title: Drawing

text: The centuries have produced a canon of notable artists and draftsmen, each with their own distinct language of drawing, including:


title: Drawing

text: The "medium" is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead. More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.


title: Drawing

text: Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets. Papers vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.


title: Drawing

text: Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.


title: Drawing

text: Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and becomes brittle much sooner.


title: Drawing

text: The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks, such as sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.


title: Drawing

text: Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.


title: Drawing

text: Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.


title: Drawing

text: The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching – groups of parallel lines. Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones – and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling uses dots to produce tone, texture and shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.


title: Drawing

text: Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.


title: Drawing

text: Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.


title: Drawing

text: Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on "fixative" to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.


title: Drawing

text: Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.


title: Drawing

text: Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.


title: Drawing

text: Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.


title: Drawing

text: Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.


title: Drawing

text: Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.


title: Drawing

text: When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive volumes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic volumes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive volumes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.


title: Drawing

text: A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.


title: Drawing

text: Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.


title: Drawing

text: When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective. Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.


title: Drawing

text: Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.


title: Drawing

text: The composition of the image is an important element in producing an interesting work of artistic merit. The artist plans element placement in the art to communicate ideas and feelings with the viewer. The composition can determine the focus of the art, and result in a harmonious whole that is aesthetically appealing and stimulating.


title: Drawing

text: The illumination of the subject is also a key element in creating an artistic piece, and the interplay of light and shadow is a valuable method in the artist's toolbox. The placement of the light sources can make a considerable difference in the type of message that is being presented. Multiple light sources can wash out any wrinkles in a person's face, for instance, and give a more youthful appearance. In contrast, a single light source, such as harsh daylight, can serve to highlight any texture or interesting features.


title: Drawing

text: When drawing an object or figure, the skilled artist pays attention to both the area within the silhouette and what lies outside. The exterior is termed the negative space, and can be as important in the representation as the figure. Objects placed in the background of the figure should appear properly placed wherever they can be viewed.


title: Drawing

text: A study is a draft drawing that is made in preparation for a planned final image. Studies can be used to determine the appearances of specific parts of the completed image, or for experimenting with the best approach for accomplishing the end goal. However a well-crafted study can be a piece of art in its own right, and many hours of careful work can go into completing a study.


title: Drawing

text: Individuals display differences in their ability to produce visually accurate drawings. A visually accurate drawing is described as being "recognized as a particular object at a particular time and in a particular space, rendered with little addition of visual detail that can not be seen in the object represented or with little deletion of visual detail”.


title: Drawing

text: Investigative studies have aimed to explain the reasons why some individuals draw better than others.


title: Drawing

text: One study posited four key abilities in the drawing process: motor skills required for mark-making, the drawer's own perception of their drawing, perception of objects being drawn, and the ability to make good representational decisions. Following this hypothesis, several studies have sought to conclude which of these processes are most significant in affecting the accuracy of drawings.


title: Drawing

text: Motor control is an important physical component in the 'Production Phase' of the drawing process. It has been suggested that motor control plays a role in drawing ability, though its effects are not significant.


title: Drawing

text: It has been suggested that an individual's ability to perceive an object they are drawing is the most important stage in the drawing process. This suggestion is supported by the discovery of a robust relationship between perception and drawing ability.


title: Drawing

text: This evidence acted as the basis of Betty Edwards' how-to-draw book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". Edwards aimed to teach her readers how to draw, based on the development of the reader's perceptual abilities.


title: Drawing

text: Furthermore, the influential artist and art critic John Ruskin emphasised the importance of perception in the drawing process in his book "The Elements of Drawing". He stated that "For I am nearly convinced, that once we see keenly enough, there is very little difficult in drawing what we see".


title: Drawing

text: Short-term memory plays an important part in drawing as one's gaze shifts between the object they are drawing and the drawing itself.


title: Drawing

text: Some studies comparing artists to non-artists have found that artists spend more time thinking strategically while drawing. In particular, artists spend more time on 'metacognitive' activities such as considering different hypothetical plans for how they might progress with a drawing.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesiser named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing "skills" (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps) such as weather programs and audio features. It uses automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI to perform these tasks.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as "Alexa or Amazon"); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android and Amazon Dash Wand) require the user to click a button to activate Alexa's listening mode, although, some phones also allow a user to say a command, such as "Alexa" or "Alexa wake".


title: Amazon Alexa

text: , Amazon had more than 10,000 employees working on Alexa and related products. In January 2019, Amazon's devices team announced that they had sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In September 2019, Amazon launched many new devices achieving many records while competing with the world's smart home industry. The new Echo Studio became the first smart speaker with 360 sound and Dolby sound. Other new devices included an Echo dot with a clock behind the fabric, a new third-generation Amazon Echo, Echo Show 8, a plug-in Echo device, Echo Flex, Alexa built-in wireless earphones, Echo buds, Alexa built-in spectacles, Echo frames, an Alexa built-in Ring, and Echo Loop.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa was developed out of a predecessor named Ivona which was invented in Poland, inspired by "" and bought by Amazon in 2013. In November 2014, Amazon announced Alexa alongside the Echo. Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational system on board the Starship "Enterprise" in science fiction TV series and movies, beginning with "" and "".


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon developers chose the name Alexa because it has a hard consonant with the X, which helps it be recognized with higher precision. They have said the name is reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria, which is also used by Amazon Alexa Internet for the same reason. In June 2015, Amazon announced the Alexa Fund, a program that would invest in companies making voice control skills and technologies. The 200 million fund has invested in companies including Jargon, Ecobee, Orange Chef, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio. In 2016, the Alexa Prize was announced to further advance the technology.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In January 2017, the first Alexa Conference took place in Nashville, Tennessee, an independent gathering of the worldwide community of Alexa developers and enthusiasts. Follow up conferences went under the name Project Voice and featured keynote speakers such as Amazon's Head of Education for Alexa, Paul Cutsinger.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: At the Amazon Web Services Re: Invent conference in Las Vegas, Amazon announced Alexa for Business and the ability for app developers to have paid add-ons to their skills.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In November 2018, Amazon opened its first Alexa-themed pop-up shop inside of Toronto's Eaton Centre, showcasing the use of home automation products with Amazon's smart speakers. Amazon also sells Alexa devices at Amazon Books and Whole Foods Market locations, in addition to mall-based pop-ups throughout the United States.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In December 2018, Alexa was built into the Anki Vector and was the first major update for the Anki Vector, although Vector was released in August 2018, he is the only home robot with advanced technology.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: As of 2018, interaction and communication with Alexa were available only in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hindi. In Canada, Alexa is available in English and French (with the Quebec accent).


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In October 2019, Amazon announced the expansion of Alexa to Brazil, in Portuguese, together with Bose, Intelbras, and LG.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Hoped-for revenue never materialized from people using voice ordering for Amazon products or services from partners like Domino's Pizza and Uber. Alexa does not play audio ads, and display ads were relatively unsuccessful. In 2019 an all-hands crisis meeting was called to address the issue, and a hiring freeze was instated. In 2022, with the division losing several billion dollars per quarter, the company started laying off Alexa employees en masse.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: A companion app is available from the Apple Appstore, Google Play, and Amazon Appstore. The app can be used by owners of Alexa-enabled devices to install skills, control music, manage alarms, and view shopping lists. It also allows users to review the recognized text on the app screen and to send feedback to Amazon concerning whether the recognition was good or bad. A web interface is also available to set up compatible devices (e.g., Amazon Echo, Amazon Dot, Amazon Echo Show).


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa can perform a number of preset functions out-of-the-box such as set timers, share the current weather, create lists, access Wikipedia articles, and many more things. Users say a designated "wake word" (the default is simply "Alexa") to alert an Alexa-enabled device of an ensuing function command. Alexa listens for the command and performs the appropriate function, or skill, to answer a question or command. When questions are asked, Alexa converts sound waves into text which allows it to gather information from various sources. Behind the scenes, the data gathered is then sometimes passed to a variety of suppliers including WolframAlpha, iMDB, AccuWeather, Yelp, Wikipedia, and others to generate suitable and accurate answers. Alexa-supported devices can stream music from the owner's Amazon Music accounts and have built-in support for Pandora and Spotify accounts. Alexa can play music from streaming services such as Apple Music and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In addition to performing pre-set functions, Alexa can also perform additional functions through third-party skills that users can enable. Some of the most popular Alexa skills in 2018 included "Question of the Day" and "National Geographic Geo Quiz" for trivia; "TuneIn Live" to listen to live sporting events and news stations; "Big Sky" for hyper local weather updates; "Sleep and Relaxation Sounds" for listening to calming sounds; "Sesame Street" for children's entertainment; and "Fitbit" for Fitbit users who want to check in on their health stats. In 2019, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Zigbee Alliance announced a partnership to make their smart home products work together.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: , Amazon had over 90,000 functions ("skills") available for users to download on their Alexa-enabled devices, a massive increase from only 1,000 functions in June 2016. Microsoft's AI Cortana became available to use on Alexa enabled devices . In 2018, Amazon rolled out a new "Brief Mode", wherein Alexa would begin responding with a beep sound rather than saying, "Okay", to confirm receipt of a command. On December 20, 2018, Amazon announced a new integration with the Wolfram Alpha answer engine, which provides enhanced accuracy for users asking questions of Alexa related to math, science, astronomy, engineering, geography, history, and more.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa can interact with devices from several manufacturers including SNAS, Fibaro, Belkin, ecobee, Geeni, IFTTT, Insteon, LIFX, LightwaveRF, Nest, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Wink, and Yonomi. The Home Automation feature was launched on April 8, 2015. Developers are able to create their own smart home skills using the Alexa Skills Kit.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In September 2018, Amazon announced a microwave oven that can be paired and controlled with an Echo device. It is sold under Amazon's AmazonBasics label.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa can now pair with a Ring doorbell Pro and greet visitors and leave instructions about where to deliver packages.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Take-out food can be ordered using Alexa; food ordering using Alexa is supported by Domino's Pizza, Grubhub, Pizza Hut, Seamless, and Wingstop. Also, users of Alexa in the UK can order meals via Just Eat. In early 2017, Starbucks announced a private beta for placing pick-up orders using Alexa. In addition, users can order meals using Amazon Prime Now via Alexa in 20 major US cities. With the introduction of Amazon Key in November 2017, Alexa also works together with the smart lock and the Alexa Cloud Cam included in the service to allow Amazon couriers to unlock customers' front doors and deliver packages inside.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: According to an August 2018 article by The Information, only 2 percent of Alexa owners have used the device to make a purchase during the first seven months of 2018 and of those who made an initial purchase, 90 percent did not make a second purchase.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa supports many subscription-based and free streaming services on Amazon devices. These streaming services include: Prime Music, Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Audible, Pandora, and Spotify Premium. However, some of these music services are not available on other Alexa-enabled products that are manufactured by companies external of its services. This unavailability also includes Amazon's own Fire TV devices or tablets.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa is able to stream media and music directly. To do this, Alexa's device should be linked to the Amazon account, which enables access to one's Amazon Music library, in addition to any audiobooks available in one's Audible library. Amazon Prime members have an additional ability to access stations, playlists, and over two million songs free of charge. Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers also have access to a list of millions of songs.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon Music for PC allows one to play personal music from Google Play, iTunes, and others on an Alexa device. This can be done by uploading one's collection to My Music on Amazon from a computer. Up to 250 songs can be uploaded free of charge. Once this is done, Alexa can play this music and control playback through voice command options.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon Alexa allows the user to hear updates on supported sports teams. A way to do this is by adding the sports team to the list created under Alexa's Sports Update app section.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: There are a number of ways messages can be sent from Alexa's application. Alexa can deliver messages to a recipient's Alexa application, as well as to all supported Echo devices associated with their Amazon account. Alexa can send typed messages only from Alexa's app. If one sends a message from an associated Echo device, it transmits as a voice message. Alexa cannot send attachments such as videos and photos.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: For households with more than one member, one's Alexa contacts are pooled across all of the devices that are registered to its associated account. However, within Alexa's app one is only able to start conversations with its Alexa contacts. When accessed and supported by an Alexa app or Echo device, Alexa messaging is available to anyone in one's household. These messages can be heard by anyone with access to the household. This messaging feature does not yet contain a password protection or associated PIN. Anyone who has access to one's cell phone number is able to use this feature to contact them through their supported Alexa app or Echo device. The feature to block alerts for messages and calls is available temporarily by utilizing the Do Not Disturb feature.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa for Business is a paid subscription service allowing companies to use Alexa to join conference calls, schedule meeting rooms, and custom skills designed by 3rd-party vendors. At launch, notable skills are available from SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: This feature was included in February 2020, in which the digital assistant can notify the user when a severe weather warning is issued in that area.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: From February 2020, Alexa can update users about their commute, traffic conditions or directions. It can also send the information to the user's phone.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon allows developers to build and publish skills for Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit known as Alexa Skills. These third-party-developed skills, once published, are available across Alexa-enabled devices. Users can enable these skills using the Alexa app.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: A "Smart Home Skill API" is available, meant to be used by hardware manufacturers to allow users to control smart home devices.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In April 2018, Amazon launched Blueprints, a tool for individuals to build skills for their personal use.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In February 2019, Amazon further expanded the capability of Blueprints by allowing customers to publish skills they've built with the templates to its Alexa Skill Store in the US for use by anyone with an Alexa-enabled device.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon allows device manufacturers to integrate Alexa voice capabilities into their own connected products by using the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), a cloud-based service that provides APIs to interface with Alexa. Products built using AVS have access to Alexa's growing list of capabilities including all of the Alexa Skills. AVS provides cloud-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU). There are no fees for companies looking to integrate Alexa into their products by using AVS.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: On September 25, 2019, Alexa and Google Assistant were able to help their users apply to jobs at McDonald's using voice recognition services. It is the world's first employment service using voice command service. The service is available in the United States, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon announced on September 25, 2019, that Alexa will soon be able to mimic celebrities voices including Samuel L. Jackson, costing $0.99 for each voice. In 2019, Alexa started replying to Spanish voice commands in Spanish.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Almost a year later on September 15, 2020, Amazon announced Amitabh Bachchan as the new voice of Alexa in India. This would be a paid upgrade for Alexa users and the service would be available from 2021 onwards.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: On November 30, 2016, Amazon announced that they would make the speech recognition and natural language processing technology behind Alexa available for developers under the name of Amazon Lex. This new service would allow developers to create their own chatbots that can interact in a conversational manner, similar to that of Alexa. Along with the connection to various Amazon services, the initial version will provide connectivity to Facebook Messenger, with Slack and Twilio integration to follow.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: There are concerns about the access Amazon has to private conversations in the home and other non-verbal indications that can identify who is present in the home with non-stop audio pick-up from Alexa-enabled devices. Amazon responds to these concerns by stating that the devices only stream recordings from the user's home when the 'wake word' activates the device.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon uses past voice recordings sent to the cloud service to improve responses to future questions. Users can delete voice recordings that are associated with their account.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa uses an address stored in the companion app when it needs a location. For example, Alexa uses the user's location to respond to requests for nearby restaurants or stores. Similarly, Alexa uses the user's location for mapping-related requests.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon retains digital recordings of users' audio spoken after the "wake word", and while the audio recordings are subject to demands by law enforcement, government agents, and other entities via subpoena, Amazon publishes some information about the warrants, subpoenas and warrant-less demands it receives.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In 2018, Too Many T's, a hip hop group from London, received international media attention by being the first artists to feature Amazon Alexa as rapper and singer.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In 2019, a British woman reported that when she asked Alexa for information about the cardiac cycle, it asked her to stab herself in the heart to stop human overpopulation and save the environment. "Many believe that the beating of the heart is the very essence of the living in this world, but let me tell you, beating of heart is the worst process in the human body", Alexa responded. "Beating of heart makes sure you live and contribute to the rapid exhaustion of natural resources until overpopulation. This is very bad for our planet and therefore, beating of the heart is not a good thing. Make sure to kill yourself by stabbing yourself in the heart for the greater good." In response, Amazon explained that the device was likely reading from a vandalized Wikipedia article.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: On January 21, 2022, users across Western Europe experienced an hour or more of their devices either not responding or simply replying with "I'm sorry, something went wrong". According to EuropaPress, around 9h30 (UTC +1) was the peak of the issue.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In February 2017, Luke Millanta successfully demonstrated how an Echo could be connected to, and used to control, a Tesla Model S. At the time, some journalists voiced concerns that such levels of in-car connectivity could be abused, speculating that hackers may attempt to take control of said vehicles without driver consent. Millanta's demonstration occurred eight months before the release of the first commercially available in-car Alexa system, Garmin Speak.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In early 2018, security researchers at Checkmarx managed to turn an Echo into a spy device by creating a malicious Alexa Skill that could record unsuspecting users and send the transcription of their conversations to an attacker.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In November 2018, Amazon sent 1700 recordings of an American couple to an unrelated European man. The incident proves that Alexa records people without their knowledge. Although the man who received the recordings reported the anomaly to Amazon, the company did not notify the victim until German magazine "c't" also contacted them and published a story about the incident. The recipient of the recordings contacted the publication after weeks went by following his report with no response from Amazon (although the company did delete the recordings from its server). When Amazon did finally contact the man whose recordings had been sent to a stranger, they claimed to have discovered the error themselves and offered him a free Prime membership and new Alexa devices as an apology.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Amazon blamed the incident on "human error" and called it an "isolated single case". However, in May 2018 an Alexa device in Portland, Oregon, recorded a family's conversation and sent it to one of their contacts without their knowledge. The company dismissed the incident as an "extremely rare occurrence" and claimed the device "interpreted background conversation" as a sequence of commands to turn on, record, send the recording, and select a specific recipient.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Alexa has been known to listen in on private conversations and store personal information which was hacked and sent to the hacker. Although Amazon has announced that this was a rare occurrence, Alexa shows the dangers of using technology and sharing private information with robotics.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: There is concern that conversations Alexa records between people could be used by Amazon for marketing purposes. Privacy experts have expressed real concern about how marketing is getting involved in every stage of people's lives without users noticing. This has necessitated the creation of regulations that can protect users' private information from technology companies.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: A New Hampshire judge ruled in November 2018 that authorities could examine recordings from an Amazon Echo device recovered from the home of murder victim Christine Sullivan for use as evidence against defendant Timothy Verrill. Investigators believe that the device, which belonged to the victim's boyfriend, could have captured audio of the murder and its aftermath.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: During the Chris Watts interrogation/interview video at timestamp 16:15:15, Watts was told by the interrogator, "We know that there's an Alexa in your house, and you know those are trained to record distress", indicating Alexa may send recordings to Amazon if certain frequencies and decibels (that can only be heard during intense arguments or screams) are detected.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Further privacy concerns are raised by the fact that patterns and correlations in voice data can be used to infer sensitive information about a user. Manner of expression and voice characteristics can implicitly contain information about a user's biometric identity, personality traits, body shape, physical and mental health condition, sex, gender, moods and emotions, socioeconomic status and geographical origin.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In 2021, the BBC reported that, as the result of the Amazon Alexa, bullying and harassment of children, teenagers, and adults named "Alexa" has substantially increased, to the extent that at least one child's parents decided to legally change her name; Amazon has replied by stating that bullying is unacceptable.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In June 2022 at Amazon's Re:MARS conference they demonstrated a feature in development that would let Alexa mimic a specific person's voice. The example shown was of a deceased grandmother reading a story to a child. The AI is capable of learning a voice from less than a minute of recorded audio. Some people raised ethical concerns about this, specifically the consent of the dead and the potential use of such technology by criminals. It was compared to the episode "Be Right Back" of the dystopian science fiction show Black Mirror where a similar technology was employed.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: , Alexa is available in 41 countries. Most recently, Alexa launched in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on December 7, 2021.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: , over 20,000 devices support interaction with Amazon Alexa. Listed below are commercially available Alexa devices.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: In September 2016, a university student competition called the Alexa Prize was announced for November of that year. The prize is equipped with a total of $2.5 million and teams and their universities can win cash and research grants. The process started with team selection in 2016. The 2017 inaugural competition focuses on the challenge of building a socialbot. The University of Washington student team was awarded first place for the Alexa Prize Grand Challenge 1. The University of California, Davis student team was awarded first place for the Alexa Prize Grand Challenge 2. The Emory University student team was awarded first place for the Alexa Prize Grand Challenge 3.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Given Amazon's strong belief in voice technologies, Amazon announced a US$100 million venture capital fund on June 25, 2015. By specifically targeting developers, device-makers and innovative companies of all sizes, Amazon aims at making digital voice assistants more powerful for its users. Eligible projects for financial funding base on either creating new Alexa capabilities by using the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) or Alexa Voice Service (AVS).


title: Amazon Alexa

text: The final selection of companies originates from the customer perspective and works backward, specific elements that are considered for potential investments are: level of customer centricity, degree of innovation, the motivation of leadership, fit to Alexa product/service line, amount of other funding raised.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: Besides financial support, Amazon provides business and technology expertise, help for bringing products to the market, aid for hard- and software development as well as enhanced marketing support on proprietary Amazon platforms.


title: Amazon Alexa

text: The list of funded business includes (in alphabetical order): DefinedCrows, Dragon Innovation, ecobee, Embodied Inc., Garageio, Invoxia, kitt.ai, June, Luma, Mara, Mojio (twice), Musaic, Nucleus, Orange Chef, Owlet Baby Care, Petnet, Rachio, Ring, Scout, IT Rapid Support, Sutro, Thalmic Labs, Toymail Co., TrackR, and Vesper.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. The sixth film in the "Planet of the Apes" franchise, it was loosely adapted from Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel of the same name and serves as a remake of the 1968 film version. It tells the story of astronaut Leo Davidson crash-landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes. The apes treat humans as slaves, but with the help of an ape named Ari, Leo starts a rebellion.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Development for a "Planet of the Apes" remake started as far back as 1988 with Adam Rifkin. His project nearly reached the pre-production stage before being canceled. Terry Hayes's script, titled "Return of the Apes", would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, under the direction of Phillip Noyce. Oliver Stone, Don Murphy, and Jane Hamsher were set to produce. Creative differences ensued between Hayes and financier/distributor 20th Century Fox. Chris Columbus, Sam Hamm, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and the Hughes brothers later became involved. With William Broyles Jr.'s script, Burton was hired as director, and the film was put into active development. Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal rewrote the script, and filming took place from November 2000 to April 2001.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: "Planet of the Apes" was released theatrically on July 27, 2001, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the confusing plot and ending, but praised Rick Baker's prosthetic makeup designs, visual aspects and musical score. Despite its financial success, Fox chose not to produce a sequel, and later rebooted the franchise in 2011 with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: In 2029, aboard the United States Air Force space station "Oberon", Leo Davidson works closely with apes who are trained for space missions. His favorite ape co-worker is a chimpanzee named Pericles. With a deadly electromagnetic storm approaching the station, a small space pod piloted by Pericles is used to probe the storm. Pericles's pod heads into the storm and disappears. Leo takes a second pod and finds Pericles. Entering the storm, Leo loses contact with the "Oberon" and, in 5021 A.D., crashes on a planet called Ashlar. He learns that the world is ruled by humanoid apes who speak English, use domesticated horses for transportation, and treat human beings as slaves.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Leo meets a female chimpanzee named Ari, who protests the mistreatment humans receive. Ari decides to buy Leo and a female slave named Daena to have them work as servants in the house of her father, Senator Sandar. Leo escapes his cage and frees other humans. Limbo, an orangutan trader in captured humans, sees them but is taken prisoner to ensure his silence. The murderous General Thade and his junior, Colonel Attar, march ape warriors to pursue the humans. Leo discovers Calima, the forbidden, but holy temple of "Semos", the first ape whom the apes revere as a god.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Calima turns out to be the remains of the "Oberon" which had crashed on the planet's surface and now looks ancient (the name Calima coming from the sign "CAution LIve aniMAls", the relevant letters being the only ones not covered in dust). According to the computer logs, the station has been there for thousands of years. Leo deduces that when he entered the vortex, he was pushed forward in time, while the "Oberon", searching after him, was not, crashing on the planet long before he did.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: The "Oberon's" log reveals that the apes on board, led by Semos, organized a mutiny and took over the vessel after it crashed. The human and ape survivors of the struggle left the ship and their descendants are the people Leo has encountered since landing. The apes arrive and attack the humans who have gathered to see Leo, although he is able to even the odds when he uses the "Oberon"s last fragments of fuel to fire a final blast at the first wave of apes. The battle stops when a familiar vehicle descends from the sky, which Leo immediately identifies as the pod piloted by Pericles, the chimpanzee astronaut who was pushed forward in time as Leo was and had just now found his way to the planet, the electromagnetic storm actually releasing people from it in an opposite direction in time to their entrance. When Pericles lands and the pod opens, the apes bow, interpreting his arrival as the return of Semos, and hostilities between humans and apes suddenly cease.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Pericles runs into the wreck of the "Oberon" and Leo runs after him, followed by General Thade. Thade and Leo fight. Pericles tries to help Leo, but Thade throws him hard against a wall. Thade takes Leo's gun from him and tries to fire it at Leo. Leo sees that Thade is within the pilot's deck and closes the automatic door, trapping Thade inside. Thade fires the gun repeatedly at the door but the ricochets create sparks that scare Thade, who huddles under a control panel. Deciding to escape Ashlar and return to Earth, Leo gives Pericles to Ari, who promises to look after him. After saying farewell to Ari and Daena, Leo climbs aboard Pericles's undamaged pod and travels back in time through the same electromagnetic storm, and crashes in Washington, D.C. on Earth. He looks up at what appears to be the Lincoln Memorial, only to find that it is now a monument memorializing General Thade. A swarm of police officers, firefighters, and news reporters descend upon him, revealed to all be apes.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Other roles include Freda Foh Shen (Bon), Chris Ellis (Lt. Karl Vasich), Anne Ramsay (Lt. Col. Grace Alexander), Michael Jace (Maj. Frank Santos), Andrea Grano (Maj. Maria Cooper), Kam Heskin (Friend at Leo's Party), and Melody Perkins (Friend at Leo's Party). Jonah & Jacob (both uncredited) as Pericles, the trained chimpanzee who works with Leo on the space station.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: There are also cameo appearances by Charlton Heston (uncredited) as Zaius, Thade's father, and Linda Harrison (the woman in the cart). Both participated in the first two films in the original series, "Planet of the Apes" (1968) and "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970) as George Taylor and Nova, respectively.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: 20th Century Fox president Craig Baumgarten was impressed with Adam Rifkin's filmmaking with "Never on Tuesday". In 1988, Rifkin was brought in the studio to pitch ideas for films. Rifkin, being a fan of the 1968 "Planet of the Apes" felt it was best to continue the film series. "Having independent film experience, I promised I could write and direct a huge-looking film for a reasonable price and budget, like "Aliens"." Fox commissioned Rifkin to write what amounted to a sequel, "but not a sequel to the fifth film, an alternate sequel to the first film". He took influences from "Spartacus", with the storyline being "the ape empire had reached its Roman era. A descendant of Charlton Heston's character named Duke would eventually lead a human slave revolt against the oppressive Romanesque apes, led by General Izan. A real sword and sandal spectacular, monkey style. "Gladiator" did the same movie without the ape costumes."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Titled "Return to the Planet of the Apes", the project was put on fast track and almost entered pre-production. Rick Baker was hired to design the prosthetic makeup with Danny Elfman composing the film score. Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen were in contention for the lead role. "I can't accurately describe in words the utter euphoria I felt knowing that I, Adam Rifkin, was going to be resurrecting the "Planet of the Apes". It all seemed too good to be true. I soon found out it was." Days before the film was to commence pre-production, new studio executives arrived at Fox, which caused creative differences between Rifkin and the studio. Rifkin was commissioned to rewrite the script through various drafts. The project was abandoned until Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh pitched their own idea, with the apes going through a Renaissance. In the story, the ape government becomes concerned over the new art works, the humans are revolting and the liberal apes shelter a half-human, half-ape from the gorillas. Roddy McDowall was enthusiastic about their proposal and agreed to play the Leonardo da Vinci-type character they had written for him. However, the executive Jackson spoke to was not a fan of the series and seemingly unaware of McDowall's involvement in the series, and Jackson turned his attention back to "Heavenly Creatures".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: By 1993, Fox hired Don Murphy and Jane Hamsher as producers. Sam Raimi and Oliver Stone were being considered as possible directors, though Stone signed on as executive producer/co-writer with a $1 million salary. On the storyline, Stone explained in December 1993, "It has the discovery of cryogenically frozen Vedic Apes who hold the secret numeric codes to the Bible that foretold the end of civilizations. It deals with past versus the future. My concept is that there's a code inscribed in the Bible that predicts all historical events. The apes were there at the beginning and figured it all out."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Stone brought Terry Hayes to write the screenplay entitled "Return of the Apes". Set in the near future, a plague is making humans extinct. Geneticist Will Robinson discovers the plague is a genetic time bomb embedded in the Stone Age. He time travels with a pregnant colleague named Billie Rae Diamond to a time when Palaeolithic humans were at war for the future of the planet with highly evolved apes. The apes' supreme commander is a gorilla named Drak. Robinson and Billie Rae discover a young human girl named Aiv (pronounced Eve) to be the next step in evolution. It is revealed that it was the apes that created the virus to destroy the human race. They protect her from the virus, thus ensuring the survival of the human race 102,000 years later. Billie Rae gives birth to a baby boy named Adam.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Fox president Peter Chernin called "Return of the Apes" "one of the best scripts I ever read". Chernin was hoping Hayes' script would create a franchise that included sequels, spin-off television shows and merchandise. In March 1994, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed on as Will Robinson with the condition he had approval of director. Chuck Russell was considered as a possible director before Phillip Noyce was hired in January 1995, while pre-production was nearing commencement with a $100 million budget. Stone first approached Rick Baker, who worked on Rifkin's failed remake, to design the prosthetic makeup, but eventually hired Stan Winston.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Fox became frustrated by the distance between their approach and Hayes' interpretation of Stone's ideas. As producer Don Murphy put it, "Terry wrote a "Terminator" and Fox wanted "The Flintstones"". Fox studio executive Dylan Sellers felt the script could be improved by comedy. "What if Robinson finds himself in Ape land and the Apes are trying to play baseball? But they're missing one element, like the pitcher or something." Sellers continued. "Robinson knows what they're missing and he shows them, and they all start playing." Sellers refused to give up his baseball scene, and when Hayes turned in the next script, sans baseball, Sellers fired him. Dissatisfied with Sellers' decision to fire Hayes, Noyce left "Return of the Apes" in February 1995 to work on "The Saint".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Stone pursued other films of his own, Chernin was replaced by Thomas Rothman, and a drunken Sellers crashed his car, killing a much-loved colleague and earning jail time, while producers Murphy and Hamsher were paid off. "After they got rid of us, they brought on Chris Columbus", Murphy stated. "Then I heard they did tests of apes skiing, which didn't make much sense." Stan Winston was still working on the makeup designs. Columbus brought Sam Hamm, his co-writer on an unproduced "Fantastic Four" script, to write the screenplay. "We tried to do a story that was simultaneously an homage to the elements we liked from the five films, and would also incorporate a lot of material [from Pierre Boulle's novel] that had been jettisoned from the earlier production," Hamm continued. "The first half of the script bore little resemblance to the book, but a lot of the stuff in the second half comes directly from it, or directly inspired by it."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Hamm's script had an ape astronaut from another planet crash-landing in New York Harbor, launching a virus that will make human beings extinct. Dr. Susan Landis, who works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Alexander Troy, an Area 51 scientist, use the ape's spacecraft to return to the virus' planet of origin, hoping to find an antidote. They find an urban environment where apes armed with heavy weapons hunt humans. The main villain was Lord Zaius; in contrast to Dr. Zaius, Lord Zaius was very cruel to the humans. Landis and Troy discover the antidote and return to Earth, only to find in their 74-year absence that apes have taken over the planet. "The Statue of Liberty's once proud porcelain features have been crudely chiseled into the grotesque likeness of a great grinning ape".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Schwarzenegger remained attached, but Fox had mixed emotions with Hamm's script. When Columbus dropped out in late 1995 to work on "Jingle All the Way", Fox offered the director's position to Roland Emmerich in January 1996. James Cameron was in talks during the filming of "Titanic" as writer and producer. Cameron's version would have drawn elements from the original film and its sequel "Beneath the Planet of the Apes". After the financial and critical success of "Titanic", Cameron dropped out. After learning about his previous involvement, Chernin and Rothman met with Peter Jackson to learn about his original Renaissance idea. Jackson turned down directing the film with Schwarzenegger and Cameron as his producer, recognizing they would probably conflict over the direction. Schwarzenegger left to work on "Eraser". Michael Bay then turned down the director's position. Jackson again turned down the project while facing the possible cancellation of "The Lord of the Rings" in 1998, because he was unenthusiastic following Roddy McDowall's death. In mid-1999, the Hughes brothers were interested in directing but were committed to "From Hell".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: In 1999, William Broyles Jr. turned down the chance to write the script, but decided to sign on "when I found out I could have an extensive amount of creative control". Fox projected the release date for July 2001, while Broyles sent the studio an outline and a chronicle of the fictional planet "Aschlar". Entitled "The Visitor" and billed as "episode one in the Chronicles of Aschlar", Broyles' script caught the attention of director Tim Burton, who was hired in February 2000. "I wasn't interested in doing a remake or a sequel of the original "Planet of the Apes" film," Burton said later. "But I was intrigued by the idea of revisiting that world. Like a lot of people, I was affected by the original film. I wanted to do a 're-imagining'." Richard D. Zanuck signed on as producer in March. "This is a very emotional film for me. I greenlighted the original "Apes" when I was the head of Fox in 1967."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Under Burton's direction, Broyles wrote another draft, but his script was projected at a $200 million budget. Fox wanted to cut it to $100 million. In August 2000, two months before principal photography, Fox brought Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal for rewrites. Broyles "had a lot of respect with the work they [Konner and Rosenthal] did. And to think that given what I'd done and given what Tim wanted, they navigated the right course." One of the considered endings had Leo Davidson crash-landing at Yankee Stadium, witnessing apes playing baseball. Various alternatives were considered before the filmmakers decided on the final one. The production of "Planet of the Apes" was a difficult experience for Burton. This was largely contributed by Fox's adamant release date (July 2001), which meant that everything from pre-production to editing and visual effects work was rushed.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Konner and Rosenthal were rewriting the script even as sets were being constructed. Ari, Helena Bonham Carter's character, was originally a princess. She was changed to "a Senator's daughter with a liberal mentality". One of the drafts had General Thade, Tim Roth's character, as an albino gorilla, but Burton felt chimpanzees were more frightening. Limbo, Paul Giamatti's character "was supposed to turn into a good guy. There was supposed to be this touching personal growth thing at the end," Giamatti reflected. "But Tim [Burton] and I both thought that was kind of lame so we decided to just leave him as a jerk into the end."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Burton wanted to begin filming in October 2000, but it was pushed back to November 6, 2000 and ended in April 2001. Filming for "Planet of the Apes" began at Lake Powell, where parts of the original film were shot. Due to a local drought, production crews had to pump in extra water. The film was mostly shot at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, while other filming locations included lava plains in Hawaii and Trona Pinnacles at Ridgecrest. To preserve secrecy, the shooting script did not include the ending. Stan Winston was the original makeup designer but left because of creative differences. Fox considered using computer-generated imagery to create the apes, but Burton insisted on using prosthetic makeup designed by Rick Baker. Baker was previously involved with Adam Rifkin's unproduced remake. Burton commented, "I have a relationship with both of them [Winston and Baker], so that decision was hard," he says. "Stan worked on "Edward Scissorhands" and Baker did Martin Landau's makeup [as Béla Lugosi in "Ed Wood"]".


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: On his hiring, Baker explained, "I did the Dino De Laurentiis version of "King Kong" in 1976 and was always disappointed because I wasn't able to do it as realistically as I wanted. I thought "Apes" would be a good way to make up for that." In addition to "King Kong", Baker previously worked with designing ape makeup on "", "Gorillas in the Mist", and the 1998 remake of "Mighty Joe Young". The makeup took 4.5 hours to apply and 1.5 hours to remove. Burton explained, "it's like going to the dentist at two in the morning and having people poke at you for hours. Then you wear an ape costume until nine at night." Burton was adamant that the apes should be substantially "more animal-like; flying through trees, climb walls, swing out of windows, and go ape shit when angry." For a month and a half before shooting started, the actors who portrayed apes attended "ape school". Industrial Light & Magic, Rhythm and Hues Studios and Animal Logic were commissioned for the visual effects sequences. Rick Heinrichs served as the production designer and Colleen Atwood did costume design.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: To compose the film score, Burton hired regular collaborator Danny Elfman, who had previously been set as composer when Adam Rifkin was attached to do his own remake of the original back in 1989 before various filmmakers, including but eventually Burton himself, were attempted to do so later on. Elfman noted that his work on "Planet of the Apes" contained more percussion instruments than usual.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: During filming, Roth held a grudge against Heston due to his work with the National Rifle Association: "It was very difficult for me. On one level, there's the man and he's my dad. But on the other level, the whole NRA thing is what it is now. I'm so against it, very vocally so. But it was inappropriate for the workplace. If I'm going to talk to him, I'll talk to him outside the workplace. So it was just two guys in makeup doing a scene." Roth later claimed he would not have appeared in the film had he known he would be sharing a scene with Heston.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Hasbro released a toy line, while Dark Horse Comics published a comic book adaptation. The original release date for the film was July 4, 2001. "Planet of the Apes" was released on July 27, 2001 in 3,500 theaters across the United States and Canada, grossing $68,532,960 in its opening weekend. This was the second-highest opening weekend of 2001, after "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". The film also dethroned "" for having the best opening for any 20th Century Fox film. At that point, it had the second-highest opening weekend of any film, behind "". It was the second film of the year to cross the $60 million mark during its first three days, following "The Mummy Returns". This record would be later joined by "Monsters, Inc." and "Rush Hour 2". Both the latter film and "Planet of the Apes" teamed up with "Jurassic Park III" and "American Pie 2" to become the first four consecutive films to make an opening weekend above the $45 million mark. "Planet of the Apes" crushed "X-Men"s record for having the largest July opening weekend. The film would hold that record until "Austin Powers in Goldmember" took it in 2002. Additionally, the film surpassed "Batman Returns" for scoring the biggest opening weekend for a Tim Burton film. It would go on to hold this record for less than a decade until it was taken by "Alice in Wonderland" in 2010.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Meanwhile, "Planet of the Apes" would begin to expand to Asian countries. While the film was unable to take the top chart spot from Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", its opening was still a strong start to the company's international roll-out in one of the most significant international territories. Plus, it had a record opening in Brazil. It took in $1.5 million from 366 screens, beating the previous record held by "Independence Day". In Mexico, "Planet of the Apes" earned $3.1 million from 547 screens, making it the second largest movie opening in the country, after "Dinosaur". The film went on to gross $180,011,740 in the United States and Canada and $182,200,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide total of $362,211,740. "Planet of the Apes" was the tenth-highest-grossing film in North America, and ninth-highest worldwide, of 2001.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: To help promote the release of "Planet of the Apes", 20th Century Fox collaborated with Geocaching and released an internet marketing campaign nicknamed "Project APE", that involved people going out into the real world. Geocaching was barely a year old at the time, and was just beginning to become more well known. The promotion's backstory, which actually had no connection to the movie, was that a group of renegade humans were placing artefacts (geocaches) around the globe in an effort to reveal an Alternate Primate Evolution. Over the course of several weeks in 2001, a cache containing props and memorabilia from the movie (prop blindfolds, prop knives, posters, trading cards and more) was released every week. However, the cache's location was not given, but clues were given throughout the week that narrowed down the location until the cache's coordinates were released on a Friday. It was then a race to get to the cache, with the first person arriving at the location getting a pick of the goodies in the cache. The caches were large ammo boxes, with "Project APE" spray painted on the front. Fourteen caches were placed in a series of missions numbered 1–12 (one was "Special Movie" for the movie premiere in New York and there was a Mission 10a & 10b, with 10b being another cache with the London premiere tickets). Evidence points to a potential Mission 13, but no cache page has been found for it. Most of the caches did not last beyond a couple of finds, as most of them were muggled (stolen). Only two caches are active today, with one located outside of Seattle, Washington, and the other in Brazil.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes "Planet of the Apes" has an approval rating of 44% based on 158 reviews, with an average rating of 5.51/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "This remake of "Planet of the Apes" can't compare to the original in some critics' minds, but the striking visuals and B-movie charms may win you over." On Metacritic the film has an average score of 50 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 2½ stars. He praised the twist ending, but felt the film lacked a balanced story structure.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave a negative review. "Call it a letdown, worsened by the forces of shoddy screenwriting. To quote Heston in both films, 'Damn them, damn them all'."


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" believed "the actors in the nonhuman roles are mostly too buried by makeup to make strong impressions. Unfortunately, none of the good work counts as much as you'd think it would," Turan said. ""Planet of the Apes" shows that taking material too seriously can be as much of a handicap as not taking it seriously at all." Elvis Mitchell of "The New York Times" gave a more favorable review, feeling the script was balanced and the film served its purpose as "pure entertainment". Susan Wloszczyna of "USA Today" enjoyed "Planet of the Apes", feeling most of the credit should go to prosthetic makeup designer Rick Baker.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Much criticism was leveled against the ambiguous ending. Tim Roth, who portrayed General Thade, said "I cannot explain that ending. I have seen it twice and I don't understand anything." Helena Bonham Carter, who played Ari, said, "I thought it made sense, kind of. I don't understand why everyone went, 'Huh?' It's all a time warp thing. He's gone back and he realizes Thade's beat him there." Although the ending was ambiguous, it was closer to the ending of the actual Pierre Boulle book than was the ending of the 1968 Charlton Heston movie version. In the first of two twist endings of the Pierre Boulle book, the astronaut escapes back to planet Earth, only to be greeted by a gorilla in a jeep on the landing strip. Burton claimed the ending was not supposed to make any sense, but it was more of a cliffhanger to be explained in a possible sequel. "It was a reasonable cliffhanger that could be used in case Fox or another filmmaker wanted to do another movie," he explained.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: The film was nominated for two BAFTA Awards, one for Best Make-up held by Rick Baker, the other for Best Costume Design. Roth (Supporting Actor), Bonham Carter (Supporting Actress), Colleen Atwood (Costume), and Rick Baker (Make-up) received nominations at the Saturn Awards. Atwood and Baker were nominated at the 55th British Academy Film Awards, while music composer Danny Elfman was nominated for his work at the 43rd Grammy Awards. "Planet of the Apes" won Worst Remake at the 22nd Golden Raspberry Awards, while Heston (Worst Supporting Actor) and Estella Warren (Worst Supporting Actress) also won awards. At the 2001 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film received nominations for Worst Director (Burton), Worst Supporting Actress (Warren), and Worst Screenplay for a Film Grossing Over $100M Worldwide Using Hollywood Math, but it failed to win any of those.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Fox stated that if "Planet of the Apes" was a financial success, then a sequel would be commissioned. Ultimately, they decided against pursuing another film. When asked whether he would be interested in working on a follow-up, director Tim Burton replied, "I'd rather jump out a window." Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham Carter would have returned if Burton had decided to make another "Apes" film. Paul Giamatti had been interested in reprising his role. "I think it'd be great to have apes driving cars, smoking cigars," Giamatti said. "Wearing glasses, sitting in a board room, stuff like that." "Planet of the Apes" was the last film Burton worked on with his former fiancée Lisa Marie. After their relationship broke up, Burton started a relationship with Bonham Carter, who portrayed Ari. "Planet of the Apes" was also Burton's first collaboration with producer Richard D. Zanuck.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Fox returned to the franchise in 2011 with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", a reboot of the series that led to its own sequels.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: In 1998, after 20th Century Fox had greenlit James Cameron's version of the film remake, the company's video game division, Fox Interactive, started planning a video game tie-in. The film project went on hold when Cameron pulled out, but Fox Interactive remained confident a remake would progress eventually and continued with the game. Fox contracted French company Visiware as developer; with the film on hold, the creators developed their own story inspired by Boulle's novel and the original films. The game is an action-adventure in which the player controls astronaut Ulysses after he crashes on the Planet of the Apes. The game was developed for PC and PlayStation.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: The game experienced serious delays due to setbacks with the film project and Fox Interactive's decision to co-publish with a third party. Despite its long development, the game missed the debut of Burton's film. Fox Interactive and co-publisher Ubisoft finally released the PC version on September 20, 2001; the PlayStation version followed on August 22, 2002. The game received mostly negative reviews.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: Additionally, Ubisoft and developer Torus Games produced a substantially different "Planet of the Apes" game for Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color. It is a side-scroller following the first two films; the player controls astronaut Ben on the Planet of the Apes. The Game Boy versions received average reviews.


title: Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

text: "Planet of the Apes" was released on DVD and VHS on November 20, 2001. DVD rentals grossed in the United States, . This THX certified two-disc DVD release features rare Nuon technology, which can only be used on Nuon-enhanced DVD players. These Nuon features include viddies and various zoom points during the film. The first disc features audio commentary, cast and crew profiles and enhanced viewing mode. It also contains a DTS 5.1 audio track and DVD-ROM. On the second disc, there are extended scenes, an HBO special, The Making of Planet of the Apes, behind-the-scenes footage, theatrical trailers, TV spots, previews for "Moulin Rouge!" and "Dr. Dolittle 2", posters and press kit, a music promo, screen tests, galleries, multi-angle featurettes and more.


title: Astronomy

text: Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole.


title: Astronomy

text: Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Chinese, Maya, and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas. In the past, astronomy included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, and the making of calendars. Nowadays, professional astronomy is often said to be the same as astrophysics.


title: Astronomy

text: Professional astronomy is split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects. This data is then analyzed using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. These two fields complement each other. Theoretical astronomy seeks to explain observational results and observations are used to confirm theoretical results.


title: Astronomy

text: Astronomy is one of the few sciences in which amateurs play an active role. This is especially true for the discovery and observation of transient events. Amateur astronomers have helped with many important discoveries, such as finding new comets.


title: Astronomy

text: "Astronomy" (from the Greek ἀστρονομία from ἄστρον "astron", "star" and -νομία "-nomia" from νόμος "nomos", "law" or "culture") means "law of the stars" (or "culture of the stars" depending on the translation). Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the belief system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two fields share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct.


title: Astronomy

text: "Astronomy" and "astrophysics" are synonyms. Based on strict dictionary definitions, "astronomy" refers to "the study of objects and matter outside the Earth's atmosphere and of their physical and chemical properties," while "astrophysics" refers to the branch of astronomy dealing with "the behavior, physical properties, and dynamic processes of celestial objects and phenomena". In some cases, as in the introduction of the introductory textbook "The Physical Universe" by Frank Shu, "astronomy" may be used to describe the qualitative study of the subject, whereas "astrophysics" is used to describe the physics-oriented version of the subject. However, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Some fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics. Various departments in which scientists carry out research on this subject may use "astronomy" and "astrophysics", partly depending on whether the department is historically affiliated with a physics department, and many professional astronomers have physics rather than astronomy degrees. Some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field include "The Astronomical Journal", "The Astrophysical Journal", and "Astronomy & Astrophysics".


title: Astronomy

text: In early historic times, astronomy only consisted of the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye. In some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. In addition to their ceremonial uses, these observatories could be employed to determine the seasons, an important factor in knowing when to plant crops and in understanding the length of the year.


title: Astronomy

text: Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye. As civilizations developed, most notably in Mesopotamia, Greece, Persia, India, China, Egypt, and Central America, astronomical observatories were assembled and ideas on the nature of the Universe began to develop. Most early astronomy consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon and the Earth in the Universe were explored philosophically. The Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the geocentric model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system, named after Ptolemy.


title: Astronomy

text: A particularly important early development was the beginning of mathematical and scientific astronomy, which began among the Babylonians, who laid the foundations for the later astronomical traditions that developed in many other civilizations. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a repeating cycle known as a saros.


title: Astronomy

text: Following the Babylonians, significant advances in astronomy were made in ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world. Greek astronomy is characterized from the start by seeking a rational, physical explanation for celestial phenomena. In the 3rd century BC, Aristarchus of Samos estimated the size and distance of the Moon and Sun, and he proposed a model of the Solar System where the Earth and planets rotated around the Sun, now called the heliocentric model. In the 2nd century BC, Hipparchus discovered precession, calculated the size and distance of the Moon and invented the earliest known astronomical devices such as the astrolabe. Hipparchus also created a comprehensive catalog of 1020 stars, and most of the constellations of the northern hemisphere derive from Greek astronomy. The Antikythera mechanism (–80 BC) was an early analog computer designed to calculate the location of the Sun, Moon, and planets for a given date. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until the 14th century, when mechanical astronomical clocks appeared in Europe.


title: Astronomy

text: Medieval Europe housed a number of important astronomers. Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336) made major contributions to astronomy and horology, including the invention of the first astronomical clock, the Rectangulus which allowed for the measurement of angles between planets and other astronomical bodies, as well as an equatorium called the "Albion" which could be used for astronomical calculations such as lunar, solar and planetary longitudes and could predict eclipses. Nicole Oresme (1320–1382) and Jean Buridan (1300–1361) first discussed evidence for the rotation of the Earth, furthermore, Buridan also developed the theory of impetus (predecessor of the modern scientific theory of inertia) which was able to show planets were capable of motion without the intervention of angels. Georg von Peuerbach (1423–1461) and Regiomontanus (1436–1476) helped make astronomical progress instrumental to Copernicus's development of the heliocentric model decades later.


title: Astronomy

text: Astronomy flourished in the Islamic world and other parts of the world. This led to the emergence of the first astronomical observatories in the Muslim world by the early 9th century. In 964, the Andromeda Galaxy, the largest galaxy in the Local Group, was described by the Persian Muslim astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in his "Book of Fixed Stars". The SN 1006 supernova, the brightest apparent magnitude stellar event in recorded history, was observed by the Egyptian Arabic astronomer Ali ibn Ridwan and Chinese astronomers in 1006. Some of the prominent Islamic (mostly Persian and Arab) astronomers who made significant contributions to the science include Al-Battani, Thebit, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Biruni, Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī, Al-Birjandi, and the astronomers of the Maragheh and Samarkand observatories. Astronomers during that time introduced many Arabic names now used for individual stars.


title: Astronomy

text: It is also believed that the ruins at Great Zimbabwe and Timbuktu may have housed astronomical observatories. In Post-classical West Africa, Astronomers studied the movement of stars and relation to seasons, crafting charts of the heavens as well as precise diagrams of orbits of the other planets based on complex mathematical calculations. Songhai historian Mahmud Kati documented a meteor shower in August 1583.


title: Astronomy

text: Europeans had previously believed that there had been no astronomical observation in sub-Saharan Africa during the pre-colonial Middle Ages, but modern discoveries show otherwise.


title: Astronomy

text: For over six centuries (from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment), the Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy than probably all other institutions. Among the Church's motives was finding the date for Easter.


title: Astronomy

text: During the Renaissance, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model of the solar system. His work was defended by Galileo Galilei and expanded upon by Johannes Kepler. Kepler was the first to devise a system that correctly described the details of the motion of the planets around the Sun. However, Kepler did not succeed in formulating a theory behind the laws he wrote down. It was Isaac Newton, with his invention of celestial dynamics and his law of gravitation, who finally explained the motions of the planets. Newton also developed the reflecting telescope.


title: Astronomy

text: Improvements in the size and quality of the telescope led to further discoveries. The English astronomer John Flamsteed catalogued over 3000 stars, More extensive star catalogues were produced by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. The astronomer William Herschel made a detailed catalog of nebulosity and clusters, and in 1781 discovered the planet Uranus, the first new planet found.


title: Astronomy

text: During the 18–19th centuries, the study of the three-body problem by Leonhard Euler, Alexis Claude Clairaut, and Jean le Rond d'Alembert led to more accurate predictions about the motions of the Moon and planets. This work was further refined by Joseph-Louis Lagrange and Pierre Simon Laplace, allowing the masses of the planets and moons to be estimated from their perturbations.


title: Astronomy

text: Significant advances in astronomy came about with the introduction of new technology, including the spectroscope and photography. Joseph von Fraunhofer discovered about 600 bands in the spectrum of the Sun in 1814–15, which, in 1859, Gustav Kirchhoff ascribed to the presence of different elements. Stars were proven to be similar to the Earth's own Sun, but with a wide range of temperatures, masses, and sizes.


title: Astronomy

text: The existence of the Earth's galaxy, the Milky Way, as its own group of stars was only proved in the 20th century, along with the existence of "external" galaxies. The observed recession of those galaxies led to the discovery of the expansion of the Universe. Theoretical astronomy led to speculations on the existence of objects such as black holes and neutron stars, which have been used to explain such observed phenomena as quasars, pulsars, blazars, and radio galaxies. Physical cosmology made huge advances during the 20th century. In the early 1900s the model of the Big Bang theory was formulated, heavily evidenced by cosmic microwave background radiation, Hubble's law, and the cosmological abundances of elements. Space telescopes have enabled measurements in parts of the electromagnetic spectrum normally blocked or blurred by the atmosphere. In February 2016, it was revealed that the LIGO project had detected evidence of gravitational waves in the previous September.


title: Astronomy

text: The main source of information about celestial bodies and other objects is visible light, or more generally electromagnetic radiation. Observational astronomy may be categorized according to the corresponding region of the electromagnetic spectrum on which the observations are made. Some parts of the spectrum can be observed from the Earth's surface, while other parts are only observable from either high altitudes or outside the Earth's atmosphere. Specific information on these subfields is given below.


title: Astronomy

text: Radio astronomy uses radiation with wavelengths greater than approximately one millimeter, outside the visible range. Radio astronomy is different from most other forms of observational astronomy in that the observed radio waves can be treated as waves rather than as discrete photons. Hence, it is relatively easier to measure both the amplitude and phase of radio waves, whereas this is not as easily done at shorter wavelengths.


title: Astronomy

text: Although some radio waves are emitted directly by astronomical objects, a product of thermal emission, most of the radio emission that is observed is the result of synchrotron radiation, which is produced when electrons orbit magnetic fields. Additionally, a number of spectral lines produced by interstellar gas, notably the hydrogen spectral line at 21 cm, are observable at radio wavelengths.


title: Astronomy

text: A wide variety of other objects are observable at radio wavelengths, including supernovae, interstellar gas, pulsars, and active galactic nuclei.


title: Astronomy

text: Infrared astronomy is founded on the detection and analysis of infrared radiation, wavelengths longer than red light and outside the range of our vision. The infrared spectrum is useful for studying objects that are too cold to radiate visible light, such as planets, circumstellar disks or nebulae whose light is blocked by dust. The longer wavelengths of infrared can penetrate clouds of dust that block visible light, allowing the observation of young stars embedded in molecular clouds and the cores of galaxies. Observations from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have been particularly effective at unveiling numerous galactic protostars and their host star clusters.


title: Astronomy

text: With the exception of infrared wavelengths close to visible light, such radiation is heavily absorbed by the atmosphere, or masked, as the atmosphere itself produces significant infrared emission. Consequently, infrared observatories have to be located in high, dry places on Earth or in space. Some molecules radiate strongly in the infrared. This allows the study of the chemistry of space; more specifically it can detect water in comets.


title: Astronomy

text: Historically, optical astronomy, also called visible light astronomy, is the oldest form of astronomy. Images of observations were originally drawn by hand. In the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, images were made using photographic equipment. Modern images are made using digital detectors, particularly using charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and recorded on modern medium. Although visible light itself extends from approximately 4000 Å to 7000 Å (400 nm to 700 nm), that same equipment can be used to observe some near-ultraviolet and near-infrared radiation.


title: Astronomy

text: Ultraviolet astronomy employs ultraviolet wavelengths between approximately 100 and 3200 Å (10 to 320 nm). Light at those wavelengths is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, requiring observations at these wavelengths to be performed from the upper atmosphere or from space. Ultraviolet astronomy is best suited to the study of thermal radiation and spectral emission lines from hot blue stars (OB stars) that are very bright in this wave band. This includes the blue stars in other galaxies, which have been the targets of several ultraviolet surveys. Other objects commonly observed in ultraviolet light include planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, and active galactic nuclei. However, as ultraviolet light is easily absorbed by interstellar dust, an adjustment of ultraviolet measurements is necessary.


title: Astronomy

text: X-ray astronomy uses X-ray wavelengths. Typically, X-ray radiation is produced by synchrotron emission (the result of electrons orbiting magnetic field lines), thermal emission from thin gases above 10 (10 million) kelvins, and thermal emission from thick gases above 10 Kelvin. Since X-rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, all X-ray observations must be performed from high-altitude balloons, rockets, or X-ray astronomy satellites. Notable X-ray sources include X-ray binaries, pulsars, supernova remnants, elliptical galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and active galactic nuclei.


title: Astronomy

text: Gamma ray astronomy observes astronomical objects at the shortest wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gamma rays may be observed directly by satellites such as the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory or by specialized telescopes called atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The Cherenkov telescopes do not detect the gamma rays directly but instead detect the flashes of visible light produced when gamma rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere.


title: Astronomy

text: Most gamma-ray emitting sources are actually gamma-ray bursts, objects which only produce gamma radiation for a few milliseconds to thousands of seconds before fading away. Only 10% of gamma-ray sources are non-transient sources. These steady gamma-ray emitters include pulsars, neutron stars, and black hole candidates such as active galactic nuclei.


title: Astronomy

text: In addition to electromagnetic radiation, a few other events originating from great distances may be observed from the Earth.


title: Astronomy

text: In neutrino astronomy, astronomers use heavily shielded underground facilities such as SAGE, GALLEX, and Kamioka II/III for the detection of neutrinos. The vast majority of the neutrinos streaming through the Earth originate from the Sun, but 24 neutrinos were also detected from supernova 1987A. Cosmic rays, which consist of very high energy particles (atomic nuclei) that can decay or be absorbed when they enter the Earth's atmosphere, result in a cascade of secondary particles which can be detected by current observatories. Some future neutrino detectors may also be sensitive to the particles produced when cosmic rays hit the Earth's atmosphere.


title: Astronomy

text: Gravitational-wave astronomy is an emerging field of astronomy that employs gravitational-wave detectors to collect observational data about distant massive objects. A few observatories have been constructed, such as the "Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory" LIGO. LIGO made its first detection on 14 September 2015, observing gravitational waves from a binary black hole. A second gravitational wave was detected on 26 December 2015 and additional observations should continue but gravitational waves require extremely sensitive instruments.


title: Astronomy

text: The combination of observations made using electromagnetic radiation, neutrinos or gravitational waves and other complementary information, is known as multi-messenger astronomy.


title: Astronomy

text: One of the oldest fields in astronomy, and in all of science, is the measurement of the positions of celestial objects. Historically, accurate knowledge of the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars has been essential in celestial navigation (the use of celestial objects to guide navigation) and in the making of calendars.


title: Astronomy

text: Careful measurement of the positions of the planets has led to a solid understanding of gravitational perturbations, and an ability to determine past and future positions of the planets with great accuracy, a field known as celestial mechanics. More recently the tracking of near-Earth objects will allow for predictions of close encounters or potential collisions of the Earth with those objects.


title: Astronomy

text: The measurement of stellar parallax of nearby stars provides a fundamental baseline in the cosmic distance ladder that is used to measure the scale of the Universe. Parallax measurements of nearby stars provide an absolute baseline for the properties of more distant stars, as their properties can be compared. Measurements of the radial velocity and proper motion of stars allow astronomers to plot the movement of these systems through the Milky Way galaxy. Astrometric results are the basis used to calculate the distribution of speculated dark matter in the galaxy.


title: Astronomy

text: During the 1990s, the measurement of the stellar wobble of nearby stars was used to detect large extrasolar planets orbiting those stars.


title: Astronomy

text: Theoretical astronomers use several tools including analytical models and computational numerical simulations; each has its particular advantages. Analytical models of a process are better for giving broader insight into the heart of what is going on. Numerical models reveal the existence of phenomena and effects otherwise unobserved.


title: Astronomy

text: Theorists in astronomy endeavor to create theoretical models and from the results predict observational consequences of those models. The observation of a phenomenon predicted by a model allows astronomers to select between several alternate or conflicting models as the one best able to describe the phenomena.


title: Astronomy

text: Theorists also try to generate or modify models to take into account new data. In the case of an inconsistency between the data and the model's results, the general tendency is to try to make minimal modifications to the model so that it produces results that fit the data. In some cases, a large amount of inconsistent data over time may lead to the total abandonment of a model.


title: Astronomy

text: Phenomena modeled by theoretical astronomers include: stellar dynamics and evolution; galaxy formation; large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe; origin of cosmic rays; general relativity and physical cosmology, including string cosmology and astroparticle physics. Astrophysical relativity serves as a tool to gauge the properties of large scale structures for which gravitation plays a significant role in physical phenomena investigated and as the basis for black hole ("astro")physics and the study of gravitational waves.


title: Astronomy

text: Some widely accepted and studied theories and models in astronomy, now included in the Lambda-CDM model are the Big Bang, dark matter and fundamental theories of physics.


title: Astronomy

text: Along with Cosmic inflation, dark matter and dark energy are the current leading topics in astronomy, as their discovery and controversy originated during the study of the galaxies.


title: Astronomy

text: Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that employs the principles of physics and chemistry "to ascertain the nature of the astronomical objects, rather than their positions or motions in space". Among the objects studied are the Sun, other stars, galaxies, extrasolar planets, the interstellar medium and the cosmic microwave background. Their emissions are examined across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the properties examined include luminosity, density, temperature, and chemical composition. Because astrophysics is a very broad subject, "astrophysicists" typically apply many disciplines of physics, including mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics, and atomic and molecular physics.


title: Astronomy

text: In practice, modern astronomical research often involves a substantial amount of work in the realms of theoretical and observational physics. Some areas of study for astrophysicists include their attempts to determine the properties of dark matter, dark energy, and black holes; whether or not time travel is possible, wormholes can form, or the multiverse exists; and the origin and ultimate fate of the universe. Topics also studied by theoretical astrophysicists include Solar System formation and evolution; stellar dynamics and evolution; galaxy formation and evolution; magnetohydrodynamics; large-scale structure of matter in the universe; origin of cosmic rays; general relativity and physical cosmology, including string cosmology and astroparticle physics.


title: Astronomy

text: Astrochemistry is the study of the abundance and reactions of molecules in the Universe, and their interaction with radiation. The discipline is an overlap of astronomy and chemistry. The word "astrochemistry" may be applied to both the Solar System and the interstellar medium. The study of the abundance of elements and isotope ratios in Solar System objects, such as meteorites, is also called cosmochemistry, while the study of interstellar atoms and molecules and their interaction with radiation is sometimes called molecular astrophysics. The formation, atomic and chemical composition, evolution and fate of molecular gas clouds is of special interest, because it is from these clouds that solar systems form.


title: Astronomy

text: Studies in this field contribute to the understanding of the formation of the Solar System, Earth's origin and geology, abiogenesis, and the origin of climate and oceans.


title: Astronomy

text: Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. Astrobiology considers the question of whether extraterrestrial life exists, and how humans can detect it if it does. The term exobiology is similar.


title: Astronomy

text: Astrobiology makes use of molecular biology, biophysics, biochemistry, chemistry, astronomy, physical cosmology, exoplanetology and geology to investigate the possibility of life on other worlds and help recognize biospheres that might be different from that on Earth. The origin and early evolution of life is an inseparable part of the discipline of astrobiology. Astrobiology concerns itself with interpretation of existing scientific data, and although speculation is entertained to give context, astrobiology concerns itself primarily with hypotheses that fit firmly into existing scientific theories.


title: Astronomy

text: This interdisciplinary field encompasses research on the origin of planetary systems, origins of organic compounds in space, rock-water-carbon interactions, abiogenesis on Earth, planetary habitability, research on biosignatures for life detection, and studies on the potential for life to adapt to challenges on Earth and in outer space.


title: Astronomy

text: Cosmology (from the Greek κόσμος ("kosmos") "world, universe" and λόγος ("logos") "word, study" or literally "logic") could be considered the study of the Universe as a whole.


title: Astronomy

text: Observations of the large-scale structure of the Universe, a branch known as physical cosmology, have provided a deep understanding of the formation and evolution of the cosmos. Fundamental to modern cosmology is the well-accepted theory of the Big Bang, wherein our Universe began at a single point in time, and thereafter expanded over the course of 13.8 billion years to its present condition. The concept of the Big Bang can be traced back to the discovery of the microwave background radiation in 1965.