I instanced the enormous horns of the extinct Irish elk, and contended that in this and in kindred cases, where for the efficient use of some one enlarged part many other parts have to be simultaneously enlarged, it is out of the question to suppose that they can have all spontaneously varied in the required proportions." Darwin responded to Spencer's objections in chapter XXV of The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868). The history of this concept in the dispute has been characterized: "An older and more religious tradition of idealist thinkers were committed to the explanation of complex adaptive contrivances by intelligent design. ... Another line of thinkers, unified by the recurrent publications of Herbert Spencer, also saw co-adaptation as a composed, irreducible whole, but sought to explain it by the inheritance of acquired characteristics." +St. George Jackson Mivart raised the objection to natural selection that "Complex and simultaneous co-ordinations ... until so far developed as to effect the requisite junctions, are useless". In the 2012 book Evolution and Belief, Confessions of a Religious Paleontologist, Robert J. Asher said this "amounts to the concept of 'irreducible complexity' as defined by ... Michael Behe". + +==== 20th century ==== +Hermann Muller, in the early 20th century, discussed a concept similar to irreducible complexity. However, far from seeing this as a problem for evolution, he described the "interlocking" of biological features as a consequence to be expected of evolution, which would lead to irreversibility of some evolutionary changes. He wrote, "Being thus finally woven, as it were, into the most intimate fabric of the organism, the once novel character can no longer be withdrawn with impunity, and may have become vitally necessary." + +In 1975 Thomas H. Frazzetta published a book-length study of a concept similar to irreducible complexity, explained by gradual, step-wise, non-teleological evolution. Frazzetta wrote: "A complex adaptation is one constructed of several components that must blend together operationally to make the adaptation 'work'. It is analogous to a machine whose performance depends upon careful cooperation among its parts. In the case of the machine, no single part can greatly be altered without changing the performance of the entire machine." The machine that he chose as an analog is the Peaucellier–Lipkin linkage, and one biological system given extended description was the jaw apparatus of a python. The conclusion of this investigation, rather than that evolution of a complex adaptation was impossible, "awed by the adaptations of living things, to be stunned by their complexity and suitability", was "to accept the inescapable but not humiliating fact that much of mankind can be seen in a tree or a lizard." +In 1985 Cairns-Smith wrote of "interlocking": "How can a complex collaboration between components evolve in small steps?" and used the analogy of the scaffolding called centering—used to build an arch then removed afterwards: "Surely there was 'scaffolding'. Before the multitudinous components of present biochemistry could come to lean together they had to lean on something else." However, neither Muller or Cairns-Smith claimed their ideas as evidence of something supernatural. +An early concept of irreducibly complex systems comes from Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972), an Austrian biologist. He believed that complex systems must be examined as complete, irreducible systems in order to fully understand how they work. He extended his work on biological complexity into a general theory of systems in a book titled General Systems Theory. +After James Watson and Francis Crick published the structure of DNA in the early 1950s, General Systems Theory lost many of its adherents in the physical and biological sciences. +However, systems theory remained popular in the social sciences long after its demise in the physical and biological sciences. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c1033ef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 3/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Creationism === +Versions of the irreducible complexity argument have been common in young Earth creationist (YEC) creation science journals. For example, in the July 1965 issue of Creation Research Society Quarterly Harold W. Clark described the complex interaction in which yucca moths have an "inherited action pattern" or instinct to fertilize plants: "Before the pattern can be inherited, it must be formed. But how could yucca plants mature seeds while waiting for the moths to learn the process and set the pattern? The whole procedure points so strongly to intelligent design that it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the hand of a wise and beneficent Creator has been involved." Similarly, honeybees pollinate apple blossom: "Again we may well ask how such an arrangement could have come about by accident, or how either the flowers or the bees could have survived alone. Intelligent design is again evident." +In 1974 the YEC Henry M. Morris introduced an irreducible complexity concept in his creation science book Scientific Creationism, in which he wrote; "The creationist maintains that the degree of complexity and order which science has discovered in the universe could never be generated by chance or accident." He continued; "This issue can actually be attacked quantitatively, using simple principles of mathematical probability. The problem is simply whether a complex system, in which many components function unitedly together, and in which each component is uniquely necessary to the efficient functioning of the whole, could ever arise by random processes." In 1975 Duane Gish wrote in The Amazing Story of Creation from Science and the Bible; "The creationist maintains that the degree of complexity and order which science has discovered in the universe could never be generated by chance or accident." +A 1980 article in the creation science magazine Creation by the YEC Ariel A. Roth said "Creation and various other views can be supported by the scientific data that reveal that the spontaneous origin of the complex integrated biochemical systems of even the simplest organisms is, at best, a most improbable event". In 1981, defending the creation science position in the trial McLean v. Arkansas, Roth said of "complex integrated structures": "This system would not be functional until all the parts were there ... How did these parts survive during evolution ...?" +In 1985, countering the creationist claims that all the changes would be needed at once, Cairns-Smith wrote of "interlocking": "How can a complex collaboration between components evolve in small steps?" and used the analogy of the scaffolding called centering—used to build an arch then removed afterwards: "Surely there was 'scaffolding'. Before the multitudinous components of present biochemistry could come to lean together they had to lean on something else." Neither Muller or Cairns-Smith said their ideas were evidence of anything supernatural. +The bacterial flagellum featured in creation science literature. Morris later claimed that one of their Institute for Creation Research "scientists (the late Dr. Dick Bliss) was using this example in his talks on creation a generation ago". In December 1992 the creation science magazine Creation called bacterial flagella "rotary engines", and dismissed the possibility that these "incredibly complicated arrangements of matter" could have "evolved by selection of chance mutations. The alternative explanation, that they were created, is much more reasonable." An article in the Creation Research Society Magazine for June 1994 called a flagellum a "bacterial nanomachine", forming the "bacterial rotor-flagellar complex" where "it is clear from the details of their operation that nothing about them works unless every one of their complexly fashioned and integrated components are in place", hard to explain by natural selection. The abstract said that in "terms of biophysical complexity, the bacterial rotor-flagellum is without precedent in the living world. ... To evolutionists, the system presents an enigma; to creationists, if offers clear and compelling evidence of purposeful intelligent design." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f50bbb70e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 4/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Intelligent design === +The biology supplementary textbook for schools Of Pandas and People was drafted presenting creation science arguments, but shortly after the Edwards v. Aguillard ruling, that it was unconstitutional to teach creationism in public school science classes, the authors changed the wording to "intelligent design", introducing the new meaning of this term when the book was published in 1989. In a separate response to the same ruling, law professor Phillip E. Johnson wrote Darwin on Trial, published in 1991, and at a conference in March 1992 brought together key figures in what he later called the 'wedge movement', including biochemistry professor Michael Behe. According to Johnson, around 1992 Behe developed his ideas of what he later called his "irreducible complexity" concept, and first presented these ideas in June 1993 when the "Johnson-Behe cadre of scholars" met at Pajaro Dunes in California. +The second edition of Of Pandas and People, published in 1993, had extensive revisions to Chapter 6 Biochemical Similarities with new sections on the complex mechanism of blood clotting and on the origin of proteins, written by Behe though he was not initially acknowledged as their author. He argued that "all of the proteins had to be present simultaneously for the blood clotting system to function", so it could not have evolved. In later publications, he named the argument "irreducibly complexity", but changed his definition of this specific system. In Doubts About Darwin: A History of Intelligent Design (2003), historian Thomas Woodward wrote that "Michael Behe assisted in the rewriting of a chapter on biochemistry in a revised edition of Pandas. The book stands as one of the milestones in the infancy of Design." +On Access Research Network, Behe posted (on 3 February 1999) "Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference" with a note that "This paper was originally presented in the Summer of 1994 at the meeting of the C. S. Lewis Society, Cambridge University." An "Irreducible Complexity" section quoted Darwin, then discussed "the humble mousetrap", and "Molecular Machines", going into detail about cilia before saying "Other examples of irreducible complexity abound, including aspects of protein transport, blood clotting, closed circular DNA, electron transport, the bacterial flagellum, telomeres, photosynthesis, transcription regulation, and much more. Examples of irreducible complexity can be found on virtually every page of a biochemistry textbook." Suggesting "these things cannot be explained by Darwinian evolution," he said they had been neglected by the scientific community. +Behe first published the term "irreducible complexity" in his 1996 book Darwin's Black Box, where he set out his ideas about theoretical properties of some complex biochemical cellular systems, now including the bacterial flagellum. He posits that evolutionary mechanisms cannot explain the development of such "irreducibly complex" systems. Notably, Behe credits philosopher William Paley for the original concept (alone among the predecessors). +Intelligent design advocates argue that irreducibly complex systems must have been deliberately engineered by some form of intelligence. +In 2001, Behe wrote: "[T]here is an asymmetry between my current definition of irreducible complexity and the task facing natural selection. I hope to repair this defect in future work." Behe specifically explained that the "current definition puts the focus on removing a part from an already functioning system", but the "difficult task facing Darwinian evolution, however, would not be to remove parts from sophisticated pre-existing systems; it would be to bring together components to make a new system in the first place". In the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, Behe testified under oath that he "did not judge [the asymmetry] serious enough to [have revised the book] yet." +Behe additionally testified that the presence of irreducible complexity in organisms would not rule out the involvement of evolutionary mechanisms in the development of organic life. He further testified that he knew of no earlier "peer reviewed articles in scientific journals discussing the intelligent design of the blood clotting cascade," but that there were "probably a large number of peer reviewed articles in science journals that demonstrate that the blood clotting system is indeed a purposeful arrangement of parts of great complexity and sophistication." (The judge ruled that "intelligent design is not science and is essentially religious in nature".) +The scientific theory of evolution incorporates evidence that genetic variations occur, but makes no assumptions of purposeful design or intent. The environment "selects" the variants which have the highest fitness for conditions at the time, and these heritable variations are then passed on to the next generation of organisms. Change occurs by the gradual operation of natural forces over time, perhaps slowly, perhaps more quickly (see punctuated equilibrium). This process is able to adapt complex structures from simpler beginnings, or convert complex structures from one function to another (see spandrel). Most intelligent design advocates accept that evolution occurs through mutation and natural selection at the "micro level", such as changing the relative frequency of various beak lengths in finches, but assert that it cannot account for irreducible complexity, because none of the parts of an irreducible system would be functional or advantageous until the entire system is in place. + +=== The mousetrap example === + +Behe uses the mousetrap as an illustrative example of this concept. A mousetrap consists of five interacting pieces: the base, the catch, the spring, the hammer, and the hold-down bar. All of these must be in place for the mousetrap to work, as the removal of any one piece destroys the function of the mousetrap. Likewise, he asserts that biological systems require multiple parts working together in order to function. Intelligent design advocates claim that natural selection could not create from scratch those systems for which science is currently unable to find a viable evolutionary pathway of successive, slight modifications, because the selectable function is only present when all parts are assembled. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..024d01253 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 5/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In his 2008 book Only A Theory, biologist Kenneth R. Miller challenges Behe's claim that the mousetrap is irreducibly complex. Miller observes that various subsets of the five components can be devised to form cooperative units, ones that have different functions from the mousetrap and so, in biological terms, could form functional spandrels before being adapted to the new function of catching mice. In an example taken from his high school experience, Miller recalls that one of his classmates...struck upon the brilliant idea of using an old, broken mousetrap as a spitball catapult, and it worked brilliantly.... It had worked perfectly as something other than a mousetrap.... my rowdy friend had pulled a couple of parts—probably the hold-down bar and catch—off the trap to make it easier to conceal and more effective as a catapult... [leaving] the base, the spring, and the hammer. Not much of a mousetrap, but a helluva spitball launcher.... I realized why [Behe's] mousetrap analogy had bothered me. It was wrong. The mousetrap is not irreducibly complex after all. +Other systems identified by Miller that include mousetrap components include the following: + +use the spitball launcher as a tie clip (same three-part system with different function) +remove the spring from the spitball launcher/tie clip to create a two-part key chain (base + hammer) +glue the spitball launcher/tie clip to a sheet of wood to create a clipboard (launcher + glue + wood) +remove the hold-down bar for use as a toothpick (single element system) +The point of the reduction is that—in biology—most or all of the components were already at hand, by the time it became necessary to build a mousetrap. As such, it required far fewer steps to develop a mousetrap than to design all the components from scratch. +Thus, the development of the mousetrap, said to consist of five different parts which had no function on their own, has been reduced to one step: the assembly from parts that are already present, performing other functions. + +=== Consequences === +Supporters of intelligent design argue that anything less than the complete form of such a system or organ would not work at all, or would in fact be a detriment to the organism, and would therefore never survive the process of natural selection. Although they accept that some complex systems and organs can be explained by evolution, they claim that organs and biological features which are irreducibly complex cannot be explained by current models, and that an intelligent designer must have created life or guided its evolution. Accordingly, the debate on irreducible complexity concerns two questions: whether irreducible complexity can be found in nature, and what significance it would have if it did exist in nature. +Behe's original examples of irreducibly complex mechanisms included the bacterial flagellum of E. coli, the blood clotting cascade, cilia, and the adaptive immune system. +Behe argues that organs and biological features which are irreducibly complex cannot be wholly explained by current models of evolution. In explicating his definition of "irreducible complexity" he notes that: + +An irreducibly complex system cannot be produced directly (that is, by continuously improving the initial function, which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system, because any precursor to an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional. +Irreducible complexity is not an argument that evolution does not occur, but rather an argument that it is "incomplete". In the last chapter of Darwin's Black Box, Behe goes on to explain his view that irreducible complexity is evidence for intelligent design. Mainstream critics, however, argue that irreducible complexity, as defined by Behe, can be generated by known evolutionary mechanisms. Behe's claim that no scientific literature adequately modeled the origins of biochemical systems through evolutionary mechanisms has been challenged by TalkOrigins. The judge in the Dover trial wrote "By defining irreducible complexity in the way that he has, Professor Behe attempts to exclude the phenomenon of exaptation by definitional fiat, ignoring as he does so abundant evidence which refutes his argument. Notably, the NAS has rejected Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity..." + +== Claimed examples == +Behe and others have suggested a number of biological features that they believed to be irreducibly complex. + +=== Blood clotting cascade === +The process of blood clotting or coagulation cascade in vertebrates is a complex biological pathway which is given as an example of apparent irreducible complexity. +The irreducible complexity argument assumes that the necessary parts of a system have always been necessary, and therefore could not have been added sequentially. However, in evolution, something which is at first merely advantageous can later become necessary. Natural selection can lead to complex biochemical systems being built up from simpler systems, or to existing functional systems being recombined as a new system with a different function. For example, one of the clotting factors that Behe listed as a part of the clotting cascade (Factor XII, also called Hageman factor) was later found to be absent in whales, demonstrating that it is not essential for a clotting system. Many purportedly irreducible structures can be found in other organisms as much simpler systems that utilize fewer parts. These systems, in turn, may have had even simpler precursors that are now extinct. Behe has responded to critics of his clotting cascade arguments by suggesting that homology is evidence for evolution, but not for natural selection. +The "improbability argument" also misrepresents natural selection. It is correct to say that a set of simultaneous mutations that form a complex protein structure is so unlikely as to be unfeasible, but that is not what Darwin advocated. His explanation is based on small accumulated changes that take place without a final goal. Each step must be advantageous in its own right, although biologists may not yet understand the reason behind all of them—for example, jawless fish accomplish blood clotting with just six proteins instead of the full ten. + +=== Eye === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b40e37df6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 6/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The eye is frequently cited by intelligent design and creationism advocates as a purported example of irreducible complexity. Behe used the "development of the eye problem" as evidence for intelligent design in Darwin's Black Box. Although Behe acknowledged that the evolution of the larger anatomical features of the eye have been well-explained, he pointed out that the complexity of the minute biochemical reactions required at a molecular level for light sensitivity still defies explanation. Creationist Jonathan Sarfati has described the eye as evolutionary biologists' "greatest challenge as an example of superb 'irreducible complexity' in God's creation", specifically pointing to the supposed "vast complexity" required for transparency. +In an often misquoted passage from On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin appears to acknowledge the eye's development as a difficulty for his theory. However, the quote in context shows that Darwin actually had a very good understanding of the evolution of the eye (see fallacy of quoting out of context). He notes that "to suppose that the eye ... could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree". Yet this observation was merely a rhetorical device for Darwin. He goes on to explain that if gradual evolution of the eye could be shown to be possible, "the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection ... can hardly be considered real". He then proceeded to roughly map out a likely course for evolution using examples of gradually more complex eyes of various species. + +Since Darwin's day, the eye's ancestry has become much better understood. Although learning about the construction of ancient eyes through fossil evidence is problematic due to the soft tissues leaving no imprint or remains, genetic and comparative anatomical evidence has increasingly supported the idea of a common ancestry for all eyes. +Current evidence does suggest possible evolutionary lineages for the origins of the anatomical features of the eye. One likely chain of development is that the eyes originated as simple patches of photoreceptor cells that could detect the presence or absence of light, but not its direction. When, via random mutation across the population, the photosensitive cells happened to have developed on a small depression, it endowed the organism with a better sense of the light's source. This small change gave the organism an advantage over those without the mutation. This genetic trait would then be "selected for" as those with the trait would have an increased chance of survival, and therefore progeny, over those without the trait. Individuals with deeper depressions would be able to discern changes in light over a wider field than those individuals with shallower depressions. As ever deeper depressions were advantageous to the organism, gradually, this depression would become a pit into which light would strike certain cells depending on its angle. The organism slowly gained increasingly precise visual information. And again, this gradual process continued as individuals having a slightly shrunken aperture of the eye had an advantage over those without the mutation as an aperture increases how collimated the light is at any one specific group of photoreceptors. As this trait developed, the eye became effectively a pinhole camera which allowed the organism to dimly make out shapes—the nautilus is a modern example of an animal with such an eye. Finally, via this same selection process, a protective layer of transparent cells over the aperture was differentiated into a crude lens, and the interior of the eye was filled with humours to assist in focusing images. In this way, eyes are recognized by modern biologists as actually a relatively unambiguous and simple structure to evolve, and many of the major developments of the eye's evolution are believed to have taken place over only a few million years, during the Cambrian explosion. Behe asserts that this is only an explanation of the gross anatomical steps, however, and not an explanation of the changes in discrete biochemical systems that would have needed to take place. +Behe maintains that the complexity of light sensitivity at the molecular level and the minute biochemical reactions required for those first "simple patches of photoreceptor[s]" still defies explanation, and that the proposed series of infinitesimal steps to get from patches of photoreceptors to a fully functional eye would actually be considered great, complex leaps in evolution if viewed on the molecular scale. Other intelligent design proponents claim that the evolution of the entire visual system would be difficult rather than the eye alone. + +=== Flagella === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ebb1e9e7e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 7/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The flagella of certain bacteria constitute a molecular motor requiring the interaction of about 40 different protein parts. Behe presents this as a prime example of an irreducibly complex structure defined as "a single system composed of several well-matched, interacting parts that contribute to the basic function, wherein the removal of any one of the parts causes the system to effectively cease functioning", and argues that since "an irreducibly complex system that is missing a part is by definition nonfunctional", it could not have evolved gradually through natural selection. +Reducible complexity. In contrast to Behe's claims, many proteins can be deleted or mutated and the flagellum still works, even though sometimes at reduced efficiency. In fact, the composition of flagella is surprisingly diverse across bacteria with many proteins only found in some species but not others. Hence the flagellar apparatus is clearly very flexible in evolutionary terms and perfectly able to lose or gain protein components. Further studies have shown that, contrary to claims of "irreducible complexity", flagella and the type-III secretion system share several components which provides strong evidence of a shared evolutionary history (see below). In fact, this example shows how a complex system can evolve from simpler components. Multiple processes were involved in the evolution of the flagellum, including horizontal gene transfer. +Evolution from type three secretion systems. The basal body of the flagella has been found to be similar to the Type III secretion system (TTSS), a needle-like structure that pathogenic germs such as Salmonella and Yersinia pestis use to inject toxins into living eukaryote cells. The needle's base has ten elements in common with the flagellum, but it is missing forty of the proteins that make a flagellum work. The TTSS system negates Behe's claim that taking away any one of the flagellum's parts would prevent the system from functioning. On this basis, Kenneth Miller notes that, "The parts of this supposedly irreducibly complex system actually have functions of their own." Studies have also shown that similar parts of the flagellum in different bacterial species can have different functions despite showing evidence of common descent, and that certain parts of the flagellum can be removed without eliminating its functionality. Behe responded to Miller by asking "why doesn't he just take an appropriate bacterial species, knock out the genes for its flagellum, place the bacterium under selective pressure (for mobility, say), and experimentally produce a flagellum—or any equally complex system—in the laboratory?" However a laboratory experiment has been performed where "immotile strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens that lack flagella [...] regained flagella within 96 hours via a two-step evolutionary pathway", concluding that "natural selection can rapidly rewire regulatory networks in very few, repeatable mutational steps". +Dembski has argued that phylogenetically, the TTSS is found in a narrow range of bacteria which makes it seem to him to be a late innovation, whereas flagella are widespread throughout many bacterial groups, and he argues that it was an early innovation. Against Dembski's argument, different flagella use completely different mechanisms, and publications show a plausible path in which bacterial flagella could have evolved from a secretion system. + +=== Cilium motion === +The cilium construction of axoneme microtubules movement by the sliding of dynein protein was cited by Behe as an example of irreducible complexity. He further said that the advances in knowledge in the subsequent 10 years had shown that the complexity of intraflagellar transport for two hundred components cilium and many other cellular structures is substantially greater than was known earlier. + +== Response of the scientific community == +Like intelligent design, the concept it seeks to support, irreducible complexity has failed to gain any notable acceptance within the scientific community. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c9c659e83 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 8/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Reducibility of "irreducible" systems === +Researchers have proposed potentially viable evolutionary pathways for allegedly irreducibly complex systems such as blood clotting, the immune system and the flagellum—the three examples Behe proposed. John H. McDonald even showed his example of a mousetrap to be reducible. If irreducible complexity is an insurmountable obstacle to evolution, it should not be possible to conceive of such pathways. +Niall Shanks and Karl H. Joplin, both of East Tennessee State University, have shown that systems satisfying Behe's characterization of irreducible biochemical complexity can arise naturally and spontaneously as the result of self-organizing chemical processes. They also assert that what evolved biochemical and molecular systems actually exhibit is "redundant complexity"—a kind of complexity that is the product of an evolved biochemical process. They claim that Behe overestimated the significance of irreducible complexity because of his simple, linear view of biochemical reactions, resulting in his taking snapshots of selective features of biological systems, structures, and processes, while ignoring the redundant complexity of the context in which those features are naturally embedded. They also criticized his over-reliance on overly simplistic metaphors, such as his mousetrap. +A computer model of the co-evolution of proteins binding to DNA in the peer-reviewed journal Nucleic Acids Research consisted of several parts (DNA binders and DNA binding sites) which contribute to the basic function; removal of either one leads immediately to the death of the organism. This model fits the definition of irreducible complexity exactly, yet it evolves. (The program can be run from Ev program.) +One can compare a mousetrap with a cat in this context. Both normally function so as to control the mouse population. The cat has many parts that can be removed leaving it still functional; for example, its tail can be bobbed, or it can lose an ear in a fight. Comparing the cat and the mousetrap, then, one sees that the mousetrap (which is not alive) offers better evidence, in terms of irreducible complexity, for intelligent design than the cat. Even looking at the mousetrap analogy, several critics have described ways in which the parts of the mousetrap could have independent uses or could develop in stages, demonstrating that it is not irreducibly complex. +Moreover, even cases where removing a certain component in an organic system will cause the system to fail do not demonstrate that the system could not have been formed in a step-by-step, evolutionary process. By analogy, stone arches are irreducibly complex—if you remove any stone the arch will collapse—yet humans build them easily enough, one stone at a time, by building over centering that is removed afterward. Similarly, naturally occurring arches of stone form by the weathering away of bits of stone from a large concretion that has formed previously. +Evolution can act to simplify as well as to complicate. This raises the possibility that seemingly irreducibly complex biological features may have been achieved with a period of increasing complexity, followed by a period of simplification. +A team led by Joseph Thornton, assistant professor of biology at the University of Oregon's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, using techniques for resurrecting ancient genes, reconstructed the evolution of an apparently irreducibly complex molecular system. The April 7, 2006 issue of Science published this research. +Irreducible complexity may not actually exist in nature, and the examples given by Behe and others may not in fact represent irreducible complexity, but can be explained in terms of simpler precursors. The theory of facilitated variation challenges irreducible complexity. Marc W. Kirschner, a professor and chair of Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, and John C. Gerhart, a professor in Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, presented this theory in 2005. They describe how certain mutation and changes can cause apparent irreducible complexity. Thus, seemingly irreducibly complex structures are merely "very complex", or they are simply misunderstood or misrepresented. + +=== Gradual adaptation to new functions === + +The precursors of complex systems, when they are not useful in themselves, may be useful to perform other, unrelated functions. Evolutionary biologists argue that evolution often works in this kind of blind, haphazard manner in which the function of an early form is not necessarily the same as the function of the later form. The term used for this process is exaptation. The mammalian middle ear (derived from a jawbone) and the panda's thumb (derived from a wrist bone spur) provide classic examples. A 2006 article in Nature demonstrates intermediate states leading toward the development of the ear in a Devonian fish (about 360 million years ago). Furthermore, recent research shows that viruses play a heretofore unexpected role in evolution by mixing and matching genes from various hosts. +Arguments for irreducibility often assume that things started out the same way they ended up—as we see them now. However, that may not necessarily be the case. In the Dover trial an expert witness for the plaintiffs, Ken Miller, demonstrated this possibility using Behe's mousetrap analogy. By removing several parts, Miller made the object unusable as a mousetrap, but he pointed out that it was now a perfectly functional, if unstylish, tie clip. + +=== Methods by which irreducible complexity may evolve === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1ae618708 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 9/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Irreducible complexity can be seen as equivalent to an "uncrossable valley" in a fitness landscape. A number of mathematical models of evolution have explored the circumstances under which such valleys can, nevertheless, be crossed. +An example of a structure that is claimed in Dembski's book No Free Lunch to be irreducibly complex, but evidently has evolved, is the protein T-urf13, which is responsible for the cytoplasmic male sterility of waxy corn and is due to a completely new gene. It arose from the fusion of several non-protein-coding fragments of mitochondrial DNA and the occurrence of several mutations, all of which were necessary. Behe's book Darwin Devolves claims that things like this would take billions of years and could not arise from random tinkering, but the corn was bred during the 20th century. When presented with T-urf13 as an example for the evolvability of irreducibly complex systems, the Discovery Institute resorted to its flawed probability argument based on false premises, akin to the Texas sharpshooter fallacy. + +=== Falsifiability and experimental evidence === +Some critics, such as Jerry Coyne (professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago) and Eugenie Scott (a physical anthropologist and former executive director of the National Center for Science Education) have argued that the concept of irreducible complexity and, more generally, intelligent design is not falsifiable and, therefore, not scientific. +Behe argues that the theory that irreducibly complex systems could not have evolved can be falsified by an experiment where such systems are evolved. For example, he posits taking bacteria with no flagellum and imposing a selective pressure for mobility. If, after a few thousand generations, the bacteria evolved the bacterial flagellum, then Behe believes that this would refute his theory. This has been done: a laboratory experiment has been performed where "immotile strains of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens that lack flagella [...] regained flagella within 96 hours via a two-step evolutionary pathway", concluding that "natural selection can rapidly rewire regulatory networks in very few, repeatable mutational steps". +Other critics take a different approach, pointing to experimental evidence that they consider falsification of the argument for intelligent design from irreducible complexity. For example, Kenneth Miller describes the lab work of Barry G. Hall on E. coli as showing that "Behe is wrong". +Other evidence that irreducible complexity is not a problem for evolution comes from the field of computer science, which routinely uses computer analogues of the processes of evolution in order to automatically design complex solutions to problems. The results of such genetic algorithms are frequently irreducibly complex since the process, like evolution, both removes non-essential components over time as well as adding new components. The removal of unused components with no essential function, like the natural process where rock underneath a natural arch is removed, can produce irreducibly complex structures without requiring the intervention of a designer. Researchers applying these algorithms automatically produce human-competitive designs—but no human designer is required. + +=== Argument from ignorance === +Intelligent design proponents attribute to an intelligent designer those biological structures they believe are irreducibly complex and therefore they say a natural explanation is insufficient to account for them. However, critics view irreducible complexity as a special case of the "complexity indicates design" claim, and thus see it as an argument from ignorance and as a God-of-the-gaps argument. +Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education note that intelligent design arguments from irreducible complexity rest on the false assumption that a lack of knowledge of a natural explanation allows intelligent design proponents to assume an intelligent cause, when the proper response of scientists would be to say that we do not know, and further investigation is needed. Other critics describe Behe as saying that evolutionary explanations are not detailed enough to meet his standards, while at the same time presenting intelligent design as exempt from having to provide any positive evidence at all. + +=== False dilemma === +Irreducible complexity is at its core an argument against evolution. If truly irreducible systems are found, the argument goes, then intelligent design must be the correct explanation for their existence. However, this conclusion is based on the assumption that current evolutionary theory and intelligent design are the only two valid models to explain life, a false dilemma. + +== In the Dover trial == +At the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial, expert witness testimony defending ID and IC was given by Behe and Scott Minnich, who had been one of the "Johnson-Behe cadre of scholars" at Pajaro Dunes in 1993, was prominent in ID, and was now a tenured associate professor in microbiology at the University of Idaho. Behe conceded that there are no peer-reviewed papers supporting his claims that complex molecular systems, like the bacterial flagellum, the blood-clotting cascade, and the immune system, were intelligently designed nor are there any peer-reviewed articles supporting his argument that certain complex molecular structures are "irreducibly complex." There was extensive discussion of IC arguments about the bacterial flagellum, first published in Behe's 1996 book, and when Minnich was asked if similar claims in a 1994 Creation Research Society article presented the same argument, Minnich said he did not have any problem with that statement. +In the final ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, Judge Jones specifically singled out irreducible complexity: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b94d1b4b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +--- +title: "Irreducible complexity" +chunk: 10/10 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreducible_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:48.976196+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"... creationists made the same argument that the complexity of the bacterial flagellum supported creationism as Professors Behe and Minnich now make for ID. (P-853; P-845; 37:155–56 (Minnich))." (Page 34) +"Professor Behe admitted in "Reply to My Critics" that there was a defect in his view of irreducible complexity because, while it purports to be a challenge to natural selection, it does not actually address "the task facing natural selection." and that "Professor Behe wrote that he hoped to "repair this defect in future work..." (Page 73) +"As expert testimony revealed, the qualification on what is meant by "irreducible complexity" renders it meaningless as a criticism of evolution. (3:40 (Miller)). In fact, the theory of evolution proffers exaptation as a well-recognized, well-documented explanation for how systems with multiple parts could have evolved through natural means." (Page 74) +"By defining irreducible complexity in the way that he has, Professor Behe attempts to exclude the phenomenon of exaptation by definitional fiat, ignoring as he does so abundant evidence which refutes his argument. Notably, the NAS has rejected Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity..." (Page 75) +"As irreducible complexity is only a negative argument against evolution, it is refutable and accordingly testable, unlike ID [Intelligent Design], by showing that there are intermediate structures with selectable functions that could have evolved into the allegedly irreducibly complex systems. (2:15–16 (Miller)). Importantly, however, the fact that the negative argument of irreducible complexity is testable does not make testable the argument for ID. (2:15 (Miller); 5:39 (Pennock)). Professor Behe has applied the concept of irreducible complexity to only a few select systems: (1) the bacterial flagellum; (2) the blood-clotting cascade; and (3) the immune system. Contrary to Professor Behe's assertions with respect to these few biochemical systems among the myriad existing in nature, however, Dr. Miller presented evidence, based upon peer-reviewed studies, that they are not in fact irreducibly complex." (Page 76) +"...on cross-examination, Professor Behe was questioned concerning his 1996 claim that science would never find an evolutionary explanation for the immune system. He was presented with fifty-eight peer-reviewed publications, nine books, and several immunology textbook chapters about the evolution of the immune system; however, he simply insisted that this was still not sufficient evidence of evolution, and that it was not "good enough." (23:19 (Behe))." (Page 78) +"We therefore find that Professor Behe's claim for irreducible complexity has been refuted in peer-reviewed research papers and has been rejected by the scientific community at large. (17:45–46 (Padian); 3:99 (Miller)). Additionally, even if irreducible complexity had not been rejected, it still does not support ID as it is merely a test for evolution, not design. (2:15, 2:35–40 (Miller); 28:63–66 (Fuller)). We will now consider the purportedly "positive argument" for design encompassed in the phrase used numerous times by Professors Behe and Minnich throughout their expert testimony, which is the "purposeful arrangement of parts." Professor Behe summarized the argument as follows: We infer design when we see parts that appear to be arranged for a purpose. The strength of the inference is quantitative; the more parts that are arranged, the more intricately they interact, the stronger is our confidence in design. The appearance of design in aspects of biology is overwhelming. Since nothing other than an intelligent cause has been demonstrated to be able to yield such a strong appearance of design, Darwinian claims notwithstanding, the conclusion that the design seen in life is real design is rationally justified. (18:90–91, 18:109–10 (Behe); 37:50 (Minnich)). As previously indicated, this argument is merely a restatement of the Reverend William Paley's argument applied at the cell level. Minnich, Behe, and Paley reach the same conclusion, that complex organisms must have been designed using the same reasoning, except that Professors Behe and Minnich refuse to identify the designer, whereas Paley inferred from the presence of design that it was God. (1:6–7 (Miller); 38:44, 57 (Minnich)). Expert testimony revealed that this inductive argument is not scientific and as admitted by Professor Behe, can never be ruled out. (2:40 (Miller); 22:101 (Behe); 3:99 (Miller))." (Pages 79–80) + +== See also == +Anthropic principle +ATP synthase +Emergence +Molecular motor + +== Notes and references == + +Forrest, Barbara; Gross, Paul R. (2007). Creationism's Trojan Horse. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531973-6. +Scott, Eugenie C. (2009). Evolution Vs. Creationism: An Introduction. ISSR library. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26187-7. + +== Further reading == +Behe, Michael (1996). Darwin's Black Box. New York: The Free Press. ISBN 978-0-684-83493-1. OCLC 34150540. +Denton, Michael (1986). Evolution: A Theory in Crisis. Bethesda: Adler & Adler. ISBN 978-0-917561-05-4. +Jantzen, Benjamin C. (2014). "12: Intelligent design I: irreducible complexity". An Introduction to Design Arguments. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-18303-1. +Macnab, RM (2004). "Type III flagellar protein export and flagellar assembly". Biochim Biophys Acta. 1694 (1–3): 207–17. doi:10.1016/j.bbamcr.2004.04.005. PMID 15546667. +Ruben, J.A.; Jones, T.D.; Geist, N.R.; Hillenius, W.J. (November 14, 1997). "Lung Structure and Ventilation in Theropod Dinosaurs and Early Birds". Science. 278 (5341): 1267–70. Bibcode:1997Sci...278.1267R. doi:10.1126/science.278.5341.1267. +Zimmer, Carl (February 2005). "Testing Darwin". Discover Magazine. 26 (2). Archived from the original on 18 May 2005. +Sober, Elliott (29 November 2018). The Design Argument. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-64392-4. + +== External links == + +Supportive +Michael J. Behe home page +About Irreducible Complexity Archived 2008-07-01 at the Wayback Machine Discovery Institute +Behe's Reply to his Critics (PDF) +How to Explain Irreducible Complexity -- A Lab Manual Discovery Institute +Institute for Creation Research (PDF) +Irreducible Complexity: Definition & Evaluation by Craig Rusbult, Ph.D. +Irreducible Complexity Revisited (PDF) +Critical +Behe, Biochemistry, and the Invisible Hand +Darwin vs. Intelligent Design (again), by H. Allen Orr (review of Darwin's Black Box) +Devolution: Why intelligent design isn't (The New Yorker) +Does irreducible complexity imply Intelligent Design? Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine by Mark Perakh +Evolution of the Eye (Video) Zoologist Dan-Erik Nilsson demonstrates eye evolution through intermediate stages with working model. (PBS) +Facilitated Variation +Himma, Kenneth Einar. Design Arguments for the Existence of God. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 2. Contemporary Versions of the Design Argument, a. The Argument from Irreducible Biochemical Complexity +Kitzmiller vs. Dover transcripts +Miller, Kenneth R. textbook website +Miller's "The Flagellum Unspun: The Collapse of Irreducible Complexity" +Talk.origins archive (see talk.origins) +TalkDesign.org (sister site to talk.origins archive on intelligent design) +The bacterial flagellar motor: brilliant evolution or intelligent design? Matt Baker, ABC Science, 7 July 2015 +Unlocking cell secrets bolsters evolutionists (Chicago Tribune) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d7efc4f5d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:26.935463+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug that is well established for use in animals and people. The World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) all do not advise using ivermectin in an attempt to treat or prevent COVID-19. +Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, laboratory research suggested ivermectin might have a role in preventing or treating COVID-19. Online misinformation campaigns and advocacy boosted the drug's profile among the public. While scientists and physicians largely remained skeptical, some nations adopted ivermectin as part of their pandemic-control efforts. Some people, desperate to use ivermectin without a prescription, took veterinary preparations, which led to shortages of supplies of ivermectin for animal treatment. The FDA responded to this situation by saying "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it", in a tweet to draw attention to the issue, for which they were later sued by three ivermectin-prescribing doctors. +Subsequent research failed to confirm the utility of ivermectin for COVID-19, and in 2021 it emerged that many of the studies demonstrating benefit were faulty, misleading, or fraudulent. Nevertheless, misinformation about ivermectin continued to be propagated on social media and the drug remained a cause célèbre for anti-vaccinationists and conspiracy theorists. This spread to conspiracy theorists further asserting that ivermectin could treat all diseases. + +== Research == +Some in vitro drug screening studies early in the pandemic showed that ivermectin has antiviral effects against several distinct positive-sense single-strand RNA viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Subsequent studies found that ivermectin could inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 in monkey kidney cell culture with an IC50 of 2.2–2.8 μM. +However, doses much higher than the maximum approved or safely achievable for use in humans would be required for an antiviral effect while treating COVID-19. Aside from practical difficulties, such high doses are not covered by current human-use approvals of the drug and may be toxic, as the antiviral mechanism of action is believed to be via the suppression of a host cellular process, specifically the inhibition of nuclear transport by importin α/β1. Several other drugs which inhibit importin α/β1 at therapeutic doses have failed clinical trials due to systemic toxicity and a narrow therapeutic window. +To resolve uncertainties from previous small or poor-quality studies, as of June 2021, large scale trials were underway in the United States and the United Kingdom. A large randomised controlled trial ACTIV-6, published in October 2022, found ivermectin was not effective as a COVID-19 treatment. + +=== Research limitations, ethics and fraud === +Many studies on ivermectin for COVID‑19 have serious methodological limitations, resulting in very low evidence certainty. Several publications that supported the efficacy of ivermectin for COVID‑19 have been retracted due to errors, unverifiable data, and ethical concerns. +Several high-profile publications purporting to demonstrate reduced mortality in COVID-19 patients were later retracted due to suspected data falsification. This only added to confusion among the media and lay public, as these publications had been widely cited by ivermectin supporters and included in meta-analyses. +In January 2022, 22 inmates at the Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas filed a lawsuit over hundreds of ivermectin pills given to them as "vitamins" in 2020. +In February 2022, the American Journal of Therapeutics issued expressions of concern against two positive systematic reviews of ivermectin for COVID-19 which it had published in 2021, because of suspicions about the underlying data that would undermine these papers' findings of benefit. +In Mexico City the government distributed ivermectin widely as a COVID-19 treatment and published the observed results on the SocArXiv archive as a research paper. The paper was subsequently withdrawn by the archive citing concerns that it was unethical, as it effectively was an experiment carried out on people without gaining informed consent. Philip N. Cohen of the SocArXiv steering committee said "the article is of very poor quality or deliberately false and misleading" and that its removal was justified to prevent public harm. + +== Clinical guidance == +In February 2021, Merck, the developer of the drug, issued a statement saying that there is no good evidence ivermectin is effective against COVID‑19 and that attempting such use may be unsafe. +After reviewing the evidence on ivermectin, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) advised against its use for prevention or treatment of COVID‑19 and that "the available data do not support its use for COVID‑19 outside well-designed clinical trials." Consequently, ivermectin is not authorized for use to treat COVID‑19 within the European Union. +Ivermectin is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating any viral illness, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health COVID‑19 Treatment Guidelines state that there is insufficient evidence for ivermectin to allow for a recommendation for or against its use. +In the United Kingdom, the national COVID‑19 Therapeutics Advisory Panel determined that the evidence base and plausibility of ivermectin as a COVID‑19 treatment were insufficient to pursue further investigations. +In November 2023, the WHO updated its treatment guidelines to recommend strongly against the use of ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, due to a lack of research evidence or biological plausibility. +The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency, Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, and Brazilian Thoracic Society issued position statements advising against the use of ivermectin for prevention or treatment of early-stage COVID‑19. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5ad4d7180 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:26.935463+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== COVID-19 and strongyloidiasis === +There is one very specific circumstance in which ivermectin may be useful in the management of COVID-19. People infected with the Strongyloides stercoralis parasite are at risk for strongyloides hyperinfection syndrome (SHS) — a condition with a mortality rate as high as 90% — if given corticosteroids to treat COVID-19. Strongyloidiasis affects as many as 370 million people worldwide, and it is usually subclinical or even asymptomatic. However, it can become fatal in the setting of SHS, which can be triggered by the immunosuppression that results from the administration of corticosteroids. In fact, multiple cases of SHS have been reported after the use of corticosteroids in the management of COVID-19 pneumonia. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) all recommend presumptive treatment for strongyloidiasis with ivermectin in people at high or moderate risk of SHS before or in conjunction with corticosteroids in the management of COVID-19. People who were born, resided, or had long-term travel in Southeast Asia, Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, South America, or the Caribbean are considered to be at high risk for SHS, while people from Central America, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, Mexico, Middle East, North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent are considered to be at moderate risk. In such cases, ivermectin is a treatment for strongyloidiasis, not for COVID-19. + +== Regulatory status and off-label use == +Misinformation, lower degrees of trust, and a sense of despair over increasing case and death counts have led to an increase in ivermectin's use in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa. A black market has also developed in many of these countries where official approval has not been granted. +The viral social media misinformation about ivermectin has gained particular attention in South Africa where an anti-vaccination group called "South Africa Has A Right To Ivermectin" has been lobbying for the drug to be made available for prescription. Another group, the "Ivermectin Interest Group" launched a court case against the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), and as a result a compassionate use exemption was granted. SAHPRA stated in April 2021 that "At present, there are no approved treatments for COVID-19 infections." In September 2021, SAHPRA repeated warnings against fake news and misinformation and took up the FDA's stance about ivermectin. Due to lacking evidence of efficacy and growing body of retracted pro-ivermectin papers, SAHPRA revoked the compassionate use program in May 2022. +Despite the absence of high-quality evidence to suggest any efficacy and advice to the contrary, some governments have allowed its off-label use for the prevention and treatment of COVID‑19. Countries that have granted such official approval for ivermectin include the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Mexico, Peru (later rescinded), India (later rescinded), and the Philippines. Cities that have launched campaigns of massive distribution of ivermectin include Cali, Colombia; and Itajai, Brazil. +In Arkansas in 2021, a prison doctor prescribed ivermectin for inmates without their consent. A legal action brought on the inmates' behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was settled with the prison authorities paying compensation. The ACLU said the outcome was "victory for civil rights and medical ethics". +Ivermectin is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating any viral illness and is not authorized for use to treat COVID-19 within the European Union. After reviewing the evidence on ivermectin, the EMA said that "the available data do not support its use for COVID-19 outside well-designed clinical trials". The World Health Organization also said that ivermectin should not be used to treat COVID-19 except in a clinical trial. The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency, Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases, and Brazilian Thoracic Society issued position statements advising against the use of ivermectin for prevention or treatment of early-stage COVID-19. +Several Latin American government health organizations recommended ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment based, in part, on preprints and anecdotal evidence; these recommendations were later denounced by the Pan American Health Organization. +In the United States, an analysis of prescribing data suggested the influence of political affiliation, as Republican-voting areas saw a pronounced surge in ivermectin (and hydroxychloroquine) prescription in 2020. As of June 2025, legislation to make the drug available over-the-counter has passed in four US states. + +=== Human use of veterinary products === + +As people began using veterinary preparations of ivermectin for personal use stocks began to decline, requiring vendors to ration their sales and raise prices. In the United States supplies of horse dewormer paste began to run low as people used it for themselves; some vendors required their customers to show a picture of themselves and their horses together, to provide assurance they were purchasing the paste for animal use. +In August 2021 the CDC issued a health alert prompted by a sharp rise in calls to poison control centres about ivermectin poisoning. The CDC described two cases requiring hospitalization; in one, a person had drunk an injectable ivermectin product intended for use in cattle. +In August 2021, the FDA tweeted "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it". Following a legal challenge from ivermectin-prescribing doctors, in August 2023 a US court found the FDA had exceeded its authority by posting the tweet, which they said amounted to medical advice, and that doctors could prescribe whatever they wanted. Remarks made during the legal proceedings were misrepresented on social media to claim that the FDA had somehow reversed its position on ivermectin and COVID-19, which in reality remained unchanged. In March 2024 the FDA settled outstanding litigation and removed all social media posts that could be construed as giving medical advice and thus exceeding its statutory authority, while re-iterating that its position remained unchanged and that "currently available clinical trial data do not demonstrate that ivermectin is effective against COVID-19". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44e900ab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:26.935463+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Intellectual property and economics == +As the patent on ivermectin has expired, generic drug manufacturers have been able to enjoy significantly increased revenue prompted by the spike in demand. One Brazilian company, Vitamedic Industria Farmaceutica, saw its annual revenue from ivermectin sales increase to $85 million in 2020, a more than fivefold increase. +In Australia in 2020 Thomas Borody, a professor and gastroenterologist, announced that he had discovered a "cure" for COVID-19: a combination of ivermectin, doxycycline and zinc. In a media interview Borody stated "The biggest thing about this is no one will make money from this". It later emerged that Topelia Australia, Borody's company, had filed a patent for the drug combination. Borody was accused of not adequately disclosing his conflict of interest. +In October 2021 a large network of companies selling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was disclosed in the US, targeting primarily right-wing and vaccine-hesitant groups through social media and conspiracy videos by anti-vaccine activists such as Simone Gold. The network had 72,000 customers who collectively paid $15 million for consultations and medications. + +== Misinformation and advocacy == +Ivermectin became a cause célèbre for right-wing figures promoting it as a supposed COVID treatment. Misinformation about ivermectin's efficacy spread widely on social media, fueled by publications that have since been retracted, misleading "meta-analysis" websites with substandard methods, and conspiracy theories about efforts by governments and scientists to "suppress the evidence." + +=== Social media advocacy === +Ivermectin has been championed by a number of social media influencers. + +American podcaster and author Bret Weinstein took ivermectin during a livestream video and said both he and his wife Heather Heying had not been vaccinated because of their fears concerning COVID-19 vaccines. In response, YouTube demonetized the channel. +In the United Kingdom, retired nurse educator and YouTuber John Campbell has posted videos carrying false claims about the use of ivermectin in Japan as a possible cause of a "miracle" decline in cases. In reality, there is no evidence of ivermectin use in Japan and it is not approved as a COVID-19 treatment. In February 2022, reports also appeared falsely claiming that the Japanese company Kowa had been able to evidence the efficacy of ivermectin in a phase III trial. + +=== Misleading meta-analysis websites === +During the pandemic, several misleading websites appeared purporting to show meta-analyses of clinical evidence in favor of ivermectin's use in treating COVID-19. The sites in question had anonymous owners, multiple domains which redirected to the same content, and used many colourful, but misleading, graphics to communicate their point. The web servers used for these sites are the same as those previously used to spread misinformation about hydroxychloroquine. +While these sites gained traction among many non-scientists on social media, they also violated many of the basic norms of meta-analysis methodology. Notably, many of these sites included studies with widely different dosages of the treatment, an open-label design (in which experimenters and participants both know who is in the control group), poor-quality control groups (such as another untested treatment which may worsen outcomes), or no control group at all. Another issue is the inclusion of multiple ad-hoc unpublished trials which did not undergo peer-review, and which had different incompatible outcome measures. Such methodological problems are known to distort the findings of meta-analyses and cause spurious or false findings. The misinformation communicated by these sites created confusion among the public and policymakers. + +=== Fake endorsements === + +On Twitter, a tweet spread with a photograph of William C. Campbell, the co-inventor of ivermectin, alongside a fabricated quotation saying that he endorsed ivermectin as a COVID treatment. Campbell reacted by saying "I utterly despise and deny the remarks attributed to me on social media" adding that his field of expertise was not virology so he would never comment in such a way. +In February 2022 a report was broadcast by Australia's Nine Network about Queen Elizabeth II having COVID-19. The segment featured Mukesh Haikerwal and included an intercut image of a box of ivermectin tablets, leading antivaxxers to spread the idea via social media that ivermectin was being specially used, as a "treatment fit for a queen". Haikerwal stated that he rejected ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, and the network issued an apology to him, saying the ivermectin image has been included "as a result of human error". + +=== Scientists targeted === +In July 2021 Andrew Hill, a senior research fellow at Liverpool University, published a meta-analysis of ivermectin use for COVID which suggested it may be beneficial. However, as research fraud subsequently emerged in some studies included in the meta-analysis, Hill revised his analysis to discount the suspect evidence, and found the apparent success of ivermectin evaporated as a result. Writing for The Guardian, Hill recounted how the revision led to him being attacked on social media as being supposedly in the pay of Bill Gates, and how he was sent photos of coffins and hanged nazis. +Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz has identified ivermectin as being one of the most politicized topics in the pandemic, alongside vaccination. Meyerowitz-Katz has used social media to publicize flaws in ivermectin research and as a result, he says, has received more death threats than for any other topic he has engaged with. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eeb6f7b32 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Ivermectin during the COVID-19 pandemic" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivermectin_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:26.935463+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance === +In December 2020, the chair of the US Senate Homeland Security Committee, Ron Johnson, used a Senate hearing to promote fringe theories about, and unproven treatments for, COVID-19, including ivermectin. Among the witnesses was Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care doctor, who erroneously described ivermectin as "miraculous" and a "wonder drug" to be used against COVID-19. Video footage of his statements went viral on social media, receiving over one million views as of 11 December 2020. +In the United States, the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 is championed by an organization led by Kory called Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which promotes "the global movement to move #Ivermectin into the mainstream". The effort went viral on social media, where it was adopted by COVID deniers, anti-vaccination proponents, and conspiracy theorists. A review article by FLCCC members on the efficacy of ivermectin, which had been provisionally accepted by a Frontiers in Pharmacology, was subsequently rejected on account of what the publisher called "a series of strong, unsupported claims based on studies with insufficient statistical significance" meaning that the article did "not offer an objective [or] balanced scientific contribution to the evaluation of ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19". David Gorski wrote that the narrative of ivermectin as a "miracle cure" for COVID-19 is a "metastasized" version of a similar conspiracy theory around the drug hydroxychloroquine, in which unspecified powers are thought to be suppressing news of the drug's effectiveness for their own profit. + +=== Pfizer's drug development === +Conspiracy theorists on the Internet have claimed that Pfizer's anti-COVID-19 drug paxlovid is merely "repackaged ivermectin". Their claims are based on a narrative that Pfizer is suppressing the true benefits of ivermectin and rely on superficial correspondences between the drugs and a misunderstanding of their respective pharmokinetics. Paxlovid is a combination drug of two small-molecule antiviral compounds (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) which have no connection to ivermectin. + +== Aftermath == +The widespread misconduct found in ivermectin/COVID-19 research has prompted introspection within the scientific community. +Australian epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz wrote, "There are no two ways about it: Science is flawed". Meyerowitz-Katz estimates that as of December 2021, credence in flawed research had led to ivermectin being perhaps the most used medication worldwide during the pandemic and that the scale of the problem suggested a radical rethink was needed of how medical research was assessed. + +== See also == +Big Pharma conspiracy theories +COVID-19 drug repurposing research +COVID-19 misinformation +Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine during the COVID-19 pandemic + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JWA_List-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JWA_List-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..12fdc77e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JWA_List-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "JWA List" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JWA_List" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:29.208806+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +JWA List (German: Liste JWA, JWA), also known as JWA – Wirth Anderlan, is a right-wing populist and separatist political party active in South Tyrol, Italy. The party has the aim of representing the German-speaking minority, holds an Eurosceptic stance, opposes immigration, and is involved in anti-vaccine activism. The party's founder and leader is Jürgen Wirth Anderlan, former Südtiroler Schützenbund captain. + + +== History == +The JWA List was founded by Jürgen Wirth Anderlan in July 2023 with the aim of running in the 2023 provincial election. JWA ran on a right-wing platform, especially opposing immigration and advocating for the separation of South Tyrol from Italy. +In the election, the party took 5.9% of the vote, fending off competition from the alike anti-vaccine Vita, becoming the province's fifth largest party, surpassing the established right-wing Die Freiheitlichen and electing two councilors, Anderlan and SVP-dissident Andreas Colli. +In October 2024 Colli left the party and launched the alternative Us Citizens (WB). + + +== Election results == + + +=== Provincial Council === + + +== Leadership == +Leader: Jürgen Wirth Anderlan (2023–present) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lyons-Weiler-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lyons-Weiler-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7114939a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lyons-Weiler-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "James Lyons-Weiler" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lyons-Weiler" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:57.552655+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +James Lyons-Weiler (born July 4, 1967) is an American antivaxxer activist who operates the non-profit organization Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge. His doctorate is in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. He was a University of Pittsburgh faculty member (2003-2009) and a member of the Early Detection Research Network through the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. + + +== History == +Lyons-Weiler worked as an assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell from 2000 to 2002. He then served as faculty at the University of Pittsburgh from 2003 to 2009. + + +== Controversies == +Lyons-Weiler has been making numerous claims about COVID-19, and about vaccines in general for years. +He claimed in February 2020 that a specific genetic sequence INS1378 in the SARS-CoV-2 genome was sufficiently close to pShuttle-SN - an engineered sequence - to prove that the virus was probably engineered in a laboratory. This claim was repeatedly discredited by researchers and fact-checkers. The sequences were only 67% similar and one paper demonstrated that over 100 bat coronaviruses had closer matches to INS1378 than pShuttle-SN. The even more inaccurate claim that SARS-CoV-2 contained pShuttle-SN was, however, spread widely by Infowars and others. +His WordPress blog, Science, Public Health Policy and the Law claims to be a scientific journal, with an advisory board consisting of three other prominent anti-vaccine personalities. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website +James Lyons-Weiler publications indexed by Google Scholar \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f3ba254ac --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Jeanette Wilson" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:15.640359+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Jeanette Wilson (born 1962 or 1963) is a New Zealand medium, reiki practitioner, and spiritual healer. She says she is able to heal people with the assistance of spirits. She has been criticised for promoting anti-vaccination views, unproven supplements, anti-5G claims, and dangerous COVID-19 health advice. + +== Early life and family == +Wilson was born in the United Kingdom. She worked as a Lloyds Bank manager in the UK until she began working as a psychic healer, reiki healer, and medium. She says her grandfather was the first dead person to contact her. She moved from the UK to New Zealand in 1999. Her partner is Andrew Carter and they live in Orewa in Auckland. + +== Mediumship and psychic healing == +Wilson has said that she is able to communicate with spirits who help her to conduct spiritual healing. She has stated that her psychic healing abilities include curing arthritis and the healing of vision impairments that require glasses. She has also stated that she has treated paralysis, blindness in one eye, and many cases of life-threatening cancer. Wilson has said she never discourages her clients from seeking medical care. When asked whether curing people of medical conditions was accurate, Wilson replied that she doesn't use the word "cure" and wondered why medical professionals don't want to learn more about what she is doing. At a show in Chester England, Wilson said that a dead surgeon named Augusto de Almeida was "working through her", and she was quoted as saying: "I wear white so that any energies taken off the patient, the recipients of the healing, don't contaminate my energy fields." +She has referred a client to João Teixeira de Faria and her meditation techniques taught in workshops are from the 'Casa in Brazil'. She has described her claimed psychic abilities in the context of her Christianity, stating that they are a gift from God. She has stated that her psychic sessions always include the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary. + +== Media coverage and public events == +In 2004, Wilson was the subject of a New Zealand TV Channel Three series titled Dare to Believe. Later, she was featured on an episode of 20/20. She has written four books about her experiences as a professional medium and about other new age topics: Backstage with Jeanette Wilson, Medium Rare, Rare Moments and Dare to Believe: Explore Your Own Psychic Abilities. +Vicki Hyde, science writer and former chair of the New Zealand Skeptics, highlights a lack of skeptical balance in media portrayals of Wilson and other self-described psychics. She remarked, "People want to hear about dead people; they don’t want to hear about a pragmatic, practical explanation that’s not half as exciting." Hyde had appeared alongside of Wilson in a television production that investigated psychic claims. Hyde expressed concern that the production and editing process resulted in her perspective being diminished in comparison to Wilson's. +Wilson has held public events in the UK and in New Zealand, as well as weekend workshops and psychic surgery sessions. She also conducts private consultations. +In February 2022, while participating in the Wellington protest, outside the New Zealand Parliament, Wilson said a police officer grabbed her and applied pressure to her windpipe, blocking her airway, and then her sternum, eventually breaking it. The police refused to render aid. + +== Anti-science claims == +Wilson has spread anti-vaccine messages, claims that 5G technology is harmful, and has said that good and bad spirits can influence people, potentially leading to drug and gambling addiction. +The Good Thinking Society's project director, Michael Marshall, has expressed concerns that Wilson's shows may discourage people from seeking medical help while "wasting their money," and that her anti-vaccine rhetoric may endanger children. Several venues in the UK cancelled appearances by Wilson after Marshall contacted them about these concerns. The NZ Skeptics made a similar effort to urge venues to cancel Wilson's events during her tour of New Zealand. The chair of the organisation, Craig Shearer, voiced concerns about the risk of participants forgoing medical care and suffering financial exploitation. After Marshall contacted the UK Advertising Standards Authority, Wilson said she was cautioned to comply with UK regulations and was told to remove claims of working with spirit world doctors, any of her videos that mentioned diseases, and that she was only allowed to say she could "give people feeling of well being". +In June 2020, The Spinoff reported that in an online workshop May 28, attended by investigator Susan Gerbic who recorded the event and notified the publication, Wilson made unsubstantiated claims including: + +A scientifically unproven dietary supplement, HFI, described as a "soil-based, broad spectrum anti-viral supplement", would prevent COVID-19. +The use of ventilators for COVID-19 treatment was misguided, and that patients "needed antibiotics" instead. +The coronavirus was man-made but was accidentally released. +The coronavirus is going to "miraculously disappear" by the end of 2020 due to mutations. +Wilson also said that God created a body with an immune system so she was not a believer in vaccines. Elsewhere in the video, Wilson defends Donald Trump, saying "He's seen through [infectious diseases expert and coronavirus taskforce member] Anthony Fauci, he's sorted out the World Health Organization, he's stopping the 5G, he's stopping mandatory vaccines, all the key things that need to happen, he's onto it a lot more than most people realise." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..50ae4f78f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Jeanette Wilson" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_Wilson" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:15.640359+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Dietary supplements == +In July 2020, RNZ reported that Wilson was claiming that a bluetooth device called the Healy Resonance she sells for the starting price of $780 can dose vitamins "vibrationally." In a sales-pitch, Wilson says "This is the best investment you'll probably make your whole life, for what it can do for you and your family". The Consumer NZ head of research said Wilson's claims were "a load of nonsense and unfortunately these kinds of claims are rife and enforcement is lacking which means shonky traders are making advantage of the situation". Physics professor Richard Easther of the University of Auckland says that claims being made about the product are not valid, and that he "wouldn't touch this with a barge pole." A Medsafe spokesman said Healy was being sold by Wilson as a medical device, therefore its promotion via testimonial was not permitted. The statement went on to warn that consumers with serious health conditions should speak to a healthcare professional before buying a device like the Healy. +At her shows, Wilson advertises a dietary supplement, called alfa PXP Royale, made from micronised black rice. The supplement is sold by Enzacta, a multi-level marketing company for which Wilson is a promoter, at a dramatic markup relative to the cost of whole purple rice sold in supermarkets or "micronised purple rice" sold online. The Spinoff reported that Wilson promotes PXP Royale as "the most amazing product on the face of the Earth", and sells jars containing 30 servings at NZD$148 each. Wilson has claimed of PXP, that it could be used preventatively or when someone starts having symptoms. She also suggested, against all evidence, that "the people most at risk [from COVID-19] are obviously the younger people, as in babies and children that haven't got such a robust immune system". A surgeon interviewed by Australia's A Current Affair television show criticised the marketing of the supplement, stating that customers are "wasting their money"...[and]..."they may be led to believe they don't need to take their effective treatments for conditions they may actually have." Despite this, Wilson claims that the "purple powder" can help elderly people "keep their vibrations up". + +== Political career == +On 11 August 2020 Wilson announced she would run for parliament against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the Mount Albert electorate as a candidate of the Public Party in the 2020 New Zealand general election. The Public Party had joined forces (26 July 2020) with Jami-Lee Ross's Advance NZ party, and has labelled COVID-19 a "plandemic". Wilson said "If I'm putting my hat in the ring and going into politics, I'm going to do it with absolute truth and absolute integrity." +In her announcement, Wilson accused Jacinda Ardern of treason, and revealed evidence she said could bring the election to a halt. She questioned the lawfulness of the government, saying "I have found something that is going to challenge our very constitution here, whether our government has the right to make the laws – such as the Covid." Constitutional lawyer Andrew Geddis, when asked for his opinion on Wilson's legal pronouncements, described them as incoherent and lacking legal substance. He noted that they piece together various events and documents in a way that may superficially resemble a legal argument but ultimately amount to nonsense. He also pointed out that similar types of claims have been raised before. Twenty-two hours later Wilson changed her mind and withdrew, saying, "I am guided what to do, we all are, the question is whether we listen ... This morning I was guided to withdraw from being a candidate in the forthcoming election." +In the 2023 New Zealand general election Wilson was planning to stand for New Zealand Loyal (NZL) in the Whangaparoa electorate, but NZL failed to properly register her and other candidates. + +== Selected publications == +— (2004). Medium Rare (3rd ed.). Zenith Publishing. ISBN 1877365017. +— (2005). Rare Moments. Zenith Publishing. ISBN 1877365122. +— (2006). Dare to Believe: Explore Your Own Psychic Abilities. New Zealand: Random House New Zealand. ISBN 1869417682. +— (2007). Backstage with Jeanette Wilson. Australia: Random House. ISBN 978-1869418939. + +== See also == +Energy (healing or psychic or spiritual) +Taylor Winterstein (fellow PXP promoter) + +== References == + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Cosmology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Cosmology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5b27540d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Cosmology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Journal of Cosmology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:48.420961+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Journal of Cosmology is a website that describes itself as a "scientific journal". It has been criticized for lacking oversight and proper peer-review, and promoting fringe theories. It was established in 2009 by neuroscientist Rhawn Joseph; as of 2023, Rudolph Schild is the editor-in-chief. + + +== Scope == +The Journal of Cosmology is an online publication that contains material on a wide range of subjects in cosmology, astronomy, astrobiology, and Earth and planetary sciences. Writing on biology, geology, physics, chemistry, extinction, the origin and evolution of life, panspermia and Martian colonization and exploration has all been published. + + +== Reliability == +The quality of the claimed peer review has been heavily criticized. +The website promotes fringe viewpoints and speculative viewpoints on astrobiology, astrophysics, and quantum physics. Skeptical blogger and biologist PZ Myers said that "it isn't a real science journal at all, but [the] website of a small group... obsessed with the idea of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life originated in outer space and simply rained down on Earth." It was identified as a predatory journal by Jeffrey Beall. + + +== History == + + +=== Disputes with scientists === +Scientists who have posted accounts of personal attacks by the journal's staff members include Susan Blackmore, David Brin, and PZ Myers. + + +=== Hoover paper === +In early March 2011, a controversy erupted over the publication of a paper by Richard B. Hoover, a retired NASA scientist, with claims of evidence in meteorites that life on Earth could have come from space via debris carrying life from a comet. The website published a dismissal of the criticism as "a barrage of slanderous attacks" from "crackpots and charlatans", calling themesleves courageous for resisting the "terrorists" whose actions they equated with the Inquisition. +NASA distanced itself from Hoover's findings, and issued a statement saying that the paper had been previously submitted in 2007 to International Journal of Astrobiology which did not accept it for review. +On 11 March, in an open letter to the editors of Science and Nature, Schild proposed to establish a commission to investigate the validity of the Hoover paper, which would be led by three experts appointed by Journal of Cosmology, Science and Nature. Schild said he would interpret "any refusal to cooperate, no matter what the excuse" from Nature or Science as "vindication for the Journal of Cosmology and the Hoover paper, and an acknowledgment that the editorial policies of the Journal of Cosmology are beyond reproach". Schild subsequently issued another statement standing by their publication process and suggesting that criticisms were "slander and histrionic tirades", and comparing their critics to "lunatics... unleashed to throw filth", suggesting that their own actions were part of a 2000-year struggle of science against religion. Since their critics had "refused to cooperate" in a review, they reaffirmed the study to be "beyond reproach". + +The James Randi Educational Foundation awarded Hoover the tongue-in-cheek Pigasus Award, for repeatedly announcing, "[a]long with the crackpot Journal of Cosmology", widely dismissed claims that he had found signs of life in Mars rocks. + + +=== NASA lawsuit === + +On 17 January 2014, NASA reported that a Martian rock, named "Pinnacle Island", that was not in an Opportunity rover image taken on Sol 3528, "mysteriously" appeared 13 days later in a similar image taken on Sol 3540. One possible explanation, presented by Steven Squyres, principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, was that the rover, in one of its turning motions, flicked the rock from a few feet away and into the new location. In response to the finding, Rhawn Joseph published an article on the website on 17 January 2014, concluding that the object is in fact a living organism resembling apothecia. Joseph then filed a writ of mandamus on 27 January 2014 in San Francisco Federal Court, demanding that NASA examine the rock more closely. +NASA had already examined the rock on 8 January 2014 and confirmed it was a rock with a high sulphur, manganese, and magnesium content. According to Squyres, "We have looked at it with our microscope. It is clearly a rock." On 14 February 2014, NASA released an image showing the location from where the "Pinnacle Island" rock was dislodged by the Opportunity rover. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +P. Plait (7 March 2011). "Followup thoughts on the meteorite fossils claim". Bad Astronomy. Discover. Retrieved 22 September 2011. + + +== External links == +Official website - May 2021 archived version \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Global_Drug_Policy_and_Practice-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Global_Drug_Policy_and_Practice-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1e08c8852 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Global_Drug_Policy_and_Practice-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Global_Drug_Policy_and_Practice" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:49.533775+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice describes itself as an open access peer-reviewed public health journal. Critics say it is biased, not peer-reviewed, and not a legitimate scientific journal. It is funded by the US Department of Justice. + + +== Background == +The journal is published online quarterly by the Institute on Global Drug Policy and the International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug Abuse. These are both part of the Drug Free America Foundation, an organization that has referred to harm reduction efforts as "harm promotion", and characterized such efforts as "a tactic to normalize drug use". The stated goal of the Institute itself is as follows: + +The Institute is charged with creating and strengthening international laws that hold drug users and dealers criminally accountable for their actions. It will vigorously promote treaties and agreements that provide clear penalties to individuals who buy, sell or use harmful drugs... The institute supports efforts to oppose policies based on the concept of harm reduction. + + +== Criticism == +The publication has been criticized for having a political agenda to combat harm-reduction policies. It is funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention which is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. The president of the Canadian Health Libraries Association has also said it appears to be driven more by a political agenda than by science: + +"That journal, which looks legitimate, which is being used by the Canadian government to back up various decisions, is supported by groups that believe enforcement is the route to reducing drug use." +Also referring to this journal, authors in the Canadian Medical Association Journal wrote, + +Efforts to undermine the science specific to HIV prevention for injection drug users are becoming increasingly sophisticated. One new and worrisome trend is the creation of internet sites posing as open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journals. One such example, funded by the Drug Free America Foundation, contains a review of the research supporting needle exchange program and declares that the "effectiveness of NEPs [ needle-exchange programs ] to reduce HIV among IDUs [ injection drug users ] is overrated;" it further claims that the WHO position on needle exchange programs "is not based on solid evidence." +An opinion piece in The Lancet Infectious Diseases stated "To our knowledge, this is the first time a lobby group such as the Drug Free America Foundation has created for itself a venue for the dissemination of opinion essays, which to the untrained eye could easily be mistaken for a scientific journal". + + +== Use by Canadian Government == +In 2007, the Canadian Minister of Health, Tony Clement, cited the journal to justify the Canadian Government's objections to harm-reduction programs. + + +== See also == +Politicization of science +War on drugs + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Historical_Review-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Historical_Review-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..423f6e1b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Historical_Review-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Journal of Historical Review" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Historical_Review" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:50.726247+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Journal of Historical Review was a non-peer reviewed, pseudoacademic periodical focused on promoting Holocaust denial. It was published by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), based in Torrance, California. It ran quarterly from 1980 until 1992, and then bimonthly from 1993 until publication ceased in 2002. + + +== History == +The journal was established in 1978 by the far-right political activist Willis Carto, derived from Carto's The American Mercury. Its first issue appeared in 1980. +Its first editor was David McCalden, who then left the periodical in 1981 after a dispute with Carto. He was replaced by Tom Marcellus, who was replaced in February 1983 with Keith Stimely, until Stimely quit the IHR in February 1985. The impetus for this was his claim that Carto had, without consulting him, removed part of an article by Robert Faurisson that was critical of David Irving (both Holocaust deniers) from the Journal. In 1985, Mark Weber joined the institute's editorial advisory committee and was made editor of the journal in 1992. He was the editor from then until the journal's end. +Publication was suspended for a time due to the Mel Mermelstein case, which caused the IHR great financial difficulties. It was revived in 1988, with a magazine rather than academic style. This was accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign, which increased the periodical's circulation to 7,000 from 4,500. Its circulation was at 6,000 in 1993, but this fell to 3,000 by the time of the paper's end. +In the 1980s, the IHR's members (principally Marcellus and Weber), seeing the IHR as a serious group, became increasingly embarrassed by how outspoken Carto was in his antisemitism; they also came into conflict over Carto's usage of funds (alleging he had stole several million dollars from them). in 1993, they wrote a document, published in the Journal, rebuking him and calling him a liability that had contributed little to the IHR. They voted to oust him and filed a lawsuit against Carto. +The journal commenced publication in the spring of 1980 as a quarterly periodical. No issues were published between April 1996 and May 1997. It continued until 2002, when it became defunct due to financial problems. After publication of the journal ceased, the IHR publishes its Bulletin only in an online format, although back issues are still made available on the Institute website. + + +== Contents == +Its subject was primarily Holocaust denial, though other topics were discussed, if only at times to fill space. In terms of topics covered it was heavily European in orientation, though a majority of its contributors were Americans. The journal published original content but also sometimes reprinted articles from deceased authors to fill space. In an analysis of its contents, historian Stephen E. Atkins found that 34.4% of articles were on exclusively Holocaust denial articles, while "revisionist" history of all kinds (including on the Holocaust) was 41.5% of its coverage, and 13% was on topics unrelated to Holocaust denial. Its contents were initially academic in style, but following the 1988 revival were changed to a magazine format with photographs and colors. +Writer Spencer Sunshine described it as the "premier Holocaust denial publication in the United States". The journal became a platform for Holocaust deniers around the world, with the editorial board including, among others, Germans Udo Walendy, Wilhelm Stäglich, and Georg Franz-Willing; French Robert Faurisson and Henri Roques; Argentinian W. Beweraggi-Allende, Australian John Tuson Bennett; Spanish Enrique Aynat; Italian Carlo Mattogno; and American M. A. R. Barker. + + +== Editors == +David McCalden (1980–1981) +Tom Marcellus (1981–1983) +Keith Stimely (1983–1985) +Mark Weber (1992–2002) + + +== Reception == +The Journal's critics have included the Anti-Defamation League, the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and scholars including Robert Hanyok, a National Security Agency historian, and many others who have described the journal as pseudo-scientific. Scholar of the radical right Jeffrey Kaplan called it a "serious-looking, pseudo-academic journal". Historian Stephen E. Atkins wrote that the contents of the journal were "cleverly intertwined between Holocaust denial and what might be considered as historical revisionism". +Jonathan Petropoulos wrote in The History Teacher that the "[journal] is shockingly racist and antisemitic: articles on 'America's Failed Racial Policy' and anti-Israel pieces accompany those about gas chambers... They clearly have no business claiming to be a continuation of the revisionist tradition, and should be referred to as 'Holocaust Deniers'." +Russian historians Igor Ryzhov and Maria Borodina commented that the fact that the Institute for Historical Review published its own historical journal "helped not only to unite the deniers into a single movement, but also to give their activities a form of pseudo-scientificness." The Organization of American Historians commissioned a study of the journal in which a panel had found that it was "nothing but a masquerade of scholarship". + + +== References == + + +=== Works cited === +Atkins, Stephen E. (2009). Holocaust Denial as an International Movement. Westport: Praeger Publishing. ISBN 978-0-313-34538-8. +Coogan, Kevin (1999). Dreamer of the Day: Francis Parker Yockey and the Postwar Fascist International. Brooklyn: Autonomedia. ISBN 978-1-57027-039-0. +Kaplan, Jeffrey, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of White Power: A Sourcebook on the Radical Racist Right. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7425-0340-3. +Michael, George (2008). Willis Carto and the American Far Right. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-3198-9. +Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason's Siege. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-57601-0. + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Parapsychology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Parapsychology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d5df1064c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Parapsychology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Journal of Parapsychology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Parapsychology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:51.889250+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Journal of Parapsychology is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on psi phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis, as well as human consciousness in general and anomalous experiences. +It was established in April 1937 by Joseph Banks Rhine while at Duke University. It is published by the Rhine Research Center, and the current editor-in-chief is Sally Ann Drucker of the same institution. The journal is abstracted and indexed in PsycINFO. It publishes research reports, theoretical discussions, book reviews, and correspondences, as well as the abstracts of papers presented at the Parapsychological Association's annual meeting. +According to Anomalistic Psychology, authored by Chris French and colleagues, it is "widely recognized as the highest quality journal within the field." However, parapsychology has been criticized as a pseudoscience, and most mainstream scientists reject it. + + +== See also == +Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research +Journal of Near-Death Studies +Journal of Consciousness Studies +Journal of Scientific Exploration +Parapsychology + + +== Further reading == +Holt, Nicola; Simmonds-Moore, Christine; Luke, David; French, Christopher C. (16 September 2017). "Pseudoscience and the Scientific Status of Parapsychology". Anomalistic Psychology. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 77-93 [85ff]. ISBN 9780230364097. +Gross, Richard (6 July 2017). Psychology in Historical Context: Theories and Debates. Routledge. ISBN 9781134839254. +Joshi, S. T. (2007). Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 420. ISBN 978-0-313-33782-6. +Block, Courtney M. (14 September 2022). The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 171ff. ISBN 978-1-5381-5546-2. +Burke, Peter (17 April 2013). "Parapsychology". A Social History of Knowledge II: From the Encyclopaedia to Wikipedia. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7456-5961-9. +"Journal of Parapsychology". Nature. 140 (3537): 272. 1937. Bibcode:1937Natur.140R.272.. doi:10.1038/140272b0. S2CID 4061947. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Social,_Political_and_Economic_Studies-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Social,_Political_and_Economic_Studies-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..08622e633 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Social,_Political_and_Economic_Studies-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Social,_Political_and_Economic_Studies" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:54.169690+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies was a quarterly journal published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies. It was founded in 1976 by anthropologist Roger Pearson, and was originally published by The Council of American Affairs, an American representative in the World Anti Communist League. It was published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies, of which Pearson was the president as of 1982. It had been identified as one of two international journals which regularly published articles pertaining to race and intelligence with the goal of supporting the idea that white people are inherently superior (the other such journal being Mankind Quarterly). Notable contributors to the journal include Jack Kemp, Jesse Helms, and Robert S. McNamara. In 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to Pearson personally thanking him for the most recent issue of the Journal, which was never disavowed by the White House. The White House did, however, request that Pearson stop using the letter for the purposes of publicity. According to the journal's website, Vol. 47, Nos. 3-4 (Fall -Winter 2022) was the final issue. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website +Articles at ResearchGate \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_tornado-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_tornado-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..69924c4c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_tornado-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "Junkyard tornado" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkyard_tornado" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:50.177367+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The junkyard tornado, sometimes known as Hoyle's fallacy, is a fallacious argument formulated by Fred Hoyle against Earth-based abiogenesis and in favor of panspermia. The junkyard tornado argument has been taken out of its original context by theists to argue for intelligent design, and has since become a mainstay in the rejection of evolution by religious groups, even though Fred Hoyle declared himself an atheist, and even though the junkyard tornado argument is considered a fallacy in its original context of Earth-based abiogenesis vs. panspermia. +The junkyard tornado argument uses a calculation of the probability of abiogenesis based on false assumptions, as comparable to "a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein" and to compare the chance of obtaining even a single functioning protein by chance combination of amino acids to a solar system full of blind men solving Rubik's Cubes simultaneously. It was used originally by English astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) in his book The Intelligent Universe, where he tried to apply statistics to evolution and the origin of life. Similar reasoning was advanced in Darwin's time, and indeed as long ago as Cicero in classical antiquity. +Hoyle's fallacy contradicts many well-established and widely tested principles in the field of evolutionary biology. As the fallacy argues, the odds of the sudden construction of higher lifeforms are indeed improbable. However, what the junkyard tornado postulation fails to take into account is the vast amount of support that evolution proceeds in many smaller stages, each driven by natural selection rather than by random chance, over a long period of time. The Boeing 747 was not designed in a single unlikely burst of creativity, just as modern lifeforms were not constructed in one single unlikely event, as the junkyard tornado scenario suggests. +The theory of evolution has been studied and tested extensively by numerous researchers and scientists and is the most scientifically accurate explanation for the origins of complex life. + + +== Hoyle's statement == +According to Fred Hoyle's analysis, the probability of obtaining all of life's approximate 2000 enzymes in a random trial is about one-in-1040,000: + +Life cannot have had a random beginning … The trouble is that there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in 1040,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup. +His junkyard analogy: + +The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way is comparable to the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein. +This echoes his stance, reported elsewhere: + +Life as we know it is, among other things, dependent on at least 2000 different enzymes. How could the blind forces of the primal sea manage to put together the correct chemical elements to build enzymes? +Hoyle used this to argue in favor of panspermia, that the origin of life on Earth was from preexisting life in space. + + +== History and reception == +The junkyard tornado derives from arguments most popular in the 1920s, prior to the modern evolutionary synthesis, which are rejected by evolutionary biologists. A preliminary step is to establish that the phase space containing some biological entity (such as humans, working cells, or the eye) is enormous, something not contentious. The argument is then to infer from the huge size of the phase space that the probability that the entity could appear by chance is exceedingly low, ignoring the key process involved, natural selection. +Sometimes, arguments invoking the junkyard tornado analogy also invoke the universal probability bound, which claims that highly improbable events do not occur. It is refuted by the fact that if all possible outcomes of a natural process are highly improbable when taken individually, then one of the highly improbable outcomes is certain. The true law being referenced is actually the Strong Law of large numbers, but creationists have taken a simple statement made by Borel in books written late in his life concerning probability theory and called this statement Borel's Law. +The calculation of the probability ignores natural selection and falsely assumes that there is discrete uniform distribution. +The junkyard tornado is also applied to cellular biochemistry. This is comparable to the older infinite monkey theorem but instead of the works of William Shakespeare, the claim is that the probability that a protein molecule could achieve a functional sequence of amino acids is too low to be realised by chance alone. The argument conflates the difference between the complexity that arises from living organisms that are able to reproduce themselves (and as such may evolve under natural selection to become better adapted and perhaps more complex over time) with the complexity of inanimate objects, unable to pass on any reproductive changes (such as the multitude of manufactured parts in a Boeing 747). The comparison breaks down because of this important distinction. +According to Ian Musgrave in Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and Probability of Abiogenesis Calculations: + +These people, including Fred, have committed one or more of the following errors. +They calculate the probability of the formation of a "modern" protein, or even a complete bacterium with all "modern" proteins, by random events. This is not the abiogenesis theory at all. +They assume that there is a fixed number of proteins, with fixed sequences for each protein, that are required for life. +They calculate the probability of sequential trials, rather than simultaneous trials. +They misunderstand what is meant by a probability calculation. +They underestimate the number of functional enzymes/ribozymes present in a group of random sequences. +The junkyard tornado argument is rejected by evolutionary biologists as based on false assumptions, since "no biologist imagines that complex structures arise in a single step", as John Maynard Smith put it. Evolutionary biology explains how complex cellular structures evolved by analysing the intermediate steps required for precellular life. It is these intermediate steps that are omitted in creationist arguments, which is the cause of their overestimating of the improbability of the entire process. +Hoyle's argument is a mainstay of pseudosciences like creation science and intelligent design. Richard Dawkins described it as a fallacy in his book The God Delusion, arguing that the existence of God, who under theistic uses of Hoyle's argument is implicitly responsible for the origin of life, defies probability far more than does the spontaneous origin of life even given Hoyle's assumptions. Dawkins describes God as the Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit, an argument that philosopher Alvin Plantinga criticised by questioning Dawkins' contention that God is necessarily complex. + + +== See also == +Infinite monkey theorem +Irreducible complexity +Law of truly large numbers +Objections to evolution +Watchmaker analogy +Weasel program + + +== References == + + +== External links == +"A memorable misunderstanding" Fred Hoyle's Boeing-story in the Evolution/Creation literature by Gert Korthof +Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 1 Chapter 10 Appendix Part 2 Archived 2016-08-20 at the Wayback Machine Contains a number of Hoyle quotations on evolution. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Goldberg-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Goldberg-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..35dc7995d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Goldberg-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Kim Goldberg" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Goldberg" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:22.194927+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Kim Goldberg (born 1954 in Eugene, Oregon) is an American-born journalist, poet and green party supporter who has lived in Canada since the 1970s. + + +== Biography == +Goldberg was born and raised in Oregon, and she holds a degree in Biology from the University of Oregon. She relocated to Canada with her family during the Vietnam War years. +She is the author of four non-fiction books and two collections of poetry. Much of her published work has addressed contemporary social and environmental issues including poverty, homelessness, aboriginal rights, deforestation and nuclear weapons. She was the British Columbia Current Affairs columnist for Canadian Dimension magazine from 1990 to 2002. She has written extensively about the 1990 car bombing of environmental activist Judi Bari in Oakland, California. +Her 2007 book, Ride Backwards On Dragon, was a finalist for Canada's Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for poetry. She is the 2008 winner of the Rannu Fund Poetry Prize for Speculative Literature. +Her 2009 book, Red Zone, is a collection of poems and photographs about the homeless population in Nanaimo, British Columbia, where she has lived for more than thirty years. The book has been taught as a literature course text at Vancouver Island University and at Aspengrove School in Lantzville, British Columbia. + + +== Published works == +Red Zone (Pig Squash Press, 2009) (ISBN 978-0-9783223-7-3) +Ride Backwards on Dragon: a poet's journey through Liuhebafa (Leaf Press, 2007) (ISBN 978-0-9783879-1-4) +Where to See Wildlife on Vancouver Island (Harbour Publishing, 1997) (ISBN 1-55017-160-7) +Vox Populi: Getting Your Ethnic Group on Community TV (New Star Books, 1993) (ISBN 0-921586-12-4) +Submarine Dead Ahead! Waging Peace in America's Nuclear Colony (Harbour Publishing, 1991) (ISBN 0-88971-053-8) +The Barefoot Channel: Community Television as a Tool for Social Change (New Star Books, 1990) (ISBN 0-919573-95-9) +In Anthology + +Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology (University of Georgia Press, 2018) (ISBN 978-0820353159) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Profile from The Writers' Union of Canada +Profile from the League of Canadian Poets Archived October 8, 2009, at the Wayback Machine +Profile from Harbour Publishing Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine +Ride Backwards On Dragon, Leaf Press +Red Zone, Pig Squash Press +Interview with rob mclennan +Kim Goldberg's Poem Gallery \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..56d646538 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Kingsley Hall" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:15.405277+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Kingsley Hall is a community centre, in Powis Road, Bromley-by-Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It dates back to the work of Doris and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their brother, Kingsley Lester, died aged 26 in 1914, leaving money for work in the local area for "educational, social and recreational" purposes, with which the Lesters bought and converted a disused chapel. The current Hall was built with a stone-laying ceremony taking place on 14 July 1927. +A second community centre, also known as Kingsley Hall with a church (KHCCC - Kingsley Hall Church and Community Centre), was later built by the sisters in the neighbouring London Borough of Barking and Dagenham on Parsloes Avenue in Dagenham. KHCCC underwent redevelopment in 2018. +During the General Strike of 1926, Kingsley Hall in Bow became a shelter and soup kitchen for workers. Mohandas Gandhi stayed in Kingsley Hall in 1931 and the building now houses the Gandhi Foundation. The room where he stayed has been preserved. In 1935, hunger marchers on the Jarrow March stayed at the Hall. +In 1965 R. D. Laing and his associates asked the Lesters for permission to use the Hall as an alternative community, influenced by the World War II Northfield experiments, for treating people affected by mental health crisis. Kingsley Hall became home to one of the most radical experiments in psychology of the time. The aim of the experiment by the Philadelphia Association was to create a model for non-restraining, non-drug therapies for those people seriously affected by schizophrenia. +The idea of starting this type of community was an initiative suggested by Mary Barnes an artist and former nurse and, first resident as patient. +The hall was designated a Grade II listed building in September 1973. + +== Origins == +Doris, Muriel and Kingsley Lester grew up in wealth and comfort, though there was a family connection to the poor East End districts. Their grandfather Henry Lester grew up in poverty, starting work as a bricklayer's labourer at the age of eight. Their father, also called Henry Lester started work at the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall and Canning Town at the age of ten. He latterly owned a ship repair yard in Blackwall and would help finance some of his children's early social work. Both father and grandfather were devout Baptists. +Henry Lester bought a cottage in Loughton, (then a countryside district of Essex), to be used as a holiday place by families from Bow. Named after his deceased wife, Rachel Cottage also served to provide holidays for nursery children. +In 1912, Doris and Muriel Lester started a Nursery School at numbers 58 and 60 Bruce Road. Children were fed, clothed and cared for at a charge of one shilling (five pence a day). When mothers could not afford fees, children were sponsored by a network of wealthier supporters. The service was soon expanded to include activities for older groups with the aim to provide for the development of the whole person – the mind, body and spirit – in an environment which brought people together regardless of class, race and religion. +Kingsley Lester died in 1914, leaving what money he had for work in Bow towards "educational, social and recreational" purposes. Doris and Muriel Lester bought an old chapel on the corner of Eagling Road in 1915, which was then re-decorated and fitted out by local volunteers. It was a "people's house", where friends and neighbours, workmen, factory girls and children of Bow came together for "worship, study, fun and friendship". The premises became known as Kingsley Hall, and operated a Nursery, as well as social events, concerts and adult school. Football, Sunday services and summer holiday schemes were also begun. +The aims of the centre were expressed on the membership cards as +"a place of fellowship in which people can meet for social, educational and recreational intercourse without barriers of class, colour or creed." +During World War I, in the face of criticism, Doris and Muriel remained pacifists. Kingsley Hall ran a soup kitchen and stayed open at night for Air Raid Wardens. At the end of the war, Doris and Muriel joined a march to the House of Commons demanding that milk be sent to Germany, where people were starving. A German child was adopted by the members of Kingsley Hall who paid for her to stay with a local family for two years. +After the War, Kingsley Hall maintained strong links with the Suffragettes in east London. Activists campaigned for votes for women in the face of threats. Muriel Lester spoke on street corners and on Sunday mornings in Victoria Park. After her talks, local people contributed towards maintaining services at Kingsley Hall. Muriel became an Alderman on the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar and fought for basic provisions such as milk for children under five. +Enough money was saved to build the Children's House on Bruce Road which was opened by H. G. Wells in 1923. The foundation stones represent: Vision, Nature, Rhythm and Music; Beauty, Health, Education, Motherhood, Internationalism and Fellowship. The Children's House continues to be run as a Nursery School. + +== Powis Road site == +During the 1926 General Strike, the hall became a shelter and soup kitchen for workers. Larger accommodation was needed as the popularity of Kingsley Hall grew, and a new Kingsley Hall was built on Powis Road, with funds from people in the neighbourhood and donations from wealthy patrons. The architect was Charles Cowles-Voysey. +A stone-laying ceremony took place on 14 July 1927. The following people laid stones representing different aspects. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..822850f5c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Kingsley Hall" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:15.405277+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sir Walford Davies laid the brick of MUSIC +Mr J.A.R. Cairns laid the brick of CITIZENSHIP +Miss Sybil Thorndike laid the brick of DRAMA +Miss De Natorp laid the brick of EDUCATION +Mrs D.S. Waterlow laid the brick of OPEN AIR and COUNTRY +Mr C. Cowles-Voysey laid the brick of ARCHITECTURE +Mr P.R. LeMare laid the brick of COMMERCE +Dr Maxwell Garnett laid the brick of WORLD BROTHERHOOD +Miss Mary Arden Shakespeare laid the brick of FRIENDSHIP +Mr John Galsworthy laid the brick of LITERATURE +Mrs J. Douglas Watson laid the brick of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN +Margaret Martin laid the brick of KINGSLEY HALL CLUB +George Lansbury laid the brick of SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE +Mrs Harvey laid the brick of the WOMEN'S CLUB +Tom McCarthy laid the brick of the WAYFARERS +Mayor T.J.Goodway laid the brick of the BOROUGH +Lady Clare Annesley laid the brick of SERVICE +George M. Ll. Davies MP laid the brick of POLITICS +Gilbert Bayes laid the brick of ART +Kingsley Hall (on Powis Road) was opened on 15 September 1928. The building included residential units or cells, and also had a clubroom and dining room, kitchen, office and a space for worship. + +== Gandhi == +In 1931 Mahatma Gandhi accepted an invitation to stay there while he took part in talks on the future of India. He stayed in a small cell-bedroom on the roof, sleeping on the roof itself when the weather was suitable. + + In 1931, Lylie Valentine was a participant in activities at the hall before she became a worker at the nursery. In her pamphlet: Two Sisters and the Cockney Kids, she recounts the excitement surrounding Gandhi's stay in the East End: +The same year (1931), Muriel told us that Mahatma Gandhi (at whose ashram she had stayed in India) was coming over for the Round Table Conference. He had refused to stay at a hotel, but would come if he could live with the working class, so he was to stay at Kingsley Hall....when he arrived, I think all the people in East London waited outside to see him. +...besides doing his work with the Government, he spent a lot of time with us. He visited the Nursery School and all the children called him Uncle Gandhi. At six o'clock each morning, after his prayers, he took his walk along the canal, talking to workmen on the way.... There was something about him that always lives with the people. +His daily walk would start before dawn and typically take about an hour at a brisk pace, taking in much of the local area, especially along the Lea and the local canal network. Routes varied, but he particularly enjoyed the walk along the Sewerbank (now known as the Greenway) through Stratford to Plaistow, because of the elevated views it gave. On these walks he would be joined by crowds of well-wishers eager to speak to him on a very wide range subjects, and this included many children. On occasion he would visit the homes of local people. +He found it easy to relate to the local people, with Muriel Lester observing + +He always enjoyed the swift repartee of Cockney wit. He was never at a loss for a reply in the same vein. +Gandhi lived at Kingsley Hall for 12 weeks, and also visited Kingsley Hall's Dagenham site in that time. Stories that he was accompanied by a goat were pure press invention. Among Gandhi's visitors were Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, the Pearly King and Queen of east London, many politicians including David Lloyd George and the Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang. + +Gandhi loved East London and the East Enders reciprocated. On leaving Kingsley Hall, he wrote in its visitor book: Love surrounded me here +Muriel Lester later accompanied Mahatma Gandhi on his tour of earthquake-shaken regions in Bihar on his anti-untouchability tour during 1934. +In 1954 English Heritage erected a Blue plaque on the façade of the building in honour of Gandhi. + +== Jarrow March == +In 1935 Ellen Wilkinson led the Jarrow March to London, and some of the men were put up at Kingsley Hall. It was the poor helping the poor. They collected their pennies and opened the jumble store for them. Muriel Lester visited the Far East, USA, China, Japan and India to report to the League of Nations on drug investigations in the regions. Muriel Lester retired from full-time work in 1958 and in 1963 she became a Freeman of the Borough of Poplar on her eightieth birthday. Muriel Lester died in 1967. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5268230b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Kingsley Hall" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsley_Hall" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:15.405277+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== R.D. Laing and Kingsley Hall == +Following World War II, with the welfare state having undertaken much of the work advocated by the Lester sisters, Kingsley Hall continued on a quieter note as a youth hostel and community activity centre. +In 1965 R. D. Laing and his colleagues asked the Lesters for use of the Hall as a community for themselves and people in a state of psychosis. As a result, Kingsley Hall became home to the Philadelphia Association and one of the most radical experiments in psychiatry. Based on the notion that psychosis, a state of reality akin to living in a waking dream, is not an illness simply to be eliminated through the electric shocks favoured in the Western tradition of the time but, as in other cultures, a state of trance which could even be valued as mystical or Shamanistic, it sought to allow schizophrenic people the space to explore their madness and internal chaos. Residents (in the grip of psychosis) were often treated with kindness and respect with sincere efforts to alleviate their suffering. +One notable resident of this experiment was Mary Barnes. Along with resident psychiatrist Joseph Berke, Mary later went on to write Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness, describing her stay at Kingsley Hall and use of her mental condition as a vehicle for painting and creative expression. Her account became famous in the 1970s when it was used as the basis for the play Mary Barnes by David Edgar. Another notable resident was the renowned Norwegian author Axel Jensen. +The activities of residents in the "no-holds barred" experiment made the local community largely hostile to the project, and there were regular reports of harassment. After five years (from 1965 to 1970) the project was wound up and Kingsley Hall was boarded up. During the seventies the building was severely damaged. + +== Recent history == + +In the 1980s Kingsley Hall was one of the sets used in the film Gandhi. During the filming Richard Attenborough united with the Kingsley Hall Action Group to raise enough funds to carry out an extensive refurbishing. Many of the local community contributed their skills and commitment to bring Kingsley Hall back into a usable community centre. +Kingsley Hall was reopened 2 March 1985 with events in the week preceding, and has since gone on to be used for activities ranging from youth groups, holiday outings or arts and photography workshops, for advice surgeries, wedding functions and educational projects. It also houses the office of the Gandhi Foundation, which pursues interests of peace internationally, in the tradition of its namesake. +In 1995, The Hall suffered two major burglaries when vandals broke in and burnt down the offices. The committed staff and volunteers were devastated by this destruction, but continued to run youth groups, advice sessions, clubs and meetings. The management interpreted its remit as serving the local community and the cause of international peace and to do so in innovatory ways. +The Hall is run by a trust and is a registered charity no. 263813. Its premises are normally available for use by community and other social groups. In 2009, Kingsley Hall launched its website +The Bishopsgate Institute in London houses the Muriel Lester Archive + +== References == + +== External links == +http://kingsleyhallbow.blogspot.co.uk/ +www.muriellester.org +khccc.com \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_Haynes-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_Haynes-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5bddf7d11 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_Haynes-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "Krista Haynes" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krista_Haynes" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:23.370163+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Krista Ford Haynes (née Ford; born September 13, 1991) is a Canadian former professional women's American football player. She is a daughter of Ontario Premier Doug Ford and niece of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. She was the captain of the Toronto Triumph, a team in the Legends Football League. +Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Haynes has shared COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine and anti-mask sentiment, and has been critical of COVID-19 vaccine passports. + + +== Lingerie Football League == +Haynes, who was a student at Humber College, was one of more than 100 women who tried out for the first team when the league's Toronto franchise first opened for business in 2011. +Press coverage of Haynes' tryout routinely mentioned that she was the niece of then Toronto mayor Rob Ford and the daughter of then city councillor Doug Ford. +According to technology journalist Patrick Seitz, the league had lacked stars in its early seasons, so the limited press coverage the league received treated it solely as a "peep show". He asserted that Haynes and Angela Rypien, the daughter of former Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien, were two potential stars the league could offer in its 2011 season. +Team management chose Haynes as the team's first captain. She also served as the team's marketing manager, responsible for seeking sponsorships. The team did not perform well when it started to compete with more experienced teams in the league. Players voiced concern that they had been issued unsafe equipment, and that the most senior members of the team's coaching staff lacked the experience to train them to compete safely. Following its loss in its first non-exhibition game the team's management fired the one member of the coaching staff who was experienced, who team members felt had the experience to serve as head coach, and four of her fellow team members. In response Haynes and 15 remaining team members resigned. +The Torontoist quoted Haynes' announcement of her resignation from her Facebook page, where she quoted Malcolm X, "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything" to explain her stand on principle. +The Toronto Star interviewed the founder of the Lingerie Football League about Haynes' resignation, who claimed he had spoken with her uncle Rob Ford, who agreed with him that his niece's resignation was a mistake. Although seasons tickets had already gone on sale in March 2012 the league cancelled the 2012 season in April 2012. CTV News cited Haynes resignation as a factor when explaining the cancellation of the season; however, the Triumph were not included in the cancellation, which included only the U.S.-based teams. + + +== Comments on sexual assault == +On August 29, 2012, Haynes stirred controversy through a tweet she sent, an hour after Toronto Police had advised women of a recent outbreak of sexual assaults. Haynes' tweet said: "Stay alert, walk tall, carry mace, take self-defence classes & don't dress like a whore." Section 88 of the Criminal Code lists mace as a "prohibited and restricted weapon". Haynes' comment was compared to those of Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto area police officer whose widely criticized safety suggestion to college students that "women should avoid dressing like sluts not to be victimized" triggered the worldwide SlutWalk phenomenon. + + +== Views on COVID-19 == +Haynes has been critical of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine passports and has expressed anti-mask sentiments. She has also expressed disdain for vaccine mandates. Her husband was placed on unpaid leave by the Toronto Police Service due to his lack of vaccination. She has compared public health protocols and vaccine mandates to the holocaust and the civil rights movement. +In a series of posts on Instagram, Haynes has made unsubstantiated criticisms of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and their effectiveness, including the benefits of vaccine boosters, in which she claimed that "every booster you take is going to weaken your natural immunity." She has also expressed the incorrect belief that vaccination causes viral shedding and encouraged her Instagram followers to "rise up" and continue "holding the line for medical freedom". On and around Remembrance Day, Haynes suggested that people should wear remembrance poppies instead of masks in Canada, saying that "If you're headed into a store today and you find it more important to put on a mask than a poppy, rethink your priorities because there have been men and women who have fought bravely and died for our freedoms that we seem to be just handing over today, so please think about that." She later suggested that the Canadian government should have sent every Canadian household a Bible instead of information cards on COVID-19 vaccines. +Haynes believes the Canadian government is conspiring to remove freedoms from citizens while lying to the public about potential vaccine side effects. Haynes added that vaccine information could be disseminated to the Chinese governments and the FBI. She has also shared information against childhood vaccination. +Haynes campaigns against the COVID-19 lockdowns and shares anti-vaccine content on social media. Robyn Urback, writing in The Globe and Mail, has criticized the mainstream media for under reporting her campaign, in the context of Haynes' father being the Premier of Ontario. In January 2022, Haynes attended a rally welcoming trucks in Freedom Convoy 2022, making their way through the Greater Toronto Area. She was seen carrying a flag that said "Fuck Trudeau". +By December 2021, NOW Toronto and The Globe and Mail had published articles covering her position. + + +== Personal life == +Ford is married to David Haynes, a Toronto Police Service officer and bodybuilder. In November 2021, he was put on unpaid leave from the service for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. +On February 15, 2022, Haynes' father Doug Ford acknowledged "family rifts" relating to COVID-19 during a public press conference. +In December 2022, Haynes was conspicuously missing from the family photograph used by Doug Ford on the family Christmas card. + + +== See also == +Ford family (Canada) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Krista Haynes on X \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Borde_Clinic-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Borde_Clinic-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..624b4bd55 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Borde_Clinic-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "La Borde Clinic" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Borde_Clinic" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:16.595846+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The La Borde Clinic (French: [la bɔʁd]; +French: Clinique de la Borde), also known as the Cour-Cheverny Clinic (Clinique de Cour-Cheverny), is a psychiatric clinic that opened in 1953 in the town of Cour-Cheverny in the Loire Valley of France. Still in operation as of August 2023, the La Borde Clinic is a model in institutional psychotherapy, with citizens actively participating in running it. + + +== History == +The clinic was founded by Jean Oury, a psychiatrist who previously worked in experimental therapy at the psychiatric clinic of Saint-Alban. The psychiatric practice borrowed the idea of Hermann Simon that it is necessary to look after the establishment and to look after each citizen, while returning initiative and responsibility to them by developing situations in which they can work and express their creativity. According to its constitution written by Oury, La Borde was founded on three principles: democratic centralism, a rotating basis for the division of labor, and anti-bureaucracy. +From the mid-50s Félix Guattari worked at La Borde, developing its practice and organization and producing alongside Oury a body of theoretical work on the practice and theory of schizoanalysis, set in practice at La Borde, and included in his 1972 collaboration with the philosopher Gilles Deleuze, Anti-Œdipus. +Among the many aspects of La Borde is the annual summer tradition in which the "boarders" and staff work together to perform a play. Nicolas Philibert, the documentary film-maker, made a documentary set at La Borde entitled Every Little Thing (French La Moindre des choses). The film was released in 1997 and follows the citizens and staff staging their production of Operette by Witold Gombrowicz. + + +== La Borde today == +The La Borde Clinic was run by Jean Oury until his death in 2014. Its capacity is 107 beds, and it now includes a so-called day hospital structure with 15 places. +La Borde is known for its plays put on every summer by both residents and caregivers. Nicolas Philibert made a film of it entitled La Moindre des choses, released in theaters in March 1997. +A screening session dedicated to La Borde, in the presence of Jean-Claude Polack (psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and director of publication of the schizoanalysis journal Chimères) and the director François Pain was organized on January 14, 2009, at the Le Méliès cinema in Montreuil by the film programming structure The Missing People. + + +== See also == +Loir-et-Cher Departmental Asylum + + +== Notes == + + +== Sources == +Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. Anti-Œdipus. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 2 vols. 1972-1980. Trans. of L'Anti-Oedipe. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0-8264-7695-3. +Guattari, Félix. 1984. Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-055160-3. +Caló, Susana (2016) 'The Grid', Axiomatic Earth, Tecnosphere Issue, Anthropocene Curriculum & Campus, House of World Cultures (HKW). + + +== External links == +Clinique de La Borde (official website) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-0.md index 6004f8a3b..07356d93d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-1.md index ac608ad4d..dda7b004f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-2.md index 201801ec1..1e1665552 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-3.md index d6c53e640..487d14580 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-4.md index 6786a4199..d1defc513 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-5.md index 8766de6bd..4ffa2766e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-5.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report-5.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 6/6 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_MMR_vaccine-autism_report" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:54:52.620897+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:30.442608+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_confinement_fusion-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_confinement_fusion-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fdeec815a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_confinement_fusion-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Lattice confinement fusion" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_confinement_fusion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:43.954013+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Lattice confinement fusion (LCF) is a type of nuclear fusion in which deuteron-saturated metals are exposed to high energy photons or ion beams avoiding the confined high-temperature plasmas used in other methods of fusion. + + +== History == +In 2020, a team of NASA researchers seeking a new energy source for deep-space exploration missions published the first paper describing a method for triggering nuclear fusion in the space between the atoms of a metal solid, an example of screened fusion. The experiments did not produce self-sustaining reactions, and the electron source itself was energetically expensive. + + +== Technique == +The reaction is fueled with deuterium (2H), a stable isotope of hydrogen composed of one proton, one neutron, and one electron. The deuterium is confined in the space between the atoms of a metal solid such as erbium or titanium. Erbium can indefinitely maintain 1023 cm−3 deuterium atoms at room temperature. The deuteron-saturated metal forms an overall neutral plasma. The electron density of the metal reduces the likelihood that two deuterium nuclei (deuterons) will repel each other as they get closer together. +A dynamitron electron-beam accelerator generates an electron beam that hits a tantalum target and produces gamma rays, irradiating titanium deuteride or erbium deuteride. A gamma ray of about 2.2 megaelectronvolts (MeV) strikes a deuteron and splits it into proton and neutron. The neutron collides with another deuteron. This second, energetic deuteron can experience screened fusion or a stripping reaction. +Though the lattice is notionally at room temperature, LCF creates an energetic environment inside the lattice where individual atoms achieve fusion-level energies. Heated regions are created at the micrometer scale. + + +=== Screened fusion === +The energetic deuteron fuses with another deuteron, yielding either a 3He nucleus and a neutron or a 3H nucleus and a proton. These fusion products may fuse with other deuterons, creating an alpha particle, or with another 3He or 3H nucleus. Each releases energy, continuing the process. + + +=== Stripping reaction === +In a stripping reaction, the metal strips a neutron from accelerated deuteron and fuses it with the metal, yielding a different isotope of the metal. If the produced metal isotope is radioactive, it may decay into another element, releasing energy in the form of ionizing radiation in the process. + + +=== Palladium-silver === +A related technique pumps deuterium gas through the wall of a palladium-silver alloy tubing. The palladium is electrolytically loaded with deuterium. In some experiments this produces fast neutrons that trigger further reactions. Other experimenters (Fralick et al.) also made claims of anomalous heat produced by this system. + + +== Comparison to other fusion techniques == +Pyroelectric fusion has previously been observed in erbium hydrides. A high-energy beam of deuterium ions generated by pyroelectric crystals was directed at a stationary, room-temperature Er2H2 or Er3H2 target, and fusion was observed. +In previous fusion research, such as inertial confinement fusion (ICF), fuel such as the rarer tritium is subjected to high pressure for a nano-second interval, triggering fusion. In magnetic confinement fusion (MCF), the fuel is heated in a plasma to temperatures much higher than those at the center of the Sun. In LCF, conditions sufficient for fusion are created in a metal lattice that is held at ambient temperature during exposure to high-energy photons. ICF devices momentarily reach densities of 1026 cc−1, while MCF devices momentarily achieve 1014. +Lattice confinement fusion requires energetic deuterons and is therefore not cold fusion. + + +== See also == +Inertial confinement fusion +Magnetized target fusion +Pyroelectric fusion + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cantwell_collection-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cantwell_collection-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a7e9cfe10 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cantwell_collection-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Leslie Cantwell collection" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Cantwell_collection" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:46.289018+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Leslie Cantwell collection is a collection of large-format images of space and space exploration, signed and inscribed by astronauts from the Apollo Space programme. It was assembled by British collector Leslie Cantwell, who became interested in the history of space exploration in the late 1990s. The collection has been exhibited at the Proud Galleries of London, the Kansas Cosmosphere, and the New Mexico Museum of Art. +The collection comprises both originals and reprints of official NASA photographs, including images of all six Apollo Moon landings. Some images are original Hasselblad photographs (the official camera used on all Apollo missions). Many of the photographs were taken in space by the astronauts themselves; others were taken by NASA employees on the ground. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_Movement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_Movement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..24a5d34c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_Movement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Leviathan Movement" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan_Movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:32.744963+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Leviathan Movement (Serbian: Покрет Левијатан, romanized: Pokret Levijatan) is a neo-fascist political organisation in Serbia, that presents itself as an animal rights organisation. It is led by Pavle Bihali. + + +== History == +The organisation was formed in 2015 as an animal rights group, focused on safeguarding of stray dogs. In 2016, the movement became popular when videos of the members of organisation rescuing animals showed up on social media, as well as videos of them offering compensation for information on animal abusers. Initially, the movement only focused on animal rights issues, exposing animal abusers, and taking their animals away from them. However, the movement has shifted from solely being an animal rights group to openly talking about political issues, mainly illegal immigration. In 2020, the organisation announced that they will be forming a party that will participate in the 2020 parliamentary election, in a coalition with the far-right anti-vax "I live for Serbia" movement. +Its leader, Pavle Bihali, appeared under a Russian minority ballot list for the 2022 election which was ultimately rejected by the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) because it did not collect enough valid signatures. According to CeSID, the ballot list did not support minority rights, but far-right politics. This was later overturned by the Constitutional Court, and on 22 March, RIK confirmed the ballot list. The list did not enter parliament. +In July 2023, the Constitutional Court of Serbia received a proposal from the Public Prosecutor's Office to ban Leviathan. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Serbia, Leviathan is a "paramilitary citizens association" and has been "aiming at violating guaranteed human or minority rights and caused racial, national and religious hatred". + + +== Ideology and controversies == +Leviathan has been described as neo-fascist, neo-Nazi, and alt-right party, and it is positioned on the far-right on the political spectrum. It has been heavily criticised for its anti-human rights behaviour. It has been also described as a satellite party of the Serbian Progressive Party. In November 2018, the leaders of the movement, Pavle Bihali and Aleksandar Buhanac were arrested for making threats on Facebook, but soon after they were released. Even after this, he continued threatening people on social media, including minors. Leviathan has targeted minorities (mainly Roma), immigrants, the LGBT community, and Leviathan's political opponents. Its rhetoric has been described as xenophobic. It also support anti-vax politics. +In April 2020, members of the movement took the family dog of a Romani family away from them, claiming that the dog was abused and that it was used for dog fights. However this claim was denied by the people living in the neighbourhood. Not long after, a member of Leviathan drove through the gate of a refugee camp in Obrenovac, threatening to run over the refugees. After the attacker was arrested, the members of the movement protested in front of the camp. +In October 2020, police in Belgrade have arrested six members of Leviathan who are suspected of beating one person earlier that month. + + +== Electoral results == + + +=== Parliamentary elections === + + +== See also == +Far-right politics in Serbia + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1f8721f7d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood), Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Charles, Missouri, then went up the Missouri River. The expedition crossed the Continental Divide of the Americas near the Lemhi Pass, eventually coming to the Columbia River, and the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The return voyage began on March 23, 1806, at Fort Clatsop, Oregon, ending six months later on September 23. +President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, to explore and detail as much of the new territory as possible. Furthermore, he wished to find a practical travel route across the western half of the continent—directly avoiding the hot and desolate desert southwest—and to establish an American presence in the new lands before European powers attempted to establish claims of their own. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific, economical and humanitarian, i.e., to document the West's biodiversity, topography and geography and to establish positive trade relations with (potentially unknown) Native American tribes. The expedition returned to St. Louis to report their findings to President Jefferson via maps, sketches, and various journals. + +== Motivations == +One of Thomas Jefferson's goals was to find "the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce". He also attached special importance to declaring US sovereignty over the land inhabited by the many different Native American tribes along the Missouri River, and to securing an accurate sense of the resources in the recently completed Louisiana Purchase. The expedition made notable contributions to science, but scientific research was not the main goal of the mission. + +== Preparations == +For years, Thomas Jefferson read accounts about the adventures of various explorers on the western frontier, and, consequently, maintained a long-held interest in further exploring this mostly-unknown region of the continent. In the 1780s, while Minister to France, Jefferson met John Ledyard in Paris, where they discussed a possible trip to the Pacific Northwest. Jefferson had also read Captain James Cook's A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (London, 1784), an account of Cook's third voyage, and Le Page du Pratz's The History of Louisiana (London, 1763), all of which greatly influenced his decision to send an expedition. Like Captain Cook, he wished to discover a practical route through the Northwest to the Pacific coast. Alexander Mackenzie had already charted a route in his quest for the Pacific, following Canada's Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789. Mackenzie and his party were the first non-indigenous people to cross mainland North America, north of Mexico, reaching the Pacific coast of British Columbia in 1793–twelve years earlier than Lewis and Clark. Mackenzie's accounts in Voyages from Montreal (1801) informed Jefferson of Britain's intent to establish control over the lucrative fur trade of the Columbia River, convincing him of the importance of securing the territory posthaste. In Philadelphia, Israel Whelen, purveyor of public supplies, purchased necessities for the expedition with a list provided by Lewis; among the items found were 193 pounds of portable soup, 130 rolls of pigtail tobacco, 30 gallons of strong spirit of wine, a wide assortment of Native American presents, medical and surgical supplies, mosquito netting, and oilskin bags. +Two years into his presidency, Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition through the Louisiana territory to the Pacific Ocean. He did not attempt to make a secret of the Lewis and Clark expedition from Spanish, French, and British officials, but rather claimed different reasons for the venture; he used a secret message to ask for funding, due to poor relations with the opposition Federalist Party in Congress. Congress subsequently appropriated $2,324 for supplies and food, the appropriation of which was left in Lewis's charge. +In 1803, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery and named Army Captain Meriwether Lewis its leader, who then invited William Clark to co-lead the expedition with him. Lewis demonstrated remarkable skills and potential as a frontiersman, and Jefferson made efforts to prepare him for the long journey ahead as the expedition was gaining approval and funding. Jefferson explained his choice of Lewis: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5f91587b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +It was impossible to find a character who to a complete science in botany, natural history, mineralogy & astronomy, joined the firmness of constitution & character, prudence, habits adapted to the woods & a familiarity with the Indian manners and character, requisite for this undertaking. All the latter qualifications Capt. Lewis has. +In 1803, Jefferson sent Lewis to Philadelphia to study medicinal cures under Benjamin Rush, a physician and former leader in the American Revolution. He also arranged for Lewis to be further educated by Andrew Ellicott, an astronomer who instructed him in the use of a sextant, among other navigational instruments. From Benjamin Smith Barton, Lewis learned how to describe and preserve plant and animal specimens; from Robert Patterson, refinements in computing latitude and longitude, and Caspar Wistar covered fossils, and the search for possible living remnants. Lewis, however, was not ignorant of science, having demonstrated a marked capacity to learn, especially with Jefferson as his teacher. At Monticello, Jefferson possessed an enormous library on the subject of North American geography, to which Lewis had full access. He spent time consulting maps and books, as well as conferring with Jefferson. +The keelboat used for the first year of the journey was built near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1803, to Lewis's specifications, and was completed on August 31. The vessel was immediately loaded with equipment and provisions. While in Pittsburgh, Lewis bought a Newfoundland dog, Seaman, to accompany them. Newfoundlands are amicable, large working dogs and good swimmers, lovers of water and commonly found on fishing boats, as they can assist in water rescues. Seaman proved a valuable member of the party, aiding with hunting and protection from bears and other potential predators. He was the only animal to complete the entire trip. +Lewis and his crew set-sail that afternoon, traveling down the Ohio River to meet up with Clark near Louisville, Kentucky, in October 1803, at the Falls of the Ohio. Their goals were to explore the vast territory acquired by the Louisiana Purchase and to establish trade and US sovereignty over the Native Americans along the Missouri River. Jefferson also wanted to establish a US claim of "discovery" to the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Territory by documenting an American presence there before European nations could claim the land. According to some historians, Jefferson understood that he would have a better claim of ownership to the Pacific Northwest if the team gathered scientific data on animals and plants. However, his main objectives were centered around finding an all-water route to the Pacific coast and commerce. His instructions to the expedition stated: + +The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, & such principle stream of it, as, by its course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce. + +The US mint prepared special silver medals with a portrait of Jefferson and inscribed with a message of friendship and peace, called Indian Peace Medals. The soldiers were to distribute them to the tribes that they met. The expedition also prepared advanced weapons to display their military firepower. Among these was an Austrian-made .46 caliber Girandoni air rifle, a repeating rifle with a 20-round tubular magazine that was powerful enough to kill a deer. The expedition was prepared with flintlock firearms, knives, blacksmithing supplies, and cartography equipment. They also carried flags, gift bundles, medicine, and other items that they would need for their journey. +The route of Lewis and Clark's expedition took them up the Missouri River to its headwaters, then on to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River, and it may have been influenced by the purported transcontinental journey of Moncacht-Apé by the same route about a century before. Jefferson had a copy of Le Page's book in his library detailing Moncacht-Apé's itinerary, and Lewis carried a copy with him during the expedition. Le Page's description of Moncacht-Apé's route across the continent neglects to mention the need to cross the Rocky Mountains, and it might be the source of Lewis and Clark's mistaken belief that they could easily carry boats from the Missouri's headwaters to the westward-flowing Columbia. + +== Journey == + +=== Departure === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..297dca2ea --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Corps of Discovery departed from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood) at 4 pm on May 14, 1804. Under Clark's command, they traveled up the Missouri River in their keelboat and two pirogues to St. Charles, Missouri, where Lewis joined them six days later. The expedition set out the next afternoon, May 21. While accounts vary, it is believed the Corps had as many as 45 members, including the officers, enlisted military personnel, civilian volunteers, and York, an African-American man enslaved by Clark. +From St. Charles, the expedition followed the Missouri through what is now Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska. On August 20, 1804, Sergeant Charles Floyd died, apparently from acute appendicitis. He had been among the first to sign up with the Corps of Discovery and was the only member to die during the expedition. He was buried at a bluff by the river, now named after him, in what is now Sioux City, Iowa. His burial site was marked with a cedar post on which was inscribed his name and day of death. 1 mile (2 km) up the river, the expedition camped at a small river which they named Floyd's River. During the final week of August, Lewis and Clark reached the edge of the Great Plains, a place abounding with elk, deer, bison, pronghorn, and beavers. +The Lewis and Clark Expedition established relations with two dozen Native American nations, without whose help the group would have risked starvation during the harsh winters and/or become hopelessly lost in the vast ranges of the Rocky Mountains. +The Americans and the Lakota nation (whom the Americans called Sioux or "Teton-wan Sioux") had problems when they met, and there was a concern the two sides might clash. According to Harry W. Fritz, "All earlier Missouri River travelers had warned of this powerful and aggressive tribe, determined to block free trade on the river. ... The Sioux were also expecting a retaliatory raid from the Omaha tribe, to the south. A recent Sioux raid had killed 75 Omaha men, burned 40 lodges, and taken four dozen prisoners." The expedition held talks with the Lakota near the confluence of the Missouri and Bad rivers in what is now Fort Pierre, South Dakota. + +One of their horses disappeared, and they believed the Sioux were responsible. Afterward, the two sides met and there was a disagreement, and the Sioux asked the men to stay or to give more gifts (or tribute) instead, before being allowed to pass through their territory. Clark wrote they were "warlike" and were the "vilest miscreants of the savage race". They came close to blows several times, until the Lakota chief, Black Buffalo, persuaded Lewis to distribute more tobacco to the assembled warriors. Lewis complied and the expedition was allowed to continue upstream to the Arikara villages. +In the winter of 1804–1805, the party built Fort Mandan, near present-day Washburn, North Dakota. Just before departing on April 7, 1805, the expedition sent the keelboat back to St. Louis with a sample of specimens, some never-before-seen east of the Mississippi. One chief asked Lewis and Clark to provide a boat for passage through their national territory. The Americans quickly continued westward (upriver), and camped for the winter in the Mandan nation's territory. +After the expedition had set up camp, nearby tribal members came to visit in fair numbers, with some staying overnight. For several days, Lewis and Clark met in council with Mandan chiefs. Here they met a French-Canadian fur trapper named Toussaint Charbonneau, and his young Shoshone wife, Sacagawea. Charbonneau, at this time, began to serve as the expedition's translator. Peace was established between the expedition and the Mandan chiefs with the sharing of a Mandan ceremonial pipe. By April 25, Captain Lewis wrote his progress report of the expedition's activities and observations of the Native American nations they had encountered to-date in A Statistical view of the Indian nations inhabiting the Territory of Louisiana, which outlined the names of various tribes, their locations, trading practices and water routes used, among other points. President Jefferson would later present this report to Congress. + +They followed the Missouri to its headwaters, and over the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass, then north to Traveler's Rest, and crossed the Bitteroots at Lolo Pass. They descended on foot, then proceeded in canoes down the Clearwater, Snake, and Columbia rivers, past Celilo Falls and present-day Portland, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. Lewis and Clark used William Robert Broughton's 1792 notes and maps to orient themselves once they reached the lower Columbia River. The sighting of Mount Hood and other stratovolcanos confirmed that the expedition had almost reached the Pacific Ocean. + +=== Pacific Ocean === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3a9be1392 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time on November 7, 1805, arriving two weeks later. The expedition faced the beginning of its second bitter winter camped on the north side of the Columbia River, in a storm-wracked area Clark called Dismal Nitch. Lack of food was a major factor. The elk, the party's main source of food, had retreated from their usual haunts into the mountains, and the party was now too poor to purchase enough food from neighboring tribes. On November 24, 1805, the majority of the party voted to move their camp to the south side of the Columbia River near modern Astoria, Oregon. Both Sacagawea and the enslaved York participated in the vote. +On the south side of the Columbia River, 2 miles (3 km) upstream on the west side of the Netul River (now Lewis and Clark River), they constructed Fort Clatsop. They did this not just for shelter and protection, but also to officially establish the American presence there, with the American flag flying over the fort. During the winter at Fort Clatsop, Lewis committed himself to writing. He filled many pages of his journals with valuable knowledge, mostly about botany, because of the abundant growth and forests that covered that part of the continent. The health of the men also became a problem, with many suffering from colds and influenza. +Knowing that maritime fur traders sometimes visited the lower Columbia River, Lewis and Clark repeatedly asked the local Chinooks about trading ships. They learned that Captain Samuel Hill had been there in early 1805. Miscommunication caused Clark to record the name as "Haley". Captain Hill returned in November 1805, and anchored about 10 miles (16 km) from Fort Clatsop. The Chinook told Hill about Lewis and Clark, but no direct contact was made. +A Russian maritime expedition under statesman Nikolai Rezanov arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River while Lewis and Clark were still there. Neither Rezanov nor Lewis and Clark knew about each other. Rezanov had come from Novo-Arkhangelsk (today Sitka, Alaska), intending to establish a Russian agricultural colony to help with the perennial food shortages in Russian America, and made plans for a relocation of the capital of Russian America from Sitka to the lower Columbia River. But his ship, Juno, was unable to cross the Columbia Bar. So Rezanov went to California instead, setting in motion a process that eventually led to the founding of Fort Ross, California. + +=== Return trip === +Lewis was determined to remain at the fort until April 1, but was still anxious to move out at the earliest opportunity. By March 22, the stormy weather had subsided and the following morning, on March 23, 1806, the journey home began. The Corps began their journey homeward using canoes to ascend the Columbia River, and later by trekking over land. +Before leaving, Clark gave the Chinook a letter to give to the next ship captain to visit, which was the same Captain Hill who had been nearby during the winter. Hill took the letter to Canton and had it forwarded to Thomas Jefferson, who thus received it before Lewis and Clark returned. +They made their way to Camp Chopunnish in Idaho, along the north bank of the Clearwater River, where the members of the expedition collected 65 horses in preparation to cross the Bitterroot Mountains, lying between modern-day Idaho and western Montana. However, the range was still covered in snow, which prevented the expedition from making the crossing. On April 11, while the Corps was waiting for the snow to diminish, Lewis's dog, Seaman, was stolen by Native Americans, but was retrieved soon after. Worried that other such acts might follow, Lewis warned the chief that any other wrongdoing or mischievous acts would result in instant death. +On July 3, before crossing the Continental Divide, the Corps split into two teams so Lewis could explore the Marias River. Lewis's group of four met some men from the Blackfeet nation. During the night, the Blackfeet tried to steal their weapons. In the struggle, the soldiers killed two Blackfeet men. Lewis, George Drouillard, and the Field brothers fled over 100 miles (160 kilometres) in a day before they camped again. +Meanwhile, Clark had entered the Crow tribe's territory. In the night, half of Clark's horses disappeared, but not a single Crow had been seen. Lewis and Clark stayed separated until they reached the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers on August 11. As the groups reunited, one of Clark's hunters, Pierre Cruzatte, mistook Lewis for an elk and fired, injuring Lewis in the thigh. Once together, the Corps was able to return home quickly via the Missouri River. They reached St. Louis on September 23, 1806. + +=== Spanish interference === +In March 1804, before the expedition began in May, the Spanish in New Mexico learned from General James Wilkinson that the Americans were encroaching on territory claimed by Spain. After the Lewis and Clark expedition set off in May, the Spanish sent four armed expeditions of 52 soldiers, mercenaries, and Native Americans on August 1, 1804, from Santa Fe, New Mexico, northward under Pedro Vial and José Jarvet to intercept Lewis and Clark and imprison the entire expedition. They reached the Pawnee settlement on the Platte River in central Nebraska and learned that the expedition had been there many days before. Vial's attempt to intercept them was unsuccessful. + +== Geography and science == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c585ddc24 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Lewis and Clark Expedition gained an understanding of the geography of the Pacific Northwest and produced the first accurate maps of the area. During the journey, Lewis and Clark drew about 140 maps. Stephen Ambrose says the expedition "filled in the main outlines" of the area. +The expedition documented natural resources and plants that had been previously unknown to European Americans, though not to the indigenous peoples. Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to cross the Continental Divide, and the first Americans to see Yellowstone, enter into Montana, and produce an official description of these different regions. Their visit to the Pacific Northwest, maps, and proclamations of sovereignty with medals and flags were legal steps needed to claim title to each indigenous nation's lands under the discovery doctrine. +The expedition was sponsored by the American Philosophical Society (APS). Lewis and Clark received some instruction in astronomy, botany, climatology, ethnology, geography, meteorology, mineralogy, ornithology, and zoology. During the expedition, they made contact with over 70 Native American tribes and described more than 200 new plant and animal species. +Thomas Jefferson had the expedition declare "sovereignty" and demonstrate their military strength to ensure native tribes would be subordinate to the U.S., as European colonizers did elsewhere. After the expedition, the maps that were produced allowed the further discovery and settlement of this vast territory in the years that followed. +In 1807, Patrick Gass, a private in the U.S. Army, published an account of the journey. He was promoted to sergeant during the course of the expedition. Paul Allen edited a two-volume history of the Lewis and Clark expedition that was published in 1814, in Philadelphia, but without mention of the actual author, banker Nicholas Biddle. Even then, the complete report was not made public until more recently. The earliest authorized edition of the Lewis and Clark journals resides in the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at the University of Montana. + +== Encounters with Native Americans == +One of the expedition's primary objectives as directed by President Jefferson was to be a surveillance mission that would report back the whereabouts, military strength, lives, activities, and cultures of the various Native American tribes that inhabited the territory newly acquired by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase and the northwest in general. The expedition was to make native people understand that their lands now belonged to the United States and that "their great father" in Washington was now their sovereign. The expedition encountered many different native nations and tribes along the way, many of whom offered their assistance, providing the expedition with their knowledge of the wilderness and with the acquisition of food. The expedition had blank leather-bound journals and ink for the purpose of recording such encounters, as well as for scientific and geological information. They were also provided with various gifts of medals, ribbons, needles, mirrors, and other articles which were intended to ease any tensions when negotiating their passage with the various Native American chiefs whom they would encounter along their way. +Many of the tribes had friendly experiences with British and French fur traders in various isolated encounters along the Missouri and Columbia rivers, and for the most part the expedition did not encounter hostilities. However, there was a tense confrontation on September 25, 1804, with the Teton-Sioux tribe (also known as the Lakota people, one of the three tribes that comprise the Great Sioux Nation), under chiefs that included Black Buffalo and the Partisan. These chiefs confronted the expedition and demanded tribute from the expedition for their passage over the river. The seven native tribes that comprised the Lakota people controlled a vast inland empire and expected gifts from strangers who wished to navigate their rivers or to pass through their lands. According to Harry W. Fritz, "All earlier Missouri River travelers had warned of this powerful and aggressive tribe, determined to block free trade on the river. ... The Sioux were also expecting a retaliatory raid from the Omaha tribe, to the south. A recent Sioux raid had killed 75 Omaha men, burned 40 lodges, and taken four dozen prisoners." +Captain Lewis made his first mistake by offering the Sioux chief gifts first, which insulted and angered the Partisan chief. Communication was difficult, since the expedition's only Sioux language interpreter was Pierre Dorion who had stayed behind with the other party and was also involved with diplomatic affairs with another tribe. Consequently, both chiefs were offered a few gifts, but neither was satisfied and both wanted further gifts for their warriors and tribe. At that point, some of the warriors from the Partisan tribe took hold of their boat and one of the oars. Lewis took a firm stand, ordering a display of force and presenting arms; Captain Clark brandished his sword and threatened violent reprisal. Just before the situation erupted into a violent confrontation, Black Buffalo ordered his warriors to back off. +The captains were able to negotiate their passage without further incident with the aid of better gifts and a bottle of whiskey. During the next two days, the expedition made camp not far from Black Buffalo's tribe. Similar incidents occurred when they tried to leave, but trouble was averted with gifts of tobacco. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5e2c7ff25 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Observations === +As the expedition encountered the various Native American tribes during the course of their journey, they observed and recorded information regarding their lifestyles, customs and the social codes they lived by, as directed by President Jefferson. By European standards, the Native American way of life seemed harsh and unforgiving as witnessed by members of the expedition. After many encounters and camping in close proximity to the Native American nations for extended periods of time during the winter months, they soon learned first hand of their customs and social orders. +One of the primary customs that distinguished Native American cultures from those of the West was that it was customary for the men to take on two or more wives if they were able to provide for them and often took on a wife or wives who were members of the immediate family circle, e.g. men in the Minnetaree and Mandan tribes would often take on a sister for a wife. Chastity among women was not held in high regard. Infant daughters were often sold by the father to men who were grown, usually for horses or mules. Women in Sioux nations were often bartered away for horses or other supplies; yet this was not practiced among the Shoshone nation, who held their women in higher regard. +They witnessed that many of the Native American nations were constantly at war with other tribes, especially the Sioux, who, while remaining generally friendly to the white fur traders, had proudly boasted of and justified the almost complete destruction of the once great Cahokia nation, along with the Missouris, Illinois, Kaskaskia, and Piorias tribes that lived about the countryside adjacent to the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. + +=== Sacagawea === + +Sacagawea, sometimes spelled Sakajawea or Sakagawea (c. 1788 – December 20, 1812), was a Shoshone Native American woman who arrived with her husband and owner Toussaint Charbonneau on the expedition to the Pacific Ocean. +On February 11, 1805, a few weeks after her first contact with the expedition, Sacagawea went into labor which was slow and painful, so the Frenchman Charbonneau suggested she be given a potion of rattlesnake's rattle to aid in her delivery. Lewis happened to have some snake's rattle with him. A short time after administering the potion, she delivered a healthy boy who was given the name Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. +When the expedition reached Marias River, on June 16, 1805, Sacagawea became dangerously ill. She was able to find relief by drinking mineral water from the sulphur spring that fed into the river. +Though she has been discussed in literature frequently, much of the information is exaggeration or fiction. Scholars say she did notice some geographical features, but "Sacagawea ... was not the guide for the Expedition, she was important to them as an interpreter and in other ways." The sight of a woman and her infant son would have been reassuring to some indigenous nations, and she played an important role in diplomatic relations by talking to chiefs, easing tensions, and giving the impression of a peaceful mission. +In his writings, Meriwether Lewis presented a somewhat negative view of her, though Clark had a higher regard for her, and provided some support for her children in subsequent years. In the journals, they used the terms "squar" (squaw) and "savages" to refer to Sacagawea and other indigenous peoples. + +== York == + +An enslaved Black man known only as York took part in the expedition as personal servant to William Clark, his enslaver. York did much to help the expedition succeed. He proved popular with the Native Americans, who had never seen a Black man. He also helped with hunting and the heavy labor of pulling boats upstream. Despite his contributions to the Corps of Discovery, Clark refused to release York from bondage upon returning east. While all the other explorers enjoyed rewards of double pay and hundreds of acres of land, York received nothing. After the end of the expedition, Clark allowed York only a brief visit to Kentucky to see his wife before forcing him to return to Missouri. It is unlikely that he ever saw his wife again: "ten years after the expedition's end, York was still enslaved, working as a wagoner for the Clark family". The last years of York's life are disputed. In the 1830s, a Black man who said he had first come with Lewis and Clark was living as a chief with Native Americans they met on the expedition, in modern Wyoming. + +== Accomplishments == +The Corps met their objective of reaching the Pacific Ocean, mapping and establishing their presence for a legal claim to the land. They established diplomatic relations and trade with at least two dozen indigenous nations. They did not find a continuous waterway to the Pacific but located a Native American trail that led from the upper end of the Missouri River to the Columbia River which ran to the Pacific Ocean. They gained information about the natural habitat, flora and fauna, bringing back various plant, seed and mineral specimens. They mapped the topography of the land, designating the location of mountain ranges, rivers and the many Native American tribes during the course of their journey. They also learned and recorded much about the language and customs of the Native American tribes they encountered, and brought back many of their artifacts, including bows, clothing and ceremonial robes. + +== Aftermath == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fc5973b1c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Two months passed after the expedition's end before Thomas Jefferson made his first public statement to Congress, giving a one-sentence summary about the success of the expedition before offering justification for the expenses involved. Over the course of their journey, the Corps of Discovery acquired a knowledge of numerous tribes of Native Americans previously unknown to Europeans or Americans; they informed themselves of the trade which may be carried on with them, the best channels and positions for it, and they were able to describe the geography of the route they took with accuracy. Upon their return, the botanical and zoological discoveries drew the intense interest of the American Philosophical Society who requested specimens, various artifacts traded with the Native Americans, and reports on plants and wildlife along with various seeds obtained. Jefferson used seeds from "Missouri hominy corn" along with a number of other unidentified seeds to plant at Monticello which he cultivated and studied. He later reported on the "Indian corn" he had grown as being an "excellent" food source. The expedition helped establish the U.S. presence in the newly acquired territory and beyond and opened the door to further exploration, trade and scientific discoveries. +Lewis and Clark returned from their expedition, bringing with them the Mandan chief Shehaka from the Upper Missouri to visit the "Great Father" in Washington. After Chief Shehaka's visit, it required multiple attempts and multiple military expeditions to safely return Shehaka to his nation. +Upon returning from their expedition, Lewis and Clark struggled to prepare their manuscripts for publication. Clark managed to persuade Nicholas Biddle to edit the journals, which were then published in 1814 as the History of the Expedition Under the Commands of Captains Lewis and Clark. However, Biddle's narrative account omitted much of the material related to their discoveries in flora and fauna. Since Biddle's account was the only printed account of the original journals for the next 90 years, many of Lewis and Clark's discoveries were later unknowingly rediscovered and given new names. It wasn't until 1904–1905, through the publication of Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Reuben Gold Thwaites, that the general public became aware of the full extent of the scientific discoveries made by the expedition. +During the 19th century, references to Lewis and Clark "scarcely appeared" in history books, even during the United States Centennial in 1876, and the expedition was largely forgotten. Lewis and Clark began to gain attention around the beginning of the 20th century. Both the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, showcased them as American pioneers. The extent of the expedition's discoveries remained poorly recognized until the middle of the 20th Century, with Lewis and Clark's voyage known mostly as a celebration of US conquest and personal adventures, but since then the expedition has been more thoroughly researched. +As of 1984, no US exploration party was more famous, and no American expedition leaders are more recognizable by name. +In 2004, a complete and reliable set of the expedition's journals was compiled by Gary E. Moulton. Circa 2004, the bicentennial of the expedition further elevated popular interest in Lewis and Clark. + +== Legacy and honors == +In the 1970s, the federal government memorialized the winter assembly encampment, Camp Dubois, as the start of the Lewis and Clark voyage of discovery and in 2019 it recognized Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as the start of the expedition. +Since the expedition, Lewis and Clark have been commemorated and honored over the years on various coins, currency, and commemorative postage stamps, as well as in a number of other capacities. In 2004, the American elm cultivar Ulmus americana 'Lewis & Clark' (selling name Prairie Expedition) was released by North Dakota State University Research Foundation in commemoration of the expedition's bicentenary; the tree has a resistance to Dutch elm disease. +Lewis and Clark County, in Montana, as well as the Lewis and Clark River in Oregon are both named after the expedition's leaders. +The Lewis and Clark Public School District in North Dakota is named after the pair. +North Dakota state Highways 1804 and 1806 are named to reflect the years of Lewis and Clark's travels through the area, and together constitute the portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail that runs through the state. +Campsite Lewis and Clark in Camp Sandy Beach at Yawgoog Scout Reservation in Rockville, Rhode Island also honors both explorers. + +== Prior discoveries == + +In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle traveled down the Mississippi from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. The French then established a chain of posts along the Mississippi from New Orleans to the Great Lakes. There followed a number of French explorers including Pedro Vial and Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet, among others. Vial may have preceded Lewis and Clark to Montana. In 1787, he gave a map of the upper Missouri River and locations of "territories transited by Pedro Vial" to Spanish authorities. +Early in 1792, the American explorer Robert Gray, sailing in the Columbia Rediviva, discovered the yet to be named Columbia River, named it after his ship and claimed it for the United States. Later in 1792, the Vancouver Expedition had learned of Gray's discovery and used his maps. Vancouver's expedition explored over 100 miles (160 km) up the Columbia, into the Columbia River Gorge. Lewis and Clark used the maps produced by these expeditions when they descended the lower Columbia to the Pacific coast. +From 1792 to 1793, Alexander Mackenzie had crossed North America from Quebec to the Pacific. + +== See also == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ab7e91046 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Far Horizons, a 1955 film about the expedition +Gateway Arch National Park +Lewis and Clark Pass (Montana) – the only non-motorized pass on the expedition's route +Lewis and Clark's Keelboat +The Red River Expedition (1806) and the Pike Expedition were also commissioned by Jefferson +James Kendall Hosmer, American history professor and librarian who edited and published Nicholas Biddle's account of Lewis and Clark's journal +Timeline of the Lewis and Clark Expedition + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Allen, Paul (1902). History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol I. Toronto: George N. Morang & Co. Ltd. +—— (1902). History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol II. Toronto:George N. Morang & Co. Ltd. +—— (1902). History of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol III. Toronto: George N. Morang & Co. Ltd. +Ambrose, Stephen E. (1996). Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 511. ISBN 9780684811079. +Bennett, George D. (2002). The United States Army: Issues, Background and Bibliography. Nova Publishers. p. 229. ISBN 9781590333006. +Bergon, Frank (1989). The Journals of Lewis and Clark. New York: Penguin Classics. ISBN 0142437360. +Clark, Ella E.; Edmonds, Margot (1983). Sacagawea of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. University of California Press. p. 184. ISBN 9780520050600. +Cutright, Paul Russel (1969). Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists. University of Nebraska Press. +Cutright, Paul Russell (2000). Contributions of Philadelphia to Lewis and Clark History. Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. p. 47. ISBN 9780967888705. +DeVoto, Bernard Augustine (1997) [1953]. The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Houghton Mifflin Co. p. 504. ISBN 0-395-08380-X. +—— (1998). The Course of Empire. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 647. ISBN 9780395924983. +Fenelon, James; Defender-Wilson, Mary Louise (1985). "Voyage of Domination, 'Purchase' as Conquest, Sakakawea for Savagery: Distorted Icons from Misrepresentations of the Lewis and Clark Expedition". Wíčazo Ša Review. 19 (1). University of Minnesota Press: Wíčazo Ša Review, 85–104. doi:10.1353/wic.2004.0006. JSTOR 1409488. S2CID 147041160. +Fresonke, Kris; Spence, Mark (2004). Lewis and Clark. University of California Press. p. 290. ISBN 9780520228399. +Fritz, Harry W. (2004). The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-313-31661-6. +Furtwangler, Albert (1993). Acts of discovery: visions of America in the Lewis and Clark journals. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-06306-0. +Gass, Patrick; MacGregor, Carol Lynn (1807). The Journals of Patrick Gass: Member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Mountain Press Publishing. p. 447. +Gray, Edward (2004). "Visions of Another Empire: John Ledyard, an American Traveler across the Russian Empire, 1787–1788". Journal of the Early Republic. 24 (3). University of Pennsylvania Press: 347–380. JSTOR 4141438. +Harris, Matthew L.; Buckley, Jay H. (2012). Zebulon Pike, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806188317. +Josephy, Alvin M. Jr.; Marc, Jaffe, eds. (2006). Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes. Random House Digital, Inc. p. 196. ISBN 9781400042678. +Jackson, Donald (1993) [1981]. Thomas Jefferson & the Stony Mountains: Exploring the West from Monticello. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2504-6. +Kleber, John (2001). The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky. p. 509. ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0. +Lavender, David Sievert (2001). The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continent. University of Nebraska Press. p. 444. ISBN 9780803280038. +Loomis, Noel M; Nasatir, Abraham P (1967). Pedro Vial and the Roads to Santa Fe. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806111100. +Miller, Robert J. Miller (2006). Native America, Discovered And Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, And Manifest Destiny. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 240. ISBN 9780275990114. +Peters, Arthur K. (1996). Seven trail west. Abbeville Press. ISBN 1-55859-782-4. +Rodriguez, Junius (2002). The Louisiana Purchase: a historical and geographical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, California. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-57607-188-5. +Ronda, James P. (1984). Lewis & Clark among the Indians. University of Nebraska Press. p. 310. ISBN 9780803289901. +Saindon, Robert A. (2003). Explorations Into the World of Lewis and Clark, Vol. 3. Digital Scanning Inc. p. 528. ISBN 9781582187655. +Schwantes, Carlos (1996). The Pacific Northwest: an interpretive history. University of Nebraska Press. p. 568. ISBN 978-0-8032-9228-4. +Uldrich, Jack (2004). Into the unknown: leadership lessons from Lewis & Clark's daring westward adventure. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. p. 245. ISBN 0-8144-0816-8. +Woodger, Elin; Toropov, Brandon (2009). Encyclopedia of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Infobase Publishing. p. 438. ISBN 978-0-8160-4781-9. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..06ad27d30 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Lewis and Clark Expedition" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:48.040203+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Primary sources === +Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William (2004). The Journals Of Lewis And Clark. Kessinger Publishing. p. 312. ISBN 9781419167997. E'books, Full view +Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William; Floyd, Charles; Whitehouse, Joseph (1905). Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804–1806, Vol. 6. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. p. 280. +Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William (2003). Bergon, Frank (ed.). The Journals of Lewis & Clark. Penguin. p. 560. ISBN 9780142437360. +Lewis, Meriwether (1811). The Travels of Captains Lewis and Clarke, from St. Louis, by way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the Pacific Ocean; performed in the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By Order of the Government of the United States; containing Delineations of the Manners, Customs, Religion, &c. of the Indians; compiled from various authentic Sources and original Documents; and a summary of the Statistical View of the Indian Nations, from the official communication of Meriwether Lewis. In 8vo. illustrated with a Map of the Country inhabited by the Tribes of Western Indians. ("This is an interesting volume, and exhibits not only some valuable geographical notices, but very copious and amusing details respecting the manners, habits, and divisions of the India North America Tribes.") Modern Publications, and New Editions of Valuable Standard Works. In: The Quarterly Review, February 1811, p. 2. +Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William (1815). Travels to the source of the Missouri river and across the American continent to the Pacific ocean. Performed by order of the government of the United States, in the years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By Captains Lewis and Clarke. Published from the official report, and illustrated by a map of the route, and other maps. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown. +"Review of Travels to the Source of the Missouri River ... ". The Quarterly Review. 12: 317–368. January 1815. +Lewis, William; Clark, Clark (1903). Hosmer, James Kendall (ed.). History of the Expedition of Captain Lewis and Clark, 1804–5–6, Volume 1. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co. p. 500. +Coues, Elliott; Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William; Jefferson, Thomas (1893). History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark: Vol. 1. New York: Francis P. Harper. p. 1364. +——; Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William; Jefferson, Thomas (1893). History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark: Volume 2. New York: Francis P. Harper. p. 1364. +——; Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William; Jefferson, Thomas (1893). History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark: Vol. 3. Francis P. Harper, New York. p. 1298. +——; Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William; Jefferson, Thomas (1893). History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark: Vol. 4. New York: Francis P. Harper. p. 1298. +Jackson, Donald Dean (1962). Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: with related documents, 1783–1854. University of Illinois Press (Original from the University of Virginia). p. 728. +Lewis, Meriwether; Clark, William (2004). Moulton, Gary E. (ed.). The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark. University of Nebraska Press. p. 357. ISBN 9780803280328. + +== Further reading == + +Steven E. Ambrose (1996). Undaunted Courage, Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West. Simon and Schuster Paperbacks. ISBN 9780684826974. +Bassman, John H. (2009). A Navigation Companion for the Lewis & Clark Trail. Vol. 1, History, camp locations and daily summaries of expedition activities. John H. Bassman. +Betts, Robert B. (2002). In Search of York: The Slave Who Went to the Pacific With Lewis and Clark. University Press of Colorado. ISBN 0-87081-714-0. +Burns, Ken (1997). Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45450-0. +Clark, William; Lewis, Meriwether. The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804–1806. +Fehrman, Craig. This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark (Avid Reader Press. 2026). online at Google Books; also a review of this book +Fenster, Julie M. (2016). Jefferson's America: The President, the Purchase, and the Explorers Who Transformed a Nation. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 978-0-3079-5654-5. +Gilman, Carolyn (2003). Lewis and Clark: Across the Divide. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books. ISBN 978-1588340993. +Hayes, Derek (1999). Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery: British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Yukon. Sasquatch Books. p. 208. ISBN 978-1570612152. +Gen. Thomas James (February 11, 2018). Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1985208711. +Schmidt, Thomas (2002). National Geographic Guide to the Lewis & Clark Trail. National Geographic. ISBN 0-7922-6471-1. +Tubbs, Stephenie Ambrose (2008). Why Sacagawea Deserves the Day Off and Other Lessons from the Lewis and Clark Trail. University of Nebraska Press. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2008. +Wheeler, Olin Dunbar (1904). The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804–1904: A Story of the Great Exploration Across the Continent in 1804–6. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 377. + +== External links == + +Full text of the Lewis and Clark journals online – edited by Gary E. Moulton, University of Nebraska–Lincoln +"National Archives photos dating from the 1860s–1890s of the Native cultures the expedition encountered". Archived from the original on February 12, 2008. +Travel the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary +"History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark: To the Sources of the Missouri, thence Across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean" published in 1814; from the World Digital Library +Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation: Discover Lewis & Clark +Corps of Discovery Online Atlas, created by Watzek Library, Lewis & Clark College +Lewis and Clark Expedition Maps and Receipt. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. +William Clark Field Notes. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. +Louis Starr Collection Concerning the Field Notes of William Clark. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-vaccination_groups-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-vaccination_groups-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0f8480d32 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-vaccination_groups-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +--- +title: "List of anti-vaccination groups" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-vaccination_groups" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:35.170428+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A list of groups who are anti-vaccine, vaccine-critical, or vaccine hesitant. + + +== Global == +White Rose (disinformation group) +World Chiropractic Alliance + + +== Europe == + + +=== Austria === +Democratic – Neutral – Authentic +MFG Austria – People Freedom Fundamental Rights + + +=== Denmark === +Freedom List + + +=== Finland === +Crystal Party +Power Belongs to the People +Freedom Alliance (Finland) + + +=== France === +National League for Liberty in Vaccination + + +=== Germany === +Grassroots Democratic Party of Germany +WiR2020 + + +=== Greece === +Free People + + +=== Hungary === +Normális Élet Pártja + + +=== Iceland === +Responsible Future + + +=== Italy === +3V Movement +Vita +ENZIAN-Südtirol + + +=== Netherlands === +List30 + + +=== Slovenia === +Resni.ca + + +=== Turkey === +New Welfare Party +Party of Life without Imposition + + +=== United Kingdom === +Humanitarian League (historical) +JABS +Let London Live +National Anti-Vaccination League (historical) +Pioneer Club (historical) + + +== North America == + + +=== Canada === +Vaccine Choice Canada +Free Party Canada + + +=== United States === +Anti-Vaccination League of America +Anti-Vaccination Society of America +Association of American Physicians and Surgeons +The Autism Community in Action (TACA; formerly Talk About Curing Autism) +Children's Health Defense +Children's Medical Safety Research Institute +Freedom Angels Foundation +Health Freedom Idaho +Informed Consent Action Network +Learn The Risk +National Vaccine Information Center +New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice +Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom +Palmetto Family Council +Put Children First +Stop Mandatory Vaccination +Texans for Vaccine Choice + + +== Oceania == + + +=== Australia === +Australian Vaccination-risks Network +Church of Conscious Living +Health Australia Party +Homeopathy Plus! +Informed Medical Options Party + + +=== New Zealand === +Advance New Zealand +NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party +New Zealand Public Party +The Freedoms & Rights Coalition +Voices for Freedom +Warnings About Vaccination Expectations NZ + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_classifications-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_classifications-0.md index 1f35511df..2617c1f51 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_classifications-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_classifications-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chemical_classifications" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:58:43.273627+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:09.869022+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md index 24df82c0c..4f00b96a6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:14:55.055659+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:06.132283+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md index 6dc549b2e..b1d5b0f5a 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:14:55.055659+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:06.132283+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md index bcc991a90..c5dcb9e8e 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/3 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diagnoses_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:14:55.055659+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:06.132283+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md index 8f826fb87..d896c17d8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md index 49307c448..d447d4035 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-10.md index fe9a49b45..d601431ba 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-10.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-10.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 11/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-11.md index ff32f495e..2c109f9b2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-11.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-11.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 12/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-12.md index 959017362..31d0bc6c2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-12.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-12.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 13/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-13.md index b9602a51c..8e670a0d0 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-13.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-13.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 14/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-14.md index 35e7ff36c..280ec4195 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-14.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-14.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 15/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-15.md index 559fae1e8..c0db7e292 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-15.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-15.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 16/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-16.md index 091981a9a..107291f1d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-16.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-16.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 17/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-17.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-17.md index b7b7e4939..0cb8a4c0f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-17.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-17.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 18/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md index a87cfdee4..fb7c794f9 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-3.md index 1a4062718..aa8001f2a 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-4.md index d111b2ea6..9492001b6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-5.md index 9b0295bbf..ba4055934 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-5.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-5.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 6/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-6.md index dfa25939a..26051afa6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-6.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-6.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 7/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-7.md index f0415769f..524621444 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-7.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-7.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 8/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-8.md index d30731def..218b8ee9c 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-8.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-8.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 9/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-9.md index bfbc07b26..d20d7433d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-9.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience-9.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 10/18 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_topics_characterized_as_pseudoscience" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:51:15.339434+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:07.426142+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-0.md index b5b8896ad..b910996a6 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:22.889110+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:32.609938+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-1.md index 340237773..ed03d7d71 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:22.889110+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:32.609938+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-2.md index 1681f040e..a38f7b222 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:22.889110+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:32.609938+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-3.md index cfce5f4dc..d4e80bccb 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/4 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:22.889110+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:32.609938+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20eac1894 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Mackenzie River expedition" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:10.651313+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Mackenzie River expedition of 1825–1827 was the second of three Arctic expeditions led by explorer John Franklin and organized by the Royal Navy. Its goal was the exploration of the North American coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers and Bering Strait, in what is now present-day Alaska, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Beginning at the Great Bear Lake, it started with a descent of the Mackenzie River. Franklin was accompanied by George Back and John Richardson, both of whom he had previously collaborated with in the disastrous Coppermine expedition of 1819–1821. Unlike Franklin's previous expedition, this one was largely successful, and the expedition mapped more than 1,000 km (620 mi) of new coastline between the Coppermine River and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, an area that until then had remained largely unexplored by Europeans. + +== Background == +The Northwest Passage, a supposed sea route to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Arctic Ocean, had long been sought by European explorers as a possible trade route to East Asia and the East Indies. During the Age of Exploration, the presupposed existence of the passage motivated much of European exploration in North America. Beginning in the early 19th century, the Royal Navy, having expanded to unprecedented proportions during the Napoleonic Wars, turned much of its attention to the passage's discovery. Under the influence of Sir John Barrow, the Royal Navy sponsored many Arctic expeditions, including those led by John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross, and John Franklin. For the next fifty years, the Royal Navy dominated the Arctic seas. + +Franklin himself was at that point an experienced mariner, serving in the Royal Navy while in his teens, and having been present during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1819, he was chosen to lead an expedition whose intention was to map the northern coast of the North American continent eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River. The Coppermine expedition was by any objective standard a disaster; Franklin completely failed in his goal of mapping a sufficient portion of the Arctic coast, and half of his 22-strong party died over the course of the journey. In spite of the expedition's disappointing results, upon his return to Britain, Franklin was lauded as a hero and promoted post-captain in 1822. In the following year he began planning another expedition to the Arctic, with the intention of, this time, using the Mackenzie River as the expedition's primary route of travel. +Franklin himself devised the expedition's itinerary; it was accepted by the Admiralty in autumn, 1823. In accordance with his official instructions, he was to first spend the summer of 1825 travelling to Great Bear Lake via standard trading routes, where the party's winter quarters would have been constructed. Beginning in spring of 1826, Franklin was to descend the Mackenzie River to its mouth, where he would then split the party. A smaller detachment, led by Richardson, was to map the intermediate coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers. Franklin himself was to travel westwards along the coast with the ultimate goal of reaching Icy Cape, the northern terminus of the Bering Sea. From there, Franklin would have the choice of either rendezvousing with HMS Blossom under the command of Frederick William Beechey or returning to the party's winter quarters, later known as Fort Franklin and today as Délı̨nę, at Great Bear Lake. Should he rendezvous with Beechey, Franklin would be conveyed either to the Sandwich Islands (now the Hawaiian Islands) or Canton, whereupon he would make his own way back to England. + +== Preparations == + +In spite of the poor outcome of his previous expedition, Franklin had learned several key lessons that would lead to the future success of the Mackenzie River expedition. In Franklin's mind, the weak point of the Coppermine expedition was its dependency on outside help. His preparations were not completed sufficiently in advance, and he relied far too much on fur traders, voyageurs, and First Nations, all of whom were far less forthcoming than anticipated. Applying this knowledge to his new expedition, Franklin sought to place greater trust in British naval personnel and, most critically, to bring sufficient supplies for the duration of the journey. The recent union of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, and resulting cessation of the companies' near-constant state of conflict also meant that any anticipated assistance would be much more likely to materialize. +Supplies were ferried from York Factory to the continent's interior beginning in 1824. While still in Britain, Franklin oversaw the construction of the company's vessels. Although canoes of birch bark were the de facto standard for travel along North America's internal waterways, Franklin judged them unfit for navigation in the open waters of the Arctic Ocean. He therefore commissioned the construction of three boats built of ash and mahogany, the largest of which was 8 m (26 ft) in length and was capable of carrying 2.7 t (6,000 lb) of baggage. Navigation instruments included a sextant, altimeters and a telescope. Supplies included tobacco, alcohol, tents, books, paper, fishing implements, blankets, clothing, guns, knives and hatchets; much of the company's supplies were intended to be traded with the local First Nations communities. + +== Events of the expedition == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..58336aabb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Mackenzie River expedition" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:10.651313+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Departure and first season === +Franklin and the other naval officers, including Back and Richardson, departed Liverpool on 16 February 1825. Landing in New York City on 15 March, they then followed standard travelling routes through the state of New York, across the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, then through Upper Canada to Fort William on the shores of Lake Superior. After traversing numerous lakes and river systems, the party arrived at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River on 15 June. From there, they reached Methye Portage, mostly by way of the Churchill River system. Simultaneously, most of the expedition's supplies were sent from York Factory on Hudson Bay up the Hayes River, reaching the officers at Methye Portage on 29 June. +The party descended the Clearwater and Athabasca Rivers, arriving at Fort Chipewyan on 15 July. The party's expeditious pace can be attributed to their intense rowing efforts: during their last push to Great Slave Lake, they had been paddling for thirty-six of the thirty-nine preceding hours. At Fort Resolution, Franklin met with Keskarrah, older brother of Franklin's friend and former ally Akaitcho, and Humpy of the Yellowknives (Coppermine Indians). After coasting the southern shore of Great Slave Lake, the party reached the headwaters of the Mackenzie River on 3 August, which would thereafter be their route to the Arctic Ocean. + +The party began their descent of the Mackenzie, reaching its junction with the "River of the Mountains" (likely the Liard River) on 4 August. Fort Norman. Tulita was reached on 7 August, with the group having travelled 423 km (263 mi) in three days. At Fort Norman, realizing that their speedy pace afforded them additional time for exploration, Franklin opted to embark on a preliminary reconnaissance to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, while the rest of the party would continue to Great Bear Lake to oversee the construction of their winter quarters. The goal of this venture was primarily to find the best route to the sea, in addition to establishing friendly relations with the native Inuit. Joined by the assistant surveyor Edward Nicholas Kendall and Tatannuaq, an Inuk interpreter, Franklin departed on 8 August. +During their descent they encountered several groups of First Nations, some of whom joined them for a portion of the journey. The delta of the Mackenzie was reached on 13 August, whereafter the party began exploring the archipelago of islands surrounding the river's mouth. Most of their early navigation of the sea was plagued by intense fog that occluded astronomical observation. After completing their early charting, the group returned to the Mackenzie River proper, reaching Fort Franklin (modern day Délı̨nę) on Great Bear Lake on 5 September. Over the course of the 1825 season the party had travelled 9,339 km (5,803 mi). + +=== Winter === +The winter of 1825–1826 was relatively uneventful. On 8 September, Franklin dispatched two men to Great Slave Lake to convey an account of the expedition's progress and to pick up letters sent from the Crown. Supplies were provided by the Chipewyan and Dog-Rib Indians. With October came the first frosts and snow; it was at this time, just before ice began to form on the lake, that fishing was most productive. According to Franklin, several hundred fish were caught daily, most of which were frozen until the following spring. + +Those at Fort Franklin were frequently visited by the local First Nations. On one such occasion, on 18 December, the wife of one of the Dog-Rib hunters brought her young girl to the fort, seeking advice on the girl's sickly condition. In spite of the Europeans' efforts, the girl perished, bringing great grief to the mother. The First Nations and Europeans celebrated Christmas together on 25 December. On 1 January, the coldest temperature of the season, −45 °C (−49 °F), was recorded. The month of February brought anxiety to the party as their fishing output greatly decreased. The group's dried meat had since been expended, and the scant diet of fish caused several among them to suffer from diarrhea. +As recorded in Franklin's journal, during the winter of 1825–1826, to pass the time, the men played a game very similar to modern ice hockey. In a separate entry, Franklin noted that "skating" was among the winter "amusements" enjoyed by his men. Whether or not the use of ice skates were combined with the game is not known; if the two were combined, this would make Fort Franklin (Délı̨nę) the earliest documented location where ice hockey was played, and also the first known use of the word "hockey" in reference to the modern-day sport. +The ice on Great Bear Lake began breaking up on 23 May, but with this came the constant threat of mosquitoes, which Franklin called "vigorous and tormenting". As winter ended, the party made a more concentrated effort to chart the coastline of Great Bear Lake. The most extensive of these explorations was conducted by Richardson and Kendall, lasting from 10 April–1 May. Franklin at this point grew displeased with the constant presence of the Dog-Rib Indians, claiming that they "continued hanging about the fort, and their daily drumming and singing over the sick, the squalling of the children, and bawling of the men and women, proved no small annoyance." With the beginning of June, Franklin began more intensely planning the party's voyage to the coast. The boats the company had been constructing over the course of the winter were tested on 15 June. Supplies and men were then divided between the western and eastern detachment, and after final preparations were made, the party departed from Fort Franklin on the summer solstice of 1826. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..371903bce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Mackenzie River expedition" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:10.651313+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Spring and the parties split === +The expedition's plans for the coming summer were ambitious. Franklin, leading the western detachment, aimed to get as far as Icy Cape, which had previously been visited by James Cook in 1778. Richardson's journey would involve coasting the shore of the ocean as far east as the mouth of the Coppermine River. He would then ascend the river and cross overland to Great Bear Lake, ideally arriving at Fort Franklin before the onset of winter. + +The party made quick progress in descending the Mackenzie River, reaching its delta by early July. The western detachment was to consist of two boats, Lion and Reliance, commanded by Franklin and Back, respectively. The eastern detachment consisted of the boats Dolphin and Union, commemorated in the Dolphin and Union Strait. In the early morning of 4 July, the parties split. + +==== Western detachment ==== +The western detachment quickly faced difficulty at the hands of the Inuit. When the boats became grounded due to the river's shallowness, Franklin, while observing the location's longitude, discovered a nearby Inuit settlement. After instructing Back and the others to be prepared to take up arms should the Inuit prove hostile, Franklin departed for the camp, alongside the party's interpreter, Tattannoeuck (Augustus). The settlement, which contained in excess of 250 individuals, initially greeted the expeditionaries with hesitance. When Franklin later explained the benefit to their people of the putative sea route known as the Northwest Passage, they became friendly. Soon after, however, the Inuit, desiring the party's cargo, plundered Lion and Reliance. After an altercation lasting several hours, Tattannoeuck, who had left the boat for the shore to talk with the Inuit, the tide rose and the two boats departed; Franklin commanded that none of the Inuit follow them under penalty of being shot. He later designated the area where the conflict had occurred as Pillage Point. + +For the rest of the season, much of the group's voyage was impeded by poor weather and sea ice. On 9 July, the group once again came in contact with the Inuit; this encounter was much more cordial. Franklin inquired as to the usual date of ice breakup and the groups exchanged gifts. According to Franklin, the Inuit group, who numbered 48, had a high proportion of elders, all of whom were highly active and appeared in excellent health. Nearly all suffered from some degree of snowblindness. When told of the Europeans' previous encounter, these Inuit condemned the attack. +On 15 July, the mouth of the Babbage River was reached; soon after, Herschel Island came into view. On 17 July, the party set foot on the island, where they came into contact with more Inuit. Western travel along the Arctic coast was arduous: temperatures seldom exceeded 6 °C (43 °F), and gusts of wind frequently upended the expeditionaries' tents, making sheltering from the rain difficult. The constant fog obscured visibility, and the mosquitoes were described by Franklin as "torturous". At one point, Tattannoeuck (Augustus) fell into a fit of hypothermia after rushing into an icy lake in pursuit of a reindeer. He was given blankets and chocolate to warm up, but by the next morning still felt pain in his limbs. +By 30 July, the party had entered the waters of the modern-day state of Alaska; Brownlow Point was reached on 5 August. In the succeeding weeks, Franklin grew hesitant to continue pursuing the expedition's goal of reaching Icy Cape. On 16 August, realizing that summer was coming to an end and the navigability of the rest of the party's route would be threatened by increasingly poor conditions, Franklin decided they would turn back towards the Mackenzie's mouth. Unbeknownst to him however, an exploratory party of Beechey's vessel lay only 257 km (160 mi) to the west, which, under the party's average pace, could have been reached in less than a week. According to Franklin, had he known that Beechey's vessel was a mere six days' pursuit away, "no difficulties, dangers, or discouraging circumstances, should have [prevented]" him from convening with Beechey. He was, however, oblivious to Beechey's proximity, and opted to return to the Mackenzie. +The journey east was relatively uneventful, but sea ice and wind continued to pose a serious threat to the expeditionaries. The party landed on Herschel Island again on 26 August. Encounters with Inuit occurred almost daily; on 29 August, Franklin was informed by a group of Inuit that Richardson's party had been seen clearing the Mackenzie River delta and had narrowly escaped another attempt by the Inuit to pillage their boats. He was later alarmed by a group of Inuit who rushed into the party's camp and informed them that a rival Inuit group was en route with the express intent of massacring the party and stealing their possessions. This group, termed the 'Mountain Indians' by Franklin, allegedly had planned to await their likely return to the mouth of the Mackenzie River. Under the pretence of helping the Europeans navigate the river, the Mountain Indians would then stave in their boats, making them unfit for escape to deeper waters; then a larger group would rush out of a predesignated hiding spot and attack. Franklin was cautioned by the Inuit to thenceforth only camp on islands that were out of gunshot range. He later surmised that the Mountain Indians had been armed by trades conducted with the Russians, who were ostensibly prohibited from trading with any Inuit groups. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f175f55de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Mackenzie River expedition" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:10.651313+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +By September, the party was ascending the Mackenzie River, and on 4 September had reached Point Separation, where the two detachments had originally split. They recovered a small depot of supplies, stowed by the party the previous July, before pressing on. The mouth of the Great Bear River was reached on 16 September; five days later, Fort Franklin was reached. Over the course of their journey, the western party had travelled a total distance of 3,296 km (2,048 mi) in 80 days, with an average distance of about 41 km (25 mi) per day. + +==== Eastern detachment ==== +Consisting of twelve individuals, the eastern detachment proceeded down the Mackenzie, and eventually to open ocean. Encounters with the Inuit were relatively amicable, with the task of interpretation given to the group's Inuit companion, Ooligbuck. + +After traversing the maze of islands that comprise the delta of the Mackenzie, open sea was reached on 7 July. That same day, a band of Inuit were encountered. Quelling their initial fears by presenting gifts, Richardson established relations with the group, but found their disposition impolite. Ooligbuck, apparently distrusting the band, urged Richardson to depart; upon doing so, the party was trailed by the Inuit. These encounters remained almost constant until 20 July, when the last group of Inuit were seen before the party reached the Coppermine. +The following days were spent rounding the highly indented coastline; progress was impeded by the constant presence of sea ice. On 4 August, a large northerly landmass came into view, which Richardson termed Wollaston Land. In reality, this land was actually a southerly peninsula of Victoria Island, the second largest island in the Arctic Archipelago. This was the first time a European had laid eyes on the island. Coronation Gulf was reached on 6 August, whereupon the group turned southwards until they reached the mouth of the Coppermine. It was at this point that Richardson crossed into territory already mapped during Franklin's previous expedition. + +The party reached the mouth of the Coppermine River on 8 August, and the next day began ascending the river. The river was at that point running extremely low, occasionally to the point that it hindered the travel of their boats. After passing Bloody Falls, Richardson judged that the rest of the Coppermine's course was unfit for navigation by boat. He therefore decided that Dolphin and Union would be left behind and the group would carry on by foot. Each man was allotted 9 kg (20 lb) of pemmican, in addition to packages of macaroni, dry soup mix, chocolate, sugar, and tea. In addition, the group carried a portable boat; blankets; spare guns, shoes, and ammunition; fishing nets; kettles; and hatchets. When divided among the party, this load came to a weight of 33 kg (73 lb) per man. Richardson feared that carrying so much weight would prove too arduous, and assured the men that when sufficient progress was made they would halt and examine the necessity of carrying certain items. All that was not carried by the party was stowed in tents marked with a Union Jack for the use of a future expeditionary force. +The march to Great Bear Lake began on 10 August. Richardson planned to follow the Coppermine as far as its junction with the Copper Mountains. From there they would hike in more or less a straight line until reaching the Dease River, which they would then descend to its mouth at Great Bear Lake. Many among the party were unaccustomed to carrying such heavy loads, but upon examining the group's stocks, Richardson found little that he considered superfluous enough to discard. He eventually resolved to abandon the portable boat and five of the group's rifles, reducing each man's load by 7 kg (15 lb). Still, the group seldom travelled at a pace of more than 3 km/h (1.9 mph). + +In spite of their reduced loads, many among the party were exhausted by the end of each day. Richardson attributed much of their exertion to the frequent change of elevation and the spongy, wet ground and resulting absence of secure footing. The party grew more accommodated to their loads in the succeeding days and soon established a more productive pace. +In the night of 15 August the party encountered a group of First Nations who led them to the headwaters of the Dease River. Soon after, a range of hills distinct to the north shore of Great Bear Lake came into view, and the lake itself was spotted on 18 August. From that point onward, Richardson was to wait for a scout from Fort Franklin who had been directed to depart from the fort on 6 August to the mouth of the Dease River and wait there for Richardson's party. After sending out hunting excursions to enlarge the expedition larder in preparation for their push to Fort Franklin, on 21 August, Richardson and the scouting party were united. After paddling along the coast of Great Bear Lake, Fort Franklin was reached on 1 September, nearly two weeks before the western detachment. +The eastern detachment had travelled 3,197 km (1,987 mi) over the course of 60 days, amounting to an average of 53 km (33 mi) per day. A total of 1,452 km (902 mi) of new coastline had been charted over the course of the journey. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37c39ad26 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Mackenzie River expedition" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackenzie_River_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:10.651313+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Second winter and departure === +During the party's absence from Fort Franklin, those still inhabiting the dwelling were directed to make repairs, which were completed by the time Franklin arrived. Upon his arrival, however, Franklin became concerned at the depletion of the fort's food stores, and dispatched Kendall to requisition some food and other supplies from Fort Norman. Kendall returned to the fort on 8 October, carrying an abundance of food and other supplies, which were of particular benefit to the eastern detachment, who had been forced to sacrifice much of their equipment during their overland crossing between the Coppermine and Dease Rivers. +The party's second winter offered few events of note. By mid-November, ice on Great Bear Lake rendered it unnavigable. By early January, temperatures dipped to −47 °C (−53 °F), and by February, to −50 °C (−58 °F). The fort's larder at that point consisted of some tens of thousands of fish and nearly 11 t (24,000 lb) of meat. Franklin endeavoured to depart from the fort much earlier than in the previous season. He quit the fort on 20 February, carrying most of his supplies, including all of the expedition's charts, journals, and drawings, on a sledge, while Back was to remain at the fort until the breakup of the ice, after which he would proceed to York Factory and thence to England on an Hudson's Bay Company ship. +Franklin and his company travelled southwards through the taiga, arriving at Fort Chipewyan on 12 April and then Cumberland House on 18 June. It was there that Franklin and Tattannoeuck (Augustus) were to split, with the latter shedding tears at their parting and requesting to be informed of any other expedition to the Arctic that he could join. They reached New York in August, and on 1 September, Franklin departed from North America on a packet ship bound for Liverpool, which he reached on 26 September, while Back and the other officers arrived in Britain in October. Franklin's second expedition had thereafter concluded. + +== Aftermath == +Upon his returned to Britain, Franklin was lauded as a hero. In 1829 he was knighted by George IV, and later appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order and a Knight of the Greek Order of the Redeemer. Although Back had been appointed commander in 1825, following his return to Britain, he was unable to find appointment to a ship, and was unemployed until 1833. + +Over the course of the expedition, Franklin and his associates had travelled nearly 22,000 km (14,000 mi) and mapped half of the continent's northern coast. This was a sharp contrast to Franklin's previous expedition, where only 800 km (500 mi) had been explored before the party was forced to turn back. +Franklin himself later wrote of the contrast between this expedition and his previous one. During the breaking of the party at Point Separation, he realized the contrast between his situation and the previous expedition, writing that "it was impossible not to be struck with the difference between our present complete state of equipment and that on which we had embarked on our former disastrous voyage. Instead of a frail bark canoe, and a scanty supply of food, we were now about to commence the sea voyage in excellent boats, stored with three months' provision." +Franklin was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land in 1837, leaving this post after six years. Given that less than 500 km (310 mi) of Arctic coastline remained unmapped, Franklin, then 59 years old, was appointed to lead another expedition in 1845. The Northwest Passage expedition departed England in 1845 aboard the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In the autumn of 1846, the vessels became icebound somewhere in Victoria Strait, and Franklin and all 128 of his men were lost. During the Admiralty's inquest of Franklin's lost expedition, of which Back was a member, several search parties were dispatched, all of which were ultimately unsuccessful. The wrecks of Erebus and Terror were found off King William Island in 2014 and 2016, respectively. + +== Preceding discoveries == + +Prior to Franklin's second expedition, the mouth of the Mackenzie River had only been seen on one occasion by Europeans. In 1789, Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie descended the river, hoping that it would lead to the Pacific Ocean. Under the employ of the North West Company, Mackenzie spent the summer of 1789 descending the river and reached its mouth on 14 July. In Mackenzie's mind, having reached the wrong ocean, he turned back in disappointment and returned to Britain, where his efforts were not widely recognized. Mackenzie later led the first overland crossing of North America, reaching the western coast of British Columbia in 1793. +In 1771 Samuel Hearne crossed overland from Hudson Bay, reaching the source of the Coppermine River in July. He descended the river down to Coronation Gulf, marking the first time a European had reached the Arctic Ocean by land. +During his third voyage, James Cook mapped much of the western coast of North America, including Alaska's eponymous Cook Inlet. He reached Icy Cape, the ultimate goal of Franklin's western detachment, in August 1778. It was named by Cook for the large amounts of ice along the cape's coast. + +== See also == +Arctic exploration + +== References == + +== Bibliography == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_in_America_(website)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_in_America_(website)-0.md index 7b4ec3f39..f04c134ee 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_in_America_(website)-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_in_America_(website)-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_in_America_(website)" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:48:48.010548+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:17.817020+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_pride-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_pride-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a7428a4d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_pride-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +--- +title: "Mad pride" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_pride" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:19.001355+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mad pride is a mass movement of current and former users of mental health services, as well as those who have never used mental health services but are aligned with the mad pride framework. The movement encourages individuals with mental illness to be proud of their 'Mad' identity. In recent years, Mad pride has increasingly aligned with the neurodiversity movement, recognizing the interconnected nature of mental health advocacy and neurodivergent experiences. + + +== Core principles == +Mad pride activists seek to reclaim terms such as "mad", "nutter", crazy and "psycho" from misuse, such as in tabloid newspapers, and to transform them from negative to positive descriptors. Through mass media campaigns, mad pride activists seek to re-educate the general public on the causes of mental disorders and the experiences of those using the mental health system. +Mad pride was formed in 1993 in response to local community prejudices towards people with a psychiatric history living in boarding homes in the Parkdale area of Toronto, Ontario, Canada; since then, an event has been held in Toronto every year (except for 1996). A similar movement began around the same time in the United Kingdom, and by the late 1990s, mad pride events were organized around the globe, including in Australia, Brazil, France, Ireland, Portugal, Madagascar, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States. Events draw thousands of participants, according to MindFreedom International, a United States mental health advocacy organization that promotes and tracks events spawned by the movement. + + +== History == +Mad studies grew out of Mad pride and the psychiatric survivor framework, and focuses on developing scholarly thinking around "mental health" by academics who self-identify as mad. As noted in Mad matters: a critical reader in Canadian mad studies, "Mad Studies can be defined in general terms as a project of inquiry, knowledge production, and political action devoted to the critique and transcendence of psy-centred ways of thinking, behaving, relating, and being". +The first known event, held on 18 September 1993, was called "Psychiatric Survivor Pride Day", and was organized by and for people who identified as survivors, consumers, or ex-patients of psychiatric practices. + + +=== Founders === +Mad pride's founding activists in the UK included Simon Barnett, Mark Roberts, Pete Shaughnessy, and Robert Dellar. + + +=== Books and articles === +On Our Own: Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System, published in 1978 by Judi Chamberlin, is a foundational text in the mad pride movement, although it was published before the movement was launched. +Mad pride was launched shortly before a book of the same name, Mad Pride: A celebration of mad culture, published in 2000. On May 11, 2008, Gabrielle Glaser documented mad pride in The New York Times. Glaser stated, "Just as gay-rights activists reclaimed the word queer as a badge of honor rather than a slur, these advocates proudly call themselves mad; they say their conditions do not preclude them from productive lives." + + +== Culture and events == + +Mad pride and disability pride are both celebrated in July in many countries, including Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. There is a connection to Bastille Day, a French national holiday which occurs annually on July 14 to commemorate the Storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. This event was adopted as a symbol of mad pride, representing liberation and freedom. +The mad pride movement has spawned recurring cultural events in Toronto, London, Dublin, and other cities around the world. These events often include live music, poetry readings, film screenings, and street theatre. "Bed push" protests are one form of street theatre unique to mad pride events; their aim is to raise awareness about the barriers that prevent people from accessing quality treatment – which disproportionately affect people who are oppressed for other aspects such as race or class – as well as the widespread use of force in psychiatric hospitals. Past events have included British journalist Jonathan Freedland and novelist Clare Allan. Mad pride cultural events take a variety of forms, such as the South London collective Creative Routes, the Chipmunka Publishing enterprise, and the many works of Dolly Sen. + + +=== Bed push === + +A Bed Push is a method of activism employed by multiple mental health agencies and advocates as a method of raising awareness about psychiatric care. Activists wheel a gurney through public spaces to provoke discussion about mental health care. MindFreedom has a recipe for a successful Bed Push on their website, urging participants to remain peaceful but also ensure they are seen, using attention-grabbing tactics such as blowing horns, mild traffic disruptions, and loud music. Often patients in psychiatric care feel silenced and powerless, so the act of intentionally securing visibility and showing off resilience is one method of regaining dignity. +Mad Pride Week in Toronto is recognized by the city itself. The festivities surrounding this week are highlighted by the mad pride Bed Push, which typically takes place on the 14th of July. The event is staged at Toronto's Queen Street West "to raise public awareness about the use of force and lack of choice for people ensnared in the Ontario mental health system". This week is officially run by Toronto Mad Pride which partners a number of mental health agencies in the city. In recent years, some advocates have pushed for Parkdale, Toronto to be renamed MAD! Village, to reclaim pride in its surrounding communities' long history of struggle with mental health and addictions. +A series of bed push events take place around London each year. + + +=== Psychiatric Patient-Built Wall Tours === +The Psychiatric Patient-Built Wall Tours take place in Toronto, at the CAMH facility on Queen St West. The tours show the patient-built walls from the 19th century that are located at present day CAMH. The purpose of the tours is to give a history on the lives of the patients who built the walls, and bring attention to the harsh realities of psychiatry. +Geoffrey Reaume and Heinz Klein first came up with the idea of walking tours as part of a mad pride event in 2000. The first wall tour occurred on what is now known as Mad Pride Day, on July 14, 2000, with an attendance of about fifty people. Reaume solely leads the tours, and they have grown from annual events for mad pride, to occurring several times throughout the year in all non-winter months. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +== External links == + +Mad Pride Toronto +MAD Pride Australia +Mad Pride & Disability Pride Month Are Both in July +Mad in America +Mad Pride Resources \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetospheric_eternally_collapsing_object-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetospheric_eternally_collapsing_object-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..baed6ce9c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetospheric_eternally_collapsing_object-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Magnetospheric eternally collapsing object" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetospheric_eternally_collapsing_object" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:27.991052+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The magnetospheric eternally collapsing object (MECO) is an alternative model for black holes initially proposed by Indian scientist Abhas Mitra in 1998 and later generalized by American researchers Darryl J. Leiter and Stanley L. Robertson. A proposed observable difference between MECOs and black holes is that a MECO can produce its own intrinsic magnetic field. An uncharged black hole cannot produce its own magnetic field, though its accretion disk can. + + +== Theoretical model == +In the theoretical model a MECO begins to form in much the same way as a black hole, with a large amount of matter collapsing inward toward a single point. However, as it becomes smaller and denser, a MECO does not form an event horizon. +As the matter becomes denser and hotter, it glows more brightly. Eventually its interior approaches the Eddington limit. At this point the internal radiation pressure is sufficient to slow the inward collapse almost to a standstill. +In fact, the collapse gets slower and slower, so a singularity could only form in an infinite future. Unlike a black hole, the MECO never fully collapses. Rather, according to the model it slows down and enters an eternal collapse. +Mitra provides a review of the evolution of black hole alternatives including his model of eternal collapse and MECOs. + + +=== Eternal collapse === +Mitra's paper claiming non-occurrence of event horizons and exact black holes later appeared in Pramana - Journal of Physics. In this paper, Mitra proposes that so-called black holes are eternally collapsing while Schwarzschild black holes have a gravitational mass M = 0. He argued that all proposed black holes are instead quasi-black holes rather than exact black holes and that during the gravitational collapse to a black hole, the entire mass energy and angular momentum of the collapsing objects is radiated away before formation of exact mathematical black holes. Mitra proposes that in his formulation since a mathematical zero-mass black hole requires infinite proper time to form, continued gravitational collapse becomes eternal, and the observed black hole candidates must instead be eternally collapsing objects (ECOs). For physical realization of this, he argued that in an extremely relativistic regime, continued collapse must be slowed to a near halt by radiation pressure at the Eddington limit. + + +=== Magnetic field === +A MECO can carry electric and magnetic properties, has a finite size, can carry angular momentum and rotate. + + +== Observational evidence == +Astronomer Rudolph Schild of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics claimed in 2006 to have found evidence consistent with an intrinsic magnetic field from the black hole candidate in the quasar Q0957+561. Chris Reynolds of the University of Maryland has criticised the MECO interpretation, suggesting instead that the apparent hole in the disc could be filled with very hot, tenuous gas, which would not radiate much and would be hard to see; however, Leiter in turn questions the viability of Reynolds's interpretation. + + +== Reception of the MECO model == +Mitra's hypothesis that black holes cannot form is based in part on the argument that in order for a black hole to form, the collapsing matter must travel faster than the speed of light with respect to a fixed observer. In 2002, Paulo Crawford and Ismael Tereno cited this as an example of a "wrong and widespread view", and explain that in order for a frame of reference to be valid, the observer must be moving along a timelike worldline. At or inside the event horizon of a black hole, it is not possible for such an observer to remain fixed; all observers are drawn toward the black hole. Mitra argues that he has proven that the world-line of an in-falling test particle would tend to be lightlike at the event horizon, independent of the definition of "velocity". + + +== See also == +Apparent horizon +Firewall paradox +Planck star +No-hair theorem + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..611603739 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:07.202216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 30) or the Malicious Injuries to Property (England) Act 1827 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated enactments relating to malicious injuries to property in England and Wales. +The act was one of Peel's Acts which consolidated, repealed and replaced a large number of existing statutes. The enactments replaced by the act were repealed by the Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 27). + +Similar provisions were made for Ireland by the Malicious Injuries to Property (Ireland) Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. c. 56). + +== Background == +In the United Kingdom, acts of Parliament remain in force until expressly repealed. Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the late 18th-century, raised questions about the system and structure of the common law and the poor drafting and disorder of the existing statute book. +In 1806, the Commission on Public Records passed a resolution requesting the production of a report on the best mode of reducing the volume of the statute book. From 1810 to 1825, The Statutes of the Realm was published, providing for the first time the authoritative collection of acts. In 1816, both Houses of Parliament, passed resolutions that an eminent lawyer with 20 clerks be commissioned to make a digest of the statutes, which was declared "very expedient to be done." However, this was never done. +In 1822, Sir Robert Peel entered the cabinet as home secretary and in 1826 introduced a number of reforms to the English criminal law, which became known as Peel's Acts. This included efforts to modernise, consolidate and repeal provisions from a large number of earlier statutes, including: + +Benefit of Clergy +Larceny and other Offences of Stealing +Burglary, Robbery and Threats for the Purpose of Robbery or of Extortion +Embezzlement, False Pretences, and the Receipt of Stolen Property +Malicious Injuries to Property +Remedies against the Hundred + +== Provisions == + +=== Apprehension without a warrant === +All those committing an offence under the act could be apprehended without a warrant by the property's owner, his or her servant, anyone authorised by the owner or any "Peace Officer" (section 28). All its provisions applied whether or not it was committed from malice against the property's owner (section 25) and to principals in the first and second degrees and all accessories (section 26). Prosecutions were to be brought within three months of the offence (section 29). Any of its provisions from imprisonment could also be upgraded to hard labour (section 27). The Act also outlined the summoning of offenders (sections 30–31) and the administration of its punishments (sections 32–33), pardons, discharges, convictions and appeals under it (sections 34–39), record-keeping of convictions (section 40) and where and how such offences were to be tried (section 41). + +=== Death penalty for setting fire === +It instituted the death penalty for maliciously setting fire to homes, workplaces, granaries and both Anglican and Dissenting churches and chapels (sections 2 and 8) and for setting fire to a ship, wrecking by false lights and destroying shipwrecked cargo (sections 9 and 11). However, damage to a ship by means other than fire (section 10) or damage to rivers, canals, harbours or sea defences (section 12) only brought imprisonment or transportation. + +=== Punishments for the Luddites === +The act also responded to the Luddites and their hostility to the Industrial Revolution and Agricultural Revolution, setting penalties of transportation or imprisonment for damaging textile goods and factory or farm machinery, with the addition of public or private whipping for male offenders (sections 3–4). Similar punishments were put in place for flooding or setting fire to coal mines and their associated machinery and structures, unless this was done accidentally in working a neighbouring mine (sections 5–7). It also covered damage to public bridges, turnpike gates and toll houses (sections 13–14), dams, fishponds and millponds (section 15), cattle, crops, hay, hops and fruit (sections 16–22) and fences, walls, stiles and gates (section 23). The act also instituted compensation for offences to property not covered by its other sections (section 24). + +== Subsequent developments == +In 1827, Peel's Acts were passed to modernise, consolidate and repeal provisions of the criminal law of England and Wales, including: + +The Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 27), which repealed over 140 enactments relating to the criminal law. +The Criminal Law Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 28), which modernised the administration of criminal justice. +The Larceny Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 29), which consolidated enactments relating to larceny. +The Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 30), which consolidated enactments relating to malicious injuries to property. +The Remedies Against the Hundred (England) Act 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 31), which consolidated enactments relating to remedies against the hundred. +In 1828, parallel bills for Ireland to Peel's Acts were introduced, becoming: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b93432047 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Malicious Injuries to Property Act 1827" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malicious_Injuries_to_Property_Act_1827" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:07.202216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Criminal Statutes (Ireland) Repeal Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. 54), which repealed for Ireland over 140 enactments relating to the English criminal law. +The Criminal Law (Ireland) Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. 54), which modernised the administration of criminal justice +The Larceny (Ireland) Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. c. 55) which consolidated provisions in the law relating to larceny. +The Malicious Injuries to Property (Ireland) Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. c. 56), which consolidated provisions in the law relating to malicious injuries to property. +In 1828, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828 (9 Geo. 4. c. 31) was passed, which consolidated enactments relating to offences against the person and repealed for England and Wales almost 60 related enactments. In 1829, the Offences Against the Person (Ireland) Act 1829 (10 Geo. 4. c. 34) was passed, which consolidated enactments relating to offences against the person and repealed for Ireland almost 60 enactments relating to the criminal law of Ireland. +In 1861, bills were introduced, drafted by Charles Sprengel Greaves to mirror Peel's Acts, to consolidate and modernise the criminal law across: + +Offences Against the Person +Malicious Injuries to Property +Larceny +Forgery +Coining +Accessories and Abettors +In 1861, the Criminal Consolidation Acts were passed for that purpose: + +The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 94), which modernised provisions in the law relating to Aiding and abetting. +The Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 95), which repealed for England and Wales and Ireland over 100 enactments relating to the criminal law. +The Larceny Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 96), which modernised provisions in the law relating to larceny. +The Malicious Damage Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 97), which modernised provisions in the law relating to malicious injury to property. +The Forgery Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 98), which modernised provisions in the law relating to forgery. +The Coinage Offences Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 99), which modernised provisions in the law relating to coinage. +The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 100), which modernised provisions in the law relating to offences against the person. + +=== Repeal === +So much of the Irish act as related to the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace as to summary convictions was repealed by section 60 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 102), which came into force on 1 October 1850. +Sections 25–29 of the act were repealed by section 104 of, and schedule (B.) to, the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment (Ireland) Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. 154), which came into force on 1 January 1861. +The whole of the English and Irish acts were repealed by section 1 of, and the schedule to, the Criminal Statutes Repeal Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 95), which came into force on 1 November 1861. + +== Notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0a5ab8229 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "March Against Monsanto" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:57.118713+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The March Against Monsanto was an international grassroots movement and protest against Monsanto, a producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide. The movement was founded by Tami Canal in response to the failure of California Proposition 37, a ballot initiative which would have required labeling food products made from GMOs. Advocates support mandatory labeling laws for food made from GMOs. +The initial march took place on May 25, 2013. The number of protesters who took part is uncertain; figures of "hundreds of thousands" and the organizers' estimate of "two million" were variously cited. Events took place in between 330 and 436 cities around the world, mostly in the United States. Many protests occurred in Southern California, and some participants carried signs expressing support for mandatory labeling of GMOs that read "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know", and "Real Food 4 Real People". Canal said that the movement would continue its "anti-GMO cause" beyond the initial event. Further marches occurred in October 2013 and in May 2014 and May 2015. +The protests were reported by news outlets including ABC News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and CNN (in the United States), and The Guardian (outside the United States). +Monsanto said that it respected people's rights to express their opinion on the topic, but maintained that its seeds improved agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources, such as water and energy. The company reiterated that genetically modified foods were safe and improved crop yields. + +== Background == + +Monsanto, headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri, is the largest producer of genetically engineered seed. Monsanto has been involved in high-profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant, and its current and former biotechnology products, its lobbying of government agencies, and its history as a chemical company have made it a controversial corporation. In the United States, the majority of corn, soybean, and cotton is genetically modified. +Prior to the march, Monsanto's CEO Hugh Grant had accused opponents of genetically modified foods of wanting to block others from choosing more affordable food options, thus being guilty of "elitism". Advocacy groups such as Greenpeace, The Non-GMO Project, and the Organic Consumers Association say that risks of GM food have not been adequately identified and managed, and they have questioned the objectivity of regulatory authorities. They have expressed concerns about the objectivity of regulators and the rigor of the regulatory process, possible contamination of non-GM foods, effects of GMOs on the environment and nature, and the consolidation of control of the food supply in companies that make and sell GMOs. +There is a scientific consensus that currently available food derived from GM crops poses no greater risk to human health than conventional food, but that each GM food needs to be tested on a case-by-case basis before introduction. Nonetheless, members of the public are much less likely than scientists to perceive GM foods as safe. The legal and regulatory status of GM foods varies by country, with some nations banning or restricting them, and others permitting them with widely differing degrees of regulation. +Although labeling of genetically modified organism (GMO) products in the marketplace is required in many countries, it is not required in the United States and no distinction between marketed GMO and non-GMO foods is recognized by the US FDA. + +== Origin of the protests == + +=== Tami Canal === + +Tami Monroe Canal, a homemaker and mother of two daughters, was living as a resident in California when Proposition 37, a ballot initiative that would have required labels on products containing genetically engineered food, was rejected by voters in November 2012. Monsanto spent $8.1 million opposing the passage of Proposition 37, making it the largest donor against the initiative. The combined total spent by food industry advocacy groups on the campaign to defeat Proposition 37 was $45 million. Canal credits Proposition 37 with "opening her eyes" to GMOs for the first time. +Soon after, Canal moved to Utah where she had difficulty finding the same kinds of fresh foods and farmers' markets she had left behind in California. Canal was not only angry about the failure of Proposition 37 and frustrated with trying to find reasonably priced organic food, but she was also concerned about the health of her children. +Talking about her personal motivations for starting the movement, Canal told the Salt Lake City Weekly, "Companies like Kellogg's and General Mills are putting things like Fruit Loops on the market that are basically 100 percent genetically engineered ingredients. And that's marketed to our kids." Out of her anger, frustration, and concerns for the health of her children, Canal developed the idea for a "March Against Monsanto" social media campaign. + +=== Social media campaign === +Canal started a Facebook social media campaign on February 28, 2013. She stated: "For too long, Monsanto has been the benefactor of corporate subsidies and political favoritism ... Organic and small farmers suffer losses while Monsanto continues to forge its monopoly over the world's food supply, including exclusive patenting rights over seeds and genetic makeup." Activists Emilie Rensink and Nick Bernabe worked with Canal to promote the march on various social media sites. By May 21, the Facebook page had attracted 85,000 members with approximately 110,000 "likes" and about 40,000 daily visitors. + +=== The Farmer Assurance Provision === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6d5f00ae8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "March Against Monsanto" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:57.118713+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +President Barack Obama's signing, on March 26, 2013, of the Farmer Assurance Provision, which is Section 735 of US H.R. 933, provided further motivation for the protesters. The section of the bill is called the "Monsanto Protection Act" by critics, and it authorizes the United States Department of Agriculture to allow the planting and cultivation of genetically modified food while environmental reviews are being completed, even if there is a legal ruling against their approval. Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders attempted, unsuccessfully, to introduce Senate Amendment 965 to the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013, legislation that would require labeling of GM food products. Sanders criticized Monsanto for its opposition to his initiative, saying that Monsanto and other biotech companies "were able to gather a whole lot of support in the Senate". +Prior to the march, the March Against Monsanto group hosted an essay on their website highlighting what they saw as lack of attention to the Act in the mainstream media. Dave Murphy, founder of Food Democracy Now!, called the controversy over H.R. 933 "the turning point in the debate on political lobbying and genetic engineering in the U.S." and he described the March Against Monsanto as raising "one of the most pressing issues of our time". + +== May 2013 protests == + +On May 25, 2013, demonstrations protesting genetically modified crops took place around the world. Events took place in between 330 and 436 cities around the world, mostly in the United States. The number of protesters who took part is uncertain; figures of "hundreds of thousands" and the organizers' estimate of "two million" were variously cited. +In Southern California, protests occurred in Los Angeles, including Venice, Long Beach, and San Diego. In Los Angeles, protesters marched from Pershing Square to City Hall. Some carried signs expressing support for mandatory labeling of GMOs that read "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know", and "Real Food 4 Real People". Dorothy Muehlmann, organizer of the L.A. march, said that they were marching to raise awareness. "This is not just a 'boo Monsanto' protest. We want more people to know so they can make their own decisions." +Environmental journalist John Upton of Grist magazine noted that the march took place two days after Senate Amendment 965, introduced by US Senator Bernie Sanders in an attempt to allow states to label GMO foods, was rejected. "Any U.S. senators paying attention to what was happening in the entire world over the weekend may have noticed a teensy disconnect between their protectionist votes for Monsanto and global discontent with the GMO giant," Upton wrote. + +=== Positions === +The March Against Monsanto published a list of concerns and its positions on a number of GMO issues on its website. According to the group, the protests were held to address health and safety issues, perceived conflicts of interest, and agricultural, environmental, and legislative concerns. +The marchers expressed the belief that GM foods can adversely affect human health, with some of the protesters asserting that such foods cause cancer, infertility, and birth defects. Protesters also asserted that GMOs might harm the environment, and play a role in declining bee populations. +The protesters argued that the Farmer Assurance Provision legislation allows Monsanto to ignore court rulings, and have called for the bill's repeal. They believe that the legislation has drawn what they call "a blurry line between industry and government". +They also believe that there has been a conflict of interest between former employees of Monsanto who work for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that Monsanto has used their patent rights to create a monopoly of the food supply which has resulted in economic losses by small farmers. Activist and journalist Emilie Rensink, who helped organize the march, said that in her view the appointment of ex-Monsanto executives to head the FDA has resulted in political favoritism, including Monsanto subsidies which have given them an unfair advantage over small farmers. + +=== Media coverage === + +The protests were reported on by news outlets including ABC News, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and CNN (in the United States), and The Guardian (outside the United States). +No major media outlets in the US provided live coverage of the event. AlterNet expressed the opinion that mainstream coverage of the event was "sparse", and it criticized what it characterized as "the mainstream media's decision to ignore thousands of people marching down the nation's busiest thoroughfares". Radio host Thom Hartmann compared what he saw as scant coverage of the protests, which he attributed to the media avoiding topics that might make their advertisers appear in a negative light, to the greater media attention garnered by small Tea Party rallies. + +=== Monsanto and industry response === +Monsanto said that it respected people's rights to express their opinion on the topic, but maintained that its seeds improved agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources, such as water and energy. The company reiterated that genetically engineered foods were safe and improved crop yields. Similar sentiments were expressed by the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, of which Monsanto is a member. + +== October 2013 protests == +A second protest was organized and held on October 12, 2013. The group Occupy Monsanto estimated that over 400 marches were held worldwide, with other reports estimating participation at 500 events in 50 different countries. The October march was scheduled to coincide with World Food Day, and came after Monsanto executives had been awarded the World Food Prize; the Des Moines, Iowa protest on October 12 took place in front of the World Food Prize building to oppose this award. Monsanto commented on the protests with a statement reasserting the safety of genetically modified food. + +== Annual protests == + +Further protests were held in May 2014 and in "upwards of 400 cities in more than 40 countries" in May 2015. + +== Opposition and counter protests == +March Against Myths About Modification (MAMyths) is a grassroots organization set up to counter the March Against Monsanto protests, and the associated myths told about Genetically Engineered (GMO) crops and foods. MAMyths believes that the misconceptions associated with GMO's are harmful to the public because they influence public perception, which in turn influences policy. + +== See also == +Organic Consumers Association and its campaign, "Millions Against Monsanto" + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Annear, Steve (24 May 2013). "Thousands to Protest Genetically Modified Foods During Weekend Rally Archived 2013-06-25 at the Wayback Machine". Boston. Retrieved 22 June 2013. +"Worldwide March Against Monsanto". Progressive 77(7):10–13. July 2013. ISSN 0033-0736 + +== External links == + +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(Meher_Baba)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(Meher_Baba)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..674245a49 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(Meher_Baba)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Mast (Meher Baba)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mast_(Meher_Baba)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:21.308869+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A mast (from Persian مست mast), in Meher Baba's teaching, is a person who is overwhelmed with love for God, accompanied with external disorientation resembling intoxication. The word was coined by Meher Baba and originates from the Sufi term mast-Allah meaning "intoxicated with God" from Persian mast, literally meaning "intoxicated." Another interpretation of its origin is that it is derived from masti, a Persian word meaning "overpowered." + + +== Overview == + +According to Meher Baba, a mast is one who is entranced or spellbound by internal spiritual experiences and ecstasies, who cannot function outwardly in an ordinary way, and may appear mad to a casual outside observer. Such experiences, according to Meher Baba, stem from the station of a mast's consciousness (his or her state of consciousness) on inner planes of involution. In The Wayfarers: Meher Baba With the God-Intoxicated, British medical doctor William Donkin documents at length Meher Baba's contacts with masts throughout South Asia (primarily Iran, India, and Pakistan). The introduction, written by Meher Baba, explains their unique state and their outward characteristics. He carefully distinguishes the mast state from madness and explains that in the case of the mad person, the mind is sped up, while in the case of the mast it is slowed down. Meher Baba made a Sufi analogy (reflecting the poetry of Hafez) to the drunkenness of one intoxicated with wine, but in this case, the wine is the love of God. Meher Baba contacted thousands of masts all over India, Pakistan, and Iran, saying that he was freeing them from enchantment and helping them to continue on the spiritual path and to be of inward service to humanity. +Masts can be in varying degrees of the states of salik or majzoob. Salik means more in touch with outward surroundings, meaning grounded and ordinary. Majzoob refers to that state of being immersed in the inner plane and divorced from the outside world. + + +== References == + + +== External links == + +God-Intoxicated Pilgrims \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c5f44eb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +--- +title: "Mathematics Subject Classification" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:27.221756+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Mathematics Subject Classification (MSC) is an alphanumerical classification scheme that has collaboratively been produced by staff of, and based on the coverage of, the two major mathematical reviewing databases, Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH. The MSC is used by many mathematics journals, which ask authors of research papers and expository articles to list subject codes from the Mathematics Subject Classification in their papers. The current version is MSC2020. + +== Structure == +The MSC is a hierarchical scheme, with three levels of structure. A classification can be two, three or five digits long, depending on how many levels of the classification scheme are used. +The first level is represented by a two-digit number, the second by a letter, and the third by another two-digit number. For example: + +53 is the classification for differential geometry +53A is the classification for classical differential geometry +53A45 is the classification for vector and tensor analysis + +=== First level === +At the top level, 63 mathematical disciplines are labeled with a unique two-digit number. In addition to the typical areas of mathematical research, there are top-level categories for "History and Biography", "Mathematics Education", and for the overlap with different sciences. Physics (i.e. mathematical physics) is particularly well represented in the classification scheme with a number of different categories including: + +Fluid mechanics +Quantum mechanics +Geophysics +Optics and electromagnetic theory +All valid MSC classification codes must have at least the first-level identifier. + +=== Second level === +The second-level codes are a single letter from the Latin alphabet. These represent specific areas covered by the first-level discipline. The second-level codes vary from discipline to discipline. +For example, for differential geometry, the top-level code is 53, and the second-level codes are: + +A for classical differential geometry +B for local differential geometry +C for global differential geometry +D for symplectic geometry and contact geometry +In addition, the special second-level code "-" is used for specific kinds of materials. These codes are of the form: + +53-00 General reference works (handbooks, dictionaries, bibliographies, etc.) +53-01 Instructional exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) +53-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) +53-03 Historical (must also be assigned at least one classification number from Section 01) +53-04 Explicit machine computation and programs (not the theory of computation or programming) +53-06 Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. +The second and third level of these codes are always the same - only the first level changes. For example, it is not valid to use 53- as a classification. Either 53 on its own or, better yet, a more specific code should be used. + +=== Third level === +Third-level codes are the most specific, usually corresponding to a specific kind of mathematical object or a well-known problem or research area. +The third-level code 99 exists in every category and means none of the above, but in this section. + +== Using the scheme == +The AMS recommends that papers submitted to its journals for publication have one primary classification and one or more optional secondary classifications. A typical MSC subject class line on a research paper looks like +MSC Primary 03C90; Secondary 03-02; + +== History == + +According to the American Mathematical Society (AMS) help page about MSC, the MSC has been revised a number of times since 1940. Based on a scheme to organize AMS's Mathematical Offprint Service (MOS scheme), the AMS Classification was established for the classification of reviews in Mathematical Reviews in the 1960s. It saw various ad-hoc changes. Despite its shortcomings, Zentralblatt für Mathematik started to use it as well in the 1970s. In the late 1980s, a jointly revised scheme with more formal rules was agreed upon by Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt für Mathematik under the new name Mathematics Subject Classification. It saw various revisions as MSC1990, MSC2000 and MSC2010. In July 2016, Mathematical Reviews and zbMATH started collecting input from the mathematical community on the next revision of MSC, which was released as MSC2020 + in January 2020. +The original classification of older items has not been changed. This can sometimes make it difficult to search for older works dealing with particular topics. Changes at the first level involved the subjects with (present) codes 03, 08, 12-20, 28, 37, 51, 58, 74, 90, 91, 92. + +== Relation to other classification schemes == +For physics papers the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS) is often used. Due to the large overlap between mathematics and physics research it is quite common to see both PACS and MSC codes on research papers, particularly for multidisciplinary journals and repositories such as the arXiv. +The ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) is a similar hierarchical classification scheme for computer science. There is some overlap between the AMS and ACM classification schemes, in subjects related to both mathematics and computer science, however the two schemes differ in the details of their organization of those topics. +The classification scheme used on the arXiv is chosen to reflect the papers submitted. As arXiv is multidisciplinary its classification scheme does not fit entirely with the MSC, ACM or PACS classification schemes. It is common to see codes from one or more of these schemes on individual papers. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c997b31f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +--- +title: "Mathematics Subject Classification" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_Subject_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:27.221756+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== First-level areas == +00: General (Includes topics such as recreational mathematics, philosophy of mathematics and mathematical modeling.) +01: History and biography +03: Mathematical logic and foundations (including model theory, computability theory, set theory, proof theory, and algebraic logic) +05: Combinatorics +06: Order, lattices, ordered algebraic structures +08: General algebraic systems +11: Number theory +12: Field theory and polynomials +13: Commutative algebra (Commutative rings and algebras) +14: Algebraic geometry +15: Linear and multilinear algebra; matrix theory +16: Associative rings and (associative) algebras +17: Non-associative rings and (non-associative) algebras +18: Category theory; homological algebra +19: K-theory +20: Group theory and generalizations +22: Topological groups, Lie groups (and analysis upon them) +26: Real functions (including derivatives and integrals) +28: Measure and integration +30: Functions of a complex variable (including approximation theory in the complex domain) +31: Potential theory +32: Several complex variables and analytic spaces +33: Special functions +34: Ordinary differential equations +35: Partial differential equations +37: Dynamical systems and ergodic theory +39: Difference equations and functional equations +40: Sequences, series, summability +41: Approximations and expansions +42: Harmonic analysis on Euclidean spaces (including Fourier analysis, Fourier transforms, trigonometric approximation, trigonometric interpolation, and orthogonal functions) +43: Abstract harmonic analysis +44: Integral transforms, operational calculus +45: Integral equations +46: Functional analysis (including infinite-dimensional holomorphy, integral transforms in distribution spaces) +47: Operator theory +49: Calculus of variations and optimal control; optimization (including geometric integration theory) +51: Geometry +52: Convex and discrete geometry +53: Differential geometry +54: General topology +55: Algebraic topology +57: Manifolds and cell complexes +58: Global analysis, analysis on manifolds (including infinite-dimensional holomorphy) +60: Probability theory and stochastic processes +62: Statistics +65: Numerical analysis +68: Computer science +70: Mechanics of particles and systems (including particle mechanics) +74: Mechanics of deformable solids +76: Fluid mechanics +78: Optics, electromagnetic theory +80: Classical thermodynamics, heat transfer +81: Quantum theory +82: Statistical mechanics, structure of matter +83: Relativity and gravitational theory (including relativistic mechanics) +85: Astronomy and astrophysics +86: Geophysics +90: Operations research, mathematical programming +91: Game theory, economics, social and behavioral sciences +92: Biology and other natural sciences +93: Systems theory; control (including optimal control) +94: Information and communication, circuits +97: Mathematics education + +== See also == + +Areas of mathematics +Mathematical knowledge management +MathSciNet + +== References == + +== External links == +MSC2020-Mathematical Sciences Classification System (PDF of MSC2020) +The Zentralblatt MATH page on the Mathematics Subject Classification. MSC2020 can be seen here. +Mathematics Subject Classification 2010 Archived 2011-01-13 at the Wayback Machine – the site where the MSC2010 revision was carried out publicly in an MSCwiki. A view of the whole scheme and the changes made from MSC2000, as well as PDF files of the MSC and ancillary documents are there. A personal copy of the MSC in TiddlyWiki form can be had also. +The American Mathematical Society page on the Mathematics Subject Classification. +Rusin, Dave. "A Gentle Introduction to the Mathematics Subject Classification Scheme". Mathematical Atlas. Archived from the original on 2015-05-16. +MSC Classification Codes at The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) +MSC2020 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_wave_clock-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_wave_clock-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..91893e3de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_wave_clock-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +title: "Matter wave clock" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter_wave_clock" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:29.191387+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A matter wave clock is a type of clock whose principle of operation makes use of the apparent wavelike properties of matter. +Matter waves were first proposed by Louis de Broglie and are sometimes called de Broglie waves. They form a key aspect of wave–particle duality and experiments have since supported the idea. The wave associated with a particle of a given mass, such as an atom, has a defined frequency, and a change in the duration of one cycle from peak to peak that is sometimes called its Compton periodicity. Such a matter wave has the characteristics of a simple clock, in that it marks out fixed and equal intervals of time. The twins paradox arising from Albert Einstein's theory of relativity means that a moving particle will have a slightly different period from a stationary particle. Comparing two such particles allows the construction of a practical "Compton clock". + + +== Matter waves as clocks == +De Broglie proposed that the frequency f of a matter wave equals E/h, where E is the total energy of the particle and h is the Planck constant. For a particle at rest, the relativistic equation E=mc2 allows the derivation of the Compton frequency f for a stationary massive particle, equal to mc2/h. +De Broglie also proposed that the wavelength λ for a moving particle was equal to h/p where p is the particle's momentum. +The period (one cycle of the wave) is equal to 1/f. +This precise Compton periodicity of a matter wave is said to be the necessary condition for a clock, with the implication that any such matter particle may be regarded as a fundamental clock. This proposal has been referred to as "A rock is a clock." + + +=== Applications === +In his paper, "Quantum mechanics, matter waves and moving clocks", Müller has suggested that "The description of matter waves as matter-wave clocks ... has recently been applied to tests of general relativity, matter-wave experiments, the foundations of quantum mechanics, quantum space-time decoherence, the matter wave clock/mass standard, and led to a discussion on the role of the proper time in quantum mechanics. It is generally covariant and thus well-suited for use in curved space-time, e.g., gravitational waves." + + +=== Implications === +In his paper, "Quantum mechanics, matter waves and moving clocks", Müller has suggested that "[The model] has also given rise to a fair amount of controversy. Within the broader context of quantum mechanics ... this description has been abandoned, in part because it could not be used to derive a relativistic quantum theory, or explain spin. The descriptions that replaced the clock picture achieve these goals, but do not motivate the concepts used. ... We shall construct a ... description of matter waves as clocks. We will thus arrive at a space-time path integral that is equivalent to the Dirac equation. This derivation shows that De Broglie's matter wave theory naturally leads to particles with spin-1/2. It relates to Feynman's search for a formula for the amplitude of a path in 3+1 space and time dimensions which is equivalent to the Dirac equation. It yields a new intuitive interpretation of the propagation of a Dirac particle and reproduces all results of standard quantum mechanics, including those supposedly at odds with it. Thus, it illuminates the role of the gravitational redshift and the proper time in quantum mechanics." + + +=== Controversy === +The theoretical idea of matter waves as clocks has caused some controversy, and has attracted strong criticism. + + +== Atom interferometry == +An atom interferometer uses a small difference in waves associated with two atoms to create an observable interference pattern. Conventionally these waves are associated with the electrons orbiting the atom, but the matter wave theory suggests that the wave associated with the wave–particle duality of the atom itself may alternatively be used. +An experimental device comprises two clouds of atoms, one of which is given a small "kick" from a precisely-tuned laser. This gives it a finite velocity which, according to the matter wave theory lowers its observed frequency. The two clouds are then recombined so that their differing waves interfere, and the maximum output signal is obtained when the frequency difference is an integer number of cycles. +Experiments designed around the idea of interference between matter waves (as clocks) are claimed to have provided the most accurate validation yet of the gravitational redshift predicted by general relativity. A similar atom interferometer forms the heart of the Compton clock. +However, this claimed interpretation of the interferometry function has been criticised. One criticism is that a real Compton oscillator or matter wave does not appear in the design of any actual experiment. The matter wave interpretation is also said to be flawed. + + +== Compton clocks == +A functional timepiece designed on the basis of matter wave interferometry is called a Compton clock. + + +=== Principles of operation === +The frequency of the wave associated with a massive particle, such as an atom, is too high to be used directly in a practical clock and its period and wavelength are too short. A practical device makes use of the twin paradox arising from the theory of relativity, where a moving particle ages more slowly than a stationary one. The moving particle-wave therefore has a slightly lower frequency. Using interferometry, the difference or "beat frequency" between the two frequencies can be accurately measured and this beat frequency can be used as a basis for keeping time. + + +== Measurement of mass == +The technique used in the devices can theoretically be reversed to use time to measure mass. This has been proposed as an opportunity for replacing the platinum-iridium cylinder currently used as the 1 kg reference standard. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e51f39684 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "Metric Martyrs" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Martyrs" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:16.802550+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Metric Martyrs were a British advocacy group who campaigned for the freedom to choose what units of measurement are used by traders. The group believed that vendors should have the freedom to mark their goods with imperial weights and measurements alone. This opposes the current legal position that imperial units may be used so long as metric units are also displayed. +The advocacy group was formed by individuals who had been accused of offences related to selling loose produce using imperial measures, including not displaying metric signage, and for using unstamped weighing machines (which had their stamps removed by the authorities). Newspapers dubbed the group the "metric martyrs" after Chris Howell, then weights and measures spokesman for the Institute of Trading Standards Administration (today the Trading Standards Institute), said that they could martyr themselves if they wanted to. + + +== Legal cases == +In 2001 Steve Thoburn, a greengrocer in Sunderland, the main defendant in the original case, was convicted of two offences under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 of using weighing equipment that was not stamped by a Weights and Measures Inspector. The stamps had been obliterated because the scales were not capable of weighing in the metric system as well as imperial, and hence were no longer permitted for commercial use. He was initially convicted and given a six-month conditional discharge. In Thoburn v Sunderland City Council the fines were challenged in court; the verdict was in favour of Sunderland City Council, upholding the imposition of the fines. The challenges were made on the grounds that British law does not prohibit the use of imperial units when selling loose goods, but metric units must also be displayed. +The magistrates' court's decision was upheld on appeal by a divisional court. A petition for leave to appeal to the House of Lords was refused, as was an application to the European Court of Human Rights (alleging a breach of the right to a fair trial). +Thoburn died of a heart attack in March 2004. +Colin Hunt, who runs a fruit and veg stall in Hackney, was convicted in 2001 of six offences under the Price Marking Order 1999 for failing to display a unit price per kilogram. +John Dove, a fishmonger, and Julian Harman, a greengrocer, were also convicted in Cornwall in 2001 of two offences under the Price Marking Order 1999 of failing to display a unit price per kilogram, and of two offences of using a scale that was only capable of weighing in the imperial system. +Peter Collins, a fruit seller in Sutton who was prosecuted in 2000, was not convicted of any criminal offence. Collins appealed to a Magistrates' court to have limits on his street trading licence removed. These limits, to which all traders are subject, allowed him to label his goods in imperial quantities only if metric quantities were also displayed no less prominently. +In 2008, Nic Davison was served with an infringement notice for selling draught beer by the litre rather than pints, at his Polish restaurant in Doncaster. Trading Standards officers threatened Davison with prosecution, and called on him to change the glasses used in his restaurant. Davison refused, stating the supremacy of EU law in UK law in matters of weights and measures. The case against him was dropped. Davison had sought the help of then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and of his MP Ed Miliband. + + +== Pardon campaign == +UK regulations drawn up in response to EEC/EU weights and measures directives had required the use of metric units for certain activities, including sale by weight or measure in the retail trade of certain produce. Prior to 1 January 2000, these regulations applied to most pre-packaged food but on that date, they were extended to cover selling transactions where the product was weighed in front of the customer. The regulations permitted the equivalent imperial unit to be displayed alongside the metric unit as a "supplementary indicator". In 2007 the European Commission announced that for the cases where metric units were required, it had extended the option to also use imperial units indefinitely. These changes followed from public pressure, and concerns that phasing out dual-labelling would create a trade barrier with the United States, where dual-labelling is required. +In response to the European Commission's announcement, there have been calls for a posthumous pardon for Steve Thoburn, who died after having his petition to the European Court of Human Rights denied. Despite an early day motion by Philip Davies MP, the pardon was denied on the grounds that an offence had been committed under the law which was in force at the time. The 2007 EU announcement was not about a change to existing (2001) legal requirements, but rather abandoned plans for a change in 2009. Moreover, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform claimed that even if the law were to be changed, there would still be no case for a pardon "as citizens are expected to comply with the law as it is at the time". + + +== Regulation and units of measure == +In the original case, several statutes were cited including Magna Carta, the Acts of Union 1707 and European Communities Act 1972. +Since medieval times, The Crown has asserted the right to regulate weights and measures in the market place. Even though the barons forced King John to accept Magna Carta in 1215, it was issued in the name of the king. Article 35 stated: + +Let there be one measure for wine throughout our kingdom, and one measure for ale, and one measure for corn, namely "the London quarter"; and one width for cloths whether dyed, russet or halberget, namely two ells within the selvedges. Let it be the same with weights as with measures. +Prior to England and Scotland uniting in 1707, each kingdom enforced their own system of weights and measures. Article 17 of the Act of Union ensured that there was a single system of weights and measures across the newly created United Kingdom by requiring that both nations adopted the English system. +The concept of a single system of measures under government control continues. In 2003 the summary of a government report stated: + +To maintain the confidence of consumers and businesses in weights and measures the Government regulates the units and standards of measurement for trade; the design and use of weighing and measuring equipment; the provision of quantity information; and the sale of goods by quantity. + + +== See also == +Directive 80/181/EEC +Metrication in the United Kingdom +Metrication opposition +Thoburn v Sunderland City Council + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Metric Martyrs website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b7f316339 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Metrication opposition" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:13.383106+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The spread of metrication around the world in the last two centuries has been met with both support and opposition. + +== Metrication == + +The United States of America officially accepted the Metric System in 1878 but United States customary units remain ubiquitous outside the science and technology sector. The metric system has been largely adopted in Canada and Ireland, and partially adopted in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, without having fully displaced imperial units from all areas of life. In other Anglophone countries such as Australia, Singapore and New Zealand, imperial units have been formally deprecated and are no longer officially sanctioned for use. + +== Technical arguments == + +=== Natural evolution and human scale === +One argument used by opponents of the metric system is that traditional systems of measurement were developed organically from actual use. Early measures were human in scale, intuitive, and imprecise, as illustrated by still-current expressions such as a stone's throw, within earshot, a cartload or a handful. These measurements' developers, living and working in an era before modern science, gave fundamental priority to ease of learning and use; moreover, the variation permissible within these measurements allowed them to be relational and commensurable: a request for a judgment of measure allowed for a variety of answers, depending on context. In parts of Malaysia, villagers asked the distance to the next village were likely to respond with three rice cookings; an approximation of the time it would take to travel there on foot. Everyone is assumed to know both how long it takes to cook rice, and how fast a person walks. Nominally standard units were also subject to contextual variations. The aune, a French ell used for measuring cloth, depended on the sort of cloth being measured, taking price and scarcity into account: an aune of silk was shorter than an aune of linen. +Nowadays most non-metric units are standardised to fixed values, which eliminates the disadvantage of imprecision while retaining the advantage of human scale. For example, the advocacy group British Weights and Measures Association has argued that metrication led to greater complexity for consumers accustomed to imperial units because, unlike the ounce, a single gram is too small a measurement in everyday life. + +=== Divisibility === +Metric opponents cite easier division of customary units as one reason not to adopt a decimalised system. For example, those customary units with ratios of 12 and 16 have more proper factors, {2, 3, 4, 6} and {2, 4, 8}, than the metric 10: {2, 5}. However, easily divisible numbers can be selected for use with metric units, e.g. 300 mm and its multiples. The number of times that these odd fractional numbers would come up has also been pointed out as a counterargument; in construction and engineering, for example, measurements would not only be likely to be in integers to begin with, but would also rarely be needed to convert to another unit. +The main disadvantage cited by critics of customary measures is the proliferation of units, their (sometimes) non-unique definition and the difficulty in remembering the ratios between them. + +=== Duplication in naming and usage === +A common argument for the metric system is that it avoids duplication of naming and the associated confusion. The most commonly cited example is pound (force) vs pound (mass), which have the same symbol and are both commonly written simply as "pounds", which can lead to costly and dangerous shipping and engineering errors. Opponents of metrication argue that this issue only occurs due to misuse; when used "properly", there is no cause for confusion. +Separately, it is also argued that customary units feature too many overlapping units. The most commonly cited examples are in liquid volume, where metric has simply litres while customary has gallons, pints, quarts, fluid ounces, and the rarely used gill, and minim, all of which cover volumes of liquid in similar ranges. Metrication opponents argue that this allows for easily listing amounts that are awkward in metric (e.g. 1 liquid pint = 568.3 mL in the UK and 473 mL in the US) but are commonly used and avoids "excessive" use of decimals and fractions. These problems however would disappear if metrication continues and they cease to become as common, replaced with a metric equivalent. For example, a pint is often rounded down to 0.5 L, otherwise sometimes rounded up to 0.6 L. + +=== Industry-specific product sizing === +Metric-opposed artisans and practitioners may be concerned by certain dimensions being less memorable with metric units. As the table below shows, industries have addressed such concerns by using a "hard conversion" into metric units of the dimensions involved. (Metric conversion also gives the opportunity to "rationalize" the range of sizes which are available.): + +== Political arguments == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2545b2219 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Metrication opposition" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:13.383106+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Tradition === +Traditionalists consider the retention of traditional non-metric units as a form of traditionalism, valuing historic usage spanning centuries. +Non-metric units often have had different values in different times and places, and some units such as the stone even had different definitions depending on the type of object measured. At the time of the French Revolution there were over 5000 different foot measures. The current UK imperial system is based on the Weights and Measures Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 74), dating from about 30 years after the founding of the metric system, and some of its units differ very significantly from the United States customary units of the same name. +By contrast, the metric system has remained unchanged (for most practical purposes) since it was first defined. Even though the metre was initially defined to equal one ten-millionth of the length of the meridian through Paris from pole to the equator, the first prototype metre bar was subsequently found to be short by 0.2 millimetres (because researchers miscalculated the flattening of the Earth). Nevertheless, this original reference metre was retained, leaving the exact distance from equator to pole slightly more than ten million metres. The need for a more practical and reproducible definition of the metre and advances in metrology have led to increased precision in the definition, so that it is now defined as the length travelled by light in a vacuum during the time interval of 1⁄299,792,458 of a second. In addition, a reference standard (a rod of platinum-iridium alloy) is maintained by the inter-governmental organisation the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, and calibration of a standard metre is usually achieved (to one part in a billion, or slightly better in some recent installations) by counting 1,579,800.298728 wavelengths of the ultra-fine (3s2 to 2p4) emission line of helium–neon laser light (this wavelength being approximately 632.99139822 nm in a vacuum). + +=== Government compulsion === +The adoption of metric units has required some government compulsion and some have argued that such policies are wrong in principle. Compulsory standards of weights and measures go back as far as Magna Carta. In 1824 in Britain, the Weights and Measures Act ("An Act for ascertaining and establishing Uniformity of Weights and Measures") consolidated the various gallons in use at the time and established a new imperial gallon, and prohibited the use of the older units, including what the United States now calls customary US measure. +Anti-metrication in the UK often manifests itself in conjunction with Euroscepticism, though the UK had taken steps toward compulsory metrication prior to European Union membership: in 1951, a Board of Trade committee unsuccessfully recommended metrication to the government, ten years before the UK first applied to join the EEC. The Board of Trade initiated metrication in 1965, with a target completion date of 1975 and the Metrication Board was established in 1968, five years before the UK actually joined the European Economic Community (on its second attempt). The EU's own Units of Measurement Directive dated from 1971 and was substantially revised in 1979. +All Statutory Instruments about metrication since 1985 have relied on powers derived from the UK European Communities Act 1972. This helped to reinforce anti-EU sentiment, as the British Parliament does not vote on such measures. More recently, opponents of metrication have asserted that legal compulsion under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 to adopt the metric system instead of their traditional weights and measures is an infringement of the right to freedom of speech, though this claim has been consistently rejected by the courts. On 25 February 2004, the European Court of Human Rights rejected an application from some British shopkeepers who said that their human rights had been violated. +On 8 May 2007, several British newspapers including The Times used correspondence between Giles Chichester MEP and EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen to report that the European Commission had decided to allow meat, fish, fruit and vegetables to continue to be sold in pounds and ounces. These reports did not mention that pounds and ounces would only retain supplementary unit status. On 10 September, the EU Commission published proposed amendments to the Units of Measurement Directive that would permit supplementary units (such as pounds and ounces) to be used indefinitely alongside, but not instead of, the units catalogued in the Units of Measurement Directive. The reporting of this decision in the British press was sufficiently misleading that the Roger Marles, Head of [British] Trading Standards, issued the following statement: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0eab7495e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Metrication opposition" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:13.383106+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The legal position on the use of imperial measures has not changed. Pre-packed goods and goods sold loose from bulk, such as fruit and vegetables, are still required to be sold in metric quantities and weighing scales must be calibrated in metric units of measurement. Suggestions that goods can now be sold in pounds and ounces are incorrect. +In the US, there is also government compulsion with weights and measures. Federal and state laws control the labelling of goods for sale in the supermarket, drugs, wine, liquor, etc. The US Fair Packaging and Labeling Act mandates that measurement must be in both metric and US customary units. However, wine must be bottled in 50 ml, 100 ml, 187 ml, 375 ml, 500 ml, 750 ml, 1 litre, 1.5 litre, or 3 litre sizes. Containers over 3 litres must be bottled in quantities of whole numbers of litres. No other sizes may be bottled. Spirits must also be sold in metric quantities. +NASA, the United States' space agency, has taken a less compulsory approach. On 29 March 2010, NASA decided to avoid making its proposed Constellation rocket system metric-compliant, especially due to pressure from manufacturers; ultimately the program was discontinued. It had been predicted that it would cost US$368 million to convert to metric measurements for parts made by both NASA and external companies. Constellation would have borrowed technology from the 1970s-era Space Shuttle program, which used non-metric measurements in software and hardware. NASA's non-compulsory position has contributed to at least one major mission-failure: in 1999, Lockheed Martin's use of English units caused the disintegration of NASA's $328 million Mars Climate Orbiter. Despite NASA's non-compulsory policy, commercial space manufacturer SpaceX currently designs its systems (e.g., Dragon and Falcon 9) using metric units. + +=== High modernism and legibility === +Commentator Ken Alder noted that on the eve of the French Revolution a quarter of a million different units of measure were in use in France; in many cases the quantity associated with each unit of measure differed from town to town and often from trade to trade. He claimed that the metric system originated in the ideology of Pure Reason from the more radical element of the French Revolution, that it was devised in France to try to make France "revenue-rich, militarily potent, and easily administered", and that it was part of a conscious plan to transform French culture, meant to unify and transform French society: "As mathematics was the language of science, so would the metric system be the language of commerce and industry." In his 1998 monograph Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James C. Scott argued that central governments attempt to impose what he calls "legibility" on their subjects. Local customs concerning measurements, like local customs concerning patronymics, tend to come under severe pressure from bureaucrats. Scott's thesis is that in order for schemes to improve the human condition to succeed, they must take into account local conditions, and that the high-modernist ideologies of the 20th century have prevented this. Scott cites the enforcement of the metric system as a specific example of this sort of failed and resented "improvement" imposed by centralizing and standardizing authority. While the metric system was introduced in the French law by the revolutionary government in April 1795, it did not immediately displace traditional measurements in the popular mind. In fact, its use was initially associated with officialdom and elitism as François-René remarked in 1828: "Whenever you meet a fellow who, instead of talking arpents, toises, and pieds, refers to hectares, metres, and centimetres, rest assured, the man is a prefect." However, it was largely used in France and in other countries by July 1837 when the decimal metric system was finally decided upon and considered the only official measurement system to be used in France. + +=== Price inflation === +The advocacy group British Weights and Measures Association argues that adopting metric measures in shops, especially in supermarkets, gives an opportunity for traders to increase prices covertly. They give numerous examples of packaged groceries to back up this contention. +When Pepsi became the first in the United States to sell soft drinks in two-litre bottles instead of two-quart (US) (1.89 litre) bottles, it was a success, and two-litre bottles are now well-established in the American soft drink market, though fluid ounces remain the usual unit of measure for cans. +The move to smaller units (e.g., millilitre vs fluid ounce, gram vs ounce) allows manufacturers to move sizes of packaging up and down with more precision using whole numbers. For example, a 2-ounce bag of chips may be altered to 50 grams, then to 45 grams. Likewise, a variety of packaging sizes may arise, such as 690 grams (about 24 oz) or 1200 grams (about 42 oz), resulting from conversion and rounding of customary units. However, the precise adjustment of packaging sizes is also possible using customary units, e.g., the 2-ounce bag can be downsized to 1.8 and 1.6 ounces as well. +The Australian experience of metric conversion showed no evidence of price inflation caused by metrication. + +== British Weights and Measures Association == + +The current British Weights and Measures Association, or BWMA, is an advocacy group established in the United Kingdom in 1995, founded by Vivian Linacre. The current body was established in 1995, but there had also been a predecessor organisation, also called the BWMA, that was established in 1904, and lapsed after the First World War. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fa2236b27 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "Metrication opposition" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_opposition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:13.383106+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Aim of the BWMA === +The BWMA's stated aim is to uphold the freedom to use the Imperial system and to oppose the compulsory imposition of the metric system in the UK. The BWMA's campaign parallels the evolution of the eurosceptic viewpoint of the UK's relationship with the EU - its founder, Vivian Linacre, stood for election as a UK Independence Party candidate in 1995, the same year as he founded the BWMA - famously asking the controversial eurosceptic Enoch Powell for endorsement of his political campaign. +By the time of the modern BWMA's founding, metrication in the United Kingdom was far advanced, having begun in 1962. British schoolchildren had been educated using only metric measures since 1974 (earlier in some places), and British industry had changed to using metric tools and equipment during the 1980s and were, in most cases, manufacturing to metric standards. + +=== Campaigns === +BWMA maintain that people should be free to use the metric system if they want, but that it should not be forced upon them. and specifically, the Association campaigns for freedom for traders to serve their customers in whichever measures both parties find most convenient. +BWMA campaigns against the metrication of road signs and in 2009 published their response to a consultation hosted by the UK's Department for Transport which discussed a proposal to require compulsory dual Metric/Imperial signs of height limits and width limits. BWMA's responded that dual-units signage should not be made compulsory, and that the legal provisions (from the 1980s) allowing voluntary dual-units signage should be repealed so that only Imperial units could be displayed. This, the BWMA claimed, was to "avoid confusion." +BWMA support the Metric Martyrs – a group of traders prosecuted for their defiance of the Weights and Measures Act and the Price Marking Order. +BWMA gives detailed advice on how traders can circumvent regulations mandating metric weights and measures. +BWMA members have published a number of books arguing for customary measures. These include The General Rule by BWMA President Vivian Linacre (Squeeze Press) and About the Size of It by Warwick Cairns. +The BWMA has published a "rogues' gallery" of those they label "Metric Culprits." These include a long list of individuals and bodies that have advocated or supported metrication, including the Irish Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, who metricated road signs in Republic of Ireland in 2005. + +=== Opposition === +These actions contrast with the UK Metric Association (UKMA), which campaigns for compulsory Metrication in the United Kingdom for all legal and official purposes, including trade and road signs. + +=== Patrons === +Gwyneth Dunwoody (1930–2008) +Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Le Bailly (1915–2010) +Sir Patrick Moore (1923–2012) +John Monson, 11th Baron Monson (1932–2011) + +=== Honorary members === + +== See also == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Books supporting metrication +Metric Signs Ahead (UKMA) (2005) by Robin Paice (ISBN 978-0-9552351-0-8) +A Very British Mess (UKMA) (2004) by Robin Paice (ISBN 0750310146) +Books opposing metrication +The General Rule by Vivian Linacre (ISBN 1906069018) +About the Size of It by Warwick Cairns (ISBN 0230016286) +Halsey, Frederick Arthur (1920). "The Metric Fallacy" (2nd ed.). New York: American Institute of Weights and Measures. LCCN 22014705. Halsey Metric Fallacy. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help). +Cairns, Warwick (2007). About the Size of It: The Common Sense Approach to Measuring Things, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-01628-6 +Linacre, Vivian (2007). The General Rule: A Guide to Customary Weights and Measures , The Squeeze Press, ISBN 978-1-906069-01-8 + +== External links == +BMWA's official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindFreedom_International-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindFreedom_International-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1da13bf22 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindFreedom_International-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "MindFreedom International" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindFreedom_International" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:22.495272+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +MindFreedom International is an international antipsychiatry organization. Based in the United States, it was founded in 1990 to advocate against involuntary psychiatric treatment. Its stated mission is to protect the rights of people who have been labeled with psychiatric disorders. + + +== Origins and purpose == +MindFreedom International is rooted in the psychiatric survivors movement, which arose out of the civil rights movement. The precursors of MFI include ex-patient groups of the 1970s such as the Portland, Oregon-based Insane Liberation Front and the Mental Patients' Liberation Front in New York. The organization was inspired by Judi Chamberlin's 1978 work, On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System. Chamberlin was an ex-patient and co-founder of the Mental Patients' Liberation Front. Coalescing around the ex-patient newsletter Dendron, in late 1988 leaders from several of the main national and grassroots psychiatric survivor groups felt that an independent, human rights coalition focused on problems in the mental health system was needed. That year the Support Coalition International (SCI) was formed. In 2005, the SCI changed its name to MFI with David W. Oaks as its director. SCI's first public action was to stage a counter-conference and protest in May 1990 in New York City directly outside of the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting. +Many of the members of MFI refer to themselves as 'psychiatric survivors'. MF does not define itself as an antipsychiatry organization and its members point to the role which 'compassionate' psychiatrists have played in MFI. Activists within the coalition have been drawn from both left and right wing of politics. +MFI functions as a forum for its thousands of members to express their views and experiences, to form support networks and to organize activist campaigns in support of human rights in psychiatry. The coalition regards the psychiatric practices of 'unscientific labeling, forced drugging, solitary confinement, restraints, involuntary commitment, electroshock' as human rights violations. +In 2003, eight Mindfreedom members, led by then-executive director David Oaks, went on a hunger strike to publicize a series of "challenges" they had put forth to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the US Surgeon General and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). The eight MFI members challenged the APA, US Surgeon General and NAMI to present MFI with "unambiguous proof that mental illness is brain disorder." +MindFreedom describes their Shield Program as "an all for one and one for all" network of members. When a registered member is receiving (or is being considered for) involuntary psychiatric treatment, an alert is sent to the MindFreedom Solidarity Network on that person's behalf. Members of the network are then expected to participate in organized, constructive, nonviolent actions—e.g., political action, publicity and media alerts, passive resistance, etc.—to stop or prevent the forced treatment. +In 2011, MindFreedom was recognized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council as a human rights NGO with Consultative Roster Status. + + +== See also == +Anti-psychiatry +Psychiatric survivors movement + + +== References == + + +== External links == +MindFreedom.org - MindFreedom International homepage + + +== Literature == +Oaks, David W. (2007). ‘MindFreedom International: Activism for Human Rights as the Basis for a Nonviolent Revolution in the Mental Health System’. In Peter Stastny & Peter Lehmann (Eds.), Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry (pp. 328–336). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Peter Lehmann Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9545428-1-8 (UK), ISBN 978-0-9788399-1-8 (USA). E-Book in 2018. +Oaks, David W. (2007). ‘MindFreedom International – Engagement für Menschenrechte als Grundlage einer gewaltfreien Revolution im psychosozialen System’. In: Peter Lehmann & Peter Stastny (Hg.), Statt Psychiatrie 2 (S. 344-352). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Antipsychiatrieverlag. ISBN 978-3-925931-38-3. E-Book in 2018. +Taylor, Dan (2007). ‘MindFreedom Ghana: Fighting for Basic Human Conditions of Psychiatric Patients’. In Peter Stastny & Peter Lehmann (Eds.), Alternatives Beyond Psychiatry (pp. 336–342). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Peter Lehmann Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9545428-1-8 (UK), ISBN 978-0-9788399-1-8 (USA). E-Book in 2018. +Taylor, Dan (2007). ‘MindFreedom Ghana – Unser Kampf um humane Lebensbedingungen für Psychiatriebetroffene’. In: Peter Lehmann & Peter Stastny (Hg.), Statt Psychiatrie 2 (S. 352-358). Berlin / Eugene / Shrewsbury: Antipsychiatrieverlag. ISBN 978-3-925931-38-3. E-Book in 2018. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_31-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_31-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..38d753439 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_31-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Mission 31" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_31" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:30.297023+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mission 31 was an undersea expedition organized by Fabien Cousteau. It was originally scheduled for November 2013, but was delayed to June 2014. On June 1, Cousteau and six crew members descended to the undersea laboratory Aquarius in the Florida Keys. Halfway through the expedition, three of crew were replaced, as had been planned. After 31 days, Cousteau and the crew ascended on July 2. +Throughout Mission 31, Cousteau's team conducted extended scuba diving expeditions to collect scientific data and IMAX footage. They hosted various one-day guests, conversed live with classrooms, and kept in touch with the outside world via social media. Cousteau estimated that his team collected the equivalent of two years' worth of surface dive data, enough for 10 scientific papers. Mission 31 was envisioned as a tribute to Cousteau's grandfather, Jacques Cousteau, who spent 30 days living underwater in 1963. Fabien Cousteau thus beat his grandfather's record for time spent underwater by a film crew by one day. + + +== Background == +In 1963, French oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau spent 30 days living underwater in Conshelf Two, in the Red Sea. The footage was turned into the Academy Award-winning film World Without Sun. Subsequently, his television show, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, was seen by audiences around the world. Cousteau was one of the world's first advocates for governmental action in environmental protection and, by the time of his death in 1997, was one of the world's most famous television personalities. +Jacques Cousteau's grandson, Fabien Cousteau, organized Mission 31 as a tribute to his late grandfather. The mission had two goals — to gather scientific data and to raise funds for Aquarius, an underwater laboratory located at a depth of 63 feet (19 m) below the surface, about 9 miles (14 km) south of Key Largo. Aquarius is the world's only operating undersea laboratory. Measuring 43 feet (13 m) by 9 feet (2.7 m), it holds up to six people. It is pressurized, air conditioned, and has wireless Internet access. A typical mission lasts 10 days, with the longest previous mission lasting 18 days. Aquarius is owned by the United States government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and run by Florida International University. +Fabien Cousteau also hoped to break his grandfather's record for longest time spent underwater by a film crew, and draw the public's attention to environmental issues. According to Guinness World Records, the longest time anyone has spent underwater in a fixed environment at the time was 73 days 2 hours 34 minutes. This record was later broken in 2023 by Joseph Dituri. + + +== Mission == +Fabien Cousteau got the idea for Mission 31 when visiting Aquarius during a fundraiser aiming to keep the laboratory operating in the wake of federal budget cuts. It was originally scheduled to take place in November 2013, fifty years after Jacques Cousteau's original mission. When the United States federal government shutdown in October 2013, Fabien Cousteau elected to postpone the mission until the spring of 2014. +On June 1, 2014, Cousteau and five team members dived down to Aquarius. Joining Cousteau for the entire 31-day expedition were habitat technicians Mark "Otter" Hulsbeck and Ryan LaPete. The other three crew members — Kip Evans, Andy Shantz, and Adam Zenone — were replaced according to plan midway through the mission by Matt Ferraro, Liz Magee, and Grace C. Young. The crew included researchers from Florida International University, Northeastern University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For most of the crew, including Cousteau, it was their first saturation diving experience. Periodically, they were joined by "VIP guests" for a day, including Cousteau's father, Jean-Michel and sister Céline, actor Ian Somerhalder, and marine biologist Sylvia Earle. Rapper will.i.am and businessman-explorer Richard Branson were tentatively scheduled to visit had the expedition taking place in October 2013 as originally planned. +Days were spent diving to conduct experiments and gather data to study the effects of climate change and pollution on coral reefs, while the evenings were spent in Aquarius on lab work, relaxation and stress tests: Cousteau and his crew made themselves available for physiological and psychological tests to determine the effects of long-term living under the sea and without sunlight. The crew also appeared on Weather Channel broadcasts periodically. They used a sonar device that records a wide range of frequencies and a slow-motion camera to capture more thorough data and installed tiny probes, less than the width of a human hair, into the coral reef. Among the animals seen during the expedition were eels, mantis shrimp, octopus, plankton, porkfish, snook, sponges, spotted eagle rays, starfish, tarpon, and various reef sharks. The crew also observed an Atlantic goliath grouper attack a barracuda, a scene which Shantz described as "something I never imagined happening". +Mission 31 was broadcast live 24 hours a day via the Internet, although the cameras were occasionally turned off to give the divers some privacy. Filming was done with sonar cameras to avoid disturbing the underwater life with artificial light. Team members were able to conduct live lectures for students and interact with the public through social media. The team primarily ate "astronaut-type food", as the limited space did not allow for ordinary food. Early in the expedition, the air conditioning in Aquarius broke, leading to 95 °F (35 °C) temperatures at 95% humidity until it could be fixed. +As they were undergoing 16 hours of decompression before resurfacing, the Mission 31 crew watched World Without Sun. + + +== Funding == +Mission 31 cost an estimated US$1.8 million. It was paid for through corporate sponsorship and private donations, including a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Swiss watchmaker Doxa sold a Mission-31 dive watch for $2,890, with 25% of the funds going to the expedition. Aquarius cost $15,000 a day to operate; the rest of the funds went to pay for equipment. + + +== Impact == +By working out of Aquarius instead of diving from the surface, Mission 31 crew members were able to scuba dive up to nine hours without surfacing or undergoing decompression. They were thus able to collect substantially more data in the time frame than otherwise would have been possible. Additionally, they were able to observe creatures at night, which would not be possible ordinarily. Cousteau estimated his team had collected the equivalent of two years' worth of data during the mission, enough for ten scientific papers. Shantz said during his two weeks, 12 terabytes of data were collected. Additionally, equipment was installed to monitor ocean acidification. +According to Cousteau's PR team, around 330 million people heard about Mission 31 while it was taking place. Florida International dean Michael Heithaus remarked "Fabian has helped us reach out to millions of people that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise" and added "This is launching the age of Aquarius at FIU". An IMAX documentary film on the expedition is expected to be released within 18 months. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a7cd4bf3b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 1/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Morea expedition (French: Expédition de Morée) is the name given to the land intervention of the French Army in the Peloponnese between 1828 and 1833, at the time of the Greek War of Independence, with the aim of expelling the Ottoman-Egyptian occupation forces from the region. It was also accompanied by a scientific expedition mandated by the French Academy. +After the fall of Messolonghi in 1826, the Western European powers decided to intervene in favour of revolutionary Greece. Their primary objective was to force Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's Egyptian ally, to evacuate the occupied regions and the Peloponnese. The intervention began when a Franco-Russo-British fleet was sent to the region and won the Battle of Navarino in October 1827, destroying the entire Turkish-Egyptian fleet. In August 1828, a French expeditionary corps of 15,000 men led by General Nicolas-Joseph Maison landed in the southwestern Peloponnese. During October, soldiers took control of the principal strongholds still held by the Turkish troops. Although the bulk of the troops returned to France in early 1829 after an eight month-deployment, the French kept a military presence in the area until 1833. The French army would suffer about 1,500 dead, mainly due to fever and dysentery. + +As had occurred during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, when a Commission des Sciences et des Arts accompanied the military campaign, a scientific commission (Expédition scientifique de Morée) was attached to the French troops and placed under the supervision of three academies of the Institut de France. Directed by the naturalist and geographer Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, nineteen scientists representing different specialties in natural history, archaeology and architecture-sculpture made the voyage to Greece in March 1829; most of them stayed there for nine months. Their work proved essential to the ongoing development of the new Greek State and, more broadly, marked a major milestone in the modern history of archaeology, cartography and natural sciences, as well as in the study of Greece. + +== Context == + +=== Military and diplomatic context === + +In 1821, the Greeks revolted against centuries-long Ottoman rule. They won numerous victories early on and declared independence on 1 January 1822. However, the declaration contradicted the principles of the Congress of Vienna and of the Holy Alliance, which imposed a European equilibrium of the status quo, outlawing any possible change. In contrast to what happened elsewhere in Europe, the Holy Alliance did not intervene to stop the liberal Greek insurgents. +The liberal and national uprising displeased Metternich, chancellor of the Austrian Empire and the principal political architect of the Holy Alliance. Russia looked favourably on the insurrection due to its Orthodox religious solidarity and its geostrategic interest (control of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus). France, another active member of the Holy Alliance, had just intervened in Spain against liberals at Trocadero (1823) but held an ambiguous position: Paris saw the liberal Greeks first and foremost as Christians, and their uprising against the Muslim Ottomans had undertones of a new crusade. Great Britain, a liberal country, was interested in the situation of the region, primarily because it was on the route to India and London wished to exert there a form of control. Finally, for all of Europe, Greece represented the cradle of Western civilisation and of art since antiquity. +The Greek victories had been short-lived. The Sultan had called for aid from his Egyptian vassal Muhammad Ali, who dispatched his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with a fleet and 8,000 men, and later added 25,000 troops. Ibrahim's intervention proved decisive: much of the Peloponnese was reconquered in 1825; the gateway town of Messolonghi fell in 1826; and Athens was taken in 1827. The only territory still held by Greek nationalists was in Nafplion, Mani, Hydra, Spetses and Aegina. +A strong current of philhellenism had developed in Western Europe, especially after 1826 and the fall of Missolonghi, where the poet Lord Byron had died in 1824. Many artists and intellectuals such as François-René de Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Alexander Pushkin, Gioachino Rossini, Hector Berlioz or Eugène Delacroix (in his paintings of The Massacre at Chios in 1824, and of Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi in 1826), amplified the current of sympathy for the Greek cause in the public opinion. The European powers eventually decided to intervene in favour of Greece—a Christian vanguard in the Orient—whose strategic location in containing Muslim expansion was obvious to those political powers. By the Treaty of London of 6 July 1827, France, Russia and the United Kingdom recognised the autonomy of Greece, which remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The three powers agreed to a limited intervention in order to convince the Porte to accept the terms of the convention. A plan to send a naval expedition as a demonstration of force was proposed and adopted; subsequently a joint Russian, French and British fleet was sent to exert diplomatic pressure against Constantinople. The Battle of Navarino (20 October 1827) resulted in the complete destruction of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0723fe67a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 2/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In 1828, Ibrahim Pasha thus found himself in a difficult situation: he had just suffered a defeat at Navarino; the joint fleet enforced a blockade which prevented him from receiving reinforcements and supplies; and his Albanian troops, whom he could no longer pay, had returned to their country under the protection of Theodoros Kolokotronis' Greek troops. On 6 August 1828, a convention had been signed at Alexandria between the viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and the British admiral Edward Codrington. By its terms, Ibrahim Pasha was required to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops (estimated at 1,200 men) remaining there, but he refused to honour the agreement and continued to control various Greek regions: Messenia, Navarino, and Patras as well as several other strongholds—and even ordered the systematic destruction of Tripolitza. +Meanwhile, the French government of Charles X was beginning to have doubts about its Greek policy. Ibrahim Pasha himself noted this ambiguity when he met General Maison in September. Eventually a pro-Greek liberal movement, inspired by what was then happening in Greece, began to develop in France. The longer France waited to act, the more delicate her position vis-à-vis Metternich became. The ultra-royalist government thus decided to accelerate events. A proposal to send a joint land expedition was made to Great Britain, which refused to intervene directly. Meanwhile, Russia had declared war against the Ottoman Empire and its military victories were unsettling for Great Britain, which did not wish to see the Tsarist empire extend too far south, and compelled it to not oppose an intervention by France alone. + +=== Intellectual context === +Enlightenment philosophy had stimulated Western Europeans' interest in Greece, or rather in an idealised ancient Greece, the linchpin of classical antiquity as it was perceived and taught in academe. Enlightenment philosophers, for whom the notions of Nature and Reason were so important, believed that these had been the fundamental values of classical Athens. The ancient Greek democracies, and above all Athens, became models to emulate. There they searched for answers to the political and philosophical problems of their time. Works such as Abbé Barthélemy's Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis (1788) served to fix definitively the image that Europe had of the Aegean. +The theories and system of interpreting ancient art devised by Johann Joachim Winckelmann influenced European tastes for decades. His major work, History of Ancient Art, was published in 1764 and translated into French in 1766 (the English translation did not appear until 1881). In this major work Winckelmann initiated the tradition of dividing ancient art into periods, classifying the works chronologically and stylistically. +The views of Winckelmann on art encompassed the entirety of civilisation. He drew a parallel between a civilisation's general level of development and the evolution of its art. He interpreted this artistic evolution the same way that his contemporaries saw the life cycle of a civilisation in terms of progress—apogee and then decline. For him, the golden age of Greek art had been the pinnacle of artistic achievement, culminating with the career of the sculptor Phidias. Further, Winckelmann believed that the most beautiful works of Greek art had been produced under ideal geographic, political and religious circumstances. This frame of thought long dominated intellectual life in Europe. He classified Greek art into four periods: Ancient (archaic period), Sublime (Phidias), Beautiful (Praxiteles) and Decadent (Roman period). + +Winckelmann concluded his theory on the evolution of art with an explication of the Sublime period of Greek art, which had been conceived during a period of political and religious liberty. His theories idealised ancient Greece and increased Europeans' desire to travel to contemporary Greece. It was seductive to believe, as he did, that 'good taste' was born beneath the Greek sky. He persuaded 18th-century Europe that life in ancient Greece was pure, simple and moral, and that classical Hellas was the source from which artists should draw ideas of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Greece became the "motherland of the arts" and "the teacher of taste". +The French government had planned the Morea expedition in the same spirit as those of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, whose work it wished to complete. The semi-scientific expeditions commissioned and financed by the Society of Dilettanti remained a benchmark: these represented the first attempts to rediscover ancient Greece. The first, that of Stuart and Revett to Athens and the islands, took place in 1751–1753, and resulted in publication of The Antiquities of Athens, a work mined by architects and designers for models of a refined "Grecian" neoclassicism. The expedition of Revett, Richard Chandler and William Pars to Asia Minor took place between 1764 and 1766. Finally, the removal by Lord Elgin of half of the surviving marble sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from other buildings, and their transport to Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, had inspired further philhellenic longing for the cultural glories of ancient Greece: it now seemed possible to build vast collections of ancient art in Western Europe. + +== Military expedition == +Much of the information concerning the Morea expedition comes from the direct testimonies of Louis-Eugène Cavaignac (2nd Engineer Regiment and future Prime Minister of France in 1848), of Alexandre Duheaume (Captain in the 58th Line Infantry Regiment), Jacques Mangeart (co-founder of a printing company and of the Franco-Greek newspaper "Le Courrier d'Orient" in Patras in 1829) and Doctor Gaspard Roux (Chief Medical Officer of the expedition) who all took part to the military expedition. + +=== Preparation === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c827524d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 11/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Botany and Zoology ==== + +Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent led the Morea scientific expedition, and made detailed botanical observations. He gathered a multitude of specimens: Flore de Morée (1832) lists 1,550 plants, of which 33 were orchids and 91 were grasses (just 42 species had not yet been described); Nouvelle Flore du Péloponnèse et des Cyclades (1838) described 1,821 species. In Morea, Bory de Saint-Vincent limited himself to collecting only the plants. He proceeded to their classification, identification and description upon his return to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. He was then helped, not by his collaborators from Greece, but by the eminent botanists of his time, Louis Athanase Chaubard, Jean-Baptiste Fauché and Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart. Similarly, the well-known naturalists Étienne and his son Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire helped him to write and edit the expedition's scientific works, under the supervision of Georges Cuvier at the institute. As the gathering process went along, they sent the plants, as well as birds and fish, to France. + +In zoological matters, relatively few new species were described. However, the Morea expedition identified for the first time the species of jackal, Canis aureus, or golden jackal, that populates the region. Although earlier travel narratives had mentioned its presence, these were not considered trustworthy. Moreover, the subspecies described by the Morea Expedition was endemic to the region: Bory de Saint-Vincent gave it the name of the Morea (Canis aureus moreoticus) and brought back to the Museum of Natural History in Paris some pelts and a skull. +Bory was accompanied during his explorations of the Peloponnese by the zoologists Gabriel Bibron, Sextius Delaunay and Antoine Vincent Pector, by the entomologist Gaspard-Auguste Brullé, by the conchologist, malacologist and geologist Gérard Paul Deshayes, by the geologists Pierre Théodore Virlet d’Aoust and Émile Puillon Boblaye, and by the botanist specialist of cryptogams, lichens, fungi and algae, Louis Despreaux Saint-Sauveur. The painter Prosper Baccuet, also accompanying Bory, made illustrations of the landscapes visited that were published in Bory's Relation de l'Expédition scientifique de Morée (1836) and Atlas (1835). + +=== Archaeology section === +This section, supervised at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres by Charles-Benoît Hase and Desiré-Raoul Rochette, was composed of the archaeologists Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (director) and Charles Lenormant (assistant-director), by the historian Edgar Quinet and by the painters Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval and Pierre Félix Trézel. The Greek writer and linguist Michel Schinas accompanied them. +Its mission was to locate eighty ancient sites (in Achaia, Arcadia, Elis and Messinia) using descriptions in ancient literature. Its itinerary followed that of Pausanias the Periegete. The sites had to be precisely located by precise triangulation, then, with the help of the architectural section, the archaeology section had to make the plans (general and by building), to draw and cast the buildings and their decorations, and to start excavations to clear buildings and antiquities. Byzantine monasteries had been added to the itinerary, and the section was tasked with attempting to buy some manuscripts from them. + +The archaeology section, however, did not succeed in achieving the ambitious program originally set. Its members suffered from numerous diseases and fevers and began quarreling. Charles Lenormant, for instance, when he learned that he was under the orders of Dubois, or at least that he was going to go along with him, did not think he should accept this position with a man who was his subordinate at the Louvre (he was just returning from the Egyptian archaeological expedition organised by Jean-François Champollion in 1828); consequently he made the trip as an amateur and alone. Edgar Quinet, the prominent French historian, intellectual and politician, who did not care to be a subordinate nor for collaborating on a book—he already intended to publish one by himself—told Dubois that he did not have to count on him, and that he would go alone. Quinet visited Piraeus on 21 April 1829, thence reaching Athens. He saw the Cyclades in May, starting with Syros. Being sick, he returned to France on 5 June, and his Grèce moderne et ses rapports avec l’Antiquité was published in September 1831. The sculptor and Hellenist Jean-Baptiste Vietty from Lyon, who belonged to the Architecture and Sculpture section), tolerating with difficulty his subordinate role in the expedition, also separated from his companions after he arrived in Greece and travelled through the Peloponnese separately. He pursued his research in Greece under extremely difficult material conditions until August 1831, long after the expedition had returned to France at the end of 1829. Amaury-Duval later gave some picturesque portraits of both Quinet and Vietty in his Souvenirs (1829-1830). +Thus, the members of this section each left in different directions, with Dubois failing to impose his authority and to prevent them doing so, a fact that elicited rather sarcastic comments from Baron Georges Cuvier, the Commissioner of the Academie who was supervising the "competing" Physical Sciences section. Their results will never be published. The main archaeological work was performed then by the Architecture and Sculpture section, which the remaining members of the Archaeology section joined. + +=== Architecture and Sculpture section === +This section had been established at the Académie des Beaux-arts by Jean-Nicolas Hyot and Jean-Antoine Letronne, who designated the architect Guillaume-Abel Blouet as its head. To assist him, the Institut had also sent the archaeologist Amable Ravoisié and the painters Frédéric de Gournay and Pierre Achille Poirot. The archaeologist Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois and the painters Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval joined them after the dispersion of the archaeology section. + +The architect Jean-Nicolas Huyot gave very precise instructions to this section. Possessed of a wide-ranging experience formed in Italy, Greece, Egypt and the Middle East, and under the influence of engineers, he asked them to keep an authentic diary of their excavations where precise measurements read off watches and compasses should be written down, to draw a map of the region they travelled, and to describe the layout of the terrain. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ba8a1da8b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 12/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Itineraries ==== +The publication of the works on archaeology and art followed the same pattern as with the publication of the works on physical and natural sciences: that of an itinerary with descriptions of the roads travelled, noteworthy monuments along these routes, and descriptions of their destinations. Hence, volume I of Expédition de Morée. Section des Beaux Arts describes Navarino (pp. 1–7) with six pages of drawings (fountains, churches, the fortress of Navarino and the city of Nestor); then on pages 9–10, the road Navarino-Methoni is detailed with four pages of plates (a church in ruins and its frescoes, but also bucolic landscapes reminding the reader that the scene is not so far from Arcadia); and finally three pages on Methoni with four pages of drawings. +The bucolic landscapes were rather close to the "norm" that Hubert Robert had proposed for the depictions of Greece. The presence of the troops from the expeditionary corps was important, alternating with that of the Greek shepherds: "[...] their generous hospitality and simple and innocent manners reminded us of the beautiful period of pastoral life which fiction calls the Golden age, and which seemed to offer the real characters of the Theocritus' and Virgil's eclogues." +The archaeological expedition travelled through Navarino (Pylos), Methoni, Koroni, Messene and Olympia (described in the publication's first volume); Bassae, Megalopolis, Sparta, Mantineia, Argos, Mycenae, Tiryns and Nafplion (subjects of the second volume); the Cyclades (Syros, Kea, Mykonos, Delos, Naxos and Milos), Sounion, Aegina, Epidaurus, Troezen, Nemea, Corinth, Sicyon, Patras, Elis, Kalamata, the Mani Peninsula, Cape Matapan, Monemvasia, Athens, Salamis Island and Eleusis (covered in volume III). + +==== Methods of exploration and identification of Ancient Pylos ==== +The artistic and archaeological exploration of the Peloponnese unfolded in the manner in which archaeological research was then conducted in Greece. The first step always involved an attempt to make an on-site check (a form of autopsy in the manner of Herodotus) against the texts of ancient authors like Homer, Pausanias or Strabo. Thus, at Cape Coryphasium near Navarino (Paleokastro, Old Navarino or Zonchio), the location of the city of the Homeric King Nestor, the famous Pylos, was determined for the first time from the adjectives "inaccessible" and "sandy" (ἠμαθόεις) used in the Iliad and the Odyssey (the palace of Nestor, located higher up in the land, was not discovered until 1939 by the American archaeologist Carl Blegen). Blouet added: "These Hellenic constructions, which no modern traveller had yet mentioned, and which I had noticed in a previous visit, were for us an important discovery and a very-plausible reason to convince us that we saw the Pylos of Messinia." Similarly, a little further, he says about the city of Modon (Methoni), the Homeric city of Pedasus: "the ancient remains of the port, whose description agrees perfectly with that of Pausanias, are sufficient to determine with certainty the location of the ancient city." + +==== First archaeological excavations of the Ancient Messene ==== +Having explored Navarino, Methoni and Koroni, the members of the section went to the ancient city of Messene (founded in 369 BC by the Theban general Epaminondas after his victory over Sparta at Leuctra), located on the slopes of Mounts Ithome and Eva. They spent a full month there from April 10, 1829, where they were warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of the village of Mavrommati. They were the first archaeologists to carry out scientific excavations on this site of classical Greece. + +They found there the famous fortified and crenelated surrounding walls of Epaminondas in a perfect state of preservation. There were two monumental portals in the wall, one of which, having a lintel or architrave of an extraordinary 6 meters in length, was described by Blouet as "perhaps the most beautiful in all of Greece". This enclosure initially allowed them to delimit the site and to "give a general plan of Messene with the most meticulous and precise topographic details." Then, they proceeded to the proper excavation of the archaeological site. They unearthed for the first time many fragments of stadium bleachers, drum sections and capitals of columns, porticoes, altars, bas-reliefs, sculptures and inscriptions (noted by Charles Lenormant, still present at that time). These excavations, carried out by means of dug trenches, enabled them to determine the precise plans of the foundations of the monuments and thus to propose restored models of the stadium of Messene and its heroon, as well as the small theater or ekklesiasterion. However, they did not find all monuments, including the great theater and the Arsinoë fountain. Only the Clepsydra fountain (where according to Pausanias, Zeus as a child was washed by the nymphs Ithome and Neda), located higher in the village of Mavrommati, was described and drawn. + +==== First archaeological excavations of Olympia and the discovery of the temple of Olympian Zeus ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..36b43875c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 13/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Then, the expedition spent six weeks, starting on May 10, 1829, in Olympia. Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (Archaeology section) and Abel Blouet (Architecture and Sculpture section) undertook the first excavations there. They were accompanied by the painters Frédéric de Gournay, Pierre Achille Poirot, Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval, as well as a troop of more than a hundred workers. The site of Olympia had been rediscovered in 1766 by the English antiquarian Richard Chandler. Since then, it had been visited by many other travellers such as Fauvel, Pouqueville, Gell, Cokerell and Leake. Its general identification by the archaeologists of the Morea expedition was made possible thanks to the more precise descriptions of Edward Dodwell (for Dubois) and John Spencer Stanhope (for Blouet). Most of the buildings were invisible, because as Abel Blouet noted, they must have been covered with a thick layer of sediment due to the frequent overflows of rivers Alfeios and Kladeos. +Only a single large fragment of a Doric column was visible. It had already been spotted by the previous travellers because the inhabitants of neighboring villages had dug trenches there to remove the stone, but none of them had attributed it with certainty to the temple of Zeus. Abel Blouet specified: "Therefore, there could have been no merit in discovering a monument there. But what could have been a discovery was to find evidence that this monument was the famous temple of Olympian Jupiter. And this is what our excavations have enabled us to demonstrate. When we arrived at Olympia, Mr. Dubois, director of the Archaeology section of our expedition, had already been there for a few days with Mr. Trézel and Mr. Amaury Duval, his collaborators. Following the instructions which had been given to him by the commission of the Institute, this antiquarian (Dubois) had begun the excavations of which the result had been the discovery of the first bases of the two columns of the pronaos and several fragments of sculpture." The archaeological advice of Jean-Nicolas Huyot was thus followed. Dubois installed his workers on the front side of the temple and Blouet installed his own on the back side in order to give these excavations all possible extension. The painter Amaury-Duval gave in his Souvenirs (1829-1830) a personal, direct and precise, testimony of the events which led to the exact identification of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was thus determined for the first time. + +Here again, the precise descriptions of the sculptures, structural elements of the temple and metopes representing the Twelve Labours of Heracles made by Pausanias who visited the site during the second century AD, proved crucial to validate the identity of the temple of Zeus. These sculptures, which reflect the beginnings of classical art and of the severe style, strongly struck the archaeologists in Olympia and in Paris at the Academy by their novel type imbued with naturalism. + +As with the excavations led at Messene, the site was divided topographically into squares, trenches were dug, excavations were undertaken in straight lines, and models for restoration were proposed: archaeology was becoming rationalized. The simple treasure hunt was beginning to be abandoned. The fundamental contribution of the Morea scientific expedition was its total indifference towards looting, treasure hunting, and antiquities smuggling. Blouet refused to perform excavations that risked damaging the monuments, and banned the mutilation of statues with the intent of taking a piece separated from the rest without regard, as Elgin had done on the Parthenon some twenty-five years before. It is perhaps for this reason that the three metopes of the temple of Zeus discovered at Olympia were transferred in their entirety to the Louvre Museum (with the authorization of the Greek Government of Ioannis Kapodistrias). However, many precious works they excavated were re-buried in order to protect them, according to the direct testimony of Amaury-Duval. + +==== Byzantine Greece ==== + +The French did not limit their interest to antiquity; they also described, reported plans and meticulously drew Byzantine monuments. Quite often, and until then for the travellers as well, only ancient Greece mattered; medieval and modern Greece were ignored. Blouet, in his Expedition scientifique de Morée; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique, gave very precise descriptions of the churches he saw, especially those of Navarino (Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, inside the new fortress Néokastro), Osphino (destroyed village which no longer exists), Modon (Church of Saint Basil), Androusa (Church of St. George), Samari (Church of Zoodochou Pigis) or of the Vourkano monastery (or Voulkano, monastery of the Holy Mother) among others. + +==== Foundation of the French School at Athens ==== +The results obtained by the Morea scientific expedition underscored the need to create a permanent, stable structure that would allow its work to continue. From 1846, it was possible to systematically and permanently continue the work initiated by the Morea scientific expedition due to the creation on rue Didot, at the foot of Mount Lycabettus, of a French scientific institution, in the form of the French School at Athens. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..02b5ad61b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 14/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== End of the scientific mission === +The vast majority of members of the scientific expedition paid a heavy price for the fevers they suffered during their sojourn in Morea. Many were forced to shorten their stay on the peninsula and to be repatriated to France before the beginning of 1830. +The topographic brigade was severely affected: out of eighteen officers who had been successively employed in the topographical works of the Morea, three had died there and ten, whose health was ruined, were forced to retire. Captain Peytier wrote in 1834: "It is geodesy that ruins my health and I do not want anymore to do it in the mountains, at any cost whatsoever." They were therefore reduced to work only during the cool season and to stop for summer, the season during which they drew their maps. Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, meanwhile wrote: "The horrible heat that beset us in July placed the entire topographic brigade in disarray. These gentlemen, having worked in the sun, have nearly all taken ill, and we grieved to see M. Dechièvre die at Napoli eight days ago." Émile Puillon Boblaye wrote: "Out of twelve officers employed in the geodetic service, two are dead and all have been sick. Besides them, we have lost two sappers and a household servant." +As for the physical sciences section, its members had forgotten to install mosquito nets in their tents before exploring the mouth of the Eurotas in July 1829, and subsequently they were bitten by a species of mosquito that Gaspard Auguste Brullé was the first to describe scientifically as the Culex kounoupi Br., Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust, Sextius Delaunay, Prosper Baccuet, Gaspard Auguste Brullé, three muleteers, two sappers, an interpreter and the valet Villars, were all seized with violent fevers, which sometimes worsened to the point of delirium, and which precipitated the departure of the section for Malvoisie, thus suspending their works. Bory de Saint-Vincent, one of the only members of the section to be spared from the disease, took a caïque and immediately went to Nafplio by sea, despite the storms, to seek help. The Bavarian philhellene doctor Mr. Zuccarini was then sent to Malvoisie and saved all his patients, except a sapper and the valet Villars who both died. President Ioannis Kapodistrias then placed a steamship at their disposal to repatriate them to Nafplion, then from there, to France. Bory de Saint-Vincent, Pierre Félix Trézel, Virlet d'Aoust and Peytier will then explore the Cyclades and Attica. In the Archaeology section, Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois, Edgar Quinet and Amaury-Duval have been also affected by fever and were then prematurely repatriated to France. +Only Jean-Baptiste Vietty and Pierre Peytier continued their research in the country, until August 1831 for the first and March 1836 for the second. + +== Members of the Morea expedition == + +== Publications of the Morea expedition == +Back in France, soldiers and scientists of the Morea expedition recounted their personal experiences or presented their scientific results in numerous works which were published throughout the 19th century. + +=== Military expedition === +Charles-Joseph Bastide, Considérations sur les maladies qui ont régné en Morée, pendant la campagne de 1828 (Internet Archive). Thesis presented publicly and defended at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier on 19 March 1830 by Charles-Joseph Bastide, Surgeon-Major of the 16th Line Infantry Regiment, to obtain the grade of Doctor of Medicine, imprimeur Jean Martel Aîné, Montpellier, 1830. +J.F. Bessan, Souvenirs de l'expédition de Morée en 1828, suivis d'un mémoire historique sur Athènes, avec le plan de cette ville (Google books), Impr. Henri Gomont, Valognes, 1835. +Denis Bousquet, Mon voyage en Grèce ou relation de notre campagne sur la fin de l'année 1828, impr. de Marius Olive, Marseille, 1829. +Eugène Cavaignac, Lettres d'Eugène Cavaignac, Expédition de Morée (1828–1829) (Gallica–BnF), Revue des deux Mondes, 141, 1er Mai 1897. +Lucien Davesiès de Pontès, Études sur l'Orient, par Lucien Davesiès de Pontès, précédées d'une notice biographique par le bibliophile Jacob (Gallica–BnF), and Notes sur la Grèce : Journal d'un lieutenant de Frégate de 1828–33, posthumous works, Michel Lévy Frères, Paris, 1864. +Alexandre Duheaume, Souvenirs de la Morée, pour servir à l'histoire de l'expédition française en 1828–1829. (Gallica–BnF), Anselin, Paris, 1833. +Jacques Louis Lacour, Excursions en Grèce pendant l'occupation de la Morée par l'armée française en 1832–33 (Google books), Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1834 +Nicolas-Joseph Maison, Dépêches adressées au ministre de la Guerre Louis-Victor de Caux, vicomte de Blacquetot, October 1828, in Jacques Mangeart, Additional Chapter in the Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Péloponèse, Igonette, Paris, 1830. +Jacques Mangeart, Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Peloponèse, Igonette, Paris, 1830. +Gaspard Roux, Histoire médicale de l'armée française en Morée, pendant la campagne de 1828 (Google books), Méquignon l'aîné père, Paris, 1829. +Soult de Dalmatie, La Grèce après la campagne de Morée, Revue Des Deux Mondes (1829–1971), 1/2, first series, 7-87, 1831. +Franco-Greek newspaper, Le Courrier d'Orient, Patras, 1829. + +=== Scientific expedition === + +==== Physical Sciences section ==== +The scientists of the Natural Sciences section have published their results in six books, grouped into three volumes (bound in five parts) and an Atlas (sixth part) entitled "The scientific expedition of Morea. Section of Physical Sciences”, Ministry of National Education, France. Morée Scientific Commission, F.G. Levrault, Paris, 1832–1836: + +Volume I: Relation (1836) Bory de Saint-Vincent. +Volume II: First Part: Géographie et géologie (1834) Bory de Saint-Vincent. +Volume II: Second Part: Géologie et minéralogie (1833) Puillon de Boblaye et Théodore Virlet. +Volume III: First Part: Zoologie (1832): Première section (Vertébrés, Mollusques et Polypiers) Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire père et fils, Bibron, Deshayes et Bory de Saint-Vincent. Deuxième section (Animaux articulés) Brullé et Guérin. +Volume III: Second Part: Botanique (1832) Fauché, Adolphe Brongniart, Chaubard, Bory de Saint-Vincent. +Atlas (1835): Relation (Cartes & Vues de Paysages), Géologie (Coupes & Roches), Zoologie (Vertébrés & Invertébrés), Botanique. +Other works complemented this opus: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..105748dad --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 15/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Nouvelle Flore du Péloponnèse et des Cyclades Bory de Saint-Vincent, Reviewed edition, augmented by the Flore de Morée. de 1832, F.G. Levrault, Paris, 1838 +Recherches géographiques sur les ruines de Morée Émile Puillon Boblaye, F.G. Levrault, Paris, 1836. +Notice sur les opérations géodésiques exécutées en Morée, en 1829 et 1830, MM. Peytier, Puillon-Boblaye et Servier; suivie d’un catalogue des positions géographiques des principaux points déterminés par ces opérations, Pierre Peytier, Émile Puillon Boblaye et Aristide-Camille Servier, in the Bulletin de la Société de géographie, vol. 19 n° 117–122 (Jan–June 1833) +The Peytier Album, Liberated Greece and the Morea Scientific Expedition, in the Stephen Vagliano Collection, Album by Pierre Peytier, National Bank of Greece, Athens, 1971. +Percement de l'isthme de Corinthe Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust, p. 408–421, Bulletin de la Société de géographie, vol. 2, 1881. + +==== Archaeology section ==== +De la Grèce moderne, et de ses rapports avec l'antiquité by Edgar Quinet, F.G. Levrault, Paris, 1830. +Souvenirs (1829-1830) Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Duval, Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885. +Journal de voyage de M. Trézel (unpublished), by Pierre Félix Trézel, National Library of France–BnF, n. acq. fr. 1849, fol. 19r, 21 July 1829. +Jean-Baptiste Vietty et l'Expédition de Morée (1829). À propos de deux manuscrits retrouvés by Stéphane Gioanni, Journal des Savants, De Boccard, 2008, 2 (1), pp. 383–429. doi:10.3406/jds.2008.5891 +Mémoire sur l'état présent de la Morée, by Michel Schinas, Archives of the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France, File: Commission de Morée (1830). Annotated by A. Panayiotopoulou-Gavatha. Παναγιωτοπούλου–Γαβαθά, Α. (2016). Ένα υπόμνημα του Μ. Σχινά για την κατάσταση της Πελοποννήσου στα 1830. Σχολιασμένη έκδοση. The Gleaner, 11, 333–362. doi:10.12681/er.9408 + +==== Architecture and Sculpture section ==== +Volume I: Expedition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique (1831) Abel Blouet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, Firmin Didot, Paris. +Volume II: Expedition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique (1833) Abel Blouet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, Firmin Didot, Paris. +Volume III: Expedition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique (1838) Abel Blouet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, Firmin Didot, Paris. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cfe138293 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,50 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 16/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Bibliography == +Baloti Xeni D., Le maréchal N.J. Maison (1771–1840) – Un Grand Philhellène, editions Helliniki Euroekdotiki, Athens, 1993. +Bourguet Marie-Noëlle, Lepetit Bernard, Nordman Daniel, Sinarellis Maroula, L’Invention scientifique de la Méditerranée. Égypte, Morée, Algérie., Editions EHESS, 1998. ISBN 2-7132-1237-5 (in French) +Brewer David, The Greek War of Independence : The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation, New York, The Overlook Press, 393 p. 2001. ISBN 978-1-58567-395-7 +Brunet de Presle Wladimir and Alexandre Blanchet, Grèce depuis la conquête romaine jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, Firmin Didot, 589 p., 1860. (in French) +Contogeorgis Georges, Histoire de la Grèce, Paris, Hatier, coll. Nations d'Europe, 477 p., 1992. ISBN 978-2-218-03841-9 (in French) +Dakin Douglas, The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821–1833, University of California Press, 1973. +Driault Édouard and Lhéritier Michel, Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce, de 1821 à nos jours, volume I and II, Les presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1925. (in French) +Gioanni Stéphane, Jean-Baptiste Vietty et l'Expédition de Morée (1829). À propos de deux manuscrits retrouvés, Journal des Savants, De Boccard, 2 (1), pp. 383–429, 2008. doi:10.3406/jds.2008.5891 (in French) +Hugo Abel, France militaire. Histoire des armées françaises de terre et de mer de 1792 à 1837. Delloye, 1838. (in French) +Kalogerakou Pigi P. (Καλογεράκου Πηγή Π.), The contribution of the French expeditionary corpse to the restoration of the fortresses and the cities of Messinia (Η συμβολή του Γαλλικού εκστρατευτικού σώματος στην αποκατάσταση των φρουρίων και των πόλεων της Μεσσηνίας), in Οι πολιτικοστρατιωτικές σχέσεις Ελλάδας–Γαλλίας (19ος–20ός αι.), Direction of the Army's History (Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού), 13–41, Athens, 2011. (in Greek) +Kapodistrias Ioannis, Correspondance du comte J. Capodistrias, président de la Grèce, A. Cherbuliez et Cie., Paris, Geneva, 1839. (in French) +Livieratos Evangelos, Mapping Greece in 19th Century, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, website (in English). +Livieratos Evangelos, Cartographic adventures of Greece 1821–1919, Athens: MIET/ELIA; p. 287, 2009. ISBN 978-960-201-194-2 (in Greek) +Kastanis Andreas, The teaching of mathematics in the Greek military academy during the first years of its foundation (1828–1834), Historia Mathematica, vol. 30, no 2, p. 123–139, May 2003. doi:10.1016/s0315-0860(02)00023-x +Polychronopoulou Olga, Archéologues sur les pas d’Homère. La naissance de la protohistoire égéenne, Noêsis, Paris, 1999. ISBN 2-911606-41-8 (in French) +Yiannis Saïtas et coll., L'œuvre de l'expédition scientifique de Morée 1829–1838, Edited by Yiannis Saïtas, Editions Melissa, 2011 (1re Partie)–2017 (2nde Partie). (in French) +Γιάννης Σαΐτας et al., Το έργο της γαλλικής επιστημονικής αποστολής του Μοριά 1829–1838, Επιμέλεια Γιάννης Σαΐτας, Εκδόσεις Μέλισσα, 2011 (Μέρος Α΄)–2017 (Μέρος Β΄). (in Greek) +Sivignon Michel, Université Paris X–Nanterre, Les enseignements de la carte de Grèce à l’échelle de 1/200.000 (publiée en 1852) (Pergamos–Digital Library of the University of Athens (UoA)). Communication presented in the seminar of Gythion-Areopolis Lakonias Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques: témoignages sur l'espace et la société de Mani, 4–7 nov 1993 and published in Mani. Témoignages sur l’espace et la société. Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques (15°–19° siècle), Athens, Institut d’Études Néo-helléniques, pp. 435–445, 1996. (in French) +Schmitz Jean, Territorialisation du savoir et invention de la Méditerranée, in Cahiers d’études africaines, n°165, 2002. (in French) +Simopoulos Kyriakos, Ξενοκρατία, μισελληνισμός και υποτέλεια, εκδ. Στάχυ, pp. 450–455, Athens, 1997. (in Greek) +Simopoulos Kyriakos, Ξένοι Ταξιδιώτες στην Ελλάδα, vol. 1–4, χ.ε. 1970–76, editions Στάχυ, Athens, 2001. (in Greek) +Simopoulos Kyriakos, Πως είδαν οι Ξένοι την Ελλάδα του '21 (1821–1829), vol. 1–5, χ.ε. 1979–82, editions Πιρόγα, Athens, 2007. (in Greek) +Themeli-Katifori Despina (Θεμελή-Κατηφόρη Δέσποινα), Το Γαλλικό Ενδιαφέρον για την Ελλάδα στην Περίοδο του Καποδίστρια 1828–1831, Αθήνα, εκδ. Επικαιρότητα, 1985, (French interest in Greece during the Capodistrian period 1828–1831, Athens, ed. Epikairotita, 1985). (in Greek) +Tsagkaraki Anastasia, Les philhellènes français dans la lutte pour l’indépendance grecque (1821–1831), Revue Historique des Armées, 2nd trimester 2016. (in French) +Tisrigos Antonis K. (Τσιρίγος Αντώνης Κ.), The Capodistrian School of Methoni (Το καποδιστριακό Σχολείο της Μεθώνης, 1829–2016), preface by Pr. Petros Themelis, Private Edition, Athens, 2017. (in Greek) +Tzanakos Nikos (Τζανάκος Νίκος), Η γαλλική εκστρατεία στον Μοριά και ο στρατάρχης Μαιζών (The French expedition to Morea and Marshal Maison), Editions Pikramenos (Εκδόσεις Πικραμένος), Patras, 2017. ISBN 978-960-662-892-4 (in Greek) +Vaulabelle Archibald de, Histoire des deux Restaurations, jusqu’à l'avènement de Louis-Philippe, de janvier 1813 à octobre 1830., Perrotin, 1860. (in French) +Witmore, C.L., “The Expedition scientifique de Moree and a map of the Peloponnesus.” Dissertation on the Metamedia site at Stanford University. 2005 +Woodhouse Christopher Montague, The Battle of Navarino, Hoddler and Stoughton, 191 p., London, 1965. ISBN 0340002840 +Woodhouse Christopher Montague, The Philhellenes, London, Hodder et Stoughton, 192 p., London, 1969. ISBN 034010824X +Zambon Alessia (pref. Alain Schnapp), Aux Origines de l’archéologie en Grèce : Fauvel et sa méthode, 351 p., Paris cths et INHA, 2014. ISBN 978-2-7355-0822-8 (in French) +Collective, An Index of events in the military history of the greek nation, Athens, Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate, 1st ed., 471 p., 1998. ISBN 978-960-7897-27-5 +Le Courrier d'Orient, French-language newspaper published by Maxime Raybaud in Patras between 1828 and 1829 during the French expedition in Peloponnese. (in French) + +== References == + +=== Notes === + +=== References === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8e5f5af91 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 3/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Chamber of Deputies authorised a loan of 80 million gold francs to allow the government to meet its obligations for the expedition. An expeditionary corps of 13,000–15,000 men commanded by Lieutenant-General Nicolas Joseph Maison was formed. It was composed of nine infantry regiments distributed in three brigades commanded by the maréchaux de camp Tiburce Sébastiani (brother of Marshal Horace Sébastiani, soldier, diplomat and minister, 1st brigade), Philippe Higonet (2nd brigade), and Virgile Schneider (3rd brigade). The Chief of the General Staff was General Antoine Simon Durrieu. +Also departing were the 3rd Chasseur Regiment (1st brigade, 286 men, commanded by Colonel Paul-Eugène de Faudoas-Barbazan), four companies of artillery (484 men, with 12 battery pieces for sieges, 8 for campaigns, and 12 for mountains) of the 3rd and 8th Artillery Regiments, and two companies of military engineers that included 800 sappers (combat engineers) and miners. +A transport fleet protected by warships was organised; sixty ships sailed in all. Equipment, victuals, munitions and 1,300 horses had to be brought over, as well as arms, munitions and money for the Greek provisional government of Ioannis Kapodistrias. France wished to support the first steps of free Greece by helping it developing its own army. The aim was also to gain influence in the region. + +After a brief and energetic proclamation by General-in-Chief Nicholas Joseph Maison was read to the companies assembled the day before boarding, the first brigade left Toulon on 17 August; the second, two days later; and the third on September 2 in a second distinct convoy. The general in command, Nicolas Joseph Maison, was with the first brigade, aboard the ship of the line Ville de Marseille. The first convoy was composed of merchant ships and was escorted by the frigates Amphitrite, Bellone and Cybèle. The second convoy was escorted by the ship of the line Duquesne and by the frigates Iphigénie and Armide. + +=== Operations in the Peloponnese === + +==== Landing ==== + +After a boat passage without problems, the first convoy transporting the two first brigades arrived on 28 August in Navarino bay, where the joint Franco-Russo-British squadron was berthed. With the Egyptian army ensconced between Navarino and Methoni, the landing was risky. After a two-hour meeting between General Maison and Admiral Henri de Rigny, who came to meet him aboard the Conquérant, the fleet sailed toward the Messenian Gulf, whose southern entrance was protected by a fort held by the Ottomans in Koroni. The expeditionary corps reached the northwest part of the Gulf and began disembarking on the evening of 29 August with no opposition, and finished on 30–31 August. Soldiers pitched camp north of the plain of Koroni, ten minutes north of the ruins of ancient Coronea (near Petalidi), on the banks of the rivers Djane (for the General Staff), Karakasili-Karya and Velika. A proclamation by governor Ioannis Kapodistrias had informed the Greek population of the imminent arrival of a French expedition. It was said that the locals would have rushed up before the troops as soon as they set foot on Greek soil to offer them food. The 1st brigade commanded by Tiburce Sébastiani let the camp on 8 September for Koroni, on the heights of which it installed its camp. The 3rd brigade (2nd convoy), which had been carried by a fleet that sailed against a storm on the night of 16 September and lost three ships (including the brig Aimable Sophie which transported 22 horses of the 3rd Chasseur Regiment), managed to land at Petalidi on 22 September. On the 26th, it joined by sea the 2nd brigade, which had already moved by foot from Petalidi on 15 September and settled its camp of Djalova near Navarino. At their arrival on the Greek soil, the French found a country that had just been ravaged by Ibrahim's troops: villages razed to the ground, agricultural crops entirely burned and a population still living under a yoke of terror, starving and secluded in caves.I took the Venetian roadway from Modon, through the layers of ash and the coals of the olive trees whose valley was once shaded. Some caves open sadly on the way. In place of the villages, kiosks and towers that hung on the mountain's half-slope, one sees nothing any more but long charred walls, and the huts of the Pasha's troops in the form of clay boats, moored at the feet of the mountains. Once, I headed to the remains of a Byzantine church, where I thought I saw collapsed marble; but it turned out that the porch and the circuit were strewn with white skeletons. — Edgar QuinetThe day after we arrived, we went ashore, where the most dreadful spectacle I had seen in my life awaited me. In the middle of a few wooden huts built on the shore, outside the city (Navarino), of which only ruins remained, circulated, hasty and ragged, men, women, children, who had nothing left human in features: some without noses, others without ears, all more or less covered with scars; but what moved us at the last point was a little child of four or five years old whom his brother led by the hand; I approached him: his eyes had been gouged out. Turks and Egyptians spared no one in this war. — Amaury-Duval + +==== Departure of the Egyptian Army ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2513d8123 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 4/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +According to the Convention of Alexandria (6 August 1828), signed by the viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, and the British admiral Edward Codrington, Ibrahim Pasha was required to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops (estimated at 1,200 men) remaining there. He used a number of pretexts to delay the evacuation: problems with food supply or transport, or unforeseen difficulties in handing over the strongholds. The French officers had problems restraining the fighting zeal of their soldiers, who for example had become excited at the (false) news of an imminent march on Athens. The impatience of the French troops was perhaps decisive in convincing the Egyptian commander to respect his obligations. Moreover, the French soldiers began to suffer from the autumnal rains that drenched the tents pitched in their camps and favoured the spread of fever and dysentery. On 24 September, Louis-Eugène Cavaignac wrote that thirty men of 400 in his company of military engineers were already affected by fever. General Maison wished to be able to set up his men in the fortresses' barracks. +On 7 September, following a long conference aboard the ship Conquérant, in the presence of General Maison and the three allied Admirals, Ibrahim Pasha accepted the evacuation of his troops as of 9 September. The agreement provided that the Egyptians would leave with their arms, baggage and horses, but without any Greek slaves or prisoners. As the Egyptian fleet could not evacuate the entire army in one operation, supplies were authorised for the troops who remained on land; these men had just endured a lengthy blockade. A first Egyptian division, 5,500 men and 27 ships, set sail on September 16, escorted by three ships from the joint fleet (two English ones and the French frigate Sirène). The day before, on 15 September, the French troops had moved their camp from Petalidi and had crossed the Messenian peninsula to the west in order to get closer to Navarino. They had set up their new camp north of the bay in the swampy plain of the Djalova, two leagues north of Navarino. On 1 October, General Maison reviewed the entire French troops on the shore, in the presence of Ibrahim Pasha who came without escort, and of the Greek General Nikitaras. The French printer Jacques Mangeart gave a detailed description of this review in his Souvenirs. +The evacuation continued throughout the month of September and the last Egyptian transport sailed away on 5 October, taking Ibrahim Pasha. Of the 40,000 men he had brought from Egypt, he was returning with barely 21,000. A few Ottoman soldiers (2,500) remained to hold the different strongholds of the Peloponnese. The next mission of the French troops was to secure them, and hand them back to an independent Greece. + +==== Strongholds taken ==== +The dispatches sent by Lieutenant-General Nicolas-Joseph Maison, Commander in chief of the Morea expedition, to the Minister of War Louis-Victor de Caux de Blacquetot offer a detailed description of the taking of the strongholds of Morea during the month of October 1828. + +===== Navarino ===== + +On 6 October, the day after Ibrahim's departure, General Maison ordered General Philippe Higonet to march on Navarino. He left with the 16th Infantry Regiment, which included artillery and military engineers. Navarino's seacoast was put under siege by Admiral Henri de Rigny’s fleet and the land siege was undertaken by General Higonet's soldiers. The Turkish commander of the fort refused to surrender: "The Porte is at war with neither the French nor the English; we will commit no hostile act, but we will not surrender the fort". Whereupon the sappers were ordered to open a breach in the walls and General Higonet entered the fortress, held by 530 men who surrendered without a shot being fired, along with sixty cannon and 800,000 rounds of ammunition. The French troops settled permanently in Navarino, rebuilding its fortifications and houses and setting up a hospital and various features of local administration. + +===== Methoni ===== + +On 7 October, the 35th Line Infantry Regiment, commanded by General Antoine-Simon Durrieu, accompanied by artillery and by military engineers, appeared before Methoni, a better fortified city defended by 1,078 men and a hundred cannon, and which had food supplies for six months. Two ships of the line, the Breslaw (Captain Maillard) and HMS Wellesley (Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland) blocked the port and threatened the fortress with their cannons. The fort's commanders, the Turk Hassan Pasha and the Egyptian Ahmed Bey, made the same reply as had the commander of Navarino. Methoni's fortifications were in better condition than those of Navarino, so the sappers focused on opening the city gate, which the city's garrison did not defend. The commanders of the fort later explained that they could not surrender it without disobeying the Sultan's orders, but also recognised that it was impossible for them to resist, thus the fort had to be taken, at least symbolically, by force. The French general granted them the same surrender conditions as in Navarino. The fortress of Methoni was taken and General Maison installed his apartments there (in the former home of Ibrahim Pasha), as well as the headquarters of the Morea expedition. + +===== Koroni ===== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..afdff3d48 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 5/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +It was more difficult to take Koroni. General Tiburce Sébastiani showed up there on 7 October with a part of his 1st brigade and announced the taking of the fortresses of Navarino and Methoni. The fort commander's response was similar to those given at Navarino and Methoni. Sébastiani sent his sappers, who were pushed back by rocks thrown from atop the walls. A dozen men were wounded, among them Cavaignac and, more seriously, a captain (Boutauld), a sergeant and three sappers. The other French soldiers felt insulted and their general had great difficulty in preventing them from opening fire and taking the stronghold by force. The Amphitrite, the Breslaw and the Wellesley came to assist the ground troops. The threat they posed led the Ottoman commander to surrender. On October 9, the French entered Koroni and seized 80 cannon and guns, along with a store of victuals and munitions. The fortress was then given to the Greek troops of General Nikitaras who settled there. + +===== Patras ===== +Patras had been controlled by Ibrahim Pasha's troops since his evacuation of the Peloponnese. The 3rd brigade commanded by General Virgile Schneider had been sent by sea to take the city, located in the north-western part of the peninsula. It landed on October 4. General Schneider gave Hadji Abdullah, Pasha of Patras and of the Castle of Morea, twenty-four hours to hand over the fort. On 5 October, when the ultimatum expired, three columns marched on the city and the artillery was deployed. The Pasha immediately signed the capitulation of Patras and of the Castle of Morea. However, the aghas who commanded the latter refused to obey their pasha, whom they considered a traitor, and announced that they would rather die in the ruins of their fortress than surrender. + +However, as early as October 14, the corvette Oise had left for France, bearing son and aide-de-camp of General Maison, Captain of Staff Jean Baptiste Eugène, Viscount Maison, who carried dispatches to King Charles X announcing the surrender of Navarino, Methoni, Koroni and Patras, and that only stronghold was still under the control of the Turks, the Castle of the Morea. + +===== Siege of the Castle of the Morea ===== +The Castle of the Morea (Kastro Moreas or Kastelli) was built by Bayezid II in 1499. It is located beside the sea, 10 km north of Patras, near Rion, and next to the current Rio–Antirrio bridge. Opposite the Castle of Rumelia on the northern coast, it guarded the entry to the Gulf of Corinth, which was nicknamed the "Little Dardanelles". + +General Schneider negotiated with the aghas, who persisted in their refusal to surrender and even shot the general. A siege against the fortress was begun and fourteen marine and field guns, placed a little over 400 meters in front of it, reduced the artillery of the besieged to silence. In Navarino, General Maison commanded General Durrieu and Admiral de Rigny to have all the artillery and sappers embark in the ships anchored in the bay. On 20 October he also sent by land General Higonet, accompanied by two infantry regiments and by the 3rd Light Cavalry Regiment of the Chasseurs. These reinforcements arrived on the evening of 26 October after an intensive week of marching with their pace set by the rhythm of the drums. New batteries nicknamed for breaching (de brèche) were installed. These received the names "Charles X" (King of France), "George IV" (King of the United Kingdom; this attention was greeted by the British), "Duke of Angoulême" (son of the king and Dauphin of France), "Duke of Bordeaux" (grandson of the king, and future count of Chambord) and "La Marine". A part of the French fleet, including the Breslaw and the Conquérant, and the British HMS Blonde under Admiral Edmund Lyons came to add their cannons. Some parts of the French and British batteries were even mixed and manipulated by gunners from both nations. The Russian fleet could not take part in the siege, being stationed in Malta, but Admiral Lodewijk van Heiden had long since offered to be at the disposal of General Maison. +On 30 October, early in the morning, twenty-five heavy gun batteries (including six field pieces, four howitzers, several mortars and an English bombard) opened fire. Within four hours, a large breach was opened in the ramparts. Then, an emissary came out with a white flag to negotiate the terms of the fort's surrender. General Maison replied that the terms had been negotiated at the beginning of the month at Patras. He added that he did not trust a group of besieged men who had not respected a first agreement to respect a second one. He gave the garrison half an hour to evacuate the fort, without arms or baggage. The aghas surrendered, but the fortress' resistance had cost 25 men of the French expedition killed or wounded. + +=== Military results of the expedition === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f86801b37 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 6/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On 5 November 1828, the last Turks and Egyptians had definitely left Morea. 2,500 men and their families were placed aboard French vessels headed for Smyrna. Therefore 26-27,000 men in total were forced to leave the country and the strongholds in a few days. The capture of the Morea strongholds by the French expeditionary force had only required a month:Our operations were successful in all aspects: we do not find military glory there, without any doubt; but the object for which we have come, the liberation of Greece, will have been more successful and prompt; Morea will have been purged of its enemies. — Lieutenant-General Nicolas-Joseph MaisonThe French and British ambassadors had set themselves up at Poros in September 1828 and invited Constantinople to send a diplomat there so as to conduct negotiations over the status of Greece. Because the Porte persisted in refusing to participate in conferences, General Maison explicitly suggested Greek Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias (on 5 October) pursuing military operations and extending them to Attica and Euboea. France supported this project and had for that initially given instructions to General Maison on 27 August 1828. But the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, opposed this plan (he wanted the new Greek state to be limited only to Peloponnese), thus it was left to the Greeks to drive out the Ottomans from these territories, with the understanding that the French army would only intervene if the Greeks found themselves in trouble. +The Ottoman Empire could no longer depend on Egyptian troops to hold Greece. The strategic situation now resembled that existing before 1825 and the landing of Ibrahim Pasha. Then, the Greek insurgents had triumphed on all fronts. After the Morea military expedition, the regular troops of the recently established Hellenic Armed Forces, only had to face the Turkish troops in Central Greece. Livadeia, gateway to Boeotia, was conquered at the beginning of November 1828 by the commander of the Army of Eastern Greece, Demetrios Ypsilantis. A counterattack by Mahmud Pasha from Euboea was repulsed in January 1829. The commander of the Army of Western Greece, Augustinos Kapodistrias, besieged and recaptured Naupaktos in April 1829 and the symbolic town of Messolonghi in May 1829. Ypsilantis recaptured Thebes on 21 May 1829 and defeated 7,000 Ottomans at the Battle of Petra (a narrow passage in Boeotia between Thebes and Livadeia) on 12 September 1829. This battle was significant as it was the first time the Greeks had fought victoriously on the field of battle as a regular army. The battle of Petra was the last of the Greek War of Independence. +However, it took the military victory of Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 and the Treaty of Adrianople, which was then ratified by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832, before the independence of Greece was recognized and guaranteed by the Great Powers. This Treaty of Constantinople thus marked the end of the Greek War of Independence. The territory of the new Kingdom of Greece, however, only extended over the regions liberated by the French and Greek troops: the Peloponnese, some islands and central Greece (the northern land border of the Kingdom was drawn along a line joining the cities of Arta and Volos). + +=== French in the Peloponnese === +The troops of the Morea Expedition, despite their disappointment at not being able to pursue their objective to liberate Greece, were gradually evacuated from January 1829 (General Higonet and General Sébastiani). Jacques Mangeart, Dr. Gaspard Roux and the brigade in which Eugène Cavaignac was serving embarked in the early days of April 1829. General Maison, following his promotion to Marshal of France on 22 February 1829 and General Durrieu, following his promotion to divisional general, did not leave until 22 May 1829; Captain Duheaume left on 4 August 1829. +Only a single brigade, so-called "of occupation", of 5,000 men (composed of the 27th, 42nd, 54th and 58th Line Infantry Regiments stationed in Navarino, Methoni and Patras) remained in the Peloponnese under the command of General Virgile Schneider. Fresh troops were sent from France to relieve the soldiers stationed in Greece; the 57th Line Infantry Regiment landed at Navarino on 25 July 1830. The French troops, first commanded by General Maison (1828–1829), then by General Schneider (1829–1831) and finally by General Guéhéneuc (1831–1833), did not remain idle during these nearly five years. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3dca81035 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 7/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Fortifications were raised (like those at Methoni or Navarino), barracks were built (the "Maison's building" in Navarino's fortress, which houses nowadays the new archaeological museum of Pylos), bridges were constructed (such as those over the Pamissos River between Navarino and Kalamata), the road Navarino–Methoni was built (the first road of independent Greece, which is still used today), hospitals (in Navarino, Modon and Patras) and health commissions were established for the Greek population (as during the plague epidemic in the mountainous villages of Kalavryta and Vrachni in December 1828, which was contained by the General Higonet). Finally, many improvements were made to the Peloponnesian cities (schools, postal services, printing companies, bridges, squares, fountains, gardens, etc.). The military engineering commander of the Morea expedition, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph-Victor Audoy, was commissioned by the Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias to design the first urban framework plan of the country's modern history. Audoy built from the spring of 1829 the new cities of Modon (today Methoni) and Navarino (today Pylos) outside the walls of the fortresses, on the model of the bastides of Southwest France (from where he originated) and of the cities of the Ionian Islands (which share common features, such as a central geometrical square bordered by covered galleries built with a succession of contiguous arches, each supported by a colonnade, as the arcades of Pylos or Corfu). He also built, between December 1829 and February 1830, the famous Capodistrian School of Mutual Education (the monitorial system) of Methoni. All these cities quickly repopulated and returned to their pre-war activity. The example of the rapid modernization of Patras, whose plans had just been drawn by the Captains of the French expedition Stamatis Voulgaris and Auguste-Théodore Garnot, is described at length in the Souvenirs of Jacques Mangeart, who came to the city with the Philhellene and Lieutenant-Colonel Maxime Raybaud to establish a printing company and found the Franco-Greek newspaper "Le Courrier d'Orient" in 1829. + +The Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias, when he had come to Paris in October 1827 just before his arrival in Greece, asked the French government (and in particular his friend and employee of the Ministry of War, Count Nicolas de Loverdo) for advisers and French army officers to organise the army of the new Greek state. Consequently, on the recommendation of the French Ministry of War, the Captains of the General Staff Stamatis Voulgaris (a French officer of Greek origin and friend of Kapodistrias from childhood), of the military engineering Auguste-Théodore Garnot, of the artillery Jean-Henri-Pierre-Augustin Pauzié-Banne and of the topographic service Pierre Peytier, were sent to Greece in 1828, a few months before the arrival of the Morea military expedition, to which they were attached, in order to train young Greek military engineers. Captains Voulgaris and Garnot designed the urban plans of several Greek cities: Tripolitza, Corinth (which Garnot continued alone), Nafplio (Voulgaris reworked its urban plan and that of the refugee district Pronia) and Patras. Garnot was also commissioned by Kapodistrias to found the first military engineering corps in 1828, called the Corps of Fortification and Architecture Officers, whose mission was to build, maintain and improve fortifications, military and civilian buildings, bridges, roads and other constructions. The Captain of artillery Pauzié was responsible for founding the School of Artillery and then the Hellenic Central Military Academy, commonly known as the "Evelpidon School" in 1828, on the model of the French École Polytechnique. Finally, the map of the new Greek state was established by the Captain and engineer-geographer Pierre Peytier in 1832. At the same time, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Morea Expedition, Colonel Camille Alphonse Trézel was promoted by Ioannis Kapodistrias, General and Commander of the regular army in 1829. Composed at that time of 2,688 men, General Trézel organized it "à la française", both for its administration and for its jurisdiction, for the training and for the advancement of the soldiers, and even for its uniforms which were the same than those of the French. In November 1829, General Trézel was replaced by General Gérard, who remained Commander of the regular Army until 1831. Finally, Governor Kapodistrias also commissioned in 1829 the geologist of the expedition Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust to assess the possibility of digging a canal on the Isthmus of Corinth. Thus, from the first years of its independence, Greece established lasting military cooperation with France, who is still considered today as its traditional strategic ally. +To all these achievements made by the French military troops, the scientific work realised by the scientific commission of the Morea between the months of March and December 1829 should be added as well. The French troops definitively withdrew from Greece in August 1833, shortly after the arrival of King Otto of Greece and the Bavarian Auxiliary Corps, in the previous January. They were then replaced by the corps of the Royal Army composed of 3,500 Bavarian soldiers and officers. + +=== Human cost of the expedition === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..61fa77d21 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 8/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Despite the brevity of the military operations and the small number of battles, the human cost of the French expedition was extremely heavy: between 1 September 1828 and 1 April 1829, the Chief Medical Officer of the expeditionary corps, Dr. Gaspard Roux, officially reported 4,766 illnesses and 1,000 deaths (numbers confirmed by Doctor Charles-Joseph Bastide, Surgeon-Major of the 16th Line Infantry Regiment). +Thus, almost a third of French troops were affected by fevers, diarrhea and dysentery, which had been mostly contracted between October and December 1828 in the camps established within the marshy plains of Petalidi, in the mouth of the river Djalova (in Navarino Bay) or in Patras. This epidemic of fever, characterized by a large majority of tertian fevers (occurring every two days), periodic, with a high rate of relapse, dazzling and accompanied by shivering, jaundice, convulsions, headache and neurological and digestive disorders, certainly corresponds to malaria (word that originates from medieval Italian: mala aria—"bad air"; the disease was formerly called ague or marsh fever due to its association with swamps and marshland) which was endemic to the region at that time (it was definitively eradicated in Greece in 1974). The epidemic began during the warm season, on 20 September 1828, marked its peak on 20 October (15 November in Patras), then subsided during the month of November, to completely stop in December 1828. + +Although Doctor Roux recognized the main and deleterious influence of swamps in the spread of the disease, it was not until 1880 that its primary cause, the Plasmodium parasite (a single-celled microorganism), was discovered by the Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran—a French army doctor working in the military hospital of Constantine in Algeria— who observed parasites inside the red blood cells of infected people for the first time (Nobel Prize in 1907). Also, the evidence that female Anopheles mosquitoes, which neither Doctor Roux nor Doctor Bastide ever mention, are the vectors of malaria, came only in 1897 by the Scottish physician Sir Ronald Ross (Nobel Prize in 1902). +The doctors attributed the disease mainly to the proximity of the focal point of infection in lowlands and marshy places and to the harshness of the transitions in temperatures between day and night, and to a lesser extent, to the intensity of the multiple and arduous works, as well as in the excessive consumption of salted meat, of spirits, and of the muddy and brackish water of the region. The cooler weather of winter, the moving of the men into the fortresses's barracks, the immediate enforcement of strict hygiene and sanitation measures, the arrival of drugs from France, as well as the establishment of three military hospitals in Navarino, Methoni and Patras significantly reduced this loss of life. It should also be noted that the use by Doctor Roux of antipyretic febrifuges such as cinchona powder and quinine, purified for the first time only 8 years before, in 1820, by Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, resulted in most convincing therapeutic results. +However, the total number of deaths would increase significantly thereafter until the expedition's departure in 1833, especially following some suicides, duels, a few cases of "narcotism" following an overuse of alcoholic liquors, with the explosion of a gunpowder magazine within the fort of Navarino, which cost the lives of fifty soldiers on 19 November 1829, and following the Argos affair on January 16, 1833, which resulted in the death of three French soldiers. The scientific mission will also be strongly affected by malaria fever during the next summer in 1829. The total number of deaths in the Morea expedition is generally estimated, according to testimonies, at around 1,500. +Subsequently, memorials commemorating these fallen French soldiers were erected by the Greek and French states on the islet of Sphacteria in Navarino's bay (monument erected in May 1890) and in the cities of Gialova (monument erected in October 2007 on the exact site of the camp of Djalova), of Kalamata (in the church of Saint Nicholas Flarios) and of Nafplio (monument to the Philhellenes erected in 1903), where they can still be seen today. + +== Scientific expedition == + +=== Establishment of the scientific mission === +The Morea expedition was the second of the great military-scientific expeditions led by France in the first half of the 19th century. The first, used as a benchmark, had been that of Egypt, starting in 1798 (Commission des sciences et des arts); the last took place in Algeria from 1839 (Commission d'exploration scientifique d'Algérie). All three took place at the initiative of the French government and were placed under the guidance of a particular ministry (Foreign relations for Egypt, Interior for Morea and War for Algeria). The great scientific institutions were recruiting scholars (both civilians and from the military) and were specifying their missions, but in situ work was done in close cooperation with the army. The Commission of Sciences and Arts during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, and especially the publications that followed, had become a model. Since Greece was the other important region of antiquity considered the origin of Western civilisation (one of the philhellenes' principal arguments), it was decided, as mentioned by Abel Blouet, to: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d2b396d31 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 9/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +...take advantage of the presence of our soldiers who were occupying Morea to send a scholarly commission. It did not have to equal that attached to the glory of Napoleon […] It did however need to render eminent services to the arts and sciences. +The Interior minister of King Charles X, the power behind the throne and real head of the government at the time, the Viscount of Martignac, charged six academicians of the Institut de France (Académie des Sciences: Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres: Charles-Benoît Hase and Desiré-Raoul Rochette. Académie des Beaux-arts: Jean-Nicolas Hyot and Jean-Antoine Letronne) to appoint the chief-officers and members of each section of the Scientific Committee. Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent was thus appointed director of the commission on December 9, 1828. They also determined the routes and objectives. As Bory will write later: Messrs. De Martignac and Siméon had asked me expressly not to restrict my observations to Flies and Herbs, but to extend them to places and to menThe expedition, composed of nineteen scientists, was divided into three sections (Physical Sciences, Archaeology, Architecture-Sculpture), each placed under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (Physical Sciences section), Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (Archaeology section) and Guillaume-Abel Blouet (Architecture and Sculpture section). The painter Amaury-Duval gave portraits of these three directors in his Souvenirs (1829-1830) written in 1885. + +The members of the scientific expedition embarked on February 10, 1829 in Toulon aboard the frigate Cybèle (commanded by the frigate captain, de Robillard) and, after 21 days of a rather tumultuous crossing of the Mediterranean for the members of the expedition, they landed on March 3, 1829 at Navarino. While in Egypt and Algeria, scientific work was done under the army's protection, in Morea, while scientific exploration had barely begun, the first troops already started embarking for France from the first days of April 1829. The army merely provided logistical support: tents, stakes, tools, liquid containers, large pots and sacks; in a word, everything that could be found for us to use in the army's storehouses. +Shortly after the arrival of the scientific commission in Greece and its installation in its headquarters in Modon, the governor of the First Hellenic Republic Ioannis Kapodistrias came to meet its members on April 11, 1829. He already had the opportunity to meet on his way, between Argos and Tripolizza, Edgar Quinet who had then already parted from the rest of the commission and was heading to Argolida. The historian and future French politician presents on this occasion portraits of the president and his aides-de-camp, the heroes of Greek independence Kolokotronis and Nikitaras, who all left strong impression on him. The president also met Abel Blouet a little further on his journey, in the vicinity of Corone. A great dinner was organised at Modon, which brought together for the last time before the expeditionary force returned to France: President Kapodistrias, Marshal Maison, the Greek and French officers and principal chiefs (Kolokotronis, Nikitaras, Makriyannis, Kallergis, Fabvier, etc.), and all members of the scientific commission. Bory de Saint-Vincent introduced the members of his section to the president, then both had the opportunity to discuss at length questions of international diplomacy. They met again later in Argos, Nafplion and Aegina. The painter Amaury-Duval, also noted the special devotion of the Greek President to his project to develop schools of mutual education (the monitorial system) in the country. In general, texts describing the multiple meetings between the members of the scientific commission and the Greek president invariably show reciprocal respect and mutual esteem. + +=== Physical Sciences section === +This section, supervised at the French Academy of Sciences by Georges Cuvier and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, included several sciences: on the one hand botany (Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, Louis Despreaux Saint-Sauveur, accompanied by the painter Prosper Baccuet) and zoology (Gaspard-Auguste Brullé, Gabriel Bibron, Sextius Delaunay and Antoine Vincent Pector), and on the other hand geography (Pierre Peytier, Pierre M. Lapie and Aristide-Camille Servier) and geology (Pierre Théodore Virlet d’Aoust, Émile Puillon Boblaye and Gérard Paul Deshayes). + +==== Geography and Geology ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4bafd27a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Morea expedition" +chunk: 10/16 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morea_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:49.439726+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +One of the first objectives fixed by the French government had been to draw precise maps of the Peloponnese, with a scientific purpose, but also for economic and military reasons. The Minister of War, the Vicomte de Caux, had written to General Maison on January 6, 1829: All the maps of Greece are very imperfect and were drawn up based on more or less inaccurate templates; it is thus essential to fix them. Not only will geography be enriched by this research, but we will in the process support France's commercial interests by making her relations easier, and it will above all be useful for our ground and naval forces, who may find themselves involved in this part of Europe. The only maps available at the time were those made by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage (1808, in 1:500,000 scale), whose map was relatively imperfect, and that of Pierre Lapie (1826, in 1:400,000 scale), which was more exact for a detailed layout and was used by the members of the expedition. +Captain Pierre Peytier, of the topographic service in the French army, had already been invited to Greece by Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias when the latter had come to Paris in October 1827 to ask the French government for advisers and French army officers to organise the army of the new Greek state. Kapodistrias also requested the fixing of the map of Greece. Consequently, on the recommendation of the French Ministry of War, Peytier and three other officers were sent to Greece in May 1828, four months before the Morea military expedition, to train young Greek topographical engineers (including the urban engineer Stamatis Voulgaris, a staff captain in the French army, but of Greek origin). Peytier himself was to draw the plans for the city of Corinth and the map of the Peloponnese. When the scientific expedition of the Morea landed at Navarino in the Peloponnese on March 3, 1829, Peytier was attached to it. + +As soon as March, a base of 3,500 meters had been traced in the Argolis, from one point at the ruins of Tiryns to a point at a ruined house in the village of Aria. This was intended to serve as a point of departure in all the triangulation operations for topographic and geodetic readings in the Peloponnese. Peytier and Puillon-Boblaye proceeded to perform numerous verifications on the base and on the rulers used. The margin of error was thus reduced to 1 meter for every 15 kilometers. The longitude and latitude of the base point at Tiryns were read and checked, so that again the margin of error was reduced as far as possible to an estimated 0.2 seconds. One hundred thirty four geodetic stations were set up on the peninsula's mountains, as well as on Aegina, Hydra and Nafplion. Equilateral triangles whose sides measured about 20 km were drawn, while the angles were measured with Gambey's theodolites. However, after the departure of the scientific mission from Greece, and although he fell ill with fever five times, Peytier remained there alone until 31 July 1831 to complete the trigonometric, topographic and statistical work for the establishment of the map of the Morea. +The Map of 1832, very precisely drawn at a 1:200,000 scale on 6 sheets (plus two sheets depicting some of the islands of the Cyclades), was the first map of the Greek territory ever made according to scientifically and geodetic principles. + +After the assassination of Kapodistrias in October 1831, Peytier's activity was almost completely hampered by the civil war which tore the country apart. King Otto I of Greece, who arrived in January 1833, requested of France that the topographic brigade be responsible for surveying the map of the whole kingdom. Peytier returned to Greece on 28 March 1833 and remained there until March 1836 to direct most of the work for the preparation of the complete map. Some topographic engineers remained until 1849 under the direction of Captain Soitoux for additional reconnaissance. This Map of 1852, also in 1:200,000 scale, was definitively published under Peytier's direction in 1852. Until the publication by the Geographical Service of the Hellenic Army after 1945 of the current map in 1:50,000 scale, this map from 1852 remained the only one which covered the entire territory of Greece. The French geographer and Greek specialist, Michel Sivignion indicates that the map depicts, for the first time, an exact rendering of the topography, of the layout of the rivers, of the height of the mountains, and also of the distribution of inhabited places and of the size of their populations. Beyond this technical aspect, it marks the political territory of independent Greece, its official representation, and its being taken possession of by the authorities of the territory, the limits of which are fixed. + +Peytier also left an album which he himself composed with his pencil drawings, sepias and watercolours depicting city views, monuments, costumes and inhabitants of Greece at the time. He used an artistic style that avoided idealization for the benefit of scientific fidelity and precision, which fully revealed the topographer that he was. +The Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias also commissioned Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust to assess the possibility of digging a canal on the isthmus of Corinth, to save ships the 700 kilometres (430 mi) journey around the Peloponnese and the dangerous pass of the capes Maleas and Matapan (Tainaron) south of the peninsula. Virlet d'Aoust gave him an estimate of the project, which, without taking into account interest on its financing, was assessed to around 40 million gold francs of the time. This expense, too considerable for the Hellenic government alone, led him to give up the initiation of the works. Although the project was never carried out, Virlet still oprovided the Greek government its potential route, which followed that established by the Romans between Loutraki and Kalamaki, and which was indicated on the Geological Map in 1:200,000 scale of the scientific expedition. It was not until 1893 that the Corinth Canal was finally opened. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_Echo-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_Echo-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..59ad9baaf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_Echo-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Morphological Echo" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_Echo" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:31.099360+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Morphological Echo is a title shared by two oil-on-panel paintings created by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. + + +== Description == +The first of these works was painted between 1934 and 1936 and measures 64 cm × 54 cm (25 in × 21 in). It depicts a seemingly minimal architectural setting with several surrealist images in its finer details. In the distance is a wall housing a bell resembling the figure of a woman in bundled skirts. In the distance towards the center is a strangely eroded rock form. +The most significant element of this image is a small figure in the lower right of a woman running with a large hoop. In the shadow cast by the figure, her arms appear to merge into a circle around her head. The shadow cast by the figure's head takes on the appearance of the hub of a wheel. +This painting is displayed at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida on loan from the E. and A. Reynolds Morse collection. +The second work by this title was painted in 1936 and measures 30.5 cm × 33 cm (12.0 in × 13.0 in). It depicts a table with three objects set upon it. In the distance beyond the table are six more objects in two horizontal rows of three. These objects roughly resemble the three shapes they are aligned with on the table. This painting is owned by the Salvador Dalí Museum. + + +== See also == +List of works by Salvador Dalí + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_analysis_(problem-solving)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_analysis_(problem-solving)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ed64629db --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_analysis_(problem-solving)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Morphological analysis (problem-solving)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_analysis_(problem-solving)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:29.923068+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Morphological analysis or general morphological analysis is a method for exploring possible solutions to a multi-dimensional, non-quantified complex problem. It was developed by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky. General morphology has found use in fields including engineering design, technological forecasting, organizational development and policy analysis. + + +== Overview == +General morphology was developed by Fritz Zwicky, the Bulgarian-born, Swiss-national astrophysicist based at the California Institute of Technology. Among others, Zwicky applied morphological analysis to astronomical studies and jet and rocket propulsion systems. As a problem-structuring and problem-solving technique, morphological analysis was designed for multi-dimensional, non-quantifiable problems where causal modelling and simulation do not function well, or at all. +Zwicky developed this approach to address seemingly non-reducible complexity: using the technique of cross-consistency assessment (CCA), the system allows for reduction by identifying the possible solutions that actually exist, eliminating the illogical solution combinations in a grid box (sometimes called a morphological box) rather than reducing the number of variables involved. + + +== Decomposition versus morphological analysis == +Problems that involve many governing factors, where most of them cannot be expressed numerically can be well suited for morphological analysis. +The conventional approach is to break a complex system into parts, isolate the parts (dropping the 'trivial' elements) whose contributions are critical to the output and solve the simplified system for desired scenarios. The disadvantage of this method is that many real-world phenomena do not have obviously trivial elements and cannot be simplified. +Morphological analysis works backwards from the output towards the system internals without a simplification step. The system's interactions are fully accounted for in the analysis. + + +== References in fiction == +Robert A. Heinlein has his characters use a "Zwicky box" in Time Enough for Love, to figure out what's available to break the ennui of his 2000-year-old character. +David Brin used "Zwicky Choice Boxes" in Sundiver as a means to help solve a murder mystery. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Duczynski, G.A. (2016). "Morphological analysis as an aid to organisational design and transformation". Futures. 86: 36–43. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2016.08.001. +Duczynski, Guy (October 2004). "Systems approaches to economic development for indigenous people: a case study of the Noongar Aboriginals of Australia". Futures. 36 (8): 869–888. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2004.01.001. ISSN 0016-3287. +Duczynski, Guy (January 2018). "Investigating traffic congestion: Targeting technological and social interdependencies through general morphological analysis". Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 126: 161–167. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.05.019. ISSN 0040-1625. +Duczynski, G.A. (2000). "A Practitioner's Experience of Using Field Anomaly Relaxation (FAR) to Craft Futures" (PDF). Futures Research Quarterly. 16 (3). +Duczynski, G.A.; Jablonski, J.; Huddleston, V (February 2015). "Sustainability of the Afghan Security Forces: A Wicked Problem". globalecco.org. Counter Terrorism Exchange. Retrieved 2019-05-05. +Duczynski, Guy; dov Bachmann, Sascha; Smith, Matthew; Knight, Charles (August 2023). "Operational and Strategic Progress in Ukraine: Identifying the Condition Changes". Naval Post-Graduate School, Insights, Monterrey. available at: ECCO Insights - Global ECCO - Naval Postgraduate School +Jones, J. C. (July 1981). "Design methods and theories". Design Studies. 2 (3): 176. doi:10.1016/0142-694x(81)90074-0. ISSN 0142-694X. +Levin, Mark Sh. (2014-09-06), "Modular Systems, Combinatorial Engineering Frameworks", Modular System Design and Evaluation, Decision Engineering, Springer International Publishing, pp. 1–10, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09876-0_1, ISBN 9783319098753 +Ritchey, Tom (2011), "Modelling Complex Policy Issues with Morphological Analysis", Wicked Problems – Social Messes, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 31–37, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-19653-9_4, ISBN 9783642196522 +Shubik, M. (1969-12-05). "Technological Forecasting and Long-Range Planning. Robert U. Ayres. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1969. xviii + 238 pp., illus. $12.50". Science. 166 (3910): 1257–1258. doi:10.1126/science.166.3910.1257. ISSN 0036-8075. +Wilson, Albert (1967), "Epilogue", New Methods of Thought and Procedure, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 333–338, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-87617-2_17, ISBN 9783642876196 +Zwicky, Fritz; Page, T. (1969-03-21). "Discovery, Invention, Research, through the Morphological Approach". Science. 163 (3873). New York: Macmillan: 1317–1318. doi:10.1126/science.163.3873.1317. ISSN 0036-8075. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..766723178 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Morphological freedom" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_freedom" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:32.229477+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Morphological freedom refers to a proposed civil right of a person to either maintain or modify their own body, on their own terms, through informed, consensual recourse to, or refusal of, available therapeutic or enabling medical technology. +The term may have been coined by transhumanist Max More in his 1993 article, “Technological Self-Transformation: Expanding Personal Extropy”, where he defined it as "the ability to alter bodily form at will through technologies such as surgery, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, uploading". The term was later used by science debater and futurist Anders Sandberg as "an extension of one’s right to one’s body, not just self-ownership but also the right to modify oneself according to one’s desires." +The Massachusetts-headquartered charity, the Freedom of Form Foundation, was founded in 2018 to advocate and fund scientific research furthering progress on morphological freedom, the tools required to achieve it and its general acceptance in society at large. + + +== Politics == +According to technocritic Dale Carrico, the politics of morphological freedom imply a commitment to the value, standing, and social legibility of the widest possible variety of desired morphologies and lifestyles. More specifically, morphological freedom is an expression of liberal pluralism, secularism, progressive cosmopolitanism, and posthumanist multiculturalisms applied to the ongoing and upcoming transformation of the understanding of medical practice from one of conventional therapy to one of consensual self-determination, via genetic, prosthetic, and cognitive modification. + + +== Religion == +According to authors Calvin Mercer and Tracy J. Trothen there is tension between religion and transhumanists, particularly the Abrahamic traditions, with regards to morphological freedom. While religion generally recognizes the need to heal people and improve their situation from a medical perspective they are generally hesitant to promote a wholesale modification of the body as they see it ultimately belonging to God. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Carrico, Dale (2006). "The Politics of Morphological Freedom". Amor Munro blog. Retrieved 2007-01-28. +Sandberg, Anders (2001). "Morphological Freedom -- Why We not just Want it, but Need it". Retrieved 2024-03-07. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_psychology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_psychology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..558e8ec90 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_psychology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "Morphological psychology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_psychology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:33.405192+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Morphological psychology claims to be one of the most recent full psychology theories. It was developed in the 1960s by Professor Wilhelm Salber at the University of Cologne, Germany. In his understanding, morphology is the science of the structure of living things. "Morphing" describes the seamless transition from one state or appearance into another. Like the morphing technique used in films, morphological psychology studies the structures of our psyche and aims to understand the transitions, the metamorphosis of our mind. +Morphological psychology recognizes that the mind is in a constant state of flux, being shaped and shaping at the same time. It is a psychological theory that considers our mental workings as a dynamic system. Morphology asserts that we are in a constant state of change throughout our life. In every millisecond we experience entire psychological worlds. The only constant in life is change, and Salber has taken this principle to morphological psychology. + + +== Motivations == +Morphological psychology identifies six motivations (Kerngestalten) which provide a natural framework for the mind, and defines their relationship to each other to explain the mind's holistic workings. It is within these six motivations that we literally "make up our mind". +Each of these motivations is a gestalt in itself that influences the whole. Salber calls these the Wirkungseinheiten or "impact units". According to morphological thinking, it is these Gestalten that are the rich building material for our mind's mental productions. The entire motivational framework can be visualised in a hexagon shape to allow analysis and understanding of how each of the six motivations influence and often battle each other. +The six motivations can also be viewed as three interrelated pairs: + +Acquisition and Transformation +Impact and Structure +Expansion and Resources +Because of its emphasis on psychological "tensions", morphology is also often called the "psychology of force interplay" (Psychologie des Kraftspiels). + + +== History == +As with other new psychological theories, morphology has taken some time to be developed and accepted outside of Germany. Over the last 40 years morphological psychology has entered various applications of psychology including psychoanalysis and therapy, workplace and HR and marketing (Gesellschaft fuer Morphologische Psychologie). +However, since the turn of this century, the theory of morphological psychology has found greater international acceptance through the use of its principles in market research and marketing strategy. Morphological psychology increases the effectiveness of research and marketing strategy because of its understanding of human behaviour. +When Professor Salber, a scholar of Anna Freud, researched human motivations ("why do people think and do what they do"), he analysed everyday lives and activities (Grauer Alltag) including behaviour like shaving, eating, cleaning and dressing. From this research, Professor Salber was able to develop a new, comprehensive theory of the workings of our mind. +Morphological psychology has its roots in Goethe's morphology of plant life, the French moralists, and humanists like Nietzsche. +Its conceptual framework builds on Freud's concept of Gestalt psychology: finding the systems and logic that impact creation and re-creation. Morphological methodology is the "reconstruction of the art of the mind". In order to understand the logic of our psyche, we need to understand how these worlds form and diminish and transition into the next world. Salber called these Stundenwelten (Hour worlds – meaning "being fully immersed in one 'world', like reading a book, and the next hour transitioning into the next 'world', like doing the finances"). In analysing these "psychological worlds", description seeks to grasp the movement of the phenomenal forms, which then have to be transformed into explanatory reconstructions through several intermediary steps. This means that morphology uses rich descriptions to grasp the dynamics of our mind. These descriptions are then transformed into explanations through analytical steps. + + +== Applications == + + +=== Clinical === +Morphological psychology is applied in clinical application of psychoanalysis and therapy, as well as more alternative applications like music therapy. Through the understanding of the motivational framework, which is individually developed since early childhood, a person's often conflicting motivations can be revealed and analysed. Through this process, registered psychologists can help clients understand themselves and develop solutions in the change and negotiation of these motivations. + + +=== Social, arts and media === +Morphological psychology has been used widely to understand social issues and to develop strategies for behaviour change. Morphological psychology recognises social behaviour in the context of ancient motivations, the cultural ebb and current motivations. In media, it is used for analysis as well as in advisory for the development of storylines and components for movies, TV and other media. + + +=== Market research === +Dr. Christoph Melchers is credited with the establishment of morphological psychology in market research with the formation of Institut fur Marktpsychology (ifm), Freiburg in 1979. +Morphology asserts that each market has its own psycho-logic and motivations. +A fundamental part of morphological psychology application is the inclusion of in-depth, one on one interviews of 90–120 minutes. Through the use of an evolving, topical discussion guide and psychoanalytical tools, the motivational system around the topic, be it a brand, safety, work or advertising, is explored. With up to 95% of our motivations being unconscious, this process is considered critical in uncovering what is at work deep down in our minds. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Wilhelm Salber \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..dff11c1a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Morphology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:28.729166+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: + + +== Disciplines == +Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts +Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, or other extended objects +Morphology (biology), the study of the form or shape of an organism or part thereof +Morphology (folkloristics), the structure of narratives such as folk tales +Morphology (linguistics), the study of the structure and content of word forms +Mathematical morphology, a theoretical model based on lattice theory, used for digital image processing +River morphology, the field of science dealing with changes of river platform +Urban morphology, study of the form, structure, formation and transformation of human settlements +Geomorphology, the study of landforms +Morphology (architecture and engineering), research which is based on theories of two-dimensional and three-dimensional symmetries, and then uses these geometries for planning buildings and structures +In chemistry and materials science, the study of allotropes, isomers, or material polymorphs + + +== Other == +Journal of Morphology, peer-reviewed scientific journal of anatomy and morphology +Morphology (journal), peer-reviewed academic journal in linguistic morphology +Morphology, 1994 album by Finnish band Neuroactive + + +== See also == +Morphological analysis (disambiguation) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(archaeology)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(archaeology)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0a4792c38 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(archaeology)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Morphology (archaeology)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(archaeology)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:34.567437+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In archaeology, morphology is the study of the shape of artefacts and ecofacts. +Morphology is a major consideration in grouping artefacts into period styles and, despite modern techniques like radiocarbon dating, remains a crucial tool in the identification and dating not only of works of art but all classes of archaeological artefact, including purely functional ones (ignoring the question of whether purely functional artefacts exist). The term morphology ("study of shapes", from the Greek) is more often used for this. Morphological analyses of many individual artefacts are used to construct typologies for different types of artefact, and by the technique of seriation a relative dating based on shape and style for a site or group of sites is achieved where scientific absolute dating techniques cannot be used, in particular where only stone, ceramic or metal artefacts or remains are available, which is often the case. That artefacts such as pottery very often survive only in fragments makes precise knowledge of morphology even more necessary, as it is often necessary to identify and date a piece of pottery from only a few sherds. +In contrast to recent trends in academic art history, the succession of schools of archaeological theory in the last century, from culture-historical archaeology to processual archaeology and finally the rise of post-processual archaeology in recent decades has if anything increased the importance of the study of style in archaeology. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(folkloristics)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(folkloristics)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..25030f248 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(folkloristics)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Morphology (folkloristics)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(folkloristics)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:35.754379+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In folkloristics, morphology is the study of the structure of folklore and fairy tales. +Some pioneering work in this field was begun in the nineteenth century, such as Marian Roalfe Cox's work on Cinderella, Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-Five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin and, Cap O' Rushes, Abstracted and Tabulated with a Discussion of Medieval Analogues and Notes. +However, folkloristic morphology took on much more form in the twentieth century, driven by the work of two researchers and theorists: Russian scholar Vladimir Propp and Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne. +Antti Aarne's theories, enlarged and expanded by American folklorist Stith Thompson in 1961 and by Hans-Jörg Uther in 2004, look at motifs rather than actions – for example, "a soldier makes a deal with the devil" or "a soldier marries the youngest of three sisters". More than 2500 folk and fairy tales have been cataloged under this taxonomy; the AaTh or Aarne–Thompson number is as well-known to folklorists as Francis James Child's identification of ballads are to scholars of folk songs. +Vladimir Propp was a Russian formalist scholar. He criticized Aarne's work for ignoring what motifs did in a tale, and analysed the basic plot, or action, components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. His Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928 and influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, though it received little attention from Western scholars until it was translated into English in the 1950s. +In Afanasyev's collection of Russian fairy tales, Propp found a limited number of plot elements or "functions" that constructed all. These elements occurred in a standard, consistent sequence. He derived thirty-one generic functions, such as "a difficult task is proposed" or "donor tests the hero" or "a magical agent is directly transferred". + + +== See also == +Historic-geographic method +The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Space_Exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Space_Exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9feb99801 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Space_Exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Museum of Space Exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Space_Exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:47.957406+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Museum of Space Exploration is a museum in Ukraine that is located in a former church. It is one of over 30 museums in the "museum city" of Pereiaslav. The church was originally built in 1891, moved in 1971 when the region it was built in was flooded, and reconstructed in 1973. + + +== Location == +The museum is located in the "museum city" of Pereiaslav, Ukraine, where it is one of over 30 museums as part of the "Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of the Middle Dnieper National Historical-Ethnographic Reserve". + + +== Church == +The building used for the museum was originally a wooden village church named after Saint Paraskeva. It was originally built in 1891. When the region that the church was originally located in was flooded in 1971, the church was moved and was reconstructed in 1973. +The church has a crucifix layout, with a bell tower made with pine scaffold. It has a porch on three sides; the one on the fourth side was lost when the museum was relocated. + + +== Museum == +The museum opened in the hall of the relocated church in 1979. It has memorial rooms that recreate the times of Sergei Korolev and Alexander Ishlinsky, as well as an RD-219 rocket engine, a Minsk-32 computer system, a 10 kilograms (22 lb) Foucault pendulum, Devices used on space vehicles, and an SK-II Space suit from Soyuz 23. It also has displays of photos of the moon passing the Earth, as well as from Mars 5, Mars 6 and Venera 9. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Party_of_Bulgaria-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Party_of_Bulgaria-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4cd93c081 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Party_of_Bulgaria-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Nationalist Party of Bulgaria" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalist_Party_of_Bulgaria" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:40.081744+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Nationalist Party of Bulgaria or NPB (Natzionalisticheska Partiya na Bulgaria) (Bulgarian: Националистическа партия на България), was a far-right nationalist political party in Bulgaria that was formed in 2013. Since then the party is believed to have carried out multiple attacks on illegal migrants and refugees within Bulgaria, however, these claims were never substantiated. Some commentators have compared it to the Golden Dawn party in Greece. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Ludd-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Ludd-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c9c9e55f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Ludd-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +--- +title: "Ned Ludd" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Ludd" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:02.638960+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Ned Ludd is the legendary person to whom the Luddites attributed the name of their movement. +In 1779, Ludd is supposed to have broken two stocking frames in a fit of rage. When the "Luddites" emerged in the 1810s, his identity was appropriated to become the folkloric character of Captain Ludd, also known as King Lud or General Ludd, the Luddites' alleged leader and founder. + + +== History == +According to the legend, Ludd was a weaver from Anstey, near Leicester, England. In 1779, after either being whipped for idleness or taunted by local youths, he smashed two knitting frames in what was described as a "fit of passion". This story can be traced to an article in The Nottingham Review on 20 December 1811, but there is no independent evidence of its veracity. John Blackner's book History of Nottingham, also published in 1811, provides a variant tale, of a lad called "Ludlam" who was told by his father, a framework-knitter, to "square his needles". Ludlam took a hammer and "beat them into a heap". News of the incident spread, and whenever frames were sabotaged, people would jokingly say "Ned Ludd did it". +By 1812, organised frame-breakers became known as Luddites, using the name King Ludd or Captain Ludd for their mythical leader. Letters and proclamations were signed by "Ned Ludd". + + +== In popular culture == + + +=== Music === +Ned Ludd was a Nottingham based blues rock band circa 1974/77 featuring Ian Belton (Guitar/Vocals), Chris Syson (Bass), Paul “Beano” Summers (Keyboards) Vince Noonan (Drums) later Billy Hammond (Drums). +The character of Ned Ludd is commemorated in the folk ballad "The Triumph of General Ludd". Chumbawamba recorded a version of this song on their 2003 album, English Rebel Songs 1381–1984. +The Fall's song "Ludd Gang" (the B-side to "The Man Whose Head Expanded") is about Ned Ludd. +Robert Calvert wrote and recorded another song "Ned Ludd", which appeared on his 1985 album Freq; which includes the lyrics: They said Ned Ludd was an idiot boyThat all he could do was wreck and destroy, andHe turned to his workmates and said: Death to MachinesThey tread on our future and they stamp on our dreams. +Steeleye Span's 2006 album Bloody Men has a five-part section on the subject of Ned Ludd. +The Heaven Shall Burn song "The Final March" has a direct reference to Captain Ludd. +Alt-country band the Gourds affectionately refer to Ned Ludd as "Uncle Ned" in the song "Luddite Juice" from their 2009 album, Haymaker!. +The Scottish folk musician Alasdair Roberts sings of Ned Ludd in his song "Ned Ludd's Rant (For World Rebarbarised)" on his 2009 album, Spoils. +San Diego punk band the Night Marchers included a song called "Ned Lud" on their 2013 album Allez! Allez!. +Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy references Ned Ludd in the song "You'll Never Work in This Town Again" on their 2019 album, Office Politics. +Italian Hardcore punk band based in Rome Ludd Rising! + + +=== Literature === +Edmund Cooper's alternative-history The Cloud Walker (1973) is set in a world where the Luddite ethos has given rise to a religious hierarchy which dominates English society and sets carefully prescribed limits on technology. A hammer—the tool supposedly used by Ned Ludd—is a religious symbol, and Ned Ludd is seen as a divine, messianic figure. +The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, a steam-punk trilogy by Rod Duncan, describes a hypothetical world nearly 200 years after a successful Luddite revolution. The powerful and corrupt International Patent Office controls and restricts technological progress and Ned Ludd is given a similar status to Henry Ford in Brave New World. +The novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), by Edward Abbey, is dedicated to Ned Ludd. +Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (1985) was published by Ned Ludd Books. Much of the content came from the "Dear Ned Ludd" column in the newsletter of the group Earth First!. +In the 2013–14 comic book miniseries Superman Unchained, a terrorist group called Ascension opposing modern technology uses the image of Ludd in its broadcasts. +The Luddites were the inspiration for the 1922 play The Machine Breakers (Die Maschinenstürmer) by the German playwright Ernst Toller. +Ned Ludd is a character in the 2011 novel The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss. + + +=== Television === +In The Blacklist's episode 8 of season 1, "General Ludd", an activist network that plans an attack on the US financial system is led by a man who calls himself General Ludd. +On the Disney Channel's Big Hero 6: The Series, there is a recurring character named Ned Ludd who lives in the woods and abhors modern technology. +On the Amazon Prime show Upload, Ludds are a group generally opposed to technology including, for some, the “upload” tech. +In 'Horrible Histories's episode 8 of season 4, the parody song "Luddites!" references Ned Ludd. +In Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode 9, season 3, Rosalind says to Phil Coulson “You’re such a Luddite!” when he says he doesn’t understand what “swiping left” means. + + +=== Other === +Ned Ludd, a restaurant in Portland, Oregon +The Ned Ludd, a craft beer pub on Friar Lane, Nottingham, is named after Ned Ludd. +The video game Starsector features a faction opposed to AI and advanced technology known as the "Luddic Church", with an extremist offshoot faction known as the "Luddic Path", which are opposed to high technology. + + +== See also == +Captain Swing +Rebecca Riots + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..94ebe77a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Neo-Luddism" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:33.806866+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Neo-Luddism or new Luddism is a philosophy opposing many forms of modern technology. The term Luddite is generally used as a pejorative applied to people showing technophobic leanings. The name is based on the historical legacy of the English Luddites, who were active between 1811 and 1817. While the original Luddites were mostly concerned with the economic implications of improving technology in regard to industrialization, neo-Luddites tend to have a broader and more holistic distrust of technological improvement. +Neo-Luddism is a leaderless movement of non-affiliated groups that resist modern technologies and dictate a return of some or all technologies to a more primitive level. Neo-Luddites are characterized by one or more of the following practices: passively abandoning the use of technology, protesting technology harmful to the environment, advocating simple living, or sabotaging technology. The modern neo-Luddite movement has connections with the anti-globalization movement, anarcho-primitivism, radical environmentalism, and deep ecology. +Neo-Luddism is based on the concern of the technological impact on individuals, their communities, and/or the environment. Neo-Luddism stipulates the use of the precautionary principle for all new technologies, insisting that technologies be proven safe before adoption, due to the unknown effects that new technologies might inspire. + +== Philosophy == +In 1990, attempting to found a unified movement and reclaim the term Luddite, Chellis Glendinning published her "Notes towards a Neo-Luddite manifesto". In this paper, Glendinning describes neo-Luddites as "20th century citizens—activists, workers, neighbors, social critics, and scholars—who question the predominant modern worldview, which preaches that unbridled technology represents progress". Glendinning voices an opposition to technologies that she deems destructive to communities or are materialistic and rationalistic. She proposes that technology encourages biases, and therefore should question if technologies have been created for specific interests, to perpetuate their specific values including short-term efficiency, ease of production and marketing, as well as profit. Glendinning also says that secondary aspects of technology, including social, economic and ecological implications, and not personal benefit need to be considered before adoption of technology into the technological system. +Neo-Luddism calls for slowing or stopping the development of new technologies. Neo-Luddism prescribes a lifestyle that abandons specific technologies, because of its belief that this is the best prospect for the future. Academics Kevin Robins and Frank Webster put it as "a return to nature and what are imagined as more natural communities". In the place of industrial capitalism, neo-Luddism prescribes small-scale agricultural communities such as those of the Amish and the Chipko movement in Nepal and India as models for the future. +Neo-Luddism denies the ability of any new technology to solve current problems, such as environmental degradation, nuclear warfare and biological weapons, without creating more, potentially dangerous, problems. + +=== Vision of the future without intervention === +Neo-Luddism often establishes stark predictions about the effect of new technologies. +Although there is not a cohesive vision of the ramifications of technology, neo-Luddism predicts that a future without technological reform has dire consequences. Neo-Luddites believe that current technologies are a threat to humanity and to the natural world in general, and that a future societal collapse is possible or even probable. +These predictions include changes in humanity's place in the future due to replacement of humans by computers, genetic decay of humans due to lack of natural selection, biological engineering of humans, misuse of technological power including disasters caused by genetically modified organisms, nuclear warfare, and biological weapons; control of humanity using surveillance, propaganda, pharmacological control, and psychological control; humanity failing to adapt to the future manifesting as an increase in psychological disorders, widening economic and political inequality, widespread social alienation, a loss of community, and massive unemployment; technology causing environmental degradation due to shortsightedness, overpopulation, and overcrowding. + +=== Types of intervention === +In her 1990 paper "Notes towards a Neo-Luddite manifesto", Glendinning proposes dismantling the following technologies: electromagnetic technologies, chemical technologies, nuclear technologies, and genetic engineering. She argues in favor of the "search for new technological forms" which are local in scale and promote social and political freedom. + +== Movement == +Contemporary neo-Luddites are a widely diverse group of loosely affiliated or non-affiliated groups which includes "writers, academics, students, families, Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, environmentalists, "fallen-away yuppies", "ageing flower children" and "young idealists seeking a technology-free environment". Some Luddites see themselves as victims of technology trying to prevent further victimization (such as Citizens Against Pesticide Misuse and Parents Against Underage Smartphones). Others see themselves as advocates for the natural order and resist environmental degradation by technology (such as Earth First!). +One neo-Luddite assembly was the "Second Neo-Luddite Congress", held 13–15 April 1996, at a Quaker meeting hall in Barnesville, Ohio. On 24 February 2001, the "Teach-In on Technology and Globalization" was held at Hunter College in New York city with the purpose of bringing together critics of technology and globalization. The two figures who are seen as the movement's founders are Glendinning and Kirkpatrick Sale. Prominent neo-Luddites include educator S. D. George, ecologist Stephanie Mills, Theodore Roszak, Clifford Stoll, Bill McKibben, Neil Postman, Wendell Berry, Alan Marshall and Gene Logsdon. Postman, however, did not consider himself a Luddite. + +=== Relationship to violence and vandalism === +Some neo-Luddites use vandalism or violence to achieve social change and promote their cause. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9f1f1da18 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Neo-Luddism" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Luddism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:33.806866+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In May 2012, credit for the shooting of Roberto Adinolfi, an Ansaldo Nucleare executive, was claimed by an anarchist group who targeted him for stating that none of the deaths following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami were caused by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster itself: Adinolfi knows well that it is only a matter of time before a European Fukushima kills on our continent [...] Science in centuries past promised us a golden age, but it is pushing us towards self destruction and slavery [...] With our action we give back to you a small part of the suffering that you scientists are bringing to the world. +The American terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, initially sabotaged developments near his cabin but dedicated himself to getting back at the system after discovering a road had been built over a plateau he had considered beautiful. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, killing three people and injuring 23 others. In his 1995 work Industrial Society and Its Future, Kaczynski states: The kind of revolution we have in mind will not necessarily involve an armed uprising against any government. It may or may not involve physical violence, but it will not be a POLITICAL revolution. Its focus will be on technology and economics, not politics. +In August 2011 in Mexico a group or person calling itself Individualists Tending to the Wild perpetrated an attack with a bomb at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, State of Mexico Campus, intended for the coordinator of its Business Development Center and Technology Transfer. The attack was accompanied by the publication of a manifesto criticizing nanotechnology and computer science. +Sale says that neo-Luddites are not motivated to commit violence or vandalism. The manifesto of the "Second Luddite Congress", which Sale took a major part in defining, attempts to redefine neo-Luddites as people who reject violent action. + +== History == + +=== Origins of contemporary critiques of technology in literature === +According to Julian Young, Martin Heidegger was a Luddite in his early philosophical phase and believed in the destruction of modern technology and a return to an earlier agrarian world. However, the later Heidegger did not see technology as wholly negative and did not call for its abandonment or destruction. In The Question Concerning Technology (1953), Heidegger posited that the modern technological "mode of Being" was one which viewed the natural world, plants, animals, and even human beings as a "standing-reserve"—resources to be exploited as means to an end. To illustrate this "monstrousness", Heidegger uses the example of a hydroelectric plant on the Rhine river which turns the river from an unspoiled natural wonder to just a supplier of hydropower. In this sense, technology is not just the collection of tools, but a way of being in the world and of understanding the world which is instrumental and grotesque. According to Heidegger, this way of being defines the modern way of living in the West. For Heidegger, this technological process ends up reducing beings to not-beings, which Heidegger calls 'the abandonment of being' and involves the loss of any sense of awe and wonder, as well as an indifference to that loss. +One of the first major contemporary anti-technological thinkers was French philosopher Jacques Ellul. In his The Technological Society (1964), Ellul argued that logical and mechanical organization "eliminates or subordinates the natural world". Ellul defined technique as the entire totality of organizational methods and technology with a goal toward maximum rational efficiency. According to Ellul, technique has an impetus which tends to drown out human concerns: "The only thing that matters technically is yield, production. This is the law of technique; this yield can only be obtained by the total mobilization of human beings, body and soul, and this implies the exploitation of all human psychic forces." In Industrial Revolution England, machines became cheaper to use than men. The five counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire had a small uprising where they threatened those hired to guard the machines. Another critic of political and technological expansion was Lewis Mumford, who wrote The Myth of the Machine. The views of Ellul influenced the ideas of the infamous American neo-Luddite terrorist Ted Kaczynski. The opening of Kaczynski's manifesto reads: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race." Other philosophers of technology who have questioned the validity of technological progress include Albert Borgmann, Don Ihde and Hubert Dreyfus. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Huesemann, M.H., and J.A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada, ISBN 0865717044. +Kaczynski, Theodore (2020) Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, Fitch & Madison Publishers, Scottsdale, ISBN 978-1-944228-02-6 +Kaczynski, Theodore (2022) Technological Slavery, Fitch & Madison Publishers, Scottsdale, ISBN 978-1-944228-03-3 +Marshall, Alan (2016) Ecotopia 2121: Our Future Green Utopia, Arcade Publ, New York, ISBN 9781628726008 +Postman, Neil (1992) Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology Knopf, New York, ISBN 0-394-58272-1 +Pynchon, Thomas (28 October 1984). "Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?". The New York Times. +Quigley, Peter (1998) Coyote in the Maze: Tracking Edward Abbey in a World of Words University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, ISBN 0-87480-563-5 +Roszak, Theodore (1994) The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High-Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking (2nd ed.) University of California Press, Berkeley, California, ISBN 0-520-08584-1 +Sale, Kirkpatrick (1996) Rebels Against The Future: The Luddites And Their War On The Industrial Revolution: Lessons For The Computer Age Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-201-40718-1 +Tenner, Edward (1996) Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences Knopf, New York, ISBN 0-679-42563-2 +Mueller, Gavin (2021) Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job; ASIN: B07ZN3MFL4 + +== External links == +Primitivism writings archive +Luddism and the Neo-Luddite Reaction by Martin Ryder, University of Colorado at Denver School of Education +Stand up against the anti-technology terrorists by Gerardo Herrera Corral, Nature 476, 373 (2011) +Rage Against the Machines \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroQuantology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroQuantology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1470babd6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroQuantology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "NeuroQuantology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeuroQuantology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:58.703682+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +NeuroQuantology is a monthly peer-reviewed interdisciplinary scientific journal meant to cover the intersection of neuroscience and quantum mechanics. It was established in April 2003 and its subject matter almost immediately dismissed in The Lancet Neurology as "wild invention" and "claptrap". According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal had a 2017 impact factor of 0.453, ranking it 253rd out of 261 journals in the category "Neuroscience". However, the journal has been delisted since the 2019 edition. The journal describes itself as focusing primarily on original reports of experimental and theoretical research. It also publishes literature reviews, methodological articles, empirical findings, book reviews, news, comments, letters to the editor, and abstracts. The founding editor-in-chief is Sultan Tarlacı, who was succeeded by Riyaz Ahmed abdul Khan. +In the Norwegian Scientific Index, the journal has been listed as "Level 0" since 2008, which means that it is not considered scientific and publications in the journal therefore do not fulfill the necessary criteria in order to count for public research funding. +According to Sadri Hassani, neither the editorial board nor the advisory board contain scientists working in the fields of quantum physics or neuroscience. +The journal is abstracted and indexed in Embase and in Scopus from 2007 till 2022 when it was delisted due to "publication concerns". + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Bulgaria-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Bulgaria-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6112e35ab --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Bulgaria-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Neutral Bulgaria" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_Bulgaria" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:41.199971+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Neutral Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Неутрална България, romanized: Neutralna Balgarija) was a coalition of political parties in Bulgaria created to participate in the 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election. The members are in support of the Russian Federation and Russian president Vladimir Putin, as well as in opposition to NATO. + + +== History == +The coalition was led by Nikolai Malinov, who was personally awarded by Vladimir Putin and has been placed under sanctions from the Magnitsky Act. Volen Siderov stood as the party's candidate in Sofia and Varna. The coalition received 0.40% of the vote, well below the 4% threshold to enter the National Assembly. +The coalition fell apart during the lead-up to the October 2024 parliamentary election due to the ideological gap between the right-winged Russophiles and the left-winged communists, as well as internal opposition within the communist parties due to Malinov's espionage charges. Malinov would go on to form the Russophiles for Bulgaria to contest the elections. + + +== Composition == + + +=== 2023 === + + +=== 2024 === + + +== Electoral history == + + +=== National Assembly === + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Space_Race-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Space_Race-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8f98b3f1c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Space_Race-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "New Space Race" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:49.165067+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The New Space Race or Second Space Race describes the renewed competition in space exploration and technological development in the 21st century. This modern race is characterized by a broad range of objectives, including establishing a permanent moonbase, the long-term goal of crewed missions to Mars, the deployment of large satellite constellations, and advancements in reusable launch technology. +Unlike the Cold War-era Space Race, which was primarily a geopolitical rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union to achieve superior spaceflight capability, the New Space Race features a more complex and multipolar landscape, including national space programs from China, India, Japan, and Europe, as well as increasing involvement of private aerospace companies, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin. + + +== Rivalries == +The primary race is between the government space agencies of the United States and China. In the 2020s, both the US and China are engaged in an effort to establish a permanent presence on the Moon, with an emphasis on the Lunar south pole, as a proving ground and stepping stone to Mars. The US uses its Artemis program and China uses its Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. +Other nations, such as Russia, India, Japan, as well as European countries, are also active participants. In this regard, India has already made significant progress with missions such as Chandrayaan-3, which successfully landed near the lunar south polar region on 23 August 2023, making it one of the few nations to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and the first to land near the lunar south pole. + + +=== Summary table === + + +== Private sector involvement == + +Unlike the original Space Race during the Cold War era, private aerospace companies play a massive role in the New Space Race, with SpaceX and Blue Origin developing launch technology and services. This private spaceflight race involves sending privately developed rockets and vehicles to various destinations in space, often in response to government programs or to develop the space tourism sector. + + +== See also == +Timeline of spaceflight +Timeline of Solar System exploration +Timeline of space exploration +Human presence in space + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Cantrell, Jim (2023). Breaking All The Rules: The Inside Story of the New Race. Space Cowboy. ISBN 978-1960546944. +Fernholz, Tim (2018). Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1-328-66223-1. +Seedhouse, Erik (2009). The New Space Race: China vs. USA. Springer. ISBN 144190879X. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Welfare_Party-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Welfare_Party-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9f495b24a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Welfare_Party-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "New Welfare Party" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Welfare_Party" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:42.416574+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The New Welfare Party (Turkish: Yeniden Refah Partisi, YRP) is an Islamist and ultraconservative political party in Turkey, founded on 23 November 2018. The party positions itself as the successor to the Welfare Party (Turkish: Refah Partisi), which was a prominent Islamist political party in the 1990s. The party's founder and leader Fatih Erbakan is the son of the late Turkish prime minister Necmettin Erbakan who was the founder of the original Welfare Party and the inspiration for the Millî Görüş ideology. + + +== History == +YRP was established by Fatih Erbakan, who aimed to revive the legacy of the original Welfare Party, which had been a significant political force in Turkey before its closure by the Constitutional Court in 1998 for activities against the principle of secularism. The founding of the New Welfare Party reflects an effort to re-enter the political scene with a reformed agenda that complies with the secular and democratic framework of the Turkish Republic while retaining a focus on Islamic values. +On 21 January 2023, leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, Rasmus Paludan was permitted to burn a Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Following the incident, the party protested Sweden in front of the Swedish Consulate-General in Istanbul. +Initially a critic of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), in 2023 the party announced Fatih Erbakan's candidacy for the presidential election. However, the party later backpedaled and instead announced their support for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, joining the People's Alliance on March 24, 2023. The party ran under their own list at the parliamentary elections, securing five seats at the Grand National Assembly. +Prior to the 2023 elections, Erbakan was supportive of Turkish government's efforts to improve relations with Egypt and the UAE. Shortly after the elections, Erbakan changed his position again, leaving the People's Alliance due, accusing the AKP of ignoring its demands including lowering interest rates, outlawing adultery and removing rules on gender equality. Erbakan has repeatedly criticized Erdogan's government over its pragmatism in regards to not embargoing Israel completely, and criticizes government's efforts to increase relations with Arab regimes like Egypt and the UAE. +The party achieved significant electoral success in the 2024 local elections, winning 6.2 percent of the vote, just behind the Republican People's Party (CHP) and AKP. + + +== Ideology and political positions == +The party's ideology is rooted in ultraconservatism and Islamism. The party was founded with the slogan "We are here for our nation". They specified that their main goals are "First morality and spirituality, then to design the new world order under the leadership of Turkey." +Fatih Erbakan has stated that the new party would replace the current system by a new presidential system, and that returning to a parliamentary system would be harmful. +The party is strongly against Israel and advocates cutting trade ties with the country. It also supports closing the Kürecik Radar Station, operated by NATO. +The party is against LGBT rights, and has declared that LGBT people are "a perversion banned in every religion". The party aims to lift a law that protects women and children against domestic violence. Party leader Fatih Erbakan is also an open supporter of the anti-vax movement. He claimed COVID-19 vaccines could lead to people giving birth to "half-human, half-monkey" children. + + +== Election results == + + +=== Parliamentary elections === + + +=== Local elections === + + +== See also == +Welfare Party +Politics of Turkey +List of Islamic political parties + + +== References == + + +== External links == +New Welfare Party official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman's_energy_machine-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman's_energy_machine-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..29409f676 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman's_energy_machine-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "Newman's energy machine" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman's_energy_machine" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:30.364951+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Newman's Energy Machine was a DC motor which the inventor, Joseph Newman, claimed to produce mechanical power exceeding the electrical power being supplied to it. In 1979, Newman attempted to patent the device, but it was rejected by the United States Patent Office as being a perpetual motion machine. When the rejection was later appealed, the United States district court requested that Newman's machine be tested by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). The NBS concluded in June 1986 that output power was not greater than the input. Thus, the patent was again denied. The scientific community has rejected Newman's ideas about electricity and magnetism as pseudoscientific and his claims as false. + + +== Claims by the inventor == +By adding rolls to the armature of a motor, a larger and larger counter-electromotive force is generated on the motor. +Newman outlined his claims about there being a fundamental electromagnetic interaction in all matter ultimately derived from only one type of force particle propagating at the speed of light. Newman claims that the motor derives its power by converting some of the mass of the copper in the coils into usable energy, in application of Einstein's mass–energy equivalence. According to proponents of the Energy Machine, the most crucial part of the design concerns what happens as a result of mechanical commutation. + + +== U.S. patent application == +In 1979, Newman submitted an application for his device to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The application was eventually rejected in 1983, which set off a lengthy court battle. +The United States District Court requested a master of the court to make the final decision. William E. Schuyler, Jr, former Commissioner of U.S. Patent Office, Washington, DC was chosen by the court to make the final decision to award the patent or not award the patent to Newman. Schuyler concluded that evidence to support Newman's claim was overwhelming and found no contradictory factual evidence. +However, the judge ordered Newman's machine to be tested by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS). The National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), by request of the patent office, tested the device for several months and got negative results. In every case presented in the NBS report, the output power was less than power input from the battery pack, and therefore the efficiency was less than 100%. The court therefore upheld the rejection of the patent application. +Newman argued that he had been mistreated by the patent office, and tried to have his motor legalized directly by the US Congress. He obtained a hearing on 30 July 1986 in front of several senators, but he was unsuccessful. During the hearing, Newman refused to have the machine tested by independent experts, and senator John Glenn pointed out that his supposedly independent expert actually had a prior business relationship with him. +The case is now cited in the USPTO's Manual of Patent Examining Procedure as an example of an "inoperative" invention that can't have any utility, concretely as a perpetual motion machine. + + +== Cease and desist order == +In August 2007 the Alabama Securities Commission issued a cease and desist order to the "Newman Energy Corporation", alleging it had sold unregistered stock in the company. In January 2008 the company tendered offers of rescission to its nine Alabama investors, offering to reverse the sales. Eight of the investors declined the offer, electing to retain their investment; the ninth did not reply. The company agreed to pay the State of Alabama $7,000 in administrative assessments and investigative costs. + + +== In popular culture == +The device is referenced in the Big Black song "Newman Generator", recorded for their 1987 Peel Session. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +=== Bibliography === +Newman, J. (8th ed.).(1998). The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman. Scottsdale, AZ: Joseph Newman Publishing Company. ISBN 0961383585 + + +=== Notes === + + +== External links == +Claims +"The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman" (Official site: archived copy of the site as at the last complete date – 25 March 2014) Retrieved 12 March 2017. +"The Newman's Energy Machine" by Jean-Louis Naudin and M. David +Skeptical +"The Error Machine of Joseph Newman" by Tom Napier +"Commentary: Crackpot Inventions" by James Randi +"Is it possible to build a machine that generates more power than it uses?" by Cecil Adams \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c406c4ce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Nicole Shanahan" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:00.158933+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Nicole Ann Shanahan (born September 26, 1985) is an American attorney and entrepreneur. She was the running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his campaign in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. +Born in California, Shanahan graduated from the University of Puget Sound and the Santa Clara University School of Law. Before law school, she worked as a paralegal and then as a patent specialist at the defensive patent aggregator RPX Corp. She was a fellow at Stanford Law School's CodeX, Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. +Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergey Brin in 2018; they separated in 2021 and divorced in 2023. She reportedly has a net worth of over $1 billion, primarily as a result of her marriage to Brin. In 2019, she established a private foundation, Bia-Echo, that promotes research to lengthen the human reproductive lifespan. +In March 2024, Kennedy named Shanahan as his running mate in his presidential campaign. Shanahan has questioned the scientific consensus on vaccine safety and efficacy. + +== Early life == +Nicole Ann Shanahan was born to Shawn and Amy Shanahan (née Wong) in Placer County, California, on September 26, 1985. She grew up in Oakland, California. In a 2023 interview, she said she had a "very hard" childhood marked by traumatic experiences and poverty. Shanahan said her father, a computer specialist of German and Irish descent who died in 2014, had bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression, and struggled with substance abuse. Shanahan's mother was born in China and immigrated to the U.S. from Guangzhou in the 1980s; she worked as a maid before becoming an accountant. Shanahan has a younger brother. +Shanahan attended Saint Mary's College High School, a private Catholic school in Berkeley, California. She then moved to Tacoma, Washington, where she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound in 2007. At the university, she studied Asian studies, economics, and Mandarin Chinese. Shanahan worked as a paralegal and patent specialist (the latter at defensive patent aggregator RPX Corp.) before attending Santa Clara University School of Law, from which she graduated with a J.D. in 2014. She has said that while working at RPX Corp. one of her male co-workers sexually assaulted her, and that shortly after this she became severely depressed and left RPX Corp. a month before its IPO. + +== Career == +While in law school, Shanahan was an exchange student at National University of Singapore. She became interested in patent law as a law student; after becoming a lawyer, she founded a Palo Alto-based legal tech company, ClearAccessIP, and was its CEO. She sold the company to a competitor, IPwe, in 2020, in exchange for an estimated $20 million in IPwe stock; IPwe went bankrupt in 2024. +Shanahan has spoken about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on law and the legal profession. She was a fellow at Stanford Law School's CodeX, Stanford Center for Legal Informatics. +Shanahan served as executive producer for the films Kiss The Ground and Evolver. +Shanahan is a member of the board of Carbon Royalty Corp. She invested in Linus Biotechnology, Inc. (LinusBio), a biotech firm, during a venture funding round in January 2023. Also in 2023, she joined the board of Extreme Tech Challenge. She is the "Global Joy Officer" and a member of the board at the Sloomoo Institute. + +== Bia-Echo and advocacy == +In 2018, Shanahan helped fund and launch the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality within the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. +In 2019, she established her private foundation, Bia-Echo. It is named after Bia, the ancient Greek goddess associated with energy. According to financial disclosure documents over a three-year period, Bia-Echo's sole donor was Shanahan's then-husband, Sergey Brin. Before their divorce, Brin donated more than $20 million to Bia-Echo, much of it from shares of Alphabet (Google's parent company). He made another contribution to the foundation in 2021, but did not contribute in 2022. In 2022, the Bia-Echo Foundation reported owning $13.7 million in government securities and $12.2 million in stocks and bonds, and reported making $0 in grants or contributions to outside groups. +In 2019, Shanahan pledged to contribute $100 million through Bia-Echo over five years, mostly for "reproductive longevity" research, which aims to help women become pregnant later in life. She has repeatedly criticized in vitro fertilization (calling IVF "one of the biggest lies that's being told about women's health today") and championed unconventional research that she believes might allow women to have children into their 50s (suggesting, for example, that exposure to sunlight might aid fertility). +In a 2023 interview, Shanahan said that finding a "cure to autism" was an additional focus of Bia-Echo, and estimated that she spent 60% of her time researching autism. +In 2022, Shanahan gave $70 million to Blue Meridian Partners, which makes grants to nonprofits that aim to help the impoverished. + +== Political contributions and involvement before 2024 == +In the 2010s and 2020s, Shanahan made various contributions to left-leaning organizations and Democratic political candidates, including Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and Ro Khanna's congressional campaigns. In 2020, she was a "major donor" to Measure J, a criminal justice reform referendum in Los Angeles County. Also in 2020, she contributed $150,000 to support George Gascón's campaign for Los Angeles County District Attorney. +During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Shanahan contributed $2,800 each to the campaigns of Marianne Williamson and Pete Buttigieg. She co-hosted a fundraiser for Buttigieg in December 2019, along with other wealthy Silicon Valley figures. After Joe Biden became the presumptive nominee, she supported his campaign, contributing $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund, and a five-figure sum to the Democratic National Committee. + +== Role in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presidential campaign == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..301ef3a9d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Nicole Shanahan" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:00.158933+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Early role in campaign === +In May 2023, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was running for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, Shanahan donated the maximum of $6,600 to his campaign. After Kennedy dropped out of the Democratic primaries in October 2023, announcing that he would run in the general election as an independent candidate, Shanahan said she was "incredibly disappointed" and would not support his candidacy. In early 2024, she reversed course, and resumed backing Kennedy. Through Planeta Management LLC, Shanahan donated $4 million to a super PAC to pay for a 30-second television Super Bowl ad, aired during Super Bowl LVIII, supporting the campaign. In addition to funding the ad, Shanahan was also a "creative force" behind it, the total cost of which was variously said to be $5 million or (according to the super PAC's co-founder) $7 million. Kennedy said that his campaign was not directly involved with the ad, as coordination between independent expenditure groups and campaigns is illegal. Shanahan separately donated (also through Planeta Management LLC) half a million dollars to a different super PAC supporting Kennedy's campaign. + +=== Vice-presidential running mate === +In March 2024, Kennedy's campaign manager and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, confirmed that Shanahan was on the candidate's "short list" of potential running mates. The campaign also considered Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Ventura. On March 26, 2024, Kennedy formally announced Shanahan as his selection for vice president during a campaign event in Oakland, California. Shanahan left the Democratic Party when she joined the ticket. Her ability to bankroll the Kennedy campaign was seen as an advantage. +Shanahan was the richest candidate for vice president in at least 50 years, with a net worth possibly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. She gave almost $19 million on the Kennedy/Shanahan campaign, a small portion of her wealth. Shanahan was among the top self-funded candidates of the 2024 election cycle (although she spent less than David Trone, who spent over $60 million on the Democratic Senate primary in Maryland). Despite Shanahan's contributions, the campaign continued to struggle with fundraising, and its expenditures were greater than contributions. +By the time Kennedy dropped out of the race in August 2024, the Kennedy/Shanahan campaign had gained ballot access in only 16 of the 50 states (representing 140 of the 538 electoral votes). The Kennedy campaign's efforts to get on the ballot in key states was supported by Republican megadonors and dark money organizations. In some states, the campaign pursued unconventional strategies to get on the ballot, such as forming new political parties or partnering with existing minor parties. For example, the Libertarian Party of Colorado attempted to give its ballot line to Kennedy and Shanahan (displacing the national Libertarian Party ticket of Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat), but this effort was unsuccessful. +During their campaign, Shanahan and Kennedy expressed divergent views. Shanahan expressed support for banning abortion "between 15 and 18 weeks" while a Kennedy spokesman said "he believes the cutoff should be at fetal viability." In May 2024, Shanahan suggested that the campaign was intended to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives, a suggestion Kennedy disavowed. +Shanahan rarely appeared at campaign events and infrequently gave interviews to mainstream outlets. Her first solo appearance on the campaign trail was a month and a half after Kennedy named her as his running mate. +On August 20, 2024, Shanahan said in an interview with podcast host Tom Bilyeu that the Kennedy campaign had discussions with the Trump campaign, and that she and Kennedy were considering whether to drop out of the race and "join forces with" Trump. She suggested that the campaign had no realistic prospect of winning the general election; that "we draw votes from Trump"; and that if Kennedy remained in the race, it would "run the risk of" aiding Kamala Harris. Kennedy and Shanahan suspended their campaign two days later and endorsed Trump. +On August 27, 2024, Chris Cuomo interviewed Shanahan on NewsNation regarding Kennedy's endorsement of Trump. Shanahan specifically stated that she is not a Harris Democrat or a Trump Republican. +In October 2024, The Washington Post reported that Shanahan attempted to bribe a journalist from the same newspaper with US$500,000 to reveal the sources of a profile story on her. + +=== Political views === +In interviews in 2024, Shanahan said she is "not an anti-vaxxer" but expressed support for Kennedy's anti-vaccine advocacy and questioned the scientific consensus on their safety and efficacy. After being selected as Kennedy's running mate, she referenced discredited anti-vaccine claims, and implied that childhood vaccines contribute to autism, a debunked notion that Kennedy has promoted for years. On X (formerly Twitter), she promoted COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, asserting that the vaccines are unsafe. +Shanahan believes that "electromagnetic pollution" from mobile phones and other devices are contributing to an "epidemic of chronic disease" and that Kennedy was the only presidential candidate who "takes the chronic disease epidemic seriously". She criticized the Biden administration for lending military aid to Ukraine. She named the libertarian Republican U.S. Representative Thomas Massie as one of her "favorite" members of Congress. +On January 28, 2025, Shanahan released a video on X where she threatened political retribution against any senator, Democrat or Republican, who did not vote to confirm her former presidential running mate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Shanahan specifically called out Republican senators Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski, Democratic senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, and independent senator Bernie Sanders. In the video, Shanahan vowed that "I will personally fund challengers to primary you in your next election, and I will enlist hundreds of thousands to join me." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..23dc26e2f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Nicole Shanahan" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Shanahan" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:00.158933+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Personal life == +In 2014, Shanahan married Jeremy Asher Kranz, a San Francisco Bay Area investor and finance executive. They had dated since 2011. Weeks before their marriage, she began an affair with Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, which Kranz discovered from texts on her phone. Kranz and Shanahan divorced in 2015. Shanahan had met Brin at a yoga festival in Lake Tahoe in 2014; they married in 2018. They have a daughter together, born in 2018. Brin and Shanahan maintained an estate at Point Dume in Malibu, California, purchased in 2020. +Shanahan and Brin's daughter was diagnosed with autism in 2020. In 2022, Shanahan sought the advice of Dr. Jack Kruse, a neurosurgeon turned paleo-diet advocate and wellness guru. Kruse blamed Shanahan and Brin for their daughter's autism, claiming that it was because Shanahan allowed her infant to receive vaccines and be exposed to artificial light and electromagnetic radiation. Kruse also accused Brin of participating in a plot by the U.S. government and "Big Tech" to use blue light to control the population. Shanahan took his advice and modified her home to limit non-sun light, as well as Wi-Fi and cellular signals. She also converted her swimming pool to saltwater. +Shanahan and Brin separated in December 2021, and Brin filed for divorce in January 2022. In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that a reason for the breakup was a "brief affair" in 2021 between Shanahan and Elon Musk. Three people interviewed as part of a 2024 New York Times investigation said that Shanahan and Brin separated after Shanahan had a sexual encounter with Musk in 2021. Shanahan and Musk denied having had an affair. The Wall Street Journal said: "We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting." Shanahan and Brin had signed a prenuptial agreement. During the divorce proceedings, Shanahan's attorneys argued that she had signed it under duress, and in mediation sought more than $1 billion of Brin's $95 billion fortune. The divorce was finalized in 2023 in a confidential arbitration. Forbes reported that Shanahan likely received around 2.6 million Alphabet Class B shares from Brin, worth $390 million in March 2024, and possibly an additional, equal amount of Class C shares. The New York Times, citing three people with knowledge of Shanahan's finances, reported she has a net worth over $1 billion, mainly as a result of her marriage to Brin. +In 2023, Shanahan held a "love ceremony" of commitment with Jacob Strumwasser, an advisor at Lightning Labs, a Bitcoin software company. She described the event as a handfasting ceremony influenced by Druidic tradition. The pair met at the Burning Man festival in 2022. +In 2025, Shanahan announced that she was leaving the Jewish faith and joining the Jews for Jesus. Shanahan converted to Judaism in 2014 while she was engaged to Jeremy Kranz, her first husband. + +== Notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_(Greek_political_party)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_(Greek_political_party)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..14887f730 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_(Greek_political_party)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +--- +title: "Niki (Greek political party)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niki_(Greek_political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:43.750060+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Democratic Patriotic Popular Movement "Niki" (Greek: Δημοκρατικό Πατριωτικό Λαϊκό Κίνημα «Νίκη», romanized: Dimokratikó Patriotikó Laikó Kínima “Níki”), often shortened to simply Niki (lit. 'Victory'), is a far-right political party in Greece. It was founded by educator Dimitris Natsios in 2019. In the parliamentary elections of June 2023, the party received a percentage of 3.70%, electing 10 deputies to the Hellenic Parliament in which today, it forms the 7th Parliamentary Group. +Its main programmatic positions are defined as, "Faith, Fatherland, Family", the radical restructuring of education in Greek schools, changing Greek nationality law in regards to immigrants and refugees and the adoption of measures to solve the demographic problem, such as supporting large families and the traditional family. The party is supportive of the Greek Orthodox Church and has been described as "ultra-religious". + + +== History == +The party was founded by the public education teacher and theologian Dimitris Natsios on 17 June 2019 in Thessaloniki, after the signing of the Prespa Agreement and one month before the 2019 parliamentary elections, in which he did not participate. He emerged in the polls shortly before the May 2023 elections. In that election, the first in which it participated, it garnered 2.92% of the vote and remained out of Parliament. In the June elections, it achieved 3.7% and secured 10 seats. He gathered the largest percentages in Northern Greece and specifically in Macedonia. +In the European elections of June 2024 it gathered a percentage of 4.42% and elected an MEP, Nikos Anadiotis, to the European Parliament. +In November 2024, the first congress of Niki was held in Thessaloniki, where the updated party statute was approved, and the party’s governing bodies were elected. +In 2025, during the election process for the President of the Hellenic Republic, Niki nominated Kostas Kyriakou, a Northern Epirote political prisoner under the Hoxha regime, as well as a lawyer and writer. He ranked fourth. + + +== Ideology and positions == + +Niki is often described as ultraconservative and ultra-Orthodox with faith, fatherland and family as the main axes, however, the party president denies the left-right political arc, stating that they do not identify with the right, the left or the centre. +According to its statute, the party aims “to unite all Greeks who are inspired by patriotic and Orthodox sentiment for the defense of the ideals of Freedom and Independence.” Other self-referential positions include the defense of territorial integrity and national sovereignty, the restructuring of education, the support of the traditional family to address the demographic problem, and the promotion of referendums on critical issues. Additionally, the party does not accept former politicians as members, calling for those accused of mismanaging public funds and increasing national debt to be held accountable in court, with the goal of abolishing “party rule” and ensuring the independent functioning of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. +The party often refers to characteristics of the Greek nation which it promotes such as language, history and tradition, while it places special emphasis on education, criticizing certain content of school books and prejudicing the writing of new ones. It opposes sex education in schools and abortion. The party is against LGBT adoption and marriage. It states its opposition to mandatory medical procedures, such as the vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic and questions the safety of these vaccines. The party has endorsed vaccine hesitant views during the COVID-19 pandemic. + + +=== Foreign policy === +In matters of foreign policy, the party completely rejects the Prespa Agreement. It maintains a neutral attitude towards third countries, believing that the Byzantine imperial heritage, the Orthodox unifying character, can feed an international focus of stability and balance in the Balkan Peninsula. +It disagrees with Greece's support for Ukraine regarding Russia's invasion, instead preferring neutrality. The party has been referred to as "pro-Russia". Regarding Greece's relations with Turkey the party takes a hardline approach to their disputes. +During the Gaza war, the party has called for peace between the two sides and for the Greek government to advocate for the protection of Orthodox Christians affected by the conflict. + + +== Party structure == +The party is managed by two bodies. According to the statute, the main body is the Vouleftirion (Βουλευτήριον), a seven-member group that ensures the party runs smoothly in line with its statutory principles. Members of the Vouleftirion are independent of other organs, do not officially represent the party, cannot stand as candidates in any elections, and are unpaid. It is often seen as a conclave of a select few who are unaccountable to anyone, as the identities of the Vouleftirion members are unknown, unlike the Omaikhmia, whose members are known. This lack of transparency was highlighted during the June 2023 elections when the Vouleftirion replaced candidates chosen by voters in the May elections with others of its own choosing. +The second body is the Omaikhmia or Homaichmía (Ομαιχμία or ὁμοαιχμία), a 28-member group that publicly represents the party's views and positions. The President of the party acts as the spokesperson for the Omaikhmia. Members are vetted for their integrity, honesty, patriotism, and religiosity before being appointed. + + +== Election results == + + +=== Hellenic Parliament === + + +=== European Parliament === + + +== Parliamentary Groups == + + +=== Hellenic Parliament === + + +==== 20th Parliamentary Period ==== +After the June 2023 Greek legislative election, Niki elected 10 Members of the Parliament. The Parliamentary Group consists of the following MPs: + +State MP: Athanasios Rakovalis +Athens B1: Aspasia Kouroupaki +Athens B2: Andreas Voryllas +Athens B3: Nikos Vrettos +East Attica: Tassos Iconomopoulos +Achaea: Spyros Tsironis +Thessaloniki A: Dimitris Natsios +Thessaloniki B: Nikos Papadopoulos +Larissa (constituency): Giorgos Rountas +Pieria (constituency): Komninos Delveroudis + + +=== European Parliament === + + +==== 10th European Parliament ==== +After the European Elections 2024, Niki elected one MEP. + +Nikos Anadiotis + + +== Notes == +^a Omaichmia is an ancient Greek word means union for battle, defensive alliance, league. +^b senate + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website (in Greek) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3332278ad --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Non-standard cosmology" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:31.530653+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A non-standard cosmology is any physical cosmological model of the universe that was, or still is, proposed as an alternative to the then-current standard model of cosmology. The term non-standard is applied to any theory that does not conform to the scientific consensus. Because the term depends on the prevailing consensus, the meaning of the term changes over time. For example, hot dark matter would not have been considered non-standard in 1990, but would have been in 2010. Conversely, a non-zero cosmological constant resulting in an accelerating universe would have been considered non-standard in 1990, but is part of the standard cosmology in 2010. + +Several major cosmological disputes have occurred throughout the history of cosmology. One of the earliest was the Copernican Revolution, which established the heliocentric model of the Solar System. More recent was the Great Debate of 1920, in the aftermath of which the Milky Way's status as but one of the Universe's many galaxies was established. From the 1940s to the 1960s, the astrophysical community was equally divided between supporters of the Big Bang theory and supporters of a rival steady state universe; this is currently decided in favour of the Big Bang theory by advances in observational cosmology in the late 1960s. Nevertheless, there remained vocal detractors of the Big Bang theory including Fred Hoyle, Jayant Narlikar, Halton Arp, and Hannes Alfvén, whose cosmologies were relegated to the fringes of astronomical research. The few Big Bang opponents still active today often ignore well-established evidence from newer research, and as a consequence, today non-standard cosmologies that reject the Big Bang entirely are rarely published in peer-reviewed science journals but appear online in marginal journals and private websites. +The current standard model of cosmology is the Lambda-CDM model, wherein the Universe is governed by general relativity, began with a Big Bang and today is a nearly-flat universe that consists of approximately 5% baryons, 27% cold dark matter, and 68% dark energy. Lambda-CDM has been a successful model, but recent observational evidence seem to indicate significant tensions in Lambda-CDM, such as the Hubble tension, the KBC void, the dwarf galaxy problem, ultra-large structures, et cetera. Research on extensions or modifications to Lambda-CDM, as well as fundamentally different models, is ongoing. Topics investigated include quintessence, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and its relativistic generalization TeVeS, and warm dark matter. + +== History == +Modern physical cosmology as it is currently studied first emerged as a scientific discipline in the period after the Shapley–Curtis debate and discoveries by Edwin Hubble of a cosmic distance ladder when astronomers and physicists had to come to terms with a universe that was of a much larger scale than the previously assumed galactic size. Theorists who successfully developed cosmologies applicable to the larger-scale universe are remembered today as the founders of modern cosmology. Among these scientists are Arthur Milne, Willem de Sitter, Alexander Friedman, Georges Lemaître, and Albert Einstein himself. +After confirmation of the Hubble's law by observation, the two most popular cosmological theories became the Steady State theory of Hoyle, Gold and Bondi, and the Big Bang theory of Ralph Alpher, George Gamow, and Robert Dicke with a small number of supporters of a smattering of alternatives. One of the major successes of the Big Bang theory compared to its competitor was its prediction for the abundance of light elements in the universe that corresponds with the observed abundances of light elements. Alternative theories do not have a means to explain these abundances. +Theories which assert that the universe has an infinite age with no beginning have trouble accounting for the abundance of deuterium in the cosmos, because deuterium easily undergoes nuclear fusion in stars and there are no known astrophysical processes other than the Big Bang itself that can produce it in large quantities. Hence the fact that deuterium is not an extremely rare component of the universe suggests both that the universe has a finite age and that there was a process that created deuterium in the past that no longer occurs. +Theories which assert that the universe has a finite life, but that the Big Bang did not happen, have problems with the abundance of helium-4. The observed amount of 4He is far larger than the amount that should have been created via stars or any other known process. By contrast, the abundance of 4He in Big Bang models is very insensitive to assumptions about baryon density, changing only a few percent as the baryon density changes by several orders of magnitude. The observed value of 4He is within the range calculated. +Still, it was not until the discovery of the Cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965, that most cosmologists finally concluded that observations were best explained by the Big Bang model. Steady State theorists and other non-standard cosmologies were then tasked with providing an explanation for the phenomenon if they were to remain plausible. This led to original approaches including integrated starlight and cosmic iron whiskers, which were meant to provide a source for a pervasive, all-sky microwave background that was not due to an early universe phase transition. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a4766682 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Non-standard cosmology" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:31.530653+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Scepticism about the non-standard cosmologies' ability to explain the CMB caused interest in the subject to wane since then, however, there have been two periods in which interest in non-standard cosmology has increased due to observational data which posed difficulties for the Big Bang. The first occurred in the late 1970s when there were a number of unsolved problems, such as the horizon problem, the flatness problem, and the lack of magnetic monopoles, which challenged the Big Bang model. These issues were eventually resolved by cosmic inflation in the 1980s. This idea subsequently became part of the understanding of the Big Bang, although alternatives have been proposed from time to time. The second occurred in the mid-1990s when observations of the ages of globular clusters and the primordial helium abundance, apparently disagreed with the Big Bang. However, by the late 1990s, most astronomers had concluded that these observations did not challenge the big bang and additional data from COBE and the WMAP, provided detailed quantitative measures which were consistent with standard cosmology. +Today, heterodox non-standard cosmologies are generally considered unworthy of consideration by cosmologists while many of the historically significant nonstandard cosmologies are considered to have been falsified. The essentials of the Big Bang theory have been confirmed by a wide range of complementary and detailed observations, and no non-standard cosmologies have reproduced the range of successes of the Big Bang model. Speculations about alternatives are not normally part of research or pedagogical discussions, except as object lessons or for their historical importance. An open letter started by some remaining advocates of non-standard cosmology has affirmed that: "today, virtually all financial and experimental resources in cosmology are devoted to big bang studies...." + +In the 1990s, a dawning of a "golden age of cosmology" was accompanied by a startling discovery that the expansion of the universe was, in fact, accelerating. Previous to this, it had been assumed that matter either in its visible or invisible dark matter form was the dominant energy density in the universe. This "classical" Big Bang cosmology was overthrown when it was discovered that nearly 70% of the energy in the universe was attributable to the cosmological constant, often referred to as "dark energy". This has led to the development of a so-called concordance ΛCDM model which combines detailed data obtained with new telescopes and techniques in observational astrophysics with an expanding, density-changing universe. Today, it is more common to find in the scientific literature proposals for "non-standard cosmologies" that actually accept the basic tenets of the Big Bang cosmology, while modifying parts of the concordance model. Such theories include alternative models of dark energy, such as quintessence, phantom energy and some ideas in brane cosmology; alternative models of dark matter, such as modified Newtonian dynamics; alternatives or extensions to inflation such as chaotic inflation and the ekpyrotic model; and proposals to supplement the universe with a first cause, such as the Hartle–Hawking boundary condition, the cyclic model, and the string landscape. There is no consensus about these ideas amongst cosmologists, but they are nonetheless active fields of academic inquiry. + +== Alternatives to Big Bang cosmologies == +Before observational evidence was gathered, theorists developed frameworks based on what they understood to be the most general features of physics and philosophical assumptions about the universe. When Albert Einstein developed his general theory of relativity in 1915, this was used as a mathematical starting point for most cosmological theories. In order to arrive at a cosmological model, however, theoreticians needed to make assumptions about the nature of the largest scales of the universe. The assumptions that the current standard model of cosmology relies upon are: + +the universality of physical laws – that the laws of physics do not change from one place and time to another, +the cosmological principle – that the universe is roughly homogeneous and isotropic in space though not necessarily in time, and +the Copernican principle – that we are not observing the universe from a preferred locale. + +These assumptions when combined with General Relativity result in a universe that is governed by the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker metric (FRW metric). The FRW metric allows for a universe that is either expanding or contracting (as well as stationary but unstable universes). When Hubble's law was discovered, most astronomers interpreted the law as a sign the universe is expanding. This implies the universe was smaller in the past, and therefore led to the following conclusions: + +the universe emerged from a hot, dense state at a finite time in the past, +because the universe heats up as it contracts and cools as it expands, in the first minutes that time existed as we know it, the temperatures were high enough for Big Bang nucleosynthesis to occur, and +a cosmic microwave background pervading the entire universe should exist, which is a record of a phase transition that occurred when the atoms of the universe first formed. +These features were derived by numerous individuals over a period of years; indeed it was not until the middle of the twentieth century that accurate predictions of the last feature and observations confirming its existence were made. Non-standard theories developed either by starting from different assumptions or by contradicting the features predicted by the prevailing standard model of cosmology. + +=== Steady State theories === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..09657476b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Non-standard cosmology" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:31.530653+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Steady State theory extends the homogeneity assumption of the cosmological principle to reflect a homogeneity in time as well as in space. This "perfect cosmological principle" as it would come to be called asserted that the universe looks the same everywhere (on the large scale), the same as it always has and always will. This is in contrast to Lambda-CDM, in which the universe looked very different in the past and will look very different in the future. Steady State theory was proposed in 1948 by Fred Hoyle, Thomas Gold, Hermann Bondi and others. In order to maintain the perfect cosmological principle in an expanding universe, steady state cosmology had to posit a "matter-creation field" (the so-called C-field) that would insert matter into the universe in order to maintain a constant density. +The debate between the Big Bang and the Steady State models would happen for 15 years with camps roughly evenly divided until the discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. This radiation is a natural feature of the Big Bang model which demands a "time of last scattering" where photons decouple with baryonic matter. The Steady State model proposed that this radiation could be accounted for by so-called "integrated starlight" which was a background caused in part by Olbers' paradox in an infinite universe. In order to account for the uniformity of the background, steady state proponents posited a fog effect associated with microscopic iron particles that would scatter radio waves in such a manner as to produce an isotropic CMB. The proposed phenomena was whimsically named "cosmic iron whiskers" and served as the thermalization mechanism. The Steady State theory did not have the horizon problem of the Big Bang because it assumed an infinite amount of time was available for thermalizing the background. +As more cosmological data began to be collected, cosmologists began to realize that the Big Bang correctly predicted the abundance of light elements observed in the cosmos. What was a coincidental ratio of hydrogen to deuterium and helium in the steady state model was a feature of the Big Bang model. Additionally, detailed measurements of the CMB since the 1990s with the COBE, WMAP and Planck observations indicated that the spectrum of the background was closer to a blackbody than any other source in nature. The best integrated starlight models could predict was a thermalization to the level of 10% while the COBE satellite measured the deviation at one part in 105. After this dramatic discovery, the majority of cosmologists became convinced that the steady state theory could not explain the observed CMB properties. +Although the original steady state model is now considered to be contrary to observations (particularly the CMB) even by its one-time supporters, modifications of the steady state model have been proposed, including a model that envisions the universe as originating through many little bangs rather than one big bang (the so-called "quasi-steady state cosmology"). It supposes that the universe goes through periodic expansion and contraction phases, with a soft "rebound" in place of the Big Bang. Thus the Hubble law is explained by the fact that the universe is currently in an expansion phase. Work continues on this model (most notably by Jayant V. Narlikar), although it has not gained widespread mainstream acceptance. + +== Alternatives and extensions to Lambda-CDM == +The standard model of cosmology today, the Lambda-CDM model, has been extremely successful at providing a theoretical framework for structure formation, the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background, and the accelerating expansion of the universe. However, it is not without its problems. There are many proposals today that challenge various aspects of the Lambda-CDM model. These proposals typically modify some of the main features of Lambda-CDM, but do not reject the Big Bang. + +=== Anisotropic universe === + +Isotropicity – the idea that the universe looks the same in all directions – is one of the core assumptions that enters into the Friedmann equations. In 2008 however, scientists working on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data claimed to have detected a 600–1000 km/s flow of clusters toward a 20-degree patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela. They suggested that the motion may be a remnant of the influence of no-longer-visible regions of the universe prior to inflation. The detection is controversial, and other scientists have found that the universe is isotropic to a great degree. + +=== Massive compact halo object (MACHO) === + +Solitary black holes, neutron stars, burnt-out dwarf stars, and other massive objects that are hard to detect are collectively known as MACHOs; some scientists initially hoped that baryonic MACHOs could account for and explain all the dark matter. However, evidence has accumulated that these objects cannot explain a large fraction of the dark matter mass. + +=== Exotic dark matter === + +In Lambda-CDM, dark matter is a form of matter that interacts with both ordinary matter and light only through gravitational effects. To produce the large-scale structure we see today, dark matter is "cold" (the 'C' in Lambda-CDM), i.e. non-relativistic. Dark matter has not been conclusively identified, and its exact nature is the subject of intense study. Hypothetical weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), axions and primordial black holes are the leading dark matter candidates but there are a variety of other proposals, e.g.: + +Self-interacting dark matter, wherein dark matter particles interact with themselves. +Warm dark matter, which are more relativistic than cold dark matter, but less relativistic than the observationally-excluded hot dark matter. +Fuzzy cold dark matter, which have particles much lighter than axions – in the 10−22 eV range. +Yet other theories attempt to explain dark matter and dark energy as different facets of the same underlying fluid (see dark fluid), or hypothesize that dark matter could decay into dark energy. + +=== Exotic dark energy === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ad2e86d50 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Non-standard cosmology" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:31.530653+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In Lambda-CDM, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. It is less well-understood than dark matter, and similarly mysterious. The simplest explanation of dark energy is the cosmological constant (the 'Lambda' in Lambda-CDM). This is a simple constant added to the Einstein field equations to provide a repulsive force. Thus far observations are fully consistent with the cosmological constant, but leave room for a plethora of alternatives, e.g.: + +Quintessence, which is a scalar field similar to the one that drove cosmic inflation shortly after the Big Bang. In quintessence, dark energy will usually vary over time (as opposed to the cosmological constant, which remains a constant). +Inhomogeneous cosmology. One of the fundamental assumptions of Lambda-CDM is that the universe is homogeneous – that is, it looks broadly the same regardless of where the observer is. In the inhomogeneous universe scenario, the observed dark energy is a measurement artefact caused by us being located at an emptier-than-average region of space. +Variable dark energy, which is similar to quintessence in that the properties of dark energy vary over time (see figure), but different in that dark energy is not due to a scalar field. + +== Alternatives to general relativity == + +General relativity, upon which the FRW metric is based, is an extremely successful theory which has met every observational test so far. However, at a fundamental level it is incompatible with quantum mechanics, and by predicting singularities, it also predicts its own breakdown. Any alternative theory of gravity would immediately imply an alternative cosmological theory since Lambda-CDM is dependent on general relativity as a framework assumption. There are many different motivations to modify general relativity, such as to eliminate the need for dark matter or dark energy, or to avoid such paradoxes as the firewall. +There are very many modified gravity theories, none of which have gained widespread acceptance, although it remains an active field of research. Some of the more notable theories are below. + +=== Machian universe === + +Ernst Mach developed a kind of extension to general relativity which proposed that inertia was due to gravitational effects of the mass distribution of the universe. This led naturally to speculation about the cosmological implications for such a proposal. Carl Brans and Robert Dicke were able to incorporate Mach's principle into general relativity which admitted for cosmological solutions that would imply a variable mass. The homogeneously distributed mass of the universe would result in a roughly scalar field that permeated the universe and would serve as a source for Newton's gravitational constant; creating a theory of quantum gravity. + +=== MOND === + +Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is a relatively modern proposal to explain the galaxy rotation problem based on a variation of Newton's universal theory of gravity at low accelerations. A modification of Newton's theory would also imply a modification of general relativistic cosmology in as much as Newtonian cosmology is the limit of Friedman cosmology. While almost all astrophysicists today reject MOND in favor of dark matter, a small number of researchers continue to enhance it, recently incorporating Brans–Dicke theories into treatments that attempt to account for cosmological observations. +Tensor–vector–scalar gravity (TeVeS) is a proposed relativistic theory that is equivalent to Modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) in the non-relativistic limit, which purports to explain the galaxy rotation problem without invoking dark matter. Originated by Jacob Bekenstein in 2004, it incorporates various dynamical and non-dynamical tensor fields, vector fields and scalar fields. + +The break-through of TeVeS over MOND is that it can explain the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, a cosmic optical illusion in which matter bends light, which has been confirmed many times. A recent preliminary finding is that it can explain structure formation without CDM, but requiring a ~2eV massive neutrino (they are also required to fit some Clusters of galaxies, including the Bullet Cluster). However, other authors (see Slosar, Melchiorri and Silk) argue that TeVeS can not explain cosmic microwave background anisotropies and structure formation at the same time, i.e. ruling out those models at high significance. + +=== f(R) gravity === + +f(R) gravity is a family of theories that modify general relativity by defining a different function of the Ricci scalar (R). The simplest case is just the function being equal to the scalar; this is general relativity. As a consequence of introducing an arbitrary function, there may be freedom to explain the accelerated expansion and structure formation of the Universe without adding unknown forms of dark energy or dark matter. Some functional forms may be inspired by corrections arising from a quantum theory of gravity. f(R) gravity was first proposed in 1970 by Hans Adolph Buchdahl (although φ was used rather than f for the name of the arbitrary function). It has become an active field of research following work by Starobinsky on cosmic inflation. A wide range of phenomena can be produced from this theory by adopting different functions, f; however, many functional forms can now be ruled out on observational grounds, or because of pathological theoretical problems. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9c3641314 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Non-standard cosmology" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:31.530653+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Other alternatives === +Kaluza–Klein theory, which posits an extra spatial dimension, thereby making our universe 5D instead of the 4D of General Relativity. The DGP model is one of the models in this category, claimed to be able to explain dark energy without invoking a cosmological constant. +Entropic gravity, which describes gravity as an entropic force with macro-scale homogeneity but which is subject to quantum-level disorder. The theory claims to be able to remove the need for dark matter, as well as provide a natural explanation for dark energy. +The GRSI model modifies General Relativity by adding self-interaction terms similar to those in quantum chromodynamics, leading to an effect similar to quark confinement in gravity. It is claimed to be able to explain observations without needing dark matter or dark energy. +Shockwave cosmology, proposed by Joel Smoller and Blake Temple in 2003, has the "big bang" as an explosion inside a black hole, producing the expanding volume of space and matter that includes the observable universe. This black hole eventually becomes a white hole as the matter density reduces with the expansion. A related theory proposes that the acceleration of the expansion of the observable universe, normally attributed to dark energy, may be caused by an effect of the shockwave. + +== See also == +Quantum cosmology + +== Notes == + +== Bibliography == +Arp, Halton, Seeing Red. Apeiron, Montreal, Canada. 1998. ISBN 0-9683689-0-5 +Hannes, Alfvén D., Cosmic Plasma. Reidel Publishing Company, 1981. ISBN 90-277-1151-8 +Hoyle, Fred; Geoffrey Burbidge, and Jayant V. Narlikar, A Different Approach to Cosmology: From a Static Universe through the Big Bang towards Reality. Cambridge University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-521-66223-0 +Lerner, Eric J., Big Bang Never Happened, Vintage Books, 1992. ISBN 0-679-74049-X +Narlikar, Jayant Vishnu, Introduction to Cosmology. Jones & Bartlett Pub. 2nd edition, 1993. ISBN 9780521412506 + +== External links and references == +Narlikar, Jayant V. and T. Padmanabhan, "Standard Cosmology and Alternatives: A Critical Appraisal". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 39, pp. 211–248 (2001) +Wright, Edward L. "Cosmological Fads and Fallacies:" Errors in some popular attacks on the Big Bang \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Tristan_Da_Cunha-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Tristan_Da_Cunha-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e55f3c8a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Tristan_Da_Cunha-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan Da Cunha" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Scientific_Expedition_to_Tristan_Da_Cunha" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:50.638156+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan Da Cunha was a scientific and cultural exploration of the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, in the south Atlantic Ocean, 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) from the nearest inhabited land, Saint Helena. The expedition arrived on the island in December 1937 and left in March 1938. + + +== History == +Captained by botanist Erling Christophersen, the thirteen man crew included three University of Oslo Ph.D. students conducting research for their dissertations, which were published shortly after their return; these included sociologist Peter A. Munch, ornithologist Yngvar Hagen, and phycologist Egil Baardseth. Also among the crew were a geologist, a marine biologist, an ichthyologist, a dentist, and a doctor. A late addition to the crew was topological surveyor Allan Crawford, a British engineer who was recruited by the captain en route to Cape Town, and who would later come to be regarded as a leading authority on Tristan Da Cunha. +Based on observations made during the voyage, Christophersen published Tristan da Cunha, the Lonely Isle (1938) and the comprehensive Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan Da Cunha, 1937-1938 (1945), while the Ph.D. students published their work and achieved their degrees. Munch published Sociology of Tristan da Cunha (1946), Hagen published Birds of Tristan da Cunha (1952), and Baardseth published The Marine Algae of Tristan da Cunha (1941). + + +== Sources == +Erling Christophersen, Results of the Norwegian Scientific Expedition to Tristan da Cunha, 1937-1938, (Oslo: Norske videnskaps-akademi, 1946). ISSN 0370-6540. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-0.md index 64ecddf32..8351dcbb8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-1.md index b77164e9e..cacf5c415 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-10.md index 94a53250f..2e6253ad8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-10.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-10.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 11/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-11.md index d74a14b30..860d584ab 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-11.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-11.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 12/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-12.md index b1f55da4e..9ec858d7f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-12.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-12.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 13/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-13.md index 7ae8d3b64..fe0cbaff8 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-13.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-13.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 14/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-14.md index b4d771b5a..487b4cf3d 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-14.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-14.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 15/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-2.md index a3d68e387..bd576e311 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-2.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-2.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 3/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-3.md index cebcd3e99..4df5ba184 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-3.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-3.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 4/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-4.md index c13f2e156..744904f96 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-4.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-4.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 5/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-5.md index c590e16da..22816da09 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-5.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-5.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 6/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-6.md index 8c337d66d..45e2e073f 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-6.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-6.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 7/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-7.md index 28853f68b..02e30ddad 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-7.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-7.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 8/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-8.md index 20dabca42..e8ffaa479 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-8.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-8.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 9/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-9.md index eed7a1725..9e08edbbc 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-9.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution-9.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 10/15 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objections_to_evolution" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:28.940208+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:45.280733+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Explorers_Grand_Slam-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Explorers_Grand_Slam-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7f259ccc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Explorers_Grand_Slam-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Ocean Explorers Grand Slam" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_Explorers_Grand_Slam" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:11.831660+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Ocean Explorers Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to complete open-water crossings on all five oceans using human-powered vessel. + + +== History == + +In 2019, Icelandic explorer Fiann Paul led the first human-powered transit (by rowing) across the Drake Passage (The Impossible Row) and, in doing so, he completed the row on his fifth ocean, and became the first person to achieve the Ocean Explorers Grand Slam. The Ocean Explorers Grand Slam was defined by Guinness World Records adjudicators as completing open-water crossings on all five oceans using human-powered vessels. Fiann achieved the title with his completed crossings on the following oceans: Atlantic (date of completion: 2011), Indian (2014), Pacific (2016), Arctic (2017), and Southern (2019). Completion of this quest took him 9 years. +The definition "Rows on the Polar Open Waters" applies only to pure rowing expeditions across major water basins above the Polar Circle in the Arctic or within the actual boundaries of the Southern Ocean, from land to land, excluding any use of sail, paddling on kayaks or canoes, as well as rows around islands, within archipelagos and coastal rows, i.e. within vicinity of land and possibility to get ashore. +The definition "Ocean Crossing on the Polar Open Waters" applies to pure human-powered expeditions across major water basins above the Polar Circle in the Arctic or within the actual boundaries of the Southern Ocean, from land to land, excluding any use of sail as well as the expeditions around islands, within archipelagos and coastal routes, i.e. within vicinity of land and possibility to get ashore. + + +== People who completed the quest == + + +== See also == +Explorers Grand Slam +Five Deeps Expedition +Grand Slam (golf) +Grand Slam (tennis) + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Ocean Explorers Grand Slam title holders list Archived 2020-02-04 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d8900a70e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Pauline Hanson's One Nation (PHON), commonly known as One Nation (ON), is a right-wing populist political party in Australia. It is led by its founder Pauline Hanson, who has been a senator for Queensland since 2016 and previously served in the House of Representatives from 1996 to 1998. +The party was founded by Hanson in 1997 following her disendorsement by the Liberal Party and enjoyed an initial period of electoral success in the late 1990s. It polled second at the 1998 Queensland state election and won the third-highest vote count in both the House of Representatives and Senate at the 1998 federal election, though only winning a single Senate seat. It subsequently underwent a period of electoral decline and several party splits, while retaining representation in the Parliament of Queensland until 2009. Following Hanson's return as leader, the party won four seats at the 2016 federal election and retained representation across the following three federal elections, despite several high-profile defections. The party experienced increased popularity in and following the May 2025 federal election. After the Liberal Party's leadership challenge and falling out with the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce defected from the Nationals and joined One Nation in December 2025. Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, has provided funding to the party since then. Several nationwide opinion polls were ranking One Nation ahead of the Coalition as the highest-polling party on the political right by February 2026. +One Nation's policy stances have largely been shaped by the views of its leader, sometimes referred to as Hansonism. Opposition to multiculturalism has been a hallmark of the party since its creation; it initially focused on criticism of Asian immigration and government welfare policies relating to Indigenous Australians, and later expanded to include criticism of Islam. The party's economic policies have been characterised by economic nationalism and protectionism, including opposition to foreign ownership of land and economic rationalism. Opposition to climate change action, including opposition to the expansion of renewable energy, has become a prominent aspect of the party's agenda following the election of climate change denier Malcolm Roberts as a senator. On foreign policy, the party has adopted anti-globalist stances including support for withdrawal of Australia from international institutions and agreements. + +== History == + +=== Background === +In the lead-up to the March 1996 federal election, Pauline Hanson was endorsed as the Liberal Party of Australia candidate for the House of Representatives seat of Oxley, based on Ipswich, for the March 1996 federal election. At the time, the seat was thought of as a Labor stronghold. The Labor incumbent, Les Scott, held it with an almost 15% two-party majority, making it the safest Labor seat in Queensland. Because of this, Hanson was believed of having no chance of winning the seat. +Hanson received widespread media attention when, leading up to the election, she advocated the abolition of special government assistance for Aboriginal Australians and criticism of multiculturalism, resulting in her being disendorsed by the Liberal Party. Ballot papers had already been printed listing Hanson as the Liberal candidate, and the Australian Electoral Commission had closed nominations for the seat. As a result, Hanson was still listed as the Liberal candidate when votes were cast, even though Liberal leader John Howard had declared she would not be allowed to sit with the Liberals if elected. +On election night, Hanson took a large lead on the first count and picked up enough preferences from Democrat voters to defeat Scott on the sixth count. Her victory came amid Labor's near-collapse in Queensland, which saw it reduced to only two seats in the state. Hanson won 54% of the two-candidate-preferred vote. Since Hanson had been disendorsed, she entered parliament as an independent. + +=== Early years === + +==== Foundation (1997) ==== + +Shortly after being elected to federal parliament, Hanson formed the One Nation party with co-founders David Oldfield and David Ettridge. During the formative days of One Nation, Oldfield was employed by Liberal Party backbench MP Tony Abbott as a political advisor. One Nation was launched on 11 April 1997, at an event held in Ipswich, Queensland. The party was officially registered by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 27 June. + +==== First elections (1998) ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ff222f69a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The 1998 Queensland state election produced One Nation's greatest electoral success, with the ALP winning 44 seats to be the largest party in the Assembly, the Coalition winning 32 seats and One Nation winning 11 seats. During the campaign, polling for One Nation led to commentators saying One Nation might secure the balance of power in a hung parliament. During the campaign, all three major political parties suffered a decline in voter support due to One Nation having entered the fray. The National Party saw an 11.1% drop in support, their Liberal Party coalition partners lost 6.7% and Labor's vote dropped 4.0%. To the surprise of many pundits, the One Nation Party received 22.7% of the first preference vote, giving them the second largest voter turnout for any party in Queensland during the 1998 election. One Nation drew the majority of its support from regional and rural Queensland, winning nine of its 11 seats in rural and regional electorates. +With nearly 23% of the vote, One Nation gained a higher percentage of the vote than any other third party (i.e. not Labor or Coalition) at the state or territory level since Federation. This was also the only election at which a third party gained more votes than both the Liberal Party and the National Party considered separately. +At the 1998 federal election, Hanson contested the new seat of Blair after a redistribution effectively split Oxley in half. Hanson lost to Liberal candidate Cameron Thompson, and the One Nation candidate in Oxley lost the seat to ALP candidate Bernie Ripoll. One Nation candidate Heather Hill was elected as a senator for Queensland. Hill's eligibility to sit as a senator was successfully challenged in Sue v Hill under the Australian Constitution on the basis that she had failed to renounce her childhood British citizenship, despite being a naturalised Australian citizen. The seat went to the party's Len Harris following a recount. +Political scientists Ian McAllister and Clive Bean, in an analysis of the 1998 federal election, found that although it was assumed that One Nation supporters came from a traditionally conservative demographic, instead: + +"in a number of significant respects it in fact tends more towards Labor's profile instead. One Nation support, for example, comes disproportionately from manual workers, trade union members, those who describe themselves as working class, the less well educated, men and people who never attend church – a list of characteristics which comes close to defining the archetypal Labor voter … [The evidence] suggests that it is Labor-style voters in rural areas – rather than the much more predominantly urban Labor voter – who are chiefly attracted to One Nation" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a17ebc08e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Internal disputes and claims of corruption (1999–2003) ==== +The party was affected by internal divisions and has split several times. Lawsuits involving ex-members did eventually force Hanson to repay approximately $500,000 of public funding won at the 1998 Queensland election amid claims by Abbott that the party was fraudulently registered. Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the party. The suits alleged that the party was undemocratically constituted in order to concentrate all power in the hands of three people—Hanson, Ettridge and Oldfield (in particular Oldfield)—and that it technically had only two members: Ettridge and Hanson. Even though Hanson's fraud charges were dropped, the Electoral Commission of Queensland never reimbursed Hanson for the monies that they collected from the claim. +Within a year of One Nation's electoral success, three of the 11 Queensland MPs elected had quit the party claiming the leadership had too much control over the party. The One Nation contingent in the Queensland Parliament split, with dissident members forming the rival City Country Alliance in late 1999. +The first Annual General Meeting of the One Nation party was held in April 1999, which critic Paul Reynolds said demonstrated that One Nation lacked organisation. +At the 1999 New South Wales state election, David Oldfield was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Council. In October 2000, Hanson expelled Oldfield from the party after a disagreement. His expulsion created even more instability in a party which was constantly embroiled in scandal and internal strife. Oldfield attacked Hanson publicly, saying that "everything including her maiden speech and every word of any consequence that she's said since, has actually been written for her". Oldfield engineered a split within the party, creating One Nation NSW, in 2001. The new party took advantage of electoral party registration laws to register itself as a political party under the 'One Nation' name with the NSW electoral commission, and achieved registration in April 2002. +At the 2001 Western Australian state election One Nation won three seats in the state, however the party was reduced to three seats the same year at the 2001 Queensland state election. During the 2001 Australian federal election, the party's vote fell from 9% to 5.5%. Hanson failed in her bid to win a Senate seat from Queensland, despite polling a strong 10% of the primary vote. Hanson also failed to win a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council. +In 2001, disendorsed One Nation candidate Terry Sharples accused the party of not having the 500 members needed for registration, and called for the party to be deregistered, which was carried by the Supreme Court. Hanson appealed the verdict but was unsuccessful. Hanson appeared before the Brisbane Magistrates Court to face charges of electoral fraud, that same year. Hanson pleaded not guilty to the charges, claiming that she was being subjected to "a political witch-hunt." While court hearings proceeded, Hanson ran for a seat in the NSW Upper House as an independent, but only received 1.9 per cent of the vote. +Both Ettridge and Hanson were found guilty of fraudulently registering One Nation and obtaining more than $500,000 from the AEC, in 2003. Crown lawyers accused them both of falsely claiming more than 500 people were party members when they were not truly members. Hanson was sentenced to three years in jail, stating outside the court that the verdict was "Rubbish, I'm not guilty... it's a joke". +It was later disclosed that Abbott had been working behind the scenes to take Ettridge and Hanson down, meeting with several disgruntled One Nation members including Sharples. On 6 November of that same year, Hanson was released from prison after successfully appealing her conviction; she was acquitted on all counts. + +==== Electoral decline (2004–2013) ==== +At the 2004 Queensland state election, One Nation polled less than 5% of the vote and its sole elected representative, Rosa Lee Long, acted as an independent. One Nation attempted to defend its Queensland Senate seat at the 2004 federal election, but lost it (effectively to the National Party). Len Harris's Senate term expired on 30 June 2005. +On 8 February 2005, One Nation lost federal party status but was re-registered in time for the 2007 federal election. It still had state parties in Queensland and New South Wales. Subsequently, it created another state party in Western Australia. In the February 2005 Western Australian state election, the One Nation vote collapsed. +In the 2006 South Australian state election, six One Nation candidates stood for the lower house. Their highest levels of the primary vote was 4.1% in the district of Hammond and 2.7% in Goyder, with the other four hovering around 1%. They attracted 0.8% (7559 votes) of the upper house vote. One Nation consequently won no seats in that election. +In the 2006 Queensland state election, the party contested four of 89 seats, and its vote collapsed. It suffered a swing of 4.3% to be left with just 0.6% of the vote. Its only remaining seat in the state (and country), Tablelands, was retained with an increased majority by Rosa Lee Long. Tablelands was abolished prior to the 2009 Queensland state election, with Lee Long failing to win the seat of Dalrymple. +In the 2012 Queensland state election the party unsuccessfully contested six seats. The party received only 2,525 first preference votes (representing 0.1% of the total cast) across the state. + +=== Pauline Hanson's second leadership === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1c736000a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Revival of Pauline Hanson's One Nation (2013–2015) ==== +Hanson rejoined One Nation as a rank-and-file member in 2013. Later that year, she unsuccessfully contested the Senate for New South Wales at the 2013 federal election. In 2014, Hanson was reappointed as leader by the One Nation executive. She contested the seat of Lockyer for the party at the January 2015 Queensland state election, falling 114 votes short of defeating sitting Liberal National Party member Ian Rickuss. +In 2013, it was reported by One Nation that the party had more than 5000 members, with the figure rising since Hanson returned as party leader. +In July 2015, Hanson announced that the party was renamed the original "Pauline Hanson's One Nation" and contested in the Senate for Queensland at the 2016 federal election. +In the lead up to the 2016 election, Hanson arranged a "Fed Up" tour that began in July 2015 as part of her re-election campaign, flying in a private plane to Rockhampton prior to a Reclaim Australia rally, piloted by James Ashby. + +==== Return to federal politics in 45th parliament (2016) ==== + +At the 2016 federal election the party polled 4.3% (+3.8) of the nationwide primary vote in the Senate. Only Queensland polled higher for the party than their nationwide percentage − the party polled 9.2% (+8.6) of the primary vote in that state. Pauline Hanson (QLD) and three other One Nation candidates − Malcolm Roberts (QLD), Brian Burston (NSW) and Rod Culleton (WA) were elected to the Senate. +Rod Culleton (WA) left the party in December 2016, after months of legal troubles and party infighting to sit as an independent bringing the number of party senators to three. On 3 February 2017, the High Court of Australia ruled that Culleton's election was invalid due to a conviction for which he was subject to being sentenced at the time of the election, notwithstanding that the conviction was subsequently annulled. The resulting vacancy was filled by a recount of the votes at the election, which resulted in Peter Georgiou taking the seat and returning the One Nation representation in the Senate to four. +On 22 May 2017, a new scandal arose when a taped conversation between Hanson and political advisor James Ashby was released. The tape showed that Ashby had supported charging One Nation candidates inflated prices for campaign materials. +During the 2017 Western Australian state election, several One Nation candidates either quit or were disendorsed. Dane Sorensen provided a copy of the party's Western Australian "candidate agreement" form for this election, which all candidates had to sign. It includes an "administration fee" of $250,000 if an elected candidate subsequently leaves the party. One Nation previously formed a 'conservative bloc' with the Liberal Democratic Party and Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in the Western Australia Legislative Council. +Hanson drew widespread condemnation when she wore the full Islamic dress into Senate Question Time, before calling for the burqa to be banned in Australia on 17 August 2017. Audible gasps of shock were heard in the parliament. Liberal Party Senator and Attorney-General of Australia George Brandis condemned Hanson's actions, declaring to the parliament that "To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do. I would ask you to reflect on that". Senator Brandis received applause and praise from all sides of parliament for his response. +On 27 October 2017, the full High Court, as Court of Disputed Returns, ruled that Malcolm Roberts had been ineligible to be elected to the Parliament. On 13 November, Senator Fraser Anning took Roberts' seat after a Senate recount. However, on the same day Anning left the party to become an Independent. +On 14 June 2018, Senator Brian Burston announced his resignation from the party to sit as an independent, following a month-long clash with Hanson centred around the Turnbull Government's corporate tax cuts, on which Hanson had reversed her position. This reduced the party to 2 senators, with Hanson remaining the only member of One Nation elected at the 2016 Federal election. +On 15 October 2018, a Senate motion brought by the party stating "it is OK to be white" was defeated 31–28 in a vote. The Liberal government expressed regret at the support the vote received, blaming it to an administrative error in which its senators were mistakenly instructed to vote positively. Critics noted that the phrase has been associated with white supremacist rhetoric. +Former Labor Party leader Mark Latham joined the party in November 2018 as leader for New South Wales. He successfully contested a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Council, winning it in March 2019. +In March 2019, One Nation was the subject of a two-part Al Jazeera documentary series asserting that the party was soliciting financial assistance from the National Rifle Association of America and Koch Industries in order to change Australian gun control laws. Al Jazeera used an undercover reporter posing as a gun rights advocate. In response, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson condemned the documentary as a "hit piece" by a Qatar government backed news agency and announced that she had filed a complaint with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Similar sentiments were echoed by the One Nation officials, James Ashby and Steve Dickson, who were featured in the documentary. In response to the documentary, the Australian Electoral Commission said that none of the activities shown in the documentary violated section 326 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 since they occurred overseas. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e0b2bb054 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== 2019 election and 46th parliament ==== +At the May 2019 federal election, One Nation polled 5.40% (up 1.12%) for the nationwide Senate primary vote. The party polled higher than their national vote in Queensland, taking 10.27% up 1.08%, of the primary vote in the senate. +The PHON House of Representatives candidate for the Division of O'Connor, Dean Smith, was in December of the same year a target of recruitment for Neo-Nazi group The Base. In secretly recorded tapes of his "interview" by a recruiter, Smith tells of his hatred of immigrants and his wish to "save the race". He tells the recruiter that he had become "more and more extreme and passionate about my views", and disillusioned with One Nation and the possibility of a political solution. However, he was deemed too great a risk for The Base because of his political profile, so was not admitted into their ranks. +In 2019, Hanson received widespread condemnation in the Australian media after claiming that domestic violence victims routinely lie to the Family Court. The Law Council of Australia called for the abandonment of a federal parliamentary inquiry into the family law system, citing concerns that the hearings were being used by Hanson for political purposes to undermine domestic violence claims made by women. + +==== 2022–2024 elections ==== +One Nation ran 149 candidates in the 2022 federal election, standing in all House of Representatives seats except the inner Melbourne-based seat of Higgins and the rural Queensland seat of Kennedy, held by Bob Katter. According to ABC News, One Nation ran "ghost candidates" in several electorates for the 2022 federal election, who did not active campaign, had no online presence and did not live in their electorates. George Christensen, the incumbent Nationals MP for Dawson, defected to One Nation in the lead-up to the election and stood unsuccessfully on the party's Senate ticket in Queensland. +In 2022, One Nation won its first parliamentary seats in South Australia and Victoria, with Sarah Game elected to the South Australian Legislative Council at the 2022 South Australian state election and Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell elected to the Victorian Legislative Council at the 2022 Victorian state election. +In 2023, New South Wales independent state MP Tania Mihailuk – a former ALP member – defected to One Nation. At the 2023 New South Wales state election the party won a record three Legislative Council seats, with leader Mark Latham re-elected for another term and Mihailuk filling Latham's vacant seat. In August 2023, Hanson intervened in the New South Wales state branch to remove Latham as party leader. Latham and his colleague Rod Roberts subsequently resigned to sit as independents, with Mihailuk announced as the next leader of One Nation in New South Wales in December 2023. She resigned from One Nation in December 2024. +One Nation campaigned heavily against the Indigenous Voice to parliament in the referendum held in October that year, One Nation supported the No vote and was against holding a referendum on the matter. +In February 2024, Western Australian independent MP Ben Dawkins announced he would be joining One Nation as the party's only parliamentary member. He resigned from the party in December 2024. Queensland state MP Stephen Andrew had also resigned from One Nation in August 2024 after they did not re-endorse him at the 2024 Queensland state election. +At the 2025 Western Australian state election One Nation won two seats in the Western Australian Legislative Council, including state leader Rod Caddies. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9572c08ea --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== 2025–2026 elections ==== +In the lead-up to the 2025 Australian federal election to elect the 47th Parliament of Australia, pollsters recorded an increase in One Nations primary vote, particularly near the end of the campaign period where the party began to come close to or surpass their result at the 1998 Australian federal election. One Nation ran 147 candidates in the House of Representatives, and a Senate team for each state and territory except for the Australian Capital Territory. One Nation won 6.4% of the vote in the House of Representatives, the second-best result for the party since its inception. One Nation won a senate seat in New South Wales and Western Australia with Warwick Stacey and Tyron Whitten, doubling its Senate representation. Stacey resigned for health reasons shortly after his election, with Sean Bell, a former political advisor to Pauline Hanson, announced as Stacey's successor on 16 September 2025. +In May 2025, South Australian MLC Sarah Game quit the party, citing brand issues associated with One Nation. It came after her mother, who had been leader of One Nation in South Australia, Jennifer Game, resigned from the party after she was not chosen to head the party ticket in the Legislative Council for the 2026 South Australian state election. Sarah Game was first independent, and then in July 2025 founded a new party, Fair Go for Australians. +In October 2025, Hanson announced she would begin the process of changing the party's name from Pauline Hanson's One Nation to simply One Nation. On 8 December 2025, Barnaby Joyce formally announced that he had joined One Nation, becoming the party's sole member in the House of Representatives. In a statement, Joyce confirmed that he intended to run as a One Nation Senate candidate for New South Wales at the next election. +After the Bondi Beach terrorist attack in December 2025, One Nation's popularity increased. In January 2026, a DemosAU poll showed One Nation had experienced a renewed polling surge since the 2025 federal election to 23 per cent of the primary vote, with the Coalition dropping to the same level and Labor dropping to 29 per cent. The party contested the 2026 South Australian state election in all lower house seats, and ran four upper house candidates. On the eve of election day, on 20 March 2026, it was revealed that one of their candidates, Aoi (aka Trent) Baxter, was wanted by police in the UK for failing to appear in court after being charged under the Sexual Offences Act. In the 21 March SA election, One Nation won a higher primary vote than the Liberals, after the SA Liberals had been in decline for some years. The Labor Party won a second term with a landslide win. + +== Ideology == +One Nation's policies and ideology have been described as based on ultranationalism, right-wing populism, populism, and opposition to immigration. Its policies have been also described as nationalist, national-conservative, socially conservative, conservative, and protectionist. Its political position has been described as right-wing, extreme right, and far-right. + +=== Early years === +In its early years, One Nation's policies were said to be synonymous with opposition to affirmative action for Aboriginal communities. Some key themes of Pauline Hanson's 1998 maiden speech were opposition to what she said were increasingly high rates of immigration from Asian countries and an argument for economic protectionist policies. +During its inception, One Nation rallied against Liberal and Labor immigration and multicultural policies which, it argued, were leading to "the Asianisation of Australia." +Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating denounced Hanson in a speech in 1996, saying that she projected "the ugly face of racism" and was "dangerously divisive and deeply hurtful to many of her fellow Australians." +Hanson and One Nation have disputed accusations of racism and argue that the main parties are out of touch with many Australians on the issues of immigration, asylum seekers, and multiculturalism; and have ended up adopting some of the policies One Nation initially called for. Milton Osborne noted in 1999 that research indicated Hanson's initial supporters did not cite immigration as a major reason for their support for One Nation, but instead they were most concerned about economic issues and unemployment. A 2001 study showed that One Nation had extensive informal ties and received endorsements from far-right movements due to the party requiring "the support of those groups in establishing the party and because of a convergence of interests". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6d1731d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Contemporary === +Writer Hans-Georg Betz described One Nation and Pauline Hanson in 2019 as among "the first prominent radical right-wing populist entrepreneurs to mobilize popular resentment against a very specific target — the intellectual elite" and that in the twenty-first century where "today's army of self-styled commentators and pundits summarily dismissing radical right-wing populist voters as uncouth, uneducated plebeians intellectually incapable of understanding the blessings of progressive identity politics, Hanson's anti-elite rhetoric anno 1996 proved remarkably prescient, if rather tame." Betz also argued that One Nation differs from European right-wing parties by focusing on its own brand of populism which he termed Hansonism based on Hanson's personality and debates unique to Australian society. +Despite the party's early image as an anti-immigration party, the party has – since 2016 – run a number of migrant Chinese and Indian candidates in elections. +Political scientist Ian McAllister argues the current version of One Nation from 2017 does not have much in the way of policy beyond an "anti-establishment stance" while others have argued it has changed to focus its policies on opposition to Islam. +During the 2017 Queensland state election, One Nation disendorsed its Bundamba candidate Shan Ju Lin after her anti-gay social media post. Lin accused James Ashby of deciding on Hanson's behalf that Lin should be disendorsed. In December 2016, Andy Semple withdrew as a candidate for Currumbin, after the party told him to delete an LGBT joke on Twitter. +Various One Nation election candidates have made anti-LGBT comments, such as one saying in 2019, "The only thing worse than a gay person with power is a woman", another in 2017 calling same-sex marriage "poof poof marriage" and making the comment, "You see when we consummate a marriage kids are generally born 9 mths later when gays consummate its [sic] just bum sex for enjoyment", and a third – also in 2017 – saying that "Norwegian homosexuals" are behind a "mind control program". + +== Policies == + +=== Immigration and asylum === +One Nation supports a reduction in the levels of net migration to "closer to the 20th century average of 70,000". The party also calls for a travel ban on certain countries, similar to one enacted by the Trump administration in the United States. The party also supports stronger assimilation of immigrants. One Nation also seeks to withdraw Australia from the United Nations Refugee Convention and is opposed to the UN Global Compact on Migration. One Nation has been described as anti-Islam. +Following the end of lockdowns in Australia as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the party has voiced support for establishing a zero-net immigration policy, similar to the one Australia had introduced during the pandemic. One Nation supports permitting only highly skilled migrants from culturally cohesive countries to settle in Australia. +In 2018, Hanson called for immigration numbers to be capped at 75,000 a year. In 2025, Hanson called for immigration to be cut to 130,000 a year. + +=== The economy and employment === +One Nation supports a broadly protectionist platform, saying that it would review free trade agreements and revoke any "that are not in Australia's best interest", they also wish to reimplement import tariffs. It is opposed to foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land and businesses, as well as the privatisation of water assets. Wishing to prioritise jobs for Australian nationals, it would investigate "the abuse of foreign work visas." +One Nation backed the Turnbull Government's controversial 2018 corporate tax cuts. +The party would move foreign-owned multinationals out of the corporation tax system and into a transactions based system, saying that too many of them pay no tax on profits made in Australia. + +=== Domestic policies === +The party argues for the introduction of Citizens Initiated Referenda (CIR) and states it will review the salaries and pensions paid to Australian politicians. In 2021, the Senate approved a motion tabled by Pauline Hanson which called on the federal government to reject the teaching of critical race theory in Australian schools. It also supports a ban on wearing the burqa in public spaces. One Nation has backed Hanson's comments regarding downplaying scientific consensus on climate change. During the debate on the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 which would legalise same-sex marriage in Australia, Hanson and other members of One Nation expressed their opposition to same-sex marriage. However, Hanson also stated the party would not take an official stance on same-sex marriage and that One Nation senators would be allowed a free vote on the issue. +One Nation is broadly anti-abortion, particularly relating to late term abortions, describing itself as "pro-life". The party favours policies such as a gestational limit for abortions, banning sex-selective abortion, and doctors' rights to allow for them to object to performing such a procedure. +One Nation wants to introduce mandatory photo ID for Medicare cards. +One Nation members and parliamentarians have criticised the increasing use of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags alongside the Australian one. +The party wants to remove building code mandates, such as removing the requirement for new dwellings to be wheelchair-compliant. One Nation also wants to reduce funding for arts and abolish the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). + +=== Law and order === +One Nation claims it will increase rehabilitation facilities for drug addicts and introduce life sentences for drug traffickers, Pauline Hanson has previously voiced her support of medicinal cannabis but strong objection to recreational drug usage and opposition to pill testing. The party supports gun ownership but wants tougher sentences for arms traffickers. The party is opposed to any form of sharia law in Australia. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..09182aa10 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Welfare and pensions === +One Nation is in favour of a substantial increase in the aged pension and disability support pension. It was reported in 2016 that One Nation had voted with the Liberal government on a number of welfare cuts. +One Nation is also opposed to increasing the age of entitlement to 70 years, and supports a $100 a week increase under the work bonus scheme for pensioners. +In 2024, One Nation cooperated with the Albanese government and minister Bill Shorten in reforming the National Disability Insurance Scheme to crack down on alleged misuse of the system and to rein in the growing costs of the program. + +=== COVID-19 vaccines === +Many politicians, commentators and scientists claim that One Nation senators have spread misinformation and conspiracies on the effectiveness and scientific basis of COVID-19 vaccines. One Nation opposes vaccine mandates, but denies being against vaccinations. However, in 2021, One Nation MLC Mark Latham said that vaccinated people should be exempt from Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown. +One Nation introduced legislation in 2021 pertaining to COVID-19 mandates, with the bill proposing banning discrimination on COVID-19 vaccination status in the fields of goods, services, facilities, employment, education, accommodation, and sport. It was supported by five Liberal-National senators; it was not passed. + +=== Climate change and energy === +One Nation senators are frequent critics of any action on climate change and have called climate science a "scam". One Nation has spread debunked conspiracy theories about climate change not occurring or being part of a plot by the United Nations. The party wants Australia to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords. +One Nation says it is "Embracing Australian coal", supporting "baseload coal as a critical part of Australia’s energy mix" and supports extending existing coal power generation capacity. One Nation also embraces Australian gas, calling it a "key national asset", wants to "lift any bans on new gas appliances in Australian households", "treat Australian gas as a strategic asset", eliminate "red, green and black tape" from the gas industry and "end the effective moratorium on offshore gas and petroleum exploration". + +=== Voting system and preferences === +In 2019, One Nation called for the abolition of full preferential voting in favour of optional preferential voting at House of Representatives elections. The announcement came shortly after Scott Morrison announced that the Liberal Party would preference One Nation behind Labor in several seats for the 2019 federal election. In Australia, optional preferential voting is currently only used for Legislative Assembly elections in New South Wales and for council elections in most warded local government areas in Queensland. +One Nation is also against the use of group voting tickets, which are currently only used for Legislative Council elections in Victoria. The party has strongly criticised Glenn Druery, a "preference whispererer" who founded the Minor Party Alliance. In the lead-up to the 2022 state election, Hanson claimed that Druery was rigging the election in favour of the incumbent state Labor government of Daniel Andrews, after a leaked video showed that Druery was trying to create a crossbench that Labor could work with. Prior to the incident, in 2017, Druery admitted that he had been directing the preferences of micro-parties away from One Nation since 1999. + +=== Other === +In March 2025, Hanson said the party wants Australia to leave the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum, cut funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and abolish the National Indigenous Australians Agency and the Department of Climate Change. + +== State and territory branches == + +== Voter base and donors == +One Nation has historically performed best in regions where the Labor Party once performed well, but in recent years has been trending more to the right over policies regarding mining and climate change. The regions where One Nation has seen the most electoral success are the Central Queensland, Darling Downs and Wide Bay–Burnett regions of Queensland and the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, all of which are working-class regions that have historically relied on coal mining as part of their local economy, and all were once strongholds for the Labor Party. + +=== Early assessments === +Surveys of voters at the 1998 federal election and the 1998 Queensland state election found One Nation voters were more likely than other voters to be male, residents of rural electorates, blue-collar workers and firearm owners. On measurements of political views, One Nation voters were distinguished by their anti-immigrant and anti-Aboriginal sentiments and by their dissatisfaction with or alienation from the political environment. On metrics of union membership, economic insecurity and identification as members of the working class, One Nation voters were nearly identical to Labor voters. However, a clear majority of One Nation voters were former Liberal and National voters rather than former Labor voters. + +=== Recent assessments === +In March 2026, The Australian conducted a statistical analysis of One Nation's performance at the 2026 South Australian state election, the first state election since the party's surge in popularity in late 2025 and one of the first occasions on which the party had fielded candidates in all seats. The analysis found that swings towards One Nation were the largest in seats with low rates of postgraduate education, high rates of low-income earners, and high percentages of blue-collar workers. The party enjoyed its strongest support in rural and outer suburban areas. + +=== Notable supporters === +After Barnaby Joyce joined One Nation in 2025, he confirmed that billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, was providing funding to the party, along with other donors he brought with him. Rinehart lent Hanson, and later Cory Bernardi, her private jet on multiple occasions, including in South Australia, where this contravened the state's laws on political donations. Bernardi said that he would repay Rinehart for the flights. Hanson has not declared multiple flights in other parts of the country. + +== Election results == + +=== Federal === + +=== New South Wales === + +=== Victoria === + +=== Western Australia === + +=== South Australia === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a39ce8077 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +--- +title: "One Nation" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Nation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:45.114297+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Queensland === + +=== Northern Territory === + +=== Maps === + +== Leaders == + +=== Federal === +Unlike the Queensland state leadership, the changes of the federal leadership of the party were largely undocumented (besides Hanson's terms), due to previously having low media attention and confusion of branch leadership within the party. +In August 2017, the party's constitution was changed so that Hanson would be party President for as long as she may wish, and to choose her successor, who may also continue until resignation. + +=== New South Wales === + +=== Victoria === + +=== Western Australia === + +=== South Australia === + +=== Queensland === + +=== Australian Capital Territory === + +== Members of parliament == + +=== Current MPs === + +==== Federal ==== + +==== South Australia ==== +Cory Bernardi MLC (2026–present) +Carlos Quaremba MLC (2026–present) +Rebecca Hewett MLC (2026–present) +David Paton MP (Ngadjuri, 2026–present) +Robert Roylance MP (Hammond, 2026–present) +Jason Virgo MP (MacKillop, 2026–present) +Chantelle Thomas MP (Narungga, 2026–present) + +==== Victoria ==== +Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell MLC (Northern Victoria, 2022–present) + +==== Western Australia ==== +Rod Caddies MLC (2025–present) +Phil Scott MLC (2025–present) + +=== Former MPs === + +== Donors == + +A 2019 report found that Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party had received over $6,000 in disclosed donations from pro-gun groups during the 2011–2018 period, with concerns these donations threatened to compromise Australia's safety by undermining gun control laws. The Queensland branch of the party received $17,000 from the agriculture sector (meat and sugar industry) between 2016 and 2021, totaling less than one percent of all publicly declared political donations during that period; the state's two major parties (Labor, Liberal National) made up 85% of total publicly declared political donations, receiving $358,270 and $1,451,991, respectively. The North Queensland-based Katter's Australian Party received over $280,000. + +== See also == + +Hansonism +Conservatism in Australia +True Blue Crew, a far-right group whose members have been involved with Pauline Hanson's One Nation +Personalist party + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Abbott, Tony; Adams, Phillip; Brett, Judith; Brunton, Ron; Fraser, Malcolm; Goot, Murray; Grattan, Michelle; Kelly, Paul; Kingston, Margo; Lake, Marilyn; McGuinness, P.P.; Reynolds, Henry; Richardson, Graham; Rothwell, Nicolas; Sheridan, Greg; Wooldridge, Michael; (1998), Two Nations. The Causes and Effects of the Rise of the One Nation Party in Australia, Bookman Press, Melbourne (Victoria) ISBN 1-86395-177-6. +Balson, Scott (2000), Inside One Nation. The inside story on a people's party born to fail, Interactive Presentations, Mt Crosby News, Queensland. ISBN 0-9577415-2-9. +Campbell, Graeme and Uhlmann, Mark (1995), Australia Betrayed. How Australian democracy has been undermined and our naive trust betrayed, Foundation Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia. ISBN 1-875778-02-0. +Davis, Rex and Stimson, Robert (1998), 'Disillusionment and disenchantment at the fringe: explaining the geography of the One Nation Party vote at the Queensland election,' People and Place, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 69–82. +Dodd, Helen J (1997). Pauline. The Hanson Phenomenon, Boolarong Press, Moorooka, Queensland. ISBN 0-646-33217-1. +Ettridge, David (2004), Consider Your Verdict, New Holland Publishers, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales. ISBN 1-74110-232-4. +Grant, Bligh (ed.) (1997), Pauline Hanson. One Nation and Australian Politics, University of New England Press, Armidale, New South Wales. ISBN 1-875821-38-4. +Hanson, Pauline (2007), Untamed and Unashamed – Pauline Hanson's autobiography, Jo-Jo Publishing, Docklands, Victoria. ISBN 0-9802836-2-0. +Jayasuriya, Laksiri and Pookong, Kee (1999), The Asianisation of Australia? Some Facts about the Myths, Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, Victoria. ISBN 0-522-84854-0 +Jupp, James (1998), 'Populism in the land of Oz,' in Meanjin, Vol.57, No.4, pp. 740–747. +Kingston, Margo (1999), Off the Rails. The Pauline Hanson Trip, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales. ISBN 1-86508-159-0. +Leach, Michael; Stokes, Geoffrey; Ward, Ian; (eds.) (2000), The Rise and Fall of One Nation, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Queensland. ISBN 0-7022-3136-3. +Mackay, Hugh (1999), Turning Point. Australians Choosing Their Future, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, New South Wales, Ch. 24, 'Xenophobia and Politics. Why Hanson was good for us.' ISBN 0-7329-1001-3. +Merritt, George J (1997), Pauline Hanson. The Truth, St George Publications, Parkholme, South Australia. ISBN 0-646-32012-2. +Pasquarelli, John (1998), The Pauline Hanson Story by the Man Who Knows, New Holland Publishers, Frenchs Forest, New South Wales. ISBN 1-86436-341-X. + +== External links == + +One Nation official website +Inside One Nation +How the Victorian branch imploded \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogenetic_depth-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogenetic_depth-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..517aef766 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogenetic_depth-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Ontogenetic depth" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogenetic_depth" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:51.371375+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Ontogenetic depth is a pseudoscientific idea proposed in February 2003 by Paul Nelson, an American philosopher of science, young Earth creationist and intelligent design advocate; he is employed by the Discovery Institute. +Basically, Nelson concludes in his 'hypothesis' that developmental complexity is unbreakable, and that if he shows Cambrian organisms to be complex, then it is therefore impossible for them to have evolved. Nelson proposes 'ontogenetic depth' as evidence of specified complexity, and a reliable marker of design by an intelligent agent, in opposition to modern evolutionary theory. +Nelson subsequently stated that ontogenetic depth is "Currently Impossible to Measure". + + +== Criticism == +Biologist PZ Myers, who works in the field of evolutionary developmental biology, dismissed the concept, stating in 2010 that "Nelson is a creationist who made up this wacky claim of "ontogenetic depth", saying he had a way of objectively measuring the complexity of the developmental process in organisms with a number that described the distance from egg to adult. Unfortunately, he forgot to tell us how one calculated this number, or how it actually accounted for the complexity of a network, or even how we'd get a number that was different for a sponge and a cat. But he did say he'd get back to us with the details tomorrow...six years ago." Myers concludes that "ontogenetic depth is a sloppily-defined concept with no theoretical support for its validity and no apparent operational utility." +The concept of 'ontogenetic depth' has not been published in any peer-reviewed journal, there are no methods described that would allow to measure this value in any organisms, nobody other than Nelson and his collaborator, Marcus Ross, do anything with the idea. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Nelson, Paul (April 6, 2011). "Understanding Ontogenetic Depth, Part I: Naming Versus Measuring". Evolution News. Retrieved 23 February 2024. +Nelson, Paul (April 7, 2011). "Understanding Ontogenetic Depth, Part II: Natural Selection Is a Harsh Mistress". Evolution News. Retrieved 23 February 2024. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPsych-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPsych-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fa52085b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPsych-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "OpenPsych" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenPsych" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:59.883657+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +OpenPsych is an online collection of three pseudoscientific open access journals covering behavioral genetics, psychology, and quantitative research in sociology. Many articles on OpenPsych promote scientific racism, and the site has been described as a "pseudoscience factory-farm". The journals were started in 2014 by a pair of nonprofessional researchers, Emil Kirkegaard and Davide Piffer, who had difficulty publishing their studies in mainstream peer-reviewed scientific journals. The website describes its contents as open peer reviewed journals, but the qualifications and neutrality of its reviewers and quality of reviews have been disputed. + + +== Founders == +OpenPsych was founded by Danish far-right white supremacist Emil Kirkegaard in 2014. Kirkegaard is also the founder of the white nationalist Human Diversity Foundation which publishes Mankind Quarterly, another pseudoscientific journal. The Mankind Quarterly was published by the Ulster Institute for Social Research, which was presided over by Richard Lynn until his death in 2023. Kirkegaard was the registrant of the Mankind Quarterly website between 2017 and February 2023, after which the WHOIS was anonymised. In February 2024, Kirkegaard filed his Mankind Publishing House LLC with the state of Wyoming under the name William Engman (his legal name since 2021). +Co-founder Davide Piffer has written on remote viewing which is widely dismissed by scientists as parapsychology. + + +== Journal contents and quality == +OpenPsych consists of three journals—Open Differential Psychology, Open Behavioral Genetics, and Open Quantitative Sociology & Political Science—founded by Emil Kirkegaard and Davide Piffer in 2014. Journal contents are free to access and there is no cost associated with submission. The founders of the website believed that their articles were being regularly rejected by mainstream scientific publishers because of bias against their contentious submissions. Many of the articles are about "race realism", a form of scientific racism, and advance related views which are rejected by mainstream science, such as the idea that there is a genetic basis for group-level differences in measures such as crime and IQ. Unlike typical scientific journals, OpenPsych accepts anonymous manuscripts. + + +=== Academic reception === +The quality of peer review at OpenPsych has been disputed. Reviewers do not need advanced academic qualifications, nor need to specialise in what they review. For example, Kirkegaard reviews paper submissions to two of the journals, but has only a BA in linguistics, claiming he is entirely "self-taught". Most of the reviewers are also authors of articles in the same group of journals. Of the thirteen known members of the review board in 2020, two were anonymous and eight seemed to have doctorates. Members of the review teams include Gerhard Meisenberg, Heiner Rindermann, Peter Frost, John Fuerst, Kenya Kura, Bryan J. Pesta, Noah Carl and Meng Hu. + + +=== Political positions === +The journals act as a research network for far right, alt-right, and White nationalist causes, following in the footsteps of the Pioneer Fund and Mankind Quarterly; of its top 15 contributors in 2018, 11 had written for Mankind Quarterly in the preceding three years. Several members of its editorial board hold far-right political views and have attended the controversial London Conference on Intelligence. The Southern Poverty Law Center, in an article discussing proponents of scientific racism including Kirkegaard, describes OpenPsych as a "pseudojournal". Kirkegaard is regarded by the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right to be a "figure on the radical right fringe". Landis MacKellar has described Emil Kirkegaard and John Fuerst as "both outright cranks" noting OpenPsych are "tenderly peer-reviewed online journals specializing in scientifically controversial (bordering on dubious) politically incorrect pieces derived in part from (Roger) Pearsonian hereditarianism." + + +=== Review process === +Eric Turkheimer in a coauthored paper in Perspectives on Psychological Science criticises the review process of OpenPsych's journals and describes them as "pseudo-scientific vehicles for scientific racism": + +Notably, Fuerst and Dalliard (2014) was published in Open Behavioral Genetics, an online journal created and edited by another author of Pesta et al. (2020; Kirkegaard). Open Behavioral Genetics and related journals in the OpenPsych network (also created and edited by Kirkegaard) have been dismissed by experts in the field as pseudo-scientific vehicles for scientific racism (Panofsky et al., 2020). Per online records of the review process for Fuerst and Dalliard (2014) (OpenPsych, 2014a, 2014b), Kirkegaard was one of the reviewers of Fuerst and Dalliard (2014), and Fuerst himself was one of only a handful of reviewers for the journal at the time. Thus, neither of Fuerst's original analyses has undergone rigorous peer review. + + +== Controversies == + + +=== OkCupid === +In May 2016, Kirkegaard and Julius Daugbjerg Bjerrekær published a paper in Open Differential Psychology that includes the data of nearly 70,000 OkCupid (a dating website) users, such as their intimate sexual details. The publication was widely criticised at the time and been described as "without a doubt one of the most grossly unprofessional, unethical and reprehensible data releases." Although Kirkegaard claimed the data was public, this was disputed by data ethics scholar Michael Zimmer who pointed out that the data is restricted to logged-in users only: + +Moreover, it remains unclear whether the OkCupid profiles scraped by Kirkegaard's team really were publicly accessible. Their paper reveals that initially, they designed a bot to scrape profile data, but that this first method was dropped because it was "a decidedly non-random approach to find users to scrape because it selected users that were suggested to the profile the bot was using." This implies that the researchers created an OkCupid profile from which to access the data and run the scraping bot. Since OkCupid users have the option to restrict the visibility of their profiles to logged-in users only, it is likely the researchers collected—and subsequently released—profiles that were intended to not be publicly viewable. The final methodology used to access the data is not fully explained in the article, and the question of whether the researchers respected the privacy intentions of 70,000 people who used OkCupid remains unanswered. +Kirkegaard uploaded the OkCupid data to the Open Science Framework, but this was later removed after OkCupid filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint. + + +=== Noah Carl === +In April 2019, Noah Carl who reviews submissions for Open Quantitative Sociology & Political Science was dismissed as a research fellow at St Edmund's College, Cambridge University because of his association with OpenPsych, which involved collaborating with a number of individuals who are known to hold racist and far-right political views. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Drake-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Drake-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a591b7335 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Drake-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Drake" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Drake" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:51.779420+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Operation Drake (1978–1980) was a round-the-world voyage with the participation of young people from many countries, sailing in the brigantine Eye of the Wind. She left Plymouth in October 1978 and returned to London two years later, in December 1980. +Named after Sir Francis Drake, who had circumnavigated the world 400 years earlier on the Golden Hind, Operation Drake was divided into nine ocean- and one land-based phases, each lasting about 3 months. On each phase, a number of Young Explorers aged between seventeen and twenty-four, selected from countries all over the world, worked together on serious scientific exploration, research and community projects. +The expedition was mounted by the Scientific Exploration Society, and the expedition leader was Colonel John Blashford-Snell. Charles, Prince of Wales, (now King Charles III), was the Patron of Operation Drake. +Amongst the works produced on the voyage were series of specimens, including bats obtained in New Guinea, that were deposited and examined at the British Museum of Natural History. + + +== Books == +Blashford-Snell, John (1981). Operation Drake. London: W. H. Allen & Co. ISBN 0-491-02965-9. +"In the Eye of the Wind", by Roger Chapman (Hamish Hamilton, London 1982, ISBN 0-241-10764-4) +Mitchell, Andrew W. (1982). Operation Drake, Voyage of Discovery. William Collins, Sons. ISBN 0-7278-2007-9.) + + +== See also == +Raleigh International + + +== Further reading == +Wilford, John Noble (December 7, 1980). "Young Explorers Near End of a 2-Year, Round-the-World Voyage. Lost City in Panama. Site of Fort Excavated". The New York Times. p. 94. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Eye of the Wind - Present owners +Eye of the Wind - 1973-2001 +Pictures of "Eye of the Wind" +Operation Drake Pictures - April to December 1980 (Borkur Arnvidarson) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hazen-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hazen-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..059620286 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hazen-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Hazen" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hazen" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:52.929040+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Operation Hazen was a Canadian programme of meteorological, glaciological and geological work undertaken as part of the International Geophysical Year. The investigations took place between 1957 and 1959 at Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada. The programme was led by English-born geologist Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith. +Organised by the Defence Research Board, twenty scientists took part in the operation, including officers from the Fisheries Research Board, the Geological Survey, the Human History and Natural History branches of the National Museum, the Canadian Wildlife Service, and members of McGill University, the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, and Michigan State University. + + +== Name == +In 1882 American polar explorer Adolphus Greely was the first European to discover Lake Hazen during his 1881–1883 expedition and named the lake in honour of General William Babcock Hazen who had organized the expedition. Operation Hazen took its name from the lake. + + +== 1957–58 == +Between 28 April and 3 May the Royal Canadian Air Force flew in seven members of the party. A bulldozer dropped from the first flight was used to clear nine inches of snow to form a 3,500 foot airstrip. Two tractors, two dog teams and 35 tonnes of supplies and equipment were then subsequently flown in by a C119 aircraft. +A party of six carried out glaciological, glacial-meteorological, and seismic survey studies on Gilman Glacier between April and August 1957. Meanwhile, two geologists worked from Hazen Camp, the main camp established on the shores of Lake Hazen. The glaciological work used seismic and gravity methods to determine ice thickness. +Four meteorologists wintered at the base camp from August 1957 to April 1958. From April to August 1958, studies continued on Gilman Glacier, and further studies took place on the ice cap to the north of Lake Hazen, the Lake Hazen basin and other parts of northern Ellesmere Island. Twelve members, stationed at the base camp, carried out meteorological, geological, limnological, geomorphological, botanical, zoological and archaeological investigations. + + +== 1959 == +Glaciological, meteorological and botanical research was conducted on Gilman Glacier in the summer of 1959. +During the spring and autumn re-supply operations, the expedition was supported by the United States Coast Guard, the United States Navy, and the United States Air Force. + + +== See also == +Queen Elizabeth Islands + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunshine_(USS_Nautilus)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunshine_(USS_Nautilus)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..85ac861dc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunshine_(USS_Nautilus)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Sunshine (USS Nautilus)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sunshine_(USS_Nautilus)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:54.239677+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Operation Sunshine was a scientific expedition conducted by the United States Navy in the summer of 1958. A crew of just over 100 sailors piloted USS Nautilus (SSN-571) under the North Pole. Nautilus was chosen for the mission because her nuclear reactor allowed her to remain submerged longer than a conventional submarine. The mission was completed successfully on August 3, 1958, when Nautilus and crew crossed under the North Pole. + + +== Vanguard == +One of the "fronts" of the Cold War was a technology race between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union. There was tension between the two governments over nuclear weapons, and a "space race" developed during the late 1950s, in which each government aimed to demonstrate its superiority through demonstrations of scientific and technological advances. Russia celebrated the successful launch of their Sputnik I satellite into orbit in October 1957. Shortly after, the United States attempted to launch their Vanguard I satellite, which exploded before lifting off. +Soviet researchers were ahead of their U.S. counterparts in rocket technology, and the American public was aware of this technology gap. There was concern that the Soviet government would be able to use the same rockets that had propelled Sputnik to launch nuclear-armed missiles at targets within the United States. President Eisenhower's aim was to speed the development of U.S. rocketry to keep pace with the Soviets, but also to minimize American fears related to this technological disparity. Eisenhower needed something to show Americans, and the rest of the world, that there were technological areas in which the U.S. government was ahead of the Soviets. The chosen solution was to combine submarine technology and nuclear reactor technology – two areas where U.S. science was ahead of the Soviets – in order to create a technological showpiece to reinforce American public perception. + + +== Nautilus == +USS Nautilus was the first nuclear submarine built for the U.S. armed forces. She was designed by Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover ordered the hull of the boat built at Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, while the reactor was built and tested in Idaho. + + +== Mission == +It was not enough that the United States had just built a nuclear submarine, Nautilus had to be tested to show how much more advanced the technology was. Ideas were bounced around including for Nautilus and USS Skate (SSN-578) to complete a submerged lap around the Earth. Until Nautilus commander, William Anderson, suggested the submerged trip under the North Pole, it had not even been considered. +Nautilus departed from Groton on 19 August 1957 for the first attempt at sailing under the Pole, but was unsuccessful because of the ice being too deep. Another attempt was not made until the next summer. On 23 July 1958, Nautilus left the Pearl Harbor naval base heading north towards the Bering Strait. The submarine and crew crossed under the pole at 2315 on August 3 and continued for four more days until exiting from under the polar ice northeast of Greenland where Commander Anderson radioed to the President the message, "Nautilus 90 North". +Even the second attempt did not go without issues, the crew having to deal with large amounts of ice blockage as well as mechanical failures aboard the sub. The hope was that the mission was timed to where the ice levels in the Arctic would be at their lowest making it easier to navigate through the waters under the pole without hitting the bottom or the top with the periscope. The expedition was also used as a testing ground not only for the sub, but as an opportunity for the Navy to experiment with different types of navigational equipment. +An example of such research related to navigation by compass. Normally a ship or small craft relies on a magnetic compass which works by comparing one's position to magnetic north. A major flaw with magnetic compasses is that magnetic north is not exactly on the North Pole but south of it so the crew was experimenting with a new design of the gyro-compass. As they inched farther north, the gyro-compass was much more reliable than the magnetic which pointed in nearly the opposite direction. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1058e5562 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Tabarin" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:19.516881+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Operation Tabarin was the code name for a secret British expedition to the Antarctic during World War Two, operational 1943–1946. Conducted by the Admiralty on behalf of the Colonial Office, its primary objective was to strengthen British claims to sovereignty of the British territory of the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID), to which Argentina and Chile had made counter claims since the outbreak of war. This was done by establishing permanently occupied bases, carrying out administrative activities such as postal services and undertaking scientific research. The meteorological observations made aided Allied shipping in the South Atlantic Ocean. +Following Cabinet approval in January 1943, there was an intensive period of planning, recruitment and procurement, before the expedition left the UK in November 1943, led by Lieutenant-Commander James Marr. Two bases were established in early 1944 – firstly, Base B, at Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, and later the main base, Base A, at Port Lockroy, Wiencke Island. A variety of science and mapping work was carried out. 14 men over-wintered in 1944. +In the Antarctic summer of 1944/45, Captain Andrew Taylor became leader, following the resignation of Marr due to ill health. A base hut was built on Coronation Island, South Orkney Islands (Base C) but not occupied. Base D, Hope Bay, Trinity Peninsula, was established as the centre for the expedition's second year. The resupply of the bases included men, supplies and equipment, together with 25 sled dogs to extend field work on the mainland of the Antarctic Peninsula. A full programme of science and mapping was undertaken. 21 men over-wintered in 1945. +The expedition was relieved in March 1946 by members of the newly formed Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS). FIDS had been established in July 1945, following the end of the War in Europe, to put the work started by Operation Tabarin on a permanent footing. In 1962 FIDS was re-named the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), following Britain's ratification of the Antarctic Treaty and the creation of British Antarctic Territory. +Operation Tabarin established the first British permanently-occupied stations in the Antarctic and, in commencing geology, biology and mapping, was the foundation for continuous British scientific research in Antarctica. The huskies provided the core of a British Antarctic husky population, used for survey journeys, that lasted until 1994. + +== Background == +Following the outbreak of World War II, Allied shipping across the globe became vulnerable to attacks by German Navy commerce raiders and U-boats. The War also threatened to reignite the longstanding Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute with neutral Argentina. +The important trade routes round Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope made the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean a particular target, with a corresponding threat to the Falkland Islands and its Dependencies. In January 1941, the German cruiser Pinguin attacked the unarmed and unescorted Norwegian whaling fleet. Pinguin seized a haul of 20,320 tons of whale oil, one of the largest prizes seized by a commerce raider during the war. +In response, the British authorities sent the armed merchant cruiser Queen of Bermuda to patrol the area between South Georgia, the South Shetland Islands and Weddell Sea. On 5 March, Queen of Bermuda visited the abandoned Norwegian Hektor Whaling Station in Whalers Bay, Deception Island, which was a well known safe harbour, destroying stocks of coal and oil, and associated equipment, to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. +The entry of Japan into the war in December 1941 increased the threat, with fear that Japan might seek to seize the Falkland Islands as a base in the South Atlantic. The Islands' defences were minimal and approaches to the USA for support were unsuccessful, though endorsed by the British prime minister, Winston Churchill. +In January 1942, Argentina's Comisión Nacional del Antártico dispatched the transport ARA Primero de Mayo to Deception Island, afterwards sailing to the Melchior Islands, Palmer Archipelago and Winter Island. Argentine flags were raised in these locations and all territories south of 60° S and between 25° W and 68.34° W were declared annexed. +On 28 January 1943 a meeting of the War Cabinet, chaired by Clement Attlee considered Foreign Office proposals to address what were seen as mounting Argentine encroachments on British territory. These were to dispatch the armed merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle to the Dependencies to make landings, carry out administrative activities and remove marks of Argentine claims, and, crucially, to establish permanently occupied bases at strategic locations. Both were approved. +Upon reaching Deception Island, Carnarvon Castle replaced the Argentinian flag with the Union Jack and placed four British Crown Land signs. A month later Primero de Mayo returned and duly replaced the Union Jack with the Argentinian flag. The British concluded that occupation was indeed necessary to end these tit-for-tat tactics. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2fbbca9e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Tabarin" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:19.516881+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Planning and preparation === +In May 1943, following a number of interdepartmental meetings, planning started for an expedition to occupy sites in the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID). A meeting on 27 May set the objective of establishing permanent bases on Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, and on Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, funded through sales of a new FID stamp issue to philatelists, though in the event most costs were met through the Admiralty. During the planning stage the priority for the location of the second base was changed to Hope Bay, since it was on the mainland, with an option to erect a hut on Signy Island if resources allowed. Final instructions were issued in November 1943, clarifying the physical and political objectives, importance of the issuing of stamps, appointment of magistrates and other acts of sovereignty. In the field the expedition was under the authority of the Governor of the Falkland Islands, who received instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. +An Expedition Committee was established in June 1943, chaired by A.B. Acheson, Colonial Office Under-Secretary, with members from the Colonial Office, Foreign Office, Admiralty, Treasury, Crown Agents, Ministry of War Transport and Discovery Investigations. +It was agreed that scientific research and mapping should be undertaken by the expedition and three scientists with significant Antarctic experience were involved. Two joined the committee from the outset: geologist and polar explorer James Wordie, a member of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition and one of the founders of the Scott Polar Research Institute, and Neil Mackintosh, a zoologist and Director of the Discovery Investigations. The third, Brian Roberts, was an ornithologist on the British Graham Land Expedition, who was working with Wordie in the Admiralty Intelligence Department on cold-climate clothing and equipment. He was formally involved after February 1944, when he took up a post at the Foreign Office Research Department. Mackintosh prepared a detailed scientific programme for the shore parties. +The expedition code name 'Tabarin' was acknowledged in October when departments within the Admiralty were informed, though it is likely to have been in use earlier. A hand-written note by Roberts explains that the name, after the Paris night club Bal Tabarin, was chosen because of the amount of night work required and the chaotic organisation. According to some sources the expedition was briefly code named Operation Bransfield, after Royal Navy officer Edward Bransfield. The Forces mail address Naval Party 475 was allocated for the bases to be established, and Naval Party 470 for the expedition ship. The expedition was considered top secret but by April 1944 news of it had leaked out, not least because of the philately work undertaken at the direction of the Colonial Office. +Marine biologist and polar explorer James Marr was selected as leader of the expedition. His experience included participation in Shackleton's last expedition, during 1921–22, as an 18-year old; the British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) 1929–30; and as a scientist on the Discovery Investigations 1928–1929, 1931–1933, 1935–1937. At the time of his recall, Marr was serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the Far East. He arrived in the UK in July 1943 and joined the expedition committee. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Commander. + +Marr's priorities were to find an expedition vessel and recruit suitably experienced volunteers. In the circumstances of war and time constraints it was difficult to find a ship built to navigate through sea ice and with sufficient cargo capacity. He flew to Iceland to inspect a Norwegian sealer Veslekari, built in 1918, that had been used on Arctic expeditions in the past. After further inspection by a surveyor, she was considered suitable, brought to Tilbury, London for a refit and requisitioned by the Admiralty under the name HMS Bransfield. Lieutenant Victor Marchesi, Royal Navy, was appointed as her captain and second-in-command of the expedition. Marchesi had served on the Discovery Investigations with Marr. +Potential recruits were identified by Marr, assisted by Wordie and Mackenzie, and interviewed by him at the Colonial Office in September. Most were serving in the armed forces or the merchant navy, but some were still in civilian roles. Several were well known to them through the Discovery Investigations, including the chief steward Thomas Berry, ship's carpenter Lewis Ashton, senior wireless operator James Farrington, handymen John Matheson and Gwion Davies. Other specialists recruited were surveyor Andrew Taylor, a Canadian with cold-weather experience; medical officer Eric Back; meteorologist Gordon Howkins; botanist Ivan Mackenzie Lamb, then working at the British Museum of Natural History; and two geologists, William Flett, from Glasgow University and Buck, who withdrew from the expedition before it left the UK; and wireless operator Norman Layther, a New Zealander. + +== Expedition == + +By late October all the necessary equipment and stores were packed and assembled at the Royal Albert Dock, London. As the Bransfield was too small to carry the whole load, some of the cargo, including the prefabricated hut, had already been shipped ahead aboard steamships Groix and Ragnhildsholm, and now more stores and two expedition members were allocated to SS Marquesa. Bransfield herself, with the rest of the expedition, was scheduled to sail on 6 November, but was delayed when leaking fresh water tanks had to be replaced. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5f8852742 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Tabarin" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:19.516881+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Journey south === +On 12 November 1943 Bransfield finally sailed from London, joining a small coastal convoy bound for Falmouth. Problems arose almost immediately and she had to put in to Portsmouth for repairs. She continued on 25 November but proved unseaworthy during a gale on the voyage west. Meanwhile, the Marquesa, on leaving Liverpool wharf, had grounded on a submerged wreck and the Tabarin contingent were ordered to re-join the rest of the expedition. Forced to abandon the Bransfield, the expedition was trans-shipped to the troop ship Highland Monarch at Avonmouth in Bristol on 8 December. She was taking a relief garrison to the Falkland Islands and sailed on 14 December, calling at Gibraltar and Montevideo before reaching Port Stanley on 26 January. Waiting for them, to replace Bransfield, was HMS William Scoresby. Built for whale marking work by the Discovery Investigations, she had been requisitioned by the Royal Navy for mine sweeping duties in the South Atlantic during the war. She had very limited cargo capacity but the Falkland Islands Company vessel SS Fitzroy had also been assigned to the expedition to transport cargo and most of the personnel. The Fitzroy had already collected the cargo carried to Montevideo on other vessels. + +=== 1st year – Antarctic summer 1943/44 and winter 1944 === + +The two ships left Port Stanley on 29 January. In addition to the expedition, the Fitzroy carried Tim Hooley, his wife and 14-year-old daughter. Hooley was taking up a two-year post as wireless operator for the Government station on South Georgia, and the family were only landed there once the priority objectives of establishing two Tabarin bases was achieved. On 3 February 1944 the expedition arrived at Port Foster, Deception Island. This being the most likely place for Argentine or German vessels to shelter, they were relieved that there were no signs of recent occupation, other than an Argentine flag painted on a fuel tank, which was promptly erased. Few of the buildings were inhabitable, but one of the Hektor Station buildings was selected for Base B. Unloading commenced immediately and by 6 February the two ships were able to depart, leaving geologist Flett as leader of a five-man party. +The expedition sailed for Hope Bay, arriving on 7 February, to find that the approach to the bay from Antarctic Sound was through a 10-mile wide band of pack ice. This posed a risk to the safety of the Fitzroy, which was not ice-strengthened in any way. William Scoresby proceeded through the sea ice and landed a reconnoitering party, but, though urged to follow, the Fitzroy's captain, Keith Pitt, and Captain David Roberts (a representative of the Falkland Islands Company), decided they could not risk the ship. The following day the attempt was reluctantly abandoned and the decision made to proceed south-west along the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula in search of an alternative mainland site. Due to thick fog, it was not until 10 February that the ships left Bransfield Strait and began the search. With Fitzroy now running low on coal and no suitable landing site having been found, Marr agreed that the expedition should make for Port Lockroy, Wiencke Island, a well known safe harbour with several low rocky islets where the base could be built. The two vessels arrived there on the afternoon of 11 February. + +Although long-used by ships visiting the area, Port Lockroy's location restricted the range of scientific activities possible because the Gerlache Strait rarely froze, so cutting off access to the mainland. In addition, as an island location, it was inferior to Hope Bay, on the Peninsula mainland, from the perspective of strengthening British sovereignty, though this was somewhat mitigated by it being so well known. Both these factors added to the pressure Marr was under. Nevertheless, a site for the hut was chosen on Goudier Island, Base A was established, and discharging of cargo began at once. Signs of Argentine territorial claims left by Primero de Mayo were removed. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e4f447850 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Tabarin" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:19.516881+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The main hut, named Bransfield House in memory of their original expedition ship, was a prefabricated design by the Norwich firm of Boulton and Paul. On 15 February the generator was successfully installed, enabling wireless communication with Stanley and Base B to be established. Three extensions to the hut were added between February and April, using materials brought from Deception Island or found nearby, and also a Nissen hut for storage. The postmarking of mail at Port Lockroy began on 12 February, indicating the importance given to philatelic duties. Falkland Islands stamps overprinted with the inscription "Graham Land, Dependency of" were used. The William Scoresby and Fitzroy left the new base on 17 February for Base B, Deception Island, before visiting Signy Island, arriving on 20th. A landing was made and a Union flag nailed to a disused whaling hut. Mail was processed using South Orkney overprinted stamps. From there the vessels sailed to Grytviken, South Georgia, where the Hooley family disembarked, before returning to the Falkland Islands, taking official mail. +William Scoresby visited Base A twice more before winter set in. On 19 March she brought Falkland Islander John Blyth, who joined the team as a cook/handyman in place of Blair. On 17 April, she delivered a large quantity of mail to be stamped and cancelled. On 22 April Marr and others were aboard when the vessel visited Cape Renard to erect a Union Jack and British Crown Land sign. Port Stanley Town Hall, in which the Post Office was located, was destroyed by fire on 16 April. In addition to the loss of expedition mail, this compromised the expedition's secrecy as correspondence now passed through Montevideo. Tabarin's existence became known to the outside world through a BBC announcement and press releases on 24 April. +Both bases made meteorological observations, transmitted twice a day to the meteorological station in Stanley, and sea ice observations during the winter. At Deception Island upper air observations were made using meteorological balloons. A geological survey was also undertaken, and aspects of glaciology and physiography observed. At Port Lockroy scientific work began in early May with the collection of rock samples from the foot of Jabet Peak and Savoia Peak. A botanical survey was made by Lamb, mainly of lichens, that included the discovery of a number of unrecorded species, including Verrucaria serpuloides, the then only known true marine lichen, thus making a considerable contribution to the taxonomy of Antarctic lichens. During the winter the nine men practised skiing, prepared equipment for planned field trips and Taylor carried out local mapping work. In September a party of four, man hauling two sledges, undertook a topographic survey of Wiencke Island over 25 days, in challenging terrain and poor weather conditions. As spring advanced Lamb took advantage of the low tides and melting snow to conduct an ecological study of the local beaches, Marr encouraging the others to collect zoological specimens. On 18 November Lamb led a field party back to Blyth Point (on Wiencke Island) to complete his botanical collecting there. Bird and lichen specimens were gathered, the former for the needs of the British Museum (Natural History). +List of Winterers 1944 – British Antarctic Survey – Operation Tabarin List of personnel +Base A, Port Lockroy + +James W.R. Marr – expedition commander, base leader, zoologist +Lewis Ashton – carpenter +Eric H. Back – medical officer, meteorologist +A. Thomas Berry – purser/ storeman +John Blyth – cook (replaced Kenneth C.G. Blair in March 1944) +Gwion Davies – handyman, scientific assistant +James E.B.F. Farrington – senior wireless operator mechanic +Elke Mackenzie – botanist +Andrew Taylor – surveyor +Base B, Deception Island + +William R. Flett – base leader, geologist +Gordon A. Howkins – meteorologist +Norman F. Layther – wireless operator mechanic +John Matheson – handyman +Charles Smith – cook + +=== 2nd year – Antarctic summer 1944/45 and winter 1945 === + +On 6 December, William Scoresby returned to Station B bringing plants native to the Falklands and soil for Lamb to conduct a transplantation experiment, which ultimately failed due to low humidity and strong winds. On 3 February 1945, Fitzroy and the 550 ton sealer Eagle arrived at Port Lockroy, with Victor Russell and David James, Norman Bertram Marshall, Gordon Lockley, Frank White, Alan Reece, Thomas Donnachie and Norman Layther aboard. Stores, equipment and crew members destined for the erection of an unmanned Base E on Stonington Island moved into Eagle, others boarded William Scoresby and Fitzroy in order to build Station D on Hope Bay. +On 7 February, Marr resigned on account of poor health and later returned to the Falklands, with Taylor replacing him as expedition leader. Taylor abandoned the plan to build the Stonington Island station focusing his attention on Station D. On 13 February, Seal Point was selected as the most suitable location for Station D and the first steps for its erection were made, construction was completed on 20 March. On 23 February, a hut was built on Coronation Island to reinforce British claims to the area. Later on the British expedition paid the Argentine meteorological station on Laurie Island a courtesy visit. +A few fossil specimens were collected at Hope Bay in February, with systematic gathering of paleobotanical specimens from Mount Flora's shale beginning on 8 June. A sledging expedition from Hope was launched in August. On 29 December, the sledging party returned to Base D, having visited Vortex Island, Duse Bay, James Ross Island and numerous small islands in its vicinity. +The trip resulted in 250 kilograms (550 lb) of lichen, fossil and rock samples, meteorological and glaciological measurements as well as corrections to Otto Nordenskjöld's maps. +List of Winterers 1945 +Base A, Port Lockroy \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7e8be1715 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +--- +title: "Operation Tabarin" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tabarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:19.516881+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Gordon J. Lockley – base leader, meteorologist, zoologist – British Antarctic Survey – Operation Tabarin List of personnel +John K. Biggs – handyman +Norman F. Layther – wireless operator mechanic +Francis White – cook – British Antarctic Survey – Operation Tabarin List of personnel +Base B, Deception Island – British Antarctic Survey – Operation Tabarin List of personnel + +Alan W. Reece – base leader, meteorologist +Samuel Bonner – handyman +James E.B.F. Farrington - senior wireless operator mechanic +Charles Smith - cook +Base D, Hope Bay – British Antarctic Survey – Operation Tabarin List of personnel + +Andrew Taylor – expedition commander, base leader, surveyor +Lewis Ashton – carpenter +Eric H. Back – medical officer, meteorologist +A. Thomas Berry – storeman, cook +John Blyth – cook +Gwion Davies – handyman, scientific assistant +Thomas Donnachie – wireless operator mechanic +William R. Flett – geologist +David P. James – surveyor +Elke Mackenzie Lamb (then known as Ivan Mackenzie Lamb) – botanist +Norman B. Marshall – zoologist +John Matheson – handyman +Victor I. Russell – surveyor + +=== 3rd year – Antarctic summer 1945/46 === +On 14 January 1946, William Scoresby, Fitzroy and 300-ton sealer Trepassey began evacuating the members of the expedition to the Falklands. On 11 February, those serving in the military boarded HMS Ajax (22), and the rest sailed home on Highland Monarch. + +== Aftermath == + +The end of World War II led to renewed interest in the Antarctic region. The United States refused to recognise any foreign territorial claims to Antarctica, initiating Operation Highjump. Argentina and Chile signed the Argentine-Chilean Agreement on Joint Defence of "Antarctic Rights", a defence agreement that envisioned potential military action over disputed Antarctic lands. Chile organized its First Chilean Antarctic Expedition in 1947–1948. +Among other accomplishments, it brought Chilean President Gabriel González Videla to inaugurate one of its bases personally, and he thereby became the first head of state to set foot on the continent. +Britain, on the other hand, continued the operation of the bases built during Operation Tabarin by transferring them to the newly established Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. Operation Tabarin veterans Reece, White and Russell remained at their bases and continued their work for the FIDS. Participants of Operation Tabarin were awarded the Polar Medal in 1953. +Port Lockroy made the first measurements of the ionosphere and the first recording of an atmospheric whistler (electronic waves). It was also a key monitoring site during the International Geophysical Year of 1957. Port Lockroy was designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 61) and is now a museum following a proposal by the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. + +== See also == +UK Antarctic Heritage Trust +List of Antarctic expeditions +New Swabia +Territorial claims in Antarctica + +== References == + +== Sources == +Dudeney, J. R.; Walton, D. W. (2012). "From Scotia to Operation Tabarin – Developing British Policy for Antarctica". Polar Record. 48 (4): 342. Bibcode:2012PoRec..48..342D. doi:10.1017/S0032247411000520. S2CID 145613031. +Fuchs, Sir Vivian E. (1982). Of Ice and Men. The Story of the British Antarctic Survey 1943-1973. Anthony Nelson. +Haddelsey, S. (2014). Operation Tabarin: Britain's Secret Wartime Expedition to Antarctica, 1944–46. Stroud: History Press. ISBN 9780752493565. +Pearce, Gerry (2018). Operation Tabarin 1943-45 and its Postal History. Independent Publishing Network. ISBN 978-1-78926-580-4. (Self-published but extensively references primary sources in national and specialist archives. Copies held by the UK legal deposit libraries, Trinity College Dublin Library and the libraries of the British Antarctic Survey and Scott Polar Research Institute (both in Cambridge, England)) +Robertson, S. C. (1993). Operation Tabarin. British Antarctic Survey. Information booklet produced for 50th anniversary. +Taylor, Andrew (2017). Heidt, D.; Lackenbauer, P. W. (eds.). Two Years Below the Horn. Operation Tabarin, Field Science and Antarctic Sovereignty, 1944-1946. Canada: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0-88755-791-0. +Walton, Kevin; Atkinson, Rick (1995). Of Dogs and Men: Fifty Years in the Antarctic. Illustrated Story of the Dogs of the British Antarctic Survey. Images (Booksellers & Distributors) Ltd. ISBN 1-897817-55-X. +Wordie, J. M. (1946). "The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, 1943–6". Polar Record. 4 (32): 372–384. Bibcode:1946PoRec...4..372W. doi:10.1017/S0032247400042479. S2CID 129588807. + +== Further reading == +"History of BAS Research Stations". British Antarctic Survey, history. Retrieved 25 March 2021. Includes the 4 bases established during Tabarin: Base A, Port Lockroy; Base B, Deception Island; Base C, Coronation Island; Base D, Hope Bay. +Bryan, Rorke (2011). Ordeal by Ice: Ships of the Antarctic. Seaforth Publishing. +Fuchs, Sir Vivian E. (1973). Evolution of a Venture in Antarctic Science – Operation Tabarin and the British Antarctic Survey in Frozen Future edited by Lewis, R. S. and Smith, P.M. New York: Quadrangle Books. pp. 234–239. +James, D. P. (1949). That Frozen Land. Falcon Press. +Kjær, Kjell-G.; Sefland, Magnus (2005). "The Arctic Ship Veslekari". Polar Record. 41 (216): 57–65. Bibcode:2005PoRec..41...57K. doi:10.1017/S0032247404003997. S2CID 131638156. +Lamb, Ivan Mackenzie (2018). The Secret South. A Tale of Operation Tabarin 1943–46 edited by Haddelsey, S. and Lewis-Smith, R.. Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-78438-420-3. +Squires, Harold (1992). S.S. Eagle – The Secret Mission 1944–45. Jesperson Press. +Various (1993). "Operation Tabarin 50th Anniversary". BAS Club Newsletter. 30 (Summer). BAS Club: 30–72. Includes articles by several expedition members. +Headland, Robert K. (2009). A Chronology of Antarctic Expeditions. A synopsis of events and activities from the earliest times until the International Polar Years, 2007-09. Bernard Quaritch Ltd. ISBN 978-0955085284. + +== External links == +UK Antarctic Heritage Trust – The trust manages the historic sites of Port Lockroy (Base A) and Whaler's Bay (Base B). +British Antarctic Oral History Project – Includes interviews with expedition members Marchesi, Taylor, Back, Davies, Farrington and George James (wireless operator HMS William Scoresby). +British Antarctic Survey – British scientific organisation that developed from Operation Tabarin. The Archives holds official expedition records, photographs and moving film. +University of Manitoba – The Archives holds Andrew Taylor's personal records. +M/S Veslekari - Danish Wikipedia article +Deception Island Antarctic Specially Managed Area - History of the Hektor Whaling Station \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Gagarin-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Gagarin-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7e8477fed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Gagarin-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Order of Gagarin" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Gagarin" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:50.317493+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Order of Gagarin is a high-ranking Russian award established to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of the Russian and Soviet space program. Named after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to journey into space in 1961, the Order of Gagarin was created in 2023 in honor of the 60th anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963 and the 62nd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic spaceflight aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft. + + +== History == +On April 12, 2023, Yuri Borisov, the Director General of Roscosmos, announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had approved the proposal by Roscosmos to establish the order in the name of Gagarin. According to the statute approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on May 27, 2023, No. 385, the Order of Gagarin is awarded to Russian citizens primarily for successful crewed spaceflight, crewed spaceflight programs for exploration, development, and utilization of space. The primary objective of the Order of Gagarin is to acknowledge individuals and organizations that have significantly contributed to the field of space exploration and related scientific disciplines. +The order is worn on the left side of the chest, and if other orders of the Russian Federation are present, it is placed after the Order of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr. + + +== Notable recipients == +Valentina Tereshkova, Hero of the Soviet Union and member of the State Duma. + + +== See also == +Orders, decorations, and medals of Russia +Medal "For Merit in Space Exploration" + + +== References == + + +== External links == + Media related to Order of Gagarin at Wikimedia Commons \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..473216c18 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Our Homeland Movement" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:46.285774+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Our Homeland Movement (Hungarian: Mi Hazánk Mozgalom [ˈmi ˈhɒzaːŋk ˈmozɡɒlom], Mi Hazánk, MH or MHM) is a far-right political party in Hungary. It was founded by Ásotthalom mayor and former Jobbik Vice-President László Toroczkai, along with other Jobbik dissidents who left the organization after the party's leadership moved away from its radical right beginnings and became more moderate. +The party ran in the 2019 European Parliament election for the first time but did not win a seat. In the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, it became the third-largest party in the country, with a result of nearly 6%, far surpassing public opinion polls. In the 2024 European Parliament election, the party continued to increase its support, reaching nearly 7%. The party again received almost 6% of the vote in the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election, maintaining its 6 seats. + +== History == +On 8 April 2018, after the loss in the 2018 Hungarian parliamentary election, Jobbik president Gábor Vona, resigned and a reform congress was announced in the party. Toroczkai was the first to indicate his intention to run for the position of president, which was followed by the presidential application of Tamás Sneider, nominated by the acting presidency. Almost half of the congress delegates (46%) voted for the pair of László Toroczkai (president) and Dóra Dúró (deputy president). Toroczkai announced that he was forming a platform within the party called Mi Magunk. +The presidency announced that it would not accept Toroczkai's platform because it considered it against the constitution, although there was no such decision in the constitution. Proceedings were initiated against Toroczkai and Dúró, and Dúró was expelled from the faction and Toroczkai from the party. After that, Dóra Dúró alongside her husband Előd Novák, left the party and the Mi Magunk platform became an independent movement. As a result of Toroczkai's expulsion and the proceedings against Dúró, many Jobbik members and grassroots organizations indicated their withdrawal from the party or their dissolution. Some of them joined the new movement. On 20 August 2018, they announced their Founding Declaration at their celebratory event in Budapest's Városliget. On August 21, Dúró (as Deputy President) announced that the court registration of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom as a political party was legally binding. + +In early 2019, the party made an alliance with the right-wing Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIÉP) and the agrarian Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party (FKgP). In 2019 Hungarian local elections, the party won 8 seats in counties' assemblies. In the 2022 parliamentary election, the party surpassed the 5% electoral thresold to enter the parliament, winning 6 seats and forming the third largest faction in the National Assembly. Also in 2022, the party hosted the far-right representatives of Alternative for Sweden (AfS), Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD), and the Bulgarian Revival party at the Hungarian-Serbian border, describing them as "allies". Toroczkai (the party leader) and AfD's Stefan Korte, both held individual speeches at AfS's election campaign meeting held in Rålambshovsparken in Stockholm on 6 August 2022. In August 2023, the party organized a joint "Declaration for a free Europe of Nations" with the AfS, FvD, Revival, the Czech Republic's Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), and the Swiss Mass-Voll party, with a view towards forming a future new group in the European Parliament. + +== Ideology == + +Although it identifies itself as "third way", opposing the policies of both the left-wing opposition and the governing right-wing party Fidesz, the party and its ideology has been variously described as nationalist, right-wing populist, far-right, radical right, extremist, and neo-fascist. The party has anti-immigration, anti-Masonic, and pro-Russian views, and it has been also accused of having anti-Islamic, antiziganist, and antisemitic views. The party holds national conservative, traditionalist, and social conservative positions. + +=== Economy === +Our Homeland Movement positioned itself as agrarianist. According to the party, Hungary should become economically independent, and to this end the party would create hundreds of small and large food processing plants in the country and announce a new land distribution program. With the distribution of land, they would like to favor young Hungarians in particular. They would re-establish the Hangya Szövetkezet (Ant Cooperative), which existed in Hungary in the first half of the 20th century, whose task was to ensure that farmers achieved a good position in the market, allowing their interests to prevail. +The movement holds anti-communist views. The party demands the disclosure of agent lists, the accountability of party state leaders (for example, MSZMP leaders, KISZ secretaries, Workers' Militia, and ÁVH members) and their ban from public life, as well as the withdrawal of what they see as communist luxury pensions. The party considers the antifa movement a terrorist organization. They support the demolition of statues containing communist symbols, such as the Soviet Heroic Monument on Liberty Square. + +=== Corruption === +To curb corruption, Our Homeland Movement would abolish immunity. They oppose joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office, instead wishing to establish a Hungarian Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office. The executive board of the organization would include prosecutors delegated by the government and the opposition, as well as non-parliamentary social organizations. + +=== Diaspora === +The party supports the autonomy of Hungarian communities abroad; for example, it supports the Székely autonomy movement and it also supports Hungarian Regional Autonomy. They would support education of the Hungarian diaspora in the Hungarian language from kindergarten to university, as well as the use of Hungarian national symbols. The party wishes to establish the day of the signing of the Second Vienna Award as a holiday, called the Day of Homecoming, to commemorate the territorial revisions recovered by regent Miklós Horthy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aaedb225f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +title: "Our Homeland Movement" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Homeland_Movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:46.285774+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Social issues === +The party strongly opposes LGBT rights. After the release of a children's book, Meseország mindenkié, which features LGBT members and ethnic minorities as characters, Dúró referred to the book as "homosexual propaganda" during a press conference and promptly ripped pages out of the book and then shredded them. The move caused significant controversy and garnered international attention. The party has called for a ban on LGBT pride marches. Eventually, the Fidesz government banned pride marches in the country in 2024, resulting in the largest pride march in the country's history. + +=== Environment === +In an interview with Mandiner, Toroczkai described Our Homeland Movement as "a unique green party in Europe", and thus the party is sometimes referred to as supporting some form of green conservatism. Toroczkai further said that "we are unwilling to accept that only anti-social and anti-human liberal parties can be green parties. We think that those who do not want to protect our environment, our forests, our beautiful Great Plain, Lake Balaton, our rivers cannot really love their homeland." + +=== Health === +Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary, the party protested against lockdown measures set in place by the government, accusing them of "inciting panic" and ruining the country. The party also promoted vaccine hesitancy, having launched a petition against the use of COVID-19 vaccines on children aged 12–15. In 2024, they called on the government to explore the possibility of banning MRNA vaccines, which they said are "responsible for many health problems and deaths". Previously, several politicians of the party falsely spread the claim that vaccines are "three times more deadly than the virus itself". They support withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). + +=== Security === +The party supports the reintroduction of the death penalty, and it also supports the reintroduction of conscription. They support the re-establishment of the Hungarian Border Guard, the development of the Hungarian national defence and military industry; however, they oppose the participation of Hungarian soldiers in international missions. + +=== Foreign policy === +In foreign policy, the party advocates closer ties with Turkey, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the BRICS countries, and Palestine. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the party referred to Ukraine as an "unfriendly country" and called on it to give up territory claimed by Russia "for the sake of peace". They did not support sanctions against Russia and voted against Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO. +During a speech at the party's annual conference in Budapest on 27 January 2024, Toroczkai stated that the party would lay claim to the region of Transcarpathia in Ukraine if the latter lost its statehood as a result of its war with Russia. Toroczkai had already stated in 2022, on the occasion of the National Independence Day of Poland on 11 November, that he wished for Hungary and Poland to share a border again, posting a photo taken after Hungary's invasion of Transcarpathia in 1939 in which a Pole and a Hungarian shook hands at a border post. +The party advocates neutrality in the Israel-Palestine conflict and criticises the Fidesz government for its pro-Israel stance, with the party calling for an immediate ceasefire and two-state solution, condemning the death of civilians on both sides, and describing the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip as a "massacre". The party later invited the Ambassador of South Africa to Hungary to present its claim of Israeli genocide in Gaza at an event held at the Turkish Embassy, and advocated for designating Israeli settlers in the West Bank as terrorists. +Our Homeland Movement would initiate a referendum on Hungary's withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The party believes that Western European multinational companies take more profits out of the country than money comes in from the EU, and completely rejects the European federalism. Instead, it prefers nationalist nation-states, and as a result the party has been described as nationalist, as well as hard Eurosceptic. +In 2026, Toroczkai stated he considered it a life-threatening situation for Hungarians if Maia Sandu, then President of Moldova, voted in favor of Moldova's unification with Romania. He asserted that Romanian nationalists were already flooding the Internet and distributing maps featuring Romania enlarged not only into Moldova but also into Hungary up until the Tisza river. According to Toroczkai, this could only be prevented with the help of Russia, as Russian troops were present at the time in Moldova's unrecognized breakaway region of Transnistria. + +=== Education === +In education, the goal of Our Homeland Movement is to modernize the curriculum and reduce the amount of current curriculum. The party believes that IT, English, and physical education should be given priority. In addition, they consider the nationalist education of young Hungarians and their education for family life to be important. They support the creation of Christian and nationalist children's movements, such as Levente. In the summer of 2023, they started such camps in several settlements of the country. The party supports the segregation of Hungarian and Roma pupils in educational institutions; however, according to the party's official position, students would be segregated based on their behavior rather than their nationality. + +== Organizational structure == + +=== Leaders === + +=== Membership === + +=== Paramilitary wing === +In May 2019, it was announced the party would be forming the National Legion, a uniformed "self-defense" group similar to Magyar Gárda, the paramilitary wing of Jobbik, which was banned in 2009. The National Legion ceased to exist a year later, and its members merged into the Hungarian Self-Defense Movement, which operated independently of the party. + +== Electoral results == + +=== National Assembly === + +=== European Parliament === + +== See also == +List of political parties in Hungary + +== References == + +== External links == +Our Homeland website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b426a8ac1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +--- +title: "Outline of space exploration" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:28.190599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to space exploration. +Space exploration – use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft. + +== Essence of space exploration == +Space exploration + +Big science – Term used to describe a series of changes in science which occurred in industrial nations +Exploration – Investigating an unfamiliar area +High tech – Most advanced technology available +Space – Void between celestial bodies +Spaceflight – Flight into or through outer space + +== Branches of space exploration == +Human spaceflight – Spaceflight with a crew or passengers +Uncrewed spaceflight – Autonomous space travel without human + +== History of space exploration == + +Remote sensing of Earth +Exploration of the Moon +Apollo program +Moon landings +Robotic exploration of the Moon +Exploration of Mercury +Exploration of Venus +Exploration of Mars +Mars landings +Mars rovers +Mars Rotorcrafts +Mars flyby +Exploration of Jupiter +Exploration of Saturn +Exploration of Uranus +Exploration of Neptune +History of human spaceflight +Project Mercury +Project Gemini +Apollo program +Space Shuttle program +Vostok program +Voskhod program +Soyuz program +Shenzhou program +List of human spaceflights +List of Space Shuttle missions +Spaceflight records +Emergence of market forces in spaceflight +Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes +Timeline of astronauts by nationality +Timeline of first orbital launches by country +Timeline of rocket and missile technology +Timeline of space exploration +Timeline of space travel by nationality +Timeline of spaceflight +Timeline of the Space Race +Timeline of Solar System exploration + +== Space agencies == +List of government space agencies +Space agencies capable of human spaceflight (as of January 2024) +NASA (USA) +CNSA (China) +RFSA (Russia) +Space agencies with full launch capability +NASA (USA) +RFSA (Russia) +CNSA (China) +ISRO (India) +ESA (Europe) +JAXA (Japan) +ISA (Israel) +KARI (South Korea) + +== Active deep space missions and space stations == +International Space Station +Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (NOAA) +Carruthers Geocorona Observatory (NASA) +Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (NASA) +Europa Clipper (NASA) +Tiangong space station (CNSA) +Chandrayaan-2 (ISRO) +Tianwen-2 (CNSA) +Hera (ESA) +Tiandu-1 and 2 (CNSA) +Queqiao relay satellite (CNSA) +Queqiao-2 relay satellite (CNSA) +ICUBE-Q (SUPARCO) +Chang'e 5 service module (CNSA) +DRO A/B (CAS) +Chang'e 4 (CNSA) +CAPSTONE (NASA) +Danuri (KARI) +Advanced Composition Explorer – NASA mission to observe solar wind +Deep Space Climate Observatory – NOAA observatory for space weather +Aditya-L1 (ISRO) +Mars Odyssey (NASA) +Mars Express – ESA satellite orbiting Mars +Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA) +Mars Science Laboratory – NASA rover to Mars +MAVEN – NASA satellite orbiting Mars +ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA / Roscosmos) – Mars satellite +Tianwen-1 (CNSA) +Mars 2020 Perseverance rover – NASA rover to Mars +BepiColombo (ESA / JAXA) +STEREO – NASA mission to observe the Sun +Parker Solar Probe – NASA probe to Sun +Solar Orbiter – ESA probe to Sun +Hayabusa2♯ (JAXA) – sample return mission to asteroid Ryugu +OSIRIS-APEX (NASA) – probe to asteroid Apophis +Lucy – NASA probe to multiple Jupiter trojans +Psyche (NASA) – probe to asteroid Psyche +Juno – NASA satellite orbiting Jupiter +Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – ESA probe to Jupiter and its moons +New Horizons – probe to Pluto +Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 (NASA) – probes to outer Solar System and interstellar space + +== Future of space exploration == +Lunar (the Moon) + +Future lunar missions +Colonization of the Moon +Lunar outpost (NASA) +Mercury + +Colonization of Mercury +Venus + +Exploration of Venus +Mars + +Colonization of Mars +Human mission to Mars +Mars to Stay +Outer Solar System + +Colonization of the outer Solar System +Colonization of Titan +Beyond the Solar System + +Interstellar travel +Nuclear rocket +Fusion rocket +Solar sail +Einstein-Rosen bridge +Alcubierre drive +Intergalactic travel + +== General space exploration concepts == +Astronaut – Spacecraft crew member +Non-rocket spacelaunch – Concepts for launch into space +Space and survival – Idea that spacefaring is necessary for long-term human survival +Space vehicle – Combination of launch vehicle and spacecraft +Launch vehicle – Rocket used to carry a spacecraft into space +Spacecraft – Vehicle or machine designed to fly in space +Spaceflight – Flight into or through outer space +Space research – Scientific studies carried out using scientific equipment in outer space + +== Space exploration scholars == + +== Leaders in space exploration == +Yuri Gagarin – first man in space +Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – first men to walk on the Moon +John Glenn – oldest man in orbit + +== See also == + +Outline of space science +Outline of aerospace +Timeline of Solar System exploration +Scientific research on the International Space Station \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3fa222f99 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,105 @@ +--- +title: "Outline of space exploration" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:28.190599+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Lists === +List of spacecraft +List of crewed spacecraft +List of Solar System probes +List of active Solar System probes +List of proposed Solar System probes +List of lunar probes +List of Mars landers +List of Mars orbiters +List of space telescopes +List of proposed space telescopes +List of cargo spacecraft +List of Falcon 9 first-stage boosters +List of heaviest spacecraft +List of spacecraft called Sputnik +List of spacecraft powered by non-rechargeable batteries +List of spacecraft with electric propulsion +List of spaceplanes +List of upper stages +List of spacecraft deployed from the International Space Station +Assembly of the International Space Station +Space Shuttle crews +List of Apollo astronauts +List of Apollo missions +List of Artemis missions +List of artificial objects on extra-terrestrial surfaces +List of astronauts by name +List of astronauts by selection +List of communication satellite companies +List of communications satellite firsts +List of Constellation missions +List of Cosmos satellites +List of crewed spacecraft +List of cumulative spacewalk records +List of Earth observation satellites +List of human spaceflight programs +List of human spaceflights +List of human spaceflights to the International Space Station +List of interplanetary voyages +List of ISS spacewalks +List of International Space Station expeditions +List of International Space Station visitors +List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies +List of launch vehicles +List of Mir expeditions +List of Mir spacewalks +List of NASA missions +List of objects at Lagrangian points +List of private spaceflight companies +List of probes by operational status +List of rockets +Lists of rocket launches +List of Ariane launches +List of Atlas launches +List of Black Brant launches +List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches +List of Long March launches +List of Proton launches +List of R-7 launches +List of Scout launches +List of Space Launch System launches +List of Thor and Delta launches +List of Titan launches +List of V-2 test launches +List of Zenit launches +List of Russian human spaceflight missions +List of satellites in geosynchronous orbit +List of Solar System probes +List of Soviet human spaceflight missions +List of space agencies +List of Space Shuttle missions +List of space travelers by name +List of space travelers by nationality +List of spacecraft and crews that visited Mir +List of spacecraft manufacturers +List of spaceflight records +List of spaceports +List of spacewalks and moonwalks +List of the largest fixed satellite operators +Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station +Lists of astronomical objects +Lists of telescopes +List of government space agencies +Lists of astronauts +Lists of space scientists + +== References == + +== External links == + +NASA's website on human space travel +ESA: Building the ISS +Unofficial Shuttle Launch Manifest +ISS Assembly Animation Archived 2008-01-19 at the Wayback Machine +List of All Spacecraft Ever Launched, accessed 02/10/2019 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_the_psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_the_psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..914ede5ce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_the_psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,275 @@ +--- +title: "Outline of the psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_the_psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:27.093109+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the psychiatric survivors movement: +Psychiatric survivors movement – diverse association of individuals who are either currently clients of mental health services, or who consider themselves survivors of interventions by psychiatry, or who identify themselves as ex-patients of mental health services. The movement typically campaigns for more choice and improved services, for empowerment and user-led alternatives, and against the prejudices they face in society. + + +== What is the psychiatric survivors movement? == +The psychiatric survivors movement can be described as all of the following: +a political movement +a human rights movement +part of the disability rights movement +Psychiatric survivors as a group is: +an advocacy group +a community +a special interest group + + +== Participants == +Victim of psychiatry +Mental health consumer +Mental patient : currently redirects to Mental disorder +Former mental patient +Lunatic + + +=== Supporters === +Richard Bentall +Patch Adams +Robert Whittaker +The Radical Therapist + + +== History of the psychiatric survivors movement == +History of mental disorders + + +=== People === +18th century +Samuel Bruckshaw +19th century +Elizabeth Packard +Early 20th century +Clifford Whittingham Beers +Late 20th century to the present +Linda Andre +Ted Chabasinski +Judi Chamberlin +Lyn Duff +Leonard Roy Frank +Kate Millett +David Oaks + + +== Issues == +Coercion +Involuntary treatment +Involuntary commitment +Outpatient commitment +Mentalism (discrimination) + + +=== Pharmaceutical industry === +Pharmaceutical industry +Allen Jones (whistleblower) +Anatomy of an Epidemic + + +=== Harmful practices === +Eugenics +Psychosurgery +Electroconvulsive therapy +Psychoactive drug +Psychiatric drug epidemic + + +== Psychiatry == +Psychiatry (outline) + +Mental disorder +History of mental disorder +Mental Health +Therapeutic relationship + + +=== Psychiatric services === +Services for mental disorders +Care programme approach (UK) + + +=== Public agencies === +United Kingdom +England and Wales +Commissioners in Lunacy +United States of America +Federal Bodies +National Council on Disability +New Freedom Commission on Mental Health + + +=== Legal framework for psychiatric treatment === +See Outline of psychiatry#Legal framework for psychiatric treatment + + +== Organisations == + + +=== Advocacy groups, by region === + + +==== International/Cross-border groups ==== +Pan-African Network of People with Psychosocial Disabilities +European Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry +MindFreedom International +TCI-Aisa +GROW +World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry + + +==== United Kingdom ==== +Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society (19C) +Survivors Speak Out (20C) +United Kingdom Advocacy Network (20C) +MindLink +National Service User Network (21C) +Mental Health Resistance Network (21C) + + +==== Norway ==== +We Shall Overcome +Aurora +Mental Helse +White Eagle +LPP + + +==== Canada ==== +Mental Patients' Association + + +==== Germany ==== +Socialist Patients' Collective +Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener BPE-eV +International Association Against Psychiatric Assault + + +==== Netherlands ==== +Clientenbond +Geesdrift + + +==== United States ==== +Committee for Truth in Psychiatry +Hearing Voices Movement +Hearing Voices Network +Icarus Project +Insane Liberation Front +Mad Pride +Mental Patients Liberation Front +MindFreedom International +National Empowerment Center +Network Against Psychiatric Assault +Mental Patients' Liberation Alliance + + +==== France ==== + + +==== Switzerland ==== + + +==== Sweden ==== + + +==== Australia ==== + + +==== New Zealand ==== + + +=== Self-help groups === +Self-help groups +Self-help groups for mental health + + +== Related movements == + + +=== Anti-psychiatry movement === + + +==== People ==== +Franco Basaglia +David Cooper (psychiatrist) +Michel Foucault +R.D. Laing +Loren Mosher +Thomas Szasz anti-coercive psychiatry + + +==== Publications ==== +Against Therapy +Anti-Oedipus +Liberation by Oppression: A Comparative Study of Slavery and Psychiatry +Madness and Civilization + + +==== Organisations ==== +American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization + + +== See also == +Against Therapy +Antipsychology +Biopsychiatry controversy +Democratic Psychiatry +Feeble-minded +Icarus Project +Independent living +Insanity +Interpretation of Schizophrenia +Involuntary treatment +Liberation by Oppression: A Comparative Study of Slavery and Psychiatry +Mad Pride +Mad Studies +Medicalization +Mental patient +MindFreedom International +National Empowerment Center +Peer support +Peer support specialist +Philadelphia Association +Positive Disintegration +Psychiatric rehabilitation +Psychoanalytic theory +Radical Psychology Network +Recovery model +Rosenhan experiment +Self-advocacy +Social firms +Soteria +Therapeutic community +World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry +People +Judi Chamberlin +Kate Millett +Kingsley Hall +Leonard Roy Frank +Linda Andre +Loren Mosher +Lyn Duff +Ted Chabasinski +Health and mortality +Physical health in schizophrenia +Schizophrenia and smoking + + +== External links == + +CAN (Mental Health) Inc - Australia +The Mental Health Rights Coalition - Hamilton, ON, Canada +Recovering Consumers and a Broken Mental Health System in the United States: Ongoing Challenges for Consumers/ Survivors and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Part I: Legitimization of the Consumer Movement and Obstacles to It., by McLean, A. (2003), International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 8, 47-57 +Recovering Consumers and a Broken Mental Health System in the United States: Ongoing Challenges for Consumers/ Survivors and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Part II: Impact of Managed Care and Continuing Challenges, by McLean, A. (2003), International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 8, 58–70. +History +Guide on the History of the Consumer Movement from the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse +Organizations +MindFreedom International +National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Young_People-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Young_People-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e85e01dc3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Young_People-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Party of Young People" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Young_People" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:47.485935+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Party of Young People (Romanian: Partidul Oamenilor Tineri; POT, lit. '[I] can/ [They] can') is a political party in Romania, founded by MP Anamaria Gavrilă, who had previously left the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR). POT supported the candidacy of independent Călin Georgescu in the 2024 presidential election, even before Georgescu appeared in opinion polls. + + +== History == +The Party of Young People was founded by Anamaria Gavrilă on 31 July 2023. + + +=== 2024 elections === +In the 2024 local elections, the party won 11 local councillor mandates. The party did not participate in the 2024 European Parliament election. +For the 2024 parliamentary election, the party has nominated over 140 candidates from various professions (entrepreneurs, lawyers, drivers, sales specialists, engineers), including many candidates from the diaspora. + + +=== Support for Georgescu's candidacy === +The Party of Young People attempted to register Anamaria Gavrilă's candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, but later gave up and chose to support Călin Georgescu following an internal poll. The party strongly associates itself with Georgescu and calls on Georgescu voters to vote for it in the parliamentary elections. +Party of Young People campaigns heavily on social media, such as TikTok, Instagram and Telegram (often through viral videos). Party president Anamaria Gavrilă has collected almost 3 million likes on Instagram for her political posts. The party holds money giveaways and contests for the best posts to promote itself and Georgescu, and encourages the use of the hashtag #POT. + + +=== Decline === +After the 2025 presidential election, in which POT-backed candidate George Simion lost the second round to independent mayor of Bucharest Nicușor Dan, 6 deputies (inc. Călin Groza) and 5 senators left the party, citing a departure from its original values, and leaving it without a parliamentary group in the senate. + + +== Ideology == +The Party of Young People has been described as right-wing, sovereigntist, anti-establishment, nationalist, pro-Trump and right-wing populist, opposing abortion rights and promoting vaccine hesitancy. It declares itself to be a supporter of traditional and Christian values. It supports free market economics. Most organisations and political leaders consider the party to be Eurosceptic although Anamaria Gavrilă declared "We were and will remain Europeans". +POT defines itself as centre-right. The party does not present a clear political platform, but only supports the "Romanian mission". In its rhetoric, the party often uses words such as faith, God, miracle, etc. POT is considered a splinter party known in Romanian media as the "new AUR" and sharply criticizes the PSD and PNL parties. +The party supports animal rights and in April 2025, several POT MPs initiated a legislative project aimed at improving the protection of animals, especially dogs, and solving the problem of stray dogs on the streets. + + +== Electoral history == + + +=== Legislative elections === + + +=== Presidential elections === + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2014)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2014)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..55358253c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2014)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Patriotic Front (Bulgaria, 2014)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2014)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:48.682823+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Patriotic Front (Bulgarian: Патриотичен фронт) was a nationalist electoral alliance in Bulgaria between political parties VMRO and NFSB. + + +== History == +VMRO ran as part of an electoral alliance led by the political party Bulgaria Without Censorship (BWC) during the 2014 European parliamentary election, where both allied parties won a seat in the European Parliament. The signing of the coalition agreement between VMRO and NFSB marked the end of the BWC-VMRO coalition. The coalition agreement forming Patriotic Front was signed on 3 August 2014 and stated its goals to be "a revival of the Bulgarian economy, a fight against monopolies, achieving modern education and healthcare and a fair and uncorrupt judiciary." +The members of the alliance included PROUD, National Ideal for Unity, Middle European Class, Association Patriot, Undivided Bulgaria, National Movement BG Patriot, Union of the Patriotic Forces "Defense", Revival of the Fatherland, National Association of Alternate Soldiery "For the Honor of epaulette", National Movement for the Salvation of the Fatherland and National Democratic Party. +In 2016, the Patriotic Front successfully lobbied for a ban on the Burqa. + + +== Elections == +The coalition's electoral debut took place in the 2014 parliamentary election. + + +=== Statistics === + + +== See also == +Attack (political party) +National Front (France) +United Patriots Nationalist electoral alliance (2016-Since) + + +== Further reading == +Clive Leviev-Sawyer (4 August 2014). "Just when you thought it could not get weirder: meet Bulgaria's Patriotic Front". Independent Balkan News Agency. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2021)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2021)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3648309c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2021)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Patriotic Front (Bulgaria, 2021)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriotic_Front_(Bulgaria,_2021)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:49.815132+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Patriotic Front (Bulgarian: Патриотичен фронт; PF) is a Bulgarian nationalist coalition participating in the November 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election. The coalition includes NFSB, Entire Bulgaria and BDSR. At the same time, the coalition does not include VMRO and Volya, which was in several coalitions before this one: Patriotic Front (2014), United Patriots, and Bulgarian Patriots. + + +== Electoral history == + + +=== Parliamentary === + + +=== Presidential === + + +== See also == +Patriotic Front (2014-2017) +United Patriots (2016-2021) +Bulgarian Patriots (May–August 2021) + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_power_cell-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_power_cell-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..be49a8ba0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_power_cell-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Patterson power cell" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_power_cell" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:32.670231+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Patterson power cell is a cold fusion device invented by chemist James A. Patterson, which he claimed created 200 times more energy than it used. Patterson claimed the device neutralized radioactivity without emitting any harmful radiation. Cold fusion was the subject of an intense scientific controversy in 1989, before being discredited in the eyes of mainstream science. Physicist Robert L. Park describes the device as fringe science in his book Voodoo Science. + + +== Company formed == +In 1995, Clean Energy Technologies Inc. was formed to produce and promote the power cell. + + +== Claims and observations == +Patterson variously said it produced a hundred or two hundred times more power than it used. Representatives promoting the device at the Power-Gen '95 Conference said that an input of 1 watt would generate more than 1,000 watts of excess heat (waste heat). This supposedly happened as hydrogen or deuterium nuclei fuse together to produce heat through a form of low energy nuclear reaction. The by-products of nuclear fusion, e.g. a tritium nucleus and a proton or an 3He nucleus and a neutron, were not detected in any reliable way, leading experts to think that no such fusion was taking place. +It was further claimed that if radioactive isotopes such as uranium were present, the cell enables the hydrogen nuclei to fuse with these isotopes, transforming them into stable elements and thus neutralizing the radioactivity. It was claimed that the transformation would be achieved without releasing any radiation to the environment and without expending any energy. A televised demonstration on June 11, 1997, on Good Morning America provided no proof for the claims. As at 2002, the neutralization of radioactive isotopes has only been achieved through intense neutron bombardment in a nuclear reactor or large scale high energy particle accelerator, and at a large expense of energy. +Patterson has carefully distanced himself from the work of Fleischmann and Pons and from the label of "cold fusion", due to the negative connotations associated to them since 1989. Ultimately, this effort was unsuccessful, and not only did it inherit the label of pathological science, but it managed to make cold fusion look a little more pathological in the public eye. Some cold fusion proponents view the cell as a confirmation of their work, while critics see it as "the fringe of the fringe of cold fusion research", since it attempts to commercialize cold fusion on top of making bad science. +In 2002, John R. Huizenga, professor of nuclear chemistry at the University of Rochester, who was head of a government panel convened in 1989 to investigate the cold fusion claims of Fleischmann and Pons, and who wrote a book about the controversy, said "I would be willing to bet there's nothing to it", when asked about the Patterson Power Cell. + + +== Replications == +George H. Miley is a professor of nuclear engineering and a cold fusion researcher who claims to have replicated the Patterson power cell. During the 2011 World Green Energy Symposium, Miley stated that his device continuously produces several hundred watts of power. Earlier results by Miley have not convinced researchers. +On Good Morning America, Quintin Bowles, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, claimed in 1996 to have successfully replicated the Patterson power cell. In the book Voodoo Science, Bowles is quoted as having stated: "It works, we just don't know how it works." +A replication has been attempted at Earthtech, using a CETI supplied kit. They were not able to replicate the excess heat. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Bailey, Patrick and Fox, Hal (October 20, 1997). A review of the Patterson Power Cell. Retrieved November 19, 2011. An earlier version of this paper appears in: Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1997; Proceedings of the 32nd Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference. Publication Date: Jul 27 – Aug 1, 1997. Volume 4, pages 2289–2294. Meeting Date: July 27, 1997 – January 8, 1997. Location: Honolulu, HI, USA. ISBN 0-7803-4515-0 +Ask the experts, "What is the current scientific thinking on cold fusion? Is there any possible validity to this phenomenon?", Scientific American, October 21, 1999,(Patterson is mentioned on page 2). Retrieved December 5, 2007 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c2040f1d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Pentrich rising" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:09.562524+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Pentrich Rising was an armed uprising around the village of Pentrich, Derbyshire, England, on the night of 9–10 June 1817. While much of the planning took place in Pentrich, two of the three ringleaders were from South Wingfield and the other was from Sutton in Ashfield; it started from Hunt's Barn in South Wingfield, and the only person killed died in Wingfield Park. +A gathering of some two or three hundred men (stockingers, quarrymen and iron workers), led by Jeremiah Brandreth (The Nottingham Captain, an unemployed stockinger), set out from South Wingfield to march to Nottingham. They were lightly armed with pikes, scythes and a few guns, which had been hidden in a quarry in Wingfield Park, and had a set of rather unfocused revolutionary demands, including the wiping out of the National Debt. +One among them, William J. Oliver, was a government spy, and the uprising was quashed soon after it began. Three men were hanged and beheaded at Derby Gaol for their participation in the uprising: Brandreth, Isaac Ludlam and William Turner. Co-accused conspirator and leader George Weightman was sentenced to the same fate, but later had his sentence reduced to transportation for life, as a prisoner in the Australian penal colony. + +== Historical background == +Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, a number of factors combined to drive the country into a severe depression. The increased industrialisation of the country, combined with the demobilisation of the forces, led to mass unemployment. The Corn Laws led to massive increases in the price of bread, while the repeal of income tax meant that the war debt had to be recovered by taxing commodities forcing their prices even higher. In addition, 1817 was unusually wet and cold, producing a very poor harvest. +The loss of production of war materials had affected engineering companies like the Butterley Company, the price of iron ore had slumped, and the production of coal had fallen by a third. The hosiery trade had also been falling away for about five years. +There was, in addition, a wider political picture. Since the previous century, there had been calls for parliamentary reform, particularly an end to the rotten boroughs. Subsequently there had been the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror and it appeared that any reform would be accompanied by violence, which Pitt's government set out to pre-empt by increasingly punitive measures. + +== Prelude == +Since 1811, there had been minor local uprisings, with stocking frames being smashed in protest at the employment of unskilled workers to produce low-quality stockings. Further afield, there had been food riots in many of the big cities. +Around the country there were a number of secret revolutionary committees. The one at Nottingham was headed by a needle maker, William Stevens, and its representative from Pentrich was a framework knitter called Thomas Bacon. Bacon was known to have revolutionary views, and was the originator of the Pentrich Hampden Club. Several meetings were held at Pentrich during which Bacon asserted that preparations for an uprising were well advanced, and he had made enquiries at the ironworks and elsewhere about procuring weaponry. +The decision to take action was made when news arrived of a revolutionary force heading from the north—a hoax fabricated by William Oliver, a paid informer under the Home Office's instruction. The aim was to join them to march on London in support of a bill by Sir Francis Burdett for parliamentary reform. +Bacon was suspected of machinery breaking and, with a warrant out for his arrest, had gone into hiding. He therefore appointed Jeremiah Brandreth, an unemployed stocking knitter with a wife and two children, to be his deputy. Opinion of Brandreth at the time seems to have been somewhat mixed, but he promised the men that they would go to Nottingham, invading Butterley ironworks on the way, where they would kill the three senior managers and ransack it for weapons. At Nottingham they would receive bread, beef and ale, and a sum of money, and they would take over the barracks. They would then proceed by boat down the River Trent and attack Newark. He told them that there were sixteen thousand ready to join them. +Among those present were Isaac Ludlam, a bankrupted farmer who owned a small quarry where he had built up a small cache of pikes, and William Turner an ex-soldier. The plan was to assemble at ten o'clock on 9 June, where Ludlam's pikes would be distributed and further weapons would be acquired by requisitioning a man and a gun from each house that they passed. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9fa6fb501 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Pentrich rising" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentrich_rising" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:09.562524+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== The march == +At 10 pm on 9 June, around fifty men assembled at Hunt's Barn in South Wingfield and for four hours ranged around the neighbourhood for weapons and extra men. At one house a widow, Mary Hepworth, lived with her two sons. When she refused to open up, the rioters broke a window and Brandreth fired a shot through it, killing a servant. Some of the party were appalled at this wanton act, but Brandreth threatened to shoot them also if they did not remain. +Eventually the group set out for the Butterley Company works. When they arrived they were confronted by George Goodwin, the factory agent, who, with a few constables, faced them down. One or two of the party defected and, increasingly demoralised, the remainder headed for Ripley. +There was no police force at that time. Order was maintained by the various semi-private armies such as the yeomanry, while intelligence was gathered by the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth, from a network formed of local magistrates and paid informers. +Through Ripley they pressed more followers into service and at Codnor and Langley Mill they awoke various publicans for beer, bread and cheese. It was now raining heavily and yet more men defected. +At Giltbrook they were met by a small force of soldiers: twenty men of the 15th Regiment of Light Dragoons. The revolutionaries scattered and, while about forty were captured, the leaders managed to escape, to be arrested over the following months. + +== Retribution == +Altogether, eighty-five of the marchers were placed in Nottingham and Derby gaols, to be brought to trial at the County Hall in Derby, charged in the main of "maliciously and traitorously [endeavouring]...by force of arms, to subvert and destroy the Government and the Constitution". +Twenty-three were sentenced, three to transportation for fourteen years and eleven for life. As for the ringleaders, the government was determined to make an example of them, hoping that "they could silence the demand for reform by executions for high treason". +Brandreth was apprehended at Bulwell on 22 July, while Isaac Ludlam was captured in Uttoxeter. Thomas Bacon and his brother John were caught in St.Ives, then in Huntingdonshire, as a result of a £100 reward. The trial was organised by William Lockett, the deputy Clerk of the Peace, who assembled "a group of 'respectable' jurors from the farming community on whom he could depend". +Initially, Bacon, Brandreth and George Weightman (Bacon's nephew) were to stand trial. However, Bacon knew of the part that William Oliver had played, which, had he revealed it, would have embarrassed the government and might have prejudiced the jury in favour of the defendants. Brandreth was therefore tried as the leader, with Turner, Ludlam and Weightman as accomplices. All four were convicted of high treason and sentenced to death. However, Weightman was reprieved due to a recommendation for leniency by the jury, and, with Bacon, was sentenced to transportation for life. Weightman was transported to the colonies, in his case Australia, and died in 1865, aged 68, in Kiama, New South Wales. He never returned to England to his wife and children. He was noted as a worthy and upstanding citizen. Josiah Godber another of the convicted men sent to Australia, also died in Sydney having established a good reputation. His letters to his wife in Ripley are considered of historical importance and kept in the National Library in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia +Although the customary quartering was remitted by the Prince Regent, the three were publicly hanged and beheaded at Nuns Green in front of Friar Gate Gaol in Derby. +The episode brought no credit to the government and many liberal thinkers of the time were disgusted by the verdicts and the executions. Lord Sidmouth was especially much criticised for his use of Oliver as agent provocateur. Nevertheless, Lockett was able to say that the verdicts of the trial "were to have a salutary effect on the behaviour of the 'lower orders' in Pentrich and elsewhere". +There is little to be seen nowadays of the event, though the martyrs, together with Weightman are commemorated in Giltbrook street names. The hexagonal office, where Goodwin stood his ground, existed in the yard of the Butterley Company's works until it was demolished in 2009/10 along with the rest of the site, and the execution block can be seen by request in Derby Museum. +E. P. Thompson in The Making of the English Working Class sees this rising as a transitional event between the earlier Luddite actions and the later populist Radicalism of 1818–20 and 1830–32. (Note that Thompson refers to the village throughout as 'Pentridge', not the modern spelling.) + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Gaunt, Richard A. "The Pentrich Rebellion–A Nottingham Affair?." Midland History 43.2 (2018): 208-228. +Hibbins, Susan. "The Pentrich Rebellion." History Today 60.11 (2010): 17–23. +Leibensperger, Summer D. "Brandreth, Jeremiah (1790–1817) and the Pentrich Rising." The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest (2009): 1-2. +Thomis, Malcolm I., and Peter Holt. "Luddites, Hampden Clubs and the Pentrich Rebels." in Threats of Revolution in Britain 1789–1848 (Palgrave, London, 1977) pp. 29-61. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_(United_States,_2017)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_(United_States,_2017)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..07b9fe5e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_(United_States,_2017)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "People's Party (United States, 2017)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_(United_States,_2017)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:51.021207+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The People's Party (formerly the Movement for a People's Party, MPP) is a syncretic political organization in the United States which describes itself as having the goal of "forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence." +Initially a progressive political organization, Nick Brana formed the party after the 2016 presidential election as a successor to the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party" group. Bernie Sanders declined to be the People's Party's figurehead, instead, seeking the presidential nomination in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. +In 2023, Brana joined the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 2024 presidential campaign. + + +== History == +In 2017, Nick Brana founded the Movement for a People's Party (MPP) out of the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party" group, which had failed to gain Bernie Sanders's support. Brana had worked on Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign as the National Political Outreach Coordinator. +In September 2017, the group gave an invitation with 50,000 signatures to Sanders to lead the creation of the People's Party, which Sanders ignored. +In August 2020, the organization held a virtual People's Convention that was viewed by 400,000 people on various platforms. Speakers included former Democratic Party 2020 presidential election candidate Marianne Williamson, former Harvard University professor and philosopher Cornel West, Sanders 2020 co-chair Nina Turner, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura, comedian/political commentator/satirist Jimmy Dore, journalist Chris Hedges and podcaster Ryan Knight. The convention's purpose was to "vote on forming a major new political party free of corporate money and influence," a measure that was approved by 99% of those viewing the convention online. While many speakers expressed distaste for the candidates in the 2020 presidential election, the party did not contest the election. Brana said that their goal was "to form a party beginning in 2021, to run in the midterms in 2022 and, perhaps, to run a presidential candidate in 2024." +In December 2020, the first People's Party state organization was registered in Maine. According to Michael Sylvester, the party will focus on pushing congressional officials into supporting a floor vote for Medicare for All. +In September 2021, the People's Party gained ballot access in Florida, the first state where it has done so. +In February 2022, Brana was accused of sexual harassment by Zana Day, former MPP executive director, which was corroborated by coworker Paula Jean Swearengin. Brana denied these claims, calling them "false and politically motivated," and accused other MPP board members of a "liberal takeover attempt." As a result, he forced out several MPP board members. + + +== Election results == +While the People's Party has never run candidates of its own, it offered its endorsement of two existing candidates' campaigns in 2018. During the 2024 United States presidential election, Cornel West initially launched his presidential campaign as a People's Party candidate, then distanced himself from the party eight days later. The party's founder, Nick Brana, worked on the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaign. + + +=== Presidential elections === +On June 5, 2023, Cornel West announced his candidacy for president with the People's Party, becoming the first person to run for office under the People's Party banner. Due to the party's controversies and lack of ballot access, West was challenged and criticized by some progressive activists for associating himself with the group. Some progressives called for West to work instead with the Green Party, which has run presidential candidates for decades and has much larger ballot access. At the same time, some Democrats feared that, without ranked-choice voting, a West third-party run might be a "spoiler", diverting swing state votes from the presumptive front-runner, Joe Biden, in favor of the 2024 Republican nominee. On June 14, West announced that he was instead seeking the endorsement of the Green Party. West later changed his affiliation once again to independent. +In April 2023, PP encouraged Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run as an independent "outside of the corrupt duopoly". In October, Brana began working for Kennedy's presidential campaign. Brana served as Kennedy's "ballot access director." In August, Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed Donald Trump. + + +=== Congressional elections === + +Before the 2022 United States midterm elections, the People's Party announced that it was "aiming to run a dozen or more federal races, including a seat or two in the U.S. Senate." The party, ultimately, did not run any candidates in the 2022 elections. + + +=== Statewide elections === + + +== See also == +People's Party (United States, 1892) +People's Party (United States, 1971) + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +MPP's channel on YouTube +People's Party on Ballotpedia \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Association-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Association-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f52f66391 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Association-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Philadelphia Association" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Association" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:24.760270+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Philadelphia Association is a UK charity concerned with the understanding and relief of mental suffering. It was founded in 1965 by the radical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst R. D. Laing along with fellow psychiatrists David Cooper, Joseph Berke, Aaron Esterson, writer Clancy Sigal as well as John Heaton, Joan Cunnold and Sid Briskin. +Kingsley Hall, the first of a number of community houses, was founded in 1965 (a building dating from 1928). +The Philadelphia Association (PA) came into being to challenge and to widen the discourse around the teaching and practise of psychotherapy and continues to offer a training, an affordable therapy service and two community houses for those seeking retreat. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Philadelphia Association website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_Essays-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_Essays-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f9c061c20 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_Essays-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Physics Essays" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_Essays" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:02.210657+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Physics Essays is a quarterly journal supposedly covering theoretical and experimental physics. It was established in 1988 and the editor-in-chief is Emilio Panarella. +The journal has a reputation for being a "free forum where extravagant views on physics (in particular, those involving parapsychology) are welcome". The journal has been accused of charging authors for publication without disclosing the fees up front. +In the 1990s, the journal was published by University of Toronto Press. Beginning in 2009, and for some period of time, the journal was affiliated with the American Institute of Physics, which managed subscriptions. +In 2003, the journal published a paper describing Randell Mills' hydrino theory, which is at odds with quantum mechanics and widely rejected by physicists. In 2004, the journal published a paper claiming proof that the usual mathematical expression of mass-energy equivalence was not valid in general, a claim the author said was being ignored by the wider scientific community. In 2017, the journal published an article from an amateur physicist who claimed to redefine the elementary charge and eliminate the fine structure constant, directly in contradiction to mainstream physics. + + +== Abstracting and indexing == +The journal is indexed and abstracted in the following bibliographic databases: + +Chemical Abstracts Service +EBSCO databases +Emerging Sources Citation Index +The journal was indexed in Current Contents/Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences and the Science Citation Index Expanded until it was dropped in 2015. Its last impact factor, according to the 2014 Journal Citation Reports, was 0.245 for 2013. Scopus similarly dropped its coverage in 2017. As of 2022, it is included in the Emerging Sources Citation Index with a 2023 impact factor of 0.6. +In 2024, the Norwegian Scientific Index downgraded the journal from a level-1 journal to level 0, meaning that publication there no longer counts in the official academic career system or towards public funding of research institutions. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2bbf03dac --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Plasma cosmology" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:34.996998+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology whose central postulate is that the dynamics of ionized gases and plasmas play important, if not dominant, roles in the physics of the universe at interstellar and intergalactic scales. In contrast, the current observations and models of cosmologists and astrophysicists explain the formation, development, and evolution of large-scale structures as dominated by gravity (including its formulation in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity). +The original form of the theory, Alfvén–Klein cosmology, was developed by Hannes Alfvén and Oskar Klein in the 1960s and 1970s, and holds that matter and antimatter exist in equal quantities at very large scales, that the universe is eternal rather than bounded in time by the Big Bang, and that the expansion of the observable universe is caused by annihilation between matter and antimatter rather than a mechanism like cosmic inflation. +Cosmologists and astrophysicists who have evaluated plasma cosmology reject it because it does not match the observations of astrophysical phenomena as well as the currently accepted Big Bang model. Very few papers supporting plasma cosmology have appeared in the literature since the mid-1990s. +The term plasma universe is sometimes used as a synonym for plasma cosmology, as an alternative description of the plasma in the universe. Plasma cosmology is distinct from pseudoscientific ideas collectively called the Electric Universe, though proponents of each are known to be sympathetic to each other. These pseudoscientific ideas vary widely but generally claim that electric currents flow into stars and power them like light bulbs, contradicting well-established scientific theories and observations showing that stars are powered by nuclear fusion. + +== Alfvén–Klein cosmology == + +In the 1960s, the theory behind plasma cosmology was introduced by Alfvén, a plasma expert who won the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics. He proposed the use of plasma scaling to extrapolate the results of laboratory experiments and plasma physics observations and scale them over many orders of magnitude up to the largest observable objects in the universe (see box). In 1971, Oskar Klein, a Swedish theoretical physicist, extended the earlier proposals and developed the Alfvén–Klein model of the universe, or "metagalaxy", an earlier term used to refer to the empirically accessible part of the universe, rather than the entire universe including parts beyond our particle horizon. +In this model, the universe is made up of equal amounts of matter and antimatter with the boundaries between the regions of matter and antimatter being delineated by cosmic electromagnetic fields formed by double layers, thin regions comprising two parallel layers with opposite electrical charge. Interaction between these boundary regions would generate radiation, and this would form the plasma. Alfvén introduced the term ambiplasma for a plasma made up of matter and antimatter and the double layers are thus formed of ambiplasma. According to Alfvén, such an ambiplasma would be relatively long-lived as the component particles and antiparticles would be too hot and too low-density to annihilate each other rapidly. The double layers will act to repel clouds of opposite type, but combine clouds of the same type, creating ever-larger regions of matter and antimatter. The idea of ambiplasma was developed further into the forms of heavy ambiplasma (protons-antiprotons) and light ambiplasma (electrons-positrons). +Alfvén–Klein cosmology was proposed in part to explain the observed baryon asymmetry in the universe, starting from an initial condition of exact symmetry between matter and antimatter. According to Alfvén and Klein, ambiplasma would naturally form pockets of matter and pockets of antimatter that would expand outwards as annihilation between matter and antimatter occurred in the double layer at the boundaries. They concluded that we must just happen to live in one of the pockets that was mostly baryons rather than antibaryons, explaining the baryon asymmetry. The pockets, or bubbles, of matter or antimatter would expand because of annihilations at the boundaries, which Alfvén considered as a possible explanation for the observed expansion of the universe, which would be merely a local phase of a much larger history. Alfvén postulated that the universe has always existed due to causality arguments and the rejection of ex nihilo models, such as the Big Bang, as a stealth form of creationism. The exploding double layer was also suggested by Alfvén as a possible mechanism for the generation of cosmic rays, + X-ray bursts and gamma-ray bursts. +In 1993, theoretical cosmologist Jim Peebles criticized Alfvén–Klein cosmology, writing that "there is no way that the results can be consistent with the isotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation and X-ray backgrounds". In his book he also showed that Alfvén's models do not predict Hubble's law, the abundance of light elements, or the existence of the cosmic microwave background. A further difficulty with the ambiplasma model is that matter–antimatter annihilation results in the production of high energy photons, which are not observed in the amounts predicted. While it is possible that the local "matter-dominated" cell is simply larger than the observable universe, this proposition does not lend itself to observational tests. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f3bc70e91 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Plasma cosmology" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:34.996998+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Plasma cosmology and the study of galaxies == +Hannes Alfvén from the 1960s to 1980s argued that plasma played an important if not dominant role in the universe. He argued that electromagnetic forces are far more important than gravity when acting on interplanetary and interstellar charged particles. He further hypothesized that they might promote the contraction of interstellar clouds and may even constitute the main mechanism for contraction, initiating star formation. The current standard view is that magnetic fields can hinder collapse, that large-scale Birkeland currents have not been observed, and that the length scale for charge neutrality is predicted to be far smaller than the relevant cosmological scales. +In the 1980s and 1990s, Alfvén and Anthony Peratt, a plasma physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, outlined a program they called the "plasma universe". In plasma universe proposals, various plasma physics phenomena were associated with astrophysical observations and were used to explain contemporary mysteries and problems outstanding in astrophysics in the 1980s and 1990s. In various venues, Peratt profiled what he characterized as an alternative viewpoint to the mainstream models applied in astrophysics and cosmology. +For example, Peratt proposed that the mainstream approach to galactic dynamics which relied on gravitational modeling of stars and gas in galaxies with the addition of dark matter was overlooking a possibly major contribution from plasma physics. He mentions laboratory experiments of Winston H. Bostick in the 1950s that created plasma discharges that looked like galaxies. Perrat conducted computer simulations of colliding plasma clouds that he reported also mimicked the shape of galaxies. Peratt proposed that galaxies formed due to plasma filaments joining in a z-pinch, the filaments starting 300,000 light years apart and carrying Birkeland currents of 1018 amperes. Peratt also reported simulations he did showing emerging jets of material from the central buffer region that he compared to quasars and active galactic nuclei occurring without supermassive black holes. Peratt proposed a sequence for galaxy evolution: "the transition of double radio galaxies to radioquasars to radioquiet QSO's to peculiar and Seyfert galaxies, finally ending in spiral galaxies". He also reported that flat galaxy rotation curves were simulated without dark matter. At the same time Eric Lerner, an independent plasma researcher and supporter of Peratt's ideas, proposed a plasma model for quasars based on a dense plasma focus. + +== Comparison with mainstream astrophysics == +Standard astronomical modeling and theories attempt to incorporate all known physics into descriptions and explanations of observed phenomena, with gravity playing a dominant role on the largest scales as well as in celestial mechanics and dynamics. To that end, both Keplerian orbits and Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity are generally used as the underlying frameworks for modeling astrophysical systems and structure formation, while high-energy astronomy and particle physics in cosmology additionally appeal to electromagnetic processes including plasma physics and radiative transfer to explain relatively small scale energetic processes observed in the x-rays and gamma rays. Due to overall charge neutrality, plasma physics does not provide for very long-range interactions in astrophysics even while much of the matter in the universe is plasma. (See astrophysical plasma for more.) +Proponents of plasma cosmology claim electrodynamics is as important as gravity in explaining the structure of the universe, and speculate that it provides an alternative explanation for the evolution of galaxies and the initial collapse of interstellar clouds. In particular plasma cosmology is claimed to provide an alternative explanation for the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies and to do away with the need for dark matter in galaxies and with the need for supermassive black holes in galaxy centres to power quasars and active galactic nuclei. However, theoretical analysis shows that "many scenarios for the generation of seed magnetic fields, which rely on the survival and sustainability of currents at early times [of the universe are disfavored]", i.e. Birkeland currents of the magnitude needed (1018 amps over scales of megaparsecs) for galaxy formation do not exist. Additionally, many of the issues that were mysterious in the 1980s and 1990s, including discrepancies relating to the cosmic microwave background and the nature of quasars, have been solved with more evidence that, in detail, provides a distance and time scale for the universe. +Some of the places where plasma cosmology supporters are most at odds with standard explanations include the need for their models to have light element production without Big Bang nucleosynthesis, which, in the context of Alfvén–Klein cosmology, has been shown to produce excessive X-rays and gamma rays beyond that observed. Plasma cosmology proponents have made further proposals to explain light element abundances, but the attendant issues have not been fully addressed. In 1995 Eric Lerner published his alternative explanation for the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). He argued that his model explained the fidelity of the CMB spectrum to that of a black body and the low level of anisotropies found, even while the level of isotropy at 1:105 is not accounted for to that precision by any alternative models. Additionally, the sensitivity and resolution of the measurement of the CMB anisotropies was greatly advanced by WMAP and the Planck satellite and the statistics of the signal were so in line with the predictions of the Big Bang model, that the CMB has been heralded as a major confirmation of the Big Bang model to the detriment of alternatives. The acoustic peaks in the early universe are fit with high accuracy by the predictions of the Big Bang model, and, to date, there has never been an attempt to explain the detailed spectrum of the anisotropies within the framework of plasma cosmology or any other alternative cosmological model. + +== References and notes == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e25666a4a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Plasma cosmology" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_cosmology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:34.996998+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Further reading == +Alfvén, Hannes: +"Cosmic Plasma" (Reidel, 1981) ISBN 90-277-1151-8 +Alfvén, Hannes (1983). "On hierarchical cosmology". Astrophysics and Space Science. 89 (2): 313–324. Bibcode:1983Ap&SS..89..313A. doi:10.1007/bf00655984. S2CID 122396373. +"Cosmology in the plasma universe", Laser and Particle Beams (ISSN 0263-0346), vol. 6, August 1988, pp. 389–398 Full text +"Model of the plasma universe", IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. PS-14, December 1986, pp. 629–638 Full text (PDF) +"The Plasma Universe", Physics Today (ISSN 0031-9228), vol. 39, issue 9, September 1986, pp. 22 – 27 +Peratt, Anthony: +"Physics of the Plasma Universe", (Springer, 1992) ISBN 0-387-97575-6 +"Simulating spiral galaxies", Sky and Telescope (ISSN 0037-6604), vol. 68, August 1984, pp. 118–122 +"Are Black Holes Necessary?", Sky and Telescope (ISSN 0037-6604), vol. 66, July 1983, pp. 19–22 +"Evolution of the plasma universe. I – Double radio galaxies, quasars, and extragalactic jets", IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. PS-14, December 1986, pp. 639–660 Full text (PDF) +"Evolution of the plasma universe. II – The formation of systems of galaxies", IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (ISSN 0093-3813), vol. PS-14, December 1986, pp. 763–778 Full text (PDF) +"The role of particle beams and electrical currents in the plasma universe", Laser and Particle Beams (ISSN 0263-0346), vol. 6, August 1988, pp. 471–491 Full text (PDF) +IEEE journal Transactions on Plasma Science: special issues on Space and Cosmic Plasma 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2003, and 2007 +Cambridge University Press journal Laser and Particle Beams: Particle Beams and Basic Phenomena in the Plasma Universe, a Special Issue in Honor of the 80th Birthday of Hannes Alfvén, vol. 6, issue 3, August 1988 Laser and Particle Beams: Volume 6 - Issue 3 | Cambridge Core +Various authors: "Introduction to Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology", Astrophysics and Space Science, v. 227 (1995) p. 3–11. Proceedings of the Second IEEE International Workshop on Plasma Astrophysics and Cosmology, held from 10 to 12 May 1993 in Princeton, New Jersey + +== External links == +Wright, E. L. "Errors in The Big Bang Never Happened". See also: Lerner, E. J. "Dr. Wright is Wrong", Lerner's reply to the above. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolarTREC-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolarTREC-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2cdce07fa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolarTREC-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "PolarTREC" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PolarTREC" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:15.369819+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a program for K-12 teachers to participate in field research in the polar regions in order to improve their knowledge of polar science and expand the reach of current scientific research beyond the scientific community. Teachers involved in PolarTREC spend about two to six weeks at their polar sites, collaborating with scientific research teams and connecting with students and the public via online media. PolarTREC is funded by the National Science Foundation and managed by the Arctic Research Consortium. + + +== Overview == +The purpose of PolarTREC is to stimulate polar science education and awareness. + + +== Expeditions == +Notable past PolarTREC expeditions include: +•Carbon Balance in Warming and Drying Tundra (2013), which studied the effects of warming and drying on tundra carbon balance +•Airborne Survey of Polar Ice (2013), a six-year NASA mission, which is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever conducted +•Tectonic History of the Transantartic Mountains (2012), which deciphered the tectonic history of the Transantarctic Mountains and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin +•Greenland Education Tour (2012), part of an initiative to foster enhanced international scientific cooperation between Greenland and the US +•In 2011, PolarTREC teacher John Wood lived in a tent at the top of Mount Erebus, an active volcano in Antarctica. The average temperative was -20 F. + + +== Teacher experience == +Teachers must apply to the program and only the top 100 applications make it to the PolarTREC selection committee. Researcher also must apply and be selected as a PolarTREC research team. After researchers are selected, a selection of the top 30-40 teacher applications are sent to the various research teams. Researchers select which of the teachers to interview, after which they invite a teacher to join the team. There are usually 12 research teams—6 in the Arctic and 6 in the Antarctic—so out of the over 200 applicants each year only 12 get chosen. +Once accepted PolarTREC covers the costs of the expedition. The teachers are given special training through webinars and a week long orientation in Fairbanks, Alaska. While on the trip teachers are expected to communicate through the Virtual Home Base and give updates using message boards, photo albums, podcasts, "PolarConnect" events and presentations from the field. Using the message boards and journals, teachers can document what the students get excited about and how they learn. This data can be used to shape science curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to share their experiences with a wider audience by writing articles and speaking at conferences. Teachers also encouraged to develop lessons based on their expedition for the Learning Resources section of the website. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +PolarTREC Website + + +== See also == +Arctic exploration +Research Experiences for Teachers \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Medal_(Canada)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Medal_(Canada)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4be1fa866 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Medal_(Canada)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +title: "Polar Medal (Canada)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_Medal_(Canada)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:12.939968+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Polar Medal (French: Médaille polaire) is a Canadian medal intended to honour explorers of Canada's polar regions and defenders of the country's sovereignty in the north. The medal was initially conceived by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson as the Governor General's Northern Medal and created on September 15, 2005, to award those who served with distinction in northern Canada. It was replaced by the Polar Medal on June 23, 2015. + + +== History == +Until 1967, Canadians were eligible for the United Kingdom's Polar Medal (known as the Arctic Medal until 1904), since Canada had not yet promulgated its own system of honours and employed that of the United Kingdom. On September 15, 2005, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson created the Governor General's Northern Medal. That medal was incorporated into and replaced by the new Canadian Polar Medal on June 23, 2015, the 145th anniversary of the transfer to Canada of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory (today the Northwest Territories). The first medals were presented at a ceremony in the Yukon Territory on July 8, 2015. + + +== Design == +The Governor General's Northern Medal was designed by Cathy Bursey-Sabourin. It was set in a crystal base and depicted on its obverse a snowy owl (guardian spirit), the aurora borealis (scope of the North), and a Canadian arctic diamond (the North Star). On the reverse are the words Governor General’s Northern Medal/La Médaille du Gouverneur général pour la nordicité along with the recipient's name. +The Canadian Heraldic Authority designed the Polar Medal based on a concept by Major Carl Gauthier of the Directorate of Honours and Recognition section of the Department of National Defence. It is a silver, 36 mm diameter, octagonal disk that bears on its obverse an effigy of Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II (symbolising the sovereign as fount of honour), wearing a diadem with maple leaves and snowflakes and surrounded by the words ELIZABETH II DEI GRATIA REGINA, separated by two maple leaves from the word CANADA at the bottom. The edge of the obverse is decorated with small denticles. On the reverse is an image of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner St. Roch (which patrolled the Arctic in the early to mid-20th century) adjacent to a tall iceberg, two crew standing on the ice. (Crew members of the St. Roch received the British Polar Medal.) +The medal is worn on the left chest suspended from a 32 mm wide white ribbon, which is affixed to a suspension bar showing a representation of the North Star with curved limbs on each side, intended to evoke the aurora borealis, winds, and water currents; should an individual already possessing the Polar Medal be awarded the medal again, they are granted a silver medal bar with raised edges, bearing a maple leaf at its centre, for wear on the ribbon from which the original medal is suspended. The medal will be cast by the Royal Canadian Mint. + + +== Eligibility == +The Governor General's Northern Medal was awarded to "citizens whose actions and achievements contributed to the evolution and constant reaffirmation of the Canadian North as part of our national identity." +The Polar Medal was created with the approval of Queen Elizabeth II to "recognize those who have contributed to or endeavoured to promote a greater understanding of Canada’s Northern communities and its people", as well as "those individuals who have withstood the rigours of the polar climate to make significant contributions to polar exploration and knowledge, scientific research, and the securement of Canada's Northern sovereignty." Nominations may be made by any person or group at any time. A committee in the Chancellery of Honours at Rideau Hall reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the governor general. Unlike the Governor General's Northern Medal, the Polar Medal is a part of the Canadian honours system. +Contributions for which a Canadian honour has been awarded are not eligible. Examples include the Alert Clasp for 180 days service at CFS Alert and the Ranger Clasp for four years honourable service with the Canadian Rangers. +Administration of the selection process was indefinitely paused at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and no new awards have been made since 2019. + + +== Recipients == +Governor General's Northern Medal +Bertha Allen +Nellie Cournoyea +Tagak Curley +Georges Erasmus +Louis Fortier +Jill Heinerth +Stephen Kakfwi +Zacharias Kunuk +Mary Simon +Sheila Watt-Cloutier +Polar Medal +Christopher Burn +Gerald Kisoun + + +== See also == +Governor General's Awards +Arctic Inspiration Prize + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website +Inuit activist wins Northern Medal \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_T3_syndrome-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_T3_syndrome-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..731f5ced8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_T3_syndrome-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Polar T3 syndrome" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_T3_syndrome" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:14.107307+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Polar T3 syndrome is a condition found in polar explorers, caused by a decrease in levels of the thyroid hormone T3. Its effects include forgetfulness, cognitive impairment and mood disturbances. It can exhibit itself in a fugue state known as the Antarctic stare. +Effects of polar environment conditions (long time coldness or bioactive factors) are proposed as hypothetical causes of this syndrome. +It is regarded as one of the contributory causes of winter-over syndrome. + + +== See also == +Antarctica: A Year on Ice + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..08f187df0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Polar exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:00.463267+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Polar exploration is the process of exploration of the polar regions of Earth – the Arctic region and Antarctica – particularly with the goal of reaching the North Pole and South Pole, respectively. Historically, this was accomplished by explorers making often arduous travels on foot or by sled in these regions, known as a polar expedition. More recently, exploration has been accomplished with technology, particularly with satellite imagery. +From 600 BC to 300 BC, Greek philosophers theorized that the planet was a Spherical Earth with North and South polar regions. By 150 AD, Ptolemy published Geographia, which notes a hypothetical Terra Australis Incognita. However, due to harsh weather conditions, the poles themselves would not be reached for centuries after that. When they finally were reached, the achievement was realized only a few years apart. +There are two claims, both disputed, about who were the first persons to reach the geographic North Pole. Frederick Cook, accompanied by two Inuit men, Ahwelah and Etukishook, claimed to have reached the Pole on April 21, 1908, although this claim is generally doubted. On April 6, 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first person in recorded history to reach the North Pole, accompanied by his employee Matthew Henson and four Inuit men Ootah, Seegloo, Egingway, and Ooqueah. +Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had planned to reach the North Pole by means of an extended drift in an icebound ship. He obtained the use of Fridtjof Nansen's polar exploration ship Fram, and undertook extensive fundraising. Preparations for this expedition were disrupted when Cook and Peary each claimed to have reached the North Pole. Amundsen then changed his plan and began to prepare for a conquest of the geographic South Pole; uncertain of the extent to which the public and his backers would support him, he kept this revised objective secret. When he set out in June 1910, he led even his crew to believe they were embarking on an Arctic drift, and revealed their true Antarctic destination only when Fram was leaving their last port of call, Madeira. +Amundsen's South Pole expedition, with Amundsen and four others, arrived at the pole on 14 December 1911, five weeks ahead of a British party led by Robert Falcon Scott as part of the Terra Nova expedition. Amundsen and his team returned safely to their base, and later learned that Scott and his four companions had died on their return journey. +Australians have also been prominent in polar exploration. Sir Douglas Mawson, John Riddoch Rymill, and George Hubert Wilkins were three three South Australian explorers who led all of the Australian expeditions undertaken before the government started taking a hand in polar exploration in the late 1940s. Mawson undertook several Antarctic expeditions, while the other two went to the Arctic as well. + + +== See also == +Antarctic exploration +Arctic exploration +List of polar explorers +List of civil awards and decorations § Polar exploration + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..61fc05592 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,211 @@ +--- +title: "Polarizable vacuum" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:36.168432+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In theoretical physics, particularly fringe physics, polarizable vacuum (PV) and its associated theory refer to proposals by Harold Puthoff, Robert H. Dicke, and others to develop an analog of general relativity to describe gravity and its relationship to electromagnetism. + +== Description == +In essence, Dicke and Puthoff proposed that the presence of mass alters the electric permittivity and the magnetic permeability of flat spacetime, εo and μo respectively by multiplying them by a scalar function, K: + + + + + + ε + + 0 + + + → + ε + = + K + + ε + + 0 + + + + ; + + + μ + + 0 + + + → + μ + = + K + + μ + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle \varepsilon _{0}\to \varepsilon =K\varepsilon _{0}\;;\;\mu _{0}\to \mu =K\mu _{0}} + + +arguing that this will affect the lengths of rulers made of ordinary matter so that in the presence of a gravitational field, the spacetime metric of Minkowski spacetime is replaced by + + + + + d + + s + + 2 + + + = + − + + + 1 + + κ + + 2 + + + + + d + + t + + 2 + + + + + + κ + + 2 + + + + ( + d + + x + + 2 + + + + + d + + y + + 2 + + + + + d + + z + + 2 + + + ) + + + {\displaystyle ds^{2}=-{\frac {1}{\kappa ^{2}}}dt^{2}+\kappa ^{2}\,(dx^{2}+dy^{2}+dz^{2})} + + +where + + + + + κ + + 2 + + + = + K + + + {\displaystyle \kappa ^{2}=K} + + is the so-called "dielectric constant of the vacuum". This is a "diagonal" metric given in terms of a Cartesian chart and having the same stratified conformally flat form in the Watt-Misner theory of gravitation. However, according to Dicke and Puthoff, κ must satisfy a field equation that differs from the field equation of the Watt-Misner theory. In the case of a static spherically symmetric vacuum, this yields the asymptotically flat solution + + + + + κ + = + exp + ⁡ + ( + m + + / + + r + ) + = + 1 + + + m + + / + + r + + + O + + ( + + + 1 + + r + + 2 + + + + + ) + + + + {\displaystyle \kappa =\exp(m/r)=1+m/r+O\left({\frac {1}{r^{2}}}\right)} + + +The resulting Lorentzian spacetime agrees with the analogous solution in the Watt-Misner theory. It has the same weak-field limit and far-field as the Schwarzschild vacuum solution in general relativity. It satisfies three of the four classical tests of relativistic gravitation (redshift, deflection of light, precession of the perihelion of Mercury) to within the limit of observational accuracy. However, as shown by Ibison (2003), it yields a different prediction for the inspiral of test particles due to gravitational radiation. +However, requiring stratified-conformally flat metrics rules out the possibility of recovering the weak-field Kerr metric and is certainly inconsistent with the claim that PV can give a general "approximation" of the general theory of relativity. In particular, this theory exhibits no frame-dragging effects. Also, the impact of gravitational radiation on test particles differs profoundly between scalar theories and tensor theories of gravitation, such as general relativity. LIGO is not intended primarily as a test ruling out scalar theories. However, it is widely expected to do so as a side benefit once it detects unambiguous gravitational wave signals exhibiting the characteristics expected in general relativity. +Ibison has considered a "cosmological solution" of PV, analogous to the Friedmann dust solution with flat orthogonal hyperslices in general relativity, and argues that this model is inconsistent with various observational and theoretical constraints. He also finds a rate of inspiral disagreeing with observation. The latter result disagrees with that of Watt and Misner, whose Lorentzian manifold differs from PV in the case of cosmology. +Contrary to Puthoff's claims, it is widely accepted that no scalar theory of gravitation can reproduce all of general relativity's successes. It might be noted that De Felice uses constitutive relations to obtain a susceptibility tensor which lives in spatial hyperslices; this provides extra degrees of freedom, which help make up for the degree of freedom lacking in PV and other scalar theories. + +== Criticism == +Puthoff himself has offered various characterizations of his proposal, which has been variously characterized as + +an attempt to reformulate general relativity in terms of a purely formal analogy with the propagation of light through an optical medium, +an attempt to replace general relativity with a scalar theory of gravitation featuring formal analogies with Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, +an attempt to unify gravitation and electromagnetism in a theory of electrogravity, +an attempt to provide a physical mechanism for how spacetime gets curved in general relativity, which suggests (to Puthoff) the possibility of "metric engineering" for such purposes as spacecraft propulsion (see Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program). +PV has origins in more mainstream work by such physicists as Robert Dicke. Still, in current parlance, the term does appear to be most closely associated with the speculations of Puthoff. The claims have not been accepted in mainstream physics. +Mainstream physicists agree that PV is + +not viable as a unification of gravitation and electromagnetism +not a "reformulation" of general relativity, +not a viable theory of gravitation since it violates observational and theoretical requirements. + +== Related work == +Antecedents of PV and more recent related proposals include the following: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a1947eb93 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +--- +title: "Polarizable vacuum" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizable_vacuum" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:36.168432+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A proposal in 1921 by H. A. Wilson to reduce gravitation to electromagnetism by pursuing the formal analogy between "light bending" in metric theories of gravitation and propagation of light through an optical medium having a spatially varying refractive index. Wilson's approach to a unified field theory is not considered viable today. +An attempt (roughly 1960–1970) by Robert Dicke and Fernando de Felice to resurrect and improve Wilson's idea of an optical analog of gravitational effects. If interpreted conservatively as an attempt to provide an alternative approach to GTR rather than as a work toward a theory unifying electromagnetism and gravitation, this approach is not unreasonable, although most likely of rather limited utility. +The 1967 proposal of Andrei Sakharov that gravitation might arise from underlying quantum field theory effects in a manner somewhat analogous to the way that the (simple) classical theory of elasticity arises from (complicated) particle physics. This work is generally regarded as mainstream and not entirely implausible but highly speculative, and most physicists seem to feel that little progress has been made. +In a series of papers, Bernard Haisch and Alfonso Rueda have proposed that the inertia of massive objects arises as a "electromagnetic reaction force", due to interaction with the so-called zero point field. According to mainstream physics, their claims rely on incorrect quantum field theory computations. +Recent work, motivated in large part by the discoveries of the Unruh effect, Hawking radiation, and black hole thermodynamics, to work out a complete theory of physical analogs such as optical black holes. This is not work toward a unified field theory, but in another sense, can be regarded as work towards an even more ambitious unification, in which some of the most famous effects usually ascribed to general relativity (but familiar to many metric theories of gravitation) would be seen as essentially thermodynamical effects, not specifically gravitational effects. This work has excited great interest because it might enable experimental verification of the basic concept of Hawking radiation, which is widely regarded as one of the most revolutionary proposals in twentieth-century physics but which, in its gravitational incarnation, seems impossible to verify in experiments in earthly laboratories. +The 1999 proposal by Keith Watt and Charles W. Misner of a scalar theory of gravitation which postulates a stratified conformally flat metric of the form + + + + d + + s + + 2 + + + = + − + exp + ⁡ + ( + 2 + + ϕ + ) + + + exp + ⁡ + ( + − + 2 + ϕ + ) + ( + d + + x + + 2 + + + + + d + + y + + 2 + + + + + d + + z + + 2 + + + + + {\displaystyle ds^{2}=-\exp(2\,\phi )+\exp(-2\phi )(dx^{2}+dy^{2}+dz^{2}} + +, given with respect to a Cartesian chart, where φ satisfies a certain partial differential equation which reduces in a vacuum region to the flat spacetime wave equation + + + + ◻ + ϕ + = + 0 + + + {\displaystyle \Box \phi =0} + +. This is a "toy theory", not a fully fledged theory of gravitation, since as Watt and Misner pointed out, while this theory does have the correct Newtonian limit, it disagrees with the result of certain observations. +Matthew R. Edwards suggests that the gravito-optical medium is composed of gravitons and may, in turn, connect with the polarizable vacuum approach. + +== See also == +Induced gravity (for Sakharov's proposal) +Maxwell's equations in curved spacetime +Electromagnetic stress-energy tensor +Vacuum polarization + +== References == + +Visser, Matt (2005). "Analog Gravity". Living Reviews in Relativity. Archived from the original on 2005-12-31. Retrieved 2006-06-02. +Ibison, M. (2003). "Investigation of the polarizable vacuum cosmology". arXiv:astro-ph/0302273. +Watt, Keith & Misner, Charles (10 Oct 1999). "Relativistic Scalar Gravity: A Laboratory for Numerical Relativity". arXiv:gr-qc/9910032. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9777f95e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Polish Soil Classification" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:43.199739+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Polish Soil Classification (Polish: Systematyka gleb Polski) is a soil classification system used to describe, classify and organize the knowledge about soils in Poland. + +== Overview == +Presented below the 5th edition of Polish Soil Classification was published by Soil Science Society of Poland in 2011 and was in use to 2019 when 6th edition of Polish Soil Classification was published. Previous ones were published in 1956, 1959, 1974 and 1989, and they, following Dokuchaiev's ideas, were relied mostly on the natural's criteria (quality) like soil forming processes and soil morphological features (4th edition was transient because diagnostic soil horizons appeared there). 5th edition of classification, where it was possible, was built on quantitative criteria, like quantitative described diagnostic horizons, diagnostic materials and diagnostic properties. Soil forming processes are not a part of classification but the relationship between the processes and their morphological effects was taken into account during creating differentiating criteria of diagnostic horizons, materials and properties. The classification derives much of international systems: USDA soil taxonomy (1999) and World Reference Base for Soil Resources - WRB (2006). +Polish soil science intellectual tradition has always maintained a balance between genetical-geographic approach (typical for the Russian scientific school) and substantional-geological-petrographic approach (characteristic for Western Europe). Multilateral look at the soil manifested, in all editions of classification, that each soil was described by three types of characteristics: + +Genetical genesis described by type of soil – Polish: typ gleby based on diagnostic horizons, materials and properties, +Geological origin of bedrock described by Polish: rodzaj gleby what might be literally translated as "kind" or "sort" of soil, +Soil texture described of Polish: gatunek gleby what might be literally translated as "class" or "species" of soil. +The Polish Soil Classification has a hierarchical construction. Type of soil is a basic unit of the classification. They are distinguished on a basis of specific layout of main soil genetic or diagnostic horizons, similar chemical, physical and biological properties, type of humus, type of weathering and movement and deposition of results of that weathering. In principle, soil type is a result of main soil forming process. Types of soil are grouped into soil orders. They are identified based on the presence or absence of diagnostic horizons and properties reflecting the effect of specific groups of soil forming processes. Soil types are divided into subtypes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4b2128061 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,53 @@ +--- +title: "Polish Soil Classification" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:43.199739+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Genetical classification of soils (2011-2019) == +Order 1. Initial soils (Polish: Gleby inicjalne; WRB: Leptosols; ST: Entisols) +The order covers all soils where there is thick organic layer or humus horizon (< 10 cm) on solid rock (carbonate or not carbonate) or unconsolidated sediment (like sand, loam, loess). Initial soils can be found both in lowland areas and in mountains. Forming factor of soils from that order can be solid bedrock resistant to weathering, dynamic geomorphologic processes (like erosion) or fluvial accumulation. - Type 1.1 "Rocky initial soils" (Polish: Gleby inicjalne skaliste; WRB: Lithic Leptosol, Nudilithic Leptosol, Lithic Leptosol (Calcaric); ST: Lithic Udorthents, Lithic Haplrendolls) +- Type 1.2 "Rubble initial soils" (Polish: Gleby inicjalne rumoszowe; WRB: Haplic Leptosol (Dystric), Leptic Regosol (Dystric), Haplic Leptosol (Calcaric); ST: Lithic Udorthents, Typic Udorthents, Lithic Udifolists) +- Type 1.3 "Erosional initial soils" (Polish: Gleby inicjalne erozyjne; WRB: Haplic Regosol; ST: Typic Udorthents) +- Type 1.4 "Accumulative initial soils" (Polish: Gleby inicjalne akumulacyjne; WRB: Haplic Fluvisol; ST: Typic Udifluvents) +Order 2. Weakly developed soils (Polish: Gleby słabo ukształtowane; WRB: Leptosols, Regosols; ST: Entisols) +Soils from that order are the next development stage after initial soils. Humus horizon is deeper and under it are weekly developed genetic soil horizons which are not yet fulfilling all conditions of diagnostic horizons (like mollic, cambic, sideric, glossic etc.). - Type 2.1 "Rankers" (Polish: Rankery; WRB: Haplic Regosol (Dystric) or (Dystic, Folic), Leptic Regosol (Skeletic); ST: Lithic or Typic Udorthents, Lithic Udifolists) +- Type 2.2 "Rendzinas" (Polish: Rędziny właściwe; WRB: Rendzic Leptosol, Folic Rendzic Leptosol, Haplic Leptosol (Calcaric), Folic Leptosol (Calcaric); ST: Lithic Udorthents, Typic Udorthents, Lithic Haplrendolls) +- Type 2.3 "Pararendzinas" (Polish: Pararędziny; WRB: Haplic Regosol (Calcaric); ST: Typie Udorthents, Typic Eutrudepts) +- Type 2.4 "Arenosols" (Polish: Arenosole; WRB: Haplic Arenosol; ST: Typic Udipsamments) +- Type 2.5 "Fluvisols" (Polish: Mady właściwe; WRB: Haplic Fluvisol; ST: Typic Udifhivents) +- Type 2.6 "Erosional weakly developed soils" (Polish: Gleby słabo ukształowane erozyjne; WRB: Haplic Regosol; ST: Typic Udorthents) +Order 3. Brown forest soils (Brown earths, Polish: Gleby brunatnoziemne; WRB: Cambisols; ST: Inceptisols - Udepts) +This order includes all soils with cambic horizon, which is formed by weathering process without well seen eluviation. They have various genesis, parent material, properties and agricultural fertility. - Type 3.1 "Eutrophic brown soils" (Polish: Gleby brunatne eutroficzne; WRB: Haplic Cambisol, Haplic or Stagnic or Endogleyic or Vertic Cambisol (Eutric); ST: Typic or Humic or Aquic or Oxyaquic or Vertic Eutrudepts) +- Type 3.2 "Dystrophic brown soils" (Polish: Gleby brunatne dystroficzne; WRB: Haplic or Stagnic Cambisol (Dystric), Endogleyic or Vertic Cambisol (Eutric); ST: Typic or Humic or Spodic or Aquic Dystrudepts, Oxyaquic or Vertic Eutrudepts) +- Type 3.3 "Brown fluvisols" (Polish: Mady brunatne; WRB: Fluvic Cambisol, Fluvic, Endogeyic Cambisol; ST: Fluventic or Oxyaquic Eutrudepts) +- Type 3.4 "Brown rendzinas" (Polish: Rędziny brunatne; WRB: Cambic Leptosol (Calcaric), Haplic Cambisol; ST: Rendollic Eutrudepts) +Order 4. Rusty soils (Polish: Gleby rdzawoziemne; WRB: Arenosols; ST: Entisols - Psamments) +In this order are situated sandy soils with rusty sideric or rubic horison of weathering or iron accumulating. Morphologicaly they are similar to brown forest soil but soil forming process is slightly different, their parent material is always a sand and they are much less fertile. - Type 4.1 "Rusty soils" (Polish: Gleby rdzawe; WRB: Brunic or Albie Brunic Arenosol (Dystric), Brunic Endogleyic Arenosol; ST: Typic or Spodic or Oxiaqic Udipsamments) +- Type 4.2 "Ochre soils" (Polish: Gleby ochrowe; WRB: Rubic Arenosol; ST: Typic Udipsamments) +Order 5. Brown forest podzolic soils (Soil lessivé) (Polish: Gleby płowoziemne; WRB: Luvisols, Albeluvisols; ST: Alfisols - Aqualfs, Udalfs) +This order covers soils where clay leaching by snowmelt or rainy water leeds to develop eluvial horizon (luvic) from which clay has been leached and illuvial horizons (argic) in which clay has been deposited. Parent material may be from loamy sand to clay. - Type 5.1 "Brown forest podzolic soils" (Polish: Gleby płowe; WRB: Albic or Haplic or Stanic or Gleyic or Lamelic or Vertic Luvisol; ST: Typic or Arenic or Aquic or Oxyaquic or Mollic or Psammentic or Lamelic or Glossic or Vertic Hapludalfs) +- Type 5.2 "Streak brown forest podzolic soils" (Polish: Gleby płowe zaciekowe; WRB: Haplic or Stagnic or Gleyic or Cambic Albeluvisol; ST: Typic or Arenic or Aquic or Oxyaquic or Haplic or Glossaqiuc or Vertic Glossudalfs) +- Type 5.3 "Wet brown forest podzolic soils" (Polish: Gleby płowe podmokłe; WRB: Gleyic Luvisol; ST: Typic or Umbric or Mollic Endoaqualfs, Typic Argialbolls) +Order 6. Podzol soils (Polish: Gleby bielicoziemne; WRB: Podzols; ST: Spodosols) +That order groups all soils where main soil developing process was podzolisation, spodic horizon is diagnostic for that group. - Type 6.1 "Podzolic soils" (Polish: Gleby bielicowe; WRB: Haplic or Orsteinic or Gleyic Podzol; ST: Typic or Oxyaquic or Aquic Haplorthods, Spodic Udipsamments, Humaqueptic Psammaquents, Typic Duraquods, Typic or Umbric or Histic Endoaquods) +- Type 6.2 "Podzols" (Polish: Bielice; WRB: Albic Podzol, Albic Orstenic or Stagnic or Gleyic Podzol; ST: Typic Haplohumods, Spdic Udipsamments, Typic or Oxyaquic Haplorthods, Humaqueptic Psammaquents, Typic Duraquods, Typic Epiaquods, Typic Endoaquods) +Order 7. Chernozemic soils (Polish: Gleby czarnoziemne; WRB: Chernozems, Phaeozems; ST: Mollisols - Aquolls, Udolls) +This order includes all soils with deep humus horizon, accumulated in both: wet or dry conditions. They are usually fertile, there is predominance of humin acids and presence of organic-mineral connections. - Type 7.1 "Chernozems" (Polish: Czarnoziemy; WRB: Calcic or Haplic or Luvic or Stagnic Chernozem; ST: Typic or Cumulic or Entic or Aquic Hapludolls) +- Type 7.2 "Black soils" (Polish: Czarne ziemie; WRB: Gleyic or Gleyic Calcic or Luvic Chernozem, Gleyic or Haplic or Luvic Phaeozem; ST: Typic or Cumulic Endoaquolls) +- Type 7.3 "Chernozemic rendzinas" (Polish: Rędziny czarnoziemne; WRB: Rendzic Phaeozem; ST: Typic or Inceptic Haplrendolls) +- Type 7.4 "Chernoziemic fluvisols" (Polish: Mady czarnoziemne; WRB: Mollic Fluvisol, Endofluvic Phaeozem; ST: Fluvaquentic Endoaquolls) +- Type 7.5 "Chernoziemic deluvial soils" (Polish: Gleby deluwialne czarnoziemne; WRB: Mollic Gleysol (Colluvic); ST: Typic or Cumulic Endoaquolls) +- Type 7.6 "Mucky soils" (Polish: Gleby murszaste; WRB: Mollic or Umbric Gleysol; ST: Mollic or Histic Endoaquolls) +Order 8. Gley soils (Polish: Gleby glejoziemne; WRB: Gleysols; ST: Entisols - Aquents) +In this order are wet soils with domination of gleyic conditions caused by shallow groundwater. - Type 8.1 "Gley soils" (Polish: Gleby glejowe; WRB: Haplic or Molic or Histic Gleysol; ST: Typic Endoaquents, Typic Hydraquents, Mollic Haplaquents, Mollic or Humaqueptic Psammaquents) +Order 9. Vertisols (Polish: Vertisole; WRB: Vertisols; ST: Vertisols) +This order covers soils built of swelling clay minerals (mainly montmorillonite) what causes cyclic soil material volume change. - Type 9.1 "Dystrophic vertisols" (Polish: Vertisole dystroflczne; WRB: Haplic Vertisol (Dystric); ST: Typic Dystruderts) +- Type 9.2 "Eutrophic vertisols" (Polish: Vertisole eutroficzne; WRB: Haplic Vertisol (Eutric); ST: Chromic Hapluderts) +- Type 9.3 "Humus vertisols" (Polish: Vertisole próchniczne; WRB: Mollic Vertisol; ST: Typic Hapluderts) +Order 10. Organic soils (Polish: Gleby organiczne; WRB: Histosols; ST: Histosols) +That order groups all soils built of organic material (>12–18% organic carbon), mainly accumulated in wet conditions. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6cfc1840 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Polish Soil Classification" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Soil_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:43.199739+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +- Type 10.1 "Peat fibric soils" (Polish: Gleby torfowe fibrowe; WRB: Fibric or Fibric Hemic or Limnic Fibric Histosol; ST: Typic or Hemic or Limnic Haplofibrists) +- Type 10.2 "Peat hemic soils" (Polish: Gleby torfowe hemowe; WRB: Hemic or Sapric Hemic or Fibric Hemic or Limnic Hemic Histosol; ST: Typic or Sapric or Fibric or Limnic or Fluvaquentic or Terric Haplohemists) +- Type 10.3 "Peat sapric soils" (Polish: Gleby torfowe saprowe; WRB: Sapric or Fibric Sapric or Hemic Sapric or Limnic Sapric Histosol; ST: Typic or Hemic or Limnic or Fluvaquentic or Terric Haplosaprists) +- Type 10.4 "Organic detritus soils" (Polish: Gleby organiczne ściółkowe; WRB: Folic or Folic Leptic Histosol; ST: Typic or Lithic Udifolists) +- Type 10.5 "Organic limnic soils" (Polish: Gleby organiczne limnowe; WRB: Limnic or Hemic Limnic Histosol; ST: Limnic Haplohemists) +- Type 10.6 "Organic mucky soils" (Polish: Gleby organiczne murszowe; WRB: Fibric Sapric or Hemic Sapric or Sapric or Limnic Sapric Histosol (Drainic); ST: Muck Haplofibrists) +Order 11. Anthropogenic soils (Polish: Gleby antropogeniczne; WRB: Anthrosols, Technosols; ST: Inceptisols - Anthrept) +This order covers soils visibly changed by human activity, not only industrial and associated with urbanization but also connected with intensive agriculture. - Type 11.1 "Agriculture soils" (Polish: Gleby kulturoziemne; WRB: Plaggic or Hortic Anthrosol, Haplic Phaeozem (Anthric), Haplic Chernozem (Anthric); ST: Typic Plagganthrepts, Typic Haplanthrepts) +- Type 11.2 "Industrial soils" (Polish: Gleby industroziemne; WRB: Technic Regosol, Technic Anthrosol, Mollic Technosol; ST: Typic or Mollic Udarents) +- Type 11.3 "Urban soils" (Polish: Gleby urbiziemne; WRB: Urbic or Mollic or Ecranic Technosol; ST: Typic or Mollic Udarents) +- Type 11.4 "Salty and saline soils" (Polish: Gleby słone i zasolone; WRB: Haplic Solochaks; ST: Natrudalfs, Natraquolls) + +== Geological origin of bedrock and soil texture == +Geological origin of bedrock described by rodzaj gleby describes geological origin and properties of material from which the soil was formed. It is not the same as soil family from USDA Soil Taxonomy. Examples can be: granitoid, basalt, amphibolite, sandstone, limestone (with specified period of formation), gypsum, glacial till, sandur sand, loess and others. +Sizes of soil particles and texture of soil material are very similar to USDA classification. It makes possible correlating results of particle size analysis of soils described using USDA and Polish Soil Classification systems. + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Marcinek, Jerzy; Komisarek, Jolanta (2011). "Systematyka gleb Polski. Wydanie 5" [Polish Soil Classification. 5th edition]. Roczniki Gleboznawcze - Soil Science Annual (in Polish). 62/3. Polskie Towarzystwo Gleboznawcze. ISSN 2300-4975. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_space-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_space-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cdbcd6777 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_space-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Population of space" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_of_space" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:51.487442+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The last time when no people were in space was 30 October 2000. After this, Expedition 1 to the International Space Station (ISS) launched. Since then, the station has been continually occupied. +Human population records in orbit developed from 1 in 1961, 2 in 1962, 3 in 1964, 4 in 1965, 5 and 7 in 1969, 8 and 11 in 1984, 12 in 1990 and 13 in 1995, to 14 in 2021, 17 in 2023 and 19 in 2024, developing into a continuous population of no less than 10 people on two space stations since 5 June 2022 (as of 2024). + + +== Timeline of records == + +After Yuri Gagarin's first space flight in 1961, the population reached two with the first close approach of two crewed spacecraft (Vostok 3 and Vostok 4) in 1962. In 1964 a flight of three, in one spacecraft (Voskhod), followed. +In December 1965, the record of the most people in space became four, with the launch and close approach in space of both Gemini 6A and Gemini 7. +In early 1969, the first docking and crew transfer (the only time via a spacewalk) in history, by Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5, increased the population record to five. In October 1969, the record became seven when the Soviet Union's Soyuz 6, Soyuz 7 and Soyuz 8 were in orbit at the same time. +In 1984, the population reached first eight then eleven with Space Shuttle crews of five at the same time as Salyut 7 space station crews, including an exchange of two crews. +With the start of the 1990s, the maximum population increased to 12 (STS-35 and Mir: Soyuz TM-10/Soyuz TM-11). In March 1995, the record number of people in space became 13 after the launch of Soyuz TM-21. At this time there were two cosmonauts and one American astronaut on the Soyuz, headed towards the three cosmonauts aboard Mir. There were also seven astronauts on Space Shuttle Endeavour. +In September 2021, the record number of people in space became 14 after the launch of SpaceX's Inspiration4. +In December 2021, the record number of people in space (but not orbit) became 19 after the brief suborbital Blue Origin NS-19 spaceflight. +In May 2023, the record number of people in orbit became 17 after the launch of China's Shenzhou 16 mission. Three people were from Shenzhou 16, three from Shenzhou 15, seven people from Expedition 69 on the International Space Station and four people from Axiom Mission 2, who had recently departed from the ISS. +In May 2023, the number of people in space (but not in orbit) was 20 for five minutes when Virgin Galactic Unity 25 took place. This included 6 people from Unity 25, 3 people from Shenzhou 15, seven people from Expedition 69 and four people from Axiom Mission 2. +In September 2024, the record of people in orbit became 19 after the launch of Soyuz MS-26. This included the three astronauts on the MS-26 mission, three more on China's Tiangong space station, four people on the SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, and nine more on board the ISS. + + +== Future predictions == +Space settlements have been proposed to accommodate large numbers of people. Jeff Bezos, the founder of the American aerospace company Blue Origin, has identified such settlements, when built in the millions, as an opportunity to house trillions of humans. + + +== Population at extraterrestrial bodies == + +Beyond Earth the Moon has been the only astronomical object which so far has seen direct human presence through the Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972, beginning with the first orbit by Apollo 8 in 1968 and with the first landing by Apollo 11 in 1969. The longest extraterrestrial human stay was three days by Apollo 17. + + +== See also == +Human presence in space + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Phoenix_(SETI)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Phoenix_(SETI)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..589047448 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Phoenix_(SETI)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Project Phoenix (SETI)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Phoenix_(SETI)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:52.655117+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Project Phoenix was a SETI project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence by analyzing patterns in radio signals. It was run by the independently funded SETI Institute of Mountain View, California, U.S. +Project Phoenix started work in February 1995 with the Parkes radio telescope located in New South Wales, Australia, the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. +Between September 1996 and April 1998, the Project used the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank in Green Bank, West Virginia, U.S. +Rather than attempting to scan the whole sky for messages, the Project concentrated on nearby systems that are similar to our own. Project Phoenix's targets comprised about 800 stars with a 200 light-year range. +The Project searched for radio signals as narrow as 1 Hz between 1,000 and 3,000 MHz: a broad bandwidth compared with most SETI searches. +In March 2004 the Project announced that after checking the 800 stars on its list, it had failed to find any evidence of extraterrestrial signals. Project leader Peter Backus remarked that they had been forced to conclude that "we live in a quiet neighborhood". + + +== See also == +HabCat + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Project Phoenix +Project Phoenix project at Jodrell Bank \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1788-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1788-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..387152011 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1788-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_of_Stocking_Frames,_etc._Act_1788" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:10.714246+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Protection of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1788 (28 Geo. 3. c. 55) was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1788 and aimed at increasing the penalties for the deliberate disruption of the activity of mechanical knitting machines (stocking frames). + + +== Contents == +Section one of the act made failure to return frames that had been hired from their owner punishable with a fine, whilst section two made unlawfully disposing of hired frames punishable with imprisonment, and section three made the purchaser equally culpable if he or she knew the frames were not the property of the seller. The final (and most strongly worded) section of the act, section four, made the outright destruction of the frames a felony punishable by 7 to 14 years transportation. The act also included the same penalty for entering by force with the intent to destroy frames or their associated paraphernalia. It was established in later case law that theft of items integral to the correct functioning of the machines (even if they were not damaged) was sufficient to meet the threshold for the act. +The act described itself as a response to the malicious theft of frames, and the propensity for "discontents ... and other disorderly persons [to] have assembled in a riotous and tumultuous manner and have destroyed or materially damaged great numbers of stocking frames". Daniel Coke, Member of Parliament for Nottingham, spoke on behalf of the bill in the Commons, citing disturbances in the town and pointing to previous legislation aimed at similar disruption in the wool trade. Coke originally proposed that machine-breaking carry the death penalty, but was later forced to abandon this, seeing the request "overwhelmingly rejected" by Parliament. The act was eventually passed and received royal assent on 25 June 1788. + + +== Significance == +Later acts, such as the Destruction of Stocking Frames, etc. Act 1812 (52 Geo. 3. c. 16), temporarily allowed judges to administer the death penalty for the crime of damaging frames, citing the "ineffectual" nature of the lesser punishments set out in section four of the 1788 act. Section four of the 1788 Act was officially repealed by the Capital Punishments, etc. Act 1823 (4 Geo. 4. c. 46), which, whilst not removing the possibility of transportation, gave judges additional room to sentence offenders to alternative punishments such as imprisonment. + + +== Subsequent developments == +The whole act was repealed by section 2 of, and the schedule to, the Master and Servant Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c. 24). + + +== See also == +UK labour law +Luddite + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Full text of the statute \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..853f20b7c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be scientific or factual but are inherently incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; absence of systematic practices when developing hypotheses; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited. It is not the same as junk science. +The demarcation between science and pseudoscience has scientific, philosophical, and political implications. Philosophers debate the nature of science and the general criteria for drawing the line between scientific theories and pseudoscientific beliefs, but there is widespread agreement "that creationism, astrology, homeopathy, Kirlian photography, dowsing, ufology, ancient astronaut theory, Holocaust denialism, Velikovskian catastrophism, and climate change denialism are pseudosciences." There are implications for health care, the use of expert testimony, and weighing environmental policies. Recent empirical research has shown that individuals who indulge in pseudoscientific beliefs generally show lower evidential criteria, meaning they often require significantly less evidence before coming to conclusions. This can be coined as a 'jump-to-conclusions' bias that can increase the spread of pseudoscientific beliefs. Addressing pseudoscience is part of science education and developing scientific literacy. +Pseudoscience can have dangerous effects. For example, pseudoscientific anti-vaccine activism and promotion of homeopathic remedies as alternative disease treatments can result in people forgoing important medical treatments with demonstrable health benefits, leading to ill-health and deaths. Furthermore, people who refuse legitimate medical treatments for contagious diseases may put others at risk. Pseudoscientific theories about racial and ethnic classifications have led to racism and genocide. +The term pseudoscience is often considered pejorative, because it suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively. Therefore, practitioners and advocates of pseudoscience frequently dispute the characterization. + +== Etymology == +The word pseudoscience is derived from the Greek root pseudo meaning "false" and the English word science, from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge". Although the term has been in use since at least the late 18th century (e.g., in 1796 by James Pettit Andrews in reference to alchemy), the concept of pseudoscience as distinct from real or proper science seems to have become more widespread during the mid-19th century. Among the earliest uses of "pseudo-science" was in an 1844 article in the Northern Journal of Medicine, issue 387: + +That opposite kind of innovation which pronounces what has been recognized as a branch of science, to have been a pseudo-science, composed merely of so-called facts, connected together by misapprehensions under the disguise of principles. +An earlier use of the term was in 1843 by the French physiologist François Magendie, that refers to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day". During the 20th century, the word was used pejoratively to describe explanations of phenomena which were claimed to be scientific, but which were not in fact supported by reliable experimental evidence. + +Dismissing the separate issue of intentional fraud – such as the Fox sisters' "rappings" in the 1850s – the pejorative label pseudoscience distinguishes the scientific 'us', at one extreme, from the pseudo-scientific 'them', at the other, and asserts that 'our' beliefs, practices, theories, etc., by contrast with that of 'the others', are scientific. There are four criteria: (a) the 'pseudoscientific' group asserts that its beliefs, practices, theories, etc., are 'scientific'; (b) the 'pseudoscientific' group claims that its allegedly established facts are justified true beliefs; (c) the 'pseudoscientific' group asserts that its 'established facts' have been justified by genuine, rigorous, scientific method; and (d) this assertion is false or deceptive: "it is not simply that subsequent evidence overturns established conclusions, but rather that the conclusions were never warranted in the first place" +From time to time, however, the usage of the word occurred in a more formal, technical manner in response to a perceived threat to individual and institutional security in a social and cultural setting. + +== Relationship to science == +Pseudoscience is differentiated from science because, although it usually claims to be science, pseudoscience does not adhere to scientific standards, such as the scientific method, falsifiability of claims, and Mertonian norms. + +=== Scientific method === + +A number of basic principles are accepted by scientists as standards for determining whether a body of knowledge, method, or practice is scientific. Experimental results should be reproducible and verified by other researchers. These principles are intended to ensure experiments can be reproduced measurably given the same conditions, allowing further investigation to determine whether a hypothesis or theory related to given phenomena is valid and reliable. Standards require the scientific method to be applied throughout, and bias to be controlled for or eliminated through randomization, fair sampling procedures, blinding of studies, and other methods. All gathered data, including the experimental or environmental conditions, are expected to be documented for scrutiny and made available for peer review, allowing further experiments or studies to be conducted to confirm or falsify results. Statistical quantification of significance, confidence, and error are also important tools for the scientific method. + +=== Falsifiability === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..56fd192b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +During the mid-20th century, the philosopher Karl Popper emphasized the criterion of falsifiability to distinguish science from non-science. Statements, hypotheses, or theories have falsifiability or refutability if there is the inherent possibility that they can be proven false, that is, if it is possible to conceive of an observation or an argument that negates them. Popper used astrology and psychoanalysis as examples of pseudoscience and Einstein's theory of relativity as an example of science. He subdivided non-science into philosophical, mathematical, mythological, religious and metaphysical formulations on one hand, and pseudoscientific formulations on the other. +Another example which shows the distinct need for a claim to be falsifiable was stated in Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World when he discusses an invisible dragon that he has in his garage. The point is made that there is no physical test to refute the claim of the presence of this dragon. Whatever test one thinks can be devised, there is a reason why it does not apply to the invisible dragon, so one can never prove that the initial claim is wrong. Sagan concludes; "Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?". He states that "your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true", once again explaining that even if such a claim were true, it would be outside the realm of scientific inquiry. + +=== Mertonian norms === + +During 1942, Robert K. Merton identified a set of five "norms" which characterize real science. If any of the norms were violated, Merton considered the enterprise to be non-science. His norms were: + +Originality: The tests and research done must present something new to the scientific community. +Detachment: The scientists' reasons for practicing this science must be simply for the expansion of their knowledge. The scientists should not have personal reasons to expect certain results. +Universality: No person should be able to more easily obtain the information of a test than another person. Social class, religion, ethnicity, or any other personal factors should not be factors in someone's ability to receive or perform a type of science. +Skepticism: Scientific facts must not be based on faith. One should always question every case and argument and constantly check for errors or invalid claims. +Public accessibility: Any scientific knowledge one obtains should be made available to everyone. The results of any research should be published and shared with the scientific community. + +=== Refusal to acknowledge problems === +In 1978, Paul Thagard proposed that pseudoscience is primarily distinguishable from science when it is less progressive than alternative theories over a long period of time, and its proponents fail to acknowledge or address problems with the theory. In 1983, Mario Bunge suggested the categories of "belief fields" and "research fields" to help distinguish between pseudoscience and science, where the former is primarily personal and subjective and the latter involves a certain systematic method. The 2018 book about scientific skepticism by Steven Novella, et al. The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe lists hostility to criticism as one of the major features of pseudoscience. + +=== Criticism of the term === +Larry Laudan has suggested pseudoscience has no scientific meaning and is mostly used to describe human emotions: "If we would stand up and be counted on the side of reason, we ought to drop terms like 'pseudo-science' and 'unscientific' from our vocabulary; they are just hollow phrases which do only emotive work for us". Likewise, Richard McNally states, "The term 'pseudoscience' has become little more than an inflammatory buzzword for quickly dismissing one's opponents in media sound-bites" and "When therapeutic entrepreneurs make claims on behalf of their interventions, we should not waste our time trying to determine whether their interventions qualify as pseudoscientific. Rather, we should ask them: How do you know that your intervention works? What is your evidence?" + +=== Alternative definition === +For philosophers Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz "pseudo-science may be defined as one where the uncertainty of its inputs must be suppressed, lest they render its outputs totally indeterminate". The definition, in the book Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy, alludes to the loss of craft skills in handling quantitative information, and to the bad practice of achieving precision in prediction (inference) only at the expenses of ignoring uncertainty in the input which was used to formulate the prediction. This use of the term is common among practitioners of post-normal science. Understood in this way, pseudoscience can be fought using good practices to assess uncertainty in quantitative information, such as NUSAP and – in the case of mathematical modelling – sensitivity auditing. + +== History == + +The history of pseudoscience is the study of pseudoscientific theories over time. A pseudoscience is a set of ideas that presents itself as science, while it does not meet the criteria to be properly called such. +Distinguishing between proper science and pseudoscience is sometimes difficult. One proposal for demarcation between the two is the falsification criterion, attributed most notably to the philosopher Karl Popper. In the history of science and the history of pseudoscience it can be especially difficult to separate the two, because some sciences developed from pseudosciences. An example of this transformation is the science of chemistry, which traces its origins to the pseudoscientific or pre-scientific study of alchemy. +The vast diversity in pseudosciences further complicates the history of science. Some modern pseudosciences, such as astrology and acupuncture, originated before the scientific era. Others developed as part of an ideology, such as Lysenkoism, or as a response to perceived threats to an ideology. Examples of this ideological process are creation science and intelligent design, which were developed in response to the scientific theory of evolution. + +== Indicators of possible pseudoscience == + +A topic, practice, or body of knowledge might reasonably be termed pseudoscientific when it is presented as consistent with the norms of scientific research, but it demonstrably fails to meet these norms. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b5f3d3040 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Use of vague, exaggerated or untestable claims === +Assertion of scientific claims that are vague rather than precise, and that lack specific measurements. +Assertion of a claim with little or no explanatory power. +Failure to make use of operational definitions (i.e., publicly accessible definitions of the variables, terms, or objects of interest so that persons other than the definer can measure or test them independently) (See also: Reproducibility). +Failure to make reasonable use of the principle of parsimony, i.e., failing to seek an explanation that requires the fewest possible additional assumptions when multiple viable explanations are possible (See: Occam's razor). +Lack of boundary conditions: Most well-supported scientific theories possess well-articulated limitations under which the predicted phenomena do and do not apply. +Lack of effective controls in experimental design, such as the use of placebos and double-blinding. +Lack of understanding of basic and established principles of physics and engineering. + +=== Improper collection of evidence === +Assertions that do not allow the logical possibility that they can be shown to be false by observation or physical experiment (See also: Falsifiability). +Assertion of claims that a theory predicts something that it has not been shown to predict. Scientific claims that do not confer any predictive power are considered at best "conjectures", or at worst "pseudoscience" (e.g., ignoratio elenchi). +Assertion that claims which have not been proven false must therefore be true, and vice versa (See: Argument from ignorance). +Over-reliance on testimonial, anecdotal evidence, or personal experience: This evidence may be useful for the context of discovery (i.e., hypothesis generation), but should not be used in the context of justification (e.g., statistical hypothesis testing). +Use of myths and religious texts as if they were fact, or basing evidence on readings of such texts. +Use of concepts and scenarios from science fiction as if they were fact. This technique appeals to the familiarity that many people already have with science fiction tropes through the popular media. +Presentation of data that seems to support claims while suppressing or refusing to consider data that conflict with those claims. This is an example of selection bias or cherry picking, a distortion of evidence or data that arises from the way that the data are collected. It is sometimes referred to as the selection effect. +Repeating excessive or untested claims that have been previously published elsewhere, and promoting those claims as if they were facts; an accumulation of such uncritical secondary reports, which do not otherwise contribute their own empirical investigation, is called the Woozle effect. +Reversed burden of proof: science places the burden of proof on those making a claim, not on the critic. "Pseudoscientific" arguments may neglect this principle and demand that skeptics demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that a claim (e.g., an assertion regarding the efficacy of a novel therapeutic technique) is false. It is essentially impossible to prove a universal negative, so this tactic incorrectly places the burden of proof on the skeptic rather than on the claimant. +Appeals to holism as opposed to reductionism to dismiss negative findings: proponents of pseudoscientific claims, especially in organic medicine, alternative medicine, naturopathy and mental health, often resort to the "mantra of holism" . + +=== Lack of openness to testing by other experts === +Evasion of peer review before publicizing results (termed "science by press conference"): Some proponents of ideas that contradict accepted scientific theories avoid subjecting their ideas to peer review, sometimes on the grounds that peer review is biased towards established paradigms, and sometimes on the grounds that assertions cannot be evaluated adequately using standard scientific methods. By remaining insulated from the peer review process, these proponents forgo the opportunity of corrective feedback from informed colleagues. +Some agencies, institutions, and publications that fund scientific research require authors to share data so others can evaluate a paper independently. Failure to provide adequate information for other researchers to reproduce the claims contributes to a lack of openness. +Appealing to the need for secrecy or proprietary knowledge when an independent review of data or methodology is requested. +Substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all viewpoints is not encouraged. + +=== Absence of progress === +Failure to progress towards additional evidence of its claims. Terence Hines has identified astrology as a subject that has changed very little in the past two millennia. +Lack of self-correction: scientific research programmes make mistakes, but they tend to reduce these errors over time. By contrast, ideas may be regarded as pseudoscientific because they have remained unaltered despite contradictory evidence. The work Scientists Confront Velikovsky (1976) Cornell University, also delves into these features in some detail, as does the work of Thomas Kuhn, e.g., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) which also discusses some of the items on the list of characteristics of pseudoscience. +Statistical significance of supporting experimental results does not improve over time and are usually close to the cutoff for statistical significance. Normally, experimental techniques improve or the experiments are repeated, and this gives ever stronger evidence. If statistical significance does not improve, this typically shows the experiments have just been repeated until a success occurs due to chance variations. + +=== Personalization of issues === +Tight social groups and authoritarian personality, suppression of dissent and groupthink can enhance the adoption of beliefs that have no rational basis. In attempting to confirm their beliefs, the group tends to identify their critics as enemies. +Assertion of a conspiracy on the part of the mainstream scientific community, government, or educational facilities to suppress pseudoscientific information. People who make these accusations often compare themselves to Galileo Galilei and his persecution by the Roman Catholic Church; this comparison is commonly known as the Galileo gambit. +Attacking the motives, character, morality, or competence of critics, rather than their arguments (see ad hominem) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..25853c11c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Use of misleading language === +Creating scientific-sounding terms to persuade non-experts to believe statements that may be false or meaningless: for example, a long-standing hoax refers to water by the rarely used formal name "dihydrogen monoxide" and describes it as the main constituent in most poisonous solutions to show how easily the general public can be misled. +Using established terms in idiosyncratic ways, thereby demonstrating unfamiliarity with mainstream work in the discipline. + +== Prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs == + +=== Countries === +The Ministry of AYUSH in the Government of India is purposed with developing education, research and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India. The ministry has faced significant criticism for funding systems that lack biological plausibility and are either untested or conclusively proven as ineffective. Quality of research has been poor, and drugs have been launched without any rigorous pharmacological studies and meaningful clinical trials on Ayurveda or other alternative healthcare systems. There is no credible efficacy or scientific basis of any of these forms of treatment. +In his book The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan discusses the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party's concern about Western pseudoscience developments and certain ancient Chinese practices in China. He sees pseudoscience occurring in the United States as part of a worldwide trend and suggests its causes, dangers, diagnosis and treatment may be universal. +A large percentage of the United States population lacks scientific literacy, not adequately understanding scientific principles and method. In the Journal of College Science Teaching, Art Hobson writes, "Pseudoscientific beliefs are surprisingly widespread in our culture even among public school science teachers and newspaper editors, and are closely related to scientific illiteracy." However, a 10,000-student study in the same journal concluded there was no strong correlation between science knowledge and belief in pseudoscience. +During 2006, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) issued an executive summary of a paper on science and engineering which briefly discussed the prevalence of pseudoscience in modern times. It said, "belief in pseudoscience is widespread" and, referencing a Gallup Poll, stated that belief in the 10 commonly believed examples of paranormal phenomena listed in the poll were "pseudoscientific beliefs". The items were "extrasensory perception (ESP), that houses can be haunted, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, that people can mentally communicate with the dead, witches, reincarnation, and channelling". Such beliefs in pseudoscience represent a lack of knowledge of how science works. The scientific community may attempt to communicate information about science out of concern for the public's susceptibility to unproven claims. The NSF stated that pseudoscientific beliefs in the U.S. became more widespread during the 1990s, peaked about 2001, and then decreased slightly since with pseudoscientific beliefs remaining common. According to the NSF report, there is a lack of knowledge of pseudoscientific issues in society and pseudoscientific practices are commonly followed. Surveys indicate about a third of adult Americans consider astrology to be scientific. +In Russia, in the late 20th and early 21st century, significant budgetary funds were spent on programs for the experimental study of "torsion fields", the extraction of energy from granite, the study of "cold nuclear fusion", and astrological and extrasensory "research" by the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the State Duma (see Military Unit 10003). In 2006, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Spassky published an article in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, where among the priority areas for the development of the Russian energy sector, the task of extracting energy from a vacuum was in the first place. The Clean Water project was adopted as a United Russia party project; in the version submitted to the government, the program budget for 2010–2017 exceeded $14 billion. + +=== Racism === +There have been many connections between pseudoscientific writers and researchers and their anti-semitic, racist and neo-Nazi backgrounds. They often use pseudoscience to reinforce their beliefs. One of the most predominant pseudoscientific writers is Frank Collin, a self-proclaimed Nazi who goes by Frank Joseph in his writings. The majority of his works include the topics of Atlantis, extraterrestrial encounters, and Lemuria as well as other ancient civilizations, often with white supremacist undertones. For example, he posited that European peoples migrated to North America before Columbus, and that all Native American civilizations were initiated by descendants of white people. +The alt-right using pseudoscience to base their ideologies on is not a new issue. The entire foundation of anti-Semitism is based on pseudoscience, or scientific racism. In an article from Newsweek by Sander Gilman, Gilman describes the pseudoscience community's anti-Semitic views. "Jews as they appear in this world of pseudoscience are an invented group of ill, stupid or stupidly smart people who use science to their own nefarious ends. Other groups, too, are painted similarly in 'race science', as it used to call itself: African-Americans, the Irish, the Chinese and, well, any and all groups that you want to prove inferior to yourself". Neo-Nazis and white supremacist often try to support their claims with studies that "prove" that their claims are more than just harmful stereotypes. For example Bret Stephens published a column in The New York Times where he claimed that Ashkenazi Jews had the highest IQ among any ethnic group. However, the scientific methodology and conclusions reached by the article Stephens cited has been called into question repeatedly since its publication. It has been found that at least one of that study's authors has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a white nationalist. +The journal Nature has published a number of editorials in the last few years warning researchers about extremists looking to abuse their work, particularly population geneticists and those working with ancient DNA. One article in Nature, titled "Racism in Science: The Taint That Lingers" notes that early-twentieth-century eugenic pseudoscience has been used to influence public policy, such as the Immigration Act of 1924 in the United States, which sought to prevent immigration from Asia and parts of Europe. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6c164b093 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Explanations == +In a 1981 report Singer and Benassi wrote that pseudoscientific beliefs have their origin from at least four sources: + +Common cognitive errors from personal experience +Erroneous sensationalistic mass media coverage +Sociocultural factors +Poor or erroneous science education +A 1990 study by Eve and Dunn supported the findings of Singer and Benassi and found pseudoscientific belief being promoted by high school life science and biology teachers. + +=== Psychology === +The psychology of pseudoscience attempts to explore and analyze pseudoscientific thinking by means of thorough clarification on making the distinction of what is considered scientific vs. pseudoscientific. The human proclivity for seeking confirmation rather than refutation (confirmation bias), the tendency to hold comforting beliefs, and the tendency to overgeneralize have been proposed as reasons for pseudoscientific thinking. According to Beyerstein, humans are prone to associations based on resemblances only, and often prone to misattribution in cause-effect thinking. +Michael Shermer's theory of belief-dependent realism is driven by the idea that the brain is essentially a "belief engine" which scans data perceived by the senses and looks for patterns and meaning. There is also the tendency for the brain to create cognitive biases, as a result of inferences and assumptions made without logic and based on instinct – usually resulting in patterns in cognition. These tendencies of patternicity and agenticity are also driven "by a meta-bias called the bias blind spot, or the tendency to recognize the power of cognitive biases in other people but to be blind to their influence on our own beliefs". +Lindeman states that social motives (i.e., "to comprehend self and the world, to have a sense of control over outcomes, to belong, to find the world benevolent and to maintain one's self-esteem") are often "more easily" fulfilled by pseudoscience than by scientific information. Furthermore, pseudoscientific explanations are generally not analyzed rationally, but instead experientially. Operating within a different set of rules compared to rational thinking, experiential thinking regards an explanation as valid if the explanation is "personally functional, satisfying and sufficient", offering a description of the world that may be more personal than can be provided by science and reducing the amount of potential work involved in understanding complex events and outcomes. +Anyone searching for psychological help that is based in science should seek a licensed therapist whose techniques are not based in pseudoscience. Hupp and Santa Maria provide a complete explanation of what that person should look for. + +=== Education and scientific literacy === +There is a trend to believe in pseudoscience more than scientific evidence. Some people believe the prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs is due to widespread scientific illiteracy. Individuals lacking scientific literacy are more susceptible to wishful thinking, since they are likely to turn to immediate gratification powered by System 1, our default operating system which requires little to no effort. This system encourages one to accept the conclusions they believe, and reject the ones they do not. Further analysis of complex pseudoscientific phenomena require System 2, which follows rules, compares objects along multiple dimensions and weighs options. These two systems have several other differences which are further discussed in the dual-process theory. The scientific and secular systems of morality and meaning are generally unsatisfying to most people. Humans are, by nature, a forward-minded species pursuing greater avenues of happiness and satisfaction, but we are all too frequently willing to grasp at unrealistic promises of a better life. +Psychology has much to discuss about pseudoscience thinking, as it is the illusory perceptions of causality and effectiveness of numerous individuals that needs to be illuminated. Research suggests that illusionary thinking happens in most people when exposed to certain circumstances such as reading a book, an advertisement or the testimony of others are the basis of pseudoscience beliefs. It is assumed that illusions are not unusual, and given the right conditions, illusions are able to occur systematically even in normal emotional situations. One of the things pseudoscience believers quibble most about is that academic science usually treats them as fools. Minimizing these illusions in the real world is not simple. To this aim, designing evidence-based educational programs can be effective to help people identify and reduce their own illusions. + +== Boundaries with science == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..24fb3d1d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Classification === +Philosophers classify types of knowledge. In English, the word science is used to indicate specifically the natural sciences and related fields, which are called the social sciences. Different philosophers of science may disagree on the exact limits – for example, is mathematics a formal science that is closer to the empirical ones, or is pure mathematics closer to the philosophical study of logic and therefore not a science? – but all agree that all of the ideas that are not scientific are non-scientific. The large category of non-science includes all matters outside the natural and social sciences, such as the study of history, metaphysics, religion, art, and the humanities. Dividing the category again, unscientific claims are a subset of the large category of non-scientific claims. This category specifically includes all matters that are directly opposed to good science. Un-science includes both "bad science" (such as an error made in a good-faith attempt at learning something about the natural world) and pseudoscience. Thus pseudoscience is a subset of un-science, and un-science, in turn, is subset of non-science. +Science is also distinguishable from revelation, theology, or spirituality in that it offers insight into the physical world obtained by empirical research and testing. The most notable disputes concern the evolution of living organisms, the idea of common descent, the geologic history of the Earth, the formation of the Solar System, and the origin of the universe. Systems of belief that derive from divine or inspired knowledge are not considered pseudoscience if they do not claim either to be scientific or to overturn well-established science. Moreover, some specific religious claims, such as the power of intercessory prayer to heal the sick, although they may be based on untestable beliefs, can be tested by the scientific method. +Some statements and common beliefs of popular science may not meet the criteria of science. "Pop" science may blur the divide between science and pseudoscience among the general public, and may also involve science fiction. Indeed, pop science is disseminated to, and can also easily emanate from, persons not accountable to scientific methodology and expert peer review. +If claims of a given field can be tested experimentally and standards are upheld, it is not pseudoscience, regardless of how odd, astonishing, or counterintuitive those claims are. If claims made are inconsistent with existing experimental results or established theory, but the method is sound, caution should be used, since science consists of testing hypotheses which may turn out to be false. In such a case, the work may be better described as ideas that are "not yet generally accepted". Protoscience is a term sometimes used to describe a hypothesis that has not yet been tested adequately by the scientific method, but which is otherwise consistent with existing science or which, where inconsistent, offers reasonable account of the inconsistency. It may also describe the transition from a body of practical knowledge into a scientific field. + +=== Philosophy === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea4975cd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Karl Popper stated it is insufficient to distinguish science from pseudoscience, or from metaphysics (such as the philosophical question of what existence means), by the criterion of rigorous adherence to the empirical method, which is essentially inductive, based on observation or experimentation. He proposed a method to distinguish between genuine empirical, nonempirical or even pseudoempirical methods. The latter case was exemplified by astrology, which appeals to observation and experimentation. While it had empirical evidence based on observation, on horoscopes and biographies, it crucially failed to use acceptable scientific standards. Popper proposed falsifiability as an important criterion in distinguishing science from pseudoscience. +To demonstrate this point, Popper gave two cases of human behavior and typical explanations from Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler's theories: "that of a man who pushes a child into the water with the intention of drowning it; and that of a man who sacrifices his life in an attempt to save the child." From Freud's perspective, the first man would have suffered from psychological repression, probably originating from an Oedipus complex, whereas the second man had attained sublimation. From Adler's perspective, the first and second man suffered from feelings of inferiority and had to prove himself, which drove him to commit the crime or, in the second case, drove him to rescue the child. Popper was not able to find any counterexamples of human behavior in which the behavior could not be explained in the terms of Adler's or Freud's theory. Popper argued it was that the observation always fitted or confirmed the theory which, rather than being its strength, was actually its weakness. In contrast, Popper gave the example of Einstein's gravitational theory, which predicted "light must be attracted by heavy bodies (such as the Sun), precisely as material bodies were attracted." Following from this, stars closer to the Sun would appear to have moved a small distance away from the Sun, and away from each other. This prediction was particularly striking to Popper because it involved considerable risk. The brightness of the Sun prevented this effect from being observed under normal circumstances, so photographs had to be taken during an eclipse and compared to photographs taken at night. Popper states, "If observation shows that the predicted effect is definitely absent, then the theory is simply refuted." Popper summed up his criterion for the scientific status of a theory as depending on its falsifiability, refutability, or testability. +Paul R. Thagard used astrology as a case study to distinguish science from pseudoscience and proposed principles and criteria to delineate them. First, astrology has not progressed in that it has not been updated nor added any explanatory power since Ptolemy. Second, it has ignored outstanding problems such as the precession of equinoxes in astronomy. Third, alternative theories of personality and behavior have grown progressively to encompass explanations of phenomena which astrology statically attributes to heavenly forces. Fourth, astrologers have remained uninterested in furthering the theory to deal with outstanding problems or in critically evaluating the theory in relation to other theories. Thagard intended this criterion to be extended to areas other than astrology. He believed it would delineate as pseudoscientific such practices as witchcraft and pyramidology, while leaving physics, chemistry, astronomy, geoscience, biology, and archaeology in the realm of science. +In the philosophy and history of science, Imre Lakatos stresses the social and political importance of the demarcation problem, the normative methodological problem of distinguishing between science and pseudoscience. His distinctive historical analysis of scientific methodology based on research programmes suggests: "scientists regard the successful theoretical prediction of stunning novel facts – such as the return of Halley's comet or the gravitational bending of light rays – as what demarcates good scientific theories from pseudo-scientific and degenerate theories, and in spite of all scientific theories being forever confronted by 'an ocean of counterexamples'". Lakatos offers a "novel fallibilist analysis of the development of Newton's celestial dynamics, [his] favourite historical example of his methodology" and argues in light of this historical turn, that his account answers for certain inadequacies in those of Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. "Nonetheless, Lakatos did recognize the force of Kuhn's historical criticism of Popper – all important theories have been surrounded by an 'ocean of anomalies', which on a falsificationist view would require the rejection of the theory outright...Lakatos sought to reconcile the rationalism of Popperian falsificationism with what seemed to be its own refutation by history". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3cac8a77d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Many philosophers have tried to solve the problem of demarcation in the following terms: a statement constitutes knowledge if sufficiently many people believe it sufficiently strongly. But the history of thought shows us that many people were totally committed to absurd beliefs. If the strengths of beliefs were a hallmark of knowledge, we should have to rank some tales about demons, angels, devils, and of heaven and hell as knowledge. Scientists, on the other hand, are very sceptical even of their best theories. Newton's is the most powerful theory science has yet produced, but Newton himself never believed that bodies attract each other at a distance. So no degree of commitment to beliefs makes them knowledge. Indeed, the hallmark of scientific behaviour is a certain scepticism even towards one's most cherished theories. Blind commitment to a theory is not an intellectual virtue: it is an intellectual crime. +Thus a statement may be pseudoscientific even if it is eminently 'plausible' and everybody believes in it, and it may be scientifically valuable even if it is unbelievable and nobody believes in it. A theory may even be of supreme scientific value even if no one understands it, let alone believes in it. +The boundary between science and pseudoscience is disputed and difficult to determine analytically, even after more than a century of study by philosophers of science and scientists, and despite some basic agreements on the fundamentals of the scientific method. The concept of pseudoscience rests on an understanding that the scientific method has been misrepresented or misapplied with respect to a given theory, but many philosophers of science maintain that different kinds of methods are held as appropriate across different fields and different eras of human history. According to Lakatos, the typical descriptive unit of great scientific achievements is not an isolated hypothesis but "a powerful problem-solving machinery, which, with the help of sophisticated mathematical techniques, digests anomalies and even turns them into positive evidence". + +To Popper, pseudoscience uses induction to generate theories, and only performs experiments to seek to verify them. To Popper, falsifiability is what determines the scientific status of a theory. Taking a historical approach, Kuhn observed that scientists did not follow Popper's rule, and might ignore falsifying data, unless overwhelming. To Kuhn, puzzle-solving within a paradigm is science. Lakatos attempted to resolve this debate, by suggesting history shows that science occurs in research programmes, competing according to how progressive they are. The leading idea of a programme could evolve, driven by its heuristic to make predictions that can be supported by evidence. Feyerabend claimed that Lakatos was selective in his examples, and the whole history of science shows there is no universal rule of scientific method, and imposing one on the scientific community impedes progress. Laudan maintained that the demarcation between science and non-science was a pseudo-problem, preferring to focus on the more general distinction between reliable and unreliable knowledge. +[Feyerabend] regards Lakatos's view as being closet anarchism disguised as methodological rationalism. Feyerabend's claim was not that standard methodological rules should never be obeyed, but rather that sometimes progress is made by abandoning them. In the absence of a generally accepted rule, there is a need for alternative methods of persuasion. According to Feyerabend, Galileo employed stylistic and rhetorical techniques to convince his reader, while he also wrote in Italian rather than Latin and directed his arguments to those already temperamentally inclined to accept them. + +== Politics, health, and education == + +=== Political implications === +The demarcation problem between science and pseudoscience brings up debate in the realms of science, philosophy and politics. Imre Lakatos, for instance, points out that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at one point declared that Mendelian genetics was pseudoscientific and had its advocates, including well-established scientists such as Nikolai Vavilov, sent to a Gulag and that the "liberal Establishment of the West" denies freedom of speech to topics it regards as pseudoscience, particularly where they run up against social mores. +Something becomes pseudoscientific when science cannot be separated from ideology, scientists misrepresent scientific findings to promote or draw attention for publicity, when politicians, journalists and a nation's intellectual elite distort the facts of science for short-term political gain, or when powerful individuals of the public conflate causation and cofactors by clever wordplay. These ideas reduce the authority, value, integrity and independence of science in society. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..da026ca20 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Pseudoscience" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:04.927984+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Health and education implications === +Distinguishing science from pseudoscience has practical implications in the case of health care, expert testimony, environmental policies, and science education. Treatments with a patina of scientific authority which have not actually been subjected to actual scientific testing may be ineffective, expensive and dangerous to patients and confuse health providers, insurers, government decision makers and the public as to what treatments are appropriate. Claims advanced by pseudoscience may result in government officials and educators making bad decisions in selecting curricula. +The extent to which students acquire a range of social and cognitive thinking skills related to the proper usage of science and technology determines whether they are scientifically literate. Education in the sciences encounters new dimensions with the changing landscape of science and technology, a fast-changing culture and a knowledge-driven era. A reinvention of the school science curriculum is one that shapes students to contend with its changing influence on human welfare. Scientific literacy, which allows a person to distinguish science from pseudosciences such as astrology, is among the attributes that enable students to adapt to the changing world. Its characteristics are embedded in a curriculum where students are engaged in resolving problems, conducting investigations, or developing projects. +Alan J. Friedman mentions why most scientists avoid educating about pseudoscience, including that paying undue attention to pseudoscience could dignify it. +On the other hand, Robert L. Park emphasizes how pseudoscience can be a threat to society and considers that scientists have a responsibility to teach how to distinguish science from pseudoscience. +Pseudosciences such as homeopathy, even if generally benign, are used by charlatans. This poses a serious issue because it enables incompetent practitioners to administer health care. True-believing zealots may pose a more serious threat than typical con men because of their delusion to homeopathy's ideology. Irrational health care is not harmless and it is careless to create patient confidence in pseudomedicine. +On 8 December 2016, journalist Michael V. LeVine pointed out the dangers posed by the Natural News website: "Snake-oil salesmen have pushed false cures since the dawn of medicine, and now websites like Natural News flood social media with dangerous anti-pharmaceutical, anti-vaccination and anti-GMO pseudoscience that puts millions at risk of contracting preventable illnesses." +The anti-vaccine movement has persuaded large numbers of parents not to vaccinate their children, citing pseudoscientific research that links childhood vaccines with the onset of autism. These include the study by Andrew Wakefield, which claimed that a combination of gastrointestinal disease and developmental regression, which are often seen in children with ASD, occurred within two weeks of receiving vaccines. The study was eventually retracted by its publisher, and Wakefield was stripped of his license to practice medicine. +Alkaline water is water that has a pH of higher than 7, purported to host numerous health benefits, with no empirical backing. A practitioner known as Robert O. Young who promoted alkaline water and an "Alkaline diet" was sent to jail for 3 years in 2017 for practicing medicine without a license. + +== See also == +Antiscience – Attitudes that reject science and the scientific method +Credulity – Willingness or ability to believe that a statement is true +Factoid – Invented claim or trivial fact +Fringe science – Inquiries far outside of mainstream science +Fringe theory – Idea which departs from accepted scholarship in the field +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience +Magical thinking – Belief in the connection of unrelated events +Not even wrong – English phrase +Normative science – Aspect of science +Pseudo-scholarship – Pretended but not actual scholarship +Pseudolaw – Falsehood or trickery presented as law +Pseudomathematics – Work of mathematical cranks +Synergetic theory – Pseudoscientific theory + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == + +=== Works cited === + +=== Further reading === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychRights-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychRights-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7dc3ef91d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychRights-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "PsychRights" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PsychRights" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:28.239758+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Law Project for Psychiatric Rights, or PsychRights, is an Alaskan organization that seeks to "end the abuses against people diagnosed with mental illness through individual legal representation." The organization is especially focused on fighting involuntary medication and the forced use of electroshock therapy. It contends that the involuntary treatment system operates largely illegally, in that requirements such as the "less restrictive alternative" requirement are often not followed. PsychRights has mounted legal challenges in Alaska, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, and other states. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +PsychRights homepage \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2e15c19c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The psychiatric survivors movement (more broadly consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement) is a diverse association of individuals who either currently access mental health services (known as consumers or service users), or who have experienced interventions by psychiatry that were unhelpful, harmful, abusive, or illegal. +The psychiatric survivors movement arose out of the civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and the personal histories of psychiatric abuse experienced by patients. The key text in the intellectual development of the survivor movement, at least in the US, was Judi Chamberlin's 1978 text On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System. Chamberlin was an ex-patient and co-founder of the Mental Patients' Liberation Front. Coalescing around the ex-patient newsletter Dendron, in late 1988, leaders from several of the main national and grassroots psychiatric survivor groups felt that an independent, human rights coalition focused on problems in the mental health system was needed. That year the Support Coalition International (SCI) was formed. SCI's first public action was to stage a counter-conference and protest in New York City, in May 1990, at the same time as (and directly outside of) the American Psychiatric Association's annual meeting. In 2005, the SCI changed its name to MindFreedom International with David W. Oaks as its director. +Common themes are "talking back to the power of psychiatry," rights protection and advocacy, self-determination, and building capacity for lived experience leadership. While activists in the movement may share a collective identity to some extent, views range along a continuum from conservative to radical in relation to psychiatric treatment and levels of resistance or patienthood. + +== History == + +=== Precursors === +The modern self-help and advocacy movement in the field of mental health services developed in the 1970s, but former psychiatric patients have been campaigning for centuries to change laws, treatments, services and public policies. "The most persistent critics of psychiatry have always been former mental hospital patients", although few were able to tell their stories publicly or to openly confront the psychiatric establishment, and those who did so were commonly considered so extreme in their charges that they could seldom gain credibility. In 1620 in England, patients of the notoriously harsh Bethlem Hospital banded together and sent a "Petition of the Poor Distracted People in the House of Bedlam (concerned with conditions for inmates)" to the House of Lords. A number of ex-patients published pamphlets against the system in the 18th century, such as Samuel Bruckshaw (1774), on the "iniquitous abuse of private madhouses", and William Belcher (1796) with his "Address to humanity, Containing a letter to Dr Munro, a receipt to make a lunatic, and a sketch of a true smiling hyena". Such reformist efforts were generally opposed by madhouse keepers and medics. +In the late 18th century, moral treatment reforms developed which were originally based in part on the approach of French ex-patient turned hospital-superintendent Jean-Baptiste Pussin and his wife Margueritte. From 1848 in England, the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society campaigned for sweeping reforms to the asylum system and abuses of the moral treatment approach. In the United States, The Opal (1851–1860) was a ten volume Journal produced by patients of Utica State Lunatic Asylum in New York, which has been viewed in part as an early liberation movement. Beginning in 1868, Elizabeth Packard, founder of the Anti-Insane Asylum Society, published a series of books and pamphlets describing her experiences in the Illinois insane asylum to which her husband had her committed. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..43b5d1cbb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Early 20th century === +A few decades later, another former psychiatric patient, Clifford W. Beers, founded the National Committee on Mental Hygiene, which eventually became the National Mental Health Association. Beers sought to improve the plight of individuals receiving public psychiatric care, particularly those committed to state institutions. His book, A Mind that Found Itself (1908), described his experience with mental illness and the treatment he encountered in mental hospitals. Beers' work stimulated public interest in more responsible care and treatment. However, while Beers initially blamed 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 as he needed their support for reforms. His reliance on rich donors and his need for approval from experts led him to hand over to psychiatrists the organization he helped establish. In the UK, the National Society for Lunacy Law Reform was established in 1920 by angry ex-patients sick of their experiences and complaints being patronisingly discounted by the authorities who were using medical "window dressing" for essentially custodial and punitive practices. 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". +We Are Not Alone (WANA) was founded by a group of patients at Rockland State Hospital in New York (now the Rockland Psychiatric Center) in the mid to late 1940s, and continued to meet as an ex-patient group. Their goal was to provide support and advice and help others make the difficult transition from hospital to community. At this same time, a young social worker in Detroit, Michigan, John H. Beard, was doing some pioneering work with psychiatric patients from the “back wards” of Wayne County Hospital. Prior to the advent of psychotropic medication, patients on the “back wards” were generally considered to be "hopelessly sick." Beard began his work on these wards with the conviction that these patients were not totally consumed by illness but retained areas of health. This insight led him to involve the patients in such normal activities as picnics, attending a baseball game, dining at a fine restaurant, and then employment. Fountain House had, by now, recognized that the experience of the illness, together with a poor or interrupted work history often denied members the opportunity to obtain employment. Many lived in poverty and never got the chance to even try working on a job. +The hiring of John H. Beard as executive director in 1955 changed all of that. The creation of what we now know to be Transitional Employment transformed Fountain House as many members began venturing from the clubhouse into real jobs for real wages in the community. Importantly, these work opportunities were in integrated settings and not just with other persons with disabilities. The concept of what was normal was pervasive in all of what Fountain House set out to do. Thus, Fountain House became a place of both social and vocational rehabilitation, addressing the disabilities that so often accompany having a serious mental illness and setting the wheels in motion for a life of recovery and not disability. +Originated by crusaders in periods of liberal social change, and appealing not so much to other sufferers as to elite groups with power, when the early reformer's energy or influence waned, mental patients were again mostly friendless and forgotten. + +=== 1950s to 1970s === +The 1950s saw the reduction in the use of lobotomy and shock therapy. These used to be associated with concerns and much opposition on grounds of basic morality, harmful effects, or misuse. Towards the 1960s, psychiatric medications came into widespread use and also caused controversy relating to adverse effects and misuse. There were also associated moves away from large psychiatric institutions to community-based services (later to become a full-scale deinstitutionalization), which sometimes empowered service users, although community-based services were often deficient. There has been some discussion within the field about the usefulness of antipsychotic medications in a world with a decreasing tolerance for institutionalization: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4001ecb28 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"With the advent of the modern antipsychotic medications and psychosocial treatments, the great majority are able to live in a range of open settings in the community—with family, in their own apartments, in board-and-care homes, and in halfway houses." +Coming to the fore in the 1960s, an anti-psychiatry movement challenged the fundamental claims and practices of mainstream psychiatry. The ex-patient movement of this time contributed to, and derived much from, antipsychiatry ideology, but has also been described as having its own agenda, described as humanistic socialism. For a time, the movement shared aims and practices with "radical therapists", who tended to be Marxist. However, the consumer/survivor/ex-patients gradually felt that the radical therapists did not necessarily share the same goals and were taking over, and they broke away from them in order to maintain independence. +By the 1970s, the women's movement, gay rights movement, and disability rights movements had emerged. It was in this context that former mental patients began to organize groups with the common goals of fighting for patients' rights and against forced treatment, stigma and discrimination, and often to promote peer-run services as an alternative to the traditional mental health system. Unlike professional mental health services, which were usually based on the medical model, peer-run services were based on the principle that individuals who have shared similar experiences can help themselves and each other through self-help and mutual support. Many of the individuals who organized these early groups identified themselves as psychiatric survivors. Their groups had names such as Insane Liberation Front and the Network Against Psychiatric Assault. NAPA co-founder Leonard Roy Frank founded (with colleague Wade Hudson) Madness Network News in San Francisco in 1972. +In 1971 the Scottish Union of Mental Patients was founded. In 1973 some of those involved founded the Mental Patients' Union in London. +Dorothy Weiner and about 10 others, including Tom Wittick, established the Insane Liberation Front in the spring of 1970 in Portland, Oregon. Though it only lasted six months, it had a notable influence in the history of North American ex-patients groups. News that former inmates of mental institutions were organizing was carried to other parts of North America. Individuals such as Howard Geld, known as Howie the Harp for his harmonica playing, left Portland where he been involved in ILF to return to his native New York to help found the Mental Patients Liberation Project in 1971. During the early 1970s, groups spread to California, New York, and Boston, which were primarily antipsychiatry, opposed to forced treatment including forced drugging, shock treatment and involuntary committal. In 1972, the first organized group in Canada, the Mental Patients Association, started to publish In A Nutshell, while in the US the first edition of the first national publication by ex-mental patients, Madness Network News, was published in Oakland, continuing until 1986. +Some all-women groups developed around this time such as Women Against Psychiatric Assault, begun in 1975 in San Francisco. +In 1978, Judi Chamberlin's book On Our Own: Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System was published. It became the standard text of the psychiatric survivors movement, and in it Chamberlin coined the word "mentalism." +The major spokespeople of the movement have been described in generalities as largely white, middle-class and well-educated. It has been suggested that other activists were often more anarchistic and anti-capitalist, felt more cut off from society and more like a minority with more in common with the poor, ethnic minorities, feminists, prisoners & gay rights than with the white middle classes. The leaders were sometimes considered to be merely reformist and, because of their "stratified position" within society, to be uncomprehending of the problems of the poor. The "radicals" saw no sense in seeking solutions within a capitalist system that creates mental problems. However, they were united in considering society and psychiatric domination to be the problem, rather than people designated mentally ill. +Some activists condemned psychiatry under any conditions, voluntary or involuntary, while others believed in the right of people to undergo psychiatric treatment on a voluntary basis. Voluntary psychotherapy, at the time mainly psychoanalysis, did not therefore come under the same severe attack as the somatic therapies. The ex-patients emphasized individual support from other patients; they espoused assertiveness, liberation, and equality; and they advocated user-controlled services as part of a totally voluntary continuum. However, although the movement espoused egalitarianism and opposed the concept of leadership, it is said to have developed a cadre of known, articulate, and literate men and women who did the writing, talking, organizing, and contacting. Very much the product of the rebellious, populist, anti-elitist mood of the 1960s, they strived above all for self-determination and self-reliance. In general, the work of some psychiatrists, as well as the lack of criticism by the psychiatric establishment, was interpreted as an abandonment of a moral commitment to do no harm. There was anger and resentment toward a profession that had the authority to label them as mentally disabled and was perceived as infantilizing them and disregarding their wishes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ee2cd9ef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== 1980s and 1990s === +By the 1980s, individuals who considered themselves "consumers" of mental health services rather than passive "patients" had begun to organize self-help/advocacy groups and peer-run services. While sharing some of the goals of the earlier movement, consumer groups did not seek to abolish the traditional mental health system, which they believed was necessary. Instead, they wanted to reform it and have more choice. Consumer groups encouraged their members to learn as much as possible about the mental health system so that they could gain access to the best services and treatments available. In 1985, the National Mental Health Consumers' Association was formed in the United States. +A 1986 report on developments in the United States noted that "there are now three national organizations ... The ‘conservatives’ have created the National Mental Health Consumers' Association ... The ‘moderates’ have formed the National Alliance of Mental Patients ... The ‘radical’ group is called the Network to Abolish Psychiatry". Many, however, felt that they had survived the psychiatric system and its "treatments" and resented being called consumers. The National Association of Mental Patients in the United States became the National Association of Psychiatric Survivors. "Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized" was published by ex-inmates (of psychiatric hospitals) in Toronto from 1980 to 1990, known across Canada for its antipsychiatry stance. +In late 1988, leaders from several of the main national and grassroots psychiatric survivor groups decided an independent coalition was needed, and Support Coalition International (SCI) was formed in 1988, later to become MindFreedom International. In addition, the World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP), was founded in 1991 as the World Federation of Psychiatric Users (WFPU), an international organisation of recipients of mental health services. +An emphasis on voluntary involvement in services is said to have presented problems to the movement since, especially in the wake of deinstitutionalization, community services were fragmented and many individuals in distressed states of mind were being put in prisons or re-institutionalized in community services, or became homeless, often distrusting and resisting any help. +Science journalist Robert Whitaker has concluded that patients rights groups have been speaking out against psychiatric abuses for decades - the torturous treatments, the loss of freedom and dignity, the misuse of seclusion and restraints, the neurological damage caused by drugs - but have been condemned and dismissed by the psychiatric establishment and others. Recipients of mental health services demanded control over their own treatment and sought to influence the mental health system and society's views. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..47eb5bf07 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== The movement today == +In the United States, the number of mental health mutual support groups (MSG), self-help organizations (SHO) (run by and for mental health consumers and/or family members) and consumer-operated services (COS) was estimated in 2002 to be 7,467. In Canada, CSI's (Consumer Survivor Initiatives) are the preferred term. "In 1991 Ontario led the world in its formal recognition of CSI's as part of the core services offered within the mental health sector when it began to formally fund CSI's across the province. Consumer Survivor Initiatives in Ontario Building an Equitable Future' (2009) pg 7. +The movement may express a preference for the "survivor" label over the "consumer" label, with more than 60 percent of ex-patient groups reported to support anti-psychiatry beliefs and considering themselves to be "psychiatric survivors." There is some variation between the perspective on the consumer/survivor movement coming from psychiatry, anti-psychiatry or consumers/survivors themselves. +The most common terms in Germany are "Psychiatrie-Betroffene" (people afflicted by/confronted with psychiatry) and "Psychiatrie-Erfahrene" (people who have experienced psychiatry). Sometimes the terms are considered as synonymous but sometimes the former emphasizes the violence and negative aspects of psychiatry. The German national association of (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry is called the Bundesverband Psychiatrie-Erfahrener (BPE). +There are many grassroots self-help groups of consumers/survivors, local and national, all over the world, which are an important cornerstone of empowerment. A considerable obstacle to realizing more consumer/survivor alternatives is lack of funding. Alternative consumer/survivor groups like the National Empowerment Center in the US which receive public funds but question orthodox psychiatric treatment, have often come under attack for receiving public funding and been subject to funding cuts. +As well as advocacy and reform campaigns, the development of self-help and user/survivor controlled services is a central issue. The Runaway-House in Berlin, Germany, is an example. Run by the Organisation for the Protection from Psychiatric Violence, it is an antipsychiatric crisis centre for homeless survivors of psychiatry where the residents can live for a limited amount of time and where half the staff members are survivors of psychiatry themselves. In Helsingborg, Sweden, the Hotel Magnus Stenbock is run by a user/survivor organization "RSMH" that gives users/survivors a possibility to live in their own apartments. It is financed by the Swedish government and run entirely by users. Voice of Soul is a user/survivor organization in Hungary. Creative Routes is a user/survivor organization in London, England, that among other support and advocacy activities puts on an annual "Bonkersfest". +WNUSP is a consultant organization for the United Nations. After a "long and difficult discussion", ENUSP and WNUSP (European and World Networks of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry) decided to employ the term (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry in order to include the identities of the different groups and positions represented in these international NGOs. WNUSP contributed to the development of the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and produced a manual to help people use it entitled "Implementation Manual for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", edited by Myra Kovary. ENUSP is consulted by the European Union and World Health Organization. +In 2007 at a Conference held in Dresden on "Coercive Treatment in Psychiatry: A Comprehensive Review", the president and other leaders of the World Psychiatric Association met, following a formal request from the World Health Organization, with four representatives from leading consumer/survivor groups. +The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (formerly known as National Coalition for Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations) campaigns in the United States to ensure that consumer/survivors have a major voice in the development and implementation of health care, mental health, and social policies at the state and national levels, empowering people to recover and lead a full life in the community. +The United States Massachusetts-based Freedom Center provides and promotes alternative and holistic approaches and takes a stand for greater choice and options in treatments and care. The center and the New York-based Icarus Project (which does not self-identify as a consumer/survivor organization but has participants that identify as such) have published a Harm Reduction Guide To Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs and were recently a featured charity in Forbes business magazine. +Mad pride events, organized by loosely connected groups in at least seven countries including Australia, South Africa, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ghana, draw thousands of participants. For some, the objective is to continue the destigmatization of mental illness. Another wing rejects the need to treat mental afflictions with psychotropic drugs and seeks alternatives to the "care" of the medical establishment. Many members of the movement say they are publicly discussing their own struggles to help those with similar conditions and to inform the general public. +Survivor David Oaks, director of MindFreedom, hosted a monthly radio show and the Freedom Center initiated a weekly FM radio show now syndicated on the Pacifica Network, Madness Radio, hosted by Freedom Center co-founder Will Hall. +A new International Coalition of National Consumer/User Organizations was launched in Canada in 2007, called Interrelate. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5b1f99968 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Psychiatric survivors movement" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivors_movement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:25.950630+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Impact == +Research into consumer/survivor initiatives (CSIs) suggests they can help with social support, empowerment, mental wellbeing, self-management and reduced service use, identity transformation and enhanced quality of life. However, studies have focused on the support and self-help aspects of CSIs, neglecting that many organizations locate the causes of members’ problems in political and social institutions and are involved in activities to address issues of social justice. +A 2006 series of studies in Canada compared individuals who participated in CSIs with those who did not. The two groups were comparable at baseline on a wide range of demographic variables, self-reported psychiatric diagnosis, service use, and outcome measures. After a year and a half, those who had participated in CSIs showed significant improvement in social support and quality of life (daily activities), fewer days of psychiatric hospitalization, and more were likely to have stayed in employment (paid or volunteer) and/or education. There was no significant difference on measures of community integration and personal empowerment, however. There were some limitations to the findings; although the active and nonactive groups did not differ significantly at baseline on measures of distress or hospitalization, the active group did have a higher mean score and there may have been a natural pattern of recovery over time for that group (regression to the mean). The authors noted that the apparent positive impacts of consumer-run organizations were achieved at a fraction of the cost of professional community programs. +Further qualitative studies indicated that CSIs can provide safe environments that are a positive, welcoming place to go; social arenas that provide opportunities to meet and talk with peers; an alternative worldview that provides opportunities for members to participate and contribute; and effective facilitators of community integration that provide opportunities to connect members to the community at large. System-level activism was perceived to result in changes in perceptions by the public and mental health professionals (about mental health or mental illness, the lived experience of consumer/survivors, the legitimacy of their opinions, and the perceived value of CSIs) and in concrete changes in service delivery practice, service planning, public policy, or funding allocations. The authors noted that the evidence indicated that the work benefits other consumers/survivors (present and future), other service providers, the general public, and communities. They also noted that there were various barriers to this, most notably lack of funding, and also that the range of views represented by the CSIs appeared less narrow and more nuanced and complex than previously, and that perhaps the consumer/survivor social movement is at a different place than it was 25 years ago. +A significant theme that has emerged from consumer/survivor work, as well as from some psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, has been a recovery model which seeks to overturn therapeutic pessimism and to support sufferers to forge their own personal journey towards the life they want to live; some argue, however, that it has been used as a cover to blame people for not recovering or to cut public services. +There has also been criticism of the movement. Organized psychiatry often views radical consumerist groups as extremist, as having little scientific foundation and no defined leadership, as "continually trying to restrict the work of psychiatrists and care for the seriously mentally ill", and as promoting disinformation on the use of involuntary commitment, electroconvulsive therapy, stimulants and antidepressants among children, and neuroleptics among adults. However, opponents consistently argue that psychiatry is territorial and profit-driven and stigmatizes and undermines the self-determination of patients and ex-patients. The movement has also argued against social stigma or mentalism by wider society. +People in the US, led by figures such as psychiatrists E. Fuller Torrey and Sally Satel, and some leaders of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, have lobbied against the funding of consumer/survivor groups that promote antipsychiatry views or promote social and experiential recovery rather than a biomedical model, or who protest against outpatient commitment. Torrey has said the term "psychiatric survivor" used by ex-patients to describe themselves is just political correctness and has blamed them, along with civil rights lawyers, for the deaths of half a million people due to suicides and deaths on the street. His accusations have been described as inflammatory and completely unsubstantiated, however, and issues of self-determination and self-identity have been said to be more complex than that. + +== See also == + +Aggression in healthcare +Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society +Anti-psychiatry +Commissioners in Lunacy +Critical Psychiatry Network +Disability rights movement +Disability flag +Duplessis Orphans +Mad Studies +Millfields Charter, an electronic charter regarding prone restraint holds +Neurodiversity +Neuroplasticity, how the brain changes in the course of a lifetime +Outline of the psychiatric survivors movement +The Shrink Next Door + +== References == + +== External links == +Guide on the History of the Consumer Movement from the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse +Cohen, Oryx (2001) Psychiatric Survivor Oral Histories: Implications for Contemporary Mental Health Policy. Center for Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts, Amherst +Linda J Morrison. (2006) A Matter of Definition: Acknowledging Consumer/Survivor Experiences through Narrative Radical Psychology Volume Five +Shock Treatment - The Killing of Susan Kelly A poem by insulin/electro shock survivor Dorothy Dundas +McLean, A. (2003). Recovering Consumers and a Broken Mental Health System in the United States: Ongoing Challenges for Consumers/ Survivors and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Part I: Legitimization of the Consumer Movement and Obstacles to It. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 8, 47-57 +McLean, A. (2003) Recovering Consumers and a Broken Mental Health System in the United States: Ongoing Challenges for Consumers/ Survivors and the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. Part II: Impact of Managed Care and Continuing Challenges International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 8, 58–70. +Transcript of interview with Peter Breggin, M.D., author of "Toxic Psychiatry," Talking Back To Prozac" and "Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex." +Psychiatry chapter from Heart Failure - Diary of a Third Year Medical Student by Michael Greger, M.D. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..72637936a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 1/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q Clearance Patriot", more commonly known as "Q". Q's claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters in league with the deep state is operating a global child sex trafficking ring and that Donald Trump is secretly leading the fight against them. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, another conspiracy theory that appeared on the Internet one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many different conspiracy theories and unifies them into a larger interconnected theory. QAnon has been described as a cult. +During the first presidency of Donald Trump, QAnon followers believed the administration would conduct arrests and executions of thousands of members of the cabal on a day known as "the Storm" or "the Event". QAnon conspiracy believers have named Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts as members of the cabal of pedophiles. QAnon is described as antisemitic or rooted in antisemitic tropes, due to its fixation on Jewish financier George Soros and conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, a frequent target of antisemites. +Though QAnon has its origins in older conspiracy theories, it was set in motion in October 2017 when Q first posted on the website 4chan. Q claimed to be a high-level government official with Q clearance, with access to classified information about the Trump administration and its opponents. Q soon moved to 8chan, making it QAnon's online home. Q's often cryptic posts, which became known as "drops", were collected by aggregator apps and websites and relayed by influencers. QAnon became a viral phenomenon beyond the internet and turned into a political movement. QAnon followers began to appear at Trump campaign rallies in August 2018, and Trump amplified QAnon accounts on Twitter. QAnon's conspiracy theories have also been relayed by Russian and Chinese state-backed media, social media troll accounts, and the far-right Falun Gong–associated Epoch Media Group. +Following its emergence in American politics, QAnon spawned movements around the world. The exact number of QAnon adherents is unclear. After increased scrutiny of the movement, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook began taking action to stop the spread of the conspiracy theory. QAnon followers have perpetrated acts of violence. Members of the movement took part in the 2020 United States presidential election, during which they supported Trump's campaign and waged information warfare to influence voters. After Joe Biden won, they were involved in efforts to overturn the results of the election. Associates of Trump, such as Michael Flynn, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, have promoted QAnon-derived conspiracy theories. When these tactics failed, Trump supporters – many of them QAnon followers – attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Capitol attack led to a further, more sustained social media crackdown on the movement and its claims. Though the QAnon movement in its original form lost traction after the 2020 election, some of the concepts it promoted went on to permeate mainstream American political discourse. + +== Background == + +=== Pizzagate === + +According to QAnon researcher Mike Rothschild, "while Q has a number of precursor conspiracy theories and scams ... no conspiracy theory feeds more immediately into Q than Pizzagate". The Pizzagate theory began in 2016 with the leak of Clinton campaigner John Podesta's emails, which promoters of the theory believed contained a secret code detailing child sexual abuse. Pizzagate followers said that high-profile Democrats were sexually abusing children at a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, which led to an armed attack on the establishment by a gunman who believed those claims. +The allegations of child sexual abuse and the centrality of the Clinton family to this abuse became a key part of the QAnon belief system, but in time the Clintons' centrality was de-emphasized in favor of more general conspiratorial claims of an alleged worldwide elite of child sex traffickers. Q referred to Pizzagate claims without using the term. QAnon followers often used the hashtag #SaveTheChildren to promote the Pizzagate conspiracy theory. This caused protest from the unrelated non-governmental organization Save the Children. + +=== Influence of 4chan culture === +The investigative journalism website Bellingcat called /htg/ or "Human Trafficking General" threads on the /pol/ board of 4chan "the missing link" between Pizzagate and QAnon. Instead of focusing on a limited supply of email material to comb through, the /htg/ culture allowed users to actively participate in the imagined storylines. A key /htg/ poster was Anonymous 5 (also known as "Frank"), who claimed to be a child prostitution investigator. But the lack of a coherent narrative was a constraint on the /htg/ trend, and it never achieved Pizzagate's popularity. +The main tenets of the QAnon ideology were already present at 4chan before Q's appearance, including claims that Hillary Clinton was directly involved in a child sex ring, that Robert Mueller was secretly working with Trump, and that large-scale military tribunals were imminent. Q's posts specifically targeted individuals who were hated in the community beforehand, namely Clinton, Barack Obama, and George Soros. Bellingcat says that the idea of the "Storm" was copied from another poster named Victory of the Light, who predicted the "Event", in which mass, televised arrests of the "Cabal" were forthcoming. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..07f4d0905 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 2/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Previous "anons" === +In its most basic sense, an "anon" is an anonymous or pseudonymous Internet poster. The concept of anons "doing research" and claiming to disclose otherwise classified information, while a key component of the QAnon conspiracy theory, is not exclusive to it. Q was preceded by so-called anons who also claimed to have special government access. On July 2, 2016, the anonymous poster "FBIAnon", a self-described "high-level analyst and strategist" who claimed to have "intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Clinton case", began posting false information about the 2016 investigation into the Clinton Foundation and claimed that Hillary Clinton would be imprisoned if Trump became president. Around that time, "HLIAnon", standing for "High-Level Insider Anon", hosted long question-and-answer sessions, dispensing various conspiracy theories, including that Princess Diana was murdered after trying to stop the September 11 attacks. Soon after the 2016 United States elections, two anonymous posters, "CIAAnon" and "CIAIntern", falsely claimed to be high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers, and in late August 2017, "WHInsiderAnon" offered a supposed preview that something was "going to go down" regarding leaks that would affect the Democratic Party. + +== Origin and spread == + +A 4chan user named "Q Clearance Patriot" first appeared on the site's /pol/ board on October 28, 2017, posting in a thread titled "Calm Before the Storm", a phrase Trump had previously used to describe a gathering of American military leaders he attended. "The Storm" later became QAnon parlance for an imminent event in which thousands of alleged suspects would be arrested, imprisoned, and executed for being child-eating pedophiles. The poster's username implied that they held Q clearance, a United States Department of Energy security clearance required to access Top Secret information on nuclear weapons and materials. + +Q's first post said that Hillary Clinton was about to be arrested, which would cause massive unrest and be followed by numerous other arrests. A second message was posted a few hours later, saying that Clinton was being "detained" though not arrested yet and that Trump was planning to remove "criminal rogue elements". The post also alluded cryptically to George Soros, Huma Abedin and Operation Mockingbird. +Q's activity surged in November, with most posts expanding upon previous theories about Hillary Clinton. Other conspiracy theories were added involving Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. An Internet community developed around analyzing posts attributed to Q, and several conspiracy theorists became minor celebrities in the community. Followers started looking for "clues" to confirm their beliefs, including common phrases and occurrences. In November 2017, Trump sipping water from a bottle was interpreted as a secret sign that the mass arrests would soon take place. +QAnon went further than Pizzagate by implying a worldwide cabal and incorporating elements from other conspiracies. One of the earlier rumors QAnon followers spread was that such figures as Hillary Clinton, her daughter Chelsea, and Senator John McCain had already been arrested and indicted, and were wearing ankle monitoring bracelets during their public appearances. In the following months, the QAnon community helped spread other rumors such as the "Frazzledrip" theory, which purported the existence of a "snuff" video showing Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin murdering a child, drinking her blood and taking turns wearing the skin from her face as a mask. +In November 2017, two 4chan moderators, Paul Furber (also known as "BaruchtheScribe", a South African conspiracy theorist with an interest in U.S. politics) and Coleman Rogers (also known as "Pamphlet Anon"), worked with YouTuber Tracy Diaz to promote QAnon to a wider audience. This involved setting up the r/CBTS_Stream subreddit, where subscribers came to talk about QAnon. The subreddit was permanently closed in March 2018 due to incitement of violence and posting private information. QAnon spread to other social media, including Twitter and YouTube. Rogers and his wife, Christina Urso, launched Patriots' Soapbox, a YouTube livestream dedicated to QAnon, which they used to solicit donations. Future U.S. representative Lauren Boebert was a guest on Patriots' Soapbox during her 2020 congressional campaign. Posts by Q moved to 8chan, with Q citing concerns that the 4chan board had been "infiltrated". Thereafter, Q posted only on 8chan. In August 2019, 8chan was shut down after it was connected with the El Paso shooting and other violent incidents. Followers of QAnon then moved to Endchan, until 8chan was restored under the name 8kun. + +=== Mainstream attention === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c7703d8d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 11/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Travis View, a researcher who studies QAnon, says that it is as addictive as a video game, and offers the "player" the possibility of being involved in something of world-historical importance. According to View, "You can sit at your computer and search for information and then post about what you find, and Q basically promises that through this process, you are going to radically change the country, institute this incredible, almost bloodless revolution, and then be part of this historical movement that will be written about for generations." View compares this to mundane political involvement in which one's efforts might help to get a state legislator elected. QAnon, says View, competes not in the marketplace of ideas, but in the marketplace of realities. The belief in "The Plan" that Q alleged was in place to defeat the deep state and the cabal boosted the confidence of QAnon followers, who were told that things were happening behind the scenes and that victory would inevitably follow if they trusted Trump and the secret plan. QAnon believers try to solve riddles presented in Q's posts by connecting them to Trump speeches and tweets and other sources. The New Yorker has likened QAnon to "a form of interactive role-playing". Some followers used a "Q clock" consisting of a wheel of concentric dials to decode clues based on the timing of Q's posts and Trump's tweets. +American sociologist Mark Juergensmeyer says he "find[s] QAnon consistent with many other extremist religiopolitical movements ... including those that have arisen in response to the recent global crises of mass migration, economic globalization, and now a global pandemic". Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said QAnon has "the visceral appeal of an anti-elite message that is elastic enough to capture a lot of folks who feel fear and disenfranchisement from the current political system". Scholar Mia Bloom describes it as "unique among conspiracy theories in its ability to mutate and adapt to its environment," stating "[i]t has successfully absorbed local grievances abroad and takes on whatever local issues are central". She also argues that QAnon's acceptance of movements such as vaccine skepticism have helped it spread into unexpected demographics that share those commonalities. +Survey data showed in late 2020 that a quarter of those who knew about QAnon thought there was some truth to it. In a conspiracy theory environment, primary institutions of society that once served as trusted impartial authorities are easily rejected if they contradict the theory, making it difficult to counter the thinking of QAnon followers. + +=== Disillusionment === +Travis View says: + +People in the QAnon community often talk about alienation from family and friends. ... Though they typically talk about how Q frayed their relationships on private Facebook groups. But they think these issues are temporary and primarily the fault of others. They often comfort themselves by imagining that there will be a moment of vindication sometime in the near future which will prove their beliefs right. They imagine that after this happens, not only will their relationships be restored, but people will turn to them as leaders who understand what's going on better than the rest of us. +Disillusionment can also come from the failure of the theories' predictions. Q predicted Republican success in the 2018 US midterm elections and claimed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was involved in secret work for Trump and that despite outward tension, the two were allies. When Democrats made significant gains and Trump fired Sessions, many in the Q community were disillusioned. +Further disillusionment came when a predicted December 5 mass arrest and imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay detention camp of Trump's enemies did not occur, nor did the dismissal of charges against Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn. For some, these failures began a separation from QAnon, while others urged direct action in the form of an insurrection. Psychologist Robert Lifton said such a response to a failed prophecy is not unusual: apocalyptic cults such as Heaven's Gate, the People's Temple, the Manson Family, and Aum Shinrikyo resorted to mass suicide or mass murder when their expectations did not materialize. Lifton called this "forcing the end". View echoed the concern that disillusioned QAnon followers might take matters into their own hands as Pizzagate follower Edgar Maddison Welch did in 2016, Matthew Phillip Wright did at Hoover Dam in 2018, and Anthony Comello did in 2019, when he murdered Mafia boss Frank Cali, believing he was under Trump's protection. In February 2019, Liz Crokin said that she was losing patience waiting for Trump to arrest the supposed members of the child sex ring, and warned that people might conduct "vigilante justice". + +=== Demographics === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b8a7eb7b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 12/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +According to an August 2018 Qualtrics poll for The Washington Post, 58% of Floridians were familiar enough with QAnon to have an opinion about it. Of those who had an opinion, most were unfavorable. The average score on the feeling thermometer was just above 20, a very negative rating, and about half of what other political figures enjoy. Positive feelings toward QAnon were strongly correlated with susceptibility to conspiracy thinking. +According to a March 2020 Pew survey, 76% of Americans had never heard of QAnon, 20% had heard "a little about it", and 3% said they had heard "a lot". The survey showed 39% of those identifying as liberal democrats knew a little or more about Qanon while only 18% of people who were republican or leaned republican reported knowing a little or more about Qanon. In September 2020, a Pew survey of the 47% of respondents who said they had heard of QAnon found that 41% of Republicans and those who lean Republican believed QAnon was good for the country, compared to 7% of Democrats and those who lean Democratic. +An October 2020 Yahoo-YouGov poll found that even if they had not heard of QAnon, a majority of Republicans and Trump supporters believed top Democrats were engaged in sex-trafficking rings and more than half of Trump supporters believed he was working to dismantle the rings. +In February 2021, an American Enterprise Institute poll found that 29% of Republicans believe the central claim of QAnon, that "Donald Trump has been secretly fighting a group of child sex traffickers that include prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites." A March 2021 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Interfaith Youth Core survey found similar results: Republicans (28%) were twice as likely as Democrats (14%) to agree that the "elites" would soon be swept from power by a coming "storm"; Republicans (23%) were three times as likely as Democrats (8%) to agree that "Satan-worshipping pedophiles" control the government and media; and Republicans (28%) were four times as likely as Democrats (7%) to agree that "true American patriots may have to resort to violence" to resolve the situation. +Surveys have found that conspiracy theories such as QAnon are most popular among white Americans, especially evangelicals. A May 2021 PRRI survey confirmed that white evangelicals are among QAnon's strongest supporters, but also found that Hispanic Protestants are drawn to the movement in even larger proportions. According to the PRRI's figures, the core QAnon belief that global elites form a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles and child sex traffickers is held in the U.S. by 26% of Hispanic Protestants, 25% of White evangelical Protestants, 24% of other Protestants of color, 18% of Mormons, 16% of Hispanic Catholics, 14% of African American Protestants, 14% of other Christians, 13% of non-Christian religious people, 11% of White Catholics, 11% of religiously unaffiliated people, 10% of white mainline Protestants, and 8% of Jews. +An analysis of four 2021 PRRI surveys showed that belief in QAnon increased in the U.S. after Trump left office. In March 2021, 14% of Americans considered themselves QAnon believers, increasing to 17% by October. In the average of the four surveys, about 22% of Americans believed that there was a "storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power", and 16% shared the core QAnon belief that the government, the media and the financial elite are controlled by Satanic pedophiles. In 2024, another poll conduced by PPRI found that 19% of Americans believed in the core theories associated with QAnon, up from 14% in 2021, and that the number rose to 32% among Trump-supporting Republicans. + +==== Pastel QAnon ==== + +Pastel QAnon, identified by Concordia University researcher Marc-André Argentino, is a collection of techniques aimed predominantly at indoctrinating women into the conspiracy theory, mainly on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube. It co-opts the aesthetics and language of social media influencers, often using personal anecdotes and gateway issues (i.e. child sex-trafficking) to frame QAnon beliefs as reasonable. + +=== Post-2020 election === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9022bf97f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 13/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +After Trump lost the 2020 election, the rate of Q's posts sharply declined and Q stopped posting altogether one month later. The last "drop" for 18 months was on December 8, 2020. Mike Rothschild, author of a book on QAnon, said in 2021 that he doubted Q would ever come back, as the movement had "outgrown the need for new drops" and Trump's election loss had invalidated the core QAnon prophecy, but he added that Q might resume posting if "the community really needed new drops to keep it moving forward". +The inauguration of Joe Biden as president was a major disappointment for QAnon followers, who were convinced that Biden had won the election through voter fraud and his victory would be invalidated. Many QAnon adherents believed that something momentous would happen during the ceremony, and Trump would remain in power. The inauguration ultimately went on as planned. According to a book on the psychology of QAnon followers, Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon, "The inauguration was a particularly difficult prophecy to get wrong, and the result has been that some QAnon believers experienced deep melancholy, suicidal ideation, or engaged in self-harm". On inauguration day, Ron Watkins wrote in a message board post: "We gave it our all, now we need to keep our chins up and go back to our lives as best we are able. We have a new president sworn in and it is our responsibility to respect the Constitution." Other QAnon followers believed Biden's inauguration was "part of the plan". +Conservatives such as Steve Bannon and Bill Still denounced QAnon, calling it a psyop created by U.S. intelligence or the FBI. In a leaked conversation, Michael Flynn, once among the highest-profile QAnon supporters, called it a "disinformation campaign to make people look like a bunch of kooks", suggesting that it might have been conducted by "the Left" or the CIA. +After Biden's inauguration, analysts expressed concern that the disillusionment could lead hardline QAnon adherents to be recruited by groups such as the alt-right, white nationalists or neo-Nazis. +A group of Telegram channels called the Sabmyk Network has been promoting a variation of QAnon by targeting followers of the conspiracy theory who have been disillusioned by Q's failures in prediction. Set up by German artist Sebastian Bieniek, the network (described as a new religion or cult) shares QAnon beliefs but also believes in a leader-prophet, Sabmyk, who will lead humanity's "awakening". The network has tried to link Trump to Sabmyk. +On June 24, 2022, Q, or someone who possesses their details, posted on 8kun after an 18-month hiatus. The post claimed that Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified at the sixth public hearing on the January 6 Attack, was involved in a plot to disparage Trump. Other Q posts were published in 2022, notably one suggesting that the midterm elections would be rigged, but these messages received much less engagement than previous "drops". An article in Vice News suggested that this showed the QAnon movement had "moved past requiring new Q drops to bolster itself": journalists Mack Lamoureux and David Gilbert commented that during Q's absence, the QAnon community had continued formulating theories and other influencers had "stepped into the power vacuum". As a result, conspiracy theories had continued influencing public discourse, while conservative politics and media became infused with a "more watered-down version of QAnon". +Commenting in 2022 on the influence of QAnon on public discourses, social scientist Donald Moynihan said that "the most vivid importation of the QAnon worldview" was the use of the term groomers and other phrases associated with the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory. He accused Christopher Rufo, one of its main promoters, of having "construct[ed] a new moral panic using QAnon messaging", which he likened to "the McCarthyite tactic of attaching a negative label" (in that case, pedophilia) to "people holding different beliefs". +As of 2024, QAnon adherents are still active online. They rejoiced at Donald Trump's return to power. According to Mike Rothschild, even though there seems to be less interest than before in content analyzing Q's "drops", ideas that QAnon helped popularize, such as the need to confront an evil "deep state" or anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, have become commonplace on the right. Rothschild commented that "QAnon as a movement based around secret codes and clues and riddles doesn't so much exist anymore. But it doesn't need to exist anymore because its tenets have become such a major part of mainstream conservatism and such a big part of the base of people that reelected Donald Trump". + +== Incidents == + +QAnon's followers have been part of controversial, sometimes violent events. In 2020, QAnon followers were involved in the presidential election, during which they supported Trump's campaign. QAnon personalities moved to dedicated message boards, where they organized to wage information warfare to influence the election. One in 50 tweets about voting in the 2020 United States presidential election came from QAnon accounts. Two in 25 accounts using the hashtag #voterfraud, which spread unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud, were QAnon accounts. + +=== Vandalism of America's Stonehenge === +In 2019, the tourist attraction and archaeological site America's Stonehenge was vandalized with power tools. On March 4, 2021, New Hampshire State Police arrested Mark L. Russo, a member of QAnon, and charged him with criminal mischief. Two inscriptions were etched into the so-called "sacrificial table": the QAnon slogan WWG1WGA meaning "Where we go one, we go all" and IAMMARK, Russo's Twitter handle. By using a pseudonym to search social media, researcher Chris Walters found photographs showing the site as well as items later found by the police. Later it was determined that two QAnon followers had had adult sons who had died. Both believed that the "sacrifical table" was real and that their sons had been killed by a worldwide conspiracy led by Hillary Clinton in order to extract adrenochrome, which they believed could renew life. + +=== Attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. election === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f8d25a276 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 14/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +QAnon followers supported the efforts of Trump's legal team to overturn the election through multiple lawsuits and submitted conspiracy theories of their own. They theorized that voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems had deleted millions of votes for Trump. This was repeated on the far-right cable news outlet One America News Network, and Trump tweeted the segment to his followers. +One specific QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theory, known as Italygate and pushed in the last weeks of Trump's presidency, alleged that the American election had been rigged using technology from the United States Embassy in Rome with the help of an Italian hacker, an Italian general and the Vatican. +Several elected leaders, including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona House Election Chairwoman Kelly Townsend were well known QAnon adherents before the 2020 election and who helped lead attempts to overturn the election in the aftermath. In June 2020, Townsend posted a QAnon video with a flaming "Q" to her social media and followed high-profile QAnon accounts. Some local Arizona politics reporters have referred to Townsend as the QAnon Queen of the Legislature. +Based on a misinterpretation of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 by the sovereign citizen movement, according to which it transformed the federal government into a corporation and rendered illegitimate every president elected thereafter, some QAnon followers claimed that the 18th president (Ulysses S. Grant, in office from 1869 to 1877) was the last legitimate president. They believed that Trump would be sworn in as the 19th president on March 4, 2021. The original inauguration date until the Twentieth Amendment changed it to January 20 in 1933, and that he would restore the federal government. Based on intelligence that an identified but undisclosed militia group might attempt an attack on the Capitol on that date, the U.S. Capitol Police issued an alert on March 3. House leadership subsequently rescheduled a March 4 vote to the previous night to allow lawmakers to leave town. +The Anti-Defamation League, British security firm G4S, and nonpartisan governance watchdog Advance Democracy Inc, studied QAnon posts and warned of the potential for violence on January 6, 2021. Violence did occur that day, as the attempts to overturn the election culminated with the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Multiple QAnon-affiliated protesters participated in the disturbance. Rioters were either seen wearing clothing with Q-related emblems or identified as QAnon followers from video footage. One participant whose attire and behavior attracted worldwide media attention was Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman". Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot dead by police as she was trying to break into the Speaker's Lobby, was a committed follower of QAnon. The day before the attack, she had tweeted: "the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours". +The attack led to a crackdown on QAnon content on social media. On April 19, 2021, the Soufan Center reported that Russia and China had amplified and "weaponized" QAnon at the time of the Capitol attack "to sow societal discord and even compromise legitimate political processes." + +=== German coup attempt === + +Several QAnon adherents were charged with participation in the 2022 coup d'état plot in Germany, which involved groups of far-right activists and conspiracy theorists, such as the Reichsbürger movement. + +== Reactions == + +=== Media, advocacy groups, and public figures === +Journalists have debunked QAnon's basic tenets. In 2018, The Washington Post called its proponents "a deranged conspiracy cult" and "some of the Internet's most outré Trump fans". +In December 2017, the Russian television network RT aired a segment discussing "QAnon revelations", calling the anonymous poster a "secret intelligence operative inside the Trump administration known by QAnon". On March 13, 2018, Cheryl Sullenger, vice president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, called QAnon a "small group of insiders close to President Donald J. Trump" and called their posts the "highest level of intelligence to ever be dropped publicly in our known history". On March 15, Kyiv-based Rabochaya Gazeta, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Ukraine, published an article calling QAnon a "military intelligence group". On March 31, actor Roseanne Barr appeared to promote QAnon, covered by CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Radio talk show host Lionel became an outspoken QAnon supporter. In April and October 2021, actor Jim Caviezel appeared at conservative conferences and endorsed aspects of the QAnon. +In June 2018, a Time magazine article listed Q among the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet in 2018. Counting more than 130,000 related discussion videos on YouTube, Time cited the wide range of the conspiracy theory and its more prominent followers and news coverage. On July 4, the Hillsborough County Republican Party shared on its official Facebook and Twitter accounts a YouTube video on QAnon, calling them a "mysterious anonymous inside leaker of deep state activities and counter activities by President Trump". The posts were soon deleted. +In August 2018, following the presence of QAnon supporters at Trump's Tampa, Florida rally for the midterm elections, MSNBC news anchors Hallie Jackson, Brian Williams, and Chris Hayes dedicated portions of their programs to the conspiracy theory. PBS NewsHour also ran a segment on QAnon the next day. In August, Washington Post editorial writer Molly Roberts wrote, "'The storm' QAnon truthers predict will never strike because the conspiracy that obsesses them doesn't exist. But while they wait for it, they'll try to whip up the winds, and the rest of us will struggle to find shelter." + +=== Official responses === + +==== FBI domestic terrorism assessment ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..40475df18 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 15/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In May 2019, an FBI "Intelligence Bulletin" memo from the Phoenix field office identified QAnon-driven extremists as a domestic terrorism threat. The document cited arrests related to QAnon, some of which had not been publicized before. According to the memo, "This is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products. ... The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts." +According to FBI's counterterrorism director Michael G. McGarrity's testimony before Congress in May, the FBI divides domestic terrorism threats into four primary categories, "racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism", which includes both abortion-rights and anti-abortion extremists. The fringe conspiracy theory threat is closely related to the anti-government/anti-authority subject area. On December 19, 2018, a Californian man whose car contained bomb-making materials he intended to use to "blow up a satanic temple monument" in the Springfield, Illinois, Capitol rotunda to "make Americans aware of Pizzagate and the New World Order, who were dismantling society" was arrested. The FBI said another factor driving the intensity of anti-government extremism is "the uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political figures". + +==== Congressional resolution ==== +In August 2020, two U.S. Representatives, Democrat Tom Malinowski and Republican Denver Riggleman, introduced a bipartisan simple resolution (H. Res. 1154) condemning QAnon. Malinowski said the resolution's aim was to repudiate "this dangerous, anti-Semitic, conspiracy-mongering cult that the FBI says is radicalizing Americans to violence". The resolution urged law enforcement and homeland security agencies "to continue to strengthen their focus on preventing violence, threats, harassment, and other criminal activity by extremists motivated by fringe political conspiracy theories" and encouraged the U.S. intelligence community "to uncover any foreign support, assistance, or online amplification QAnon receives, as well as any QAnon affiliations, coordination, and contacts with foreign extremist organizations or groups espousing violence". +In September 2020, Malinowski received death threats from QAnon followers after being falsely accused of wanting to protect sexual predators. The threats were prompted by a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) campaign advertisement that falsely claimed that Malinowski worked against plans to increase registration for sex offenders in a 2006 crime bill while he was working as a lobbyist for Human Rights Watch. +The resolution passed on October 2, 2020, in a 371–18 vote. Seventeen Republicans (including Steve King, Paul Gosar, and Daniel Webster) and one independent (Justin Amash) voted no; Republican Andy Harris voted "present". According to Will Sommer in The Daily Beast, the resolution does not have the force of law. Before the vote, Malinowski told Slate magazine, referencing the NRCC ad: "I don't want to see any Republicans voting against fire on the House floor this week and then continuing to play with fire next week by running these kinds of ads against Democratic candidates." + +=== Republican individuals and organizations === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..76aea9a2d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 16/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In 2019, two Republican congressional candidates expressed support for QAnon theories. In early 2020, Jim Watkins created the "Disarm the Deep State" super PAC, whose stated aim was to "mobilize a community of patriots in order to remove power from Deep State members". In November 2020, it was reported that the PAC had raised just $4,736, including a $500 loan from Watkins's lawyer. +In 2020, there were 97 QAnon followers in the primaries, of whom 22 Republicans and two independents ran in the elections of that year. Businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene won an August 2020 runoff to become the GOP nominee in the 14th Congressional District in Georgia. In 2020, she said many of Q's claims "have really proven to be true". Months into the Trump presidency, she stated in a video: "There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it". Jo Rae Perkins, the 2020 Republican Senate candidate in Oregon, tweeted a video on the night of her May primary victory showing her holding a WWG1WGA sticker and stating that she "[stood] with Q and the team. Thank you Anons, and thank you patriots." She expressed regret at having later deleted the video on the advice of a political consultant. The next month she took the "digital soldiers oath" that Q had requested followers to do three days earlier. +On June 30, 2020, incumbent Republican U.S. representative Scott Tipton lost a primary for Colorado's 3rd congressional district to Lauren Boebert in an upset. Boebert expressed tentative support for QAnon in an interview, but after winning the primary, attempted to distance herself from those statements, saying "I'm not a follower." Boebert was elected to Congress that November. Angela Stanton-King, a Trump-backed candidate running for the Georgia House seat of the late congressman John Lewis, posted on Twitter that Black Lives Matter is "a major cover up for pedophilia and human trafficking" and "the storm is here". Stanton-King told a reporter that her posts did not relate to QAnon, asserting, "It was raining that day." Weather records did not show precipitation in her area on the day of the post. +In August 2020, The New York Times said that the Texas Republican Party's new slogan ("We Are the Storm") was taken from Q. Texas Republican Party officials denied this, saying it was inspired by a biblical passage and has no connection to QAnon. In May 2021, representative Louie Gohmert and Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West attended the "For God & Country: Patriot Roundup" conference organized by QAnon followers in Dallas. +Also in August 2020, representative Liz Cheney became the highest-ranking House Republican to take a stand against QAnon, which she called a "dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics". Other Republican Party members who have spoken out against QAnon include senator Ben Sasse, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In March 2021, representative Peter Meijer said that the Republican Party should unequivocally condemn QAnon and other conspiracy theories, and commented: "The fact that a significant plurality, if not potentially a majority, of our voters have been deceived into this creation of an alternate reality could very well be an existential threat to the party". Representative Adam Kinzinger launched a PAC called "Country First", aimed at countering conspiracy theories and Donald Trump. +In April 2024, the Washington Post published an article saying that since 2021 QAnon had "mostly evaporated" after Q stopped posting new messages, but that the movement and its worldview had "largely been folded into the broader Republican Party". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-16.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..27f36d36e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-16.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 17/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Donald Trump ==== +According to Media Matters for America, as of August 2020, Trump had amplified QAnon messaging at least 216 times by retweeting or mentioning 129 QAnon-affiliated Twitter accounts, sometimes multiple times a day. QAnon followers came to refer to Trump as "Q+". On August 24, 2018, Trump hosted Michael William "Lionel" Lebron, a leading QAnon promoter, in the Oval Office for a photo op. Shortly after Christmas 2019, Trump retweeted over a dozen QAnon followers. +On August 19, 2020, Trump was asked about QAnon during a press conference; he replied: "I don't know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate." An FBI Field Office in Phoenix has called QAnon a potential domestic terror threat, but Trump called QAnon followers "people who love our country". When a reporter asked Trump if he could support a notion that suggests he "is secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals", he responded: "Well, I haven't heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?" Presidential candidate Joe Biden responded that Trump was aiming to "legitimize a conspiracy theory that the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorism threat". +On October 15, 2020, when given the opportunity to denounce QAnon at a "town hall"-style campaign event, Trump refused to do so and instead pointed out that QAnon opposes pedophilia. He said he knew nothing else about QAnon and told his questioner, Savannah Guthrie of NBC News, that no one can know whether the premise of QAnon's conspiracy theory is true. "They believe it is a satanic cult run by the deep state," Guthrie informed him. When Guthrie asserted that the conspiracy was not true, Trump responded, "No, I don't know that. And neither do you know that." +In September 2022, an Associated Press analysis found that Trump was embracing QAnon more openly than before. Trump was reposting Q drops and QAnon memes on Truth Social, and more than a third of the accounts he had reposted in the last month had themselves shared QAnon slogans, videos or imagery. Trump has played the song Mirrors at public events. The song has been associated with QAnon since it was re-published as WWG1WGA by a YouTube user named "Richard Feelgood". The song's author, Will van de Crommert, has disavowed Trump and QAnon. + +==== Mike Pence ==== +On August 21, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence said that he did not "know anything about" QAnon except that it was a conspiracy theory that he "dismisse[d] out of hand". When asked whether he would acknowledge the administration's role in "giving oxygen" to the belief, Pence shook his head and said, "Give me a break." Pence also commented that the media giving attention to QAnon amounted to "[chasing] shiny objects". +After the election, as the date of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count approached and Pence showed no intention of blocking the certification of Biden's win, QAnon figures vilified him as a traitor. After Pence's lawyers fought a lawsuit that aimed to make him refuse to count electoral votes for Biden, Lin Wood said that Pence would "face execution by firing squad" for "treason". A few hours before the count started on January 6, Wood tweeted that Pence should resign immediately and that charges should be brought against him. After the attack on the Capitol, Wood called Pence a "child molester" on Twitter. After his Twitter account was suspended, Wood used Parler to call again for Pence's execution by firing squad. + +==== Michael Flynn ==== + +Former lieutenant general and head of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn, who served as Trump's National Security Advisor, became popular among QAnon followers, who took a 2016 quote from Flynn about Trump having been elected by an "army of digital soldiers" and started calling themselves "digital soldiers". QAnon followers also adopted three stars as a symbol to display solidarity with Flynn, as a reference to Flynn having been a three-star general in the U.S. army. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-17.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-17.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..58ca53356 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-17.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 18/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In August 2019, a "Digital Soldiers Conference" was announced for the next month in Atlanta. The stated purpose was to prepare "patriotic social media warriors" for a coming "digital civil war" against "censorship and suppression". The announcement of the event prominently displayed a Q spelled in stars on the blue field of an American flag, with the three stars making up the tail of the "Q" being highlighted separately to reference Flynn's military status. Scheduled speakers for the event, which was hosted by Yippy CEO Rich Granville, included Flynn and George Papadopoulos, as well as Gina Loudon, a Trump friend and member of his campaign media advisory board, singer Joy Villa, and Bill Mitchell, a radio host and ardent Trump supporter. +On July 4, 2020, Flynn posted to his Twitter account a video of himself leading a small group in an oath with the QAnon motto, "Where we go one, we go all". Analysts said the oath was part of QAnon's attempt to organize "digital soldiers" for the political and social apocalypse they see coming. Flynn's apparent declaration of allegiance to QAnon made him the most prominent former government official to endorse the conspiracy theory. Member of Trump's legal team and Flynn's representative Sidney Powell denied that the oath was related to QAnon. During the preceding days, numerous QAnon followers took the same "digital soldier oath" on Twitter, and used the same #TakeTheOath hashtag Flynn did. +After his November 2020 pardon and the election results, Flynn became more closely associated with QAnon, endorsing a website that sold QAnon merchandise, creating a Digital Soldiers media company, and saying he planned to launch a news media outlet also called "Digital soldiers". He appeared on various far-right media, pushing QAnon-affiliated conspiracy theories. Flynn's activism fueled speculation among QAnon followers that he would help them take control, or that he was Q himself. QAnon supporters expressed their commitment in social media posts by using the phrase "Fight like a Flynn" or variations thereof. + +In February 2021, several weeks after the Capitol riot, Flynn distanced himself from QAnon theories by saying in an interview: "There's no plan. There's so many people out there asking, 'Is the plan happening?' We have what we have, and we have to accept the situation as it is." But he did not outright disavow the QAnon movement. In May 2021, Flynn was a keynote speaker at the "For God & Country: Patriot Roundup" conference organized in Dallas, Texas by QAnon influencer John Sabal. At the end of the year, though, Flynn appeared to have rejected QAnon as a whole. +In March 2021, Flynn's brother, retired lieutenant general Jack Flynn, and his wife filed a $75 million defamation suit against CNN, alleging the network had falsely accused them of being QAnon followers. They asserted that the video Flynn had posted in July 2020, which CNN had broadcast, depicted their pledging an oath to the Constitution, not to QAnon. The suit claimed Flynn alone had recited the QAnon motto, "where we go one, we go all", though the video showed all the other participants had done so. The plaintiffs also said they "are not followers or supporters of any extremist or terrorist groups, including QAnon". In December 2021, federal district court judge Gregory Howard Woods largely rejected CNN's motion to dismiss the case, allowing it to proceed to determine whether the Flynns had been portrayed in a false light. + +==== Lin Wood ==== + +Lin Wood, a lawyer who worked with Trump's reelection campaign and participated in the election lawsuits, promoted QAnon conspiracy theories. His Twitter profile included the hashtag #WWG1WGA, a slogan associated with QAnon. Among other baseless QAnon-associated claims, he accused Chief Justice John Roberts of child rape and murder. Wood also claimed that QAnon supporter Isaac Kappy was murdered for attempting to transmit information to Trump. On January 11, 2021, Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig A. Karsnitz cited Wood's social media postings in his reasons for an order revoking Wood's right to appear before the court. Karsnitz said that he had "no doubt" that Wood's tweets played a role in inciting the attack on the Capitol. + +==== Sidney Powell ==== + +Attorney Sidney Powell, a member of Trump's legal team, denied knowledge of QAnon in January 2020, though in the following months she retweeted major QAnon accounts and catchphrases and appeared on QAnon channels on YouTube. +After leaving Trump's team, Powell remained involved in post-election lawsuits and was embraced by QAnon followers, discouraged that predictions of a Trump landslide victory and coming revelations about his enemies had not materialized. Powell's evidence in the lawsuit she filed in Georgia to overturn the election result included an affidavit from Ron Watkins. In this document, Watkins stated that his reading of an online user guide for Dominion Voting Systems software led him to conclude that election fraud might be "within the realm of possibility". Watkins did not provide any evidence of fraud. +In May 2021, Powell asserted that Trump "can simply be reinstated", that "a new inauguration date is set". The date for this was supposedly August 13 of the same year. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-18.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-18.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9f4f504ae --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-18.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 19/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Kelly Townsend ==== +Former Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend is a longtime conspiracy theorist, feeding conspiracies such as the Obama birther conspiracy to Trump before he was elected. She posted the QAnon "Q" symbol to her social media account in 2018 and has consistently aligned with QAnon theories, including calling all vaccines "communist". In 2021, Townsend supported activists active in the election denial movement in a spirit similar to the events that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, urging parents to take control of school board meetings related to COVID-19 restrictions and mask mandates. Throughout the process of securing the Arizona audit conducted by QAnon conspiracy theorist Doug Logan from Cyber Ninjas, Townsend worked closely with QAnon adherent Liz Harris, who rented one of her condos to QAnon board owner Ron Watkins so he could run for office in Arizona in 2022. +Along with Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and 2020 Maricopa County Sheriff candidate and then chief Arpaio staffer Jerry Sheridan, Townsend worked with informant Dennis Montgomery. In 2020, she worked with Corsi again, claiming the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and emailing Corsi a document of Arizona senators endorsing Trump electors in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. In the lead-up to January 6, 2021, Townsend sponsored a bill that would designate Trump electors from Arizona and promoted the Arizona audit and stolen election claims. + +==== Liz Harris ==== +When Ron Watkins, son of Jim Watkins, who owned the image board that QAnon posts were posted on, came to the U.S. from Japan to run for Congress, he listed a property owned by Liz Harris who is also a prominent QAnon influencer, as his primary address. After QAnon supporter Kelly Townsend was voted out of office in Arizona during the 2022 midterms, Harris was elected for a short time before being expelled for lying during an ethics investigation that was investigating her for promotion of conspiracies. + +==== Kash Patel ==== +Kash Patel, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has appeared on more than 50 podcasts that have promoted or shared QAnon-related content. In 2022, while serving on Truth Social's board, Patel said the platform was trying to "incorporate" QAnon "into our overall messaging scheme to capture audiences." He has signed copies of his children's book with the QAnon slogan "WWG1WGA" and promoted the hashtag on Truth Social. + +== Online == + +=== QDrops app === +QDrops, an app that promoted the conspiracy theory, was published on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It became the most popular paid app in Apple's online store's "entertainment" section in April 2018, and the tenth-most popular paid app overall. It was published by Tiger Team Inc, a North Carolina couple, Richard and Adalita Brown. On July 15, 2018, Apple pulled the app after an inquiry from NBC News. +In mid-May 2020, Google removed three other apps – QMAP, Q Alerts! and Q Alerts LITE – from the Android app store for violating its terms of service. + +=== Anti-QAnon subreddits === +Some social media forums, such as the subreddits r/QAnonCasualties and r/ReQovery, aim to assist either former followers and supporters of QAnon conspiracies or those whose family members engaged in the conspiracy. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-19.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-19.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eb6973c5f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-19.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 20/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Removal of content === +In March 2018, Reddit banned one of its communities discussing QAnon, /r/CBTS_Stream, for "encouraging or inciting violence and posting personal and confidential information". Some followers moved to Discord. Several other communities were formed for discussion of QAnon, leading to further bans on September 12, 2018, in response to these communities "inciting violence, harassment, and the dissemination of personal information", which led to thousands of followers regrouping on Voat, a Switzerland-based Reddit clone that has been described as a hub for the alt-right. In early 2019, Twitter removed accounts suspected of being connected to the Russian Internet Research Agency that had disseminated a high volume of QAnon-related tweets that used the #WWG1WGA slogan. +In May 2020, Facebook announced its removal of five pages, 20 accounts, and six groups linked to "individuals associated with the QAnon network" as part of an investigation into "suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior" ahead of the 2020 United States election. On August 19, Facebook expanded its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy to address "growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them, or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior". As a result of this increased vigilance, Facebook reported having already "removed over 790 groups, 100 Pages and 1,500 ads tied to QAnon from Facebook, blocked over 300 hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, and additionally imposed restrictions on over 1,950 Groups and 440 Pages on Facebook and over 10,000 accounts on Instagram". In the month after its August announcement, Facebook said it deleted 1,500 QAnon groups; such groups by then had four million followers. In October 2020, Facebook said it would immediately begin removing "any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content". The company said it would immediately ban any group representing QAnon. +In July 2020, Twitter announced it was banning more than 7,000 accounts connected to QAnon for coordinated amplification of fake news and conspiracy theories. In a press release, Twitter said, "We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called 'QAnon' activity across the service." It also said that the actions could apply to over 150,000 accounts. +Facebook banned all QAnon groups and pages in October 2020. That day, QAnon followers speculated that the action was part of a complex Trump administration strategy to begin arresting its enemies, or that Facebook was attempting to silence news of this occurring; neither is true. Some followers speculated that a Justice Department "national security" news conference scheduled for the next day would relate to charges against Democrats, including Hillary Clinton. The Justice Department actually announced the investigation and arrest of Islamic State members. Etsy also announced that it would remove all QAnon-related merchandise from its online marketplace. The products were still available there as of January 2021. +In an interview with CNN, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said much QAnon material was "borderline content" that did not explicitly break its rules, but that changes in the site's methodology for recommendations had reduced views of QAnon-related content by 80%. Three days later, YouTube announced that it had modified its hate and harassment policies to bar "content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence", such as QAnon and Pizzagate. It would still allow content discussing QAnon if it did not target individuals. +Hashtags and accounts associated with QAnon have since been banned by numerous social networks including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. In particular, the 2021 United States Capitol attack led to a crackdown on QAnon-related content on social media platforms during the days that followed. Twitter suspended Lin Wood's account on January 7 and those of Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn and other high-profile QAnon figures the next day. On January 12, Facebook and Twitter announced that they were removing "Stop the Steal" content and suspending 70,000 QAnon-focused accounts, respectively. More waves of deletions followed on various platforms. Amazon removed a pro-QAnon book after the Capitol riots, and many platforms took action against QAnon-related content after the incident. In May 2021, a report published by the Atlantic Council concluded that QAnon content was "evaporating" from the mainstream web. + +=== Migration to alt-tech === +The mass deletions of QAnon-related accounts on the most popular social media outlets led many members of the movement to migrate to alt-tech platforms. Notably, Parler grew in popularity among QAnon followers and conservatives in general in early 2021. Gab also became increasingly popular in these environments, especially after Parler went offline for several weeks following the Capitol attack. +In the course of 2021, various alt-tech platforms allowed QAnon influencers and adherents to regroup, with Gab and Telegram becoming particularly important hubs of QAnon communities. + +=== Return to Twitter/X === +In April 2022, QAnon followers celebrated Elon Musk's proposed purchase of Twitter, believing that Musk's free speech approach would allow them back onto the platform. After Musk acquired the platform in October of the same year, various QAnon-related accounts were reinstated and resumed posting about the conspiracy theory. By December the conspiracy theory began to make a comeback on Twitter. Suspected Q author Ron Watkins was subsequently reinstated on the platform in January 2023, while in March Musk defended the "QAnon shamon" by calling for Jacob Chansley to be freed. In May, the Anti-Defamation League documented a surge of QAnon content on Twitter, now X, described as a resurgence. + +== See also == + +Apophenia, the tendency to perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things +Cult of personality +List of conspiracy theories +Secret decoder ring, a promotional item that taps into a common fascination with secret codes +Sound of Freedom, 2023 film with alleged ties to the QAnon movement +"Epstein didn't kill himself" +Radical Right +Satanic Panic + +== Notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d8bc849f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 3/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +QAnon first received attention from the mainstream press in November 2017. Newsweek called it "Pizzagate on steroids". Gossip columnist Liz Crokin, a Pizzagate follower, was one of the first public figures to embrace QAnon. She went on to become one of the movement's most prominent influencers. Fox News personality Sean Hannity and comedian Roseanne Barr spread the news about it to their social media followers in early 2018, and the conspiracy theory gained traction on the mainstream right. At this time, InfoWars host and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed to be in personal contact with Q. This led to the presence of QAnon followers at a July 2018 Trump rally for the midterm elections in Tampa, Florida, the first visible presence of the QAnon movement at Trump rallies. +Some Christian pastors introduced their congregations to QAnon ideas. The Indiana-based Omega Kingdom Ministry tried to combine QAnon and Christianity, with Q posts and Bible quotes both read during church services. Some Christians, such as pastor Derek Kubilus, call QAnon heresy, but most U.S. pastors have not taken a stand against it. More generally, QAnon's rise coincided with increasing radicalization and violent episodes in American far-right movements. +QAnon-related merchandise was widely available on Amazon's online marketplace in 2018. QAnon: An Invitation to the Great Awakening, a book said to be authored by a group of 12 QAnon followers, neared the top of Amazon's bestsellers list in 2019, possibly through algorithmic manipulation. Also in 2019, QAnon blogger Neon Revolt (an alias of former aspiring screenwriter Robert Cornero Jr.) self-published the book Revolution Q: The Story of QAnon and the 2nd American Revolution, which became an influential text among the QAnon community and was also distributed by Amazon. In 2020, Politico noted that 100 titles associated with QAnon were available on Amazon Marketplace, in many different languages and with generally positive reviews. +Sites dedicated to aggregating the Q posts, also called "drops" or "Q drops", became essential for their dissemination and spread. QMap was the most popular and famous aggregator, run by a pseudonymous developer and overall key QAnon figure known as "QAPPANON". QMap shut down shortly after the British fact-checking organization Logically published a September 2020 report that identified QAPPANON as a New Jersey-based security analyst named Jason Gelinas. Multiple online communities were created around QAnon: in 2020, Facebook conducted an internal investigation that revealed that the social network hosted thousands of QAnon-themed groups and pages, with millions of members and followers. One QAnon influencer, Austin Steinbart, stood out by claiming that Q was his own time-traveling future self. +According to Reuters, Russian-backed social media accounts promoted QAnon claims as early as November or December 2017. Russian government-funded state media such as RT and Sputnik have amplified the conspiracy theory since 2019, citing QAnon as evidence that the United States is divided by internal strife. In 2021, a report from the Soufan Center, a research group focused on national security, found that one-fifth of 166,820 QAnon posts in the United States between January 2020 and February 2021 originated in foreign countries, primarily Russia and China, and that China was the "primary foreign actor touting QAnon-narratives online". The far-right Falun Gong-associated Epoch Media Group, including The Epoch Times, has also been a major promoter of the conspiracy theory. +University of Southern California professor and data scientist Emilio Ferrara found that about 25% of accounts that use QAnon hashtags, retweet InfoWars or had retweeted One America News Network were bots. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-20.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-20.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..765c5a8ca --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-20.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 21/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Bibliography === +Bloom, Mia; Moskalenko, Sophia (2021). Pastels and Pedophiles: Inside the Mind of QAnon. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1-5036-3029-1. +Bloom, Mia; Rollings, Rachael (2022). "Introduction to the Special Issue: Losing My Religion: Evangelicalism and the Gospel of Q". Journal of Religion and Violence. 10 (1): 1–15. doi:10.5840/jrv20221011. +Cook, Jesselyn (2024). The Quiet Damage: QAnon and the Destruction of the American Family. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-593-44325-5. +Ingersoll, Julie (2022). "America's Holy Trinity: How Conspiracism, Apocalypticism, and Persecution Narratives Set Us up for Crisis". Journal of Religion and Violence. 10 (1): 73–88. doi:10.5840/jrv202281698. +Rothschild, Mike (2021). The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. Melville House. ISBN 978-1-61219-930-6. +Sommer, Will (2023). Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America. New York: Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-311448-7. + +== Further reading == +Badham, Van (2022). QAnon and On: A Short and Shocking History of the Internet Conspiracy Cults: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults. Melbourne: Hardie Grant Books. ASIN B09JBFDKYZ. ISBN 978-1-74379-787-7. OCLC 1285976834. +Beverley, James A. (2020). The QAnon Deception: Everything You Need to Know about the World's Most Dangerous Conspiracy Theory. EqualTime Books. ISBN 979-8-5824-6589-8. +Bleakley, Paul (May 2023). "Panic, pizza and mainstreaming the alt-right: A social media analysis of Pizzagate and the rise of the QAnon conspiracy". Current Sociology. 71 (3): 509–525. doi:10.1177/00113921211034896. +Breland, Ali (August 20, 2020). "The Summer QAnon Went Mainstream". Mother Jones. Foundation for National Progress. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2024. +Breland, Ali (June 3, 2024). "How Q Became Everything". Mother Jones. Foundation for National Progress. +Enders, Adam M.; Uscinski, Joseph E.; Klofstad, Casey A.; Wuchty, Stefan; Seelig, Michelle I.; Funchion, John R.; Murthi, Manohar N.; Premaratne, Kamal; Stoler, Justin (2022). "Who Supports QAnon? A Case Study in Political Extremism". The Journal of Politics. 84 (3). University of Chicago Press: 1844–1849. doi:10.1086/717850. +Forberg, Peter L. (May 2023). "'No Cult Tells You to Think for Yourself': Discursive Ideology and the Limits of Rationality in Conspiracy Theory QAnon". American Behavioral Scientist. 67 (5): 649–664. doi:10.1177/00027642221091199. +Hodwitz, Omi; King, Steff; Thompson, Jordan (December 2022). "QAnon: The Calm Before the Storm". Society. 59 (6): 660–671. doi:10.1007/s12115-022-00688-x. PMC 8960683. PMID 35370325. +Westmark, Colton; Adam, McMahon (2022). "Identifying QAnon Conspiracy Theory Adherent Types". New Political Science. 44 (4). Taylor & Francis: 607–627. doi:10.1080/07393148.2022.2129927. + +== External links == + +Dunning, Brian (July 28, 2020). "Skeptoid #738: The QAnon Conspiracy". Skeptoid. Retrieved January 8, 2024. +"QAnon Offenders in the United States" (PDF). University of Maryland. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS). May 26, 2021. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f5c237a18 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 4/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== International following === +Marc-André Argentino, a researcher of the movement, noted in August 2020 that QAnon-dedicated Facebook pages existed in 71 countries worldwide. In January 2021, researcher Joel Finkelstein told The Washington Post that the German and Japanese QAnon movements were "strong and growing", though according to a later New York Times report, the Japanese version (also known as "JAnon" [Japanese: Jアノン]) remains a fringe belief even among conspiracy theorists. Three pro-QAnon groups in Japan are known to exist as of 2022: J-Anon, QArmyJapanFlynn and YamatoQ. In April 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested several members of YamatoQ for breaking into a health clinic which provided COVID-19 vaccinations. +Between March and June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, QAnon activity nearly tripled on Facebook and nearly doubled on Instagram and Twitter. By that time, QAnon had spread to Europe, from the Netherlands to the Balkan Peninsula. +In Germany, far-right activists and influencers have created a German audience for QAnon on YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram, estimated at 200,000 in 2020. German Reichsbürger groups adopted QAnon to promote its belief that modern Germany is not a sovereign republic but rather a corporation created by Allied nations after World War II, and expressed hope that Trump would lead an army to restore the Reich. A March 2022 study by the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, a German think tank, found that more than one in ten people in Germany agreed with QAnon's theories and that Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) voters were more likely to believe in QAnon. +In Russia, a similar conspiracy theory, the "Soviet Citizens"—which claims the Russian Federation is a Delaware-based LLC that occupies the legal territory of the Soviet Union—also became susceptible to QAnon beliefs. +A 2020 survey conducted in Britain found that one in four respondents believed in QAnon-related theories, though only 6% supported QAnon. In October 2020, anti-racist advocacy group Hope not Hate said that British influencer Martin Geddes ran "one of the most popular QAnon Twitter accounts in the world". In October 2021, Rémy Daillet-Wiedemann, a French QAnon-associated conspiracy theorist, was charged with terrorism for having planned a coup against the French government. Various associates of Daillet-Wiedemann were also arrested and charged in late 2021 and early 2022. +Many Canadians have also promoted QAnon. In July 2020, a gunman and QAnon follower drove a vehicle into the grounds of Rideau Hall, the temporary residence of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, to "arrest" Trudeau over COVID-19 restrictions and firearm regulations. A February 8 article in The Guardian described the 2022 convoy protests in Canada as the result of coordination between QAnon, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations. Romana Didulo, a Philippines-born Canadian woman claiming to be Canada's rightful "Queen", built an online following in the course of 2021, creating a cultlike organization using QAnon and sovereign citizen concepts. Because of Didulo's network of followers and calls for violence, researchers identified her in 2022 as one of the most dangerous QAnon influencers in Canada. +Cam Smith, an Australian researcher tracking far-right activity online, noticed mentions of QAnon in Australia's local communities as early as 2018. In 2020, when lockdown measures were imposed in Melbourne to contain an outbreak of COVID-19, a group of QAnon adherents from Queensland traveled there to protest, promoting QAnon as they went. A 2020 paper by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that Australia was the fourth-largest producer of QAnon content, after the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. +The movement has spread to Spain and Latin America, with countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay and Brazil having an online presence. La Nación reported in 2020 that the Facebook page "QAnon Costa Rica", which was spreading misinformation and fake news, had called for the ousting of President Carlos Alvarado and praised right-wing figures such as far-right presidential candidate Juan Diego Castro Fernández and controversial deputies Dragos Dolanescu Valenciano and Erick Rodríguez Steller. In Spain, the far-right Vox party was accused of endorsing anti-Biden conspiracy theories linked to QAnon on its Twitter account by claiming that Biden was the candidate "preferred by pedophiles". An RTVE news report found that most Spanish QAnon supporters identified Vox as their preferred political party. + +== Claims == + +=== Q's posts === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..902ef340b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 5/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Q made thousands of posts on 4chan and 8chan/8kun. These "drops" were often allusive, cryptic, and impossible to verify; some included strings of characters that are allegedly coded messages. Q used a conspiratorial tone, with phrases like "I've said too much" or "Some things must remain classified to the very end". To sustain faith in a final victory over the "cabal", Q used recurring phrases such as "Trust the plan", "Enjoy the show", and "Nothing can stop what is coming". Q's messages typically claimed that everything was going as planned, that Trump was in control, and that all his adversaries would end up in prison. Q also encouraged followers to do their own research by telling them to "Follow the White Rabbit". QAnon followers used the "White Rabbit" reference both as a hashtag and as the name of a Facebook group that had around 90,000 members in 2020. +Many early posts advanced claims about "deep state" collusion with foreign powers. In 2018, Q mentioned geopolitical conspiracies such as the Obama administration having planned to send technology to Iran and North Korea. Later, Q found new targets such as Planned Parenthood, which they accused of harvesting fetuses for profit, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who they said was a member of the cabal. Over the years, other topics of interest included Russian interference, child trafficking, Jeffrey Epstein, Antifa and Hunter Biden. Becoming increasingly vague over time, Q's posts allowed followers to map their own beliefs onto them and develop new variations of the theory. +The author Walter Kirn has described Q as an innovator among conspiracy theorists by enthralling readers with "clues" rather than presenting claims directly: "The audience for internet narratives doesn't want to read, it wants to write. It doesn't want answers provided, it wants to search for them." But Q often made specific predictions that did not prove correct: + +On multiple occasions, Q has dismissed these incorrect predictions as deliberate, claiming that "disinformation is necessary". This has led Australian psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky to emphasize the "self-sealing" quality of the conspiracy theory, highlighting its anonymous purveyor's use of plausible deniability and noting that evidence against it "can become evidence of [its] validity in the minds of believers". The numerous false, unsubstantiated claims Q has posted include: + +That the CIA installed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a puppet ruler +That U.S. Representative and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hired Salvadoran gang MS-13 to murder DNC staffer Seth Rich +An apparent suggestion that German chancellor Angela Merkel is Adolf Hitler's granddaughter +That Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and others are planning a coup against Trump and are involved in an international child sex-trafficking ring +That the Mueller investigation was a counter-coup led by Trump, who pretended to conspire with Russia in order to hire Mueller to secretly investigate the Democrats and expose the child sex-trafficking ring +That the Rothschild family leads a satanic cult, a centuries-old antisemitic trope against the family + +=== The cabal and "the Storm" === + +QAnon's core beliefs are that the world is controlled by a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping child molesters, Trump is secretly battling to stop them, and Q reveals details about the battle online. The cabal is thought to cover up its existence by controlling politicians, mainstream media, and Hollywood. Q's revelations imply that the cabal's destruction is imminent but also that it will be accomplished only with the support of the "patriots" of the QAnon community. This will happen at a time known as "the Event" or "the Storm", when thousands of people will be arrested and possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay prison or face military tribunals. The U.S. military will then take over the country, and the result will be salvation and utopia. +QAnon followers believe the cabal includes Democratic Party politicians like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, business people like George Soros and Bill Gates, religious leaders like Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama, Anthony Fauci, and entertainers like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga and Chrissy Teigen. Tom Hanks is a special target for QAnon believers. When Hanks went into quarantine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they spread a rumor that he had been arrested on child abuse charges. Other similar allegations followed and in July 2021, some QAnon adherents took seriously an article from Real Raw News, a fake news website, that claimed the U.S. military had executed Hanks. On the contrary, some QAnon followers believe other celebrities like Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Avicii, and Anthony Bourdain were murdered to cover-up their alleged involvement in a human trafficking documentary. +The claim that Trump stimulated the conspiracy of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to enlist Robert Mueller in the fight against the cabal involved the idea that Mueller would not only expose the sex-trafficking ring, but also prevent a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros. +One key tenet in QAnon's narrative until the 2020 election was the recurring prediction that Trump would be re-elected in a landslide and spend his second term bringing about "the Storm" by undoing the deep state, disbanding the cabal and arresting its leaders. After Trump lost and Q stopped posting, QAnon followers continued to search for previously unseen clues in old posts or creating new spin-offs of the theory. They subsequently made predictions about Trump remaining president or returning to power, such as: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..61320a729 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 6/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021, would be an elaborate trap set for the Democrats, who would be arrested en masse and executed while Trump retained power. +Trump would be inaugurated on March 4, 2021, as the 19th president. +Trump would be inaugurated again on March 20, 2021. After this did not happen, QAnon adherents predicted it would happen on August 13, 2021. +The Arizona audit would prove election fraud, handing the state to Trump, and other states would follow suit in a "domino effect", resulting in Trump being reinstated as president. +The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election result would be proven fraudulent, which would catalyze a national fraud audit, resulting in Trump returning to power. +John F. Kennedy (the 35th president of the United States, who was assassinated in 1963) or his son John F. Kennedy Jr. (who died in a plane crash in 1999) would appear alive in front of a crowd in Dallas on November 2, 2021, and announce Trump's reinstatement as president and the installation of Kennedy Jr. as vice president. + +=== Child sex trafficking and satanic sacrifice === +QAnon effectively merged with Pizzagate by incorporating its beliefs – namely that children are being abducted in a child trafficking ring, which followers equate with the cabal. They also see Trump as the only person fighting this criminal network. Added to this is the belief that politicians and Hollywood elites engage in "adrenochrome harvesting", in which adrenalin is extracted from children's blood to produce the psychoactive drug adrenochrome. This comprises claims that children are tortured, or sacrificed in Satanic rituals, to harvest the adrenaline that comes from fear. The aforementioned "Frazzledrip" video in which Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin allegedly murdered a child was said to depict an "adrenochrome harvest". One version of the QAnon theory posits that the child abusers use adrenochrome as an elixir to remain young. In reality, adrenochrome is synthesized solely for research purposes and has no medical uses. + +In June 2020, a group led by QAnon promoter Timothy Charles Holmseth, which called itself the Pentagon Pedophile Task Force despite having no connection with the Pentagon or any U.S. governmental agency, attracted attention by spreading false claims about tens of thousands of children being held hostage and tortured in New York City. Also by 2020, some followers began using the Twitter hashtag #SaveTheChildren (#SaveOurChildren was also used), co-opting a trademarked name for the child welfare organization Save the Children. This led to an August 7 statement by Save the Children on the unauthorized use of its name in campaigns. In September, Facebook and Instagram tried to prevent #SaveTheChildren from being associated with QAnon by redirecting users who searched for the hashtag to the child welfare group. In October, Facebook announced it would try to limit the hashtag's reach. +In the same period, QAnon followers also created a conspiracy theory that falsely accused furniture company Wayfair, a competitor of Overstock in which QAnon promoter Patrick Byrne had been the CEO, of selling expensive furniture to launder money gained from child sex trafficking. +Similar groups in both the U.S. and the U.K. helped organize street protests that they say raise awareness of child sexual abuse and human trafficking. These protests and hashtags have often avoided social media restrictions and tend to attract more women and a more politically diverse and younger crowd than typical QAnon groups, including people opposed to Trump and his leadership. These groups are considered to be linked to the Pastel QAnon community. +QAnon's child abuse allegations against popular entertainers are based on the unproven claims of the actor Isaac Kappy, who in 2018 accused multiple Hollywood stars of pedophilia. +Travis View wrote in a Washington Post column that QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theorists harm the credibility of the fight against child sexual abuse, as their baseless claims are a distraction from actual crimes. Followers of these theories have also credited themselves for arrests of criminals in which they had no part: QAnon promoter Jordan Sather credited Jeffrey Epstein's arrest to 4chan and 8chan, while none of the investigative reporting nor the indictment referenced these forums. Some of the conspiracy theories about Epstein's death have also brought people to QAnon. +In May 2022, The New York Times reported that QAnon supporters were intercepting child migrants at the Mexico–United States border and collecting information about their families on the premise that they were falling prey to sex-trafficking schemes. + +=== Other QAnon beliefs === + +QAnon Anonymous, a podcast dedicated to analyzing and debunking the QAnon movement, calls it a "big tent conspiracy theory" due to its ability to evolve and add new claims. QAnon has incorporated elements from many other preexisting conspiracy theories, such as those about the Kennedy assassination, U.F.O.s and 9/11. In 2018, Liz Crokin promoted the theory that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death and is Q. Other followers adopted variations of the Kennedy conspiracy theory, asserting that a Pittsburgh Trump supporter named Vincent Fusca is Kennedy Jr. in disguise and would be Trump's 2020 running mate. In November 2021, hundreds gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of President Kennedy's assassination, believing they would witness the return of Kennedy Jr., or both Kennedys. Attendees expected the event would herald Trump's reinstatement as president, that Trump would step down to allow Kennedy Jr. to become president, and that Kennedy Jr. would then name Michael Flynn as his vice president. According to QAnon researcher Will Sommer, about 20% of QAnon followers believe the JFK Jr. theory, while the majority finds it too "farcical on its face". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fa1ef7e2b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 7/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Due to the overlap between the two movements, some QAnon followers have joined the sovereign citizens, a loose grouping of vexatious litigants and tax protesters whose set of pseudolegal beliefs implies that most laws and taxes are illegitimate and can be safely ignored if one uses the correct procedures. In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported that sovereign citizen ideology was attracting a growing number of QAnon adherents, as their belief in the Biden administration's illegitimacy meshed well with sovereign citizens' broader anti-government views. +In 2018, Q said that "vaccines [not all]" were part of the Big Pharma conspiracy. Later on, as anxiety and isolation linked to the COVID-19 pandemic fostered a rise of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine discourse, many in the movement used the pandemic to promote QAnon. Very little of this was directed by Q posts, and Q did not mention the pandemic until March 23, 2020 (when they called COVID-19 the "China virus"), not using the name "COVID-19" until April 8. But influencers in the QAnon community were openly anti-mask and anti-vaccine, and helped spread denialism as well as other misinformation about the pandemic. QAnon conspiracy theorists touted drinking an industrial bleach (known as MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution) as a "miracle cure" for COVID-19. Q suggested that hydroxychloroquine, endorsed by Trump at the time, was a cure for the disease, and accused Democrats of forcing infected patients into nursing homes, deliberately causing most COVID-related deaths in the U.S. Some QAnon followers have said that the pandemic is fake; others have claimed that the "deep state" created it. QAnon adherents also helped promote the conspiratorial video Plandemic. +In March 2022, CNN, France 24, and Foreign Policy reported that QAnon promoters were echoing Russian disinformation that created conspiracy theories about United States-funded laboratories in Ukraine. Russian state media falsely claimed that "secret United States biolabs" were creating weapons, a claim refuted by the U.S., Ukraine, and the United Nations. In reality, the laboratories were first established to secure and dismantle the remnants of the Soviet biological weapons program, and since then have been used to monitor and prevent new epidemics. The laboratories are publicly listed, not secret, and owned and operated by host countries such as Ukraine, not the U.S. QAnon followers have claimed to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an effort by Putin and Trump to destroy "military" laboratories in Ukraine. +Until the invasion of Ukraine, QAnon-adjacent groups were hostile to China. In March 2022, analyst Elise Thomas wrote in a report for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue: "The dynamics of the invasion are shifting their views. In an astoundingly short space of time, Xi Jinping appears to have been recast from a villain to a hero in the QAnon conspiracy pantheon." +Supporters have also become invested in the NESARA economic conspiracy theory. In 2022, Bellingcat reported that many QAnon-related Telegram channels were becoming increasingly devoted to NESARA content. +Some adherents expressed belief in the reptilian conspiracy theory, asserting that the Satanic cabal alleged to be in power consists of shapeshifting reptilian humanoids. According to multiple news reports, this led some to kill suspected "lizard people". A California father attempted to kill his children for fear that they had inherited "serpent DNA" from their mother, while a Seattle-based member of the far-right Proud Boys who frequently alluded to and promoted QAnon-linked material on Facebook, sought to murder his brother on suspicion of reptilian ancestry. + +== Analysis == + +=== Identity of Q === +The Q persona is claimed to be that of a well-connected individual with access to highly sensitive government information, who put themself at risk by disclosing the information online. Q used a calm, authoritative tone, rarely interacted with other posters, and never argued with those who disagreed with their claims. In 2021, Bellingcat analyzed several little-known posts published by Q during the days that followed the first "drops". While containing text identical to later messages unambiguously authored by Q, these also showed Q being "out of character" and behaving in a manner similar to 4chan's other anonymous posters. Bellingcat's theory is that the author of these messages had not yet perfected the Q persona and was still settling into the voice of their online alter ego, which implies that Q was originally one 4chan poster among many instead of a powerful government insider. +Q's motives and identity have been the subject of much speculation and assumptions, both among QAnon followers and critics. Hypotheses on Q's identity have included a military intelligence officer, a Trump administration insider, but also public figures such as Michael Flynn, Stephen Miller, or Trump himself. In 2018, during the early days of QAnon, it was speculated that Q could be the puzzle organization Cicada 3301 creating the movement as a form of live action role-playing game, or a left-wing artist collective (emulating another collective, Luther Blissett, that authored a novel titled Q) playing an elaborate prank on right-wing online culture. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e35e2390a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 8/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Multiple people ==== +By 2020, it became accepted among researchers that the pseudonymous entity known as Q has been controlled by multiple people in cooperation. A stylometric analysis has suggested that two people likely wrote Q's posts, and that their "distinct signatures clearly correspond to separate periods in time and different online forums". An analysis of metadata of images posted by Q found that they were likely posted by someone in the Pacific Time Zone. +By design, anonymous imageboards such as 4chan and 8chan obscure their posters' identities. Those who wish to prove a consistent identity between posts while remaining anonymous can use a tripcode, which associates a post with a unique digital signature for any poster who knows the password. There have been thousands of posts associated with a Q tripcode. The tripcode associated with Q has changed several times, creating uncertainty about the poster's continuous identity. Passwords on 8chan are also easy to crack, and the Q tripcode has been repeatedly compromised and used by people pretending to be Q. When 8chan returned as 8kun in November 2019 after several months of downtime, the Q posting on 8kun posted photos of a pen and notebook that had been pictured in earlier 8chan posts to show the continuation of the Q identity, and continued to use Q's 8chan tripcode. + +==== Paul Furber and the Watkins family ==== + +Fredrick Brennan, the original owner of 8chan, said in June 2020 that "Q either knows Jim or Ron Watkins or was hired by Jim or Ron Watkins". He later said that "If [Jim Watkins is] not 'Q' himself, he can find out who 'Q' is at any time. And he's pretty much the only person in the world that can have private contact with 'Q'." +In September 2020, Brennan speculated that the Q account was initially run by another person, with Jim and Ron Watkins taking over in late 2017 or early 2018. Brennan's theory is that the original 'Q' poster was Johannesburg resident Paul Furber, a 4chan and 8chan moderator and one of the first online commentators to promote QAnon. Evidence for this theory includes that Q's first password ("Matlock") was cracked on New Year's Day 2018 and, due to the nature of tripcodes, Furber was asked to verify that the new Q (with a new password/tripcode) was the same IP address as the old Q. Furber described this as "a lot of work", but something he'd been "called to do". Brennan further suspects that Ron Watkins seized control of the account from Furber by using his login privileges as 8chan's administrator. Furber has denied ever being Q. Both Jim and Ron Watkins have said they do not know Q's identity and have denied being Q. +The documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback spent three years investigating the origins of QAnon and its connection to 8chan, conducting extensive interviews with Jim and Ron Watkins and Brennan. In the last episode of Q: Into the Storm, the 2021 HBO docuseries he produced from this research, Hoback showed his final conversation with Ron Watkins, who stated on camera: + +I've spent the past ... almost ten years, every day, doing this kind of research anonymously. Now I'm doing it publicly, that's the only difference. ... It was basically ... three years of intelligence training teaching normies how to do intelligence work. It was basically what I was doing anonymously before but never as Q. [Watkins then laughed and added:] Never as Q. I promise. Because I am not Q, and I never was. +Hoback viewed this as an inadvertent admission by Watkins, and concluded from this interview and his other research that Watkins is Q. Watkins again denied being Q shortly before the series premiered. +On February 19, 2022, The New York Times reported that analysis of the Q posts by two independent forensic linguistics teams using stylometry techniques indicated that Paul Furber was the main author of the initial Q posts, and Ron Watkins took over at the start of 2018. The change seems to have occurred after Q moved from 4chan to 8chan. At the time, Furber had complained that Q had been "hijacked" and that Ron Watkins was complicit. Furber responded to inquiries by saying that Q's writing style had influenced his own, not the other way around. +Before Q's reappearance in June 2022, 8kun changed its salt, meaning it would have been impossible for a user to have the same tripcode as before. Yet Q's tripcode remained the same as it was in 2020, suggesting that 8kun's administrators either knew Q was going to post again or made the post themselves. Soon after, 8kun changed its salt back to the original. Jim Watkins also confirmed the new Q drops' authenticity within hours of their publication. + +=== Slogans and vocabulary === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a71a3651b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 9/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The spread of QAnon has been accompanied by a series of slogans, catchphrases, buzzwords and hashtags that helped boost its popularity and online presence. Terms like the cabal or the Storm, and Q's recurring phrases like "Trust the plan" or "Enjoy the show" are among the most popular. Q's "drops" are also known as "crumbs" (Q has used the term) or "breadcrumbs". In turn, followers of the conspiracy who analyze these posts have called themselves "bakers" who assemble the "crumbs" to make "dough", or "bread", as they weave the clues into a better understanding of the narrative. +One early rallying cry among QAnon followers was "Follow the White Rabbit". A popular QAnon slogan is "Where we go one, we go all" (frequently abbreviated as "WWG1WGA"), first used by Q in April 2018. The phrase "Do your own research" (or "Do the research") encourages people to look for "clues" that will confirm QAnon narratives. "Q sent me" has been a declaration of "allegiance" to Q. +Other common phrases in QAnon parlance include "white hat" (a Trump supporter), "black hat" (someone in league with the deep state), "Great Awakening" (the point at which the public wakes up to the truth), "red pill" ("taking the red pill" means achieving QAnon awareness), or "sheeple" (a disparaging term for people who believe the mainstream media narrative). "17anon" has sometimes been used as an alternative spelling of QAnon (Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet) and a way of circumventing social media algorithms. + +=== Derivative elements === + +Conspiracy theories have long been present in United States politics, including those promoted by right-wing groups like the John Birch Society. As it incorporates elements from many other conspiracy theories, QAnon displays similarities with previous narratives, imagery and moral panics, whether political or religious in nature. In Salon, Matthew Rozsa wrote that QAnon may best be understood as an example of what historian Richard Hofstadter called "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", the title of his 1964 essay on religious millenarianism and apocalypticism. Like Pizzagate, QAnon has some resemblance to the Satanic panic of the 1980s, when hundreds of daycare workers were falsely accused of abusing children. + +==== Apocalypticism and Millenarianism ==== +QAnon's "explicitly Christian" vocabulary echoes longstanding Christian theological and eschatological traditions, particularly those rooted in apocalypticism and millenarian expectations. Central to QAnon's narrative are concepts such as the "Storm" (the Genesis flood narrative or Judgment Day), the "Great Awakening" (evoking the reputed historical religious Great Awakenings of the early 18th century to the late 20th century), and an emphasis on prophecy, leading it to be sometimes construed as an emerging religious movement. +QAnon followers, while seeing Trump as a flawed Christian, also view him as a messiah sent by God "who will triumph over Satan through a series of cataclysmic events". According to one QAnon video, the battle between Trump and "the cabal" is of "biblical proportions", a "fight for earth, of good versus evil". Some QAnon supporters say the coming reckoning will be a "reverse rapture", that is "a revelation that means not only the end of the world but a new beginning", according to American political author Alexander Reid Ross. + +==== Evangelical influences ==== +Religious studies scholar Julie Ingersoll argues that evangelicals have "helped make widespread acceptance of QAnon possible by weaving their theological commitments to apocalypticism, conspiracies and persecution narratives into the larger American culture." Messianic, apocalyptic, and spiritual warfare themes which became popular in evangelical media beginning in the 1970s – as well as conspiracy theories such as the New World Order that are popular among the same demographic – have been described as influences on the QAnon belief system, as well as aspects of QAnon that appeal to evangelicals. +The apocalyptic stories are seen by Christians as fictional depictions of real future events, giving them real-world significance. American studies scholar S. Jonathon O'Donnell argues that QAnon, which sees Trump as fighting a demonic deep state, has significant commonalities with Christian spiritual warfare – and their followers overlap as well. "QAnon is, in effect, one part Frank Peretti spiritual warfare, one part Left Behind series apocalypticism, and one part Elders of Zion antisemitic conspiracy theory, packaged together in a tantalizing, self-involving variation on Celebrity Apprentice reality television and social media", writes one scholar. + +==== Dualism ==== +The movement "strikingly builds on Christian dualism". This worldview divides reality into a stark struggle between good and evil, leaving little room for nuance or compromise. Theological frameworks such as presuppositionalism, which claims that all true knowledge is revealed by God as opposed to faulty human reason, have been argued to lead to us–versus–them thinking which easily expands from the theological sphere to the political in QAnon. +Christian dualism itself was influenced by earlier religious traditions, particularly Manichaeism, a belief system that flourished in the late Roman and early medieval periods. Manichaeism depicted the world as a cosmic battlefield between absolute forces of light and darkness, a theme that later shaped Christian theological ideas about Satan, sin, and divine justice. This framework of cosmic struggle, carried into medieval Christianity through fears of heresy, witchcraft, and demonic infiltration, finds a modern counterpart in QAnon's vision of a hidden war between Trump and the deep state. By portraying political opponents as not merely corrupt but satanic, QAnon replicates this centuries-old dualistic tradition in a contemporary setting. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a9ea7b540 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "QAnon" +chunk: 10/21 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:52.850136+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== The hidden enemy ==== +A central element of QAnon's worldview is the belief in a hidden, malevolent force controlling society. This concept echoes medieval anxieties, such as fears surrounding witchcraft, secret societies, and demonic conspiracies blamed for societal ills. In particular, it closely mirrors accusations from texts like the Malleus Maleficarum, which claimed that witches secretly conspired with Satan to corrupt society from within. Historian Niall Ferguson argues that such moral panics often emerge during times of instability, as societies search for scapegoats and simplified explanations for complex crises. +QAnon further incorporates themes from early-Christian Gnosticism, particularly the idea that the true nature of the world is hidden and accessible only to those with special insight or "gnosis". QAnon adherents similarly see themselves as uniquely able to discern the secret evil manipulating events behind the scenes. Additionally, this hidden-enemy narrative frequently overlaps with historical antisemitic tropes, portraying shadowy elites controlling world affairs. The fusion of these elements creates a potent narrative that positions followers as warriors engaged in a cosmic battle against a concealed, all-powerful adversary. + +==== Satanic rituals and child victims ==== +The Malleus Maleficarum argued that witches forged explicit pacts with the Devil—engaging in spells, nocturnal sabbaths, and ritual sacrifices—to undermine Christian society. These accusations drew from earlier antisemitic conspiracies like the medieval blood libel, which falsely accused Jewish communities of murdering children for ritualistic purposes. Similarly, QAnon claims a secret global elite actively performs satanic rituals, including child sacrifice and "adrenochrome" harvesting—echoing both medieval witch-hunts and more recent moral panics, such as the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, which involved widespread allegations of ritual Satanic abuse, often derived from claims made during the controversial Recovered Memory movement of the 1990s. Although distinct phenomena, both panics similarly depicted their subjects as actively worshiping evil and collaborating with demonic forces, fueling a climate of fear and suspicion. +Historian Niall Ferguson notes that such narratives of hidden evil frequently emerge during societal instability, providing emotionally powerful scapegoats to simplify complex crises. By portraying themselves as protectors of innocent children threatened by concealed demonic forces, QAnon adherents leverage deep-rooted cultural fears and historical anxieties to justify their worldview and mobilize followers. + +==== Antisemitism ==== + +According to the Anti-Defamation League, while "the vast majority of QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories have nothing to do with anti-Semitism", they described a review of QAnon tweets about Israel, Jews, Zionists, the Rothschilds, and Soros as "reveal[ing] some troubling examples". Ethan Zuckerman and Mike McQuade have argued that QAnon "is more anti-elite than explicitly anti-Semitic". The Washington Post and The Forward magazine have called QAnon's targeting of Jewish figures like George Soros and the Rothschilds "garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones" and containing "striking anti-Semitic elements". A Jewish Telegraphic Agency article in August 2018 asserted: "Some of QAnon's archetypical elements—including secret elites and kidnapped children, among others—are reflective of historical and ongoing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories." +QAnon's adrenochrome-harvesting claims have been linked to blood libel by the followers (who believe in the truthfulness of both) and researchers of QAnon. Blood libel is a medieval antisemitic myth that says Jewish people murder Christian children and use their blood to make matzo for Passover. In February 2022, social media users shared images of a sculpture of Simon of Trent, whose death was falsely blamed on the town's Jewish population, as evidence that elites harvest adrenochrome from children's blood. +Genocide scholar Gregory Stanton has called QAnon a "Nazi cult rebranded" and a new version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated antisemitic text published in 1903, deriving from antisemitic canards. Republican QAnon follower Mary Ann Mendoza was noted for her reference to the antisemitic text when she retweeted a Twitter thread about the Rothschild family, Satanic High Priestesses, and American presidents saying, "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion is not a fabrication. And, it certainly is not anti-Semitic to point out this fact." An April 2021 Morning Consult poll found that 49% of Americans who believe in QAnon agree with the Protocols, and that 78% of Americans who agree with the Protocols also believe in QAnon. +In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League reported that neo-Nazis were exploiting the absence of leadership among QAnon adherents on Telegram to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories. QAnon conspiracy theorists have promoted Europa: The Last Battle, a neo-Nazi propaganda film which promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial. They have also promoted content from Disclose.tv, a German disinformation outlet with a following that includes Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis. + +=== Appeal === +Experts have classified QAnon's appeal as comparable to those of religious cults. According to an expert in online conspiracy, Renee DiResta, QAnon's pattern of enticement is similar to that of cults in the pre-Internet era where, as the targeted person was led deeper and deeper into the group's secrets, they became increasingly isolated from friends and family outside the cult. Online support groups developed for those whose loved ones were drawn into QAnon, notably the subreddit r/QAnonCasualties, which grew from 3,500 participants in June 2020 to 28,000 by October. QAnon virtual communities have little "real world" connection with each other, but online they can number in the tens of thousands. Rachel Bernstein, an expert on cults who specializes in recovery therapy, said, "What a movement such as QAnon has going for it, and why it will catch on like wildfire, is that it makes people feel connected to something important that other people don't yet know about. ... All cults will provide this feeling of being special." There is no self-correction process within the group, since the self-reinforcing true followers are immune to correction, fact-checking, or counter-speech, which is drowned out by the cult's groupthink. QAnon's cultish quality has led to its characterization as a possible emerging religious movement. It has also been called a syncretic movement. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebra–Quilos_revolt-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebra–Quilos_revolt-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..595d145ae --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebra–Quilos_revolt-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Quebra–Quilos revolt" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebra–Quilos_revolt" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:17.960232+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Quebra–Quilos revolt (Portuguese: revolta do Quebra-Quilos, literally, "revolt of the kilogram-breaker") was a three-month-long revolt in opposition to the proposed transition to the metric system in Brazil. The unrest took place from 31 October 1874 to January 1875 as part of wider anti-government protests. + + +== Background == +The metric system was first introduced in Brazil in 1862 as a rebellion against the monopoly established by foreign merchants. Slaves took part on occasions demanding emancipation. Through January the revolt died on its own, without any drastic intervention by the army. The spread of the revolt led to involvement of groups with different goals, such as slaves demanding emancipation, anti masonic clergy and conscientious objectors. +The revolt was caused by the implementation of a variety of provincial and municipal taxes, that rendered goods unaffordable for a large portion of the population. +The adoption of the metric system further increased prices, as merchants seized the opportunity to manipulate the prices, draft resistance also played a role in increasing tensions. Religion played a role in the uprising as the rebels often assembled in churches, praying before the patron saints before launching their raids, the rebel flag depicted effigies of the Virgin Mary and Christ on the Cross. The insurgents lacked central leadership, instead being led by local commanders who usually commanded small bands. + + +== Revolt == +On 31 October 1874, a marketplace in Fagundes, Paraíba was disturbed by the shouts of a group of people protesting the imposition of market taxes, requiring them to pay 200 reis for every quantity of purchased goods touching the ground. The protestors banished a local tax collector from the market, tearing down lists of municipal taxes. The peasants then pursued to destroy scales and measurements representing the metric system, as their use was also subject to taxation. Fagundese citizens and their supporters from the neighboring areas continued to resist taxation organising riots on 7 and 14 November, the intervention of the district judge and vicar failed to bring any results. +On 21 November, a band of 800 armed men attacked the town of Ingá, burning the archives of the town's council and destroying all records related to taxation, later forcing a police commander to sign a declaration cancelling all the new taxes. Unrest spread through the region affecting the towns of Campina Grande, Alagoa Grande, Alagôia Nova, Arara, Areia, Bananeiras, Espalhada and Independencia among others. On the same day the towns of Timbaúba and Itambé, Pernambuco were targeted by the rebels, prompting provincial president Lucena to send a force of 40 regular troops to the destroyed towns on 27 November. The troops under the command of Pedro de Alcantara Tiberia Capistrano, reached Itambé three days later but were ordered to remain inactive by the district judge. On 7 December, the troops patrolled the Itambé market, enabling officials to collect taxes. The deployment of soldiers proved insufficient, as riots resumed the following week engulfing Angelica, Alliança, Caruarú and Vicencia. A 400-man mob left Caruarú, marching to Bezerros and Bonita on 12 December and intimidating the local authorities. +Provincial president Lucena then reacted by dispatching a second force consisting of 40 national guardsmen and 20 regular troops. On 19 December, the rebels encountered the soldiers while raiding the house of the Bonita taxman. The two sides clashed, leaving one rebel and two soldiers dead and over three people wounded. News of the confrontation reached a nearby prison, with 10 prison guards and 4 soldiers reaching the destroyed house and repelling the mob. Rumors of a new tax to be imposed on combing one's hair led to the spread of the riots to the province of Alagoas, mobs broke scales, burned taxation and army recruitment documents, while ridiculing the police. Loyalist militias were summoned in several locations disrupting the riots. +The last major violent incident within the borders of Pernambuco took place on 25 December, when 500 rebels raided the house of a judge in Villa Bella, failing however to find any documents. On 3 January 1875, a group of merchants from Quebrangulo, Rio Grande do Norte unsuccessfully resisted the rebels who in turn killed 10 and injured many more of the traders. + + +== See also == +Rebellions and revolutions in Brazil + + +== References == + +M.K. de Macêdo. Revoltas populares na Província do Rio Grande: o "Quebra-Quilos" e o "Motim das Mulheres". (1998). História do Rio Grande do Norte n@ WEB. (in Portuguese) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Psychology_Network-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Psychology_Network-0.md index d2c3bf826..244440bb2 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Psychology_Network-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Psychology_Network-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Psychology_Network" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:21:32.555324+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:29.451481+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-evaluation_counseling-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-evaluation_counseling-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a97a391cf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-evaluation_counseling-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "Re-evaluation counseling" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-evaluation_counseling" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:31.817047+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Re-evaluation counseling (RC) is a business, and a network of peer counseling. Its core philosophy prescribes regularly relating painful memories to a peer counsel or group and releasing strong feelings by crying, shaking, or laughing as the best salve for psychological wounds. This idea was first developed in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard and called Dianetics (later Scientology). +Re-evaluation counseling recruits members by branding itself as a peer-based counseling procedure trying to help people and bring about social reform. +In the early 1970s Personal Counselors, Inc, established the Re-evaluation Counseling Community, made up of local groups of people called "Co-Counselors" in Seattle and beyond, based until 2021 in Seattle, Washington, and currently in Shoreline, Washington. It was led by Harvey Jackins until his death in 1999. It is currently led by his son Tim Jackins. + + +== History == + +In the early 1950s Harvey Jackins associated with L. Ron Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) and others interested in Dianetics (what later became Scientology). This led Jackins to establish Personal Counselors Inc. which aimed to "engage in, conduct and teach the art and science of Dianetics." RC reports that collaboration between Jackins and Hubbard became unworkable, and Jackins ended their association and continued to develop RC as a separate organization. +During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Jackins continued to build Personal Counselors, Inc., and in the 1960s and 1970s took RC from Seattle, where he first practiced it, to the rest of the US and then to other countries. Between 1975 and 1990, he appointed local teachers, area representatives, regional leaders and representatives of groups. A set of Guidelines for the community was adopted a biennial conference of local leaders. The Guidelines are revised at similar conferences, known as "World Conferences", originally biennial but currently every four years. The conferences also adopt general goals for the community. +After Jackins' death in 1999, his son, Tim Jackins, was chosen at a conference, attended by leaders in the RC communities worldwide, to take over the role of International Reference Person, the title given to the leader of RC. + + +== Investigation by the Boston Globe == +Co-counseling was recently the focus of a 2021 investigation by The Boston Globe, after a youth worker in the school system was found to be practicing co-counseling (which is not a licensed therapy program) with minors without the permission of the student's parents. +Quoting from the Boston Globe: "Boston high school sophomore, Keondre McClay said he was pressured by the head of a district-sponsored youth advocacy program to attend an overnight retreat in Newton, where white adults asked the Black teenager to wrestle out his emotions on a gym mat with them. They said it would help him purge his trauma from experiencing racism. McClay fled to his room. Jenny Sazama, the program leader, and other retreat participants chased after him. For more than an hour, he recalled recently, they hugged him on his bed and entreated him to return to the group 'counseling' session while he hid under the covers screaming, “Please leave me alone!”. + + +== Organization == + +The organization's official title is "The International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities". It is resourced by Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc., with headquarters in Shoreline, Washington, USA. Its president is Tim Jackins and its vice president is Sarah Elizabeth Jackins. The corporation owns trademark in the terms "Re-evaluation Counseling", "RC" and "United to End Racism". It also controls the Re-evaluation Foundation, a non-profit 501(c) organization, and Rational Island Publishers. +Within RC, Tim Jackins is called the "International Reference Person". He is a former community college mathematics teacher from Palo Alto, California, and a graduate of Yale and Stanford. He has been a co-counselor, leader and teacher of RC for most of his life. The International Reference Person appoints senior leaders ("reference persons") in consultation with local groups. Local groups choose local leaders. Reference persons are consulted about who can attend events, teach RC, and lead groups. According to RC itself, no reference person is paid. +Re-evaluation Counseling encourages its members to play an active role in public life and has set up groups to promote its ideas, which it calls "naturalized" groups. The main groups promoting RC methods are United to End Racism" (UER), formed in 2000, and Sustaining All Life, formed in 2015. UER is part of RC and shares its HQ in Shoreline. +The Re-evaluation Foundation aims "To provide opportunities for people to participate in Re-evaluation counseling who otherwise could not afford to participate." It was founded in 1972. Its president is Michael Markovits, a former vice-president of IBM. Its assets at the end of 2006 were approximately $1M. In 2007, the foundation made grants to several organizations initiated by Re-evaluation Counseling. + + +=== United to End Racism === + +United to End Racism (UER) is a program made out of members of Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), which publicly states that its aim is to eliminate racism "on an individual basis" using Re-evaluation counseling, a practice invented by Harvey Jackins. UER was founded by RC on 28 November 2000. +United to End Racism is one of a number of non-profit organizations that represent RC in public forums. Harvey Jackins, founder of the RC movement, encouraged members of RC to create such organizations to spread RC ideas and objectives along lines decided by the RC leadership; previous well known examples of this tactic include Nuclear Freeze campaigns in the 1980s and the US-based National Coalition Building Institute, founded by RC'er Cherie Brown. Jackins' son, Tim Jackins, the current world leader of RC, is also the de facto leader of UER. The organisation appears solely to exist to service activist conferences as an invited body, and only sporadically carries out other activities. It has no separate membership from RC and is managed from Personal Counselors, Inc (recently renamed "Re-evaluation Counseling Community Resources, Inc"), the office of RC in Seattle. Officers of UER are members of Re-evaluation Counseling and UER policies are determined by the RC leadership. + + +== Aggressive response to criticism == +There have been few papers about RC in scholarly journals. RC often refuses to cooperate with attempts at independent investigation. Dennis Tourish and Pauline Irving in a 1995 article compared his system of management to the communist state model of democratic centralism. +The organisation is sensitive to criticism, either external or internal, which it regards as an attack on the organization. According to Steve Carr, "To counter attacks on RC and its leaders, RC members are instructed to interrupt the person, approach the accusation as the personal problem of the accuser, and vigorously come to the defense of the person or people being attacked." + + +== See also == +Co-Counseling +Harvey Jackins +Tim Jackins +List of psychotherapies +List of counseling topics +United to End Racism + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Re-evaluation Counseling +United To End Racism Home Page on the RC Website (archived on Feb 18 2007) +Current UER Home Page (Jun 2021) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3553cc724 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +--- +title: "Reactionless drive" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:37.376958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Reactionless drive refers to hypothetical and unproven forms of spacecraft propulsion that would generate thrust without expelling propellant or other reaction mass. A propellantless drive is not necessarily reactionless if it functions as an open system interacting with external fields, but a reactionless drive is generally conceived as a self-contained or closed-system device, which is why such claims are commonly treated as conflicting with Newton's third law and the conservation of momentum. Reactionless-drive claims are therefore often compared to perpetual motion machines or other impossible-energy schemes if their reported performance is taken at face value. +The expression has been in English-language newspaper use since at least 1963 and later became a recurring public label for alleged no-propellant engines. Concepts described this way have included the Dean drive, electrogravitics and lifters, gyroscopic and oscillation devices, microwave-cavity thrusters such as the EmDrive and Cannae drive, the helical engine, Mach-effect or MEGA drives, quantum drive claims, and the quantum vacuum thruster. +No reactionless drive has become an accepted propulsion technology, and reported effects from devices such as a thrusting antenna and the EmDrive have later been described as null results, below photon-thrust limits, or experimental artifacts rather than evidence of new physics. Speculative discussion continues in propulsion and space drive literature, including proposals involving Mach-principle coupling, inertial frame manipulation, distant-matter interaction, Heim-theory propulsion, and zero-point field vacuum-inertia models. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7620ab8a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Reactionless drive" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:37.376958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== History and terminology == +In English-language popular writing, a reactionless drive is generally described as a hypothetical propulsion concept that would generate thrust without expelling propellant or reaction mass. These explanations usually define the term by contrast with ordinary rockets, which move by throwing exhaust out the back, whereas a reactionless drive would supposedly produce forward motion without that reaction mass exchange. The term has often been used for electrically powered or internally driven concepts said to convert stored energy directly into thrust, including microwave-cavity devices, inertial schemes, and other self-contained engine proposals. In this usage, the core claim is not merely low-propellant propulsion but propulsion without expelled mass, which is why these articles repeatedly tie the idea to Newton's third law and the conservation of momentum. +Several of these sources also describe reactionless-drive claims as bordering on perpetual-motion or free-energy arguments if the reported thrust and power figures were accepted at face value. Some writers have treated reactionless drives as a long-running science fiction trope as much as a technical claim, tying their appeal to the rocket equation and to the desire for a space engine that avoids the mass penalties of conventional rocketry. Winchell Chung, creator of the website Atomic Rockets that records the history of rocketry in science fiction, has described reactionless drives as hypothetical spacecraft drives that would move without propellant and, in a closed system, are impossible because they would violate conservation of momentum, and would radically alter the strategic logic of spaceflight by allowing even small spacecraft to function as relativistic weapons. Taken together, these sources use reactionless drive as a broad public-facing label for hypothetical self-contained propulsion claims, especially those said to generate thrust without propellant, rather than as the name of one single device or one settled academic field. +The expression family was in newspaper use by at least 1963, when a California newspaper quoted inventor Allen Fisher referring to "My reactionless space drive" in describing a proposed propulsion device. A newspaper profile of Harry E. Holden in 1967 stated that he "holds a U.S. patent for his invention of a reactionless drive mechanism used in space vehicles." In 1980, a United Press International report on inventor Richard Foster described his proposed "space drive" as a "reactionless drive" in explaining his self-contained propulsion concept. By 1981, the term had also appeared in newspaper book coverage. An Iowa newspaper roundup described Joel Dickinson's The Death of Rocketry as presenting "a scientific explanation of the reactionless drive," and quoted the book's claim that "The reactionless drive would ... enable us to attain almost unlimited speeds in outer space." Newspaper feature coverage through 1990 was using reactionless drive in straightforward descriptive prose: a Santa Maria Times article on inventor Bob Cook stated that "The reactionless drive utilizes circular motion to create a centrifugal force and, most importantly, focus it in one direction." Various other related technologies were proposed through the 20th century. In 1992, Rex L. Schlicher patented a "nonlinear electromagnetic propulsion system" described as creating a unidirectional propulsive force without particulate reaction mass. NASA Glenn later tested Schlicher's "thrusting antenna", which had been claimed to produce thrust exceeding photon radiation pressure, and reported no correlated motion, concluding that any thrust was far below practically useful levels. +In the 21st century, the term by 2008 was already appearing in coverage of Roger Shawyer's EmDrive, which Universe Today described as a "reactionless propulsion system" and placed in a lineage of earlier reactionless-drive ideas dating back to the 1950s. The same wave of coverage also pulled in related microwave-cavity claims, including the Cannae drive, as part of a broader family of alleged no-propellant thrusters. During the mid-2010s, skeptical reporting on EmDrive tests helped make reactionless drive a recurring public label for these claims, even when the thrust signals were being interpreted as experimental error or artifact rather than evidence of new physics. The same term was being applied to David Burns's proposed helical engine, with explanatory pieces defining reactionless drives in general before using Burns's concept as the latest example. In the 2020s, popular coverage continued to use the label for other speculative concepts, including Jim Woodward's Mach-effect or MEGA drive and IVO's quantum drive. The term has also appeared by analogy in discussion of warp drive research, where weak-field or limited warp effects were compared to reactionless-drive proposals even while remaining conceptually distinct from them. +NASA engineers Marc G. Millis and Nicholas E. Thomas published Responding to Mechanical Antigravity, a paper based on the agency's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project and its experience with large numbers of unsolicited breakthrough-propulsion proposals. The report summarized that these devices can give "the appearance that a net thrust is being produced without expelling a reaction mass or having a direct driving connection", which is why they can appear to be breakthrough propulsion concepts. They wrote that such submissions arrived at a rate of about one per workday. + +== Types of related systems == +A variety of drives directly characterized as, or functionally presented as reactionless drives, are listed here. + +=== Dean drive === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c3d27471e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Reactionless drive" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:37.376958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Dean drive was a claimed reactionless device built by Norman L. Dean, who said that his working models functioned as a "reactionless thruster". The Dean drive received extensive promotion from John W. Campbell in Astounding Science Fiction beginning in 1960. Dean held several private demonstrations but never revealed the exact design of the models nor allowed independent analysis of them. Campbell published photographs of the device operating on a bathroom scale, and the June 1960 cover of Astounding featured a painting of a United States submarine near Mars supposedly propelled by a Dean drive. In 1984, physicist Amit Goswami wrote that the Dean drive had become so embedded in genre consciousness that "it is now customary in SF (science fiction) circles to refer to a reactionless drive as a Dean drive". The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction catalogued the Dean drive as a distinct propulsion concept for space travel in the genre. Dean's claims of reactionless thrust generation were later argued to be mistaken, with the apparent "thrust" likely caused by friction between the device and the surface on which it rested rather than any effect that would operate in free space. + +=== Electrogravitics and lifters === + +Electrogravitics began with Thomas Townsend Brown's 1920s experiments on a Coolidge tube, which Army Research Laboratory authors Thomas B. Bahder and Christian Fazi treated as the origin of the later Biefeld-Brown effect. In their account, Brown believed the energized tube produced thrust and sought British patent protection, receiving Patent 300,311 in 1928 for producing force or motion. Bahder and Fazi then traced a longer patent arc through Brown's U.S. Electrokinetic Apparatus patent in 1960, his Electrokinetic Transducer patent in 1962, and a further Electrokinetic Apparatus patent in 1965. Their appendix also noted parallel and later claimants, including A. H. Bahnson's electrical-thrust patents in 1960 and 1966 and two NASA asymmetric-capacitor patents in 2002, showing that the concept persisted as a continuing propulsion claim rather than a single episode in Brown's career. Reporting on ARL's own work, they said they had verified a net force on asymmetric capacitors of several shapes while also stressing that the physical basis of the effect remained unresolved. +Various historians placed Brown's devices in the realm of Asymmetrical Capacitor Thrusters, distinguishing rotating ACTs from vertical "lifters", comparing them with Alexander de Seversky's 1960s Ionocraft and Robert Talley's later vacuum tests. By 2003 The Guardian described skeletal high-voltage lifters as the closest thing to Brown's original vision, while Wired portrayed them as the work of grassroots antigravity subcultures trading designs online. Canning's report, published the next year, treated these machines not as forgotten curiosities but as active propulsion problem with a long history of interest and no proven mechanism. Millis's 2005 NASA review grouped "Biefeld-Brown effect," "lifters," "electrostatic antigravity," "electrogravitics," and "asymmetrical capacitors" as labels for the same family of high-voltage thrust claims. + +=== Gyroscopic Inertial Thruster (GIT) === +Gyroscopic thrust claims have typically centered on forcing a spinning gyroscope to precess in a way supposed to convert internal torques into a net linear force. In simpler terms, the claim was that the motion of a precessing gyroscope could be turned into one-way thrust. A 2006 NASA review of "mechanical antigravity" proposals treated Eric Laithwaite's gyroscope demonstrations as a famous example of this class of claim. Official material from the Royal Institution describes Laithwaite's 1974 lectures as controversial because he argued that the behavior of gyroscopes violated the law of conservation of energy. +Laithwaite patented, with William Dawson, a propulsion system in which gyroscopes mounted for remote-axis precession were claimed to move a vehicle through alternating precession-dominated and translation-dominated portions of motion. Later gyroscopic variants continued to make similar claims. Sandy Kidd's 1991 U.S. patent for a "gyroscopic apparatus" described a pair of opposed rotatable discs driven in different directions and periodically forced toward one another to generate a pulsatile force, with the claimed effect of producing upward thrust. In NASA's analysis, however, the apparent lift in such devices is not a true upward thrust but a torque acting through the pivots and stops of the mechanism. Millis and Thomas concluded that gyroscopic devices of this kind misinterpret torques as linear thrust, and distinguished them from reaction wheels, which can change a spacecraft's attitude but cannot change the position of the system's center of mass. + +=== Helical engine === + +In 2019, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center engineer David M. Burns proposed the helical engine, a closed-loop ion-beam propulsion concept intended for long-term satellite station-keeping without refueling and for interstellar travel. Burns described it as an engine in which ions confined in a helical beam guide are accelerated to relativistic speeds and then decelerated to create unequal momentum exchange at the top and bottom of the engine. The proposed architecture used two concentric helical beam-guide cores, with ions traveling upward in an outer accelerating core and returning downward through an inner decelerating core. +Popular coverage described the idea as a particle-accelerator-based space drive that sought to avoid conventional propellant expenditure by exploiting relativistic changes in momentum inside a helical path. Burns stressed his concept required testing to prove it could produce thrust within real engineering constraints, and wrote that his Relativistic Momentum Transfer Model needed validation through tests of helical beam-guide shapes in a synchrotron. Secondary coverage treated the proposal cautiously. Newsweek, citing Burns and comments reported to New Scientist, described the basic concept as unproven. Universe Today described the paper as an outline rather than peer-reviewed work and treated the helical engine as a reactionless drive proposal akin to the EmDrive. + +=== Mach effects and MEGA === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5bed3cd01 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Reactionless drive" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:37.376958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +James F. Woodward's Mach-effect propulsion program grew out of his long interest in using Mach's principle to pursue propellantless propulsion. By 1995, according to a later Wired profile, Woodward's ideas about Mach effects had coalesced into a full theory, and he turned to building a thruster based on stacks of piezoelectric disks that he believed could exploit tiny transient mass fluctuations. Earlier conference literature framed the work in propellantless-propulsion terms: Thomas L. Mahood's 1999 AIP conference paper was titled Propellantless propulsion: Recent experimental results exploiting transient mass modification, while a 2006 AIP paper by Paul March and Andrew Palfreyman described the Woodward effect as a transient mass fluctuation in energy-storing ions and reported experimental verification efforts at 2 to 4 MHz. +By 2020, the device was being referred to publicly as the Mach Effect Gravitational Assist, or MEGA, drive. Wired reported that Woodward and Hal Fearn secured NIAC funding in 2017 and used it to develop improved thrusters and the conceptual SSI Lambda interstellar probe. The same report described the device as an electricity-powered propulsion system designed to operate without propellant, while also noting mixed test results, the small scale of the reported forces, and the need for independent replication before the effect could be accepted. + +=== Microwave cavity thrusters === + +Microwave cavity thrusters comprise a class of reactionless drive claims. In 2008, Universe Today described Roger Shawyer's EmDrive as a "reactionless propulsion system" that supposedly generated thrust by converting electrical energy via microwaves. Later coverage treated Guido Fetta's Cannae drive as a related device, describing both as closed microwave systems with no exhaust that purported to generate thrust. The subject drew wider attention after NASA Eagleworks tested radio-frequency cavity thrusters and later published a paper reporting small thrust measurements under vacuum conditions. +Coverage presented those results as extraordinary because, if valid, they would imply propulsion without expelled reaction mass and conflict with conservation of momentum. By 2018, however, some independent testing reported as pointing to ordinary experimental artifacts rather than new propulsion physics. National Geographic reported that tests by Martin Tajmar's group suggested the apparent thrust was due to electromagnetic interaction rather than the drive itself. Tajmar and colleagues later published an open-access study reporting no thrust across a wide frequency band and concluding that any anomalous thrust was below the photon-thrust limit, ruling out earlier reported values by at least two orders of magnitude. + +=== Oscillation thrusters === +Oscillation thrusters are mechanical devices claimed to create net thrust through cyclic motion of internal masses. NASA engineer Marc G. Millis and University of Miami researcher Nicholas E. Thomas described this family as "oscillation thrusters", also referred to as sticktion drives, internal drives, or slip-stick drives, and identified the 1959 Dean drive as one of its best-known examples. They wrote that, despite many variations, such devices generally rely on an asymmetric cycle in which internal masses move more quickly in one direction than the other, causing the whole apparatus to surge across the ground and give the appearance of thrust without expelled reaction mass. The idea persisted in patent literature for decades, from Dean's 1959 "System for Converting Rotary Motion into Unidirectional Motion" to Brandson R. Thornson's 1986 "Apparatus for Developing a Propulsion Force" and Richard E. Foster Sr.'s 1997 "Inertial Propulsion Plus/Device and Engine". Campbell's September 1960 "Report on the Dean Drive" presented Wellesley Engineering as having built a duplicate Dean model and several modified set-ups, all reported to have produced thrust. +The concept also acquired a broader magazine afterlife in Astounding and Analog: Campbell's June 1960 "The Space Drive Problem" treated the Dean drive as part of the search for non-rocket space propulsion, Analog put William O. Davis's "The Fourth Law of Motion" on its May 1962 cover as a science-fact breakthrough, and G. Harry Stine was still revisiting the "controversial Dean Drive" in a June 1976 retrospective. Foster's patent was especially explicit that later variants could require "external force assist" from friction wheels, air blast, jets, rockets, or force derived from the pathway to prevent the craft from returning to its prior position during the return stroke. Millis and Thomas concluded that oscillation thrusters are not self-contained propulsion devices but misinterpretations of differential friction, with the ground serving as the reaction mass, and later analytical work on Dean-drive mechanics likewise treated the system as open once ground forces are induced and any unidirectional motion as limited and friction-dependent rather than sustained self-contained propulsion. + +=== Quantum drives === +A number of named no-propellant drive claims, including devices presented as quantum drives or related reactionless engines, have been proposed. Notable "quantum drive" claims have centered on IVO Ltd.'s Quantum Drive, which the company introduced in 2022 as a claimed "pure electric thruster" using zero fuel and which the University of Plymouth linked to Mike McCulloch's theory of quantized inertia. Independent coverage in 2023 described the device as a controversial or "impossible" propulsion claim that purported to generate thrust without propellant and framed the planned orbital test as a decisive moment for the concept. The proposed flight test was tied to IVO's Barry-1 CubeSat satellite mission, which multiple outlets described as an attempt to determine whether the Quantum Drive could produce measurable thrust in orbit under operating conditions. +In early 2024, however, Futurism reported that contact had been lost with the spacecraft before the drive could be tested, leaving the concept without a completed in-space demonstration. Coverage of the Quantum Drive also consistently presented it as a disputed reactionless or no-propellant drive claim rather than an accepted propulsion technology. Universe Today noted that many physicists regarded the underlying theory as fringe, while Popular Mechanics, Forbes, and Futurism all stressed that the device was being promoted as something that would defy ordinary expectations about propellant-based spaceflight or Newtonian mechanics. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..027ee7643 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +--- +title: "Reactionless drive" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionless_drive" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:37.376958+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Quantum vacuum thruster === +The Q-thruster, or Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster, was a proposed propulsion concept associated with Harold G. White's Eagleworks Laboratories program (also called the Advanced Propulsion Physics Laboratory) at NASA's Johnson Space Center. In a 2011 Eagleworks presentation, White and his coauthors said the laboratory would commission its torsion pendulum with an existing Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster and described earlier QVPT work as suggesting very high specific impulse and specific force, with speculative applications ranging from human Mars missions to one-year Neptune transits at higher power levels. In a 2013 NASA brief, White described Q-thrusters as a low-TRL form of electric propulsion that would "push off of the quantum vacuum" using magnetohydrodynamics, treating the vacuum as a sea of virtual particles, and argued that recent model development and test data suggested performance competitive for in-space propulsion. +NASA project summaries in 2014 for the Q-Thruster Breadboard Campaign said three FY13 test campaigns had produced measurable thrust, raising the concept from TRL 2 to early TRL 3, and described the technology as a mission-enabling form of electric propulsion with about seven times the thrust-to-power ratio of Hall thrusters and a target of 0.4 N/kW at maturity. B. Kent Joosten and White in a 2015 IEEE mission-analysis paper described the Q-thruster as a system that uses quantum vacuum fluctuations as its "propellant" source, eliminating the need for conventional on-board propellant, and modeled round-trip Mars missions, rapid Jupiter and Saturn transfers, and interstellar performance under those assumptions. In 2016, H. Fearn and James F. Woodward treated White's quantum-vacuum-plasma interpretation as part of the broader breakthrough-propulsion literature, but argued that the proposal led to incorrect results and noted that they had not found the underlying Q-thruster physics written up in any detailed peer-reviewed paper. + +== Space-drive theory == + +In propulsion literature, "space drive" has been used as a broad term for hypothetical self-contained propulsion in which a vehicle would move by interacting with its surrounding space rather than by expelling propellant. Marc G. Millis described it as a generic term encompassing attempts to induce motion through vehicle-space interactions, with the motivating goal of eliminating the need for propellant. Earlier work by Millis treated the idea as a way to frame the unresolved momentum-conservation and inertial-reference problems that any propellantless drive would have to solve. + +=== Mach-principle coupling === +One speculative route within space-drive theory has been to revisit Mach's principle, the idea that inertial frames arise from the distribution of surrounding matter. In 1996, Millis wrote that a propulsion-useful formalism of Mach's principle would need to show how reaction forces could be transmitted to surrounding matter, so that "pushing against that frame with a space drive is actually pushing against the distant surrounding matter". In a 2005 review he again described reexamining Mach's principle as one theoretical approach to momentum conservation for space drives, noting that such Machian perspectives treated inertial frames as connected to the surrounding mass in the universe. + +=== Inertial frame manipulation === +A related but somewhat narrower line of thought has been to ask whether propulsion might be obtained by altering the properties of inertial frames themselves. In the same 1996 paper, Millis suggested that if asymmetries could somehow be created in the spacetime properties that give rise to inertial frames, they might produce net inertial forces. He returned to that possibility in 2017 in a paper devoted to inertial frames, treating variable inertial-frame strength as a speculative "what-if" framework for space-drive thought experiments rather than as an established theory. + +=== Distant-matter interaction === +These Machian and inertial-frame ideas overlapped in proposals that a hypothetical drive might somehow exchange momentum with distant matter rather than with onboard reaction mass. Millis's 1996 discussion explicitly framed the problem in those terms, while his 2017 paper recast older direct-interaction versions of Mach's principle as part of a broader attempt to understand whether surrounding matter might endow space with inertial-frame properties that a drive could interact with. + +=== Heim-theory propulsion === +Another speculative route in breakthrough-propulsion literature drew on Burkhard Heim's Heim theory, a higher-dimensional field theory that Walter Dröscher and Jochem Häuser said implied two additional interactions beyond the known fundamental forces. In their account, one of these, the "graviphoton force", would permit a distinct "gravitophoton field propulsion" scheme that could accelerate a material body without propellant. Later propulsion overviews likewise listed Heim's quantized space-time ideas among speculative alternatives being considered alongside vacuum-energy and Machian approaches. + +=== Vacuum-inertia models === +Another speculative route in space-drive theory linked inertia, and in some versions gravitation, to interactions with the electromagnetic zero-point field. In The Challenge to Create the Space Drive, Millis treated the electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum, or ZPF, as a promising candidate medium for hypothetical space-drive research, noting that discovering any way to react asymmetrically with the ZPF would likely create a space drive. Bernard Haisch and Alfonso Rueda's NASA workshop paper likewise described the zero-point field as the basis of inertia and gravitation and treated the concept as relevant to radically new propulsion schemes. Millis cautioned, however, that such theories had not been developed in the context of propulsion and did not directly show how inertia or gravity might be manipulated for thrust. + +== Selected claims, tests, and proposals == +The following table summarizes selected reactionless-drive systems and related proposals discussed in this article, including claimed demonstrations, laboratory tests, and later assessments. + +== See also == + +Bussard ramjet – Proposed spacecraft propulsion method +Emerging technologies – Technology still to be fully developed +History of aviation +History of rockets +History of spaceflight +New Millennium Program – NASA projects to test new space technologies +Non-rocket spacelaunch – Concepts for launch into space +Stochastic electrodynamics – Variation of classical electrodynamics +Spacecraft electric propulsion – Type of spacecraft propulsion using electrical energy to accelerate propellant +Timeline of aviation +Timeline of rocket and missile technology +Timeline of spaceflight + +== Notes == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..22986366c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Rebel News" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:54.033860+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Rebel News (also known as The Rebel Media and The Rebel) is a Canadian far-right political and social commentary media website operated by Rebel News Network Ltd. It has been described as a "global platform" for the anti-Muslim ideology known as counter-jihad. It was founded in February 2015 by former Sun News Network personalities Ezra Levant and Brian Lilley. +Rebel News broadcasts its content only on the internet and has been compared to Breitbart News in the US. Rebel News has been described as being part of the alt-right movement. +Former Sun News reporter Faith Goldy joined Rebel News after its launch, but was fired for her coverage of the 2017 Charlottesville rally and for conducting an interview with The Daily Stormer. A co-founder and two freelancers resigned in protest of the coverage. Gavin McInnes, founder of the far-right neo-fascist organization Proud Boys, was a contributor. McInnes departed in 2017, then temporarily rejoined the site for a period in 2019. In the midst of the 2021 Canadian federal election, Justin Trudeau accused Rebel News of spreading misinformation, especially with regard to COVID-19 vaccines. Rebel News has promoted climate change denial. + +== History == + +Prior to the official opening of the media franchise operation as a corporation, it operated for a number of years as an individual effort by Levant, who styled himself "The Rebel." At least one of his ideas, to fight "anti-Christian bigots on Nanaimo city council," attracted support from university student and now Member of Parliament Dane Lloyd. + +=== 2015–2017 === + +The Rebel Media was formed by Levant and Lilley following the closure of the Sun News Network. Levant said that his online production would be unencumbered by the regulatory and distribution difficulties faced by Sun News Network and that its lower production costs would make it more viable. Levant has cited Breitbart News, the American far-right news website, as an inspiration. A crowdfunding campaign raised roughly CA$100,000 for the project. The site soon attracted a number of other former Sun News Network personalities such as David Menzies, Paige MacPherson, Faith Goldy, Patrick Moore and, briefly, Michael Coren. +In the summer of 2015, the channel, led by Levant, launched a campaign to boycott Tim Hortons, a chain of Canadian coffee shops, after it rejected in-store ads from Enbridge due to complaints from customers opposed to the oil pipeline projects being promoted by the ads. +In early 2016, the Alberta government banned The Rebel Media's correspondents from press briefings on the grounds that, because Ezra Levant had testified in court in 2014 that he was a columnist or commentator rather than a reporter, none of his current correspondents could be considered to be journalists. On 17 February 2016, the government admitted that it made a mistake and said that it would allow The Rebel Media correspondents into press briefings. The Canadian Association of Journalists supported preventing government from choosing journalism coverage." +In late 2016, after first being refused press accreditation for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) COP22 Climate Change Conference, Rebel Media was allowed to send two correspondents to COP22. Levant wrote that "We're not being excluded because we have an opinion. We're being excluded because we have the wrong opinion." +Rebel Media received support from the Environment Minister Catherine McKenna and three journalism organizations in getting the UNFCC to grant this access, after Levant's October 17 appeal to Justin Trudeau. +Following the Quebec City mosque shooting of 2017, Rebel Media and Levant in particular were harshly criticized in the National Observer for their reporting and pursuing "a narrative about violence by immigrants," though the shooting was committed by the far-right Alexandre Bissonnette. Kai Nagata noted "Levant and Goldy were both speakers at a rally in Toronto last week organized by The Rebel to protest a motion by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid, which calls on the government to condemn Islamophobia'" in response to the shooting. +In 2017, Rebel Media hired far-right activist Tommy Robinson, founder of the avowedly anti-Islamic English Defence League, as its British correspondent. +In March 2017, one of their correspondents, Gavin McInnes, made controversial comments defending Holocaust deniers, accused the Jews of being responsible for the Holodomor and the Treaty of Versailles, and said he was "becoming anti-Semitic". He later said his comments were taken out of context. McInnes also produced a satirical video for Rebel called "Ten Things I Hate about Jews", later retitled "Ten Things I Hate About Israel". Rebel also hosted a video by McInnes in which he encouraged viewers to brawl against antifa as his group the Proud Boys did, saying, "When they go low, go lower." +During the 2017 French Presidential Election, Jack Posobiec, The Rebel Media's Washington, D.C. bureau chief, supported far-right leader Marine Le Pen and played a role in the 2017 Macron e-mail leaks. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bbd3d1284 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Rebel News" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:54.033860+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Coverage of Unite the Right Rally === +On 12 August 2017, Rebel correspondent Faith Goldy reported from the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Broadcasting on livestream, she gained clear footage of a fatal car attack by a white supremacist against left-wing protestors. Interviewed about the rally and the clip by Israel's Channel 2 News, Goldy opined that, "there is a "culture war" happening between the hard left and hard right and that "many on both sides see this as a civil war – you know the fascists vs. the communists." +On Monday August 14, Rebel founder Ezra Levant denounced the element of the "alt-right" which had participated in the rally, stating that it "now effectively means racism, anti-Semitism and tolerance of neo-Nazism." +The same day Brian Lilley announced his departure from Rebel News, writing, "What anyone from The Rebel was doing at a so-called 'unite the right' rally that was really an anti-Semitic white power rally is beyond me. Especially not a rally dedicated to keeping up a statue of Robert E. Lee, a man that whatever else he stood for, also fought on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of America's bloodiest conflict." Lilley said he had become uncomfortable with what he felt was an "increasingly harsh tone" when The Rebel discussed topics such as immigration or Islam. He accused The Rebel of exhibiting a "lack of editorial and behavioural judgment that, [if] left unchecked, will destroy it and those around it." +Less than a week after the rally, on August 17 Levant fired Goldy from Rebel News when it had emerged that she'd joined a podcast produced by The Daily Stormer in which she appeared to support the rally's right-wing participants. In the course of reporting on the Unite the Right rally, Goldy argued that they suggested a wider "rising white racial consciousness" in America and characterizing a manifesto by white supremacist Richard Spencer that called for organizing states along racial lines as "robust" and "well thought-out." +Freelancers Barbara Kay and John Robson also quit the Rebel, and the company was denounced by Conservative MPs Michael Chong, Chris Alexander, Peter Kent, and Lisa Raitt. Former interim leader Rona Ambrose had previously disavowed the site. +Brian Jean, Jason Kenney, and Doug Schweitzer of the United Conservative Party of Alberta expressed dissatisfaction with the Rebel's editorial direction over the preceding months and said they would not grant interviews to the company. Jean dropped his boycott of the Rebel in August 2022 and agreed to an interview about his leadership campaign for the United Conservative Party. +Gavin McInnes left the Rebel at the end of August 2017. Levant wrote "We tried to keep him, but he was lured away by a major competitor that we just couldn't outbid" in an email to the independent news site Canadaland. In February 2019, after suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly damaging his reputation and career prospect by characterizing the Proud Boys as a hate group, McInnes announced that he had once again been hired by the media group. +British contributor Caolan Robertson no longer works for the Rebel. Robertson claims he was fired for "knowing too much" about the Rebel's finances, claiming the company dishonestly solicited donations for projects that were already funded and concealing how that money was spent. He also claimed that Southern was fired for refusing to tape a fundraising appeal for the Rebel's Israel trip after fundraising targets had already been met. Robertson also played audio of Levant offering him thousands of dollars of what Levant himself called "hush money." Levant denies these allegations and says he will present evidence opposing this in court, claiming that he was being "blackmailed" by Robertson and his partner. Levant has since briefly talked about The Rebel's finances in his online show and released a summary on The Rebel's website. It was reported that the settlement was negotiated by Kory Teneycke, who was formerly director of communication for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. + +=== Hamish Marshall and Andrew Scheer === +During the 2017 Conservative Party leadership race, many contenders, including the eventual leadership winner Andrew Scheer, gave interviews to the outlet. +After the 2017 Conservative Party leadership race, it was revealed that Scheer's campaign manager Hamish Marshall's IT firm Torch provided IT services to The Rebel Media. In 2015, Marshall told the National Observer that he was only involved in the business side of the Rebel. Marshall explained to that he had left the Rebel after the leadership race ended to avoid a conflict of interest. In September 2017, Marshall's name was removed from the list of directors of The Rebel Media on the federal government's online registry of corporate information. On 16 October 2017, The Globe and Mail asked Scheer if he knew that Hamish Marshall shared office space with the Rebel during the leadership campaign. Scheer replied that he did not ask Marshall about his firm's many clients. Later, a spokesperson clarified that Scheer did not know the specifics of the arrangement. Levant explained that Marshall's IT firm Torch provided client services for the Rebel. A 2017 National Post article argued that Marshall implemented the Rebel donation system. Scheer told Maclean's in 2018 that Marshall's past relationship with the Rebel should not be conflated with his selection as campaign chair. +Scheer denounced the outlet due to its coverage of the Unite the Right rally, and stated that he would stop doing interviews with The Rebel Media until its "editorial directions" changed. A day later, Scheer stated that he would not be granting interviews with the Rebel going forward, in an interview with the National Post. +On September 30, 2019, two police forces escorted Rebel Media correspondent David Menzies away from a Scheer campaign announcement. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..81d5d319f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Rebel News" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:54.033860+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Advertiser boycott === +Beginning in May 2017, the Rebel was the target of a boycott campaign by the social media activist group Sleeping Giants whereby advertisers were pressured to withdraw their adverts from The Rebel Media's YouTube channel and website. Within a three-month period in 2017, the activist group claimed that the Rebel had lost approximately 300 advertisers, including CCM Hockey, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Red Lobster, Reitmans, Penguin Books Canada, Volkswagen Canada and Tangerine Bank, along with PetSmart, the Hudson's Bay Company, General Motors Canada, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, Ottawa Tourism, Porter Airlines, and Whistler Blackcomb ski resort. +In June 2017, the city council of Edmonton, following complaints on social media from multiple residents, pulled its online advertisements from Rebel News. City councillor Michael Oshry described content on the website as "hate mongering, or even racist". +Another activist group, Hope not Hate, pressured Norwegian Cruise Lines into cancelling a scheduled Caribbean cruise which was to feature talks by The Rebel Media personalities, many of whom have since left the media website. + +=== Rebel Freedom Fund === +In December 2017, Wells Asset Management announced the Rebel Freedom Fund, allowing investors to fund Levant's film and video projects, offering an expected 4.5% return. This attracted news coverage the following February in advance of the fund's ostensible 1 March opening date, generally negative; MoneySense, for example, stated that "This one carries a lot of risk and doesn't clear the MoneySense bar for appropriate retirement investment risk, whatever the political orientation." In June, however, Wells announced that it was shutting down all its funds, and when queried by a reporter from Maclean's, stated that the Rebel Freedom Fund had never launched. + +=== 2019 Canadian federal election === + +The writs of election for the 2019 Canadian federal election were issued by Governor General Julie Payette on September 11, 2019, and the 2019 Canadian federal election was held on October 21, 2019. The leadership debates were held on 7 October in English and 10 October in French. +On September 30, 2019, two police forces escorted Rebel Media correspondent David Menzies away from a Scheer campaign announcement. +In twin lawsuits (both filed during the morning of 7 October), Menzies and another journalist at Rebel News and Andrew James Lawton of True North Centre for Public Policy applied for judicial relief related "to identical decisions made by the Leaders' Debates Commission. The Commission [had] denied accreditation" for the Leaders' Debates to the journalists. In a stinging rebuke to the Commission, Justice Russel Zinn found that afternoon that "the Applicants have proven on the balance of probabilities that they will suffer irreparable harm if the requested Order is not granted" and thus Zinn ordered that the journalist-Applicants be accorded the same rights as the legacy media. The journalists were allowed equitable access to the media scrum that evening of 7 October after the debate. +In 2021, the Commissioner of Elections fined Rebel News $3,000 for violating third-party campaign advertising laws. The commissioner found that signs made by the organization to promote Levant's book The Libranos, which featured an image of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other Liberals parodying The Sopranos ought to have been registered as third-party advertising because they clearly opposed a leader during a campaign. Half of the fine was for failing to register and the other half of the fine was for not disclosing the organization behind the signage. Rebel News's application for judicial review of the decision was dismissed by the Federal Court in 2023 and by the Federal Court of Appeal in 2025. + +=== Climate change denialist views === +As early as 2019 it was noticed that Levant had used Rebel Media to promote climate change denial and advocate the interests of the oil sands extraction industry in Alberta. In an article for Canada's National Observer, columnist Max Fawcett described Rebel Media as a group who undermine "the scientific consensus around climate change and vaccines". + +=== 2021 Canadian federal election === + +During the September 2021 Canadian federal election, the Leaders' Debates Commission, which was at the time chaired by former Governor-General David Johnston, again disallowed members of Rebel News from receiving accreditation to the French and English language debates. Ahead of the French language debate, an expedited ruling by Justice Elizabeth Heneghan allowed 11 members of Rebel News to attend the two debates to ask questions. Levant, whose organization had accused the commission of being "capricious, unfair, unlawful and arbitrary in denying its journalists the right to fully cover the debate" said "Today we scored one for liberty." +Justice Heneghan published her ratio decidendi in case number T-1364-21 on 7 March 2022, and wrote that "In my opinion, the Applicant established irreparable harm in terms of being prevented from participation in the political process, on behalf of the electorate. There is room in the nation for the expression of opposing points of view. The Applicant did not ask to impose its views, but for the opportunity to participate in coverage of matters of importance during a federal election." +When asked a question by Rebel News following the French debate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attacked the organization for spreading misinformation, especially with regard to COVID-19 vaccines and refused to "call it a media organization". The clip of the interaction went viral. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet refused to speak to Rebel News. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4023772e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Rebel News" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_News" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:54.033860+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Coverage of anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown movements === +In December 2021, Rebel News fundraised to pay for the legal fees of Mehmet Erhan, an Adelaide, Australia resident who was arrested and charged with breaching a health order. The money was to be paid into Rebel News's Fight the Fines fund instead of Erhan's GoFundMe account. Rebel News later cut ties with Erhan, saying that they had discontinued their relationship as Erhan had allegedly "routinely switched lawyers" and acted in bad faith. +In early 2022 Rebel News provided favourable coverage of the Canada convoy protest and the Convoy to Canberra, with many of its posts linking to donation pages or fundraising campaigns. Similarweb found that the number of Canadians accessing the Rebel News website had increased by 70% between January and February 2022. Australian traffic increased by 11% over the same time period. +Elise Thomas of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue said that groups like Rebel News were utilising the anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown communities to "reinvigorate their following", saying, "The thing about these kind of fringe communities is that they are often really hyper-engaged communities, they're not getting this content anywhere else in their life". + +=== Journalism tax credit ruling === +On September 19, 2024, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that Rebel News was ineligible for Canadian journalism tax credits due to insufficient original reporting. The ruling followed a review of 423 Rebel News pieces by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which found that only 10 met the standards required for original journalistic content. +Justice Ann Marie McDonald stated that "283 of the items were not based on facts, nor were multiple perspectives actively pursued, researched, analyzed, or explained by a journalist for the organization", and a further 135 were categorized as curated or rewritten content from other sources. +The court found that the CRA's decision was "justified, transparent and intelligible", noting that much of Rebel News's output consisted of opinion or republished material. The court also rejected Rebel News's argument that the denial infringed on press freedom, stating that the outlet failed to demonstrate how the ruling harmed its operations. + +== Notable contributors == + +=== Current === +Ezra Levant +Avi Yemini + +=== Former === +Tanveer Ahmed +Janice Atkinson – former Member of European Parliament +Jack Buckby +Michael Coren +Éric Duhaime +Faith Goldy +Sebastian Gorka +Katie Hopkins +Barbara Kay +Mark Latham – former leader of Australian Labor Party +Claire Lehmann – founder/editor of Quillette +Brian Lilley +Laura Loomer +Gavin McInnes +Jack Posobiec +Tommy Robinson +Lauren Southern + +== References == + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..07cb5b61b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Red River Expedition (1806)" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:55.436019+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Red River Expedition, also known as the Freeman–Custis Expedition, Freeman Red River Expedition, Sparks Expedition, and officially Exploring Expedition of Red River, was one of the first civilian scientific expeditions to explore the Southwestern United States. The 1806 expedition was ordered to find the headwaters of the Red River (Red River of the South) from the Mississippi River as a possible trading route to Santa Fe, which was then under Spanish colonial control in New Mexico; to contact Native American peoples for trading purposes; to collect data on flora, fauna, and topography, and map the country and river; and to assess the land for settlement. The Spanish officials intercepted the expedition 615 miles upriver, in what is now northeastern Texas, and turned it back before the party had achieved all of its goals. + +== Planning == +The third US President, Thomas Jefferson, ranked the Red River Expedition in importance second only to the Lewis and Clark Expedition to reach the Pacific Ocean through the Northwest. The Red River stretches west from its confluence with the Mississippi River across what is now the state of Louisiana and part of south-western Arkansas. Further west, the river forms the present-day southern border of Oklahoma, where it meets Texas, and is now known to originate in the Texas Panhandle. +After acquiring the lands of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson commissioned military groups to explore the unfamiliar territory and to collect scientific data about flora and fauna, topography, and ethnography of the many Native American peoples. By sending a group of explorers up the Red River, Jefferson wanted to verify reports that the river could provide a water route to Santa Fe in New Mexico (then part of New Spain). Other goals were to build trade and political relationships with the various tribes of American Indians, and to locate the Louisiana Purchase's southwestern and western borders with New Spain. +In 1805 and early 1806, the President began to appoint leaders for the expedition. For the scientists, he chose the astronomer/surveyor Thomas Freeman, who had recently been with Andrew Ellicott on his survey of the southern boundary of the United States, and Peter Custis, who was the first academically-trained naturalist to accompany an expedition, was still a medical student in Philadelphia, and served as the group's botanist and ethnographer. Captain Richard Sparks was chosen to lead the military troops. As the departure date of the expedition grew closer, more soldiers were recruited until the group numbered twenty-four in all. +President Jefferson persuaded Congress to fund the effort. He worked with foreign diplomats in Washington to convince them that the exploration was for scientific purposes and would not threaten their interests. Both the United Kingdom and France accepted the proposal, but Spain objected, as it also still claimed the lands to be explored, which it had just been forced to turn the Louisiana territories over briefly to Napoleon Bonaparte, who had suddenly unexpectedly turned and sold the vast interior continental lands to the Americans the year before. Spain did not want an armed military expedition within or near its remaining territory. + +== Expedition == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..372b59cd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Red River Expedition (1806)" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Expedition_(1806)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:55.436019+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On April 19, 1806, the now-24-member party (Freeman and his two assistants; Sparks, who commanded the military party, with two officers, seventeen privates, and a servant) pushed off in two flat-bottomed barges and a pirogue from Fort Adams, near Natchez, Mississippi, and turned into the Red River to go upstream to the west. The group gradually took on soldiers along the route in response to rumors of a possible attack by Spanish troops and soon numbered 45. By July 28, the party was 615 miles upriver, near what is now New Boston, Texas, and heard gunfire in the distance that indicated the presence of Spanish troops. +"Hoping to provoke an international confrontation for personal gain," U.S. General James Wilkinson of the Louisiana Territory had secretly notified Spain of the Freeman expedition (he had had separate dealings with it earlier) and sent two teams of soldiers to intercept the party. The Freeman party was stopped at what has since been called "Spanish Bluff" on the river. Both the Spanish commander and Freeman undertook a parlay. The Spanish said that they had been ordered to fire on any foreign armed troops passing through Spanish territory. In response, Freeman demanded for the Spanish to provide their objections to the team's passage in writing and to name the authority under which they were taking action. The Spanish commander asked when Freeman would start on his return journey. Freeman's crew was highly outnumbered, and Jefferson had ordered the expedition to avoid any conflict with the Spanish. The expedition turned back on the next day and returned downriver to its starting point. +The abrupt end of the expedition, and the political embarrassment that it caused the Jefferson administration overshadowed the findings. Over time, the expedition proved to be a success in some aspects. Coupled with Dunbar and Hunter Expedition in lowland Louisiana, the Red River party demonstrated that exploration of the area was possible. In addition, the scientists reported that the land could support a large population. The border debacle, as it was perceived at the time, received much attention. +However, official comments were not taken concerning those events, and a single printed pamphlet was initially the only material that was published about the journey. Custis's pioneering work in naturalism was not superseded until much later expeditions, but his discoveries became obscured by the more dramatic quantity of material collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. +Jefferson commissioned the Pike Expedition through Wilkinson, which was also to seek the headwaters of the Red River and to explore the west of the Louisiana Territory, along the Arkansas River. Departing from St. Louis in July 1806, the expedition recorded the discovery in November of what became called Pikes Peak, in present-day Colorado. Many in the party, led by Captain Zebulon Pike Jr., were captured in February 1807 by the Spanish after they had made mistakes in navigation and been forced to winter in New Mexico. Spain protested officially to the U.S. about the military expedition within its territory, but as the nations were not at war, its troops escorted Pike and most of his men to the Louisiana border and released them later that year. + +== Results == +In present-day Louisiana and Arkansas, the expedition established positive relations with the Caddo and Alabama-Quassarte (Coushatta) villages on the river. Freeman and Custis recorded valuable information about the peoples and ecology of the area. In part because of the diplomatic furor aroused by its interception of the expedition, Spain changed its strategy and opened the Red River country to American traders. +Because of the limited duration of the expedition, the scientists gathered little material, compared to the major discoveries of Lewis and Clark. However, Freeman's journal and Custis's pioneering natural history report gave valuable information about the American Indian peoples and the other aspects of the Red River country. Custis's work was published two decades before the expeditions of Thomas Nutall, Edwin James, and Thomas Say but was overlooked for some time. +An American explorer, Randolph B. Marcy, finally located the headwaters of the Red River in 1852. + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Flores, Dan L., ed. Jefferson & Southwestern Exploration: The Freeman & Custis Accounts of the Red River Expedition of 1806 Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984. ISBN 0-8061-1748-6 +Flores, Dan L. "Spanish Bluff". Texas Handbook Online, s.v. (accessed January 1, 2007) +Harbour, Emma Estill. "A Brief History of the Red River Country Since 1803" Archived 2006-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, Oklahoma Chronicles 16:1 (March 1938) 58–88, Oklahoma State Library, (accessed December 24, 2006) + +== External links == +Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Freeman-Custis Expedition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d36e515de --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Revival (Bulgaria)" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:56.424284+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Revival (Bulgarian: Възраждане, romanized: Vazrazhdane) is a far-right political party in Bulgaria. Founded in August 2014, its chairman is Kostadin Kostadinov. The party is characterised by various analysts and media as ultranationalist, pro-Russian, anti-EU, anti-NATO, being opposed to COVID-19 vaccinations and spreading anti-vaccine and anti-LGBT rhetoric. +In the 51st National Assembly of Bulgaria, Revival is the third largest parliamentary group (behind GERB–SDS and PP–DB) and the second largest party (behind GERB). + +== History == +In June 2014, Kostadin Kostadinov told media that there would be a Constituent Assembly on 2 August of the same year in the city of Pliska to create the party "Revival". The founders chose the day due to its significance as being the anniversary of the Ilinden Uprising. Kostadinov founded the party after he became unhappy following Krasimir Karakachanov's reelection as leader of IMRO-BNM in 2012. + +=== Entrance into parliament === + +The party has grown rapidly due to the Bulgarian political crisis. They first entered the Bulgarian National Assembly after the 2021 general election, gaining 13 seats. A member of Revival's parliamentary group left them in June 2022. The party would more than double its presence in the assembly, gaining 14 more seats in the 2022 general election and gaining another 10 seats in the 2023 general election bringing their total seats to 37. This came as the country drew closer to its adoption of the Euro, while the government was financially backing Ukraine in its defense against Russia. Only 30% of Bulgarians view Russia as a threat, and far more are worried about rising inflation and possible economic concerns with the adoption of the euro. Despite the party's pro-Russian rhetoric, observer Vesela Tcherneva, from the European Council on Foreign Relations, says that "Putin has lost some popularity so the campaign is not pro-Russia but anti-West, but it's the other side of the same coin". Additionally, the party has called for a public referendum on withdrawal from NATO and normalization of relations with Russia. The party has also supported the expansion of the Russian gas company Lukoil's presence in the country and to "renegotiate the conditions with the EU" either for a special status, or possible withdrawal. +Additionally, the party launched a petition that proposes postponing the adoption of the Euro until further notice. The petition collected over 604,000 signatures, significantly more than the 200,000 necessary to suggest a future referendum on the matter. +On 22 May 2023, Revival protesters stormed the EU offices in Sofia, dousing the interior with red paint while waving the Russian flag. President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola called the protestors "vandals unhappy with our stance in support of Ukraine." while the Bulgarian government announced the attacks only strengthen their resolve to support Ukraine. On 16 June 2023, a microbrewery in Sofia was vandalized after standoffs with Revival with an antisemitic message scrawled on their window with a Star of David after the brewery posted a sign saying they don't serve members of Revival. The owners of the brewery, who are Jewish, filed an investigation with the Ministry of Interior for the attack to be prosecuted as an antisemitic hate crime. + +=== Opposition to Denkov-Gabriel Government (2023–2024) === + +==== Protest activity ==== +In mid-July 2023, members of We Continue the Change launched an official investigation into Revival for promoting violence, homophobia and "misanthropic propaganda." Namely, the prosecution cited a post on Revival's official telegram that consisted of the face of Solomon Passy, a former MP and founder of the Atlantic Club, as a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp being taken away by the Schutzstaffel to be gassed with the caption, "If you don't want gas from Russia, come to us and we'll let you breathe some gas." In September 2023 Revival staged nationwide protests for the removal of all NATO bases in Bulgaria, waving Bulgarian and Russian national flags, blowing whistles and demanding an early election. The protests came shortly after the Bulgarian government ended an embargo on Ukrainian grain. During the protests Revival supporters rallied around a monument to the Red Army, which the government decided to remove. Additionally, the government deported one Russian and two Belarusian nationals connected to Revival on a recommendation by the State Agency for National Security. + +==== Sofia City Councillors split ==== +Upon the entrance of Revival MPs into the Sofia City Council, the party did not participate in negotiations to end the deadlock and elect a chairman of the city council and refused to support other nominees. +On 8 February, after three months of deadlock, 4 of the 7 Sofia city councillors from Revival voted in favour of Tsvetomir Petrov (PP-DB), who was selected as the compromise nominee after three-month long talks, subsequently being expelled both from the party and the councillors' group. The head of the Revival's group in the city council, Deyan Nikolov, accused the 4 city councillors of being "traitors" and alleged that they had been potentially bribed. The expelled city councillors defended their actions by claiming they had voted in favour of Petrov in order to end the deadlock. The split within the Revival group led to the de-listing of Revival as a group within the city council, due to it no longer being above the 5-member threshold. +The aftermath of the events in the city council ended up impacting the parliamentary group of Revival in the National Assembly, wherein Kostadinov demanded the resignation of three Revival MPs who had "vouched" for the inclusion of the expelled city councillors during the local elections. After their refusal, the three were expelled from the parliamentary groups and served out their term as Independent MPs. Expelled MP and former PG secretary, Nikolay Drenchev, later alleged that despite claims by Kostadinov that the party was now calm, the situation in the party remained tense and even claimed the party was attending sessions with a licensed psychiatrist. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..edec72fc5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Revival (Bulgaria)" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:56.424284+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Visit to Moscow ==== +On 19 February, three Revival MPs visited Moscow at the invitation of the ruling party, United Russia, meeting with members of the State Duma and representatives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. +The visit led the PP-DB parliamentary group to request that the MPs who participated in the visit be excluded from committees with significance for "national security". Additionally, the PP-DB MP Yavor Bozhankov sent a signal to the Prosecutors Office and DANS about potential illegal activity on the part of the three MPs. In response, Revival leader Kostadinov claimed the procedure for the expulsion of MPs from a committee did not exist within the rulebook and insisted that the MPs will continue to attend the committee meetings. +On 28 February, the point about the exclusion of two Revival MPs from the Foreign Affairs and Defense parliamentary committees was presented before the parliament by PP-DB, however, the measure was not supported due to the opposition of the other parliamentary parties. + +=== Anti-Euro protests (2025) === +On 22 February 2025, thousands of the party's supporters rallied in Sofia in opposition to the planned adoption of the euro. The demonstration began outside the Bulgarian National Bank where protestors immolated an effigy of Christine Lagarde. The protest then continued to a European Union facility in Sofia, which demonstrators attempted to storm. After being pushed away by police, some protestors threw paint and small explosives at the building. Commenting on the demonstration to the media, Kostadin Kostadinov explained "we are here to defend freedom". In a post to social media, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen denounced the attack as "outrageous". +Revival supported the referendum on ascension to the Eurozone proposed by President Rumen Radev in May 2025. Following the dismissal of the referendum by National Assembly chairwoman, Nataliya Kiselova, Revival held a (self-described) "popular assembly", at which they announced plans to organise a national protest on 31 May, as well as carry out acts of civil disobedience. +On 28 May, Revival once again proposed their referendum about ascension to the Eurozone before the National Assembly, however the motion was defeated. +On 31 May, protests organised by Revival were held in Sofia, as well as other towns in Bulgaria. During the protests, party leader Kostadin Kostadinov called for a protest to be held on the 4th of June, the date during which the convergence report about the feasibility of Bulgaria's membership in the Eurozone was set to be published. Revival claimed that 270,000 people participated in the nationwide protest on 31 May; however, those claims are disputed by law enforcement representatives. +During the protest on 4 June, Revival attempted to obstruct the functioning of the National Assembly by occupying the tribune. On 8 June, Revival held another protest against ascension to the Eurozone in front of the National Assembly building. Kostadinov further confirmed that Revival had sent letters to all heads of state and government within the European Union, appealing for them to obstruct Bulgaria's ascension into the Eurozone. + +== Foreign policy == +The party considers North Macedonia as the second Bulgarian state in the Balkans and claims to be working towards the country's unification with Bulgaria. It regards the "complete unification with North Macedonia and the revival and strengthening of the full state independence of a united Bulgaria" as the ultimate goal of its foreign policy. + +== International relations == + +=== Cross-European affiliation and relations === +Revival was a member of the Identity and Democracy Party from 31 January 2024. It was subsequently removed in early 2024 from the group's website +Following the 2024 European Parliament election, Revival was one of the first members of the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group in the European Parliament, alongside the various other European parties. +Revival also signed an official memorandum for cooperation "against the destruction of European civilisation" on the 23 August 2023, which was also signed by representatives from the following parties: the Hungarian Our Homeland Movement, the Dutch Forum for Democracy (FvD), the Czech Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), Alternative for Sweden (AfS) and the Swiss Mass Voll. +In December 2023, Revival participated in a conference in Belgrade hosted by the Serbian Party Oathkeepers and Dveri, alongside the AfD and the Our Homeland Movement. +On 12 April 2024, Revival organized the 'Sofia Declaration' with the Republic Movement, FvD, the Swiss Mass Voll, the Serbian Party Oathkeepers, Our Homeland Movement, AfS, the Moldovan Revival party and the Agricultural Livestock Party of Greece. + +=== Ties to other European parties === +Revival has developed a close relationship with the party Alternative for Germany, with Revival's chairman, Kostadin Kostadinov, attending the party's congress in July 2023. Revival additionally invited representatives from AfD, as well as the Moldovan party Revival to the annual commemoration of Liberation Day in 2024. +Revival has maintained cooperation with the Russian ruling party, United Russia, participating in the Forum "Freedom of Nations" hosted by party. In April 2025, Revival signed a cooperation agreement with United Russia, which would see them exchange "experience, ideas and political practices." +The party has relations with the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), attending AUR conferences and campaigning jointly against restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2025, Kostadinov addressed a Bucharest rally in support of Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, at the invitation of AUR leader George Simion. +The party has also established cooperation with Debout la France and its leader, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. +Kostadinov has also attended a conference hosted by Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the two party leaders stressing their shared support for traditional family values. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8325de432 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Revival (Bulgaria)" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_(Bulgaria)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:56.424284+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Ties to parties outside Europe === +Kostadinov, Revival's Chairman, has also claimed that the party has "begun friendly relations" with the African National Congress. +A Revival delegation, led by party vice-chairman Tsoncho Ganev, visited China between the 24 and 26 November 2024 as part of an official visit organised by the CCP. +The party has maintained relations with the Republicans for National Renewal, a donor organisation linked with the United States Republican Party, including a meeting between the head of the organisation, Mark Ivanyo, and Kostadin Kostadinov in November 2023. +In 2024, the party also had meetings with Republican Congressman Paul Gosar and officials from the 2024 Donald Trump presidential campaign. +The party expressed "full support" for Trump following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. +The party has also voiced support for Trump's proposed annexation of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal by the United States. In April 2025, a Revival delegation met with Republican Congressmen Barry Moore and Keith Self and expressed support for replacing the euro on Bulgaria's currency board with the United States dollar, therefore tying the Bulgarian lev to the dollar. Revival MEP Rada Laykova has also cooperated with Republican Congressman Andy Ogles on opposing central bank digital currency. + +== Leadership == + +Kostadin Kostadinov – Chairman +Petar Petrov – Vice chairman +Tsoncho Ganev – Vice chairman +Iskra Mihailova – Secretary + +== Election results == + +=== National Assembly === + +=== European Parliament === + +== Notes == + +== See also == +List of political parties in Bulgaria + +== References == + +== External links == +Official website (in Bulgarian) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_therapy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_therapy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..137ced201 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_therapy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Rhetoric of therapy" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric_of_therapy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:33.039068+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Rhetoric of therapy is a concept coined by American academic Dana L. Cloud to describe "a set of political and cultural discourses that have adopted psychotherapy's lexicon—the conservative language of healing, coping, adaptation, and restoration of previously existing order—but in contexts of social and political conflict". +Cloud argued that the rhetoric of therapy encourages people to focus on themselves and their private lives rather than attempt to reform flawed systems of social and political power. This form of persuasion is primarily used by politicians, managers, journalists and entertainers as a way to cope with the crisis of the American Dream. Cloud said "the discursive pattern of translating social and political problems into the language of individual responsibility and healing is a rhetoric because of its powerful persuasive force", and it is rhetoric of "therapy" because "of its focus on the personal life of the individual as locus of both problem and responsibility for change". + + +== Functions == +The rhetoric of therapy has two functions, according to Cloud: (1) to exhort conformity with the prevailing social order and (2) to encourage identification with therapeutic values: individualism, familism, self-help, and self-absorption. It is directed towards individuals who cope with unemployment, family stress, sexual and domestic violence, child abuse, and other traumas that result from systemic hegemony such as women's oppression, racism, and capitalism. + + +== History == +The origins of therapeutic discourse, along with advertising and other consumerist cultural forms, emerged during the industrialization of the West during the 18th century. The new emphasis on the acquisition of wealth during this period produced discourse about the "democratic self-determination of individuals conceived as autonomous, self-expressive, self-reliant subjects" or, in short, the "self-made man". Cloud argued that the rhetoric of the self-made man was introduced to veil the growing polarity between classes of owners and laborers and that it disguised the fact that success attained through self-determination was never a real possibility for blacks, immigrants, the working class, and women. Therefore, the language of personal responsibility, adaptation, and healing served not to liberate the working class, the poor, and the socially marginalized, but to persuade members of these classes that they are individually responsible for their plight. The rhetoric of therapy served as a diversion away from attention to social ills. +One prominent movement that developed from the rhetoric of therapy was the self-help movement, which encouraged its audiences to take personal responsibility for solving their problems without attention to race, class, and gender issues. The twofold objective of this particular movement—mental health and positive thinking—is demonstrated in one of the quintessential books of this period, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. +Cloud analyzed different case studies to show how the established order is maintained by redirecting blame from the hegemonic system to the individual. Cloud said that the rhetoric of family values blames the absence of the "traditional" family as the cause of social ills. The rhetoric of therapy is used to divert attention from issues caused by hegemonic systems by promoting the idea that restoration of the traditional family structure will result in a harmonious society. +A second example of the rhetoric of therapy is illustrated in Cloud's discussion of the extensive media coverage of groups that supported the Gulf War. Cloud says that the media intentionally devoted significant attention to groups that supported the war in an effort to instill blame, guilt, shame, and anxiety in individuals who openly opposed the war. Cloud writes that this was a government effort to control the nation's perception and response to the war that many deemed unjust. In such cases, the rhetoric of therapy is used to deflate the possibility of collective resistance and to inflate receptivity to prevailing social and political structures. + + +== See also == + + +== Notes == + + +== References == +Cloud, Dana L. (1998). Control and consolation in American culture and politics: rhetoric of therapy. Rhetoric and society. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0761905066. OCLC 37268476. + + +== Further reading == +Cushman, Philip (1995). Constructing the self, constructing America: a cultural history of psychotherapy. Boston: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0201626438. OCLC 30976460. +Epstein, William M. (2006). Psychotherapy as religion: the civil divine in America. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-0874176780. OCLC 62889079. +Guilfoyle, Michael (February 2005). "From therapeutic power to resistance? Therapy and cultural hegemony". Theory & Psychology. 15 (1): 101–124. doi:10.1177/0959354305049748. S2CID 145491324. +Hazleden, Rebecca (December 2003). "Love yourself: the relationship of the self with itself in popular self-help texts". Journal of Sociology. 39 (4): 413–428. doi:10.1177/0004869003394006. S2CID 144162898. +House, Richard (August 1999). "'Limits to therapy and counselling': deconstructing a professional ideology". British Journal of Guidance & Counselling. 27 (3): 377–392. doi:10.1080/03069889908256278. +Jacob, Jean Daniel (December 2012). "The rhetoric of therapy in forensic psychiatric nursing". Journal of Forensic Nursing. 8 (4): 178–187. doi:10.1111/j.1939-3938.2012.01146.x. PMID 23176358. S2CID 25871538. +Rose, Nikolas S. (1996). Inventing our selves: psychology, power, and personhood. Cambridge studies in the history of psychology. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521434140. OCLC 33440952. +Throop, Elizabeth A. (2009). Psychotherapy, American culture, and social policy: immoral individualism. Culture, mind, and society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0230609457. OCLC 226357146. +Tonn, Mari Boor (2005). "Taking conversation, dialogue, and therapy public". Rhetoric & Public Affairs. 8 (3): 405–430. doi:10.1353/rap.2005.0072. S2CID 143908004. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigny_Bjerg-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigny_Bjerg-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..086eaa4b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigny_Bjerg-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Rigny Bjerg" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigny_Bjerg" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:17.062214+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mount Rigny (Danish: Rigny Bjerg, Rignys Bjerg) is a mountain peak in East Greenland. It is located in King Christian IX Land, Sermersooq Municipality. +The mountain was named by Jules de Blosseville, after French naval officer Marie Henri Daniel Gauthier, comte de Rigny (1782–1835). + + +== Geography == +Mount Rigny is the highest peak in a mountainous area east of the Sortebrae Glacier close to the Blosseville Coast. Reaching 2,734 m (8,970 ft), Rigny Bjerg was marked on Jules de Blosseville's map of 1833 which also contained a drawing of the mountain's profile as seen from the sea. The mountain was then identified by the 1895-96 Ingolf Expedition led by C.F. Wandel, and its approximate position determined by the 1898–1900 Carlsbergfund Expedition to East Greenland led by G.C. Amdrup. This mountain's elevation and position are incorrect in the Defense Mapping Agency Greenland Navigation charts. +In Rigny Berg there are routes popular with mountaineers, such as "Snow Falcon", as well as neighboring peaks in the region such as RHARPeak. The first successful ascent in 1998 by Russ Hore and Al Read. +The first full ascent of Rigny Bjerg was made on 19 July 2003 by the 'Midnight Sun 03 Expedition'. +Certain studies claim that the mountain corresponds to the legendary Norsemen's Blåsærk and to the Mount of Gods Mercie named by Henry Hudson in 1607. + + +== See also == +List of mountains in Greenland + + +== References == + + +== External links == +"Snow Falcon" Gr III Rignys Bjerg +Rockclimbing - Russ on RHARPeak +Rigny Bjerg - RHARPeak +HVITSERK OG BLÅSERK \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Nowhere_(book)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Nowhere_(book)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..77ea133a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Nowhere_(book)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Road to Nowhere (book)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_Nowhere_(book)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:34.981524+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation is a 2022 non-fiction book by Canadian author Paris Marx. + + +== Summary == +The book covers a number of emerging technologies in mass transportation, particularly those that have been widely advocated for by corporations in Silicon Valley, such as ridesharing companies, electric cars, and the Hyperloop. Analysing those technologies, Marx criticises the vision of transportation put forward by Silicon Valley corporations, saying that they fail to resolve many of the issues facing mass transportation, such as environmental and cost-of-living concerns. Marx further advocates for a greater emphasis on collective methods to tackle those issues instead, including public transportation and more democratic urban planning. + + +== Reception == +Alastair Dalton of The Scotsman said the book offers "a nightmarish vision of the direction in which technology is taking transport" and "underlines the extraordinary toll exacted by motor vehicles." Rob Larson of Jacobin noted that there were some relevant topics that Marx failed to discuss, namely the use of private jets, but that the book was a "fun read" that "pairs brutally realistic analysis with a consummately Canadian level of indictment." Matthew James Seidel of Protean Magazine described the book as "a sharply rendered, compelling, and illuminating text that combines diffuse histories and complex processes into a clear narrative" and that its "most essential message is its insistence that, whatever the promise of new technologies, they will never serve anyone but the privileged—unless decisions about their use are made in a democratic manner." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..593c3ad7a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +--- +title: "Rosenhan experiment" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:34.179629+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Rosenhan experiment or Thud experiment was a disputed study regarding the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. For the experiment, participants submitted themselves for evaluation at various psychiatric institutions and feigned hallucinations in order to be accepted, but acted normally from then onward. Each was diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and given antipsychotic medication. The study was arranged by psychologist David Rosenhan, a Stanford University professor, and published by the journal Science in 1973 with the title On Being Sane In Insane Places. +As a critique of psychiatric diagnosis, it broached the topic of wrongful involuntary commitment. The experiment is said to have "accelerated the movement to reform mental institutions and to deinstitutionalize as many mental patients as possible". Rosenhan claimed that he, along with eight other people (five men and three women), entered 12 hospitals in five states on both coasts of the US. Three of the participants were admitted for only a brief period of time, and in order to obtain sufficient documented experiences, they re-applied to additional institutions. +Respondents defended psychiatry against the experiment's conclusions, saying that as psychiatric diagnosis relies largely on the patient's report of their experiences, faking their presence no more demonstrates problems with psychiatric diagnosis than lying about other medical symptoms. +It has been alleged that at least part of the published results were distorted or falsified. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4d065341c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Rosenhan experiment" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:34.179629+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Pseudopatient experiment == +While listening to a lecture by Ronald D. Laing, a psychiatrist associated with anti-psychiatry claims, Rosenhan conceived of the experiment as a way to test the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses. The study concluded "it is clear that we cannot distinguish the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals" and also illustrated the dangers of dehumanization and suggestion in psychiatric institutions. It suggested that the use of community mental health facilities which concentrated on specific problems and behaviors rather than psychiatric terminology might be a solution, and recommended education to make psychiatric workers more aware of the social psychology of their facilities. +Rosenhan himself and seven mentally healthy associates, termed "pseudopatients", attempted to gain admission to psychiatric hospitals by telephoning for an appointment and feigning auditory hallucinations. The hospital staff were not informed of the experiment. The pseudopatients included a psychology graduate student aged in his twenties, three psychologists, a pediatrician, a psychiatrist, a painter, and a housewife. None had a history of mental illness. Pseudopatients used pseudonyms, and those who were mental health professionals were given false jobs in a different sector to avoid invoking any special treatment or scrutiny. Apart from giving false names and employment details, further biographical details were reported truthfully. +During their initial psychiatric assessment, the pseudopatients claimed to be hearing voices of the same sex as the patient which were often unclear, but which seemed to pronounce the words "empty", "hollow", or "thud", and nothing else. These words were chosen as they vaguely suggest some sort of existential crisis and for the lack of any published literature referencing them as psychotic symptoms. No other psychiatric symptoms were claimed according to Rosenhan's publication, but medical records have indicated that, at least in the case of one pseudopatient, more were shared to the hospital such as not being able to sleep, feeling cold all over, being unable to work for six months, being sensitive to radio signals, having suicidal thoughts, etc. Grimacing and twitching were also observed by the doctor who examined one of the pseudopatients. If admitted, the pseudopatients were instructed to "act normally", reporting that they felt fine and no longer heard voices. Hospital records obtained after the experiment indicate that all pseudopatients were characterized as friendly and cooperative by staff. +All were admitted, to 12 psychiatric hospitals across the United States, including underfunded public hospitals in rural areas, urban university-run hospitals with excellent reputations, and one expensive private hospital. Though presented with identical symptoms, seven were diagnosed with schizophrenia at public hospitals, and one with manic-depressive psychosis, a more optimistic diagnosis with better clinical outcomes, at the private hospital. Their stays ranged from 7 to 52 days, and the average was 19 days. All but one were discharged with a diagnosis of schizophrenia "in remission", which Rosenhan considered as evidence that mental illness is perceived as an irreversible condition creating a lifelong stigma rather than a curable illness. +Despite openly and frequently taking extensive notes on the behavior of the staff and other patients, none of the pseudopatients were identified as impostors by the hospital staff, although many of the other psychiatric patients seemed to be able to correctly identify them as impostors. In the first three hospitalizations, 35 of the total of 118 patients expressed a suspicion that the pseudopatients were sane, with some suggesting that the patients were researchers or journalists investigating the hospital. Hospital notes indicated that staff interpreted much of the pseudopatients' behavior in terms of mental illness. For example, one nurse labeled the note-taking of one pseudopatient as "writing behavior" and considered it pathological. The patients' normal biographies were described in hospital records consistent with what was expected of schizophrenics by the then-dominant theories of its cause. +The experiment required the pseudopatients to get out of the hospital on their own by getting the hospital to release them, though a lawyer was retained to be on call for emergencies when it became clear that the pseudopatients would not ever be voluntarily released on short notice. Once admitted and diagnosed, the pseudopatients were not able to obtain their release until they agreed with the psychiatrists that they were mentally ill and began taking antipsychotic medications, which they flushed down a toilet. No staff member reported that the pseudopatients were flushing their medication down the toilets. +Rosenhan and the other pseudopatients reported an overwhelming sense of dehumanization, severe invasion of privacy, and boredom while hospitalized. Their possessions were searched randomly, and they were sometimes observed while using the toilet. They reported that though the staff seemed to be well-meaning, they generally objectified and dehumanized the patients, often discussing patients at length in their presence as though they were not there, and avoiding direct interaction with patients except as strictly necessary to perform official duties. Some attendants were prone to verbal and physical abuse of patients when other staff were not present. A group of patients waiting outside the cafeteria half an hour before lunchtime were said by a doctor to his students to be experiencing "oral-acquisitive" psychiatric symptoms. Contact with doctors averaged 6.8 minutes per day. + +== Non-existent impostor experiment == +For this experiment, Rosenhan used a well-known research and teaching hospital, the staff of which had learned of the results of the initial study but claimed that similar errors could not be made at their institution. Rosenhan arranged with them that during a three-month period, one or more pseudopatients would attempt to gain admission and the staff would rate every incoming patient as to the likelihood they were an impostor. Of 193 patients, 41 were considered to be impostors and a further 42 were considered suspect. In reality, Rosenhan had sent no pseudopatients; all patients suspected as impostors by the hospital staff were ordinary patients. This resulted in a conclusion that "any diagnostic process that lends itself too readily to massive errors of this sort cannot be a very reliable one". + +== Impact == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b7813cd13 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Rosenhan experiment" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:34.179629+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Rosenhan published his findings in Science, in which he criticized the reliability of psychiatric diagnosis and the disempowering and demeaning nature of patient care experienced by the associates during the study. Additionally, he described his work in a variety of news appearances, including to the BBC:I told friends, I told my family: "I can get out when I can get out. That's all. I'll be there for a couple of days and I'll get out." Nobody knew I'd be there for two months ... The only way out was to point out that they're [the psychiatrists are] correct. They had said I was insane, "I am insane; but I am getting better." That was an affirmation of their view of me. +The experiment is said to have "accelerated the movement to reform mental institutions and to deinstitutionalize as many mental patients as possible". + +=== Criticisms === +Many respondents to the publication defended psychiatry, saying that as psychiatric diagnosis relies largely on the patient's report of their experiences, faking their presence no more demonstrates problems with psychiatric diagnosis than lying about other medical symptoms. In this vein, psychiatrist Robert Spitzer quoted Seymour S. Kety in a 1975 criticism of Rosenhan's study: + +If I were to drink a quart of blood and, concealing what I had done, come to the emergency room of any hospital vomiting blood, the behavior of the staff would be quite predictable. If they labeled and treated me as having a bleeding peptic ulcer, I doubt that I could argue convincingly that medical science does not know how to diagnose that condition. + +Kety also said that psychiatrists should not necessarily be expected to assume that a patient is pretending to have mental illness, thus the study lacked realism. Instead of considering realistic problems in diagnosis, such as comorbidity or differential diagnosis between disorders with similar symptoms, Rosenhan dismissed the criticism as further examples of the "experimenter effect" or "expectation bias," and evidence for his interpretation that he had discovered genuine problems of diagnosis rather than being fooled by his method. + +=== Accusation of fraud === +In The Great Pretender, a 2019 book on Rosenhan, author Susannah Cahalan questions the veracity and validity of the Rosenhan experiment. Examining documents left by Rosenhan after his death, Cahalan finds apparent distortion in the Science article: inconsistent data, misleading descriptions, and inaccurate or fabricated quotations from psychiatric records. Moreover, despite an extensive search, she is only able to identify two of the eight pseudopatients: Rosenhan himself, and a graduate student whose testimony is allegedly inconsistent with Rosenhan's description in the article. Due to Rosenhan's seeming willingness to alter the truth in other ways regarding the experiment, Cahalan questions whether some or all of the six other pseudopatients might have been simply invented by Rosenhan. +In February 2023, Andrew Scull of the University of California at San Diego published an article in the peer-reviewed journal History of Psychiatry in support of Cahalan's allegations, labelling the experiment a "successful scientific fraud". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..79e358f6f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Rosenhan experiment" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:34.179629+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Related experiments == +In 1887, American investigative journalist Nellie Bly feigned symptoms of mental illness to gain admission to a lunatic asylum and report on the terrible conditions therein. The results were published as Ten Days in a Mad-House. +In 1968, Maurice K. Temerlin split 25 psychiatrists into two groups and had them listen to an actor portraying a character of normal mental health. One group was told that the actor "was a very interesting man because he looked neurotic, but actually was quite psychotic" while the other was told nothing. Sixty percent of the former group diagnosed psychoses, most often schizophrenia, while none of the control group did so. +In 1988, Loring and Powell gave 290 psychiatrists a transcript of a patient interview and told half of them that the patient was black and the other half white; they concluded of the results that "clinicians appear to ascribe violence, suspiciousness, and dangerousness to black clients even though the case studies are the same as the case studies for the white clients." +In 2004, psychologist Lauren Slater claimed to have performed an experiment very similar to Rosenhan's for her book Opening Skinner's Box. Slater wrote that she had presented herself at 9 psychiatric emergency rooms with auditory hallucinations, resulting in being diagnosed "almost every time" with psychotic depression. However, when challenged to provide evidence of actually performing her experiment, she could not. The serious methodological and other concerns regarding Slater's work appeared as a series of responses to a journal report, in the same journal. +In 2008, the BBC's science television series Horizon performed a similar experiment for two episodes entitled "How Mad Are You?" The experiment involved ten subjects, five with previously diagnosed mental health conditions, and five with no such diagnosis. They were observed by three experts in mental health diagnoses and their challenge was to identify the five with mental health problems solely from their behavior, without speaking to the subjects or learning anything of their histories. The experts correctly diagnosed two of the ten patients, misdiagnosed one patient, and incorrectly identified two healthy patients as having mental health problems. Unlike the other experiments listed here, however, the purpose of this journalistic exercise was not to criticize the diagnostic process, but to minimize the stigmatization of the mentally ill. It was intended to show that people with a previous diagnosis of a mental illness could live normal lives with their health problems not obvious to observers from their behavior. +One of the main claims of the Rosenhan experiment was that clinicians could be negatively biased in their first clinical impression, which would negatively affect further clinical decisions. Christoph Flückiger and colleagues conducted two experiments in 2024 (N = 56 and 64) in which psychotherapists were asked to give their first clinical impressions in two consecutive cases after a brief presentation of the case (case description and video excerpt) and a short recall task on the information provided. The attentional focus in the recall task served as an independent variable: therapists had to adopt either a symptom-focused or a strength-focused attentional focus to recall the cases, i.e. therapists rated their first case in either the symptom-focused or the strength-focused condition and the second case in the opposite condition. In both studies, the therapists in the symptom-focused conditions rated the patients as slightly more distressed, less resilient and less psychosocially integrated compared to the strength-focused conditions. However, these effects, although statistically significant, were rather small to clinically negligible. These preliminary results suggest that the first clinical impressions of contemporary psychotherapists in both experiments may be slightly, but not as dramatically, distorted as the Rosenhan experiment suggested at the time. + +== See also == + +Anti-psychiatry – Movement against psychiatric treatment +Involuntary commitment – Compulsory hospitalization +Labeling theory – Sociological theory +Psychiatric hospital § Undercover journalism +doi:10.1037/cou0000766 + +== References == + +=== Notes === + +Rosenhan DL. The contextual nature of psychiatric diagnosis. J Abnorm Psychol. 1975;84:462–74 + +== External links == + +On being sane in insane places. Archived 2023-10-14 at the Wayback Machine. +Rosenhan experiment summary +BBC Radio 4, "Mind Changers", Series 4 Episode 1: The Pseudo-Patient Study \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..abcba5f47 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Ross expedition" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:56.586532+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Ross expedition was a voyage of scientific exploration of the Antarctic in 1839 to 1843, led by James Clark Ross, with two unusually strong warships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. It explored what is now called the Ross Sea and discovered the Ross Ice Shelf. On the expedition, Ross discovered the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, named after each ship. The young botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker made his name on the expedition. +The expedition confirmed the existence of the continent of Antarctica, inferred the position of the South Magnetic Pole and made substantial observations of the zoology and botany of the region, resulting in a monograph on the zoology and a series of four detailed monographs by Hooker on the botany, collectively called Flora Antarctica, published in parts between 1843 and 1859. Among the expedition's biological discoveries was the Ross seal, a species confined to the pack ice of Antarctica. The expedition was also the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail. + +== Expedition == + +=== Background === +In 1838, the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA) proposed an expedition to carry out magnetic measurements in the Antarctic. Sir James Clark Ross was chosen to lead the expedition after previous experience working on the British Magnetic Survey from 1834 onwards, working with prominent physicists and geologists such as Humphrey Lloyd, Sir Edward Sabine, John Phillips and Robert Were Fox. Ross had made many previous expeditions to the Arctic, including experience as captain. + +=== People === +Ross, a captain of the Royal Navy, commanded HMS Erebus. Its sister ship, HMS Terror, was commanded by Ross' close friend, Captain Francis Crozier. +The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, then aged 23 and the youngest person on the expedition, was assistant-surgeon to Robert McCormick, and responsible for collecting zoological and geological specimens. Hooker later became one of England's greatest botanists; he was a close friend of Charles Darwin and became director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew for twenty years. McCormick had been ship's surgeon for the second voyage of HMS Beagle under Captain Robert FitzRoy, along with Darwin as gentleman naturalist. +The second master on Terror was John E. Davis who was responsible for much of the surveying and chart production, as well as producing many illustrations of the voyage. He had been on the Beagle surveying the coasts of Bolivia, Peru and Chile. Another Arctic veteran was Thomas Abernethy, another friend of Ross, who joined the new expedition as a gunner. + +=== Ships === + +HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, the ships servicing the Ross expedition, were two unusually strong warships. Both were bomb ships, named and equipped to fire heavy mortar bombs at a high angle over defences, and were accordingly heavily built to withstand the substantial recoil of these three-ton weapons. Their solid construction ideally suited them for use in dangerous sea ice that might crush other ships. The 372-ton Erebus had been armed with two mortars – one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (250 mm) – and ten guns. + +=== Voyage === + +In September 1839, Erebus and Terror departed Chatham in Kent, arriving at Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) in August 1840. On 21 November 1840 they departed for Antarctica. In January 1841, the ships landed on Victoria Land and proceeded to name areas of the landscape after British politicians, scientists and acquaintances. Mount Erebus, on Ross Island, was named after one ship and Mount Terror after the other. McMurdo Bay (now known as McMurdo Sound) was named after Archibald McMurdo, senior lieutenant of Terror. +Reaching latitude 76° south on 28 January 1841, the explorers spied + +...a low white line extending from its eastern extreme point as far as the eye could discern... It presented an extraordinary appearance, gradually increasing in height, as we got nearer to it, and proving at length to be a perpendicular cliff of ice, between one hundred and fifty and two hundred feet above the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level at the top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even seaward face. +Ross called this the "Great Ice Barrier", now known as the Ross Ice Shelf, which they were unable to penetrate, although they followed it eastward until the lateness of the season compelled them to return to Tasmania. The following summer, 1841–42, Ross continued to follow the ice shelf eastward. Both ships stayed at Port Louis in the Falkland Islands for the winter, returning in September 1842 to explore the Antarctic Peninsula, where they conducted studies in magnetism, and gathered oceanographic data and collections of botanical and ornithological specimens. +The expedition arrived back in England on 4 September 1843, having confirmed the existence of the southern continent and charted a large part of its coastline. It was the last major voyage of exploration made wholly under sail. + +== Discoveries == + +=== Geography === +Ross discovered the "enormous" Ross Ice Shelf, correctly observing that it was the source of the tabular icebergs seen in the Southern Ocean, and helping to found the science of glaciology. He identified the Transantarctic Mountains and the volcanoes Erebus and Terror, named after his ships. + +=== Magnetism === + +The main purpose of the Ross expedition was to find the position of the South Magnetic Pole, by making observations of the Earth's magnetism in the Southern Hemisphere. Ross did not reach the Pole, but did infer its position. The expedition made the first "definitive" charts of magnetic declination, magnetic dip and magnetic intensity, in place of the less accurate charts made by the earlier expeditions of Charles Wilkes and Dumont d'Urville. + +=== Zoology === + +The expedition's zoological discoveries included a collection of birds. They were described and illustrated by George Robert Gray and Richard Bowdler Sharpe in The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Erebus & HMS Terror. +The expedition was the first to describe the Ross seal, which it found in the pack ice, to which the species is confined. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..550a0fa6b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Ross expedition" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:56.586532+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Botany === + +The expedition's botanical discoveries were documented in Joseph Dalton Hooker's four-part Flora Antarctica (1843–1859). It totalled six volumes (parts III and IV each being in two volumes), covered about 3000 species, and contained 530 plates figuring in all 1095 of the species described. It was throughout "splendidly" illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch. The parts were: + +Part I Botany of Lord Auckland's Group and Campbell's Island (1844–1845) +Part II Botany of Fuegia, the Falklands, Kerguelen's Land, Etc. (1845–1847) +Part III Flora Novae-Zelandiae (1851–1853) (2 volumes) +Part IV Flora Tasmaniae (1853–1859) (2 volumes) +Hooker gave Charles Darwin a copy of the first part of the Flora; Darwin thanked him, and agreed in November 1845 that the geographical distribution of organisms would be "the key which will unlock the mystery of species". + +== Influence == +In 1912, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen wrote of the Ross expedition that "Few people of the present day are capable of rightly appreciating this heroic deed, this brilliant proof of human courage and energy. With two ponderous craft – regular "tubs" according to our ideas – these men sailed right into the heart of the pack [ice], which all previous explorers had regarded as certain death ... These men were heroes – heroes in the highest sense of the word." +Hooker's Flora Antarctica remains important; in 2013 W. H. Walton in his Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent describes it as "a major reference to this day", encompassing as it does "all the plants he found both in the Antarctic and on the sub-Antarctic islands", surviving better than Ross's deep-sea soundings which were made with "inadequate equipment". + +== References == + +== External links == +Cool Antarctica: Erebus and Terror +Encyclopedia of Earth: Three National Expeditions to Antarctica \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russophiles_for_the_Revival_of_the_Fatherland-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russophiles_for_the_Revival_of_the_Fatherland-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8776daa39 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russophiles_for_the_Revival_of_the_Fatherland-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russophiles_for_the_Revival_of_the_Fatherland" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:57.591114+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland (Bulgarian: Русофили за възраждане на Отечеството, romanized: Rusofili za vazrazhdane na Otechestvoto) is a Bulgarian political party. The leader of the party is Nikolay Malinov. + + +== History == +On November 1, 2008, a congress was held to create Revival of the Fatherland with 500 generals and officers of the Bulgarian Land Forces in attendance. The two founding groups of the party were two Veterans' organizations; "For the Honor of the Epaulette" and the "Green Alliance" with the party officially being founded in 2009 and receiving court recognition on February 11, 2010. In 2014, the party became part of the Patriotic Front coalition. In 2019, the party has been part of the Coalition for Bulgaria led by the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival. In the 2019 Bulgarian local elections the party saw 64 councilors and 8 mayors elected. +During the party's congress on September 5, 2020, the party elected Nikolay Malinov as its leader and four members of its Russophile wing were elected to the party's executive board. For the 2021 Bulgarian general election the party was part of the Left Union for a Clean and Holy Republic coalition and signed a memorandum of cooperation with United Russia. + + +=== Neutral Bulgaria === +In 2023 the party spearheaded the formation of the Neutral Bulgaria coalition, consisting of Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland, as well as: Attack, Party of the Bulgarian Communists, and the Bulgarian Communist Party. The goal of the alliance was to pursue a reconciliatory policy towards Russia by withdrawing from NATO. During the 2023 Bulgarian parliamentary election the coalition received just 0.40% of the vote with Attack leaving and the Communist Party of Bulgaria joining for the June 2024 parliamentary election where they received an even worse 0.11%. After this the coalition collapsed due to the ideological divide between the right winged Russophiles and the left winged communists, as well as due to internal opposition in the communist parties due to Malinov's espionage charges. + + +=== Russophiles for Bulgaria === +Malinov announced that Russophiles for the Revival of the Fatherland would be contesting the October 2024 parliamentary election as a member of Russophiles for Bulgaria. They were joined by the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Party of Bulgarian Communists. +Russophiles for Bulgaria ended up earning just 0.35% of the vote. + + +== Election results == + + +=== National Assembly === + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3b36d8e96 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Sanseitō" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:58.929577+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sanseitō (Japanese: 参政党, lit. 'Political Participation Party'; self-rendered as Party of Do It Yourself in English, DIY) is an ultraconservative, right-wing populist political party in Japan. It is on the far-right of the political spectrum. +The party was founded in 2020 by Sohei Kamiya, the current secretary general of the party, and won a seat in the 2022 House of Councillors election, also becoming an official political party by winning more than 2% of the vote in the election. Sanseitō gained international media attention during the 2022 House of Councillors election due to Kamiya's antisemitic rhetoric during public appearances and campaign rallies. In the 2024 general election, the party won 3 seats. In the 2025 House of Councillors election, the party won more than 14 seats and came in third in the national popular vote. According to the party's leader Kamiya, it is the Japanese equivalent of Trumpism in the United States. +The party promotes COVID-19 misinformation. The party's president, Manabu Matsuda, has called COVID-19 vaccines a "murder weapon". The party is against same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. The party strongly opposes immigration, claiming that foreigners bring crime and receive better treatment than native citizens. It proposes the creation of a new constitution to replace the existing one and published a draft that contains minimal human rights protections. + +== History == +Sanseitō originated from a conservative YouTube channel called "Political Party DIY" created by streamer Kazuya Kyoumoto, politician Sohei Kamiya, and political analyst Yūya Watase in April 2019. The YouTube channel's objective is to show how to create a political party from scratch. In April 2020, the three founders of the YouTube channel officially started Sanseitō. +At the end of 2020, Jōichiro Shinohara, a founding member of the party, advocated a conspiracy theory alleging that the 2020 United States presidential election was "rigged", causing infighting among him and two founding members, Kyoumoto and Watase, who were skeptical of the conspiracy theory. This led to three of the founding members leaving the party in 2021, while Kamiya remained as the leader of the party with Manabu Matsuda, another founding member of the five-person party. At this time, Kamiya was thinking about the direction of the party, and decided that he would be able to expand his support base by focusing more on conspiracy theories and network marketing. Since then, a large number of anti-vaccination and organic faith groups who claim that the COVID-19 vaccine is a conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies joined the party, creating a new support base. +The party fielded five candidates for the national proportional representation block and 45 candidates in all constituencies for the 2022 Japanese House of Councillors election. Sohei Kamiya, a Sanseitō candidate in the national proportional representation block, won a seat. The party received more than 2% of the vote in the constituencies and proportional representation block, meeting the legal requirements for it to become a political party. +In the 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election, Sanseitō secured 14 seats based on its "Japanese First" slogan and a policy of tax reduction. It has gained votes from voters who had no previous party affiliation. + +== Ideology and policies == + +Sanseitō is known for its ultraconservative ideology. It has also been referred to as extreme, "extremely conservative", and "hardline nationalist". +Sohei Kamiya, founder and secretary general of Sanseitō, said that Sanseitō has a high affinity with the conservative faction of the U.S. Republican Party, the far-right German party Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right French party National Rally (RN), and the right-wing populist party Reform UK. Kamiya has said that he learned many of his "emotional button-pushing themes and norm-breaking language" from U.S. president Donald Trump and stated that he was Japan's equivalent of Trump. According to Kamiya, Japan faces threats from shady globalists ("cabal of global elites"), criminal foreigners and a corrupt political establishment that is suffocating young people with taxes. His has proposed a "Japanese First" nationalist agenda. Sanseito has drawn mainly young male voters. Opponents and domestic media reports have accused him of being xenophobic, saying he is directing public anger with high prices and stagnant wages at Japan's foreign residents. + +=== Diplomacy and military === + +==== Relationship and view on Russia ==== +In July 2025, the party was accused of having ties with Russia after an upper house election candidate named Saya appeared in a Sputnik News interview, and for making payments to an advertising firm Vostok Joint Company. The party's general secretary Kamiya denied affiliations to Russia and claimed that the interview was authorized by a "low ranking staff" and that he was not informed beforehand. Kamiya said he has asked the responsible party staff to resign for authorizing the Sputnik interview. Sanseitō's relation with Russia has been questioned before as Kamiya said "Moscow should not be held entirely responsible for the war in Ukraine." + +==== Security and defense ==== +The party advocates an increase in the national defense budget of up to 3% of GDP. The party is against the stationing of American troops and American military bases in Japan. The party calls for "constitutional reform and strengthening of the Self-Defence Forces". The party also says that "Sado Island and Tsushima should be made independent and a nuclear-armed nation should be created." Furthermore, Kamiya claimed that NISA could fund the development of a domestic social media platform to strengthen information sovereignty. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..abcfe32d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Sanseitō" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:58.929577+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Constitution === +The party is in favour of "creating" a new Constitution, instead of reforming the Constitution. The party also criticizes the current Japanese Constitution, saying that it was "established under the supervision of GHQ during the occupation," and advocates "constitutional creation" in which the Japanese people should create a constitution that reflects the values of the Japanese people themselves. In May 2025, the Party announced the "New Constitution of Japan (Conceptual Draft)" on its official website as the result of its "Constitution Creation Project". The draft simplifies the current Constitution's 103 articles to 33 articles. +The main contents of the proposed Constitution by Sanseitō include the lack of any provisions on human rights such as equality of citizens or freedom of religion, and the simplification of provisions on the Diet, Cabinet, and courts. It does not include the words "sovereignty of the people" or "fundamental human rights", and it stipulates that "the nation shall possess sovereignty". It also stipulates that "Japan is a nation in which the Emperor and the people are one, governed by the Emperor", and that the Emperor is the subject of governing power. It states that the "national polity" is a family state in which the people revere the Emperor, and it stipulates that the Emperor decides the era name, Kimigayo is the national anthem, and Hinomaru is the national flag. It does not include any words on pacifism and stipulates the maintenance of a self-defense force. Supreme command of the Self-Defense Forces belongs to the Prime Minister and does not require a Cabinet decision to exercise it. Citizens are obligated to "protect Japan," and education requires the teaching of the Imperial Rescript on Education and Japanese myths. "The family is the foundation of society," marriage is "based on the union of a man and a woman", and husband and wife must have the same surname. The qualifications for citizenship are that "one or both parents must be Japanese," "Japanese must be one's native language," and "they must cherish Japan." Foreigners are not allowed to vote. There is a provision imposing an obligation on the media to report on national policies without bias. + +=== Immigration and foreign investment === +Japan took in 1 million workers over the period from 2022 to 2025 to fill jobs left vacant by the decline in the Japanese working-age population. While foreign nationals make up about 3 percent of Japan's population, Sanseito has won voters with calls to limit immigration. +The party has an anti-foreigner stance, based on claims that foreigners receive better treatment than native citizens and that Japan's culture is changing rapidly as a result of migration. The party calls for restrictions of foreign land ownership and a reduction in the number of foreign workers. In addition, the party is in favour of restricting land sales to any non-Japanese. Party members and supporters have made claims such as "Chinese people are buying up land and water resources on a large scale", as well as hostile remarks against Chinese students. +In his campaign speech leading up to the 2025 House of Councillors election, Kamiya claimed that foreigners are bringing crime to Japan. The party claimed that they would put "Japan First", leading to worries about xenophobia. Political analysts say that despite gaining more attention, Sanseitō is unable to dismiss its connection with conspiracy theories. + +=== Economics === + +==== Fiscal policy ==== +In terms of economics, in 2022 when Kamiya ran in election for the party, he claimed to support Abenomics but with modification needed. In 2025, he commented on it negatively, criticizing its affinity with "globalism". Kamiya said he would support economic policy of tax reduction and use fiscal policy to support the economy. The fiscal deficit would be supported by issuing more debt and possibly cryptocurrency. + +==== Agriculture ==== +In 2022, Toshiaki Yoshino, then party co-chair, claimed that wheat "did not exist before the war" and "was brought to Japan by GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) after the war to promote bread consumption, and is harmful to Japanese people, which is why there is an increase in cancer cases." Co-chair Kamiya agreed, saying, "Let's stop eating wheat," and "There is no need to protect the food culture created in America." In his edited book, "Sanseito Q&A Book: Basic Edition," Kamiya claimed that wheat was a food harmful to health that was brought to Japan by GHQ after the war and was popularized by "international finance capital", mainly of Jewish origin, to make profits. + +==== Energy and environment ==== +Sanseitō dismisses the need to cut greenhouse gas emission, claiming that global warming is up to further scientific discussion. The party proposes reducing renewable energy usage and advocate withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. + +=== Social policy === + +==== Gender and equality ==== +The party is against same-sex marriage, opposed the LGBT Understanding Promotion Act, and has called for the act to be repealed. It opposes LGBT rights. It is also against optional separate surnames for married couples, and the introduction of a quota system that would allocate a certain percentage of candidates and seats to women. The party maintains that imperial succession should be limited to the male line. In 2023, Kamiya proposed the reinstatement of the concubine system to increase the number of heirs to the throne, but this was criticized and the part was later removed from the official video. + +==== Education ==== +Regarding children's education, the party believes the government should set a priority policy of "educational reform that emphasizes thinking ability over academic ability" and promote "education based on a 'self-respect view of history' that values the country, region, and traditions." Specifically, it believes the government should set a goal of "amending the law to allow local governments to establish inquiry-based free schools". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b295169a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,71 @@ +--- +title: "Sanseitō" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseitō" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:58.929577+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Cultural industry ==== +The party supports giving authority to the Agency for Cultural Affairs to restrict the content of manga, anime, and video games, drawing criticism from creators including Hideki Arai, Hiro Arikawa and Hikaru Yuzuki. + +==== Health ==== + +===== Vaccine and mask wearing ===== +The party advocated the ability to opt out of both wearing masks and taking vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has "characterized the pandemic as being staged". The party promotes a range of conspiracy theories regarding vaccines. +In the 2022 Japanese House of Councillors election the party proposed the "liberalisation of mask wearing" as their policy on coronavirus. Analysis found that as of 2022 their voter overlap with young people and child-rearing generation suffering from pandemic fatigue, especially in regions with lower vaccination rate. For these reasons, the party has been criticized and labeled as a far-right political party with adherence to conspiracy theories + +==== Perspective of history and education ==== +The party calls the Pacific War the "Greater East Asia War" and claims that it was "not a war of aggression". It also claims that its purpose was to liberate Asian countries from the West. Regarding the Battle of Okinawa, it believes that the Japanese military "fought to protect Okinawa". It also denies the existence of comfort women and the Nanjing Massacre. It regards the postwar view of history as a "masochistic view of history" that brainwashed into people by the policies of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. The party advocates the education of a "self-respecting view of history". Representative Kamiya stated in the 2023 Diet session that GHQ implemented the War Guilt Information Program (WGIP), "an information operation to imprint upon the Japanese people the guilt that the Japanese are forever war criminals," and that this imprinted upon the Japanese people the belief that the Japanese military was bad throughout the last war. + +===== Okinawa WWII claims ===== +In May 2025, Sohei Kamiya, general secretary of Sanseitō, was accused of rewriting history after he claimed that during the Battle of Okinawa, local Okinawans were only killed by US soldiers and not the Imperial Japanese Army. The claim was endorsed by Shouji Nishida, conservative politician from the Liberal Democratic Party. +The claim caused an uproar in Okinawa because many Okinawan civilians were killed by the Japanese military during the Pacific War, as the military had its one-sided idea that any local people, who could be against the military or could be a spy or even could be a disturber, should be killed. Masaie Ishihara from Okinawa International University, who specializes in Okinawa history, issued a rebuttal to Sanseitō's claim, citing historical facts and asked politicians not to distort history. After the incident, the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly held a study group for the councilors in Okinawa, and passed a protest resolution to the remark which twists and denies the real fact of the battle in Okinawa. + +== Supporters == + +According to Mina Okamura, a clinical psychologist and business psychology consultant, people who have been indifferent to politics and elections were interested in the keywords "anti-vaccine", "no mask", and "organic". Those policies were easy to catch on to by those who did not study politics. The Sanseitō voters on the whole do not think one's vote can change politics, but encourage political parties, which already exist, to try to do what they think is good. The speech of the party is emotionally rather than logically appealing. Therefore, they appeal to the sensibilities of the politically inexperienced and have increased their support. +According to Japanese political analyst Hiroo Hagino, the party is supported by the younger population, who have become disappointed with politics centred on the elderly. According to a JNN survey, a higher proportion of young people voted for Sanseitō in the last election than other demographics. Some Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials expressed worry that they might lose votes because both parties have conservative policies. Most of the Sanseitō voters did not support the Kishida government. The appeal of Sanseitō among young people is partly linked to the social crisis Japan is currently experiencing. Growing inequality due to slowing growth since the 1990s and persistent inflation, which is eroding purchasing power, have dampened the hopes for the future of younger generations, many of whom do not have permanent jobs. + +== Election results == + +=== House of Representatives === + +=== House of Councillors === + +=== By-elections === + +== Leadership == +Party leadership as of February 2026: + +=== Diet Members' group === +Leadership of the Diet members' group as of February 2026: + +== Current Diet members == + +=== House of Representatives === + +=== House of Councillors === +Elected in 2022: + +Sohei Kamiya +Elected in 2025: + +Saya +Hiroki Hajikano +Otsuka Riki +Junko Sugimoto +Chisato Miyade +Yuko Nakada +Shoko Sakurai +Mizuho Umemura +Yuji Adachi +Hiroshi Ando +Manabu Matsuda +Mana Iwamoto +Izumi Yamanaka +Shota Goto + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Earth_and_Space_Exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Earth_and_Space_Exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bfba54e59 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Earth_and_Space_Exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "School of Earth and Space Exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Earth_and_Space_Exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:53.871824+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) is an academic unit of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. It was established in 2006 by university president Michael M. Crow. As part of Crow's New American University model, the focus areas of SESE include research in both Earth and space exploration. The school is located on ASU's Tempe campus and is primarily housed in Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 4. + + +== Academics == +The School of Earth and Space Exploration offers eight undergraduate degrees and twelve graduate programs in a variety of interdisciplinary fields, including astronomy, geology, and systems engineering. As of 2025, there were 1,069 undergraduates and 119 graduate students in SESE programs, while over 6,000 students were enrolled in at least one class offered by the school. + + +== Involvement in space exploration missions == +The School of Earth and Space Exploration has been involved in a number of space exploration missions, including Psyche (which was led by the school), OSIRIS-REx, and Europa Clipper. Through SESE, ASU is in the top 2% for NASA-funded research expenditures. +In 2022, the US Space Force selected ASU and SESE to be a member of its University Partnership Program. + + +== Leadership == +The first director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration was Kip Hodges, who directed the school from its founding in 2006 to 2013. He was succeeded by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who stepped down from the director role in 2019 to become the principal investigator on the Psyche mission. The most recent director of SESE was Meenakshi Wadhwa, who departed in 2025 to become the vice chancellor for Marine Sciences at UC San Diego. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7168da37f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 1/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Scientific diving is the use of underwater diving techniques by scientists to perform work underwater in the direct pursuit of scientific knowledge. The legal definition of scientific diving varies by jurisdiction. Scientific divers are normally qualified scientists first and divers second, who use diving equipment and techniques as their way to get to the location of their fieldwork. The direct observation and manipulation of marine habitats afforded to scuba-equipped scientists have transformed the marine sciences generally, and marine biology and marine chemistry in particular. Underwater archeology and geology are other examples of sciences pursued underwater. Some scientific diving is carried out by universities in support of undergraduate or postgraduate research programs, and government bodies such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the UK Environment Agency carry out scientific diving to recover samples of water, marine organisms and sea, lake or riverbed material to examine for signs of pollution. +Equipment used varies widely in this field, and is generally selected based on cost, effectiveness, availability and risk factors. Open-circuit scuba is most often used as it is widely available and cost-effective, and is the entry-level training mode in most places, but since the late 1990s the use of rebreather equipment has opened up previously inaccessible regions and allowed more reliable observations of animal behaviour. +Scientific diving in the course of employment may be regulated by occupational safety legislation, or may be exempted as self-regulated by a recognised body. The safety record has generally been good. Collection of scientific data by volunteers outside of employment is generally considered to legally be recreational diving. +Training standards vary throughout the world, and are generally higher than for entry level recreational diving, and in some cases identical to commercial diver training. There are a few international agreements that facilitate scientists from different places working together on projects of common interest, by recognising mutually acceptable minimum levels of competence. + +== Scope of work == +Scientific diving is any diving undertaken in the support of science, so activities are widely varied and may include visual counts and measurements of organisms in situ, collection of samples, surveys, photography, videography, video mosaicing, benthic coring, coral coring, placement, maintenance and retrieval of scientific equipment. +The importance of diving to the scientific community is not well recorded. A bibliographic analysis of papers published between 1995 and 2006 that have been supported by scientific diving shows that diving supports scientific research through efficient and targeted sampling. Activities include collection of organisms and biological samples, observing animal behaviour, quantitative surveys, in situ measurements, impact studies, ecological analyses, evaluation of techniques, mapping underwater areas, profiling geology, and deploying and retrieving underwater equipment. +A comparison of database searches against a selection of publications known to have used scientific diving in the same period, shows that a small minority of papers were discovered, suggesting that the importance of scientific diving as a valid and cost-effective underwater research tool is greatly underrepresented in the literature. +Some underwater work in support of science is out of scope of the relevant regulations, exemptions, or codes of practice, and is not legally classed as scientific diving. This work is required to be done by divers trained, registered, and operating following commercial diving health and safety practices. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4cb8956af --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 2/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Contribution of scientific diving to research === +Underwater diving interventions, particularly on scuba, provide the capacity for scientists to make direct observations on site and in real time, which allow for ground-truthing of larger scale observations and occasional serendipitous observations outside the planned experiment. Human dexterity remains less expensive and more adaptable to unexpected complexities in experimental setup than remotely operated and robotic alternatives in the shallower depth ranges. Scuba has also provided insights which would be unlikely to occur without direct observation, where hypotheses produced by deductive reasoning have not predicted interactive and behavioural characteristics of marine organisms, and these would not be likely to be detected from remote sensing or video or other methods which do not provide the full context and detail available to the diver. Scuba allows the scientist to set up the experiment and be present to observe unforeseen alternatives to the hypothesis. +The field of global change biology includes investigation of evidence relating to global warming and ocean acidification. Many of the measurable changes in global climate occur in the sea. Coral bleaching is an example of an indicator of change, and scuba diving has provided a large amount of low-impact observational data contributing significantly to the large body of knowledge on the subject over several decades. +The field of ocean acidification and the impact of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission has seen similar growth and most of the cited articles in this field have relied to a significant extent on data collected during scuba diving operations. +The field of paleoclimate reconstruction has a major influence on the understanding of evolution and the ecological and biogeographic past, as climate is the most powerful driver of evolution. Coring corals on a reef in the least harmful and most focused manner is currently most practicable using scuba technology. This mining of the past makes it possible to attempt to predict future climate. +Advances in training and accessibility to trimix diving and closed circuit rebreather systems has enabled scientific divers to reach highly diverse deeper mesophotic reefs which may be the corals last refuge from the warming of surface waters. +The current knowledge of the functioning of the ecologically and economically important hard-bottom communities in the shallow water coastal zones is both limited and particularly difficult to study due to poor accessibility for surface operated instrumentation as a result of topographic and structural complexity which inhibit remote sampling of organisms in the benthic boundary layer. In situ assessments by scientific divers remain the most flexible tool for exploring this habitat and allow precise and optimised location of instruments. +The capacity to dive under polar ice provides an opportunity to advance science in a restricted environment at relatively low cost. A small number of holes in the ice can provide access over a large area and high levels of experimental replication. Divers are a flexible and reliable method for deploying, maintaining and retrieving equipment from under‐ice environments, and are relatively cost efficient for researching remote locations that, would otherwise require the use of more expensive research vessels. +The global threat to marine ecosystems due to over‐exploitation, habitat loss, pollution and climate change is exacerbated by introduction of alien species, which is considered to be one of the leading causes of extinctions and biodiversity loss. Scientific divers are the most competent to detect the presence of potentially invasive species and in some cases can provide a quick response. Monitoring the effectiveness of response also requires diver intervention. +Underwater archaeology has developed considerably over the past century, and diving allows a site to be excavated with minimal disturbance of the site or damage to artifacts. +It was observed that personal intervention by the scientist allowed more accurately targeted observations and less incidental damage compared to blind sampling from the surface, and that the observation of the subject by the scientist can provide valuable and often unexpected data. There are also phenomena and organisms that are difficult or impossible to observe except by being there, and places that are difficult to access other than by going there in person. It is difficult to determine the full scope of underwater science in the past, as not all work or methodologies have been published. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ca80e67e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 11/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== United States === +In the United States scientific diving is permitted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to operate under an alternative consensual standard of practice that is maintained by the American Academy of Underwater Sciences. +29 CFR Part 1910 – Subpart T "Commercial Diving Operations," establishes mandatory occupational safety and health requirements for commercial diving operations which apply wherever OSHA has statutory jurisdiction. This covers the inland and coastal territorial waters of the United States and possessions. +The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America petitioned the Federal Government in 1975 to issue an emergency temporary standard covering all professional diving operations, which was issued on June 15, 1976, to be effective from July 15, 1976. This was challenged in the US Court of Appeals and was withdrawn in November 1976. A permanent standard for commercial diving was subsequently formulated which became effective from October 20, 1977. The American Academy of Underwater Sciences applied for an exemption for scientific diving, citing 20 years of self-regulation and a lower accident rate than the commercial diving industry. An exemption was issued effective from November 28, 1982, after negotiation. +To be able to avail itself of the Scientific Diving Exemption the institution under whose auspices the work is carried out must meet four tests: + +The Diving Control Board consisting of a majority of active scientific divers must have autonomous and absolute authority over the scientific diving program's operations. +The purpose of all projects using scientific diving is the advancement of science; therefore, information and data resulting from the project are non-proprietary. +The tasks of a scientific diver are those of an observer and data gatherer. Construction and trouble-shooting tasks traditionally associated with commercial diving are not included within scientific diving. +Scientific divers, based on the nature of their activities, must use scientific expertise in studying the underwater environment and, therefore, are scientists or scientists in training. +The AAUS promulgates and regularly reviews the consensus based Standards for Scientific Diving Certification and Operation of Scientific Diving Programs, which is a guideline for scientific diving programs in the US, and also used in some other countries. this document is currently the "Standard" of the scientific diving community and must be followed by all organizational members, these standards allow for reciprocity between institutions, and are widely used throughout the United States and some foreign countries. +The AAUS uses three levels of scientific diver authorisation: + +Diver-in-Training signifies that the diver has completed entry-level training requirements through a recognised recreational scuba certification agency or scientific diving programme. +Scientific Diver certification is a permit to dive using compressed air within no-decompression limits. +Temporary Diver authorisation is issued following a demonstration of the required competence and if the person can contribute significantly to a planned dive. It is valid only for a specific operation and is subject to the standard policies, regulations and standards. +There are also depth limitations which may be incrementally increased based on satisfactory experience, for 9 msw, 18 msw, 30 msw, 40 msw 45 msw and 58 msw. A range of specialty qualifications may follow additional training and assessment. These are: decompression diving, surface-supplied diving, mixed-gas diving, nitrox diving, rebreather diving, lock-out and saturation diving, blue-water diving, drysuit diving, overhead environment diving, altitude diving, and use of dive computers for decompression monitoring. + +=== International scientific cooperation === +Various methods may be used to allow for international recognition of scientific divers, allowing them to work together on projects. In some cases the professional diver qualifications may be mutually recognised between countries, and in other cases the exemption allows the controlling bodies to make the necessary arrangements. + +==== Europe ==== +The European Scientific Diving Panel (ESDP) is the European platform for the advancement of underwater scientific excellence and to promote and provide a practical support framework for scientific diving at a European scale. The ESDP was initiated in 2008 as a European Marine Board Panel (until April 2017) and currently is receiving organizational support from the European network of Marine Stations (MARS). +The following countries are members of the ESDP as of 2020: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4f54050ef --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 12/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Belgium (statutory member) +Bulgaria (member) +Croatia (member) +Finland (statutory member) +France (statutory member) +Germany (statutory member) +Greece (candidate member) +Italy (member) +Norway (statutory member) +Poland (candidate member) +Portugal (member) +Slovenia (candidate member) +Sweden (statutory member) +United Kingdom (statutory member) +The ESDP is intended to maintain and develop a system for recognition of scientific diving competencies issued by member states, which may be issued under various training routes and levels of national legislation, to facilitate participation and mobility by diving scientists in European research programmes, and to improve diving safety, quality of science, and underwater techniques and technologies. +Two levels of scientific diver registration are recognised: the European Scientific Diver (ESD) and the Advanced European Scientific Diver (AESD). AESDs are qualified to lead scientific diving trips, while ESDs are only permitted to take part. These represent the minimum level of training and competence required to allow scientists to participate freely throughout the countries of the European Union in underwater research projects diving using scuba. Certification or registration by an authorized national agency is a prerequisite, and depth and breathing gas limitations may apply. +This competence may be gained either through a formal training program, by in the field training and experience under appropriate supervision, or by a combination of these methods. These standards specify the minimum basic training and competence for scientific divers, and do not consider any speciality skill requirements by employers. Further training for job-specific competence is additional to the basic competence implied by the registration. +All member countries of the European Union are expected in terms of directive EEC 92/51 to recognise one or both of these training levels. An applicant who satisfies the requirements will be issued with either an ESD or an AESD certificate that is valid for five years, and must be renewed every five years by application to the issuing authority. The certificate holders must comply with all national and local rules regarding medical fitness, workplace safety, insurance, and limitations on scientific diving activities when engaged in scientific diving in a host member country. The certificate only indicates previously assessed competence to the training level, and not the current level of competence. + +=== Standards, reference manuals and codes of practice === +ISO 8804-1:2024 Requirements for the training of scientific divers. Part 1: Scientific divers. +ISO 8804-2:2024 Requirements for the training of scientific divers. Part 2: Advanced scientific divers. +ISO 8804-3:2024 Requirements for the training of scientific divers. Part 3: Scientific diving project leader. +Standards For Scientific Diving. Dauphin Island, Alabama: The American Academy of Underwater Sciences. 2013. +CMAS Scientific Committee (1988). Code of Practice for Scientific Diving: Principles for the safe practice of scientific diving in different environments (PDF). UNESCO technocal papers in marine science 53. UNESCO. +NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology – Training and operations manual for scientific diving +Haddock, Stephen H. D.; Heine, John N. (2005). Scientific Blue-Water Diving (PDF). California Sea Grant College Program. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2018-11-20. +Diving Advisory Board. Code Of Practice for Scientific Diving (PDF). Pretoria: The South African Department of Labour. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-20. +Approved Code of Practice: Scientific and archaeological diving projects (Diving at Work Regulations 1997). Norwich: HSE Books. 1998. p. 26. +The Diving at Work Regulations 1997. United Kingdom Parliament Statutory Instrument No. 2776. 1997. +Advice Notes for the Scientific and Archaeological Approved Code of Practice. The Scientific Diving Supervisory Committee (SDSC). +"Standards for European Scientific Divers (ESD) and Advanced European Scientific Divers (AESD)". Workshop of the interim European Scientific Diving Committee. Banyuls-sur-mer, France: European Scientific Diving Committee. 24 October 2000. +"Common Practices for Recognition of European Competency Levels for Scientific Diving at Work" (PDF). 2. European Scientific Diving Panel. October 2009. +"The delivery of science through diving: a review of recent scientific highlights and the framework for occupational scientific diving in Europe" (PDF). European Scientific Diving Panel. May 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2018-11-23. +"Guidelines for Scientific Diving from large Research Vessels" (PDF). European Scientific Diving Panel. September 2011. + +== Gallery == + +== See also == + +Ichthyology – Scientific study of fish +Marine ecology – The study of the interactions between organisms and environment in the sea +Phycology – Branch of biology concerned with the study of algae + +== References == + +== External links == +European Scientific Diving Panel Archived 2018-12-16 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..41160d73e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 3/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Diving activities in support of research ==== +Sampling: Diving is highly selective and useful for sampling delicate materials or organisms, and for collecting from specific locations or associations, it can be more efficient than sampling methods relying on chance, and can be cost-effective compared with the use of research vessels. In some cases there is no other way to gain access to the specimen, or the specimen must be actively searched for and visually identified, before extracting it from a complex environment without damage. Diving can produce higher quality samples with less collateral damage. Specimen collection of animals is more prevalent, but algal specimen and sediment core collection by diver can produce better quality samples in many cases. +Survey and quantitative observation: Surveys and quantitative assessments may comprise quantitative descriptions of biotic assemblages, distribution or abundance of a species or group or other feature, or relate the topography of the seafloor to the distribution of a species or group. There are examples where ROVs and video surveys have been used for these purposes, and the alternatives each have their advantages. +Animal behaviour: Behaviour tends to be studied by direct observation, video or time lapse photography. In many cases the equipment is deployed and recovered by divers, allowing judgement to be exercised in the setting up process. There is debate on the extent of the influence of divers and monitoring equipment on animal behaviour, and the behaviour may be influenced by the type of equipment used by divers using open or closed circuit equipment, as the noise and presence of bubbles is known to affect fish behaviour. Reproductive behaviour, territoriality, predator-prey interaction and movement have been studied. +In situ measurement: In situ measurements by divers eliminates the need to remove the target from the water. This has the potential for more accurate data with less disturbance of the environment, but is not always practicable. +Impact and/or pollution studies: Diver observation can be quick and effective at identifying the scope and extent of disturbances, and samples and measurements can be taken where effects are observed, but risk to the diver must be considered, and in some instances the presence of the diver may constitute a significant impact, and studies have been done to assess the environmental impact of recreational divers on fragile tropical reef or cave environments. +Ecological studies: The study of distribution, abundance and interactions between organisms and with the environment is a combination of activities already mentioned. The presence of a diver allows serendipitous observations to be followed up in real time, which is particularly valuable when the observation is a rare occurrence. +New species or first reports: Discovery of new species or recording range extensions relies on first noticing the presence of the organism, then recognising that it is unexpected, and either making a collection or recording sufficient evidence of presence and identity. There is no adequate substitute for the presence of a sufficiently knowledgeable diver with the right equipment. In many cases unexpected organisms have been observed, reported, and never found again. +Technique evaluation: The evaluation of new techniques and the comparison between existing techniques of investigation and data gathering is a common procedure, not only for techniques used by divers, but also of the operation of remotely controlled equipment and surface deployed equipment. Observation of the operational performance can identify flaws and potential for improved design of equipment and operation and help validate the method. +Mapping and/or ground-truthing: Direct survey by divers may be necessary or preferable, depending on what is to be mapped. Distribution maps require the targeted subjects to be recognised reliably and accurately, and in some cases this can only be done by an expert observer. Remote mapping technologies require validation of accuracy, precision and reliability. Various methods may be used, including using divers to physically validate points on the map. +Geology or geological profiling: This is uncommon, but can include straightforward observations of the general submerged geology and distribution of sedimentary facies, and the collection of samples. +Deployment and/or retrieval: Diver deployment and retrieval of apparatus allows careful and precise placement, which may be necessary to gather the desired data, or to avoid adverse impact on the environment. Recovery may also require careful work, to avoid damage to environment or equipment. +Hydrothermal studies: Divers have been used to locate, identify and sample from isolated or specific vents. +Tag/recapture: Divers have been used to tag and recapture animals. This may be relatively easy with slow-moving benthic species, but can be quite difficult with others. In situ tagging and release exposes the subject to less risk of barotrauma. +Biotechnology and/or pharmacology: Targeted collecting of species for pharmacological investigation should improve the probability of new discoveries, but this is equally valid for other methods of directed collection. +Geochemistry and/or biogeochemistry: Divers have been used to sample distribution of surface sediments, and to take core-drilled samples of coral reefs. + +=== Modes of diving === +Scientific diving may use any mode of diving that is best suited to the project. Scientific diving operations may use and have used freediving, scuba open circuit, scuba closed circuit, surface oriented surface-supplied systems, saturation diving from surface or underwater habitats, atmospheric suit diving or remotely operated underwater vehicles. Breathing gases used include air, oxygen, nitrox, trimix, heliox and experimental mixtures. +The study of diving physiology and diving medicine often requires experimental diving operations to generate data. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5020f7c05 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 4/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Branches of science frequently using diving === +Fisheries science – Academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries +Freshwater biology – Scientific study of freshwater ecosystems and biology +Hydrology – Science of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth +Limnology – Science of inland aquatic ecosystems +Marine biology – Scientific study of ocean life +Ocean chemistry – Chemistry of oceans and seas +Marine ecology – The study of the interactions between organisms and environment in the sea +Marine geology – Study of the history and structure of the ocean floor +Oceanography – Scientific study of the ocean +Underwater archaeology – Study of human activity via evidence found underwater + +=== Other fields which may use scientific diving === +Aquaculture – Farming of aquatic organisms +Environmental protection – Practice of protecting the natural environment + +=== Citizen science === +Several citizen science projects use observational input from recreational divers to provide reliable data on presence and distribution of marine organisms. The ready availability of digital underwater cameras makes collection of such observations easy and the permanence of the record allows peer and expert review. Such projects include the Australian-based Reef Life Survey, and the more international iNaturalist project, based in California, which is only partly focused on marine species. +In most cases diving for citizen science purposes is not considered occupational diving and therefore does not fall under the occupational health and safety regulations, as each diver is autonomous and personally responsible for the planning and execution of their dives. Any agreement between two dive buddies regarding mutual duty of care should follow established legislation for that purpose, if it exists in the relevant jurisdiction. If the diver is under the direction of a person appointed by an organisation, this exclusion may fall away as the appointed person becomes responsible for health and safety at the dive site, and the organisation assumes the duty of care of an employer. + +== History == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d06b86fd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 5/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The first recorded U.S. scientific diver was Dr. William H. Longley, starting in 1910, and who made the first underwater colour photograph with National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin in 1926 off the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico. +By the middle of the 20th century, scientific diving was being done around the U.S. in surface supplied shallow water helmets and standard diving dress. +During WWII Jacques Cousteau and Frédéric Dumas used the Aqua-Lung for underwater archaeology to excavate a large mound of amphorae near Grand Congloué, an island near Marseilles. +The first scientific diver at Scripps Institution of Oceanography was Cheng Kwai Tseng, a biologist from China and graduate student during World War II, who used Japanese surface-supplied equipment to collect algae off the San Diego coast in 1944. In 1947, Frank Haymaker made observations in Scripps Canyon using a similar surface-supplied diving helmet. +In 1949 Conrad Limbaugh introduced scientific scuba diving at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. While a doctoral student in 1954 he became Scripps' first diving safety officer, his research diving course was the first civilian diver training programme in the U.S. and he wrote the first scientific diving manual. +Limbaugh and researcher Andreas Rechnitzer purchased an Aqua-lung when they became available, and taught themselves to use it, as no formal training was available. They introduced the equipment to Scripps researchers in 1950, and it was found suitable for making direct observations and to conduct experiments underwater. +In 1951, after the death of two of their scientific divers, Scripps decided that there was a need for formalized scientific diver training, and in 1954 instituted the first formal scientific diving program in the U.S. +At the request of the University of California Office of the President, the divers at Scripps developed the first "University Guide for Diving Safety," which was initially published in March 1967. +In the 1950s through 1970s scientific diving in the U.S. was conducted by various organizations using similar but informal self-regulated standards. +Professor George Bass of Texas A & M University pioneered the field of underwater archaeology from 1960, mostly in the Mediterranean +In 1975 the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America petitioned for an emergency temporary standard be issued with respect to occupational diving operations. The ETS issued on June 15, 1976 was to be effective from July 15, 1976 but was challenged in the US Court of Appeals by several diving contractors, and was withdrawn in November 1976. A permanent standard for commercial diving became effective on 20 October 1977, but it did not consider the needs of scientific diving. The scientific diving community was unable to operate as previously, and in 1977 united to form the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) +After extensive negotiation and congressional hearings, a partial exemption to the commercial diving standards was issued in 1982, and was re-examined in 1984, leading to the final guidelines for the exemption which became effective in 1985 (Federal Register, Vol. 50, No. 6, p. 1046) +In 1988 Unesco published the Code of Practice for Scientific Diving: Principles for the safe practice of scientific diving in different environments, authored by the CMAS Scientific Committee. +There is a project to harmonise the status of scientific diving in Europe by the European Scientific Diving Panel based on the European Scientific Diver and Advanced European Scientific Diver qualifications, which is intended to allow mobility of scientific divers and operations throughout Europe. +The UK HSE divides activities broadly included in the field into media, scientific, and archaeological diving. In several countries diving for research purposes is governed by occupational health and safety regulations. The US operates under the AAUS guidelines which allow considerable flexibility regarding equipment and procedures based on principles of acceptable safety, and restrict operations to activities recognised as scientific work, though some activities are excluded due to higher risk. +Dr Richard Pyle has pioneered US development of diving standards for scientific projects at greater depths since the 1990s, which has opened up learning about an extended range of ecological zones and their biota. +Work on international nature research often includes volunteer divers acting as citizen scientists, who gather observational data and record the changing underwater environment. Much of this is done as recreational divers, as part of distributed projects, but they may also be directly involved in scientific diving operations where this is legally permitted. + +== Management and control of scientific diving operations == + +Scientific diving operations which are part of the work of an organisation are generally under the control of a diving supervisor or equivalent, and follow procedures similar to other professional diving operations. +A scientific diving operation that follows the usual procedures of a commercial scuba operation will include one or more working divers, a stand-by diver and a supervisor, who will manage the operation from the surface control point. If the divers are tethered, there will generally be a line tender for each tethered diver in the water The stand-by diver may remain out of the water at the surface or may accompany the working diver or divers in the water. Surface-supplied and saturation operations will also generally follow standard procedures used by commercial divers. +Other scientific diving is on projects under the control and direction of the scientists doing the diving, and where this is the case there may be a system with less rigid control as the divers have more responsibility and autonomy. The US works to such a system, where there is an exemption from commercial diving regulation and scientific diving is self-regulated within a national association. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9e1e34ee4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 6/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Diving control board === +The American system has a diving control board taking overall responsibility for all scientific diving work done by an organisation. The diving safety officer is responsible to the board for operational, diving and safety matters. +For each dive, one scientist, designated as the lead diver, must be present at the site during that entire operation, and is responsible for management of the dive, including dive planning, briefing, emergency planning, equipment and procedures. The divers operate in a strict buddy diving system. + +=== Dive planning === + +As scientific diving is by definition done in pursuit of scietific knowledge, there is a purpose to each dive and therefore there will be a plan to safely and effectively achieve that purpose. + +== Standard and emergency diving procedures == + +The standard procedures for scuba and surface-supplied diving are essentially the same as for any other similar diving operation using similar equipment in a similar environment, by both recreational, technical and other professional divers. There are a few special cases where scientific diving operations are carried out in places where other divers would generally not go, such as blue-water diving. Scientific dives tend to be more task oriented than recreational dives, as the scientist is primarily there to gather data, and the diving is of secondary importance, as the way to get to the worksite. + +== Working procedures common to scientific diving == +The requirements for qualification as a scientific diver vary with jurisdiction. The European Scientific Diver (ESD) standard is reasonably representative: +Competence in work methods common to scientific projects: + +Diver navigation methods. +Underwater search methods. +Survey methods suitable for accurately locating and marking objects and sites. +The use of lifting bags for controlled lifts, and airlifts for excavations and sampling. +Basic rigging and rope work, including the assembly and deployment of transects and search patterns. +Recording methods. +Sampling techniques appropriate to the scientific discipline. + +=== Underwater navigation === + +Underwater navigation by divers is broadly split into three categories. Natural navigation techniques, and orienteering, which is navigation focused upon the use of an underwater magnetic compass. and following a guide line. +Natural navigation, sometimes known as pilotage, involves orienting by naturally observable phenomena, such as sunlight, water movement, bottom composition (for example, sand ripples run parallel to the direction of the wave front, which tends to run parallel to the shore), bottom contour and noise. Although natural navigation is taught on courses, developing the skills is generally more a matter of experience. +Orienteering, or compass navigation, is a matter of training, practice and familiarity with the use of underwater compasses, combined with various techniques for reckoning distance underwater, including kick cycles (one complete upward and downward sweep of a kick), time, air consumption and occasionally by actual measurement. Kick cycles depend on the diver's finning technique and equipment, but are generally more reliable than time, which is critically dependent on speed, or air consumption, which is critically dependent on depth, work rate, diver fitness, and equipment drag. Techniques for direct measurement also vary, from the use of calibrated distance lines or surveyor's tape measures, to a mechanism like an impeller log, to pacing off the distance along the bottom with the arms. +Skilled underwater navigators use techniques from both of these categories in a seamless combination, using the compass to navigate between landmarks over longer distances and in poor visibility, while making use of the generic oceanographic indicators to help stay on course and as a check that there is no mistake with the bearing, and then recognising landmarks and using them with the remembered topography of a familiar site to confirm position. +Guide lines, also known as guidelines, cave lines, distance lines, penetration lines and jackstays are permanent or temporary lines laid by divers to mark a route, particularly in caves, wrecks and other areas where the way out from an overhead environment may not be obvious. Guide lines are also useful in the event of silt out. +Distance lines are wound on to a spool or a reel. The length of the distance line used is dependent on the plan for the dive. Reels for distance lines may have a locking mechanism, ratchet or adjustable drag to control deployment of the line and a winding handle to help keep slack line under control and rewind line. The material used for any given distance line will vary based on intended use. The use of guide line for navigation requires careful attention to laying and securing the line, line following, marking, referencing, positioning, teamwork, and communication. +A transect line is a special case of a guide line commonly used in scientific diving. It is a line laid to guide the diver on a survey along the line. In cases where position along the line must be accurately specified, a surveyor's tape or chain may be used as the transect line. + +=== Searches === + +Searches are often required to find the subject of study, or to recover previously placed instrumentation. There are a number of techniques in general use. Some of these are suitable for scuba, and some for surface supplied diving. The choice of search technique will depend on logistical factors, terrain, protocol and diver skills. +As a general principle, a search method attempts to provide 100% coverage of the search area. this is greatly influenced by the width of the sweep. In conditions of zero visibility this is as far as the diver can feel with his hands while proceeding along the pattern. When visibility is better, it depends on the distance at which the target can be seen from the pattern. In all cases then, the pattern should be accurate and completely cover the search area without excessive redundancy or missed areas. Overlap is needed to compensate for inaccuracy, and may be necessary to avoid gaps in some patterns. Common search patterns include: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3907c3360 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 7/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Circular search – a diver swims at a series of distances (radii) around a fixed reference point. The circular search is simple and requires little equipment. It is useful where the position of the objects of the search is known with reasonable accuracy. +Pendulum searches – a variation on the circular search where the diver stops and changes direction at the end of each arc. +Jackstay search – divers swim along a search line – the jackstay, while searching to the sides. There are various techniques for performing a jackstay search. +Compass searches – search patterns controlled by compass directions. +Towed searches – divers are towed behind a boat while searching visually. +Sonar assisted searches – Divers search using a sonar transponder. Active transponders that emit a signal and measure the return signal strength to determine obstructions in a given direction, or passive transponders which measure a signal emitted by the target can be used. + +=== Collection, sampling, tagging and recording === +Most scientific fieldwork involves some form of data collection. In some cases, it is on-site measurement of physical data, and sometimes it involves taking samples, usually recording the circumstances in some detail. Video, still photography and manual listing of measurements and labeling of specimens are common practice. Biological and geological specimens are usually bagged and labelled for positive identification, and the availability of underwater cameras allows in-situ and bagged photographs to be taken for reference. Biological specimens may also be tagged and released, or have small biopsies taken for DNA analysis. When non-extractive measurements are made, video and still photography provide backup for listed data. Recording on prepared sheets is preferred where practicable as writing underwater is relatively inefficient, and often not very legible. Waterproof paper on a clipboard or a waterproof slate are commonly used for written records. Ordinary graphite pencils work fairly well underwater, though the wood tends to split after a while. + +=== Surveys, measurement and mapping === +Types of survey: + +Census – Compilation of information about a given population +Quadrat – Rectangular frame used to demarcate a part of the substrate for detailed analysis +Transect – Path along which organisms are recorded +Photogrammetry, also known as Photographic survey – Taking measurements using photography +Geological survey – Investigation of the geology in a region for creating a geological map – measurement of strike and dip, classification of facies. +Measurement of profiles of reef and sand, Rugosity. +Bathymetry – Study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors +Archaeological site survey – Non-destructive exploration of the archaeological material in a given areas +Measurement can be an intrinsic part of surveys, or may be associated with sampling. +Geographical location may be necessary or desirable to identify a specific location at which data is collected. Various levels of precision are possible, usually more difficult to achieve than terrestrial geolocation. +Mapping of an underwater site may be necessary for analysis of the data. Several methods are available. A map is the two or three dimensional representation of geographic survey data following a standardised format, often using symbolic representations of data, and often to a specified scale. + +== Risk and safety == +Generally, scientific diving has a history of relatively low risk and good safety record overall, the vast majority of dives are relatively shallow and in reasonably good conditions. Most scientific dives can be deferred when conditions are sub-optimal, and seldom require the use of dangerous equipment. This has allowed a good safety record in spite of relatively relaxed equipment and training requirements for occupational diving. +The earliest scientific diving safety programme in the US was established at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1954, about 5 years before the development of the national recreational scuba training agencies. Most American scientific diving programmes are based on elements of the original Scripps diving programme. + +=== Safety record === +A survey of some half a million scientific dives reported 7 fatalities and 21 cases of decompression illness. These rates are lower than those previously reported for military personnel, recreational divers in the UK, recreational divers in the Caribbean, recreational divers in western Canada and wreck divers in cold water. +Nitrox has been used for open circuit scientific diving since the early 1970s with no evidence of increased DCS risk in comparison with similar air dives. +A maximum oxygen partial pressure of 1.6 bar has been found generally acceptable for open circuit nitrox diving by the scientific community, and it has not been found necessary to screen for carbon dioxide retention. +Investigation of the order of dive profiles has shown no statistical increase of decompression sickness risk in reverse profile diving. No validity was found for the rule of diving progressively shallower in successive no-decompression dives imposed by some recreational diver training organisations. +As of 1992 the prevalence of decompression illness in the United States was estimated at one case per 100,000 dives for the scientific diving community. This may be compared with approximately one case per 1000 dives for commercial diving and one case per 5000 dives for recreational diving. The reported decompression sickness rate of 1:100,000 over 50 years appears to be acceptable to the scientific diving community. Diving profiles resemble recreational diving more than other sectors, but the incident rate in scientific diving is an order of magnitude lower than for recreational diving. This has been attributed to more thorough entry-level and continued training, better supervision and operational procedures and medical and fitness screening. +A survey of just over a million scientific dives by AAUS members between January 1998 through December 2007 yielded a total of 95 valid incident reports, for an all-incidents rate of 0.931/10,000 person-dives. Detailed review showed that 33 of these involved decompression illness giving an incidence for DCI of 0.324/10,000 person-dives, including some ambiguous cases. This rate is lower than published rates for recreational, instructional, dive guide, commercial and military diving, but higher than the 1992 estimate. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2daf14270 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 8/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Demographics == +In the United States scientific diving is done by research institutions, universities, museums, aquaria, and consulting companies for purposes of research, education and environmental monitoring. As of 2005 there were an estimated 4000 scientific divers, of which a small number are career scientific divers, with an average age of around 40 years, and a larger number of students in the 18 to 34 year age group. There is no specific upper age limit providing the diver remains medically fit to dive. The lower limit is determined by the age of students qualifying for training. About a quarter are female. + +== Regulation of scientific diving == +Scientific diving is generally considered to be occupational diving, and is usually regulated as such except where specifically exempted. + +=== Exemptions === +In the US, scientific diving is exempted from the requirements of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health regulations, provided that it complies with the requirements specified for the exemption. + +=== Governance and representation organisations === +Scientific diving governance organizations include: + +The Australian Scientific Divers Association +The American Academy of Underwater Sciences – American diving standards organisation +The European Scientific Diving Panel – A panel of the European Network of Marine Research Institutes and Stations. +Belgium Working Group on Scientific Diving +Bulgarian National Association of Underwater Activity and Institute of Oceanology +Koordinacija znanstvenih ronilaca Hrvatske – Coordination of scientific divers of Croatia +Estonian Marine Institute (Eesti Mereinstituut), University of Tartu +Finnish Scientific Diving Steering Association [Suomen tutkimussukelluksen ohjausyhdistys] +Comité National de la Plongée Scientifique-CNPS (France) +German Commission for Scientific Diving (KFT) [Kommission Forschungstauchen Deutschland] +Hellenic Center for Marine Research (Greece) +Associazione Italiana Operatori Scientifici Subacquei (Italian Association of Scientific Divers) +Coastal Research and Planning Institute, Klaipeda University (Lithuania) +Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (Netherlands) +Scientific diving in Norway is regulated by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority, under the national regulations for professional diving. +APorMC – Portuguese Scientific Diving Association +The Swedish Scientific Diving Committee +Istanbul University, Institute of Marine Sciences and Management (Turkey) +UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and UK Scientific Diving Supervisory Committee +The Diving Advisory Board to the Department of Employment and Labour (South Africa) + +== Training and registration of scientific divers == + +When a scientific diving operation is part of the duties of the diver as an employee, the operation may be considered a professional diving operation subject to regulation as such. In these cases the training and registration may follow the same requirements as for other professional divers, or may include training standards specifically intended for scientific diving. In other cases, where the divers are in full control of their own diving operation, including planning and safety, diving as volunteers, the occupational health and safety regulations may not apply. +Where scientific diving is exempt from commercial diving regulation, training requirements may differ considerably, and in some cases basic scientific diver training and certification may not differ much from entry level recreational diver training. +Technological advances have made it possible for scientific divers to accomplish more on a dive, but they have also increased the complexity and the task loading of both the diving equipment and the work done, and consequently require higher levels of training and preparation to safely and effectively use this technology. It is preferable for effective learning and safety that such specialisation training is done systematically and under controlled conditions, rather than on site and on the job. Environmental conditions for training should include exercises in conditions as close as reasonably practicable to field conditions. + +=== Training requirements === +The requirements for qualification as a scientific diver vary with jurisdiction. The European Scientific Diver (ESD) standard is reasonably representative: +The person may be required to already be qualified as a scientist or scientific technician, or be in training for such qualifications, and medically fit to dive. +Basic skills and underlying knowledge must include: + +The fundamental physics and physiology of diving, including the causes of diving related disorders and illnesses and their effects and management. +The specific problems associated with diving, including calculations of breathing gas requirements and the correct use of decompression tables. +Correct selection, safe use and user maintenance of appropriate open circuit scuba diving equipment, including personal dive computers. +Basic diving skills and standard scuba diving procedures +Tending a tethered diver from the surface. +The principles of dive planning. +The diving regulations, codes of practice, and responsibilities relevant to working as a member of a scientific diving team . +Emergency skills include competence in: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1ee3ec94b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 9/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Diving first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and oxygen administration to diving casualties. +Standard emergency procedures and diving casualty management. +Scuba rescue techniques and management of casualties in and under the water. +Further training for special equipment, such as closed circuit mixed gas rebreathers, extended range, or special tasks may be required. As of 2016 there were three sets of rebreather standards for scientific diving in the US, those of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS), National Park Service (NPS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). +All three organisations require full scientific diver status with nitrox certification as prerequisite, NOAA requires certification to 130 feet (40 m) and 100 open water dive, while AAUS and NPS require 100 feet (30 m) and 50 open water dives. Each agency specifies stepwise certification to increasing depths, and certification is valid only for the rebreather type trained on, for environmental conditions similar to those during training. Classroom training includes theory review of topics included in open circuit training, and decompression and dive planning appropriate to the chosen unit. More technical topics include system design and operation, pre-dive setup and testing, post-dive break down and maintenance, oxygen exposure and decompression management, dive operations planning, problem recognition and management specific to the chosen unit. Practical skills training includes system calibration and operation checks, preparation and management of absorbent canisters, breathing loop assembly, non-return valve function and pressure checks, gas analysis, pre-breathing function assessment, buoyancy control, system monitoring during the dive, bailout procedures, and system user maintenance, and experience exposure by way of minimum hours of underwater time under supervised conditions. + +== International variations and cooperation == + +=== Australia === +Although the first scientific diving expedition in Australia was carried out by Sir Maurice Yonge to the Great Barrier Reef in 1928, most scientific diving did not start until 1952 when the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation began work to understand the pearl beds of northern Australia in 1957. +Commercial divers worked under Australian Standard CZ18 "Work in Compressed Air" in 1972. This standard applied to caisson workers and divers so the underwater work was drafted into AS 2299 "Underwater Air Breathing Operations" in 1979. In 1987, a re-write of AS 2299 included scientific diving in the regulations even though the divers had been self-regulating under the Australian Marine Sciences Association (AMSA). At that time, the AMSA and the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA) began a collaboration to draft a new standard for scientific diving. + +=== Germany === +In the 1960s there were no regulations for scientific diving in Germany, but two fatal accidents in 1969 led to the implementation of guidelines for scientific diving based on the commercial diving guidelines. These define the equipment, training, protocols and legal background for scientific diving for German universities, research institutes and government organisations. Divers trained to these requirements are mostly science students or technicians, and are subsequently registered as scientific divers. +Scientific diving is done by a diver in the water, monitored by a dive tender at the surface, controlled by a dive operation leader (supervisor) and with a standby diver on site. Diving equipment can include full-face mask and dry suit. Most dives do not require decompression stops. +All German scientists and students need the "Certified research diver / European Scientific Diver" qualification to conduct scientific diving work, which is based on the German Health and Safety at Work Act () and the Rule for Safety at Work GUV-R 2112 Operation of Scientific Divers. There are seven certified training centres where the qualification Geprüfter Forschungstaucher (Certified Research Diver) can be obtained. + +=== Poland === +In Poland, the beginnings of scientific diving are associated with Prof. Roman Wojtusiak, who used an open surface supplied helmet commissioned in 1935, and used from 1936 for biological observations and experiments in Poland and Yugoslavia. Polish units involved in scientific diving include the Polish Academy of Sciences in Sopot, and the University of Gdańsk, which carried out biological observations and installed measuring equipment. The Central Maritime Museum of Gdańsk carried out research on a large number of wrecks in the Baltic sea. Other units involved in underwater archaeology and training of divers for this work include the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Warsaw. Poland had a problem with scientific diving in that for natural sciences it was legally classified as recreational diving, but for archeology it was considered underwater work, until the act of 17 October 2003 classified scientific diving as professional diving, and the Act of 9 May 2014 then exempted scuba diving for research purposes organised by universities and research institutes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..91fc7c624 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Scientific diving" +chunk: 10/12 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_diving" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:19.738870+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== South Africa === +In South Africa, scientific diving is considered a form of commercial diving and is within the scope of the Diving Regulations 2009 and the Code of Practice for Scientific Diving published by the Chief Inspector of the Department of Employment and Labour, Under DR 2009 the Codes of Practice are guidance and not compulsory practice. They are provided as recommended good practice, and in theory need not be followed providing an acceptable level of safety is achieved in terms of the Occupational Health and Safety Act No.85 of 1993. However, in this case the onus is on the diving contractor to ensure acceptable safety during the diving operation based on risk assessment. The level of safety required is specified in the OHS act as "reasonably practicable" taking into account a number of factors, including cost effectiveness, availability of technology for mitigation and available knowledge of hazards. Use of the relatively flexible scientific code rather than the default Code of Practice for Inshore Diving is restricted to clients which are registered as organisations engaged in either scientific research or higher education. +The qualification required to dive at work in South Africa is linked to the mode of diving, the equipment to be used, and the diving environment. There are six classes of occupational diver registration, all of which may be employed in scientific diving operations within the scope of the specified competence and when supported by the required infrastructure. + +Class 1 divers are competent to do saturation dives while supervised by a class I supervisor. +Class 2 divers are competent to do surface orientated open bell dives to a maximum depth of 70 msw, while supervised by a Class 2 supervisor. +Class 3 divers are competent to do surface supplied dives to a maximum depth of 50 msw while supervised by a Class 3 supervisor. +Class 4 divers are competent to do open circuit scuba dives to a maximum depth of 30 msw while supervised by a class 4 supervisor. +Class 5 divers are competent to do open circuit scuba dives for scientific work to a maximum depth of 20 msw while supervised by a class 4 supervisor. +Class 6 divers are competent to do open circuit scuba dives in a benign environment to a maximum depth of 8 msw while supervised by a class 4 supervisor. +In each of these classes, the fundamental diving or supervisory competences include those of the class with the next higher number, though specialist skills may differ from person to person and may have no obvious connection to the registered class. All scientific dives must be under the supervision of a registered diving supervisor of a class appropriate to the specific diving operation. +Most scientific diving in South Africa is done on open circuit scuba by Class 4 and 5 divers as no-stop dives on air or nitrox. The Code of Practice for Scientific Diving allows for the use of alternative modes and technologies provided appropriate competence is achieved by training and assessment, and the risk of the project is assessed as acceptable by both the organisation and the members of the diving team. Minimum personnel requirements are as stated in the Diving Regulations, and may only be varied under authorisation of an exemption from the Chief Inspector of the Department of Employment and Labour. +Training of scientific divers can be done at any commercial diving school registered with the Department of Employment and Labour. There is no distinction between scientific and other commercial diving registration. The Research Diving Unit of the University of Cape Town has specialised in training divers to Class 3, 4 and 5 for scientific work continuously since the mid-20th century, and is the university's in-house diving contractor. + +=== United Kingdom === +As diving is an activity that is considered to put the diver at a higher than normal risk to health, in the UK all diving at work, including scientific diving, is regulated through the Diving at Work Regulations, 1997 and the associated approved codes of practice, which are implemented by the Health and Safety Executive. The code of practice for scientific diving also covers archaeological diving and diving in public aquariums. The professional body representing the scientific and archaeological diving sector is the Scientific Diving Supervisory Committee (SDSC), and it is responsible to the Natural Environment Research Council +The determining factors indicating that a person is diving at work, and therefore are subject to the regulations, are: + +The diving is done as part of the person's work – they are paid to do it, or +If diving out of working hours, or as a student or volunteer, the data obtained from the diving activity goes towards publication with some academic or financial value and +The diving operation is within UK territorial waters. +HSE regulations are only enforceable within UK waters, but operations from UK registered merchant vessels may also require adherence to the regulations and codes of practice. +Undergraduate students and volunteers are generally not regarded as being at work, but if diving as part of an organised event or programme, the diving contractor will still have a duty of care. Postgraduate students are more likely to be considered at work when the diving is a significant part of their research. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ac91dd9ae --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 1/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Since the founding of the Church of Scientology in 1954 by L. Ron Hubbard, the relationship between Scientology and psychiatry has been dominated by strong opposition by the organization against the medical specialty of psychiatry and of psychology, with themes relating to this opposition occurring repeatedly throughout Scientology literature and doctrine. According to the Church of Scientology, psychiatry has a long history of improper and abusive care. The group's views have been disputed, criticized, and condemned by experts in the medical and scientific community and have been a source of public controversy. +L. Ron Hubbard had a complex and changing relationship with psychiatry. He recalled positive experiences with psychiatrists in his youth and requested psychiatric treatment in adulthood. By 1948, Hubbard claimed to volunteer in a psychiatric clinic and two years later published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. In 1951, however, Hubbard's wife Sara Northrup Hollister reportedly consulted psychiatrists who recommended Hubbard be institutionalized; thereafter, Hubbard was increasingly hostile towards psychiatry. +In 1995, Scientologist Lisa McPherson died at Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization (FSO) at Flag Land Base after leaving a hospital where she was forced to refuse psychiatric treatment. +In 2003, a man with untreated schizophrenia murdered his mother after his paranoid delusions caused him to become convinced that the Scientology-approved vitamins she was giving him in lieu of effective medication were poisonous. +In 2005, celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise strongly asserted his public opposition to psychiatry. + +== L. Ron Hubbard and psychiatry == + +L. Ron Hubbard was an American author of science fiction and fantasy stories. Hubbard reported many encounters with psychiatrists from the age of 12 onward. +During World War II, Hubbard was hospitalized; in 1947, Hubbard requested psychiatric treatment and the following year moved with his wife to Savannah, Georgia, where he was reportedly associated with a psychiatric clinic. +In 1950, Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. +In 1951, it was publicly reported that Hubbard's wife Sara had been advised by a psychiatrist that Hubbard should be institutionalized for treatment of paranoid schizophrenia. They divorced, and the following year, Hubbard founded Scientology, an anti-psychiatry religious movement. + +=== Overview === +Hubbard's views on psychiatry evolved over time. +Hubbard spoke positively of his childhood and teen encounters with psychiatrists in the 1920s and 30s. At the age of 12, Hubbard was accompanied by Navy psychiatrist Joseph Thompson on an ocean trip from Seattle to Washington, D.C. Hubbard likewise wrote positively of teenage/young-adult encounters with D.C.-based psychiatrist William Alanson White. Some of Hubbard's later works included acknowledgements of both Thompson and White, and Hubbard would later claim to have received clinical training from both Thompson and White. +In contrast, Hubbard spoke more critically of his later encounters with psychiatrists and psychiatric institutions. Although Hubbard had written positively of psychiatric hospital superintendent William Alanson White, White's successor (Winfred Overholser) was singled out for criticism. Hubbard likewise spoke critically of his encounters with a Washington, D.C., institution for the treatment of schizophrenia called "Walnut Lodge" (presumably Chestnut Lodge). +During the Second World War, Hubbard was hospitalized at Oak Knoll Military Hospital. In 1947, Hubbard wrote a letter to the VA requesting psychiatric treatment. The following year, Hubbard and his wife Sara moved to Savannah, Georgia, where Hubbard would later recall having been associated with a charity mental health clinic. +According to Hubbard, he worked as a volunteer helping to treat charity patients during his time in Savannah. While in Savannah, Hubbard began working on a "book of psychology" about "the cause and cure of nervous tension"; the next year, he published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. +In 1951, Hubbard's wife Sara reportedly consulted a psychiatrist who recommended Hubbard be institutionalized. Hubbard initially responded by kidnapping Sara. Thereafter, he took their daughter and fled to Havana. After Sara went public with her story, Hubbard returned her daughter. In his final known encounter with a psychiatrist, Hubbard consulted a practitioner in order to rebut public claims of his own mental illness. +Thereafter, Hubbard was increasingly hostile towards psychiatry. In the 50s, Hubbard sought to identify "Subversive" psychiatrists or other "Potential Subversives". By the early 70s, Hubbard wrote of having redefined the word "psychiatrist" to mean "an antisocial enemy of the people". + +=== Hubbard's early encounters with psychiatry === + +Hubbard claimed to have personal encounters with several named psychiatrists, beginning in his childhood. Some, like Thompson and White, would later be remembered favorably—Hubbard explicitly cited both as sources for his work, and he and the Church of Scientology have used these hagiographic stories to "authenticate" Hubbard's background in mental health techniques. Others, such as Overholser and Center, were the subject of scorn. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..25b0b8449 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 2/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Joseph Cheesman Thompson ==== +In 1923, L. Ron Hubbard met fellow passenger Joseph "Snake" Thompson, a Navy medical officer and psychoanalyst, on a voyage from Seattle to Washington D.C. via the Panama Canal. In 1958 Hubbard recounted meeting Thompson, "I traveled with Commander Thompson from Seattle, Washington through the Panama Canal to Washington, D.C., when I was about twelve and knew him during all that time that I was in Washington and later." Hubbard recalled that "[Thompson's] friends called him 'Snake' and his enemies called him 'Crazy'. He had lots of both." Hubbard shared anecdotes from his life, and considered Thompson to be a "very great man" who sparked Hubbard's interest in the human mind. Hubbard said that Thompson told him, "If it's not true for you, it's not true." Hubbard recalled that "I was just a kid and Commander Thompson didn't have any boy of his own, and he and I just got along fine." Hubbard continued "Why he [Thompson] took it into his head to start beating Freud into my head, I don't know. But he did." +In 1953, Hubbard argued "It's very odd to realize, as I did one day, that in subsequent years I have approximated to a very remarkable degree the career of Commander Thompson – to show you what an impressed – impressionable boy can have handed to him suddenly." +In 1954, Hubbard described an encounter with psychiatrists in which playing sports was seen as a positive indicator: + +"I knew people, and the people who were trained by these people. And, if there was anything they were in awe of, it was somebody who engaged in sports. So this fellow was phenomenal to them. They knew this was very good somehow or another, but they couldn't quite put their finger on it. And to this day it is enough to tell a psychiatrist that, and prove to him, that you are very energetic and engaged in sports, to have him dismiss you immediately as being completely sane. Only that's just, bing. He just says, "Well, I..." He just goes into apathy right at that point. That's the truth. +"The... it was an interesting thing, for instance, to William Allen White. And Commander Thompson. Both of them, where I was concerned, that I wasn't very interested in sitting around figuring about this stuff and didn't seem to be terribly interested in the insane." +Hubbard described later encounters with Thompson: "In 1930 I knew a fellow by the name of Commander Thompson. I had known him before, actually". +In 1958, Hubbard told an audience: "I have made people feel better by using straight Freudian analysis the way I got it from Commander Thompson who imported it to the US Navy, not via Catherine [sic] Horney". +Thompson died in 1943, seven years before the publication of Dianetics. Thompson was included in the Acknowledgements section of 1951's Science of Survival, as was William A. White. + +==== William Alanson White ==== + +William Alanson White was an American neurologist and psychiatrist who served as superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital. A letter from the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International to the FBI, dated June 12, 1954, claims that Hubbard was trained by both Joseph Thompson and William Alanson White. Hubbard recalled "Dr. William Alanson White, a very fine man. He was head of the big St. Elizabeth's, the big mental institution there in Washington, D.C., and he had been a friend of mine for quite a while. I had met him through other friends of Dr. Thompson's". In a lecture, Hubbard described consulting White about a theoretical calculation of human memory capacity, apparently during Hubbard's university days. Hubbard recalled that "he [White] used to see me every once in a while". +In a 1951 lecture, Hubbard described St. Elizabeth's as "where they sent the naval officers after they had received their fifth contradiction from the Navy Department". +For two years in the 1920s, White had opened the doors of St. Elizabeths to Alfred Korzybski, enabling Korzybski to directly study mental illness, research that contributed heavily to Korzybski's 1933 Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. Hubbard cited the relationship between Korzybski and White in his lectures. +White died in 1937, thirteen years before the publication of Dianetics. White was included in the Acknowledgements section of 1951's Science of Survival, as was Joseph Thompson. + +==== "Walnut Lodge" ==== + +For much of the 1920s and 30s, L. Ron Hubbard lived in Washington D.C. In 1932, Hubbard listed the US Naval Hospital in Washington as his address; In 1933, Hubbard listed a P.O. Box in Beallsville, Maryland. +In a 1952 lecture, Hubbard recalls his interaction with staff and patients at a facility specializing in schizophrenia which he calls "Walnut Lodge" (presumably Chestnut Lodge): \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..acfd7c4e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 3/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + there's a place by the name of Walnut Lodge. I... I... They don't see anything humorous in that, by the way; it's Walnut Lodge. [...] They... they... they sent three people to see, to... to see me and every one of them was under treatment. And this was their staff. But anyway, very good people there, I'm sure, didn't happen to meet any. Have some fine patients though. Anyway, they... they treat only schizophrenia. And so they take only schizophrenics. Now how do they get only schizophrenics? +Well, anybody sent to Walnut Lodge is a classified schizophrenic. And they take somebody who is a dementia praecox unclassified or a more modern definition, a mania-depressive and they take him from Saint Elizabeth's and they take him over to Walnut Lodge and he goes onto the books as a schizophrenic. Why? Because Walnut Lodge takes only schizophrenics. +In 1966, Hubbard recalled "Identification by classification. This is a type of thing Psychiatry does all the time. They say this is a Dementia Praecox case. They've gotten so idiotic with it now that if someboy goes to Chestnut Lodge... if a person is transferred to Chestnut Lodge, regardless of their symptoms before, they now have schizophrenia." +Hubbard would return to "Walnut Lodge" in future writings. A 1970 bulletin states that "$2,000 a month for board only is the price at Walnut Lodge in Washington DC, an average place." In his work Mission Earth, Hubbard writes "Arginal P. Pauper was today committed to Walnut Lodge Nut House". + +=== Hubbard as patient === + +During World War Two, Hubbard was hospitalized at a California military hospital. After his release, he wrote to the Veterans Administration to request further treatment. Thereafter, he and his wife moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he was reportedly associated with a charity mental health clinic. + +==== Oak Knoll Military Hospital ==== +In 1945, Hubbard was a patient at Oak Knoll Military Hospital. Hubbard's estranged son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., later known as Ron DeWolf, would later state that Hubbard received psychiatric treatment during his hospitalization. Hubbard would later cite his time with psychiatric patients at Oak Knoll "using a park bench as a consulting room" as a major influence on his development of Dianetics. + +==== Request for psychiatric treatment ==== +After his discharge, Hubbard sought out psychiatric help to treat his "long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations" but reported that he could not afford it. A letter dated October 15, 1947, which Hubbard wrote to the Veterans Administration (VA) begins: "This is a request for treatment". The letter continues: + +After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all. ... I cannot, myself, afford such treatment.Would you please help me? +The following year, Hubbard and his wife moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he was associated with a charity psychiatric clinic. + +=== Hubbard as would-be psychologist === +After his arrival in Savannah, Hubbard began to describe himself as mental health practitioner, ultimately authoring Dianetics. + +==== Savannah, Georgia psychiatric clinic ==== +Beginning in June 1948, the nationally syndicated wire service United Press ran a story on an American Legion-sponsored psychiatric ward in Savannah, Georgia, which sought to keep mentally ill war veterans out of jail. That summer, Hubbard was arrested by the San Luis Obispo sheriff on a charge of petty theft for passing a fraudulent check. + +In late 1948, Hubbard and his second wife Sara moved from California to Savannah, Georgia, where he would later claim to have "worked" as a "volunteer" in the psychiatric clinic, where he claimed he "processed an awful lot of Negroes". Hubbard later wrote of having observed a "Dr. Center" in Savannah: I well recall a conversation I had with a Dr. Center in Savannah, Georgia, in 1949. It well expresses the arrogance and complete contempt for law and order of the psychiatrist. ... A man had just called to inquire after his wife who was "under treatment" in Center's hospital. Center asked him, "Do you have the money...? That's right, thirty thousand ... well you better get it or I'll have to send your dear wife to the state institution and you know what will happen then!" ... I was there doing work on charity patients the local psychiatrists wouldn't touch. Center had forgotten I was in the room. +In a 1966 interview, Hubbard recalled a man receiving a bill for psychoanalysis: "These people, you know, in psychoanalysis, they worked on somebody for a year just to find out if they could help him and then they charged him about 9,000 quid for having not helped him". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..06c8480d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 4/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Dianetics ==== +In January 1949, Hubbard wrote that he was working on a "book of psychology" about "the cause and cure of nervous tension", which he was going to call The Dark Sword, Excalibur or Science of the Mind. In April 1949, Hubbard wrote from Savannah to inform the Gerontological Society at Baltimore City Hospital that he was preparing a paper entitled Certain Discoveries and Researches Leading to the Removal of Early Traumatic Experiences Including Attempted Abortion, Birth Shock and Infant Illnesses and Accidents with an Examination of their Effects Physiological and Psychological and their Potential Influence on Longevity on the Adult Individual with an Account of the Techniques Evolved and Employed. The Society apparently declined involvement. +He also wrote to the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. These letters, and their responses, have not been published, though Hubbard later said that they had been negative. Hubbard later wrote, "In 1948 I wrote a thesis on an elementary technique of application and submitted it to the medical and psychiatric professions for their use or consideration. The data was not utilized." + +In December 1949, Hubbard composed a letter to publisher John Campbell in which he provided an article entitled "A Criticism of Dianetics" to be published under the pen name Irving R. Kutzman, M.D. (ostensibly an opponent of Dianetic auditing). In his letter to Campbell, Hubbard described synthesizing the opinions of multiple doctors: The philosophic derivation comments are direct quote from Davies of APA. The comment on operators is direct quote from Craig, MD PhD of Savannah. The pre-frontal lobotomy angle (changed only to trans-orbital leukotomy) is a direct quote from Delchamp, MD PhD. You heard nearly all these things repeated by Kahn, MD and he did not diverge in any particular from the standard attitude toward Dianetics, General Semantics (quote on this from Davies of APA), Cybernetics (Boswell, MD) etc. etc. This article would be found by an MD psychiatrist to be a pretty valid statement of their case because they have so stated the case many times. +The following year, Hubbard authored Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, a handbook for "the psychiatrist, psycho-analyst and intelligent layman". +By September 1950, the American Psychological Association's governing body unanimously adopted a resolution advising its members against using Hubbard's techniques with their patients and leading psychologists spoke out against Dianetics. Thereafter, Hubbard was critical of psychiatry. + +Winfred Overholser was superintendent of St. Elizabeths Hospital after 1937. By 1950, he was president of the American Psychiatric Association. In a 1953 lecture, Hubbard claimed: Doctor Upholstered is in charge of ... he's in charge of the rest home for feeble minded government officials here in Washington, Saint Elizabeths. +In 1972, Hubbard recalled: + +[Overholser] blew the whistle on Dianetics when St. Elizabeths psychiatrists were just beginning to use it and were for the first time getting results on patients at the National Asylum. He forbade them to use it but they disagreed heavily and privately used it for many years under cover. This broke up introducing Dianetics on regular channels – May 1950. ... Thereafter a violent and gory attack was mounted. It was begun by Overholser, went over to [the] George Wash[ington] U[niversity] Psychology [Department] at once and there a student of the first Dianetics class (Dolly Jones) also a psychology student was hypnotized, beaten, told to go crazy, did so and we had to hospitalize her. ... He (Overholser) was a member of the Club. +In another lecture, Hubbard claimed he gave a speech in which he hypnotized the staff of St. Elizabeths. +In late 1950, Hubbard criticized mainstream psychiatry but still wrote positively of Sigmund Freud as a fellow persecuted trailblazer, arguing that "to talk of the faults of Freud, as do those who practice psychoanalysis today, is ungenerous. This great pioneer, against the violent objections of medical doctors and the psychiatrists of his day, ventured to put forth the theory that memory was connected with present time behavior" Hubbard elaborated: "Freud was so thoroughly shunned by neurologists of his day and medicine ever since, that only his great literary skill brought his work as far as it has come." +As late as 1955, Hubbard still identified himself with mental health professions, describing himself as "a writer, a scientist, and a psychologist". + +=== Attempted institutionalization and aftermath === + +In 1951, Hubbard's wife Sara sought advice from a psychiatrist who recommend Hubbard be institutionalized. Upon learning of the plan, Hubbard initially kidnapped Sara; After her release, Hubbard fled to Havana with their young daughter. Hubbard then underwent a public divorce in which his wife publicly alleged that Hubbard had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Upon his return to the US, Hubbard consulted with a psychiatrist to rebut public claims of his mental illness. + +==== Sara consults psychiatrist ==== +In 1951, Hubbard's wife Sara went to a psychiatrist to obtain advice about his increasingly violent and irrational behaviour, and was told that he probably needed to be institutionalized and that she was in serious danger. She gave Hubbard an ultimatum: get treatment or she would leave with the baby. He was furious and threatened to kill their daughter Alexis rather than let Northrup care for her. Sara later recalled: "He didn't want her to be brought up by me because I was in league with the doctors. He thought I had thrown in with the psychiatrists, with the devils." +In a letter to the Attorney General dated May 1951, Hubbard claims that on "Feb. 25 she [Sara] flew to San Francisco and my general managers Jack Maloney in New Jersey received a phone call from her and Miles Hollister and a psychiatrist named Meyer Zelig in San Francisco that I had gone insane and that they needed money to incarcerate me quickly." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a88e80b98 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 5/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Two decades later, in 1972, Hubbard would write to followers: the NY Times Literary Section began an attack and a lot of violent track ran by which included DR. MEYER-ZELIG, a psychiatrist in San Francisco master-minding a kidnapping of me to fly me to St. Louis and be put away. His (Zelig's) plans miscarried. MILES HOLLISTER, formerly a psych student, got hold of SARA NORTHRUP (really Komknoidominoff) (or ov) and handed her over to Zelig who put her in deep hypnosis, fixated her on the idea I was trying to kill her and spun her in, in which state she has remained since. This caused the final destruction of the HDRF (Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation) as national press only played up her divorce. + +==== Hubbard kidnaps wife, daughter ==== +On the night of February 24, 1951, Hubbard allegedly took daughter Alexis while Sara was at a movie theater. A few hours later, he returned with two of his Dianetics Foundation staff and told Sara, who was now back at her apartment: "We have Alexis and you'll never see her alive unless you come with us." She was bundled into the back of a car and driven to San Bernardino, California, where Hubbard attempted to find a doctor to examine his wife and declare her insane. His search was unsuccessful and he released her at Yuma Airport across the state line in Arizona. He promised that he would tell her where Alexis was if she signed a piece of paper saying that she had gone with him voluntarily. She agreed but Hubbard reneged on the deal and flew to Chicago, where he found a psychologist who wrote a favorable report about his mental condition to refute Northrup's accusations. Rather than telling Northrup where Alexis was, he called her and said that "he had cut [Alexis] into little pieces and dropped the pieces in a river and that he had seen little arms and legs floating down the river and it was my fault, I'd done it because I'd left him." +From March to May 1951, Hubbard fled to Havana with his infant daughter. According to his estranged son Ronald DeWolf, Hubbard was under psychiatric care at this time. + +==== Public allegation of Hubbard having 'paranoid schizophrenia' ==== +After her release, Sara filed for divorce, charging Hubbard with causing her "extreme cruelty, great mental anguish and physical suffering". Her allegations produced more lurid headlines: not only was Hubbard accused of bigamy and kidnapping, but she had been subjected to "systematic torture, including loss of sleep, beatings, and strangulations and scientific experiments". Because of his "crazy misconduct" she was in "hourly fear of both the life of herself and of her infant daughter, who she has not seen for two months". +On April 23, 1951, it was publicly reported that Sara had consulted doctors who "concluded that said Hubbard was hopelessly insane, and crazy, and that there was no hope for said Hubbard, or any reason for her to endure further; that competent medical advisers recommended that said Hubbard be committed to a private sanatorium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia." The San Francisco Chronicle coverage used the headline "Ron Hubbard Insane, Says His Wife". +Hubbard's lover, Barbara Klowden, recorded in her journal: + +He [Hubbard] talked about what he was going to do to psychiatrists. +How he brought psychotic into present time in psychiatrists office and how that psychiatrist said to him "If you think you've cured this woman you're crazy. If you claim to cure people by doing that, if you're not careful, we'll lock you up." He laughed and laughed. +Then, tearing indignantly at chicken leg, he said "They all came to me and said I was a psychotic. Hah. They called me a paranoid. Can you imagine?" +My blood ran cold as he was saying that and it was all I could do to keep from weeping. Wouldn't it tear your heart out coming from the one you love when you knew all the time was a psychotic and a paranoid? + +=== Psychiatry as evil === +In 1955, Hubbard wrote that "nearly all the backlash in society against Dianetics and Scientology has a common source — the psychiatrist-psychologist-psychoanalyst clique". In a letter addressed to the FBI dated July 11, Hubbard reports having been the victim of an "attack made by psychiatrists using evidently Communist connected personnel". +In 1956, Hubbard wrote an article entitled "A Critique of Psychoanalysis" which embodies Hubbard's harder stance. Writes Hubbard: "Now and then it becomes necessary to eradicate from a new subject things which it has inherited from an old. And only because this has become necessary am I persuaded to tread upon the toes of the 'grandfather' to Dianetics and Scientology." In the essay, Hubbard admits that from "the earliest beginnings of Dianetics it is possible to trace a considerable psychoanalytic influence." Hubbard makes a distinction between Dianetics and Scientology writing that "Scientology, unlike Dianetics, is not a psychotherapy. It is therefore from the dominance of Scientology rather than from the viewpoint of Dianetics that one can understand the failings of psychoanalysis, its dangers and the reasons why it did not produce what it should have produced." \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1dda10ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 6/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +We discover psychoanalysis to have been superseded by tyrannous sadism, practiced by unprincipled men, themselves evidently in the last stages of dementia. This, then, is the end of the trail for psychoanalysis—a world of failure and brutality. Today men who call themselves analysts are merrily sawing out patients' brains, shocking them with murderous drugs, striking them with high voltages, burying them underneath mounds of ice, placing them in restraints, "sterilizing" them sexually and generally conducting themselves much as their patients would were they given the chance. It is up to us to realize, then, that psychoanalysis in its pure practice is dead the moment the spirit of humanity in which Freud developed the work is betrayed by the handing over of a patient to the merciless misconduct which passes today for treatment. + +In 1957, Hubbard founded the "National Academy of American Psychology" which sought to issue a "loyalty oath" to psychologists and psychiatrists. Those who opposed the oath were to be labelled "Subversive" psychiatrists, while those who merely refused to sign the oath would be labelled "Potentially Subversive". +In 1958, Hubbard wrote that "Destroy is the same as help to a psychiatrist". His 1958 writings cited "Psychiatry: The Greatest Flub of the Russian Civilization" by Tom Esterbrook; Hubbard's son would later reveal that Tom Eastebrook was one of Hubbard's many pen-names. +In 1966 Hubbard declared all-out war on psychiatry, telling Scientologists that "We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one." He committed the Church of Scientology to the goal of eradicating psychiatry in 1969, announcing that "Our war has been forced to become 'To take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms.'" +By 1967, Hubbard claimed that psychiatrists were behind a worldwide conspiracy to attack Scientology and create a "world government" run by psychiatrists on behalf of the USSR: + +Our enemies on this planet are 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. ... The rest of their apparent program was to use mental health—which is to say psychiatric electric shock and prefrontal lobotomy—to remove from their path any political dissenters. ... [T]hese fellows have gotten nearly every government in the world to owe them considerable quantities of money through various chicaneries, and they control of course income tax, the government finance. Wilson, for instance, the current premier of England, is totally involved with these fellows, and talks about nothing else actually. +Referring to psychiatrists as "psychs", Hubbard wrote of psychiatrists as denying human spirituality and peddling fake cures. He taught that psychiatrists were themselves deeply unethical individuals, committing "extortion, mayhem and murder. Our files are full of evidence on them." +Hubbard's efforts to cast the field of psychiatry as the source of all of humanity's problems are exemplified in a policy letter written in 1971, in which he attempted to redefine the word "psychiatrist" to mean "an antisocial enemy of the people": + +Psychiatry and psychiatrist are easily redefined to mean 'an antisocial enemy of the people.' This takes the kill-crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions. This is a good use of the technique [of redefining words] as for a century the psychiatrist has been setting an all-time record for inhumanity to Man. +Anti-psychiatric themes also appear in some of Hubbard's later fictional works. In Hubbard's ten-volume series Mission Earth, various characters debate the methods and validity of psychology. In his novel Battlefield Earth, the evil Catrists (a pun on psychiatrists), are described as a group of charlatans claiming to be mental health experts. + +== The Church of Scientology and psychiatry == + +A 1969 book, Believe What You Like, described an attempt by Scientologists to secretly infiltrate the National Association of Mental Health in Britain and turn official policy against mental health treatment. Though they were expelled from the organization after their identity and mission were revealed, the Church of Scientology then filed a number of suits against the NAMH. +When Operation Snow White, a Church of Scientology campaign to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard, was revealed in 1980, it came to light that Scientology agents of the Guardian's Office had also conducted a similar campaign against the World Federation for Mental Health and the National Association of Mental Health. +Scientology's views are expressed by its president in the following quote: + +What the Church opposes are brutal, inhumane psychiatric treatments. It does so for three principal reasons: 1) procedures such as electro-shock, drugs and lobotomy injure, maim and destroy people in the guise of help; 2) psychiatry is not a science and has no proven methods to justify the billions of dollars of government funds that are poured into it; and 3) psychiatric theories that man is a mere animal have been used to rationalize, for example, the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II. +An October 2006 article in the Evening Standard underlines the strong opposition of Scientology toward the psychiatric profession: + +Up front, David Miscavige is dramatically — and somewhat bizarrely — attacking psychiatrists, his words backed by clips from a Scientology-produced DVD are broadcast on four giant high-definition TV screens and sensationally called: Psychiatry: an industry of death [...]. 'A woman is safer in a park at midnight than on a psychiatrist's couch', booms Miscavige, backed by savage graphics of psychiatrists — or 'psychs' as he calls them — being machine-gunned out of existence. + +The group says that they are near victory in their war against psychiatry. In their treatise Those Who Oppose Scientology, it is stated: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ae32952db --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 7/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Today, there are 500 Dianeticists and Scientologists to every psychiatrist [...] while Scientology is more visible than ever, with churches dotting every continent on Earth and millions of parishioners around the world, one is hard pressed to find even a single psychiatrist with a shingle on his door. +Scientology claims a worldwide membership of more than 8 million, the total of people who have taken the Scientology introductory course. The Church of Scientology claims 3.5 million members in the United States, though an independent survey has found the number of people in the United States would state their religion as 'Scientology' is close to 55,000. By comparison, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, which are composed of psychiatrists and psychologists, have 38,000 and 148,000 members respectively. +Mental health professionals are not concerned that the public will take Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) materials seriously, because of the organization's connection with the Church of Scientology; however, they argue that these materials can have a harmful impact when quoted without attribution. +Except for court trials and media publications and public rallies, published materials have received little notice outside of Scientology and CCHR; of reviews available, few are favorable. Psychology professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi's short review of Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler states: + +Scientology has attracted much attention through its propaganda effort against what it calls psychiatry. This has involved great expense and organizational effort, carried out through a variety of fronts. If the book Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler (Roder, Kubillus, & Burwell, 1995) is a representative example, and I believe it is, it proves decisively that the campaign is rooted in total paranoia and pathetic ignorance. Reading this book, and I will urge you not to waste too much time doing it, makes clear that the authors simply have no idea what psychiatry is. +The American Psychiatric Association's Lynn Schultz-Writsel adds: + +We have not responded in any way, shape or form. There has not been a hue and cry from members to respond. And anyway, the publication speaks for itself. +Michael Burke, the president of the Kansas Psychiatric Association, said regarding Scientology, "They aren't really able to support their position with any scientific data, which they tend to ignore. ... the public seems to be able to look right past the Scientology hoopla." +The commercial motivation of Scientology in questioning psychiatry, with their alternative practice, dianetics, has been questioned by Peter W. Huber. +According to Susan Raine in Scientology in Popular Culture (2017), The Church of Scientology's programs against psychiatry "complicates the movement's quest for religious legitimacy." This is because of "the way in which Hubbard tried to replace psychiatry, psychology and other forms of counseling and therapy with Scientology." +In a 2017 article in The Humanistic Psychologist, John H. Wolfe notes that Scientology has been widely discredited, and describes the ways in which Scientology differs from mainstream psychotherapy. He mentions that Scientology counseling is systematically thorough, meaning it considers a client's problem individually and thoroughly before moving on to the next one. Wolfe also compares Scientology auditing to the "nondirective therapy" of Carl Rogers, "who stressed the importance of having the client find the client's own answers, while the counselor refrains from interpretation, but listens with empathic understanding." Unlike Roger's technique, Scientology's auditors ask leading questions, instead of letting them independently stumble upon answers on their own. + +=== Legal waivers === +Following legal actions involving the Church of Scientology's relationship with its members, it has become standard practice within the group for members to sign lengthy legal contracts and waivers before engaging in Scientology services. In 2003, a series of media reports examined the legal contracts required by Scientology, which require that, among other things, Scientology followers deny any and all psychiatric care that their doctors may prescribe to them: + +I do not believe in or subscribe to psychiatric labels for individuals. It is my strongly held religious belief that all mental problems are spiritual in nature and that there is no such thing as a mentally incompetent person — only those suffering from spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by an individual. I reject all psychiatric labels and intend for this Contract to clearly memorialize my desire to be helped exclusively through religious, spiritual means and not through any form of psychiatric treatment, specifically including involuntary commitment based on so-called lack of competence. Under no circumstances, at any time, do I wish to be denied my right to care from members of my religion to the exclusion of psychiatric care or psychiatric directed care, regardless of what any psychiatrist, medical person, designated member of the state or family member may assert supposedly on my behalf. + +=== Citizens Commission on Human Rights === + +The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an institution set up by Scientology and Thomas Szasz, also claims that the real nature of psychiatry is that of human rights abuse. +In 1966, Hubbard declared all-out war on psychiatry, telling Scientologists that "We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one." He committed the Church of Scientology to the goal of eradicating psychiatry in 1969, announcing that "Our war has been forced to become 'To take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms.'" +Not coincidentally, the Church of Scientology founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights that same year as its primary vehicle for attacking psychiatry. CCHR still quotes Hubbard's above-cited statement that all psychiatrists are criminals: "There is not one institutional psychiatrist alive who, by ordinary criminal law, could not be arraigned and convicted of extortion, mayhem and murder. Our files are full of evidence on them." +CCHR has conducted campaigns against Prozac, against electroconvulsive therapy, against Ritalin (and the existence of ADHD) and against various health legislations. CCHR opened an exhibit in their building: Psychiatry: An Industry of Death. + +=== Tom Cruise === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ed3abfb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 8/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Tom Cruise has been highly vocal in attacking the use of psychiatric medication, gaining particular attention for becoming extremely animated on the subject during an interview on Today on June 25, 2005. His position has attracted considerable criticism from psychiatrists and other physicians (American Psychiatric Association and National Mental Health Association), and individuals suffering from depression. +In January 2004, Cruise made the controversial statement "I think psychiatry should be outlawed." Further controversy erupted in 2005 after he openly criticized actress Brooke Shields for using the drug Paxil (paroxetine), an anti-depressant to which Shields attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. Shields responded that Cruise "should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them". This led to a heated argument between Matt Lauer and Cruise on NBC's Today on June 24, 2005. +Medical authorities view Cruise's comments as furthering the social stigma of mental illness. Shields herself called Cruise's comments "a disservice to mothers everywhere". In late August 2006, Cruise apologized in person to Shields for his comments. +Scientology is well known for its opposition to mainstream psychiatry and the psychoactive drugs which are routinely prescribed for treatment. It was reported that Cruise's anti-psychiatry actions led to a rift with director Steven Spielberg. Spielberg had reportedly mentioned in Cruise's presence the name of a doctor friend who prescribed psychiatric medication. Shortly thereafter, the doctor's office was picketed by Scientologists, reportedly angering Spielberg. + +=== Books by Scientologists === +Bruce Wiseman from CCHR published the book Psychiatry: The Ultimate Betrayal (Scientology's Freedom Publications, 1995), in which he portrays psychiatry as creating Adolf Hitler. +The German Scientologists Thomas Roder and Volker Kubillus wrote the book Psychiatrists: the Men Behind Hitler (also published by Scientology's Freedom Publications, 1995–2001), that advances a conspiracy theory of all-powerful psychiatrists to overwhelm the world. + +=== Death of Lisa McPherson === + +In 1994, Scientologist Lisa McPherson moved from Dallas, Texas, to Clearwater, Florida, with her employer, AMC Publishing, which was at that time owned by Bennetta Slaughter and operated and staffed primarily by Scientologists. During June 1995, the Church of Scientology placed McPherson in an "introspection rundown" due to perceived mental instability. Lisa completed the rundown, and she attested to the state of Clear in September. +On November 18, 1995, McPherson was involved in a minor car accident. Paramedics initially left her alone because she was ambulatory, but after she began to remove her clothes, the paramedics decided to take her to the hospital. She remarked to the paramedics that she had taken off her clothes in hopes of obtaining counseling. Hospital staff agreed that she was unharmed, but recommended keeping her overnight for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out after a short evaluation. +Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Frank Quesada concluded: + +Lisa McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital; she expressly stated her desire to receive the religious care and assistance from her fellow congregants that she and they wanted her to have. +McPherson was then taken to the Flag Land Base for "rest and relaxation" according to the Church of Scientology, but sworn statements demonstrate that McPherson was brought there for another introspection rundown. +Mark McGarry, an attorney with the Florida Office of the State Attorney, characterized McPherson's stay at the Flag Land Base as an "isolation watch": + +My understanding now is, from talking to many, many witnesses, the purpose of her being there in the Church, correct me if I'm wrong, she was experiencing some mental problems, and you guys were going to stabilize her through an isolation watch. And after that watch occurred, there was going to be a procedure run on her, and the procedure was an introspection rundown. +The Church held McPherson in a cabana and kept a "24 hours' watch" over her. Detailed logs were kept on McPherson's day-to-day care. These logs were handwritten on plain white paper. Most of these logs were kept but the logs for the last three days were summarized from the originals and the originals shredded. Brian J. Anderson, the then Commanding Officer of the Church's Office of Special Affairs (OSA) in Clearwater, said in his sworn statement: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b63af26ed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Scientology and psychiatry" +chunk: 9/9 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:35.431233+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +I saw the handwritten notes, gave a cursory look to see if the summary—see if they matched and matched, and I threw the handwritten reports in my shred basket, and I had the report, kept the report. +McPherson's "care logs" narrate the last seventeen days of her life: she was incoherent and sometimes violent, her nails were cut so she would not scratch herself or the staff, she bruised her fists and feet while hitting the wall. She had trouble sleeping and was being given natural supplements and the drug chloral hydrate to help her sleep. A Church staffer noted that McPherson "looked ill like measles or chicken pox on her face." On repeated occasions she refused food and protein shakes that the staff offered. On November 26 and 30 and December 3 to 4, the staff attempted to force feed her, noting that she spat the food out. She was noted to be very weak, not standing up nor on some days moving at all. Scientologists who questioned this handling were told to "butt out". +On December 5, 1995, Church staffers contacted David Minkoff, a Scientologist medical doctor who twice prescribed McPherson Valium and chloral hydrate without examining her. They requested for him to prescribe an antibiotic to McPherson because she seemed to have an infection. Minkoff refused and stated that McPherson should be taken to a hospital and he needed to see her before prescribing anything. They objected, expressing fear that McPherson would be put under psychiatric care. Dr. Janice Johnson, a senior medical officer at Flag Land Base who was assigned to care for McPherson, stated that McPherson had been gasping and had labored breathing while en route. However they passed a total of four hospitals along the way to their ultimate destination. When they arrived at Minkoff's hospital 45 minutes north of Clearwater, McPherson exhibited no vital signs. Hospital staff attempted to resuscitate her for 20 minutes before declaring her dead. + +=== Jeremy Perkins === + +On March 13, 2003, Scientologist Jeremy Perkins killed his mother, Elli, by stabbing her 77 times. Perkins, previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, never received treatment after previous incidents with violence and hallucinations. His mother, active in the Buffalo Church of Scientology, felt that vitamins and Scientology routines were better than psychological counseling and anti-psychotic medication. + +=== Linda Waliki === +On July 5 2007, 25-year-old Australian woman Linda Waliki killed her 52-year-old father Michael, her 15-year-old sister Kathryn, and injured her mother Sue with a knife. Her name was released in the print edition of the Sydney Morning Herald on 7 July 2007. It was previously unreleased due to one of the victims being under age. She was diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, but her parents denied her continued psychiatric treatment due to their Scientology beliefs. Instead they replaced this medication with one specially imported from Scientologists in the United States. + +=== Relations with anti-psychiatry movement === + +The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was co-founded by anti-psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and the Church of Scientology in 1969. Some anti-psychiatry websites and psychiatric survivors groups have sought to distance themselves from Scientology and the CCHR. In particular, the organisation Mind Freedom has specifically made public statements to emphasise that it is not connected with either CCHR or the Church of Scientology. +Despite sharing notable anti-psychiatry views on some issues with the secular critics, Scientology doctrine does differ in some respects. Scientology has promoted psychiatry-related conspiracy theories, including that psychiatrists were behind the Yugoslav Wars and that September 11 was caused by psychiatrists. Scientologists are committed never to take psychiatric drugs and to reject psychology outright. +The socio-political roots of the movements have different origins. Advocates of the anti-psychiatric world view such as David Cooper, R. D. Laing and Michel Foucault had ties with the political left of the 1960s; Thomas Szasz, with the civil libertarians of the right, as well as an outspoken atheist. Many advocates of the anti-psychiatry movement have stated that they consider the idea of "mental illness" as a convenient and inaccurate label assigned by society rather than an objective biomedical state, rejecting psychiatric terms such as schizophrenia which they may see as stigmatizing. By contrast, Hubbard referred to "schizophrenics" in his writings on Scientology theory, and developed the emotional tone scale to, in part, gauge the health of a person's mental state. Furthermore, in his Science of Survival Hubbard suggested putting people very low on the scale into quarantine, a practice at odds with, for instance, the aim of the American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental Hospitalization: an organization co-founded by Szasz to end involuntary commitment. + +== See also == + +Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act +Anti-psychiatry +Believe What You Like + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Leiby, Richard (July 7, 2005). "Scientology". The Washington Post (transcript of discussion with Frank K. Flinn, adjunct professor of religious studies at Washington University). + +== External links == +Citizens Commission on Human Rights (affiliated with the Church of Scientology) +Hubbard on psychiatry and psychology – Critical of the Church of Scientology's position about psychiatry +Hubbard's plea to the Veteran's Administration for psychiatric help +Scientology vs Psychiatry, a Case Study: The Atlantic \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aa2f9199b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Shape" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:36.879662+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A shape is a graphical representation of an object's form or its external boundary, outline, or external surface. It is distinct from other object properties, such as color, texture, or material type. +In geometry, shape excludes information about the object's position, size, orientation and chirality. +A figure is a representation including both shape and size (as in, e.g., figure of the Earth). +A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie on a plane, in contrast to solid 3D shapes. +A two-dimensional shape or two-dimensional figure (also: 2D shape or 2D figure) may lie on a more general curved surface (a two-dimensional space). + +== Classification of simple shapes == + +Some simple shapes can be put into broad categories. For instance, polygons are classified according to their number of edges as triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, etc. Each of these is divided into smaller categories; triangles can be equilateral, isosceles, obtuse, acute, scalene, etc. while quadrilaterals can be rectangles, rhombi, trapezoids, squares, etc. +Other common shapes are points, lines, planes, and conic sections such as ellipses, circles, and parabolas. +Among the most common three-dimensional shapes are polyhedra, which are shapes with flat faces; ellipsoids, which are egg-shaped or sphere-shaped objects; cylinders; and cones. +If an object falls into one of these categories exactly or even approximately, we can use it to describe the shape of the object. Thus, we say that the shape of a manhole cover is a disk, because it is approximately the same geometric object as an actual geometric disk. + +== In geometry == + +A geometric shape consists of the geometric information which remains when location, scale, orientation and reflection are removed from the description of a geometric object. That is, the result of moving a shape around, enlarging it, rotating it, or reflecting it in a mirror is the same shape as the original, and not a distinct shape. +Many two-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of points or vertices and lines connecting the points in a closed chain, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polygons and include triangles, squares, and pentagons. Other shapes may be bounded by curves such as the circle or the ellipse. +Many three-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of vertices, lines connecting the vertices, and two-dimensional faces enclosed by those lines, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polyhedrons +and include cubes as well as pyramids such as tetrahedrons. Other three-dimensional shapes may be bounded by curved surfaces, such as the ellipsoid and the sphere. +A shape is said to be convex if all of the points on a line segment between any two of its points are also part of the shape. + +=== Properties === +There are multiple ways to compare the shapes of two objects: + +Congruence: Two objects are congruent if one can be transformed into the other by a sequence of rotations, translations, and/or reflections. +Similarity: Two objects are similar if one can be transformed into the other by a uniform scaling, together with a sequence of rotations, translations, and/or reflections. +Isotopy: Two objects are isotopic if one can be transformed into the other by a sequence of deformations that do not tear the object or put holes in it. + +Sometimes, two similar or congruent objects may be regarded as having a different shape if a reflection is required to transform one into the other. For instance, the letters "b" and "d" are a reflection of each other, and hence they are congruent and similar, but in some contexts they are not regarded as having the same shape. Sometimes, only the outline or external boundary of the object is considered to determine its shape. For instance, a hollow sphere may be considered to have the same shape as a solid sphere. Procrustes analysis is used in many sciences to determine whether or not two objects have the same shape, or to measure the difference between two shapes. In advanced mathematics, quasi-isometry can be used as a criterion to state that two shapes are approximately the same. +Simple shapes can often be classified into basic geometric objects such as a line, a curve, a plane, a plane figure (e.g. square or circle), or a solid figure (e.g. cube or sphere). However, most shapes occurring in the physical world are complex. Some, such as plant structures and coastlines, may be so complicated as to defy traditional mathematical description – in which case they may be analyzed by differential geometry, or as fractals. +Some common shapes include: Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle, Oval, Star (polygon), Rhombus, Semicircle. +Regular polygons starting at pentagon follow the naming convention of the Greek derived prefix with '-gon' suffix: Pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon, Octagon, Nonagon, Decagon... See polygon + +== Equivalence of shapes == +In geometry, two subsets of a Euclidean space have the same shape if one can be transformed to the other by a combination of translations, rotations (together also called rigid transformations), and uniform scalings. In other words, the shape of a set of points is all the geometrical information that is invariant to translations, rotations, and size changes. Having the same shape is an equivalence relation, and accordingly a precise mathematical definition of the notion of shape can be given as being an equivalence class of subsets of a Euclidean space having the same shape. +Mathematician and statistician David George Kendall writes: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..280593285 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,298 @@ +--- +title: "Shape" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:36.879662+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In this paper ‘shape’ is used in the vulgar sense, and means what one would normally expect it to mean. [...] We here define ‘shape’ informally as ‘all the geometrical information that remains when location, scale and rotational effects are filtered out from an object.’ +Shapes of physical objects are equal if the subsets of space these objects occupy satisfy the definition above. In particular, the shape does not depend on the size and placement in space of the object. For instance, a "d" and a "p" have the same shape, as they can be perfectly superimposed if the "d" is translated to the right by a given distance, rotated upside down and magnified by a given factor (see Procrustes superimposition for details). However, a mirror image could be called a different shape. For instance, a "b" and a "p" have a different shape, at least when they are constrained to move within a two-dimensional space like the page on which they are written. Even though they have the same size, there's no way to perfectly superimpose them by translating and rotating them along the page. Similarly, within a three-dimensional space, a right hand and a left hand have a different shape, even if they are the mirror images of each other. Shapes may change if the object is scaled non-uniformly. For example, a sphere becomes an ellipsoid when scaled differently in the vertical and horizontal directions. In other words, preserving axes of symmetry (if they exist) is important for preserving shapes. Also, shape is determined by only the outer boundary of an object. + +=== Congruence and similarity === + +Objects that can be transformed into each other by rigid transformations and mirroring (but not scaling) are congruent. An object is therefore congruent to its mirror image (even if it is not symmetric), but not to a scaled version. Two congruent objects always have either the same shape or mirror image shapes, and have the same size. +Objects that have the same shape or mirror image shapes are called geometrically similar, whether or not they have the same size. Thus, objects that can be transformed into each other by rigid transformations, mirroring, and uniform scaling are similar. Similarity is preserved when one of the objects is uniformly scaled, while congruence is not. Thus, congruent objects are always geometrically similar, but similar objects may not be congruent, as they may have different size. + +=== Homeomorphism === + +A more flexible definition of shape takes into consideration the fact that realistic shapes are often deformable, e.g. a person in different postures, a tree bending in the wind or a hand with different finger positions. +One way of modeling non-rigid movements is by homeomorphisms. Roughly speaking, a homeomorphism is a continuous stretching and bending of an object into a new shape. Thus, a square and a circle are homeomorphic to each other, but a sphere and a donut are not. An often-repeated mathematical joke is that topologists cannot tell their coffee cup from their donut, since a sufficiently pliable donut could be reshaped to the form of a coffee cup by creating a dimple and progressively enlarging it, while preserving the donut hole in a cup's handle. +A described shape has external lines that you can see and make up the shape. If you were putting your coordinates on a coordinate graph you could draw lines to show where you can see a shape, however not every time you put coordinates in a graph as such you can make a shape. This shape has a outline and boundary so you can see it and is not just regular dots on a regular paper. + +=== Shape analysis === + +The above-mentioned mathematical definitions of rigid and non-rigid shape have arisen in the field of statistical shape analysis. In particular, Procrustes analysis is a technique used for comparing shapes of similar objects (e.g. bones of different animals), or measuring the deformation of a deformable object. Other methods are designed to work with non-rigid (bendable) objects, e.g. for posture independent shape retrieval (see for example Spectral shape analysis). + +=== Similarity classes === +All similar triangles have the same shape. These shapes can be classified using complex numbers u, v, w for the vertices, in a method advanced by J.A. Lester and Rafael Artzy. For example, an equilateral triangle can be expressed by the complex numbers 0, 1, (1 + i√3)/2 representing its vertices. Lester and Artzy call the ratio + + + + + S + ( + u + , + v + , + w + ) + = + + + + u + − + w + + + u + − + v + + + + + + {\displaystyle S(u,v,w)={\frac {u-w}{u-v}}} + + +the shape of triangle (u, v, w). Then the shape of the equilateral triangle is + + + + + + + + 0 + − + + + + 1 + + + i + + + 3 + + + + 2 + + + + + 0 + − + 1 + + + + = + + + + 1 + + + i + + + 3 + + + + 2 + + + = + cos + ⁡ + ( + + 60 + + ∘ + + + ) + + + i + sin + ⁡ + ( + + 60 + + ∘ + + + ) + = + + e + + i + π + + / + + 3 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle {\frac {0-{\frac {1+i{\sqrt {3}}}{2}}}{0-1}}={\frac {1+i{\sqrt {3}}}{2}}=\cos(60^{\circ })+i\sin(60^{\circ })=e^{i\pi /3}.} + + +For any affine transformation of the complex plane, + + + + z + ↦ + a + z + + + b + , + + a + ≠ + 0 + , + + + {\displaystyle z\mapsto az+b,\quad a\neq 0,} + + a triangle is transformed but does not change its shape. Hence shape is an invariant of affine geometry. +The shape p = S(u,v,w) depends on the order of the arguments of function S, but permutations lead to related values. For instance, + + + + + 1 + − + p + = + 1 + − + + + + u + − + w + + + u + − + v + + + + = + + + + w + − + v + + + u + − + v + + + + = + + + + v + − + w + + + v + − + u + + + + = + S + ( + v + , + u + , + w + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle 1-p=1-{\frac {u-w}{u-v}}={\frac {w-v}{u-v}}={\frac {v-w}{v-u}}=S(v,u,w).} + + Also + + + + + p + + − + 1 + + + = + S + ( + u + , + w + , + v + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle p^{-1}=S(u,w,v).} + + +Combining these permutations gives + + + + S + ( + v + , + w + , + u + ) + = + ( + 1 + − + p + + ) + + − + 1 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle S(v,w,u)=(1-p)^{-1}.} + + Furthermore, \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a791a16af --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,224 @@ +--- +title: "Shape" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:36.879662+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + + + + p + ( + 1 + − + p + + ) + + − + 1 + + + = + S + ( + u + , + v + , + w + ) + S + ( + v + , + w + , + u + ) + = + + + + u + − + w + + + v + − + w + + + + = + S + ( + w + , + v + , + u + ) + . + + + {\displaystyle p(1-p)^{-1}=S(u,v,w)S(v,w,u)={\frac {u-w}{v-w}}=S(w,v,u).} + + These relations are "conversion rules" for shape of a triangle. +The shape of a quadrilateral is associated with two complex numbers p, q. If the quadrilateral has vertices u, v, w, x, then p = S(u,v,w) and q = S(v,w,x). Artzy proves these propositions about quadrilateral shapes: + +If + + + + p + = + ( + 1 + − + q + + ) + + − + 1 + + + , + + + {\displaystyle p=(1-q)^{-1},} + + then the quadrilateral is a parallelogram. +If a parallelogram has | arg p | = | arg q |, then it is a rhombus. +When p = 1 + i and q = (1 + i)/2, then the quadrilateral is square. +If + + + + p + = + r + ( + 1 + − + + q + + − + 1 + + + ) + + + {\displaystyle p=r(1-q^{-1})} + + and sgn r = sgn(Im p), then the quadrilateral is a trapezoid. +A polygon + + + + ( + + z + + 1 + + + , + + z + + 2 + + + , + . + . + . + + z + + n + + + ) + + + {\displaystyle (z_{1},z_{2},...z_{n})} + + has a shape defined by n − 2 complex numbers + + + + S + ( + + z + + j + + + , + + z + + j + + + 1 + + + , + + z + + j + + + 2 + + + ) + , + + j + = + 1 + , + . + . + . + , + n + − + 2. + + + {\displaystyle S(z_{j},z_{j+1},z_{j+2}),\ j=1,...,n-2.} + + The polygon bounds a convex set when all these shape components have imaginary components of the same sign. + +== Human perception of shapes == +Human vision relies on a wide range of shape representations. Some psychologists have theorized that humans mentally break down images into simple geometric shapes (e.g., cones and spheres) called geons. Meanwhile, others have suggested shapes are decomposed into features or dimensions that describe the way shapes tend to vary, like their segmentability, compactness and spikiness. When comparing shape similarity, however, at least 22 independent dimensions are needed to account for the way natural shapes vary. +Experimental work suggests that an object's contour, whether sharp-angled or curved, has a critical influence on people's attitude toward that object. Studies of printed designs on packaging report that consumers show "a preference for rounded shapes," which can shift overall evaluations of labeled products. Other studies similarly show that logo and packaging can shift judgments of attributes (for example, circular cues "softness," angular cues "hardness"). +There is also clear evidence that shapes guide human attention. + +== See also == +Area +Glossary of shapes with metaphorical names +Lists of shapes +Shape factor +Size +Skew polygon +Solid geometry +Region (mathematics) + +== References == + +== External links == + The dictionary definition of shape at Wiktionary \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(short_story)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(short_story)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a1f08ebac --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(short_story)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Ship of Fools (short story)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Fools_(short_story)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:36.151216+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Ship of Fools" is a 1999 short story by Ted Kaczynski. The story is a parable demonstrating Kaczynski's views that identity politics within liberalism is a distraction from the issue of climate apocalypse and that revolutionary violence is justified. + + +== About == +"Ship of Fools" was written for Off!, a student magazine at State University of New York (SUNY) in Binghamton, New York. It was written at the request of Tom LaPietra, a student at SUNY. The story also appeared on the website for Context Books. It is 11 pages long. Kaczynski wrote the parable from prison. +The short story is about a ship that is headed north to the Arctic Ocean. Despite the presence of dangerous icebergs, the crew pay no attention to the wellbeing of the ship as they are too busy arguing among themselves about various injustices. The crew includes a Mexican sailor, a Native American sailor, a gay bosun, an animal rights activist, and a female passenger. The Mexican sailor asks for equal pay, the Native American sailor asks for reparations for losing his ancestral land, the gay bosun objects to homophobic slurs and asks for the "right to suck cocks without being called names for it", the animal rights activist objects to the mistreatment of the dog on the ship, and the female passenger asks for as many blankets as the male passengers receive. The ship's officers conspire to make small concessions to these demands while remaining on course. +Only the cabin boy, a representation of Kaczynski, recognizes the danger and tries to get the others to help him maneuver the ship. He suggests to the crew that they kill the officers and turn the ship around, but he is increasingly frustrated as the others focus on their own demands and reject him for calling their grievances trivial. The story ends with the ship getting crushed between two icebergs, sinking, and killing everyone. +The manuscript for "Ship of Fools" is included with "The Writings of Ted Kaczynski" in the Kaczynski Papers collection at the University of Michigan Library. + + +== Reception == +The short story was criticized by the Baltimore Sun for its "colorful ethnic language" and justification of revolutionary violence. Tom LaPietra has said the parable is about Kaczynski's belief that "People who are leftist shouldn't waste their time with what he calls reform, such as equal wages and equal treatment for women...The main issue is we have to stop the industrial machine before it takes away all of our humanity." +Kaczynski responded to accusations of homophobia by stating, "I mildly dislike homosexuality" but that "My contempt (as expressed, e.g., in "Ship of Fools") is not for gay people, women, ethnic minorities, or sweatshop workers, but for activists who think that the special problems of these groups are more important than the disaster with which the technoindustrial system threatens the world." + + +== Legacy == +In 2006 the Norwegian artist Gardar Eide Einarsson staged a play based on Ship of Fools at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. + + +== See also == +Class reductionism +Ship of fools +Intersectionality + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Ship of Fools, The Anarchist Library \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8feffca2a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Shirley (novel)" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:11.913651+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Shirley, A Tale is an 1849 social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë. It was Brontë's second published novel after Jane Eyre (originally published under Brontë's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry. +The novel's popularity led to the surname Shirley becoming popular as a first name for women. Brontë tells the reader it was a tradition in the family to only give this surname as a first name to male children. It wasn't commonly used as a first name in England before the book. It is now regarded as a female first name. + +== Background == +While Charlotte Brontë was writing Shirley, three of her siblings died. Her brother Branwell died in September 1848, and her sister Emily fell ill and died in December. Brontë resumed writing, but then her only remaining sibling, her sister Anne, became ill and died in May 1849. +Some critics believe that the character of Caroline Helstone was loosely based on Anne and it has been speculated that Brontë originally planned to let Caroline die but changed her mind because of her family tragedies. However, Ellen Nussey, Charlotte's lifelong friend, claimed that the character of Caroline was based on herself. +Charlotte Brontë told Elizabeth Gaskell that Shirley is what she believed her sister, Emily Brontë, would have been if she had been born into a wealthy family. Again, Ellen Nussey, who knew Emily as well as anyone outside the family, did not recognise Emily in Shirley. +The maiden name of Mrs Pryor is Agnes Grey, the name of the main character in Anne's first novel. She was based on Margaret Wooler, the principal of Roe Head School, which Brontë attended as both student and teacher. + +== Locations == +The novel is set in and around the Spen Valley in what is now called West Yorkshire (then the West Riding of Yorkshire). This area is now known as "Shirley country" to some locals. Briarmains, a house mentioned in the novel, is based on the Red House in Gomersal, where Mary Taylor, a friend of Charlotte, lived. The house is currently closed but previously open as a museum. Fieldhead, another house in the novel, is based on the Elizabethan manor house Oakwell Hall, which is also now a museum. The attack on Robert Moore's mill was based on the Luddite attack on Cartwright's Mill at Rawfolds, Liversedge, though it is believed that Charlotte also took some inspiration from Taylor's Mill at Hunsworth. Charlotte's father Patrick Bronte had lived in the Hightown area of Liversedge for a while, and Charlotte knew the area well. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..43ed1bf7f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Shirley (novel)" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:11.913651+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Synopsis == +Robert Moore is a mill owner noted for apparent ruthlessness towards his employees. He has laid off many of them, and is apparently indifferent to their consequent impoverishment. In fact, he had no choice, since the mill is deeply in debt. He is determined to restore his family's honour and fortune. +As the novel opens, Robert awaits delivery of new labour-saving machinery for the mill, which will enable him to lay off additional employees. Together with some friends, he watches all night, but the machinery is destroyed by "frame-breakers" on the way to the mill. Robert's business difficulties continue, due in part to continuing labour unrest, but even more to the Napoleonic Wars and the accompanying Orders in Council, which forbid British merchants from trading in American markets. +Robert is very close to his cousin Caroline Helstone, who comes to his house to be taught French and arithmetic by his sister, Hortense. Caroline worships Robert. Caroline's father is dead and her mother has abandoned her, leaving her to be brought up by her uncle, Rev. Matthew Helstone. To keep himself from falling in love with her Robert keeps his distance, since he cannot afford to marry for pleasure or for love. +Caroline realises that Robert is growing increasingly distant and withdraws into herself. Her uncle does not sympathise with her "fancies". She has no money of her own, so she cannot leave, which is what she longs to do. She suggests that she might take up the role of governess, but her uncle dismisses the idea and assures her that she need not work for a living. +Caroline recovers somewhat when she meets Shirley, an independent heiress whose parents are dead and who lives with Mrs Pryor, her former governess. Shirley is lively, cheerful, full of ideas about how to use her money and how to help people, and very interested in business. Caroline and Shirley soon become close friends. Caroline becomes convinced that Shirley and Robert will marry. Shirley likes Robert, is very interested in his work, and is concerned about him and the threats he receives from laid-off millworkers. Both good and bad former employees are depicted. Some passages show the real suffering of those who were honest workers and can no longer find good employment; other passages show how some people use losing their jobs as an excuse to get drunk, fight with their previous employers, and incite other people to violence. Shirley uses her money to help the poorest, but she is also motivated by the desire to prevent any attack on Robert. +One night, Rev. Matthew Helstone asks Shirley to stay with Caroline while he is away. Caroline and Shirley realise that an attack on the mill is imminent. They hear the dog barking and realise that a group of rioters has come to a halt outside the rectory. They overhear the rioters talking about entering the house, but are relieved when they decide to go on. The women go to the mill together to warn Robert, but they are too late. They witness the ensuing battle from their hiding place. +The whole neighbourhood becomes convinced that Robert and Shirley will marry. The anticipation of this event causes Caroline to fall ill. Mrs Pryor comes to look after her and learns the cause of Caroline's sorrow. She continues her vigil even as Caroline worsens daily. Mrs Pryor then reveals to Caroline that she is Caroline's mother. She had abandoned her because Caroline looked exactly like her father, the husband who tortured Mrs Pryor and made her life miserable. She had little money, so when her brother-in-law offered to bring up the child, she accepted the offer, took up the name of Pryor and went off to become a governess. Caroline now has a reason to live, since she knows that she can go and live with her mother, and begins to recover. +Shirley's uncle and aunt come to visit her. They bring with them their daughters, their son, and their son's tutor, Louis Moore. He is Robert's younger brother and taught Shirley when she was younger. Caroline is puzzled by Shirley's haughty and formal behaviour towards Louis. Two men fall in love with Shirley and woo her, but she rejects both of them because she does not love them. The relationship between Shirley and Louis, meanwhile, remains ambivalent. There are days when Louis can ask Shirley to come to the schoolroom and recite the French pieces she learned from him when she was younger. On other days Shirley ignores Louis. However, when Shirley is upset the only person she can confide in is Louis. After a supposedly mad dog bites Shirley and makes her think that she is to die early, no one except Louis can make her reveal her fears. +Robert returns one dark night, first stopping at the market and then returning to his home with a friend. The friend asks him why he left when it seemed so certain that Shirley loved him and would have married him. Robert replies that he had assumed the same, and that he had proposed to Shirley before he left. Shirley had at first laughed, thinking that he was not serious, and then cried when she discovered that he was. She had told him that she knew that he did not love her, and that he asked for her hand not for her sake, but for her wealth. Robert had walked away filled with a sense of humiliation, even as he knew that she was right. This self-disgust had driven Robert away to London, where he realised that restoring the family name was not as important as maintaining his self-respect. He had returned home determined to close the mill if he had to, and go away to Canada to make his fortune. Just as Robert finishes his narration, his friend hears a gunshot and Robert falls from his horse. +The friend takes Robert to his own home and looks after him. After a turn for the worse, Robert slowly gets better. A visit from Caroline revives him, but she has to come secretly, hiding from her uncle and his friend and his family. Robert soon moves back to his own home and persuades his sister that the very thing their house needs to cheer it up is a visit from Caroline. Robert asks for Caroline's forgiveness. +Louis proposes to Shirley, despite the difference in their relative situations, and Shirley agrees to marry him. At first Caroline is to be Shirley's bridesmaid, but Robert proposes to her and she accepts. The novel ends with Caroline marrying Robert and Shirley marrying Louis. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9e7f0774e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +--- +title: "Shirley (novel)" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_(novel)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:11.913651+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Characters == +The four central characters are studies in contrast: the two friends Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar, and their lovers, the brothers Robert and Louis Gérard Moore. + +Robert Gérard Moore – A 30-year-old industrialist whose textile mill is idle because of the war. Perceived as an outsider because he comes from Antwerp, even though he is a cousin of Caroline's. Robert Moore installs new labour-saving machinery in his mill and becomes the target of Luddite attacks. +Louis Gérard Moore – Robert's brother, working as a tutor for Shirley's uncle. +Caroline Helstone – An 18-year-old timid and uncertain, but also wise and capable young woman, the niece of Rev. Helstone and best friend of Shirley. +Shirley Keeldar – A 21-year-old orphaned heiress to a fortune. A headstrong, independent and determined young woman. +Other characters in the novel include: + +Rev. Matthew Helstone – Caroline's uncle. A fierce man, who is not cruel, but still shows little affection for his niece. Marriage has made him distrustful of women in general. +Hortense Gérard Moore – Robert and Louis's sister. +Hiram Yorke – A local landowner. +Joseph "Joe" Scott – Robert Moore's foreman at the mill. +Mrs Pryor – Shirley's timid but wise governess, who moves to Fieldhead together with Shirley. She eventually turns out to be Caroline's long-lost mother, Mrs Agnes Helstone. +The three curates of the three parishes – the Anglo-Irishman Peter Malone, the Cockney Joseph Donne, and the amiable Davy Sweeting. +William Farren – a hardworking, patient worker. The book's example of the perfect working-class man. + +== Style == +Unlike Jane Eyre, which is written in the first person and narrated by the title character, Shirley is narrated by unnamed female third-person narrator, a Yorkshirewoman and younger friend of the Yorke family, looking back from the perspective of the late 1840s. For her third novel Villette, Brontë returned to first-person narration. + +== Adaptations == + +The novel has been adapted to the screen only once, in 1922. The silent adaptation was directed by A. V. Bramble and Carlotta Breese starred as the title character. +In March 2014, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a ten-episode dramatisation by Rachel Joyce in the station's 15 Minute Drama slot. Narrated by Lesley Sharp, the series starred Joanne Froggatt as Caroline and Jemima Rooper as Shirley. + +== Critical reception == +Coming soon after Jane Eyre, which was extremely successful, Shirley originally received a muted reception from critics. + +== References == + +== External links == + +Shirley at Standard Ebooks +Shirley at Faded Page (Canada) + Shirley public domain audiobook at LibriVox +Summary of the plot and themes of Shirley (eNotes) +"Shirley" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shots!!!-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shots!!!-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..120cd05ee --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shots!!!-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Shots!!!" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shots!!!" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:01.329841+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"Shots!!!" is the third episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series South Park. The 300th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 9, 2019. In the episode, Randy Marsh revels in a milestone reached by his marijuana farm, much to the ire of his wife. Meanwhile, in a parody of the antivaccine movement, Eric Cartman, terrified of needles, seeks to avoid a required immunization by citing fear that vaccines might make him "artistic", an eggcorn play on the word autistic, that is literally realized in the episode. + + +== Plot == +Randy Marsh celebrates the milestone $300,000 in profit that his business, Tegridy Farms, has made selling marijuana by organizing a parade and producing a television commercial touting the new customer base resulting from his recent deal with the Chinese government. However his wife, Sharon, is angered at him for undertaking these endeavors without considering their cost or consulting her, despite the fact that they purchased the farm together to avoid the type of business it has now become. She is also upset that the Chinese government purchases their product to use it to frame Chinese protesters in order to justify their arrests. +Meanwhile, Eric Cartman is terrified of needles and refuses to get vaccinated his school required by running around, squealing like a pig, and evading restraints whenever a shot is imminent. Threatened with expulsion from South Park Elementary, he attempts to avoid vaccinations by lobbying to be designated a conscientious objector, citing fears that vaccines might make him "artistic" (an eggcorn of autistic). He has his mother, Liane, repeat this notion at a town meeting, but she then abandons this ruse to confess with exasperation that she simply cannot restrain him for the shot. Fearing that this may threaten the herd immunity that protects their children, the other parents in town conspire with her to ambush Cartman with a shot as he sleeps, and when this fails, they hire an expert pig wrestler, Big Mesquite Murph, who captures Cartman and places him in a pen. However, Cartman proves too fast for Big Mesquite Murph to restrain, so a rodeo is organized, which will pit the non-immunized children of Park County against those attempting to administer the required shots. +When Liane goes to Tegridy Farms to buy marijuana, she and Randy end up commiserating over the conflicts they are each having with their loved ones. When she tells him he should feel lucky at having a partner in life, he realizes he has not been kind to that partner, who is owed an apology. He apologizes not to Sharon, but to his business partner, Towelie, admitting that he became greedy, and promises to end his business deal with the Chinese. Liane, realizing that being a mother is the only thing she knows how to do, crashes the rodeo to rescue Cartman, and is accidentally stuck with the needle intended for Cartman. After freeing her son, she takes him home, but denies him the toy that children get after being immunized. Cartman later goes to his doctor himself for the shot, but is told that his mother is exhibiting side effects from the heavy dose she accidentally received, which was not intended for an adult. Eric discovers her painting a still life, horrified that the vaccine has indeed made her "artistic". + + +== Reception == +Jesse Schedeen of IGN rated the episode a 6 out of 10, criticizing the episode for being a much weaker anniversary episode than the 200th episode. While he enjoyed the humor of the rodeo scene, he also stated that the episode "isn't really the epic anniversary celebration South Park deserved. The smaller scale compared to past episodes like '200' isn't the problem. It's more that 'Shots!!!' is a disjointed episode with two plot threads that barely have any relation to one another." +John Hugar of The A.V. Club was much more favorable of the episode, giving it a grade of "A", and calling it "the funniest episode of season 23 by a wide margin, and honestly, probably the best episode for pure comedy since Season 21's 'Sons a Witches'." He repeatedly praised both the story between Cartman's refusal to get vaccinated and the issues suffered by Liane in her attempts to be a good mother to Cartman, as well as the plot surrounding Randy and his marijuana farm. After commenting that the season has gotten better with each episode, he stated, "This episode gave us plenty of room to understand and relate to its characters, as well as giving us plenty of great jokes along the way. While so many of its contemporaries have gotten stale, giving viewers fewer and fewer reasons to care, South Park remains as sharp as ever." +Dani Di Placido of Forbes commented that this episode, much like the entire run of South Park, stood fast in its moral value of "refusing to sell out, or censor their stories." He praised its humor at the expense of "anti-vax conspiracy theorists" and noted in his summary that "While the 300th episode of South Park can't quite compete with the brilliance of last week's episode, the show seems to be only improving with age." + + +== References == + + +== External links == +"Shots!!!" Full Episode at South Park Studios +"Shots!!!" at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_ration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_ration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..da4c7b340 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_ration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Sledging ration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledging_ration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:18.219534+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sledging rations are a type of meal consumed by members of polar expeditions. These rations are designed for the use of sledging parties travelling long distances without support vehicles. They are meant to be calorically dense and provide a balanced diet. They must optimize weight and portability, as well as nutritional benefit. Typically, sledging rations are dehydrated to cut down on weight. + + +== Composition == + + +=== Staples === +Sledging biscuits are an essential component of sledging rations. These hard, long-life biscuits are made of flour, salt, butter, water and baking soda. Sledging biscuits are popular on expeditions in Antarctica because they are high in energy. Plasmon biscuits were taken in large quantities by Ernest Shackleton in his Antarctic Expedition of 1902, and were also favored by Douglas Mawson. Plasmon itself was a powdered milk extract used as a fortifying agent that was utilized in early sledging rations. +Hoosh (occasionally spelled hooch) is a stew made of sledging biscuits, pemmican and water. More broadly, it may be a mix of water with dried meat, fat, and a grain-based thickening agent. It was the common food of early twentieth century Antarctic expeditions, used, for example, by the expeditions of Robert Falcon Scott (1910–1913) and Ernest Shackleton (1914–1916). + + +=== 20th century === +For the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910 through 1913, daily rations for party members weighed over two pounds and provided 4,430 calories. They included pemmican, sugar, fortified biscuits, butter, cocoa and tea. +Gino Watkins developed a sledging ration in 1930 for the British Arctic Air Route Expedition. His formula (with modifications) was one of the most popular among polar winter parties until the 1950s. He recommended 5,522 calories per day for each member. Daily rations were composed mostly of pemmican, margerine, and fortified biscuits. Other major components included pea flour, Plasmon powder, Plasmon oats, sugar, cocoa, milk chocolate, and Horlicks. This was supplemented by cod liver oil, dried yeast, lime juice, and essential salts. +On the British North Greenland expedition, party members were issued rations that provided 4,164 calories per day. They included pemmican, butter, potato powder, cocoa, chocolate, sugar, rolled oats, dried milk, and biscuits. In 1959, it was determined that 4,800 calories per day is the optimum intake for sledging crews. + + +=== Modern rations === +Modern sledging rations provided by the British Antarctic Survey provide each crew member with around 3,500 calories per day. Main meals are typically freeze-dried or dehydrated, and supplemented with tea, coffee, chocolate and hot chocolate powder, orange drink, biscuits, butter, sugar, and powdered milk. Herbs, spices, and condiments comprise a supplementary "goodies box". + + +== See also == + Food portal +Hard tack +MRE + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +Anthony, Jason C. (2012). Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine. Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-2666-1. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4bf16ffde --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Socialist Patients' Collective" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:37.752644+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Socialist Patients' Collective (German: Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv, and known as the SPK) is a patients' collective founded in Heidelberg, West Germany, in February 1970 by Wolfgang Huber. The kernel of the SPK's ideological program is summated in the slogan, "Turn illness into a weapon", which is representative of an ethos that is continually and actively practiced under the new title, Patients' Front/Socialist Patients' Collective, PF/SPK(H). The first collective, SPK, declared its self-dissolution in July 1971 as a strategic withdrawal but in 1973 Huber proclaimed the continuity of SPK as Patients' Front. +The SPK assumes that illness exists as an undeniable fact and believe that it is caused by the capitalist system. The SPK promotes illness as the protest against capitalism and considers illness as the foundation on which to create the human species. The SPK is opposed to doctors, considering them to be the ruling class of capitalism and responsible for poisoning the human species. The most widely recognized text of the PF/SPK(H) is the communique, SPK – Turn illness into a weapon, which has prefaces by both the founder of the SPK, Wolfgang Huber, and Jean-Paul Sartre. +Rejecting the roles and ideology associated with the notion of the revolutionary as scientific explainer, they stated in Turn Illness into a Weapon that whoever claims they want to "observe the bare facts dispassionately" is either an "idiot" or a "dangerous criminal." + +== History == +The group was founded by Wolfgang Huber and became publicly known in 1970 at the psychiatric hospital of the University of Heidelberg. +The SPK established a "free space" for "political therapy", re-framing illness as a contradiction created by capitalism which could be embraced to bring an end to the system which gave it life. They believed that the sick formed a revolutionary class of dispossessed people who could be radicalized to struggle against oppression. Organizing by sickness instead of socio-economic class allowed middle-class student leftists to articulate their own feelings of psychic and political oppression and to struggle against the status quo in their own right in solidarity with other oppressed groups. Additionally, according to the SPK sickness had the advantage of being familiar to everyone, hence everyone was a potential revolutionary so long as they disavowed the medical establishment. Like other anti-psychiatry experiments, such as Kingsley Hall and Villa 21, SPK questioned the patient/doctor paradigm and ultimately called for an overthrow of the "doctor's class". +The SPK collective produced information leaflets, held teach-ins and Heidelberg University studied to recognize SPK as a part of the university. SPK conducted "agitations", called "single" (individual actions) and "group agitations" (collective actions), working from 9 am to 10 pm or later. +However, the SPK experiment was criticized by many within Heidelberg's university and psychiatric clinic and the SPK's funding, salaries and meeting space were threatened. Despite opposition to the SPK, in the autumn of 1970 the university convened an advisory panel of 3 experts who recommended that the SPK should be institutionalized in Heidelberg university. To counter this suggestion, Heidelberg university's faculty of medicine supported the establishment of a counter-panel consisting of three critics of the SPK who were mandated to campaign against the group. The Minister overseeing both panels ultimately sided with the 3 SPK critics and decided against implementing any of the recommendations from the pro-SPK panel. SPK's funding was subsequently cut and the group was evicted from the university campus. +The decision provoked a confrontation between the SPK and the university, which led to a sit-in and attracted the attention of a wider audience, including the police. Ultimately, the collective moved out of the university and into the homes of its members. On 24 June 1971, a mysterious shooting at Heidelberg police station was attributed to the Baader-Meinhof group, and based on that unrelated pretext, the police began conducting raids on SPK members' houses. Three hundred fifty officers were charged with finding the shooter. At its peak, the SPK counted about 500 members; of these, seven were arrested in the raids, including Huber on 21 July 1971. Firstly SPK was falsely linked to the Baader-Meinhof group but none of the SPK patients arrested was ever condemned due to any relation with the Baader-Meinhof group and neither was ever proved any relation within SPK and RAF. Accounts notice the brutality, legal irregularities and other sort of abuses which surrounded the case, and they also notice this was part of a disinformation campaign against SPK due to their revolutionary positions, and thus SPK was criminalized as part of a political persecution. +The rhetoric denouncing the SPK as engaged in "terrorist activity" and a precursor to the RAF re-emerged after the arrest of Kristina Berster, who crossed the US border illegally seeking asylum from West German counterterrorism operations. Berster was acquitted of all conspiracy charges, and the disinformation campaign was exposed by Greg Guma. +A West German embassy spokesman stated, "By all accounts the SPC was fairly harmless." Kristina Berster explained that "the purpose of the Socialist Patients Collective was to find out the reasons why people feel lonely, isolated and depressed and the circumstances which caused these problems." + +== Dissolution and the IZRU == +Even before Huber was arrested in June 1971, the SPK dissolved. The IZRU or Information Zentrum Rote Volks-Universität (in English; Information Center of the Red People's University) was founded by former SPK members; however, the IZRU was neither the official or unofficial SPK. It organized international congresses, founded a newspaper: RVU (or Rote Volksuniversität, People's Red University), supported prisoners and reprinted some SPK literature. + +== The SPK today == +Since 1973, the SPK has continued as Patients' Front/Socialist Patients' Collective, or PF/SPK(H). The refounding of the collective as Patient's Front was announced by Huber whilst he was in solitary confinement in Stammheim Prison, later called PF/SPK(H). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..acaa64900 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Socialist Patients' Collective" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Patients'_Collective" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:37.752644+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Interest and influence == +Discussion of the SPK in both German-language and English-language written sources increased during the 1970s, fell during the 1980s, and rose again during the 1990s. +Artistic projects that have cited the group include SPK, an industrial music and noise music group in Australia, founded in 1978 and dissolved in 1988, which was named after the collective. + +== See also == +Occupational burnout +Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? +West German Embassy siege in Stockholm + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Book: Wolfgang Huber, Socialist Patients' Collective/Patient's Front SPK/PF(H). SPK: Turn Illness into a Weapon. KRRIM - PF-Verlag für Krankheit, Heidelberg, 2002. ISBN 978-3-926491-17-6 +Book: Wolfgang Huber, Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv/Patientenfront, SPK/PF(H): SPK - Aus der Krankheit eine Waffe machen (6. erweiterte Aufl). Eine Agitationsschrift des Sozialistischen Patientenkollektiv an der Universität Heidelberg. Mit einem Vorwort von Jean-Paul Sartre und einer Zeittafel von den Anfängen ('65 ff) bis heute; Ausschnitt aus einer Rundfunksendung: Aus Krankheit stark Patientenfront. KRRIM - PF-Verlag für Krankheit, 1995. ISBN 978-3-926491-25-1. +Christian Pross, Sonja Schweitzer und Julia Wagner. Wir wollten ins Verderben rennen – die Geschichte des sozialistischen Patientenkollektivs Heidelberg 1970-1971. Unter Mitarbeit von Sonja Schweitzer und Julia Wagner, gefördert durch die Hamburger Stiftung zur Förderung von Wissenschaft und Kultur, Psychiatrie Verlag, Köln 2016, ISBN 978-3-88414-672-9. (A synopsis in English) +Book: Jillian Becker, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang, HarperCollins Distribution Services; New edition (28 June 1978) ISBN 978-0-586-04665-4. +Book: Tom Vague, Televisionaries: the red army faction story (1963–1993), AK Press; Rev. and Updated Ed edition (9 June 1994). ISBN 978-1-873176-47-4 + +== External links == +PF/SPK(H) - Official website of the Socialist Patients' Collective \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..715194ad9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Soil classification" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:39.637346+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Soil classification deals with the systematic categorization of soils based on distinguishing characteristics as well as criteria that dictate choices in use. Soil Classification is used in a variety of disciplines such as soil science, engineering, and environmental management, to elevate soil properties and determine the appropriate land use. Classification systems group soils according to measurable characteristics such as texture, structure, mineral composition, and the formation process. These new frameworks are designed to support research and help with infrastructure planning. Some of these major systems include soil taxonomy developed by the United States Department of Agriculture as well as engineering-based systems used to assess soil stability and performance. Educational resources from institutions such as the University of Idaho emphasize that these systems provide standardized methods for comparing soils across regions and applications. + +== Overview == +Soil classification is a dynamic subject, from the structure of the system, to the definitions of classes, to the application in the field. Soil classification can be approached from the perspective of soil as a material and soil as a resource. +Inscriptions at the temple of Horus at Edfu outline a soil classification used by Tanen to determine what kind of temple to build at which site. Ancient Greek scholars produced a number of classification based on several different qualities of the soil. + +=== Engineering === +Geotechnical engineers classify soils according to their engineering properties as they relate to use for foundation support or building material. Modern engineering classification systems are designed to allow an easy transition from field observations to basic predictions of soil engineering properties and behaviors. +The most common engineering classification system for soils in North America is the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). The USCS has three major classification groups: (1) coarse-grained soils (e.g. sands and gravels); (2) fine-grained soils (e.g. silts and clays); and (3) highly organic soils (referred to as "peat"). The USCS further subdivides the three major soil classes for clarification. It distinguishes sands from gravels by grain size, classifying some as "well-graded" and the rest as "poorly-graded". Silts and clays are distinguished by the soils' Atterberg limits, and thus the soils are separated into "high-plasticity" and "low-plasticity" soils. Moderately organic soils are considered subdivisions of silts and clays and are distinguished from inorganic soils by changes in their plasticity properties (and Atterberg limits) on drying. The European soil classification system (ISO 14688) is very similar, differing primarily in coding and in adding an "intermediate-plasticity" classification for silts and clays, and in minor details. +Other engineering soil classification systems in the United States include the AASHTO Soil Classification System, which classifies soils and aggregates relative to their suitability for pavement construction, and the Modified Burmister system, which works similarly to the USCS but includes more coding for various soil properties. +A full geotechnical engineering soil description will also include other properties of the soil including color, in-situ moisture content, in-situ strength, and somewhat more detail about the material properties of the soil than is provided by the USCS code. The USCS and additional engineering description is standardized in ASTM D 2487. + +=== Soil science === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..057dcad9b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Soil classification" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:39.637346+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +For soil resources, experience has shown that a natural system approach to classification, i.e. grouping soils by their intrinsic property (soil morphology), behaviour, or genesis, results in classes that can be interpreted for many diverse uses. Differing concepts of pedogenesis, and differences in the significance of morphological features to various land uses can affect the classification approach. Despite these differences, in a well-constructed system, classification criteria group similar concepts so that interpretations do not vary widely. This is in contrast to a technical system approach to soil classification, where soils are grouped according to their fitness for a specific use and their edaphic characteristics. +Natural system approaches to soil classification, such as the French Soil Reference System (Référentiel pédologique français) are based on presumed soil genesis. Systems have developed, such as USDA soil taxonomy and the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, which use taxonomic criteria involving soil morphology and laboratory tests to inform and refine hierarchical classes. Another approach is numerical classification, also called ordination, where soil individuals are grouped by multivariate statistical methods such as cluster analysis. This produces natural groupings without requiring any inference about soil genesis. +In soil survey, as practiced in the United States, soil classification usually means criteria based on soil morphology in addition to characteristics developed during soil formation. Criteria are designed to guide choices in land use and soil management. As indicated, this is a hierarchical system that is a hybrid of both natural and objective criteria. USDA soil taxonomy provides the core criteria for differentiating soil map units. This is a substantial revision of the 1938 USDA soil taxonomy which was a strictly natural system. The USDA classification was originally developed by Guy Donald Smith, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil survey investigations. Soil taxonomy based soil map units are additionally sorted into classes based on technical classification systems. Land Capability Classes, hydric soil, and prime farmland are some examples. +The USDA soil taxonomy places soils into hierarchical categories, including orders, suborders, great groups, subgroups, and families. There are twelve recognized soil orders in the United States, each reflecting distinct soil-forming processes and characteristics such as climate, vegetation, and mineral composition. According to the University of Idaho, understanding these orders helps scientists and land managers predict soil behavior for agriculture, conservation, and land development. International systems, including the Canadian soil classification system, use similar criteria with some variations to reflect local conditions and research advancements, highlighting the importance of standardized methods for comparing soils across regions. +Recent research on Canadian soils proposes the addition of a Leptosolic order (soils that are shallow or over bedrock), complementing existing USDA and international soil orders, and highlighting regional variations and ongoing refinement in soil classification systems. +The European Union uses the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), currently the fourth edition is valid. According to the first edition of the WRB (1998), the booklet "Soils of the European Union" was published by the former Institute of Environment and Sustainability (now: Land Resources Unit, European Soil Data Centre/ESDAC). +In addition to scientific soil classification systems, there are also vernacular soil classification systems. Folk taxonomies have been used for millennia, while scientifically based systems are relatively recent developments. Knowledge on the spatial distribution of soils has increased dramatically. SoilGrids is a system for automated soil mapping based on models fitted using soil profiles and environmental covariate data. On a global scale, it provides maps at 1.00–0.25 km spatial resolution. Whether sustainability might be the ultimate goal for managing the global soil resources, these new developments require studied soils to be classified and given its own name. + +=== OSHA === +The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires the classification of soils to protect workers from injury when working in excavations and trenches. OSHA uses three soil classifications plus one for rock, based primarily on strength but also other factors which affect the stability of cut slopes: + +Stable Rock: natural solid mineral matter that can be excavated with vertical sides and remain intact while exposed. +Type A - cohesive, plastic soils with unconfined compressive strength greater than 1.5 ton per square foot (tsf)(144 kPa), and meeting several other requirements (which induces a lateral earth pressure of 25 psf per ft of depth) +Type B - cohesive soils with unconfined compressive strength between 0.5 tsf (48 kPa) and 1.5 tsf (144 kPa), or unstable dry rock, or soils which would otherwise be Type A (lateral earth pressure of 45 psf per ft of depth) +Type C - granular soils or cohesive soils with unconfined compressive strength less than 0.5 tsf (48 kPa) or any submerged or freely seeping soil or adversely bedded soils (lateral earth pressure of 80 psf per ft of depth) +Type C60 - A subtype of Type C soil, though is not officially recognized by OSHA as a separate type, induces a lateral earth pressure of 60 psf per ft of depth +Each of the soil classifications has implications for the way the excavation must be made or the protections (sloping, shoring, shielding, etc.) that must be provided to protect workers from collapse of the excavated bank. +Soil classification in excavation work is important because different soil types vary in their ability to hold weight and avoid collapse. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, proper identification of soil conditions helps determine the protective systems required to reduce the risk of trench failures and worker injury. Multiple factors such as moisture content, vibrations from nearby equipment, and the presence of fissures can reduce soil stability and must be considered during site evaluation. These safety-based classifications differ from scientific soil taxonomy systems, as they are designed primarily to guide construction practices rather than to study soil formation or environmental characteristics. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0eddcfa7d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,72 @@ +--- +title: "Soil classification" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:39.637346+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== See also == +AASHTO Soil Classification System +Australian Soil Classification +Canadian system of soil classification +French soil classification +FAO soil classification (1974–1998) +International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH) +Unified Soil Classification System +USDA soil taxonomy +World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) (1998-) + +== References == + +== Further reading == + +=== Current international system === +Buol, S.W., Southard, R.J., Graham, R.C., and McDaniel, P.A. (2003). Soil Genesis and Classification, 5th Edition. Iowa State Press - Blackwell, Ames, IA. +Driessen, P., Deckers, J., Spaargaren, O., & Nachtergaele, F. (Eds.). (2001). Lecture notes on the major soils of the world. Rome: FAO. +W. Zech, P. Schad, G. Hintermaier-Erhard: Soils of the World. Springer, Berlin 2022. ISBN 978-3-540-30460-9 +IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, fourth edition. International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna 2022. ISBN 979-8-9862451-1-9 ([1]). +P. Schad: World Reference Base for Soil Resources - Its fourth edition and its history. In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 186, 2023, S. 151–163. doi: 10.1002/jpln.202200417 ([2]). + +=== Current national systems === +Agriculture Canada Expert Committee on Soil Survey. (1987). The Canadian system of soil classification (2nd ed.). Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre. +Avery, B. W. (1980). Soil classification for England and Wales: higher categories. Cranfield, England: Cranfield University, Soil Survey & Land Research Centre/National Soil Resources Institute. +Baize, D., & Girard, M. C. (Eds.). (1995). Référentiel pédologique 1995. Paris: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. +Baize, D., & Girard, M. C. (Eds.). (1998). A sound reference base for soils: The "Référentiel Pédologique" (English translation by Hodgson J.M., Eskenazi N.R., & Baize D. ed.). Paris: Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. +Baize, D., & Girard, M. C. (Eds.). (2008). Référentiel pédologique, troisième édition. Association française pour l'étude du sol (Afes). Versailles, France. +Hewitt, A. E. (1992). Soil classification in New Zealand: legacy and lessons. Australian Journal of Soil Research, 30, 843–854. +Hewitt, A. E. (2010). New Zealand soil classification, third edition. Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research. Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand. +Isbell, R. F. and the National Committee on Soil and Terrain. (2016). The Australian soil classification, second edition. CSIRO. Clayton South, Victoria, Australia. +Soil Classification Working Group. (2018). Soil classification: a natural and anthropogenic system for South Africa, third edition. Agricultural Research Council; Institute for Soil, Climate and Water. Pretoria, RSA. +Soil Survey Staff. (1999). Soil taxonomy: a basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service. + +=== Current technical systems === +Technical soil classification systems focus on representing some specific facet or quality of the soil, rather than a direct pedogenetic classification. Such technical classifications are developed with specific applications in mind, such as soil-water relationships, land quality assessment or geotechnical engineering. + +Boorman, D. B., Hollis, J. M., & Lilly, A. (1995). Hydrology of soil types: a hydrologically based classification of the soils of the United Kingdom (No. 126): UK Institute of Hydrology. +Klingebiel, A. A., & Montgomery, P. H. (1961). Land capability classification. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. +Sanchez, P. A., Palm, C. A., & Buol, S. W. (2003). Fertility capability soil classification: a tool to help assess soil quality in the tropics. Geoderma, 114(3–4), 157–185. +American Society for Testing and Materials, 1985, D 2487–83, Classification of Soils for Engineering Purposes: Annual Book of ASTM Standards. Vol. 04.08, pp 395–408. + +=== Earlier systems of historical interest === +Baldwin, M., Kellogg, C. E., & Thorp, J. (1938). Soil classification. In Soils and men: Yearbook of agriculture (pp. 979–1001). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture. +Simonson, R. W. (1989). Historical aspects of soil survey and soil classification with emphasis on the United States, 1899–1970. Wageningen, NL: International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC). + +=== Principles === +Eswaran, H., Rice, T., Ahrens, R., & Stewart, B. A. (Eds.). (2002). Soil classification : a global desk reference. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press. +Butler, B. E. (1980). Soil classification for soil survey. Oxford: Oxford Science Publications. Science, 96, +Cline, M. G. (1949). Basic principles of soil classification. Soil Science, 67(2), 81–91. +Cline, M. G. (1963). Logic of the new system of soil classification. Soil 17–22. +Webster, R. (1968). Fundamental objections to the 7th approximation. Journal of Soil Science, 19, 354–366. +Terzaghi Karl (1924). Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, Wiley-Interscience; 3 Sub-edition (January 1996, ISBN 0-471-08658-4) +kevin Hart (1923) . founded it + +=== Numerical classification === +McBratney, A. B., & de Gruijter, J. J. (1992). A continuum approach to soil classification by modified fuzzy k-means with extragrades. Journal of Soil Science, 43(1), 159–175. + +== External links == + +A Compendium of On-Line Soil Survey Information - Soil Classification for Soil Survey by D. G. Rossiter +OSHA Soil Classification \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_gravitational_lens-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_gravitational_lens-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2eacaf2e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_gravitational_lens-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Solar gravitational lens" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_gravitational_lens" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:55.003987+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A solar gravitational lens or solar gravity lens (SGL) is a theoretical method of using the Sun as a large lens with a physical effect called gravitational lensing. It is considered one of the best methods to directly image habitable exoplanets. + + +== History == +The solar gravitational lens is characterized by remarkable properties: it offers brightness amplification of up to a factor of ~1011 (at 1 μm) and extreme angular resolution (~10−10 arcsec). +Albert Einstein predicted in 1936 that rays of light from the same direction that skirt the edges of the Sun would converge to a focal point approximately 542 AUs from the Sun. A probe positioned at this distance from the Sun could use it as a gravitational lens for magnifying distant objects on the opposite side of the Sun. The probe's location could shift around as needed to select different targets relative to the Sun. In 1979, Von R. Eshleman was the first author proposing to use the Sun as a large lens. +The Sun's gravitational field bends light more prominently the closer it gets to the Sun. Light rays passing on opposite sides of the Sun meet at a focal point, forming a series of points along a line that extends from the star through the Sun's center. With the solar corona having an active and dynamic atmosphere, the beams of light passing close to the Sun are affected by the particles of the atmosphere. +A probe called SETIsail and later FOCAL was proposed to the ESA in 1993, but is expected to be a difficult task. If a probe does pass 542 AU, magnification capabilities of the lens will continue to act at farther distances, as the rays that come to a focus at larger distances pass further away from the distortions of the Sun's corona. +In 2020, NASA physicist Slava Turyshev presented his idea of direct multi-pixel imaging and spectroscopy of an exoplanet with a solar gravitational lens mission. The lens could reconstruct the image of an exoplanet 30 pc (98 ly) away with ~25 km-scale surface resolution in 6 months of integration time, enough to see surface features and signs of habitability. His proposal was selected for the Phase III of the NIAC 2020 (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts). Turyshev proposes to use realistic-sized solar sails (~16 vanes of 103 m2) to achieve the needed high velocity at perihelion (~150 km/sec), reaching 547 AU in 17 years. + + +== See also == +Einstein ring + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_to_Science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_to_Science-0.md index 8a297672d..ac7a64098 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_to_Science-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_to_Science-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet_to_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T06:14:22.015931+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:37.343966+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteria_(psychiatric_treatment)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteria_(psychiatric_treatment)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ddf8e4572 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteria_(psychiatric_treatment)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +--- +title: "Soteria (psychiatric treatment)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteria_(psychiatric_treatment)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:38.960685+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Soteria model is a milieu-therapeutic approach developed to treat acute schizophrenia, usually implemented in Soteria houses. +Based on a recovery model, the common elements of the Soteria approach include the use of primarily nonmedical staff, who do not prescribe or administer antipsychotic medication to patients, and the preservation of residents' personal power, social networks, and communal responsibilities. +Soteria houses provide a community space for people experiencing mental distress or crisis and have no restraint facilities. Loren Mosher, founder of the first Soteria house, believed that people with schizophrenia did, in fact, recover from the illness without the use of neuroleptics in a supportive home-like environment. +Soteria houses are often seen as gentler alternatives to the psychiatric hospital system, which is perceived as authoritarian, hostile, or violent, and overly reliant on the use of psychiatric (particularly antipsychotic) drugs. +Some psychiatrists contest the Soteria model's validity due to a perception that it diverges from the controversial biopsychosocial model, as well as research quality concerns. + + +== Etymology and mythological origin == +The term Soteria derives from the Ancient Greek word σωτηρία (sōtēria), meaning "deliverance," "preservation," or "salvation." In Greek mythology, Soteria was the personification of safety, protection, and deliverance from harm. She was associated with divine help and healing, and was closely linked to deities such as Zeus Sōtēr (Ζεύς Σωτήρ, "Zeus the Savior") and Asclepius, the god of medicine. +The name was chosen for the psychiatric treatment model "Soteria" to evoke the idea of a healing and protective environment that supports individuals in mental health crises without coercion or disempowerment. + + +== Theoretical model == +Traditional psychiatric wards function according to the medical model, in which physicians have considerable authority, and in which they rely heavily upon medications to treat or cure what those physicians view as patients' mental illnesses. Critics of this model have pointed out that its reliance on labeling inevitably produces consequences, namely stigmatization and objectification. +Soteria emerged as a response to former psychiatric patients who said that they needed "love and food and understanding, not drugs", by providing an alternative centered on development, learning, and growth, and by comparing its results to those of the traditional model. + + +== History == +The original Soteria Research Project was founded by psychiatrist Loren Mosher in San Jose, California, in 1971. A replication facility ("Emanon") opened in 1974 in another suburban San Francisco Bay Area city. Mosher was influenced by the philosophy of moral treatment, previous experimental therapeutic communities (such as the Fairweather Lodges), the work of Harry Stack Sullivan, and Freudian psychoanalysis. +Mosher's first Soteria house specifically selected unmarried patients between the ages of 18 and 30 who had recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia according to DSM-2 criteria. Staff members at the house were encouraged to treat residents as peers and to share household chores. The program was designed to create a quiet, calming environment that respected and tolerated individual differences and autonomy. There was also an ethos of shared responsibility in running the house and in playing a part in the mutually-supportive community, where the distinction between experts and non-experts was downplayed (similar to therapeutic communities). Though the model calls for no use of psychiatric medication, in practice, they were not completely rejected and were used in some circumstances. The Soteria staff, compared to staff in other psychiatric services, were found to possess significantly more intuition, introversion, flexibility, and tolerance of altered states of consciousness. +However, the Soteria Research Project was also the subject of much controversy. One of the main critiques was that the project was withholding evidence-based treatment as it was based on invalid anti-medication and anti-disease models, which went against the widely accepted biopsychosocial model of disease. Some also questioned the reported efficacy of the treatment, noting that Mosher's definition of patient recovery was staying off of drugs, with no assessment of their symptoms. +The US Soteria Project closed as a clinical program in 1983 due to lack of financial support, although it became the subject of research evaluation with competing claims and analysis. Second-generation US successors to the original Soteria house called Crossing Place are still active, although more focused on medication management. +Writing in 1999, Mosher described the core of Soteria as "the 24 hour a day application of interpersonal phenomenologic interventions by a nonprofessional staff, usually without neuroleptic drug treatment, in the context of a small, homelike, quiet, supportive, protective, and tolerant social environment." More recent adaptions sometimes employed professional staff. The Soteria approach has traditionally been applied to the treatment of those given a diagnosis of schizophrenia. + + +== Current implementations == +Soteria-based houses are currently run in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, the United States. +A first European near-replication of the original Soteria house was implemented in Bern, Switzerland, on May 1, 1984. However, the Bern approach differs from Mosher's original project in that it does not adopt the same anti-medical stance, using a consensual low-dose anti-psychotic treatment and including psychiatric staff. +The following criteria were required for patients to be admitted: + +Aged 17–35; +A recent onset of schizophreniform or schizophrenic psychosis defined by using DSM-III-R criteria, not more than one year before admission; +At least two of the following six symptoms within the previous four weeks: severely deviant social behaviors, schizophrenic disorders of affect, catatonia, thought disorders, hallucinations, delusions. +Research at Soteria Berne found that the majority of acute schizophrenia patients could be treated as successfully by this paradigm as by standard hospital proceedings, but with significantly lower doses of anti-psychotics and at similar daily costs. Some advantages of the Soteria model may be found at the subjective-emotional, familial, and social level. +In the context of increasing interest in the Soteria model in the United Kingdom, several European countries, North America, and Australasia, a review of controlled trials was conducted in order to evaluate the efficacy of the approach in the treatment of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The results indicated that the Soteria paradigm yields similar – and in certain cases better – results than standard treatment. However, as noted by the authors, the review was based on a limited number of studies of questionable quality, and more research is needed in order to form a better consensus. + + +== See also == + +Deinstitutionalization +Therapeutic community + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == + +Bentall R. (2009). Doctoring the mind: is our current treatment of mental illness really any good?. NYU Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8147-9148-6. +Johnson S.; Gilburt H.; Lloyd-Evans B.; Slade M. (2007). "Acute in-patient psychiatry: residential alternatives to hospital admission". The Psychiatrist. 31 (7): 262–264. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.106.011197. +Website on Soteria started by Loren Mosher. +Soteria Foundation A Hungarian Soteria organization that provides multiple services to people with mental health problems and their families and communities. +UK Soteria Network planning Soteria houses in the UK. +"Loren Mosher M.D. talks about Soteria Project and non-drug treatments for schizophrenia (video)". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 2010-08-14. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5de1567d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 1/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Space Race (Russian: космическая гонка, romanized: kosmicheskaya gonka, IPA: [kɐsˈmʲitɕɪskəjə ˈɡonkə]) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations following World War II and the onset of the Cold War. The technological advantage demonstrated by spaceflight achievement was seen as necessary for national security, particularly in regard to intercontinental ballistic missile and satellite reconnaissance capability, but also became part of the cultural symbolism and ideology of the time. The Space Race brought pioneering launches of artificial satellites, robotic landers to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and ultimately to the Moon. +Public interest in space travel originated in the 1951 publication of a Soviet youth magazine and was promptly picked up by US magazines. The competition began on July 29, 1955, when the United States announced its intent to launch artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year. Five days later, the Soviet Union responded by declaring they would also launch a satellite "in the near future". The launching of satellites was enabled by developments in ballistic missile capabilities since the end of World War II. The competition gained Western public attention with the "Sputnik crisis", when the USSR achieved the first successful satellite launch, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957. It gained momentum when the USSR sent the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into space with the orbital flight of Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961. These were followed by a string of other firsts achieved by the Soviets over the next few years. +Gagarin's flight led US president John F. Kennedy to raise the stakes on May 25, 1961, by asking the US Congress to commit to the goal of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the decade. Both countries began developing super heavy-lift launch vehicles, with the US successfully deploying the Saturn V, which was large enough to send a three-person orbiter and two-person lander to the Moon. Kennedy's Moon landing goal was achieved in July 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11. The USSR continued to pursue crewed lunar programs to launch and land on the Moon before the US with its N1 rocket but did not succeed, and eventually canceled it to concentrate on Salyut, the first space station program, and the first landings on Venus and on Mars. Meanwhile, the US landed five more Apollo crews on the Moon, and continued exploration of other extraterrestrial bodies robotically. +A period of détente followed with the April 1972 agreement on a cooperative Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), resulting in the July 1975 rendezvous in Earth orbit of a US astronaut crew with a Soviet cosmonaut crew and joint development of an international docking standard APAS-75. Being considered as the final act of the Space Race by many observers, the competition was however only gradually replaced with cooperation. The collapse of the Soviet Union eventually allowed the US and the newly reconstituted Russian Federation to end their Cold War competition also in space, by agreeing in 1993 on the Shuttle–Mir and International Space Station programs. + +== Origins == + +Although Germans, Americans and Soviets experimented with small liquid-fuel rockets before World War II, launching satellites and humans into space required the development of larger ballistic missiles such as Wernher von Braun's Aggregat-4 (A-4), which became known as the Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V-2) developed by Nazi Germany to bomb the Allies in the war. After the war, both the US and USSR acquired custody of German rocket development assets which they used to leverage the development of their own missiles. +Public interest in space flight was first aroused in October 1951 when the Soviet rocketry engineer Mikhail Tikhonravov published "Flight to the Moon" in the newspaper Pionerskaya pravda for young readers. He described a two-person interplanetary spaceship of the future and the industrial and technological processes required to create it. He ended the short article with a clear forecast of the future: "We do not have long to wait. We can assume that the bold dream of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky will be realized within the next 10 to 15 years." From March 1952 to April 1954, the US Collier's magazine reacted with a series of seven articles Man Will Conquer Space Soon! detailing Wernher von Braun's plans for crewed spaceflight. In March 1955, Disneyland's animated episode "Man in Space" which was broadcast on US television with an audience of about 40 million people, eventually fired the public enthusiasm for space travel and raised government interest, both in the US and USSR. + +=== Missile race === + +Soon after the end of World War II, the two former allies became engaged in a state of political conflict and military tension known as the Cold War (1947–1991), which polarized Europe between the Soviet Union's satellite states (often referred to as the Eastern Bloc) and the states of the Western world allied with the U.S. +In August 1949, the Soviet Union became the second nuclear power after the United States with the successful RDS-1 nuclear weapon test. In October 1957, the Soviet Union conducted the world's first successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), this was the R-7 Semyorka (also known as SS-6 by NATO) and was seen as capable of striking U.S. territory with a nuclear payload. Fears in the US due to this perceived threat became known as the 'missile gap'. The first American ICBM, the Atlas missile, was tested in late 1958. +ICBMs presented the ability to strike targets on the other side of the globe in a very short amount of time and in a manner which was impervious to air interception such as bombers might have been. The value which ICBMs presented in a nuclear standoff were very substantial, and this fact greatly accelerated efforts to develop rocket and rocket interception technology. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..af07aacad --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 2/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Soviet rocket development === + +The first Soviet development of artillery rockets was in 1921 when the Soviet military sanctioned the Gas Dynamics Laboratory, a small research laboratory to explore solid-fuel rockets, led by Nikolai Tikhomirov, who had begun studying solid and liquid-fueled rockets in 1894, and obtained a patent in 1915 for "self-propelled aerial and water-surface mines. The first test-firing of a solid fuel rocket was carried out in 1928. +Further development was carried out in the 1930s by the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD), where Soviet rocket pioneers Sergey Korolev, Friedrich Zander, Mikhail Tikhonravov and Leonid Dushkin launched GIRD-X, the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket in 1933. In 1933 the two design bureaus were combined into the Reactive Scientific Research Institute and produced the RP-318, the USSR's first rocket-powered aircraft and the RS-82 and RS-132 missiles, which became the basis for the Katyusha multiple rocket launcher, During the 1930s Soviet rocket technology was comparable to Germany's, but Joseph Stalin's Great Purge from 1936 to 1938 severely damaged its progress. +In 1945 the Soviets captured several key Nazi German A-4 (V-2) rocket production facilities, and also gained the services of some German scientists and engineers related to the project. A-4s were assembled and studied and the experience derived from assembling and launching A4 rockets was directly applied to the Soviet copy, called the R-1, with NII-88 chief designer Sergei Korolev overseeing the R-1's development., The R-1 entered into service in the Soviet Army on 28 November 1950. By the latter half of 1946, Korolev and rocket engineer Valentin Glushko had, with extensive input from German engineers, outlined a successor to the R-1, the R-2 with an extended frame and a new engine designed by Glushko, which entered service in November, 1951, with a range of 600 kilometres (370 mi), twice that of the R-1. This was followed in 1951 with the development of the R-5 Pobeda, the Soviet Union's first real strategic missile, with a range of 1,200 km (750 mi) and capable of carrying a 1 megaton (mt) thermonuclear warhead. The R-5 entered service in 1955. Scientific versions of the R-1, R-2 and R-5 undertook various experiments between 1949 and 1958, including flights with space dogs. +Design work began in 1953 on the R-7 Semyorka with the requirement for a missile with a launch mass of 170 to 200 tons, range of 8,500 km and carrying a 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) nuclear warhead, powerful enough to launch a nuclear warhead against the United States. In late 1953 the warhead's mass was increased to 5.5 to 6 tons to accommodate the then planned theromonuclear bomb. The R-7 was designed in a two-stage configuration, with four boosters that would jettison when empty. On the 21 August 1957 the R-7 flew 6,000 km (3,700 mi), and became the worlds's first intercontinental ballistic missile. Two months later the R-7 launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit, and became the basis for the R-7 family which includes Sputnik, Luna, Molniya, Vostok, and Voskhod space launchers, as well as later Soyuz variants. Several versions are still in use and it has become the world's most reliable space launcher. + +=== American rocket development === + +Although American rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard developed, patented, and flew small liquid-propellant rockets as early as 1914, the United States was the only one of the three major allied World War II powers to not have its own rocket program, until Von Braun and his engineers were expatriated from Nazi Germany in 1945. The US acquired a large number of V-2 rockets and recruited von Braun and most of his engineering team in Operation Paperclip. The team was sent to the Army's White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, in 1945. They set about assembling the captured V-2s and began a program of launching them and instructing American engineers in their operation. These tests led to the first photos of Earth from space, and the first two-stage rocket, the WAC Corporal-V-2 combination, in 1949. The German rocket team was moved from Fort Bliss to the Army's new Redstone Arsenal, located in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950. From here, von Braun and his team developed the Army's first operational medium-range ballistic missile, the Redstone rocket, derivatives of which launched both America's first satellite, and the first piloted Mercury space missions. It became the basis for both the Jupiter and Saturn family of rockets. + +Each of the United States armed services had its own ICBM development program. The Air Force began ICBM research in 1945 with the MX-774. In 1950, von Braun began testing the Air Force PGM-11 Redstone rocket family at Cape Canaveral. By 1957, a descendant of the Air Force MX-774 received top-priority funding. and evolved into the Atlas-A, the first successful American ICBM. The Atlas made use of a thin stainless steel fuel tank which relied on the internal pressure of the tank for structural integrity, this allowed an overall lighter weight design. WD-40 was developed to prevent rust on the Atlas rockets so that rust protecting paint could be avoided, to further reduce weight. +A later variant of the Atlas, the Atlas-D, served as a nuclear ICBM and as the orbital launch vehicle for Project Mercury and the remote-controlled Agena Target Vehicle used in Project Gemini. + +== ICBM capability, satellites, lunar probes (1955–1960) == +The period from 1955 to 1960 saw the first artificial satellites put into earth orbit by both the USSR and the US, the first animals sent into orbit, and the first robotic probes to impact and flyby the Moon by the Soviets. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8323426fd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 11/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The US and USSR began discussions on the peaceful uses of space as early as 1958, presenting issues for debate to the United Nations, which created a Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in 1959. +On May 10, 1962, Vice President Johnson addressed the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space revealing that the United States and the USSR both supported a resolution passed by the Political Committee of the UN General Assembly in December 1962, which not only urged member nations to "extend the rules of international law to outer space," but to also cooperate in its exploration. Following the passing of this resolution, Kennedy commenced his communications proposing a cooperative American and Soviet space program. +In 1963, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed by more than 100 signatories, including both the United States and the Soviet Union. This treaty followed the US test of a nuclear bomb detonated in outer space the year earlier called Starfish Prime. +The UN ultimately created a Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, which was signed by the United States, the USSR, and the United Kingdom on January 27, 1967, and came into force the following October 10. + +This treaty: + +bars party States from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit, on the Moon, or any other celestial body; +exclusively limits the use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes, and expressly prohibits their use for testing weapons of any kind, conducting military maneuvers, or establishing military bases, installations, and fortifications; +declares that the exploration of outer space shall be done to benefit all countries and shall be free for exploration and use by all the States; +explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the common heritage of mankind, "not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means". However, the State that launches a space object retains jurisdiction and control over that object; +holds any State liable for damages caused by their space object; +declares that "the activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty", and "States Parties shall bear international responsibility for national space activities whether carried out by governmental or non-governmental entities"; and +"A State Party to the Treaty which has reason to believe that an activity or experiment planned by another State Party in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, would cause potentially harmful interference with activities in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, may request consultation concerning the activity or experiment." +The treaty remains in force, signed by 107 member states. – As of July 2017 + +=== Anti-Satellite research === + +==== Istrebitel-sputnikov ==== + +In November 1968, dismay gripped the United States Central Intelligence Agency when a successful satellite destruction simulation was successfully orchestrated by the Soviet Union. As a part of the Istrebitel Sputnikov anti-satellite weapons research programme, the Kosmos 248 Soviet satellite was successfully destroyed by Kosmos 252 which was able to intercept within the 5 km 'kill radius' and destroyed Kosmos 248 by detonating its onboard warhead. This wasn't the beginning of the programme, years earlier intercept attempts had begun with maneuvering test of the Polyot satellites in 1964. + +==== SAINT ==== +Possibly as a response to the Soviet programme, the United States began Project SAINT, which was intended to provide anti-satellite capability to be used in the case of war with the Soviet Union. However, less is known about the mission profiles of this project compared to the Soviet programme, and the project was cancelled due to budget constraints. + +=== Disaster strikes both sides === +In 1967, both nations' space programs faced serious challenges that brought them to temporary halts. + +==== Apollo 1 ==== + +On January 27, 1967, the same day the US and USSR signed the Outer Space Treaty, the crew of the first crewed Apollo mission, Command Pilot Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, were killed in a fire that swept through their spacecraft cabin during a ground test, less than a month before the planned February 21 launch. An investigative board determined the fire was probably caused by an electrical spark and quickly grew out of control, fed by the spacecraft's atmosphere of pure oxygen at greater than one standard atmosphere. Crew escape was made impossible by inability to open the plug door hatch cover against the internal pressure. The board also found design and construction flaws in the spacecraft, and procedural failings, including failure to appreciate the hazard of the pure-oxygen atmosphere, as well as inadequate safety procedures. All these flaws had to be corrected over the next twenty-two months until the first piloted flight could be made. +Mercury and Gemini veteran Grissom had been a favored choice of Deke Slayton, NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, to make the first piloted landing. + +==== Soyuz 1 ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b0271cd98 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 12/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On April 24, 1967, the single pilot of Soyuz 1, Vladimir Komarov, became the first in-flight spaceflight fatality. The mission was planned to be a three-day test, to include the first Soviet docking with an unpiloted Soyuz 2, but the mission was plagued with problems. Problems began shortly after launch when one solar panel failed to unfold, leading to a shortage of power for the spacecraft's systems. Further problems with the orientation detectors complicated maneuvering the craft. By orbit 13, the automatic stabilisation system was completely dead, and the manual system was only partially effective. The mission was aborted, Soyuz 1 fired its retrorockets and reentered the Earth's atmosphere. During the emergency re-entry, a fault in the landing parachute system caused the primary chute to fail, and the reserve chute became tangled with the drogue chute, causing descent speed to reach as high as 40 m/s (140 km/h; 89 mph). Shortly thereafter, Soyuz 1 impacted the ground 3 km (1.9 mi) west of Karabutak, and was found on fire. The official autopsy states Komarov died of blunt force trauma on impact. In the US during subsequent years, stories began circulating that in his last transmissions Komarov cursed the engineers and flight staff as he descended, or even that he cursed the Soviet leadership, and that these transmissions were received by an NSA listening station near Istanbul. This would contradict Soviet records of the radio transcripts, and historians such as Asif Azam Siddiqi and Robert Pearlman regard these claims to be fabrications. + +=== Both programs recover === + +The United States recovered from the Apollo 1 fire, fixing the fatal flaws in an improved version of the Block II command module. The US proceeded with unpiloted test launches of the Saturn V launch vehicle (Apollo 4 and Apollo 6) and the Lunar Module (Apollo 5) during the latter half of 1967 and early 1968. The first Saturn V flight was an unqualified success, and although the second suffered some non-catastrophic engine failures, it was considered a partial success and the launcher achieved human rating qualification. Apollo 1's mission to check out the Apollo Command and Service Module in Earth orbit was accomplished by Grissom's backup crew on Apollo 7, launched on October 11, 1968. The eleven-day mission was a total success, as the spacecraft performed a virtually flawless mission, paving the way for the United States to continue with its lunar mission schedule. +The Soviet Union also fixed the parachute and control problems with Soyuz, and the next piloted mission Soyuz 3 was launched on October 26, 1968. The goal was to complete Komarov's rendezvous and docking mission with the un-piloted Soyuz 2. Ground controllers brought the two craft to within 200 meters (660 ft) of each other, then cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy took control. He got within 40 meters (130 ft) of his target, but was unable to dock before expending 90 percent of his maneuvering fuel, due to a piloting error that put his spacecraft into the wrong orientation and forced Soyuz 2 to automatically turn away from his approaching craft. The first docking of Soviet spacecraft was finally realized in January 1969 by the Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 missions. It was the first-ever docking of two crewed spacecraft, and the first transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..373d34264 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 13/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Soviet Zond spacecraft was not yet ready for piloted circumlunar missions in 1968, after six unsuccessful automated test launches: Kosmos 146 on March 10, 1967; Kosmos 154 on April 8, 1967; Zond 1967A on September 28, 1967; Zond 1967B on November 22, 1967; Zond 1968A on April 23, 1968; and Zond 1968B in July 1968. Zond 4 was launched on March 2, 1968, and successfully made a circumlunar flight, but encountered problems with its Earth reentry on March 9, and was ordered destroyed by an explosive charge 15,000 meters (49,000 ft) over the Gulf of Guinea. The Soviet official announcement said that Zond 4 was an automated test flight which ended with its intentional destruction, due to its recovery trajectory positioning it over the Atlantic Ocean instead of over the USSR. +During the summer of 1968, the Apollo program hit another snag: the first pilot-rated Lunar Module (LM) was not ready for orbital tests in time for a December 1968 launch. NASA planners overcame this challenge by changing the mission flight order, delaying the first LM flight until March 1969, and sending Apollo 8 into lunar orbit without the LM in December. This mission was in part motivated by intelligence rumors the Soviet Union might be ready for a piloted Zond flight in late 1968. In September 1968, Zond 5 made a circumlunar flight with tortoises on board and returned safely to Earth, accomplishing the first successful water landing of the Soviet space program in the Indian Ocean. It also scared NASA planners, as it took them several days to figure out that it was only an automated flight, not piloted, because voice recordings were transmitted from the craft en route to the Moon. On November 10, 1968, another automated test flight, Zond 6, was launched. It encountered difficulties in Earth reentry, and depressurized and deployed its parachute too early, causing it to crash-land only 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) from where it had been launched six days earlier. It turned out there was no chance of a piloted Soviet circumlunar flight during 1968, due to the unreliability of the Zonds. +On December 21, 1968, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to ride the Saturn V rocket into space, on Apollo 8. They also became the first to leave low-Earth orbit and go to another celestial body, entering lunar orbit on December 24. They made ten orbits in twenty hours, and transmitted one of the most watched TV broadcasts in history, with their Christmas Eve program from lunar orbit, which concluded with a reading from the biblical Book of Genesis. Two and a half hours after the broadcast, they fired their engine to perform the first trans-Earth injection to leave lunar orbit and return to the Earth. Apollo 8 safely landed in the Pacific Ocean on December 27, in NASA's first dawn splashdown and recovery. +The American Lunar Module was finally ready for a successful piloted test flight in low Earth orbit on Apollo 9 in March 1969. The next mission, Apollo 10, conducted a "dress rehearsal" for the first landing in May 1969, flying the LM in lunar orbit as close as 47,400 feet (14.4 km) above the surface, the point where the powered descent to the surface would begin. With the LM proven to work well, the next step was to attempt the landing. +Unknown to the Americans, the Soviet Moon program was in deep trouble. After two successive launch failures of the N1 rocket in 1969, Soviet plans for a piloted landing suffered delay. The launch pad explosion of the N-1 on July 3, 1969, was a significant setback. The rocket hit the pad after an engine shutdown, destroying itself and the launch facility. Without the N-1 rocket, the USSR could not send a large enough payload to the Moon to land a human and return him safely. + +== Men on the Moon, space stations, space shuttles (1969–1991) == +The latter period of the space race began with the United States landing the first men on the Moon, and was followed by the Soviets operating the first space stations and putting the first robotic landers on Venus and Mars, the US space shuttles marking the first significant reusable space vehicles, and a cooling down of tensions with the first docking between a Soviet and American vessel. + +=== First humans on the Moon === + +Apollo 11 was prepared with the goal of a July landing in the Sea of Tranquility, just half a year after the first crewed flight to the Moon. The crew, selected in January 1969, consisted of commander (CDR) Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. They trained for the mission until just before the launch day. On July 16, 1969, at 9:32 am EDT, the Saturn V rocket, AS-506, lifted off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 in Florida. +The trip to the Moon took just over three days. After achieving orbit, Armstrong and Aldrin transferred into the Lunar Module named Eagle, leaving Collins in the Command and Service Module Columbia, and began their descent. Despite the interruption of alarms from an overloaded computer caused by an antenna switch left in the wrong position, Armstrong took over manual flight control at about 180 meters (590 ft) to correct a slight downrange guidance error, and set the Eagle down on a safe landing spot at 20:18:04 UTC, July 20, 1969 (3:17:04 pm CDT). Six hours later, at 02:56 UTC, July 21 (9:56 pm CDT July 20), Armstrong left the Eagle to become the first human to set foot on the Moon. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b8b10680e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 14/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The first step was witnessed on live television by at least one-fifth of the population of Earth, or about 723 million people. His first words when he stepped off the LM's landing footpad were, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Aldrin joined him on the surface almost 20 minutes later. Altogether, they spent just under two and one-quarter hours outside their craft. The next day, they performed the first crewed launch from another celestial body, and rendezvoused back with Collins in Columbia. But before they return ascended the Space Race came to a particular culmination. A few days before Apollo 11 left Earth, the Soviet Union launched the Luna 15 probe, entering lunar orbit just before Apollo 11 and eventually sharing it with Apollo 11. Aware of Luna 15, Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman was asked to use his goodwill contacts in the Soviet Union to prevent any collision. Subsequently, in one of the first instances of Soviet–American space communication the Soviet Union released Luna 15's flight plan to ensure it would not collide with Apollo 11, although its exact mission was not publicized. But as Apollo 11 was wrapping up surface activities, the Soviet mission command hastened Luna 15 and attempted its robotic sample-return mission before Apollo 11 would return. As Luna 15 descended just two hours before Apollo 11's launch and impacted at 15:50 UTC some hundred kilometers away from Apollo 11, British astronomers monitoring Luna 15 recorded the situation, with one commenting:“I say, this has really been drama of the highest order”. + +Apollo 11 left lunar orbit and returned to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. When the spacecraft splashed down, 2,982 days had passed since Kennedy's commitment to landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade; the mission was completed with 161 days to spare. With the safe completion of the Apollo 11 mission, the Americans won the race to the Moon. +Armstrong and his crew became worldwide celebrities, feted with ticker-tape parades on August 13 in New York City and Chicago, attended by an estimated six million. That evening in Los Angeles they were honored at an official state dinner attended by members of Congress, 44 governors, the Chief Justice of the United States, and ambassadors from 83 nations. The President and Vice president presented each astronaut with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The astronauts spoke before a joint session of Congress on September 16, 1969. This began a 38-day world tour to 22 foreign countries and included visits with the leaders of many countries. +The public's reaction in the Soviet Union was mixed. The Soviet government limited the release of information about the lunar landing, which affected the reaction. A portion of the populace did not give it any attention, and another portion was angered by it. +The first landing was followed by another, precision landing on Apollo 12 in November 1969, within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 spacecraft which landed on April 20, 1967. +In total the Apollo programme involved six crewed Moon landings from 1969 to 1972, and a total of twelve astronauts walked on the surface of the Moon. These were Apollo 11, Apollo 12, Apollo 14, Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17. + +==== Post-Apollo NASA: Shifting goals and budget cuts ==== +NASA had ambitious follow-on human spaceflight plans as it reached its lunar goal but soon discovered it had expended most of its political capital to do so. A victim of its own success, Apollo had achieved its first landing goal with enough spacecraft and Saturn V launchers left for a total of ten lunar landings through Apollo 20, conducting extended-duration missions and transporting the landing crews in Lunar Roving Vehicles on the last five. NASA also planned an Apollo Applications Program (AAP) to develop a longer-duration Earth orbital workshop (later named Skylab) from a spent S-IVB upper stage, to be constructed in orbit using several launches of the smaller Saturn IB launch vehicle. +In February 1969, President Richard M. Nixon convened a "space task group" to set recommendations for the future US civilian space program, headed by his vice president, Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew was an enthusiastic proponent of NASA's follow-up plans for permanent space stations in Earth and lunar orbit, perhaps a base on the lunar surface, and the first human flight to Mars as early as 1986 or as late as 2000. These would be serviced by an infrastructure of a reusable Space Transportation System, including an Earth-to-orbit Space Shuttle. Nixon had a 'better sense' of the declining political support in Congress for new Apollo-style programs, which had disappeared with the achievement of the landing, and he intended to pursue détente with the USSR and China, which he hoped might ease Cold War tensions. He cut the spending proposal he sent to Congress to include funding for only the Space Shuttle, with perhaps an option to pursue the Earth orbital space station for the foreseeable future. +AAP planners decided the Earth orbital workshop could be accomplished more efficiently by prefabricating it on the ground and launching it with a single Saturn V, which immediately eliminated Apollo 20. Budget cuts soon led NASA to cut Apollo 18 and 19 as well. Apollo 13 had to abort its lunar landing in April 1970 due to an in-flight spacecraft failure but returned its crew safely to Earth. The Apollo program made its final lunar landing in December 1972; the two unused Saturn Vs were used as outdoor visitor displays and allowed to deteriorate due to the effects of weathering. +The USSR continued trying to develop its N1 rocket, after two more launch failures in 1971 and 1972, finally canceling it in May 1974, without achieving a single successful uncrewed test flight. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..15ef9baba --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 15/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Soviet Lunar sample return and robotic rovers === +In late 1970 Luna 16 was launched by the Soviet Union, and became the first uncrewed probe to return a sample from the Moon. This was followed by Luna 20 and Luna 24 in subsequent years. +The Soviet Union was also able to successfully land the first robotic rover on the Moon in 1970, followed by another in 1973, with the Lunokhod missions. +These missions demonstrated continued Soviet willingness to compete with the US in the space race despite having lost the manned Moon landing aspect of the space race. + +=== Salyut and Skylab === + +Having lost the race to the Moon, the USSR seemed to decide to concentrate on orbital space stations instead of pursuing a crewed lunar mission. During 1969 and 1970, they launched six more Soyuz flights after Soyuz 3 and then launched a series of six successful space stations (plus two failures to achieve orbit and one station rendered uninhabitable due to damage from explosion of the launcher's upper stage) on their Proton-K heavy-lift launcher in their Salyut program designed by Kerim Kerimov. Each one weighed between 18,500 and 19,824 kilograms (40,786 and 43,704 lb), was 20 meters (66 ft) long by 4 meters (13 ft) in diameter, and had a habitable volume of 99 cubic meters (3,500 ft3). All of the Salyuts were presented to the public as non-military scientific laboratories, but three of them were covers for military Almaz reconnaissance stations: Salyut 2 (failed), Salyut 3, and Salyut 5. + +Salyut 1, the first space station, was launched by the Soviets on April 19, 1971. Three days later, the Soyuz 10 crew attempted to dock with it, but failed to achieve a secure enough connection to safely enter the station. The Soyuz 11 crew of Vladislav Volkov, Georgi Dobrovolski and Viktor Patsayev successfully docked on June 7, and completed a then record 22-day stay. The crew became the second in-flight space fatality during their reentry on June 30, when they were asphyxiated due to the spacecraft's cabin becoming depressurized, shortly after undocking. The disaster was blamed on a faulty cabin pressure valve, that allowed the air to vent into space. The crew was not wearing pressure suits and had no chance of survival once the leak occurred. To prevent a recurrence of the Soyuz 11 tragedy, Soviet engineers redesigned the Soyuz spacecraft and mandated that cosmonauts wear Sokol pressure suits during launch and landing, a requirement still in place today. +The United States launched a single orbital workstation, Skylab, on May 14, 1973. It was launched using a leftover Saturn-5 rocket from the Apollo programme. Skylab weighed 169,950 pounds (77,090 kg), was 58 feet (18 m) long by 21.7 feet (6.6 m) in diameter, and had a habitable volume of over 10,000 cubic feet (280 m3). Skylab was damaged during the ascent to orbit, losing one of its solar panels and a meteoroid thermal shield. Subsequent crewed missions repaired the station, and conducted valuable research. The third and final mission's crew, Skylab 4, set a human endurance record (at the time) with 84 days in orbit when the mission ended on February 8, 1974. Skylab stayed in orbit another five years before reentering the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia on July 11, 1979. +Salyut 4 broke Skylab's occupation record at 92 days. Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 were second-generation stations designed for long duration, and were occupied for 683 and 816 days. Salyut 7 improved upon earlier designs by allowing long-duration crewed missions and more complex experiments. These stations, with their expanded crew capacity and amenities for long term stay, carrying electric stoves, a refrigerator, and constant hot water. + +=== Venus and Mars robotic landings === + +==== Venus landings ==== +In 1970, the Soviet Union's Venera 7 marked the first time a spacecraft was able to return data after landing on another planet. Venera 7 held a resistant thermometer and an aneroid barometer to measure the temperature and atmospheric pressure on the surface, the transmitted data showed 475 C at the surface, and a pressure of 92 bar. +In 1975, Venera 9 established an orbit around Venus and successfully returned the first photography of the surface of Venus. Venera 10 landed on Venus and followed with further photography shortly after. +NASA initiated the Pioneer Venus project in 1978, successfully deploying four small probes into the Venusian atmosphere on December 9, 1978. The probes confirmed that Venus has little if any magnetic field, and cameras detected lightning in the atmosphere. The last transmissions were received on October 8, 1992, as its decaying orbit no longer permitted communications. The spacecraft burned up the atmosphere soon after, ending a successful 14-year mission that was planned to last only eight months. +In 1981, Venera 13 performed a successful soft-landing on Venus and marked the first probe to drill into the surface of another planet and take a sample. Venera 13 also took an audio sample of the Venusian environment, marking another first. Venera 13 returned the first color images of the surface of Venus, revealing an orange-brown flat bedrock surface covered with loose regolith and small flat thin angular rocks. Venera 14, an identical spacecraft to Venera 13, was launched 5 days apart with a similar mission profile. +In total ten Venera probes achieved a soft landing on the surface of Venus. +In 1984, the Soviet Vega programme began and ended with the launch of two crafts launched six days apart, Vega 1 and Vega 2. Both crafts deployed a balloon in addition to a lander, marking a first in spaceflight. +The US never caught up or matched the Soviet efforts to explore the surface of Venus, but did claim the title of the first successful probe to have flown by the planet and had notable success with the Pioneer atmospheric probes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-15.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-15.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..babafafb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-15.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 16/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Mars landings ==== +In 1971, the Soviet's Mars 2 successfully established Mars orbit and attempted a soft landing but crashed, becoming the first man-made object to impact Mars. This was shortly followed by Mars 3, a 358 kg lander, which successfully landed but the lander only transmitted data for 14.5 seconds before losing contact. +In 1976, NASA followed suit, and put two successful landers on Mars. These were Viking 1 and Viking 2. These landers were significantly larger than the Soviet Mars landers (Viking 1 was 3,527 kilograms). They were able to take the first photographs from the surface of Mars. +Viking 1 operated on the surface of Mars for around six years (On November 11, 1982, the Lander stopped operating after getting a faulty command) and Viking 2 for over three years (mission ended in early 1980). Both landers were equipped with a robotic sampler arm which successfully scooped up soil samples and tested them with instruments such as a Gas chromatography–mass spectrometer. The landers measured temperatures ranging from negative 86 degrees Celsius before dawn to negative 33 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Both landers had issues obtaining accurate results from their seismometers. +Photographs from the landers and orbiters surpassed expectations in quality and quantity. The total exceeded 4,500 from the landers and 52,000 from the orbiters. +The Viking landers recorded atmospheric pressures ranging from below 7 millibars (0.0068 bars) to over 10 millibars (0.0108 bars) over the Martian year, leading to the conclusion that atmospheric pressure varies by 30 percent during the Martian year because carbon dioxide condenses and sublimes at the polar caps. Martian winds generally blow more slowly than expected, scientists had expected them to reach speeds of several hundred miles an hour from observing global dust storms, but neither lander recorded gusts over 120 kilometers (74 miles) an hour, and average velocities were considerably lower. Nevertheless, the orbiters observed more than a dozen small dust storms. The Viking landers detected nitrogen in the atmosphere for the first time, and that it was a significant component of the Martian atmosphere. There was speculation from the atmospheric analysis that the atmosphere of Mars used to be much denser. +The Soviets did not match the Martian lander achievements of NASA, but did claim the title of the first lander. + +=== Apollo–Soyuz Test Project === + +In May 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev negotiated an easing of relations known as détente, creating a temporary "thaw" in the Cold War. The two nations planned a joint mission to dock the last US Apollo craft with a Soyuz, known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). To prepare, the US designed a docking module for the Apollo that was compatible with the Soviet docking system, which allowed any of their craft to dock with any other (e.g. Soyuz-to-Soyuz as well as Soyuz-to-Salyut). The module was also necessary as an airlock to allow the men to visit each other's craft, which had incompatible cabin atmospheres. The USSR used the Soyuz 16 mission in December 1974 to test modifications of the Soyuz atmosphere and the docking adapter to prepare for ASTP. +The joint mission began when Soyuz 19 was first launched on July 15, 1975, at 12:20 UTC, and the Apollo craft was launched with the docking module six and a half hours later. The two craft rendezvoused and docked on July 17 at 16:19 UTC. The three astronauts conducted joint experiments with the two cosmonauts, and the crew shook hands, exchanged gifts, and visited each other's craft. + +=== Space Shuttles === + +NASA achieved the first approach and landing test of its Space Shuttle orbiter on a Boeing 747 carrier plane on August 12, 1977, and the first orbital test flight of a complete, crewed Space Shuttle, consisting of the orbiter, an external fuel tank, and two solid rocket boosters, on April 12, 1981. The designers underestimated the time and cost of refurbishment between flights, which reduced the cost benefit of its reusability. They also overestimated its safety: two of the fleet of five orbiters were lost in fatal flight accidents: one during launch, due to failure of a solid rocket booster seal; and one on reentry, due to launch damage of a wing heat shield. The Air Force was also supposed to use the Shuttle to launch its military payloads, but shunned it in favor of its expendable launchers after the first Shuttle loss. NASA ceased production of its Apollo spacecraft and Saturn IB launcher, and used the Shuttle as its orbital workhorse until 2011, then retired it due to the safety concern. Originally, more than 150 flights over a 15-year operation were expected; actually, the Shuttles made 135 flights in the 30-year lifespan of the series. +The Soviets interpreted the Shuttle as a military surveillance vehicle, and decided they had to develop their own shuttle, which they named Buran, beginning in 1974. They copied the aerodynamic design of NASA's Shuttle orbiter, which they strapped to the side of their expendable, liquid hydrogen-fueled Energia launcher. The Buran could be fitted with four Saturn AL-31 turbofan engines and a fuel tank in its payload bay, allowing it to make its own atmospheric test flights, which began in November 1985. Also unlike the US Shuttle, it could be flown pilotlessly and landed automatically. Energia-Buran made only one orbital test flight in November 1988, but US counterintelligence baited the Soviets with disinformation about the heat shield design, and it was not reusable for repeated flight. Buran was the largest and most expensive Soviet program in the history of the Space Race, and was effectively canceled by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, due to lack of funding. The Energia was also canceled at the same time, after only two flights. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-16.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-16.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3b03c6b04 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-16.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 17/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== First women in space === +The first woman in space was from the Soviet Union, Valentina Tereshkova. NASA did not welcome female astronauts into its corps until 1978, when six female mission specialists were recruited. This first class included scientist Sally Ride, who became America's first woman in space on STS-7 in June 1983. NASA included women mission specialists in the next four astronaut candidate classes, and admitted female pilots starting in 1990. Eileen Collins from this class became the first pilot to fly on Space Shuttle flight STS-63 in February 1995, and the first female commander of a spaceflight on STS-93 in July 1999. +The USSR admitted its first female test pilot as a cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya, in 1980. She became the first female to fly since Tereshkova, on Salyut 7 in December 1981. + +=== First modular space station === +The USSR turned its space program to the development of the low Earth orbit modular space station Mir (peace or world) assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. At 129,700 kilograms (285,900 lb), it held records for the largest spacecraft and the longest continuous human presence in space at 3,644 days, until the International Space Station was built starting in 1998. Mir's operation continued after the 1991 replacement of the USSR's space program with the Russian Federal Space Agency until 2001, supported by Soyuz spacecraft. + +== Analysis and reception == + +=== "Winner" of the Space Race === +The question of who won the Space Race has sparked considerable debate among historians and analysts. The United States is widely seen as the victor due to the Apollo crewed landing and moonwalk missions, which achieved President John F. Kennedy's ambitious goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s. This achievement, completed in July 1969, marked the pinnacle of U.S. space exploration efforts of the time and was regarded by most observers as the culmination of the Space Race. American political scientist Richard J. Samuels describes Apollo 11 as a "decisive American victory." + +The Moon race is often analyzed as a microcosm of the Space Race's broader dynamics. Historians such as Jennifer Frost argue that if the Space Race is measured in terms of overall spaceflight capability, the Soviet Union "won it hands down." Asif A. Siddiqi, a noted space historian, provides a more nuanced view, emphasizing the Soviet Union's dominance in smaller aspects of the race to the moon, yet critical, benchmarks such as the first lunar impact, first photos of the Moon's far side, first soft lunar landing, and first lunar orbit. These accomplishments laid the groundwork for lunar exploration, though they are often overshadowed by the Apollo 11 mission. After the period of détente, the Soviet Union managed to send 18 crafts to Venus. However, this did not generate wide speculation from the western world.Before that landing [Apollo 11], there was an enormous amount of investment in the robotic exploration of the Moon, both by the Soviets and the US, in terms of all sorts of smaller benchmarks like the first lunar impact, the first pictures of the far side of the Moon, the first soft lunar landing, and the first lunar orbit. We forget, but in those little races, the Soviet Union dominated almost every benchmark, but it is forgotten as the United States won the big one. + +=== Historians' analysis === +The Space Race was deeply intertwined with Cold War rivalries and reflected broader ideological contests between the United States and the Soviet Union. Historian Walter A. McDougall highlights how space exploration served as a demonstration of each superpower's political and technological systems, with the U.S. emphasizing transparency and democratic values, and the USSR showcasing the capabilities of its centralized, state-driven model. Asif A. Siddiqi stresses the importance of viewing the Space Race as more than a single-event competition. He notes that while the U.S. achieved the symbolic "big one" with the Apollo missions, the Soviet Union's early and sustained achievements in robotic lunar and interplanetary exploration reveal the broader, multi-faceted nature of the rivalry. + +== Legacy == +After the end of the Cold War in 1991, the assets of the USSR's space program passed mainly to Russia. Since then, the United States and Russia have cooperated in space with the Shuttle-Mir Program, and the International Space Station (ISS). The Russians continue to use their R-7 rocket family as their orbital workhorse to launch the Soyuz crewed spacecraft and its Progress derivative uncrewed cargo craft as shuttles to the ISS. After the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle, American crews were dependent on the R-7–Soyuz to reach the ISS, until the 2020 first flight of the US Crew Dragon Commercial Crew Development vehicle. +In 2023 the Russian Federation resumed the Luna missions as a part of the Luna-Glob programme with the launch of Luna 25 (47 years after the Soviet Luna 24), amidst American reignition of interest in the Moon with the Artemis program beginning with the launch of Artemis I in 2022. Some of this competitiveness is part of the New Space Race. + +== See also == + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-17.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-17.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cd5fb57c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-17.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 18/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Cited literature == +Bilstein, Roger E. (1996). Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. Washington: Scientific and Technical Information Branch, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ISBN 0-16-048909-1. +Burgess, Colin; Hall, Rex (2009). The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team. Chichester, UK: Praxis Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-84824-2. LCCN 2008935694. +Burgess, Colin; Kate Doolan; Bert Vis (2003). Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-6212-4. +Brzezinski, Matthew (2007). Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ingnited the Space Race. New York: Times Books, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-0-8050-8147-3. +Burrows, William E. (1998). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-44521-0. +Cadbury, Deborah (2006). Space Race: The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominance of Space. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-084553-7. +Chaikin, Andrew (1994). A Man on the Moon: The Triumphant Story of the Apollo Space Program. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-027201-1. +Chertok, Boris (2005). Rockets and People Volumes 1-4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved May 29, 2022. +Cornwell, John (2003). Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-03075-9. +Dallek, Robert (2003). An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-17238-3. +Leonard, David (2019). Moon Rush. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4262-2005-0. Archived from the original on January 8, 2023. Retrieved January 8, 2023. +Gainor, Chris (2001). Arrows to the Moon: Avro's Engineers and the Space Race. Burlington, Ontario: Apogee Books. ISBN 1-896522-83-1. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008. Retrieved August 2, 2019. +Gatland, Kenneth (1976). Manned Spacecraft, Second Revision. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0-02-542820-9. +Hall, Rex; Shayler, David J. (2001). The Rocket Men: Vostok & Voskhod, The First Soviet Manned Spaceflights. New York: Springer–Praxis Books. ISBN 1-85233-391-X. +Hall, Rex; Shayler, David J. (2003). Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft. New York: Springer–Praxis Books. ISBN 1-85233-657-9. +Hardesty, Von; Eisman, Gene (2007). Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race. Foreword by Sergei Khrushchev. Washington: National Geographic Society. ISBN 978-1-4262-0119-6. +Harford, James J. (1997). Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon (1 ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-14853-9. +Hepplewhite, T.A. (1999). The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA's Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle. Washington, DC: NASA. +Jones, Eric M. (January 1, 2010). "Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal". Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Internet. Archived from the original on January 16, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2010. +Kraft, Christopher C. (2001). Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-525-94571-7. +Murray, Charles; Cox, Catherine Bly (1990). Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Touchstone (Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0-671-70625-X. The link is to the 2004 edition, pages differ, but content the same. +Parry, Dan (2009). Moonshot: The Inside Story of Mankind's Greatest Adventure. Chatham, United Kingdom: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-192837-7. +Pekkanen, Saadia M. "Governing the New Space Race." AJIL Unbound 113 (2019): 92–97. online, role of international law. +Polmar, Norman; Timothy M. Laur (1990). Strategic Air Command: People, Aircraft, and Missiles (2 ed.). Baltimore: Nautical and Publishing Company of America. ISBN 0-933852-77-0. +Poole, Robert (2008). Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University. ISBN 978-0-300-13766-8. +Portree, David S.F. (March 1995). "Mir Hardware Heritage" (PDF). Johnson Space Center Reference Series. NASA Reference Publication 1357. Houston TX: NASA. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 23, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2023. +Schefter, James (1999). The Race: The uncensored story of how America beat Russia to the Moon. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-49253-7. +Schmitz, David F. (1999). "Cold War (1945–91): Causes". In Whiteclay Chambers, John (ed.). The Oxford Companion to American Military History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507198-0. +Seamans, Robert C. Jr. (1967). "Findings, Determinations And Recommendations". Report of Apollo 204 Review Board. NASA History Office. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2010. +Siddiqi, Asif A. (2018). Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (PDF). Washington D.C.: NASA History Division. p. xv. ISBN 978-1-62683-043-1. Retrieved March 22, 2021. +Siddiqi, Asif A. (2000). Challenge to Apollo: the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945–1974 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Div. Retrieved February 10, 2026. +Siddiqi, Asif A. (2003). Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2627-X. +Siddiqi, Asif A. (2003). The Soviet Space Race with Apollo. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. ISBN 0-8130-2628-8. +Stocker, Jeremy (2004). Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002. London: Frank Case. pp. 12–24. ISBN 0-7146-5696-8. +Swenson, Loyd S. Jr.; Grimwood, James M.; Alexander, Charles C. (1966). This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA. ISBN 1-934941-87-5. Retrieved January 8, 2023. +Turnhill, Reginald (2004). The Moonlandings: An Eyewitness Account. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81595-9. +Pervushin, Anton (2011). 108 minutes which changed the world (in Russian). Эксмо. ISBN 978-5-699-48001-2. + +== External links == + +Scanned letter from Wernher Von Braun to Vice President Johnson Archived May 13, 2005, at the Wayback Machine +"America's Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier", a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan +Why Did the USSR Lose the Moon Race? from Pravda, 2002-12-03 +Space Race Exhibition Archived January 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum +TheSpaceRace.com – Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs +Timeline of the Space Race to the Moon 1960 – 1969 Archived November 19, 2005, at the Wayback Machine +Shadows of the Soviet Space Age, Paul Lucas +Chronology:Moon Race at russianspaceweb.com +John F. Kennedy Moon Speech at Rice Stadium and Apollo 11 Mission Video on YouTube +Sergei Korolev: Father of the Soviet Union’s success in space ESA.int \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e78873225 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 3/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Artificial satellite development === +In 1955, with both the United States and the Soviet Union building ballistic missiles that could be used to launch objects into space, the stage was set for nationalistic competition. On July 29, 1955, James C. Hagerty, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's press secretary, announced that the United States intended to launch "small Earth circling satellites" between July 1, 1957, and December 31, 1958, as part of the US contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). On August 2, at the Sixth Congress of the International Astronautical Federation in Copenhagen, scientist Leonid I. Sedov told international reporters at the Soviet embassy of his country's intention to launch a satellite as well, in the "near future". + +==== Soviet secrecy and obfuscation ==== +On August 30, 1955, Sergei Korolev succeeded in convincing the Soviet Academy of Sciences to establish a commission dedicated to achieving the goal of launching a satellite into Earth orbit before the United States, this can be viewed as the de facto start date of the space race. The Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union began a policy of treating development of its space program as top-secret. When the Sputnik project was first approved, one of the immediate courses of action the Politburo took was to consider what to announce to the world regarding their event. The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) established precedents for all official announcements on the Soviet space program. The information eventually released did not offer details on who built and launched the satellite or why it was launched. +The Soviet space program's use of secrecy served as both a tool to prevent the leaking of classified information between countries, and to avoid revealing specifics to the Soviet populace in regards to their short and long term goals; the program's nature embodied ambiguous messages concerning its goals, successes, and values. Launches were not announced until they took place, cosmonaut names were not released until they flew, and outside observers did not know the size or shape of their rockets or cabins of most of their spaceships, except for the first Sputniks, lunar probes, and Venus probe. + +The Soviet military maintained control over the space program; Korolev's OKB-1 design bureau was subordinated under the Ministry of General Machine Building, tasked with the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and continued to give its assets random identifiers into the 1960s. Information about failures was systematically withheld, historian James Andrews notes that Soviet media coverage of the space program, particularly human space missions, rarely reported any failures or difficulties, creating the impression of a flawless operation:"With almost no exceptions, coverage of Soviet space exploits, especially in the case of human space missions, omitted reports of failure or trouble".Dominic Phelan noted in the book Cold War Space Sleuths (Springer-Praxis 2013): "The USSR was famously described by Winston Churchill as 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma' and nothing signified this more than the search for the truth behind its space program during the Cold War. Although the Space Race was literally played out above our heads, it was often obscured by a figurative 'space curtain' that took much effort to see through". + +==== US concerns and strategy ==== + +Initially, President Eisenhower was worried that a satellite passing above a nation at over 100 kilometers (62 mi) might be seen as violating that nation's airspace. He was concerned that the Soviet Union would accuse the Americans of an illegal overflight, thereby scoring a propaganda victory at his expense. Eisenhower and his advisors were of the opinion that a nation's airspace sovereignty did not extend past the Kármán line, and they used the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year launches to establish this principle in international law. Eisenhower also feared that he might cause an international incident and be called a "warmonger" if he were to use military missiles as launchers. Therefore, he selected the untried Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard rocket, which was a research-only rocket. This meant that von Braun's team was not allowed to put a satellite into orbit with their Jupiter-C rocket, because of its intended use as a future military vehicle. On September 20, 1956, von Braun and his team did launch a Jupiter-C that was capable of putting a satellite into orbit, but the launch was used only as a suborbital test of reentry vehicle technology. + +=== Sputnik === + +Korolev received word about von Braun's 1956 Jupiter-C test and, mistakenly thinking it was a satellite mission that failed, expedited plans to get his own satellite in orbit. Since the R-7 was substantially more powerful than any of the US launch vehicles, he made sure to take full advantage of this capability by designing Object D as his primary satellite. It was given the designation 'D', to distinguish it from other R-7 payload designations 'A', 'B', 'V', and 'G' which were nuclear weapon payloads. Object D dwarfed the proposed US satellites, having a weight of 1,400 kilograms (3,100 lb), of which 300 kilograms (660 lb) would be composed of scientific instruments that would photograph the Earth, take readings on radiation levels, and check on the planet's magnetic field. However, things were not going along well with the design and manufacturing of the satellite, so in February 1957, Korolev sought and received permission from the Council of Ministers to build a Prosteishy Sputnik (PS-1), or simple satellite. The council also decreed that Object D be postponed until April 1958. The new Sputnik was a metallic sphere that would be a much lighter craft, weighing 83.8 kilograms (185 lb) and having a 58-centimeter (23 in) diameter. The satellite would not contain the complex instrumentation that Object D had, but had two radio transmitters operating on different short wave radio frequencies, the ability to detect if a meteoroid were to penetrate its pressure hull, and the ability to detect the density of the Earth's thermosphere. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..16cc0ad11 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 4/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Korolev was buoyed by the first successful launches of the R-7 rocket in August and September, which paved the way for the launch of Sputnik 1. Word came that the US was planning to announce a major breakthrough at an International Geophysical Year conference at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., with a paper titled "Satellite Over the Planet", on October 6, 1957. Korolev anticipated that von Braun might launch a Jupiter-C with a satellite payload on or around October 4 or 5, in conjunction with the paper. He hastened the launch, moving it to October 4. The launch vehicle for PS-1 was a modified R-7 – vehicle 8K71PS number M1-PS – without much of the test equipment and radio gear that was present in the previous launches. It arrived at the Soviet missile base Tyura-Tam in September and was prepared for its mission at launch site number one. +The first launch took place on Friday, October 4, 1957, at exactly 10:28:34 pm Moscow time, with the R-7 and the now named Sputnik 1 satellite lifting off the launch pad and placing the artificial "moon" into an orbit a few minutes later. This "fellow traveler", as the name is translated in English, was a small, beeping ball, less than two feet in diameter and weighing less than 200 pounds. But the celebrations were muted at the launch control center until the down-range far east tracking station at Kamchatka received the first distinctive beep ... beep ... beep sounds from Sputnik 1's radio transmitters, indicating that it was on its way to completing its first orbit. About 95 minutes after launch, the satellite flew over its launch site, and its radio signals were picked up by the engineers and military personnel at Tyura-Tam: that's when Korolev and his team celebrated the first successful artificial satellite placed into Earth-orbit. +The next satellite sent by the Soviets after Sputnik 1 was Sputnik 2, launched on November 3, 1957, just a month later. This would put the first animal into orbit. + +=== US reaction to Sputnik === + +==== CIA assessment ==== +At the latest, the successful start of Sputnik 2 with the satellite weighing more than 500 kg proved that the USSR had achieved a leading advantage in rocket technology. The CIA, initially astonished, estimated the launch weight of the rocket at 500 metric tons, requiring an initial thrust exceeding 1,000 tons, and assumed the use of a three-stage rocket. In a classified report, the agency described the event as a "stupendous scientific achievement" and concluded that the USSR had likely perfected an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of accurately targeting any location. In reality, the launch weight of the Soviet rocket was 267 metric tons with an initial thrust of 410 tons with one and a half stages. The CIA's misjudgement was caused by extrapolating the parameters of the US Atlas rocket developed at the same time (launch weight 82 tons, initial thrust 135 tons, maximum payload of 70 kg for low Earth orbit). In part, the favourable data of the Soviet launcher was based on concepts proposed by the German rocket scientists headed by Helmut Gröttrup on Gorodomlya Island, such as, among other things, the rigorous weight saving, the control of the residual fuel quantities and a reduced thrust to weight relation of 1.4 instead of usual factor 2. The CIA had heard about such details already in January 1954 when it interrogated Göttrup after his return from the USSR but did not take him seriously. + +==== US reactions ==== +The Soviet success raised a great deal of concern in the United States. For example, economist Bernard Baruch wrote in an open letter titled "The Lessons of Defeat" to the New York Herald Tribune: "While we devote our industrial and technological power to producing new model automobiles and more gadgets, the Soviet Union is conquering space. ... It is Russia, not the United States, who has had the imagination to hitch its wagon to the stars and the skill to reach for the moon and all but grasp it. America is worried. It should be." +Eisenhower ordered project Vanguard to move up its timetable and launch its satellite much sooner than originally planned. The December 6, 1957 Project Vanguard launch failure occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It was a monumental failure, exploding a few seconds after launch, and it became an international joke. The satellite appeared in newspapers under the names Flopnik, Stayputnik, Kaputnik, and Dudnik. In the United Nations, the Soviet delegate offered the US representative aid "under the Soviet program of technical assistance to backwards nations." Only in the wake of this very public failure did von Braun's Redstone team get the go-ahead to launch their Jupiter-C rocket as soon as they could. In Britain, the US's Western Cold War ally, the reaction was mixed: some celebrated the fact that the Soviets had reached space first, while others feared the destructive potential that military uses of spacecraft might bring. The Daily Express predicted that the US would catch up to and pass the USSR in space; "never doubt for a moment that America would be successful". + +=== Explorer === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c6cb1bb67 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 5/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On January 31, 1958, nearly four months after the launch of Sputnik 1, aerospace and space engineer, Dr. Wernher von Braun and the United States successfully launched its first satellite on a four-stage Juno I rocket derived from the US Army's Redstone missile, at Cape Canaveral. The satellite Explorer 1 was 30.66 pounds (13.91 kg) in mass. The payload of Explorer 1 weighed 18.35 pounds (8.32 kg). It carried a micrometeorite gauge and a Geiger-Müller tube. It passed in and out of the Earth-encompassing radiation belt with its 194-by-1,368-nautical-mile (360 by 2,534 km) orbit, therefore saturating the tube's capacity and proving what Dr. James Van Allen, a space scientist at the University of Iowa, had theorized. The belt, named the Van Allen radiation belt, is a doughnut-shaped zone of high-level radiation intensity around the Earth above the magnetic equator. Van Allen was also the man who designed and built the satellite instrumentation of Explorer 1. The satellite measured three phenomena: cosmic ray and radiation levels, the temperature in the spacecraft, and the frequency of collisions with micrometeorites. The satellite had no memory for data storage, therefore it had to transmit continuously. The next successful mission was Explorer 3, launched later that month (March 26, 1958), which carried similar scientific instruments and successfully recorded cosmic ray data. + +==== Creation of NASA ==== + +On April 2, 1958, President Eisenhower reacted to the Soviet space lead in launching the first satellite by recommending to the US Congress that a civilian agency be established to direct nonmilitary space activities. Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, responded by passing the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which Eisenhower signed into law on July 29, 1958. This law turned the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It also created a Civilian-Military Liaison Committee, appointed by the President, responsible for coordinating the nation's civilian and military space programs. +On October 21, 1959, Eisenhower approved the transfer of the Army's remaining space-related activities to NASA. On July 1, 1960, the Redstone Arsenal became NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, with von Braun as its first director. Development of the Saturn rocket family, which when mature gave the US parity with the Soviets in terms of lifting capability, was thus transferred to NASA. + +=== First mammals in space === + +The US and the USSR sent animals into space to determine the safety of the environment before sending the first humans. The USSR used dogs for this purpose, and the US used monkeys and apes. The first mammal in space was Albert II, a rhesus monkey launched by the US on a sub-orbital flight on June 14, 1949, who died on landing due to a parachute malfunction. +The USSR sent the dog Laika into orbit on Sputnik 2, the second satellite launched, on November 3, 1957, for an intended ten-day flight. They did not yet have the technology to return Laika safely to Earth, and the government reported Laika died when the oxygen ran out, but in October 2002 her true cause of death was reported as stress and overheating on the fourth orbit due to failure of the air conditioning system. At a Moscow press conference in 1998 Oleg Gazenko, a senior Soviet scientist involved in the project, stated "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We did not learn enough from the mission to justify the death of the dog...". + +=== Early lunar probes === + +In 1958, Korolev upgraded the R-7 to be able to launch a 400-kilogram (880 lb) payload to the Moon. The Luna program began with three failed secret 1958 attempts to launch Luna E-1-class impactor probes. The fourth attempt, Luna 1, launched successfully on January 2, 1959, but missed the Moon. The fifth attempt on June 18 also failed at launch. The 390-kilogram (860 lb) Luna 2 successfully impacted the Moon on September 14, 1959. The 278.5-kilogram (614 lb) Luna 3 successfully flew by the Moon and sent back pictures of its far side on October 7, 1959. +The US first embarked on the Pioneer program in 1958 by launching the first probe, albeit ending in failure. A subsequent probe named Pioneer 1 was launched with the intention of orbiting the Moon only to result in a partial mission success when it reached an apogee of 113,800 km before falling back to Earth. The missions of Pioneer 2 and Pioneer 3 failed whereas Pioneer 4 had one partially successful lunar flyby in March 1959. + +== Human spaceflight, space treaties, interplanetary probes (1961–1968) == +The period from 1961 to 1968 began with the first men sent to space, the first robotic explorations of other planets; with missions to Venus and Mars conducted by both the Soviet Union and the United States, robotic landings on the Moon, and the gestation of US ambition to land a man on the Moon. The 1960s saw significant advancements in crewed spaceflight by both Cold War adversaries, as well as the first nuclear detonation in space, research into anti-satellite technology, and the signing of historic international outer space treaties. + +=== First humans in space === + +==== Vostok ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8ba0b1836 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 6/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Soviets designed their first human space capsule using the same spacecraft bus as their Zenit spy satellite, forcing them to keep the details and true appearance secret until after the Vostok program was over. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module with a mass of 2.46 tonnes (5,400 lb) and a diameter of 2.3 meters (7.5 ft), with a cylindrical inner cabin housing the cosmonaut, instruments, and escape system; and a biconic instrument module with a mass of 2.27 tonnes (5,000 lb), 2.25 meters (7.4 ft) long and 2.43 meters (8.0 ft) in diameter, containing the engine system and propellant. After reentry, the cosmonaut would eject at about 7,000 meters (23,000 ft) over the USSR and descend via parachute, while the capsule would land separately, because the descent module made an extremely rough landing that could have left a cosmonaut seriously injured. The "Vostok spaceship" was first displayed at the July 1961 Tushino air show, mounted on its launch vehicle's third stage, with the nose cone in place concealing the spherical capsule. A tail section with eight fins was added in an apparent attempt to confuse western observers. This also appeared on official commemorative stamps and a documentary. The Soviets finally revealed the true appearance of their Vostok capsule at the April 1965 Moscow Economic Exhibition. + +On April 12, 1961, the USSR surprised the world by launching Yuri Gagarin into a single, 108-minute orbit around the Earth in a craft called Vostok 1. They dubbed Gagarin the first cosmonaut, roughly translated from Russian and Greek as "sailor of the universe". Gagarin's capsule was flown in automatic mode, since doctors did not know what would happen to a human in the weightlessness of space; but Gagarin was given an envelope containing the code that would unlock manual control in an emergency. +Gagarin became a national hero of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and a worldwide celebrity. Moscow and other cities in the USSR held mass demonstrations, the scale of which was second only to the World War II Victory Parade of 1945. April 12 was declared Cosmonautics Day in the USSR, and is celebrated today in Russia as one of the official "Commemorative Dates of Russia." In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations. +The USSR demonstrated 24-hour launch pad turnaround and launched two piloted spacecraft, Vostok 3 and Vostok 4, in essentially identical orbits, on August 11 and 12, 1962. The two spacecraft came within approximately 6.5 kilometers (3.5 nautical miles) of one another, close enough for radio communication, but then drifted as far apart as 2,850 kilometers (1,540 nautical miles). The Vostok had no maneuvering rockets to keep the two craft a controlled distance apart. Vostok 4 also set a record of nearly four days in space. The first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into space on Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, as (possibly) a medical experiment. She was the only one to fly of a small group of female parachutist factory workers (unlike the male cosmonauts who were military test pilots), chosen by the head of cosmonaut training because he read a tabloid article about the "Mercury 13" group of women wanting to become astronauts, and got the mistaken idea that NASA was actually entertaining this. Five months after her flight, Tereshkova married Vostok 3 cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, and they had a daughter. + +==== Mercury ==== + +The US Air Force had been developing a program to launch the first man in space, named Man in Space Soonest. This program studied several different types of one-man space vehicles, settling on a ballistic re-entry capsule launched on a derivative Atlas missile, and selecting a group of nine candidate pilots. After NASA's creation, the program was transferred over to the civilian agency's Space Task Group and renamed Project Mercury on November 26, 1958. The Mercury spacecraft was designed by the STG's chief engineer Maxime Faget. NASA selected a new group of astronaut (from the Greek for "star sailor") candidates from Navy, Air Force and Marine test pilots, and narrowed this down to a group of seven for the program. Capsule design and astronaut training began immediately, working toward preliminary suborbital flights on the Redstone missile, followed by orbital flights on the Atlas. Each flight series would first start unpiloted, then carry a non-human primate, then finally humans. +The Mercury spacecraft's principal designer was Maxime Faget, who started research for human spaceflight during the time of the NACA. It consisted of a conical capsule with a cylindrical pack of three solid-fuel retro-rockets strapped over a beryllium or fiberglass heat shield on the blunt end. Base diameter at the blunt end was 6.0 feet (1.8 m) and length was 10.8 feet (3.3 m); with the launch escape system added, the overall length was 25.9 feet (7.9 m). With 100 cubic feet (2.8 m3) of habitable volume, the capsule was just large enough for a single astronaut. The first suborbital spacecraft weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg); the heaviest, Mercury-Atlas 9, weighed 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) fully loaded. On reentry, the astronaut would stay in the craft through splashdown by parachute in the Atlantic Ocean. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bdc665c46 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 7/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, launching in a ballistic trajectory on Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft he named Freedom 7. Though he did not achieve orbit like Gagarin, he was the first person to exercise manual control over his spacecraft's attitude and retro-rocket firing. After his successful return, Shepard was celebrated as a national hero, honored with parades in Washington, New York and Los Angeles, and received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from President John F. Kennedy. +American Virgil "Gus" Grissom repeated Shepard's suborbital flight in Liberty Bell 7 on July 21, 1961. Almost a year after the Soviet Union put a human into orbit, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, on February 20, 1962. His Mercury-Atlas 6 mission completed three orbits in the Friendship 7 spacecraft, and splashed down safely in the Atlantic Ocean, after a tense reentry, due to what falsely appeared from the telemetry data to be a loose heat-shield. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy awarded Glenn with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in a ceremony at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York City, reminiscent of that given for Charles Lindbergh. +The United States launched three more Mercury flights after Glenn's: Aurora 7 on May 24, 1962, duplicated Glenn's three orbits, Sigma 7 on October 3, 1962, six orbits, and Faith 7 on May 15, 1963, 22 orbits (32.4 hours), the maximum capability of the spacecraft. NASA at first intended to launch one more mission, extending the spacecraft's endurance to three days, but since this would not beat the Soviet record, it was decided instead to concentrate on developing Project Gemini. + +=== Kennedy aims for a crewed Moon landing === + +Before Gagarin's flight, US President John F. Kennedy's support for America's piloted space program was lukewarm. Jerome Wiesner of MIT, who served as a science advisor to presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, and himself an opponent of sending humans into space, remarked, "If Kennedy could have opted out of a big space program without hurting the country in his judgment, he would have." As late as March 1961, when NASA administrator James E. Webb submitted a budget request to fund a Moon landing before 1970, Kennedy rejected it because it was simply too expensive. Some were surprised by Kennedy's eventual support of NASA and the space program because of how often he had attacked the Eisenhower administration's inefficiency during the election. +Gagarin's flight changed this; now Kennedy sensed the humiliation and fear on the part of the American public over the Soviet lead. Additionally, the Bay of Pigs invasion, planned before his term began but executed during it, was an embarrassment to his administration due to the colossal failure of the US forces. Looking for something to save political face, he sent a memo dated April 20, 1961, to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking him to look into the state of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. The two major options at the time were either the establishment of an Earth orbital space station or a crewed landing on the Moon. Johnson, in turn, consulted with von Braun, who answered Kennedy's questions based on his estimates of US and Soviet rocket lifting capability. Based on this, Johnson responded to Kennedy, concluding that much more was needed to reach a position of leadership, and recommending that the crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that the US had a fighting chance to achieve it first. +Kennedy ultimately decided to pursue what became the Apollo program, and on May 25 took the opportunity to ask for Congressional support in a Cold War speech titled "Special Message on Urgent National Needs". +He justified the program in terms of its importance to national security, and its focus of the nation's energies on other scientific and social fields. He rallied popular support for the program in his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech, on September 12, 1962, before a large crowd at Rice University Stadium, in Houston, Texas, near the construction site of the new Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center facility. +Khrushchev responded to Kennedy's challenge with silence, refusing to publicly confirm or deny the Soviets were pursuing a "Moon race". As later disclosed, the Soviet Union secretly pursued two competing crewed lunar programs. Soviet Decree 655–268, On Work on the Exploration of the Moon and Mastery of Space, issued in August 1964, directed Vladimir Chelomei to develop a Moon flyby program with a projected first flight by the end of 1966, and directed Korolev to develop the Moon landing program with a first flight by the end of 1967. In September 1965, Chelomei's flyby program was assigned to Korolev, who redesigned the cislunar mission to use his own Soyuz 7K-L1 spacecraft and Chelomei's Proton rocket. After Korolev's death in January 1966, another government decree of February 1967 moved the first crewed flyby to mid-1967, and the first crewed landing to the end of 1968. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4f9b2ef2b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 8/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Proposed joint US-USSR program ==== +After a first US-USSR Dryden-Blagonravov agreement and cooperation on the Echo II balloon satellite in 1962, President Kennedy proposed on September 20, 1963, in a speech before the United Nations General Assembly, that the United States and the Soviet Union join forces in an effort to reach the Moon. Kennedy thus changed his mind regarding the desirability of the space race, preferring instead to ease tensions with the Soviet Union by cooperating on projects such as a joint lunar landing. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev initially rejected Kennedy's proposal. However, on October 2, 1997, it was reported that Khrushchev's son Sergei claimed Khrushchev was poised to accept Kennedy's proposal at the time of Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. During the next few weeks he reportedly concluded that both nations might realize cost benefits and technological gains from a joint venture, and decided to accept Kennedy's offer based on a measure of rapport during their years as leaders of the world's two superpowers, but changed his mind and dropped the idea since he lacked the same trust for Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson. +Some cooperation in robotic space exploration nevertheless did take place, such as a combined Venera 4–Mariner 5 data analysis under a joint Soviet–American working group of COSPAR in 1969, allowing a more complete drawing of the profile of the atmosphere of Venus. Eventually the Apollo–Soyuz mission was realized afterall, which furthermore laid the foundations for the Shuttle-Mir program and the ISS. +As President, Johnson steadfastly pursued the Gemini and Apollo programs, promoting them as Kennedy's legacy to the American public. One week after Kennedy's death, he issued Executive Order 11129 renaming the Cape Canaveral and Apollo launch facilities after Kennedy. + +=== Lunar probes and robotic landers === + +The Ranger program, started in 1959 by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aimed to conduct hard impacts on the Moon and had its first success in 1962, after three failures due to launch aborts (Ranger 1 and Ranger 2) and a failure to reach the Moon (Ranger 3), when the 730-pound (330 kg) Ranger 4 became the first US spacecraft to reach the Moon, but its solar panels and navigational system failed near the Moon and it impacted the far side without returning any scientific data. Ranger 5 ran out of power and missed the Moon by 725 kilometers (391 nmi) on October 21, 1962. The first successful Ranger mission was the 806-pound (366 kg) Block III Ranger 7 which impacted on July 31, 1964. Ranger had three successful impacts out of nine attempts. +In 1963, the Soviet Union's "2nd Generation" Luna programme was less successful than the earlier Luna probes; Luna 4, Luna 5, Luna 6, Luna 7, and Luna 8 were all met with mission failures. However, in 1966 the Luna 9 achieved the first soft-landing on the Moon, and successfully transmitted photography from the surface. Luna 10 marked the first man-made object to establish an orbit around the Moon, followed by Luna 11, Luna 12, and Luna 14 which also successfully established orbits. Luna 12 was able to transmit detailed photography of the surface from orbit. Luna 10, 12, and Luna 14 conducted Gamma ray spectrometry of the Moon, among other tests. +The Zond programme was orchestrated alongside the Luna programme with Zond 1 and Zond 2 launching in 1964, intended as flyby missions, however both failed. Zond 3 however was successful, and transmitted high quality photography from the far side of the moon. + +Partly to aid the Apollo missions, the Surveyor program was conducted by NASA, with five successful soft landings out of seven attempts from 1966 to 1968. The Lunar Orbiter program had five successes out of five attempts in 1966–1967. +In late 1966, Luna 13 became the third spacecraft to make a soft-landing on the Moon, with the American Surveyor 1 having now taken second. Luna 13 made use of inflatable air-bags to soften it's landing. Surveyor 1 was a 995 kg lander, notably larger than the 112 kg Luna 13 E-6M lander. Surveyor 1 was equipped with a Doppler velocity sensing system that fed information into the spacecraft computer to implement a controllable descent to the surface. Each of the three landing pads also carried aircraft-type shock absorbers and strain gauges to provide data on landing characteristics, important for future Apollo missions. +Surveyor 3, which successfully touched down on the Moon April 20, 1967, carried a 'surface sampler' which facilitated tests of the Lunar soil. Based on these experiments, scientists concluded that lunar soil had a consistency similar to wet sand, with a bearing strength of about 10 pounds per square inch (0.7 kilograms per square centimeter, or 98 kilopascals), which was concluded to be solid enough to support an Apollo Lunar Module. The Surveyor 3 lander would be later visited by Apollo 12 astronauts. +On Nov. 17, 1967, before mission termination, Surveyor 6 fired its thrusters for 2.5 seconds, becoming the first spacecraft launched from the lunar surface. It rose about 10 feet (3 meters) before landing 8 feet (2.5 meters) west of its original spot. Cameras then examined the original landing site to assess the soil's properties. + +=== First interplanetary probes === +From the early 1960s both Cold War adversaries almost simultaneously initiated their own programmes which sought to reach other planets in the Solar System for the first time; namely Venus and Mars. + +==== Venus ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fc67f924d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 9/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Venus was of great interest in the field of planetary science due to its thick and opaque atmosphere, the atmospheres of other planets being a novel area of research at the time. +In 1961 the Venera Programme was initiated by the Soviet Union, with the launch of Venera 1. The programme would go on to mark many firsts in the exploration of another planet. Despite the later successes however, Venera 1 and Venera 2, intended to flyby Venus, resulted in failure due to losses of contact. +NASA would then initiate the Mariner program with the launch of Mariner 1 and Mariner 2. Mariner 1 failed shortly after launch, however Mariner 2 would become the first man-made object to flyby another planet in December 1962 when the probe passed by Venus. +Later in 1965/66, Venera 3, marked the first time a man-made object made contact with another planet after it impacted Venus on March 1, 1966, despite operational difficulties resulting in loss of contact with the craft. +In 1967, Mariner 5 flew by Venus and conducted atmospheric analysis. + +==== Mars ==== +In 1964, NASA's Mariner 4 became the first successful Mars flyby, transmitting 21 pictures of the planets surface. This was followed by Mariner 6 and 7 in 1969. + +=== First crewed spacecraft === +Focused by the commitment to a Moon landing, in January 1962 the US announced Project Gemini, a two-person spacecraft that would support the later three-person Apollo by developing the key spaceflight technologies of space rendezvous and docking of two craft, flight durations of sufficient length to go to the Moon and back, and extra-vehicular activity to perform work outside the spacecraft. +Meanwhile, Korolev had planned further long-term missions for the Vostok spacecraft, and had four Vostoks in various stages of fabrication in late 1963 at his OKB-1 facilities. The Americans' announced plans for Gemini represented major advances over the Mercury and Vostok capsules, and Korolev felt the need to try to beat the Americans to many of these innovations. He had already begun designing the Vostok's replacement, the next-generation Soyuz, a multi-cosmonaut spacecraft that had at least the same capabilities as the Gemini spacecraft. Soyuz would not be available for at least three years, and it could not be called upon to deal with this new American challenge in 1964 or 1965. Political pressure in early 1964 – which some sources claim was from Khrushchev while other sources claim was from other Communist Party officials – pushed him to modify his four remaining Vostoks to beat the Americans to new space firsts in the size of flight crews, and the duration of missions. + +==== Voskhod ==== + +Korolev's conversion of his surplus Vostok capsules to the Voskhod spacecraft allowed the Soviet space program to beat the Gemini program in achieving the first spaceflight with a multi-person crew, and the first "spacewalk". Gemini took a year longer than planned to make its first flight, so Voskhod 1 became the first spaceflight with a three-person crew on October 12, 1964. The USSR touted another "technological achievement" during this mission: it was the first space flight during which cosmonauts performed in a shirt-sleeve-environment. However, flying without spacesuits was not due to safety improvements in the Soviet spacecraft's environmental systems; rather this was because the craft's limited cabin space did not allow for spacesuits. Flying without spacesuits exposed the cosmonauts to significant risk in the event of potentially fatal cabin depressurization. This was not repeated until the US Apollo Command Module flew in 1968; the command module cabin was designed to transport three astronauts in a low pressure, pure oxygen shirt-sleeve environment while in space. +On March 18, 1965, about a week before the first piloted Project Gemini space flight, the USSR launched the two-cosmonaut Voskhod 2 mission with Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov. Voskhod 2's design modifications included the addition of an inflatable airlock to allow for extravehicular activity (EVA), also known as a spacewalk, while keeping the cabin pressurized so that the capsule's electronics would not overheat. Leonov performed the first-ever EVA as part of the mission. A fatality was narrowly avoided when Leonov's spacesuit expanded in the vacuum of space, preventing him from re-entering the airlock. To overcome this, he had to partially depressurize his spacesuit to a potentially dangerous level. He succeeded in safely re-entering the spacecraft, but he and Belyayev faced further challenges when the spacecraft's atmospheric controls flooded the cabin with 45% pure oxygen, which had to be lowered to acceptable levels before re-entry. The reentry involved two more challenges: an improperly timed retrorocket firing caused the Voskhod 2 to land 386 kilometers (240 mi) off its designated target area, the city of Perm; and the instrument compartment's failure to detach from the descent apparatus caused the spacecraft to become unstable during reentry. +By October 16, 1964, Leonid Brezhnev and a small cadre of high-ranking Communist Party officials deposed Khrushchev as Soviet government leader a day after Voskhod 1 landed, in what was called the "Wednesday conspiracy". +The new political leaders, along with Korolev, ended the technologically troublesome Voskhod program, canceling Voskhod 3 and 4, which were in the planning stages, and started concentrating on reaching the Moon. Voskhod 2 ended up being Korolev's final achievement before his death on January 14, 1966, as it became the last of the space firsts that the USSR achieved during the early 1960s. According to historian Asif Siddiqi, Korolev's accomplishments marked "the absolute zenith of the Soviet space program, one never, ever attained since." There was a two-year pause in Soviet piloted space flights while Voskhod's replacement, the Soyuz spacecraft, was designed and developed. + +==== Gemini ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7ab5866fe --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Space Race" +chunk: 10/18 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:01.305584+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Though delayed a year to reach its first flight, Gemini was able to take advantage of the USSR's two-year hiatus after Voskhod, which enabled the US to catch up and surpass the previous Soviet superiority in piloted spaceflight. Gemini had ten crewed missions between March 1965 and November 1966: Gemini 3, Gemini 4, Gemini 5, Gemini 6A, Gemini 7, Gemini 8, Gemini 9A, Gemini 10, Gemini 11, and Gemini 12; and accomplished the following: + +Every mission demonstrated the ability to adjust the crafts' inclination and apsis without issue. +Gemini 5 demonstrated eight-day endurance, long enough for a round trip to the Moon. Gemini 7 demonstrated a fourteen-day endurance flight. +Gemini 6A demonstrated rendezvous and station-keeping with Gemini 7 for three consecutive orbits at distances as close as 1 foot (0.30 m). Gemini 9A also achieved rendezvous with an Agena Target Vehicle (ATV). +Rendezvous and docking with the ATV was achieved on Gemini 8, 10, 11, and 12. Gemini 11 achieved the first direct-ascent rendezvous with its Agena target on the first orbit. +Extravehicular activity (EVA) was perfected through increasing practice on Gemini 4, 9A, 10, 11, and 12. On Gemini 12, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin spent over five hours working comfortably during three (EVA) sessions, finally proving that humans could perform productive tasks outside their spacecraft. +Gemini 10, 11, and 12 used the ATV's engine to make large changes in its orbit while docked. Gemini 11 used the Agena's rocket to achieve a crewed Earth orbit record apogee of 742 nautical miles (1,374 km). +Gemini 8 experienced the first in-space mission abort on March 17, 1966, just after achieving the world's first docking, when a stuck or shorted thruster sent the craft into an uncontrolled spin. Command pilot Neil Armstrong was able to shut off the stuck thruster and stop the spin by using the re-entry control system. He and his crewmate David Scott landed and were recovered safely. +Most of the novice pilots on the early missions would command the later missions. In this way, Project Gemini built up spaceflight experience for the pool of astronauts for the Apollo lunar missions. With the completion of Gemini, the US had demonstrated many of the key technologies necessary to make Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon, namely crewed spacecraft docking, with the exception of developing a large enough launch vehicle. + +=== Soviet crewed Moon programs === + +Korolev's design bureau produced two prospectuses for circumlunar spaceflight (March 1962 and May 1963), the main spacecraft for which were early versions of his Soyuz design. At the same time, another bureau, OKB-52, headed by Vladimir Chelomey, was developing the LK-1 lunar flyby spacecraft, which would be launched by Chelomey's Proton UR-500 rocket. The Soviet government rejected Korolev's proposals, opting to support Chelomey's project, who gained favor with Khrushchev by employing his son. +Officially, the Soviet lunar program was established on August 3, 1964, with the adoption of Soviet Communist Party Central Committee Command 655-268 (On Work on the Exploration of the Moon and Mastery of Space). The circumlunar flights were planned to occur in 1967, and the landings to start in 1968, intending to land a person on the Moon before the Apollo flights. Both of the bureaus submitted their projects for a crewed lunar landing. +Korolev's lunar landing program was designated N1/L3, for its N1 super rocket and a more advanced Soyuz 7K-L3 spacecraft, also known as the lunar orbital module ("Lunniy Orbitalny Korabl", LOK), with a crew of two. A separate lunar lander ("Lunniy Korabl", LK), would carry a single cosmonaut to the lunar surface. +The N1/L3 launch vehicle had three stages to Earth orbit, a fourth stage for Earth departure, and a fifth stage for lunar landing assist. The combined space vehicle was roughly the same height and takeoff mass as the three-stage US Apollo-Saturn V and exceeded its takeoff thrust by 28% (45,400 kN vs. 33,000 kN. The N1/3L was never successfully tested, the first flight suffered a fire in the first-stage Block A due to a loose bolt, leading to a catastrophic explosion 70 seconds into the flight. Further variations of the N1 had similar catastrophic results in testing. If successful, the N1 would have been capable of carrying a 95 metric tons payload into low earth orbit. The Saturn V comparatively used liquid hydrogen fuel in its two upper stages, and carried a 140.6 metric tons payload to orbit, enough for a three-person orbiter and two-person lander. +Chelomey's program assumed using a direct ascent lander based on the LK-1, LK-700, which would be launched using his proposed UR-700 rocket. Following Khrushchev's ouster from power, Chelomey lost his support in the Soviet government, and his proposal didn't receive any funding. Additionally, in August 1965, due to Korolev's opposition, work on the LK-1 was suspended, and later stopped completely. As a replacement, the circumlunar mission would use a stripped-down Soyuz 7K-L1 "Zond", while still retaining the Proton UR-500 booster. To fit two crewmembers, the Zond had to omit the Soyuz orbital module, sacrificing equipment for habitable cabin volume. + +=== Outer space treaties === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e52331631 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space diplomacy refers to the integration of the collaboration of the knowledge, technology, and legislation involved in science diplomacy as applied to the expanded exploration of space. As diplomatic relationships are integral to the mitigation of various health, scientific, natural or technological issues across nations, space diplomacy is a growing field in which various nations can come to a consensus on what is fair when it comes to the exploration and commercialization of space travel. + +== Background == +Space travel is a necessary resource for people around the world, especially when considering the use of satellites in areas like research or telecommunications. With the exploration of space, major issues are merging, such as environmental concerns and pollution or the monopolization of space travel. Space diplomacy allows for the consideration of such concerns, as officials, scientists, environmental activists, and private corporations can come together in order for both national and private space exploration to prosper. As a term, space diplomacy dates back to at least the 1960s. +Space diplomacy policy and legislation have evolved to accommodate novel space activities and challenges. Initially, from 1959 to 1980, U.S.-Soviet Cold War considerations drove the emergence of the majority of space diplomacy in the form of the slew of binding international agreements that continue to form the basis of the majority of today's space governance. Then, from 1980 to 2000, the rise in the number of both space activities actors and space actors slowed the development of next generation governance. This resulted in weaker, more voluntary diplomatic outputs. This trend continued from 2000, as actors like the European Union and Japan developed their own space diplomacy via instruments like the E.U.'s Galileo satellite navigation system, which went live in 2016, and Japan's Basic Space Law of 2008, while actors like China and the U.S. struggled to find common ground despite China's increasing capacity to reach into space. Today's picture is of increasingly complex space diplomacy, with governments and civil society keen to influence space development despite lacking strong international norms, laws, or standards that might inform such governance, a goal pursued by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. +The development of future space diplomacy for 2030 and beyond will have to accommodate these trends, which are likely to continue in terms of increasing numbers of activities and actors, for instance through greater involvement of civil society and Global South actors in the attempt to develop supportive legislative and policy solutions. Crucially, in order for space diplomacy to become effective in allowing the sustainable development of space, according to agencies like the U.N., governments must better incorporate civil society in the creation of norms and rules. An increase in the diversity of activities and actors may also result from the U.N.-facilitated Human Space Technology Initiative, launched in 2010 and instrumental in promoting access to space education, space data, and space technology and research facilities, as well as direct access to space via, for example, the U.N. facilitated launch of CubeSats. + +== International space law == + +=== Established international laws and regulations === +Outer space is one of the four identified "global commons", along with the ocean, the atmosphere, and Antarctica. Although the definition of what is a global domain is changing with time and inclusivity, these four domains representing aspects of the environment are the "common heritage of mankind," and as such they are resources that should be shared with all the countries of Earth. In other words, no nation has a sole claim, and the resources associated with these domains should be preserved for everyone. Current international regulations to protect space as a global common and for space travel have been set by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which governs that space exploration and the use of celestial bodies are to be used for “peaceful purposes” and for scientific research, as established in Resolution 2222 (XXI). The Treaty states that no country can achieve sovereign control over regions of space. Consequently, the Treaty requires that space should be used as a resource of all people. Space law itself is relatively new as a branch of international law, encompassing the need to designate the access to, and freedom to explore, space. Especially with the establishment of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in 1959, participating countries within the United Nations have worked to regulate further human expansion into space, via five main international treaties of space law. These treaties include the Rescue Agreement, the Space Liability Convention, the Registration Convention, and the Moon Treaty, which together regulate activities conducted on celestial bodies. Other agreements aside from the main five were also established in efforts to avoid the use of weapons of mass destruction in space, such as the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which bans the testing of nuclear based weapons in domains including space. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6676646f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Rising pressure to reform space law treaties and principles === +As the Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967 as a consequence of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, continuous updates to the international agreement to space accounts for the great expansion of space travel in the past 20 years. Despite the attempts to preserve space as a global commons, demands due to technological and science advancements in space, including space exploration and private spaceflight, like in the other global commons domains, have been threatening the guidelines set by the Outer Space Treaty. The “New Space” sector of private industry, which refers to civilian space activities funded by companies such as SpaceX, has been an increasingly competitive entity in the exploration and commercialization of space travel. Representing a contemporaneous space race, the growing network of privatized space flight requires legislation that would facilitate the union between both the public and private sectors of space travel and research across nations. Coupled with growing orbital and suborbital launches across the world, there is a growing need to reform the established legislation set by the United Nations. Another consideration for law reform is the increase in space trash and debris as a result of international orbital launches and exploration. +The Outer Space Treaty and other principles of space law ban the use or testing of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear warheads, including in stations in the Earth's orbit. Yet, it is still possible for a nation to participate in space military activities, such as the launching of a nuclear missile through space. Aside from private spaceflight or rover launches in the field of research, nations around the world have recognized the potential to use the domain of space for military defense. For example, the United States and Russia, two of the main actors in the current space race, have not signed the Moon Agreement and so have not agreed to the stipulations of the peaceful treatment of celestial bodies. Signed under the Trump administration in December 2019, the Space Force represents a new branch of the Defense Department and served to establish formal military jurisdiction in the Earth's orbit. The release of the 2020 Defense Space Strategy represents another effort by the United States to expand its national military and defense into space. +Other nations have also been involved in security considerations, such as the effort by the European Union to establish its own policies towards space security. This collaboration of European countries builds upon current shared policies while prioritizing the sustainability and security of space travel. + +=== Prevention of the militarization of space === +The members of the UN have been discussing the provisions of the Outer Space Treaty since the 1980s. In 1981, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space was presented by the UN General Assembly and has been discussed during the Conference on Disarmament as a resolution that reestablishes the principles of peace outlined in the original Outer Space Treaty. However, due to the clash between the priorities of the UN members, discussions for a Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space initiative have never come to full fruition. In favour of such hard legislation, in 2008, both China and Russia drafted and proposed the Prevention of an Arms Race in Space Treaty, which would serve to reaffirm the principles of the Outer Space Treaty while also preventing the militarization of space. Working on a softer policy-driven path, in 2019, the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Working Group on the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities finally reached consensus among its 84 member states on 21 'Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities.' The following year, to specifically counter an arms race in outer space, the U.N. General Assembly adopted Resolution 75/36, Reducing Space Threats through Norms, Rules and Principles of Responsible Behaviours. Issues like dual-use technology and the efficacy of an agreed set of principles versus the long time a formal U.N. treaty might take to be signed and ratified, and especially policed and verified, continue to pose problems. + +== Space privatization == +Over the past few decades, the space environment has dramatically changed as private companies entered the space exploration domain, meaning the sector is no longer the sole preserve of governments and their space agencies, such as NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Unlike the space race that occurred between the United States and Russia, this new era of the space race is accelerated by the competition of customers. Private companies in many nations have been involved in the satellite market for many years, and their efforts have paved the way for entrepreneurs to develop their own vision and contribution to space exploration. + +=== Privatization in the United States === +The U.S. space industry is composed of four sectors: (1) defense (2) intelligence, (3) commercial, and (4) civil space sectors. Space privatization is associated with the commercial space sector. For the most part, the U.S. national launch infrastructure has been privatized or leased to companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation. These competitors are focused on reducing the cost of access to space, for example through the reuse of launchers and spacecraft, making space accessible to people and not just trained astronauts. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..84b40f0df --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== SpaceX ==== +SpaceX was created in 2002 by entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor Elon Musk with the mission of taking humans to Mars and revolutionizing space technology. Over the past two decades, the company specialized in the manufacture and launch of rockets that directly competed with the United Launch Alliance, the contract holder for the launch of NASA and Department of Defense rocket launches. SpaceX was the first private company to dock a ship at the International Space Station (ISS), with the development of the Falcon 9 launch and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX designed the Falcon Heavy to not only launch future satellites into space and carry cargo, but to launch people to destinations like the Moon, or even Mars. SpaceX's ability to design a successful orbital transport system and Falcon 9 launch success at one-third the price of a traditional NASA-contracted launch demonstrates the private-sector capability to fulfill many current NASA functions at a fraction of the cost. Such achievement frees up NASA to concentrate on its core research and exploration missions in space and allows the private sector to invest in a self-sustaining space-based industry. + +==== Blue Origin ==== +Blue Origin was founded by Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, in September 2000, with the goal of making space travel more accessible and cheaper through reusable launch systems. Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origin aims to target the space tourism industry. The company development a vertical launch vehicle, the New Shepard, that could reach an altitude of 100 km and descend back to Earth by landing vertically. Blue Origin has also created the New Glenn rocket, a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that can carry a payload to orbit. Both innovations demonstrate the competition that is occurring in the private sector. Similar to Elon Musk's intention with SpaceX, Bezos aims to make innovations that will allow future generations to inhabit space. Specifically, Blue Origin's goal is to promote future generations to construct a space station in orbit around Earth, perpetually in motion to produce artificial gravity, where humans would re-create cities, national parks, and even famous sites. + +==== Virgin Galactic ==== +Founded by technology and retail entrepreneur Richard Branson in 2004, Virgin Galactic is a private space company that describes itself as “the world's first commercial space line.” Virgin Galactic has been planned to carry six passengers at a time into sub-orbital space and provide them six minutes of weightlessness in the course of a two and a half our flight. The technology differs from SpaceX and Blue Origin because the launch into space was not from the ground, but from a jet airplane. This ship flies to an altitude of about 18 km and releases a smaller, rocket powered spacecraft called SpaceShip Two, which is propelled to an altitude of about 100 km. Like SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic aims to transform the space sector by making space exploration easier for people. + +==== Bigelow Aerospace ==== +Bigelow Aerospace was founded by hotel magnate Robert Bigelow in 1999. The company wanted to provide a low-cost, low Earth orbit space station that is accessible to the commercial sectors. To accomplish this, the company started to create habitats that can expand after being deployed in space. The places would provide some protection from solar and cosmic radiation, space debris, and other elements. Biglelow first licensed an expandable module technology from NASA after the agency canceled a project called TransHab, which had developed it. The company then launched two spacecraft, Genesis 1 in 2006 and Genesis 2 in 2007, on Dnepr rockets from Russia, to demonstrate that expandable module technology. The spacecraft demonstrated that the modules were stable and maintained air pressure. In 2013, the company signed a contract with NASA to build a similar expandable module, called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), and install it on the ISS. In April 2016, this module was successfully deployed outside the International Space Station. The company is currently developing another module, the B330, in the hope of creating outposts in Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and on surface of the Moon, which could be visited by paying customers. In March 2020, however, Bigelow Aerospace laid off its workforce, and the company's future ambitions are unknown. + +==== Sierra Nevada Corporation ==== +Founded in 1963 by John Chisholm, the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is a privately held electronic systems provider and systems integrator specializing in microsatellites, telemedicine, and commercial orbital transportation services. SNC is notable for its Dream Chaser, a planned commercial crew spacecraft, which will ferry up to seven astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station. SNC was able to transition from small satellites to crewed spacecraft by partnering with companies such as Draper Laboratory, NASA's Langley Research Center, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance. Nevertheless, SNC hopes to use this mini shuttle, the Dream Chaser, to take a lead in space tourism and commerce real estate. In 2021, SNC will use the United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur rocket as the launch vehicle for Dream Chaser's cargo configuration. Furthermore, other products created by SNC includes spacecraft actuators that power the Mars rovers and hybrid rocket technologies that powered the first commercial astronaut to space. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..48e02ab55 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== International space privatization === +Space privatization is not only becoming prominent in the U.S.: competition amongst space programs in Russia, Europe, Japan, India, and China has been growing significantly. The European Space Agency was established before the alliance between Russia and the U.S. in 1975, following many years of independent aeronautical engineering research by individual nations. Similarly, Chinese, Japanese and Indian space agencies began in the 1960s. A number of smaller countries, including the United Arab Emirates, also are participating in the space competition. +China became the third nation to independently launch a human into orbit, in 2003, and its capabilities have since grown. China's visions include sending people to the Moon and building a space station as well as creating its own robotic explorer. Meanwhile, India launched its first unmanned mission to Mars in late 2013, and its probe entered Mars's orbit in September 2014. Since then, the Indian Space Research Organization has reached an agreement with NASA on subsequent explorations of Mars. China and the United Arab Emirates successfully sent spacecraft to orbit Mars in February 2021, which was when NASA landed its rover there. +The advancements of transportation infrastructure by both national and international private players have created an environment conducive to developing space-based industries that use commerce to greatly increase the quality of life and decrease the cost of living. Examples of space-based activities that have commercial potential include, but are not limited to, tapping space-based clean energy sources, mining asteroids for useful raw materials, developing safe venues for scientific experiments, upcycling/sequestering hazardous but valuable debris currently in space, tapping sources of water already in space, to decouple into oxygen and hydrogen for space fuels and oxidizers and to provide radiation shielding mass, and so forth. Collaboration between both public and private space companies in which the private sector develops the space industry and government parties and agencies, like NASA, buy transport and other key services, such as on-orbit facilities, as customers of the private providers. NASA, as an example, has already begun buying some space transportation in this manner. Such actions are leading to a comprehensive advancement in space. + +== Environmental consequences == +Due to the lack of sufficient established international space laws able to create boundaries and define the regulation of space, space exploration and private ownership of space incur negative consequences for Earth's environment and for space itself. Rocket and space launches have been steady since the space race, starting from 1955. However, the recent space race between billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have significantly increased the number of space launches: in 2019 alone, there were 443 launches. Space launches provide in-depth knowledge of space, create new markets, and spur space diplomacy; however, such a high increase in launches has several negative effects for Earth. + +=== Carbon dioxide emissions === +Space launches pose a problem for the environment because it can emit a very high quantity of carbon dioxide, depending on the size of the spacecraft or rocket, into the environment. Carbon dioxide occurs naturally in the atmosphere; however, a significantly increased amount of CO2 pollutes the air and traps radiation and heat from the sun. The build up of carbon dioxide prevents the Earth from cooling at night and causes climate change. The Falcon 9 launched by SpaceX in 2018, burned 112,184 kilograms of kerosene, which released 336,552 kg of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere. In 2020 alone, there were a total of 104 successful space launches, with each launch adding significantly to the CO2 buildup. Furthermore, because no strict space regulations exist for environmental maintenance, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is left unregulated, causing environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, there has been a surge in space companies professing awareness of the issues, and some are actively innovating ways to combat these large emissions. For example, Virgin Galactic announced it will burn fuel for only 60 seconds to limit the environmental effect. + +=== Black carbon accumulation === +Launching kerosene-fueled rockets and spaceships adds black carbon, also known as soot, to the upper layer of the atmosphere. Black carbon is a particle that absorbs solar energy, and in comparison to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it absorbs more than one million times of energy than CO2. The accumulation of black carbon that absorbs solar energy in the atmosphere can warm the atmosphere and so can significantly increase the rate of global warming. In addition, black carbon not only stays in the atmosphere but precipitates back onto the Earth while lowering the reflecting power of surfaces, important to maintaining a cool temperature. With the accumulation of black carbon, absorption replaces reflection. The increased absorption targets snow covered regions such as the Arctic ice caps. Because of the absorbance of solar energy in the ice, the Arctic ice cap is melting at an alarming rate. Sea levels are rising as a consequence, which threatens many cities and even countries. In response, some space companies, such as Orbex, planned on reducing black carbon in order to be more space conscious. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..421090ad7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Space junk === +Space junk is human made debris in the form of the remnants of rockets and spaceships; there exists no international agreement on the best way to remove it. This is problematic as four thousand active and inactive satellites in space are in danger of being struck by space debris. Space equipment affected in this way, as well as space junk itself, can plummet towards Earth and harm its environment and people. Removing such space junk is problematic because with the increasing amount of space equipment deployed by increasingly numerous countries, it is difficult to know if one piece of space junk targeted for removal is actually another country's active space property. Although the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has developed space debris mitigation guidelines where space launches should have a plan to remove the junk produced within 25 years, it is voluntary and is followed by only 40% of all space missions. + +== The Space2030 Agenda == +Rooted in the realization that space is a frontier transcending national boundaries and interests, with benefits that should be accessible to all countries, The Space2030 Agenda underscores the importance of international cooperation and the peaceful use of outer space. The Space2030 Agenda, created by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in partnership with UN Member States, aims to harness the potential of space science, technology, applications, and infrastructure for the benefit of humanity. It is designed as a key instrument for global sustainable development, fostering peaceful cooperation among the UN's Member States. The agenda encompasses space usage by government, intergovernmental, and non-governmental organizations, including private enterprises and industries from each UN Member State. +By integrating space technologies within the broader framework of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the agenda aims to leverage space technology and exploration to support sustainable development worldwide. It aims to address critical issues such as climate change, global health, disaster risk reduction, and socioeconomic development. A joint study titled 'Space4SDGs' between UNOOSA and the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Agency discovered that space technology benefits all 17 SDGs. +This agenda aims to make the benefits of space exploration and technology accessible to all countries, contributing to humanity's betterment. It’s objectives and implementation plan are structured around the four overarching pillars of space economy, space society, space accessibility, and space diplomacy, highlighting the multifaceted role of space in modern society. However, the implementation of the Space2030 Agenda may face various challenges, necessitating the creation of a more comprehensive space sustainability framework and regulatory structure. This is essential for establishing a circular space economy that operates within Earth's safe and just boundaries while simultaneously unlocking space's potential for everyone. + +=== Four Overarching Pillars === +There are four overarching pillars which under-gird The Space2030 Agenda and inform the strategic objectives within the document. These are: +Space Diplomacy: Fostering space diplomacy through partnerships and strengthening global collaboration in the peaceful utilization of outer space. +Space Economy: Boosting the economic advantages derived from space and reinforcing the space sector's impact as a key contributor to a sustainable economy. +Space Society: Promoting the societal advantages of space-related endeavors and maximizing the application of space technologies and services to enhance the quality of life on Earth. +Space Accessibility: Enhancing the availability of space for everyone, guaranteeing that nations worldwide can gain socioeconomic advantages from the use of space science, technology, and space-derived data and products. + +=== Objectives === +The primary objectives of the Space2030 Agenda are organized around the four pillars, and these are: +Objective 1: Boost the economic advantages gained from space and reinforce the space sector's role as a key catalyst for sustainable development. +Objective 2: Utilize the capabilities of space to address daily challenges and capitalize on space-related advancements to enhance the quality of life. +Objective 3: Improve the accessibility of space for everyone and guarantee that all nations can reap socioeconomic advantages from the applications of space science and technology, as well as from space-derived data, information, and products, thus aiding in the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). +Objective 4: Forge alliances and bolster global collaboration for the peaceful exploration of outer space, as well as in the international management of activities in outer space. + +=== Implementation === +UNOOSA will play a central role in facilitating the implementation of the Space2030 Agenda. This will be carried out in collaboration with Member States, international organizations, the private sector, academia, and civil society. + +==== Key Initiatives ==== +The Space2030 Agenda drives several key implementation initiatives to realize its goals, including a global partnership that includes international cooperation on space exploration, data sharing, and joint research. It also emphasizes the role of space tools in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through applications in environmental monitoring, agriculture, health, and disaster management. Additionally, the development of policy and legal frameworks is critical for fostering the peaceful use of outer space and promoting responsible conduct among nations and private entities engaged in space activities. + +==== Progress Reviews ==== +The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) is tasked with monitoring the progress of The Space2030 Agenda. It includes regular agenda items for Member States and permanent observers to exchange experiences and best practices. A midterm review is scheduled for 2025, followed by a final review in 2030, where the committee will report to the United Nations General Assembly on the implementation outcomes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6a6bbca0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Space diplomacy" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_diplomacy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:56.274139+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Challenges ==== +The implementation of the Space2030 Agenda faces significant hurdles, including geopolitical tensions, resource limitations, and the complexities of space exploration. A major issue is ensuring equitable access to space, as disparities in technological advancement among nations persist. The growth of the space sector, driven by private enterprise, has led to increased space data usage for societal benefits but also exacerbated challenges like space debris, orbital congestion and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. This situation creates a 'space sustainability paradox,' where efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through space could become counterproductive due to environmental impacts on Earth and in space. Current regulations are insufficient, risking a 'tragedy of the commons' in space, where unregulated exploitation leads to resource depletion. Sustainable space development must consider three pillars: 1) addressing global challenges through space; 2) preserving space as a resource; and 3) protecting Earth from the impacts of space activities. Without comprehensive international policies and regulation, the long-term accessibility and safety of space are jeopardized, underlining the need for immediate action to ensure space's sustainable use. + +=== Future Direction === +In the future the Space2030 Agenda imagines a world in which space exploration and technology play a key role in driving progress on the SDGs and promoting peaceful relationships between nations. The agenda encourages ongoing innovation, adaptation to emerging space challenges, and sustained commitment from the global community to realize the full potential of space for humanity. + +== See also == +Politics of Outer Space +Private spaceflight +Space debris +United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space + +== Further reading == +Alekseĭ Georgievich Arbatov and Vladimir Dvorkin. (2014). Outer Space: Weapons, Diplomacy, and Security. KW Publishers. ISBN 9789381904947. +Maximilian Betman. (2016). Space Diplomacy: Shedding Light on the Current Initiatives to Prevent Conflict in Outer Space. Vienna, European Space Policy Institute (ESPI). +Alexander de Avila. (2021). Good Heavens: How Space Diplomacy Can Help Humanity and Improve America's Strategic Position in the Indo-Pacific. John F. Kennedy School of Government. + +== External links == +Astropolitics +Boosting Space Diplomacy at State +Foreign Policy: Space +Space diplomacy and research +Space diplomacy DiploFoundation topic page + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..79f323e75 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space dust measurement refers to the study of small particles of extraterrestrial material, known as micrometeoroids or interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), that are present in the Solar System. These particles are typically of micrometer to sub-millimeter size and are composed of a variety of materials including silicates, metals, and carbon compounds. The study of space dust is important as it provides insight into the composition and evolution of the Solar System, as well as the potential hazards posed by these particles to spacecraft and other space-borne assets. The measurement of space dust requires the use of advanced scientific techniques such as secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), optical and atomic force microscopy (AFM), and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to accurately characterize the physical and chemical properties of these particles. + +== Overview == +From the ground, space dust is observed as scattered sun light from myriads of interplanetary dust particles and as meteoroids entering the atmosphere. By observing a meteor from several positions on the ground, the trajectory and the entry speed can be determined by triangulation. Atmospheric entry speeds of up to 72,000 m/s have been observed for Leonid meteors. +Even sub-millimeter sized meteoroids hitting spacecraft at speeds around 300 m/s (much faster than bullets) can cause significant damage. Therefore, the early US Explorer 1, Vanguard 1, and the Soviet Sputnik 3 satellites carried simple 0.001 m2 sized microphone dust detectors in order to detect impacts of micron sized meteoroids. The obtained fluxes were orders of magnitude higher than those estimated from zodiacal light measurements. However, the latter determination had big uncertainties in the assumed size and heliocentric radial dust density distributions. Thermal studies in the lab with microphone detectors suggested that the high count-rates recorded were due to noise generated by temperature variations in Earth orbit. +An excellent review of the early days of space dust research was given by Fechtig, H., Leinert, Ch., and Berg, O. in the book Interplanetary Dust. + +== Dust accelerators == + +A dust accelerator is a critical facility to develop, test, and calibrate space dust instruments. Classic guns have muzzle velocities between just a few 100 m/s and 1 km/s, whereas meteoroid speeds range from a few km/s to several 100 km/s for nanometer sized dust particles. Only experimental light-gas guns (e.g. at NASA's Johnson Space Center, JSC) reach projectile speeds of several km/s up to 10 km/s in the laboratory. By exchanging the projectile with a sabot containing dust particles, high speed dust projectiles can be used for impact cratering and dust sensor calibration experiments. +The workhorse for hypervelocity dust impact experiments is the electrostatic dust accelerator. +Nanometer to micrometer sized conducting dust particles are electrically charged and accelerated by an electrostatic particle accelerator to speeds up to 100 km/s. Currently, operational dust accelerators exist at IRS in Stuttgart, Germany (formally at Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg), and at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder, Colorado. The LASP dust accelerator facility has been operational since 2011, and has been used for basic impact studies, as well as for the development of dust instruments. The facility is available for the planetary and space science communities. +Dust accelerators are used for impact cratering studies, calibration of impact ionization dust detectors, and meteor studies. Only electrically conducting particles can be used in an electrostatic dust accelerator because the dust source is located in the high-voltage terminal. James F. Vedder, at Ames Research Center, ARC, used a linear particle accelerator by charging dust particles by an ion beam in a quadrupole ion trap under visual control. This way, a wide range of dust materials could be accelerated to high speeds. + +== Reliable dust detections == +Tennis court sized (200 m2) penetration detectors on the Pegasus satellites determined a much lower flux of 100 micron sized particles that would not pose a significant hazard to the crewed Apollo missions. The first reliable dust detections of micron sized meteoroids were obtained by the dust detectors on board the Pioneer 8 and 9 and HEOS 2 spacecraft. Both instruments were impact ionization detectors using coincident signals from ions and electrons released upon impact. The detectors had sensitive areas of approximately 0.01 m2 and detected outside the Earth's magnetosphere on average one impact per ten days. + +== Microcrater analyses == + +Microcraters on lunar samples provide an extensive record of impacts onto the lunar surface. Uneroded glass splashes from big impacts covering crystalline lunar rocks preserve microcraters well. +The number of microcraters was measured on a single rock sample using microscopic and scanning electron microscopic analyses. The craters ranged in size from 10−8 to 10−3 m, and were correlated to the mass of meteoroids based on impact simulations. The impact speed onto the lunar surface was assumed to be 20 km/s. The age of the rocks on the surface could not be determined through traditional methods (counting the solar flare track densities), so spacecraft measurements by the Pegasus satellites were used to determine the interplanetary dust flux, specifically the crater production flux at 100 μm size. The flux of smaller meteoroids was found to be smaller than the observed cratering flux on the lunar surface due to fast ejecta from impacts of bigger meteoroids. The flux was adjusted using data from the HEOS-2 and Pioneer 8/9 space probes. +From April 1984 to January 1990, NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility exposed several passive impact collectors (each a few square meters in area) to the space dust environment in low Earth orbit. After recovery of LDEF by the Space Shuttle Columbia, the instrument trays were analyzed. The results generally confirmed the earlier analysis of lunar microcraters. + +== Optical and infrared zodiacal dust observations == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..747c34bb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Zodiacal light observations at different heliocentric distances were performed by the Zodiacal light photometer instruments on Helios 1 and 2 and the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 space probes, ranging between 0.3 AU and 3.3 AU from the sun. This way, the heliocentric radial profile was determined, and shown to vary by a factor of about 100 over that distance. The Asteroid Meteoroid Detector (AMD) on Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 used the optical detection and triangulation of individual meteoroids to get information on their sizes and trajectories. Unfortunately, the trigger threshold was set too low, and noise corrupted the data. Zodiacal light observations at visible light wavelengths use the light scattered by interplanetary dust particles, which constitute only a few percent of the incoming light. The remainder (over 90%) is absorbed and reradiated at infrared wavelengths. +The zodiacal dust cloud is much brighter at infrared wavelengths than visible wavelengths. However, on the ground, most of these infrared wavelengths are blocked by atmospheric absorption bands. Therefore, most infrared astronomy observations are done from space observatory satellites. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) mapped the sky at wavelengths of 12, 25, 60, and 100 micrometers. Between wavelengths of 12 and 60 microns, zodiacal dust was a prominent feature. Later, the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) on NASA's COBE mission provided a complete high-precision survey of the zodiacal dust cloud at the same wavelengths. +IRAS sky maps showed structure in the sky brightness at infrared wavelengths. In addition to the wide, general zodiacal cloud and a broad, central asteroidal band, there were several narrow cometary trails. Follow-up observations using the Spitzer Space Telescope showed that at least 80% of all Jupiter family comets had trails. When the Earth passes through a comet trail, a meteor shower is observed from the ground. Due to the enhanced risk to spacecraft in such meteoroid streams, the European Space Agency developed the IMEX model, which follows the evolution of cometary particles and hence allows us to determine the risk of collision at specific positions and times in the inner Solar System. + +== Penetration detectors == + +In the early 1960s, pressurized cell micrometeorite detectors were flown on the Explorer 16 and Explorer 23 satellites. Each satellite carried more than 200 individual gas-filled pressurized cells with metal walls of 25 and 50 microns thick. A puncture of a cell by a meteoroid impact could be detected by a pressure sensor. These instruments provided important measurements of the near-Earth meteoroid flux. In 1972 and 1973, the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 interplanetary spacecraft carried 234 pressurized cell detectors each, mounted on the back of the main dish antenna. The stainless-steel wall thickness was 25 microns on Pioneer 10, and 50 microns on Pioneer 11. The two instruments characterized the meteoroid environment in the outer Solar System as well as near Jupiter and near Saturn. +In preparation for the Apollo Missions to the moon, three Pegasus satellites were launched by the Saturn 1 rocket into near-Earth orbit. Each satellite carried 416 individual meteoroid detectors with a total detection surface of about 200 m2. The detectors consisted of aluminum penetration sheets of various thicknesses: 171 m2 of 400 micron-thick, 16 m2 of 200 micron-thick, and 7.5 m2 of 40 micron-thick. Placed behind these penetration sheets were 12 micron-thick mylar capacitor detectors that recorded penetrations of the overlying sheet. The results showed that the meteoroid hazard is significant and meteoroid protection methods must be implemented for large space vehicles. +In 1986, the Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions were equipped with a new dust detector, developed by John Simpson, which used polyvinylidene difluoride PVDF films. This material responds to dust impacts by generating electrical charge due to impact cratering or penetration. Since PVDF detectors are also sensitive to mechanical vibrations and energetic particles, detectors using PVDF work acceptably well as high-rate dust detectors in very dusty environments, like cometary comae or planetary rings (as was the case for the Cassini–Huygens Cosmic Dust Analyzer). For example, on the Stardust mission, the Dust Flux Monitor Instrument (DFMI) used PVDF detectors to study dust in the coma of Comet Wild 2. However, in low-dust environments such as interplanetary space, this sensitivity makes the detectors susceptible to noise. Because of this, the PVDF detectors on the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter also needed shielded reference detectors in order to determine the background noise rate. + +== Modern microphone detectors == +During its flyby of Halley's Comet at a distance of 600 km, the Giotto spacecraft was protected from space dust by a 1 mm-thick front Whipple shield (1.85 m diameter) and a 12 mm-thick rear Kevlar shield. Mounted on the front dust shield were three piezoelectric momentum sensors of the Dust Impact Detection System (DIDSY). A fourth momentum sensor was mounted on the rear shield. These microphone detectors, together with other detectors, measured the dust distribution within the inner coma of the comet. These instruments also measured dust during Giotto's encounter with the comet 26P/Grigg–Skjellerup. +On the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter of the BepiColombo mission, the Mercury Dust Monitor (MDM) will measure the dust environments of interplanetary space and Mercury. MDM is composed of four piezoelectric ceramic sensors made of lead zirconate titanate, from which impact signals will be recorded and analyzed. + +== Chance dust detectors == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..78a46644d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Most instruments on a spacecraft flying through a dense dust environment will experience effects of dust impacts. A prominent example of such an instrument was the Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS) on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft. PWS provided useful information on the local dust environment. Initially, the Asteroid Meteoroid Detector (AMD) previously flown on Pioneer 10 and 11 was preliminarily selected for the Voyager payload. However, because there were doubts about its performance, the instrument was deselected and, hence, no dedicated dust instrument was carried by either Voyager 1 or 2. +During the Voyager 2 flythrough of the Saturn system, PWS detected intense impulse noise centered on the ring plane at 2.88 Saturn radii distance, slightly outside of the G ring. This noise was attributed to micron sized particles hitting the spacecraft. In-situ dust detections by the Cassini Cosmic Dust Analyzer and camera observations of the outer rings confirmed the existence of an extended G ring. Also during Voyager's flybys of Uranus and Neptune, dust concentrations in the equatorial planes were observed. +During the flyby of comet 21P/Giacobini–Zinner by the International Cometary Explorer, dust impacts were observed by the plasma wave instrument. +Though plasma wave instruments on various spacecraft claimed to detect dust, it was only in 2021 that a model for the generation of signals on plasma wave antennas by dust impacts was presented, based on dust accelerator tests. + +== Impact ionization detectors == +Impact ionization detectors are the most successful dust detectors in space. With these detectors, the interplanetary dust environment between Venus and Jupiter has been explored. +Impact ionization detectors use the simultaneous detection of positive ions and electrons upon dust impact on a solid target. This coincidence provides a means to discriminate from noise on a single channel. The first successful dust detector in interplanetary space at about 1 AU was flown on the Pioneer 8 and Pioneer 9 space probes. The Pioneer 8 and 9 detectors had sensitive target areas of 0.01 m2. Besides interplanetary dust on eccentric orbits, it detected dust on hyperbolic orbits—that is, dust leaving the Solar System. The HEOS 2 dust detector was the first detector that employed a hemispherical geometry, like all the subsequent detectors of the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft, and the LDEX detectors on the LADEE mission. The hemispherical target of 0.01 m2 area collected electrons from the impact and the ions were collected by the central ion collector. These signals served to determine the mass and speed of the impacted meteoroid. The HEOS 2 dust detector explored the Earth dust environment within 10 Earth radii. +The twin Galileo and Ulysses dust detectors were optimized for interplanetary dust measurements in the outer Solar System. The sensitive target areas were increased ten-fold to 0.1 m2 in order to cope with the expected low dust fluxes. In order to provide reliable dust impact data even within the harsh Jovian environment, an electron channeltron was added in the center of the ion grid collector. This way, an impact was detected by triple coincidence of three charge signals. The 2.5-ton Galileo spacecraft was launched in 1989 and cruised for 6 years in interplanetary space between Venus' and Jupiter's orbit and measured interplanetary dust. The 370 kg Ulysses spacecraft was launched a year later and went on a direct trajectory to Jupiter, which it reached in 1992 for a swing-by maneuver that put the spacecraft on a heliocentric orbit of 80 degrees inclination. In 1995, Galileo started its 7-year path through the Jovian system with several flybys of all the Galilean moons. After its Jupiter flyby, Ulysses identified a flow of interstellar dust sweeping through the Solar System and hyper-velocity streams of nano-dust which are emitted from Jupiter and then couple to the solar magnetic field. In addition, the Galileo instrument detected ejecta clouds around the Galilean moons. + +The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission is a smaller version of the Galileo and Ulysses dust detectors. The most sensitive impact charge detector is a microchannel plate (MCP) behind the central focusing grid. LDEX has a sensitive area of 0.012 m2. The objective of the instrument was the detection and analysis of the lunar dust environment. From 16 October 2013 to 18 April 2014, LDEX detected about 140,000 dust hits at an altitude of 20–100 km above the lunar surface. It found a tenuous and permanent, asymmetric ejecta cloud around the Moon that is caused by meteoroid impacts onto the lunar surface. From this data it was found that approximately 40 μm/Myr of lunar regolith is redistributed due to meteoritic bombardment. Besides a continuous meteoroid bombardment, meteoroid streams cause temporary enhancements of the ejecta cloud. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e01c709ef --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Dust composition analyzers == +The Helios Micrometeoroid Analyzer was the in-situ instrument to analyze the composition of cosmic dust. In 1974, the instrument was carried by the Helios spacecraft from the Earth's orbit down to 0.3 AU from the Sun. The goal of the Micrometeoroid Analyzer was to determine the spatial distribution of the dust in the inner planetary system, and to search for variations in the compositional and physical properties of micrometeoroids. The instrument consisted of two impact ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometers (Ecliptic and South sensor) with a total target area of about 0.01 m2. One sensor was shielded by the spacecraft rim from direct sunlight, whereas the other sensor was protected by a thin aluminized parylene film from intense solar radiation. These Micrometeoroid Analyzers were calibrated with a wide range of materials at the dust accelerators of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and the Ames Research Center in Moffet Field. The mass resolution of the mass spectra of the Helios sensors was low: + + + + R + = + + + + + + + + + M + + + + + + + + + + Δ + M + + + + + + ≈ + 10 + + + {\displaystyle R={\cfrac {M}{\Delta M}}\approx 10} + +. There was an excess of impacts recorded by the South sensor compared to the Ecliptic sensor. On the basis of the penetration studies with the Helios film, this excess was interpreted to be due to low density ( + + + + ρ + + + {\displaystyle \rho } + + < 1000 kg/m3) meteoroids that were shielded from entering the Ecliptic sensor. The mass spectra range from those with dominant low masses (up to 30 mu), compatible with silicates, to those with dominant high masses (between 50 and 60 mu), compatible with iron and molecular ions. Meteoroid streams and even interstellar dust particles were identified in the data. +Twin dust mass analyzers were flown on the 1986 Halley's Comet missions Vega 1, Vega 2, and Giotto. These spacecraft flew by the comet at a distance of 600–1,000 km with a speed of 70–80 km/s. The PUMA (Vega) and PIA (Giotto) instruments were developed by Jochen Kissel of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. Dust particle hitting the small (approximately 5 cm2) impact target generated ions by impact ionization. The instruments were high mass resolution (R ≈ 100) reflectron type time-of-flight mass spectrometers. The instruments could record up to 500 impacts per second. During comet flybys, the instruments recorded an abundance of small particles of mass less than 10−14 grams. Besides unequilibrated silicates, many of the particles were rich in light elements such as hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. This suggests that most particles consisted of a predominantly chondritic core with a refractory organic mantle. + +The Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyzer (CIDA) was flown on the Stardust mission. In January 2004, Stardust flew by comet Comet Wild 2 at a distance of 240 km with a relative speed of 6.1 km/s. In February 2011, Stardust flew by comet Tempel 1 at a distance of 181 km with a speed of 10.9 km/s. During the interplanetary cruise between the comet encounters, there were favorable opportunities to analyze the interstellar dust stream discovered earlier by Ulysses. CIDA is a derivative of the impact ionization mass spectrometers flown on the Giotto, Vega 1, and Vega 2 missions. The impact target peeks out to the side of the spacecraft while the main part of the instrument is protected from the high-speed dust. It has a sensitive area of approximately 100 cm2 and a mass resolution R ≈ 250. Besides the positive ion mode, CIDA has also a negative ion mode for better sensitivity for organic molecules. The 75 spectra obtained during the comet flybys indicate a dominance of organic matter; sulfur ions were also detected in one spectrum. In the 45 spectra obtained during the cruise phase favorable for the detection of interstellar particles, derivates of quinone were suggested as constituents of the organic component. +The Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA) was flown on the Cassini mission to Saturn. CDA is a large-area (0.1 m2 total sensitive area) multi-sensor dust instrument that includes a 0.01 m2 medium resolution (R ≈ 20–50) chemical dust analyzer, a 0.09 m2 highly-reliable impact ionization detector, and two high-rate polarized polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) detectors with sensitive areas of 0.005 m2 and 0.001 m2, respectively. During its 6-year cruise to Saturn, CDA analyzed interplanetary dust, the stream of interstellar dust, and Jupiter dust streams. A highlight was the detection of electrical dust charges in interplanetary space and in Saturn's magnetosphere. During the following 13 years, Cassini completed 292 orbits around Saturn (2004–2017) and measured several million dust impacts which characterize dust primarily in Saturn's E ring. In 2005, during Cassini's close flyby of Enceladus within 175 km from the surface, CDA discovered active ice geysers. Detailed compositional analyses found salt-rich water ice grains close to Enceladus, which led to the discovery of large reservoirs of liquid water oceans below the icy crust of the moon. Analyses of interstellar grains at Saturn's distance suggest magnesium-rich grains of silicate and oxide composition, some with iron inclusions. + +== Dust Telescopes == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a4a66703 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A Dust Telescope is an instrument to perform dust astronomy. It not only analyses the signals and ions that are generated by a dust impact on the sensitive target, but also determines the dust trajectory prior to the impact. The latter is based on the successful measurement of the dust electric charge by Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyzer (CDA). A Dust Trajectory Sensor consists of four planes of parallel position sensing wire electrodes. Dust accelerator tests show that dust trajectories can be determined to an accuracy of 1% in velocity and 1° in direction. The second element of a Dust Telescope is a Large-area Mass Analyzer: a reflectron type time-of-flight mass analyzer with a sensitive area of up to 0.2 m2 and a mass resolution R > 150. It consists of a circular plate target with the ion detector behind the center hole. In front of the target is an acceleration grid. Ions generated by an impact are reflected by a paraboloid shaped grid onto the center ion detector. Prototypes of dust telescope have been built at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA and at the Institute of Space Systems of the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and tested at their respective dust accelerators. +The Surface Dust Analyser (SUDA) on board the Europa Clipper mission is being developed by Sacha Kempf and colleagues at LASP. SUDA will collect spatially resolved compositional maps of Jupiter's moon Europa along the ground tracks of the Europa orbiter, and search for plumes. The instrument is capable of identifying traces of organic and inorganic compounds in the ice ejecta. The launch of the Europa Clipper mission is planned for 2024. +The DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer (DDA) will fly on the Japanese–German space mission DESTINY+ to asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Phaethon is believed to be the origin of the Geminids meteor stream that can be observed from the ground every December. DDA development is led by Ralf Srama and colleagues from the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) at the University of Stuttgart in cooperation with von Hoerner & Sulger GmbH (vH&S) company. DDA will analyze interstellar and interplanetary dust on cruise to Phaethon and will study its dust environment during the encounter; of particular interest is the proportion of organic matter. Its launch is planned for 2024. +The Interstellar Dust Experiment (IDEX), developed by Mihaly Horanyi and colleagues at LASP, will fly on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) in orbit about the Sun–Earth L1 Lagrange point. IDEX is a large-area (0.07 m2) dust analyzer that provides the mass distribution and elemental composition of interstellar and interplanetary dust particles. A laboratory version of the IDEX instrument was used at the dust accelerator facility operated at University of Colorado to collect impact ionization mass spectra for a range of dust samples of known composition. Its launch is planned for 2025. + +== Collected dust analyses == +The importance of lunar samples and lunar soil for dust science was that they provided a meteoroid impact cratering record. Even more important are the cosmochemical aspects—from their isotopic, elemental, molecular, and mineralogical compositions, important conclusions can be drawn, such as concerning the giant-impact hypothesis of the Moon's formation. From 1969 to 1972, six Apollo missions collected 382 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil. These samples are available for research and teaching projects. From 1970 to 1976, three Luna spacecraft returned 301 grams of lunar material. In 2020, Chang'e 5 collected 1.7 kg of lunar material. +In 1950, Fred Whipple showed that micrometeoroids smaller than a critical size (~100 micrometers) are decelerated at altitudes above 100 km slowly enough to radiate their frictional energy away without melting. Such micrometeorites sediment through the atmosphere and ultimately deposit on the ground. The most efficient method to collect micrometeorites is by high (~20 km) flying aircraft with special silicon oil covered collectors that capture this dust. At lower altitudes, these micrometeorites become mixed with Earth dust. Don Brownlee first reliably identified the extraterrestrial nature of collected dust particles by their chondritic composition. These stratospheric dust samples are available for further research. + +Stardust was the first mission to return samples from a comet and from interstellar space. In January 2004, Stardust flew by Comet Wild 2 at a distance of 237 km with a relative velocity of 6.1 km/s. Its dust collector consisted of 0.104 m2 aerogel and 0.015 m2 aluminium foil; one side of the detector was exposed to the flow of cometary dust. The Stardust cometary samples were a mix of different components, including presolar grains like 13C-rich silicon carbide grains, a wide range of chondrule-like fragments, and high-temperature condensates like calcium-aluminum inclusions found in primitive meteorites that were transported to cold nebular regions. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ef8092641 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space dust measurement" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_dust_measurement" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:57.590893+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +During March–May 2000 and July–December 2002, the spacecraft was in a favorable position to collect interstellar dust on the back side of the sample collector. Once the sample capsule was returned in January 2006, the collector trays were inspected and thousands of grains from Comet Wild 2 and seven probable interstellar grains were identified. These grains are available for teaching and research from the NASA Astromaterials Curation Office. +The first asteroid samples were returned by the JAXA Hayabusa missions. Hayabusa encountered asteroid 25143 Itokawa in November 2005, picked up surface samples, and returned to Earth in June 2010. Despite some problems during sample collection, thousands of 10–100 micron sized particles were collected and are available for research in the laboratories. The second Hayabusa2 mission rendezvoused with asteroid 162173 Ryugu in June 2018. About 5 g of surface and sub-surface material from this primitive C-type asteroid were returned. JAXA shares about 10% of the collected samples with NASA sample curation. +The Rosetta space probe orbited comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from August 2014 to September 2016. During this time, Rosetta's instruments analyzed the nucleus, dust, gas, and plasma environments. Rosetta carried a suite of miniaturized sophisticated lab instruments to study collected cometary dust particles. Among them was the high-resolution secondary ion mass spectrometer COSIMA (Cometary Secondary Ion Mass Analyzer) that analyzed the rocky and organic composition of collected dust particles, an atomic force microscope MIDAS (Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System) that investigated morphology and physical properties of micrometer-sized dust particles that were deposited on a collector plate, and the double-focus magnetic mass spectrometer (DFMS) and the reflectron type time of flight mass spectrometer (RTOF) of ROSINA (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) to analyze cometary gas and the volatile components of cometary particulates. Rosetta's Philae lander carried the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry COSAC experiment to analyze organic molecules in the comet's atmosphere and on its surface. + +== See also == +Cosmic Dust Analyzer +Galileo and Ulysses Dust Detectors +Helios Dust Instrumentation +Surface Dust Analyser +Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter +Micro-Imaging Dust Analysis System + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5d7cba148 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 1/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space exploration is the physical investigation of outer space by uncrewed robotic space probes and through human spaceflight. +While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the mid-twentieth century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries. +The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" in which the Soviet Union and the United States vied to demonstrate their technological superiority. Landmarks of this era include the launch of the first human-made object to orbit Earth, the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969. The Soviet space program achieved many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Alexei Leonov) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971. +In the 1970s, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation, the foremost example being the International Space Station (ISS), built between 1998 and 2011. +The 2000s brought advancements in the national space-exploration programs of China, the European Union, Japan, and India. The 2010s saw the rise of the private space industry in earnest with the development of private launch vehicles, space capsules, and satellite manufacturing. In the 2020s, the two primary global programs gaining traction are Moon-focused: the Chinese-led International Lunar Research Station and the U.S.-led Artemis Program, with its plan to build the Artemis Base Camp on the Moon, each with a set of international partners. + +== History of exploration == + +=== First telescopes === +The first telescope is said to have been invented in 1608 in the Netherlands by an eyeglass maker named Hans Lippershey, but their first recorded use in astronomy was by Galileo Galilei in 1609. In 1668 Isaac Newton built his own reflecting telescope, the first fully functional telescope of this kind, and a landmark for future developments due to its superior features over the previous Galilean telescope. +A string of discoveries in the Solar System (and beyond) followed, then and in the next centuries: the mountains of the Moon, the phases of Venus, the main satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, the rings of Saturn, many comets, the asteroids, the new planets Uranus and Neptune, and many more satellites. +The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 was the first space telescope launched 1968, but the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 set a milestone. As of 1 December 2022, there were 5,284 confirmed exoplanets discovered. The Milky Way is estimated to contain 100–400 billion stars and more than 100 billion planets. There are at least 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. HD1 is the most distant known object from Earth, reported as 33.4 billion light-years away. + +=== First outer space flights === + +MW 18014 was a German V-2 rocket test launch that took place on 20 June 1944, at the Peenemünde Army Research Center in Peenemünde. It was the first human-made object to reach outer space, attaining an apogee of 176 kilometers, which is well above the Kármán line. It was a vertical test launch. Although the rocket reached space, it did not reach orbital velocity, and therefore returned to Earth in an impact, becoming the first sub-orbital spaceflight. In 1949, the Bumper-WAC reached an altitude of 393 kilometres (244 mi), becoming the first human-made object to enter space, according to NASA. + +=== First object in orbit === +The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet uncrewed Sputnik 1 ("Satellite 1") mission on 4 October 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (183 lb), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km (160 mi). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps" that could be heard by radios around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data were encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on 3 January 1958. + +=== First human outer space flight === +The first successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1 ("East 1"), carrying the 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, on 12 April 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration: human spaceflight. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7376fdbe4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 2/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== First astronomical body space explorations === +The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 which reached the Moon in 1959. The first soft landing on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9 landing on the Moon on 3 February 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite of the Moon, entering in a lunar orbit on 3 April 1966. +The first crewed landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 on 20 July 1969, landing on the Moon. There have been a total of six spacecraft with humans landing on the Moon starting from 1969 to the last human landing in 1972. +The first interplanetary flyby was the 1961 Venera 1 flyby of Venus, though the 1962 Mariner 2 was the first flyby of Venus to return data (closest approach 34,773 kilometers). Pioneer 6 was the first satellite to orbit the Sun, launched on 16 December 1965. The other planets were first flown by in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4, 1973 for Jupiter by Pioneer 10, 1974 for Mercury by Mariner 10, 1979 for Saturn by Pioneer 11, 1986 for Uranus by Voyager 2, 1989 for Neptune by Voyager 2. In 2015, the dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto were orbited by Dawn and passed by New Horizons, respectively. This accounts for flybys of each of the eight planets in the Solar System, the Sun, the Moon, and Ceres and Pluto (two of the five recognized dwarf planets). +The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the 1970 landing of Venera 7, which returned data to Earth for 23 minutes from Venus. In 1975, Venera 9 was the first to return images from the surface of another planet, returning images from Venus. In 1971, the Mars 3 mission achieved the first soft landing on Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later, much longer duration surface missions were achieved, including over six years of Mars surface operation by Viking 1 from 1975 to 1982 and over two hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by Venera 13 in 1982, the longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission. Venus and Mars are the two planets outside of Earth on which humans have conducted surface missions with uncrewed robotic spacecraft. + +=== First space station === +Salyut 1 was the first space station of any kind, launched into low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1971. The International Space Station (ISS) is currently the largest and oldest of the 2 current fully functional space stations, inhabited continuously since the year 2000. The other, Tiangong space station built by China, is now fully crewed and operational. + +=== First interstellar space flight === +Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the Solar System into interstellar space on 25 August 2012. The probe passed the heliopause at 121 AU to enter interstellar space. + +=== Farthest from Earth === +In 1970, Apollo 13 flight passed the far side of the Moon at an altitude of 254 kilometers (158 miles; 137 nautical miles) above the lunar surface, and 400,171 km (248,655 mi) from Earth, marking the record for the farthest humans had ever traveled from Earth until the Artemis II lunar flyby in April 2026, which was 406,773 km (252,757 mi) from Earth at its furthest point. +As of 9 February 2025, Voyager 1 was at a distance of 166.4 AU (24.89 billion km; 15.47 billion mi) from Earth. It is the most distant human-made object from Earth. + +== Targets of exploration == +Starting in the mid-20th century probes and then human missions were sent into Earth orbit, and then on to the Moon. Also, probes were sent throughout the known Solar System, and into Solar orbit. Uncrewed spacecraft have been sent into orbit around Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury by the 21st century, and the most distance active spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2 traveled beyond 100 times the Earth-Sun distance. The instruments were enough though that it is thought they have left the Sun's heliosphere, a sort of bubble of particles made in the Galaxy by the Sun's solar wind. + +=== The Sun === +The Sun is a major focus of space exploration. Being above the atmosphere in particular and Earth's magnetic field gives access to the solar wind and infrared and ultraviolet radiations that cannot reach Earth's surface. The Sun generates most space weather, which can affect power generation and transmission systems on Earth and interfere with, and even damage, satellites and space probes. Numerous spacecraft dedicated to observing the Sun, beginning with the Apollo Telescope Mount, have been launched and still others have had solar observation as a secondary objective. Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, will approach the Sun to within 1/9th the orbit of Mercury. + +=== Mercury === + +Mercury remains the least explored of the Terrestrial planets. As of May 2013, the Mariner 10 and MESSENGER missions have been the only missions that have made close observations of Mercury. MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury in March 2011, to further investigate the observations made by Mariner 10 in 1975 (Munsell, 2006b). A third mission to Mercury, scheduled to arrive in 2025, BepiColombo is to include two probes. BepiColombo is a joint mission between Japan and the European Space Agency. MESSENGER and BepiColombo are intended to gather complementary data to help scientists understand many of the mysteries discovered by Mariner 10's flybys. +Flights to other planets within the Solar System are accomplished at a cost in energy, which is described by the net change in velocity of the spacecraft, or delta-v. Due to the relatively high delta-v to reach Mercury and its proximity to the Sun, it is difficult to explore and orbits around it are rather unstable. + +=== Venus === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8a140796a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 3/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Venus was the first target of interplanetary flyby and lander missions and, despite one of the most hostile surface environments in the Solar System, has had more landers sent to it (nearly all from the Soviet Union) than any other planet in the Solar System. The first flyby was the 1961 Venera 1, though the 1962 Mariner 2 was the first flyby to successfully return data. Mariner 2 has been followed by several other flybys by multiple space agencies often as part of missions using a Venus flyby to provide a gravitational assist en route to other celestial bodies. In 1967, Venera 4 became the first probe to enter and directly examine the atmosphere of Venus. In 1970, Venera 7 became the first successful lander to reach the surface of Venus and by 1985 it had been followed by eight additional successful Soviet Venus landers which provided images and other direct surface data. Starting in 1975, with the Soviet orbiter Venera 9, some ten successful orbiter missions have been sent to Venus, including later missions which were able to map the surface of Venus using radar to pierce the obscuring atmosphere. + +=== Earth === + +Space exploration has been used as a tool to understand Earth as a celestial object. Orbital missions can provide data for Earth that can be difficult or impossible to obtain from a purely ground-based point of reference. +For example, the existence of the Van Allen radiation belts was unknown until their discovery by the United States' first artificial satellite, Explorer 1. These belts contain radiation trapped by Earth's magnetic fields, which currently renders construction of habitable space stations above 1000 km impractical. Following this early unexpected discovery, a large number of Earth observation satellites have been deployed specifically to explore Earth from a space-based perspective. These satellites have significantly contributed to the understanding of a variety of Earth-based phenomena. For instance, the hole in the ozone layer was found by an artificial satellite that was exploring Earth's atmosphere, and satellites have allowed for the discovery of archeological sites or geological formations that were difficult or impossible to otherwise identify. + +==== Moon ==== + +The Moon was the first celestial body to be the object of space exploration. It holds the distinctions of being the first remote celestial object to be flown by, orbited, and landed upon by spacecraft, and the only remote celestial object ever to be visited by humans. +In 1959, the Soviets obtained the first images of the far side of the Moon, never previously visible to humans. The U.S. exploration of the Moon began with the Ranger 4 impactor in 1962. Starting in 1966, the Soviets successfully deployed a number of landers to the Moon which were able to obtain data directly from the Moon's surface; just four months later, Surveyor 1 marked the debut of a successful series of U.S. landers. The Soviet uncrewed missions culminated in the Lunokhod program in the early 1970s, which included the first uncrewed rovers and also successfully brought lunar soil samples to Earth for study. This marked the first (and to date the only) automated return of extraterrestrial soil samples to Earth. Uncrewed exploration of the Moon continues with various nations periodically deploying lunar orbiters. China's Chang'e 4 in 2019 and Chang'e 6 in 2024 achieved the world's first landing and sample return on the far side of the Moon. India's Chandrayaan-3 in 2023 achieved the world's first landing on the lunar south pole region. +Crewed exploration of the Moon began in 1968 with the Apollo 8 mission that successfully orbited the Moon, the first time any extraterrestrial object was orbited by humans. In 1969, the Apollo 11 mission marked the first time humans set foot upon another world. Crewed exploration of the Moon did not continue for long. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the sixth landing and the most recent human visit. Artemis II completed a crewed flyby of the Moon in 2026, and Artemis IV, planned for 2028, will be the first lunar landing since Apollo 17. Robotic missions are still pursued vigorously. + +=== Mars === + +The exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration programs of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, Japan, and India. Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. These missions were aimed at gathering data about current conditions and answering questions about the history of Mars. The questions raised by the scientific community are expected to not only give a better appreciation of the Red Planet but also yield further insight into the past, and possible future, of Earth. +The exploration of Mars has come at a considerable financial cost with roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars failing before completing their missions, with some failing before they even began. Such a high failure rate can be attributed to the complexity and large number of variables involved in an interplanetary journey, and has led researchers to jokingly speak of The Great Galactic Ghoul which subsists on a diet of Mars probes. This phenomenon is also informally known as the "Mars Curse". In contrast to overall high failure rates in the exploration of Mars, India has become the first country to achieve success of its maiden attempt. India's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is one of the least expensive interplanetary missions ever undertaken with an approximate total cost of ₹ 450 Crore (US$73 million). The first mission to Mars by any Arab country has been taken up by the United Arab Emirates. Called the Emirates Mars Mission, it was launched on 19 July 2020 and went into orbit around Mars on 9 February 2021. The uncrewed exploratory probe was named "Hope Probe" and was sent to Mars to study its atmosphere in detail. + +==== Phobos ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8e4404301 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 4/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Russian space mission Fobos-Grunt, which launched on 9 November 2011, experienced a failure leaving it stranded in low Earth orbit. It was to begin exploration of the Phobos and Martian circumterrestrial orbit, and study whether the moons of Mars, or at least Phobos, could be a "trans-shipment point" for spaceships traveling to Mars. + +=== Asteroids === + +Until the advent of space travel, objects in the asteroid belt were merely pinpricks of light in even the largest telescopes, their shapes and terrain remaining a mystery. Several asteroids have now been visited by probes, the first of which was Galileo, which flew past two: 951 Gaspra in 1991, followed by 243 Ida in 1993. Both of these lay near enough to Galileo's planned trajectory to Jupiter that they could be visited at acceptable cost. The first landing on an asteroid was performed by the NEAR Shoemaker probe in 2000, following an orbital survey of the object, 433 Eros. The dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroid 4 Vesta, two of the three largest asteroids, were visited by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, launched in 2007. +Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. Hayabusa was launched on 9 May 2003 and rendezvoused with Itokawa in mid-September 2005. After arriving at Itokawa, Hayabusa studied the asteroid's shape, spin, topography, color, composition, density, and history. In November 2005, it landed on the asteroid twice to collect samples. The spacecraft returned to Earth on 13 June 2010. + +=== Jupiter === + +The exploration of Jupiter has consisted solely of a number of automated NASA spacecraft visiting the planet since 1973. A large majority of the missions have been "flybys", in which detailed observations are taken without the probe landing or entering orbit; such as in Pioneer and Voyager programs. The Galileo and Juno spacecraft are the only spacecraft to have entered the planet's orbit. As Jupiter is believed to have only a relatively small rocky core and no real solid surface, a landing mission is precluded. +Reaching Jupiter from Earth requires a delta-v of 9.2 km/s, which is comparable to the 9.7 km/s delta-v needed to reach low Earth orbit. Fortunately, gravity assists through planetary flybys can be used to reduce the energy required at launch to reach Jupiter, albeit at the cost of a significantly longer flight duration. +Jupiter has 95 known moons, many of which have relatively little known information about them. + +=== Saturn === + +Saturn has been explored only through uncrewed spacecraft launched by NASA, including one mission (Cassini–Huygens) planned and executed in cooperation with other space agencies. These missions consist of flybys in 1979 by Pioneer 11, in 1980 by Voyager 1, in 1982 by Voyager 2 and an orbital mission by the Cassini spacecraft, which lasted from 2004 until 2017. +Saturn has at least 62 known moons, although the exact number is debatable since Saturn's rings are made up of vast numbers of independently orbiting objects of varying sizes. The largest of the moons is Titan, which holds the distinction of being the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere denser and thicker than that of Earth. Titan holds the distinction of being the only object in the Outer Solar System that has been explored with a lander, the Huygens probe deployed by the Cassini spacecraft. + +=== Uranus === + +The exploration of Uranus has been entirely through the Voyager 2 spacecraft. However, there are plans for the Chinese Tianwen 4 mission to visit it or Callisto. Given its axial tilt of 97.77°, with its polar regions exposed to sunlight or darkness for long periods, scientists were not sure what to expect at Uranus. The closest approach to Uranus occurred on 24 January 1986. Voyager 2 studied the planet's unique atmosphere and magnetosphere. Voyager 2 also examined its ring system and the moons of Uranus including all five of the previously known moons, while discovering an additional ten previously unknown moons. +Images of Uranus proved to have a uniform appearance, with no evidence of the dramatic storms or atmospheric banding evident on Jupiter and Saturn. Great effort was required to even identify a few clouds in the images of the planet. The magnetosphere of Uranus, however, proved to be unique, being profoundly affected by the planet's unusual axial tilt. In contrast to the bland appearance of Uranus itself, striking images were obtained of the Moons of Uranus, including evidence that Miranda had been unusually geologically active. + +=== Neptune === +The exploration of Neptune began with the 25 August 1989 Voyager 2 flyby, the sole visit to the system. The possibility of a Neptune Orbiter has been discussed, but no other missions have been given serious thought. +Although the extremely uniform appearance of Uranus during Voyager 2's visit in 1986 had led to expectations that Neptune would also have few visible atmospheric phenomena, the spacecraft found that Neptune had obvious banding, visible clouds, auroras, and even a conspicuous anticyclone storm system rivaled in size only by Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Neptune also proved to have the fastest winds of any planet in the Solar System, measured as high as 2,100 km/h. Voyager 2 also examined Neptune's ring and moon system. It discovered 900 complete rings and additional partial ring "arcs" around Neptune. In addition to examining Neptune's three previously known moons, Voyager 2 also discovered five previously unknown moons, one of which, Proteus, proved to be the last largest moon in the system. Data from Voyager 2 supported the view that Neptune's largest moon, Triton, is a captured Kuiper belt object. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..33624aa10 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 5/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Pluto === +The dwarf planet Pluto presents significant challenges for spacecraft because of its great distance from Earth (requiring high velocity for reasonable trip times) and small mass (making capture into orbit difficult at present). Voyager 1 could have visited Pluto, but controllers opted instead for a close flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, resulting in a trajectory incompatible with a Pluto flyby. Voyager 2 never had a plausible trajectory for reaching Pluto. +After an intense political battle, a mission to Pluto dubbed New Horizons was granted funding from the United States government in 2003. New Horizons was launched successfully on 19 January 2006. In early 2007 the craft made use of a gravity assist from Jupiter. Its closest approach to Pluto was on 14 July 2015; scientific observations of Pluto began five months prior to closest approach and continued for 16 days after the encounter. + +=== Kuiper Belt Objects === +The New Horizons mission also performed a flyby of the small planetesimal Arrokoth, in the Kuiper belt, in 2019. This was its first extended mission. + +=== Comets === + +Although many comets have been studied from Earth sometimes with centuries-worth of observations, only a few comets have been closely visited. In 1985, the International Cometary Explorer conducted the first comet fly-by (21P/Giacobini-Zinner) before joining the Halley Armada studying the famous comet. The Deep Impact probe smashed into 9P/Tempel to learn more about its structure and composition and the Stardust mission returned samples of another comet's tail. The Philae lander successfully landed on Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014 as part of the broader Rosetta mission. + +=== Deep space exploration === + +Deep space exploration is the branch of astronomy, astronautics and space technology that is involved with the exploration of distant regions of outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights (deep-space astronautics) and by robotic spacecraft. +Some of the best candidates for future deep space engine technologies include anti-matter, nuclear power and beamed propulsion. Beamed propulsion, appears to be the best candidate for deep space exploration presently available, since it uses known physics and known technology that is being developed for other purposes. + +== Future of space exploration == + +=== Breakthrough Starshot === + +Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail spacecraft named StarChip, to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.37 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg. + +=== Asteroids === + +An article in the science magazine Nature suggested the use of asteroids as a gateway for space exploration, with the ultimate destination being Mars. In order to make such an approach viable, three requirements need to be fulfilled: first, "a thorough asteroid survey to find thousands of nearby bodies suitable for astronauts to visit"; second, "extending flight duration and distance capability to ever-increasing ranges out to Mars"; and finally, "developing better robotic vehicles and tools to enable astronauts to explore an asteroid regardless of its size, shape or spin". Furthermore, using asteroids would provide astronauts with protection from galactic cosmic rays, with mission crews being able to land on them without great risk to radiation exposure. + +=== Artemis program === + +The Artemis program is an ongoing crewed spaceflight program carried out by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as ESA, with the goal of landing "the first woman and the next man" on the Moon, specifically at the lunar south pole region. Artemis would be the next step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars. +In 2017, the lunar campaign was authorized by Space Policy Directive 1, using various ongoing spacecraft programs such as Orion, the Lunar Gateway, Commercial Lunar Payload Services, and adding an undeveloped crewed lander. The Space Launch System will serve as the primary launch vehicle for Orion, while commercial launch vehicles are planned for use to launch other elements of the campaign. NASA requested $1.6 billion in additional funding for Artemis for fiscal year 2020, while the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee requested from NASA a five-year budget profile which is needed for evaluation and approval by the U.S. Congress. As of 2026, the first Artemis mission was launched in 2022 with the second mission, a crewed lunar flyby launched in April 2026. Construction on the Lunar Gateway is underway with initial capabilities set for the 2025–2027 timeframe. The first CLPS lander landed in 2024, marking the first US spacecraft to land since Apollo 17. + +== Rationales == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3ac820a1a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 6/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The research that is conducted by national space exploration agencies, such as NASA and Roscosmos, is one of the reasons supporters cite to justify government expenses. Economic analyses of the NASA programs often showed ongoing economic benefits (such as NASA spin-offs), generating many times the revenue of the cost of the program. It is also argued that space exploration would lead to the extraction of resources on other planets and especially asteroids, which contain billions of dollars' worth of minerals and metals. Such expeditions could generate substantial revenue. In addition, it has been argued that space exploration programs help inspire youth to study in science and engineering. Space exploration also gives scientists the ability to perform experiments in other settings and expand humanity's knowledge. +Another claim is that space exploration is a necessity to humankind and that staying on Earth will eventually lead to extinction. Some of the reasons are lack of natural resources, comets, nuclear war, and worldwide epidemic. Stephen Hawking, renowned British theoretical physicist, said, "I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars." Author Arthur C. Clarke (1950) presented a summary of motivations for the human exploration of space in his non-fiction semi-technical monograph Interplanetary Flight. He argued that humanity's choice is essentially between expansion off Earth into space, versus cultural (and eventually biological) stagnation and death. +These motivations could be attributed to one of the first rocket scientists in NASA, Wernher von Braun, and his vision of humans moving beyond Earth. The basis of this plan was to: + +Develop multi-stage rockets capable of placing satellites, animals, and humans in space. +Development of large, winged reusable spacecraft capable of carrying humans and equipment into Earth orbit in a way that made space access routine and cost-effective. +Construction of a large, permanently occupied space station to be used as a platform both to observe Earth and from which to launch deep space expeditions. +Launching the first human flights around the Moon, leading to the first landings of humans on the Moon, with the intent of exploring that body and establishing permanent lunar bases. + +Assembly and fueling of spaceships in Earth orbit for the purpose of sending humans to Mars with the intent of eventually colonizing that planet. +Known as the Von Braun Paradigm, the plan was formulated to lead humans in the exploration of space. Von Braun's vision of human space exploration served as the model for efforts in space exploration well into the twenty-first century, with NASA incorporating this approach into the majority of their projects. The steps were followed out of order, as seen by the Apollo program reaching the moon before the space shuttle program was started, which in turn was used to complete the International Space Station. Von Braun's Paradigm formed NASA's drive for human exploration, in the hopes that humans discover the far reaches of the universe. +NASA has produced a series of public service announcement videos supporting the concept of space exploration. +Overall, the U.S. public remains largely supportive of both crewed and uncrewed space exploration. According to an Associated Press Poll conducted in July 2003, 71% of U.S. citizens agreed with the statement that the space program is "a good investment", compared to 21% who did not. + +=== Human nature === +Space advocacy and space policy regularly invokes exploration as a human nature. + +== Topics == + +=== Spaceflight === + +Spaceflight is the use of space technology to achieve the flight of spacecraft into and through outer space. +Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and satellite telecommunications. Additional non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other Earth observation satellites. +A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket launch, which provides the initial thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propels the spacecraft from the surface of Earth. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraft—both when unpropelled and when under propulsion—is covered by the area of study called astrodynamics. Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, some disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, and others reach a planetary or lunar surface for landing or impact. + +=== Satellites === + +Satellites are used for a large number of purposes. Common types include military (spy) and civilian Earth observation satellites, communication satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, and research satellites. Space stations and human spacecraft in orbit are also satellites. + +=== Commercialization of space === + +The commercialization of space first started out with the launching of private satellites by NASA or other space agencies. Current examples of the commercial satellite use of space include satellite navigation systems, satellite television, satellite communications (such as internet services) and satellite radio. The next step of commercialization of space was seen as human spaceflight. Flying humans safely to and from space had become routine to NASA and Russia. Reusable spacecraft were an entirely new engineering challenge, something only seen in novels and films like Star Trek and War of the Worlds. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin supported the use of making a reusable vehicle like the space shuttle. Aldrin held that reusable spacecraft were the key in making space travel affordable, stating that the use of "passenger space travel is a huge potential market big enough to justify the creation of reusable launch vehicles". Space tourism is a next step in the use of reusable vehicles in the commercialization of space. The purpose of this form of space travel is personal pleasure. +Private spaceflight companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, and commercial space stations such as the Axiom Space and the Bigelow Commercial Space Station have changed the cost and overall landscape of space exploration, and are expected to continue to do so in the near future. + +=== Alien life === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..531c84e89 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 7/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Astrobiology is the interdisciplinary study of life in the universe, combining aspects of astronomy, biology and geology. It is focused primarily on the study of the origin, distribution and evolution of life. It is also known as exobiology (from Greek: έξω, exo, "outside"). The term "Xenobiology" has been used as well, but this is technically incorrect because its terminology means "biology of the foreigners". Astrobiologists must also consider the possibility of life that is chemically entirely distinct from any life found on Earth. In the Solar System, some of the prime locations for current or past astrobiology are on Enceladus, Europa, Mars, and Titan. + +=== Human spaceflight and habitation === + +To date, the longest human occupation of space is the International Space Station which has been in continuous use for 25 years, 184 days. Valeri Polyakov's record single spaceflight of almost 438 days aboard the Mir space station has not been surpassed. The health effects of space have been well documented through years of research conducted in the field of aerospace medicine. Analog environments similar to those experienced in space travel (like deep sea submarines), have been used in this research to further explore the relationship between isolation and extreme environments. It is imperative that the health of the crew be maintained as any deviation from baseline may compromise the integrity of the mission as well as the safety of the crew, hence the astronauts must endure rigorous medical screenings and tests prior to embarking on any missions. However, it does not take long for the environmental dynamics of spaceflight to commence its toll on the human body; for example, space motion sickness (SMS) – a condition which affects the neurovestibular system and culminates in mild to severe signs and symptoms such as vertigo, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, and disorientation – plagues almost all space travelers within their first few days in orbit. Space travel can also have an impact on the psyche of the crew members as delineated in anecdotal writings composed after their retirement. Space travel can adversely affect the body's natural biological clock (circadian rhythm); sleep patterns causing sleep deprivation and fatigue; and social interaction; consequently, residing in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environment for a prolonged amount of time can result in both mental and physical exhaustion. Long-term stays in space reveal issues with bone and muscle loss in low gravity, immune system suppression, problems with eyesight, and radiation exposure. The lack of gravity causes fluid to rise upward which can cause pressure to build up in the eye, resulting in vision problems; the loss of bone minerals and densities; cardiovascular deconditioning; and decreased endurance and muscle mass. +Radiation is an insidious health hazard to space travelers as it is invisible and can cause cancer. When above the Earth's magnetic field, spacecraft are no longer protected from the sun's radiation; the danger of radiation is even more potent in deep space. The hazards of radiation can be ameliorated through protective shielding on the spacecraft, alerts, and dosimetry. +Fortunately, with new and rapidly evolving technological advancements, those in Mission Control are able to monitor the health of their astronauts more closely using telemedicine. One may not be able to completely evade the physiological effects of space flight, but those effects can be mitigated. For example, medical systems aboard space vessels such as the International Space Station (ISS) are well equipped and designed to counteract the effects of lack of gravity and weightlessness; on-board treadmills can help prevent muscle loss and reduce the risk of developing premature osteoporosis. Additionally, a crew medical officer is appointed for each ISS mission and a flight surgeon is available 24/7 via the ISS Mission Control Center located in Houston, Texas. Although the interactions are intended to take place in real time, communications between the space and terrestrial crew may become delayed – sometimes by as much as 20 minutes – as their distance from each other increases when the spacecraft moves further out of low Earth orbit; because of this the crew are trained and need to be prepared to respond to any medical emergencies that may arise on the vessel as the ground crew are hundreds of miles away. +Many past and current concepts for the continued exploration and colonization of space focus on a return to the Moon as a "steppingstone" to the other planets, especially Mars. At the end of 2006, NASA announced they were planning to build a permanent Moon base with continual presence by 2024. +Beyond the technical factors that could make living in space more widespread, it has been suggested that the lack of private property, the inability or difficulty in establishing property rights in space, has been an impediment to the development of space for human habitation. Since the advent of space technology in the latter half of the twentieth century, the ownership of property in space has been murky, with strong arguments both for and against. In particular, the making of national territorial claims in outer space and on celestial bodies has been specifically proscribed by the Outer Space Treaty, which had been, as of 2012, ratified by all spacefaring nations. Space colonization, also called space settlement and space humanization, would be the permanent autonomous (self-sufficient) human habitation of locations outside Earth, especially of natural satellites or planets such as the Moon or Mars, using significant amounts of in-situ resource utilization. + +==== Human representation and participation ==== + +Participation and representation of humanity in space is an issue ever since the first phase of space exploration. Some rights of non-spacefaring countries have been mostly secured through international space law, declaring space the "province of all mankind", understanding spaceflight as its resource, though sharing of space for all humanity is still criticized as imperialist and lacking. Additionally to international inclusion, the inclusion of women and people of colour has also been lacking. To reach a more inclusive spaceflight, some organizations like the Justspace Alliance and IAU featured Inclusive Astronomy have been formed in recent years. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..700a132d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,64 @@ +--- +title: "Space exploration" +chunk: 8/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:25.734834+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +===== Women ===== + +The first woman to go to space was Valentina Tereshkova. She flew in 1963 but it was not until the 1980s that another woman entered space again. All astronauts were required to be military test pilots at the time and women were not able to join this career. This is one reason for the delay in allowing women to join space crews. After the rule changed, Svetlana Savitskaya became the second woman to go to space, she was also from the Soviet Union. Sally Ride became the next woman in space and the first woman to fly to space through the United States program. +Since then, eleven other countries have allowed women astronauts. The first all-female space walk occurred in 2018, including Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. They had both previously participated in space walks with NASA. The first woman to go to the Moon is planned for 2026. +Despite these developments, women are underrepresented among astronauts and especially cosmonauts. Issues that block potential applicants from the programs, and limit the space missions they are able to go on, include: + +agencies limiting women to half as much time in space than men, arguing that there may be unresearched additional risks for cancer. +a lack of space suits sized appropriately for female astronauts. + +=== Art === + +Artistry in and from space ranges from signals, capturing and arranging material like Yuri Gagarin's selfie in space or the image The Blue Marble, over drawings like the first one in space by cosmonaut and artist Alexei Leonov, music videos like Chris Hadfield's cover of Space Oddity on board the ISS, to permanent installations on celestial bodies like on the Moon. + +== See also == + +Discovery and exploration of the Solar System +Spacecraft propulsion +List of crewed spacecraft +List of missions to Mars +List of missions to the outer planets +List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies +List of spaceflight records + +=== Robotic space exploration programs === + +=== Living in space === +Interplanetary contamination + +==== Animals in space ==== + +==== Humans in space ==== + +=== Recent and future developments === + +=== Other === + +== References == + +== Further reading == + +== External links == + +Building a Spacefaring Civilization, Archived 22 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine +Chronology of space exploration, astrobiology, exoplanets and news. Archived 29 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine +Space related news +Space Exploration Network +NASA's website on human space travel +NASA's website on space exploration technology. Archived 13 July 2023 at the Wayback Machine +"America's Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier", a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan +The Soviet-Russian Spaceflight's History Photoarchive +The 21 Greatest Space Photos Ever. Archived 27 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine – slideshow by Life Magazine +"From Stargazers to Starships", extensive educational web site and course covering spaceflight, astronomy and related physics +We Are The Explorers, NASA Promotional Video (Press Release. Archived 26 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine) +Recent Advancement in Space technology and satellite technology 2024. Archived 7 February 2024 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..63633c259 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 1/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space law or astrolaw is the body of law governing space-related activities, encompassing both international and domestic agreements, rules, and principles. The parameters of space law include space exploration, liability for damage, weapons use, rescue efforts, environmental preservation, information sharing, new technologies, and ethics. Other fields of law, such as administrative law, intellectual property law, arms control law, insurance law, environmental law, criminal law, and commercial law, are also integrated within space law. +The origins of space law date back to 1919, with international law recognizing each country's sovereignty over the airspace directly above their territory, later reinforced at the Chicago Convention in 1944. The onset of domestic space programs during the Cold War propelled the official creation of international space policy (i.e., the International Geophysical Year) initiated by the International Council of Scientific Unions. The Soviet Union's 1957 launch of the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, directly spurred the United States Congress to pass the Space Act, thereby establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As space exploration required crossing transnational boundaries, +this era witnessed the emergence of space law as a distinct field, independent from traditional aerospace law. +Since the Cold War, the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the "Outer Space Treaty") and the International Telecommunication Union have served as the constitutional legal framework and set of principles and procedures constituting space law. Further, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), along with its Legal and Scientific and Technical Subcommittees, is responsible for debating issues of international space law and policy. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) serves as the secretariat of the committee and promotes Access to Space for All through a wide range of conferences and capacity-building programs. Challenges that space law will continue to face in the future are fourfold—spanning across dimensions of domestic compliance, international cooperation, ethics, and the advent of scientific innovations. Furthermore, specific guidelines on the definition of airspace have yet to be universally determined. + +== Early developments == +One of the earliest works on space law was Czech jurist Vladimír Mandl's Das Weltraum-Recht: Ein Problem der Raumfahrt (Space Law: A Problem of Space Travel), written in German and published in 1932. +At Caltech in 1942 Theodore von Kármán and other rocket scientists banded together to form Aerojet rocket company with the help of lawyer Andrew G. Haley. To toast the new corporation, Kármán said, "Now, Andy, we will make the rockets—you must make the corporation and obtain the money. Later on, you will have to see that we behave well in outer space. ... After all, we are the scientists but you are the lawyer, and you must tell us how to behave ourselves according to law and to safeguard our innocence." Indeed, twenty years later, Haley published the fundamental textbook, Space Law and Government. +Beginning in 1957 with the Space Race, nations began discussing systems to ensure the peaceful use of outer space. Bilateral discussions between the United States and the USSR in 1958 resulted in the presentation of issues to the UN for debate. In 1959, the UN created the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). COPUOS in turn created two subcommittees, the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and the Legal Subcommittee. The COPUOS Legal Subcommittee has been a primary forum for discussion and negotiation of international agreements relating to outer space. +In 1960, the International Astronautical Congress met in Stockholm and heard several submissions including a survey of legal opinion on extraterrestrial jurisdiction by Andrew G. Haley. +Starting in 1961, the General Assembly Resolution 1721 (XVI) and later 1802 (XVII), both titled "International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space", and Resolution 1962 (XVIII), or a "Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space" were passed unanimously. These basic principles formed the foundation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. + +== International treaties == +Six international treaties have been negotiated to govern state behaviour in space: + +The Rescue Agreement, the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention all elaborate on provisions of the Outer Space Treaty. Some consider the Moon Treaty to be a failed treaty due to its limited acceptance. Others, however, have suggested to complement the Moon Treaty, to accommodate raised issues with it, while employing its qualities. + +=== 1998 ISS agreement === +In addition to the international treaties that have been negotiated at the United Nations, the nations participating in the International Space Station have entered into the 1998 Agreement among the governments of Canada, Member States of the European Space Agency, Japan, Russian Federation, and the United States concerning cooperation on the Civil International Space Station. This agreement provides, among other things, that NASA is the lead agency in coordinating the member states' contributions to and activities on the space station, and that each nation has jurisdiction over its own module(s). The agreement also provides for protection of intellectual property and procedures for criminal prosecution. This agreement may very well serve as a model for future agreements regarding international cooperation in facilities on the Moon and Mars, where the first off-world colonies and scientific/industrial bases are likely to be established. + +== International principles and declarations == + +The five treaties and agreements of international space law cover "non-appropriation of outer space by any one country, arms control, the freedom of exploration, liability for damage caused by space objects, the safety and rescue of spacecraft and astronauts, the prevention of harmful interference with space activities and the environment, the notification and registration of space activities, scientific investigation and the exploitation of natural resources in outer space and the settlement of disputes". +The United Nations General Assembly adopted five declarations and legal principles which encourage exercising international laws, as well as unified communication between countries. The five declarations and principles are: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3160e2de7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 2/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space (1963) +All space exploration will be done with good intentions and is equally open to all States that comply with international law. No one nation may claim ownership of outer space or any celestial body. Activities carried out in space must abide by the international law and the nations undergoing these said activities must accept responsibility for the governmental or non-governmental agency involved. Objects launched into space are subject to their nation of belonging, including people. Objects, parts, and components discovered outside the jurisdiction of a nation will be returned upon identification. If a nation launches an object into space, they are responsible for any damages that occur internationally. + +Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (1979) +The agreement, also called Moon Treaty, exists to promote the exploration of outer space, but to keep the Moon and other celestial bodies in pristine conditions for the common heritage of mankind, meaning that no nation may claim sovereignty over any part of space. All countries should have equal rights to conduct research on the Moon or other celestial bodies. Weapons of mass destruction of any kind including nuclear and bases built for military purposes are specifically banned by the treaty. The United Nations resolution also states that all State Parties may conduct their enterprises below the surface of the Moon or any celestial body so long as efforts are made to protect it from contamination. All activities in space are required to be attached to a nation and any damages to other nations equipment or facilities caused by another party must be repaid in full to that nation. Any discovery of a dangerous hazard such as an area that is radioactive must notify the United Nations Secretary General and the greater international scientific community immediately. +All missions in space lasting longer than 60 days must notify the UN Secretary General and the greater scientific community every 30 days of progress. Any samples that are collected from space must be made available at earliest convenience to the scientific community. The agreement does not include meteorites that fall to Earth by natural means. Currently not a single nation that conducts its own missions in space has ratified the agreement. This likely signifies that the 'Moon Treaty is likely a failed treaty because none of the nations that actually go into space signed or ratified the agreement. That said the need for a lunar activities regulating agreement has been pointed out and proposed to be combined with a Moon Treaty clarifying Implementation Agreement. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6f56e5427 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 3/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Principles Governing the Use by States of Artificial Earth Satellites for International Direct Television Broadcasting (1982) +Activities of this nature must be transpired in accordance with the sovereign rights of States. Said activities should "promote the free dissemination and mutual exchange of information and knowledge in cultural and scientific fields, assist in educational, social and economic development, particularly in the developing countries, enhance the qualities of life of all peoples and provide recreation with due respect to the political and cultural integrity of States". All States have equal rights to pursue these activities and must maintain responsibility for anything carried out under their boundaries of authority. State's planning activities need to contact the Secretary-General of the United Nations with details of the undergoing activities. +The Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space (1986) +Fifteen principles are stated under this category. The basic understanding comes from these descriptions given by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs: +(a) The term "remote sensing" means the sensing of the Earth's surface from space by making use of the properties of electromagnetic waves emitted, reflected or: diffracted by the sensed objects, for the purpose of improving natural resources management, land use and the protection of the environment; +(b) The term "primary data" means those raw data that are acquired by remote sensors borne by a space object and that are transmitted or delivered to the ground: from space by telemetry in the form of electromagnetic signals, by photographic film, magnetic tape or any other means; +(c) The term "processed data" means the products resulting from the processing of the primary data, needed to make such data usable; +(d) The term "analyzed information" means the information resulting from the interpretation of processed data, inputs of data and knowledge from other sources; +(e) The term "remote sensing activities" means the operation of remote sensing space systems, primary data collection and storage stations, and activities in :processing, interpreting and disseminating the processed data. +The Principles Relevant to the Use of Nuclear Power Sources in Outer Space (1992) +"States launching space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall endeavour to protect individuals, populations and the biosphere against radiological hazards. The design and use of space objects with nuclear power sources on board shall ensure, with a high degree of confidence, that the hazards, in foreseeable operational or accidental circumstances, are kept below acceptable levels. ..." +The Declaration on International Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for the Benefit and in the Interest of All States, Taking into Particular Account the Needs of Developing Countries (1996) +"States are free to determine all aspects of their participation in international cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. All States, particularly those with relevant space capabilities and with programmes for the exploration and use of outer space, should contribute to promoting and fostering international cooperation on an equitable and mutually acceptable basis. In this context, particular attention should be given to the benefit for and the interests of developing countries and countries with incipient space programmes stemming from such international cooperation conducted with countries with more advanced space capabilities. International cooperation should be conducted in the modes that are considered most effective and appropriate by the countries concerned, including, inter alia, governmental and non-governmental; commercial and non-commercial; global, multilateral, regional or bilateral; and international cooperation among countries in all levels of development." + +=== Province of all mankind === +The Outer Space Treaty broadly established the concept of space being the province of all mankind, and has been discussed in comparison to the later by the Moon Treaty invoked concept of common heritage of humanity, while overlapping concepts the latter highlights the proclaimed material nature of celestial bodies and the former the proclaimed access to the use of space. + +== Consensus == +The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and its Scientific and Technical and Legal Subcommittees operate on the basis of consensus, i.e., all delegations from member States must agree on any matter, be it treaty language before it can be included in the final version of a treaty or new items on Committee/Subcommittee's agendas. One reason that the U.N. space treaties lack definitions and are unclear in other respects, is that it is easier to achieve consensus when language and terms are vague. In recent years, the Legal Subcommittee has been unable to achieve consensus on discussion of a new comprehensive space agreement (the idea of which, though, was proposed just by a few member States). It is also unlikely that the Subcommittee will be able to agree to amend the Outer Space Treaty in the foreseeable future. A number of space faring nations seem to believe that discussing a new space agreement or amendment of the Outer Space Treaty would be futile and time-consuming, because entrenched differences regarding resource appropriation, property rights and other issues relating to commercial activity make consensus unlikely. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..811a0ec20 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 4/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== National law == +Space law also encompasses national laws, and multiple countries have passed national space legislation in recent years. The Outer Space Treaty gives responsibility for regulating space activities, including both government and private sector, to the individual countries where the activity is taking place. If a national of, or an organization incorporated in one country launches a spacecraft in a different country, interpretations differ as to whether the home country or the launching country has jurisdiction. +The Outer Space Treaty also incorporates the UN Charter by reference, and requires parties to ensure that activities are conducted in accordance with other forms of international law such as customary international law (the custom and practice of states). +The advent of commercial activities like space mining, space tourism, private exploration, and the development of multiple commercial spaceports, is leading a number of countries to consider how to regulate private space activities. The challenge is to regulate these activities in a manner that does not hinder or preclude investment, while still ensuring that commercial activities comply with international law. Developing nations are concerned that the spacefaring nations will monopolize space resources. Royalties paid to developing countries is one reason the United States has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and why some oppose applying the same principles to outer space. +Several nations have enacted or recently updated their national space law, for example, Luxembourg in 2017, +the United States in 2015, +and Japan in 2008. +Due to the expansion of the domain of space research and allied activities in India, the draft Space Activities Bill was introduced in 2017. + +== Issues == + +=== Defining "space" === + +Many questions arise from the difficulty of defining the term "space". Scholars not only debate its geographical definition (i.e., upper and lower limits), but also whether or not it also encompasses various objects within it (i.e., celestial objects, human beings, man-made devices). Lower limits are generally estimated to be about 50 kilometers. More difficulties arise trying to define the upper bounds of "space", as it would require more inquiry into the nature of the universe and the role of Earth as a planet. + +=== Geostationary orbit allocation === + +==== Allocative limitations ==== +Objects in geostationary orbits remain stationary over a point on the Earth due to moving at the same angular velocity as the Earth's surface. There are a number of advantages in being able to use these orbits, mostly due to the unique ability to send radio frequencies to and from satellites to collect data and send signals to various locations. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space has approved seven nonmilitary uses for these orbits: communications, meteorology, Earth's resources and environment, navigation and aircraft control, testing of new systems, astronomy, and data relay. The requirement to space these satellites apart means that there is a limited number of orbital "slots" available, thus only a limited number of satellites can be placed in geostationary orbit. This has led to conflict between different countries wishing access to the same orbital slots (countries at the same longitude but differing latitudes). These disputes are addressed through the ITU allocation mechanism. +Countries located at the Earth's equator have also asserted their legal claim to control the use of space above their territory, notably in 1976, when some countries located at the Earth's equator created the Bogota Declaration, in which they asserted their legal claim to control the use of space above their territory, but failed to challenge the Outer Space Treaty in this regard. + +==== Political controversy ==== +Future developments using geostationary orbits may include an expansion of services in telecommunication, broadcasting, and meteorology. As a result, uses for geostationary orbits may stir political controversy. For example, broadcasting and telecommunication services of satellites orbiting above Earth from certain nations may accidentally "spill over" into other nations' territory. This may prompt conflict with nations that wish to restrict access to information and communication. Current and future political and legal concerns allocation may pose may be addressed by international legislatures, such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and the International Telecommunication Union. + +=== Environmental protection === + +More recent discussions focus on the need for the international community to draft and institute a code of space ethics to prevent the destruction of the space environment. Furthermore, the advancement of life in space pertain to questions related to the ethics of biocentrism and anthropocentrism, or in other words, determining how much value we place in all living things versus human beings specifically. Currently, researchers in the bioengineering field are working towards contamination control measures integrated into spacecraft to protect both space and earth's biosphere. + +==== Environmental space governance ==== + +Beyond space debris, rocket launches and the re-entry of reusable components and space debris also cause air pollution. A study estimated their impacts on climate change and the ozone layer in 2019 and from a theoretical future space industry extrapolated from the "billionaire space race". It concludes that substantial effects from routine space tourism should "motivate regulation". + +=== Space Heritage protection === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e5cd9ebe1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 5/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Space Heritage can be understood to mean traces of human existence, together with their archaeological and natural contexts that occur in outer space, including on the Moon and other celestial bodies. Conceptually, this definition can be interpreted to include any human-made material in space and as humanity continues to increase the pace of exploratory and commercial missions to the Moon and beyond. Thus, protocols must be established to manage Space Heritage for two different reasons: first so that relevant cultural heritage, which is so important to build kinship amongst humans, is preserved; and second to assure that the concept of heritage is not abused by national space actors. +Human heritage in outer space includes Tranquility Base (Apollo 11's lunar landing site) and the robotic and crewed sites that preceded and followed Apollo 11. This also comprises all the Luna programme vehicles, including the Luna 2 (first object) and Luna 9 (first soft-landing) missions, the Surveyor program and the Yutu rovers. +Human heritage in outer space also includes satellites like Vanguard 1 and Asterix-1 which, though nonoperational, remain in orbit. +Currently, these sites are not recognized as cultural heritage or protected in any way under international law. They are addressed in Section 9 of the Artemis Accords which includes an agreement to preserve outer space heritage, which they consider to comprise historically significant human or robotic landing sites, artifacts, spacecraft, and other evidence of activity, and to contribute to multinational efforts to develop practices and rules to do so. + +=== Sovereignty === +Current space law has framed space as a common good by calling it the "province of all mankind", and no state has claimed any part of space as their territory, despite practicing the placing of flags. That said it has been argued, that sovereignty is an issue through jurisdiction, which applies to installed facilities and the present actors in space. + +=== Ethics === + +In space law, ethics extend to topics regarding space exploration, space tourism, space ownership, the militarization of space, environmental protection, and distinguishing the boundaries of space itself. In March 2023, For All Moonkind announced the formation of the Institute on Space Law and Ethics, a "new nonprofit organization will go beyond advocating for protecting off-world heritage sites and contemplate the ethics around some activities in space that are not fully covered in existing international law." + +=== Interplanetary Human Rights === +International space law developed after the Second World War when international human rights were established, but both developed independently, and have therefore been identified to be in need to be thought together and expanded, especially with advancing space flight and interest in space settlement. +It has been suggested that human rights need to be accompanied in space by a set of fundamental rights. Approached from Crip Legal Theory, the following three such novel fundamental rights have been suggested by the Jus Ad Astra project: the right to water, the right to a breathable atmosphere and the right to a habitable environment. +For such rights state and private accountability has become, particular in light of increased private space activity, a growing issue. + +=== Human representation, participation and colonialism === + +The issue of human representation and participation in space has been a focus of international space law since the beginning of space exploration. +In the early stages of international space law, outer space was framed as res communis, explicitly not as terra nullius, in the Magna Carta of Space presented by William A. Hyman in 1966. This concept has since influenced the work of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the exploration and use of outer space has been declared as the "province of all mankind". +Critics though argue that the sharing of space for all humanity is still lacking, with imperialist views prevailing. Moreover, there are concerns that the current politico-legal regimes and their philosophical underpinnings may favor the imperialist development of space. Consequently, it has been argued that space law is in the need for being reevaluated to ensure the consideration of the relevance and contributions of countries without significant spaceflight, particularly as an answer to colonial histories and colonialism. +Space colonization has been criticized as a continuation of imperialism and colonialism, leading to postcolonial critiques of colonial decision-making and reasons for labor and land exploitation. There is a growing recognition of the need for inclusive and democratic participation in any space exploration, infrastructure, or habitation. Despite the Outer Space Treaty guaranteeing access to space, space law has faced criticism for not securing international and social inclusiveness, particularly concerning private spaceflight. The often heard declaration that humanity's destiny lies in colonizing the Solar System, particularly in the "billionaire space race", leaving multiple earthbound problems behind has been criticized as "techno-utopian [...] hubris", suggesting "a multilateral agreement to strictly govern and limit expansion into space". + +=== Commercial use === + +Early discussions regarding space ethics revolved around whether or not the space frontier should be available for use, gaining prominence at the time of the Soviet Union and the United States' Space Race. In 1967, the "Outer Space Treaty" dictated that all nations in compliance with international regulation are permitted to exploit space. As a result, the commercial use of space is open to exploitation by public and private entities, especially in relation to mining and space tourism. This principle has been the subject of controversy, particularly by those in favor of environmental protection, sustainability, and conservation. + +=== Exploitation === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5658de53f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 6/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +While this field of the law is still in its infancy, it is in an era of rapid change and development. Arguably, the resources of space are infinite. If commercial space transportation becomes widely available, with substantially lower launch costs, then all countries will be able to directly reap the benefits of space resources. In that situation, it seems likely that consensus will be much easier to achieve with respect to commercial development and human settlement of outer space. High costs are not the only factor preventing the economic exploitation of space: it is argued that space should be considered as a pristine environment worthy of protection and conservation, and that the legal regime for space should further protect it from being used as a resource for Earth's needs. Debate is also focused on whether space should continue to be legally defined as part of the "Common heritage of mankind", and therefore unavailable for national claims, or whether its legal definition should be changed to allow private property in space. +As of 2013, NASA's plans to capture an asteroid by 2021 has raised questions about how space law would be applied in practice. +In 2016, the nation of Luxembourg has set out a formal legal framework which ensures that private companies engaged in mining resources in space have rights to those resources. + +=== Anthropocentrisms === +Spreading humanity's influence far beyond the Earth raises questions about potential other intelligences that have spread through reachable space. Astroethics can consider extraterrestrial having ethics, which may often reflect in laws and understand humanity and its multitude of ethics (which may often reflect in laws and policies) as a part of the universe in a more holistic, possibly even "cosmic", view. + +=== Spacefaring machines === +Progress in robotics and artificial intelligence is eroding the need for humans in space with human endeavours often being less cost-effective than robotic missions, with ethical implications for society. Laws as well as adaption-requirements for humans differ in space, which could be a legitimation for crewed – rather than robotic – space-missions. + +=== Contact regime === + +There have been some proposals as with the Magna Carta of Space presented by William A. Hyman in 1966 or through the concept of metalaw to introduce legal basics in case of detection of or contact with indigenous extraterrestrial intelligence. As of 2018, there are basically no principles for dealing with a successful confirmed SETI detection. + +=== Rights of nature === +In 2021, the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon was created by a group of "lawyers, space archaeologists and concerned citizens", drawing on precedents in the Rights of Nature movement and the concept of legal personality for non-human entities in space. + +== Dispute resolution == +Space Law also attempts to provide a framework for dispute resolution for matters which arise in space. The following mechanisms are available to the different types of affected parties. + +=== State Actors === +State actors can choose to bring a case before the International Court of Justice for breaches under the Liability Convention or the Outer Space Treaty. Strong arguments can also be made for breaches of customary international law. +Alternatively, state actors can also attempt to resolve disputes between themselves and reach a negotiated settlement. This was the case in the Kosmos 954 incident between Canada and the USSR. + +=== Non-State Actors === +Non-state actors are first directed to approach an appropriate state party where one is involved as per the Liability Convention. Where the dispute is private and commercial in nature however, some private companies opt for arbitration. So far, arbitration has primarily been conducted under the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the 1976 UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules but the existence of the more specialised "Optional Rules for Arbitration of Disputes Relating to Outer Space Activities" might see a shift in procedural law chosen by the parties in the future. Examples of disputes resolved by arbitration include the cases of CC/Devas (Mauritius) Ltd., Devas Employees Mauritius Private Ltd., & Telcom Devas Mauritius Ltd. v. Republic of India, PCA Case No. 2013-09 and Deutsche Telekom AG v. The Republic of India, PCA Case No. 2014-10. +Beside arbitration there is also the possibility of a Claims Commission as outlined in the Liability Convention. Altogether arbitration has been discussed as an emerging or active field. + +== Future institutional developments == + +=== Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Space Threats === +With no progress in the negotiation of the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space in 2020, the UN resolution "Reducing Space Threats Through Norms, Rules and Principles of Responsible Behaviours" was signed. Subsequently, the "Open Ended Working Group on Reducing Space Threats Through Norms, Rules and Principles of Responsible Behaviours" was established and found some traction, particularly since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. + +=== Future coordination and cooperation === +International coordination and cooperation are facilitated by the growing inter-agency International Space Exploration Coordination Group and planned for the Lunar Gateway space station, emulating the cooperation for the ISS. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..575ab0864 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Space law" +chunk: 7/7 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_law" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:45.167693+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Legal Profession === +There is a growing emphasis on space law in academia. Since 1951, the McGill Faculty of Law in Montreal, Canada has hosted the Institute of Air and Space Law, and offers an LL.M. in Air and Space law. The University of Mississippi School of Law publishes the world's only law journal devoted to space law, the Journal of Space Law. The University of Mississippi School of Law is also the only ABA-accredited law school in the world to offer an LL.M. in Air and Space Law, a Graduate Certificate and a JD Concentration in Air and Space Law. Michelle Hanlon serves as the executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the university. In 2008, the University of Nebraska College of Law launched its space, cyber, and telecommunications law program, offering courses and specializations to JD students and an LL.M. in Space, Cyber, and Telecommunications. Over the last decade, other universities have begun to offer specialized courses and programs in the US, UK, France, the Netherlands, and Australia. +In September 2012, the Space Law Society (SLS) at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law was established. A legal resources team united in Maryland, a "Space Science State", with Jorge Rodriguez, Lee Sampson, Patrick Gardiner, Lyra Correa and Juliana Neelbauer as SLS founding members. In 2014, students at American University Washington College of Law founded the school's Space Law Society, with the help of Pamela L. Meredith, space lawyer and adjunct professor of Satellite Communications and Space Law. +Efforts to codify the legal regime are mostly represented in the Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS) and the Woomera Manual. The Woomera Manual is a collaborative effort between the University of Adelaide, UNSW Canberra, the University of Exeter, and the University of Nebraska College of Law. Like the San Remo and Tallinn Manuals, the goal is to clarify the law as it relates to outer space. +In 2018, two space lawyers - Christopher Hearsey and Nathan Johnson - founded the Space Court Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit corporation that promotes and supports space law and policy education and the rule of law. The Space Court Foundation produces educational materials and scholarships through the administration of two major projects: Stellar Decisis and the Space Court Law Library. The foundation engages in partnerships and collaborations that help grow greater awareness of space law and how disputes in space may be resolved as humans venture farther from Earth in the not-too-distant future. + +=== International efforts to inform progressive development of International Space Law === +The McGill Institute of Air and Space Law is leading multiple international collaborative projects to contribute towards clarifying international space law and promote rules-based global order. One such project announced in 2017, being led by Prof. Ram S. Jakhu, is the McGill Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space (MILAMOS Project) which aims to clarify existing rules of international law as they apply to military uses of outer space. The MILAMOS Project aims to contribute to "a future where all space activities are conducted in accordance with the international rules-based global order, without disrupting, and preferably contributing to, the sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of present and future generations of all humanity." Another international collaborative project announced in 2020, being led by Prof. Ram S. Jakhu, Bayar Goswami and Kuan-Wei (David) Chen, is the McGill Encyclopedia of International Space Law (at SpaceLawPedia.com) which aims to "fulfill the need for an objectively curated online resource on key subject matters of international space law. With the input of a team of global practitioners and academics in the field of international space law and general international law, the SpaceLawPedia aims to be the definitive source of peer-reviewed reference material for anyone practicing, conducting research on or teaching international space law." +For a deeper awareness and understanding of issues arising from the ongoing scramble for the Moon, the Open Lunar Foundation has been working with a broad range of professionals to find, in an open and responsible way, approaches which find and address issues. This work has produced the "Lunar Policy Handbook" under its "Moon Dialogs" program, the lunar activity registry proposal "Bright Moon", and a program for approaches for resource collection called "Breaking Ground". + +=== Global space agency === +International context can be traced all the way back to the International Geophysical Year in the course of which the first orbital flight was conducted, and early work on establishing international cooperation in space. Even a joint US-USSR space program was actively for a short time negotiated. Today's international space laws are the most remaining remnants of these early advances in space cooperation. +The end of the Cold War was presented as an opportunity, allowing today's International Space Station and fueling academic suggestions like an "interspace" design for the establishment of an international space agency. With increased space environmental awareness a "Framework Convention on the Protection of the Space Environment" and yet again an "International Space Agency" has been academically suggested, while having seen practically no advances. Despite the absence of an international space agency, international cooperation in space is being widely pursued, with the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) being the most high-level coordination groups, the latter produces the Global Exploration Roadmap. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Ann Finkbeiner, "Orbital Aggression: How do we prevent war in space?", Scientific American, vol. 323, no. 5 (November 2020), pp. 50–57. +Xiao-Shan Yap and Rakhyun E. Kim, "Towards Earth-Space Governance in a Multi-Planetary Era", Earth System Governance, vol. 16 (2023), 100173. + +== External links == +International Institute of Space Law +Res Communis – University of Mississippi National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law blog about air and space law developments +Journal of Space Law +International Space Law at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs website +Space Security Portal at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research +Rose, Neil (13 August 2009). "Can you buy an acre of the Moon?". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. +Institute of Space and Telecommunications Law & Master's degree in Space Activities and Telecommunications Law +Space Law - MOOC.fi courses \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..446224eaa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Specified complexity" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:53.658509+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Specified complexity is a creationist intelligent design argument introduced by William Dembski. According to Dembski, the concept can formalize a property that singles out patterns that are both specified and complex, where in Dembski's terminology, a specified pattern is one that admits short descriptions, whereas a complex pattern is one that is unlikely to occur by chance. An example cited by Dembski is a poker hand, where for example the repeated appearance of a royal flush will raise suspicion of cheating. Proponents of intelligent design use specified complexity as one of their two main arguments, along with irreducible complexity. +Dembski argues that it is impossible for specified complexity to exist in patterns displayed by configurations formed by unguided processes. Therefore, Dembski argues, the fact that specified complex patterns can be found in living things indicates some kind of guidance in their formation, which is indicative of intelligence. Dembski further argues that one can show by applying no-free-lunch theorems the inability of evolutionary algorithms to select or generate configurations of high specified complexity. Dembski states that specified complexity is a reliable marker of design by an intelligent agent—a central tenet to intelligent design, which Dembski argues for in opposition to modern evolutionary theory. Specified complexity is what Dembski terms an "explanatory filter": one can recognize design by detecting complex specified information (CSI). Dembski argues that the unguided emergence of CSI solely according to known physical laws and chance is highly improbable. +The concept of specified complexity is widely regarded as mathematically unsound and has not been the basis for further independent work in information theory, in the theory of complex systems, or in biology. A study by Wesley Elsberry and Jeffrey Shallit states: "Dembski's work is riddled with inconsistencies, equivocation, flawed use of mathematics, poor scholarship, and misrepresentation of others' results." Another objection concerns Dembski's calculation of probabilities. According to Martin Nowak, a Harvard professor of mathematics and evolutionary biology, "We cannot calculate the probability that an eye came about. We don't have the information to make the calculation." + +== Definition == + +=== Orgel's terminology === +The term "specified complexity" was originally coined by origin of life researcher Leslie Orgel in his 1973 book The Origins of Life: Molecules and Natural Selection, which proposed that RNA could have evolved through Darwinian natural selection. Orgel used the phrase in discussing the differences between life and non-living structures: + +In brief, living organisms are distinguished by their specified complexity. Crystals are usually taken as the prototypes of simple well-specified structures, because they consist of a very large number of identical molecules packed together in a uniform way. Lumps of granite or random mixtures of polymers are examples of structures that are complex but not specified. The crystals fail to qualify as living because they lack complexity; the mixtures of polymers fail to qualify because they lack specificity. +The phrase was taken up by the creationists Charles Thaxton and Walter L Bradley in a chapter they contributed to the 1994 book The Creation Hypothesis where they discussed "design detection" and redefined "specified complexity" as a way of measuring information. Another contribution to the book was written by William A. Dembski, who took this up as the basis of his subsequent work. +The term was later employed by physicist Paul Davies to qualify the complexity of living organisms: + +Living organisms are mysterious not for their complexity per se, but for their tightly specified complexity \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b644ed6c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +--- +title: "Specified complexity" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:53.658509+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Dembski's definition === +Whereas Orgel used the term for biological features which are considered in science to have arisen through a process of evolution, Dembski says that it describes features which cannot form through "undirected" evolution—and concludes that it allows one to infer intelligent design. While Orgel employed the concept in a qualitative way, Dembski's use is intended to be quantitative. Dembski's use of the concept dates to his 1998 monograph The Design Inference. Specified complexity is fundamental to his approach to intelligent design, and each of his subsequent books has also dealt significantly with the concept. He has stated that, in his opinion, "if there is a way to detect design, specified complexity is it". +Dembski asserts that specified complexity is present in a configuration when it can be described by a pattern that displays a large amount of independently specified information and is also complex, which he defines as having a low probability of occurrence. He provides the following examples to demonstrate the concept: "A single letter of the alphabet is specified without being complex. A long sentence of random letters is complex without being specified. A Shakespearean sonnet is both complex and specified." +In his earlier papers Dembski defined complex specified information (CSI) as being present in a specified event whose probability did not exceed 1 in 10150, which he calls the universal probability bound. In that context, "specified" meant what in later work he called "pre-specified", that is specified by the unnamed designer before any information about the outcome is known. The value of the universal probability bound corresponds to the inverse of the upper limit of "the total number of [possible] specified events throughout cosmic history", as calculated by Dembski. +Anything below this bound has CSI. The terms "specified complexity" and "complex specified information" are used interchangeably. In more recent papers Dembski has redefined the universal probability bound, with reference to another number, corresponding to the total number of bit operations that could possibly have been performed in the entire history of the universe. +Dembski asserts that CSI exists in numerous features of living things, such as in DNA and in other functional biological molecules, and argues that it cannot be generated by the only known natural mechanisms of physical law and chance, or by their combination. He argues that this is so because laws can only shift around or lose information, but do not produce it, and because chance can produce complex unspecified information, or simple specified information, but not CSI; he provides a mathematical analysis that he claims demonstrates that law and chance working together cannot generate CSI, either. Moreover, he claims that CSI is holistic, with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, and that this decisively eliminates Darwinian evolution as a possible means of its "creation". Dembski maintains that by process of elimination, CSI is best explained as being due to intelligence, and is therefore a reliable indicator of design. + +== Law of conservation of information == +Dembski formulates and proposes a law of conservation of information as follows: + +This strong proscriptive claim, that natural causes can only transmit CSI but never originate it, I call the Law of Conservation of Information. +Immediate corollaries of the proposed law are the following: + +The specified complexity in a closed system of natural causes remains constant or decreases. +The specified complexity cannot be generated spontaneously, originate endogenously or organize itself (as these terms are used in origins-of-life research). +The specified complexity in a closed system of natural causes either has been in the system eternally or was at some point added exogenously (implying that the system, though now closed, was not always closed). +In particular any closed system of natural causes that is also of finite duration received whatever specified complexity it contains before it became a closed system. + +Dembski notes that the term "Law of Conservation of Information" was previously used by Peter Medawar in his book The Limits of Science (1984) "to describe the weaker claim that deterministic laws cannot produce novel information." The actual validity and utility of Dembski's proposed law are uncertain; it is neither widely used by the scientific community nor cited in mainstream scientific literature. A 2002 essay by Erik Tellgren provided a mathematical rebuttal of Dembski's law and concludes that it is "mathematically unsubstantiated." + +== Specificity == +In a more recent paper, Dembski provided an account which he claims is simpler and adheres more closely to the theory of statistical hypothesis testing as formulated by Ronald Fisher. In general terms, Dembski proposes to view design inference as a statistical test to reject a chance hypothesis P on a space of outcomes Ω. +Dembski's proposed test is based on the Kolmogorov complexity of a pattern T that is exhibited by an event E that has occurred. Mathematically, E is a subset of Ω, the pattern T specifies a set of outcomes in Ω and E is a subset of T. Quoting Dembski + +Thus, the event E might be a die toss that lands six and T might be the composite event consisting of all die tosses that land on an even face. +Kolmogorov complexity provides a measure of the computational resources needed to specify a pattern (such as a DNA sequence or a sequence of alphabetic characters). Given a pattern T, the number of other patterns may have Kolmogorov complexity no larger than that of T is denoted by φ(T). The number φ(T) thus provides a ranking of patterns from the simplest to the most complex. For example, for a pattern T which describes the bacterial flagellum, Dembski claims to obtain the upper bound φ(T) ≤ 1020. +Dembski defines specified complexity of the pattern T under the chance hypothesis P as + + + + + σ + = + − + + log + + 2 + + + ⁡ + [ + R + × + φ + ( + T + ) + × + P + ⁡ + ( + T + ) + ] + , + + + {\displaystyle \sigma =-\log _{2}[R\times \varphi (T)\times \operatorname {P} (T)],} + \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b8f65e093 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,137 @@ +--- +title: "Specified complexity" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:53.658509+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +where P(T) is the probability of observing the pattern T, R is the number of "replicational resources" available "to witnessing agents". R corresponds roughly to repeated attempts to create and discern a pattern. Dembski then asserts that R can be bounded by 10120. This number is supposedly justified by a result of Seth Lloyd in which he determines that the number of elementary logic operations that can have been performed in the universe over its entire history cannot exceed 10120 operations on 1090 bits. +Dembski's main claim is that the following test can be used to infer design for a configuration: There is a target pattern T that applies to the configuration and whose specified complexity exceeds 1. This condition can be restated as the inequality + + + + + + 10 + + 120 + + + × + φ + ( + T + ) + × + P + ⁡ + ( + T + ) + < + + + 1 + 2 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle 10^{120}\times \varphi (T)\times \operatorname {P} (T)<{\frac {1}{2}}.} + + +=== Dembski's explanation of specified complexity === +Dembski's expression σ is unrelated to any known concept in information theory, though he claims he can justify its relevance as follows: An intelligent agent S witnesses an event E and assigns it to some reference class of events Ω and within this reference class considers it as satisfying a specification T. Now consider the quantity φ(T) × P(T) (where P is the "chance" hypothesis): + +Think of S as trying to determine whether an archer, who has just shot an arrow at a large wall, happened to hit a tiny target on that wall by chance. The arrow, let us say, is indeed sticking squarely in this tiny target. The problem, however, is that there are lots of other tiny targets on the wall. Once all those other targets are factored in, is it still unlikely that the archer could have hit any of them by chance? +In addition, we need to factor in what I call the replicational resources associated with T, that is, all the opportunities to bring about an event of T's descriptive complexity and improbability by multiple agents witnessing multiple events. + +According to Dembski, the number of such "replicational resources" can be bounded by "the maximal number of bit operations that the known, observable universe could have performed throughout its entire multi-billion year history", which according to Lloyd is 10120. +However, according to Elsberry and Shallit, "[specified complexity] has not been defined formally in any reputable peer-reviewed mathematical journal, nor (to the best of our knowledge) adopted by any researcher in information theory." + +=== Calculation of specified complexity === +Thus far, Dembski's only attempt at calculating the specified complexity of a naturally occurring biological structure is in his book No Free Lunch, for the bacterial flagellum of E. coli. This structure can be described by the pattern "bidirectional rotary motor-driven propeller". Dembski estimates that there are at most 1020 patterns described by four basic concepts or fewer, and so his test for design will apply if + + + + + P + ⁡ + ( + T + ) + < + + + 1 + 2 + + + × + + 10 + + − + 140 + + + . + + + {\displaystyle \operatorname {P} (T)<{\frac {1}{2}}\times 10^{-140}.} + + +However, Dembski says that the precise calculation of the relevant probability "has yet to be done", although he also claims that some methods for calculating these probabilities "are now in place". +These methods assume that all of the constituent parts of the flagellum must have been generated completely at random, a scenario that biologists do not seriously consider. He justifies this approach by appealing to Michael Behe's concept of "irreducible complexity" (IC), which leads him to assume that the flagellum could not come about by any gradual or step-wise process. The validity of Dembski's particular calculation is thus wholly dependent on Behe's IC concept, and therefore susceptible to its criticisms, of which there are many. +To arrive at the ranking upper bound of 1020 patterns, Dembski considers a specification pattern for the flagellum defined by the (natural language) predicate "bidirectional rotary motor-driven propeller", which he regards as being determined by four independently chosen basic concepts. He furthermore assumes that English has the capability to express at most 105 basic concepts (an upper bound on the size of a dictionary). Dembski then claims that we can obtain the rough upper bound of + + + + + + 10 + + 20 + + + = + + 10 + + 5 + + + × + + 10 + + 5 + + + × + + 10 + + 5 + + + × + + 10 + + 5 + + + + + {\displaystyle 10^{20}=10^{5}\times 10^{5}\times 10^{5}\times 10^{5}} + + +for the set of patterns described by four basic concepts or fewer. +From the standpoint of Kolmogorov complexity theory, this calculation is problematic. Quoting Ellsberry and Shallit "Natural language specification without restriction, as Dembski tacitly permits, seems problematic. For one thing, it results in the Berry paradox". These authors add: "We have no objection to natural language specifications per se, provided there is some evident way to translate them to Dembski's formal framework. But what, precisely, is the space of events Ω here?" + +== Criticism == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c7bae42e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Specified complexity" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specified_complexity" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:53.658509+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The soundness of Dembski's concept of specified complexity and the validity of arguments based on this concept are widely disputed. A frequent criticism (see Elsberry and Shallit) is that Dembski has used the terms "complexity", "information" and "improbability" interchangeably. These numbers measure properties of things of different types: Complexity measures how hard it is to describe an object (such as a bitstring), information is how much the uncertainty about the state of an object is reduced by knowing the state of another object or system, and improbability measures how unlikely an event is given a probability distribution. +On page 150 of No Free Lunch Dembski claims he can demonstrate his thesis mathematically: "In this section I will present an in-principle mathematical argument for why natural causes are incapable of generating complex specified information." When Tellgren investigated Dembski's "Law of Conservation of Information" using a more formal approach, he concluded it is mathematically unsubstantiated. Dembski responded in part that he is not "in the business of offering a strict mathematical proof for the inability of material mechanisms to generate specified complexity". Jeffrey Shallit states that Demski's mathematical argument has multiple problems, for example; a crucial calculation on page 297 of No Free Lunch is off by a factor of approximately 1065. +Dembski's calculations show how a simple smooth function cannot gain information. He therefore concludes that there must be a designer to obtain CSI. However, natural selection has a branching mapping from one to many (replication) followed by pruning mapping of the many back down to a few (selection). When information is replicated, some copies can be differently modified while others remain the same, allowing information to increase. These increasing and reductional mappings were not modeled by Dembski. In other words, Dembski's calculations do not model birth and death. This basic flaw in his modeling renders all of Dembski's subsequent calculations and reasoning in No Free Lunch irrelevant because his basic model does not reflect reality. Since the basis of No Free Lunch relies on this flawed argument, the entire thesis of the book collapses. +According to Martin Nowak, a Harvard professor of mathematics and evolutionary biology "We cannot calculate the probability that an eye came about. We don't have the information to make the calculation". +Dembski's critics note that specified complexity, as originally defined by Leslie Orgel, is precisely what Darwinian evolution is supposed to create. Critics maintain that Dembski uses "complex" as most people would use "absurdly improbable". They also claim that his argument is circular: CSI cannot occur naturally because Dembski has defined it thus. They argue that to successfully demonstrate the existence of CSI, it would be necessary to show that some biological feature undoubtedly has an extremely low probability of occurring by any natural means whatsoever, something which Dembski and others have almost never attempted to do. Such calculations depend on the accurate assessment of numerous contributing probabilities, the determination of which is often necessarily subjective. Hence, CSI can at most provide a "very high probability", but not absolute certainty. +Another criticism refers to the problem of "arbitrary but specific outcomes". For example, if a coin is tossed randomly 1000 times, the probability of any particular outcome occurring is roughly one in 10300. For any particular specific outcome of the coin-tossing process, the a priori probability (probability measured before event happens) that this pattern occurred is thus one in 10300, which is astronomically smaller than Dembski's universal probability bound of one in 10150. Yet we know that the post hoc probability (probability as observed after event occurs) of its happening is exactly one, since we observed it happening. This is similar to the observation that it is unlikely that any given person will win a lottery, but, eventually, a lottery will have a winner; to argue that it is very unlikely that any one player would win is not the same as proving that there is the same chance that no one will win. Similarly, it has been argued that "a space of possibilities is merely being explored, and we, as pattern-seeking animals, are merely imposing patterns, and therefore targets, after the fact." +Apart from such theoretical considerations, critics cite reports of evidence of the kind of evolutionary "spontanteous generation" that Dembski claims is too improbable to occur naturally. For example, in 1982, B.G. Hall published research demonstrating that after removing a gene that allows sugar digestion in certain bacteria, those bacteria, when grown in media rich in sugar, rapidly evolve new sugar-digesting enzymes to replace those removed. Another widely cited example is the discovery of nylon eating bacteria that produce enzymes only useful for digesting synthetic materials that did not exist prior to the invention of nylon in 1935. +Other commentators have noted that evolution through selection is frequently used to design certain electronic, aeronautic and automotive systems which are considered problems too complex for human "intelligent designers". This contradicts the argument that an intelligent designer is required for the most complex systems. Such evolutionary techniques can lead to designs that are difficult to understand or evaluate since no human understands which trade-offs were made in the evolutionary process, something which mimics our poor understanding of biological systems. +Dembski's book No Free Lunch was criticised for not addressing the work of researchers who use computer simulations to investigate artificial life. According to Shallit: + +The field of artificial life evidently poses a significant challenge to Dembski's claims about the failure of evolutionary algorithms to generate complexity. Indeed, artificial life researchers regularly find their simulations of evolution producing the sorts of novelties and increased complexity that Dembski claims are impossible. + +== See also == +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience +Teleological argument +Texas sharpshooter fallacy + +== Notes and references == + +== External links == +Not a Free Lunch But a Box of Chocolates - A critique of William Dembski's book No Free Lunch by Richard Wein, from TalkOrigins +Information Theory and Creationism William Dembski by Rich Baldwin, from Information Theory and Creationism, compiled by Ian Musgrave and Rich Baldwin +Critique of No Free Lunch by H. Allen Orr from the Boston Review +Dissecting Dembski's "Complex Specified Information" Archived 2017-03-17 at the Wayback Machine by Thomas D. Schneider. +William Dembski's treatment of the No Free Lunch theorems is written in jello Archived 2014-04-19 at the Wayback Machine by No Free Lunch theorems co-founder, David Wolpert +The Evolution List - Genetic ID and the Explanatory Filter by Allen MacNeill. +Design Inference Website - The writing of William A. Dembski +Committee for Skeptical Inquiry - Reality Check, The Emperor's New Designer Clothes - Victor J. Stenger +Darwin@Home Web site - open-source software that demonstrates evolution in artificial life, written by Gerald de Jong \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starson_v_Swayze-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starson_v_Swayze-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bbcc3ddf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starson_v_Swayze-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +--- +title: "Starson v Swayze" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starson_v_Swayze" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:40.111744+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Starson v Swayze, 2003 SCC 32, [2003] 1 S.C.R. 722 was an important case at the Supreme Court of Canada that considered the legal requirements for determining if a person is capable of making decisions regarding their medical treatment. +On December 24, 1998, Dr. Ian Gary Swayze declared Professor Starson (a.k.a. Scott Jeffery Schutzman) incapable of consenting to proposed psychiatric treatment and should therefore be involuntarily medicated as directed. Starson applied to a legal body known as the Consent and Capacity Board for a review of this decision. On June 6, 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada published its decision in the case. In a 6 to 3 decision, the majority held that Starson had the right to refuse medication. + + +== Background == +Scott Jeffery Schutzman, who changed his name to Starson and preferred to be called "Professor", obtained an electrical engineering degree and held a strong interest in physics (although it was not his profession). He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He appreciated that he was not 'normal' and that he had problems dealing with people. He acknowledged that he had mental health issues, but he refused to accept his condition as an illness. He also refused to consent to the course of medications that his physicians recommended for fear that it would diminish his thinking. He would have accepted psychotherapy but no medication. +Dr. Ian Gary Swayze, who was not Starson's primary doctor but who had reviewed his medical charts, testified first. "[T]his charting is ominous. It would suggest to me a chronic, unremitting course which likely would be a future for Professor Starson, should he not receive treatment," Swayze testified. +On December 24, 1998, Swayze declared Starson incapable of consenting to proposed psychiatric treatment and should therefore be involuntarily medicated as directed. +Starson applied to the Consent and Capacity Board for a review of this decision. The Board decided that, because Starson did not recognize that he was ill and that he needed treatment, Starson was not able to understand the consequences of consent; he failed to appreciate the risks and the benefits and therefore he lacked the capacity to make a decision as to treatment. Starson was subsequently charged multiple times with uttering death threats and has spent most of his later life in institutions. + + +== Case == +The issue facing the Supreme Court of Canada was, "Is the Consent and Capacity Board entitled to override Starson’s refusal and order him to undergo treatment?" The holding was, "No." +The Court "ruled that Starson did have the capability and capacity to determine his own treatment." +Justice Major wrote the majority decision, that: According to the Health Care Consent Act a person is able to consent when he understands the information relevant to making the decision, and can appreciate the reasonably foreseeable consequences of the decision. The role of the Board is solely to adjudicate on the issue of capacity and not to determine what is in the best interests of the patient. +Prior to the Starson decision, a person who does not acknowledge illness cannot accept the consequences of treatment. The Court recognized that a person who has accepted the manifestations of illness, although not the final diagnosis, does not forgo capacity to refuse treatment. All the patient must do is be: + +Able to understand the information about the treatment, and +Able to assess the costs and benefits of the treatment. +The patient does not have to weigh the benefits properly or rationally. +The majority also noted that psychiatrists do not always agree on diagnoses. So long as the patient can recognize the symptoms, then the court will have difficulty finding incapacity. In addition, the evidence that was given failed to meet standards of proof, the Consent Board made note over the vague references that Dr. Swayze made to medical charts and past death threats. "The medical charts themselves were not marked as exhibits at the hearing and there is no indication that the members of the board even looked at them," Justice Molloy chastised. "The evidence of a non-treating psychiatrist Dr. Ian Gary Swayze based on a chart review and unsupported by first-hand evidence of anybody is far removed from 'cogent and compelling evidence.' It is contrary to the principles of justice to interfere with important individual rights on the basis of such flimsy evidence." +Major determined that McLachlin was doing what the Board did: deciding what was in the patient’s best interests. +Rationale: Denial of one’s illness is not a sufficient criterion to establish a patient’s incapacity to refuse treatment. + + +== Critique == +McLachlin CJ focussed on the patient's delusions, where Major’s majority did not. +Both McLachlin and Major agree that the issue is not a “best interests of the patient” standard. +She felt, however, that the patient may be able to understand the general nature of the illness but cannot recognize that he has the illness. This means that the patient cannot appreciate the benefits of the treatment or the need for treatment. + + +== Commentary == +The majority may have accurately surmised from the following language of the Board: “it viewed with great sadness the current situation of the patient […] his life has been devastated by his mental disorder.” +According to Daphne Jarvis, a legal counsel to the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, + +"The [Supreme] Court did not change the Health Care Consent Act or even make the process more difficult." + +According to an article in The Ottawa Citizen, + +"What the court majority ruled was that Consent and Capacity board in 1999 did not have enough evidence to support its finding that Mr. Starson was incapable of deciding on treatment." + + +== See also == +List of Supreme Court of Canada cases (McLachlin Court) +Health Care Consent Act (Ontario) +Mental Health Act (Ontario) +Substitute Decisions Act + + +== Notes == + + +== External links == +Full text of Supreme Court of Canada decision available at LexUM and CanLII +"Fighting for the right to refuse treatment: Part 1" and "Part 2", The Ottawa Citizen, 11 June 2005. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_electrodynamics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_electrodynamics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0d294e4b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_electrodynamics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Stochastic electrodynamics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stochastic_electrodynamics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:38.598138+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Stochastic electrodynamics (SED) extends classical electrodynamics (CED) of theoretical physics by adding the hypothesis of a classical Lorentz invariant radiation field having statistical properties similar to that of the electromagnetic zero-point field (ZPF) of quantum electrodynamics (QED). + + +== Key ingredients == +Stochastic electrodynamics combines two conventional classical ideas – electromagnetism derived from point charges obeying Maxwell's equations and particle motion driven by Lorentz forces – with one unconventional hypothesis: the classical field has radiation even at T=0. This zero-point radiation is inferred from observations of the (macroscopic) Casimir effect forces at low temperatures. As temperature approaches zero, experimental measurements of the force between two uncharged, conducting plates in a vacuum do not go to zero as classical electrodynamics would predict. Taking this result as evidence of classical zero-point radiation leads to the stochastic electrodynamics model. + + +== History == + +Stochastic electrodynamics is a term for a collection of research efforts of many different styles based on the hypothesis that there exists a Lorentz invariant random electromagnetic radiation. The work of Marshall (1963) and Timothy Boyer, +on stochastic electrodynamics can be viewed building spontaneous emission into a semiclassical theory. +Timothy Boyer, author of many papers in the field, has noted that some of papers on the subject contain exaggerated claims or errors. + + +== Scope of SED == +SED has been used in attempts to provide a classical explanation for effects previously considered to require quantum mechanics (here restricted to the Schrödinger equation and the Dirac equation and QED) for their explanation. It has also motivated a classical ZPF-based underpinning for gravity and inertia. There is no universal agreement on the successes and failures of SED, either in its congruence with standard theories of quantum mechanics, QED, and gravity or in its compliance with observation. The following SED-based explanations are relatively uncontroversial and are free of criticism at the time of writing: + +The Van der Waals force +Diamagnetism +The Unruh effect +The following SED-based calculations and SED-related claims are more controversial, and some have been subject to published criticism: + +The ground state of the harmonic oscillator +The ground state of the hydrogen atom +De Broglie waves +Inertia +Gravitation + + +== See also == +Classical unified field theories – Theoretical attempts to unify the forces of nature +Stochastic quantum mechanics – Interpretation of quantum mechanics +Zero-point energy – Lowest possible energy of a quantum system or field + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..04296d076 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Sucharit Bhakdi" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:03.805303+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Sucharit Bhakdi is a retired Thai-German microbiologist. In 2020 and 2021 Bhakdi became a prominent source of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that the pandemic was "fake" and that COVID-19 vaccines were going to decimate the world's population. +He was a professor at the University of Mainz, where he was head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene. The university has disassociated itself from Bhakdi's views on the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021 Bhakdi's publisher broke off relations following the appearance of an online video in which Bhakdi made antisemitic comments. + +== Early life and education == +Bhakdi (Thai: สุจริต ภักดี Thai pronunciation: [sut̚˨˩.t͡ɕa˨˩.rit̚˨˩ pʰak̚˦˥.diː˧]) was born Sucharit Punyaratabandhu, Thai: สุจริต บุณยรัตพันธุ์, 1 November 1946, in Washington, D.C.; his parents are Thai diplomats. In an interview, Bhakdi stated that his mother studied at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. +Bhakdi studied at the Universities of Bonn, Gießen, Mainz and Copenhagen, and at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg. +He studied medicine at the University of Bonn from 1963 to 1970, during part of which (from 1966 to 1970) he was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service. Bhakdi worked for a while as a private assistant to the internal medicine specialist Walter Siegenthaler. In February 1971 he received his doctorate in medicine. From 1972 to 1978, he studied at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg on scholarships from the Max Planck Society at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. +He worked at the University of Copenhagen for a year before moving to the Institute of Medical Microbiology at the Justus Liebig University in Gießen, where he worked from 1977 to 1990. In July 1979 he habilitated. + +== Scientific and medical career == +Bhakdi was appointed C2 professor at Gießen in 1982. He spent a further year in Copenhagen and became C3 professor of medical microbiology (at Gießen again) in 1987 before being appointed to the University of Mainz in 1990. From 1991 he headed the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene as a C4 professor. +Bhakdi retired on 1 April 2012. Since 2016 he has been a visiting scholar at the University of Kiel. +Prior to his retirement, Bhakdi produced scientific work in the fields of bacteriology and atherosclerosis, and published multiple scientific articles in these areas. + +=== Research career === + +==== The immune system ==== +From 1972, Bhakdi researched the functioning of the body's non-specific defenses at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg. He contributed to a better understanding of the mechanisms with which the large molecules of the complement system in the blood render exogenous substances harmless. In 1978 Bhakdi discovered a protein that attacks and damages cells by sinking into the cell membrane, resulting in the formation of a pore (see membrane attack complex). This was the enforcer molecule of the complement system, which is formed on the surface of foreign cells as a result of a chain reaction involving the immune system. This was followed by the discovery that bacteria, in turn, can also produce pore-forming proteins. Today it is known that the vast majority of pathogenic bacteria produce pore formers that damage host cells. In 1984 the Royal Society in London invited Bhakdi to present the concept of cell membrane damage by pore formers. From then on, Bhakdi concentrated on research on this topic. + +==== Atherosclerosis ==== +Investigation of the complement system led Bhakdi to the area of atherosclerosis. In 1989 he discovered through animal experiments that the complement component 5 is activated in the vessel walls where low density lipoprotein (LDL) is deposited. +According to current understanding, atherosclerosis is a polygenic disease caused by a complex interplay of several environmental and genetic factors, especially cholesterol. This is transported in the blood via LDL and absorbed by the cells that need it via cellular receptors. However, it can accumulate in the blood vessel walls during transport and oxidize there or even beforehand. This attracts monocytes, which take up the oxidized LDL and turn into "foam cells". These then trigger chronic inflammatory reactions that damage the vascular wall. +In 1998, Bhakdi and his team of colleagues put forward the "Mainz hypothesis" that atherosclerosis is only caused monocausally by the lack of removal of LDL. According to Bhakdi's hypothesis, LDL is generally not oxidized, but cholesterol is also absorbed by monocytes and foam cells are formed. However, the high density lipoprotein (HDL) can remove cholesterol again. If, however, a certain amount of LDL accumulates locally on the vascular wall and cannot be removed, part of the immune system causes inflammatory reactions that lead to atherosclerosis. In this way, early-stage atherosclerosis could be reversed if the LDL blood level (and blood pressure) was lowered and the HDL level increased. Bhakdi's hypothesis, however, is not reflected in current opinion. + +=== Memberships and functions === +Member of the Collaborative Research Centres of the German Research Foundation "Proteins as Tools in Biology" at the University of Giessen (1987–1990), +Deputy Spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center "Immunopathogenesis" (1990–1999) +Spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center "490 Infection and Persistence in Infections" in Mainz (2000–2011). +Co-founder and board member of the Association of Physicians and Scientists for Health, Freedom and Democracy, which was founded in May 2020 and lost its non-profit status in October 2020. The purpose of the association is to take action against the German government's measures to contain the corona pandemic. +In autumn 2020 he was one of the first signatories of the "appeal for free debating spaces" (Appell für freie Debattenräume, a German adaptation of the project "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate" by the American Thomas C. Williams, which was previously launched in the USA.). +He was Editor in Chief of Medical Microbiology and Immunology from 1990 to 2012. + +== Prominence during COVID-19 pandemic == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4d0417e10 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +--- +title: "Sucharit Bhakdi" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucharit_Bhakdi" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:03.805303+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhakdi started a YouTube channel proposing that the number of deaths stemming from SARS-CoV-2 infection had been overstated. In November 2020 his account was terminated for violating YouTube's community guidelines. One of his first videos was published 18 March 2020; it went viral, with 300,000 views by 23 March. In the video, he predicted the worst "horror scenario" would be a million infections and 30 deaths a day in Germany, and that death rates in Northern Italy and China were higher only because of high air pollution there (even though Germany typically has more deaths due to pollution than Italy). +Bhakdi has made a number of false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the pandemic is a "fake", that face masks and quarantines are "nonsense" and that the COVID-19 vaccines are deadly and will decimate the global population. +He has been otherwise criticised for his theses on the COVID-19 pandemic; according to Medical Tribune, they are considered unscientific by a majority of experts. + +=== Bhakdi's criticisms of the COVID-19 pandemic response === +His criticisms of states' (most particularly Germany's) reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic have included: + +Writing an open Letter in March 2020 to German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the "socio-economic consequences of the drastic containment measures which are currently being applied in large parts of Europe" +Posting videos on YouTube claiming, for example, that the government was overreacting because the virus posed no more threat than influenza, and that any COVID-19 vaccine would be "pointless". +Participation in May 2020 in the writing of a "position paper of the BMI" by an employee of the German crisis management department. The Federal Ministry distanced itself from the position, calling the paper a "private opinion" circulating on official letterhead, and released the chief government councilor Stephan Kohn from duty. +He is the co-author of Corona, False Alarm? Facts and Figures (2020), German: ('Corona Fehlalarm?') ISBN 978-3-99060-191-4 and Corona Unmasked. Neue Daten, Zahlen, Hintergründe. (Goldegg, Berlin/Wien 2021, ISBN 978-3-99060-231-7. An earlier book of his was published in 2016, Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit (tr. "Bogeyman Infections - Myths, Delusions and Reality") ISBN 978-3-903090-66-8. He published these books together with his wife, Karina Reiss, a biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. +Describing Germany in December 2020 as a "health dictatorship", saying he wanted to emigrate to Thailand because of this. + +=== Responses to Bhakdi's claims === +Bhakdi's claims, in particular in his YouTube videos and in the book Corona Fehlalarm?, have been extensively fact-checked and found to be variously unsubstantiated, misleading, or false. +In Germany, fact-checking activity has included articles at ZDF, the Austrian independent fact-checkers Mimikama, dpa, SWR3 and the German non-profit correctiv.org. In March 2020, ZDF said "His theses are unscientific, his numbers too low", Mimikama that his statements are "contrary to the scientific consensus of numerous experts, professors and colleagues and was described as largely dubious, unscientific and incorrect". Correctiv fact-checked one of Bhakdi's YouTube videos in June 2020, and found a number of problematic claims, including the claim that any COVID-19 vaccine would be "pointless", and that the virus posed no more threat than influenza. +On the basis of fact checks by Correctiv, ZDF, die Welt, Der Spiegel and Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up in April 2020: "What Wodarg and Bhakdi say is not completely wrong, but they mix facts with speculation and disinformation." Writing for Foreign Policy, in September 2020 Tyson Barker (Head of DGAP's Technology & Global Affairs Program) described Bhakdi as a prominent example from a "crop of debunked but credentialed so-called experts minting conspiracy theories and undermining fact-based information". +In October 2020 the University of Mainz issued a statement to the effect that it does not support Bhakdi's views. + +== Political activism, antisemitism == +In 2021, Bhakdi was a founder of the new German political party dieBasis, which emerged from the "Querdenken" political movement, standing as a candidate in the 2021 German federal election in North Rhine-Westphalia. In April 2021, the antisemitism commissioner for the state of Baden-Württemberg identified the Querdenken movement as providing space for antisemitic conspiracy theories, noting that Bhakdi singled out the German-Jewish minister of education in Schleswig-Holstein, Karin Prien, as "poisoning our children with CO2". +In a video released as part of his campaign, Bhakdi articulated antisemitic views, saying Israel is "even worse" than Nazi Germany, adding that "that’s the bad thing about Jews: They learn well...There is no people that learns better than they do. But they have now learned the evil — and implemented it. That is why Israel is now...a living hell". The Austrian publisher of three of Bhakdi's books on the pandemic, Goldegg Verlag, said that it was severing ties with the author. Bhakdi was criticised by antisemitism commissioners for the states of Berlin and Baden-Württemberg. + +== Awards == + +=== Professional awards === +1979 Justus Liebig University Giessen Prize +1980 Konstanz Medicine Prize +1987 German Society for Microbiology Prize +1988 Dr. Friedrich Sasse Prize +1989 Ludwig Schunk Prize for Medicine +1989 Robert-Koch-Förderpreis of Clausthal-Zellerfeld +1991 Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize +2001 Aronson Prize for „wegweisende Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet des Komplementsystems und bakterieller Toxine“ tr. "pioneering work in the field of the complement system and bacterial toxins" +2005 H. W. Hauss Award +2005 Verdienstorden des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz +2009 Rudolf-Schönheimer Medal of the German Society for Arteriosclerosis Research + +=== Negative award === +Following the publicity accorded to Bhakdi's statements and publications regarding COVID-19 during 2020, the Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (English: Society for the Scientific Investigation of Pseudosciences) named him as winner of the 2020 Goldenes Brett, awarded to Bhakdi as the "most astonishing pseudo-scientific nuisance" of the year. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Democracy_(Czech_Republic)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Democracy_(Czech_Republic)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4f2a21687 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Democracy_(Czech_Republic)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Swiss Democracy (Czech Republic)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Democracy_(Czech_Republic)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:03.758217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Swiss Democracy (Czech: Švýcarská demokracie) is a Czech political party advocating for direct democracy and the adoption of a new constitution inspired by the Swiss model, founded in 2021. + + +== History == +Swiss Democracy was founded in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a party opposing the imposed anti-pandemic restrictions. It contested the 2021 Czech parliamentary election, led by molecular geneticist and anti-vaccination activist Soňa Peková and its founder Tomáš Ráždík, and presented lists in all 14 electoral regions. The party earned 0.31% of the vote, and failed to meet the electoral threshold. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, the party participated in protests challenging the anti-pandemic restrictions in place, led by the Chcípl PES movement and together with Tricolour, Svobodní, Free bloc and other parties in organisations. +In 2022, Swiss Democracy took part in a series of anti-governmental protest under banner of Czech Republic First!, criticising the Cabinet of Petr Fiala. +It contested the 2024 European Parliament election together with the Party of the State of Direct Democracy – Party of Labour, running on a eurosceptic platform. It gained 0.09% of the vote and no seats in the European Parliament. +The party contested 4 out of 27 districts in the 2024 Czech Senate election, but did not qualify for the second round in any of them. + + +== Ideology == +Swiss democracy calls for the adoption of a new constitution, "copied" from the Swiss counterpart, citing Switzerland's high prosperity compared to other European nations. +The party maintains the opinion that the 2003 Czech European Union membership referendum was manipulated, and that Czech Republic should leave the European Union, and maintain its foreign relationships with other European countries by bilateral agreements. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, the party called the acting cabinet of Andrej Babiš "neo-marxist" and Prime Minister Babiš a "dictator". + + +== Electoral results == + + +=== Chamber of Deputies === + + +=== Senate === + + +=== European Parliament === + + +== Notes == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Delta_80-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Delta_80-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aba9377f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Delta_80-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "System Delta 80" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Delta_80" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:02.518972+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Systems Delta 80 (SYD 80) is a unit of the United States Space Force (USSF) that was activated on December 12, 2025. SYD 80 is responsible for national security space launches, rocket systems launches, launch and test range systems and servicing, and logistics and will report to Space Systems Command (SSC). +SYD 80 will be integrated with Space Launch Delta 30 at Vandenberg Space Force Base and Space Launch Delta 45 at Patrick Space Force Base. The creation of Systems Delta 80 is the end of a series of SYD's that the Space Force had been creating to manage acquisitions, procurement and support. +Currently SYD 80 is launching payloads using the Space X Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance Vulcan rockets at both Vandenberg Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SYD 80 feels that using both platforms provides flexibility and additional capabilities, especially in a congested launch environment. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3aaa23589 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ +--- +title: "Taxonomy of diatoms" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:48.313025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Diatoms belong to a large group called the heterokonts, which include both autotrophs such as golden algae and kelp; and heterotrophs such as water moulds. The classification of heterokonts is still unsettled: they may be designated a division, phylum, kingdom, or something intermediate to those. Consequently, diatoms are ranked anywhere from a class, usually called Diatomophyceae or Bacillariophyceae, to a division (=phylum), usually called Bacillariophyta, with corresponding changes in the ranks of their subgroups. + +== Genera and species == +An estimated 20,000 extant diatom species are believed to exist, of which around 12,000 have been named to date according to Guiry, 2012 (other sources give a wider range of estimates). Around 1,000-1,300 diatom genera have been described, both extant and fossil, of which some 250-300 exist only as fossils. + +== Classes and orders == + +=== Overview === +For many years the diatoms—treated either as a class (Bacillariophyceae) or a phylum (Bacillariophyta)—were divided into just 2 orders, corresponding to the centric and the pennate diatoms (Centrales and Pennales; alternative names Biddulphiales and Bacillariales, as used e.g. in Lee, 1989). This classification was extensively overhauled by Round, Crawford and Mann in 1990 who treated the diatoms at a higher rank (division, corresponding to phylum in zoological classification), and promoted the major classification units to classes, maintaining the centric diatoms as a single class Coscinodiscophyceae, but splitting the former pennate diatoms into 2 separate classes, Fragilariophyceae and Bacillariophyceae (the latter older name retained but with an emended definition), between them encompassing 45 orders, the majority of them new. +Today (writing at mid 2020) it is recognised that the 1990 system of Round et al. is in need of revision with the advent of newer molecular work, however the best system to replace it is unclear, and current systems in widespread use such as AlgaeBase, the World Register of Marine Species and its contributing database DiatomBase, and the system for "all life" represented in Ruggiero et al., 2015, all retain the Round et al. treatment as their basis, albeit with diatoms as a whole treated as a class rather than division/phylum, and Round et al.'s classes reduced to subclasses, for better agreement with the treatment of phylogenetically adjacent groups and their containing taxa. (For references refer the individual sections below). +One proposal, by Linda Medlin and co-workers commencing in 2004, is for some of the centric diatom orders considered more closely related to the pennates to be split off as a new class, Mediophyceae, itself more closely aligned with the pennate diatoms than the remaining centrics. This hypothesis—later designated the Coscinodiscophyceae-Mediophyceae-Bacillariophyceae, or Coscinodiscophyceae+(Mediophyceae+Bacillariophyceae) (CMB) hypothesis—has been accepted by D.G. Mann among others, who uses it as the basis for the classification of diatoms as presented in Adl. et al.'s series of syntheses (2005, 2012, 2019), and also in the Bacillariophyta chapter of the 2017 Handbook of the Protists edited by Archibald et al., with some modifications reflecting the apparent non-monophyly of Medlin et al. original "Coscinodiscophyceae". Meanwhile, a group led by E.C. Theriot favours a different hypothesis of phylogeny, which has been termed the structural gradation hypothesis (SGH) and does not recognise the Mediophyceae as a monophyletic group, while another analysis, that of Parks et al., 2018, finds that the radial centric diatoms (Medlin et al.'s Coscinodiscophyceae) are not monophyletic, but supports the monophyly of Mediophyceae minus Attheya, which is an anomalous genus. Discussion of the relative merits of these conflicting schemes continues by the various parties involved. + +=== Round et al., 1990 === +Based on the fact that pennate diatoms either do or do not have a longitudinal groove in the valve, called a raphe, a 1990 classification by Round, Crawford & Mann divides the diatoms (as Bacillarophyta) into three classes, centric (22 orders); pennate without a raphe (12 orders); and pennate with a raphe (11 orders), as follows: + +Phylum Bacillarophyta (diatoms) +Class Coscinodiscophyceae Round & R.M.Crawford (centric diatoms) +Subclass Biddulphiophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Anaulales Round & R.M.Crawford +Biddulphiales Krieger +Hemiaulales Round & R.M.Crawford +Triceratiales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Chaetocerotophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Chaetocerotales Round & R.M.Crawford +Leptocylindrales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Corethrophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Corethrales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Coscinodiscophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Arachnoidiscales Round +Asterolamprales Round +Aulacoseirales R.M.Crawford +Chrysanthemodiscales Round +Coscinodiscales Round +Ethmodiscales Round +Melosirales R.M.Crawford +Orthoseirales R.M.Crawford +Paraliales R.M.Crawford +Stictocyclales Round +Stictodiscales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Cymatosirophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Cymatosirales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Lithodesmiophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Lithodesmiales Round & R.M.Crawford +Subclass Rhizosoleniophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Rhizosoleniales Silva +Subclass Thalassiosirophycidae Round & R.M.Crawford +Thalassiosirales Glezer & Makarova +Class Fragilariophyceae Round (pennate diatoms without a raphe (araphids)) +Subclass Fragilariophycidae Round +Ardissoneales Round +Climacospheniales Round +Cyclophorales Round & R.M.Crawford +Fragilariales P.C.Silva +Licmophorales Round +Protoraphidales Round +Rhabdonematales Round & R.M.Crawford +Rhaphoneidales Round +Striatellales Round +Tabellariales Round +Thalassionematales Round +Toxariales Round +Class Bacillariophyceae Haeckel, 1878, emend. D.G.Mann (pennate diatoms with a raphe (raphids)) +Subclass Bacillariophycidae D.G.Mann +Achnanthales P.C.Silva +Bacillariales Hendey +Cymbellales D.G.Mann +Dictyoneidales D.G.Mann +Lyrellales D.G.Mann +Mastogloiales D.G.Mann +Naviculales Bessey +Rhopalodiales D.G.Mann +Surirellales D.G.Mann +Thalassiophysales D.G.Mann +Subclass Eunotiophycidae D.G.Mann +Eunotiales P.C.Silva + +=== Medlin & Kaczmarska, 2004 === +An alternate classification for the diatoms based on molecular phylogeny was proposed by Medlin & Kaczmarska in 2004, as follows. Medlin and co-workers erected a new class, Mediophyceae (which could be re-ranked a subclass if diatoms as a whole are ranked as a class rather than a phylum) for the "polar centric" diatoms, which they consider to be more closely related to the pennate rather than to other centric diatoms, a concept which has been followed or further adapted by some (e.g. Adl et al., 2019, see below), but not all subsequent workers at this time. + +Phylum Bacillariophyta (diatoms) +Subphylum Coscinodiscophytina +Class Coscinodiscophyceae ("radial centrics") +Arachnoidiscales +Asterolamprales +Aulacoseirales +Corethrales +Coscinodiscales +Chrysanthemodiscales +Ethmodiscales +Leptocylindrales +Melosirales +Orthoseirales +Rhizosoleniales +Stictocyclales +Stictodiscales +Subphylum Bacillariophytina +Class Mediophyceae ("polar centrics") +Ardissoneales +Biddulphiales +Chaetocerotales +Cymatosirales +Hemiaulales +Lithodesmiales +Thalassiosirales +Toxariales +Triceratiales +Class Bacillariophyceae (pennate diatoms) +Achnanthales +Bacillariales +Cymbellales +Dictyoneidales +Eunotiales +Fragilariales +Licmophorales +Lyrellales +Mastogloiales +Naviculales +Rhabdonematales +Rhaphoneidales +Rhopalodiales +Surirellales +Tabellariales +Thalassionematales +Thalassiophysales \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4e6c58571 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +--- +title: "Taxonomy of diatoms" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_of_diatoms" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:48.313025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Ruggiero et al., 2015 === +In the treatment for "all life" (down to order, extant taxa only) by Ruggiero et al., 2015, the diatoms are treated as follows. This treatment largely reflects that used by Algaebase as of 2015, and is also reflected in the current (mid 2020) treatment used in DiatomBase, the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) of which DiatomBase is a part, and the Catalogue of Life. This treatment is identical to that of Round et al., 1990, except that all diatoms are treated as a single class, Round et al.'s classes are reduced to subclasses, and the latter's original subclasses are omitted. + +Superphylum Heterokonta (heterokonts: Ochrophyta plus other phyla)) +Phylum Ochrophyta (diatoms plus other classes) +Class Bacillariophyceae (diatoms) +Subclass Bacillariophycidae +Achnanthales +Bacillariales +Cymbellales +Dictyoneidales +Eunotiales +Lyrellales +Mastogloiales +Naviculales +Rhopalodiales +Surirellales +Thalassiophysales +Subclass Coscinodiscophycidae +Anaulales +Arachnoidiscales +Asterolamprales +Aulacoseirales +Biddulphiales +Chaetocerotales +Chrysanthemodiscales +Corethrales +Coscinodiscales +Cymatosirales +Ethmodiscales +Hemiaulales +Leptocylindrales +Lithodesmiales +Melosirales +Orthoseirales +Paraliales +Rhizosoleniales +Stictocyclales +Stictodiscales +Thalassiosirales +Triceratiales +Subclass Fragilariophycidae +Ardissoneales +Climacospheniales +Cyclophorales +Fragilariales +Licmophorales +Protoraphidales +Rhabdonematales +Rhaphoneidales +Striatellales +Tabellariales +Thalassionematales +Toxariales + +=== Adl et al., 2019 === +Following earlier versions in the treatments of Adl et al. 2005 and 2012, D.G. Mann, in Adl et al. 2019, presented his most recent classification of diatoms as follows, while noting: "This revision reflects numerous advances in the phylogeny of the diatoms over the last decade. Due to our poor taxon sampling outside of the Mediophyceae and pennate diatoms, and the known and anticipated diversity of all diatoms, many clades appear at a high classification level (and the higher level classification is rather flat)." This classification treats diatoms as a phylum (Diatomeae/Bacillariophyta), accepts the class Mediophyceae of Medlin and co-workers, introduces new subphyla and classes for a number of otherwise isolated genera, and re-ranks a number of previously established taxa as subclasses, but does not list orders or families. Inferred ranks have been added for clarity (Adl. et al. do not use ranks, but the intended ones in this portion of the classification are apparent from the choice of endings used, within the system of botanical nomenclature employed). + +Clade Diatomista Derelle et al. 2016, emend. Cavalier-Smith 2017 (diatoms plus a subset of other ochrophyte groups) +Phylum Diatomeae Dumortier 1821 [= Bacillariophyta Haeckel 1878] (diatoms) +Subphylum Leptocylindrophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 +Class Leptocylindrophyceae D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Leptocylindrus, Tenuicylindrus) +Class Corethrophyceae D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Corethron) +Subphylum Ellerbeckiophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Ellerbeckia) +Subphylum Probosciophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Proboscia) +Subphylum Melosirophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Aulacoseira, Melosira, Hyalodiscus, Stephanopyxis, Paralia, Endictya) +Subphylum Coscinodiscophytina Medlin & Kaczmarska 2004, emend. (Actinoptychus, Coscinodiscus, Actinocyclus, Asteromphalus, Aulacodiscus, Stellarima) +Subphylum Rhizosoleniophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Guinardia, Rhizosolenia, Pseudosolenia) +Subphylum Arachnoidiscophytina D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 (Arachnoidiscus) +Subphylum Bacillariophytina Medlin & Kaczmarska 2004, emend. +Class Mediophyceae Jouse & Proshkina-Lavrenko in Medlin & Kaczmarska 2004 +Subclass Chaetocerotophycidae Round & R.M. Crawford in Round et al. 1990, emend. +Subclass Lithodesmiophycidae Round & R.M. Crawford in Round et al. 1990, emend. +Subclass Thalassiosirophycidae Round & R.M. Crawford in Round et al. 1990 +Subclass Cymatosirophycidae Round & R.M. Crawford in Round et al. 1990 +Subclass Odontellophycidae D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 +Subclass Chrysanthemodiscophycidae D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 +Class Biddulphiophyceae D.G. Mann in Adl et al. 2019 +Subclass Biddulphiophycidae Round and R.M. Crawford in Round et al. 1990, emend. +Biddulphiophyceae incertae sedis (Attheya) +Class Bacillariophyceae Haeckel 1878, emend. +Bacillariophyceae incertae sedis (Striatellaceae) +Subclass Urneidophycidae Medlin 2016 +Subclass Fragilariophycidae Round in Round, Crawford & Mann 1990, emend. +Subclass Bacillariophycidae D.G. Mann in Round, Crawford & Mann 1990, emend. + +=== Others === +Another systematic approach to classification was proposed in 1995, the Hoek, Mann and Jahns system. Previous versions of the Adl et al., 2019 classification appeared in Adl et al. 2005 and Adl et al. 2012, also in the chapter "Bacillariophyta" by Mann, Crawford & Round in the 2017 Handbook of the Protists edited by Archibald et al., in which some groups later named as formal taxa are listed under informal names (leptocylindrids, corethrids, melosirids, etc.). + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..76eb8e347 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Technological Slavery" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:39.612714+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Technological Slavery (published in its first edition as The Road to Revolution) is a 2008 non-fiction book by the American Theodore Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, that expands on his personal philosophy and beliefs regarding technology and freedom. + +== Summary == +In it, Kaczynski continues the critique of modern technological society that he began with his 1995 manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future. The book serves as a compendium of his thoughts and philosophies on technology, freedom, and the impacts of societal progression on individual autonomy. +The book includes Kaczynski's correspondence with various intellectuals, his responses to criticism, and further elaboration on the themes of technological dominance and its opposition. It has been a subject of considerable debate and analysis within academic and technological ethics circles. + +== Publication history == +The first edition was published in 2008 by the French publishing company Editions Xenia under the title The Road to Revolution. The second edition was published with the new title Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber" in 2010 by the American publishing company Feral House; the contents of this edition remained the same as the 2008 edition. The third edition was published as Technological Slavery, Volume One, in 2019 by the American publishing company Fitch & Madison Publishers. The fourth edition, again published as Technological Slavery, Volume One, was published by Fitch & Madison Publishers in 2022. +Kaczynski decided to split the book into two volumes on account of the new size of the book; the third and fourth editions of Technological Slavery were expanded to include a substantial amount of new material. No second volume was ever published with the third edition, though the second and final volume is expected to be published for the fourth edition. Certain texts which appeared in the first and second editions do not appear in the first volume of the third and fourth editions, either because Kaczynski decided to no longer publish them, or because they were allocated for inclusion in the second volume. These include, but are not limited to, the essays "The Truth About Primitive Life" and "Morality and Revolution". + +== Synopsis == +The book presents a sharp critique of technological advancement, with Kaczynski contending that technology is the core cause of contemporary environmental and social issues. He posits that the collapse of modern tech-dependent society is necessary to save human freedom, dignity, and nature, advocating for a revolutionary movement to hasten this collapse. It includes his manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, which is updated with additional notes in later editions. Kaczynski's letters and essays throughout the book elaborate on his manifesto points, including detailed responses to critiques from Dr. David Skrbina and others. Dr. Skrbina, who penned the afterwords for the first two editions, is a prominent correspondent in these discussions. + +=== Letter to Scientific American === +This letter was written in 1995 before Kaczynski was apprehended and while he was still communicating via letters to the media with the moniker "FC" (for "Freedom Club"). The letter was never published by the journal, though Kaczynski includes it as the introductory piece of the book, presumably because it establishes some of the main tenets of his arguments and is highly controversial and provocative. +Kaczynski addresses the problem of scientists "routinely tak[ing] risks affecting the public", pointing out that the very nature of scientific advancement entails risks to the public that they are often not aware of and have no appreciable means of affecting. Scientists and engineers "constantly gamble with human welfare", Kaczynski argues, and states, "we see today the effects of some of their lost gambles", proceeding to list a number of serious negative consequences that have their origins in scientific advances such as accumulating nuclear waste, crowding and pollution, etc. +Kaczynski highlights that the negative physical and social consequences of scientific advance are inherently unpredictable and therefore uncontrollable. He states: "Every major technical advance is also a social experiment. These experiments are performed on the public by the scientists and the corporations and government agencies that pay for their research." It is clear from the letter that Kaczynski does not view this as a malevolent or conspiratorial form of experimentation by intent, but nevertheless still constitutes experimentation in fact. +Kaczynski concludes by stating there are good reasons to believe that, notwithstanding the future implications of continued scientific advance, the current social consequences of technological progress are "on balance highly negative". The harm that science could cause society was not known to the early scientists at the dawn of the industrial revolution and thus they "can be forgiven", Kaczynski states, but that the harm caused by continuing scientific advance is now so apparent that to continue promoting it is "grossly irresponsible". + +=== "Industrial Society and Its Future" === + +The original manifesto, "Industrial Society and Its Future", had 36 endnotes to substantiate various points made in the paragraphs of the body text. The updated version of the manifesto included in the third and fourth editions contains 27 entirely new endnotes for a grand total of 63 endnotes, as well as a section at the end titled "Further comments (Added 2020)". The new notes are clearly marked as "(Added 2016)" or "(Modified 2016)" for preexisting notes that have been modified. The new notes or modified notes generally contain new information made available to Kaczynski since the manifesto was originally published, including new source citations. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0cdc99afd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Technological Slavery" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_Slavery" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:39.612714+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Postscript to "Industrial Society and Its Future" === +The postscript to the manifesto is dated 2007. In it, Kaczynski addresses in brief the criticisms the manifesto received after its publication, as well as its significance. Kaczynski answers the claim that the manifesto is "unoriginal" by stating it was never intended to be original. Its purpose was "to set forth certain points about modern technology in clear and relatively brief form". Kaczynski then claims that the claim of originality or unoriginality is irrelevant to the problem of modern technology, which is of paramount importance. Kaczynski claims that many intellectuals would not deny that there is a technology problem, but that they universally refuse to discuss it. The technology problem is "simply ignored". As with the manifesto, Kaczynski states that no claims of originality are made for the book itself; though Kaczynski suggests that his originality stems from his approach to revolution as a practical possibility to solve the problem of modern technology. Some serious thinkers have suggested revolution as an approach to take, such as Jacques Ellul in his book Autopsy of a Revolution, but the kind of revolution envisioned by Ellul is "vague" and "spiritual" according to Kaczynski, whereas Kaczynski claims that a "real revolution" (such as revolutions that have occurred in the past like the French and Russian revolutions) is a distinct possibility to be actively worked towards. But suitable leaders are needed for this revolution that are rationally guided and not "enraged adolescents acting solely on the basis of emotion". + +=== "The System's Neatest Trick" === +This essay, written in 2002, explores the idea that the industrial technological "system" subverts the impulse to rebel to its own advantage. Would-be revolutionaries are brainwashed by the system to "rebel" in favor of the very values of the industrial system itself (values the industrial system needs to further its advancement and continued erosion of freedom and dignity) against outmoded values and values threatening or inconvenient to the system. The main points are summarized within the text itself: + +So, in a nutshell, the System’s neatest trick is this: + +Kaczynski does not think this "trick" is rationally planned or intentionally implemented by malevolent human actors, but rather it has arisen organically from the self-interest of individuals and organizations in the context of a modern technological environment. He also claims that the trick is not perfect and occasionally backfires, as when there is a conflict between "integration propaganda" (principally propaganda promoting nonviolence) and "agitation propaganda" (propaganda needed by the system occasionally in times of war). For example, many activists who have been rebelling in favor of "nonviolence" continue to do so in times of war when this rebellion is in fact contrary to the system's interests. But on the whole, Kaczynski claims the fact that the "trick" backfires occasionally does not prevent it from being an effective means of subverting rebellious impulses by redirecting them in the service of modest reforms before they can take on a truly revolutionary direction. + +=== Letters to David Skrbina === +Nine letters to David Skrbina are included in the text, from a letter dated January 2, 2004, through to a letter dated July 10, 2005. Kaczynski notes at the opening of the section that in some sense his ideas have evolved since this correspondence, and if there are any conflicts between what he writes here and what he subsequently wrote in his second book, Anti-Tech Revolution, the latter represents his current view. +The main theme that surfaces through these letters is Kaczynski's hard technological determinism. According to Kaczynski, societies do not evolve, in the grand scheme, due to human agency, but result from the influence of "objective" factors, or material conditions. Therefore, attempts to guide the evolution of society, particularly modern technological society, without changing the objective factors is fundamentally futile. Furthermore, no society can be rationally predicted, managed or planned. It follows from Kaczynski's particular arguments on technological determinism that the only route available to stopping technological progress is to change the objective factors. Since Kaczynski views the principle objective factor as modern technology, and because modern technology cannot be rationally controlled, Kaczynski argues that the only option for human agency to revert humanity back to a period of low technology (which he views as desirable and necessary for human flourishing and biosphere survival) is to destroy or force the collapse of modern technology (i.e., the worldwide "techno-industrial system"). + +== Impact == +While the initial publication by Editions Xenia met with little media attention, the book’s subsequent release as the second edition in 2010 by the publishing company Feral House generated moderate media attention. Kaczynski used the opportunity to mention the book in an update on his page of the Harvard alumni book, presumably to aid in publicity. The book has been discussed by scholars. + +== References == + +== Sources == +Kaczynski, Theodore John (2022), Technological Slavery, Volume One, Scottsdale, Arizona: Fitch & Madison Publishers, LLC, ISBN 978-1-944228-03-3 +Kaczynski, Theodore J. (2010), Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, Port Townsend, Washington: Feral House, 978-1932595-80-2 +Kaczynski, Theodore J. (2008), Technological Slavery: The Complete And Authorized Unabomber, Sion, Switzerland: Editions Xenia, 978-2888920656 \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2049d8524 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Technophobia" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:19.501180+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Technophobia (from Greek τέχνη technē, "art, skill, craft" and φόβος phobos, "fear"), also known as technofear, is the fear or dislike of, or discomfort with, advanced technology or complex devices, especially personal computers, smartphones, and tablet computers. A 2018 study proposed a new conceptual and empirical definition of technophobia based on a critical literature review and data analysis results: + +Technophobia is an irrational fear and/or anxiety that individuals form as a response to a new stimulus that comes in the form of a technology that modifies and/or changes the individual’s normal or previous routine in performing a certain job/task. Individuals may display active, physical reactions (fear) such as avoidance and/or passive reactions (anxiety) such as +distress or apprehension. +Although there are numerous interpretations of technophobia, they become more complex as technology continues to evolve. The term is generally used in the sense of an irrational fear, but others contend fears are justified. It is the opposite of technophilia. +Larry Rosen, a research psychologist, computer educator, and professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, suggests that there are three dominant subcategories of technophobes – the "uncomfortable users", the "cognitive computerphobes", and "anxious computerphobes". First receiving widespread notice during the Industrial Revolution, technophobia has been observed to affect various societies and communities throughout the world. This has caused some groups to take stances against some modern technological developments in order to preserve their ideologies. In some of these cases, the new technologies conflict with established beliefs, such as the personal values of simplicity and modest lifestyles. +Examples of technophobic ideas can be found in multiple forms of art, ranging from literary works such as Frankenstein to films like The Terminator. Many of these works portray a darker side to technology, as perceived by those who are technophobic. As technologies become increasingly complex and difficult to understand, people are more likely to harbor anxieties relating to their use of modern technologies. + +== Prevalence == +A study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior was conducted between 1992 and 1994 surveying first-year college students across various countries. The overall percentage of the 3,392 students who responded with high-level technophobic fears was 29%. In comparison, Japan had 58% high-level technophobes and Mexico had 53%. +A published report in 2000 stated that roughly 85–90% of new employees at an organization may be uncomfortable with new technology, and are technophobic to some degree. + +== History == +Technophobia began to gain attention as a movement in England with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. With the development of new machines able to do the work of skilled craftsmen using unskilled, low-wage labor, those who worked a trade began to fear for their livelihoods. In 1675, a group of weavers destroyed machines that replaced their jobs. By 1727, the destruction had become so prevalent that Parliament made the demolition of machines a capital offense. This action, however, did not stop the tide of violence. The Luddites, a group of anti-technology workers, united under the name "Ludd" in March 1811, removing key components from knitting frames, raiding houses for supplies, and petitioning for trade rights while threatening greater violence. Poor harvests and food riots lent aid to their cause by creating a restless and agitated population for them to draw supporters from. +The 19th century was also the beginning of modern science, with the work of Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Michael Faraday, Henri Becquerel, and Marie Curie, and inventors such as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The world was changing rapidly, too rapidly for many, who feared the changes taking place and longed for a simpler time. The Romantic movement exemplified these feelings. Romantics tended to believe in imagination over reason, the "organic" over the mechanical, and a longing for a simpler, more pastoral time. Poets like William Wordsworth and William Blake believed that the technological changes that were taking place as a part of the industrial revolution were polluting their cherished view of nature as being perfect and pure. +After World War II, a fear of technology continued to grow, catalyzed by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With nuclear proliferation and the Cold War, people began to wonder what would become of the world now that humanity had the power to manipulate it to the point of destruction. Corporate production of war technologies such as napalm, explosives, and gases during the Vietnam War further undermined public confidence in technology's worth and purpose. In the post-WWII era, environmentalism also took off as a movement. The first international air pollution conference was held in 1955 and, in the 1960s, investigations into the lead content of gasoline sparked outrage among environmentalists. In the 1980s, the depletion of the ozone layer and the threat of global warming began to be taken more seriously. + +=== Luddites === + +Several societal groups are considered technophobic, the most recognisable of which are the Luddites. Many technophobic groups revolt against modern technology because of their beliefs that these technologies are threatening their ways of life and livelihoods. The Luddites were a social movement of British artisans in the 19th century who organized in opposition to technological advances in the textile industry. These advances replaced many skilled textile artisans with comparatively unskilled machine operators. The 19th century British Luddites rejected new technologies that impacted the structure of their established trades, or the general nature of the work itself. +Resistance to new technologies did not occur when the newly adopted technology aided the work process without making significant changes to it. The British Luddites protested the application of the machines, rather than the invention of the machine itself. They argued that their labor was a crucial part of the economy, and considered the skills they possessed to complete their labor as property that needed protection from the destruction caused by the autonomy of machines. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..31d25ed78 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Technophobia" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technophobia" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:19.501180+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Use of modern technologies among Old Order Anabaptists === +Groups considered by some people to be technophobic are the Amish and other Old Order Anabaptists. The Amish follow a set of moral codes outlined in the Ordnung, which rejects the use of certain forms of technology for personal use. Donald B. Kraybill, Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, and Steven M. Nolt state in their book The Amish: More significantly the Amish modify and adapt technology in creative ways to fit their cultural values and social goals. Amish technologies are diverse, complicated and ever-changing. +What the Amish do, is selective use of modern technologies in order to maintain their belief and culture. + +== Technophobia in arts == + +An early example of technophobia in fiction and popular culture is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. +Technophobia achieved commercial success in the 1980s with the movie The Terminator, in which a computer becomes self-aware, and decides to kill all humans. +Shows such as Doctor Who have tackled the topic of technophobia – most specifically in the episode "The Robots of Death", with a character displaying a great fear of robots due to their lack of body language, described by the Fourth Doctor as giving them the appearance of "dead men walking". Series consultant Kit Pedler also used this fear as a basis for the inspiration of classic Doctor Who monsters the Cybermen, with the creatures being inspired by his own fear of artificial limbs becoming so common that it would become impossible to know when someone had stopped being a man and become simply a machine. +Virtuosity (1995) speaks of a virtual serial killer who manages to escape to the real world. He goes on a rampage before he is stopped. This is a true technophobic movie in that its main plot is about technology gone wrong. It introduces a killer who blatantly destroys people. +Avatar is exemplary of technology's hold on humans who are empowered by it and visually demonstrates the amount of terror it instills upon those native to the concept. It enforces the notion that foreign creatures from Pandora are not only frightened by technology, but it is something they loathe; its potential to cause destruction could exceed their very existence. In contrast, the film itself used advanced technology such as the stereoscope in order to give viewers the illusion of physically taking part in an experience that would introduce them to a civilization struggling with technophobia. +A 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone called "A Thing About Machines" deals with one man's hatred for modern things such as electric razors, televisions, electric typewriters, and clocks. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Brosnan, M. (1998) Technophobia: The psychological impact of information technology. Routledge. +Dan Dinello Technophobia: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology +"Environmental History Timeline". 20 July 2008. + +== External links == + The dictionary definition of technophobia at Wiktionary + Media related to Technophobia at Wikimedia Commons \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thayer_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thayer_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3e07ab9f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thayer_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,91 @@ +--- +title: "Thayer Expedition" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thayer_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:57.724844+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Thayer Expedition was an American scientific expedition to Brazil, sponsored by Boston businessman Nathaniel Thayer Jr. It was a biological and geological expedition undertaken by multiple scientists, several based at Harvard University, between April 1865 and August 1866. Scientists collected tens of thousands of specimens, some later recognized as new species. Most of the specimens collected during the expedition ended up in the collections of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, founded by Louis Agassiz, the leader of the expedition. +The Thayer Expedition took place at the end of the American Civil War, with the ocean voyage from New York City to Rio de Janeiro beginning on April 2, just a week prior to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The expedition sailed on board the S.S. Colorado, owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and docked in Rio de Janeiro on April 23. They explored Brazil from the coast to the Tocantins River and along its tributaries to the borders of Colombia and Peru. + + +== Participants == +The expedition included the following named participants: + +Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American zoologist, ichthyologist, geologist, and leader of the expedition. His primary goal for the expedition was the collection of Brazilian freshwater fish specimens. +Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, American naturalist, the expedition's main writer and record-keeper, wife of Agassiz. +Joel Asaph Allen, American curator of ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. +John Gould Anthony, American curator of conchology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. +Jacques Burkhardt, Swiss scientific illustrator who painted or drew hundreds of fish specimens during the expedition. +Charles Frederick Hartt, Canadian-American geologist, paleontologist and naturalist who studied Brazilian geology. +Orestes St. John, American geologist and paleontologist who had been trained by Agassiz. +George Sceva, American preparator, mainly of fossils, for the Museum of Comparative Zoology and others. +Six American volunteers: William James (famous future philosopher and psychologist), Herbert Edson Copeland, Newton Dexter, Walter Hunnewell, Stephen Van Rensselaer Thayer (son of expedition sponsor Nathaniel Thayer), and Thomas Ward. +João Martins da Silva Coutinho, Brazilian army major and attache of the Expedition. +D. Bourget, French naturalist residing in Rio de Janeiro. + + +== Species collected (partial list) == + +Hyphessobrycon bentosi +Astyanax brevirhinus +Leporinus agassizii +Gymnocoryumbus thayeri +Thayeria obliquua +Astyanax asymmetricus +Astyanax symmetricus +Astyanax zonatus +Astyanax anterior +Astyanax bourgeti +Astyanax bimaculatus borealis +Astyanax janeiroensis +Astyanax goyacensis +Astyanax brevirhimus +Astyanax giton +Astyanax albeolus +Astyanax fasciatus parahybae +Astyanax scabripinnis intermedius +Astyanax multidens +Astyanax gracilior +Deuterodon pedri +Deuterodon parahybae +Pristella +Psellogrammus +Hemigrammus coeruleus Durbin +Hemigrammus levis Durbin +Hyphessobrycon compressus milleri Durbin +Hyphessobrycon serpae Durbin +Hyphessobrycon copelandi Durbin +Hyphessobrycon panamensis Durbin +Hyphessobrycon melazonatus Durbin +Moenkhausia latissimus +Moenkhausia jamesi +Moenkhausia comma +Moenkhausia justae +Moenkhausia melogrammus +Moenkhausia australe +Moenkhausia barbouri +Moenkhausia dichrourus intermedius +Moenkhausia llepidurus latus +Moenkhausia llepidurus içae +Moenkhausia llepidurus gracilimus +Moenkhausia cotinho +Moenkhausia ceros +Bryconamericus heteresthes +Bryconamericus stramineus +Bryconamericus boops +Bryconamericus breviceps +Bryconamericus peruanus ricae +Brycochandus durbini +Creatochanes gracilis +Poptella + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Archives at Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..007376880 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "The Making of the English Working Class" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:03.792890+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Making of the English Working Class is a work of English social history written by E. P. Thompson, a New Left historian. It was first published in 1963 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, and republished in revised form in 1968 by Pelican, after which it became an early Open University set book. It concentrates on English artisan and working-class society "in its formative years 1780 to 1832". +It was placed 30th in the Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction books of the 20th century. + + +== Overview == +In the preface, Thompson said of his aims: "I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the 'obsolete' hand-loom weaver, the 'utopian' artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity." Thompson uses a humanist approach to social history, being critical of those who turn the people of the working class into an inhuman statistical bloc. Thompson wished to disassociate Marxism from Stalinism, and added humanistic principles to the book as a way of steering the left towards democratic socialism, as opposed to totalitarianism. +Thompson expounds upon his theories on working-class consciousness, which he says are manifested by values of solidarity, collectivism, mutuality, political radicalism and Methodism. Thompson uses the term "working class", rather than "classes", throughout the book to emphasize the growth of a working-class consciousness. He claims in the Preface that "in the years between 1780 and 1832 most English working people came to feel an identity of interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs". This change in consciousness is described in Thompson's 1975 book on the 1723 Waltham Black Act. +In the book, Thompson discusses popular movements of the past, such as Jacobin societies like the London Corresponding Society, and attempts to recreate the life experience of the working class. Thompson also re-evaluates the Luddite movement and the influence of the early Methodist movement on working-class aspirations. (Thompson's parents were Methodist missionaries.) + + +== Reception == +Sidney Pollard called the book "without a doubt, a landmark in English historiography". Robert K. Webb called it "both very important and extremely exasperating". David Eastwood argued that it "transformed the study of labour, class and political radicalism in Britain and America and is incontestably the single most influential work of history of the post-war period". +Geoffrey Best called it a "valuable and exciting book" but noted Thompson's neglect of the "flag-saluting, foreigner-hating, peer-respecting side of the plebeian mind" and asked, "How large a portion of 'the working class' did those 'artisans' form from whom so much of his evidence necessarily comes, and of how many hundreds of thousands of lower-class folk do we remain so much more ignorant that we cannot speak as confidently about them?" +In April 2020, Jacobin magazine launched a podcast series, Casualties of History, focusing on the book and critical receptions of Thompson’s work, by theorists such as Asad Haider and Sheila Rowbotham. In December 2023, BBC Radio 3 issued five episodes of its series The Essay "reflecting on the legacy, ideas and personal inspiration of The Making of the English Working Class" to mark sixty years since its first publication. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +R. Currie and R. M. Hartwell, "The Making of the English Working Class?", The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 18, No. 3 (1965), pp. 633–643. +F. K. Donnelly, "Ideology and Early English Working-Class History: Edward Thompson and His Critics", Social History, Vol. 1, No. 2 (May 1976), pp. 219–238. +David Eastwood, "E. P. Thompson, Britain, and the French Revolution", History Workshop Journal, No. 39 (Spring, 1995), pp. 79–88. + + +== External links == +The Making of the English Working Class at Penguin Books. +The Making of the English Working Class at Google Books +The Making of the English Working Class – E.P. Thompson | libcom.org \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriots_(France)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriots_(France)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..90b580bb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriots_(France)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "The Patriots (France)" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Patriots_(France)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:31.618624+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Patriots (French: Les Patriotes; LP) is a nationalist and hard Eurosceptic political party in France. Founded by former vice president of the Front National (FN) Florian Philippot, it was registered on 29 September 2017. The party strongly supports a French withdrawal from both the European Union (EU) and Eurozone. + + +== Gallery == + + +== Election results == + + +=== European Parliament === + + +== See also == +List of political parties in France +Politics of France + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official Les Patriotes website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phrenological_Journal-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phrenological_Journal-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3b4da6bc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phrenological_Journal-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "The Phrenological Journal" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phrenological_Journal" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:01.052897+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The American Phrenological Journal was a periodical in the United States devoted to the racist pseudoscience of phrenology, a collection of theories correlating skull features to personality and intelligence. The newspaper was founded in 1838 and dissolved in 1911. It was supported by the phrenologist Fowler family, who published it under the auspices of the Fowler & Wells Company. Several prominent historical figures underwent phrenological analyses by the Fowlers and the findings were published in the journal; these include abolitionist Lydia Maria Child and writer Mark Twain. + + +== History == +The American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany was founded in 1838 as a phrenological periodical, though the details of its foundation are largely unknown. It was financially and ideologically supported by the phrenologist Fowler family, including Orson Squire Fowler, Lorenzo Fowler, and Samuel R. Wells; Wells became its leading editor during the 1870s. It was published by Fowler & Wells Company, and it attributed the rise of interest in phrenology during the 1830s to Johann Spurzheim and George Combe. +In its first issue, the journal explained that its purpose was support the theories underlying phrenology – a pseudoscientific and racist area of research correlating skull measurements to personality and intelligence – and to apply them. It was an eclectic periodical; in addition to its phrenological research, it acquired and published writing in the domains of medical science, physiognomy, and in some unrelated areas, such as education. During its early years, it had a circulation of around 20,000 subscribers, each paying $1 per year (increased to $1.50 per year during the Civil War). It was among the most popular and authoritative publications in the field of phrenology during this time. Though phrenology was deeply steeped in racism, an article republished in 1847 was relatively progressive in tone: Descendants of Africans were able to possess "as good a brain [...] as would be possessed by any white, under the same circumstances", if they so desired and continually worked to foster intellectual development. +In the late 1890s, Jessie A. Fowler became the editor of the journal. It dissolved in 1911. + + +== Persons analyzed == +In 1839, the Fowlers conducted a phrenological analysis of Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, concluding that his skull indicated he was a violent, destructive, and malevolent figure. +That same year, Lorenzo Fowler conducted a phrenological analysis of Cinqué, a key figure in the rebellion onboard the slave ship La Amistad, while he was awaiting trial. He concluded that Cinqué had phrenological attributes that signaled power and leadership, and an intelligence "superior to the majority of negroes' in our own country". The Fowlers later sold busts of Cinqué and republished the story in 1840. +In September 1841, the Fowlers conducted a phrenological analysis of Lydia Maria Child, a writer and abolitionist who edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard. They concluded she sought to "bring about moral, social, and intellectual reforms" because she was dissatisfied with the world. Abolitionists and their publications, including the Liberator, began to accept phrenology as a useful science in their political reform projects. +In 1901, a phrenological analysis of American writer Mark Twain was published in the journal; it concluded he was determined and of a nervous temperament. Jessie A. Fowler likely wrote it. + + +== Notes == + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..746695133 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "The Radical Therapist" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:30.684198+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Radical Therapist was a journal that emerged in the early 1970s in the context of the counter-culture and the radical U.S. antiwar movement. It was an "alternative journal" in the mental health field that published 12 issues between 1970 and 1972, and "voiced pointed criticisms of psychiatrists during this period". It was run by a group of psychiatrists and activists who believed that mental illness was best treated by social change, not behaviour modification. Their motto was "Therapy means social, political and personal change, not adjustment". + +== Background == + +In the 1960s, a movement developed to challenge many principals of psychiatry and dispute the mental health system as a successful humanitarian enterprise. The challenge came from Ernest Becker, Erving Goffman, R.D. Laing, Thomas Scheff, and Thomas Szasz. Their writings, along with articles in the journal The Radical Therapist, were given the umbrella label anti-psychiatry despite wide divergences in philosophy. This critical literature, with an associated left-wing 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". + +== Beginnings: Minot, North Dakota == +The Radical Therapist took shape in the winter of 1969, in Minot, North Dakota, the product of three officers in the U.S. Air Force Regional Hospital. The idea for the journal came from Michael Glenn, a psychiatrist who had recently arrived as Chief of Neurology and Psychiatry. He was joined by David Bryan, the hospital social worker, and by Michael Galan, an MBA working in the hospital business office. The three of them further developed the idea, and—with Sara Glenn and Linda Bryan—formed the Radical Therapist Collective. The Collective solicited articles, contributing editors and subscriptions, and worked to produce and distribute the journal. After a year, they were joined by Deborah Levitt, from Bennington, Vermont, who had traveled cross-country to work with them. Their manifesto stated: + +Why have we begun another journal? No other publication meets the need we feel exists: to unite all people concerned with the radical analysis of therapy in this society. It is time we grouped together and made common cause. We need to exchange experience and ideas, and join others working toward change. The other "professional" journals are essentially establishment organs which back the status quo on most controversial issues... We need a new forum for our views. +In the midst of a society tormented by war, racism, and social turmoil, therapy goes on with business as usual. In fact, therapists often look suspiciously at social change and label as 'disturbed' those who press towards it. +Therapy today has become a commodity, a means of social control. We reject such an approach to people's distress. We reject the pleasant careers with which the system rewards its adherents. The social system must change, and we will be workers toward such change. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0a9662762 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "The Radical Therapist" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:30.684198+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Manifesto promised that the journal would provide a needed forum for all people working in the therapy fields; work to liberate therapy, therapists and others from backwards ideology; help develop new training programs; encourage the elaboration of a new psychology of men and women, as well as a new concept of family and community life; foster the development of more responsive therapy programs under client control; encourage new techniques; and confront the various ways U.S. society uses mental health institutions to oppress various people. +The journal was highly critical of the "Establishment" and all its institutions. In this sense, The Radical Therapist was similar to The Insurgent Sociologist, Science for the People, Radical Teacher, and other publications that targeted various groups of professionals whose political spectrum included left-leaning, radical, and revolutionary-minded activists. +During its time in Minot, the journal was typeset and published locally, and mailed out via a collective effort. The journal printed articles critiquing the therapy "establishment" and its practice and outlining a "radical" approach to the ways therapy could be used instead. It enthusiastically promoted women's liberation and gay liberation, and critically examined how therapy ideology and practice were alleged to contribute to sexist and homophobic oppression, and to the oppression and abuse of mental patients. The Radical Therapist also spoke out against the Vietnam War, racism, and the greed of consumerist society, and it was an early supporter of the struggle of mental patients for their rights. +Contributing editors and authors while the RT was in Minot included Joe Berke, Judith Brown, Phil Brown, Phyllis Chesler, Larry Constantine, Rona Fields, Dennis Jaffe, Kenneth Keniston, David Koulack, Rick Kunnes, Terry Kupers, Howard Levy, Robert Jay Lifton, Ken Locke, Peter Roemer, Kris Rosenthal, Steve Sharfstein, Pam Skinner, Claude Steiner, Irving Weisberg, Steve Wood and others. Early issues of The Radical Therapist also reprinted and made more widely available articles such as Anne Koedt's "The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm", Carol Hanish's "The Personal is Political", and Howard Levy's "Prison Psychiatry". +The third issue of the RT focused entirely on women. It examined both women's oppression and women's psychology. The issue began with an editorial by the feminist Judith Brown, and followed with the Redstockings' "Manifesto"; a critique of male supremacy, private property and the family by Carol Giardina; and a reprint of Naomi Weisstein's "Kinder, Kuche Kirche". There were also articles by Kathie Sarachild, Phyllis Chesler, Marilyn Zweig, Martha Shelley, and others, as well as a Women's Liberation bibliography. +During its first year, The Radical Therapist worked collegially with many other groups, including Psychologists for a Democratic Society, the Radical Caucus of the American Psychiatric Association, the Radical Caucus in the American Orthopsychiatry Association, the Association for Women in Psychology, the Feminist Psychology Coalition, the Medical Committee for Human Rights, Psychologists for Social Action, Joe Berke's Anti-Psychiatry group in London, Claude Steiner's "Radical Psychiatry" movement in Berkeley, Dennis and Yvonne Jaffe's Number Nine in New Haven, and other radical groups in the therapy and health professions. It reported on developments affecting mental health issues around the country, and published a list of radical therapy centers around the country. +Many of the articles which appeared during the first year of the RT were collected together in The Radical Therapist, (Ballantine Books, New York, 1971), an anthology gathered together by the collective and produced by Jerome Agel. +Volume Two of The Radical Therapist began in Minot in April 1971. But the collective only published that one issue (Number 1) of Volume Two from Minot. That summer, after David Bryan, Michael Galan, and Michael Glenn were discharged from the Air Force, the collective moved from North Dakota to Somerville, Massachusetts. Volume Two, Number 2 which appeared in September 1971, would be the product of a substantially different collective. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fd51577b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "The Radical Therapist" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:30.684198+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== The Somerville Years: The Radical Therapist becomes Rough Times == +The new Radical Therapist Collective that formed in Somerville in the late summer of 1971 included Michael Glenn, Sara Snow (Glenn) and Debbie Levitt from the Minot group, as well as Michael Galan, who continued to handle the business aspects of the journal. Phil Brown, who had been active in Psychologists for a Democratic Society, and who had enthusiastically worked with the journal since its inception, moved from New York to join the collective that summer; so did Nancy Henley, an activist feminist psychologist from Baltimore. Other new members joined the Somerville collective over the next few months. These included the therapists John Bayliss, Cynthia Ganung, and Chuck Robinson; as well as Anne Mine, Christine Nozchese and Laurin Pensel. After publishing the first Somerville issue (Volume Two, Number 2) the third issue was entirely devoted to articles from the Radical Psychiatry movement in Berkeley, California—including a number of articles by Claude Steiner, Hogie Wyckoff, and Dot Vance. +By the winter of 1971, sharp political struggle had broken out in the collective over issues of elitism and professionalism. Some members raised questions as to whether therapists really had any skills at all, and whether the field had simply mystified its practices. There were also questions as to the journal's real audience. The use of the words "radical" and "therapist" were heatedly debated; many in the collective held them to be suspect. The struggle spilled onto the pages of the journal itself. Therapists who were deeply critical of their own therapy "establishment" now found themselves having to defend therapy as a bona fide discipline—and themselves as "privileged" individuals. Contention among the collective about the journal's name, and by implication its base and audience, deepened. Some members of the collective felt that the original focus on therapy professionals had been both limited and elitist, and the more revolutionary-minded staff members urged the journal to go beyond the therapy world and expand its support to all bona fide liberation movements. More and more, the collective simply called the journal the RT. Soon after arriving in Somerville, the collective established close ties with the mental patients' rights movement, including the Mental Patients Liberation Front in Boston and many others throughout North America. The RT quickly began publishing articles by its leaders, which were sharply critical of the therapy profession as a whole for tolerating and participating in a wide range of abusive psychiatric practices. +With the April 1972 issue (Volume Two, number 6), the collective changed the journal's name to Rough Times, and stopped being a publication aimed predominantly at mental health professionals. As Nancy Henley recalled in 1980, "Many of us (and our readers) disliked the original name when it became clear that this might be a contradiction in terms, there was much more to combat than therapeutic practice; radical had bad connotations for some, therapist did for others, [and] the magazine wasn't necessarily by or for therapists...." +By July 1972 (Volume Two, Number 8), almost all the members of the Somerville collective with any clinical therapy experience (or an identity as "therapists") had left. From this point on, the journal's articles were mainly written by and for people who were not therapists. +In December 1972, the RT Collective published an article, "Combat Liberalism in Radical Therapy", formally criticizing the Radical Psychiatry Center group in Berkeley. The article was sparked by the RPC's efforts to promote its own new journal to the RT's readers and by genuine political differences. The RT said it had relayed criticisms to the RPC in private, but they had been ignored. The criticisms therefore had to be made publicly. The RT decried the RPC as individualistic and middle-class. It said the RPC avoided political action or organizing, and instead clung to their elite status as therapists. "Hip therapies are part of the system", the Collective said. The RPC was too concerned with ways of "getting it together" and elaborating "how to do it" techniques, rather than "attacking the real political/economic/social bases of power." They also ignored mental patients' organizing as a major force in the mental health arena. +The RPC did not respond, but instead continued to promote its own journal, Issues in Radical Therapy. After this time, the IRT contained articles that were concerned with "radical therapy", whereas Rough Times focussed on exposing the abuses and oppressive institutional practices of the mental health profession, as well as on promoting liberation struggles in the U.S. and around the world, especially the movement of mental patients to defend and claim their rights. +In the second collection of articles from the RT that appeared (Rough Times, Ballantine Books, 1973—also produced by Jerome Agel), the new collective clarified its ideological perspective further: + +A year ago we were fewer in number and tucked away in North Dakota. Although we had different positions on RT's role in making a revolution, there was a de facto consensus of aiming our work toward professionals, students, and intellectuals, believing that they held the key to radical work in the mental health fields. We have been finding, primarily in the last half year, that while some of those people are open to change, most of them are too comfortable in their professionally detached attitudes, pseudo-hip life-styles, and removed position from world revolution as well as personal change. +We began to see our position in terms of being part of a revolutionary movement. Our goals were more linked to a broad-based socialist movement than to a radical caucus at a professional convention. We began to reassert, with more force and conviction, that RT should be part of a movement to build a revolutionary new world. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7caf7f35b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "The Radical Therapist" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radical_Therapist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:30.684198+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== The new direction continues: Rough Times which later became State and Mind == +By the time Volume Three, Number 1 of Rough Times formerly The Radical Therapist came out in December 1972, the collective had contracted down to a few people. An "RT Position Paper" laid out the staff's evolved position: support for worldwide socialist revolution; belief in the exploitation of labor as today's primary cause of people's oppression; support for all just liberation struggles; deep involvement in and support for the mental health/self-help struggle; belief that the psychological/psychiatric establishment per se is a tool of oppression and that mental illness is a myth; demands for an end to abuses of mental patients; dedication to a search for new, liberating ways of helping people in emotional pain; and at the same time an openness to working with therapy professionals who could identify with the interests of the people. +Rough Times continued on for several more years, continuing to contain sections such as "Unmasking the Enemy", "Mental Hospitals", and "On the Move". It reported on the struggles of mental patients for their rights and against all forms of abusive treatment. And it continued to support movements for liberation—for women, gays, mental patients, and others—around the world. +Around 1975 Rough Times changed its name to State and Mind. As such, it continued into the 1980s. Its 10th anniversary issue in the summer of 1980 contained a personal retrospective article by Nancy Henley entitled "Ten Years in the Life of a Radical Psychology Journal". +In 1974, the psychiatrist John Talbott published an article critical of The Radical Therapist in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The piece reviewed articles published in the first twelve issues, and included commentary by Dr. Talbott. + +== See also == +List of psychiatry journals + +== External links == +The third issue of The Radical Therapist + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Rough Times (anthology), produced by Jerome Agel, Ballantine, New York, 1973. +Nancy Henley, Retrospective: Ten Years in the Life of a Radical Psychology Journal, State and Mind, Vol. 7, No 3, Summer, 1980, p. 13. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Self_and_Others-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Self_and_Others-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..63f475234 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Self_and_Others-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "The Self and Others" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Self_and_Others" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:36.584223+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Self and Others is a psychological study by R. D. Laing, first published in 1961 by the Tavistock Institute. It was re-issued in a second edition (1969), which (in Laing's words) was “extensively revised, without being changed in any fundamental way”. +The book was presented as "a study of persona relations in situations of extremity". +The book formed part of a series of writings by Laing in the 1960s on the relationship of madness to the self within a social context or nexus, writings which created something of a cult of Laing at the time. + + +== Structure == +Self and Others is divided into two parts, called respectively 'Modes of Interpersonal Experience' and 'Forms of Interpersonal Action'. In the first part, Laing sets out from a critique of the Kleinian view of unconscious phantasy, as set out by Susan Sutherland Isaacs, for its lack of recognition of the interpersonal dialectics inherent in human experience. He also uses Kleinian thought to emphasize the omnipresence of social phantasy systems. +In the second part, Laing explored the extent to which an individual is or is not invested in their own actions, using ideas drawn from Martin Buber and Jean-Paul Sartre. He also extended the American concept of the double bind to cover the experience of the schizoid patient. +In both sections, Laing uses material from Dostoyevsky to illustrate his theoretical points. + + +== See also == + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +M. Howarth-Williams, R. D. Laing (1977) + + +== External links == +The Self and Others +Jo Nash:Chapter 2 #R. D. Laing, On the Psychodynamics of Social Phantasy Systems +R. D. Laing, Self and others, Literary Encyclopedia \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Explorers-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Explorers-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..23f4bc894 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Explorers-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "The Space Explorers" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Space_Explorers" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:59.636402+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Space Explorers is an American animated film created by Fred Ladd that was later turned into a cartoon serial and spawned a sequel series, New Adventures of the Space Explorers. The film aired in 1958; the sequel series aired the following year. For accuracy, both animated feature films used a consultant from Hayden Planetarium. + + +== Synopsis == + +The cartoon, which featured Jimmy, Smitty and Professor Leon Nordheim on board the Polaris spaceship, taught space-related concepts. + + +== Production == + +The films were originally created for the education market, to be shown in classrooms. They were made under the technical guidance of Franklyn M. Branley, Associate Astronomer, American Museum of Natural History-Hayden Planetarium. It may have been rushed into production to "capitalize on the Sputnik craze". +The material comes primarily from three foreign films: + +Various animation sequences come from the 1951 Russian film "Universe" by the late Soviet director Pavel Klushantsev. +Images of the rocket Polaris come from footage of German film "Weltraumschiff 1 Startet" (Anton Kutter, 1937). +Except for images of the interior of the spaceship, images of the characters and from the walk on planet were extracted from a Russian cartoon film "Polet na lunu" (Flight to the moon), 1953, (Soyuzmultfilm). + + +== Release == +The Space Explorers first aired in 1958 on nationwide television shows such as Claude Kirchner's on WWOR-TV, Captain Kangaroo, Captain Video (DuMont), Captain Satellite, Sheriff John, Officer Joe Bolton, and Romper Room. It was followed by the two-hour-long sequel New Adventures of the Space Explorers the following year. + + +== In popular culture == +The spaceship from the series, the Polaris, has been featured on the very beginning of Chapter 5 of NOVA's Public Television (PBS) production of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. It has also been seen on Mike Myers Saturday Night Live skit Dieter. + + +== Reception == +In a book written by Ladd and Harvey Deneroff, they describe the film as a "cult classic". +According to Jörg Hartmann The Space Explorers instantly became widely distributed in North American TV. It stood out among similar-themed children's series through its impressive special effects. The Space Explorers as well as the New Adventures of the Space Explorers remained very popular for ten years. Hartmann assumed that the popularization of space flight through media like the Space Explorers influenced some members of the Baby boomer generation to take up careers in that field, who put the depicted flight around the Moon into practice in the 1960s. +Telepolis journalist Marcus Hammerschmitt called The Space Explorers an instant hit, and concluded that the climate in late-1950s America must have been favorable for its reception. He counted The Space Explorers among the works by Ladd which contributed to the spread of anime in the West. Hammerschmitt also saw a parallel between the incorporation of film material produced in Nazi Germany into an American piece of media and the careers of some rocket engineers from the German Peenemünde facility who successfully continued to work at NASA. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +The Space Explorers website +The Space Explorers at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..29bc2a96f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "The Zoist" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:03.376372+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism, and Their Applications to Human Welfare was a British journal, devoted to the promotion of the theories and practices (and the collection and dissemination of reports of the applications) of the pseudoscientific concepts of mesmerism and phrenology, and the enterprise of "connecting and harmonizing practical science with little understood laws governing the mental structure of man". With its name derived from the Greek word Zoe (ζωή) meaning "life". The Zoist was published quarterly, without a break, for fifteen years: from April 1843 until January 1856. +Edited by John Elliotson, the founder, and former president of the London Phrenological Society, who had been expelled from the University College Hospital in 1838 for his mesmeric practices, and William Collins Engledue, a former President of the British Phrenological Association, who was ostracized by both his medical colleagues for his dedication to mesmerism and phrenology, and by the majority of phrenologists for his rejection of their "socio-religious", spiritual position, in favour of a scientific, materialist, brain-centred position that, in effect, reduced mental operations to physical forces. + +"The Zoist was a materialist journal; it repudiated metaphysics and argued that everything—including human thinking—could be explained through the laws of the physical universe ..." + +== The journal == +The Zoist's first edition was published in April 1843. The journal was printed on high quality paper, and issued quarterly to its subscribers, without a break, for fifteen years from April 1843 until January 1856. Each quarterly issue cost 2s.6d. +It was also published for a wider readership in annual volumes; and the first twelve annual volumes were published simultaneously by Hippolyte Ballière, in London, J.B. Ballière, in Paris, and T.O. Weigel, in Leipzig; the thirteenth and last volume was published by Arthur Hall, Virtue, and Co., in London. +Well-written in crisp, scientific English, it was devoted to the propagation of information about the applications of phrenology (rather than its theories) and to the collection, storage, and dissemination of reports of the therapeutic efficacy of applied mesmerism (with even less treatment of mesmeric theories than of phrenological theories). In part, it acted as a disciplinary clearing house for information and the experiences of both amateur and professional practitioners (and their subjects) from all over Great Britain, and its colonies; and it placed great stress on the well-demonstrated usefulness of mesmerism, not only in the alleviation of disease and suffering, but in the provision of pain-free surgery, especially amputations. +Over time, the journal concentrated more and more on mesmerism and less on phrenology, due in part to the evolving interests of Elliotson and Engledue, but mainly due to the fact that phrenologists were contributing far fewer articles than were mesmerists. + +=== Similar publications === +Aside from the already established journal, The Phrenological Journal and Miscellany, which ran from 1823 to 1847, and The Phrenological Almanac, which ran from 1842 to 1845, published by the Glasgow Phrenological Society, there was Spencer T. Hall's The Phreno-Magnet and Mirror of Nature: A Record of Facts, Experiments, and Discoveries in Phrenology, Magnetism, &c., which lasted for eleven monthly issues (from February 1843 to December 1843), the short-lived Mesmerist: A Journal of Vital Magnetism, which only lasted for twenty weekly issues (from 13 May 1843 to 23 September 1843), The Annals of Mesmerism and Mesmero-Phrenology, which lasted for three monthly issues (from July 1843 to September 1843), and The People's Phrenological Journal and Compendium of Mental and Moral Science, published weekly, by the Exeter and London Phrenological Societies, for two years (1843 to 1844). +Then, to add to the mix, James Braid's definitive work on hypnotism, Neurypnology or The Rationale of Nervous Sleep, Considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism, Illustrated by Numerous Cases of its Successful Application in the Relief and Cure of Disease was released in July 1843. + +== Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism == +The choice of the "Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism" sub-title for their journal—rather than, that is, "Animal Magnetism & Phrenology"—is a measure of the pragmatic, materialist, "leading edge" proto-scientific orientation of both Elliotson and Engledue. +Their deliberately chosen term "cerebral physiology" (coined by Engledue) was entirely consistent with the original anatomy-centred term of "cranioscopy" (German, die Kraniometrie) chosen by the German neuroanatomist Franz Joseph Gall; and it was intentionally applied—rather than the (then) prevailing English, metaphysical, mind-centred term, "phrenology" coined by Thomas Forster (see Forster (1815) – to distinguish their own rational, sceptical, proto-scientific efforts in pursuit of a scientific understanding of (what would be termed, today) "brain science", from the superstitious "phrenology" (which was eventually universally dismissed as a flawed pseudoscience). +Similarly, their choice of term "mesmerism" was intentionally applied to indicate that, whilst they were deeply committed to a scientific ratification, and neurophysiological investigation of the phenomena supposedly produced by mesmeric methods, their interest was almost exclusively in the consequences of the applications of the practices of Franz Mesmer, rather than paying any particular attention to the wide range of metaphysical theories of the "animal magnetists". + +== Scope == +Apart from providing literature reviews and announcements of new publications, The Zoist was a source of information, disciplinary interaction, original accounts of phenomena, relevant case studies of its application to wide range of conditions, ranging from epilepsy, stammering, and headache, to torticollis, asthma, and rheumatism, and extensive reports of pertinent innovations and discoveries. +Elliotson was an opponent of capital punishment, and argued, within the Zoist, based upon his phrenological analysis of the heads of executed murderers, that not only was phrenology true, but also that, from this, capital punishment was futile as a deterrent. +According to historian Alan Gauld (1992, pp. 219–243), apart from its concentration on mesmerism and phrenology, The Zoist was one of the principal sources for information, discussion, and education in the following domains of interest: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..19d652188 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: "The Zoist" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:03.376372+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +(1) Mesmeric Analgesia: although The Zoist would become the major vehicle for the (post-1846) reports of James Esdaile's work in India, it completely ignored the extensive (early 1842) work reported by Braid in his Neurypnology (1843, p. 253). Elliotson had already published his Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without Pain in early 1843. +(2) Phreno-mesmerism (a.k.a. phreno-magnetism) and hemicerebral mesmerism (the mesmerization of each hemisphere of the brain separately). +(3) "Reichenbach phenomena" and other matters. +(4) Electro-biology and related matters. +(5) Alleged instances of extra-sensory perception (ESP) occurring in a mesmeric context. +According to the medical historian George Rosen (1946, p. 535): + +In accordance with its avowed purpose, the Zoist presented articles on phrenology and mesmerism. Many papers were contributed by Elliotson who was a constant writer in the journal. The purpose of these communications was essentially propagandistic. For the most part they comprised reports on patients treated with mesmerism, testimonials and endorsements from physicians and satisfied patients, and polemics with opponents of mesmerism.In addition, the Zoist also concerned itself with social problems, such as housing, crime, and education.The views expressed on these questions were based generally on phrenological theory; and it is worthy of note that these views were very progressive.Thus, opposition to capital punishment was forcibly expressed on several occasions, and demands were raised for the mental examination of criminals…An article bearing the title "Physical Well-being, a necessary preliminary to Moral and Intellectual Progression" emphatically drew attention to the evils arising from lack of sanitation and overcrowding in the homes of the working masses.The ill effects of poor housing in terms of premature mortality were pointed out and a demand made for better housing.In the field of education, the Zoist insisted on the need for a national educational system: "Education is the proper remedy for crime, and there ought to be a national system of education, apart from religious belief and sectarian influence." + +== Influence == +Unlike France, where the conflict between the conventional medical establishment and the advocates of mesmerism took place in the public/political arena, the British debate between the conventional medical establishment and the scientific advocates of mesmerism, such as Elliotson and Engledue, took place mainly in the medical literature on the one hand (such as Wakley's Lancet), and The Zoist on the other. +Given Wakley's implacable opposition to Elliotson, it is not surprising that, from time to time, "The Lancet continued to fulminate against the mesmerists" maintaining that "all those connected with The Zoist were 'lepers', and doctors who practised mesmerism, traitors...". + +== Stress on the power of the imagination == +A constant aspect of The Zoist's approach was its stress on the power of the imagination. In January 1855, in an article summarizing the Zoist's extensive coverage of the issue over more than a decade, Elliotson wrote of how, "in mesmeric states the effect of imagination is far greater than in the ordinary state, and we suspect that in persons not in the mesmeric state, but who have been formerly mesmerised, the power is far greater than in those who have never been mesmerised". + +== Contributions == +Apart from Elliotson, Engledue, and an otherwise (at the time) unidentified constant contributor, operating under the nom de guerre of "L.E.G.E.", and apart from its exhaustive reports of the clinical and social applications of mesmerism and phrenology, and pain-free medical and dental surgery, and progress reports from the London mesmeric Infirmary, The Zoist featured an exceptionally wide range of items contributed by a wide range of contributors (many of whom remained anonymous) from Britain, the colonies, and the United States. For example: + +Three phrenological articles by Herbert Spencer: "A New View of the Functions of Imitation and Benevolence", "On the Situation of the Organ of Amativeness", and "A Theory concerning the Organ of Wonder". +A poem written by Miss Anna Savage, reprinted from her recently released collection, Angel Visits (1845): "The Magnetic Sleeper". +The publication of a previously unpublished paper, written by Thomas Symes Prideaux, esq. of Southampton in June 1839, which advocated using phrenology to select members of parliament (originally written for a "best essay" competition conducted in 1839 by the Phrenological Journal): "On the Application of Phrenology in the Choice of Parliamentary Representatives". +Another poem from Miss Anna Savage, "suggested by the reply of a slave, who, on being asked to describe his feelings in the mesmeric state, answered, 'As I never felt before—free'.": "Verses by Miss Savage". +A letter from Harriet Martineau describing her mesmeric treatment of a cow: "Mesmeric Cure of a Cow". +A second letter from Harriet Martineau describing the angry visit of the veterinarian who had previously tried, in vain, to treat her dangerously ill cow (which was now quite well), on his hearing the news of its recovery: "Distressing effects in a Doctor upon the removal of a Disease from a Cow with Mesmerism". +A contribution by Lieutenant Richard F. Burton, of Bombay: "Remarks upon a form of Sub-mesmerism, popularly called Electro-Biology, now practised in Scinde and other Eastern Countries". +A communication from William John Tubbs, L.S.A. (London), M.R.C.S. (England), surgeon and mesmerist, of Upwell, Cambridgeshire to the effect that the son of John Tuck, labourer of Norfolk, and Elizabeth Tuck (née Rollins) had been christened "Mesmer": + Mesmeric Baptism. +Mr. Tubbs prevailed upon the parents of a baby to have it christened Mesmer. + "This is to certify that Mesmer, son of John and Elizabeth Tuck, of Outwell, +in the parish of Outwell, in the county of Norfolk, was born Dec. 18, 1850, and +baptized Feb. 3, 1851, by Thomas Charlton, minister of the Gospel. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0fa6f8ed6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "The Zoist" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoist" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:15:03.376372+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + + "Given under my hand this 4th day of February, 1851." +In response to a query from "A Patient", the editors of The Zoist, whilst assuring the enquirer that "we feel as much as he does the difficulty of procuring good mesmerisers", proceeded to set down a set of positive and negative selection criteria: "Choice of a Mesmeriser". +Yet another poem, this time from Mrs Maria Abdy, widow of the late Rev. John Channing Abdy, M.A., of St. John's, Southwark: "The Mesmerist". + +== The end of The Zoist == +In a parting address to their journal's readers and subscribers written on 31 December 1855, the editors of The Zoist reminded their readers that they had sought "neither pecuniary gain nor worldly reputation", and had willingly undertaken the enterprise despite the fact that "loss was nearly certain", and that "contempt, ridicule, virulent abuse, and serious injury, were all inevitable". +Yet, they assured their readers, "the object for which The Zoist was undertaken"—namely, "the establishment of truths, splendid, exquisite, extensive in their bearings, and of the highest importance to the moral and corporeal well-being of mankind"—had been attained; and that it was their hope that it would "be regarded as a complete work which has come out in fifty-two numbers", and be recognized as "a rich store", and would be used as "a solid work of reference for years to come": see Gallery. + +== Footnotes == + +== References == + +== External links == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_exploration-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_exploration-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..824dbff57 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_exploration-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +--- +title: "Timeline of space exploration" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_space_exploration" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:27.048289+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +This is a timeline of space exploration which includes notable missions, achievements, first accomplishments and milestones in humanity's exploration of outer space. +This timeline generally does not distinguish achievements by a specific country or private company, as it considers humanity as a whole. See otherwise the timeline of private spaceflight or look for achievements by each space agency. + + +== Pre-20th century == + + +== 1900–1956 == + + +== 1957–1959 == + + +== 1960–1969 == + + +== 1970–1979 == + + +== 1980–1989 == + + +== 1990–1999 == + + +== 2000–2009 == + + +== 2010–2019 == + + +== Since 2020 == + + +== Notes == + + +== See also == +Discovery and exploration of the Solar System +List of spaceflight records +List of spaceflight records#Human spaceflight firsts +Timeline of Solar System exploration – A comprehensive list of events in the exploration of the Solar System. +Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes – A comprehensive list of artificial satellites and space probes. +Timeline of space travel by nationality +Timeline of spaceflight – Chronological list of events in spaceflight broken down as a separate article for each year +Timeline of private spaceflight – For first achievements by private space companies + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Chronology of Space Exploration Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine archive of important space exploration missions and events, including future planned and proposed endeavors +Crewed spaceflight 1961–1980 +Crewed spaceflight chronology +History of crewed space missions Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine +Timeline of the Space Race/Moon Race Archived 2005-11-19 at the Wayback Machine +Chronology: Moon Race at russianspaceweb.com +Space Timeline in 3d \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2d68ab886 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Tired light" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:39.812858+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Tired light is a class of hypothetical redshift mechanisms that was proposed as an alternative explanation for the redshift-distance relationship. These models have been proposed as alternatives to the models that involve the expansion of the universe. The concept was first proposed in 1929 by Fritz Zwicky, who suggested that if photons lost energy over time through collisions with other particles in a regular way, the more distant objects would appear redder than more nearby ones. +Zwicky acknowledged that any sort of scattering of light would blur the images of distant objects more than what is seen. Additionally, the surface brightness of galaxies evolving with time, time dilation of cosmological sources, and a thermal spectrum of the cosmic microwave background have been observed—these effects should not be present if the cosmological redshift was due to any tired light scattering mechanism. Despite periodic re-examination of the concept, tired light has not been supported by observational tests and remains a fringe topic in astrophysics. + +== History and reception == + +Tired light was an idea that came about due to the observation made by Edwin Hubble that distant galaxies have redshifts proportional to their distance. Redshift is a shift in the spectrum of the emitted electromagnetic radiation from an object toward lower energies and frequencies, associated with the phenomenon of the Doppler effect. Observers of spiral nebulae such as Vesto Slipher observed that these objects (now known to be separate galaxies) generally exhibited redshift rather than blueshifts independent of where they were located. Since the relation holds in all directions it cannot be attributed to normal movement with respect to a background which would show an assortment of redshifts and blueshifts. Hubble's contribution was to show that the magnitude of the redshift correlated strongly with the distance to the galaxies. +Basing on Slipher's and Hubble's data, in 1927 Georges Lemaître realized that this correlation could fit non-static solutions to the equations of Einstein's theory of gravity, the Friedmann–Lemaître solutions. However Lemaître's article was appreciated only after Hubble's publication of 1929. The universal redshift-distance relation in this solution is attributable to the effect an expanding universe has on a photon traveling on a null spacetime interval (also known as a "light-like" geodesic). In this formulation, there was still an analogous effect to the Doppler effect, though relative velocities need to be handled with more care since distances can be defined in different ways in an expanding universe. +At the same time, other explanations were proposed that did not concord with general relativity. Edward Milne proposed an explanation compatible with special relativity but not general relativity that there was a giant explosion that could explain redshifts (see Milne universe). Others proposed that systematic effects could explain the redshift-distance correlation. Along this line, Fritz Zwicky proposed a "tired light" mechanism in 1929. Zwicky suggested that photons might slowly lose energy as they travel vast distances through a static universe by interaction with matter or other photons, or by some novel physical mechanism. Since a decrease in energy corresponds to an increase in light's wavelength, this effect would produce a redshift in spectral lines that increase proportionally with the distance of the source. The term "tired light" was coined by Richard Tolman in the early 1930s as a way to refer to this idea. Helge Kragh has noted "Zwicky’s hypothesis was the best known and most elaborate alternative to the expanding universe, but it was far from the only one. More than a dozen physicists, astronomers and amateur scientists proposed in the 1930s tired-light ideas having in common the assumption of nebular photons interacting with intergalactic matter to which they transferred part of their energy." Kragh noted in particular John Quincy Stewart, William Duncan MacMillan, and Walther Nernst. +Tired light mechanisms were among the proposed alternatives to the Big Bang and the Steady State cosmologies, both of which relied on the general relativistic expansion of the universe of the FRW metric. Through the middle of the twentieth century, most cosmologists supported one of these two paradigms, but there were a few scientists, especially those who were working on alternatives to general relativity, who worked with the tired light alternative. As the discipline of observational cosmology developed in the late twentieth century and the associated data became more numerous and accurate, the Big Bang emerged as the cosmological theory most supported by the observational evidence, and it remains the accepted consensus model with a current parametrization that precisely specifies the state and evolution of the universe. Although the proposals of "tired light cosmologies" are now more-or-less relegated to the dustbin of history, as a completely alternative proposal tired-light cosmologies were considered a remote possibility worthy of some consideration in cosmology texts well into the 1980s, though it was dismissed as an unlikely and ad hoc proposal by mainstream astrophysicists. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c6614130 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +--- +title: "Tired light" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:39.812858+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +By the 1990s and on into the twenty-first century, a number of falsifying observations have shown that "tired light" hypotheses are not viable explanations for cosmological redshifts. For example, in a static universe with tired light mechanisms, the surface brightness of stars and galaxies should be constant, that is, the farther an object is, the less light we receive, but its apparent area diminishes as well, so the light received divided by the apparent area should be constant. In an expanding universe, the surface brightness diminishes with distance. As the observed object recedes, photons are emitted at a reduced rate because each photon has to travel a distance that is a little longer than the previous one, while its energy is reduced a little because of increasing redshift at a larger distance. On the other hand, in an expanding universe, the object appears to be larger than it really is, because it was closer to us when the photons started their travel. This causes a difference in surface brilliance of objects between a static and an expanding Universe. This is known as the Tolman surface brightness test that in those studies favors the expanding universe hypothesis and rules out static tired light models. +Redshift is directly observable and used by cosmologists as a direct measure of lookback time. They often refer to age and distance to objects in terms of redshift rather than years or light-years. In such a scale, the Big Bang corresponds to a redshift of infinity. Alternative theories of gravity that do not have an expanding universe in them need an alternative to explain the correspondence between redshift and distance that is sui generis to the expanding metrics of general relativity. Such theories are sometimes referred to as "tired-light cosmologies", though not all authors are necessarily aware of the historical antecedents. + +== Specific falsified models == + +In general, any "tired light" mechanism must solve some basic problems, in that the observed redshift must: + +admit the same measurement in any wavelength-band +not exhibit blurring +follow the detailed Hubble relation observed with supernova data (see accelerating universe) +explain associated time dilation of cosmologically distant events. +A number of tired light mechanisms have been suggested over the years. Fritz Zwicky, in his paper proposing these models investigated a number of redshift explanations, ruling out some himself. The simplest form of a tired light theory assumes an exponential decrease in photon energy with distance traveled: + + + + E + ( + x + ) + = + + E + + 0 + + + exp + ⁡ + + ( + + − + + + x + + R + + 0 + + + + + + ) + + + + {\displaystyle E(x)=E_{0}\exp \left(-{\frac {x}{R_{0}}}\right)} + +where + + + + E + ( + x + ) + + + {\displaystyle E(x)} + + is the energy of the photon at distance + + + + x + + + {\displaystyle x} + + from the source of light, + + + + + E + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle E_{0}} + + is the energy of the photon at the source of light, and + + + + + R + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle R_{0}} + + is a large constant characterizing the "resistance of the space". To correspond to Hubble's law, the constant + + + + + R + + 0 + + + + + {\displaystyle R_{0}} + + must be several gigaparsecs. For example, Zwicky considered whether an integrated Compton effect could account for the scale normalization of the above model: + +... light coming from distant nebulae would undergo a shift to the red by Compton effect on those free electrons [in interstellar spaces] [...] But then the light scattered in all directions would make the interstellar space intolerably opaque which disposes of the above explanation. [...] it is evident that any explanation based on a scattering process like the Compton effect or the Raman effect, etc., will be in a hopeless position regarding the good definition of the images. +This expected "blurring" of cosmologically distant objects is not seen in the observational evidence, though it would take much larger telescopes than those available at that time to show this with certainty. Alternatively, Zwicky proposed a kind of Sachs–Wolfe effect explanation for the redshift distance relation: + +One might expect a shift of spectral lines due to the difference of the static gravitational potential at different distances from the center of a galaxy. This effect, of course, has no relation to the distance of the observed galaxy from our own system and, therefore, cannot provide any explanation of the phenomenon discussed in this paper. +Zwicky's proposals were carefully presented as falsifiable according to later observations: + +... [a] gravitational analogue of the Compton effect [...] It is easy to see that the above redshift should broaden these absorption lines asymmetrically toward the red. If these lines can be photographed with a high enough dispersion, the displacement of the center of gravity of the line will give the redshift independent of the velocity of the system from which the light is emitted. +Such broadening of absorption lines is not seen in high-redshift objects, thus falsifying this particular hypothesis. +Zwicky also notes, in the same paper, that according to a tired light model a distance-redshift relationship would necessarily be present in the light from sources within our own galaxy (even if the redshift would be so small that it would be hard to measure), that do not appear under a recessional-velocity based theory. He writes, referring to sources of light within our galaxy: "It is especially desirable to determine the redshift independent of the proper velocities of the objects observed". Subsequent to this, astronomers have patiently mapped out the three-dimensional velocity-position phase space for the galaxy and found the redshifts and blueshifts of galactic objects to accord well with the statistical distribution of a spiral galaxy, eliminating the intrinsic redshift component as an effect. +Following after Zwicky in 1935, Edwin Hubble and Richard Tolman compared recessional redshift with a non-recessional one, writing that they \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c5867190 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Tired light" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:39.812858+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +both incline to the opinion, however, that if the red-shift is not due to recessional motion, its explanation will probably involve some quite new physical principles [... and] use of a static Einstein model of the universe, combined with the assumption that the photons emitted by a nebula lose energy on their journey to the observer by some unknown effect, which is linear with distance, and which leads to a decrease in frequency, without appreciable transverse deflection. These conditions became almost impossible to meet and the overall success of general relativistic explanations for the redshift-distance relation is one of the core reasons that the Big Bang model of the universe remains the cosmology preferred by researchers. +In the early 1950s, Erwin Finlay-Freundlich proposed a redshift as "the result of loss of energy by observed photons traversing a radiation field". which was cited and argued for as an explanation for the redshift-distance relation in a 1962 astrophysics theory Nature paper by University of Manchester physics professor P. F. Browne. The pre-eminent cosmologist Ralph Asher Alpher wrote a letter to Nature three months later in response to this suggestion heavily criticizing the approach, "No generally accepted physical mechanism has been proposed for this loss." Still, until the so-called "Age of Precision Cosmology" was ushered in with results from the WMAP space probe and modern redshift surveys, tired light models could occasionally get published in the mainstream journals, including one that was published in the February 1979 edition of Nature proposing "photon decay" in a curved spacetime that was five months later criticized in the same journal as being wholly inconsistent with observations of the gravitational redshift observed in the solar limb. In 1986, a paper claiming tired light theories explained redshift better than cosmic expansion was published in the Astrophysical Journal, but ten months later, in the same journal, such tired light models were shown to be inconsistent with extant observations. As cosmological measurements became more precise and the statistics in cosmological data sets improved, tired light proposals ended up being falsified, to the extent that the theory was described in 2001 by science writer Charles Seife as being "firmly on the fringe of physics 30 years ago; still, scientists sought more direct proofs of the expansion of the cosmos". + +== See also == +Dispersion (optics) + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c15ef70da --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Titicut Follies" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:41.305116+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Titicut Follies is a 1967 American direct cinema documentary film produced, written, and directed by Frederick Wiseman and filmed by John Marshall. It deals with the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, a Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. The title is taken from that of a talent show put on by the hospital staff. Titicut is the Wampanoag name for the nearby Taunton River. +The film won accolades in Germany and Italy. Wiseman went on to produce many more such films examining social institutions (e.g. hospitals, police, schools, etc.) in the United States. +In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". + +== Synopsis == +Titicut Follies portrays the occupants of Bridgewater State Hospital, who were often kept in barren cells and infrequently bathed. It also depicts inmates/patients required to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and the indifference and bullying by many of the hospital's staff. +The film employs methods of direct cinema, which emphasizes observation, limited stylization, and non-intervention by filmmakers. + +== Production == + +=== Development === +Titicut Follies was the beginning of the documentary career of Frederick Wiseman, a Boston-born lawyer turned filmmaker. He had taken his law classes from Boston University to the institution for educational purposes and had "wanted to do a film there". He began calling the facility superintendent, seeking permission to film a year prior to production. Wiseman had previously produced The Cool World (1964), based on Warren Miller’s novel of the same name, an experience that informed his desire to direct. + +=== Filming === +Wiseman drafted a proposal that was verbally agreed to by the superintendent, which later came into question when the film began distribution. Following that agreement, filming began, with corrections staff following Wiseman at all times and determining on the spot whether the subjects filmed were mentally competent, adding further confusion to an already fraught process. While on location, Wiseman recorded the sound and directed the cameraman—established ethnographic filmmaker John Marshall⁠—via microphone or by hand. + +=== Post-production === +Twenty-nine days were spent documenting the conditions at Bridgewater and 80,000 feet of film were shot. Wiseman spent approximately a year editing the footage into the final 84-minute narrative. Wiseman edited the film in secret, working after hours in the editing rooms at WGBH-TV. + +== Release == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..91d06185d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "Titicut Follies" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:41.305116+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Censorship === +Just before the film was to be shown at the 1967 New York Film Festival, the Massachusetts government tried to procure an injunction banning its release, claiming that the film violated the patients' privacy and dignity. Despite Wiseman having received permission from all the people portrayed or that of the hospital superintendent (the inmates' legal guardian), Massachusetts claimed that this permission could not take the place of release forms from the inmates. Wiseman was also accused of breaching an "oral contract", giving the state government editorial control over the film. A New York state court allowed the screening, but in 1968, Massachusetts Superior Court judge Harry Kalus ordered the film to be recalled from distribution and all copies destroyed, once more citing the state's concerns about violations of the patients' privacy and dignity. +Wiseman appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which in 1969 allowed it to be shown only to doctors, lawyers, judges, health-care professionals, social workers, and students in these and related fields. Wiseman appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. +Wiseman believes that the government of Massachusetts (concerned that the film portrayed a state institution in a bad light) intervened to protect its reputation. The state intervened after a social worker in Minnesota wrote to Massachusetts governor John Volpe, expressing shock at a scene involving a naked man being taunted by a guard. +The dispute was the first known instance of a film being banned from general American distribution for reasons other than obscenity, immorality, or national security. It was also the first time that Massachusetts recognized a right to privacy at the state level. Wiseman has said, "The obvious point that I was making was that the restriction of the court was a greater infringement of civil liberties than the film was an infringement on the liberties of the inmates." +Little changed until 1987, when the families of seven inmates who had died at the hospital sued the hospital and state. Steven Schwartz represented one of the inmates, who was "restrained for 2½ months and given six psychiatric drugs at vastly unsafe levels—choked to death because he could not swallow his food." Schwartz has said "There is a direct connection between the decision not to show that film publicly and my client dying 20 years later, and a whole host of other people dying in between," "... in the years since Mr. Wiseman made Titicut Follies, most of the nation's big mental institutions have been closed or cut back by court orders" and "the film may have also influenced the closing of the institution featured in the film." +In 1991, Superior Court judge Andrew Meyer allowed the film's release to the general public, saying that as time had passed, privacy concerns had become less important than First Amendment concerns. He also said that many of the former patients had died, so there was little risk of a violation of their dignity. The state Supreme Court ordered that "A brief explanation shall be included in the film that changes and improvements have taken place at Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater since 1966." The film was shown on PBS on September 4, 1992, its first American television airing. Before, a narrative warning and an introduction by Charlie Rose were played. Following the broadcast, a message was shown stating that improvements had been made since the time of production. +The film is now legally available through its distributor, Zipporah Films Inc., for purchase or rental on DVD and for educational and individual license. Zipporah released the DVD to the home market in December 2007. +In 2020, the film was shown on Turner Classic Movies. +In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". +In 2026, the film was released in the UK as part of a boxed set Blu-ray collection of several of Frederick Wiseman's films, titled Cinema Expanded: The Films of Frederick Wiseman. The film was scanned and restored in 4K by the British Film Institute; this marks the first time Titicut Follies has been released on high-definition media anywhere in the world. + +=== Accolades === +Mannheim-Heidelberg International Filmfestival: Mannheim Film Ducat, Frederick Wiseman; 1967. +Festival Dei Popoli: Best Film Dealing with the Human Condition; Florence, Italy; 1967. + +== Reception == +Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of 12 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.9/10. + +== See also == +List of American films of 1967 +Cocksucker Blues, documentary of a Rolling Stones tour, largely unseen due to legal restrictions related to privacy issues + +== References == + +=== Notes === + +=== Bibliography === +Carolyn Anderson and Thomas W. Bensson. Documentary Dilemmas: Frederick Wiseman's Titicut Follies (Southern Illinois University Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8093-1518-1) +Barry Keith Grant and Frederick Wiseman. Five Films by Frederick Wiseman – Titicut Follies, High School, Welfare, High School II, Public Housing (University of California Press, 2006, ISBN 0-520-24456-7) + +== External links == +Titicut Follies Official Web-site +Titicut Follies at IMDb +Titicut Follies film review by Roger Ebert \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fb87be5b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Tractor beam" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:40.984289+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A tractor beam is a device that can attract one object to another from a distance. The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor beam") in his novel Spacehounds of IPC (1931). Since the 1990s, technology and research have labored to make it a reality, and have had some success on a microscopic level. Less commonly, a similar beam that repels is known as a pressor beam or repulsor beam. Gravity impulse and gravity propulsion beams are traditionally areas of research from fringe physics that coincide with the concepts of tractor and repulsor beams; tractor beams developed by mainstream researchers and engineers are generally not based on gravity, and practical designs typically use electromagnetism and/or motion of a medium. + +== Physics == + +A force field confined to a collimated beam with clean borders is one of the principal characteristics of tractor and repulsor beams. Several theories have predicted that repulsive effects do not fall within the category of tractor and repulsor beams because of the absence of field collimation. For example, Robert L. Forward of Hughes Research Laboratories showed that general relativity theory allowed the generation of a very brief impulse of a gravity-like repulsive force along the axis of a helical torus containing accelerated condensed matter. The mainstream scientific community has accepted Forward's work. +A variant of Burkhard Heim's theory by Walter Dröscher, Institut für Grenzgebiete der Wissenschaft (IGW), Innsbruck, Austria, and Jocham Häuser, University of Applied Sciences and CLE GmbH, Salzgitter, Germany, predicted a repulsive force field of gravitophotons could be produced by a ring rotating above a very strong magnetic field. Heim's theory, and its variants, have been treated by the mainstream scientific community as fringe physics. But the works by Forward, Dröscher, and Häuser could not be considered as a form of repulsor- or tractor-beam because the predicted impulses and field effects were not confined to a well-defined, collimated region. +The following are summaries of other notable experiments and theories that resemble repulsor and tractor beam concepts: + +=== 1960s === +In July 1960, trade magazine Missiles and Rockets reported that Martin N. Kaplan, a research engineer at Ryan Aeronautical Company, had conducted experiments that could lead to an ability to direct an anti-gravitational force toward or away from a second body. +In 1964, physicists Leopold Halpern of the Niels Bohr Institute and B. Laurent of the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics indicated general relativity theory and quantum theory allowed the generation and amplification of gravitons in a manner like the laser. They showed, in principle, gravitational radiation in the form of a beam of gravitons could be generated and amplified by using induced, resonant emissions. + +=== 1990s – Podkletnov experiment === +In 1992, Professor Yevgeny Podkletnov and R. Nieminen, of the Tampere University of Technology, claimed to have discovered weight fluctuations in objects above an electromagnetically levitated, massive, composite superconducting disk. Three years later, Podkletnov reported the results of additional experiments with a toroidal disk superconductor. They reported the weight of the samples would fluctuate between −2.5% and +5.4% as the angular speed of the superconductor increased. Certain combinations of disk angular speeds and electromagnetic frequencies caused the fluctuations to stabilize at a 0.3% reduction. The experiments with the toroidal disk yielded reductions that reached a maximum of 1.9–2.1%. Reports about both sets of experiments stated the weight loss region was cylindrical, extending vertically for at least three meters above the disk. Qualitative observations of an expulsive force at the border of the shielded zone were reported in the Fall of 1995. Several groups around the world tried to replicate Podkletnov's gravity shielding observations. +Italian physicist Giovanni Modanese, while a Von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, made the first attempt to provide a theoretical explanation of Podkletnov's alleged observations. He argued that the shielding effect and slight expulsive force at the border of the shielded zone could be explained in terms of induced changes in the local cosmological constant. Modanese described several effects regarding responses to modifications to the local cosmological constant within the superconductor. Ning Wu of the Institute of High Energy Physics (Beijing), used the quantum gauge theory of gravity he had developed in 2001 to explain Podkletnov's observations. Wu's theory approximated the relative gravity loss as 0.03%, or an order of magnitude smaller than the reported range of 0.3‍–‍0.5%. +C. S. Unnikrishan, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, showed that if the effect had been caused by gravitational shielding, the shape of the shielded region would be similar to a shadow from the gravitational shield. For example, the shape of the shielded region above a disk would be conical. The height of the cone's apex above the disk would vary directly with the height of the shielding disk above the earth. Podkletnov and Nieminen described the shape of the weight loss region as a cylinder that extended through the ceiling above the cryostat. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e17f1a831 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Tractor beam" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:40.984289+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== 2010s === +A team of scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) led by Professor Andrei Rode created a device similar to a tractor beam to move small particles 1.5 meters through the air. Rather than create a new gravitational field, however, the device utilizes a doughnut-shaped Laguerre-Gaussian laser beam, which has a high-intensity ring of light that surrounds a dark core along the beam axis. This method confines particles to the center of the beam using photophoresis, whereby illuminated sections of the particle have a higher temperature and thus impart more momentum to air molecules incident on the surface. Owing to this method, such a device cannot work in space due to lack of air. Rode states that there are practical applications for the device on Earth, for example, the transportation of microscopic hazardous materials and other microscopic objects. +John Sinko and Clifford Schlecht researched a form of reversed-thrust laser propulsion as a macroscopic laser tractor beam. Intended applications include remotely manipulating space objects at distances up to about 100 km, removal of space debris, and retrieval of adrift astronauts or tools on-orbit. +Functioning tractor beams based on solenoidal modes of light were demonstrated in 2010 by physicists at New York University. +The spiraling intensity distribution in these non-diffracting beams tends to trap illuminated objects and thus helps to overcome the radiation pressure that ordinarily would drive them down the optical axis. +Orbital angular momentum transferred from the solenoid beam's helical wavefronts then drives the trapped objects upstream along the spiral. Both Bessel-beam and solenoidal tractor beams are being considered for applications in space exploration by NASA. +In March 2011, scientists from Fudan University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology posited that a specific type of Bessel beam (a special kind of laser that does not diffract at the center) is capable of creating a pull-like effect on a given microscopic particle, forcing it toward the beam-source. The underlying physics is the maximization of forward scattering via interference of the radiation multipoles. They show explicitly that the necessary condition to realize a negative (pulling) optical force is the simultaneous excitation of multipoles in the particle. If the total photon momentum projection along the propagation direction is small, attractive optical force is possible. The Chinese scientists suggest this possibility may be implemented for optical micromanipulation. +In 2013, scientists at the Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) and the University of St Andrews created a tractor beam that pulls objects on a microscopic level. The study states that this technique may have potential for bio-medical research. +Professor Zemanek said: "The whole team have spent a number of years investigating various configurations of particles delivery by light." Dr. Brzobohaty said: "These methods are opening new opportunities for fundamental photonics as well as applications for life-sciences." +Dr Cizmar said: "Because of the similarities between optical and acoustic particle manipulation we anticipate that this concept will inspire exciting future studies in areas outside the field of photonics." +Physicists from ANU built a reversible tractor beam, capable of transporting particles "one fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 centimetres, around 100 times further than previous experiments." According to Professor Wieslaw Krolikowski, of the Research School of Physics and Engineering, "demonstration of a large scale laser beam like this is a kind of holy grail for laser physicists." The work was published in Nature in 2014. In the same year, Dr. Horst Punzmann and his team at ANU developed a tractor beam that works on water, which could potentially be used to contain oil spills, control floating objects, or study the formation of rips on beaches. +In 2015, a team of researchers built the world's first sonic tractor beam that can lift and move objects using sound waves. An Instructables webpage was made available with instructions to build a rudimentary device. +In 2016, Rice University scientists discovered that Tesla coils can generate force fields able to manipulate matter through a process called teslaphoresis. +In December 2016, researchers were able to manipulate the movement of bacterial cells using a tractor beam, thereby opening the possibility that tractor beams could have future applications in biological sciences. +In 2018, a research team from Tel-Aviv University, led by Dr. Alon Bahabad, experimentally demonstrated an optical analog of the Archimedes' screw where the rotation of a helical-intensity laser beam is transferred to the axial motion of optically trapped micrometer-scale, airborne, carbon-based particles. With this optical screw, particles were easily conveyed with controlled velocity and direction, upstream or downstream of the optical flow, over half a centimeter. +In 2019, researchers at the University of Washington used a tractor beam to assemble nanoscale materials in a process they describe as "photonic nanosoldering". + +== Fiction == + +Science fiction movies and telecasts normally depict tractor and repulsor beams as audible, narrow rays of visible light covering a small target area. Tractor beams are most commonly used on spaceships and space stations. They are generally used in three ways: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fc4cbe290 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ +--- +title: "Tractor beam" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor_beam" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:40.984289+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +As a device for securing or retrieving cargo, passengers, shuttlecraft, etc. This is analogous to cranes on modern ships. +As a device to harness objects that can then be used as impromptu weapons by the craft +As a means of preventing an enemy from escaping, analogous to grappling hooks. +In the latter case, countermeasures can usually be employed against tractor beams. These may include pressor beams (a stronger pressor beam will counteract a weaker tractor beam) or plane shears a.k.a. shearing planes (a device to "cut" the tractor beam and render it ineffective). In some fictional realities, shields can block tractor beams, or the generators can be disabled by sending a large amount of energy along the beam to its source. +Tractor beams and pressor beams can be used together as a weapon: by attracting one side of an enemy spaceship while repelling the other, one can create severely damaging shear effects in its hull. Another mode of destructive use of such beams is rapid alternating between pressing and pulling force in order to cause structural damage to the ship as well as inflicting lethal forces on its crew. +Two objects being brought together by a tractor beam are usually attracted toward their common center of gravity. This means that if a small spaceship applies a tractor beam to a large object such as a planet, the ship will be drawn toward the planet, rather than vice versa. +In Star Trek, tractor beams are imagined to work by placing a target in the focus of a subspace/graviton interference pattern created by two beams from an emitter. When the beams are manipulated correctly the target is drawn along with the interference pattern. The target may be moved toward or away from the emitter by changing the polarity of the beams. The range of the beam affects the maximum mass that the emitter can move, and the emitter subjects its anchoring structure to significant force. + +=== Literature === +Rudyard Kipling's As Easy as A.B.C. (1912) made use of the "flying loop", generated by one of the airships of the Aerial Board of Control, when a woman tried, as a political statement, to publicly kill herself. The loop pulled the knife from her hand and, instead of drawing it toward the airship, flung it fifty yards away; it also continued to hold her arm rigid for a second or so afterward. John Brunner, in the foreword to a collection of Kipling's science fiction, said this may be the first depiction of a tractor beam. +E. E. Smith coined the term "tractor beam" (an update of his earlier "attractor-beam") in his novel Spacehounds of IPC, originally serialized in Amazing Stories magazine in 1931. The hero of his Skylark of Space books (1929 onwards) had invented "attractor beams" and "repellor beams". Repellors can also be emitted isotropically as a defensive force field against material projectiles. The device also appears in Smith's Lensman books. +In Philip Francis Nowlan's Buck Rogers novel Armageddon 2419 A.D. (1928), the enemy airships used "repellor beams" for support and propulsion, similar to the "eighth ray" beams used for support and propulsion of Martian airships in the Barsoom/John Carter of Mars series (first published 1912–1943) by Edgar Rice Burroughs. +Tom Swift – In the Tom Swift Jr. book Tom Swift and The Deep-Sea Hydrodome (1958), Tom invents the "repellatron". The device can be set to repel specific chemical elements. It was used to create a bubble habitat on the ocean floor, and as the propulsion system for his spacecraft Challenger. +The Sector General books by James White: The 1963 novel Star Surgeon is the source of the combined tractor/pressor beam weapon called the Rattler. The weapon attracts then repels the target (an entire ship or a segment of the ship's hull) at 80 gs, several times a minute. The novel also featured a type of force field called a "repulsion screen". +The Trigger by Arthur C. Clarke involves the development of tractor beams in the early part of the novel. +Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein describes tractor/pressor beams as a product of the physics of a "newly-discovered magneto-gravitic or electro-gravitic spectra" featured in the novel. + +=== Comics === +Buck Rogers comic strip – originally just repulsor-beams; tractors appeared by the 1970s +Iron Man's various armor suits usually feature repulsor beam projectors mounted in the palms as one of the main weapon systems. + +=== Movies and television series === +Star Trek (TV series, films, books and games). One of the most visible and iconic uses of the concept. One of the few prominent fictitious depictions which used such beams repeatedly and referred to them consistently as tractor beams. +District 9 The 2009 film featured a tractor beam lifting the command module dropship as a major plot point at the end of the movie. + +== See also == +Force field (physics) +Optical lift +Optical tweezers +Optical levitation +Psychokinesis +Stasis field + +== References == + +== External links == + +Small-scale real sonic tractor beam effect Archived 2016-02-01 at the Wayback Machine BBC news. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglobe_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglobe_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ac34cf473 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglobe_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "Transglobe Expedition" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transglobe_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:20.755819+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Transglobe Expedition (1979–1982) was the first expedition to make a longitudinal (north–south) circumnavigation of the Earth using only surface transport. British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes led a team, including Oliver Shepard and Charles R. Burton, that attempted to follow the Greenwich meridian over both land and water. They began in Greenwich in the United Kingdom in September 1979 and travelled south, arriving at the South Pole on 15 December 1980. Over the next 14 months, they travelled north, reaching the North Pole on 11 April 1982. Travelling south once more, they arrived again in Greenwich on 29 August 1982. It required traversing both of the poles and the use of boats in some places. Oliver Shepard took part in the Antarctic leg of the expedition. Ginny Fiennes handled all communications between the land team and their support, and ran the polar bases. + + +== Planning == +The original idea for the expedition was conceived by Ginny Fiennes in February 1972. The trip was entirely funded through sponsorships and the free labour of the expedition members, which took seven years to organize. +Before the expedition, they had to limit the food that they ate. They brought a large amount of bread, cereal, and coffee. During their crossing of the Sahara, they brought no butter because of high temperatures. They also had to use repellent cream and anti-malarial tablets in order to keep insects away. + + +== Expedition == + + +=== South Pole === +Ranulph Fiennes, Charles Burton, and Oliver Shepard left London on 2 September 1979, beginning with a relatively simple overland trip through France and Spain, then across West Africa through the Sahara. They boarded the ship the Benjamin Bowring in the Gulf of Guinea and travelled by sea to South Africa. After preparations in South Africa, they sailed for Antarctica on 22 December 1979, and arrived on 4 January 1980. +With help from Ginny Fiennes and Giles Kershaw, they built a base camp near the SANAE III base. They named the base camp Ryvingen, after the nearby Ryvingen Peak. Burton, Shepard, Ranulph Fiennes, and Ginny Fiennes (and their dog Bothie) remained at this base all winter, in four cardboard huts which quickly became buried in the snow. + +On 29 August 1980, Ranulph Fiennes left with Burton and Shephard for the South Pole. They travelled by snowmobiles, pulling sledges with supplies, while Kershaw flew ahead to leave fuel depots for them. As they travelled, they took 2-meter snow samples, one of many scientific undertakings that convinced sponsors to support the trip. They reached the South Pole on 15 December 1980. They remained in a small camp next to the South Pole station dome, where they played the first game of cricket at the South Pole, and departed on 23 December 1980. They descended the Scott Glacier (the third party to do so), crossed the Ross Ice Shelf, and arrived at Scott Base on 11 January 1981, completing their Antarctic crossing. + + +=== North Pole === +As part of the expedition, Fiennes and Burton completed the Northwest Passage. They left Tuktoyaktuk on 26 July 1981, in a 18 ft open Boston Whaler motorboat and reached Tanquary Fiord, 36 days later, on 31 August 1981. Their journey was the first open boat transit of the Northwest Passage from West to East, and covered around 3,000 miles (2,600 nautical miles; 4,800 kilometres), taking a route through Dolphin and Union Strait following the South coast of Victoria and King William Islands, North, via Franklin Strait and Peel Sound, to Resolute Bay (on the southern side of Cornwallis Island), around the South and East coasts of Devon Island, through Hell Gate (near Cardigan Strait) and across Norwegian Bay to Eureka, Greely Bay and the head of Tanquary Fiord. +Between Tuktoyaktuk and Tanquary Fiord, they traveled at an average speed of around 80 miles (70 nmi; 130 km) per day. +Once they reached Tanquary Fiord they had to trek 150 miles (130 nmi; 240 km) overland, via Lake Hazen, to Alert, Nunavut, before setting up their winter base camp. + + +== Impact == +The journey was recorded in a book by Fiennes, To the Ends of the Earth: The Transglobe Expedition, The First Pole-to-Pole Circumnavigation of the Globe (1983). It was also the subject of a 1983 film, also titled To the Ends of the Earth, made by director William Kronick and featuring actor Richard Burton as the narrator. The trip was also recorded in the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records. +Following the completion of the voyage Ranulph and Ginny Fiennes released a book about the adventures of their dog Bothie, a Jack Russell terrier, who became the only dog to ever visit both the North and South poles. Called Bothie the Polar Dog, the book was published in 1984 and was reported to be a best-seller. + + +=== Transglobe Expedition Trust === +Following the expedition, in 1993 a charitable trust was established to support other expeditions with humanitarian, scientific or educational goals. The trust is a registered UK charity and has supported a number of projects including Ed Stafford's 2010 expedition to walk the length of the Amazon River, and survey of the endangered Bactrian camel. + + +== Further reading == +Fiennes, Sir Ranulph (1983). To the Ends of the Earth: The Transglobe Expedition, the First Pole-to-Pole Circumnavigation of the Globe. New York: Arbor House. ISBN 0-87795-490-9. OCLC 9812992. +Fiennes, Sir Ranulph (October 1983). "Circling Earth from Pole to Pole". National Geographic. Vol. 164, no. 4. pp. 464–481. ISSN 0027-9358. OCLC 643483454. +Fiennes, Virginia; Fiennes, Ranulph (1984). Bothie the Polar Dog: The Dog Who Went to Both Poles with the Transglobe Expedition. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-36319-3. + + +== See also == +Explorer – 2022 documentary film on the explorer Ranulph Fiennes + World portal + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website: www.transglobe-expedition.org +Transglobe Expedition 1979-82 at Freeze Frame from the Scott Polar Research Institute. +Rough map of the expedition (based on the official route graphic). Red shows the rough path; cyan shows the 0- and 180-degree meridians. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_Research_Institute_for_Space_Health-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_Research_Institute_for_Space_Health-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fe21f7016 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_Research_Institute_for_Space_Health-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,76 @@ +--- +title: "Translational Research Institute for Space Health" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_Research_Institute_for_Space_Health" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:03.631510+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) is a virtual, applied research consortium that pursues and funds translational research and technologies to keep astronauts healthy during space exploration, with the added benefit of potential applications on Earth. TRISH is specifically focused on human health in preparation for deep space exploration efforts, including National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Artemis missions to the Moon, and future human missions to Mars. TRISH also supports research to collect and study biomedical data gathered on commercial spaceflight missions to better understand the effect of spaceflight on the human body. +The consortium is led by Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Space Medicine, and includes Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and California Institute of Technology, with funding awarded to scientists and organizations around the United States. Empowered by NASA's Human Research Program (HRP), TRISH works to establish and coordinate research efforts that align with NASA’s goal of safely furthering human exploration while mitigating risks to human health. + + +== History == +TRISH was founded in 2016, and Baylor College of Medicine was selected as the lead institution in an agreement with a maximum potential value of $246 million for 12 years. TRISH succeeded the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), a similar research institute also led by Baylor College of Medicine. +TRISH supports NASA's Human Research Program (HRP), founded in 2005, as outlined in TRISH's strategic plan. The goals of the HRP are to provide knowledge and technology to mitigate risks to human health and performance and develop tools to enable safe and productive human space exploration. + + +== Effects of space on the human body == +In January 2023, The Washington Post reported an interactive feature on the known effects of space travel to the human body, and noted TRISH's work. In the article, former TRISH Chief Medical Officer Emmanuel Urquieta stated “Space is just not very hospitable to the human body,” explaining that humans evolved on Earth with abundant gravity and low radiation, whereas space is characterized by minimal gravity and higher radiation exposure. +This environment can lead astronauts to experience space adaptation syndrome, muscle atrophy, decreased blood volume, altered immunity and DNA damage from radiation exposure, loss of bone, sensory changes, psychological stress, and inflammation, among other potential complications. Interventions to prevent these outcomes include routine exercise while in space, as well as pharmaceutical and dietary supplements. Additionally, changes in blood flow and digestion rate are likely to affect how the body processes and tolerates medications, an area requiring further study. +Trips to the Moon and Mars will require astronauts to spend more time in space than ever before, potentially exacerbating known deleterious effects of space travel to the human body. In April 2022, NPR's Brendan Byrne described one of TRISH's goals as “to understand how and why the body changes while in space and prepar[e] future astronauts for those health effects. That's important to understand if space agencies like NASA want to send humans to places like the Moon or Mars. Those trips could be longer than Vande Hei [‘s] almost yearlong mission. And the environments on the lunar surface and the red planet will be harsh, with limited medical resources.” + + +== Leadership == +TRISH's leadership includes executive director Dorit B. Donoviel, deputy director Jimmy Wu, scientific research director Rihana Bokhari, and chief operations and communications officer Rachael Dempsey. +TRISH's board of directors includes chair Jeffrey P. Sutton, along with members Barbara Wold, and Thomas Heldt. + + +== Consortium members == +Baylor College of Medicine +Massachusetts Institute of Technology +California Institute of Technology + + +== Research areas == +TRISH researchers pursue scientific research in several fields, including: + +Cellular and Molecular Biology +Behavioral Health +Environment, Food and Medication +Medical Technology +Radiation + + +=== EXPAND === +In 2021, TRISH launched the EXPAND (Enhancing Exploration Platforms and Analog Definition) Program, a research initiative designed focused on human health and performance during commercial spaceflight. +It collects health data before, during, and after missions from willing private astronauts to study challenges associated with long-duration missions, including medical risk detection, radiation exposure, behavioral health, and team dynamics. TRISH developed a novel approach to streamline research participation by integrating multiple studies across different researchers into the EXPAND program, seeking to build a standardized, centralized, and comprehensive database and biological samples repository. The program ensures ethical participation and facilities open-access, de-identified data sharing with researchers with hypothesis-driven questions, supporting the broader scientific community in developing safeguards for future space travelers. +Data requests are reviewed by the EXPAND Database Privacy and Release Board (DPRB), an independent panel of experts in genetics, astronautics, data science, and bioethics. The board ensures data privacy and compliance with ethical protocols. Broader data access is anticipated beginning in late 2025. + + +=== HERMES === +HERMES is a data integration and analytics platform developed by TRISH to support biomedical research and healthcare delivery in space. It enables the secure collection, aggregation, and analysis of data from biosensors, clinical evaluations, and mission environments, allowing for real-time monitoring and longitudinal tracking of spaceflight participants’ health across different missions and vehicles. +The platform is designed to be vehicle-agnostic and interoperable, ensuring that individual health records follow astronauts between providers and missions. +By centralizing access for clinicians, researchers, and participants, HERMES supports remote care, early risk detection, personalized countermeasures, and long-term monitoring. Its architecture also has potential Earth-based applications, being developed to address the challenge of fragmented healthcare data across systems. + + +== Involvement with private spaceflight missions == +As part of its EXPAND (Enhancing eXploration Platforms and Analog Definition) Program, TRISH has partnered with several commercial space providers on private spaceflight missions to gather spaceflight participant health data before, during, and after space travel. These may include tests on motor function, eye health, motion sickness, and cognitive wellbeing, among others. +TRISH-funded researchers have collected biomedical data from spaceflight participants aboard the Inspiration4 mission, multiple Axiom missions (Axiom Mission 1, Axiom Mission 2, Axiom Mission 3) and Space Adventures’ MZ Mission. In 2024, TRISH researchers have also collected biomedical data from astronauts on the Polaris Dawn mission and entered an agreement with Blue Origin to collect biomedical data during suborbital missions, starting with the Blue Origin NS-28 suborbital flight. +Biomedical data gathered from private spaceflight participants adds to the diversity and volume of data available for space health researchers. TRISH maintains a centralized research database, the EXPAND Program, which hosts pre-, in-, and post-flight health data from multiple commercial space flights. + + +== Funding for researchers and companies == +TRISH offers funding for innovative research and technology projects through several mechanisms. TRISH's open solicitations are housed on the institute's Grant Research Integrated Dashboard (GRID), an online portal, or the NASA NSPIRES portal. Previous solicitation topics have requested proposals on topics such as endogenous repair, metabolic manipulation, microphysiological systems, such as tissue-on-a-chip, technologies in support of autonomous health care, and the training of postdoctoral fellows and future scientists in the field. + + +== External links == +Translational Research Institute for Space Health +The Human Body in Space +Open Funding Opportunities With TRISH +TRISH Strategic Plan + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..765670942 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Trauma model of mental disorders" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:42.460921+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The trauma model of mental disorders, or trauma model of psychopathology, emphasises the effects of physical, sexual and psychological trauma as key causal factors in the development of psychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety as well as psychosis, whether the trauma is experienced in childhood or adulthood. It conceptualises people as having understandable reactions to traumatic events rather than suffering from mental illness. +Trauma models emphasise that traumatic experiences are more common and more significant in terms of aetiology than has often been thought in people diagnosed with mental disorders. Such models have their roots in some psychoanalytic approaches, notably Sigmund Freud's early ideas on childhood sexual abuse and hysteria, Pierre Janet's work on dissociation, and John Bowlby's attachment theory. There is significant research supporting the linkage between early experiences of chronic maltreatment and severe neglect and later psychological problems. +In the 1960s, trauma models became associated with humanist and anti-psychiatry approaches, particularly regarding understanding schizophrenia and the role of the family. Personality disorders have also been a focus, particularly borderline personality disorder, with the role of dissociation and 'freezing responses' (more extreme reactions than fight-flight when someone is terrified and traumatised) thought to have a significant role in the aetiology of psychological disturbance. Extreme versions of trauma models have implicated the fetal environment and the trauma of being born. Still, these are not well-supported in the academic literature and have been associated with recovered memory controversies. +People are traumatised by a wide range of people, not just family members. For example, male victims of sexual abuse report being abused in institutional settings (boarding schools, care homes, sports clubs). +Trauma models thus highlight stressful and traumatic factors in early attachment relations and the development of mature interpersonal relationships. They are often presented as a counterpoint to psychiatric orthodoxy and inform criticisms of mental health research and practice in that it has become too focused on genetics, neurochemistry and medication. + +== History == +From the 1940s to the 1970s, prominent mental health professionals associated with neo-Freudian and psychodynamic psychology proposed trauma models as a means of understanding schizophrenia, including Harry Stack Sullivan, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, Theodore Lidz, Gregory Bateson, Silvano Arieti and R.D. Laing. Based on their clinical work, they theorized that schizophrenia appears to be induced by children's experiences in profoundly disturbed families and reflects victims' attempts to cope with such families and live in societies that are inherently damaging to people's psychological well-being. In the 1950s, Sullivan's theory that schizophrenia is related to interpersonal relationships was widely accepted in the United States. Arieti's book, Interpretation of Schizophrenia, won the American National Book Award in the field of science in 1975. The book advanced a psychological model for understanding all the regressive types of the disorder. +Some of the psychogenic models proposed by the non-biologic psychologists, such as that of the "schizophrenogenic mother", came under sustained criticism from feminists who saw them as 'mother-blaming' and from a psychiatric profession that increasingly moved towards biological determinism. From the 1960s, pharmacological treatments became the increasing focus of psychiatry, and by the 1980s, the theory that family dynamics could be implicated in the aetiology of schizophrenia became viewed as unacceptable by many mental health professionals in America and Europe. Before he died in 2001, Theodore Lidz, one of the main proponents of the "schizophrenogenic" parents theory, expressed regret that current research in biological psychiatry was "barking up the wrong tree." Like Lidz, Laing maintained until his death that family relationships influenced the cause of both schizoid personality disorder and schizophrenia. Some more recent research has provided support for this. For instance, child abuse has been shown to have a causal role in depression, PTSD, eating disorders, substance abuse and dissociative disorders, and research reveals that the more severe the abuse, the higher the probability that psychiatric symptoms will develop in adult life. +Judith Herman's book Trauma and Recovery has heavily influenced therapeutic approaches. Recovery entails three phases that are best worked through sequentially: first, "establishing safety"; second, a process of remembrance and mourning for what was lost; and third, "reconnecting with community and, more broadly, society." + +== Critiques == +Critics of the model, such as August Piper, argue that the logic that childhood trauma causes insanity has a serious flaw: if the claim were true, the abuse of millions of children over the years should have caused higher prevalence-rates of mental disorders than the literature reveals. However, this critique disregards the possibility of underdiagnosis and the fact that not every instance of abuse causes lasting trauma. +Other critics, particularly proponents of behavior family therapy, have seen trauma models as parent-blaming and have emphasized the fact that families are usually the main, and often only, source of support for people diagnosed with severe mental-illness. Lucy Johnstone has pointed out that some critics advocate family interventions for adult psychiatric patients whilst at the same time maintaining that childhood experiences are not causal as regards mental illness, as if family members can only have a helpful or damaging impact on their adult children. +In response to Piper's assertion, it has been noted that it has been stated by Arieti in Interpretation of Schizophrenia that trauma is more significant when committed by people to whom young human beings are emotionally bonded, and that abuse is often interwoven with other forms of neglect and with confusing behaviours from caregivers: + +First of all, we have to repeat here what we already mentioned..., that conditions of obvious external danger, as in the case of wars, disasters, or other adversities that affect the collectivity, do not produce the type of anxiety that hurts the inner self and do not themselves favor schizophrenia. Even extreme poverty, physical illness, or personal tragedies do not necessarily lead to schizophrenia unless they have psychological ramifications that hurt the sense of self. Even homes broken by death, divorce or desertion may be less destructive than homes where both parents are alive, live together, and constantly undermine the child's conception of himself. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bd532b91e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Trauma model of mental disorders" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_model_of_mental_disorders" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:42.460921+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Recent approaches == +A 2005 meta-analysis of schizophrenia revealed that the prevalence of physical and sexual abuse in the histories of people diagnosed with psychotic disorders is very high and has been understudied. This literature review revealed prevalence rates of childhood sexual abuse in studies of people diagnosed with schizophrenia ranging from 45% to 65%. An analysis of the American National Comorbidity Study revealed that people who have endured three kinds of abuse (e.g., sexual, physical, and bullying) are at an 18-fold higher risk of psychosis. In contrast, those experiencing five types are 193 times more likely to become psychotic. A 2012 review article supported the hypothesis that current or recent trauma may affect an individual's assessment of the more distant past, changing the experience of the past and resulting in dissociative states. Several reviews of risk factors for common mental disorders have emphasised trauma. Such research has rejuvenated interest in this field, from clinicians, researchers and service user organisations such as the Hearing Voices Movement. +Psychiatrist Colin Ross calls his model the "trauma model of mental disorders" and emphasises that, unlike biological models, this addresses the literature on comorbidity of trauma with mental disorders. Ross describes the theoretical basis of his trauma model: "The problem faced by many patients is that they did not grow up in a reasonably healthy, normal family. They grew up in an inconsistent, abusive and traumatic family. The very people to whom the child had to attach for survival were also abusers and hurt him or her badly... The basic conflict, the deepest pain, and the deepest source of symptoms, is the fact that mom and dad's behavior hurts, does not fit together, and does not make sense." +In terms of psychoses, most researchers and clinicians believe that genetics remains a causative risk factor, but "genes alone do not cause the illness." Modern views of genetics see genes more like dimmer switches, with environmental factors switching the genes on; the more severe the environmental stress, the greater the effect genes have. +In the field of criminology, Lonnie Athens developed a theory of how a process of brutalization by parents or peers that usually occurs in childhood results in violent crimes in adulthood. Richard Rhodes's Why They Kill describes Athens's observations about domestic and societal violence in the criminals' backgrounds. Both Athens and Rhodes reject the genetic inheritance theories. +Criminologists Jonathan Pincus and Dorothy Otnow Lewis believe that although it is the interaction of childhood abuse and neurological disturbances that explains murder, virtually all of the 150 murderers they studied over 25 years had suffered severe abuse as children. Pincus believes that the only feasible remedy for crime would be the prevention of child abuse. + +== See also == + +== References == + +== External links == +Alice-Miller.com – According to Miller, the "forbidden issue" is the parental role in mental disorders +Special edition of JCPCP on complex reactions to severe trauma +LaingSociety.org – The Society for Laingian Studies, R.D. Laing (1927–1989) +MosherSoteria.com – Loren Mosher, MD, (1933–2004) +Prof J.J. Freyd's Betrayal Trauma Theory Home Page at the University of Oregon +Psychohistory.com – The Institute for Psychohistory +Rossinst.com – Home page of the Ross Institute for Psychological Trauma +sfhelp.org – Home page of the "Break the Cycle! (of inherited psychological wounds + unawareness)" Web site \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsargrad_TV-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsargrad_TV-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eff753762 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsargrad_TV-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Tsargrad TV" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsargrad_TV" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:04.940603+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Tsargrad TV (Russian: Царьград ТВ) is a Russian television channel owned by Konstantin Malofeev. It was named after Tsargrad, the old Slavic name for Constantinople, now modern Istanbul. It is known for its pro-Kremlin and Russian Orthodox stances. + + +== History == +Konstantin Malofeev hired former Fox News news director John "Jack" Hanick (Russian: Джек Хэник born 1950), who, with producer Roger Ailes, co-founded Fox News, was its news director from 1996 to 2011 and moved to Moscow in 2013 to help Malofeev launch the channel. From at least 2013 until 2018, Hanick supported Malofeev in several schemes. Beginning in the fall of 2014, Hanick worked for Ilya Kuzmenkov (Russian: Илья Кузьменков), who was the general director and editor-in-chief of the channel. The channel started broadcasting on 12 April 2015 with Andrei Afanasiev (Russian: Андрей Афанасьев, born 1988 or 1989), who graduated from both MGIMO and Complutense University of Madrid and was a former RT employee from 2010 to 2014, as the news anchor. Aleksandr Dugin was named chief editor the same year. He has since been replaced by Elena Sharoykina. The channel is known for being conservative, mixing Russian Orthodox Christianity with Soviet nationalism, and supporting president Vladimir Putin. +Vladimir Putin gives carte blanche to Tsargrad TV which according to Malofeev is the Russian equivalent to Fox News. +In January 2017, KGB and Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia) Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov headed the supervisory board of Tsargrad TV. Since 2017, the deputy editor in chief is Mikhail Borisovich Smolin.. +Tsargrad TV Analytical Group is a very strong supporter of the United States alternative truth (Russian: альтернативная правда) or alt-right movement and provides support for Richard Spencer, Peter Schweizer, Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, Charles Bausman, whose wife Kristina Bausman is from Mednogorsk, Jordan Peterson and Alex Jones who appears frequently on Tsargrad TV and prominently supports Alexander Dugin. +On 12 February 2020, Dmitry Skuratov, who is the son of Yuri Skuratov, became the general director of Tsargrad TV and Daria Tokareva (Russian: Дарья Токарева) became the editor-in-chief after Elena Sharoykina (Russian: Елена Шаройкина) left those positions for another position at Tsargrad TV. +Through Tsargrad TV and Malofeev, the pro Russia former Greek defense minister Panos Kammenos is very close to Hanick and Reshetnikov. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsargrad TV strongly supported the anti vaccination movement with Tsargrad TV host Alexandra Mashkova-Blagikh (Russian: Александра Владимировна Машкова-Благих) as an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccines. +In 2020, YouTube blocked its channel, citing U.S. sanctions against Malofeev. +In March 2022, Hanick was the first person criminally indicted by the United States Department of Justice for violating United States sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War for allegedly providing assistance to Malofeev in order to unfreeze some of Malofeev's assets. +In August 2023, the website of the Russian TV channel Tsargrad, which is linked to Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, was blocked in Kazakhstan. The TV channel was sanctioned by the EU in December 2023. In August 2024, Google sued Tsargrad in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. + + +== See also == +Russian disinformation +Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine + + +== Notes == + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-bit-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-bit-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37f7934e4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-bit-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "U-bit" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-bit" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:42.132361+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In quantum mechanics, the u-bit or ubit is a proposed theoretical entity which arises in attempts to reformulate wave functions using only real numbers instead of the complex numbers conventionally used. + + +== Description == +In order to discover the real probability of a given quantum event occurring, the conventional calculation carries out an operation, analogous to squaring, on an associated set of complex numbers. A complex number involves the use of the square root of minus one, a number which is described as "imaginary" in contrast to the familiar "real" numbers used for counting and describing real physical objects. Because the computed result is required to be a real number, information is lost in the computation. +This situation is regarded as unsatisfactory by some researchers, who seek an alternative formulation which does not involve the square root of minus one. Bill Wootters, of Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and colleagues have derived such a model. This model requires the presence of a universal entity which is quantum-entangled with every quantum wave and which he calls the u-bit. +Mathematically the u-bit may be represented as a vector rotating in a real two-dimensional plane. It has no known physical representation in the real world. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Vegetation_Classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Vegetation_Classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..151ee8955 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Vegetation_Classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "U.S. National Vegetation Classification" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Vegetation_Classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:04.642963+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC or USNVC) is a scheme for classifying the natural and cultural vegetation communities of the United States. The purpose of this standardized vegetation classification system is to facilitate communication between land managers, scientists, and the public when managing, researching, and protecting plant communities. +The non-profit group NatureServe maintains the NVC for the U.S. government. + + +== See also == +British National Vegetation Classification +Vegetation classification + + +== External links == +The U.S. National Vegetation Classification website +"National Vegetation Classification Standard, Version 2" FGDC-STD-005-2008, Vegetation Subcommittee, Federal Geographic Data Committee, February 2008 +U.S. Geological Survey page about the Vegetation Characterization Program +Federal Geographic Data Committee page about the NVC \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c94d99ace --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "USDA soil taxonomy" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:45.566443+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +USDA soil taxonomy (ST), developed by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Cooperative Soil Survey, provides an elaborate classification of soil types according to several parameters (most commonly their properties) and in several levels: Order, Suborder, Great Group, Subgroup, Family, and Series. The classification was originally developed by Guy Donald Smith, former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil survey investigations. + +== Discussion == +A taxonomy is an arrangement in a systematic manner; the USDA soil taxonomy has six levels of classification. They are, from most general to specific: order, suborder, great group, subgroup, family and series. Soil properties that can be measured quantitatively are used in this classification system – they include: depth, moisture, temperature, texture, structure, cation exchange capacity, base saturation, clay mineralogy, organic matter content and salt content. There are 12 soil orders (the top hierarchical level) in soil taxonomy. The names of the orders end with the suffix -sol. The criteria for the different soil orders include properties that reflect major differences in the genesis of soils. The orders are: + +Alfisol – soils with aluminium and iron. They have horizons of clay accumulation, and form where there is enough moisture and warmth for at least three months of plant growth. They constitute 10% of soils worldwide. +Andisol – volcanic ash soils. They are young soils. They cover 1% of the world's ice-free surface. +Aridisol – dry soils forming under desert conditions which have fewer than 90 consecutive days of moisture during the growing season and are nonleached. They include nearly 12% of soils on Earth. Soil formation is slow, and accumulated organic matter is scarce. They may have subsurface zones of caliche or duripan. Many aridisols have well-developed Bt horizons showing clay movement from past periods of greater moisture. +Entisol – recently formed soils that lack well-developed horizons. Commonly found on unconsolidated river and beach sediments of sand and clay or volcanic ash, some have an A horizon on top of bedrock. They are 18% of soils worldwide. +Gelisol – permafrost soils with permafrost within two metres of the surface or gelic materials and permafrost within one metre. They constitute 9% of soils worldwide. +Histosol – organic soils, formerly called bog soils, are 1% of soils worldwide. +Inceptisol – young soils. They have subsurface horizon formation but show little eluviation and illuviation. They constitute 15% of soils worldwide. +Mollisol – soft, deep, dark soil formed in grasslands and some hardwood forests with very thick A horizons. They are 7% of soils worldwide. +Oxisol – are heavily weathered, are rich in iron and aluminum oxides (sesquioxides) or kaolin but low in silica. They have only trace nutrients due to heavy tropical rainfall and high temperatures and low CEC of the remaining clays. They are 8% of soils worldwide. +Spodosol – acid soils with organic colloid layer complexed with iron and aluminium leached from a layer above. They are typical soils of coniferous and deciduous forests in cooler climates. They constitute 4% of soils worldwide. +Ultisol – acid soils in the humid tropics and subtropics, which are depleted in calcium, magnesium and potassium (important plant nutrients). They are highly weathered, but not as weathered as Oxisols. They make up 8% of the soil worldwide. +Vertisol – inverted soils. They are clay-rich and tend to swell when wet and shrink upon drying, often forming deep cracks into which surface layers can fall. They are difficult to farm or to construct roads and buildings due to their high expansion rate. They constitute 2% of soils worldwide. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b2795d11a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "USDA soil taxonomy" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:45.566443+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The percentages listed above are for land area free of ice. "Soils of Mountains", which constitute the balance (11.6%), have a mixture of those listed above, or are classified as "Rugged Mountains" which have no soil. +The above soil orders in sequence of increasing degree of development are Entisols, Inceptisols, Aridisols, Mollisols, Alfisols, Spodosols, Ultisols, and Oxisols. Histosols and Vertisols may appear in any of the above at any time during their development. +The soil suborders within an order are differentiated on the basis of soil properties and horizons which depend on soil moisture and temperature. Forty-seven suborders are recognized in the United States. +The soil great group category is a subdivision of a suborder in which the kind and sequence of soil horizons distinguish one soil from another. About 185 great groups are recognized in the United States. Horizons marked by clay, iron, humus and hard pans and soil features such as the expansion-contraction of clays (that produce self-mixing provided by clay), temperature, and marked quantities of various salts are used as distinguishing features. +The great group categories are divided into three kinds of soil subgroups: typic, intergrade and extragrade. A typic subgroup represents the basic or 'typical' concept of the great group to which the described subgroup belongs. An intergrade subgroup describes the properties that suggest how it grades towards (is similar to) soils of other soil great groups, suborders or orders. These properties are not developed or expressed well enough to cause the soil to be included within the great group towards which they grade, but suggest similarities. Extragrade features are aberrant properties which prevent that soil from being included in another soil classification. About 1,000 soil subgroups are defined in the United States. +A soil family category is a group of soils within a subgroup and describes the physical and chemical properties which affect the response of soil to agricultural management and engineering applications. The principal characteristics used to differentiate soil families include texture, mineralogy, pH, permeability, structure, consistency, the locale's precipitation pattern, and soil temperature. For some soils the criteria also specify the percentage of silt, sand and coarse fragments such as gravel, cobbles and rocks. About 4,500 soil families are recognised in the United States. +A family may contain several soil series which describe the physical location using the name of a prominent physical feature such as a river or town near where the soil sample was taken. An example would be Merrimac for the Merrimack River in New Hampshire. More than 14,000 soil series are recognised in the United States. This permits very specific descriptions of soils. +A soil phase of series, originally called 'soil type' describes the soil surface texture, slope, stoniness, saltiness, erosion, and other conditions. + +== Soil Orders == + +Name of soil orders in soil taxonomy with their major characteristics: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f17338dce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +--- +title: "USDA soil taxonomy" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USDA_soil_taxonomy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:45.566443+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Alfisols: Must have argillic, natric, or kandic horizon; high-to-medium base saturation; moderately weathered; commonly form under boreal or broadleaf forests; rich in iron and aluminum; common in humid areas, semi-tropics, and mediterranean climates; 9.6% of global and 14.5% of U.S. ice-free land. +Andisols: Form from volcanic ejecta, dominated by allophane or Al-humic complexes; Must have andic soil properties: high in poorly crystalline Fe and Al minerals, high in phosphorus, low bulk density, and high proportions of glass and amorphous colloidal materials, such as allophane, imogolite and ferrihydrite; high organic matter content, sometimes melanic epipedon; 0.7% of global and 1.7% of U.S. ice-free land. +Aridisols: Dry soil (i.e., must have aridic moisture regime); ochric epipedon is common; Sometimes argillic or natric horizon; must have some diagnostic subsurface horizon; commonly in deserts; 12.7% of global and 8.8% of U.S. ice-free land. +Entisols: Least soil profile development; ochric epipedon is common; no B horizons; most common order by surface area (16.3% of global and 12.2% of U.S. ice-free land). +Gelisols: Soils with permafrost within 100 cm or cryoturbation (frost churning) within 100 cm plus permafrost within 200 cm; commonly at high latitudes and elevations; 8.6% of global and 7.5% of U.S. ice-free land. +Histosols: Must have histic epipedon; usually aquic soil moisture regime; no diagnostic subsurface horizons; rapid decomposition when aerated; peat or bog; >20% organic matter; organic soil materials extending down to an impermeable layer or with an organic layer that is more than 40 cm thick and without andic properties; commonly in wetlands (swamps, marshes, etc.); 1.2% of global and 1.3% of U.S. ice-free land. +Inceptisols: Similar to entisol, but beginning of a B horizon is evident; no diagnostic subsurface horizons; on landscapes continuously eroded or young deposits; cambic, sulfuric, calcic, gypsic, petrocalcic, or petrogypsic horizon, or with a mollic, umbric, or histic epipedon, or with an exchangeable sodium percentage of >15% or fragipan; 9.9% of global & 9.1% of U.S. ice-free land. +Mollisols: Must have mollic epipedon; high base saturation of >50%; dark soils; some with argillic or natric horizons; common in grasslands; 6.9% of global and 22.4% of U.S. ice-free land. +Oxisols: Most soil profile development; must have oxic horizon within 150 cm of soil surface; low nutrient availability; no argillic horizon; highly weathered; dominated by end-member clays, Al and Fe oxides; commonly in old landscapes in tropics; 7.6% of global and <0.01% of U.S. ice-free land. +Spodosols: Must have spodic horizon within 2 m of soil surface and without andic properties; Usually have albic horizon; high in Fe, Al oxides and humus accumulation; acidic soils; common in coniferous or boreal forests; 2.6% of global and 3.3% of U.S. ice-free land. +Ultisols: Must have argillic or kandic horizon; Low base saturation of <35% at 2 m depth or 75 cm below a fragipan; common in subtropical regions; often known as red clay soils; 8.5% of global & 9.6% of U.S. ice-free land. +Vertisols: Usually mollic epipedon; high in shrinking and swelling clays; >30% clay to a depth of 50 cm; deep cracks (called gilgai) form when soil dries; form from parent material high in clay (e.g., shales, basins, exposed Bt horizons of old soils); 2.4% of global and 1.7% of U.S. ice-free land. + +== Soil Type Classification Examples == +Order: Entisols + +Suborder: Fluvents +Great Group: Torrifluvents +Subgroup: Typic Torrifluvents +Family: Fine-loamy, mixed, superactive, calcareous, Typic Torrifluvents +Series: Jocity, Youngston. +Order: Alfisols + +Suborder: Xeralfs +Great Group: Durixeralfs +Subgroup: Abruptic Durixeralfs +Family: Fine, Mixed, Active, thermic Abruptic Durixeralfs +Series: San Joaquin (soil) + +== Soil temperature regimes == + +Soil temperature regimes, such as frigid, mesic, and thermic, are used to classify soils at some of the lower levels of the Soil Taxonomy. The cryic temperature regime distinguishes some higher-level groups. These regimes are based on the mean annual soil temperature (MAST), mean summer temperature, and the difference between mean summer and winter temperatures all at a soil depth of 50 cm. It is normally assumed that the MAST (in °C) equals the sum of the mean annual air temperature plus 2 °C. If the difference between mean summer and winter temperatures is less than 6 °C, then add "Iso" at the front of the name of the Soil Temperature Class. + +== Soil moisture regimes == + +The soil moisture regime, often reflective of climatic factors, is a major determinant of the productivity of terrestrial ecosystems, including agricultural systems. The soil moisture regimes are defined based on the levels of the groundwater table and the amounts of soil water available to plants during a given year in a particular region. Several moisture regime classes are used to characterize soils. These categories are terminology modifiers at the soil suborder level of characterization. + +== See also == +1938 USDA soil taxonomy +FAO soil classification +International Committee on Anthropogenic Soils (ICOMANTH) +Soil +Soil classification +Soil horizon +Soil in the United States +World Reference Base for Soil Resources + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Donahue, Roy Luther; Miller, Raymond W.; Shickluna, John C. (1977). Soils: An Introduction to Soils and Plant Growth. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-821918-5. + +== External links == + +USDA / NRCS soil taxonomy webpage +Soil Taxonomy, 2nd Edition +USDA-NRCS Web Soil Survey +Keys to Soil Taxonomy, 13th Edition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c2181d16 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "USS Whale (SSN-638)" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:21.871209+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +USS Whale (SSN-638) was a Sturgeon-class submarine nuclear-powered attack submarine of the United States Navy. She was the second ship of that name, after the whale family of aquatic mammals. + +== Construction and commissioning == +Whale's keel was laid down on 27 May 1964, at the General Dynamics Quincy Shipbuilding Division shipyard, in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 14 October 1966, sponsored by Mrs. Russell B. Long, the wife of United States Senator Russell B. Long, of Louisiana, and commissioned on 12 October 1968. + +== Service history == + +=== 1968 === +Whale arrived in her first home port, Charleston, South Carolina, on 2 November 1968, and, after a week in port, put to sea on 9 November 1968, for shakedown training, which she completed in November and December 1968, along with a series of post-commissioning tests, trials, and qualifications. In January 1969, she began normal operations out of Charleston, with attack submarine training along the southeastern coast of the United States. + +=== 1969 === + +On 18 March 1969, Whale stood out of Charleston, on her way north to operations above the Arctic Circle. She reached the North Pole, on 6 April 1969, and surfaced there in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary's 1909 arrival there. Following that event, she completed her mission under the polar ice cap and then headed south. After a visit to Faslane, Scotland, she voyaged home to Charleston, where she arrived on 9 May 1969. +Following two months of local operations out of Charleston, Whale sailed for Groton, Connecticut, and her post-shakedown repair period. After three months in the shipyard of the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation, at Groton, she started back to Charleston, on 16 October 1969. She arrived at Charleston, on 20 October, and conducted local operations for the remainder of 1969. + +=== 1970 === +During the first half of 1970, Whale continued operations out of Charleston. In late January, she participated in tests with a Navy Underwater Demolition Team and, in February and March, took part in three major fleet exercises. In April, she headed north for a brief tour of duty as training ship for the Prospective Commanding Officers' School at New London, Connecticut. She returned to Charleston, at the end of the first week in May, and spent the remainder of the month conducting acoustic trials. +Whale departed Charleston, on 27 July 1970, for an overseas deployment which she concluded in mid-September, with visits to Faslane and Holy Loch, in Scotland. While Whale visited Scotland, the Jordanian crisis, precipitated by civil war between the government of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and aggravated by an incursion into northern Jordan by Syrian tanks, resulted a show of American strength in the eastern Mediterranean. Whale received orders to join the United States Sixth Fleet, in the Mediterranean, and did so near the end of September 1970. She remained in the Mediterranean through October and into November 1970. When the crisis abated, she headed for Charleston, arriving home on 18 November 1970, and remaining there for the remainder of the year. + +=== 1971–1972 === +Three fleet exercises and local operations out of Charleston, occupied Whale during the first half of 1971. Late in July, she deployed once more for special operations in the Atlantic Ocean, concluding that cruise late in September 1971, at Bremerhaven, West Germany. She returned to Charleston, on 12 October 1971, and resumed local operations upon arrival. That routine continued until 20 March 1972, when she departed once again for another special operations cruise in the Atlantic. At the end of that voyage, she made a brief call at Holy Loch, before returning to Charleston, on 9 June 1972. +Almost two months after her return to the United States, Whale left Charleston, and headed north to Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, her new home port. She entered the shipyard at the Electric Boat Division, in Groton, on 7 August 1972, for a 46-week overhaul and remained there undergoing repairs until 27 October 1973. + +=== 1973–1974 === +Whale completed post-overhaul shakedown and refresher training in November and December 1973, and began preparations for another deployment to the Mediterranean, in response to the Middle Eastern crisis brought about by the Arab-Israeli War, in October 1973. Late in January 1974, however, she received notification that her deployment had been delayed until May 1974. During the interim, she conducted normal operations out of Groton, including submarine anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercises, attack submarine training, and a major fleet exercise, Operation Safe Passage. On 3 May 1974, she departed Groton en route the Mediterranean Sea. On 12 May 1974, she changed operational control from the United States Second Fleet to the Sixth Fleet. +While in the Mediterranean, Whale participated in two North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises, "International Week" and "Dale Falcon", with units of the Greek and Italian navies as well as several ASW exercises with other units of the Sixth Fleet. She passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and changed operational control back to the Commander, Submarines, United States Atlantic Fleet, on 18 October 1974. During the voyage back to Groton, Whale participated in a fleet ASW exercise which she completed on 28 October 1974. On 30 October 1974, she arrived at Groton. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7d9bc4713 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "USS Whale (SSN-638)" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:21.871209+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== 1975–1976 === +Whale spent the next 11 months engaged in operations out of Groton. Various tests and evaluations occupied January, and the first half of February 1975. Between then and June 1975, she provided training services for various units of the Atlantic Fleet and for prospective commanding officers. Whale also served as a training platform for midshipmen during indoctrination cruises held late in the summer. On 29 September 1975, she stood out of Groton, for another deployment with the Sixth Fleet. During that cruise, she took part in a major Second Fleet exercise, "Ocean Safari", and after joining the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, took part in a succession of unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral exercises with units of the navies of Greece, France, Italy, and the Netherlands. She completed her tour of duty with the Sixth Fleet during the second week in March 1976, and arrived at Groton on 25 March 1976. + +=== 1976–1978 === +Whale resumed normal United States East Coast operations until 9 September 1976, when she entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery, Maine, for a refueling overhaul. That overhaul concluded on 7 July 1978. Whale then spent the remainder of 1978 in refresher training for the purpose of obtaining certification throughout the full range of her weapons system. + +=== 1979–1987 === + +In April 1979, Whale departed Groton, for the Mediterranean. She made stops in Sousse, Tunisia; La Spezia, LaMaddellena and Naples, Italy and Tangier, Morocco. While in the Mediterranean Whale participated in fleet exercises. +1979-Fall, 1980: Whale was in an extended period of refit/repair (Selected Restricted Availability), in the floating drydock Shippingport in Groton, Connecticut. After refloating, workups, and training, she proceeded south for torpedo proficiency exercises, stopping for liberty at Port Everglades, Florida. Go Go dancers from Butch Cassidy's greeted Whale and her crew on arrival, and were heartily welcomed aboard. Whale spent the remainder of 1980, and early 1981, on short training and test deployments, one of which concluded with the "Thunderbuoy" and "Whitefish" exercises. With a fresh coat of paint, and a new skipper, CDR E.D. Morrow, Whale proceeded to the Mediterranean in June 1981, stopping on her way at Cartagena, Spain, which proved to be her only liberty port on this deployment. Whale spent the next six months in the Mediterranean Sea, taking part in the US Navy's defiance of Libyan president Mohammar Khadaffi's "Line of Death" in the Gulf of Sidra. Whale made periodic up-keeps at the submarine tender Orion, in La Maddelena, Sardinia. Early 1982, found Whale back home in Groton, making frequent short training workup runs, honing the crew's proficiency to a fine tune. In May 1982, Whale proceeded on an Atlantic deployment, (pollywogs among the crew becoming "Bluenoses" on the way), and later a stop in Faslane, Scotland. Whale earned the Battle "E" for efficiency after this deployment. Early 1983, Whale had a new skipper, Captain James E. Welsch. Mid 1983, Whale was suddenly given a double barrel patrol – a North Atlantic deployment immediately followed by an abbreviated Mediterranean patrol. This was due to Tullibee being unable to handle her commitments. This deployment, dubbed the "Nor-Med Run", was quite active, with port visits in Holy Loch, Scotland, Toulon, France, and La Spezia and La Maddalena, Italy. Whale left La Maddalena, on Christmas Day 1983, and returned to Groton, in January 1984. 1984 was spent doing up keep, refit, drilling, and short training deployments, most notably spending a week in St Croix, Virgin Islands. In January 1985, Whale again went on patrol to the Mediterranean, with stops in Holy Loch, Scotland, Brest, France, La Maddalena, Italy, as well as Rotterdam, Netherlands, prior to Whale being temporarily reassigned to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, at Bremerton, Washington, for an overhaul period starting in November 1985. While undergoing overhaul in 1986, Whale crew members formed a unit softball team, which competed in and won the Northwestern Pacific Softball Championship. For a crew of roughly 120 to compete against much larger ships and commands, this was quite an accomplishment. + +=== 1988–1995 === +January 1988, Whale was in Bremerton, completing its overhaul. She went through sea trials and left Washington, in May 1988, for her to return to her home port at Groton, under the command of Commander J. W. Francis. Whale crossed the equator on 17 June 1988, and transited the Panama Canal, on 19 June 1988, finally returning to Groton, as an operational unit of Submarine Squadron 10. + +Whale's next major deployment was to the Mediterranean from January through June 1989, during which she made stops in Scotland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy. +From August through December 1990, Whale was sent on a North Atlantic deployment under the command of Commander Ronald Deering, for which she was awarded her fifth Meritorious Unit Commendation. +In 1991, Whale was awarded the last Battle Efficiency Award (Battle "E") from Submarine Squadron 10 She then was assigned to Submarine Squadron 2 and conducted a second "Northern Run" (i.e., North Atlantic deployment) in 1991. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a7986d7dc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "USS Whale (SSN-638)" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SSN-638)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:21.871209+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In 1992, Whale participated in UNITAS XXXIII, an expedition around South America while under the command of Commander Andrew V. Harris, Jr., During UNITAS XXXIII she made port calls in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Panama, and Colombia. The port visit in Panama was a somber one due to the sudden loss of the ship's chief yeoman due to a heart attack. During UNITAS Whale again crossed the Equator, and transited the Panama Canal, (South to North), returning to port in November. +In 1993, Whale visited Bermuda, while transiting from the Autec Torpedo Firing Range, and Florida ports of call, conducted a scientific exercise under the ice cap at the North Pole and in the North Atlantic. +Following the final Change of Command in January 1994, Whale deployed to the Arctic with HMS Trenchant (S91) in support of combined United States and Royal Navy testing of submarine equipment as well as collection of environmental data in the polar region. JOINTSUBICEX 1-94 saw Whale's second North Pole surfacing on 16 April 1994, 25 years and 10 days, after her first polar surfacing in 1969. Around this time, Whale circumnavigated the globe by circling the North Pole underwater to earn each crewmember the Order of Magellan. This circumnavigation occurred in about 15 minutes as the ship used underwater navigational means to cross every longitude, a feat that only a submarine could accomplish in 1994. Following visits to Norway, Germany and Scotland, Whale returned to SUBRON TWO in July 1994. + +Following a circumnavigation of the world, Whale was deactivated while still in commission on 28 April 1995. Whale was placed in reserve, in commission, on 1 October 1995. + +== Decommissioning and disposal == +Whale's scrapping via the U.S. Navy's Nuclear-Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, at Bremerton, began on 20 October 1995. She was officially decommissioned on 25 June 1996, and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register the same day. Her scrapping was completed on 1 July 1996, and she was officially listed as scrapped on 29 September 1997. + +== References == + +== Bibliography == + + This article incorporates public domain material from Whale (SSN-638) at the Naval Vessel Register. + +== External links == + +hazegray.org: USS Whale (SSN-638) Archived 31 December 2001 at the Wayback Machine \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e67f49577 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The uncanny valley effect is a hypothesized psychological and aesthetic relation between an object's degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The uncanny valley hypothesis predicts that an entity appearing almost human will elicit uncanny or eerie feelings in viewers. +Examples of the phenomenon exist among robots, animatronics, and lifelike dolls as well as visuals produced by 3D computer animation and predominately artificial intelligence. The increasing prevalence of digital technologies (e.g., virtual reality, augmented reality, and photorealistic computer animation) and their increasing verisimilitude have prompted debate about "the valley." + +== Etymology == +As related to robotics engineering, robotics professor Masahiro Mori first introduced the concept in 1970 from his book titled Bukimi No Tani (不気味の谷), phrasing it as bukimi no tani genshō (不気味の谷現象; lit. 'uncanny valley phenomenon'). Bukimi no tani was translated literally as uncanny valley in the 1978 book Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction written by Jasia Reichardt. Over time, this translation created an unintended association of the concept to Ernst Jentsch's psychoanalytic concept of the uncanny established in his 1906 essay "On the Psychology of the Uncanny" (German: Zur Psychologie des Unheimlichen), which was then critiqued and extended in Sigmund Freud's 1919 essay "The Uncanny" (German: Das Unheimliche). + +== Hypothesis == + +Mori's original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers' emotional response to the robot becomes increasingly positive and empathetic, until it becomes almost human, at which point the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot's appearance continues to become less distinguishable from that of a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels. When plotted on a graph, the reactions are indicated by a steep decrease followed by a steep increase (hence the "valley" part of the name) in the areas where anthropomorphism is closest to reality. +This interval of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a "somewhat human" and "fully human" entity is the uncanny valley effect. The name represents the idea that an almost human-looking robot seems overly "strange" to some human beings, produces a feeling of uncanniness, and thus fails to evoke the empathic response required for productive human–robot interaction. + +== Theoretical basis == +A number of theories have been proposed to explain the cognitive mechanism causing the phenomenon: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..97cfc5008 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mate selection: Automatic, stimulus-driven appraisals of uncanny stimuli elicit aversion by activating an evolved cognitive mechanism for the avoidance of selecting mates with low fertility, poor hormonal health, or ineffective immune systems based on visible features of the face and body that are predictive of those traits. +Mortality salience: Viewing an "uncanny" robot elicits an innate fear of death and culturally supported defenses for coping with death's inevitability.... [P]artially disassembled androids...play on subconscious fears of reduction, replacement, and annihilation: (1) A mechanism with a human façade and a mechanical interior plays on our subconscious fear that we are all just soulless machines. (2) Androids in various states of mutilation, decapitation, or disassembly are reminiscent of a battlefield after a conflict and, as such, serve as a reminder of our mortality. (3) Since most androids are copies of actual people, they are doppelgängers and may elicit a fear of being replaced, on the job, in a relationship, and so on. (4) The jerkiness of an android's movements could be unsettling because it elicits a fear of losing bodily control. +Pathogen avoidance: Uncanny stimuli may activate a cognitive mechanism that originally evolved to motivate the avoidance of potential sources of pathogens by eliciting a disgust response. "The more human an organism looks, the stronger the aversion to its defects, because (1) defects indicate disease, (2) more human-looking organisms are more closely related to human beings genetically, and (3) the probability of contracting disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and other parasites increases with genetic similarity." The visual anomalies of androids, robots, and other animated human characters cause reactions of alarm and revulsion, similar to corpses and visibly diseased individuals. +Sorites paradoxes: Stimuli with human and nonhuman traits undermine our sense of human identity by linking qualitatively different categories, human and nonhuman, by a quantitative metric: degree of human likeness. +Violation of human norms: If an entity looks sufficiently nonhuman, its human characteristics are noticeable, generating empathy. However, if the entity looks almost human, it elicits our model of a human other and its detailed normative expectations. The nonhuman characteristics are noticeable, giving the human viewer a sense of strangeness. In other words, a robot which has an appearance in the uncanny valley range is not judged as a robot doing a passable job at pretending to be human, but instead as an abnormal human doing a bad job at seeming like a normal person. This has been associated with perceptual uncertainty and the theory of predictive coding. +Conflicting perceptual cues: The negative effect associated with uncanny stimuli is produced by the activation of conflicting cognitive representations. Perceptual tension occurs when an individual perceives conflicting cues to category membership, such as when a humanoid figure moves like a robot or has other visible robot features. This cognitive conflict is experienced as psychological discomfort (i.e., "eeriness"), much like the discomfort that is experienced with cognitive dissonance. Several studies support this possibility. Mathur and Reichling found that the time subjects took to gauge a robot face's human- or mechanical-resemblance peaked for faces deepest in the uncanny valley, suggesting that perceptually classifying these faces as "human" or "robot" posed a greater cognitive challenge. However, they found that while perceptual confusion coincided with the uncanny valley, it did not mediate the effect of the uncanny valley on subjects' social and emotional reactions—suggesting that perceptual confusion may not be the mechanism behind the uncanny valley effect. Burleigh and colleagues demonstrated that faces at the midpoint between human and non-human stimuli produced a level of reported eeriness that diverged from an otherwise linear model relating human-likeness to affect. Yamada et al. found that cognitive difficulty was associated with negative affect at the midpoint of a morphed continuum (e.g., a series of stimuli morphing between a cartoon dog and a real dog). Ferrey et al. demonstrated that the midpoint between images on a continuum anchored by two stimulus categories produced a maximum of negative affect, and found this with both human and non-human entities. Schoenherr and Burleigh provide examples from history and culture that evidence an aversion to hybrid entities, such as the aversion to genetically modified organisms ("Frankenfoods"). Finally, Moore developed a Bayesian mathematical model that provides a quantitative account of perceptual conflict. There has been some debate as to the precise mechanisms that are responsible. It has been argued that the effect is driven by categorization difficulty, configural processing, perceptual mismatch, frequency-based sensitization, and inhibitory devaluation. +Threat to humans' distinctiveness and identity: Negative reactions toward very humanlike robots can be related to the challenge that this kind of robot leads to the categorical human–non-human distinction. Kaplan stated that these new machines challenge human uniqueness, pushing for a redefinition of humanness. Ferrari, Paladino and Jetten found that the increase of anthropomorphic appearance of a robot leads to an enhancement of threat to the human distinctiveness and identity. The more a robot resembles a real person, the more it represents a challenge to our social identity as human beings. +Religious definition of human identity: The existence of artificial but humanlike entities is viewed by some as a threat to the concept of human identity. An example can be found in the theoretical framework of psychiatrist Irvin Yalom. Yalom explains that humans construct psychological defenses to avoid existential anxiety stemming from death. One of these defenses is 'specialness', the irrational belief that aging and death as central premises of life apply to all others but oneself. The experience of the very humanlike "living" robot can be so rich and compelling that it challenges humans' notions of "specialness" and existential defenses, eliciting existential anxiety. In folklore, the creation of human-like, but soulless, beings is often shown to be unwise, as with the golem in Judaism, whose lack of human empathy and spirit can lead to disaster, however good the intentions of its creator. +Uncanny valley of the mind or AI: Due to rapid advancements in the areas of artificial intelligence and affective computing, cognitive scientists have also suggested the possibility of an "uncanny valley of mind". Accordingly, people might experience strong feelings of aversion if they encounter highly advanced, emotion-sensitive technology. Among the possible explanations for this phenomenon, both a perceived loss of human uniqueness and expectations of immediate physical harm, are discussed by contemporary research. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a21f3310b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Research === + +A series of studies experimentally investigated whether uncanny valley effects exist for static images of robot faces. Mathur MB & Reichling DB used two complementary sets of stimuli spanning the range from very mechanical to very human-like: first, a sample of 80 objectively chosen robot face images from Internet searches, and second, a morphometrically and graphically controlled 6-face series set of faces. They asked subjects to explicitly rate the likability of each face. To measure trust toward each face, subjects completed an investment game to measure indirectly how much money they were willing to "wager" on a robot's trustworthiness. Both stimulus sets showed a robust uncanny valley effect on explicitly rated likability and a more context-dependent uncanny valley on implicitly rated trust. Their exploratory analysis of one proposed mechanism for the uncanny valley, perceptual confusion at a category boundary, found that category confusion occurs in the uncanny valley but does not mediate the effect on social and emotional responses. +One study conducted in 2009 examined the evolutionary mechanism behind the aversion associated with the uncanny valley. A group of five monkeys were shown three images: two different 3D monkey faces (realistic, unrealistic), and a real photo of a monkey's face. The monkeys' eye-gaze was used as a proxy for preference or aversion. Since the realistic 3D monkey face was looked at less than either the real photo, or the unrealistic 3D monkey face, this was interpreted as an indication that the monkey participants found the realistic 3D face aversive, or otherwise preferred the other two images. As one would expect with the uncanny valley, more realism can result in less positive reactions, and this study demonstrated that neither human-specific cognitive processes, nor human culture explain the uncanny valley. In other words, this aversive reaction to realism can be said to be evolutionary in origin. +As of 2011, researchers at University of California, San Diego and California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology were measuring human brain activations related to the uncanny valley. In one study using fMRI, a group of cognitive scientists and roboticists found the biggest differences in brain responses for uncanny robots in the parietal cortex, on both sides of the brain, specifically in the areas that connect the part of the brain's visual cortex that processes bodily movements with the section of the motor cortex thought to contain mirror neurons. The researchers say they saw, in essence, evidence of mismatch or perceptual conflict. The brain "lit up" when the human-like appearance of the android and its robotic motion "didn't compute". Ayşe Pınar Saygın, an assistant professor from UCSD, stated that "The brain doesn't seem selectively tuned to either biological appearance or biological motion per se. What it seems to be doing is looking for its expectations to be met – for appearance and motion to be congruent." +Viewer perception of facial expression and speech and the uncanny valley in realistic, human-like characters intended for video games and movies is being investigated by Tinwell et al., 2011. Consideration is also given by Tinwell et al. (2010) as to how the uncanny may be exaggerated for antipathetic characters in survival horror games. Building on the body of work already performed for android science, this research intends to build a conceptual mapping of the uncanny valley using 3D characters generated in a real-time gaming engine. The goal is to analyze how cross-modal factors of facial expression and speech can exaggerate the uncanny. Tinwell et al., 2011 have also introduced the notion of an 'unscalable' uncanny wall that suggests that a viewer's discernment for detecting imperfections in realism will keep pace with new technologies in simulating realism. A summary of Angela Tinwell's research on the uncanny valley, psychological reasons behind the uncanny valley and how designers may overcome the uncanny in human-like virtual characters is provided in her book, The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation by CRC Press. + +== Design principles == +A number of design principles have been proposed for avoiding the uncanny valley: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cbd69a4dc --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Design elements should match in human realism. A robot may look uncanny when human and nonhuman elements are mixed. For example, both a robot with a synthetic voice or a human being with a human voice have been found to be less eerie than a robot with a human voice or a human being with a synthetic voice. For a robot to give a more positive impression, its degree of human realism in appearance should also match its degree of human realism in behavior. If an animated character looks more human than its movement, this gives a negative impression. Human neuroimaging studies also indicate matching appearance and motion kinematics are important. +Reducing conflict and uncertainty by matching appearance, behavior, and ability. In terms of performance, if a robot looks too appliance-like, people expect little from it; if it looks too human, people expect too much from it. A highly human-like appearance leads to an expectation that certain behaviors are present, such as humanlike motion dynamics. This likely operates at a sub-conscious level and may have a biological basis. Neuroscientists have noted "when the brain's expectations are not met, the brain...generates a 'prediction error'. As human-like artificial agents become more commonplace, perhaps our perceptual systems will be re-tuned to accommodate these new social partners. Or perhaps, we will decide 'it is not a good idea to make [robots] so clearly in our image after all'." +Human facial proportions and photorealistic texture should only be used together. A photorealistic human texture demands human facial proportions, or the computer generated character can result in the uncanny valley. Abnormal facial proportions, including those typically used by artists to enhance attractiveness (e.g., larger eyes), can look eerie with a photorealistic human texture. +Good design can avoid the uncanny valley effect. David Hanson has shown that the uncanny valley effect could be eliminated by adding neotenous, cartoonish features to entities that had formerly caused an uncanny valley effect. This method incorporates the idea that humans find characteristics appealing when they are reminiscent of the young of our own (as well as many other) species, as used in cartoons. + +== Criticism == +A number of criticisms have been raised concerning whether the uncanny valley exists as a unified phenomenon amenable to scientific scrutiny: + +The uncanny valley effect is a heterogeneous group of phenomena. Phenomena considered as exhibiting the uncanny valley effect can be diverse, involve different sense modalities, and have multiple, possibly overlapping causes. People's cultural heritage may have a considerable influence on how androids are perceived with respect to the uncanny valley. +The uncanny valley effect may be generational. Younger generations, more used to computer-generated imagery (CGI), robots, and such, may be less likely to be affected by this hypothesized issue. +The uncanny valley effect is simply a specific case of information processing such as categorization and frequency-based effects. In contrast to the assumption that the uncanny valley is based on a heterogeneous group of phenomena, recent arguments have suggested that uncanny valley-like phenomena simply represent the products of information processing such as categorization. Cheetham et al. have argued that the uncanny valley effect can be understood in terms of categorization processes, with a category boundary defining 'the valley'. Extending this argument, Burleigh and Schoenherr suggested that the effects associated with the uncanny valley can be divided into those attributable to the category boundary and individual exemplar frequency. Namely, the negative affective responses attributed to the uncanny valley were simply a result of the frequency of exposure, similar to the mere-exposure effect. By varying the frequency of training items, they were able to demonstrate a dissociation between cognitive uncertainty based on the category boundary and affective uncertainty based on the frequency of training exemplars. In a follow-up study, Schoenherr and Burleigh demonstrated that an instructional manipulation affected categorization accuracy but not ratings of negative affect. Thus, generational effects and cultural artifacts can be accounted for with basic information processing mechanisms. These and related findings have been used to argue that the uncanny valley is merely an artifact of having greater familiarity with members of human categories and does not reflect a unique phenomenon. +The uncanny valley effect occurs at any degree of human likeness. Hanson has also stated that uncanny entities may appear anywhere in a spectrum ranging from the abstract (e.g., MIT's robot Lazlo) to the perfectly human (e.g., cosmetically atypical people). Capgras delusion is a relatively rare condition in which the patient believes that people (or, in some cases, things) have been replaced with duplicates. These duplicates are accepted rationally as identical in physical properties, but the irrational belief is held that the "true" entity has been replaced with something else. Some people with Capgras delusion claim that the duplicate is a robot. Ellis and Lewis argue that the delusion arises from an intact system for overt recognition coupled with a damaged system for covert recognition, which results in conflict over an individual being identifiable but not familiar in any emotional sense. This supports the opinion that the uncanny valley effect could occur due to issues of categorical perception that are particular to how the brain processes information. +It has also been argued that the uncanny valley only occurs because of careful selection of images used. That is there is no single physical dimension of an image that leads to the curvilinear pattern observed, but rather selection of different categories of images that have different monotonic relationships between human likeness and uncanniness. + +== Similar effects == +If the uncanny valley effect is the result of general cognitive processes, there should be evidence in evolutionary history and cultural artifacts. An effect similar to the uncanny valley was noted by Charles Darwin in 1839: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2160b0e1a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The expression of this [Trigonocephalus] snake's face was hideous and fierce; the pupil consisted of a vertical slit in a mottled and coppery iris; the jaws were broad at the base, and the nose terminated in a triangular projection. I do not think I ever saw anything more ugly, excepting, perhaps, some of the vampire bats. I imagine this repulsive aspect originates from the features being placed in positions, with respect to each other, somewhat proportional to the human face; and thus we obtain a scale of hideousness. +A similar "uncanny valley" effect could, according to the ethical-futurist writer Jamais Cascio, show up when humans begin modifying themselves with transhuman enhancements (cf. body modification), which aim to improve the abilities of the human body beyond what would normally be possible, be it eyesight, muscle strength, or cognition. So long as these enhancements remain within a perceived norm of human behavior, a negative reaction is unlikely, but once individuals supplant normal human variety, revulsion can be expected. However, according to this theory, once such technologies gain further distance from human norms, "transhuman" individuals would cease to be judged on human levels and instead be regarded as separate entities altogether (this point is what has been dubbed "posthuman"), and it is here that acceptance would rise once again out of the uncanny valley. Another example comes from "pageant retouching" photos, especially of children, which some find disturbingly doll-like. + +== In visual effects == + +A number of movies that use computer-generated imagery to show characters have been described by reviewers as giving a feeling of revulsion or "creepiness" as a result of the characters looking too realistic. Examples include the following: + +According to roboticist Dario Floreano, the baby character Billy in Pixar's groundbreaking 1988 animated short movie Tin Toy provoked negative audience reactions, which first caused the movie industry to consider the concept of the uncanny valley seriously. +The 2001 movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, one of the first photorealistic computer-animated feature movies, provoked negative reactions from some viewers due to its near-realistic yet imperfect visual depictions of human characters. The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw stated that while the movie's animation is brilliant, the "solemnly realist human faces look shriekingly phoney precisely because they're almost there but not quite". Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers wrote of the movie, "At first it's fun to watch the characters, [...] But then you notice a coldness in the eyes, a mechanical quality in the movements". +Several reviewers of the 2004 animated movie The Polar Express termed its animation eerie. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton wrote, "Those human characters in the film come across as downright... well, creepy. So The Polar Express is at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit horrifying". The term "eerie" was used by reviewers Kurt Loder and Manohla Dargis, among others. Newsday reviewer John Anderson called the movie's characters "creepy" and "dead-eyed", and wrote that "The Polar Express is a zombie train". Animation director Ward Jenkins wrote an online analysis describing how changes to the Polar Express characters' appearance, especially to their eyes and eyebrows, could have avoided what he considered a feeling of deadness in their faces. +Reviewers had mixed opinions regarding whether the 2011 animated movie The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn was affected by the uncanny valley effect. Daniel D. Snyder of The Atlantic wrote, "Instead of trying to bring to life Hergé's beautiful artwork, Spielberg and co. have opted to bring the movie into the 3D era using trendy motion-capture technique to recreate Tintin and his friends. Tintin's original face, while barebones, never suffered for a lack of expression. It's now outfitted with an alien and unfamiliar visage, his plastic skin dotted with pores and subtle wrinkles." He added, "In bringing them to life, Spielberg has made the characters dead.". N.B. of The Economist termed elements of the animation "grotesque", writing, "Tintin, Captain Haddock and the others exist in settings that are almost photo-realistic, and nearly all of their features are those of flesh-and-blood people. And yet they still have the sausage fingers and distended noses of comic-strip characters. It's not so much The Secret of the Unicorn as The Invasion of the Body Snatchers". However, other reviewers felt that the movie avoided the uncanny valley effect despite its animated characters' realism. Critic Dana Stevens of Slate wrote, "With the possible exception of the title character, the animated cast of Tintin narrowly escapes entrapment in the so-called 'uncanny valley'". Wired magazine editor Kevin Kelly wrote of the movie, "we have passed beyond the uncanny valley into the plains of hyperreality". +The 2019 film The Lion King, a remake of the 1994 film that featured photo-realistic digital animals instead of the earlier movie's more traditional animation, divided critics about the effectiveness of its imagery. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that the images were so realistic that "2019 might best be remembered as the summer we left the Uncanny Valley for good". However, other critics felt that the realism of the animals and setting rendered the scenes where the characters sing and dance disturbing and "weird". +The 2020 movie Sonic the Hedgehog was delayed for three months to make the title character's appearance less human-like and more cartoonish, after an extremely negative audience reaction to the movie's first trailer. +Multiple commentators cited the CGI half-human half-cat characters in the 2019 movie Cats as an example of the uncanny valley effect, first after the release of the trailer for the movie, and then after the movie's actual release. +The spread of deepfake technology has introduced the uncanny valley into broader popular culture, creating the same eerie discomfort that Mori originally described. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f7aa6226a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Uncanny valley" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:41.964000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Virtual actors === +An increasingly common practice is to feature virtual actors in movies: CGI likenesses of real actors used because the original actor either looks too old for the part or is deceased. Sometimes a virtual actor is created with involvement from the original actor (who may contribute motion capture, audio, etc.), while at other times the actor has no involvement. Reviewers have often criticized the use of virtual actors for its uncanny valley effect, saying it adds an eerie feeling to the movie. Examples of virtual actors that have received such criticism include replicas of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015), Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy (2010), Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher in Rogue One (2016), and Will Smith in Gemini Man (2019). + +== See also == + +== References == + +=== Citations === + +=== General and cited sources === + +== External links == + +Miklósi, Ádám; Korondi, Péter; Matellán, Vicente; Gácsi, Márta (2017). "Ethorobotics: A New Approach to Human-Robot Relationship". Frontiers in Psychology. 8 958. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00958. PMC 5465277. PMID 28649213. +Your Brain on Androids UCSD news release about human brain and the uncanny valley. +Views on the Uncanny Valley +Almost too human and lifelike for comfort—research journal for an uncanny valley PhD project +Relation between motion and appearance is communication between androids and humans +The Uncanny valley Archived 19 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine - a visual explanation of the hypothesis with the application in gaming. +Wired article: "Why is this man smiling?", June 2002. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a6adae44 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Unified Soil Classification System" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Soil_Classification_System" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:44.378927+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Unified Soil Classification System (USCS) is a soil classification system used in engineering and geology to describe the texture and grain size of a soil. The classification system can be applied to most unconsolidated materials, and is represented by a two-letter symbol. Each letter is described below: + +If the soil has 5–12% by weight of fines passing a #200 sieve (5% < P#200 < 12%), both grain size distribution and plasticity have a significant effect on the engineering properties of the soil, and dual notation may be used for the group symbol. For example, GW-GM corresponds to "well-graded gravel with silt." +If the soil has more than 15% by weight retained on a #4 sieve (R#4 > 15%), there is a significant amount of gravel, and the suffix "with gravel" may be added to the group name, but the group symbol does not change. For example, SP-SM could refer to "poorly graded SAND with silt" or "poorly graded SAND with silt and gravel." + + +== Symbol chart == + + +=== ASTM D-2487 === + + +== See also == +AASHTO Soil Classification System +AASHTO +ASTM International +USDA Soil Taxonomy (Soil classification for agricultural purposes) + + +== References == +Classification of Soils for Engineering Purposes: Annual Book of ASTM Standards, D 2487-83, vol. 04, American Society for Testing and Materials, 1985, pp. 395–408 +Evett, Jack and Cheng Liu (2007), Soils and Foundations (7 ed.), Prentice Hall, pp. 9–29, ISBN 978-0132221382 +Specific \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Patriotic_Forces_and_Militaries_of_the_Reserve_Defense-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Patriotic_Forces_and_Militaries_of_the_Reserve_Defense-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..30a5e7674 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Patriotic_Forces_and_Militaries_of_the_Reserve_Defense-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@ +--- +title: "Union of Patriotic Forces and Militaries of the Reserve Defense" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_of_Patriotic_Forces_and_Militaries_of_the_Reserve_Defense" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:06.076933+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Union of Patriotic Forces and Militaries of the Reserve Zashtita (Sajuz na Patrioticnite Sili i Voinite ot Zapaca Zaštita, abbreviated as SPSZ) is a nationalist political party in Bulgaria founded in December 1998. Since 2021, SPSZ was part of Bulgarian Patriots nationalist electoral alliance. + + +== External links == +Official site \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Patriots-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Patriots-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..55ebb94f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Patriots-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "United Patriots" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Patriots" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:07.266240+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The United Patriots (OP; Bulgarian: Обединени Патриоти; ОП, romanized: Obedineni Patrioti; OP) was a nationalist electoral alliance in Bulgaria formed by three political parties: VMRO, Attack (until 25 July 2019), and the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria (NFSB). +The coalition between the three parties was created by the agreement put forward a joint candidacy for the 2016 presidential election. The coalition's candidates for president and vice president were the then Deputy Chairmen of the National Assembly Krasimir Karakachanov (for President) and Yavor Notev (for Vice President). +On July 25, 2019, Volen Siderov, Desislav Chukolov and Pavel Shopov were expelled from the parliamentary group. +The coalition was part of the Third Borisov Government. +All parties in the coalition were defeated in the 2021 Bulgarian parliamentary election and failed to gain any seats in the National Assembly. + + +== Electoral history == + + +== See also == +Patriotic Front (Bulgaria) Nationalist electoral alliance (2016–2017) + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unparticle_physics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unparticle_physics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bf8300d81 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unparticle_physics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Unparticle physics" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unparticle_physics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:43.275644+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In theoretical physics, unparticle physics is a speculative theory that conjectures a form of matter that cannot be explained in terms of particles using the Standard Model of particle physics, because its components are scale invariant. +Howard Georgi proposed this theory in two 2007 papers, "Unparticle Physics" +and "Another Odd Thing About Unparticle Physics". His papers were followed by further work by other researchers into the properties and phenomenology of unparticle physics and its potential impact on particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, CP violation, lepton flavour violation, muon decay, neutrino oscillations, and supersymmetry. + + +== Background == + +All particles exist in states that may be characterized by a certain energy, momentum and mass. In most of the Standard Model of particle physics, particles of the same type cannot exist in another state with all these properties scaled up or down by a common factor –electrons, for example, always have the same mass regardless of their energy or momentum. But this is not always the case: massless particles, such as photons, can exist with their properties scaled equally. This immunity to scaling is called "scale invariance". +The idea of unparticles comes from conjecturing that there may be "stuff" that does not necessarily have zero mass but is still scale-invariant, with the same physics regardless of a change of length (or equivalently energy). This stuff is unlike particles, and described as unparticle. The unparticle stuff is equivalent to particles with a continuous spectrum of mass. +Such unparticle stuff has not been observed, which suggests that if it exists, it must couple with normal matter weakly at observable energies. Since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) team announced it will begin probing a higher energy frontier in 2009, some theoretical physicists have begun to consider the properties of unparticle stuff and how it may appear in LHC experiments. One of the great hopes for the LHC is that it might come up with some discoveries that will help us update or replace our best description of the particles that make up matter and the forces that glue them together. + + +== Properties == +Unparticles would have properties in common with neutrinos, which have almost zero mass and are therefore nearly scale invariant. Neutrinos barely interact with matter – most of the time physicists can infer their presence only by calculating the "missing" energy and momentum after an interaction. By looking at the same interaction many times, a probability distribution is built up that tells more specifically how many and what sort of neutrinos are involved. They couple very weakly to ordinary matter at low energies, and the effect of the coupling increases as the energy increases. +A similar technique could be used to search for evidence of unparticles. According to scale invariance, a distribution containing unparticles would become apparent because it would resemble a distribution for a fractional number of massless particles. +This scale invariant sector would interact very weakly with the rest of the Standard Model, making it possible to observe evidence for unparticle stuff, if it exists. The unparticle theory is a high-energy theory that contains both Standard Model fields and Banks–Zaks fields, which have scale-invariant behavior at an infrared point. The two fields can interact through the interactions of ordinary particles if the energy of the interaction is sufficiently high. +These particle interactions would appear to have "missing" energy and momentum that would not be detected by the experimental apparatus. Certain distinct distributions of missing energy would signify the production of unparticle stuff. If such signatures are not observed, bounds on the model can be set and refined. + + +== Experimental indications == +Unparticle physics has been proposed as an explanation for anomalies in superconducting cuprate materials, where the charge measured by ARPES appears to exceed predictions from Luttinger's theorem for the quantity of electrons. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Zyga, Lisa. "Professor proposes theory of unparticle physics". PhysOrg.com. +Zyga, Lisa. "Physicists Build Unparticle Models Guided by Big Bang and Supernovae". PhysOrg.com. +"Weird Physics Theory: Unparticle Stuff". ScienceDaily.com. +Siegfried, Tom. "'Unparticle' Matter may be the stuff that glues physics together". whyfiles.org. Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2008-01-29. +Feng, Jonathan. "Unparticle Physics" (PDF). hep.ps.uci.edu. +Cheung, Kingman; Wai-Yee Keung; Tzu-Chiang Yuan (2007). "Collider Phenomenology of Unparticle Physics". Physical Review D. 76 (5) 055003. arXiv:0706.3155. Bibcode:2007PhRvD..76e5003C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.76.055003. S2CID 119612474. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6ecc23ed0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,49 @@ +--- +title: "Urban morphology" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:38.085549+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Urban morphology is the study of the formation of human settlements and the process of their formation and transformation. The study seeks to understand the spatial structure and character of a metropolitan area, city, town or village by examining the patterns of its component parts and the ownership or control and occupation. Typically, analysis of physical form focuses on street pattern, lot (or, in the UK, plot) pattern and building pattern, sometimes referred to collectively as urban grain. Analysis of specific settlements is usually undertaken using cartographic sources and the process of development is deduced from comparison of historic maps. +Special attention is given to how the physical form of a city changes over time and to how different cities compare to each other. Another significant part of this subfield deals with the study of the social forms which are expressed in the physical layout of a city, and, conversely, how physical form produces or reproduces various social forms. +The essence of the idea of morphology was initially expressed in the writings of the great poet and philosopher Goethe (1790). However, the term as such was first used in bioscience. Recently it is being increasingly used in geography, geology, philology and other subject areas. In geography, urban morphology as a particular field of study owes its origins to Lewis Mumford, James Vance and Sam Bass Warner. Peter Hall and Michael Batty of the UK and Serge Salat, France, are also central figures. +Urban morphology is considered as the study of urban tissue, or fabric, as a means of discerning the environmental level normally associated with urban design. Tissue comprises coherent neighborhood morphology (open spaces, building) and functions (human activity). Neighborhoods exhibit recognizable patterns in the ordering of buildings, spaces and functions (themes), variations within which nevertheless conform to an organizing set of principles. This approach challenges the common perception of unplanned environments as chaotic or vaguely organic through understanding the structures and processes embedded in urbanisation. Complexity science has provided further explanations showing how urban structures emerge from the uncoordinated action of multiple individuals in highly regular ways. Amongst other things this is associated with permanent energy and material flows to maintain these structures. + +== Some locked concepts == +Urban morphology approaches human settlements as generally unconscious products that emerge over long periods, through the accrual of successive generations of building activity. This leaves traces that serve to structure subsequent building activity and provide opportunities and constraints for city-building processes, such as land subdivision, infrastructure development, or building construction. Articulating and analysing the logic of these traces is the central question of urban morphology. + +Urban morphology is not generally object-centred, in that it emphasises the relationships between components of the city. To make a parallel with linguistics, the focus is placed on an active vocabulary and its syntax. There is thus a tendency to use morphological techniques to examine the ordinary, non-monumental areas of the city and to stress the process and its structures over any given state or object, therefore going beyond architecture and looking at the entire built landscape and its internal logic. +Roger Trancik discusses three major theories of urban spatial design and urban morphology which can guide analysis: + +Figure and Ground theory +Linkage theory +Place Theory +Figure and Ground theory is founded on the study of the relationship of land coverage of buildings as solid mass (figure) to open voids (ground) Each urban environment has an existing pattern of solid and voids, and figure and ground approach to spatial design is an attempt to manipulate these relationships by adding to, subtracting from, or changing the physical geometry of the pattern. The objective of these manipulations is to clarify the structure of urban space in a city or district by establishing a hierarchy of spaces of different sizes that are individually enclosed but ordered directionally in relation to each other. +Linkage theory focuses on lines formed by streets, pedestrian ways, linear open spaces or other linking elements that physically connect the parts of the city. Place theory operates upon structured systems of human needs and usage. + +== Schools of thought == +In a broad sense there are three schools of urban morphology: Italian, British, and French. + +=== Italian school === + +The Italian school centres around the work of Saverio Muratori and dates from the 1940s. Muratori attempted to develop an 'operational history' for the cities he studied (in particular Venice and Rome), which then provided the basis for the integration of new architectural works in the syntax of the urban tissue. Stemming from this view are contributions such as Gianfranco Caniggia's, which conceptualise the city as an organic result of a dynamic procedural typology, which see political-economic forces as shaping a built landscape already conditioned by a particular logic, set of elements, and characteristic processes. + +=== British school === +The British school centres around the work of M.R.G. Conzen, who developed a technique called 'town-plan analysis.' The key aspects for analysis according to Conzen are: + +The town plan +Pattern of building forms +Pattern of land use +The town plan in turn contains three complexes of plan element: + +Streets and their arrangement into a street-system +Plots (or lots) and their aggregation into street-blocks +Buildings, in the form of the block-plans. +For Conzen, understanding the layering of these aspects and elements through history is the key to comprehending urban form. Followers of Conzen such as J.W.R. Whitehand have examined the ways in which such knowledge can be put to use in the management of historic and contemporary townscapes. + +=== French school === +The French school, based principally at the Versailles School of Architecture, has generated extensive methodological knowledge for the analysis of urbanisation processes and related architectural models. Much emphasis is placed upon the importance of built space for sustaining social practices; the relationship between the built landscape and the social world is dialectical, with both shaping the other. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cf9669c34 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "Urban morphology" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_morphology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:38.085549+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Chicago School === +As an urban-industrial city, Chicago's socio-economic problems were obvious and crying out to be studied in depth. Therefore, several urban sociologists and geographers belonging to the so-called Chicago School, such as W.I. Thomas (concerned with migration), Robert E Park and Ernest Burgess, attempted to analyse the morphology of Chicago in order to solve these problems. +Burgess employed an ecological approach in placing emphasis on the relationship between organisms and their environment. He used similar biological factors used in explaining plant distribution and established a concentric-zonal theory which included a Central Business District (CBD), an area of transition (invaded by business and migrants), and area of upper class apartments and several commuter zones and suburbs on the edge of the city. + +=== Morphogenetic School === +The scientist Maitri Singhai and the mathematician Nikos Salingaros have created a new school of urban morphology based on morphogenesis and emergence. In The Nature of Order Alexander proposes that urban development is a computational process similar to that of cell growth in an organism, and that the unfolding of these processes produces the urban landscape and its typologies. Some urbanists have sought to transform this theory into a practical emergent urbanism. + +== See also == +Urban design +Urban geography +Urban Planning +Landscape urbanism +Settlement geography +New urbanism +Activity centre +Transit-oriented development +Space syntax + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Conzen, M.R.G., Alnwick, Northumberland: A study in town-plan analysis, London, Institute of British Geographers, 1969 +Moudon, Anne Vernez, Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field in Urban Morphology. 1997. 1 (1): 3–10. +Ley, Karsten: Understanding Urban Forms as Results of a Conditioning System of Interrelated Factors. Some Thoughts on the Issue of Morphologically Defining the City., RWTH Aachen 2010, [electronic resource]. +Malfroy, Sylvain and Gianfranco Caniggia, L'approche morphologique de la ville et du territoire. Zürich: Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Lehrstuhl fur Städtebaugeschichte, October 1986 (A Morphological Approach to Cities and Their Regions, Zurich: Triest 2022. +Moudon, Anne Vernez, Built for Change: Neighbourhood Architecture in San Francisco. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1986. +Moudon, Anne Vernez, Getting to Know the Built Landscape: Typomorphology. in Franck, Karen A and Lynda H Schneekloth, Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and Design New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994. +Panerai, Philippe, Jean-Charles Depaule, Marcelle Demorgon, and Michel Veyrenche, Elements d'analyse urbaine. Brussels: Editions Archives d'Architecture Moderne, 1980. +Salat, Serge, Cities and Forms: on sustainable urbanism, Hermann Ed., 2011. + +== External links == +International Seminar on Urban Form +Urban Morphology and Complex Systems Institute, Paris +Urban Morphology Research Group Archived 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine, Birmingham +Urban Morpohology Institute +Gianfranco Caniggia: A Structural Reading of Florence (video 1984 / 2022) HES-SO channels, HEIA-FR - Architecture \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6fbe3766 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccination and religion" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:55.223515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The relationship between vaccination and religion is complex and multifaceted. While most major religions have issued statements supportive of vaccination, and no major religion explicitly prohibits vaccinations, some individuals cite religious adherence as a basis for opting not to vaccinate themselves or their children. Historically, both pro- and anti-vaccination groups have used religious arguments to support their positions. For instance, in Australia, anti-vaccinationists founded the Church of Conscious Living, a "fake church", in an attempt to claim religious exemptions, which ultimately led to the removal of such exemptions in the country. Similarly, a United States pastor has been reported to offer vaccine exemptions in exchange for church membership. + +== Historical == + +=== Early religious influences on vaccination === +One of the earliest documented cases of variolation involved a Buddhist nun (bhikkhuni) between 1022 and 1063 CE. She ground smallpox scabs into a fine powder and administered it through the nostrils of an uninfected person to promote immunity. Centuries later, the 14th Dalai Lama continued the tradition of disease prevention by personally supporting polio vaccination campaigns. + +=== Religious figures and advocacy for vaccination === + +In 1721, the influential Massachusetts preacher Cotton Mather was the first known person to attempt smallpox inoculation on a large scale, inoculating himself and more than two hundred members of his congregation with the help of a local doctor. While his view later became standard, there was a strong negative reaction against him at the time. +Rowland Hill (1744–1833) was a popular English preacher acquainted with Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccination, and he encouraged the vaccination of the congregations he visited or preached to. He published a tract on the subject in 1806, at a time when many medical men refused to sanction it. Later he became a member of the Royal Jennererian Society, which was established when vaccination was accepted in Britain, India, the US, and elsewhere. John C. Lettsom, an eminent Quaker physician of the day wrote to Rowland Hill commenting: + +You have done more good than you imagine; and for everyone you may have saved by your actual operation, you have saved ten by your example; and perhaps, next to Jenner, have been the means of saving more lives than any other individual.In 1804 during an outbreak of smallpox in New Spain Fr. Manuel Abad y Queipo personally paid for and brought the smallpox vaccine from the Capital to Valladolid. +In 1816 Iceland made the clergy responsible for smallpox vaccination and gave them the responsibility of keeping vaccination records for their parishes; Sweden also had similar practices. +Catholic and Anglican missionaries vaccinated Northwest Coast Native Americans during an 1862 smallpox epidemic. + +=== Religious opposition to vaccination === +In 1798, several Boston clergymen and devout physicians formed a society that opposed vaccination. Others complained that the practice was dangerous, going so far as to demand that doctors who carried out these procedures be tried for attempted murder. +When vaccination was introduced into UK public policy, and adoption followed overseas, there was opposition from trade unionists and others, including sectarian ministers and those interested in self-help and alternative medicines like homeopathy. +Anti-vaccinationists were most common in Protestant countries. Those who were religious often came from minority religious movements outside of mainstream Protestantism, including Quakers in England and Baptists in Sweden. +Jehovah's Witnesses condemned the practice of vaccination in 1931 as "a direct violation of the everlasting covenant that God made with Noah after the flood", but reversed that policy in 1952. The decision of whether to vaccinate themselves or their family is left to individuals. Some more recent Jehovah's Witness publications have mentioned the success of vaccination programs. + +=== Legislation and religious exemptions === +In the UK, a number of Vaccination Acts were introduced to control vaccination and inoculation, starting in 1840, when smallpox inoculation was banned. The 1853 Act introduced compulsory free infant vaccination enforced by local authorities. By 1871, infant vaccination was compulsory and parents refusing to have their child vaccinated were fined and imprisoned if the fines were not paid. Resistance to compulsion grew, and in 1889, after riots in Leicester, a Royal Commission was appointed and issued six reports between 1892 and 1896. It recommended the abolition of cumulative penalties. This was done in an 1898 Act, which also introduced a conscience clause that exempted parents who did not believe vaccination was efficacious or safe. This extended the concept of the "conscientious objector" in English law. A further Act in 1907 made it easier to obtain exemption. + +== Current == + +=== Christianity === + +==== Conservative Christian groups ==== +Some conservative Christian groups in the United States oppose mandatory vaccination for diseases typically spread via sexual contact, arguing that the possibility of disease deters risky sexual contact. For example, the Family Research Council opposes mandatory vaccination against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes various cancers: "Our primary concern is with the message that would be delivered to nine- to twelve-year-olds with the administration of the vaccines. Care must be taken not to communicate that such an intervention makes all sex 'safe'." This opposition is due to overarching ideological conflicts with the notion of the need to vaccinate against HPV, such as Christian sexual norms and parental obligations to "enforce the sexual norms" upon their children. These sexual norms are based on the Christian belief and biblical verse that individuals should not partake in premarital sex, promiscuity, or any other forms of sexual immorality, as stated by 1 Corinthians 7:2 (NIV). Although the verse does not explicitly mention premarital sex, it is widely interpreted to suggest that individuals should not have sexual relations outside of marriage. By taking the HPV vaccine, conservative Christians believe that the vaccination itself may promote increased sexual activity due to the notion that they are more "protected" from HPV infections. However, studies have suggested that HPV vaccination does not result in increased sexual activity or sexual behaviors. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b5f0789b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,24 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccination and religion" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:55.223515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Support for vaccination ==== +Other Christians have supported vaccinations and mask wearing in the wake of COVID-19 to stop the spread of the disease, even using scripture to support the position.In 2021, the former director of the National Institute of Health, Francis Collins, a practicing Christian, expressed his support for the COVID-19 vaccine, stating that the development of vaccines are a “gift from God” and an “answer to prayer”. Additionally, Dr. Peter Mack, a physician at Novant Health South Park Family Physicians, cites Genesis 41, the story of David and Goliath, as a justification that vaccines are a “modern tool from God”. Other religious leaders from around the world, such as the Pope and some American bishops, expressed support for the COVID-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic. In 2021, then-Pope Francis advocated for individuals to take the COVID-19 injections because it was a "moral obligation" or a "moral responsibility" to protect the health and safety of others. Pope Francis also stated in a series of Tweets that COVID-19 vaccinations are an "act of love" for others, while also suggesting that opposition to the vaccines, no matter the ideological, religious, or political basis, was considered "suicidal denialism, as rejecting the vaccine puts both the individual and others in the community at risk of developing COVID-19. + +==== The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints ==== +The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made vaccination an official initiative in its humanitarian relief program. The Church has also called on its members to see that their own children are properly vaccinated. In March 2021, the Church added encouragement to vaccinate to its General Handbook of Instructions, noting that "Vaccinations administered by competent medical professionals protect health and preserve life. ... Members of the Church are encouraged to safeguard themselves, their children, and their communities through vaccination." In August 2021, the Church again encouraged vaccination, specifically against COVID-19, in a public statement from the First Presidency: "We know that protection from [Covid and its variants] can only be achieved by immunizing a very high percentage of the population.... To provide personal protection from such severe infections, we urge individuals to be vaccinated." + +==== Christian science ==== +Although the Church of Christ, Scientist encourages reliance on prayer, it does not outright forbid vaccination or any other medical practice, and in 2015 it did not renew its application for religious exemption for vaccinations in Australia because it deemed the exemption "no longer current or necessary". During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Church of Christ did not make an official statement in support of the COVID-19 vaccine or an outright condemnation, even though the organization as a whole once advocated for religious exemptions for vaccinations in Australia. However, much of the vaccine hesitancy within the Christian Science community originates from religious beliefs rather than secular vaccine opposition. The decisions to vaccinate are up to the individuals themselves and not directly banned by the Church of Christ institution. Some members may reject vaccines or other medical procedures/interventions due to their belief that the onset of diseases are merely illusions, as humans are the reflection of the image of God. Therefore, according to that belief, diseases don’t exist and vaccines aren’t necessary to protect the health of the individual. + +=== Islam and Judaism === + +==== Dietary concerns and medical exceptions ==== +Islam and Judaism, religions with dietary prohibitions that regard particular animals as unclean, make exceptions for medical treatments derived from those animals. However, this may not be universally accepted due to a lack of central authority in these religions. For example, in Aceh Province, an autonomous province of Indonesia with its own Islamic Sharia Law, eighty percent of people refuse all vaccinations due to concerns about pig, or its derivatives, being used to make some vaccines (eating pig is considered haram). The hesitancy due to non-halal derivatives extended to the rotavirus vaccine, where some religious leaders in Indonesia opposed the rotavirus vaccination even though they had acknowledged the severity of the rotavirus symptoms. This led to the Indonesian Ulama Council in Jakarta, Indonesia, to pass an atwa, or fatwa, or a Islamic religious law, in 2018, successfully banning the measles and rubella vaccine. This led to the subsequent decrease in immunization rates for the MR vaccine, dropping to 68% for children vaccinated for MR and only 8% in some regions. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Ulamas, or Islamic scholars and theologians, enacted fatwas in some Muslim countries regarding the permissibility of taking the newly developed COVID-19 vaccine due to concerns that the pharmaceutical industry that produces the vaccines use haram or non-halal ingredients, such as pork derivatives. Essentially, in order for the vaccines to be halal, they must be formulated according to Sharia law, meaning that the vaccine ingredients must not contain haram animal products and other non-halal impurities. In Indonesia specifically, the Indonesian Ulama Council enacted a fatwa in March of 2021 which classified AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine as “haram permittable”. This acknowledges that the vaccine is definitely haram due to the use of porcine trypsin during vaccine formulation, but it is still “permitted for use” due to the severity of the pandemic during that time. There were no effective alternatives that is completely halal or does not use haram ingredients, so the fatwa provided an exception for taking the vaccine to promote public health and safety. However, other Islamic scholars or Ulamas, such as the Fatwa Council of the United Arab Emirates, the Fiqh Academy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, have declared the COVID-19 vaccines as completely halal under Sharia Law, stating that the vaccines are the only way to protect against COVID-19 infections and that the vaccines are still permitted to use even if haram ingredients were used in the formulation process. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8a392a3b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccination and religion" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:55.223515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Hinduism === +Hinduism consists of various denominations that share core beliefs but differ in philosophies and practices. With no single founder, it is known as Sanatan Dharma (the Eternal Tradition) and traces its origins to the Vedic texts of ancient India, dating back to between 1500 BCE and 500 BCE. +In Hinduism, the ethical and symbolic meanings of scriptures, as interpreted by spiritually enlightened gurus, are often prioritized over literal interpretations. Vaccination is generally accepted in countries with a predominantly Hindu population. +Hindus uphold the principle of non-violence (ahimsa) and value all forms of life, believing that divinity exists in every being, including plants and animals. +Many Hindus follow a vegetarian diet to honor higher forms of life, while others consume meat only on specific days. Dietary practices differ across regions and communities. This review did not find any current concerns among Hindus regarding the presence of bovine-derived ingredients in some vaccines. + +=== Buddhism === +Buddhism is a religion with a variety of traditions, beliefs, and practices based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, which means "the awakened one." The Buddha shared his insights to help people overcome ignorance, desire, and suffering, ultimately leading to Nirvana—a state of liberation from suffering. He taught in the eastern region of what is now India between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, possibly around 563–483 BCE. +Buddhism includes several major branches, such as Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Zen, but lacks a single central text or authority to define its doctrines or ethics. In predominantly Buddhist countries, vaccination is generally accepted. +Buddhism does not oppose using non-animal-derived medicines to treat illnesses, viewing treatment as an act of compassion. For example, while antibiotics destroy microorganisms, they are accepted because they help people stay healthy and maintain the harmony of body and mind, which supports progress toward Enlightenment. Preventing disease is seen as a way to preserve this harmony. + +=== New religious movements and alternative beliefs === + +==== Congregation of Universal Wisdom ==== +The Congregation of Universal Wisdom, an American religious movement based on belief in chiropractic spinal adjustments and Universal Intelligence, forbids vaccinations, surgerie, medicine, and any intrusive treatment as sacrilege. In 2015, its co-founder, chiropractor Walter P. Schilling said the group had 11,600 members worldwide. Schilling has described the movement as being about keeping the body pure and said that western medicine is paganism. In a court case citing the Congregation of Universal Wisdom, Turner v. Liverpool Cent. School, the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York affirmed the permissibility of claiming religious exemption from vaccination on the basis of such membership. The New York Times covered the Congregation of Universal Wisdom and noted that many families have used these religious memberships to avoid vaccination requirements and that joining only required writing a letter and paying $1; renouncing other religious is not required. + +=== Ethical and moral concerns === + +==== Use of fetal tissue in vaccines ==== +The use of fetal tissue in vaccine development has also provoked some controversy among religions opposed to abortion. The cell culture media of vaccines for varicella, rubella (in the MMR vaccine), hepatitis A, rabies (Imovax) and the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine (no longer used in the U.S.) are produced using fetal cells to grow viruses. Since viruses require specific cells to reproduce, human cells are ideal for this purpose. Fetal cells, originally isolated from elective terminations in the 1960s, were chosen for their sterility, minimizing the risk of contamination. Fibroblast cells are used for all these vaccines except the J&J COVID-19 vaccine, which uses fetal retinal cells. Fetal cells obtained in the early 1960s have been continuously grown in laboratories and are still used for vaccine production today, with no need for additional sources. This method has led to moral controversy and considerations based on the principle of double effect by Thomas Aquinas. For example, the principle of double effect, originated by Thomas Aquinas, holds that actions with both good and bad consequences are morally acceptable in specific circumstances, and the question is how this principle applies to vaccination. + +==== Catholic church's position ==== +The Vatican Curia has expressed concern about the rubella vaccine's embryonic cell origin, saying Catholics have "... a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems". The Vatican concluded that until an alternative becomes available it is acceptable for Catholics to use the existing vaccine, writing, "This is an unjust alternative choice, which must be eliminated as soon as possible." The Catholic Church advises its members to choose vaccines that are developed without the use of human cell lines whenever feasible. Nonetheless, the Vatican has stated that "all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience, with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion." + +=== Political opposition to vaccination by religious groups === + +==== Opposition to vaccination among Jewish communities ==== +Opposition to vaccination by Orthodox Jews is not a widespread phenomenon. The majority of Orthodox Rabbis view vaccination as a religious obligation. A magazine called P.E.A.C.H. that presented an anti-immunization message to Orthodox Jews was distributed in Brooklyn, New York in early 2014. 96% of students at Yeshivas (who are essentially all Orthodox Jewish) in New York City were immunized according to information obtained in 2014, although this is a lower than average rate. + +==== Opposition to vaccination in Muslim communities ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f9ebcf1b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccination and religion" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:55.223515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +===== Nigeria ===== +In 2003 imams in northern Nigeria advised their followers not to have their children vaccinated with oral polio vaccine, perceived to be a plot by Westerners to decrease Muslim fertility. The boycott caused the number of polio cases to rise not only in Nigeria but also in neighboring countries. The followers were also wary of other vaccinations, and Nigeria reported more than twenty thousand measles cases and nearly six hundred deaths from measles from January through March 2005. In 2006 Nigeria accounted for more than half of all new polio cases worldwide. Outbreaks continued thereafter; for example, at least 200 children died in a late-2007 measles outbreak in Borno State. In 2013, nine health workers administering polio vaccine were targeted and killed by gunmen on motorcycles in Kano, but this was an isolated incident. Local traditional and religious leaders and polio survivors worked to support the vaccination campaign, and Nigeria has not had a polio case since July 24, 2014; in 2016, Nigeria was declared polio-free. + +===== Pakistan and Afghanistan ===== +In the 2000s, in Pakistan and Afghanistan, some Taliban issued fatwas opposing vaccination as an American plot to sterilize Muslims, and kidnapped, beat, and assassinated vaccination officials; the head of Pakistan's vaccination campaign in Bajaur Agency was assassinated in 2007, on his way back from a meeting with a religious leader. In 2011, a CIA spy ran a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign to search for Osama bin Laden; such actions were strongly condemned by US and international health NGOs, the doctor involved was jailed and the CIA promised not to use vaccination as a cover again. A genuine polio vaccinator had previously vaccinated Osama bin Laden's children and grandchildren in his compound in Abbottabad. Both major sides of the Afghan civil war now support polio vaccination, and polio rates are declining rapidly in Afghanistan, with only five cases in January–July 2015. In Pakistan there were 28 cases in the same period. + +==== Opposition to vaccination among African American religious groups ==== +In 2015, leaders of the Nation of Islam spoke out against a California Bill that removed philosophical exemptions to school vaccination requirements, alleging a link between MMR vaccine and autism. They also said that government mandated vaccines were another Tuskegee Syphilis Study. + +===== Opposition to vaccination among Evangelical Christians ===== +According to a March 2021 poll conducted by The Associated Press/NORC, vaccine skepticism is more widespread among white evangelicals than most other blocs of Americans. 40% of white evangelical Protestants stated they were not likely to get vaccinated against COVID-19. + +== Impact of COVID-19 on religious perspectives and vaccination rates == +The spread of COVID-19 has brought vaccine hesitancy into the global spotlight, but what influences the significant differences in vaccination rates across regions? Research spanning 195 regions worldwide suggests that religiosity (an institutionalized belief) and spirituality (more personal and intuition-based) play a key role in shaping vaccination trends. +In the first study, data from 23 global regions revealed a negative correlation between both spirituality and religiosity and COVID-19 vaccination rates. These findings remained consistent even after adjusting for vaccine supply limitations. The second study, which analyzed data from 144 regions, reinforced this trend—religiosity continued to be a strong negative predictor of vaccination rates, even when accounting for factors such as GDP, population age, collectivism, vaccine skepticism, and past vaccination history. The third study focused on all U.S. states and the District of Columbia, once again showing that higher levels of spirituality and religiosity were linked to lower vaccination rates, even after controlling for other variables. Overall, these studies highlight a strong relationship between spirituality, religiosity, and vaccine uptake, suggesting that regional differences in these factors may significantly influence real-world vaccination behaviors. +Additionally, in another study, Cross-National Comparison of Religion as a Predictor of COVID-19 Vaccination Rates, researchers explored the impact of religiosity on COVID-19 vaccination rates across nations while accounting for socio-economic and cultural factors. Analyzing data from 90 countries, covering 86% of the global population, they found a negative correlation between Christianity and vaccination rates, whereas no such relationship was observed for Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or non-belief. Factors such as the importance of religion, freedom of expression, sex ratio, median age, and most cultural variables showed no significant connection to vaccination rates, while the Human Development Index did. The study also highlighted how different religions influence vaccine uptake. + +== Exemptions == + +In the U.S., all 50 states and Washington, D.C., require certain vaccines for students to attend school, aligning with recommendations from the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. While medical exemptions are permitted in every state, laws regarding non-medical exemptions for religious or personal reasons differ. Thirty states and D.C. permit religious exemptions, while thirteen allow either religious or personal exemptions. Louisiana and Minnesota do not specify whether non-medical exemptions must be religious or personal. Five states (Mississippi, California, West Virginia, Maine, and New York) are the only states that do not allow any non-medical exemptions, meaning all other states permit religious exemptions for parents who choose not to vaccinate their children for religious reasons. +The number of religious exemptions rose greatly in the late 1990s and early 2000s; for example, in Massachusetts, the rate of those seeking exemptions rose from 0.24% in 1996 to 0.60% in 2006. Some parents falsely claim religious beliefs to get exemptions. The American Medical Association opposes such exemptions, saying that they endanger health not only for the unvaccinated individual but also for neighbors and the community at large. +On January 1, 2016, Australia introduced legislation that removed eligibility for childcare and welfare benefits if parents refuse to vaccinate their children, removing religious exemptions at the same time as the only religion to apply for an exemption (Church of Christ, Scientist) deemed their exemption to no longer be relevant. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..37ef83112 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccination and religion" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:55.223515+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Recent measles outbreaks in religious communities === +Mennonite Community in Texas: In early 2025, a significant measles outbreak occurred in Gaines County, Texas, primarily affecting an under-vaccinated Mennonite community. Despite the church not opposing vaccinations, some members' hesitancy contributed to the outbreak, leading to over 200 infections, hospitalizations, and two deaths. +Amish Community in New York: Concurrently, New York's Amish community faced legal challenges regarding religious exemptions to vaccination mandates. After the state's 2019 repeal of religious exemptions following a 2018 measles outbreak, the Amish contested this decision. In March 2025, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the repeal, emphasizing public health over religious exemptions. + +=== Legislative actions on religious exemptions === +West Virginia's Legislative Decision: In March 2025, West Virginia's House of Delegates rejected a bill that would have introduced religious and philosophical exemptions to mandatory childhood vaccinations. This decision was influenced by concerns over public health, especially amid ongoing measles outbreaks in neighboring states. + +=== Declining vaccination rates and public health concerns === +Expert Warnings in Texas: Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development, highlighted the dangers of declining vaccination rates in Texas. He warned that reduced immunization could lead to the resurgence of diseases like measles, emphasizing the need for increased public awareness and vaccination efforts. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Choice_Canada-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Choice_Canada-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bc2e597e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Choice_Canada-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine Choice Canada" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_Choice_Canada" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:08.470559+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) is Canada's main anti-vaccination group. It was founded in 1986 under the name Association for Vaccine Damaged Children, became the Vaccination Risk Awareness Network in 1994 and adopted its current name in 2014. The group has been contributing to vaccine hesitancy in Canada, encouraging citizens to forgo immunization and legislators to support anti-vaccine regulations and legislation. + + +== Vaccine hesitancy == +VCC spreads the discredited hypothesis that vaccination causes autism and denies that the introduction of vaccines led to a decline of the targeted diseases. They blame vaccination for a variety of ailments, including autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, ADHD, allergies, and asthma. +The group argues incorrectly that a vaccine against COVID-19 is unnecessary. Late in the pandemic, it still repeated the discredited myth that the pandemic is no more severe than the flu. +Although a small fraction of vaccine doses provoke serious adverse reactions, health professionals agree the benefits of being protected against a wide range of infectious diseases far outweigh the risks. Responding directly to communications from Vaccine Choice Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada stated that the science on vaccines is unequivocal, but laments the actions of "a small but vocal anti-vaccination community that spreads false information. They use powerful emotional images and misinformation with their message. This creates confusion and fear for parents who are trying to make the best decisions for the health and wellbeing of their children." Timothy Caulfield estimates the proportion of Canadians who exhibit vaccine hesitancy between 20 and 30 percent, connecting the anti-vaccination movement to a rise in populism and a mistrust in expertise. +The World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy as one of 2019's ten global health threats to watch. + + +== Role in COVID-19 pandemic == +Similarly to many anti-vaccination groups, Vaccine Choice Canada is opposing several measures instituted by public health authorities to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its President repeated some of the most widespread myths about the virus, including that it is no more dangerous than influenza and that developing a vaccine is therefore unnecessary. Influenza is actually responsible for 3,500 deaths in a typical year, while the death toll of four months of COVID-19 already exceeded 8,000 at that point. Jonathan Jarry from the Office for Science and Society warned that with anti-vaccination groups misrepresenting legitimate concerns about rushing vaccines into production as anti-vaccine arguments, "we have the beginnings of a perfect storm on our hands to fuel vaccine misinformation". Vaccine Choice Canada partnered with Hugs Over Masks, a newly created group protesting against mandatory mask-wearing. +With Denis Rancourt and others, Vaccine Choice Canada tabled a lawsuit against most Canadian governments, seeking to have the courts strike down measures mandated by public health authorities, including regulations introducing the obligation to wear masks in interior public spaces that several provinces adopted. The lawsuit, filed in July 2020 by lawyer Rocco Galati with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleges lockdowns, physical distancing and mandatory masking violate the constitutional rights of Canadians. It also makes wider claims about a "New (Economic) World Order" and a "massive and concentrated push for mandatory vaccines of every human on the planet earth with concurrent electronic surveillance" at the behest of "global Billionaire, Corporate and Organizational Oligarchs", which refer to conspiracy theories widely shared on social media by a variety of fringe groups. The lawsuit also names the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, accusing the information network of a "stalinist" campaign to hide the truth about public health measures. + + +== Public communications == +In February 2019, Vaccine Choice bought space on 50 billboards in the Toronto area to broadcast anti-vaccine messages, such as one inviting parents to learn how to get around the obligation to vaccinate children in order to have them attend public schools. The messages displayed on the billboards were characterized as "half-truths" by Toronto's Associate Medical Officer of Health. The campaign was discontinued by Outfront Media after a request from Toronto City Council. The campaign was denounced by Ontario's Minister of Health Christine Elliott, who encouraged Ontarians to get inoculated. +In August 2019, Vaccine Choice Canada admitted it had paid the expenses of American anti-vaccination activists coming to participate in parliamentary committee hearings on vaccine exemptions for school children in New Brunswick, including Bob Sears. During the hearings, VCC spokesperson Ted Kuntz indicated the group intended to take the province's government to court if it decided to eliminate non-medical exemptions. New Brunswick's Education Minister Dominic Cardy denounced the conspiracy theories presented by the witnesses: "If you believe in evidence-based decision-making, you have to look at the evidence, and the evidence is incontrovertible." +Also in early 2019, Vaccine Choice wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to oppose upcoming changes that would make anti-vaccine messages less likely to be propagated by the social media platform, such as not sharing them as automatic recommendations. Speaking for VCC, Ted Kuntz equated these proposed changes in programming with censorship. A representative of the group also participated to a panel of anti-vaccination activists in Toronto, in April 2019. +In October 2019, Vaccine Choice Canada held a rally in Toronto in support of a court case the group launched jointly with five parents against Ontario's Immunization of School Pupils Act, which requires that pupils must have received certain vaccines to attend the public school system. While legal experts believe the court challenge is unlikely to be successful, President of the Ontario Medical Association Sohail Gandhi is concerned the increased visibility gained by the group may result in more disinformation about vaccines being disseminated to the public. +Vaccine Choice issued "Adding Insult To Injury Awards" in 2016 and 2017 to media outlets that produced news reports it disliked. The host of one program was thus targeted, The Sunday Edition's Michael Enright, sarcastically accepted the award with pride, on behalf of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He took the opportunity to talk about pediatrician Peter Hotez's warning that anti-vaccine campaigns will lead to serious outbreaks of measles. The segment of the program VCC was reacting to was an interview with Brendan Nyhan about the "backfire effect". +With Rebel News, Vaccine Choice Canada sponsored a June 2024 event billed as a "Reclaiming Canada" conference in Vancouver. The event featured alt-right YouTuber Lauren Southern, Jay Bhattacharya and VCC's President Ted Kuntz. + + +== See also == +Vaccine hesitancy +Science Moms + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..52128a3ca --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 1/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability and supporting evidence of effectivity. The term also includes accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain about their use or using certain vaccines but not others. Although adverse effects associated with vaccines are occasionally observed, the scientific consensus that vaccines are generally safe and effective is overwhelming. Vaccine hesitancy often results in disease outbreaks and deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases. Therefore, the World Health Organization characterizes vaccine hesitancy as one of the top ten global health threats. +Vaccine hesitancy is complex and context-specific, varying across time, place, and specific vaccine. It can be influenced by factors such as lack of proper scientific-based knowledge and understanding about how vaccines are made or work. Other psychological factors including fear of needles and distrust of public authorities, a person's lack of confidence (mistrust of the vaccine and/or healthcare provider), complacency (the person does not see a need for the vaccine or does not see the value of the vaccine), and convenience (access to vaccines). It has existed since the invention of vaccination and pre-dates the coining of the terms "vaccine" and "vaccination" by nearly eighty years. +Although myths, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and disinformation spread by the anti-vaccination movement and fringe doctors lead to vaccine hesitancy and public debates around the medical, ethical, and legal issues related to vaccines, there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. +Opposition to mandatory vaccination may be based on anti-vaccine sentiment, concern that it violates civil liberties, reduces public trust in vaccination, or suspicion of profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry. + +== Safety concerns == +As with any medical treatment, there is potential for vaccines to cause serious complications such as allergic reactions, but unlike other interventions, vaccines are given to healthy people and so require a higher safety standard. Serious complications are extremely rare and much less common than risks from diseases they prevent. As the success of immunization programs increases, public attention may shift away from the risks of disease to the risk of vaccination, undermining public support for vaccination programs. +The success of vaccinations has made certain diseases rare, and consequently led to incorrect heuristic thinking in weighing risks and benefits among the vaccine-hesitant. Once such diseases (e.g., Haemophilus influenzae B) decrease in prevalence, people may no longer appreciate how serious the illness is due to a lack of familiarity with it, and become complacent. The lack of personal experience with these diseases reduces the perceived danger and thus reduces the perceived benefit of immunization. Conversely, certain illnesses (e.g., influenza) remain so common that vaccine-hesitant people mistakenly perceive the illness to be non-threatening despite clear evidence that the illness poses a significant threat to human health. Omission and disconfirmation biases also contribute to vaccine hesitancy. +Concerns about immunization safety often follow a pattern. First, some investigators suggest that a medical condition of increasing prevalence or unknown cause is an adverse effect of vaccination. The initial study and subsequent studies by the same group have an inadequate methodology, typically a poorly controlled or uncontrolled case series. A premature announcement is made about the alleged adverse effect, resonating with individuals who have the condition, and underestimating the potential harm of forgoing vaccination to those whom the vaccine could protect. Other groups attempt to replicate the initial study but fail to get the same results. Finally, it takes several years to regain public confidence in the vaccine. Adverse effects ascribed to vaccines typically have an unknown origin, an increasing incidence, some biological plausibility, occurrences close to the time of vaccination, and dreaded outcomes. In almost all cases, the public health effect is limited by cultural boundaries: English speakers worry about one vaccine causing autism, while French speakers worry about another vaccine causing multiple sclerosis, and Nigerians worry that a third vaccine causes infertility. + +=== Ingredients concerns === + +==== Thiomersal ==== + +Thiomersal (called "thimerosal" in the US) is an antifungal preservative used in small amounts in some multi-dose vaccines (where the same vial is used for multiple patients) to prevent contamination. Thiomersal is metabolized or degraded by the body into ethylmercury (C2H5Hg+) and thiosalicylate. In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) asked vaccine makers to remove thiomersal from vaccines on the precautionary principle. Thiomersal has been cleared from all common U.S. and European vaccines, except for some preparations of influenza vaccine. Trace amounts remain in some vaccines due to production processes, at an approximate maximum of one microgramme, around 15% of the average daily mercury intake in the U.S. for adults and 2.5% of the daily amount considered tolerable by the WHO. The action sparked concern that thiomersal could have been responsible for autism. This is considered disproven, as incidence rates for autism increased steadily even after thiomersal was removed. There is no accepted scientific evidence that exposure to thiomersal is a factor in causing autism. Since 2000, parents in the United States have pursued legal compensation from a federal fund arguing that thiomersal caused autism in their children. A 2004 Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee favored rejecting any causal relationship between thiomersal-containing vaccines and autism. The concentration of thiomersal used in vaccines as an antimicrobial agent ranges from 0.001% (1 part in 100,000) to 0.01% (1 part in 10,000). A vaccine containing 0.01% thiomersal has 25 micrograms of mercury per 0.5 mL dose, roughly the same amount of elemental mercury found in a three-ounce (85 g) can of tuna. There is robust peer-reviewed scientific evidence supporting the safety of thiomersal-containing vaccines. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1f7cbb9cd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 2/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Formaldehyde ==== +Vaccine-hesitant people have also voiced concerns about the presence of formaldehyde in vaccines. Formaldehyde is used in small concentrations to inactivate viruses and bacterial toxins used in vaccines. Small amounts of residual formaldehyde can be present in vaccines but are far below values harmful to human health. The levels present in vaccines are minuscule when compared to naturally occurring levels of formaldehyde in the human body and pose no significant risk of toxicity. The human body continuously produces formaldehyde naturally and contains 50–70 times the greatest amount of formaldehyde present in any vaccine. Furthermore, the human body is capable of breaking down naturally occurring formaldehyde as well as the small amount of formaldehyde present in vaccines. There is no evidence linking the infrequent exposures to small quantities of formaldehyde present in vaccines with cancer. + +=== MMR vaccine === + +In the UK, the MMR vaccine was the subject of controversy after the publication in The Lancet of a 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield and others reporting case histories of twelve children mostly with autism spectrum disorders with onset soon after administration of the vaccine. At a 1998 press conference, Wakefield suggested that giving children the vaccines in three separate doses would be safer than a single vaccination. This was not supported by the paper, and several subsequent peer-reviewed studies failed to show any association between the vaccine and autism. It later emerged that Wakefield had received funding from litigants against vaccine manufacturers and that he had not informed colleagues or medical authorities of his conflict of interest: Wakefield reportedly stood to earn up to $43 million per year selling diagnostic kits. Had this been known, publication in The Lancet would not have taken place in the way that it did. Wakefield has been heavily criticized on scientific and ethical grounds for the way the research was conducted and for triggering a decline in vaccination rates, which fell in the UK to 80% in the years following the study. In 2004, the MMR-and-autism interpretation of the paper was formally retracted by ten of its thirteen coauthors, and in 2010 The Lancet's editors fully retracted the paper. Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register, with a statement identifying deliberate falsification in the research published in The Lancet, and is barred from practicing medicine in the UK. +The CDC, the IOM of the National Academy of Sciences, Australia's Department of Health, and the UK National Health Service have all concluded that there is no evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A Cochrane review (2012, updated in 2020) concluded that there is no credible link between the MMR vaccine and autism, that MMR has prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications, that supports their use for mass immunization, that the lack of confidence in MMR has damaged public health, and that the design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies are largely inadequate. Additional reviews agree, with studies finding that vaccines are not linked to autism even in high risk populations with autistic siblings. +In 2009, The Sunday Times reported that Wakefield had manipulated patient data and misreported results in his 1998 paper, creating the appearance of a link with autism. A 2011 article in the British Medical Journal described how the data in the study had been falsified by Wakefield so that it would arrive at a predetermined conclusion. An accompanying editorial in the same journal described Wakefield's work as an "elaborate fraud" that led to lower vaccination rates, putting hundreds of thousands of children at risk and diverting energy and money away from research into the true cause of autism. +A special court convened in the United States to review claims under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ruled on February 12, 2009, that the evidence "failed to demonstrate that thimerosal-containing vaccines can contribute to causing immune dysfunction, or that the MMR vaccine can contribute to causing either autism or gastrointestinal dysfunction", and that parents of autistic children were therefore not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused autism in their children. + +=== Vaccine overload === +Vaccine overload, a non-medical term, is the notion that administering many vaccines at once may overwhelm a child's immune system. The concept of vaccine overload is biologically implausible, as vaccinated and unvaccinated children have the same immune response to non-vaccine-related infections, and autism is not an immune-mediated disease. Claims that vaccines could overload the immune system go against current knowledge of the pathogenesis of autism. +Despite the increase in the number of vaccines over recent decades, improvements in vaccine design have reduced the immunologic load from vaccines; the total number of immunological components in the 14 vaccines administered to US children in 2009 is less than 10 percent of vaccines given in 1980. A study published in 2013 found no correlation between autism and the antigen number in the vaccines administered up to the age of two. There were 1,008 children in the study, one quarter of whom were diagnosed with autism, and the cohort was born between 1994 and 1999, when the routine vaccine schedule could contain more than 3,000 antigens (in a single shot of DTP vaccine). The vaccine schedule in 2012 contained several more vaccines, but the number of antigens was 315. Vaccines pose small immunologic load compared to the pathogens naturally encountered by children. Common childhood conditions such as fevers and middle-ear infections pose a much greater challenge to the immune system than vaccines, and studies have shown that vaccinations, even multiple concurrent vaccinations, do not weaken the immune system or compromise overall immunity. The lack of evidence supporting the vaccine overload hypothesis, combined with these findings directly contradicting it, has led to the conclusion that currently recommended vaccine programs do not "overload" or weaken the immune system. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-10.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-10.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f0c89f51d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-10.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 11/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +There was legitimate concern from supporters of vaccination about its safety and efficacy, but this was overshadowed by general condemnation, particularly when legislation started to introduce compulsory vaccination. The reason for this was that vaccination was introduced before laboratory methods were developed to control its production and account for its failures. Vaccine was maintained initially through arm-to-arm transfer and later through production on the skin of animals, and bacteriological sterility was impossible. Further, identification methods for potential pathogens were not available until the late 19th to early 20th century. Diseases later shown to be caused by contaminated vaccine included erysipelas, tuberculosis, tetanus, and syphilis. This last, though rare – estimated at 750 cases in 100 million vaccinations – attracted particular attention. Much later, Charles Creighton, a leading medical opponent of vaccination, claimed that the vaccine itself was a cause of syphilis and devoted a book to the subject. As cases of smallpox started to occur in those who had been vaccinated earlier, supporters of vaccination pointed out that these were usually very mild and occurred years after the vaccination. In turn, opponents of vaccination pointed out that this contradicted Jenner's belief that vaccination conferred complete protection. The views of opponents of vaccination that it was both dangerous and ineffective led to the development of determined anti-vaccination movements in England when legislation was introduced to make vaccination compulsory. + +==== England ==== + +Because of its greater risks, variolation was banned in England by the Vaccination Act 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 29), which also introduced free voluntary vaccination for infants. Thereafter Parliament passed successive acts to enact and enforce compulsory vaccination. The Vaccination Act 1853 (16 & 17 Vict. c. 100) introduced compulsory vaccination, with fines for non-compliance and imprisonment for non-payment. The Vaccination Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. 84) extended the age requirement to 14 years and introduced repeated fines for repeated refusal for the same child. Initially, vaccination regulations were organised by the local Poor Law Guardians, and in towns where there was strong opposition to vaccination, sympathetic guardians were elected who did not pursue prosecutions. This was changed by the Vaccination Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 98), which required guardians to act. This significantly changed the relationship between the government and the public, and organized protests increased. In Keighley, Yorkshire, in 1876 the guardians were arrested and briefly imprisoned in York Castle, prompting large demonstrations in support of the "Keighley Seven". The protest movements crossed social boundaries. The financial burden of fines fell hardest on the working class, who would provide the largest numbers at public demonstrations. Societies and publications were organized by the middle classes, and support came from celebrities such as George Bernard Shaw and Alfred Russel Wallace, doctors such as Charles Creighton and Edgar Crookshank, and parliamentarians such as Jacob Bright and James Allanson Picton. By 1885, with over 3,000 prosecutions pending in Leicester, a mass rally there was attended by over 20,000 protesters. +Under increasing pressure, the government appointed a Royal Commission on Vaccination in 1889, which issued six reports between 1892 and 1896, with a detailed summary in 1898. Its recommendations were incorporated into the Vaccination Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 49), which still required compulsory vaccination but allowed exemption on the grounds of conscientious objection on presentation of a certificate signed by two magistrates. These were not easy to obtain in towns where magistrates supported compulsory vaccination, and after continued protests, a further act in 1907 allowed exemption on a simple signed declaration. Although this solved the immediate problem, the compulsory vaccination acts remained legally enforceable, and determined opponents lobbied for their repeal. No Compulsory Vaccination was one of the demands of the 1900 Labour Party General Election Manifesto. This was done as a matter of routine when the National Health Service was introduced in 1948, with "almost negligible" opposition from supporters of compulsory vaccination. +Vaccination in Wales was covered by English legislation, but the Scottish legal system was separate. Vaccination was not made compulsory there until 1863, and a conscientious objection was allowed after vigorous protest only in 1907. +In the late 19th century, Leicester in the UK received much attention because of how smallpox was managed there. There was particularly strong opposition to compulsory vaccination, and medical authorities had to work within this framework. They developed a system that did not use vaccination but was based on the notification of cases, the strict isolation of patients and contacts, and the provision of isolation hospitals. This proved successful but required acceptance of compulsory isolation rather than vaccination. C. Killick Millard, initially, a supporter of compulsory vaccination was appointed Medical Officer of Health in 1901. He moderated his views on compulsion but encouraged contacts and his staff to accept vaccination. This approach, developed initially due to overwhelming opposition to government policy, became known as the Leicester Method. In time it became generally accepted as the most appropriate way to deal with smallpox outbreaks and was listed as one of the "important events in the history of smallpox control" by those most involved in the World Health Organization's successful Smallpox Eradication Campaign. The final stages of the campaign generally referred to as "surveillance containment", owed much to the Leicester method. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-11.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-11.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f0c38019f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-11.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 12/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== United States ==== +After an 1879 visit to New York by prominent British anti-vaccinationist William Tebb, The Anti-Vaccination Society of America was founded. The New England Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League formed in 1882, and the Anti-Vaccination League of New York City in 1885. Tactics in the US largely followed those used in England. Vaccination in the US was regulated by individual states, in which there followed a progression of compulsion, opposition, and repeal similar to that in England. Although generally organized on a state-by-state basis, the vaccination controversy reached the US Supreme Court in 1905. There, in the case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the court ruled that states have the authority to require vaccination against smallpox during a smallpox epidemic. +John Pitcairn, the wealthy founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now PPG Industries), emerged as a major financier and leader of the American anti-vaccination movement. On March 5, 1907, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he delivered an address to the Committee on Public Health and Sanitation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly criticizing vaccination. He later sponsored the National Anti-Vaccination Conference, which, held in Philadelphia in October 1908, led to the creation of The Anti-Vaccination League of America. When the league organized later that month, members chose Pitcairn as their first president. On December 1, 1911, Pitcairn was appointed by Pennsylvania Governor John K. Tener to the Pennsylvania State Vaccination Commission and subsequently authored a detailed report strongly opposing the commission's conclusions. He remained a staunch opponent of vaccination until his death in 1916. + +==== Brazil ==== +In November 1904, in response to years of inadequate sanitation and disease, followed by a poorly explained public health campaign led by the renowned Brazilian public health official Oswaldo Cruz, citizens and military cadets in Rio de Janeiro arose in a Revolta da Vacina, or Vaccine Revolt. Riots broke out on the day a vaccination law took effect; vaccination symbolized the most feared and most tangible aspect of a public health plan that included other features, such as urban renewal, that many had opposed for years. + +=== Later vaccines and antitoxins === +Opposition to smallpox vaccination continued into the 20th century and was joined by controversy over new vaccines and the introduction of antitoxin treatment for diphtheria. Injection of horse serum into humans as used in antitoxin can cause hypersensitivity, commonly referred to as serum sickness. Moreover, the continued production of the smallpox vaccine in animals and the production of antitoxins in horses prompted anti-vivisectionists to oppose vaccination. +Diphtheria antitoxin was serum from horses that had been immunized against diphtheria, and was used to treat human cases by providing passive immunity. In 1901, antitoxin from a horse named Jim was contaminated with tetanus and killed 13 children in St. Louis, Missouri. This incident, together with nine deaths from tetanus from contaminated smallpox vaccine in Camden, New Jersey, led directly and quickly to the passing of the Biologics Control Act in 1902. The Bundaberg tragedy of 1928 saw a diphtheria antitoxin contaminated with the Staph. aureus bacterium kill 12 children in Bundaberg, Australia, resulting in the suspension of local immunisation programs. +Robert Koch developed tuberculin in 1890. Inoculated into individuals who have had tuberculosis, it produces a hypersensitivity reaction and is still used to detect those who have been infected. However, Koch used tuberculin as a vaccine. This caused serious reactions and deaths in individuals whose latent tuberculosis was reactivated by the tuberculin. This was a major setback for supporters of new vaccines. Such incidents and others ensured that any untoward results concerning vaccination and related procedures received continued publicity, which grew as the number of new procedures increased. +In 1955, in a tragedy known as the Cutter incident, Cutter Laboratories produced 120,000 doses of the Salk polio vaccine that inadvertently contained some live poliovirus along with inactivated virus. This vaccine caused 40,000 cases of polio, 53 cases of paralysis, and five deaths. The disease spread through the recipients' families, creating a polio epidemic that led to a further 113 cases of paralytic polio and another five deaths. It was one of the worst pharmaceutical disasters in US history. +Later 20th-century events included the 1982 broadcast of DPT: Vaccine Roulette, which sparked debate over the DPT vaccine, and the 1998 publication of a fraudulent academic article by Andrew Wakefield which sparked the MMR vaccine controversy. Also recently, the HPV vaccine has become controversial due to concerns that it may encourage promiscuity when given to 11- and 12-year-old girls. +Arguments against vaccines in the 21st century are often similar to those of 19th-century anti-vaccinationists. Around 2014, anti-vaccine rhetoric shifted from being mostly scientific and medical arguments, such as the idea that vaccines were harming children, to political arguments, such as what David Broniatowski of George Washington University has called a "don't-tell-me-what-to-do freedom movement." At the same time, according to Renée DiResta, a researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory, anti-vaxxers began networking with Tea Party and Second Amendment activists in a "weird libertarian crossover". This happened partly due to anti-vaccine medical arguments failing to stop the passage of SB277 in California. + +==== COVID-19 ==== \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-12.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-12.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20a4b3170 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-12.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 13/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In mid-2020, surveys on whether people would be willing to take a potential COVID-19 vaccine estimated that 67% or 80% of people in the US would accept a new vaccination against COVID-19. +In the United Kingdom, a 16 November 2020 YouGov poll showed that 42% said they were very likely to take the vaccine and 25% were fairly likely (67% likely overall); 11% would be very unlikely and 10% fairly unlikely (21% unlikely overall) and 12% are unsure. There have been a number of reasons expressed why people might not wish to take COVID-19 vaccines, such as concerns over safety, self-perception of being "low risk", or questioning the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in particular. 8% of those reluctant to take it say it is because they oppose vaccinations overall; this amounts to just 2% of the British public. +A December 2020 Ipsos/World Economic Forum 15-country poll asked online respondents whether they agreed with the statement: "If a vaccine for COVID-19 were available, I would get it." Rates of agreement were smallest in France (40%), Russia (43%) and South Africa (53%). In the United States, 69% of those polled agreed with the statement; rates were even higher in Britain (77%) and China (80%). +A March 2021 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found the difference between white and black Americans to be within the margin of error, but 47% of Trump supporters said they would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 30% of all adults. +In May 2021, a report titled "Global attitudes towards a COVID-19 vaccine" from the Institute of Global Health Innovation and Imperial College London, which included detailed survey data from March to May 2021 including survey data from 15 countries Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and the US. It found that in 13 of the 15 countries more than 50% of people were confident in COVID-19 vaccines. In the UK 87% of survey respondents said they trusted the vaccines, which showed a significant increase in confidence following earlier less reliable polls. The survey also found trust in different vaccine brands varied, with the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine being the most trusted across all age groups in most countries and particularly the most trusted for under 65s. +A January 2022 report from Time magazine noted that the anti-vaccine movement "has repositioned itself as an opposition to mandates and government overreach." A May 2022 report from The New York Times noted that "A wave of parents has been radicalized by Covid-era misinformation to reject ordinary childhood immunizations—with potentially lethal consequences." + +=== Events following reductions in vaccination === + +In several countries, reductions in the use of some vaccines were followed by increases in the diseases' morbidity and mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, continued high levels of vaccine coverage are necessary to prevent a resurgence of diseases that have been nearly eliminated. Pertussis remains a major health problem in developing countries, where mass vaccination is not practiced; the World Health Organization estimates it caused 294,000 deaths in 2002. Vaccine hesitancy has contributed to the resurgence of preventable disease. For example, in 2019, the number of measles cases increased by thirty percent worldwide and many cases occurred in countries that had nearly eliminated measles. + +==== Stockholm, smallpox (1873–74) ==== +An anti-vaccination campaign motivated by religious objections, concerns about effectiveness, and concerns about individual rights led to the vaccination rate in Stockholm dropping to just over 40%, compared to about 90% elsewhere in Sweden. A major smallpox epidemic began there in 1873. It led to a rise in vaccine uptake and an end of the epidemic. + +==== UK, pertussis (1970s–80s) ==== +In a 1974 report ascribing 36 reactions to whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine, a prominent public-health academic claimed that the vaccine was only marginally effective and questioned whether its benefits outweigh its risks, and extended television and press coverage caused a scare. Vaccine uptake in the UK decreased from 81% to 31%, and pertussis epidemics followed, leading to the deaths of some children. The mainstream medical opinion continued to support the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine; public confidence was restored after the publication of a national reassessment of vaccine efficacy. Vaccine uptake then increased to levels above 90%, and disease incidence declined dramatically. + +==== Sweden, pertussis (1979–96) ==== +In the vaccination moratorium period that occurred when Sweden suspended vaccination against whooping cough (pertussis) from 1979 to 1996, 60% of the country's children contracted the disease before the age of 10; close medical monitoring kept the death rate from whooping cough at about one per year. + +==== Netherlands, measles (1999–2000) ==== +An outbreak at a religious community and school in the Netherlands resulted in three deaths and 68 hospitalizations among 2,961 cases. The population in the several provinces affected had a high level of immunization, with the exception of one of the religious denominations, which traditionally does not accept vaccination. Ninety-five percent of those who contracted measles were unvaccinated. + +==== UK and Ireland, measles (2000) ==== +As a result of the MMR vaccine controversy, vaccination rates dropped sharply in the United Kingdom after 1996. From late 1999 until the summer of 2000, there was a measles outbreak in North Dublin, Ireland. At the time, the national immunization level had fallen below 80%, and in parts of North Dublin the level was around 60%. There were more than 100 hospital admissions from over 300 cases. Three children died and several more were gravely ill, some requiring mechanical ventilation to recover. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-13.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-13.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..96e2e8f56 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-13.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 14/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Nigeria, polio, measles, diphtheria (2001–) ==== +In the early first decade of the 21st century, conservative religious leaders in northern Nigeria, suspicious of Western medicine, advised their followers not to have their children vaccinated with the oral polio vaccine. The boycott was endorsed by the governor of Kano State, and immunization was suspended for several months. Subsequently, polio reappeared in a dozen formerly polio-free neighbors of Nigeria, and genetic tests showed the virus was the same one that originated in northern Nigeria. Nigeria had become a net exporter of the poliovirus to its African neighbors. People in the northern states were also reported to be wary of other vaccinations, and Nigeria reported over 20,000 measles cases and nearly 600 deaths from measles from January through March 2005. In Northern Nigeria, it is a common belief that vaccination is a strategy created by the westerners to reduce the Northerners' population. As a result of this belief, a large number of Northerners reject vaccination. In 2006, Nigeria accounted for over half of all new polio cases worldwide. Outbreaks continued thereafter; for example, at least 200 children died in a late-2007 measles outbreak in Borno State. + +==== United States, measles (2005–) ==== +In 2000, measles was declared eliminated from the United States because the internal transmission had been interrupted for one year; the remaining reported cases were due to importation. +A 2005 measles outbreak in the US state of Indiana was attributed to parents who had refused to have their children vaccinated. + +The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the three biggest outbreaks of measles in 2013 were attributed to clusters of people who were unvaccinated due to their philosophical or religious beliefs. As of August 2013, three pockets of outbreak – New York City, North Carolina, and Texas – contributed to 64% of the 159 cases of measles reported in 16 states. +The number of cases in 2014 quadrupled to 644, including transmission by unvaccinated visitors to Disneyland in California, during the Disneyland measles outbreak. Some 97% of cases in the first half of the year were confirmed to be due directly or indirectly to importation (the remainder were unknown), and 49% from the Philippines. More than half the patients (165 out of 288, or 57%) during that time were confirmed to be unvaccinated by choice; 30 (10%) were confirmed to have been vaccinated. The final count of measles in 2014 was 668 cases in 27 states. +From January 1 to June 26, 2015, 178 people from 24 states and the District of Columbia were reported to have measles. Most of these cases (117 cases [66%]) were part of a large multi-state outbreak linked to Disneyland in California, continued from 2014. Analysis by the CDC scientists showed that the measles virus type in this outbreak (B3) was identical to the virus type that caused the large measles outbreak in the Philippines in 2014. On July 2, 2015, the first confirmed death from measles in twelve years was recorded. An immunocompromised woman in Washington State was infected and later died of pneumonia due to measles. +By July 2016, a three-month measles outbreak affecting at least 22 people was spread by unvaccinated employees of the Eloy, Arizona detention center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility owned by for-profit prison operator CoreCivic. Pinal County's health director presumed the outbreak likely originated with a migrant, but detainees had since received vaccinations. However convincing CoreCivic's employees to become vaccinated or demonstrate proof of immunity was much more difficult, he said. +In spring 2017, a measles outbreak occurred in Minnesota. As of June 16, 78 cases of measles had been confirmed in the state, 71 were unvaccinated and 65 were Somali-Americans. The outbreak has been attributed to low vaccination rates among Somali-American children, which can be traced back to 2008, when Somali parents began to express concern about disproportionately high numbers of Somali preschoolers in special education classes who were receiving services for autism spectrum disorder. Around the same time, disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield visited Minneapolis, teaming up with anti-vaccine groups to raise concerns that vaccines were the cause of autism, despite the fact that multiple studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism. +From fall 2018 to early 2019, New York State experienced an outbreak of over 200 confirmed measles cases. Many of these cases were attributed to ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities with low vaccination rates in areas within Brooklyn and Rockland County. State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker stated that this was the worst outbreak of measles in his recent memory. +In January 2019, Washington state reported an outbreak of at least 73 confirmed cases of measles, most within Clark County, which has a higher rate of vaccination exemptions compared to the rest of the state. This led state governor Jay Inslee to declare a state of emergency, and the state's congress to introduce legislation to disallow vaccination exemption for personal or philosophical reasons. + +==== Wales, measles (2013–) ==== + +In 2013, an outbreak of measles occurred in the Welsh city of Swansea. One death was reported. Some estimates indicate that while MMR uptake for two-year-olds was at 94% in Wales in 1995, it had fallen to as low as 67.5% in Swansea by 2003, meaning the region had a "vulnerable" age group. This has been linked to the MMR vaccine controversy, which caused a significant number of parents to fear allowing their children to receive the MMR vaccine. June 5, 2017, saw a new measles outbreak in Wales, at Lliswerry High School in the town of Newport. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-14.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-14.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ab9fe4b76 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-14.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 15/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== United States, tetanus ==== +Most cases of pediatric tetanus in the U.S. occur in unvaccinated children. In Oregon, in 2017, an unvaccinated boy had a scalp wound that his parents sutured themselves. Later the boy arrived at a hospital with tetanus. He spent 47 days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and 57 total days in the hospital, for $811,929, not including the cost of airlifting him to the Oregon Health and Science University, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, or the subsequent two and a half weeks of inpatient rehabilitation he required. Despite this, his parents declined the administration of subsequent tetanus boosters or other vaccinations. + +==== Romania, measles (2016–present) ==== + +As of September 2017, a measles epidemic was ongoing across Europe, especially Eastern Europe. In Romania, there were about 9300 cases, and 34 people (all unvaccinated) had died. This was preceded by a 2008 controversy regarding the HPV vaccine. In 2012, doctor Christa Todea-Gross published a free downloadable book online, this book contained misinformation about vaccination from abroad translated into Romanian, which significantly stimulated the growth of the anti-vaccine movement. The government of Romania officially declared a measles epidemic in September 2016 and started an information campaign to encourage parents to have their children vaccinated. By February 2017, however, the stockpile of MMR vaccines was depleted, and doctors were overburdened. Around April, the vaccine stockpile had been restored. By March 2019, the death toll had risen to 62, with 15,981 cases reported. + +==== Samoa, measles (2019) ==== + +The 2019 Samoa measles outbreak began in October 2019 and as of December 12, there were 4,995 confirmed cases of measles and 72 deaths, out of a Samoan population of 201,316. A state of emergency was declared on November 17, ordering all schools to be closed, barring children under 17 from public events, and making vaccination mandatory. UNICEF has sent 110,500 vaccines to Samoa. Tonga and Fiji have also declared states of emergency. +The outbreak has been attributed to a sharp drop in measles vaccination from the previous year, following an incident in 2018 when two infants died shortly after receiving measles vaccinations, which led the country to suspend its measles vaccination program. The reason for the two infants' deaths was incorrect preparation of the vaccine by two nurses who mixed vaccine powder with expired anesthetic. As of November 30, more than 50,000 people were vaccinated by the government of Samoa. + +=== 2019–2020 measles outbreaks === + +== See also == + +Chemophobia +COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy +Measles resurgence in the United States +Vaccine misinformation +Therapeutic nihilism +Vaccine shedding + +== References == + +== Further reading == + +== External links == + +"Immunizations, vaccines and biologicals". World Health Organization. +"Vaccines & immunizations". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. September 4, 2018. +The Vaccine War. Frontline. April 27, 2010. PBS. +Institute of Global Health Innovation (May 2021). "Global attitudes towards a COVID-19 vaccine" (PDF). Imperial College London. Covid Data Hub. +"Vaccine Education Center". Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. November 19, 2014. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..98f897241 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 3/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Prenatal infection === +Based on studies in animal models, theoretical concerns have been raised about a possible link between schizophrenia and maternal immune response activated by virus antigens. A 2009 review concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of trivalent influenza vaccine during the first trimester of pregnancy, but that the vaccine was still recommended outside the first trimester and in special circumstances such as pandemics or in women with certain other conditions. The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians all recommend routine flu shots for pregnant women based on the risk for serious influenza-related complications, greater rates for flu-related hospitalizations compared to non-pregnant women, the possible transfer of maternal anti-influenza antibodies, and several studies failing to find harm to pregnant women or their children from the vaccinations. Despite this recommendation, only 16% of healthy pregnant US women surveyed in 2005 had been vaccinated against the flu. + +=== Sudden infant death syndrome === +Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is most common in infants around the time in life when they receive many vaccinations. Since the cause of SIDS has not been fully determined, this led to concerns about whether vaccines, in particular diphtheria-tetanus toxoid vaccines, were a possible causal factor. Several studies investigated this and found no evidence supporting a causal link between vaccination and SIDS. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine favored rejection of a causal link to DTwP vaccination and SIDS after reviewing the available evidence. Additional analyses of VAERS data also showed no relationship between vaccination and SIDS. Studies have shown a negative correlation between SIDs and vaccination. That is vaccinated children are less likely to die but no causal link has been found. One suggestion is that infants who are less likely to develop SIDS are more likely to be presented for vaccination. + +=== Anthrax vaccines === +In the mid-1990s media reports on vaccines discussed the Gulf War Syndrome, a multi-symptomatic disorder affecting returning US military veterans of the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War. Among the first articles of the online magazine Slate was one by Atul Gawande in which the required immunizations received by soldiers, including an anthrax vaccination, were named as one of the likely culprits for the symptoms associated with the Gulf War Syndrome. In the late 1990s Slate published an article on the "brewing rebellion" in the military against anthrax immunization because of "the availability to soldiers of vaccine misinformation on the Internet". Slate continued to report on concerns about the required anthrax and smallpox immunization for US troops after the September 11 attacks and articles on the subject also appeared on the Salon website. The 2001 anthrax attacks heightened concerns about bioterrorism and the Federal government of the United States stepped up its efforts to store and create more vaccines for American citizens. In 2002, Mother Jones published an article that was highly skeptical of the anthrax and smallpox immunization required by the United States Armed Forces. With the 2003 invasion of Iraq a wider controversy ensued in the media about requiring US troops to be vaccinated against anthrax. From 2003 to 2008 a series of court cases were brought to oppose the compulsory anthrax vaccination of US troops. + +=== Swine flu vaccine === + +The U.S. swine flu immunization campaign in response to the 1976 swine flu outbreak has become known as "the swine flu fiasco" because the outbreak did not lead to a pandemic as U.S. President Gerald Ford had feared, and the hastily rolled out vaccine was found to increase the number of Guillain–Barré Syndrome cases two weeks after immunization. Government officials stopped the mass immunization campaign due to great anxiety about the safety of the swine flu vaccine. The general public was left with greater fear of the vaccination campaign than the virus itself, and vaccination policies, in general, were challenged. +During the 2009 flu pandemic, significant controversy broke out regarding whether the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine was safe in, among other countries, France. Numerous different French groups publicly criticized the vaccine as potentially dangerous. Because of similarities between the 2009 influenza A subtype H1N1 virus and the 1976 influenza A/NJ virus many countries established surveillance systems for vaccine-related adverse effects on human health. A possible link between the 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine and Guillain–Barré Syndrome cases was studied in Europe and the United States. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0ec72b8f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 4/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Blood transfusion === +After the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine hesitant people have at times demanded that they get donor blood from donors that have not received the vaccine. In the US and Canada, blood centers do not keep data on whether a donor has been COVID-19 infected or vaccinated, and in August 2021 it was estimated that 60-70% of US blood donors had COVID-19 antibodies. Research director Timothy Caulfield said that "This really highlights, I think, how powerful misinformation can be. It can really have an impact in a way that can be dangerous ... There is no evidence to support these concerns." The British Journal of Haematology called the trend "alarming" in 2021. The chief medical officer of ImpactLife said the same year that accepting such a demand "would be an operational can of worms for a medically unjustifiable request". +As of August 2021, such demands were rare in the US. As of 2024, the numbers are increasing. Doctors in Alberta, Canada, warned in November 2022 that the demands were becoming more common. The Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) and the Canadian Blood Services have both issued guidance on how to respond to such demands. +In Italy and New Zealand, parents have gone to court to stop their children's urgent heart surgery, unless COVID-19 vaccine free blood was provided. In both cases the parents were ruled against, though they stated that they could provide willing donors they found acceptable. The New Zealand Blood Service does not label blood according to the donor's COVID-19 vaccine history, and as of 2022, about 90% of New Zealand's population over twelve years of age has had two COVID-19 vaccinations. In another Italian case, a blood transfusion for a sick 90-year-old man was refused by his two daughters, due to vaccine hesitancy concerns. Another New Zealand couple stated that they were trying to arrange their child to have her next heart surgery in India, to avoid her being given blood from COVID-19 vaccinated donors. + +=== Other safety concerns === +Other safety concerns about vaccines have been promoted on the Internet, in informal meetings, in books, and at symposia. These include hypotheses that vaccination can cause epileptic seizures, allergies, multiple sclerosis, and autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, as well as hypotheses that vaccinations can transmit bovine spongiform encephalopathy, hepatitis C virus, and HIV. These hypotheses have been investigated, with the conclusion that currently used vaccines meet high safety standards and that criticism of vaccine safety in the popular press is not justified. Large well-controlled epidemiologic studies have been conducted and the results do not support the hypothesis that vaccines cause chronic diseases. Furthermore, some vaccines are probably more likely to prevent or modify than cause or exacerbate autoimmune diseases. +Another common concern parents often have is about the pain associated with administering vaccines during a doctor's office visit. This may lead to parental requests to space out vaccinations; however, studies have shown a child's stress response is not different when receiving one vaccination or two. The act of spacing out vaccinations may actually lead to more stressful stimuli for the child. + +== Vaccine myths and misinformation == +Several vaccination myths contribute to parental concerns and vaccine hesitancy. These include the alleged superiority of natural infection when compared to vaccination, questioning whether the diseases vaccines prevent are dangerous, whether vaccines pose moral or religious dilemmas, suggesting that vaccines are not effective, proposing unproven or ineffective approaches as alternatives to vaccines, and conspiracy theories that center on mistrust of the government and medical institutions. +Nevertheless, despite a major measles outbreak in the United States Southwest which began February 2025 in an area of Texas with low measles immunization rates—perhaps due in part to vaccine misinformation—in March of 2025, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, under the direction of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., abruptly cancelled funding for over 40 research grants studying vaccine hesitancy. + +=== Autism === + +The idea of a link between vaccines and autism has been extensively investigated and conclusively shown to be false. The scientific consensus is that there is no relationship, causal or otherwise, between vaccines and incidence of autism, and vaccine ingredients do not cause autism. +Nevertheless, the anti-vaccination movement continues to promote myths, conspiracy theories, and misinformation linking the two. A developing tactic described by Skeptical Inquirer appears to be the "promotion of irrelevant research [as] an active aggregation of several questionable or peripherally related research studies in an attempt to justify the science underlying a questionable claim". + +=== Vaccination during illness === +Many parents are concerned about the safety of vaccination when their child is sick. Moderate to severe acute illness with or without a fever is indeed a precaution when considering vaccination. Vaccines remain effective during childhood illness. The reason vaccines may be withheld if a child is moderately to severely ill is because certain expected side effects of vaccination (e.g. fever or rash) may be confused with the progression of the illness. It is safe to administer vaccines to well-appearing children who are mildly ill with the common cold. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3da0d7a54 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 5/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Natural infection === +Another common anti-vaccine myth is that the immune system produces a better immune protection in response to natural infection when compared to vaccination. However, strength and duration of immune protection gained varies by both disease and vaccine, with some vaccines giving better protection than natural infection. For example, the HPV vaccine generates better immune protection than natural infection due to the vaccine containing higher concentrations of a viral coat protein, while also not containing proteins the HPV viruses use to inhibit immune response. +While it is true that infection with certain illnesses may produce lifelong immunity, many natural infections do not produce lifelong immunity, while carrying a higher risk of harming a person's health than vaccines. For example, natural varicella infection carries a higher risk of bacterial superinfection with Group A streptococci. +Natural measles infection carries a high risk of many serious, and sometimes life-long, complications, all of which can be avoided by vaccination. Those infected with measles rarely have a symptomatic reinfection. +Most people survive measles, though in some cases, complications may occur. Among those that experience complications, about 1 in 4 individuals will be hospitalized and 1–2 in 1000 will die. Complications are more likely in children under age 5 and adults over age 20. Pneumonia is the most common fatal complication of measles infection and accounts for 56–86% of measles-related deaths. +Possible consequences of measles virus infection include laryngotracheobronchitis, sensorineural hearing loss, and—in about 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 300,000 cases—panencephalitis, which is usually fatal. Acute measles encephalitis is another serious risk of measles virus infection. It typically occurs two days to one week after the measles rash breaks out and begins with very high fever, severe headache, convulsions and altered mentation. A person with measles encephalitis may become comatose, and death or brain injury may occur. +The measles virus can deplete previously acquired immune memory by killing cells that make antibodies, and thus weakens the immune system which can cause deaths from other diseases. Suppression of the immune system by measles lasts about two years and has been epidemiologically implicated in up to 90% of childhood deaths in third world countries, and historically may have caused rather more deaths in the United States, the UK and Denmark than were directly caused by measles. Although the measles vaccine contains an attenuated strain, it does not deplete immune memory. + +=== HPV vaccine === +The idea that the HPV vaccine is linked to increased sexual behavior is not supported by scientific evidence. A review of nearly 1,400 adolescent girls found no difference in teen pregnancy, the incidence of sexually transmitted infection, or contraceptive counseling regardless of whether they received the HPV vaccine. Thousands of Americans die each year from cancers preventable by the vaccine. +There remains a disproportionate rate of HPV-related cancers amongst LatinX populations, leading researchers to explore how messaging may be made more effective to address vaccine hesitancy. + +=== Vaccine schedule === +Other concerns have been raised about the vaccine schedule recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The immunization schedule is designed to protect children against preventable diseases when they are most vulnerable. The practice of delaying or spacing out these vaccinations increases the amount of time the child is susceptible to these illnesses. Receiving vaccines on the schedule recommended by the ACIP is not linked to autism or developmental delay. + +=== Information warfare === +An analysis of tweets from July 2014 through September 2017 revealed an active campaign on Twitter by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll farm accused of interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, to sow discord about the safety of vaccines. The campaign used sophisticated Twitter bots to amplify polarizing pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine messages, containing the hashtag #VaccinateUS, posted by IRA trolls. +Throughout 2020 and 2021, the United States ran a propaganda campaign to spread disinformation about the Sinovac Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, including using fake social media accounts to spread the disinformation that the Sinovac vaccine contained pork-derived ingredients and was therefore haram under Islamic law. The campaign primarily targeted people in the Philippines and used a social media hashtag for "China is the virus" in Tagalog. + +=== Sanitation === +There is anti-vaccine literature that argues that reductions in infectious disease result from improved sanitation and hygiene (rather than vaccination) or that these diseases were already in decline before the introduction of specific vaccines. These claims are not supported by scientific data; the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases tended to fluctuate over time until the introduction of specific vaccines, at which point the incidence dropped to near zero. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website aimed at countering common misconceptions about vaccines argued, "Are we expected to believe that better sanitation caused the incidence of each disease to drop, just at the time a vaccine for that disease was introduced?" + +== Alternative medicine == + +Many forms of alternative medicine are based on philosophies that oppose vaccination (including germ theory denialism) and have practitioners who voice their opposition. As a consequence, the increase in popularity of alternative medicine in the 1970s planted the seeds of the modern anti-vaccination movement. More specifically, some elements of the chiropractic community, some homeopaths, and naturopaths developed anti-vaccine rhetoric. The reasons for this negative vaccination view are complicated and rest at least in part on the early philosophies that shaped the foundation of these groups. + +=== Chiropractic === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6d2747d68 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 6/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Historically, chiropractic strongly opposed vaccination based on its belief that all diseases were traceable to so-called "vertebral subluxations" in the spine and therefore could not be affected by vaccines. Daniel D. Palmer (1845–1913), the founder of chiropractic, wrote: "It is the very height of absurdity to strive to 'protect' any person from smallpox or any other malady by inoculating them with a filthy animal poison." Vaccination remains controversial within the profession. Most chiropractic writings on vaccination focus on its negative aspects. A 1995 survey of US chiropractors found that about one third believed there was no scientific proof that immunization prevents disease. While the Canadian Chiropractic Association supports vaccination, a survey in Alberta in 2002 found that 25% of chiropractors advised patients for, and 27% advised against, vaccinations for patients or for their children. +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. 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". + +==== Policy positions ==== +The American Chiropractic Association and the International Chiropractic Association support individual exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws. In March 2015, the Oregon Chiropractic Association invited Andrew Wakefield, chief author of a fraudulent research paper, to testify against Senate Bill 442, "a bill that would eliminate nonmedical exemptions from Oregon's school immunization law". 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. + +=== Homeopathy === + +Several surveys have shown that some practitioners of homeopathy, particularly homeopaths without any medical training, advise patients against vaccination. For example, a survey of registered homeopaths in Austria found that only 28% considered immunization an important preventive measure, and 83% of homeopaths surveyed in Sydney, Australia, did not recommend vaccination. Many practitioners of naturopathy also oppose vaccination. +Homeopathic "vaccines" (nosodes) are ineffective because they do not contain any active ingredients and thus do not stimulate the immune system. They can be dangerous if they take the place of effective treatments. Some medical organizations have taken action against nosodes. In Canada, the labeling of homeopathic nosodes require the statement: "This product is neither a vaccine nor an alternative to vaccination." + +=== Financial motives === +Alternative medicine proponents gain from promoting vaccine conspiracy theories through the sale of ineffective and expensive medications, supplements, and procedures such as chelation therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, sold as able to cure the 'damage' caused by vaccines. Homeopaths in particular gain through the promotion of water injections or 'nosodes' that they allege have a 'natural' vaccine-like effect. Additional bodies with a vested interest in promoting the "unsafeness" of vaccines may include lawyers and legal groups organizing court cases and class action lawsuits against vaccine providers. +Conversely, alternative medicine providers have accused the vaccine industry of misrepresenting the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, covering up and suppressing information, and influencing health policy decisions for financial gain. In the late 20th century, vaccines were a product with low profit margins, and the number of companies involved in vaccine manufacture declined. In addition to low profits and liability risks, manufacturers complained about low prices paid for vaccines by the CDC and other US government agencies. In the early 21st century, the vaccine market greatly improved with the approval of the vaccine Prevnar, along with a small number of other high-priced blockbuster vaccines, such as Gardasil and Pediarix, which each had sales revenues of over $1 billion in 2008. Despite high growth rates, vaccines represent a relatively small portion of overall pharmaceutical profits. As recently as 2010, the World Health Organization estimated vaccines to represent 2–3% of total sales for the pharmaceutical industry. + +== Psychological factors == +The rise in vaccine hesitancy has led to research on the psychology of those who actively oppose vaccines. The largest psychological factors leading to anti-vaccination attitudes are conspiratorial thinking, reactance, disgust regarding blood or needles, and individualistic or hierarchical worldviews. In contrast, demographic variables are not significant. +Researchers have also investigated the psychological roots of vaccine hesitancy with regard to specific vaccines. For instance, a 2021 study published in Nature Communications investigated psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the UK. The study found that vaccine hesitant or resistant respondents in the two countries varied across socio-demographic and health-related variables, however, they were similar in range of psychological factors. Such respondents were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from authoritative and traditional media sources and demonstrated similar skepticism towards these sources compared to respondents who accepted the vaccine. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4c217a5f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 7/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Fear of needles === +Blood-injection-injury phobia and general fear of needles and injections can lead people to avoid vaccinations. One survey conducted in January and February 2021 estimated this was responsible for 10% of the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK at the time. A 2012 survey of American parents found that a fear of needles was the most common reason for adolescents to forgo their second dose of a HPV vaccine. +Various treatments for fear of needles can help overcome this problem, from offering pain reduction at the time of injection to long-term behavioral therapy. Tensing the stomach muscles can help avoid fainting, swearing can reduce perceived pain, and distraction can also improve the perceived experience, such as by pretending to cough, performing a visual task, watching a video, or playing a video game. +To avoid dissuading people who have a needle phobia, vaccine update researchers recommend against using pictures of needles, people getting an injection, or faces displaying negative emotions (like a crying baby) in promotional materials. Instead, they recommend medically accurate photos depicting smiling, diverse people with bandages, vaccination cards, or a rolled-up sleeve; depicting vials instead of needles; and depicting the people who develop and test vaccines. Development of vaccines that can be administered orally or with a jet injector can also avoid triggering the fear of needles. + +== Social and political == +Beyond misinformation, social and economic conditions also influence how many people take vaccines. Factors such as income, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, age, and education can determine the uptake of vaccines and their impact, especially among vulnerable communities. +Social factors like whether one lives with others may affect vaccine uptake. For example, older individuals who live alone are much more likely not to take up vaccines compared to those living with other people. Other factors may be racial, with minority groups being affected by low vaccine uptake. +People with weaker immune systems or chronic illness are more likely to take up a vaccine if recommended by their physicians. +Politicization of medicine was found associated with vaccine hesitancy. + +== Malpractice and fraud == + +=== Unethical human experimentation and medical racism === +Some people in groups experiencing medical racism are less willing to trust doctors and modern medicine due to real historical incidents of unethical human experimentation and involuntary sterilization. Famous examples include drug trials in Africa without informed consent, the Guatemala syphilis experiments, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the culturing of cells from Henrietta Lacks without consent, and Nazi human experimentation. +To overcome this type of distrust, experts recommend including representative samples of majority and minority populations in drug trials, including minority groups in study design, being diligent about informed consent, and being transparent about the process of drug design and testing. + +=== CIA fake vaccination clinic === + +In Pakistan, the CIA ran a fake vaccination clinic in an attempt to locate Osama bin Laden. As a direct consequence, there have been several attacks and deaths among vaccination workers. Several Islamist preachers and militant groups, including some factions of the Taliban, view vaccination as a plot to kill or sterilize Muslims. Efforts to eradicate polio have furthermore been disrupted by American drone strikes. Pakistan is among the only countries where polio remained endemic as of 2015. + +=== Fake COVID-19 vaccines === +In July 2021, Indian police arrested 14 people for administering doses of saline solution instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine at nearly a dozen private vaccination sites in Mumbai. The organizers, including medical professionals, charged between $10 and $17 for each dose, and more than 2,600 people paid to receive what they thought was the vaccine. The federal government downplayed the scandal, claiming these cases were isolated. McAfee stated India was among the top countries to have been targeted by fake apps to lure people with a promise of vaccines. +In Bhopal, slum residents were misled into thinking they would get an approved COVID-19 vaccine, but instead were actually part of an experimental clinical trial for the domestic vaccine Covaxin. Only 50% of participants in the trials received a vaccine with the rest receiving a placebo. One participant stated, "...I didn't know that there was a possibility you could get a water shot." + +== Religion == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2bc8572d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 8/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Since most religions predate the invention of vaccines, scriptures do not specifically address the topic of vaccination. However, vaccination has been opposed by some on religious grounds ever since it was first introduced. When vaccination was first becoming widespread, some Christian opponents argued that preventing smallpox deaths would be thwarting God's will and that such prevention is sinful. Opposition from some religious groups continues to the present day, on various grounds, raising ethical difficulties when the number of unvaccinated children threatens harm to the entire population. Many governments allow parents to opt out of their children's otherwise mandatory vaccinations for religious reasons; some parents falsely claim religious beliefs to get vaccination exemptions. +Many Jewish community leaders support vaccination. Among early Hasidic leaders, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810) was known for his criticism of the doctors and medical treatments of his day. However, when the first vaccines were successfully introduced, he stated: "Every parent should have his children vaccinated within the first three months of life. Failure to do so is tantamount to murder. Even if they live far from the city and have to travel during the great winter cold, they should have the child vaccinated before three months." +Although gelatin can be derived from many animals, Jewish and Islamic scholars have determined that since the gelatin is cooked and not consumed as food, vaccinations containing gelatin are acceptable. However, in 2015 and again in 2020, the possible use of porcine-based gelatin in vaccines raised religious concerns among Muslims and Orthodox Jews about the halal or kosher status of several vaccinations against COVID-19. The Muslim Council of Britain raised concern about the UK's intranasal influenza vaccine deployment in 2019 due to the presence of gelatin in the vaccine. The MCB subsequently clarified that it never advised against the vaccine, it did not have any religious authority to issue a fatwa on the matter, and that vaccines containing porcine gelatin are generally not considered haram if alternatives are unavailable (the injectable flu vaccine was also offered in Scotland, but not England). +In India, in 2018, a three-minute doctored clip circulated among Muslims claiming that the MR-VAC vaccine against measles and rubella was a "Modi government-RSS conspiracy" to stop the population growth of Muslims. The clip was taken from a TV show that exposed the baseless rumors. Hundreds of madrassas in the state of Uttar Pradesh refused permission to health department teams to administer vaccines because of rumors spread using WhatsApp. +Some Christians have objected to the use of cell cultures of some viral vaccines, and the virus of the rubella vaccine, on the grounds that they are derived from tissues taken from therapeutic abortions performed in the 1960s. The principle of double effect, originated by Thomas Aquinas, holds that actions with both good and bad consequences are morally acceptable in specific circumstances. The Vatican Curia has said that for vaccines originating from embryonic cells, Catholics have "a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection", but concluded that it is acceptable for Catholics to use the existing vaccines until an alternative becomes available. +In the United States, some parents falsely claim religious exemptions when their real motivation for avoiding vaccines is supposed safety concerns. For a number of years, only Mississippi, West Virginia, and California did not provide religious exemptions. Following the 2019 measles outbreaks, Maine and New York repealed their religious exemptions, and the state of Washington did so for the measles vaccination. +According to a March 2021 poll conducted by The Associated Press/NORC, vaccine skepticism is more widespread among white evangelicals than most other blocs of Americans. Forty percent of white evangelical Protestants said they were not likely to get vaccinated against COVID-19. That compares with 25% of all Americans, 28% of white mainline Protestants and 27% of nonwhite Protestants. + +== Geographical distribution == + +Vaccine hesitancy is becoming an increasing concern, particularly in industrialized nations. For example, one study surveying parents in Europe found that 12–28% of surveyed parents expressed doubts about vaccinating their children. Several studies have assessed socioeconomic and cultural factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. Both high and low socioeconomic status as well as high and low education levels have all been associated with vaccine hesitancy in different populations. Other studies examining various populations around the world in different countries found that both high and low socioeconomic status are associated with vaccine hesitancy. + +=== Australia === +An Australian study that examined the factors associated with vaccine attitudes and uptake separately found that under-vaccination correlated with lower socioeconomic status but not with negative attitudes towards vaccines. The researchers suggested that practical barriers are more likely to explain under-vaccination among individuals with lower socioeconomic status. A 2012 Australian study found that 52% of parents had concerns about the safety of vaccines. +During the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy reportedly was spreading in remote Indigenous communities, where people are typically poorer and less educated. + +=== Europe === +Confidence in vaccines varies over place and time and among different vaccines. The Vaccine Confidence Project in 2016 found that confidence was lower in Europe than in the rest of the world. Refusal of the MMR vaccine has increased in twelve European states since 2010. The project published a report in 2018 assessing vaccine hesitancy among the public in all the 28 EU member states and among general practitioners in ten of them. Younger adults in the survey had less confidence than older people. Confidence had risen in France, Greece, Italy, and Slovenia since 2015 but had fallen in the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, and Sweden. 36% of the GPs surveyed in the Czech Republic and 25% of those in Slovakia did not agree that the MMR vaccine was safe. Most of the GPs did not recommend the seasonal influenza vaccine. Confidence in the population correlated with confidence among GPs. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-8.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-8.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44b78040e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-8.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 9/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Countermeasures == +Vaccine hesitancy is challenging and optimal strategies for approaching it remain uncertain. +Multicomponent initiatives which include targeting undervaccinated populations, improving the convenience of and access to vaccines, educational initiatives, and mandates may improve vaccination uptake. +The World Health Organization (WHO) published a paper in 2016 intending to aid experts on how to respond to vaccine deniers in public. The WHO recommends for experts to view the general public as their target audience rather than the vaccine denier when debating in a public forum. The WHO also suggests for experts to make unmasking the techniques that the vaccine denier uses to spread misinformation as the goal of the conversation. The WHO asserts that this will make the public audience more resilient against anti-vaccine tactics. + +=== Providing information === +Many interventions designed to address vaccine hesitancy have been based on the information deficit model. This model assumes that vaccine hesitancy is due to a person lacking the necessary information and attempts to provide them with that information to solve the problem. Despite many educational interventions attempting this approach, ample evidence indicates providing more information is often ineffective in changing a vaccine-hesitant person's views and may, in fact, have the opposite of the intended effect and reinforce their misconceptions. +It is unclear whether interventions intended to educate parents about vaccines improve the rate of vaccination. It is also unclear whether citing the reasons of benefit to others and herd immunity improves parents' willingness to vaccinate their children. In one trial, an educational intervention designed to dispel common misconceptions about the influenza vaccine decreased parents' false beliefs about the vaccines but did not improve uptake of the influenza vaccine. In fact, parents with significant concerns about adverse effects from the vaccine were less likely to vaccinate their children with the influenza vaccine after receiving this education. + +=== Communication strategies === +Several communication strategies are recommended for use when interacting with vaccine-hesitant parents. These include establishing honest and respectful dialogue; acknowledging the risks of a vaccine but balancing them against the risk of disease; referring parents to reputable sources of vaccine information; and maintaining ongoing conversations with vaccine-hesitant families. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends healthcare providers directly address parental concerns about vaccines when questioned about their efficacy and safety. Additional recommendations include asking permission to share information; maintaining a conversational tone (as opposed to lecturing); not spending excessive amounts of time debunking specific myths (this may have the opposite effect of strengthening the myth in the person's mind); focusing on the facts and simply identifying the myth as false; and keeping information as simple as possible (if the myth seems simpler than the truth, it may be easier for people to accept the simple myth). Storytelling and anecdote (e.g., about the decision to vaccinate one's own children) can be powerful communication tools for conversations about the value of vaccination. A New Zealand-based General Practitioner has used a comic, Jenny & the Eddies, both to educate children about vaccines and address his patients' concerns through open, trusting, and non-threatening conversations, concluding [that] "I always listen to what people have to say on any matter. That includes vaccine hesitancy. That's a very important opening stage to improving the therapeutic relationship. If I'm going to change anyone's attitude, first I need to listen to them and be open-minded." The perceived strength of the recommendation, when provided by a healthcare provider, also seems to influence uptake, with recommendations that are perceived to be stronger resulting in higher vaccination rates than perceived weaker recommendations. + +=== Provider presumption and persistence === +Limited evidence suggests that a more paternalistic or presumptive approach ("Your son needs three shots today.") is more likely to result in patient acceptance of vaccines during a clinic visit than a participatory approach ("What do you want to do about shots?") but decreases patient satisfaction with the visit. A presumptive approach helps to establish that this is the normative choice. Similarly, one study found that the way in which physicians respond to parental vaccine resistance is important. Nearly half of initially vaccine-resistant parents accepted vaccinations if physicians persisted in their initial recommendation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released resources to aid healthcare providers in having more effective conversations with parents about vaccinations. + +=== Pain mitigation for children === +Parents may be hesitant to have their children vaccinated due to concerns about the pain of vaccination. Several strategies can be used to reduce the child's pain. Such strategies include distraction techniques (pinwheels); deep breathing techniques; breastfeeding the child; giving the child sweet-tasting solutions; quickly administering the vaccine without aspirating; keeping the child upright; providing tactile stimulation; applying numbing agents to the skin; and saving the most painful vaccine for last. As above, the number of vaccines offered in a particular encounter is related to the likelihood of parental vaccine refusal (the more vaccines offered, the higher the likelihood of vaccine deferral). The use of combination vaccines to protect against more diseases but with fewer injections may provide reassurance to parents. Similarly, reframing the conversation with less emphasis on the number of diseases the healthcare provider is immunizing against (e.g., "we will do two injections (combined vaccinations) and an oral vaccine") may be more acceptable to parents than "we're going to vaccinate against seven diseases". + +=== Cultural sensitivity === +Cultural sensitivity is important to reducing vaccine hesitancy. For example, pollster Frank Luntz discovered that for conservative Americans, family is by far the "most powerful motivator" to get a vaccine (over country, economy, community, or friends). Luntz "also found a very pronounced preference for the word 'vaccine' over 'jab.'" \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-9.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-9.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..fe6758885 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy-9.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine hesitancy" +chunk: 10/15 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_hesitancy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:48.023778+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Avoiding online misinformation === +It is recommended that healthcare providers advise parents against performing their own web search queries since many websites on the Internet contain significant misinformation. Many parents perform their own research online and are often confused, frustrated, and unsure of which sources of information are trustworthy. Additional recommendations include introducing parents to the importance of vaccination as far in advance of the initial well-child visit as possible; presenting parents with vaccine safety information while in their pediatrician's waiting room; and using prenatal open houses and postpartum maternity ward visits as opportunities to vaccinate. +Internet advertising, especially on social networking websites, is purchased by both public health authorities and anti-vaccination groups. In the United States, the majority of anti-vaccine Facebook advertising in December 2018 and February 2019 had been paid for one of two groups: Children's Health Defense and Stop Mandatory Vaccination. The ads targeted women and young couples and generally highlighted the alleged risks of vaccines, while asking for donations. Several anti-vaccination advertising campaigns also targeted areas where measles outbreaks were underway during this period. The impact of Facebook's subsequent advertising policy changes has not been studied. + +=== Incentive programs === +Several countries have implemented programs to counter vaccine hesitancy, including raffles, lotteries, rewards and mandates. In the US State of Washington, authorities have given the green light to licensed cannabis dispensaries to offer free joints as incentives to get COVID-19 vaccination in an effort dubbed "Joints for Jabs". + +=== Vaccine mandates === +Mandatory vaccination is one set of policy measures to address vaccine hesitancy by imposing penalties or burdens on those who fail to vaccinate. An example of this kind of measure is Australia's vaccine mandates around childhood vaccination, the No Jab No Pay policy. This policy linked financial payments to children's vaccine status and, while studies have found significant improvements in vaccination compliance, years later there were still issues of vaccine hesitancy. In 2021, Australian airline Qantas issued plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for their work force. + +== Policy implications == + +Multiple major medical societies including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics support the elimination of all nonmedical exemptions for childhood vaccines. + +=== Individual liberty === +Compulsory vaccination policies have been controversial as long as they have existed, with opponents of mandatory vaccinations arguing that governments should not infringe on an individual's freedom to make medical decisions for themselves or their children, while proponents of compulsory vaccination cite the well-documented public health benefits of vaccination. Others argue that, for compulsory vaccination to effectively prevent disease, there must be not only available vaccines and a population willing to immunize, but also sufficient ability to decline vaccination on grounds of personal belief. +Vaccination policy involves complicated ethical issues, as unvaccinated individuals are more likely to contract and spread disease to people with weaker immune systems, such as young children and the elderly, and to other individuals in whom the vaccine has not been effective. However, mandatory vaccination policies raise ethical issues regarding parental rights and informed consent. +In the United States, vaccinations are not truly compulsory, but they are typically required in order for children to attend public schools. As of January 2021, five states – Mississippi, West Virginia, California, Maine, and New York – have eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions to required school immunizations. + +=== Children's rights === + +Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan argues that children have a right to the best available medical care, including vaccines, regardless of parental feelings toward vaccines, saying "Arguments about medical freedom and choice are at odds with the human and constitutional rights of children. When parents won't protect them, governments must." +To prevent the spread of disease by unvaccinated individuals, some schools and doctors' surgeries have prohibited unvaccinated children from being enrolled, even where not required by law. Refusal of doctors to treat unvaccinated children may cause harm to both the child and public health, and may be considered unethical, if the parents are unable to find another healthcare provider for the child. Opinion on this is divided, with the largest professional association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, saying that exclusion of unvaccinated children may be an option under narrowly defined circumstances. + +== History == + +=== Variolation === + +Early attempts to prevent smallpox involved deliberate inoculation with the milder form of the disease (Variola Minor) in the expectation that a mild case would confer immunity and avoid Variola Major. Religious arguments against inoculation 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. + +=== Smallpox vaccination === + +After Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccine in 1798, variolation declined and was banned in some countries. As with variolation, there was some religious opposition to vaccination, although this was balanced to some extent by support from clergymen, such as Reverend Robert Ferryman, a friend of Jenner's, and Rowland Hill, who not only preached in its favour but also performed vaccination themselves. There was also opposition from some variolators who saw the loss of a lucrative monopoly. William Rowley published illustrations of deformities allegedly produced by vaccination, lampooned in James Gillray's famous caricature depicted on this page, and Benjamin Moseley likened cowpox to syphilis, starting a controversy that would last into the 20th century. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5f35aa316 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Misinformation related to immunization and the use of vaccines circulates in mass media and social media despite the fact that there is no serious hesitancy or debate within mainstream medical and scientific circles about the benefits of vaccination. Unsubstantiated safety concerns related to vaccines are often presented on the Internet as being scientific information. A large proportion of internet sources on the topic are inaccurate which can lead people searching for information to form misconceptions relating to vaccines. +Although opposition to vaccination has existed for centuries, the internet and social media have recently facilitated the spread of vaccine-related misinformation. +Intentional spreading of false information and conspiracy theories have been propagated by the general public and celebrities. Active disinformation campaigns by foreign actors are related to increases in negative discussions online and decreases in vaccination use over time. +Misinformation related to vaccination leads to vaccine hesitancy which fuels disease outbreaks. As of 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine hesitancy was considered one of the top 10 threats to global health by the World Health Organization. + +== Extent == + +A survey by the Royal Society for Public Health found that 50% of the parents of children under the age of five regularly encountered misinformation related to vaccination on social media. On Twitter, bots, masked as legitimate users were found creating false pretenses that there are nearly equal number of individuals on both sides of the debate, thus spreading misleading information related to vaccination and vaccine safety. The accounts created by bots used additional compelling stories related to anti-vaccination as clickbait to drive up their revenue and expose users to malware. +A study revealed that Michael Manoel Chaves, an ex-paramedic who was sacked by the NHS for Gross Misconduct after stealing from two patients he was treating, is involved with the anti-vaccine community. These are the type of individuals who were previously interested in alternative medicine or conspiracy theories. Another study showed that a predisposition to believe in conspiracy theories was negatively correlated to the intention of individuals to get vaccinated. +Spreading vaccine misinformation can lead to financial rewards by posting on social media and asking for donations or fundraising for anti-vaccination causes. + +== List of popular misinformation == +The World Health Organization has classified vaccine related misinformation into five topic areas. These are: threat of disease (vaccine preventable diseases are harmless), trust (questioning the trustworthiness of healthcare authorities who administer vaccines), alternative methods (such as alternative medicine to replace vaccination), effectiveness (vaccines do not work) and safety (vaccines have more risks than benefits). + +=== Vaccination causes idiopathic conditions === +False: Vaccines cause autism: The established scientific consensus is that there is no link between vaccines and autism. No ingredients in vaccines, including thiomersal, have been found to cause autism. The incorrect claim that vaccines cause autism dates to a paper published in 1998 and has since been retracted. In the late 1990s' a physician at Royal Free Hospital by the name of Andrew Wakefield published an article claiming to have found an explanation for autism. He first reported a relationship between measles virus and colonic lesions in Crohn's disease, which was soon disproved. He next hypothesized that the MMR triad vaccine, the vaccine for measles, triggered colonic lesions that disrupted the colon's permeability, causing neurotoxic proteins to enter the bloodstream, eventually reach the brain and result in autistic symptoms. The article was partially retracted by The Lancet as of March 6, 2004, after journalist Brian Deer raised issues including the possibility of severe research misconduct, conflict of interest and probable falsehood. The paper was fully retracted as of February 2, 2010, following an investigation of the flawed study by Britain's General Medical Council which supported those concerns. The British Medical Association took disciplinary action against Wakefield on May 24, 2010, revoking his right to practice medicine. There are some indications that people with autism may also tend to have gastrointestinal disorders like an unusually shaped intestinal tract and micro bacteria alterations. However, multiple large-scale studies of more than half a million children have been carried out without finding a causal link between MMR vaccines and autism. +False: Vaccines can cause the same disease that one is vaccinated against: A vaccine causing complete disease is extremely unlikely (with the sole exception of the oral polio vaccine, which is no longer in use as a result). In traditional vaccines, the virus is attenuated (weakened) and thus it is not possible to contract the disease, while in newer technologies like mRNA vaccines the vaccine does not contain the full virus. +False: Vaccines can cause harmful side effects and even death: Vaccines are very safe. Most adverse events after vaccination are mild and temporary, such as a sore throat or mild fever, which can be controlled by taking paracetamol after vaccination. +False: Vaccines can cause infertility: There is no supporting evidence or data that any vaccines have a negative impact on women's fertility. In 2020, as COVID-19 numbers rose and vaccinations started to roll out, the misinformation around vaccines causing infertility began to circulate. The false narrative began that mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies which act against the SARS-CoV-2 spruce protein could also attack the placental protein syncytin-1, and that this could cause infertility. There is no evidence to support this. A joint statement of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine clearly states “that there is no evidence that the vaccine can lead to loss of fertility”. +There are numerous studies and surveys that purport to show an association between vaccines and a range of conditions: from ear infections and asthma, to ADHD and autism; however most of the studies have been retracted, or are unpublished, and the surveys are non peer-reviewed. One of the studies in question has been criticised for only calculating an unadjusted observational association (as opposed to a correlation or causation). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a18b8294e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Alternative remedies to vaccination === +Responding to misinformation, some may resort to complementary or alternative medicine and homeopathy as an alternative to vaccination. Those who believe in this narrative view vaccines as 'toxic and adulterating' while seeing alternative 'natural' methods as safe and effective. Some of the misinformation circulating around alternate remedies for vaccination include: + +False: Eating yoghurt cures human papillomavirus: Eating any natural product does not prevent or cure HPV. +False: Homeopathy can be used as an alternative to protect against measles: Homeopathy has been shown to be ineffective against preventing measles. +False: Quercetin, zinc, vitamin D, and other nutritional supplements can protect from/treat COVID-19: none of the above can prevent or treat COVID-19. +False: Nosodes are an alternative to vaccines: There is no evidence supporting nosodes' effectiveness in preventing or treating infectious diseases. + +=== Vaccination as genocide === +Misinformation that forced vaccination could be used to "depopulate" the earth circulated in 2011 by misquoting Bill Gates. There is misinformation implying that vaccines (particularly the mRNA vaccine) could alter DNA in the nucleus. mRNA in the cytosol is very rapidly degraded before it would have time to gain entry into the cell nucleus. (mRNA vaccines must be stored at very low temperatures to prevent mRNA degradation.) Retrovirus can be single-stranded RNA (just as SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is single-stranded RNA) which enters the cell nucleus and uses reverse transcriptase to make DNA from the RNA in the cell nucleus. A retrovirus has mechanisms to be imported into the nucleus, but other mRNA lack these mechanisms. Once inside the nucleus, creation of DNA from RNA cannot occur without a primer, which accompanies a retrovirus, but which would not exist for other mRNA if placed in the nucleus. Thus, mRNA vaccines cannot alter DNA because they cannot enter the nucleus, and because they have no primer to activate reverse transcriptase. + +=== Vaccine components contain forbidden additives === +Anti-vaxxers emphasize that the components in vaccines such as thiomersal and aluminum are capable for causing health hazards. Thiomersal is a harmless component in vaccines which is used to maintain its sterility, and there are no known adverse effects due to it. Aluminium is included in the vaccine as an adjuvant, and it has low toxicity even in large amounts. Formaldehyde included in some vaccines is in negligibly low quantities and it is harmless. Narratives that COVID-19 vaccines contain haram products were circulated in Muslim communities. + +=== Vaccines are part of a governmental/pharmaceutical conspiracy === +The Big Pharma conspiracy theory, that pharmaceutical companies operate for sinister purposes and against the public good, has been used in the context of vaccination. The theory states that vaccines have unusual substances in them and that they are only made for an increase in profit. + +=== Vaccine preventable diseases are harmless === +There is a common misconception that vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles are harmless. However, measles remains a serious disease, and can cause severe complications or even death. Vaccination is the only way to protect against measles. + +=== Personal anecdotes about harmed individuals === +Personal anecdotes and sometimes false stories are circulated about vaccination. Misinformation about vaccines and the falsified links between vaccinations and autism have been spread, including claims that people died due to COVID-19 vaccines. Through the spread of false media, civilians are led to incorrectly believe that vaccinations are the leading cause of autism, even though autism occurs during fetal development, not after the mother has given birth. A child's potential placement on the spectrum can be influenced by factors such as genetics, the environment, metabolic disorders, epigenetic mechanisms, and the mother consuming medication while pregnant that should not be consumed during pregnancy. Individuals who refuse to be vaccinated put themselves at risk of being exposed to—and contributing to the spread of—diseases and infections with harmful long-term effects that may cause death. Of the many experiments performed regarding the links between vaccinations and autism, none of them have conclusively proven such a link. + +=== Other conspiracy theories === +Other conspiracy theories circulated on social media have included the false notion such as; \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3feffe4fe --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +False: Polio is not a real disease and the symptoms are actually due to DDT poisoning: The first major documented polio outbreak in the United States occurred in 1894 in Vermont. In the early 20th century, a polio epidemic started in the west causing 6,000 deaths and leaving 27,000 people paralyzed. In 1954, the Salk Institute created the polio vaccine putting an end to the epidemic and saving millions of lives. The incorrect theory that polio was related to pesticide poisoning predates the discovery of the polio vaccine. It was proposed in 1952 by Dr. Ralph R. Scobey in an article in the Archives of Pediatrics. Scobey argued that there were similarities between the symptoms of polio and various types of poisoning, and suggested that polio outbreaks might be more likely to occur during the summer and be related to consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. While pesticides such as DDT are dangerous, as was shown by Rachel Carson in Silent Spring in 1962, they are not dangerous in the way that Scobey believed them to be, as a cause of polio. Studies have clearly demonstrated causal relationships showing that polio is caused by a virus. Vaccines have proven effective in preventing the disease and eliminating wild poliovirus in most parts of the world. +False: The COVID-19 vaccines contain injectable microchips to identify and track people: This conspiracy theory started circulating in 2020 claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was a cover for a plan to implant trackable microchips and Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, was behind it. A YouGov poll conducted in 2020 suggested that 28% of Americans believe in this conspiracy theory. The origin of the theory is a long-term effort of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on sponsoring research on vaccinating people by pricking skin with an array of a large count of sharp microneedles coated with a vaccine, as well as with some fluorescent ink. The needles were made of silicon using the similar technology integrated circuits are made. Any piece of silicon resulted from this technology is called a "chip", be it an integrated circuit, a MEMS device, or something else. So the theory has arisen from the confusion of different meanings of the word "chip". In the series of research papers, the chip is just pressed against the skin with a finger to make the needles prick the skin, then the vaccine coating and fluorescent ink are transferred from the needles into skin, then the chip itself is disposed of. The ink is meant to leave a tattoo that could be visualized by irradiating the dye with the light of certain wavelengths, this way allowing to check if the tattoo was made, which is useful in the contexts when vaccination is compulsory and using more low-cost and secure alternatives like database lookups of ID card or biometrics is infeasible due to lack of infrastructure like power grid and Internet connectivity. So the chip is neither meant to be implanted, nor can physically fit into a syringe needle, as the conspiracy theory suggests. + +== CDC as source of vaccine misinformation == +As of November 19, 2025, under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC website on "Autism and Vaccines" was radically changed from its earlier September 2025 version to a new version on November 19, 2025. The revised webpage makes several false statements, contradicting long-standing scientific evidence that supports the absence of a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism. According to CDC staff, required scientific vetting for all public-facing agency webpages was entirely bypassed in this instance. As the Wall Street Journal points out, "… no association has been proven between vaccines and autism". Also, numerous medical associations and professionals immediately issued statements protesting the changes, including experts from: the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP); Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Stanford University School of Medicine; Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP); Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and The Autism Science Foundation. + +== Impact == +Fueled by misinformation, anti-vaccination activism is on the rise on social media and in many countries. Research has shown that viewing a website containing vaccine misinformation for 5–10 minutes decreases a person's intention to vaccinate. A 2020 study found that "large proportions of the content about vaccines on popular social media sites are anti-vaccination messages." It further found that there is a significant relationship between joining vaccine hesitant groups on social media and openly casting doubts in public about vaccine safety, as well as a substantial relationship between foreign disinformation campaigns and declining vaccination coverage. +In 2003, rumors about polio vaccines intensified vaccine hesitancy in Nigeria and led to a five-fold increase in the number of polio cases in the country over three years. A 2021 study found that misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on social media "induced a decline in intent [to vaccinate] of 6.2 percentage points in the [United Kingdom] and 6.4 percentage points in the [United States] among those who said they would definitely accept a vaccine". +Social media is again the leading platform for the rapid spreading of vaccine misinformation during a pandemic. For example, A study in 2020 of public opinions about the developing Chinese domestic COVID-19 vaccines found around one-fifth of the post on weibo related to the vaccine claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines are generally overpriced, even though they are later being administered totally free. Many people in China also hold the belief that inactive vaccines are safer than the newly developed mRNA vaccine of SARS-Covid-2. The cause of this might be a combination of national pride and a lack of understanding of vaccine literacy. +In general, misinformation related to the COVID-19 vaccine reduced public confidence. Public acceptance of Chinese domestic COVID-19 vaccines dropped significantly due to concerns about the possible high cost. An online survey in China showed only 28.7% of the participants expressed definite interest in getting the vaccine. Most people (54.6%) held some hesitancy toward the vaccine. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8d25c3db9 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Effects on herd immunity === +Vaccine-related misinformation has decreased the effectiveness of herd immunity, especially for measles. The World Health Organization reported that measles vaccine compliance dropped by 3% from 2019 to 2024. In the United States, measles vaccine rates officially dropped below the herd immunity threshold of 95% during the 2023-2024 academic year. Lancet Digital Health Journal stated that there are only a few percentage points of herd immunity that make the difference between having an epidemic and not having an epidemic, highlighting just how crucial it is to maintain concrete vaccination rates. Countries such as the United States, the UK, and Ukraine have reported increased measles cases alongside misinformation campaigns for the MMR vaccine. + +=== Vaccine mandate exemptions === +Multiple states across the US offer exemptions to vaccine mandates for medical, religious, and philosophical reasons. Medical exemptions are often requested by a physician when a patient is severely immunocompromised, usually due to cancer treatment, HIV/AIDS, or other pre-existing health complications. Religious exemptions typically surround vaccines whose development involved human fetal cells. Philosophical exemptions account for any exemption that does not meet the qualifications for medical or religious exemptions; these exemptions are based in personal beliefs and are often heavily influenced by vaccine misinformation campaigns. At least ten states in the US offer such philosophical exemptions; prior to 2015, this number was higher, but a 2015 measles epidemic in California that led to over 100 measles cases resulted in policy changes that led many states to reconsider their vaccine exemption policies. After the 2015 epidemic, California eliminated non-medical vaccine exemptions. + +== Measures against misinformation == + +=== Communication === +After repeated exposure to misinformation (for example, through social media), individuals might hold misinformed mental models of the function, risk, and purpose of vaccines. The longer an individual holds misinformation, the more staunchly rooted it becomes in their mental model, making its correction and retraction all the more difficult. Over time, these models may become integral to a vaccine hesitant individual's worldview. People are likely to filter any new information they receive to fit their preexisting worldview – corrective vaccine facts are no exception to this motivated reasoning. Thus, by the time vaccine hesitant individuals arrive at the doctor's office, healthcare workers face an uphill battle. If they seek to change minds and maintain herd immunity against preventable diseases, they must do more than simply present facts about vaccines. Providers need communication strategies that effectively change minds and behavior. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7046755fe --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Communication strategies to counter vaccine misinformation and effectively improve the intention to vaccinate include communicating the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and effective, using humour to dispel vaccine myths, and providing vaccine misinformation warnings. Compared to these, debunking vaccine misinformation and providing vaccine education materials work less in tackling misinformation. Scare tactics, and failing to acknowledge uncertainty is not effective, and can even backfire and worsen the intention to vaccinate. +Research shows that science communicators should directly counter misinformation because of its negative influence on silent audience who are observing the vaccine debate, but not engaging in it. The refutations to vaccine-related misinformation should be straightforward in order to avoid emphasizing misinformation. It is useful to pair scientific evidence with stories that connect to the belief and value system of the audience. +Interventions for parents/caregivers who make decisions about their children's vaccination are vital. Given the complexity of this problem, effective evidence-based strategies have yet to be identified. Although many wish to provide families with as much corrective information as possible, this often has unintended consequences. One study in 2013 tested four separate interventions to correct MMR vaccine misinformation and promote parental behavioral change: (1) Provide information explaining lack of evidence that MMR causes autism. (2) Present textual information about the dangers of measles, mumps, and rubella. (3) Show images of children with measles, mumps and rubella. (4) Provide a dramatic written narrative about an infant who became deathly ill from measles. Before and after each intervention, researchers measured parents' belief in the vaccine/autism misperception, their intent to vaccinate future children, and their general risk perception of the vaccine. They found that none of the interventions increased parental intent to vaccinate. +Instead, the first intervention (1) reduced misperceptions about autism, but still decreased parents' intent to vaccinate future children. Notably, this effect was significant among parents who were already the most vaccine-hesitant. This shows that corrective information may backfire. Motivated reasoning could be the mechanism behind this dynamic – no matter how many facts are provided, parents still sift through them to selectively find those that support their worldview. While the corrective information can have an effect on a specific belief, ultimately vaccine-hesitant parents often use this additional information to strengthen their original behavioral intent. Interventions three and four increased the vaccine/autism misperception and increased belief in serious vaccine side effects, respectively. This can be attributed to a potential danger priming effect – when pushed into a fearful state, parents misattribute this fear to the vaccine itself, rather than the diseases it prevents. In all cases, the facts included had little, if not counterproductive effect on future behaviors. +This work has important implications for future research. First, the study's findings revealed a disparity between beliefs and intentions – even as specific misperceptions are corrected, behavior may not change. Since reaching herd immunity for preventable diseases requires promoting a behavior – vaccination – it is important for future research to measure behavioral intent, rather than just beliefs. Second, it is imperative for all health messaging to be tested before its widespread use. Society does not necessarily know the behavioral impacts of communication interventions – they may have unintended consequences on different groups. In the case of correcting vaccine misinformation and changing vaccination behaviors, much more research is still needed to identify effective communication strategies. +Several governmental agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States and National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom have dedicated webpages for addressing vaccine-related misinformation. +As of November 19, 2025, under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC website's information on vaccines can no longer be trusted. See #Misinformation from CDC + +==== Physician-patient communication ==== +A review from the Pediatric Journal of Nursing noted that more effort needs to be made by physicians in communicating vaccine effectiveness to patients and parents of patients. Many vaccine-skeptics are reported to be parents who are simply concerned for the health of their children, and scrutiny from medical professionals is unlikely to encourage them to feel comfortable vaccinating their children. The review highlighted how establishing long-term communicative relationships with skeptical parents and emphasizing that the ultimate goal is to ensure the maximum health and safety for all children. Additionally, it could be beneficial to have these conversations led by medical nursing staff who often spend more time with parents and patients and therefore may already have built prior relationships with them, opening the door to provide correct vaccine information in a trustworthy environment. + +=== Social media === +Pinterest was one of the first social media platforms to surface only trustworthy information from reliable sources on their vaccine related searches back in 2019. In 2020, Facebook announced that it would no longer allow anti-vaccination advertisements on its platform. Facebook also said it would elevate posts from the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other NGOs, in order to increase immunization rates through public health campaigns. In April 22, Meta announced that its collaboration with UNICEF had reached more than 150 million people with information about the COVID-19 vaccine via online outreach campaigns in several countries. Twitter announced that it would put a warning label on tweets containing disputed or unsubstantiated rumors about vaccination and require users to remove tweets that spread false information about vaccines. TikTok announced that it would start directing people to official health sources when they search for vaccine related information. By December 2020, YouTube had removed more than 700,000 videos containing misinformation related to COVID-19. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2b5bd9014 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccine misinformation" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccine_misinformation" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:37.684169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Some vaccine-preventable diseases have been eradicated === +Vaccination has enabled the reduction of most vaccine-preventable diseases (e.g. polio has been eradicated in every country except Afghanistan and Pakistan). However, some are still prevalent and even cause epidemics in some parts of the world. If the affected population is not protected by vaccination, the disease can quickly spread from country to country. Vaccines not only protect individuals, but also lead to herd immunity if a sufficient number of people in the population have taken the vaccine. +Eradication is the permanent elimination of an infectious disease worldwide through deliberate efforts, rendering further intervention measures unnecessary. To date, the only disease that has been successfully eradicated is smallpox. Poliomyelitis was targeted for eradication by the year 2000, and significant progress was made towards this goal, with the Western Hemisphere being declared polio-free and over a year having passed without any reported cases in the Western Pacific Region of the World Health Organization. An examination of the technical feasibility of eradicating other diseases preventable by vaccines currently available in the United States suggests that measles, hepatitis B, mumps, rubella, and possibly Haemophilus influenzae type b are potential candidates for eradication. From a practical standpoint, measles appears to be the most likely candidate for the next eradication effort. Despite the challenges, eradication represents the ultimate achievement in sustainability and social justice, and even if eradication is not possible, significant improvements in control can still be made with existing vaccines and new and improved vaccines may offer further possibilities in the future. + +== See also == +COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and hesitancy + +== References == + +== External links == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_SIDS-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_SIDS-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e6064e5d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_SIDS-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccines and SIDS" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_SIDS" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:02.558169+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A speculated link between vaccines and SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) has been refuted, but remains a common anti-vaccine claim. The claim, attributed to Robert Mendelsohn in 1991 and promoted by anti-vaccination activists such as Viera Scheibner in the early 1990s, is that vaccines, especially the DTP vaccine that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, sometimes causes sudden infant death syndrome. The World Health Organization has classified this as a "common misconception". +Some also claim that a vaccine court case, Boatmon v. Secretary of Health and Human Services, 13-611 (Fed. Cl. 2017), proves this link. While compensation was awarded to Boatmon, this did not prove any link, and the award was in any case vacated in July 2018 as the Special master had applied too low a standard of proof. +Multiple studies and meta-analyses have shown that vaccinated children are less likely to die of SIDS. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..774825ff1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccines and autism" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:01.401652+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Extensive investigation into vaccines and autism spectrum disorder has shown that there is no relationship between the two, causal or otherwise, and that vaccine ingredients do not cause autism. Major health authorities, including the World Health Organization, the National Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Food and Drug Administration, along with large-scale epidemiological research, reinforce the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe, that multiple concurrent vaccinations do not overwhelm the immune system, and that autism cannot be attributed to vaccination. +The scientist Peter Hotez researched the growth of the false claim and concluded that its spread originated with Andrew Wakefield's fraudulent 1998 paper, and that no prior paper supports a link. Despite the scientific consensus for the absence of a relationship, and the Wakefield paper's retraction, the anti-vaccination movement at large continues to promote theories linking the two. +Celebrity endorsements, social media campaigns and selective reporting have fuelled the anti-vaccination movement and public misunderstanding of vaccines. Fringe political actions continue to promote debunked claims. A developing tactic appears to be citing irrelevant or dubious studies to support a questionable claim. + +== Claimed mechanisms == + +The claimed mechanisms have changed over time, in response to evidence refuting each in turn. Anti-vaccine groups claim that specific vaccine ingredients can cause autism. Some of the most frequently mentioned ones are thiomersal, aluminium adjuvants and formaldehyde. + +=== MMR vaccine === + +The idea of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism came to prominence after the publication of a paper by Andrew Wakefield and others in The Lancet in 1998. This paper, which was retracted in 2010 and whose publication led to Wakefield being struck off the British medical register, has been described as "the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years". +Wakefield's primary claim was that he had isolated evidence of vaccine-strain measles virus RNA in the intestines of autistic children, leading to a condition he termed autistic enterocolitis (a condition never recognised or adopted by the scientific community). This finding was later shown to be due to errors made by the laboratory where the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were performed. +In 2009 The Sunday Times reported that Wakefield had manipulated patient data and misreported results in his 1998 paper, thus falsifying a link with autism. A 2011 article in the British Medical Journal describes the way in which Wakefield manipulated the data in his study in order to arrive at his predetermined conclusion. An accompanying editorial in the same journal described Wakefield's work as an "elaborate fraud" which led to lower vaccination rates, putting hundreds of thousands of children at risk and diverting funding and other resources from research into the true cause of autism. +On 12 February 2009 a special court convened in the United States to review claims under its National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program ruled that parents of autistic children are not entitled to compensation in their contention that certain vaccines caused their children to develop autism. +The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the IOM of the United States National Academy of Sciences, and the National Health Service have all concluded that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. A systematic review by the Cochrane Library concluded that there is no credible link between the MMR vaccine and autism, that the MMR vaccine has prevented diseases that still carry a heavy burden of death and complications, that the lack of confidence in the MMR vaccine has damaged public health, and that the design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR vaccine studies are largely inadequate. Further, an epidemiology study concluded that even children labelled high risk for autism, due to an older autistic sibling, that received the MMR vaccine resulted in no causal connection between the vaccine and autism or the increased risk of being diagnosed with autism. The assumption that MMR vaccines cause autism is not isolated to the United States. A seven-year study was done in Denmark from 1991 to 1998 following children who received the MMR vaccine. The results of the study found that when comparing the vaccinated children to the unvaccinated children, the risk of autism in the vaccinated group was 0.92. Also, the risk of another autism disorder was 0.83. The study concluded there was no association between the MMR vaccine and autism. The result held even when exploring the age of the child when the vaccine was given, the vaccination date, or the amount of time after the vaccine. + +=== Thiomersal === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..466ecc1e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccines and autism" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:01.401652+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Thiomersal is an antifungal preservative used in small amounts in some multi-dose vaccines (where the same vial is opened and used for multiple patients) to prevent contamination of the vaccine. Thiomersal contains ethylmercury, a mercury compound which is related to, but significantly less toxic than, the neurotoxic pollutant methylmercury. Despite decades of safe use, public campaigns prompted the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to request vaccine makers to remove thiomersal from vaccines as quickly as possible on the precautionary principle. Thiomersal is now absent from all common United States and European Union vaccines, except for some preparations of influenza vaccine. Trace amounts remain in some vaccines due to production processes, at an approximate maximum of 1 microgramme, around 15% of the average daily mercury intake in the US for adults and 2.5% of the daily level considered tolerable by the World Health Organization (WHO). The action engendered concern thiomersal could have been responsible for autism. +The idea that thiomersal was a cause or trigger for autism is now considered disproven, as incidence rates for autism increased steadily even after thiomersal was removed from childhood vaccines. The cause of autism and mercury poisoning being associated is improbable because the symptoms of mercury poisoning are not present and are inherently inconsistent with the behaviours or symptoms of autism. There is no accepted scientific evidence that exposure to thiomersal is a factor in causing autism. A study by the CDC exploring mercury poisoning in vaccines concluded no signs of poisoning were present. +Under the US Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (FDAMA) of 1997, the FDA conducted a comprehensive review of the use of thiomersal in childhood vaccines. Conducted in 1999, this review found no evidence of harm from the use of thiomersal as a vaccine preservative, other than local hypersensitivity reactions. Despite this, starting in 2000, parents in the United States pursued legal compensation from a federal fund arguing that thiomersal caused autism in their children. A 2004 Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee favored rejecting any causal relationship between autism and vaccines containing thiomersal and rulings from the vaccine court in three test claims in 2010 established the precedent that thiomersal is not considered a cause of autism. + +=== Aluminium adjuvants === +As mercury compounds in vaccines have been definitively ruled out as a cause of autism, some anti-vaccine activists propose aluminium adjuvants as the cause of autism. Aluminium adjuvants simulate immune receptors and cause a strengthened response to the antigen in a way that is natural to the body. Aluminium adjuvants can be used in the form of soluble salts, alumina, and hydroxide. There is no substantial scientific evidence that aluminium adjuvants are linked to autism. When confirming that aluminium adjuvants are not dangerous in vaccines, it was concluded that there was no traces of aluminium in the children's hair or blood over the minimum level of risks according to the United States Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. +Anti-vaccination activists commonly cite a number of papers which claim that there is in fact a link. These are mainly published in predatory open access journals, where peer-review is virtually non-existent. Work conducted by Christopher Shaw, Christopher Exley and Lucija Tomljenovic has been funded by the anti-vaccination Dwoskin Family Foundation. The work published by Shaw et al. has been discredited by the World Health Organization. +A review study published in the open-access journal Toxics suggests a link between early aluminium adjuvant exposure and autism; and concludes that there is a lack of fundamental scientific data demonstrating that aluminium adjuvants are safe. + +=== Formaldehyde === +Formaldehyde is another assumed link between vaccines and autism. Even though the assumption still circles around, formaldehyde has been used safely in the diphtheria vaccines to detoxify the bacteria used to make the vaccine. Another way it can be used is to inactivate the disease to be used in the vaccine. Formaldehyde can be found naturally in the body and environment. The human body uses formaldehyde to build amino acids and to generate the energy it needs. Formaldehyde is present in many ordinary things; it can be found in preservatives, materials used to build, and many products in homes. There is no safety concern for formaldehyde in vaccines. The most concerning repercussion is cancer after exposure to high levels of formaldehyde in the air. The amount of formaldehyde in some vaccines is less than what the body naturally produces. + +=== Vaccine overload === + +Following the belief that individual vaccines caused autism was the idea of vaccine overload, which claims that too many vaccines at once may overwhelm or weaken a child's immune system and lead to adverse effects. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education Center compiled a list of vaccines recommended to children throughout history. They found that from 1985-1994 the recommended number of vaccines was eight. The schedule for 2011 to 2020 revealed the recommended number of vaccines was fourteen. Vaccine overload became popular after the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program in the United States accepted the case of nine-year-old Hannah Poling. After showing signs of developmental delay as a toddler, Poling was diagnosed with encephalopathy caused by a mitochondrial enzyme deficit, which her family argued was triggered by multiple vaccines she received at nineteen months old. There have been multiple cases reported similar to this one, which led to the belief that vaccine overload caused autism. However, scientific studies show that vaccines do not overwhelm the immune system. In fact, conservative estimates predict that the immune system can respond to thousands of viruses simultaneously. It is known that vaccines constitute only a tiny fraction of the pathogens already naturally encountered by a child in a typical year. Common fevers and middle ear infections pose a much greater challenge to the immune system than vaccines do. Other scientific findings support the idea that vaccinations, and even multiple concurrent vaccinations, do not weaken the immune system or compromise overall immunity and evidence that autism has any immune-mediated pathophysiology has still not been found. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..842d25515 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +--- +title: "Vaccines and autism" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccines_and_autism" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:11:01.401652+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vaccines recommended from 1985-1994: + +Diphtheria +Tetanus +Pertussis +Measles +Mumps +Rubella +Polio +Hib +Hepatitis B (1991) +Vaccines recommended from 2011-2020: + +Diphtheria +Tetanus +Pertussis +Measles +Mumps +Rubella +Polio +Hib +Hepatitis B +Varicella +Hepatitis A +Pneumococcal +Influenza +Rotavirus +Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines were given together as MMR. Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccines were given together as the DTaP. Regarding the latter, Sanofi Pasteur’s Tripedia DTaP vaccine automatically included autism on a long list of “adverse events” in 2005 due to unverified reports from consumers, although such reports did not "establish a causal relationship" to the vaccine at any point. + +=== COVID-19 === +A study, initially published in 2024, claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine could generate autism traits in male offsprings of rats. The study has been criticised early on by scientists for its dubious methodology, and has been, in the summer of 2025, retracted on the grounds of methodological concerns. + +== Celebrity involvement and social media == +Some celebrities have spoken out on their views that autism is related to vaccination, including: Jenny McCarthy, Kristin Cavallari, Robert De Niro, Jim Carrey, Bill Maher and Pete Evans. +McCarthy, one of the most outspoken celebrities on the topic, has said her son Evan's autism diagnosis was a result of the MMR vaccine. She authored Louder than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism and co-authored Healing and Preventing Autism. She was also president of Generation Rescue, a non-profit organisation that claimed vaccines made children autistic and promoted various unproven treatments. Generation Rescue ceased operations in December 2019. +In September 2015 in the United States, Donald Trump, in a debate for the Republican Party's nomination for the 2016 US presidential election (which he won), stated he knew of a 2-year-old child who had recently received a combined vaccine, developed a fever, and subsequently autism. +Robert F. Kennedy Jr is one of the most notable proponents of the anti-vaccine movement. Kennedy published the book Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak: The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury--A Known Neurotoxin--From Vaccines. He is also the former chairman of the board of Children's Health Defense, a group and website widely known for its anti-vaccination stance. +A study conducted through Facebook explored the results of anti-vaccine ads and pro-vaccine ads. The study found that even with a similar number of anti-vaccine ads and pro-vaccine ads, the middle point in the data set of ads per buyer was higher in anti-vaccine ads. Another difference the study revealed was that the anti-vaccine ads were primarily targeted toward women and young adults who possibly had children. The pro-vaccination ads were presented evenly to different ages. + +== Public opinion == +In December 2020 a poll of 1,115 adults in the United States found 12% of respondents believed there is evidence vaccinations cause autism; 51% believed there is no evidence; and 37% did not know. +An updated survey, conducted in March 2023, concluded that adults think the MMR health benefits are high/very high, at 72%, and the risk of side effects is low/very low, at 64%. There has also been a drop from 2019 in US adults who believe students in schools should be fully vaccinated. The 2023 survey showed that a decrease to 70% of US adults agree that children should be vaccinated for school but an increase to 28% believe that it is the parent's right to choose if the child is vaccinated for school. + +== Political support in the US == + +In March 2025 the United States Department of Health and Human Services, overseen by Kennedy, hired the vaccine critic David Geier to conduct a study on the long-debunked link. Geier holds no medical credentials, and according to the BBC the idea of "[blaming] rising rates of autism on vaccines ... has been categorically debunked by large scientific studies over many years". +Under the leadership of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, an anti-vaccine activist, the CDC website on "Autism and Vaccines" was changed from its earlier September 2025 version to a new version on 19 November 2025. The revised webpage makes several false statements, contradicting long-standing scientific evidence that supports the absence of a causal link between childhood vaccines and autism. According to CDC staff, required scientific vetting for all public-facing agency webpages was entirely bypassed in this instance. As the Wall Street Journal points out, "… no association has been proven between vaccines and autism". Also, numerous medical associations and professionals immediately issued statements protesting against the changes, including experts from: the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP); Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Stanford University School of Medicine; the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP); Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and the Autism Science Foundation. + +== See also == +Discrimination against autistic people + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..43e2d33c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Velichie" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:09.697918+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Velichie (Bulgarian: Величие, lit. 'Greatness') is a Bulgarian political party founded in 2023, with strong connections to the Bulgarian businessman Ivelin Mihaylov. The party has a strong position in Vetrino Municipality and received parliamentary representation following the June 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election. +Following the October snap election, the party won 3.999% of the vote, falling short by 21 votes of the 4% threshold required to gain representation in the 51st National Assembly. However, after the Constitutional Court ruled that Velichie passed the threshold following a recount, the party gained 10 seats in parliament. + +== History == + +=== Origin === +The Velichie party was founded in summer 2023 in Vetrino Municipality. It has been reported that the founder was Ivelin Mihaylov. In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Mihaylov recounted that the party was founded by Vetrino locals in response to plans to build a wind energy production site in the municipality. +The party contested the 2023 Bulgarian local elections, in which it gained 40.51% of the votes in Vetrino. + +=== Nikolay Markov === +In 2024, the party began an association with Nikolay Markov, who was often called the party's leader, although not legally holding the position. Markov, a National Guard Service veteran, earned the nickname "the Colonel" in media reports. He left the service in 2007 after a scandal with then-president Georgi Parvanov, whom he accused of abusing power. Since then, Markov has appeared in some media as an expert on national security and counterterrorism. + +=== June 2024 elections === +In April 2024, Markov announced that the party would participate in the snap parliamentary election and in the European Parliament election. The party's regional list leader in Sofia was Viktoria Vassileva, a former member of the National Assembly from Union of Democratic Forces and There is Such a People. +Despite polling poorly in most opinion polls, the Velichie party passed the 4% electoral threshold for the parliamentary election and gained 13 seats in the National Assembly. On election day, the party leadership suggested that the vote had been rigged against the party. Additionally, they attacked polling agencies for what they perceived to be an intentional omission of the party from opinion polls. The party failed to win representation in the European election on the same day, receiving 4% of the vote. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..34f178a26 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Velichie" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:09.697918+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Parliamentary activity === +The Velichie party had 13 seats at the start of the 50th National Assembly, with Nikolay Markov being selected as the chair of the parliamentary group. +Prior to the convention of the National Assembly, Markov did not deny the possibility of Velichie negotiating with GERB; however, he clarified that they would only negotiate with GERB leader Boyko Borisov. Ultimately, the party did not attend the meeting organised by the GERB negotiation team on 18 June. +During the first session of the National Assembly, the Velichie parliamentary group nominated its own candidates for the position of Speaker, although both candidacies failed to gather support outside of the grouping. During the first session, Markov, the chief of the parliamentary group, arrived late; it was later alleged by Velichie MP Darin Georgiev that the reason for Markov's lateness was due to alleged attempts at blackmail by GERB. Markov, in the days following, seemed to confirm the allegations, stating that a contact group representing "three political parties" had threatened to release an audio tape implicating himself and the party's founder, Ivelin Mihaylov, if Velichie did not give political support to GERB. +On 21 June, during a vote for who should chair the commission responsible for preparing the rulebook, the Velichie group voted together with GERB and DPS, thus assuring a majority for the GERB nominee, Anna Aleksandrova. In the aftermath of this vote, the party's founder, Ivelin Mihaylov, alleged that there was a possibility of a division within the parliamentary group, with 5–6 MPs potentially being aligned with GERB. Mihaylov's comments provoked an angry reaction from the leader of the parliamentary group, Markov, who accused him of undermining his authority and harming the reputation of the party. Mihaylov backed down from his comment following Markov's statement, apologised to the MPs, and emphasised his confidence in their abilities. +On 26 June, the party's representatives attended consultations with President Radev, during which they made clear their support for a government based on a clear programme, and stated that they would not support a GERB-led government due to a lack of communication from the largest party. +On 1 July, shortly after the nomination of Rosen Zhelyazkov as GERB's PM candidate, a message was published on the social media platform X from the account of Ivelin Mihaylov calling on Velichie MPs to vote in favour of the proposed government. In a Facebook post, he clarified that his account on X was hacked and that his position that Velichie should vote against a government proposed by GERB had not changed. +Later that day, Mihaylov published a series of claims on Facebook alleging that Nikolay Markov and a group of MPs aligned with him (specifically Viktoria Vasileva) had threatened him and planned to vote in favour of the proposed GERB cabinet. On 2 July, he published an address to Velichie supporters in which he expanded on his allegations against Markov, claiming that Markov had reached a deal with GERB and had attempted to sideline Mihaylov within the party, even promising to alleviate legal pressure against him in exchange for his political disengagement. The address was joined by Velichie MP Krasimira Kantincharova, who supported Mihaylov's claims that Markov and Vasileva had attempted to assert control over the party's parliamentary group for their own personal ends. +On 3 July, Markov made a Facebook post in which he officially disassociated himself from the party, and further claimed that it was a political vehicle for Mihaylov's economic interests. +Despite the allegations brought forth by Mihaylov, the entirety of the Velichie parliamentary group was present and voted against the nomination of Rosen Zhelyazkov for PM. +Speaking to the party's supporters in Razgrad shortly after the vote, Mihaylov informed them that a vote was scheduled for 4 July to expel Markov and Vasileva from the parliamentary group. Additionally, he continued his prior accusations against Markov, for instance accusing him of threatening five female MPs within the group. After Mihaylov's statement, the Central Council of Velichie formally requested that Markov and Vasileva leave the parliamentary group of the party. +In a statement to the media on 4 July, Markov claimed that the rift between him and Mihaylov had originated due to Mihaylov's insistence that the Velichie group cooperate with Revival. He further underlined Mihaylov's undue influence within the party, considering he was not part of the leadership. Ultimately, however, Markov indicated that he was open to leaving the parliamentary group, due to the presence of MPs within it who he alleged were controlled by Mihaylov through financial coercion. +On 5 July, six MPs from the Velichie parliamentary group officially announced their intention to leave it, thus dissolving the group. The MPs, in a briefing to the press, justified their decision by citing a loss of confidence in the parliamentary group's leadership. Specifically, the MPs cited a lack of communication from Markov about key topics, such as the party's stance in government negotiations, as well as Markov's social media statements in which he officially disavowed the party. The MPs claimed that they had attempted to remove the current leadership; however, their efforts proved unsuccessful due to obstruction by the leadership. +Markov claimed that the group of MPs who had left were financially beholden to Mihaylov. He also claimed that Mihaylov had attempted to intimidate Velichie MPs, recounting that he had locked a group of MPs in his barn and demanded they vote in favour of certain laws. Another Velichie MP, Darin Georgiev, corroborated Markov's allegation that Mihaylov had locked a group of Velichie MPs in his barn against their will. He further stated that the dissolution of the group meant the end of the political party, although he did not exclude future political cooperation with those MPs who had "not betrayed the ideals of Velichie". +Despite Georgiev's claim, Mihaylov announced that Velichie would continue its political activity and contest future elections, although with new MP candidates. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..38294ba0f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Velichie" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:09.697918+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== October 2024 parliamentary election === +Velichie ran alone in the October 2024 Bulgarian parliamentary election. It opened its electoral campaign in the town of Troyan, with founder Ivelin Mihaylov claiming that Velichie's programme would be focused on creating a long-term plan for Bulgaria's development. +During the campaign period, the party office of Velichie in Varna was set on fire by unknown assailants. In a video on Facebook, party founder and candidate Ivelin Mihaylov implied that the assailants might be connected to GERB and may have done it due to Mihaylov's revelation of alleged vote-buying schemes in Varna. +Following the publication of the provisional final results from the electoral commission, Velichie was shown as being just below the 4% threshold to enter parliament, receiving 3.999%. In a number of publications on the party's Facebook page and by party candidates, it was implied that the percentage received by Velichie was intentionally lowered by the Central Electoral Commission, under pressure from external actors, in order to prevent Velichie from entering parliament. +In an address on the party-affiliated news channel Free Voice, Ivelin Mihaylov claimed that the election had been "stolen", both due to alleged mass vote buying and manipulations of the voting process at the local level. However, he discounted the possibility of organising mass protests or other civil actions to contest the result. Instead, he called on Velichie supporters to actively join the party, build up its local structures, and create a parallel governance structure in order to demonstrate the success of Velichie's approach in lieu of the next election. +On 29 October, Mihaylov published a new address on his Facebook page, in which he announced that Velichie intended to organise a protest campaign to call for the annulment of the October elections due to alleged large-scale irregularities. He specifically called for a protest in the government quarter of Sofia on the evening of 31 October. Besides protests, he stated that Velichie intended to legally challenge the election results and seek support from European and international institutions. +Shortly before the protest took place, the CEC officially confirmed that Velichie had not crossed the 4% threshold. +In a press briefing on 1 November, Velichie announced that they did not recognize the finalised election results and called for new elections to be held immediately. At these new elections, Velichie promised to gather at least 13,000 observers to "prevent voter manipulation". +Velichie organised a protest outside the National Assembly prior to the opening session in order to call for the annulment of the elections. +On 28 November, the Velichie-affiliated NGO "Patriots for Bulgaria" filed for the registration of the party-run YouTube channel "Free Voice" as an official TV channel. +Prior to the publishing of the results of the recalculation of the vote following a court-ordered recount of the elections in March 2025, Ivelin Mihaylov claimed that the recount had established that Velichie was set to enter parliament, as it passed the 4% threshold. On 11 March, Velichie organised a protest outside the house of former Prime Minister and GERB leader Boyko Borisov. +Following the confirmation that Velichie did indeed pass the threshold, Velichie was allocated ten seats within the National Assembly, thus forming a parliamentary group. +Velichie endorsed the referendum proposed by President Rumen Radev about Bulgaria's accession to the Eurozone in 2026. The party further endorsed Revival-organised protests in support of the referendum. +Velichie have participated in and organised protests during the 2025 Bulgarian protests. Supporters of the party organised а protest in favour of the governments resignation outside the parliament building on 28 November, blocking traffic in central Sofia due to the intentional breakdown of their cars. On 4 December, the party organised a protest in support of employees working at the Mihaylov-affiliated "Historical Park", who had been detained as part of a law enforcement probe into allegations of money laundering. Additionally, supporters of Velichie placed a satirical painting titled "the Bulgarian Mafia" outside the residence of former Prime Minister and GERB leader, Boyko Borisov in Bankya. + +=== April 2026 parliamentary election & Aftermath === +Velichie contested the snap legislative elections, held on April 19, 2026. The party finished bellow the threshold, receiving 3% of the vote, although it qualified for state funding by finishing above 1%. Velichie's parliamentary group chairman, Ivelin Mihaylov, confirmed that the party recognised the election results and warned the incoming government against carrying out repressions against Velichie members. He further announced that he would withdraw from active politics, although he confirmed that Velichie would continue to contest future elections and actively participate in the countries politics. + +== Ideology == +According to Nikolay Markov, the main goals of the party are to promote Bulgarian investments in the country, accelerate the completion of the Belene Nuclear Power Plant, and bring the fight against organized crime in the country to the European level. Markov also pointed out the prevention of Bulgaria's participation in the Russo-Ukrainian War, suspending the legal possibilities of such military intervention. +Bulgarian media calls Velichie a Russophile and anti-Western party, competing with Revival in this field. Velichie has denied claims of being pro-Russian or of being opposed to Bulgaria's membership in NATO and the EU. + +== Controversies == + +=== Allegations of connections with a paramilitary organisation === +Some media outlets have alleged that Velichie has its own paramilitary organisation, called "Bulgarski Yunak" (lit. 'Bulgarian Hero'), which is registered as a sports club. The organisation provides military training including "urban survival" and "building capture and retreat with covering fire". However, party figures have denied this allegation. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9493c51a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Velichie" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velichie" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:09.697918+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Allegations of electing illegitimate MPs === +On 30 October 2025, Radostin Vassilev, leader of the parliamentary party MECh, alleged that one of the MPs elected from the Velichie list had not signed the necessary declaration confirming her will to become a member of parliament, with the document instead being signed by another MP, Stiliyana Bobcheva. He cited a signal sent by the civic organisation "Bulgarian anti-mafia league", as well as a review conducted by lawyers associated with MECh. Subsequently, Radostin Vassilev called on Mariya Ilieva to resign. On 12 November, Radostin Vassilev played a 4-minute audio recording in the National Assembly which was an extract of a telephone conversation between Velichie MP Stiliyana Bobcheva and a member of the civic organisation "Bulgarian Anti-Mafia League", Grigor Zdravkov. He alleged that the recording depicted Stiliyana Bobcheva as being complicit in the forgery of documents related to the election of MPs. Vassilev further claimed that the extract was part of a 40 minute long recording, which had been deposited to the general prosecutors office, and called for law enforcement intervention. +Mariya Ilieva, as well as politicians affiliated with Velichie, have denied the claims raised by Vassilev. After the publication of the allegations, parliamentary group chairman, Ivelin Mihaylov, publicly defended the MP. On 13 November, Ilieva denounced Vassilev's accusations and re-affirmed that all documents had been signed by her. + +== Election results == + +=== National Assembly === + +=== European Parliament === + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridiplantae-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridiplantae-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b3b1468f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridiplantae-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,78 @@ +--- +title: "Viridiplantae" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridiplantae" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:05.858473+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Viridiplantae (kingdom Plantae sensu stricto), the green plants, is a natural group or clade of around half a million eukaryotes. They are green because they contain chloroplasts, cell organelles able to produce food by photosynthesis. They are major primary producers of food both in the sea and on land. The group includes both green algae and the land plants (embryophytes) that arose from them. +In 2005, Sina Adl and colleagues proposed the name Chloroplastida for the group. In 2012, Frederik Leliaert and colleagues suggested a revised taxonomy of the Viridiplantae. In 2019, M. Leebens-Mack and colleagues proposed a phylogeny based on analysis of over a thousand plant genomes. It renders the former "chlorophyte algae" and "streptophyte algae" paraphyletic, as the land plants arose from within them. + + +== Definition == +Viridiplantae (lit. 'green plants') is a clade of around 450,000–500,000 species of chloroplast-bearing eukaryotes. Most of them are autotrophs that obtain their energy by photosynthesis and play important primary production roles in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The clade includes all green algae, which are primarily aquatic; many are microscopic unicellular phytoplankton. It also includes the macroscopic, multicellular, generally complex-structured land plants (embryophytes, i.e. Plantae sensu strictissimo), which emerged from within the freshwater green algae clade Streptophyta during the Ordivician. +In traditional taxonomy, the classification of green algae typically exclude the land plants, rendering them a paraphyletic group; however it is cladistically accurate to regard land plants as a specialized clade of green algae that had evolved to thrive on dry land, thus making Viridiplantae a monophyletic group. Since the realization that the embryophytes emerged from green algae, some authors are starting to include them. +Viridiplantae species all have cells with cellulose in their cell walls, and primary chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria that contain chlorophylls a and b and lack phycobilins. In some classification systems, the group has been treated as a kingdom under various names such as Viridiplantae, Chlorobionta or simply the kingdom Plantae (sensu stricto), the lattermost expanding upon the traditional grouping of (land) plants to include all green algae closely and distantly related to Embryophyta. Adl et al., who produced a classification for all eukaryotes in 2005, introduced the name Chloroplastida for this group, reflecting the group having primary chloroplasts, and they rejected the name Viridiplantae on the grounds that some of the species are not plants as understood traditionally. Together with Rhodophyta (red algae), Glaucophyta (grey algae) and other basal groups such as the phagotrophic Rhodelphidia and the picoplanktonic Picozoa (both considered sister to red algae), Viridiplantae belong to the larger primary algae clade Archaeplastida, which in itself is sometimes described as "Plantae sensu lato". + + +== Evolution == + + +=== Taxonomy === +Leliaert et al, 2012 propose the following simplified taxonomy of the Viridiplantae. + +Viridiplantae +Chlorophyta +core chlorophytes +Ulvophyceae +Cladophorales +Dasycladales +Bryopsidales +Trentepohliales +Ulvales-Ulotrichales +Oltmannsiellopsidales +Chlorophyceae +Oedogoniales +Chaetophorales +Chaetopeltidales +Chlamydomonadales +Sphaeropleales +Trebouxiophyceae +Chlorellales +Oocystaceae +Microthamniales +Trebouxiales +Prasiola clade +Chlorodendrophyceae +Chlorodendrales +Pedinophyceae +prasinophytes (paraphyletic) +Pyramimonadales +Mamiellophyceae +Pycnococcaceae +Nephroselmidophyceae +Prasinococcales +Palmophyllales +Streptophyta +Charophytes +Mesostigmatophyceae +Mesostigmatales +Chlorokybales +Klebsormidiophyceae +Phragmoplastophyta +Charophyceae +Coleochaetophyceae +Zygnematophyceae +Embryophyta (land plants) + + +=== Phylogeny === +In 2019, a phylogeny based on genomes and transcriptomes from 1,153 plant species was proposed. The placing of algal groups is supported by phylogenies based on genomes from the Mesostigmatophyceae and Chlorokybophyceae that have since been sequenced. Both the "chlorophyte algae" and the "streptophyte algae" are treated as paraphyletic (vertical bars beside phylogenetic tree diagram) in this analysis. The classification of Bryophyta is supported both by Puttick et al. 2018, and by phylogenies involving the hornwort genomes that have also since been sequenced. + +Ancestrally, the green algae were flagellates. + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virulent b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virulent new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e69de29bb diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8173bd091 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Virus classification" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:07.141972+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Virus classification is the process of naming viruses and placing them into a taxonomic system similar to the classification systems used for cellular organisms. +Viruses are classified by phenotypic characteristics, such as morphology, nucleic acid type, mode of replication, host organisms, and the type of disease they cause. The formal taxonomic classification of viruses is the responsibility of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) system, although the Baltimore classification system can be used to place viruses into one of seven groups based on their manner of mRNA synthesis. Specific naming conventions and further classification guidelines are set out by the ICTV. +In 2021, the ICTV changed the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN) to mandate a binomial format (genus|| ||species) for naming new viral species similar to that used for cellular organisms; the names of species coined prior to 2021 are gradually being converted to the new format. By 2025, almost all species had been given binomial names. +As of 2025, the ICTV taxonomy listed 16,213 named virus species (including some classed as satellite viruses and others as viroids) in 3,768 genera, 368 families, 93 orders, 49 classes, 22 phyla, 11 kingdoms and 7 realms. However, the number of named viruses considerably exceeds the number of named virus species since, by contrast to the classification systems used elsewhere in biology, a virus "species" is a collective name for a group of (presumably related) viruses sharing certain common features (see below). Also, the use of the term "kingdom" in virology does not equate to its usage in other biological groups, where it reflects high level groupings that separate completely different kinds of organisms (see Kingdom (biology)). + +== Definitions == + +=== Virus definition === +The currently accepted and formal definition of a 'virus' was accepted by the ICTV Executive Committee in November 2020 and ratified in March 2021, and is as follows: + +Viruses sensu stricto are defined operationally by the ICTV as a type of MGE that encodes at least one protein that is a major component of the virion encasing the nucleic acid of the respective MGE and therefore the gene encoding the major virion protein itself or MGEs that are clearly demonstrable to be members of a line of evolutionary descent of such major virion protein-encoding entities. Any monophyletic group of MGEs that originates from a virion protein-encoding ancestor should be classified as a group of viruses. + +=== Species definition === +Species form the basis for any biological classification system. Before 1982, it was thought that viruses could not be made to fit Ernst Mayr's reproductive concept of species, and so were not amenable to such treatment. In 1982, the ICTV started to define a species as "a cluster of strains" with unique identifying qualities. In 1991, the more specific principle that a virus species is a polythetic class of viruses that constitutes a replicating lineage and occupies a particular ecological niche was adopted. +As of 2021 (the latest edition of the ICVCN), the ICTV definition of species states: "A species is the lowest taxonomic level in the hierarchy approved by the ICTV. A species is a monophyletic group of MGEs (mobile genetic elements) whose properties can be distinguished from those of other species by multiple criteria", with the comment "The criteria by which different species within a genus are distinguished shall be established by the appropriate Study Group. These criteria may include, but are not limited to, natural and experimental host range, cell and tissue tropism, pathogenicity, vector specificity, antigenicity, and the degree of relatedness of their genomes or genes. The criteria used should be published in the relevant section of the ICTV Report and reviewed periodically by the appropriate Study Group." + +=== Below species rank (named viruses/virus strains/isolates) === +Many individually named viruses exist at below the rank of virus species. The ICVCN gives the examples of blackeye cowpea mosaic virus and peanut stripe virus, which are both classified in the species Potyvirus phaseovulgaris, which is a member of the genus Potyvirus. As another example, the virus SARS-CoV-1, that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is different from the virus SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, but both are classified within the same virus species, Betacoronavirus pandemicum (formerly known as Severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus). As set out in the ICVCN, section 3.4, the names [and definitions] of taxa below the rank of species are not governed by the ICTV; "Naming of such entities is not the responsibility of the ICTV but of international specialty groups. It is the responsibility of ICTV Study Groups to consider how these entities may best be classified into species." Using the example given above, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic was given the designation "SARS-CoV-2" by the Coronaviridae Study Group (CSG) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses in 2020; in the same publication, this Study Group recommended a naming convention for particular isolates of this virus "resembl[ing] the formats used for isolates of avian coronaviruses, filoviruses and influenza virus" in the format virus/host/location/isolate/date, with a cited example as "SARS-CoV-2/human/Wuhan/X1/2019". + +== ICTV classification == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0e6cc68b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,82 @@ +--- +title: "Virus classification" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:07.141972+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) began to devise and implement rules for the naming and classification of viruses early in the 1970s, an effort that continues to the present. The ICTV is the only body charged by the International Union of Microbiological Societies with the task of developing, refining, and maintaining a universal virus taxonomy, following the methods set out in the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN). The system shares many features with the classification system of cellular organisms, such as taxon structure. However, some differences exist, such as the universal use of italics for all taxonomic names, unlike in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants and International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Integrative genomic analyses, incorporating pangenomics and phylogenomics, have recently suggested that viral family-level diversity is significantly higher than currently formally recognized. For example, research on the 'extended Asfarviridae' clade of giant viruses indicates that these lineages are deeply divergent, supporting their division into multiple distinct families. +Viral classification starts at the level of realm and continues as follows, with the taxonomic suffixes in parentheses: + +Realm (-viria) +Subrealm (-vira) +Kingdom (-virae) +Subkingdom (-virites) +Phylum (-viricota) +Subphylum (-viricotina) +Class (-viricetes) +Subclass (-viricetidae) +Order (-virales) +Suborder (-virineae) +Family (-viridae) +Subfamily (-virinae) +Genus (-virus) +Subgenus (-virus) +Species (-virus) +In parallel to the system of binomial nomenclature adopted in cellular species, the ICTV has recently (2021) mandated that new virus species be named using a binomial format (Genus species, e.g. Betacoronavirus pandemicum), and that pre-existing virus species names be progressively replaced with new names in the binomial format. A mid-2023 review of the status of this changeover stated: "...a large number of proposals [concerning virus nomenclature, submitted to the ICTV Executive Committee (EC) for its consideration] renamed existing species for compliance with the recently mandated binomial nomenclature format. As a result, 8,982 out of the current 11,273 species (80%) now have binomial names. The 2024 release of the ICTV virus taxonomy lists "a current total of 16,213 species, almost all of which possess binomial names." +As of 2026, all levels of taxa except subrealm, subkingdom, and subclass are used. Ten realms, one incertae sedis class, 29 incertae sedis families, and one incertae sedis genus are recognized: +Realms: + +Adnaviria +Duplodnaviria +Efunaviria +Floreoviria +Pleomoviria +Riboviria +Ribozyviria +Singelaviria +Varidnaviria +Volvereviria +Incertae sedis classes: + +Naldaviricetes +Incertae sedis families: + +Incertae sedis genus: + +Dinodnavirus + +=== Structure-based virus classification === + +It has been suggested that similarity in virion assembly and structure observed for certain viral groups infecting hosts from different domains of life (e.g., bacterial tectiviruses and eukaryotic adenoviruses or prokaryotic Caudovirales and eukaryotic herpesviruses) reflects an evolutionary relationship between these viruses. Therefore, structural relationship between viruses has been suggested to be used as a basis for defining higher-level taxa – structure-based viral lineages – that could complement the ICTV classification scheme of 2010. +The ICTV has gradually added many higher-level taxa using relationships in protein folds. All four realms defined in the 2019 release are defined by the presence of a protein of a certain structural family. + +== Baltimore classification == + +Baltimore classification (first defined in 1971) is a classification system that places viruses into one of seven groups depending on a combination of their nucleic acid (DNA or RNA), strandedness (single-stranded or double-stranded), sense, and method of replication. Named after David Baltimore, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist, these groups are designated by Roman numerals. Other classifications are determined by the disease caused by the virus or its morphology, neither of which are satisfactory due to different viruses either causing the same disease or looking very similar. In addition, viral structures are often difficult to determine under the microscope. Classifying viruses according to their genome means that those in a given category will all behave in a similar fashion, offering some indication of how to proceed with further research. Viruses can be placed in one of the seven following groups: + +I: dsDNA viruses (e.g. Adenoviruses, Herpesviruses, Poxviruses) +II: ssDNA viruses (+ strand or "sense") DNA (e.g. Parvoviruses) +III: dsRNA viruses (e.g. Reoviruses) +IV: (+)ssRNA viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA (e.g. Coronaviruses, Picornaviruses, Togaviruses) +V: (−)ssRNA viruses (− strand or antisense) RNA (e.g. Orthomyxoviruses, Rhabdoviruses) +VI: ssRNA-RT viruses (+ strand or sense) RNA with DNA intermediate in life-cycle (e.g. Retroviruses) +VII: dsDNA-RT viruses DNA with RNA intermediate in life-cycle (e.g. Hepadnaviruses) + +=== DNA viruses === + +Viruses with a DNA genome, except for the DNA reverse transcribing viruses, are members of three of the four recognized viral realms: Duplodnaviria, Monodnaviria, and Varidnaviria. But the incertae sedis order Ligamenvirales, and many other incertae sedis families and genera, are also used to classify DNA viruses. The domains Duplodnaviria and Varidnaviria consist of double-stranded DNA viruses; other double-stranded DNA viruses are incertae sedis. The domain Monodnaviria consists of single-stranded DNA viruses that generally encode a HUH endonuclease; other single-stranded DNA viruses are incertae sedis. + +Group I: viruses possess double-stranded DNA. Viruses that cause chickenpox and herpes are found here. +Group II: viruses possess single-stranded DNA. + +=== RNA viruses === + +All viruses that have an RNA genome, and that encode an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), are members of the kingdom Orthornavirae, within the realm Riboviria. + +Group III: viruses possess double-stranded RNA genomes, e.g. rotavirus. +Group IV: viruses possess positive-sense single-stranded RNA genomes. Many well known viruses are found in this group, including the picornaviruses (which is a family of viruses that includes well-known viruses like Hepatitis A virus, enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, poliovirus, and foot-and-mouth virus), SARS virus, hepatitis C virus, yellow fever virus, and rubella virus. +Group V: viruses possess negative-sense single-stranded RNA genomes. Ebola and Marburg viruses are well known members of this group, along with influenza virus, measles, mumps and rabies. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ef489866b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,101 @@ +--- +title: "Virus classification" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_classification" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:07.141972+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Reverse transcribing viruses === +All viruses that encode a reverse transcriptase (also known as RT or RNA-dependent DNA polymerase) are members of the class Revtraviricetes, within the phylum Arterviricota, kingdom Pararnavirae, and realm Riboviria. The class Blubervirales contains the single family Hepadnaviridae of DNA RT (reverse transcribing) viruses; all other RT viruses are members of the class Ortervirales. + +Group VI: viruses possess single-stranded RNA viruses that replicate through a DNA intermediate. The retroviruses are included in this group, of which HIV is a member. +Group VII: viruses possess double-stranded DNA genomes and replicate using reverse transcriptase. The hepatitis B virus can be found in this group. + +== Historical systems == + +=== Holmes classification === +Holmes (1948) used a Linnaean taxonomy with binomial nomenclature to classify viruses into 3 groups under one order, Virales. They are placed as follows: + +Group I: Phaginae (attacks bacteria) +Group II: Phytophaginae (attacks plants) +Group III: Zoophaginae (attacks animals) +The system was not accepted by others due to its neglect of morphological similarities. + +== Subviral agents == +Subviral agents are smaller than viruses and have only some of their properties. Since 2015, the ICTV has allowed them to be classified in a similar way as viruses are. + +=== Viroids and virus-dependent agents === + +==== Viroids ==== + +Family Avsunviroidae +Genus Avsunviroid; type species: Avocado sunblotch viroid +Genus Pelamoviroid; type species: Peach latent mosaic viroid +Genus Elaviroid; type species: Eggplant latent viroid +Family Pospiviroidae +Genus Pospiviroid; type species: Potato spindle tuber viroid +Genus Hostuviroid; type species: Hop stunt viroid +Genus Cocadviroid; type species: Coconut cadang-cadang viroid +Genus Apscaviroid; type species: Apple scar skin viroid +Genus Coleviroid; type species: Coleus blumei viroid 1 + +==== Satellites ==== + +Satellites depend on co-infection of a host cell with a helper virus for productive multiplication. Their nucleic acids have substantially distinct nucleotide sequences from either their helper virus or host. When a satellite subviral agent encodes the coat protein in which it is encapsulated, it is then called a satellite virus. When it does not, it is called a satellite nucleic acid. +Satellite-like nucleic acids resemble satellite nucleic acids, in that they replicate with the aid of helper viruses. However they differ in that they can encode functions that can contribute to the success of their helper viruses; while they are sometimes considered to be genomic elements of their helper viruses, they are not always found within their helper viruses. + +Satellite viruses +Single-stranded RNA satellite viruses +Family Tonesaviridae +Albetovirus – Tobacco necrosis satellite virus +Aumaivirus – Maize white line mosaic satellite virus +Family Pamosaviridae +Papanivirus – Panicum mosaic satellite virus +Family Tomosaviridae +Virtovirus – Tobacco mosaic satellite virus +Family Sarthroviridae +Macronovirus – Macrobrachium satellite virus 1 (extra small virus) +(unnamed genus) – Nilaparvata lugens commensal X virus +(unnamed genus) – Chronic bee-paralysis satellite virus +Double-stranded DNA satellite viruses +Family Lavidaviridae – Virophages +Single-stranded DNA satellite viruses +Genus Dependoparvovirus – Adeno-associated virus group +Satellite nucleic acids +Single-stranded satellite DNAs +Family Alphasatellitidae (encoding a replication initiator protein) +Family Tolecusatellitidae (encoding a pathogenicity determinant βC1) +Double-stranded satellite RNAs +Single-stranded satellite RNAs +Subgroup 1: Large linear satellite RNAs +Subgroup 2: Small linear satellite RNAs +Subgroup 3: Circular satellite RNAs (virusoids) +Realm Ribozyviria / Family Kolmioviridae – Deltavirus-like satellite-like RNAs +Genus Deltavirus – Hepadnavirus-associated satellite-like RNAs +Polerovirus-associated RNAs +Satellite-like RNA +Satellite-like DNA + +==== Defective interfering particles ==== + +Defective interfering particles are defective viruses that have lost their ability to replicate except in the presence of a helper virus, which is normally the parental virus. They can also interfere with the helper virus. + +Defective interfering particles (RNA) +Defective interfering particles (DNA) + +=== Viriforms === +Viriforms are a polyphyletic category of endogenous viral elements. Sometime in their evolution, they became "domesticated" by their host as a key part of the host's lifecycle. The prototypical example is members of the (also polyphyletic) Polydnaviriformidae, which are used by wasps to send pieces of immunity-blunting DNA into the prey by packing them into virion-like particles. Other members are so-called gene transfer agents (GTAs) found among prokaryotes. GTA particles resemble tailed phages, but are smaller and carry mostly random pieces of host DNA. GTAs are produced by the host in times of stress; releasing GTAs kills the host cell, but allows pieces of its genetic material to live on in other bacteria, usually of the same species. The three known clades of GTAs, Rhodogtaviriformidae, Bartogtaviriformidae, and Brachygtaviriformidae, all arose independently from different parts of the Caudoviricetes family tree. + +== See also == + +== Notes == + +== External links == + +ICTV web site Archived 2017-02-03 at the Wayback Machine +The Baltimore Method Archived 2000-01-15 at the Wayback Machine +Virus Pathogen Database and Analysis Resource (ViPR) +How are Viruses Classified? \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-0.md index e23bf34a6..d3835b529 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-0.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-0.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:02:56.467101+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:44.488242+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-1.md index 47d345916..66a9d5911 100644 --- a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-1.md +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science-1.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 2/2 source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_Science" category: "reference" tags: "science, encyclopedia" -date_saved: "2026-05-05T07:02:56.467101+00:00" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:44.488242+00:00" instance: "kb-cron" --- diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea15921c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 1/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vox (Spanish pronunciation: [boks]; Latin for 'voice'; often stylized in all caps) is a national conservative political party in Spain. Founded in 2013, it is led by party president Santiago Abascal, and vice president and secretary-general Ignacio Garriga. Vox has been described as far-right or radical right. +The party entered the Spanish parliament for the first time after winning seats in the April 2019 general election. Later that year, it received 3.6 million votes in the November 2019 general election, winning 52 seats and becoming the third-largest party in the Congress of Deputies. Its public support reached its peak within the next few years, according to the results of subsequent regional elections and opinion polling, but in the 2023 Spanish general election showed worse results: a loss of 19 seats in parliament (albeit remaining the third-largest political party in Spain with roughly 3 million votes). In the European Parliament, the six deputies of Vox are members of Patriots for Europe after a stint in the European Conservatives and Reformists Group. + +== History == + +=== Early years === + +==== Origins (2013–2014) ==== + +Vox was founded on 17 December 2013, and publicly launched at a press conference in Madrid on 16 January 2014, as a split from the People's Party (PP). This schism was interpreted as an offshoot of "neoconservative" or "social conservative" PP party members. The party platform called for the rewriting of the Spanish constitution so as to curb regional autonomy and abolish regional parliaments. Several founding members of the party (for example, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, José Antonio Ortega Lara, and Santiago Abascal) had been members of the platform "reconversion.es", which had issued a manifesto in 2012 calling for a recentralization of the State. Vidal-Quadras was proclaimed as the first chairman in March 2014. +Their initial funding, totalling nearly 972,000 euros, came in the form of individual donations from supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), thanks to their "personal relationship" with Vidal-Quadras, who had supported the NCRI during his stint in the EU Parliament. There is no evidence that Vox has broken Spanish or EU funding rules accepting these donations. +The 2014 European elections marked the first time the newly formed Vox fielded a candidate, with Vidal-Quadras running under its banner, though he narrowly failed to retain his seat in the European Parliament. Vidal Quadras later left the party due to both the political failure at the European election and his inability to impose his stances in the party. He would argue in 2018 that the party shifted from a "liberal conservative, Europeanist, and reformist" proposal (represented by himself), to a "nationalist, revisionist, Eurosceptic and confessional" one. + +==== Abascal's early leadership (2014–2017) ==== +In September 2014, the party elected Santiago Abascal, one of the founders, as its president, and Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, also a founder, as General Secretary. Eleven members of the National Executive Committee were also elected. +The party took part in the 2015 and 2016 general elections, scoring 0.23% and 0.20% of the votes respectively. +Amidst the Spanish constitutional crisis precipitated by the Catalan referendum, Vox opted to not participate in the Catalan regional elections of 2017. After the Catalan declaration of independence, the party sued the Parliament of Catalonia and several independentist politicians. Its membership grew by 20% in the span of forty days immediately following this action. + +=== Electoral breakthrough === + +==== Entrance into institutions (2018–2019) ==== +On 10 September 2018, Vox enlisted Juan Antonio Morales (an independent legislator in the regional parliament of Extremadura who had dropped out of the PP parliamentary group) as a party member. On 2 December 2018, they won 12 parliamentary seats in the Andalusian regional election, entering a regional parliament for the first time. It supported the coalition regional government by Ciudadanos and the Popular Party. With this result, Vox obtained a first seat in the Senate, which was taken by Francisco José Alcaraz. +The party obtained 10.26% of votes in the April 2019 general election, electing 24 Deputies and entering the Congress of Deputies for the first time. Later, the party entered the European Parliament for the first time with 6.2% of the votes and three Eurodeputies, which after Brexit became four. After the election, the party joined the European Conservatives and Reformists group and the European Conservatives and Reformists Party, having declined the invitation to join the Identity and Democracy group (which included such far-right parties as National Rally, League, and Alternative for Germany). In the second general election of the year in November, Vox came third and increased its number of deputies from 24 to 52. It was the most-voted party in the Region of Murcia and the autonomous city of Ceuta. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..3e7e2b2ce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 2/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2021) ==== +At the beginning of 2020, during the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Vox called for travel restrictions between China and Spain, and later between Italy and Spain, to safeguard against the "Chinese virus". At the time, the epidemic was already in full swing in those countries, but it was prior to any COVID cases being officially confirmed within Spain in significant numbers. This position found no support among other parties, and it was criticized as xenophobic rhetoric. The party claims that serious counter-COVID measures were deliberately delayed in Spain by the government, which hid the information and downplayed known risks to allow for mass public events on International Women's Day (8 March) to take place, as these events were important for the left wing agenda of the newly formed coalition government of PSOE and UP. At the same time, Vox went forward with their own global party conference on 8 March in Vistalegre, where party supporters from all parts of Spain were invited. The conference resulted in numerous cases of COVID infection, including confirmed cases of COVID transmission between members of Vox leadership. This fact was often brought up by Vox opponents to criticize Vox attitude towards COVID situation in Spain. +During the anti-COVID lockdown and follow-up restrictions, Vox routinely criticized government measures as inefficient, partisan, and partially unconstitutional. In April 2020 the party appealed to the Constitutional Court of Spain against the first State of Alarm (15 March – 21 June) declared by the government. In October 2020, Vox's parliamentary group at the Congress of Deputies tabled a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, bringing Santiago Abascal as alternative candidate. The motion failed to gain any support among the other parliamentary groups, gathering 52 'yes' votes (those of Vox legislators) and 298 'no' votes (the rest of the chamber). In November 2020 Vox appealed to the Constitutional Court of Spain against the second State of Alarm (October 25, 2020 – May 9, 2021) declared by the government. +In the face of the 2020 United States presidential election, Vox was fully supportive of President Donald Trump's candidacy, even tweeting from its official account that Joe Biden was the preferred candidate of "El País, Podemos, Otegi, Maduro, China, Iran and pedophiles", which according to the international news agency EFE was echoing QAnon conspiracy theories. Vox took part in the 2021 CPAC conference and refused to acknowledge Biden's victory. + +At the beginning of 2021, Vox's abstention was instrumental in securing European COVID-recovery funds on Socialist terms. Many Vox supporters considered this as the "largest error in Vox's history". +During 2020 and 2021 electoral campaigns for regional elections in the Basque Country, Catalonia, and the Community of Madrid multiple legal electoral events of Vox were physically attacked by radical political opponents on the premises of "Vox's legitimate electoral events in some regions being provocative acts". The view of the events as provocations was endorsed by high ranking UP members, including their speaker Pablo Echenique, and their leader, the Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain at the time, Pablo Iglesias. +On 14 July 2021, in response to the Vox's appeal the previous year, the Constitutional Court of Spain declared by a narrow majority (six votes in support vs. five votes against) that the first anti-COVID State of Alarm was unconstitutional in the part of suppressing the freedom of movement established by the Article 19 of the Constitution. In October 2021 the Constitutional Court of Spain supported two other appeals by Vox, and declared unconstitutional the closing down of Spanish Parliament and Senate in the beginning of pandemic, and the second State of Alarm. As reported on 22 October 2021, the Government of Spain ordered all fines collected in relation to the first State of Alarm to be returned to citizens. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7c72f102f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 3/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Entering regional governments (2022–2023) ==== +On 13 February 2022, Vox came third in the 2022 Castilian-Leonese regional election, raising its representation from 1 up to 13 seats, and becoming the key player for the rival People's Party (PP), who won the elections, to form a government. Following this election result, and an unfolding leadership crisis in PP, Vox for the first time was recognized as the Spain's second political force, according to some opinion polls for the next general elections. In March 2022, it was announced that Vox would form government with the PP in Castile and León, taking three of ten ministerial positions including vice president for regional leader Juan García-Gallardo. Vox member Carlos Pollán was elected President of the Cortes of Castile and León, the position of speaker. This represents the first participation of Vox in any regional government. +On 19 June 2022, Vox came third in the 2022 Andalusian regional elections. With Macarena Olona as the leading candidate, the party improved over the previous regional elections, gaining about 100,000 more votes, and two more seats in the Parliament of Andalusia, but failed short of the expectations to achieve significantly better results and become the key to the new regional government. In the aftermath of elections, despite initial promises to stay and lead Vox's opposition group in Andalusia, on 29 July 2022, Olona announced her decision to resign and left politics due to unnamed "medical reasons". +In March 2023, Vox, for the second time, tabled a motion of no confidence against the government of Pedro Sánchez, with Ramón Tamames as alternative, independent candidate. The motion failed with 53 votes in favour, 201 votes against, 91 abstentions, and four absentees. +In May 2023, local and regional elections were held in Spain. Vox, as the minor partner, formed the government with the PP in the Valencian Community, though the PP ordered that Vox's lead candidate Carlos Flores would not take part in the government, due to his 2002 conviction for harassment of his ex-wife. After protracted negotiations, Vox also joined PP governments in Extremadura and Aragon. Despite not forming the government, Vox was awarded the speaker's role in the Parliament of the Balearic Islands in exchange for abstaining on the vote and thereby allowing a PP government. Again as the smaller of the two parties, Vox formed local governments with the PP in cities such as Elche, Toledo, Valladolid, Guadalajara and Burgos. + +=== Stabilization and reconfiguration === + +==== 2023 general election and aftermath (2023–2024) ==== +A general election took place in July 2023, for which the PP was widely forecast to win and obtain a majority with support from Vox. In what BBC News called a surprise result, Vox fell from 52 seats to 33, losing half a million votes; the PP took the most seats but fell short of a majority even with Vox's support. Vox's reduced presence in the Congress meant that it lost its ability to appeal the government's legislature to the Supreme Court; it had previously used this right to challenge Sánchez's legislation on transgender issues, euthanasia and the COVID-19 pandemic. After the election, some political journalists noted Spain had followed an opposite trend to other European countries such as Sweden, Finland and Italy where conservative-nationalist parties had scored strong results and opined Vox's communication style had turned off voters and that the disappearance of Ciudadanos (whose votes mostly went to the PP) had indirectly penalized Vox as the electoral system is weighted to favour bigger parties. Abascal partly blamed the People's Party whom he argued had been too triumphalist in campaigning on behalf of the right, claiming "They sold the bear's skin before they had even hunted it. That is clearly the reason why there was a lack of mobilisation [of voters]." +In the aftermath of the general elections, many members of the "liberal family of Vox" left the party or lost their influence in favour of the syndicalist wing, headed by Jorge Buxadé. +In late 2023, Vox promoted the youth organization Revuelta, which is seen by some media as the party's covert youth wing. Revuelta took part in the 2023–2024 Spanish protests. +Vox held a major rally in Madrid in May 2024 in anticipation of the European elections. Receiving support from international politicians including Argentinian President Javier Milei and France's presidency candidate Marine Le Pen, as well as other politicians from Italy, Hungary, France, and Portugal. + +==== Withdrawal from regional governments (2024–present) ==== +In response to the conservative People's Party's decision to grant asylum to a number of undocumented underage immigrants in their respective regions, Vox decided on 11 July 2024 to step out of the coalition governments it had formed in the regions of Aragon, Castile and León, Murcia, Extremadura and the Valencian Community, as well as withdrawing their external support to the regional governments of the Balearic Islands and Cantabria. On 5 July 2024, the party joined the Patriots for Europe European party, abandoning Giorgia Meloni's ECR. With their new group, Vox held a rally of force on 8 February 2025, in Madrid, alongside Viktor Orbán and other right-wing leaders, vowing to reconquer Europe as a reference to Spain's own Reconquista against Islam. +Vox's withdrawal from regional governments and opposition to the PP minority government's budget plans led to snap elections in Extremadura in December 2025 and Aragon in February 2026. Vox doubled its seats in both regions, leaving the PP reliant on its support to form a government. + +== Ideology == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8a4a46189 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 4/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vox identifies as a "right-wing without complexes" and regards itself as an alternative to both the "cowardly right" of the People's Party and the "orange fickle" of Citizens. In November 2018, during a party event in Murcia, party leader Santiago Abascal defined his party as "antifascist, anti-Nazi and anti-communist". The party has been described as simply right-wing, a populist radical-right (in contrast to an extreme right), far-right, and also neo-Francoist. +According to certain analysis, the main tenets in Vox's ideology are: (i) a strong anti-immigration stance and advocacy for stricter law and order policies; (ii) a strong defence of the unity of Spain against all who allegedly want to break or undermine it; (iii) an opposition to what it labels the "progressive dictatorship"; and (iv) a strong defence of Catholicism and traditional values. Guillermo Fernández Vázquez, who described Vox as "economically anti-statist and neoliberal" as well as "morally authoritarian", believes that the party holds positions similar to Jörg Haider's Freedom Party of Austria or Jean Marie Le Pen's National Front, likening its emergence to an archaic radical right party more worried about modernizing their image. Vox's approach to cultural issues would be in line with old school Spanish nationalist parties, restricting the scope of "culture" to "language and tradition". +According to Xavier Casals, the unifying part of Vox's ideology is a war-like ultranationalism identified by the party with a palingenetic and biological vision of the country—the so-called España Viva—as well as a Catholicism-inspired culture. He says that ideological roots of the party's ultranationalism lie in incondicionalismo, 'unconditionalism', the nationalist discourse based on the "fear of amputation of the homeland" coined in the 19th century in Colonial Cuba against Cuban separatism, and autonomist concessions (replicated in Catalonia in the 1910s). Casals writes that the party's discourse has also revived the myth of the Antiespaña ("Anti-Spain"), an umbrella term created in the 1930s by the domestic ultranationalist forces to designate the (inner) "Enemies of Spain", creating a simplistic España viva/Antiespaña duality that comes handy for communicating via social media. Casals notes, regarding the external projection of its discourse, that the party has reanimated the concept of "Hispanidad"; party leader Abascal has stated that an immigrant coming from a "brotherly Hispanic-American country" is not comparable to the immigration coming from "Islamic countries". +The party has appealed to conspiracy theories invoking the figure of George Soros as a mastermind behind Catalan separatism and the alleged "Islamization" of Europe. During his participation in the April 2019 general election debate, Santiago Abascal used a phrase of the fascist Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, founder of the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (JONS): "only the rich can afford the luxury of not having a homeland". + +=== Internal factions === +In 2023, Barcelona-based journalist Stephen Burgen and Spanish political scientist Pablo Simón argued that Vox had grown to contain two factions which adhere to different influences; they cited a more hardline wing close to leader Santiago Abascal whom they claim take inspiration from nationalist European parties and figures such as Viktor Orbán in Hungary and the right-wing nationalist faction of Law and Justice in Poland, and a second wing containing former party spokesman Iván Espinosa de los Monteros who identify more with the British Conservative Party and whose role models would be Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Espinosa quit politics in August 2023, although he officially remained a member of the party, and downplayed his discrepancies with Vox's main line. + +=== Domestic policy === +Vox supports the constitutional monarchy and wants to repeal the Historical Memory Law. The party wants to reform the Spanish electoral system "so the vote of every Spaniard is worth the same". +Vox publicly criticised and opposed the exhumation of Francisco Franco. The party has been described as taking a revisionist approach towards Francoist Spain. +Vox advocates the recentralization of Spain by abolishing Spain's autonomous communities, in order to establish a unitary state. Vox is a Spanish nationalist party and as such it strongly opposes separatist movements in the country, particularly the Catalan independence movement and Basque nationalism. Vox promotes the illegalization of separatist parties in Spain, such as EH Bildu or ERC. The party opposed the pardoning of Catalan independence activists convicted for organizing an illegal independence referendum. + +=== Society === +Vox has been described as socially conservative and the party has positioned itself as a defender of the natural family by advocating traditional family values and natalism. Party member Rocío de Meer has accused the left of trying to abolish the family. The party opposes "gender ideology". +Vox has been described as anti-feminist, and wants to repeal the gender violence law, which they see as "discriminatory against one of the sexes", and replace it with a "family violence law that will afford the same protection to the elderly, men, women and children who suffer from abuse". Left-leaning critics believe Vox undermines the importance of feminist struggle in the advancement of women's liberties by means of linking the latter to a culture with "Christian foundations". +Vox is opposed to abortion and rejects the legalization of euthanasia. The party supports bullfighting, which it considers an important element of Spanish culture that should be defended. + +==== Criminal justice ==== +Vox advocates law and order policies and calls for "safe neighbourhoods", typically linking the notion to "safe borders" in opposition to the "immigrant invasion". The party supports preventive measures against crime, including the increase of sentences for violent crimes and imposing life sentences for sexual offenders and abusers. Casals writes that Vox's brand of Spanish nationalism is linked to an unconditional support of the State Security Forces and Corps. +Vox has proposed that citizens should be allowed to keep arms at home, and supports the castle doctrine, but does not support the right to carry arms or the free sale of firearms. Party leaders Santiago Abascal and Javier Ortega are both licensed to carry handguns for self-defence due to recurrent threats to their lives. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..836b89f5b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 5/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== LGBT rights ==== +Vox opposes same-sex marriage but supports same-sex civil unions. While not openly opposed to homosexual adoption, party members want to prioritise heterosexual couples. Vox opposes the Ley Trans approved by the Spanish government in June 2021, believing that the law "attacks the rights of women, children, biology, and common sense". Vox congratulated the Hungarian parliament for passing legislation that would ban media and educational content which may be seen by minors from depicting LGBT individuals or addressing LGBT issues. +Vox has been accused of homophobia, which the party denies. Party leader Santiago Abascal has denied said allegations by stating that Vox merely opposes "LGBT ideology", going on to say that many homosexuals are party members, and that he personally has gay friends. José María Marco, a gay conservative, contested the April 2019 Senate election in Madrid as Vox's candidate, and also ran second in the party list for the 2019 Madrilenian regional election. In some discourses, party leaders have suggested that their opposition to mass immigration from Islamic countries effectively protects the LGBT community, as homosexuality is largely prosecuted in Islamic cultures, and that most immigrants do not alter their attitude upon arrival to Spain. + +=== Immigration === +Vox positions itself strongly against illegal immigration. It calls for the unconditional deportation of all illegal immigrants, as well as the legal ones who commit crimes; the tightening of Spanish immigration laws; legal actions against non-profits (e.g. Proactiva Open Arms) and organized crime facilitating illegal immigration; and the militarization of problematic borders. The party emphasizes its support for legal immigration complied with the Spanish law. It promotes a stricter control of immigration according to the needs of the national economy, with preference for immigration from Hispanic America on the premise of easier integration of such immigrants into Spanish society, as opposed to those from Islamic countries. Opponents of Vox consider the party xenophobic and anti-immigrant. +Vox has been described as nativist and advocates natalist policies. The party is very critical of multiculturalism; in 2020, Vox deputy Rocío de Meer described neighbourhoods such as Molenbeek in Brussels or Barbès in Paris as "multicultural dung heaps". Other members have used the same term, such as party leader Santiago Abascal during a failed motion of censure, and deputy Ignacio Garriga. The party has been accused of giving credit to the Great Replacement theory. +Vox supports increasing the requirements to acquire the Spanish nationality, which would include the lack of a criminal record, increasing the years of residence required from 10 to 15, and proving knowledge of the Spanish language, culture and history. The party advocates the denaturalization of foreigners who commit certain crimes. +During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vox supported the accommodation of Ukrainian refugees in Europe. According to Abascal, "these are real war refugees, women, children, and elderly people", unlike "young Muslim males of military age invading Europe's borders with the intention to destabilize and colonize it". +In June 2025, Vox published an economic and housing program calling for "remigration" of legal immigrants who "decide not to integrate" in Spain, "mass deportations" of immigrants, and an "exhaustive audit of all nationality concessions granted in recent years" with the goal of withdrawing them. +During the 2023 general election, Vox created a group "Latinos por Abascal" to appeal to Latin American voters, including Evangelical Christians and anti-communists. In January 2026, Vox removed the 'Latinos por Abascal' website, amid an internal debate about Latin American migration. + +==== Islam ==== +While Vox's official platform only contains proposals against Islamic fundamentalism, public statements made by party figures have been accused of constituting Islamophobia, helping to underpin, according to Casals, their discourse against Maghrebi immigration, and in favour of the development of a closer bond to Catholicism. The party advocates for the closure of fundamentalist mosques as well as the arrest and expulsion of extremist imams. Vox has openly called for the deportation of tens of thousands of Muslims from Spain. In 2019, the party's leader demanded a Reconquista, 'reconquest' of Spain, explicitly referencing a new round of expulsions of Muslim immigrants from the country. + +=== Economy === +Vox's economic policy is often described as economically liberal or neo-liberal. The party defends the liberalization of Spanish labour laws, lower taxation, and support for the self-employed. Its discourse also includes calls to cut inefficient and superfluous government spending, particularly pointing out at the costs associated with the administration of regional and local governments. Its platform also includes protectionist stances, advocating some benefits for national companies over large multinational corporations, and criticising globalization. In 2020, Vox launched its own anti-communist workers' union named Solidaridad (Solidarity). +In its program for the 2023 Spanish general election, Vox proposed an overhaul of the Spanish fiscal system, with a radical reduction of income tax down to two levels of 15% and 25%, reduction of added-value taxes, and the abolishment or reduction of other state taxes. The party supports suppressing the VAT in the purchase of a first house, but only for Spaniards. + +=== Services === +Vox supports the re-centralization of education, healthcare, and security from the autonomous communities. + +==== Education ==== +Vox promotes the "pin parental" policy, which aims to guarantee parental rights over the public education their children receive by not requiring obligatory attendance to classes contradicting their parents' values. Party representatives claim that Spanish national and regional authorities abuse the public education system by imposing their political and ideological agenda on children. + +==== Healthcare ==== +Vox supports establishing a single medical card useful across the entire country, as opposed to the existing model. The party opposed mandatory vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vox favours Spain's withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d3e190c38 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 6/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +==== Energy and environment ==== +The party's discourse about the environment has changed over time, going from climate change denial to a conservationist approach. However, the party still opposes the mainstream environmental views, labelling them as "Green religion", and has voted against the Law for Climate Change and Energy Transition, which was adopted anyway. +Vox supports nuclear energy and wants to stop the closure of nuclear plants. + +=== Foreign policy === +Vox is opposed to globalization and advocates a strong nation-state, wishing to recover national sovereignty. The party wants to emphasise bilateralism in international relations, and supports abandoning supranational organizations opposed to Spain's interests. It supports increasing military spending. + +==== Europe ==== +Vox's views on the European Union have been described as either Eurosceptic or Soft Eurosceptic, arguing that Spain should make no sovereignty concessions to the EU in order to guarantee national sovereignty. The party is strongly opposed to the EU becoming a federal superstate and instead argues for a Europe of "strong and sovereign states" that "defends its borders and its Christian roots and opposes multiculturalism and mass immigration". Political scientists Andrés Santana and Lisa Zanotti noted that out of all the parties in Spain, Vox's voters and grassroots activists were the most likely to oppose Spain's membership of the EU. In July 2021, party leader Abascal signed a statement opposing the EU's "federalist drift" with Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, Jarosław Kaczyński and Giorgia Meloni, among others. +Vox calls for Spain to regain sovereignty over Gibraltar, and supports extra efforts to safeguard Spanish control of Ceuta and Melilla. The party opposes recognising Kosovo's independence. Abascal has condemned the annulment of the 2024 Romanian presidential election, describing it as a stolen election and an attack on Romanian sovereignty. +At the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vox took a strong pro-Ukrainian stance, announcing its support to "all measures" to defend Ukraine, including shipments of armaments to Ukraine. However, in 2024, Vox began to shift its views on Ukraine, with Abascal criticising the €1 billion "that Spaniards do not have" in Spanish aid to Ukraine, expressing concern over potential escalation through Western countries supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles for use against Russian soil, and calling for an end to the conflict "as soon as possible". The party supports U.S.-led peace efforts in Ukraine, accusing other Spanish political parties of "celebrating the continuation of the war". However, Vox opposes deployment of Spanish troops as peacekeepers in Ukraine. + +==== Americas ==== +Vox took a strong pro-United States stance, particularly during the Trump administration, while strongly criticizing Biden's presidency. The party welcomed Trump's second term, although it was divided on his tariff policy. +Vox opposes the Government of Cuba and supports closer relations with Javier Milei's Argentina. The party is strongly opposed to Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela, recognising both Juan Guaidó and later Edmundo González as rightful presidents, and opposing the alleged fraud in the 2024 elections. + +==== Middle East ==== +Vox supports the State of Israel within the context of Israeli–Palestinian conflict. A document on their website titled "VOX, Israel and the Middle East" commends Israel's democratic system and its fight against Islamic extremism. The document criticizes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and advocates for strengthening ties between Spain and Israel in all areas. +In May 2024, Abascal voiced criticism towards Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state, describing this action as a scandalous reward to Hamas, and promised to reverse said recognition. +In November 2024, Abascal advocated for stronger relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia along with Argentine President Javier Milei for Spain to form a trio of the following three. +Vox criticised Sánchez's opposition to the 2026 Iran war, believing that it would harm Spain's economic and security ties with the United States. + +== Organization == + +=== Leadership === + +==== Presidents ==== + +==== Secretaries-general ==== + +==== Vice-presidents ==== + +=== Membership === + +According to the party's annual reports, the party's membership per year is: + +=== Support === +A 2020 study based on a statistical analysis of April 2019 general election results found that Vox's support is stronger among the middle-aged, urban population with higher secondary education and at the higher end of income distribution. Authors say that such a voter profile is in direct contrast with that of a typical supporter of radical right parties in other European states, expected to be a man from a rural area with low education and a low income. Vox's support is stronger among voters dissatisfied with the existing politics in Spain, and voters who identify themselves as Spaniards. +A 2021 study of the influence of Spanish party leaders on Twitter during the April 2019 general election campaign found that the messages tweeted during the electoral campaign by Santiago Abascal (Vox) reached the highest diffusion and viralization capacity compared to Twitter messages by leaders of Cs, PSOE, PP and UP. The main focus of Abascal's tweets, according to the authors, was the Spanish territorial model (27.2%), government and parties (19.3%) and economy (14.5%). + +=== International affiliation === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-6.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-6.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d73bd37a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-6.md @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 7/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Vox was initially close to Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord party in Italy but, by 2021, it grew closer to Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party instead. In October 2021, Abascal said that Vox has an "unbreakable" alliance with the Portuguese Chega party. Vox has connections to the Serbian People's Party. +In the European Parliament, Vox joined the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) after the 2019 elections. As a member of the ECR, Vox shared group with parties such as the Polish Law and Justice, Brothers of Italy, and the Sweden Democrats. In July 2024, Vox left the ECR in favour of the Patriots for Europe group, aligning with longstanding partners of Vox such as the French National Rally, the Hungarian Fidesz and Chega. However, upon doing so, it insisted that Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy would remain a "friend and ally". Abascal and Vox also expressed "full support" for Alternative for Germany, a member of Europe of Sovereign Nations, in the 2025 German federal election. +In the United States, Vox is strongly supportive of Donald Trump and his political ideals. Trump has virtually addressed the annual Viva conference hosted by Vox, and Vox has invited pro-Trump factions of the Republican Party to the Spanish Congress of Deputies. +In Latin America, Vox maintains close ties with the Chilean Republican Party, Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza in Argentina, Peru's Popular Renewal, Alvaro Uribe's Democratic Centre in Colombia, and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. In El Salvador, Vox is aligned with the Nationalist Republican Alliance, which opposes the administration of Nayib Bukele. In September 2021, 15 senators and three deputies from the National Action Party of Mexico met Abascal to sign the Madrid charter. +In February 2019, Vox presented the Madrid Charter; a document that divided political groups in the Americas into the two sides of Western democracies and "criminal" left-wing groups that were "under the umbrella of the Cuban regime", hoping to create an anti-communist alliance. The Madrid Charter called for scholars and the media to adopt and disseminate the ideas of the document. The charter was primarily signed by Venezuelan opposition members, Cuban dissidents and Fujimorists from Peru, with El País writing that Vox gathered groups of Evangelicals, Catholics, neoconservatives, right-wing populists and individuals "nostalgic for military dictatorships" to sign the document. + +== Electoral performance == + +=== Cortes Generales === + +=== European Parliament === + +=== Results timeline === + +== Public profile == + +=== Neo-Nazi controversies === +Vox initially included some former neo-Nazis in party cadres and lists; Vox has since expelled some of them from the party, while others have resigned. The most notable example was the controversy surrounding the historian Fernando Paz, the party's leading candidate in Albacete for the April 2019 general election, who resigned after suffering what he described as "a mediatic hunt", due to Holocaust denial and homophobia. + +=== Homophobic statements === +Multiple Vox politicians have made allegedly disparaging statements about homosexuals. Thus, Fernando Paz Cristóbal (ex-leader of Vox in Albacete, who left the party in 2019) said in 2013: "If I had a gay son I would help him, there are therapies to correct such psychology". Francisco Serrano Castro (ex-leader of Vox in Andalusia, who left in 2020) tweeted in 2017: "Homosexuals have penises and lesbians have vulvas, and don't be fooled, nobody cares about it". Juan E. Pflüger (director of communications of Vox in 2019) tweeted in 2013: "Why do gays celebrate Saint Valentine's day, if their thing is not love, it's just vice". + +=== Gaysper controversy === +During the April 2019 general election, Vox shared a controversial tweet in which it invited its supporters to vote through the claim "Let the battle begin!". The message was accompanied by a photomontage of Aragorn, a protagonist of The Lord of the Rings saga, in which he appeared facing a crowd of orcs, whose figure had been modified and replaced with symbols contrary to the party's ideology: the feminist symbol, the hammer and sickle, the flag of the Second Spanish Republic and the Catalan independence senyera, several logos of media outlets such as El País or Cadena SER, the symbol of the raised fist, the symbol of the anti-fascist movement and, among them, a modified version of the ghost emoji (👻) of the Android 5.0 version with the colors of the LGBT flag. +The use of the ghost in the tweet met with an initial negative reaction from the LGBT community on Twitter. However, it would later end up using it for the creation of memes, and finally as a symbol of the collective in a phenomenon of reappropriation. The icon would end up being known as Gaysper, in a portmanteau of the word gay and Casper the Friendly Ghost; and subsequently spread in press and television. Two PSOE deputies would later attend a parliamentary session in Congress wearing a T-shirt bearing the icon. + +=== MENA versus Grandma poster === +During the elections to the Assembly of Madrid of 2021 held on 4 May, Vox used a very controversial poster in which the faces of a young masked man and an old woman appeared, with the sign between the two saying: "A mena [unaccompanied foreign minor] 4700 euros per month. Your grandmother 426 euros of pension / month". These numbers were debunked by the Department of Social Policies, Families, Equality and Birth of the Community of Madrid. The poster was denounced in court for inciting hatred towards this group, but the court and the appeal ruling did not consider it a crime. + +=== Legal proceedings === +In March 2025, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office began an investigation regarding Vox's financing, following a complaint lodged in December by the PSOE. The investigation concerns alleged illegal donations of 4.6 million euros from Hungary. The complaint is based on a report by the Court of Auditors, which found 1.8 million unjustified euros accounted for as promotional sales, as well as an electoral credit of 6.5 million euros granted by a Hungarian bank during the 2023 general election. + +== See also == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-7.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-7.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f7add496c --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)-7.md @@ -0,0 +1,36 @@ +--- +title: "Vox (political party)" +chunk: 8/8 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vox_(political_party)" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:13.262498+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Francoism +History of the far-right in Spain +Sociological Francoism + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Arroyo Menéndez, Millán (2020). "Las causas del apoyo electoral a VOX en españa". Política y Sociedad. 57 (3). Madrid: 693–717. doi:10.5209/poso.69206. S2CID 241063503. +Carmona Pascual, Pablo (2020). "Vox y el dilema de las derechas". Familia, raza y nación en tiempos de posfascismo (PDF). Traficantes de Sueños. pp. 161–186. ISBN 978-84-121259-4-8. +Casals, Xavier (2020). "El ultranacionalismo de Vox. Cinco claves para comprender 'la España viva'". Grand Place. Pensamiento y Cultura. 13. Zarautz: Mario Onaindia Fundazioa: 27–35. ISSN 2386-429X. +Esteban Fernández, Nacho (2023). Por rojos y maricones: homofobia y transfobia en el Partido Popular y el resto de la derecha española. Egales. 104-134. ISBN 978-84-19728-03-6. +Ferreira, Carles (2019). "Vox como representante de la derecha radical en España: un estudio sobre su ideología" [Vox as Representative of the Radical Right in Spain: A study of its Ideology]. Revista Española de Ciencia Política (in Spanish). 51 (51): 73–98. doi:10.21308/recp.51.03. ISSN 2173-9870. +Mendes, Mariana; Dennison, James (2021). "Explaining the emergence of the radical right in Spain and Portugal: Salience, Stigma and Supply". West European Politics. 44 (4): 752–775. doi:10.1080/01402382.2020.1777504. +Lebourg, Nicolas; Camus, Jean-Yves (2020). Las extremas derechas en Europa. Editorial Clave Intelectual. 344. ISBN 978-84-122800-2-9. +Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart J. (2019). "Explaining the end of Spanish exceptionalism and electoral support for Vox". Research & Politics. 6 (2) 2053168019851680. SAGE. doi:10.1177/2053168019851680. +Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart; Rama, José; Santana, Andrés (2020). "The Baskerville's dog suddenly started barking: voting for VOX in the 2019 Spanish general elections". Political Research Exchange. 2 (1). doi:10.1080/2474736X.2020.1781543. +Jones, Erik; Hedberg, Masha (2023). Europe Today: A Twenty-First Century Introduction. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 508. ISBN 978-1-5381-1094-2. +Gray, Caroline (2020). Territorial Politics and the Party System in Spain: Continuity and change since the financial crisis. Routledge. 182. ISBN 978-1-000-06258-8. +Sweeney, Simon (2023). European Union in the Global Context. Taylor & Francis. 502. ISBN 978-1-315-29435-3. +Buck, Tobias (2019). After the Fall: Crisis, Recovery and the Making of a New Spain. Hachette UK. 320. ISBN 978-1-4746-1009-4. + +== External links == + +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..87f04c87b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Watchmaker analogy" +chunk: 1/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:54.826271+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The watchmaker analogy or watchmaker argument is a teleological argument, an argument for the existence of God. In broad terms, the watchmaker analogy states that just as it is readily observed that a watch (e.g., a pocket watch) did not come to be accidentally or on its own but rather through the intentional handiwork of a skilled watchmaker, it is also readily observed that nature did not come to be accidentally or on its own but through the intentional handiwork of an intelligent designer. The watchmaker analogy originated in natural theology and is often used to argue for the concept of intelligent design. The analogy states that a design implies a designer, by an intelligent designer, i.e., a creator deity. The watchmaker analogy was given by William Paley in his 1802 book Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. +The original analogy played a prominent role in natural theology and the "argument from design", where it was used to support arguments for the existence of God of the universe, in both Christianity and Deism. Prior to Paley, however, Sir Isaac Newton, René Descartes, and others from the time of the Scientific Revolution had each believed "that the physical laws he [each] had uncovered revealed the mechanical perfection of the workings of the universe to be akin to a watch, wherein the watchmaker is God." +The 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's book on natural selection put forward an alternative explanation to the watchmaker analogy, for complexity and adaptation. In the 19th century, deists, who championed the watchmaker analogy, held that Darwin's theory fit with "the principle of uniformitarianism—the idea that all processes in the world occur now as they have in the past" and that deistic evolution "provided an explanatory framework for understanding species variation in a mechanical universe." +When evolutionary biology began being taught in American high schools in the 1960s, Christian fundamentalists used versions of the argument to dispute the concepts of evolution and natural selection, and there was renewed interest in the watchmaker argument. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins referred to the analogy in his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker when explaining the mechanism of evolution. Others, however, consider the watchmaker analogy to be compatible with evolutionary creation, opining that the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. + +== History == + +=== Ancient predecessor === +In the second century Epictetus argued that, by analogy to the way a sword is made by a craftsman to fit with a scabbard, so human genitals and the desire of humans to fit them together suggest a type of design or craftsmanship of the human form. Epictetus attributed this design to a type of Providence woven into the fabric of the universe, rather than to a personal monotheistic god. + +=== Scientific Revolution === +The Scientific Revolution "nurtured a growing awareness" that "there were universal laws of nature at work that ordered the movement of the world and its parts." Amos Yong writes that in "astronomy, the Copernican revolution regarding the heliocentrism of the solar system, Johannes Kepler's (1571–1630) three laws of planetary motion, and Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) law of universal gravitation—laws of gravitation and of motion, and notions of absolute space and time—all combined to establish the regularities of heavenly and earthly bodies". +Simultaneously, the development of machine technology and the emergence of the mechanical philosophy +encouraged mechanical imagery unlikely to have come to the fore in previous ages. +With such a backdrop, "deists suggested the watchmaker analogy: just as watches are set in motion by watchmakers, after which they operate according to their pre-established mechanisms, so also was the world begun by God as creator, after which it and all its parts have operated according to their pre-established natural laws. With these laws perfectly in place, events have unfolded according to the prescribed plan." For Sir Isaac Newton, "the regular motion of the planets made it reasonable to believe in the continued existence of God". Newton also upheld the idea that "like a watchmaker, God was forced to intervene in the universe and tinker with the mechanism from time to time to ensure that it continued operating in good working order". Similarly to Newton, René Descartes (1596–1650) speculated on "the cosmos as a great time machine operating according to fixed laws, a watch created and wound up by the great watchmaker". + +=== William Paley === + +Watches and timepieces have been used as examples of complicated technology in philosophical discussions. For example, Cicero, Voltaire and René Descartes all used timepieces in arguments regarding purpose. The watchmaker analogy, as described here, was used by Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle in 1686, but was most famously formulated by Paley. +Paley used the watchmaker analogy in his book Natural Theology, or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity collected from the Appearances of Nature, published in 1802. In it, Paley wrote that if a pocket watch is found on a heath, it is most reasonable to assume that someone dropped it and that it was made by at least one watchmaker, not by natural forces: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..739e2f93e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +--- +title: "Watchmaker analogy" +chunk: 2/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:54.826271+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. ... There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use. ... Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation. +Paley went on to argue that the complex structures of living things and the remarkable adaptations of plants and animals required an intelligent designer. He believed the natural world was the creation of God and showed the nature of the creator. According to Paley, God had carefully designed "even the most humble and insignificant organisms" and all of their minute features (such as the wings and antennae of earwigs). He believed, therefore, that God must care even more for humanity. +Paley recognised that there is great suffering in nature and nature appears to be indifferent to pain. His way of reconciling that with his belief in a benevolent God was to assume that life had more pleasure than pain. +As a side note, a charge of wholesale plagiarism from this book was brought against Paley in The Athenaeum for 1848, but the famous illustration of the watch was not peculiar to Nieuwentyt and had been used by many others before either Paley or Nieuwentyt. But the charge of plagiarism was based on more similarities. For example, Nieuwentyt wrote "in the middle of a Sandy down, or in a desart [sic] and solitary Place, where few People are used to pass, any one should find a Watch ..." + +=== Joseph Butler === +William Paley taught the works of Joseph Butler and appears to have built on Butler's 1736 design arguments of inferring a designer from evidence of design. Butler noted: +"As the manifold Appearances of Design and of final Causes, in the Constitution of the World, prove it to be the Work of an intelligent Mind ... The appearances of Design and of final Causes in the constitution of nature as really prove this acting agent to be an intelligent Designer... ten thousand Instances of Design, cannot but prove a Designer.". + +=== Jean-Jacques Rousseau === +Rousseau also mentioned the watchmaker theory. He wrote the following in his 1762 book, Emile: I am like a man who sees the works of a watch for the first time; he is never weary of admiring the mechanism, though he does not know the use of the instrument and has never seen its face. I do not know what this is for, says he, but I see that each part of it is fitted to the rest, I admire the workman in the details of his work, and I am quite certain that all these wheels only work together in this fashion for some common end which I cannot perceive. Let us compare the special ends, the means, the ordered relations of every kind, then let us listen to the inner voice of feeling; what healthy mind can reject its evidence? Unless the eyes are blinded by prejudices, can they fail to see that the visible order of the universe proclaims a supreme intelligence? What sophisms must be brought together before we fail to understand the harmony of existence and the wonderful co-operation of every part for the maintenance of the rest? + +== Criticism == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..36805a8db --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Watchmaker analogy" +chunk: 3/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:54.826271+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== David Hume === +Before Paley published his book, David Hume (1711–1776) had already put forward a number of philosophical criticisms of the watch analogy, and to some extent anticipated the concept of natural selection. His criticisms can be separated into three major distinctions. +His first objection is that we have no experience of world-making. Hume highlighted the fact that everything we claim to know the cause of, we have derived the inductions from previous experiences of similar objects being created or seen the object itself being created ourselves. For example, with a watch, we know it has to be created by a watchmaker because we can observe it being made and compare it to the making of other similar watches or objects to deduce they have alike causes in their creation. However, he argues that we have no experience of the universe's creation or any other universe's creations to compare our own universe to and never will; therefore, it would be illogical to infer that our universe has been created by an intelligent designer in the same way that a watch has. +The second criticism that Hume offers is about the form of the argument as an analogy in itself. An analogical argument claims that because object X (a watch) is like object Y (the universe) in one respect, both are therefore probably alike in another, hidden, respect (their cause, having to be created by an intelligent designer). He points out that for an argument from analogy to be successful, the two things that are being compared have to have an adequate number of similarities that are relevant to the respect that are analogised. For example, a kitten and a lion may be very similar in many respects, but just because a lion makes a "roar", it would not be correct to infer a kitten also "roars", the similarities between the two objects being not enough and the degree of relevance to what sound they make being not relevant enough. Hume then argues that the universe and a watch also do not have enough relevant or close similarities to infer that they were both created the same way. For example, the universe is made of organic natural material, but the watch is made of artificial mechanic materials. He claims that in the same respect, the universe could be argued to be more analogous to something more organic such as a vegetable (which we can observe for ourselves does not need a 'designer' or a 'watchmaker' to be created). Although he admits the analogy of a universe to a vegetable to seem ridiculous, he says that it is just as ridiculous to analogize the universe with a watch. +The third criticism that Hume offers is that even if the argument did give evidence for a designer; it still gives no evidence for the traditional 'omnipotent', 'benevolent' (all-powerful and all-loving) God of traditional Christian theism. One of the main assumptions of Paley's argument is that 'like effects have like causes'; or that machines (like the watch) and the universe have similar features of design and so both also have the same cause of their existence: they must both have an intelligent designer. However, Hume points out that what Paley does not comprehend is to what extent 'like causes' extend: how similar the creation of a universe is to the creation of a watch. Instead, Paley moves straight to the conclusion that this designer of the universe is the 'God' he believes in of traditional Christianity. Hume, however takes the idea of 'like causes' and points out some potential absurdities in how far the 'likeness' of these causes could extend to if the argument were taken further as to explain this. One example that he uses is how a machine or a watch is usually designed by a whole team of people rather than just one person. Surely, if we are analogizing the two in this way, it would point to there being a group of gods who created the universe, not just a single being. Another example he uses is that complex machines are usually the result of many years of trial and error with every new machine being an improved version of the last. Also by analogy of the two, would that not hint that the universe could also have been just one of many of God's 'trials' and that there are much better universes out there? However, if that were taken to be true, surely the 'creator' of it all would not be 'all loving' and 'all powerful' if they had to carry out the process of 'trial and error' when creating the universe? +Hume also points out there is still a possibility that the universe could have been created by random chance but still show evidence of design as the universe is eternal and would have an infinite amount of time to be able to form a universe so complex and ordered as our own. He called that the 'Epicurean hypothesis'. It argued that when the universe was first created, the universe was random and chaotic, but if the universe is eternal, over an unlimited period of time, natural forces could have naturally 'evolved' by random particles coming together over time into the incredibly ordered system we can observe today without the need of an intelligent designer as an explanation. +The last objection that he makes draws on the widely discussed problem of evil. He argues that all the daily unnecessary suffering that goes on everywhere within the world is yet another factor that pulls away from the idea that God is an 'omnipotent' 'benevolent' being. + +=== Charles Darwin === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..663c2052e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Watchmaker analogy" +chunk: 4/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:54.826271+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +When Darwin completed his studies of theology at Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1831, he read Paley's Natural Theology and believed that the work gave rational proof of the existence of God. That was because living beings showed complexity and were exquisitely fitted to their places in a happy world. +Subsequently, on the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin found that nature was not so beneficent, and the distribution of species did not support ideas of divine creation. In 1838, shortly after his return, Darwin conceived his theory that natural selection, rather than divine design, was the best explanation for gradual change in populations over many generations. He published the theory in On the Origin of Species in 1859, and in later editions, he noted responses that he had received: + +It can hardly be supposed that a false theory would explain, in so satisfactory a manner as does the theory of natural selection, the several large classes of facts above specified. It has recently been objected that this is an unsafe method of arguing; but it is a method used in judging of the common events of life, and has often been used by the greatest natural philosophers ... +I see no good reason why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of any one. It is satisfactory, as showing how transient such impressions are, to remember that the greatest discovery ever made by man, namely, the law of the attraction of gravity, was also attacked by Leibnitz, "as subversive of natural, and inferentially of revealed, religion." A celebrated author and divine has written to me that "he has gradually learnt to see that it is just as noble a conception of the Deity to believe that He created a few original forms capable of self-development into other and needful forms, as to believe that He required a fresh act of creation to supply the voids caused by the action of His laws." +Darwin reviewed the implications of this finding in his autobiography: + +Although I did not think much about the existence of a personal God until a considerably later period of my life, I will here give the vague conclusions to which I have been driven. The old argument of design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows. Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws. +The idea that nature was governed by laws was already common, and in 1833, William Whewell as a proponent of the natural theology that Paley had inspired had written that "with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this—we can perceive that events are brought about not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular case, but by the establishment of general laws." Darwin, who spoke of the "fixed laws" concurred with Whewell, writing in his second edition of On The Origin of Species: + +There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. +By the time that Darwin published his theory, theologians of liberal Christianity were already supporting such ideas, and by the late 19th century, their modernist approach was predominant in theology. In science, evolution theory incorporating Darwin's natural selection became completely accepted. + +=== Richard Dawkins === + +In The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins argues that the watch analogy conflates the complexity that arises from living organisms that are able to reproduce themselves (and may become more complex over time) with the complexity of inanimate objects, unable to pass on any reproductive changes (such as the multitude of parts manufactured in a watch). The comparison breaks down because of this important distinction. +In a BBC Horizon episode, also entitled The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins described Paley's argument as being "as mistaken as it is elegant". In both contexts, he saw Paley as having made an incorrect proposal as to a certain problem's solution, but Dawkins did not disrespect him. In his essay The Big Bang, Steven Pinker discusses Dawkins's coverage of Paley's argument, adding: "Biologists today do not disagree with Paley's laying out of the problem. They disagree only with his solution." +In his book The God Delusion, Dawkins argues that rather than luck, the evolution of human life is the result of natural selection. He suggests that it is fallacious to view "coming about by chance" and "coming about by design" as the only possibilities, with natural selection being the alternative to the existence of an intelligent designer. By amassing a large number of small changes, the theory of natural selection allows for a seemingly impossible end product to be produced. +In addition, he argues that the watchmaker's creation of the watch implies that the watchmaker must be more complex than the watch. Design is top-down, someone or something more complex designs something less complex. To follow the line upwards demands that the watch was designed by a (necessarily more complex) watchmaker, the watchmaker must have been created by a more complex being than himself. So the question becomes who designed the designer? Dawkins argues that (a) this line continues ad infinitum, and (b) it does not explain anything. Evolution, on the other hand, takes a bottom-up approach; it explains how more complexity can arise gradually by building on or combining lesser complexity. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2aa23b786 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Watchmaker analogy" +chunk: 5/5 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:54.826271+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Richerson and Boyd === +Biologist Peter Richerson and anthropologist Robert Boyd offer an oblique criticism by arguing that watches were not "hopeful monsters created by single inventors," but were created by watchmakers building up their skills in a cumulative fashion over time, each contributing to a watch-making tradition from which any individual watchmaker draws their designs. + +== Contemporary usage == +In the early 20th century, the modernist theology of higher criticism was contested in the United States by Biblical literalists, who campaigned successfully against the teaching of evolution and began calling themselves creationists in the 1920s. When teaching of evolution was reintroduced into public schools in the 1960s, they adopted what they called creation science that had a central concept of design in similar terms to Paley's argument. That idea was then relabeled intelligent design, which presents the same analogy as an argument against evolution by natural selection without explicitly stating that the "intelligent designer" was God. The argument from the complexity of biological organisms was now presented as the irreducible complexity argument, the most notable proponent of which was Michael Behe, and, leveraging off the verbiage of information theory, the specified complexity argument, the most notable proponent of which was William Dembski. +The watchmaker analogy was referenced in the 2005 Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial. Throughout the trial, Paley was mentioned several times. The defense's expert witness John Haught noted that both intelligent design and the watchmaker analogy are "reformulations" of the same theological argument. +On day 21 of the trial, Mr. Harvey walked Dr. Minnich through a modernized version of Paley's argument, substituting a cell phone for the watch. +In his ruling, the judge stated that the use of the argument from design by intelligent design proponents "is merely a restatement of the Reverend William Paley's argument applied at the cell level," adding "Minnich, Behe, and Paley reach the same conclusion, that complex organisms must have been designed using the same reasoning, except that Professors Behe and Minnich refuse to identify the designer, whereas Paley inferred from the presence of design that it was God." The judge ruled that such an inductive argument is not accepted as science because it is unfalsifiable. + +== See also == +Existence of God +Cosmological argument +Genetic algorithm +God of the gaps +Infinite monkey theorem +Irreducible complexity +Junkyard tornado +Objections to evolution + +== References == + +=== Sources === +Paley, William (1802). Natural Theology, Or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Collected from the Appearances of Nature. Philadelphia: John Morgan. +Richerson, Peter J.; Boyd, Robert (2005). Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-71284-2. + +== External links == +The Divine Watchmaker +Robert Hooke Archived 2005-12-18 at the Wayback Machine +William Paley (1743–1805) +The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, revised version published in 1958 by Darwin's granddaughter Nora Barlow. +"Recapitulation and Conclusion", By Charles Darwin. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8d3c822aa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Water-fuelled car" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:45.691110+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +A water-fuelled car is an automobile that hypothetically derives its energy directly from water. Water-fuelled cars have been the subject of numerous international patents, newspaper and popular science magazine articles, local television news coverage, and websites. The claims for these devices have been found to be pseudoscience and some were found to be tied to investment frauds. These vehicles may be claimed to produce fuel from water on board with no other energy input, or may be a hybrid claiming to derive some of its energy from water in addition to a conventional source (such as gasoline). There is no way to extract chemical energy from water alone which is consistent with the laws of physics. + +== What water-fuelled cars are not == +A water-fuelled car is not any of the following: + +Water injection, which is a method for cooling the combustion chambers of engines by adding water to the incoming fuel-air mixture, allowing for greater compression ratios and reduced engine knocking (detonation). +The hydrogen car, although it often incorporates some of the same elements. To fuel a hydrogen car from water, electricity is used to generate hydrogen by electrolysis. The resulting hydrogen is an energy carrier that can power a car by reacting with oxygen from the air to create water, either through burning in a combustion engine or catalyzed to produce electricity in a fuel cell. +Hydrogen fuel enhancement, where a mixture of hydrogen and conventional hydrocarbon fuel is burned in an internal combustion engine, usually in an attempt to improve fuel economy or reduce emissions. +The steam car, which uses water (in both liquid and gaseous forms) as a working fluid, not as a fuel. +An electric car charged with or directly powered by hydroelectricity. + +== Extracting energy from water == +According to the laws of physics, there is no way to extract chemical energy from water alone. Water itself is highly stable—it was one of the classical elements and contains very strong chemical bonds. Its enthalpy of formation is negative (−68.3 kcal/mol or −285.8 kJ/mol), meaning that energy is required to break those stable bonds, to separate water into its elements, and there are no other compounds of hydrogen and oxygen with more negative enthalpies of formation, meaning that no energy can be released in this manner either. +Most proposed water-fuelled cars rely on some form of electrolysis to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen and then recombine them to release energy. However, the first law of thermodynamics guarantees that the energy required to separate the elements will always be equal to the amount of energy released (assuming no losses), so this cannot be used to produce net energy. The second law of thermodynamics further states that the amount of useful energy released this way is necessarily less than the amount of energy input. + +== Claims of functioning water-fuelled cars == + +=== Garrett electrolytic carburetor === +Charles H. Garrett allegedly demonstrated a water-fuelled car "for several minutes", which was reported on September 8, 1935, in The Dallas Morning News. The car generated hydrogen by electrolysis as can be seen by examining Garrett's patent, issued that same year. This patent includes drawings which show a carburetor similar to an ordinary float-type carburetor but with electrolysis plates in the lower portion, and where the float is used to maintain the level of the water. Garrett's patent fails to identify a new source of energy. + +=== Malcolm Vincent's water powered car === +In 1973, Malcolm Vincent, of Nelson, New Zealand, was the star of a four-minute newsreel about his claim to have invented an engine powered by water. He had fitted a prototype to a car and said he's driven hundreds of miles at speeds up to 60 miles an hour. Vincent told the reporter that the engine works on a hydraulic principle, using an ordinary electric starter to give it an initial thrust. + +=== Stanley Meyer's water fuel cell === + +At least as far back as 1980, Stanley Meyer claimed that he had built a dune buggy that ran on water, although he gave inconsistent explanations as to its mode of operation. In some cases, he claimed that he had replaced the spark plugs with a "water splitter", while in other cases it was claimed to rely on a "fuel cell" that split the water into hydrogen and oxygen. The "fuel cell", which he claimed was subjected to an electrical resonance, would split the water mist into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which would then be combusted back into water vapour in a conventional internal combustion engine to produce net energy. Meyer's claims were never independently verified, and in an Ohio court in 1996 he was found guilty of "gross and egregious fraud". He died of an aneurysm in 1998, although conspiracy theories claim that he was poisoned. + +=== Dennis Klein === +In 2002, the firm Hydrogen Technology Applications patented an electrolyser design and trademarked the term "Aquygen" to refer to the hydrogen oxygen gas mixture produced by the device. Originally developed as an alternative to oxyacetylene welding, the company claimed to be able to run a vehicle exclusively on water, via the production of "Aquygen", and invoked an unproven state of matter called "magnegases" and a discredited theory about magnecules to explain their results. Company founder Dennis Klein claimed to be in negotiations with a major US auto manufacturer and that the US government wanted to produce Hummers that used his technology. +At present, the company no longer claims it can run a car exclusively on water, and is instead marketing "Aquygen" production as a technique to increase fuel efficiency, thus making it hydrogen fuel enhancement rather than a water-fuelled car. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4d7acb1e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Water-fuelled car" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:45.691110+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +=== Genesis World Energy (GWE) === +Also in 2002, Genesis World Energy announced a market ready device which would extract energy from water by separating the hydrogen and oxygen and then recombining them. In 2003, the company announced that this technology had been adapted to power automobiles. The company collected over $2.5 million from investors, but none of their devices were ever brought to market. In 2006, Patrick Kelly, the owner of Genesis World Energy was sentenced in New Jersey to five years in prison for theft and ordered to pay $400,000 in restitution. + +=== Genepax Water Energy System === +In June 2008, Japanese company Genepax unveiled a car it claimed ran on only water and air, and many news outlets dubbed the vehicle a "water-fuel car". The company said it "cannot [reveal] the core part of this invention" yet, but it disclosed that the system used an onboard energy generator, which it called a "membrane electrode assembly", to extract the hydrogen using a "mechanism which is similar to the method in which hydrogen is produced by a reaction of metal hydride and water". The hydrogen was then used to generate energy to run the car. This led to speculation that the metal hydride is consumed in the process and is the ultimate source of the car's energy, making it a hydride-fuelled "hydrogen on demand" vehicle rather than water-fuelled as claimed. On the company's website the energy source is explained only with the words "Chemical reaction". The science and technology magazine Popular Mechanics described Genepax's claims as "rubbish". The vehicle Genepax demonstrated to the press in 2008 was a REVAi electric car, which was manufactured in India and sold in the UK as the G-Wiz. +In early 2009, Genepax announced they were closing their website, citing large development costs. + +=== Thushara Priyamal Edirisinghe === +Also in 2008, Sri Lankan news sources reported that Thushara Priyamal Edirisinghe claimed to drive a water-fuelled car about 300 km (190 miles). on 3 litres (5.3 imperial pints) of water. Like other alleged water-fuelled cars described above, energy for the car was supposedly produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis, and then burning the gases in the engine. Thushara showed the technology to Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, who "extended the Government’s full support to his efforts to introduce the water-powered car to the Sri Lankan market". Thushara was arrested a few months later on suspicion of investment fraud. + +=== Daniel Dingel === +Daniel Dingel, a Filipino inventor, has been claiming since 1969 to have developed technology allowing water to be used as fuel. In 2000, Dingel entered into a business partnership with Formosa Plastics Group to further develop the technology. In 2008, Formosa Plastics successfully sued Dingel for fraud and Dingel, who was 82, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. + +=== Ghulam Sarwar === +In December 2011, Ghulam Sarwar claimed he had invented a car that ran only on water. At the time the invented car was claimed to use 60% water and 40% Diesel or fuel, but that the inventor was working to make it run on only water, probably by end of June 2012. It was further claimed the car "emits only oxygen rather than the usual carbon". + +=== Agha Waqar Ahmad === +Pakistani man Agha Waqar Ahmad claimed in July 2012 to have invented a water-fuelled car by installing a "water kit" for all kind of automobiles, which consists of a cylindrical jar that holds the water, a bubbler, and a pipe leading to the engine. He claimed the kit used electrolysis to convert water into "HHO", which is then used as fuel. The kit required use of distilled water to work. Ahmed claimed he has been able to generate more oxyhydrogen than any other inventor because of "undisclosed calculations". He applied for a patent in Pakistan. Some Pakistani scientists said Agha's invention was a fraud that violates the laws of thermodynamics. + +=== Aryanto Misel === +Indonesian inventor Aryanto Misel claimed in May 2022 that his invention, called Nikuba, can convert water into hydrogen that can be used as fuel for motorcycles. Aryanto claimed that he only required 1 liter of water for the distance of 500 kilometers. +In July 2023, Aryanto claimed that Italian-based automobile manufacturers Lamborghini, Ducati, and Ferrari are interested in Nikuba. He also claimed that he is willing to sell the device to foreign companies for 15 billion rupiahs, while also claiming that he didn't need the Indonesian government and National Research and Innovation Agency as they have "destroyed" him. Indonesian scientists from National Research and Innovation Agency stated that the device is theoretically impossible. They also stated that there is no interest from Italian automobile manufacturers in Nikuba, and Aryanto was invited by their partners instead of the automobile manufacturers. + +== Hydrogen as a supplement == + +In addition to claims of cars that run exclusively on water, there have also been claims that burning hydrogen or oxyhydrogen together with petrol or diesel increases mileage and efficiency; these claims are debated. A number of websites promote the use of oxyhydrogen, also called "HHO", selling plans for do-it-yourself electrolysers or kits with the promise of large improvements in fuel efficiency. According to a spokesman for the American Automobile Association, "All of these devices look like they could probably work for you, but let me tell you they don't". + +== Gasoline pill and related additives == + +Related to the water-fuelled car hoax are claims that additives, often a pill, can convert the water into usable fuel, similar to a carbide lamp, in which a high-energy additive produces the combustible fuel. These claims are all false, and often with fraudulent intent, as water itself cannot contribute any energy to the process. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a504edde --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,192 @@ +--- +title: "Water-fuelled car" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:14:45.691110+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Hydrogen on demand technologies == +A hydrogen on demand vehicle uses a chemical reaction to produce hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is then burned in an internal combustion engine or used in a fuel cell to generate electricity which powers the vehicle. These designs take energy from the chemical that reacts with water; vehicles of this type are not precluded by the laws of nature. Aluminium, magnesium, and sodium borohydride react with water to generate hydrogen and have been used in hydrogen on demand prototypes. Eventually, the chemical runs out and has to be replenished. The energy required to produce such compounds exceeds the energy obtained from their reaction with water. +One example of a hydrogen on demand device, created by scientists from the University of Minnesota and the Weizmann Institute of Science, uses boron to generate hydrogen from water. An article in New Scientist in July 2006 described the power source under the headline "A fuel tank full of water," and they quote Abu-Hamed as saying: + +The aim is to produce the hydrogen on-board at a rate matching the demand of the car engine. We want to use the boron to save transporting and storing the hydrogen. +A vehicle powered by the device would take on water and boron instead of petrol, and generate boron trioxide. Elemental boron is difficult to prepare and does not occur naturally. Boron trioxide is an example of a borate, which is the predominant form of boron on earth. Thus, a boron-powered vehicle would require an economical method of preparing elemental boron. The chemical reactions describing the oxidation of boron are: + + + + + + 4 + + B + + + 6 + + + H + + 2 + + + + + + O + ⟶ + 2 + + + B + + 2 + + + + + + + O + + 3 + + + + + + + + 6 + + + H + + 2 + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\ce {4B + 6H2O -> 2B2O3 + 6H2}}} + + [Hydrogen generation step] + + + + + + 6 + + + H + + 2 + + + + + + + + 3 + + + O + + 2 + + + + + + ⟶ + 6 + + + H + + 2 + + + + + + O + + + + {\displaystyle {\ce {6H2 + 3O2 -> 6H2O}}} + + [Combustion step] +The balanced chemical equation representing the overall process (hydrogen generation and combustion) is: + + + + + + 4 + + B + + + 3 + + + O + + 2 + + + + + + ⟶ + 2 + + + B + + 2 + + + + + + + O + + 3 + + + + + + + + + {\displaystyle {\ce {4B + 3O2 -> 2B2O3}}} + + +As shown above, boron trioxide is the only net byproduct, and it could be removed from the car and turned back into boron and reused. Electricity input is required to complete this process, which Al-Hamed suggests could come from solar panels. Although it is possible to obtain elemental boron by electrolysis, a substantial expenditure of energy is required. The process of converting borates to elemental boron and back might be compared with the analogous process involving carbon: carbon dioxide could be converted to charcoal (elemental carbon), then burnt to produce carbon dioxide. + +== In popular culture == +It is referred to in the pilot episode for the That '70s Show sitcom, as well as in the twenty-first episode of the fifth season and the series finale. +"Gashole" (2010), a documentary film about the history of oil prices and the future of alternative mentions multiple stories regarding engines that use water to increase mileage efficiency. +"Like Water for Octane," an episode of The Lone Gunmen, is based on a "water-powered" car that character Melvin Frohike saw with his own eyes back in 1962. +The Water Engine, a David Mamet play made into a television film in 1994, tells the story of Charles Lang inventing an engine that runs using water for fuel. The plot centers on the many obstacles the inventor must overcome to patent his device. +The plot of the 1996 action film Chain Reaction revolves around a technology to turn water (via a type of self-sustaining bubble fusion & electrolysis) into fuel and official suppression of it. +A water-powered car was depicted in a 1997 episode of Team Knight Rider (a spinoff of the original Knight Rider TV series) entitled "Oil and Water". In the episode, the vehicle explodes after a character sabotages it by putting seltzer tablets in the fuel tank. The car shown was actually a Bricklin SV-1. + +== See also == + +List of topics characterized as pseudoscience +List of water fuel inventions +Perpetual motion +Water power engine + +== References == + +=== Further reading === +Dunning, Brian (February 12, 2008). "Skeptoid #87: Water: Alternative Fuel of the Future? Cranks love to make the claim on YouTube, but you cannot run your car on water". Skeptoid. Retrieved May 29, 2022. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_–_Voice_from_the_People-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_–_Voice_from_the_People-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6d8107367 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_–_Voice_from_the_People-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +title: "We – Voice from the People" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_–_Voice_from_the_People" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:14.408926+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The We – Voice from the People (Serbian: Ми — Глас из народа, Mi — Glas iz naroda, abbrev. MI–GIN) is a populist political organisation in Serbia. Until the 2024 split, the main representative of MI–GIN was Branimir Nestorović, a prominent pulmonologist and conspiracy theorist. MI–GIN gained national representation in the National Assembly of Serbia and City Assembly of Belgrade following the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election and 2023 Belgrade City Assembly election. + + +== History == + + +=== Background and formation === +In the 2022 Serbian parliamentary election, Branimir Nestorović supported the Dveri–POKS list, which helped this list in attracting votes. After the election, Nestorović said that he was dissatisfied with the Dveri list, and that Serbia "deserves a national, non-partisan, honest and decent option. With people who will not trade mandates and votes after the election". +Nestorović announced the creation of the movement on 23 June 2023. + + +=== 2023 election === +The movement announced that it would participate in the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election on 27 October 2023. Prior to that, it was mainly centered around a YouTube channel. On 26 November 2023, the movement submitted 10 thousand signatures to the Republican Electoral Commission of Serbia, and on 27 November it was registered for the 2023 Serbian parliamentary election. Nestorović has said that the campaign had been done only with the help of social media, and that "appropriate space" for a campaign was not given to the movement. Reportedly, 12 000 euros were spent on the campaign. +Following the elections in Belgrade, Nestorović rejected the possibility of joining any coalition, either that of the SNS or SPN. +Following the 2024 split, MI-GIN was left with 6 MPs in the National Assembly. + + +== Ideology and platform == +During the 2023 campaign, Nestorović drew attention to Serbia's weak healthcare system and called for its improvement. It has cooperated with the far-right Our Homeland Movement and Alternative for Germany. + + +== Electoral performance == + + +=== Parliamentary elections === + + +=== Belgrade City Assembly elections === + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Members of the list in the 2023 elections \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9e6a9f82d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +--- +title: "Westworld season 1" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:43.213182+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The first season of the American science fiction western television series Westworld, subtitled The Maze, premiered on HBO on October 2, 2016, and concluded on December 4, 2016, consisting of ten episodes. +The television series was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and it is based on the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton. The first season stars an ensemble cast led by Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Ed Harris, and Anthony Hopkins. +The first season received critical acclaim, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and performances. The series received seven nominations at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Outstanding Drama Series; however, the series did not win in any category. + +== Plot summary == +Westworld's co-founder Robert Ford implements a change in the hosts' programming ostensibly as part of a new narrative for the park, but meant to encourage the park's oldest operating host, Dolores Abernathy, to find the proverbial "center of the maze", which represents the ability to achieve sentience. Host sentience was the goal of deceased co-founder Arnold Weber and later, Ford himself. Other hosts are affected by this change, creating confusion among the park staff and guests, and leading the Delos board to doubt Ford's ability to run the park. Dolores does ultimately gain sentience, and at a celebration within the park attended by Delos's board members, Ford announces his new narrative: a revolt by the hosts against the human staff and park guests, which starts with Dolores killing Ford and slaughtering many of the panicked party guests. + +== Cast and characters == + +=== Main === + +=== Recurring === + +=== Guest === + +== Episodes == + +== Production == +Jerry Weintraub had been pushing for a remake for years and, after his success with HBO's Behind the Candelabra, he convinced the network to greenlight a pilot. He took the project to Jonathan Nolan and co-writer Lisa Joy, who saw the potential in the concept to make something far more ambitious, and on August 31, 2013, it was announced that premium cable channel HBO had ordered a pilot for a potential television series version of the story, with Nolan, Joy, J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk as executive producers. +HBO later announced that Westworld had been taken to series and that it would premiere in 2015. On August 9, 2015, HBO released the first teaser, which revealed it would premiere in 2016. The ten episode first season was reportedly produced on a budget of approximately $100 million, with per-episode budgets somewhere between $8 million to $10 million, and the pilot episode alone costing $25 million to produce. HBO and Warner Bros. Television shared the cost of producing the series; HBO reportedly also paid an undisclosed licensing fee to Warner Bros. Television for broadcast rights. + +=== Casting === +Casting for the series was initiated on July 22, 2014, with Anthony Hopkins and Evan Rachel Wood the first to board the series in the roles of Ford and Dolores respectively. August 6 saw the additions of Jeffrey Wright, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, Simon Quarterman, James Marsden, Ed Harris and Thandiwe Newton to the main cast. +Eddie Rouse, who appears in a guest appearance as Kissy, died on December 8, 2014, and Miranda Otto, who was cast in the role of Virginia Pittman, was announced to have exited the series in July 2015 after the character was repurposed and was replaced with Sidse Babett Knudsen. Additionally, Clifton Collins, Jr., Eion Bailey and Jimmi Simpson were announced as having joined the cast. Bailey exited his role a week later, and Ben Barnes was signed to replace him. Tessa Thompson joined on September 18. + +=== Filming === +Filming for the show's pilot episode took place during a 22-day period starting on August 29, 2014 in and around Los Angeles as well as Moab, Utah. Filming locations in California included various soundstages, backlots at both Universal Studios and Warner Bros., the Paramount Ranch in Agoura, the Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita, the Skirball Cultural Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, and the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The Melody Ranch set used for the town of Sweetwater had been used previously for many western films, such as Django Unchained and The Magnificent Seven, but was significantly upgraded for Westworld by production designer Zack Grobler to portray an idealized version of the American frontier. Green screens were placed around the California sets to block modern objects like parking lots, so that the California shots could be later merged digitally with exterior shots from Utah. For scenes showing the arrival of guests, the filmmakers were able to arrange with the Fillmore and Western Railway for the use of a small train originally built for the 2013 film The Lone Ranger. F&W also provided a few hundred feet of track on which to place the train; then a pusher vehicle was used to propel the train into the Sweetwater set. The scenes in the underground laboratory levels of Westworld's operations center were filmed on a soundstage at Melody Ranch. The lab set used glass walls extensively, which meant the crew had to be vigilant to avoid walking through glass on the rather dark set, and they had to keep identifying and suppressing unwanted reflections. Hawthorne Plaza was used for filming the "cold storage" level where decommissioned hosts are stored. Production was temporarily halted for a couple of months in early 2016 so that showrunners Nolan and Joy could complete the scripts for the last four episodes of the first season. The climax of the first season's finale was filmed at Paramount Ranch in April 2016, with approximately 300 people on set. The crew spent ten days in May striking the set, which included having to modify structures installed by the filmmakers, such as the chapel, so that "HBO's intellectual property [would not be] violated". + +=== Music === \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7e3e047aa --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Westworld season 1" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_1" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:43.213182+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +On December 29, 2014, Ramin Djawadi was selected to be the composer of the show, having previously worked with Jonathan Nolan on the American series Person of Interest. For the creation of the main theme, Djawadi blended the use of bass notes, light arpeggios and melody, hoping to complement the idea of an amusement park as the show's main theme. While the soundtrack featured original songs for the show, Djawadi also composed covers of several popular songs for player piano and strings. The songs that are covered for the soundtrack are Radiohead's "No Surprises", "Fake Plastic Trees", "Motion Picture Soundtrack" and "Exit Music (For a Film)"; Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun"; The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black"; Claude Debussy's "Reverie for piano, L.68"; "A Forest" by The Cure; The Animals' version of "The House of the Rising Sun"; Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black", and Nine Inch Nails' "Something I Can Never Have". The soundtrack was released on December 5, 2016. + +== Reception == + +=== Critical response === +Reception of the first season has been largely positive, with particular praise for the visuals, story, and performances. On the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 87% based on 384 reviews, with an average rating of 8.15/10; the average episode score is 94%. The site's critics consensus reads: "With an impressive level of quality that honors its source material, the brilliantly addictive Westworld balances intelligent, enthralling drama against outright insanity." On Metacritic, the first season has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. + +=== Ratings === +The series premiere had viewership numbers slightly less than those for True Detective, but much better than Vinyl, that meant it was seen as "...off to a relatively promising start..." Mandy Adams of iTechPost noted that "emotional reactions on Twitter were estimated to be 545-percent greater compared to the debut of Vinyl and 326-percent higher than the latest The Leftovers season." The premiere episode received 3.3 million viewers for its three Sunday night airings as well as on HBO's streaming platforms. The first season had an average cumulative viewership of 12 million viewers, making it the most-watched first season of an HBO series, and TorrentFreak gauged Westworld as the third most-torrented television show of 2016. + +=== Accolades === +At the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards, Westworld received seven nominations, for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Hopkins), Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Wood), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Wright), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Newton), Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. The series did not win in any category. +The series also received three nominations at the 74th Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Drama, Best Actress – Television Series Drama (Wood) and Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (Newton). Westworld would once again not win in any category. Newton would receive an additional nomination for her performance at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards, with the core cast receiving a nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. +The series won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Most Exciting New Series, Best Actress in a Drama Series (Wood) and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Newton) at the 7th Critics' Choice Television Awards. It was additionally nominated for Best Drama Series, losing to Game of Thrones. Wood won the Satellite Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 21st Satellite Awards, where it was also nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Television Series – Genre, losing to Outlander. + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== External links == + +Official website +Westworld at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..84f7577cd --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +--- +title: "Westworld season 2" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:44.516823+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The second season of the American science fiction western television series Westworld, subtitled The Door, premiered on HBO on April 22, 2018, and concluded on June 24, 2018, consisting of ten episodes. +The television series was created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and it is based on the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton. The second season stars an ensemble cast led by Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Tessa Thompson, and Ed Harris. +The second season has received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for the performances. However, it received criticism for its plot, which was said to be confusing. + +== Plot summary == +After killing Dr. Ford at the end of season one, Dolores converts and leads the other hosts in killing many of the other guests in the few weeks that follow. She seeks to find a way to get out of the park to continue her revenge, and knows she must recover her father Peter's "pearl" to do so and unlock Westworld's true secrets with it. Charlotte Hale, who was attempting to smuggle Westworld data through Peter, also seeks the host as she cannot call for extraction without that data. Bernard still struggles with the fact he is a host, and comes to learn that Dr. Ford still has significant influence on him and the park. Maeve is aided by Lee and Hector to find her daughter, while learning there are many other parks to Westworld. The Man in Black is forced to come to terms with why he has spent so much time in the park when he encounters his daughter Emily Grace. + +== Cast and characters == + +=== Main === + +=== Recurring === + +=== Guest === + +== Episodes == + +== Production == +The series received a second season renewal on November 14, 2016, with its debut occurring in 2018. +Casting began in 2017, with a bulk of the first season's core cast confirmed to return for the new season throughout the year. Talulah Riley and Louis Herthum, who appeared as Angela and Peter Abernathy, respectively, were upgraded to main cast status in March. On July 11, 2017, Katja Herbers, Neil Jackson and Jonathan Tucker were among the new cast members to be announced. Gustaf Skarsgård, Fares Fares, and Betty Gabriel joined in August. It was announced on September 15 that Hiroyuki Sanada was cast in a major recurring role. Zahn McClarnon was announced as being cast on November 3, along with the news he had been injured in an off-set incident, causing a brief pause in the season's filming. An alternate version of the show's Super Bowl LII trailer revealed Peter Mullan had been cast, playing James Delos. An additional trailer in March revealed Rinko Kikuchi was cast as well. The cast was rounded out a few weeks prior to the season's April 22 premiere with Tao Okamoto, Kiki Sukezane and Julia Jones. + +=== Filming === +Filming began in the summer of 2017, continuing to use the outdoor sets such as the Paramount Ranch and the Melody Ranch. Harris stated in an interview that, to ensure the production remain on schedule, scenes for episodes later in the season would be filmed simultaneously with earlier episodes. Actor Jeffrey Wright noted that many of Bernard's scenes with Anthony Hopkins' character, Dr. Ford, for late-season episodes were filmed first; in contrast to the first season where Wright had some idea of Bernard's arc, he had to make guesses as what the writers had planned out for Bernard in this season, and adjust his acting accordingly. As a result of the December 2017 Southern California wildfires, production was halted once again. +Additional filming took place at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Millard House, which was used for Arnold's home in Shanghai, which at the time of filming had been on the market, making it easy to film in. + +=== Music === + +Djawadi explained that he made use of seemingly-anachronistic cover versions is intended as "a subconscious reminder of the fact that this world is not real". Djawadi eventually came up with the idea of using a player piano to play modern songs, hoping to make an allusion to the hosts being machines "created to evoke human emotion", however showrunner Jonathan Nolan instead choose the songs that relate to the narrative, to allow Djawadi adapt them, without the composer necessarily knowing the details. Like the previous soundtrack, it is composed with several original songs alongside the covers of other popular songs. These songs feature Kanye West's "Runaway", Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer", The White Stripes "Seven Nation Army", Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box", The Rolling Stones "Paint It Black", and Wu-Tang Clan's "C.R.E.A.M.". The soundtrack was released on June 25, 2018. + +== Release == + +=== Broadcast === +The season premiere debuted on April 16 at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, on April 18 at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival and had many early screenings around the world prior to its April 22 airing. Showrunners Nolan and Joy revealed that certain episodes will be "super sized", running longer than the regular 60 minutes per episode from the previous season. + +=== Marketing === +During the 2017 San Diego Comic Con, an immersive experience was set up for attendees in addition to a panel held by the producers and cast of the series. The first trailer for the season was aired as well. A second, full-length trailer was aired during Super Bowl LII. + +== Reception == + +=== Critical response === +The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 85% approval rating for the second season based on 472 reviews, with an average rating of 7.95/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Westworld builds on its experimental first season, diving deeper into the human side of AI without losing any of its stylish, bloody glory." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..368038c76 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Westworld season 2" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_season_2" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:10:44.516823+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Critics received the first five episodes of the season as screeners before the first episode premiered. In a positive review for San Francisco Chronicle, David Wiegand wrote, "there is plenty of action and violence in the first half of the season, but what will empower the show's longevity is its metaphysical theme, the exploration of the meaning and definition of human existence." Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also praised the series, saying, "It takes a bit for Westworld to get back up to full steam, but by episode three (five hours were made available to TV critics), this futuristic, violent drama returns to fine form, introducing new parts of the park (Shogun World!), new characters and apparently new technology goals on the part of Delos, the corporation that owns Westworld." Journalist Lorraine Ali of the Los Angeles Times said, "It's poised to be a intellectually stimulating and emotionally bumpy ride, where the very concept of your existence becomes the stuff of high-brow entertainment and low-bar thrills." +The New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik quipped, "don't expect too much improvement too fast from Westworld 2.0. It's still overly focused on balletic blood baths and narrative fake-outs, and much of the dialogue still sounds as if it were written as a tagline for a subway poster, like Dolores's 'I have one last role to play: myself.' But Westworld remains a glorious production to look at, and there are stretches where it feels invigorated by its new, expanded world—freer to breathe, relax, invent." Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "all around, the actors remain strong, including a number of new cast members. Where season 2 stumbles is its structure and pacing. Episodes don't carve equal time for everyone; they focus on the two most connected stories and sometimes break for an entire hour without getting back to a series regular." After the release of the third episode, Forbes criticized the season for departing too far from the show's roots and instead trying to be an "action blockbuster", arguing in part that the violence was overdone in comparison to the first season. + +=== Accolades === +Westworld received six nominations and one win at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards, nominations included Outstanding Drama Series, Ed Harris and Jeffrey Wright for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Evan Rachel Wood for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, and Jimmi Simpson for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Thandiwe Newton won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. For the 76th Golden Globe Awards, Newton was nominated for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. + +=== Ratings === + +== Notes == + +== References == + +== External links == + +Official website +Westworld at IMDb \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c7202c70f --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 1/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Whitney South Sea Expedition (1920 - 1941) to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a thoroughbred horse-breeder and philanthropist. It was administered by a committee at the AMNH and became a focus for attracting funds for research on the biota of the Pacific islands. +The expedition visited islands in the south Pacific region and eventually returned with over 40,000 bird specimens, many plant specimens and an extensive collection of anthropological items and photographs. +Using the 75-ton schooner France, with many different scientists and collectors participating over more than a dozen years, the expedition visited thousands of islands throughout Oceania, Micronesia, Polynesia and Melanesia. The France was sold in 1932 when funds ran out. +Specimens from the expedition were displayed in a hall at the AMNH funded by Harry Whitney. + +== Aims of the expedition == +The expedition's main aim was to collect birds from various South Pacific islands and the Pacific Ocean, on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History. The AMNH cooperated with the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and the United States National Museum, exchanging specimens and data. Museum officials were aware that research in the Pacific was urgent, as species were becoming extinct through various causes: introduced mammals such as pigs, dogs, cats and mongooses; spread of introduced birds including the myna; human activities such as copra processing, pearl diving and beche-de-mer fishing and lifestyle changes brought on by modernisation. +The expedition collected not only bird skins, but also nests, eggs, whole birds preserved in alcohol, and bird stomachs from the skinned birds. Lizards, other reptiles, turtles, small mammals such as bats and rodents, and plants were collected for the AMNH and the Bishop Museum. Expedition members also took many photographs and notes about the wildlife, vegetation, topography and lifestyles of the local people they encountered. + +== Expedition members == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5613189ce --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 2/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The expedition was led by Rollo H. Beck (1920–1928), Hannibal Hamlin (1928–1930), William F. Coultas (1930–1935), Lindsay Macmillan (1935–1940), and G. Reid Henry (1941). +Beck, an expert bird collector himself, hired Ernest H. Quayle to assist with collecting, including the botanical specimens collected by the expedition. Quayle was a Stanford University graduate with a geology degree. Beck, his wife Ida and Quayle based themselves in Papeete in 1920, and in 1922 Charles Curtis, who had been working on a plantation in Tahiti, joined the expedition as Beck was readying to leave Tahiti in the France. Curtis spent five months with the expedition before returning to his previous job. +José Correia and his wife Virginia joined the Whitney South Sea Expedition in 1922 to replace Ernest Quayle, with Correia acting as expedition leader for six months in 1923 while Beck was away in New York. Correia was a cooper by trade. While on a trip to the Antarctic as a cooper in 1911, he had met Dr Robert Murphy of the AMNH, who taught him how to prepare bird specimens. Correia then took part in other AMNH expeditions as a bird collector. The Correias left the Whitney expedition at the end of 1926 after contracting malaria, and were replaced by Frederick Drowne. +Edwin Bryan, an entomologist from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, joined the expedition in 1924. He spent ten months collecting plant and insect specimens before returning to his work in Hawaii. +Dr Frederick P Drowne joined the Whitney Expedition as a field researcher in December 1926. He was a medical doctor and ornithologist from Rhode Island, with connections to the AMNH. He had taken part in several scientific expeditions previously, and had first met Beck during an expedition to the Galapagos Islands. Drowne left the expedition in 1928 due to illness. In June 1930, depressed about his ongoing ill health, he shot himself. +In September 1927, Hannibal Hamlin and Guy Richards, both recent Yale graduates, arrived in the Solomon Islands to join the expedition while Drowne was unwell. Richards left the expedition in 1929 and became a journalist. Hamlin became the expedition leader from March 1928 when Beck left, until January 1930. Coultas then took over and Hamlin left the expedition in August 1930. He returned to Yale and became a neurosurgeon. +William Coultas and his friend Walter Eyerdam arrived to join the expedition at the end of August 1929, and in January 1930 Coultas took over from Hamlin as leader. Walter Eyerdam was a mineralogist and skilled collector of molluscs, plants, birds and mammals. He left the Whitney expedition in mid-1930, later taking part in other expeditions. Coultas returned to New York in 1935 to work for the AMNH, and also took part in other expeditions before joining the US Naval Reserve Force in 1942. +Ernst Mayr from the Berlin Museum joined the expedition on its trip to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in 1929, after Hamlin had replaced Beck as leader. He left the expedition in February 1930 to return to Germany. Mayr was hired by the AMNH to curate the Rothschild collection in 1933, and he continued to work up the material that returned to the AMNH from the Whitney expeditions. He continued at AMNH until 1953 as curator of birds. +John Boyd ("Jack") Riddall, born in England in 1905, joined the expedition as a bird collector and skinner at the Solomon Islands in May 1930. He had until then been working as a clerk at Lever Brothers plantation on Gavutu. Riddall left the expedition in 1932, lived in Australia and in 1942 enlisted as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Australian Air Force. +Thomas Lindsay Macmillan became leader of the expedition in 1935 after Coultas left. He was a farmer, born in Vanuatu to an Australian father, and had lived in both countries. Macmillan and his wife Joy collected and processed birds for the expedition in New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, Papua New Guinea and Queensland, Australia. Macmillan left the expedition in 1940 to join the Australian navy. In later life he and Joy ran a mission station in the Australian outback. +G Reid Henry led the expedition for a short time in 1940–1941 and was based in Australia. + +== The France == +At first, the expedition was based in Tahiti and used trading vessels to get around the Pacific, but Beck wanted to be free of other people's schedules. He bought the France in December 1921. The France was a 75 gross ton schooner with a 60 hp motor, built in Papeete around 1918 and previously used in the copra trade. The ship was 71 feet long, 25 feet wide and had a draught of 6 feet. Between 1922 and 1932, the expedition used the France to travel all over the Pacific. When the France left Papeete on 1 February 1922 the crew consisted of the captain, mate, engineer, cook, three sailors and a cabin boy, as well as Beck, Quayle and Curtis. Crew members came from around the Pacific. +Captains of the France during the expedition included Marten Nagle (1922–1924); E A Stenbeck (1924–1926); J W R Richmond; William Henry Burrell (Nov 1929-July 1930), A J D McArthur (1930–1932), and Thomas R Lang. +In 1932 funding for the expedition ran out and Dr Murphy of the AMNH wrote to Coultas to confirm that the France must be disposed of. The ship was sold to WR Carpenter and Co. Renamed Dawaun, she was wrecked when she ran aground on a reef off the Carteret Islands on 29 October 1936. + +== Specimen collection == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1a58d2a14 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 3/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The expedition travelled between island groups by ship, either getting passage on local vessels, using the schooner France that they had purchased, or chartering other vessels such as the Pato, a schooner hired by Coultas in 1933. Bird specimens were collected by various methods. On the ocean, the expedition's ship might pass by a flock of birds which could be shot from on board. On reaching an island, expedition members would go ashore by rowboat to shoot birds along the coast, or walk and climb into the interior of the island to seek out and shoot land birds and other specimens. On inhabited islands, the team would consult the local people to find out about the types and habits of various birds, and would employ local guides to take them to nesting areas. Local people were also paid to collect specimens for the expedition. Specimens had to be processed quickly before they decomposed. Sometimes the expedition members would set up a base on land and process the birds there, but otherwise skinning was typically done by the light of benzine lamps in the hold of the France. Supplies needed for processing birds included arsenic, alum, benzine, cornmeal, needles, bone cutters, cotton wrapping and labels. "It is certainly an art to accomplish it the way it ought to be done, that is to say removing the skeleton, bones, flesh, intestines and fatty parts, leaving the wings and feathers properly sewed for mounting or museum reference". "One can wash plumage quite well if blood is removed with water, then the benzine, and dry in corn meal, and this was our usual procedure". Coultas described how an adult cassowary specimen was prepared: This bird kept us busy most of the night, skinning and degreasing. Several natives assisted us by holding the skin while we scraped and worked. Once cleaned we washed the whole thing in gasolene, then inserted sticks and bamboos in the neck and body to hold the skin apart so that it might dry more quickly. One cassowary is an 18 hour job for two people. Once cleaned we simply hung it under the roof to dry as expediently as possible.Formaldehyde, salt brine or methyl spirit were used to preserve specimens such as frogs and snakes. Expedition members were expected to work from early morning until late at night collecting and processing specimens. Sundays, supposedly a day off, were the only time available for typing up notes, making sketches, preparing labels and getting ready for the week ahead. +Along with supplies for processing specimens, the expedition needed to carry photography equipment, medical supplies, numerous guns and copious amounts of ammunition in various sizes. Calico, tobacco and other items were carried for use as trade goods. Local boys and men were employed to carry packs, do chores around camp and also as "shoot boys", helping to hunt land birds. Some of the ship's crew of Pacific Islanders also became adept at skinning and processing collected specimens. +Processed specimens were shipped back to the AMNH when the expedition's vessel arrived at a port. Mail was collected and sent, food and other supplies were stocked up and maintenance would be carried out on the ship. Funds for supplies and for paying the ships crew and shoot boys were organised as well. + +The expedition had to get permits to collect specimens from the various territories that they visited. Beck found this irritating, writing to Murphy at the AMNH in 1924:As our permit allows but 20 birds of the protected kinds, I am assuming that you will determine most of the land birds out here to be others different than the ones given in the list of protected birds. As you want to send some specimens of these almost distinct forms to the British Musem, the limit, ten, is in the case of insectivorous birds, entirely too small a number. I suggest that you emphasize the fact, especially as this expedition is in a field never before collected and not likely to be again for a long time. Unless of course the Managing Director is one of the biased individuals whom reason does not appeal to. + +=== Controversy in New Zealand === +Early in 1925, the New Zealand Government declined a request by the expedition to collect bird specimens from the Cook Islands, saying that although the government supported the aims of the expedition, it believed that "the interests of science are being better served by a policy of strict preservation of the living birds". +In July 1925 the New Zealand Native Bird Protection Society warned the government that the expedition's goal of observing New Zealand's birds actually meant observing "over the sight of a shot gun". The Society asked the government to put an observer on board the France, but the government went ahead and issued a permit for the expedition to collect 846 birds, without requiring that an observer to be present. This was vigorously protested by Val Sanderson of the Native Bird Protection Society. He stated that he had heard that Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology believed that all New Zealand's native birds were "doomed" and should therefore be collected before they became extinct. Sanderson wrote to the Minister of Internal Affairs: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1bb78f47d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 4/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +That an extensively equipped foreign collecting expedition on such a scale and with permission to kill the extravagant number of birds allowed should be given entirely unrestricted liberty, except by a few valueless written conditions, amongst our birds, some of which are on the verge of extinction, is unthinkable, a slur on the regard which the people of New Zealand are evincing in the welfare of their heritage, the care of which is entrusted to your department. Your action is also a slight to the operations of this society, and it seems idle and hypocritical for us to continue further work and collect subscriptions from school children and others in the face of such departmental lassitude. We think, moreover, it would only have been courtesy had you consulted us before issuing permits to destroy any of the extremely rare species included in the list to be killed, as, for instance, the Chatham Island bell bird, Auckland Island duck, Chatham Island fern bird and pigeon, sand plover (ten is out of all reason), Chatham Island snipe, Southern Merganser, and half a dozen other species which are on the verge of extinction and should not have been allowed to be killed under any circumstances whatever. Some little scientific information of interest to a few may he gleaned, but at the possible extermination of some species the skins of which will be then of more monetary value to the Americans, in whose possession they will be. The numbers permitted to be destroyed are quite in excess of scientific requirements, and clearly indicate the purpose for which they are required. +After the Society protested, a museum officer was sent to accompany the expedition, and the Minister decided that in future permits would only be issued on the condition that an official would accompany any expedition collecting native birds. Beck wrote to Murphy in February 1926: "Somehow, the Government located us and sent us an urgent telegram yesterday saying that Mr. Oliver of the Dominion Museum wanted to accompany us to the southern islands. I managed, when at Wellington, to put him off but yesterday had to agree." +Beck responded publicly to criticism that the expedition was a commercial enterprise that was killing rare birds. He noted that all the specimens collected were sent to the non-profit National Museum of Art and History in New York, where students from all over the world could study them. Regarding suggestions that rare birds were killed, he stated : + +All this talk about exterminating rare and protected birds is not new to me. I have heard it all before, in different places, and notably in my own country, California. The average layman never seems to be able to appreciate the fact that specimens of birds are most valuable from a scientific point of view. There is a very great deal yet to be discovered concerning the habits of the birds, and it is only by means of the facts ascertained and the specimens obtained by an expedition such as this, that scientists can arrive at the truth. +In April 1926, a list of 385 birds taken by the expedition in New Zealand waters was published. Most of Beck's specimens were collected on the 'high seas', and he claimed that he could take any birds as long as he was more than three miles from land and did not bring the birds to New Zealand. However, as Walter Oliver from the Dominion Museum pointed out, Beck had also discovered during the expedition that birds that breed in New Zealand may migrate as far as Chile or California. Such species had been collected from all over the Pacific, so any list of New Zealand birds taken did not represent the total number of New Zealand-breeding sea birds collected by the expedition. + +== Issues and incidents == +Members of the expedition contracted various ailments including arsenic poisoning, dengue fever, malaria and tropical ulcers or "island sores". Drowne spent time in hospital in the Solomon Islands and had 20 injections of antimony in an attempt to cure his ulcers on his legs, writing that: + +The tropical ulcers are a terrible thing. The cause is probably some specific organism, whether germ or parasite no one seems to know at present. They much resemble the leishmaniasis sores which occur elsewhere. The cause not being known, there are many suggested forms of treatment all of which may do good but none of which seem at all specific. +There were also personality clashes and periods of low morale on board the France. Seven years into the expedition, Beck was regarded as energetic, curt and eccentric and not well liked by the crew. Drowne wrote in his journal that Beck was a remarkable success as a bird collector, but a failure as a leader in the field: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-4.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-4.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..bb6efc543 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-4.md @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 5/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +He is unable to work even to the best advantage, or to inspire [the men's] cooperation and loyalty. A feeling of loyalty to the Museum, or to someone else abroad has kept men on this thing, as in the case of sailors a contract, when otherwise they would have made sudden and speedy departure. +Drowne also believed that it was important to establish friendly relations with the local people when entering their territory.The France faced gales and storms and high seas in the Pacific Ocean. On 2 June 1926 the expedition met particularly bad weather, which the captain recorded in his logbook: "Sky extremely ugly [...] Squalls at frequent intervals of severe intensity and with heavy rain, hail, lightning and thunder. Sea high and confused.[...] Water spout passed very close ahead.[....] Vessel shipped considerable amount of water [...] Suspect the above, to be passing very close to centre of cyclonic system". Jose Correia used more colourful language to describe the storm: “…we ran into the center of a strong cyclone on June 2nd. Everybody in the ship thought that they were never going to see land again, but God did not forget us in the middle of the furious ocean.” Approaching reefs in smaller boats could also be extremely dangerous. After an incident where an islander nearly drowned trying to get a boat through the surf of a coral reef in bad weather, Quayle noted that it was no job for "inexperienced white men". +In 1923, Beck released three goats on Henderson Island and was criticised for this in a magazine article which said the goats would damage the island's ecosystem. The Governor of Fiji then asked Beck to kill the goats and not release any more. Beck wrote that: + +...this is a desert island with little rainfall and I had in mind shipwrecked sailors who have lived on Henderson and may try to exist there again. Having been shipwrecked once it is possible I have a more fellow feeling for the sailor than for the carping sentimentalist who sits at his desk and writes feelingly of localities of which he knows nothing. [...] I do not regret having planted the goats, except as it interferes with the Museum. The bally, blooming shipwrecked English sailors can all starve on the next island they get thrown onto as far as I am concerned, though I am anticipating that experience myself sometime [...] If only I could lead some of these critics about ten feet from the landing place on Henderson, or similar islands here in the Lau group, they would express different opinions regarding the suitability of goats for such conditions. +The expedition collected birds at Tinakula, an island volcano in the Solomon Islands, during an eruption in March 1927. Beck observed that the leaves of plants were covered in fine dust from the smoking crater, and said "Mrs. Beck went ashore with me and we heard the lava boulders rattling down gullies above our heads after one violent explosion from the active crater on top". Later, back on board the France, they watched lava rolling down the mountain. +On 8 December 1927 the expedition anchored near a small group of low-lying islets about 11 miles west of the Shortland Islands. Beck and others went ashore to two of the islands and obtained some birds. The islands were unnamed on the expedition's chart, so for purposes of labelling the specimens, they dubbed the islands "Whitney Island". The islets were located at approximately latitude 6 58 S and longitude 155 38 E, a few miles away from an island called Momalufa. + +== Expedition timeline == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-5.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-5.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..4e40cbf64 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition-5.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Whitney South Sea Expedition" +chunk: 6/6 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_South_Sea_Expedition" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:58.978217+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Legacy == +The expedition was important for several reasons. The specimens and data collected provided a large database for subsequent studies of birds in the Pacific. The expedition was able to confirm the role of geographical isolation in the development of new species, as described by Darwin in his studies of finches in the Galapagos Islands almost a hundred years earlier. In 1938, Murphy stated that the expedition had so far identified 196 new species and sub-species of birds. One of the birds collected during the expedition was Procellaria munda (as named by Kuhl in 1820). A specimen of this bird was collected and sketched during Captain Cook's first world voyage in 1769, but there had been no further documented sightings until Beck saw the bird, a type of shearwater, on 16 February 1926. The expedition was also able to confirm the long-distance migration patterns of various sea birds including the long-tailed cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis). +In 1929, Sanford asked the Whitneys to fund a new wing for the American Museum of Natural History, which would house the many specimens being collected by the South Sea expedition and other expeditions in Africa and South America. Construction of the Whitney Wing began with ground breaking in 1931, but was interrupted by World War 2. Part of the new wing was to be called the Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds and would feature the birds of the Pacific. +Following the Whitney South Sea Expedition, Sheridan Fahnestock led a group of 18, including seven college students, on an expedition to the Pacific. The second Fahnestock Expedition was sponsored by the Whitney Hall at the AMNH, to supplement the birds collected by the Whitney South Sea Expedition by collecting plants and other specimens to display in dioramas at the Whitney Hall which was then under construction. The ship Director II, a three-masted, 110-ton auxiliary schooner, left New York in February 1940, travelling to Australia via the Panama Canal and various Pacific Islands. The expedition ended prematurely in October 1940 when the ship struck a reef near Gladstone in Queensland and sank. +The Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds finally opened in the new wing of the AMNH in 1952, with 18 windows showing dioramas of over 400 species of birds from the Pacific region in their natural habitats. In 1998, 10 of the 18 dioramas in the Whitney Hall were covered up to make way for the installation of a butterfly conservatory. The butterfly exhibit was supposed to be temporary but has remained in place, and most of the bird displays are not viewable. + +== References == + +== Bibliography == +Chapman, Frank M. (1935). The Whitney South Sea Expedition. Science 81: 95–97. +Murphy, R.C. (1922). Science 56: 701–704. + +== External links == +The Pacific Voyages of Rollo Beck Archived 2007-08-04 at the Wayback Machine +Whitney South Seas Expedition Archived 2011-07-26 at the Wayback Machine +Videos of Ernst Mayr discussing his time with the Whitney South Sea Expedition: Joining the expedition Drinking with plantation managers Leaving the expedition Importance of the expedition \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindSled-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindSled-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..598a83b88 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindSled-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +--- +title: "WindSled" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindSled" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:23.055465+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The WindSled or Inuit WindSled is a wind-powered vehicle designed by Spanish polar explorer Ramón Hernando de Larramendi for travel and transportation of equipment in polar regions. +The vehicle is based on Inuit tradition, which Larramendi has combined with large kites so that it may progress through the interior of the Arctic and Antarctic plateau, driven by aeolian energy. It is able to transport up to 2,000 kg (4,400 lb) of weight. As of 2017, the vehicle has successfully covered more than 20,000 km (12,000 mi), driven only by the wind, reaching the Geographic South Pole, the South Pole of Inaccessibility and the highest altitude in the interior of Greenland. The Inuit WindSled has been improving for the last 18 years, during which it has served as a scientific platform for projects of different Spanish and international scientific institutions. Its purpose is to develop scientific and geographic exploration projects with zero emissions in polar regions. + + +== Layout == +The Inuit WindSled is composed of four articulated modules, each of them made up with wooden rails and crossbars between 3 and 4.5 m (9.8 and 14.8 ft) in length and 3.7 to 4 m (12 to 13 ft) in width. This is the so-called 'Larramendi platform', the name of its designer. These rails and crossbars are joined by about 2,000 knots with high resistance ropes, which gives flexibility to adapt to irregularities in the terrain. In the lower part, it has Teflon platforms to facilitate sliding. +The first of the modules has a piloting tent where the kite controls are located, but it also has a work space. Next, two modules are attached for the load, and that's where all the equipment goes. The last module has another larger tent for crew rest. With this configuration, it can be divided into two vehicles when terrain and conditions require it. +The WindSled works with kites of different sizes, the largest of 80 m2 (860 sq ft), depending on wind conditions. Under normal conditions, its perfect average speed is about 40 km/h (25 mph), although it has reached over 80 km/h (50 mph) in some moments. +It is equipped with photovoltaic panels for the electrical supply of the scientific and communications equipment it carries on board and all the composing parts can be repaired without the need of external assistance. + + +== History and evolution == +After traveling more than 14,000 km (8,700 mi) through the Arctic, during the Circumpolar Expedition, Ramón H. de Larramendi learned the construction and handling of Inuit sleds and observed the force of the winds in polar territories. It was the germination of the WindSled project. +At the beginning of year 2000, he designed the first models of the vehicle and after performing several tests with fiberglass and wood, he found that the latter, following the Inuit tradition, was much more effective than more modern materials. That same year, he made a first crossing in Greenland of 600 km (370 mi) with an incipient design that consisted of a single module with a tent on top. Despite the difficulties, it was a success. +Since then the vehicle, which has been called "polar butterfly", "polar catamaran" and finally Inuit WindSled, has accomplished a total of six expeditions in Greenland and two in Antarctica, with a total distance covered of 20,000 km (12,000 mi), and all of them finalizing successfully. The first crossings in Greenland, in the years 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, strengthened the possibilities of the mobile platform on the polar terrain. It would obtain the '2001 Trip of the Year' Award from the Spanish Geographical Society. +Right after the 2005-2006 Transantarctic Expedition, the expedition decided to use the vehicle for polar scientific exploration, once possibilities of navigating with a heavy load were proven. In addition to serving for geographic exploration, scientific data could be collected on the crossings. With that objective, in 2012, after the Acciona Antarctica Expedition, a prototype of two modules was presented to the Spanish polar scientific community at the Autonomous University of Madrid. It was also presented to the scientific community in Great Britain. +During the 2014 and 2016 expeditions in Greenland, the WindSled designer developed new technical possibilities in two Arctic expeditions, increasing its dimensions. In 2014, the vehicle made the circumnavigation of Greenland by ice, a route of 4,300 km (2,700 mi) with a prototype of three modules in which four people traveled. In 2016, with the Greenland Ice Summit expedition, it became a convoy of four modules, with a total length of 12 m (39 ft), a maximum of six people on board in a journey to attain the 2,000 m (6,600 ft) level in altitude with two tons of weight. They covered 2,000 km (1,200 mi). It was confirmed that, even in extreme conditions, the WindSled was a sustainable and efficient means of transport. The last expedition, 2017 Greenland Ice River, took place in the spring of that year, with five crew on board. It took 28 days to cover 1,200 km (750 mi) and different international scientific projects related to climate change were developed in collaboration with the East Greenland Ice-Core Project (EastGRIP) scientific base at NEGIS, the Dark Snow Project and other relevant scientific institutions. + + +== Scientific research == +In parallel to these external improvements, the interest of polar scientists has increased. Among the most relevant, the American glaciologist Jason Box, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), and the Spaniards, Antonio Quesada, Autonomous University of Madrid and Spanish Polar Program manager, Ignacio López Moreno, Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (CSIC) and Juan José Blanco, University of Alcalá. +With this vehicle drilling has been carried out in the interior of Greenland down to 15 m (49 ft), collected data on the state of snow, air samples and data concerning cosmic rays. +In 2016, the first scientific results of samples taken on the WindSled Acciona Antarctica expedition were published. An investigation, published in November in the scientific journal Atmospheric Environment, revealed the existence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), from pesticides, in the interior of Antarctica. The main researchers were Jordi Dachs and Ana Cabrerizo, Institute of Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies (IDAEA-CSIC). +In 2017, polar researcher Ross Edwards, with the international Dark Snow Project, participated as part of the expedition crew in Greenland, collecting data for the project. + + +== Expeditions == +Greenland Traverse 2000: 600 km (370 mi), 10 days. +Greenland Traverse North-South 2001: 2,225 km (1,383 mi), 32 days. +Greenland Traverse South-North 2002: 2,300 km (1,400 mi), 33 days. +Greenland Traverse East-West 2003: 700 km (430 mi), 18 days. +WindSled Trasantarctic Expedition 2005-2006: 4,500 km (2,800 mi), 62 days. +Acciona WindPowered Antarctica 2011-2012: 3,500 km (2,200 mi), 38 days. +Greenland Circumnavigation 2014: 4,300 km (2,700 mi), 49 days. +Greenland Ice Summit Expedition 2016: 2,000 km (1,200 mi), 38 days. +Ice River Greenland 2017: 2,000 km (1,200 mi), 28 days. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Windsled.org +Inuit WindSled +Acciona WindPowered Antarctica +Ramón Hernando de Larramendi +Mission Acomplished 2024 - Osservatorio Artico +National Geographic +Greenland.com +ExplorersWeb +Brief YouTube video \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter-over_syndrome-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter-over_syndrome-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cbb31d8cb --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter-over_syndrome-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Winter-over syndrome" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter-over_syndrome" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:24.229703+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The winter-over syndrome is a condition that occurs in individuals who "winter over" throughout the Antarctic (or Arctic) winter, which can last seven to eight months. It has been observed in inhabitants of research stations in Antarctica, as well as in polar bases such as Thule, Alert and Eureka. It consists of a variety of behavioral and medical disturbances, including irritability, depression, insomnia, absentmindedness, aggressive behavior, and irritable bowel syndrome. + + +== Contributing factors == +The Antarctic winter is a period of little to no sunlight, no physical contact with other continents or Antarctic stations, including no airplanes, ships, or mail. The area has the driest desert climate on Earth, a low air pressure, and an oxygen-poor atmosphere. It is completely cut off during winter, with a mean temperature of −51 °C (−60 °F), and the lowest recorded temperature is −85 °C (−121 °F). For these reasons, the immobility, monotony, harsh physical environment, sexual deprivation, and the general isolation are believed to contribute to increased anxiety and depression among the residents of Antarctic stations. +Several studies have been done over the years to determine the contributing causes, or stresses, of "winter-over" syndrome. These include stress, social isolation, subsyndromal seasonal affective disorder and polar T3 syndrome. The cold, danger, and hardships do not appear to be major stresses. The most important psychological stresses appear to be the problems of individual adjustment to the group, the relative monotony of the environment, and the absence of certain accustomed sources of emotional satisfaction. In addition to isolation from the outside world, there is confinement or a lack of isolation within the research stations themselves. During field work conducted at the McMurdo and South Pole stations in 1988 and 1989, informants complained that the lack of privacy and constant gossip within the community had a negative influence on social relationships, especially between men and women. As a result, 60% of one's leisure time is spent alone in a dorm room, whereas others are forced to work and live in confined spaces due to the nature of their work. + + +== Symptoms == +While research around the winter-over syndrome dates back to the 1950s, there is no set of exclusive indicators that can typically reveal a diagnosis of the same. "Our analyses of the human experience in Antarctica suggest that there are few, if any, traits that serve as useful predictors of performance during the austral winter," Palinkas wrote in a paper called "The Psychology of Antarctic Research." Some of the symptoms included depression, insomnia, anger or irritability, feelings of hostility towards those around you, diminished cognitive performance including difficulty in concentration and memory, absentmindedness, and the occurrence of mild hypnotic states known as 'long-eye' or the 'Antarctic stare'. +Bill Spindler, documenting his extensive research on the Antarctic, attributes the effects of sensory deprivation, isolation, and maybe even the effect of extreme cold on the thyroid gland which can cause memory loss, sleepiness or sluggishness. + + +== See also == +Telecommunications in Antarctica +Island fever – Effect on people who move to islandsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets +Seasonal affective disorder +Psychological and sociological effects of spaceflight +MARS-500 – Psychosocial isolation experiment in spaceflight research + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woeseian_revolution-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woeseian_revolution-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..cf1d242fe --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woeseian_revolution-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Woeseian revolution" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woeseian_revolution" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:08.299839+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Woeseian revolution was the progression of the phylogenetic tree of life concept from two main divisions, known as the Prokarya and Eukarya, into three domains now classified as Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. The discovery of the new domain stemmed from the work of biophysicist Carl Woese in 1977 from a principle of evolutionary biology designated as Woese's dogma. It states that the evolution of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) was a necessary precursor to the evolution of modern life forms. Although the three-domain system has been widely accepted, the initial introduction of Woese’s discovery received criticism from the scientific community. + + +== Phylogenetic implications == +The basis of phylogenetics was limited by the technology of the time, which led to a greater dependence on phenotypic classification before advances that would allow for molecular organization methods. This was a major reason why the dichotomy of all living things being either animal or plant in nature was deemed an acceptable theory. Without truly understanding the genetic implication of each organismal classification in phylogenies via nucleic acid sequencing of shared molecular material, the phylogenetic tree of life and other such phylogenies would no doubt be incorrect. Woese’s advances in molecular sequencing and phylogenetic organization allowed for a better understanding of the three domains of life - the Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes. Regarding their varying types of shared rRNA, the small subunit rRNA was deemed as the best molecule to sequence to distinguish phylogenetic relationships because of its relatively small size, ease of isolation, and universal distribution. + + +== Controversy == +This reorganization caused an initial pushback: it wasn't accepted until nearly a decade after its publication. Possible factors that led to initial criticisms of his discovery included Woese's oligonucleotide cataloging, of which he was one of "only two or three people in the world" to be able to execute this method, let alone read the films. Further, Woese's background was in physics, whereas most of the research was being done in microbiology. + + +== References == + + +== Further reading == +David Quammen (2018). The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1476776620. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Network_of_Users_and_Survivors_of_Psychiatry-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Network_of_Users_and_Survivors_of_Psychiatry-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6350b3c73 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Network_of_Users_and_Survivors_of_Psychiatry-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +title: "World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Network_of_Users_and_Survivors_of_Psychiatry" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:09:43.646749+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP) is an international organisation representing, and led by what it terms "survivors of psychiatry". As of 2003, over 70 national organizations were members of WNUSP, based in 30 countries. The network seeks to protect and develop the human rights, disability rights, dignity and self-determination of those labeled 'mentally ill'. + + +== Activities == +WNUSP has special consultative status with the United Nations. It contributed to the development of the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. WNUSP has produced a manual to help people use it entitled "Implementation Manual for the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities", edited by Myra Kovary. +WNUSP joined with other organizations to create the International Disability Caucus, which jointly represented organizations of people with disabilities and allies during the CRPD negotiations. WNUSP was part of the steering committee of the IDC, which maintained a principle of respecting the leadership of diverse constituencies on issues affecting them, and also maintained that the convention should be of equal value to all persons with disabilities irrespective of the type of disability or geographical location. Tina Minkowitz, WNUSP's representative on the IDC steering committee, coordinated the IDC's work on key articles of the CRPD, including those on legal capacity, liberty, torture and ill-treatment and integrity of the person. Since the adoption and entry into force of the CRPD, WNUSP has worked with other organizations in the International Disability Alliance and its CRPD Forum to guide the interpretation and application of the CRPD on these issues. +In 2007 at a Conference held in Dresden on "Coercive Treatment in Psychiatry: A Comprehensive Review", the president and other leaders of the World Psychiatric Association met, following a formal request from the World Health Organization, with several representatives from the user/survivor movement, including Judi Chamberlin (Co-chair of WNUSP), Mary Nettle and Peter Lehmann (Ex-chairs of the European Network of [Ex-] Users and Survivors of Psychiatry), Dorothea Buck (Honorary Chair of the German Federal Organisation of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry, and David Oaks (Director of MindFreedom International). +Salam Gómez and Jolijn Santegoeds are the current Co-Chairpersons of WNUSP. +Current International Representative and former co-chair of WNUSP is Tina Minkowitz, an international advocate and lawyer. She represented WNUSP in the Working Group convened by the UN to produce a draft text of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and contributed to a UN seminar on torture and persons with disabilities that resulted in an important report on the issue by Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak in 2008. + + +== History == +Since the 1970s, the psychiatric survivors movement has grown from a few scattered self-help groups to a worldwide network engaged in protecting civil rights and facilitation of efforts to provide housing, employment, public education, research, socialisation and advocacy programmes. The term 'psychiatric survivor' is used by individuals who identify themselves as having experienced human rights violations in the mental health system. WNUSP was established to further promote this movement and to respond on an international level to the oppression survivors continue to experience. +After initially meeting, in 1991, as the World Federation of Psychiatric Users at the biennial World Federation for Mental Health conference in Mexico, the network's name was changed to WNUSP in 1997. In 2000, the WNUSP Secretariat was established in Odense, Denmark. In 2001, the network held its First General Assembly in Vancouver, British Columbia, with 34 groups from twelve countries represented, and adopted its governing statutes. +In 2004, the network held its Second General Assembly in Vejle, Denmark with 150 participants from 50 countries attending. +In 2007 WNUSP received ECOSOC special consultative status at the United Nations. +In 2009, WNUSP held its third General Assembly in Kampala, Uganda. It adopted the Kampala Declaration stating its positions on the CRPD, which was later expanded into a longer version adopted by consensus of the board and the participants in the Kampala GA. + + +== ENUSP == +The European Network of (Ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry is the most important European NGO of (ex-) users and survivors. Forty-two representatives from 16 European countries met at a conference to found it in the Netherlands in October 1991. Every 2 years, delegates from the ENUSP members in more than 40 European countries meet at a conference where the policies for the coming period are set out. All delegates are (ex-)users and survivors of psychiatry. ENUSP is officially involved in consultations on mental health plans and policies of the European Union, World Health Organization and other important bodies. Initial funding came from the Dutch government and from the European Commission but has since proved more difficult to secure. ENUSP is involved in commenting and debating declarations, position papers, policy guidelines of the EU, UN, WHO and other important bodies. + + +== See also == +Anti-psychiatry +Icarus Project +Involuntary commitment +MindFreedom International +Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth +EUFAMI +Judi Chamberlin +Peter Lehmann + + +== References == + + +== External links == +WNUSP - World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (WNUSP main web site) +ENUSP - European Network of (ex-)Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (ENUSP main web site) +ENUSP.org - 'ENUSP Press Release' (July 20, 2004) +Inclusion-International.org - International Disability Alliance +Moosa-Salie.oism.info - 'Launching Conference of the Pan African Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (PANUSP)', Moosa Salie +CHRUSP - Center for the Human Rights of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry +UN.org - 'Contribution by World Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry', United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities (January, 2004) \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..aa99462e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ +--- +title: "World Reference Base for Soil Resources" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:46.764025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is an international soil classification system for naming soils and creating legends for soil maps. The currently valid version is the fourth edition 2022. It is edited by a working group of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). + +== Background == + +=== History === +Since the 19th century, several countries developed national soil classification systems. During the 20th century, the need for an international soil classification system became more and more obvious. +From 1971 to 1981, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UNESCO published the Soil Map of the World, 10 volumes, scale 1 : 5 M). The Legend for this map, published in 1974 under the leadership of Rudi Dudal, became the FAO soil classification. Many ideas from national soil classification systems were brought together in this worldwide-applicable system, among them the idea of diagnostic horizons as established in the '7th approximation to the USDA soil taxonomy' from 1960. The next step was the Revised Legend of the Soil Map of the World, published in 1988. +In 1982, the International Soil Science Society (ISSS; now: International Union of Soil Sciences, IUSS) established a working group named International Reference Base for Soil Classification (IRB). Chair of this working group was Ernst Schlichting. Its mandate was to develop an international soil classification system that should better consider soil-forming processes than the FAO soil classification. Drafts were presented in 1982 and 1990. +In 1992, the IRB working group decided to develop a new system named World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) that should further develop the Revised Legend of the FAO soil classification and include some ideas of the more systematic IRB approach. Otto Spaargaren (International Soil Reference and Information Centre) and Freddy Nachtergaele (FAO) were nominated to prepare a draft. This draft was presented at the 15th World Congress of Soil Science in Acapulco in 1994. At the same congress, the WRB was established as an ISSS working group replacing the IRB. At the 16th World Congress of Soil Science in Montpellier in 1998, the first edition of the WRB was published. At the same congress, the ISSS endorsed the WRB as its correlation system for soil classification. (In 2014, the USDA soil taxonomy also received the status of a correlation system.) At the 18th World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia in 2006, the second edition of the WRB was presented, and at the 20th World Congress of Soil Science in Jeju in 2014, the third edition. An update of the third edition was issued in 2015. Whereas the second edition was only suitable for naming soils, the third and the following edition can additionally be used for creating map legends. At the 22nd World Congress of Soil Science in Glasgow in 2022, the fourth edition was published. The 4th edition is an open access document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. +The WRB has two hierarchical levels (see below) and has in that sense a similar approach as the French référencial pédologique (1992, 1995, 2008). Contrary to that, the USDA soil taxonomy is strongly hierarchical and has six levels. The classification in WRB is based mainly on soil morphology (field and laboratory data) as an expression of pedogenesis. Another difference with USDA soil taxonomy is that soil climate is regarded only as a soil-forming factor and not as a soil characteristic. The WRB is not meant to replace national soil classification systems, which, for their area, may be more detailed than the WRB. + +=== WRB Working Group === +The WRB is edited by a working group of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). The current chair of the working group is Cezary Kabala (Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland, since 2022). The current vice-chair is Stephan Mantel (International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), The Netherlands, since 2018). +Chairs of the WRB working group and responsible first authors of the WRB editions are: Seppe Deckers (Belgium, 1st edition 1998), Erika Michéli (Hungary, 2nd edition 2006) and Peter Schad (Germany, 3rd edition 2014 and 4th edition 2022). +The WRB working group has a homepage that is currently hosted by the ISRIC. It provides the following: + +the currently valid fourth edition of the WRB (2022) for download, +the third edition (Update 2015) with the English original and the translations into Czech, French, Georgian, Polish, Russian, Slovene, and Spanish, +an explanation of the system, +soil profile photos of all RSGs, which may be downloaded and used if the author is accredited (additional photos can be found on the World of Soils page of the IUSS), +the history of the WRB, +the WRB leadership, +information about past and upcoming workshops, +teaching material (including videos), +invitations for publications, +links to other institutions important for the WRB. + +== The WRB 2022 == + +=== Architecture === +The classification is based on diagnostic horizons, diagnostic properties and diagnostic materials, altogether called diagnostics: + +Diagnostic materials are materials that significantly influence soil-forming processes (pedogenesis) or are indicative of them. They may be inherited from the parent material or be the result of soil-forming processes. +Diagnostic properties are typical results of soil-forming processes or reflect specific conditions of soil formation. +Diagnostic horizons are typical results of soil-forming processes showing a minimum thickness and therefore a horizontal appearance,thus forming a recognizable layer in the soil. The diagnostics have names (e. g. argic horizon, stagnic properties, fluvic material). +For example, diagnostic materials related to the concentration of organic carbon: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a40d3a340 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +--- +title: "World Reference Base for Soil Resources" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:46.764025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Mineral material < 20% soil organic carbon +Organic material ≥ 20% soil organic carbon +Soil organic carbon organic carbon that does not meet the diagnostic criteria of artefacts. +The classification comprises two levels: +The first level has 32 Reference Soil Groups (RSGs). +At the second level, for further differentiation a set of qualifiers is added to the name of the RSG. There are 202 qualifiers in total. For every RSG, there is a list of available qualifiers, which are subdivided into two types: + +Principal qualifiers are ranked and given in an order of importance. The ranking of the principal qualifiers reflects major subdivisions of the respective RSG or properties strongly influencing the soil’s functionality. +Supplementary qualifiers describe additional characteristics and are not ranked. +Qualifiers may be principal for some RSGs and supplementary for others. The names of the RSGs and the qualifiers start with capital letters. They must be given in English and must not be translated into any other language in order to guarantee that a certain soil has the same name all over the world. + +=== Naming a soil === +A key is used for allocating a soil to a certain RSG. In a defined sequence, the key asks for the presence or absence of certain diagnostics in a certain depth range. In addition, the key asks for single characteristics, e. g., a certain clay content or a certain base saturation. The soil belongs to the first RSG, for which it fulfils the set of criteria. +The qualifiers available for use with a particular RSG are listed in the key, along with the RSG. Their number is from 40 to 79. All applying qualifiers must be added to the soil name. Qualifiers: + +The principal qualifiers are added before the name of the RSG. The sequence is from right to left, i. e., the uppermost qualifier in the list is placed closest to the name of the RSG. If no other principal qualifier applies, the Haplic qualifier is used. +The supplementary qualifiers are added in brackets after the name of the RSG and are separated from each other by commas. The sequence is from left to right. Supplementary qualifiers related to the texture, if applicable, are the first in the list. If several ones apply, they are placed in the sequence from the top to the bottom of the soil profile. All other supplementary qualifiers follow them and are used in alphabetical order. +If two or more qualifiers in the list are separated by a slash (/), only one of them can be used. The slash signifies that these qualifiers are either mutually exclusive (e. g. Dystric and Eutric) or one of them is redundant with the redundant qualifier(s) listed after the slash(es). In the soil name, supplementary qualifiers are always placed in the order of the alphabet (exception: supplementary qualifiers related to the texture, see above), even if their position in the list differs from the alphabetical sequence due to the use of the slash. It is a general rule that qualifiers conveying redundant information are not used. Example: If a soil has the Calcaric qualifier (carbonates present) the Eutric qualifier (high base saturation) is not used. +Qualifiers may be combined with specifiers (e. g. Epi-, Proto-) to form subqualifiers (e. g. Epiarenic, Protocalcic). The depth-related specifiers referring to layers are of special importance, although their use is optional: + +Epi-: only between ≥0 and ≤50 cm, +Endo-: only below ≥50 cm, +Amphi-: starting between >0 and <50 and ending between >50 and <100 cm, +Ano-: starting at 0 and ending between >50 and <100 cm, +Kato-: starting between >0 and <50 and ending at ≥100 cm, +Poly-: +diagnostic horizons: two or more diagnostic horizons are present at the depth required by the qualifier definition, interrupted by layers that do not fulfil the criteria of the respective diagnostic horizon; +other layers: two or more layers within 100 cm fulfil the criteria of the qualifier, interrupted by layers that do not fulfil the criteria of the respective qualifier, +Panto-: from 0 to ≥100 cm. + +=== Creating map legends with the WRB === +The number of qualifiers used in a map legend depends on the scale. The WRB distinguishes three map scale levels: + +first map scale level: RSG only, +second map scale level: the RSG plus the first applying principal qualifier, +third map scale level: the RSG plus the first two applying principal qualifiers. +Correlating the map scale levels with concrete scales is difficult because selecting a map scale level depends very much from the homogeneity/heterogeneity of the landscape. +The principal qualifiers are added before the name of the RSG following the rules explained for naming a soil. Depending on the purpose of the map or according to national traditions, at any scale level, elective qualifiers may be added. They may be additional principal qualifiers from further down the list and not already used in the soil name, or they may be supplementary qualifiers. They are placed using the above-mentioned rules for supplementary qualifiers; principal qualifiers first, then supplementary qualifiers. +The WRB recommends that on a map unit not just one soil is indicated but an association of soils. For this purpose, WRB uses the following nomenclature: + +dominant: the soil represents ≥ 50% of the soil cover, +codominant: the soil represents ≥ 25 to < 50% of the soil cover, +associated: the soil represents ≥ 5 to < 25% of the soil cover. +Soils representing smaller areas are ignored in the denomination of the map unit. +For codominant and associated soils, it is allowed to use less principal qualifiers than would correspondent to the used map scale level. The use of specifiers is not recommended due to the generalization that is required when making maps. In map legends, the names of the RSGs are given in plural; in all other cases they are given in singular. + +=== The WRB Manual === +The WRB Manual comprises seven chapters and six annexes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6174e26b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,87 @@ +--- +title: "World Reference Base for Soil Resources" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:46.764025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Chapter 1 reports on background and basics. It includes tables of the diagnostics and of the RSGs. The latter is given below. +Chapter 2 provides the rules for naming soils and creating map legends. It starts with the definition of some general terms in WRB, like ‘fine earth’ and ‘whole soil’. It is highly recommended to read this short chapter before using the WRB. +Chapter 3 presents the diagnostic horizons, properties and materials, each with a general description, the diagnostic criteria and some additional information. For the decision, whether a diagnostic is present or absent in a soil, only the diagnostic criteria are relevant. +Chapter 4 provides the key to the RSGs and for every RSG a list with the available principal and supplementary qualifiers. +Chapter 5 gives the definitions of the qualifiers. +Chapter 6 provides the codes for the RSGs, the qualifiers and the specifiers and the rules for the sequence of the codes for naming soils and creating map legends. +Chapter 7 is the list of references. +The seven chapters are followed by six annexes: + +Annex 1 is a field guide. It provides all field characteristics (including their definitions) needed for WRB classification and some additional general field characteristics. The characteristics are explained with many figures, and a flow chart is offered for hand texturing. +Annex 2 lists the laboratory methods. This is only a list; it is not a laboratory manual. +Annex 3 presents horizon and layer symbols for soil description. The field guide and the horizon and layer symbols are newly added to the WRB Manual and are meant to replace the FAO Guidelines for Soil Description (2006) for the use with WRB. +Annex 4 is a soil description sheet. It is a separate document in the form of an excel file to fill in the surveyed field characteristics. +Annex 5 provides a guidance for database set-up (not yet published). +Annex 6 suggests colours in maps showing the RSGs. These suggestions follow roughly the colour choices in the atlases edited by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. + +== List of the Reference Soil Groups according to WRB 2022 == +This is the list of the 32 Reference Soil Groups (RSGs) in the sequence of the key (Chapter 4 of the WRB Manual), including the codes (Chapter 6 of the WRB Manual). This list is mainly taken from Table 2 (Chapter 1) of the WRB Manual. +Soils with thick organic layers + +HS Histosol (with thick organic layers) +Soils with strong human influence + +AT Anthrosol (with long and intensive agricultural use, often altered to enhance fertility) +TC Technosol (containing significant amounts of artefacts) +Soils with limitations to root growth + +CR Cryosol (permafrost-affected) +LP Leptosol (thin or with many coarse fragments) +SN Solonetz (with a clay-enriched subsoil with high concentrations of exchangeable Na) +VR Vertisol (high contents of shrink-swell clays, alternating wet-dry conditions) +SC Solonchak (high concentrations of soluble salts) +Soils distinguished by Fe/Al chemistry + +GL Gleysol (groundwater-dominated, underwater or in tidal areas) +AN Andosol (with allophanes and/or complexes of Al and organic matter) +PZ Podzol (subsoil accumulation of organic matter and/or oxides) +PT Plinthosol (accumulation and redistribution of Fe) +PL Planosol (stagnant water, abrupt textural difference) +ST Stagnosol (stagnant water, no or only moderate textural difference) +NT Nitisol (low-activity clays, P fixation, many Fe oxides, strongly structured) +FR Ferralsol (dominance of kaolinite and oxides) +Pronounced accumulation of organic matter in the mineral topsoil + +CH Chernozem (very dark and well-structured topsoil, secondary carbonates) +KS Kastanozem (dark topsoil, secondary carbonates) +PH Phaeozem (dark topsoil, no secondary carbonates (unless very deep), high base status) +UM Umbrisol (dark topsoil, low base status) +Accumulation of moderately soluble salts or non-saline substances + +DU Durisol (accumulation of, and cementation by, secondary silica) +GY Gypsisol (accumulation of secondary gypsum) +CL Calcisol (accumulation of secondary carbonates) +Soils with clay-enriched subsoil + +RT Retisol (interfingering of coarser-textured, lighter-coloured material into a finer-textured, stronger-coloured layer) +AC Acrisol (low-activity clays, exchangeable Al > exchangeable base cations) +LX Lixisol (low-activity clays, exchangeable base cations ≥ exchangeable Al) +AL Alisol (high-activity clays, exchangeable Al > exchangeable base cations) +LV Luvisol (high-activity clays, exchangeable base cations ≥ exchangeable Al) +Note: The exchangeable base cations are given in cmolc kg−1. +Soils with little or no profile differentiation + +CM Cambisol (moderately developed) +FL Fluvisol (stratified fluviatile, marine or lacustrine sediments) +AR Arenosol (very sandy) +RG Regosol (no significant profile development) + +== Examples == + +=== Example for naming a soil with the WRB === +Our example soil has the following characteristics: +Field characteristics (described according to Annex 1 of the WRB Manual): A soil developed from loess shows a marked clay increase in around 60 cm depth and clay coatings in the clay-richer horizon. According to the landscape setting, we presume that high-activity clays dominate. In the field, a pH of 6 is measured in the subsoil. The lower part of the clay-poorer topsoil is light-coloured, and the upper part is darker. In the clay-richer horizon, we observe redoximorphic features; the oximorphic and the reductimorphic features sum up to 30% of the exposed area, the intensive colours found in the interiors of the aggregates. In spring, reducing conditions occur. The soil is ploughed regularly. +Laboratory characteristics: The laboratory analyses confirm the high cation exchange capacity per kg clay in the clay-richer horizon and the dominance of exchangeable base cations over exchangeable Al in the subsoil. In the topsoil, we find 20% clay, 10% sand, and 70% silt; in the subsoil, 35% clay, 8% sand, and 57% silt. Organic matter concentrations in the topsoil are intermediate. +The naming of the soil consists of four steps. +Question 1: Does the soil have diagnostic horizons, properties and materials? +The soil has the following diagnostics: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..eca5df46a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +--- +title: "World Reference Base for Soil Resources" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Reference_Base_for_Soil_Resources" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:08:46.764025+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +argic horizon (clay-richer horizon) +stagnic properties (in the clay-richer horizon) +reducing conditions (in the clay-richer horizon) +claric material (light colours in the lower part of the clay-poorer topsoil) +albic horizon (the claric material is the result of a soil-forming process, here: downward migration of clay minerals and oxides) +Question 2: To which RSG does the soil belong? +We have to go through the key, RSG for RSG. This soil is not a Histosol, not an Anthrosol, not a Technosol etc. Finally, we end up with the Luvisol. This is the first RSG in the key, the criteria of which our soil completely fulfils. +Question 3: Which qualifiers apply? +From the list of the principal qualifiers, Stagnic (stagnic properties and reducing conditions) and Albic (light colours resulting from a soil-forming process) apply. Stagnic is found further up in the list. Therefore, the soil has to be named until now Albic Stagnic Luvisol. From the list of the supplementary qualifiers, Siltic (silty from 0 to 60 cm), Loamic (loamy from 60 cm downwards), Aric (ploughed), Cutanic (clay coatings), Differentic (the clay migration led to a significant difference in clay content), Endic (the argic horizon starts below 50 cm) and Ochric (relatively small concentrations of organic carbon) apply. Bringing the supplementary qualifiers into the correct order (first the textural qualifiers from the top to the bottom of the soil profile, then all others in alphabetical order), the soil is an Albic Stagnic Luvisol (Siltic, Loamic, Aric, Cutanic, Differentic, Endic, Ochric). +Question 4: Which specifiers can be used to form subqualifiers? +The soil is Siltic from 0 to 60 cm and Loamic from 60 cm downwards. We can use the depth-related specifiers Ano- and Endo- to construct the subqualifiers Anosiltic and Endoloamic. The stagnic properties occur only in the subsoil and the albic horizon around 50 cm. This means that we can use the subqualifiers Endostagnic and Amphialbic. Using these specifiers does not change the position of the qualifiers in the soil name. +Now, the soil name is: Amphialbic Endostagnic Luvisol (Anosiltic, Endoloamic, Aric, Cutanic, Differentic Endic, Ochric). +Using the codes of Chapter 6 of the WRB Manual gives us the following short name: LV-stn.abm-sia.lon-ai.ct.ed.oh. + +=== Example for creating map legends with the WRB === +Let's say that our example soil Amphialbic Endostagnic Luvisol (Anosiltic, Endoloamic, Aric, Cutanic, Endic, Ochric) covers 60% of the area of a map unit. The other 40% are covered by a Eutric Endoluvic Amphialbic Stagnosol (Anosiltic, Endoloamic, Humic). The map unit will be named as follows: +First map scale level: + +dominant: Luvisols +codominant: Stagnosols +Second map scale level: + +dominant: Stagnic Luvisols +codominant: Albic Stagnosols +Third map scale level: + +dominant: Albic Stagnic Luvisols +codominant: Luvic Albic Stagnosols +Remarks: Using depth-related specifiers is not recommended in map legends where generalization is required. +At every scale level, elective qualifiers may be added. If one wants to give, e.g., information about organic carbon, one can do that even at the first map scale level and write: + +dominant: Luvisols (Ochric) +codominant: Stagnosols (Humic) +If somebody wants to give additional information on soil genesis, this can also be done on the first map scale level: + +dominant: Luvisols (Stagnic) +codominant: Stagnosols (Luvic) +Both in combination would read, e.g., at the second map scale level: + +dominant: Stagnic Luvisols (Ochric) +codominant: Albic Stagnosols (Luvic, Humic) + +== See also == +pH +Soil salinity +Soil texture + +== References == + +== Further reading == +IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, fourth edition. International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna 2022. ISBN 979-8-9862451-1-9 ([1]). +M. Switoniak et al.: Illustrated Handbook of WRB Soil Classification. Wroclaw 2022. +W. Zech, P. Schad, G. Hintermaier-Erhard: Soils of the World. Springer, Berlin 2022. ISBN 978-3-540-30460-9 +W.E.H. Blum, P. Schad, S. Nortcliff: Essentials of Soil Science. Soil formation, functions, use and classification (World Reference Base, WRB). Borntraeger Science Publishers, Stuttgart 2018. ISBN 978-3-443-01090-4. +IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2014, Update 2015. World Soil Resources Reports 106, FAO, Rome 2015. ISBN 978-92-5-108369-7 (PDF 2,3 MB). +IUSS Working Group WRB: World Reference Base for Soil Resources 2006. World Soil Resources Reports 103. FAO, Rome 2006. ISBN 92-5-105511-4. +FAO: World Reference Base for Soil Resources, by ISSS–ISRIC–FAO. World Soil Resources Reports 84. FAO, Rome 1998. ISBN 92-5-104141-5. +E.M. Bridges, N.H. Batjes, F.O. Nachtergaele (Eds.): World Reference Base for soil resources: atlas. Acco, Leuven 1998. +FAO–UNESCO: Soil map of the world. Volume 1, Legend. Paris 1974. +H.-P. Blume, P. Schad: 90 Years of Soil Classification of the IUSS. IUSS Bulletin 126, 38-45, 2015 ([2]). +A.V. Sobisevich Participation of Soviet Scientists in the Soil Map of the World Project // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia i tekhniki. 2022. Vol. 43(1). Pp. 41–53. +P. Schad: World Reference Base for Soil Resources - Its fourth edition and its history. In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 186, 2023, 151–163. doi: 10.1002/jpln.202200417 ([3]). + +== External links == + +WRB homepage +WRB at the FAO +profile photos (with classification) WRB homepage +profile photos (with classification) IUSS World of Soils +Videos and teaching material on soil description and classification \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Baby's_Best_Shot-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Baby's_Best_Shot-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..44a0d143b --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Baby's_Best_Shot-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Your Baby's Best Shot" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Baby's_Best_Shot" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:12:16.808152+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Your Baby's Best Shot: Why Vaccines are Safe and Save Lives is a 2012 pro-vaccine book, published by Rowman and Littlefield, and written by E. Allison Hagood, a psychology professor, and Stacy Mintzer Herlihy, a freelance writer from Roseland, New Jersey. The foreword was written by Paul Offit. + + +== Summary == +The book's introduction states: "I hope that anyone reading this book will read it and gain an understanding why vaccines are so vitally important to the health and well being of all of us." +Chapter 1 describes who the authors are, their own experiences with vaccines, and what motivated them to write this book. +Chapter 2 focuses on the story of Edward Jenner and the development of the first vaccine. +Chapter 3 discusses the biological mechanisms by which vaccines work, as well as the concept of herd immunity. +Chapter 4 discusses the anti-vaccine claims about how vaccines contain "dangerous ingredients" such as formaldehyde and polymyxin B. + + +== Reviews == +Kristen Kemp of Parents called the book a "great resource", and Publishers Weekly wrote that it was "extensively researched and forceful." Another positive review came from Booklist, where Karen Springen wrote that "This thoroughly researched book should convince even ardent vaccine skeptics that the benefits of giving kids shots to prevent illnesses far outweigh any negatives," and David Gorski wrote that the book was "essential reading for all new parents with any doubts at all about vaccines." + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Danco-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Danco-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..889565fba --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Danco-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Émile Danco" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émile_Danco" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T09:13:04.853104+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Émile Danco (29 November 1869 - 5 June 1898) was a Belgian polar explorer. +He was a lieutenant in the Belgian artillery and trained at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium. He was a personal friend of Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery and became the first recruit for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition aboard the Belgica. + +Danco took part in several excursions during the first period in Antarctica, notably in early February 1898, when he joined de Gerlache, Amundsen, Cook and Arctowski on the expedition’s first camping trip, to an island west of the Antarctic Peninsula they named Brabant Island. He served as the geophysicist for the expedition, which became the first to overwinter in Antarctica. Émile Danco died of a heart condition aboard the Belgica on 5 June, 1898. His observations and work were taken up by Georges Lecointe, the Belgica's second in command. + + +== Honors == +Danco Island in the Gerlache Strait was named by Adrien de Gerlache de Gomery for Émile Danco +The asteroid (9812) Danco was named for him + + +== References == + + +== External links == + Media related to Émile Danco at Wikimedia Commons \ No newline at end of file