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Temple

A temple (from the Latin templum) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temple" in English, while those of other religions are not, even though they fulfill very similar functions. The religions for which the terms are used include the great majority of ancient religions that are now extinct, such as the Ancient Egyptian religion and the Ancient Greek religion. Among religions still active: Hinduism (whose temples are called Mandir or Kovil), Buddhism (whose temples are called Vihar), Sikhism (whose temples are called gurudwara), Jainism (whose temples are sometimes called derasar), Zoroastrianism (whose temples are sometimes called Agiary), the Baha'i Faith (which are often simply referred to as Baha'i House of Worship), Taoism (which are sometimes called Daoguan), Shinto (which are sometimes called Jinja), Confucianism (which are sometimes called the Temple of Confucius).

Religions whose places of worship are generally not called "temples" in English include Christianity, which has churches, Islam with mosques, and Judaism with synagogues (although some of these use "temple" as a name).

The form and function of temples are thus very variable, though they are often considered by believers to be, in some sense, the "house" of one or more deities. Typically, offerings of some sort are made to the deity, and other rituals are enacted, and a special group of clergy maintain and operate the temple. The degree to which the whole population of believers can access the building varies significantly; often parts, or even the whole main building, can only be accessed by the clergy. Temples typically have a main building and a larger precinct, which may contain many other buildings or may be a dome-shaped structure, much like an igloo.

The word comes from Ancient Rome, where a templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template", a plan in preparation for the building that was marked out on the ground by the augur.

Hindu temples
Hindu temples are known by many different names, varying on region and language, including Alayam, Mandir, Mandira, Ambalam, Gudi, Kavu, Koil, Kovil, Déul, Raul, Devasthana, Devalaya, Devayatan, Devakula, Devagiriha, Degul, Deva Mandiraya, and Devalayam. Hindu temple architecture is mainly divided into the Dravidian style of the south and the Nagara style of the north, with other regional styles.

The basic elements of the Hindu temple remain the same across all periods and styles. The most essential feature is the inner sanctuary, the garbhagriha or womb-chamber, where the primary murti or cult image of a deity is housed in a simple bare cell. Around this chamber there are often other structures and buildings, in the largest cases covering several acres. On the exterior, the garbhagriha is crowned by a tower-like shikhara, also called the vimana in the south. The shrine building may include an ambulatory for parikrama (circumambulation), one or more mandapas or congregation halls, and sometimes an antarala antechamber and porch between garbhagriha and mandapa.

A Hindu temple is a symbolic house, the seat and dwelling of Hindu gods. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together according to Hindu faith. Inside its garbhagriha innermost sanctum, a Hindu temple contains a murti or Hindu god's image. Hindu temples are large and magnificent with a rich history. There is evidence of the use of sacred ground as far back as the Bronze Age and later during the Indus Valley civilization.

Outside of the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh and Nepal), Hindu temples have been built in various countries around the world. Either following the historic diffusion of Hinduism across Asia (e.g. ancient stone temples of Cambodia and Indonesia), or following the migration of the Indian Hindus' diaspora, to Western Europe (esp. Great Britain), North America (the United States and Canada), as well as Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, Mauritius and South Africa.

Buddhist temples

Buddhist temples include the structures called stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. A Buddhist temple might contain a meditation hall hosting Buddharupa, or the image of Buddha, as the object of concentration and veneration during a meditation. The stupa domed structures are also used in a circumambulation ritual called Pradakshina.

Temples in Buddhism represent the pure land or pure environment of a Buddha. Traditional Buddhist temples are designed to inspire inner and outer peace.

Three types of structures are associated with the religious architecture of early Buddhism: monasteries (viharas), places to venerate relics (stupas), and shrines or prayer halls (chaityas, also called chaitya grihas), which later came to be called temples in some places. The pagoda is an evolution of the Indian stupas.

The initial function of a stupa was the veneration and safe-guarding of the relics of Gautama Buddha. The earliest archaeologically known example of a stupa is the relic stupa located in Vaishali, Bihar in India.

In accordance with changes in religious practice, stupas were gradually incorporated into chaitya-grihas (prayer halls). These are exemplified by the complexes of the Ajanta Caves and the Ellora Caves (Maharashtra). The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar is another well-known example.

As Buddhism spread, Buddhist architecture diverged in style, reflecting the similar trends in Buddhist art. Building form was also influenced to some extent by the different forms of Buddhism in the northern countries, practising Mahayana Buddhism in the main and in the south where Theravada Buddhism prevailed.

Jain temples

A Jain temple, called a Derasar, is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Some famous Jain temples are Shikharji, Palitana temples, Ranakpur Jain temple, Shravan Belgola, Dilwara Temples and Lal Mandir. Jain temples are built with various architectural designs. Jain temples in North India are completely different from the Jain temples in South India, which in turn are quite different from Jain temples in West India. Additionally, a manastambha (literally 'column of honor') is a pillar that is often constructed in front of Jain temples.

Sikh temples

A Sikh temple is called a gurdwara, literally the "doorway to the Guru". Its most essential element is the presence of the Guru, Guru Granth Sahib. The gurdwara has an entrance from all sides, signifying that they are open to all without any distinction whatsoever. The gurdwara has a Darbar Sahib where the Guru Granth Sahib is seen and a Langar where people can eat free food. A gurdwara may also have a library, nursery, and classroom.

Mesopotamian temples
The temple-building tradition of Mesopotamia derived from the cults of gods and deities in the Mesopotamian religion. It spanned several civilizations; from Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. The most common temple architecture of Mesopotamia is the structure of sun-baked bricks called a ziggurat, having the form of a terraced step pyramid with a flat upper terrace where the shrine or temple stood.

Egyptian temples

Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the deities to reside on earth. Indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means 'mansion (or enclosure) of a god'.

A god's presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and allowed humans to interact with the god through ritual. These rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were, therefore, a key part of the maintenance of maat, the ideal order of nature and of human society in Egyptian belief. Maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and thus it was the purpose of a temple as well.

Ancient Egyptian temples were also of economic significance to Egyptian society. The temples stored and redistributed grain and came to own large portions of the nation's arable land (some estimate as much as 33% by the New Kingdom period). In addition, many of these Egyptian temples utilized the Tripartite Floor Plan in order to draw visitors to the center room.

Greco-Roman temples
Greek and Roman temples were originally built out of wood and mud bricks, but as the empires expanded, the temples grew to monumental size, made out of materials such as stone and marble on raised platforms. While the color has long since faded, The columns would have been painted in white, blue, red, and black. Above the columns would have been a sculpted or painted depiction of a myth or battle, with freestanding sculptures in the pediment triangles. The roofs were tiled and had sculptures of mythical animals or deities on the tops or corners. Greek temples also had several standard floor plans with very distinct column placement.

Located in the front of the temple were altars intended for sacrifices or offerings. Ouranic altars were usually square, lined with a metal pan for burnt offerings, and a flat top which was necessary for the ouranic gods to receive offerings. Chthonic altars, called bothros, were pits dug into the earth for liquid libations of animal sacrifices, milk, honey, and wine. The building which housed the cult statue or agalma in its cella was located in the center of the temple in Greek architecture, while in Rome, the cella was in the back. Greek temple architecture had a profound influence on ancient architectural traditions.

Greco-Roman temples were built facing eastward, utilizing the rising sun in morning rituals. The location each temple was built also depended on many factors such as environment, myth, function, and divine experience. Most were built on sites associated with myths or a place a god had been believed to have performed a feat, or founded a town or city. Many Roman temples had close associations with important events in Roman history, such as military victories. Temples in cities were often dedicated to the founding deity of the city, but also served as civic and social centers. The Temple of Saturn even held the state treasury and treasury offices in its basement.

European polytheistic temples
The Romans usually referred to a holy place of a pagan religion as fanum; in some cases this referred to a sacred grove, in others to a temple. Medieval Latin writers also sometimes used the word templum, previously reserved for temples of the ancient Roman religion. In some cases it is hard to determine whether a temple was a building or an outdoor shrine. For temple buildings of the Germanic peoples, the Old Norse term hof is often used.

Zoroastrian temples
A Zoroastrian temple may also be called a Dar-e-mehr and an Atashkadeh. A fire temple in Zoroastrianism is the place of worship for Zoroastrians. Zoroastrians revere fire in any form, and their temples contains an eternal flame, with Atash Behram (Fire of Victory) as the highest grade of all, as it combines 16 different types of fire gathered in elaborate rituals.

In the Zoroastrian religion, fire (Atar), together with clean water (Aban), are agents of ritual purity. Clean, white "ash for the purification ceremonies is regarded as the basis of ritual life," which, "are essentially the rites proper to the tending of a domestic fire, for the temple fire is that of the hearth fire raised to a new solemnity".

Chinese temples

Chinese temples refer to temples in accordance with Chinese culture, which serve as a house of worship for Chinese faiths, namely Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion. Chinese temples were born from the age-old religion and tradition of Chinese people since the ancient era of imperial China, thus they are usually built in typical classical Chinese architecture.

Other than the base constructed from an elevated platform of earth and stones, most parts of Chinese temples are made of timber carpentry, with parts of brick masonry and glazed ceramics for roofs and tile decorations. Typical Chinese temples have curved overhanging eaves and complicated carpentry of stacked roof construction. Chinese temples are known for their vivid colour and rich decorations. Their roofs are often decorated with mythical beasts, such as Chinese dragons and qilins, and sometimes also Chinese deities. Chinese temples can be found throughout Mainland China and Taiwan, and also where Chinese expatriate communities have settled abroad; thus Chinese temples can be found in Chinatowns worldwide.

Indonesian temples

Candi is an Indonesian term to refer to ancient temples. Before the rise of Islam, between the 5th to 15th centuries, Dharmic faiths (Hinduism and Buddhism) were the majority in the Indonesian archipelago, especially in Java and Sumatra. As a result, numerous Hindu temples, locally known as candi, were constructed and dominated the landscape of Java. The candi architecture follows the typical Indonesian architectural traditions based on Vastu Shastra. The temple layout, especially in the Central Java period, incorporated mandala temple plan arrangements and also the typical high towering spires of Hindu temples. The candi was designed to mimic Meru, the holy mountain and the abode of the gods. In contemporary Indonesian Buddhist perspective, candi refers to a shrine, either ancient or new. Several contemporary viharas in Indonesia, for example, contain an actual-size replica or reconstruction of famous Buddhist temples, such as the replica of Pawon and Plaosan's perwara (small) temples.

According to local beliefs, the Java valley had thousands of Hindu temples that co-existed with Buddhist temples, most of which were buried in the massive eruption of Mount Merapi in 1006 CE.

Mesoamerican temples
Temples of the Mesoamerican civilization usually took the shape of stepped pyramids with temples or shrines on top of the massive structure. They are more akin to the ziggurats of Mesopotamia than to Egyptian ones. A single or several flight(s) of steep steps from the base lead to the temple that stood on the plateau on top of the pyramid. The stone temple might be a square or a rounded structure with a door opening leading to a cella or inner sanctum. The plateau on top of the pyramid in front of the temple is where the ritualistic sacrifice took place.

Some classic Mesoamerican pyramids are adorned with stories about the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl or Mesoamerican creation myths, written in the form of hieroglyphs on the rises of the steps of the pyramids, on the walls, and on the sculptures contained within. Notable example include Aztec Acatitlan and Mayan Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Tikal.

Jewish synagogues and temples
In Judaism, the ancient Hebrew texts refer to a "sanctuary", "palace" or "hall" for each of the two ancient temples in Jerusalem, called in the Tanakh Beit YHWH, which translates literally as 'YHWH's House'. In English "temple" is the normal term for them.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the site where the First Temple of Solomon and the Second Temple were built. At the center of the structure was the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest could enter. The Temple Mount is now the site of the Islamic edifice, the Dome of the Rock (c. 690 CE).

The Greek word synagogue came into use to describe Jewish (and Samaritan) places of worship during Hellenistic times and it, along with the Yiddish term shul, and the original Hebrew term Beit Knesset ('House of meeting') are the terms in most universal usage.

Since the 18th century, Jews in Western and Central Europe began to apply the name temple, borrowed from the French where it was used to denote all non-Catholic prayer houses, to synagogues. The term became strongly associated with Reform institutions, in some of which both congregants and outsiders associated it with the elimination of the prayers for the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple, though this was not the original meaning—traditional synagogues named themselves "temple" over a century before the advent of Reform, and many continued to do so after. In American parlance, temple is often synonymous with synagogue, but especially non-Orthodox ones.

The term kenesa, from the Aramaic for 'assembly', is used to describe the places of worship of Karaite Jews.

Example of such temple is the Sofia Synagogue, Bulgaria the largest synagogue in Southeastern Europe and third-largest in Europe.

Orthodox Christianity

The word temple is used frequently in the tradition of Eastern Christianity; particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the principal words used for houses of worship are temple and church. The use of the word temple comes from the need to distinguish a building of the church vs. the church seen as the Body of Christ. In the Russian language (similar to other Slavic languages), while the general-purpose word for 'church' is tserkov, the term khram (Храм), 'temple', is used to refer to the church building as a temple of God (Khram Bozhy). The words church and temple, in this case are interchangeable; however, the term church (ἐκκλησία) is far more common. The term temple (ναός) is also commonly applied to larger churches. Some famous churches which are referred to as temples include the Hagia Sophia, Saint Basil's Cathedral, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the Temple of Saint Sava in Belgrade, Serbia.

Catholicism

The word temple has traditionally been rarely used in the English-speaking Western Christian tradition. In Irish, some pre-schism churches use the word teampall. The usual word for church in the Hungarian language is templom, also deriving from the same Latin root. Spanish distinguishes between the temple being the physical building for religious activity, and the church being both the physical building for religious activity and also the congregation of religious followers.

The principal words typically used to distinguish houses of worship in Western Christian architecture are abbey, basilica, cathedral, chapel and church. The Catholic Church has used the word temple in reference of a place of worship on rare occasions. An example is the Roman Catholic Sagrada Familia Temple in Barcelona, Spain and the Roman Catholic Basilique du Sacré-Cœur Temple in Paris, France. Another example is the Temple or Our Lady of the Pillar, a church in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Protestantism
Some Protestant churches use this term; above main entrance of the Lutheran Gustav Vasa church in Stockholm, Sweden is a cartouche in Latin which reads "this temple (...) was constructed by king Oscar II."

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, following the Enlightenment, some Protestant denominations in France and elsewhere began to use the word temple to distinguish these spaces from Catholic churches. Evangelical and other Protestant churches make use of a wide variety of terms to designate their worship spaces, such as church, tabernacle or temple. Additionally some breakaway Catholic churches such as the Mariavite Church in Poland have chosen to also designate their central church building as a temple, as in the case of the Temple of Mercy and Charity in Płock.

Latter Day Saint movement

According to Latter Day Saints, in 1832, Joseph Smith received a revelation to restore the practice of temple worship, in a "house of the Lord". The Kirtland Temple was the first temple of the Latter-day Saint movement and the only one completed in Smith's lifetime, although the Nauvoo Temple was partially complete at the time of his death. The schisms stemming from a succession crisis have led to differing views about the role and use of temples between various groups with competing succession claims.

The Book of Mormon, which Latter Day Saints believe is a companion book of scripture with the Bible, refers to temple building in the ancient Americas by a group of people called the Nephites. Though Book of Mormon authors are not explicit about the practices in these Nephite temples, they were patterned "after the manner of the temple of Solomon" and served as gathering places for significant religious and political events (e.g. Mosiah 1–6; 3rd Nephi 11–26).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a prolific builder of temples. Latter-day Saint temples are reserved for performing and undertaking only the most holy and sacred of covenants and special of ordinances. They are distinct from meeting houses and chapels where weekly worship services are held. The temples are built and kept under strict sacredness and are not to be defiled. Thus, strict rules apply for entrance, including church membership and regular attendance. During the open-house period after its construction and before its dedication, the temple is open to the public for tours.

Other Latter Day Saint denominations
Various sects in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith have temples.
 * The Church of Christ (Wightite), a Latter Day Saint denomination formed by Lyman Wight following the death of Joseph Smith, built first Mormon temple west of the Mississippi in Zodiac, Texas. about three miles from Fredericksburg.
 * In 1990 or earlier a temple in Ozumba, Mexico was built by the Apostolic United Brethren.
 * On April 17, 1994, the Independence Temple in Independence, Missouri, was open by the Community of Christ by then-church Prophet-President Wallace B. Smith. The Community of Christ also owned the original Kirtland Temple, dedicated in 1836 by the Church of the Latter Day Saints (later renamed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), in Kirtland, Ohio. On March 5, 2024, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it had purchased the temple.
 * In 2005 construction on the YFZ Ranch Temple by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Church began.  It is located just outside Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas.  However, as of April 2014, the State of Texas took physical and legal possession of the property.  as it was used to "commit or facilitate certain criminal conduct."
 * A pyramid-shaped temple near Modena, Utah, was built by the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Esoteric Christianity

 * Mount Ecclesia Esoteric Christian Temple of the Rosicrucian Fellowship with its round 12-sided building architecture set on top of a mesa and facing east, the rising Sun. This modern-day temple is ornamented with alchemical and astrological symbols.

Masonic temples

Freemasonry is a fraternal organization with its origins in the eighteenth century whose membership is held together by a shared set of moral and metaphysical ideals based on short role play narratives concerning the construction of King Solomon's Temple. Freemasons meet as a Lodge. Lodges meet in a Masonic Temple (in reference to King Solomon's Temple), Masonic Center or a Masonic Hall, such as Freemasons' Hall, London. Some confusion exists as Masons usually refer to a Lodge meeting as being in Lodge.

Others

 * Göbekli Tepe, located in southern Turkey, was built between the 8th and 10th millennium BCE. Its circular compounds on top of a tell are composed by massive T-shaped stone pillars decorated with abstract, enigmatic pictograms and animal reliefs.
 * Temples of Sheikh, ancient temples in Sheikh, Somalia
 * Temple of Yeha, the oldest standing structure in Yeha, Ethiopia; built around 700 BCE
 * In the Star Wars films, the Jedi Temple is located on Coruscant.
 * Wolmyeongdong Natural Temple, located in South Korea, was developed beginning in 1990 and continues to this day.
 * Pashupatinath is one of the most famous temples of Hindu religion, which is located at Kathmandu, Nepal.

Convention sometimes allows the use of temple in some of the following cases:

 * Baháʼí Faith temple (Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs or 'Houses of Worship').
 * Shrines of the traditional Chinese Ethnic Shenism are called miao, or ancestral hall in English. Joss house is an obsolete American term for such kind of places of worship.
 * Confucian temple or Temple of Confucius.
 * Mankhim, the temple of the ethnic group the Rai, located at Aritar, Sikkim.
 * Shintoist jinja are normally called shrines in English in order to distinguish them from Buddhist temples (-tera, -dera).
 * Taoist temples and monasteries are called guan or daoguan (道观, literally 'place of contemplation of the Tao') in Chinese, guan being the shortened version of daoguan.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Talk:Morality

Correction needed to 3rd paragraph of Introduction?
This sentence does not make sense “I fear that I am leading can become a universal law.” It feels like something is missing from this quote. Unfortunately the source referenced, philosophyverse.com, contains the same quote, and other aspects of the way that source article is written, suggest it is a badly corrected piece written by an AI 62.92.121.39 (talk) 13:39, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Morality


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User:Robin Thelwall

Robin Thelwall is a new Canadian (since January 2001). He retired (i.e. he isn't paid for his current work) to Calgary in 1996. He is a specialist in Nilo-Saharan languages and takes an interest in many other things and has already started to contribute to Wikipedia on language matters. He is also a newbie wannabe Linux user.

title: User:Robin Thelwall


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Amazon rainforest

The Amazon rainforest, also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7000000 km2, of which 6000000 km2 are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories.

The majority of the forest, 60%, is in Brazil, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. Four nations have "Amazonas" as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions, and France uses the name "Guiana Amazonian Park" for French Guiana's protected rainforest area. The Amazon represents over half of Earth's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees in about 16,000 species.

More than 30 million people of 350 different ethnic groups live in the Amazon, which are subdivided into 9 different national political systems and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories. Indigenous peoples make up 9% of the total population, and 60 of the groups remain largely isolated.

Large scale deforestation is occurring in the forest, creating different harmful effects. Economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could be approximately 7 times higher in comparison to the cost of all commodities produced through deforestation. In 2023, the World Bank published a report proposing a non-deforestation based economic program in the region.

Etymology
The name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with the Tapuyas and other tribes. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men, as was their custom. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the Amazons of Greek mythology, described by Herodotus and Diodorus.

History
Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada, human inhabitants first settled in the Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago. Subsequent development led to late-prehistoric settlements along the periphery of the forest by AD 1250, which induced alterations in the forest cover.

For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon rainforest was never more than sparsely populated, as it was impossible to sustain a large population through agriculture given the poor soil. Archeologist Betty Meggers was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise. She claimed that a population density of 0.2 PD/km2 is the maximum that can be sustained in the rainforest through hunting, with agriculture needed to host a larger population. However, recent anthropological findings have suggested that the region was actually densely populated. The Upano Valley sites in present-day eastern Ecuador predate all known complex Amazonian societies.

Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in AD 1500, divided between dense coastal settlements, such as that at Marajó, and inland dwellers. Based on projections of food production, one estimate suggests over 8 million people living in the Amazon in 1492. By 1900, the native indigenous population had fallen to 1 million and by the early 1980s it was less than 200,000.

The first European to travel the length of the Amazon River was Francisco de Orellana in 1542. The BBC's Unnatural Histories presents evidence that Orellana, rather than exaggerating his claims as previously thought, was correct in his observations that a complex civilization was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. The Pre-Columbian agriculture in the Amazon Basin was sufficiently advanced to support prosperous and populous societies. It is believed that civilization was later devastated by the spread of diseases from Europe, such as smallpox. This civilization was investigated by the British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early twentieth century. The results of his expeditions were inconclusive, and he disappeared mysteriously on his last trip. His name for this lost civilization was the City of Z.

Since the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land dating between AD 1–1250, furthering claims about Pre-Columbian civilizations. Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977, and Alceu Ranzi is credited with furthering their discovery after flying over Acre. The BBC's Unnatural Histories presented evidence that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being a pristine wilderness, has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as forest gardening and terra preta. Terra preta is found over large areas in the Amazon forest; and is now widely accepted as a product of indigenous soil management. The development of this fertile soil allowed agriculture and silviculture in the previously hostile environment; meaning that large portions of the Amazon rainforest are probably the result of centuries of human management, rather than naturally occurring as has previously been supposed. In the region of the Xingu tribe, remains of some of these large settlements in the middle of the Amazon forest were found in 2003 by Michael Heckenberger and colleagues of the University of Florida. Among those were evidence of roads, bridges and large plazas.

In the Amazonas, there has been fighting and wars between the neighboring tribes of the Jivaro. Several tribes of the Jivaroan group, including the Shuar, practised headhunting for trophies and headshrinking. The accounts of missionaries to the area in the borderlands between Brazil and Venezuela have recounted constant infighting in the Yanomami tribes. More than a third of the Yanomamo males, on average, died from warfare.

The Munduruku were a warlike tribe that expanded along the Tapajós river and its tributaries and were feared by neighboring tribes. In the early 19th century, the Munduruku were pacified and subjugated by the Brazilians.

During the Amazon rubber boom it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as typhus and malaria, killed 40,000 native Amazonians.

In the 1950s, Brazilian explorer and defender of indigenous people, Cândido Rondon, supported the Villas-Bôas brothers' campaign, which faced strong opposition from the government and the ranchers of Mato Grosso and led to the establishment of the first Brazilian National Park for indigenous people along the Xingu River in 1961.

In 1961, British explorer Richard Mason was killed by an uncontacted Amazon tribe known as the Panará.

The Matsés made their first permanent contact with the outside world in 1969. Before that date, they were effectively at-war with the Peruvian government.

Location
Nine countries share the Amazon basin—most of the rainforest, 58.4%, is contained within the borders of Brazil. The other eight countries are Peru with 12.8%, Bolivia with 7.7%, Colombia with 7.1%, Venezuela with 6.1%, Guyana with 3.1%, Suriname with 2.5%, French Guiana with 1.4% and Ecuador with 1%.

Natural
The rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era (from 56 million years to 33.9 million years ago). It appeared following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm, moist climate to the Amazon basin. The rainforest has been in existence for at least 55 million years, and most of the region remained free of savanna-type biomes at least until the current ice age when the climate was drier and savanna more widespread.

Following the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the wetter climate may have allowed the tropical rainforest to spread out across the continent. From 66 to 34 Mya, the rainforest extended as far south as 45°. Climate fluctuations during the last 34 million years have allowed savanna regions to expand into the tropics. During the Oligocene, for example, the rainforest spanned a relatively narrow band. It expanded again during the Middle Miocene, then retracted to a mostly inland formation at the last glacial maximum. However, the rainforest still managed to thrive during these glacial periods, allowing for the survival and evolution of a broad diversity of species. During the mid-Eocene, it is believed that the drainage basin of the Amazon was split along the middle of the continent by the Purus Arch. Water on the eastern side flowed toward the Atlantic, while to the west water flowed toward the Pacific across the Amazonas Basin. As the Andes Mountains rose, however, a large basin was created that enclosed a lake; now known as the Solimões Basin. Within the last 5–10 million years, this accumulating water broke through the Purus Arch, joining the easterly flow toward the Atlantic. There is evidence that there have been significant changes in the Amazon rainforest vegetation over the last 21,000 years through the last glacial maximum (LGM) and subsequent deglaciation. Analyses of sediment deposits from Amazon basin paleolakes and the Amazon Fan indicate that rainfall in the basin during the LGM was lower than for the present, and this was almost certainly associated with reduced moist tropical vegetation cover in the basin. In present day, the Amazon receives approximately 9 feet of rainfall annually. There is a debate, however, over how extensive this reduction was. Some scientists argue that the rainforest was reduced to small, isolated refugia separated by open forest and grassland; other scientists argue that the rainforest remained largely intact but extended less far to the north, south, and east than is seen today. This debate has proved difficult to resolve because the practical limitations of working in the rainforest mean that data sampling is biased away from the center of the Amazon basin, and both explanations are reasonably well supported by the available data.

Sahara Desert dust windblown to the Amazon
More than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus, important for plant growth. The yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods.

NASA's CALIPSO satellite has measured the amount of dust transported by wind from the Sahara to the Amazon: an average of 182 million tons of dust are windblown out of the Sahara each year, at 15 degrees west longitude, across 1,600 mi over the Atlantic Ocean (some dust falls into the Atlantic), then at 35 degrees West longitude at the eastern coast of South America, 27.7 million tons (15%) of dust fall over the Amazon basin (22 million tons of it consisting of phosphorus), 132 million tons of dust remain in the air, 43 million tons of dust are windblown and falls on the Caribbean Sea, past 75 degrees west longitude.

CALIPSO uses a laser range finder to scan the Earth's atmosphere for the vertical distribution of dust and other aerosols. CALIPSO regularly tracks the Sahara-Amazon dust plume. CALIPSO has measured variations in the dust amounts transported – an 86 percent drop between the highest amount of dust transported in 2007 and the lowest in 2011.

A possibility causing the variation is the Sahel, a strip of semi-arid land on the southern border of the Sahara. When rain amounts in the Sahel are higher, the volume of dust is lower. The higher rainfall could make more vegetation grow in the Sahel, leaving less sand exposed to winds to blow away.

Amazon phosphorus also comes as smoke due to biomass burning in Africa.

Biodiversity, flora and fauna

Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome, and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species rich than the wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity. One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon rainforest. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world.

The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species, tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals. To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in the region. One in five of all bird species are found in the Amazon rainforest, and one in five of the fish species live in Amazonian rivers and streams. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone.

The biodiversity of plant species is the highest on Earth with one 2001 study finding a quarter square kilometer (62 acres) of Ecuadorian rainforest supports more than 1,100 tree species. A study in 1999 found one square kilometer (247 acres) of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tonnes of living plants. The average plant biomass is estimated at 356 ± 47 tonnes per hectare. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued. The total number of tree species in the region is estimated at 16,000.

The green leaf area of plants and trees in the rainforest varies by about 25% as a result of seasonal changes. Leaves expand during the dry season when sunlight is at a maximum, then undergo abscission in the cloudy wet season. These changes provide a balance of carbon between photosynthesis and respiration.

Each hectare of the Amazon rainforest contains around 1 billion of invertebrates. The amount of species per hectare in the Amazon rainforest can be presented in the next table:

The rainforest contains several species that can pose a hazard. Among the largest predatory creatures are the black caiman, jaguar, cougar, and anaconda. In the river, electric eels can produce an electric shock that can stun or kill, while piranha are known to bite and injure humans. Various species of poison dart frogs secrete lipophilic alkaloid toxins through their flesh. There are also numerous parasites and disease vectors. Vampire bats dwell in the rainforest and can spread the rabies virus. Malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever can also be contracted in the Amazon region.

The biodiversity in the Amazon is becoming increasingly threatened, primarily by habitat loss from deforestation as well as increased frequency of fires. Over 90% of Amazonian plant and vertebrate species (13,000–14,000 in total) may have been impacted to some degree by fires.

Deforestation

Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and the development of the land. In 2022, about 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been deforested and a further 6% was "highly degraded". Research suggests that upon reaching about 20–25% (hence 0–5% more), the tipping point to flip it into a non-forest ecosystem – degraded savannah – (in eastern, southern and central Amazonia) will be reached. This process of savanisation would take decades to take full effect.

Prior to the early 1960s, access to the forest's interior was highly restricted, and the forest remained basically intact. Farms established during the 1960s were based on crop cultivation and the slash and burn method. However, the colonists were unable to manage their fields and the crops because of the loss of soil fertility and weed invasion. The soils in the Amazon are productive for just a short period of time, so farmers are constantly moving to new areas and clearing more land. These farming practices led to deforestation and caused extensive environmental damage. Deforestation is considerable, and areas cleared of forest are visible to the naked eye from outer space.

In the 1970s, construction began on the Trans-Amazonian highway. This highway represented a major threat to the Amazon rainforest. The highway still has not been completed, limiting the environmental damage.

Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415000 to 587000 km2, with most of the lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. Seventy percent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, have been used for livestock pasture. Currently, Brazil is the largest global producer of soybeans. New research however, conducted by Leydimere Oliveira et al., has shown that the more rainforest is logged in the Amazon, the less precipitation reaches the area and so the lower the yield per hectare becomes. So despite the popular perception, there has been no economical advantage for Brazil from logging rainforest zones and converting these to pastoral fields. The needs of soy farmers have been used to justify many of the controversial transportation projects that are currently developing in the Amazon. The first two highways successfully opened up the rainforest and led to increased settlement and deforestation. The mean annual deforestation rate from 2000 to 2005 (22392 km2 per year) was 18% higher than in the previous five years (19018 km2 per year). Although deforestation declined significantly in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2014, there has been an increase to the present day.

Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, has supported the relaxation of regulations placed on agricultural land. He has used his time in office to allow for more deforestation and more exploitation of the Amazon's rich natural resources.

Since the discovery of fossil fuel reservoirs in the Amazon rainforest, oil drilling activity has steadily increased, peaking in the Western Amazon in the 1970s and ushering another drilling boom in the 2000s. Oil companies have to set up their operations by opening new roads through the forests, which often contributes to deforestation in the region.

The European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement, which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas, has been denounced by environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners. The fear is that the deal could lead to more deforestation of the Amazon rainforest as it expands market access to Brazilian beef.

According to a November 2021 report by Brazil's INPE, based on satellite data, deforestation has increased by 22% over 2020 and is at its highest level since 2006.

2019 fires
There were 72,843 fires in Brazil in 2019, with more than half within the Amazon region. In August 2019 there were a record number of fires. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 88% in June 2019 compared with the same month in 2018.

The increased area of fire-impacted forest coincided with a relaxation of environmental regulations from the Brazilian government. Notably, before those regulations were put in place in 2008 the fire-impacted area was also larger compared to the regulation period of 2009–2018. As these fire continue to move closer to the heart of the Amazon basin, their impact on biodiversity will only increase in scale, as the cumulative fire-impacted area is correlated with the number of species impacted.

Conservation and climate change
Environmentalists are concerned about loss of biodiversity that will result from destruction of the forest, and also about the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, which could accelerate global warming. Amazonian evergreen forests account for about 10% of the world's terrestrial primary productivity and 10% of the carbon stores in ecosystems – of the order of 1.1 × 1011 metric tonnes of carbon. Amazonian forests are estimated to have accumulated 0.62 ± 0.37 tons of carbon per hectare per year between 1975 and 1996. In 2021 it was reported that the Amazon for the first time emitted more greenhouse gases than it absorbed. Though often referenced as producing more than a quarter of the Earth's oxygen, this often stated, but misused statistic actually refers to oxygen turnover. The net contribution of the ecosystem is approximately zero.

One computer model of future climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions shows that the Amazon rainforest could become unsustainable under conditions of severely reduced rainfall and increased temperatures, leading to an almost complete loss of rainforest cover in the basin by 2100., and severe economic, natural capital and ecosystem services impacts of not averting the tipping point. However, simulations of Amazon basin climate change across many different models are not consistent in their estimation of any rainfall response, ranging from weak increases to strong decreases. The result indicates that the rainforest could be threatened through the 21st century by climate change in addition to deforestation.

In 1989, environmentalist C.M. Peters and two colleagues stated there is economic as well as biological incentive to protecting the rainforest. One hectare in the Peruvian Amazon has been calculated to have a value of $6820 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $1000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $148 if used as cattle pasture.

As indigenous territories continue to be destroyed by deforestation and ecocide (such as in the Peruvian Amazon), indigenous peoples' rainforest communities continue to disappear, while others, like the Urarina continue to struggle to fight for their cultural survival and the fate of their forested territories. Meanwhile, the relationship between non-human primates in the subsistence and symbolism of indigenous lowland South American peoples has gained increased attention, as have ethno-biology and community-based conservation efforts.

From 2002 to 2006, the conserved land in the Amazon rainforest almost tripled and deforestation rates dropped up to 60%. About 1000000 km2 have been put onto some sort of conservation, which adds up to a current amount of 1730000 km2.

In April 2019, the Ecuadorian court stopped oil exploration activities in 180000 ha of the Amazon rainforest.

In July 2019, the Ecuadorian court forbade the government to sell territory with forests to oil companies.

In September 2019, the US and Brazil agreed to promote private-sector development in the Amazon. They also pledged a $100m biodiversity conservation fund for the Amazon led by the private sector. Brazil's foreign minister stated that opening the rainforest to economic development was the only way to protect it.

A 2009 study found that a 4 °C rise (above pre-industrial levels) in global temperatures by 2100 would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest while a temperature rise of 3 °C would kill some 75% of the Amazon. A new study by an international team of environmental scientists in the Brazilian Amazon shows that protection of freshwater biodiversity can be increased by up to 600% through integrated freshwater-terrestrial planning .

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest region has a negative impact on local climate. It was one of the main causes of the severe drought of 2014–2015 in Brazil. This is because the moisture from the forests is important to the rainfall in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Half of the rainfall in the Amazon area is produced by the forests.

Results of a 2021 scientific synthesis indicate that, in terms of global warming, the Amazon basin with the Amazon rainforest is currently emitting more greenhouse gases than it absorbs overall. Climate change impacts and human activities in the area – mainly wildfires, current land-use and deforestation – are causing a release of forcing agents that likely result in a net warming effect.

In 2022 the supreme court of Ecuador decided that ""under no circumstances can a project be carried out that generates excessive sacrifices to the collective rights of communities and nature." It also required the government to respect the opinion of Indigenous peoples of the Americas about different industrial projects on their land. Advocates of the decision argue that it will have consequences far beyond Ecuador. In general, ecosystems are in better shape when indigenous peoples own or manage the land.

Due to the conservation policies of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first 10 months of 2023 deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon decreased by around 50% compared to the same period in 2022. This was despite a severe drought, one of the worst on record, that exacerbated the situation. Climate change, El Nino, deforestation increases the likelihood of drought condition in the Amazon.

According to Amazon Conservation's MAAP forest monitoring program, the deforestation rate in the Amazon from the January 1 to November 8, 2023, decreased by 56% in comparison to the same period in 2022. The main cause is the decline in deforestation rate in Brazil, due to the government's policies, while Columbia, Peru and Bolivia also reduced deforestation.

In January 2024 published data showed a 50% decline in deforestation rate in the Amazon rainforest and 43% rise in vegetation loss in the neighbor Cerrado during the year of 2023 in comparison to 2022. Both biomes together lose 12,980 km², 18% less than in 2022.

Remote sensing

The use of remotely sensed data is dramatically improving conservationists' knowledge of the Amazon basin. Given the objectivity and lowered costs of satellite-based land cover and -change analysis, it appears likely that remote sensing technology will be an integral part of assessing the extents, locations and damage of deforestation in the basin. Furthermore, remote sensing is the best and perhaps only possible way to study the Amazon on a large scale.

The use of remote sensing for the conservation of the Amazon is also being used by the indigenous tribes of the basin to protect their tribal lands from commercial interests. Using handheld GPS devices and programs like Google Earth, members of the Trio Tribe, who live in the rainforests of southern Suriname, map out their ancestral lands to help strengthen their territorial claims. Currently, most tribes in the Amazon do not have clearly defined boundaries, making it easier for commercial ventures to target their territories.

To accurately map the Amazon's biomass and subsequent carbon-related emissions, the classification of tree growth stages within different parts of the forest is crucial. In 2006, Tatiana Kuplich organized the trees of the Amazon into four categories: mature forest, regenerating forest [less than three years], regenerating forest [between three and five years of regrowth], and regenerating forest [eleven to eighteen years of continued development]. The researcher used a combination of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and Thematic Mapper (TM) to accurately place the different portions of the Amazon into one of the four classifications.

In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in one hundred years, and there were indications that 2006 may have been a second successive year of drought. A 2006 article in the UK newspaper The Independent reported the Woods Hole Research Center results, showing that the forest in its present form could survive only three years of drought. Scientists at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research argued in the article that this drought response, coupled with the effects of deforestation on regional climate, are pushing the rainforest towards a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly start to die. It concluded that the forest is on the brink of being turned into savanna or desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate. A study published in Nature Communications in October 2020 found that about 40% of the Amazon rainforest is at risk of becoming a savanna-like ecosystem due to reduced rainfall. A study published in Nature climate change provided direct empirical evidence that more than three-quarters of the Amazon rainforest has been losing resilience since the early 2000s, risking dieback with profound implications for biodiversity, carbon storage and climate change at a global scale.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the combination of climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead trees that fuels forest fires.

In 2010, the Amazon rainforest experienced another severe drought, in some ways more extreme than the 2005 drought. The affected region was approximately 1160000 sqmi of rainforest, compared with 734000 sqmi in 2005. The 2010 drought had three epicenters where vegetation died off, whereas in 2005, the drought was focused on the southwestern part. The findings were published in the journal Science. In a typical year, the Amazon absorbs 1.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide; during 2005 instead 5 gigatons were released and in 2010 8 gigatons were released. Additional severe droughts occurred in 2010, 2015, and 2016.

In 2019 Brazil's protections of the Amazon rainforest were slashed, resulting in a severe loss of trees. According to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 50% in the first three months of 2020 compared to the same three-month period in 2019.

In 2020, a 17 percent rise was noted in the Amazon wildfires, marking the worst start to the fire season in a decade. The first 10 days of August 2020 witnessed 10,136 fires. An analysis of the government figures reflected 81 per cent increase in fires in federal reserves, in comparison with the same period in 2019. However, President Jair Bolsonaro turned down the existence of fires, calling it a "lie", despite the data produced by his own government. Satellites in September recorded 32,017 hotspots in the world's largest rainforest, a 61% rise from the same month in 2019. In addition, October saw a huge surge in the number of hotspots in the forest (more than 17,000 fires are burning in the Amazon's rainforest) – with more than double the amount detected in the same month last year.

Possibility of forest-friendly economy
In 2023 the World Bank, published a report named: "A Balancing Act for Brazil's Amazonian States: An Economic Memorandum". The report stating that economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could reach around 317 billion dollars per year, approximately 7 times higher in comparison to the cost of all commodities produced through deforestation, proposed non-deforestation based economic program in the region of the Amazon rainforest. Silvopasture (integrating trees, forage and grazing) can help to stop deforestation in the region.

According to WWF, ecotourism could help the Amazon to reduce deforestation and climate change. Ecotourism is currently still little practiced in the Amazon, partly due to lack of information about places where implementation is possible. Ecotourism is a sector that can also be taken up by the Indigenous community in the Amazon as a source of income and revenue. An ecotourism project in the Brazilian section of the rainforest had been under consideration by Brazil's State Secretary for the Environment and Sustainable Development in 2009, along the Aripuanã River, in the Aripuanã Sustainable Development Reserve. Also, some community-based ecotourism exists in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve. Ecotourism is also practiced in the Peruvian section of the rainforest. A few ecolodges are for instance present between Cusco and Madre de Dios.

In May 2023 Brazil's bank federation decided to implement a new sustainability standard demanding from meatpackers to ensure their meat is not coming from illegally deforested area. Credits will not be given to those who will not meet the new standards. The decision came after the European Union decides to implement regulations to stop deforestation. Brazil beef exporters, said the standard is not just because it is not applied to land owners. 21 banks representing 81% of the credit market in Brazil agree to follow those rules.

According to a statement of the Colombian government deforestation rates in the Colombian Amazon fell by 70% in the first 9 months of 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year, what can be attributed to the conservation policies of the government. One of them is paying local residents for conserving the forest.

title: Amazon rainforest


text:
Mac

Mac or MAC may refer to:

Common meanings

 * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc.
 * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth
 * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages
 * McIntosh (apple), a Canadian apple cultivar

Fictional entities

 * Mac (Green Wing), a television character
 * Mac (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), a television character
 * Mac Gargan, an enemy of Spider-Man
 * Mac, a character on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
 * Angus "Mac" MacGyver, from the television series MacGyver
 * Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie, from the TV series Veronica Mars
 * Lt. Col. Sarah MacKenzie, from the TV series JAG
 * Dr. Terrence McAfferty, from Robert Muchamore's CHERUB and Henderson's Boys novel series
 * Mac McAnnally, in The Dresden Files series
 * Randle McMurphy, in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
 * Mac Taylor, from the TV series CSI: NY
 * Mac, a canine character in the television series Clifford the Big Red Dog
 * Monster Attack Crew, a fictional pilot squadron in the television series Ultraman Leo
 * MAC (Mysterious Alien Creature), the titular character in the 1988 film Mac and Me
 * Mac (Makrand Deendayal Chatpatiya), portrayed by Akshay Kumar in the 2005 Indian comedy film Garam Masala

Other uses in arts and entertainment

 * Mac (film), 1992, directed by and starring John Turturro
 * Mac (novel), by John MacLean
 * Mac the Moose, a public statue in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada; formerly the World's Largest Moose
 * Mac, a Sports Beanie Baby cardinal produced by Ty, Inc. in 1999
 * MAC Awards, for achievements in cabaret, comedy, and jazz, administered by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs

Business terminology

 * Marginal Abatement Cost, a concept in environmental economics
 * Material adverse change, a provision in mergers and acquisitions contracts and venture financing agreements

Businesses

 * MAC Cosmetics, a cosmetics brand, stylized as M•A•C
 * Mac Para Technology, a Czech aircraft manufacturer
 * Macerich, an American real estate investment trust (NYSE stock symbol MAC)
 * Manufacture d'armes de Châtellerault, a French state arms manufacturer
 * Martin's Air Charter, now Martinair, an airline
 * Medicare Administrative Contractor, a private company contracted to administer Medicare benefits in the U.S.
 * Military Armament Corporation, manufacturer of the MAC-10 and MAC-11 pistols
 * Morgan Advanced Ceramics, a ceramics manufacturing company

Codes

 * MAC, the ISO 3166 code for Macau, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China
 * MAC, Amtrac station code for Macomb (Amtrak station), Illinois, United States
 * mac, an ISO 639-2 code for the Macedonian language

Government and military agencies

 * Mainland Affairs Council, an agency under the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China
 * Metropolitan Airports Commission, the operator of airports in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area
 * Military Affairs Commission in China; see Central Military Commission (People's Republic of China)
 * Military Airlift Command, the predecessor of the Air Mobility Command of the United States Air Force
 * Municipal Assistance Corporation, created by the State of New York in 1975 to deal with New York City's fiscal crisis

Non-profit organizations

 * mac (Birmingham), formerly known as the Midlands Arts Centre, in Birmingham, UK
 * Malaysian AIDS Council
 * Marine Aquarium Council
 * Murphree Area Council
 * Myanmar Accountancy Council

Political groups

 * Mouvement d'Action Civique, a defunct Belgian far right group
 * Mouvement Autonome Casamançais (Casamancian Autonomous Movement), a defunct political party in Casamance, Senegal
 * Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru, a Welsh organization responsible for several bombing incidents
 * Muslims Against Crusades, a UK-based Islamic group noted for burning poppies during the Remembrance Day silence in 2010

Names

 * Mac (nickname)
 * Mạc, a Vietnamese surname
 * Mạc dynasty, 16th-century rulers in Vietnam

Individuals

 * Mac (rapper) (born 1977), American rapper, stage name of McKinley Phipps Jr
 * MC Mac, member and musician of So Solid Crew
 * John McCarthy (conductor) (1916–2009), British conductor known as "John Mac" or just "Mac"
 * Derek McCulloch (1897–1967), British radio broadcaster known as "Uncle Mac"
 * Ian McCulloch (singer) (born 1959), referred to as "Mac the Mouth" or just "Mac"
 * Stanley McMurtry (born 1936), British cartoonist with the pen name "Mac"

Museums and arts centers

 * mac, Birmingham (formerly Midlands Arts Centre), England
 * Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast, UK
 * Archaeology Museum of Catalonia (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya), Spain
 * Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói), Brazil
 * Museum of Contemporary Art of Lima (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo), Peru

Other places

 * Macau, an administrative region of China (ISO 3166 code MAC)
 * Macaulay railway station, Melbourne, Australia
 * Macomb (Amtrak station), Illinois, United States, Amtrak station code MAC
 * UCLA Marina Aquatic Center, a recreational facility in Marina del Rey, California

Schools

 * Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota
 * Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Canada
 * McMaster University, in Canada
 * Michigan Agricultural College, former name of Michigan State University

Biology and medicine

 * MAC (chemotherapy), a chemotherapy regimen of Mitoxantrone and Ara-C
 * Maximum allowable concentration, a concept related to threshold limit value (TLV)
 * Membrane attack complex, an immune system function using complement
 * Microbiota-accessible carbohydrates, a category of carbohydrates consumed by gut microbes
 * Minimum alveolar concentration, a measure used to compare the strengths of anesthetic vapors
 * Mitochondrial apoptosis-induced channel, the cytochrome c release pore of apoptotic mitochondria
 * Monitored anesthesia care, a form of anesthesia with partial awareness
 * Mycobacterium avium complex, a group of environmental pathogens

Computing and telecommunication

 * Mac (computer), a brand of computers and computer operating systems made by Apple Inc.
 * macOS, formerly Mac OS X and OS X, Apple's current operating system for Mac computers
 * Classic Mac OS, the original operating system for Apple's Macintosh
 * .Mac, now iCloud, a subscription service by Apple
 * MAC times, metadata containing event times associated with a computer file
 * Mandatory access control, a type of access control in computer security
 * Maximum activate count, a parameter associated with the LPDDR4 memory's TRR feature
 * Medium access control (or "Media Access Control"), a sublayer of the Data Link layer
 * MAC address, or Ethernet Hardware Address (EHA), the OSI layer 2 address of network interfaces
 * Message authentication code, used to authenticate a message in cryptography
 * Migration Authorisation Code, used when switching Internet service providers in the UK
 * Multiplexed Analogue Components, a proposed satellite television transmission standard
 * Multiply–accumulate operation (MAC), or multiplier–accumulator, in digital signal processing
 * .mac, a file extension for macros in Agilent ChemStation software

Transportation

 * Mean aerodynamic chord, a measure of the geometry of an airfoil
 * Merchant aircraft carrier, used during World War II by Britain and the Netherlands
 * Mid-air collision, a type of aircraft accident

Other uses in science and technology

 * Mission assurance category, an engineering designation used by the US Department of Defense
 * Money Access Card, an ATM (automated teller machine) card

Clubs and teams

 * Maranhão Atlético Clube, a Brazilian association football club
 * Marília Atlético Clube, a Brazilian association football club
 * Missouri Athletic Club, a traditional gentlemen's and athletic club in downtown St. Louis, Missouri
 * Multnomah Athletic Club, a private athletic club in Oregon

College

 * Mid-American Conference, an NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision) sports conference
 * Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference, an NCAA rifle-only conference
 * Middle Atlantic Conferences, an umbrella organization for three NCAA Division III sports conferences
 * Middle Atlantic Conference, one of these three

High school

 * Macomb Area Conference, a Michigan high school football conference
 * Mayflower Athletic Conference, a Massachusetts high school athletic conference
 * Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference, a Washington, D.C., area high school athletic league
 * Midwest Athletic Conference, an Ohio high school athletic conference in west-central Ohio
 * Mississippi Athletic Conference, an Iowa high school sports conference
 * Mountain Athletic Conference (NCHSAA), a North Carolina high school athletic conference
 * Mountain Athletic Conference (PIAA), a Pennsylvania high school athletic conference

Awards

 * MAC Award, now merged into the Hermann Trophy, the highest award in American college soccer

Other uses

 * List of storms named Mac
 * Material adequacy condition, a concept in the philosophies of logic and language
 * Modern Army Combatives, a hand-to-hand combat training regimen

title: Mac


text:
Talk:Moral purchasing

24, you need to cite your sources. I've got 20 hits spread out over four domains. Why should I care about a phrase arguably in common use by four people? Restore it after you cite your sources. Thanks. Koyaanis Qatsi, Sunday, April 7, 2002
 * [old version deleted] done.  thanks, there are many synonyms for this term, and now they all redirect.  There needs to be a separate article on consumer boycott, and moral/ethical purchasing could reasonably be defined as "respecting all boycotts" where those who call them converge with your beliefs.  The most extreme version of moral purchasing I've seen goes at it from the money side, see "Smart Money", Anselm Hook, which would actually enforce some ethical criteria in the financial medium itself.24
 * The term "ethical purchasing" is much more prevalent, but if anyone learned about ethics here, they'd learn that "ethics is the science of morality", and the systems proposed are generally not all that "scientific" or even systematized. I think "moral purchasing" is the broader and more inclusive term (i.e. you can decide not to buy something because you don't like the maker's morality in some vague sense you can't explain, that may not be "ethical" but it is "moral") and that is why it is used as the filename.  If that's controversial, it belongs in there as a note.  On the other hand, presumably you must FIND OUT somehow what went into the product or service, so you rely on labels or systems of validating labels or lists of brands not to buy or something... those are definitely systems of ethics... that too could be in here but it's a narrow point of interest mostly to philosophers. 24
 * Community-Based Economics or LETS could be mentioned, too, as it is much easier to keep tabs on the morality of locals without such ethical systems of labelling...

Try not to use more common language, it will enhance readability immensly. In addition, i detect that in some paragraphs, the subject seems to float away a bit. Keeping it tight and focused would again enhance the impact of the article. Keep slugging at it :-) Anders Törlind

title: Talk:Moral purchasing


text:
Proxy ARP

Proxy ARP is a technique by which a proxy server on a given network answers the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) queries for an IP address that is not on that network. The proxy is aware of the location of the traffic's destination and offers its own MAC address as the (ostensibly final) destination. The traffic directed to the proxy address is then typically routed by the proxy to the intended destination via another interface or via a tunnel.

The process, which results in the proxy server responding with its own MAC address to an ARP request for a different IP address for proxying purposes, is sometimes referred to as publishing.

Uses
Below are some typical uses for proxy ARP:

 * Joining a broadcast LAN with serial links (e.g., dialup or VPN connections).
 * Assume an Ethernet broadcast domain (e.g., a group of stations connected to the same hub or switch (VLAN)) using a certain IPv4 address range (e.g., 192.168.0.0/24, where 192.168.0.1 – 192.168.0.127 are assigned to wired nodes). One or more of the nodes is an access router accepting dialup or VPN connections. The access router gives the dial-up nodes IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.128 – 192.168.0.254; for this example, assume a dial-up node gets IP address 192.168.0.254.

 * The access router uses proxy ARP to make the dial-up node present in the subnet without being wired into the Ethernet: the access router 'publishes' its own MAC address for 192.168.0.254. Now, when another node wired into the Ethernet wants to talk to the dial-up node, it will ask on the network for the MAC address of 192.168.0.254 and find the access router's MAC address. It will therefore send its IP packets to the access router, and the access router will know to pass them on to the particular dial-up node. All dial-up nodes therefore appear to the wired Ethernet nodes as if they are wired into the same Ethernet subnet.

 * Taking multiple addresses from a LAN
 * Assume a station (e.g., a server) with an interface (10.0.0.2) connected to a network (10.0.0.0/24). Certain applications may require multiple IP addresses on the server. Provided the addresses have to be from the 10.0.0.0/24 range, the way the problem is solved is through proxy ARP. Additional addresses (say, 10.0.0.230-10.0.0.240) are aliased to the loopback interface of the server (or assigned to special interfaces, the latter typically being the case with VMware/UML/jails/vservers/other virtual server environments) and 'published' on the 10.0.0.2 interface (although many operating systems allow direct allocation of multiple addresses to one interface, thus eliminating the need for such workarounds).

 * On a firewall
 * In this scenario a firewall can be configured with a single IP address. One simple example of a use for this would be placing a firewall in front of a single host or group of hosts on a subnetwork. Example: A network (10.0.0.0/8) has a server (10.0.0.20) that should be protected. A proxy ARP firewall can be placed in front of the server. In this way the server is put behind a firewall without having to make any further changes to the network.

 * Mobile-IP
 * In case of Mobile-IP the Home Agent uses proxy ARP in order to receive messages on behalf of the Mobile Node so that it can forward the appropriate message to the actual mobile node's address (Care-of address).

 * Transparent subnet gatewaying
 * A setup that involves two physical segments sharing the same IP subnet and connected together via a router. This use is documented in RFC 1027.

 * Redundancy
 * ARP manipulation techniques are the basis for protocols providing redundancy on broadcast networks (e.g., Ethernet), most notably Common Address Redundancy Protocol and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol.

Disadvantages
Disadvantage of proxy ARP include scalability as ARP resolution by a proxy is required for every device routed in this manner, and reliability as no fallback mechanism is present, and masquerading can be confusing in some environments.

Proxy ARP can create DoS attacks on networks if misconfigured. For example, a misconfigured router with proxy ARP has the ability to receive packets destined for other hosts (as it gives its own MAC address in response to ARP requests for other hosts/routers), but may not have the ability to correctly forward these packets on to their final destination, thus blackholing the traffic.

Proxy ARP can hide device misconfigurations, such as a missing or incorrect default gateway.

Implementations

 * OpenBSD implements proxy ARP.
 * Linux implements proxy ARP.

title: Proxy ARP


text:
Microcomputer

A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB). Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s with the advent of increasingly powerful microprocessors. The predecessors to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively much larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day mainframes such as the IBM System z machines use one or more custom microprocessors as their CPUs). Many microcomputers (when equipped with a keyboard and screen for input and output) are also personal computers (in the generic sense). An early use of the term "personal computer" in 1962 predates microprocessor-based designs. (See "Personal Computer: Computers at Companies" reference below). A "microcomputer" used as an embedded control system may have no human-readable input and output devices. "Personal computer" may be used generically or may denote an IBM PC compatible machine.

The abbreviation "micro" was common during the 1970s and 1980s, but has since fallen out of common usage.

Origins
The term microcomputer came into popular use after the introduction of the minicomputer, although Isaac Asimov used the term in his short story "The Dying Night" as early as 1956 (published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in July that year). Most notably, the microcomputer replaced the many separate components that made up the minicomputer's CPU with one integrated microprocessor chip.

In 1973, the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) was looking for a computer able to measure agricultural hygrometry. To answer this request, a team of French engineers of the computer technology company R2E, led by its Head of Development, François Gernelle, created the first available microprocessor-based microcomputer, the Micral N. The same year the company filed their patents with the term "Micro-ordinateur", a literal equivalent of "Microcomputer", to designate a solid state machine designed with a microprocessor.

In the US the earliest models such as the Altair 8800 were often sold as kits to be assembled by the user, and came with as little as 256 bytes of RAM, and no input/output devices other than indicator lights and switches, useful as a proof of concept to demonstrate what such a simple device could do. As microprocessors and semiconductor memory became less expensive, microcomputers grew cheaper and easier to use. All these improvements in cost and usability resulted in an explosion in their popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A large number of computer makers packaged microcomputers for use in small business applications. By 1979, many companies such as Cromemco, Processor Technology, IMSAI, North Star Computers, Southwest Technical Products Corporation, Ohio Scientific, Altos Computer Systems, Morrow Designs and others produced systems designed for resourceful end users or consulting firms to deliver business systems such as accounting, database management and word processing to small businesses. This allowed businesses unable to afford leasing of a minicomputer or time-sharing service the opportunity to automate business functions, without (usually) hiring a full-time staff to operate the computers. A representative system of this era would have used an S100 bus, an 8-bit processor such as an Intel 8080 or Zilog Z80, and either CP/M or MP/M operating system. The increasing availability and power of desktop computers for personal use attracted the attention of more software developers. As the industry matured, the market for personal computers standardized around IBM PC compatibles running DOS, and later Windows. Modern desktop computers, video game consoles, laptops, tablet PCs, and many types of handheld devices, including mobile phones, pocket calculators, and industrial embedded systems, may all be considered examples of microcomputers according to the definition given above.
 * Increasingly inexpensive logic chips such as the 7400 series allowed cheap dedicated circuitry for improved user interfaces such as keyboard input, instead of simply a row of switches to toggle bits one at a time.
 * Use of audio cassettes for inexpensive data storage replaced manual re-entry of a program every time the device was powered on.
 * Large cheap arrays of silicon logic gates in the form of read-only memory and EPROMs allowed utility programs and self-booting kernels to be stored within microcomputers. These stored programs could automatically load further more complex software from external storage devices without user intervention, to form an inexpensive turnkey system that does not require a computer expert to understand or to use the device.
 * Random-access memory became cheap enough to afford dedicating approximately 1–2 kilobytes of memory to a video display controller frame buffer, for a 40x25 or 80x25 text display or blocky color graphics on a common household television. This replaced the slow, complex, and expensive teletypewriter that was previously common as an interface to minicomputers and mainframes.

Colloquial use of the term
By the early 2000s, everyday use of the expression "microcomputer" (and in particular "micro") declined significantly from its peak in the mid-1980s. The term is most commonly associated with the most popular 8-bit home computers (such as the Apple II, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, and TRS-80) and small-business CP/M-based microcomputers.

In colloquial usage, "microcomputer" has been largely supplanted by the term "personal computer" or "PC", which specifies a computer that has been designed to be used by one individual at a time, a term first coined in 1959. IBM first promoted the term "personal computer" to differentiate the IBM PC from CP/M-based microcomputers likewise targeted at the small-business market, and also IBM's own mainframes and minicomputers. However, following its release, the IBM PC itself was widely imitated, as well as the term. The component parts were commonly available to producers and the BIOS was reverse engineered through cleanroom design techniques. IBM PC compatible "clones" became commonplace, and the terms "personal computer", and especially "PC", stuck with the general public, often specifically for a computer compatible with DOS (or nowadays Windows).

Description
Monitors, keyboards and other devices for input and output may be integrated or separate. Computer memory in the form of RAM, and at least one other less volatile, memory storage device are usually combined with the CPU on a system bus in one unit. Other devices that make up a complete microcomputer system include batteries, a power supply unit, a keyboard and various input/output devices used to convey information to and from a human operator (printers, monitors, human interface devices). Microcomputers are designed to serve only one user at a time, although they can often be modified with software or hardware to concurrently serve more than one user. Microcomputers fit well on or under desks or tables, so that they are within easy access of users. Bigger computers like minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers take up large cabinets or even dedicated rooms.

A microcomputer comes equipped with at least one type of data storage, usually RAM. Although some microcomputers (particularly early 8-bit home micros) perform tasks using RAM alone, some form of secondary storage is normally desirable. In the early days of home micros, this was often a data cassette deck (in many cases as an external unit). Later, secondary storage (particularly in the form of floppy disk and hard disk drives) were built into the microcomputer case.

TTL precursors
Although they did not contain any microprocessors, but were built around transistor-transistor logic (TTL), Hewlett-Packard calculators as far back as 1968 had various levels of programmability comparable to microcomputers. The HP 9100B (1968) had rudimentary conditional (if) statements, statement line numbers, jump statements (go to), registers that could be used as variables, and primitive subroutines. The programming language resembled assembly language in many ways. Later models incrementally added more features, including the BASIC programming language (HP 9830A in 1971). Some models had tape storage and small printers. However, displays were limited to one line at a time. The HP 9100A was referred to as a personal computer in an advertisement in a 1968 Science magazine, but that advertisement was quickly dropped. HP was reluctant to sell them as "computers" because the perception at that time was that a computer had to be big in size to be powerful, and thus decided to market them as calculators. Additionally, at that time, people were more likely to buy calculators than computers, and, purchasing agents also preferred the term "calculator" because purchasing a "computer" required additional layers of purchasing authority approvals.

The Datapoint 2200, made by CTC in 1970, was also comparable to microcomputers. While it contains no microprocessor, the instruction set of its custom TTL processor was the basis of the instruction set for the Intel 8008, and for practical purposes the system behaves approximately as if it contains an 8008. This is because Intel was the contractor in charge of developing the Datapoint's CPU, but ultimately CTC rejected the 8008 design because it needed 20 support chips.

Another early system, the Kenbak-1, was released in 1971. Like the Datapoint 2200, it used small-scale integrated transistor–transistor logic instead of a microprocessor. It was marketed as an educational and hobbyist tool, but it was not a commercial success; production ceased shortly after introduction.

Early microcomputers
In late 1972, a French team headed by François Gernelle within a small company, Réalisations & Etudes Electroniques (R2E), developed and patented a computer based on a microprocessor – the Intel 8008 8-bit microprocessor. This Micral-N was marketed in early 1973 as a "Micro-ordinateur" or microcomputer, mainly for scientific and process-control applications. About a hundred Micral-N were installed in the next two years, followed by a new version based on the Intel 8080. Meanwhile, another French team developed the Alvan, a small computer for office automation which found clients in banks and other sectors. The first version was based on LSI chips with an Intel 8008 as peripheral controller (keyboard, monitor and printer), before adopting the Zilog Z80 as main processor.

In late 1972, a Sacramento State University team led by Bill Pentz built the Sac State 8008 computer, able to handle thousands of patients' medical records. The Sac State 8008 was designed with the Intel 8008. It had a full set of hardware and software components: a disk operating system included in a series of programmable read-only memory chips (PROMs); 8 Kilobytes of RAM; IBM's Basic Assembly Language (BAL); a hard drive; a color display; a printer output; a 150 bit/s serial interface for connecting to a mainframe; and even the world's first microcomputer front panel.

In early 1973, Sord Computer Corporation (now Toshiba Personal Computer System Corporation) completed the SMP80/08, which used the Intel 8008 microprocessor. The SMP80/08, however, did not have a commercial release. After the first general-purpose microprocessor, the Intel 8080, was announced in April 1974, Sord announced the SMP80/x, the first microcomputer to use the 8080, in May 1974.

Virtually all early microcomputers were essentially boxes with lights and switches; one had to read and understand binary numbers and machine language to program and use them (the Datapoint 2200 was a striking exception, bearing a modern design based on a monitor, keyboard, and tape and disk drives). Of the early "box of switches"-type microcomputers, the MITS Altair 8800 (1975) was arguably the most famous. Most of these simple, early microcomputers were sold as electronic kits—bags full of loose components which the buyer had to solder together before the system could be used.

The period from about 1971 to 1976 is sometimes called the first generation of microcomputers. Many companies such as DEC, National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments offered their microcomputers for use in terminal control, peripheral device interface control and industrial machine control. There were also machines for engineering development and hobbyist personal use. In 1975, the Processor Technology SOL-20 was designed, which consisted of one board which included all the parts of the computer system. The SOL-20 had built-in EPROM software which eliminated the need for rows of switches and lights. The MITS Altair just mentioned played an instrumental role in sparking significant hobbyist interest, which itself eventually led to the founding and success of many well-known personal computer hardware and software companies, such as Microsoft and Apple Computer. Although the Altair itself was only a mild commercial success, it helped spark a huge industry.

Home computers
By 1977, the introduction of the second microcomputer generation as consumer goods, known as home computers, made them considerably easier to use than their predecessors because their predecessors' operation often demanded thorough familiarity with practical electronics. The ability to connect to a monitor (screen) or TV set allowed visual manipulation of text and numbers. The BASIC language, which was easier to learn and use than raw machine language, became a standard feature. These features were already common in minicomputers, with which many hobbyists and early produces were familiar.

In 1979, the launch of the VisiCalc spreadsheet (initially for the AApple II) first turned the microcomputer from a hobby for computer enthusiasts into a business tool. After the 1981 release by IBM of its IBM PC, the term personal computer became generally used for microcomputers compatible with the IBM PC architecture (IBM PC compatible).

title: Microcomputer