Portal:World

The World Portal

The world 

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The Blue Marble, a photograph of the planet Earth made on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.

The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plurality of worlds". Some treat the world as one simple object, while others analyze the world as a complex made up of parts.

In scientific cosmology, the world or universe is commonly defined as "the totality of all space and time; all that is, has been, and will be". Theories of modality talk of possible worlds as complete and consistent ways how things could have been. Phenomenology, starting from the horizon of co-given objects present in the periphery of every experience, defines the world as the biggest horizon, or the "horizon of all horizons". In philosophy of mind, the world is contrasted with the mind as that which is represented by the mind.

Theology conceptualizes the world in relation to God, for example, as God's creation, as identical to God, or as the two being interdependent. In religions, there is a tendency to downgrade the material or sensory world in favor of a spiritual world to be sought through religious practice. A comprehensive representation of the world and our place in it, as is found in religions, is known as a worldview. Cosmogony is the field that studies the origin or creation of the world, while eschatology refers to the science or doctrine of the last things or of the end of the world.

In various contexts, the term "world" takes a more restricted meaning associated, for example, with the Earth and all life on it, with humanity as a whole, or with an international or intercontinental scope. In this sense, world history refers to the history of humanity as a whole, and world politics is the discipline of political science studying issues that transcend nations and continents. Other examples include terms such as "world religion", "world language", "world government", "world war", "world population", "world economy", or "world championship". (Full article...)

Selected articles -

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  Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God by Jan Matejko, 1873

  
  The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature. The Scientific Revolution took place in Europe in the second half of the Renaissance period, with the 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus publication De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) often cited as its beginning. The Scientific Revolution has been called "the most important transformation in human history" since the Neolithic Revolution.
  
  The era of the Scientific Renaissance focused to some degree on recovering the knowledge of the ancients and is considered to have culminated in Isaac Newton's 1687 publication Principia which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, thereby completing the synthesis of a new cosmology. The subsequent Age of Enlightenment saw the concept of a scientific revolution emerge in the 18th-century work of Jean Sylvain Bailly, who described a two-stage process of sweeping away the old and establishing the new. There continues to be scholarly engagement regarding the boundaries of the Scientific Revolution and its chronology. (Full article...)
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  Human security is a paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security through military security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be at the human rather than the national level. Human security reveals a people-centred and multi-disciplinary understanding of security which involves a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. The United Nations Development Programme's 1994 Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security, with its argument that ensuring "freedom from want" and "freedom from fear" for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity.
  
  Critics of the concept argue that its vagueness undermines its effectiveness, that it has become little more than a vehicle for activists wishing to promote certain causes, and that it does not help the research community understand what security means or help decision-makers to formulate good policies. Alternatively, other scholars have argued that the concept of human security should be broadened to encompass military security: 'In other words, if this thing called 'human security' has the concept of 'the human' embedded at the heart of it, then let us address the question of the human condition directly. Thus understood, human security would no longer be the vague amorphous add-on to harder-edged areas of security such as military security or state security.' (Full article...)
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  A Kaqchikel family in the hamlet of Patzutzun, Guatemala, 1993

  
  
  There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territory, and an experience of subjugation and discrimination under a dominant cultural model.
  
  Estimates of the population of Indigenous peoples range from 250 million to 600 million. There are some 5,000 distinct Indigenous peoples spread across every inhabited climate zone and inhabited continent of the world. Most Indigenous peoples are in a minority in the state or traditional territory they inhabit and have experienced domination by other groups, especially non-Indigenous peoples. Although many Indigenous peoples have experienced colonization by settlers from European nations, Indigenous identity is not determined by Western colonization. (Full article...)
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  Human symbolic expression developed as prehistoric humans reached behavioral modernity.

  
  Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/ KUL-chər) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture often originates from or is attributed to a specific region or location.
  
  Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. (Full article...)
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  The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and security, to develop friendly relations among states, to promote international cooperation, and to serve as a centre for harmonizing the actions of states in achieving those goals.
  
  The United Nations headquarters is located in New York City, with several other offices located in Geneva, Nairobi, Vienna, and The Hague. The UN comprises six principal organizations: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat, and the Trusteeship Council which, together with several specialized agencies and related agencies, make up the United Nations System. (Full article...)
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  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system". The main way to do this is limiting the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It was signed in 1992 by 154 states at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. The treaty entered into force on 21 March 1994. "UNFCCC" is also the name of the Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the convention, with offices on the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany.
  The convention's main objective is explained in Article 2. It is the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [i.e., human-caused] interference with the climate system". The treaty calls for continuing scientific research into the climate. This research supports meetings and negotiations to lead to agreements. The aim is to allow ecosystems to adapt to climate change. At the same time it aims to ensure there are no threats to food production from climate change or measures to address it. And it aims to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner. The UNFCCC's work currently focuses on implementing the Paris Agreement. This agreement entered into force in 2016. It aims to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) above levels before the Industrial Revolution, and even aiming to hold it at 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). The Paris Agreement superseded the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol which had been signed in 1997 and ran from 2005 to 2020. (Full article...)
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  Logo used since 2022

  
  The BBC World Service is a British public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcasts radio news, speech and discussions in more than 40 languages to many parts of the world on analogue and digital shortwave platforms, internet streaming, podcasting, satellite, DAB, FM, LW and MW relays. In 2024, the World Service reached an average of 450 million people a week (via TV, radio and online).
  
  BBC World Service English maintains eight regional feeds with several programme variations, covering, respectively, East and Southern Africa; West and Central Africa; Europe and Middle East; the Americas and Caribbean; East Asia; South Asia; Australasia; and the United Kingdom. There are also two separate online-only streams, a general one and the other being more news-oriented, known as News Internet. The service broadcasts 24 hours a day. (Full article...)

General images -

The following are images from various world-related articles on Wikipedia.

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  Chloroplasts in the cells of a moss (from History of Earth)
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  Moai, Easter Island (from Human history)
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  Artist's conception of Devonian flora (from History of Earth)
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  The first airplane, the Wright Flyer, flew on 17 December 1903.
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  Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed from about 300 to 180 Ma. The outlines of the modern continents and other landmasses are indicated on this map. (from History of Earth)
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  The replicator in virtually all known life is deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is far more complex than the original replicator and its replication systems are highly elaborate. (from History of Earth)
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  Carving of Persian and Median soldiers, Persepolis, Achaemenid Empire, 5th century BCE
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  The pale orange dot, an artist's impression of the early Earth which might have appeared orange through its hazy methane rich prebiotic second atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere at this stage was somewhat comparable to today's atmosphere of Titan. (from History of Earth)
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  Artist's impression of a Hadean landscape with the relatively newly formed Moon still looming closely over Earth and both bodies sustaining strong volcanism. (from History of Earth)
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  Relief of Earth's crust (from Earth)
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  Portrait of Alfraganus in the Compilatio astronomica, 1493. Islamic astronomers began just before the 9th century to collect and translate Indian, Persian and Greek astronomical texts, adding their own astronomy and enabling later, particularly European astronomy to build on. Symbolic for the post-classical period, a period of an increasing trans-regional literary culture, particularly in the sciences, spreading and building on methods of science. (from Human history)
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  A 580 million year old fossil of Spriggina floundensi, an animal from the Ediacaran period. Such life forms could have been ancestors to the many new forms that originated in the Cambrian Explosion. (from History of Earth)
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  Maya observatory, Chichen Itza, Mexico
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  A view of Earth with its global ocean and cloud cover, which dominate Earth's surface and hydrosphere; at Earth's polar regions, its hydrosphere forms larger areas of ice cover. (from Earth)
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  Earth's major plates, which are:

  •   Pacific Plate
  •   African Plate
  •   North American Plate
  •   Eurasian Plate
  •   Antarctic Plate
  •   Indo-Australian Plate
  •   South American Plate

  (from Earth)
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  Exaggerated illustration of Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun, marking that the orbital extreme points (apoapsis and periapsis) are not the same as the four seasonal extreme points, the equinox and solstice (from Earth)
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  Empires of the world in 1898
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  A reconstruction of Pannotia (550 Ma). (from History of Earth)
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  Benin Bronze head from Nigeria
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  Earth and the Moon as seen from Mars by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (from Earth)
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  Pale orange dot, an artist's impression of Early Earth, featuring its tinted orange methane-rich early atmosphere (from Earth)
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  Scientific worldview. (from World)
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  Angkor Wat temple complex, Cambodia, early 12th century
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  Satellite time lapse imagery of Earth's rotation showing axis tilt (from Earth)
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  A High Desert storm in the Mojave (from Earth)
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  An animation of the changing density of productive vegetation on land (low in brown; heavy in dark green) and phytoplankton at the ocean surface (low in purple; high in yellow) (from Earth)
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  Conjectured illustration of the scorched Earth after the Sun has entered the red giant phase, about 5–7 billion years in the future (from Earth)
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  Standing Buddha from Gandhara, 2nd century CE
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  One of the eleven Rock-hewn Churches of Lalibela constructed during the Zagwe dynasty in Ethiopia (from Human history)
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  Chennakesava Temple, Belur, India
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  Taj Mahal, Mughal Empire, India
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  Battle during the 1281 Mongol invasion of Japan
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  Japanese depiction of a Portuguese carrack, a result of globalizing maritime trade
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  An artist's impression of ice age Earth at glacial maximum. (from History of Earth)
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  Obelisk of Axum, Ethiopia
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  A map of heat flow from Earth's interior to the surface of Earth's crust, mostly along the oceanic ridges (from Earth)
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  Shanghai. China urbanized rapidly in the 21st century.
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  Yggdrasil, an attempt to reconstruct the Norse world tree which connects the heavens, the world, and the underworld. (from World)
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  Earth's history with time-spans of the eons to scale. Ma means "million years ago". (from History of Earth)
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  A composite image of artificial light emissions at night on a map of Earth (from Earth)
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  A computer-generated image mapping the prevalence of artificial satellites and space debris around Earth in geosynchronous and low Earth orbit (from Earth)
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  James Watt's steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution.
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  A view of Earth with different layers of its atmosphere visible: the troposphere with its clouds casting shadows, a band of stratospheric blue sky at the horizon, and a line of green airglow of the lower thermosphere around an altitude of 100 km, at the edge of space (from Earth)
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  Graph showing range of estimated partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen through geologic time (from History of Earth)
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  Image of the physical world, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (from World)
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  Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
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  Cuneiform inscription, eastern Turkey
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  Artist's rendition of an oxinated fully-frozen Snowball Earth with no remaining liquid surface water. (from History of Earth)
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  A 2012 artistic impression of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk from which Earth and other Solar System bodies were formed (from Earth)
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  Umayyad Mosque in Damascus (from Human history)
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  Earth's axial tilt causing different angles of seasonal illumination at different orbital positions around the Sun (from Earth)
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  COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 (from Human history)
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  A reconstruction of human history based on fossil data. (from History of Earth)
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  Trilobites first appeared during the Cambrian period and were among the most widespread and diverse groups of Paleozoic organisms. (from History of Earth)
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  Last Moon landing: Apollo 17 (1972)
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  An artist's impression of the Archean, the eon after Earth's formation, featuring round stromatolites, which are early oxygen-producing forms of life from billions of years ago. After the Late Heavy Bombardment, Earth's crust had cooled, its water-rich barren surface is marked by continents and volcanoes, with the Moon still orbiting Earth half as far as it is today, appearing 2.8 times larger and producing strong tides. (from Earth)
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  Change in average surface air temperature and drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability. (from Earth)
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  A composite image of Earth, with its different types of surface discernible: Earth's surface dominating Ocean (blue), Africa with lush (green) to dry (brown) land and Earth's polar ice in the form of Antarctic sea ice (grey) covering the Antarctic or Southern Ocean and the Antarctic ice sheet (white) covering Antarctica. (from Earth)
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  Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
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  Atomic bombing of Nagasaki, 1945
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  Geologic map of North America, color-coded by age. From most recent to oldest, age is indicated by yellow, green, blue, and red. The reds and pinks indicate rock from the Archean.
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  A pillar at Neolithic Göbekli Tepe
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  Earth's night-side upper atmosphere appearing from the bottom as bands of afterglow illuminating the troposphere in orange with silhouettes of clouds, and the stratosphere in white and blue. Next the mesosphere (pink area) extends to the orange and faintly green line of the lowest airglow, at about one hundred kilometers at the edge of space and the lower edge of the thermosphere (invisible). Continuing with green and red bands of aurorae stretching over several hundred kilometers. (from Earth)
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  Successive dispersals of   Homo erectus (yellow),   Homo neanderthalensis (ochre) during Out of Africa I and   Homo sapiens (red, Out of Africa II), with the numbers of years since they appeared before present. (from Human history)
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  Artist's impression of the enormous collision that probably formed the Moon (from History of Earth)
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  13th-century French historiated initial with the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy), those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry)
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  European migrations by mostly Germanic peoples, 2nd–6th centuries (from Human history)
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  Lithified stromatolites on the shores of Lake Thetis, Western Australia. Archean stromatolites are the first direct fossil traces of life on Earth. (from History of Earth)
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  Tiktaalik, a fish with limb-like fins and a predecessor of tetrapods. Reconstruction from fossils about 375 million years old. (from History of Earth)
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  Machu Picchu, Inca Empire, Peru
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  A banded iron formation from the 3.15 Ga Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. Red layers represent the times when oxygen was available; gray layers were formed in anoxic circumstances. (from History of Earth)
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  Earth's land use for human agriculture in 2019 (from Earth)
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  Notre-Dame de Paris, France
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  Olmec colossal head, now at the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa
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  Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the advances in art and science seen during the Renaissance. (from History of Earth)
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  Wittenberg, birthplace of Protestantism (from Human history)
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  Artist's impression of Earth during the later Archean, the largely cooled planetary crust and water-rich barren surface, marked by volcanoes and continents, features already round microbialites. The Moon, still orbiting Earth much closer than today and still dominating Earth's sky, produced strong tides. (from History of Earth)
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  A schematic view of Earth's magnetosphere with solar wind flowing from left to right (from Earth)
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  Artist's conception of Hadean Eon Earth, when it was much hotter and inhospitable to all forms of life. (from History of Earth)
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  Ming dynasty section, Great Wall of China
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  Florence, birthplace of the Italian Renaissance
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  An artist's rendering of a protoplanetary disk (from History of Earth)
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  Cross-section through a liposome (from History of Earth)
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  Pillar erected by Ashoka, a Mauryan Emperor in India
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  Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut, observing Earth from the Cupola module at the International Space Station on 11 September 2010 (from Earth)
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  Earth's western hemisphere showing topography relative to Earth's center instead of to mean sea level, as in common topographic maps (from Earth)
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  Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates throughout most of the Mesozoic (from History of Earth)

Megacities of the world -

Hangzhou CBD skyline

Hangzhou is the capital of the Chinese province of Zhejiang. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counties, and one county-level city in northwestern Zhejiang. It is situated at the head of Hangzhou Bay and the estuary of the Qiantang River.

Established as a county seat in 221 BC, Hangzhou later served as the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom (923–997) and the Southern Song dynasty (1138–1276). The city has three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which are the West Lake Cultural Landscape, the Grand Canal, and the Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City. (Full article...)

Did you know -

• ... that one incident in Vatican City caused it to have the highest murder rate in the world in 1998?
• ... that Jim Londos was one of four wrestlers recognized by The Ring as professional wrestling's "true world champion", for holding both the Los Angeles and New York versions of the world title?
• ... that no elvers are eaten during the Elver Eating World Championships?
• ... that Winston Churchill was often portrayed as a bulldog, but his personal pet dog during the Second World War was a poodle?
• ... that in Freedom & Civilization, an anthropological analysis of the concept of freedom, Bronisław Malinowski argues for the creation of a world government?
• ... that later pressings of the soundtrack of the soft porn film The Stud replaced Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Davy's on the Road Again" after a journalist blabbed its presence to the band's keyboardist?
• ... that the World-Wide Navigational Warning Service divides the entire ocean into just 21 radio areas?
• ... that Valentine Strudwick enlisted to serve in the First World War at 14 years old?

Countries of the world -

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. A federal constitutional monarchy, it consists of 13 states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Malaysia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. East Malaysia shares land borders with Brunei and Indonesia, as well as a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. Kuala Lumpur is the national capital, the country's largest city, and the seat of the legislative branch of the federal government. Putrajaya is the federal administrative capital, which represents the seat of both the executive branch (the Cabinet, federal ministries, and federal agencies) and the judicial branch of the federal government. With a population of over 34 million, the country is the world's 42nd-most populous country. Malaysia is tropical and is one of 17 megadiverse countries; it is home to numerous endemic species. Tanjung Piai in the Malaysian state of Johor is the southernmost point of continental Eurasia.

The country has its origins in the Malay kingdoms, which, from the 18th century on, became subject to the British Empire, along with the British Straits Settlements protectorate. During World War II, British Malaya, along with other nearby British and American colonies, was occupied by the Empire of Japan. Following three years of occupation, Peninsular Malaysia was briefly unified as the Malayan Union in 1946 until 1948 when it was restructured as the Federation of Malaya. The country achieved independence on 31 August 1957. On 16 September 1963, independent Malaya united with the then British crown colonies of North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore to become Malaysia. In August 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation and became a separate, independent country. (Full article...)

Wonders of the World -

The Seven Wonders of Wales (Welsh: Saith Rhyfeddod Cymru) is a traditional list of notable landmarks in north Wales, commemorated in an anonymously written rhyme:

The rhyme is usually supposed to have been written sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century by an English visitor to North Wales. The specific number of wonders may have varied over the years: the antiquary Daines Barrington, in a letter written in 1770, refers to Llangollen Bridge as one of the "five wonders of Wales, though like the seven wonders of Dauphiny, they turn out to be no wonders at all out of the Principality". (Full article...)

Related portals

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Protected areas of the world -

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  Network of protected areas in Albania (2020)

  
  
  Despite being a relatively small country, Albania is exceedingly rich in biodiversity. Its ecosystems and habitats support over 5,550 species of vascular and non-vascular plants and more than 15,600 species of coniferous and non-coniferous evergreens, most of which are threatened at global and European levels. The country has made recent efforts to expand its network of protected areas which now include: 11 national parks, 1 marine park, 718 nature monuments, 23 managed nature reserves, 11 protected landscapes, 4 World Heritage Sites, 4 Ramsar sites and other protected areas of various categories, that when combined, account for 21.36% of the territory. Furthermore, a biosphere reserve, 45 important plant areas and 16 important bird areas are found in the country.
  
  Meanwhile, the central government has proclaimed the Coastline and the Tirana Greenbelt as areas of national importance. (Full article...)
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  The Ulyanovsk Oblast in Russia contains about 118 protected natural areas. (Full article...)
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  Dinosaur Provincial Park

  
  This is a list of protected areas of Alberta. Protected areas are managed by the Government of Canada or the Government of Alberta. The provincial government owns 60% of Alberta's landmass but most of this has not been formally protected. The total protected area throughout Alberta including federal and provincial protected areas is approximately 90,700 km² (35,000 sq mi). (Full article...)
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  This is a list of protected areas of Cambodia.
  
  A total of 8 forms of protected areas are recognized under the Cambodian Protected Area Law of 2008. These are: (Full article...)
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  Canada's National Parks and National Reserves by provinces and territories

  
  This is a list of protected areas of the Northwest Territories. (Full article...)
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  Illinois has a variety of protected areas, including over 123 state-protected areas, dozens of federally protected areas, hundreds of county-level and municipal park areas. Illinois also contains sites designated as internationally important protected areas. These multiple levels of protection contribute to a statewide network of numerous recreation opportunities and conservation schemes, sometimes in a small area. For example, DeKalb County contains a 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) forest preserve system and a 1,500-acre (6.1 km²) state park (Shabbona Lake State Park); within DeKalb County, the DeKalb Park District in the City of DeKalb has a 700-acre (2.8 km²) park system. (Full article...)
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  The Australian Capital Territory as of 2014 contains 46 separate protected areas with a total land area of 1,302 km² (503 sq mi) or 55.5% of the territory's area, and which managed by Territory and Municipal Services of the ACT government: (Full article...)
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  Protected areas of Indonesia comprise both terrestrial and marine environments in any of the six IUCN Protected Area categories. There are over 500 protected areas in Indonesia, of which 57 National Parks and another nature and game reserves cover overall 36.1 million ha land area. The total protected land area represents over 18.9% of Indonesia's landmass.Marine Protected Areas comprise over 28.4 million ha (around 9% of Indonesian territorial waters). (Full article...)
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  A list of protected areas of Oman:
  

  • Al Jabal Algharbi Nature Reserve
  • Aldhahra Nature Reserve
  • Alburaimi Oasis Nature Reserve
  • Oryx Nature Reserve
  • Turtle Reserve
  • Ad Dimaniyat Islands Reserve
  • Al Saleel National Park (As Salil Natural Park)
  • Jabal Samhan Nature Reserve
  • Al Jabal Al Akhdar Scenic Reserve
  • Western Hajer Stars Lights Reserve
  • Al Rustaq Wildlife Reserve
  • Al Wusta Wetland Reserve
  • Jabal Qahwan Nature Reserve
  • Al Sareen Nature Reserve
  • Ras al Shajar Nature Reserve
  • Al Khuwuair Nature Reserve
  • Khawrs of the Dhofar Coast Reserve
    • Khor Slalalah Nature Reserve
    • Khawr al Mughsayl Reserve
    • Khawr al Baleed Reserve
    • Khawr Sawli Reserve
    • Khawr al Dahareez Reserve
    • Khawr Taqah Reserve
    • Khawr Rawri Reserve
    • Khawr Awqad Reserve
    • Khawr al Qurum al Sagheer Reserve
    • Khawr al Qurum al Kabeer Reserve

  (Full article...)
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  Mombacho Volcano Natural Reserve

  
  The protected areas of Nicaragua are areas that have natural beauty or significance and are protected by Nicaragua. Nicaragua has 78 protected areas that cover 22,422 km², about 17.3% of the nations landmass. The National System of Protected Areas (SINAP) is administered by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (MARENA). (Full article...)
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  Bonampak is an ancient Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and is a natural monument.

  
  There are currently 232 Protected Natural Areas in Mexico, covering 98 million hectares in total. They are protected and administered by the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas, or 'CONANP'), a federal agency under the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). CONANP administers:
  

  • 79 Mexican National Parks
  • 48 biosphere reserves
  • 57 flora and fauna protection areas
  • 28 Mexican Nature Sanctuaries
  • 15 natural resources protection areas
  • 5 natural monuments

  (Full article...)
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  The main protected areas of Croatia are national parks, nature parks and strict reserves. There are 444 protected areas of Croatia, encompassing 9% of the country. Those include 8 national parks in Croatia, 2 strict reserves and 11 nature parks. The most famous protected area and the oldest national park in Croatia is the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Velebit Nature Park is a part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. The strict and special reserves, as well as the national and nature parks, are managed and protected by the central government, while other protected areas are managed by counties. In 2005, the National Ecological Network was set up, as the first step in preparation of the EU accession and joining of the Natura 2000 network.
  
  The total area of all national parks in the country is 930 km² (359 sq mi), of which 235 km² (91 sq mi) is sea surface. Each of the national parks is maintained by a separate institution, overseen and funded by the government ministry of nature conservation and spatial development. The State Institute for Nature Protection provides centralized oversight and expertise. (Full article...)
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  Redwood grove in Redwood National Park

  
  According to the California Protected Areas Database (CPAD), in the state of California, United States, there are over 14,000 inventoried protected areas administered by public agencies and non-profits. In addition, there are private conservation areas and other easements. They include almost one-third of California's scenic coastline, including coastal wetlands, estuaries, beaches, and dune systems. The California State Parks system alone has 270 units and covers 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²), with over 280 miles (450 km) of coastline, 625 miles (1,006 km) of lake and river frontage, nearly 18,000 campsites, and 3,000 miles (5,000 km) of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails.
  
  Obtaining an accurate total of all protected land in California and elsewhere is a complex task. Many parcels have inholdings, private lands within the protected areas, which may or may not be accounted for when calculating total area. Also, occasionally one parcel of land is included in two or more inventories. Over 90% of Yosemite National Park for example, is listed both as wilderness by the National Wilderness Preservation System, and as national park land by the National Park Service. The Cosumnes River Preserve is an extreme example, owned and managed by a handful of public agencies and private landowners, including the Bureau of Land Management, the County of Sacramento and The Nature Conservancy. Despite the difficulties, the CPAD gives the total area of protected land at 49,294,000 acres (199,490 km²), or 47.05% of the state (not including easements); a considerable amount for the most populous state in the country. (Full article...)
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  Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

  
  The protected areas of the United States are managed by an array of different federal, state, tribal and local level authorities and receive widely varying levels of protection. Some areas are managed as wilderness, while others are operated with acceptable commercial exploitation. As of 2022, the 42,826 protected areas covered 1,235,486 km² (477,024 sq mi), or 13 percent of the land area of the United States. This is also one-tenth of the protected land area of the world. The U.S. also had a total of 871 National Marine Protected Areas, covering an additional 1,240,000 sq mi (3,200,000 km²), or 26 percent of the total marine area of the United States. (Full article...)
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  Flamingos at the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary

  
  This is a list of protected areas of United Arab Emirates:
  

  • Abu Dhabi Mangrove and Coastal Wetland Reserve
  • Ain al Faydah National Park
    
    
  • Al Awir Nature Reserve
  • Al Khawanij Nature Reserve
  • Al Maha Nature Reserve
  • Al Marmoom Desert Conservation Reserve
  • Al Wohoosh Desert Conservation Reserve
  • Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve National Park
  • Hatta Nature Reserve
  • Jabal Ali Wildlife Sanctuary
  • Khor Kalba Nature Reserve
  • Marawah Marine Protected Area
  • Mushrif National Park
  • Nadd Al Sheba Nature Reserve
  • Rams Lagoon Reserve
    
  • Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary
  • Wadi Wurayah National Park
    
    
  • Zirkuh Island Bird Sanctuary

  (Full article...)

Selected world maps

• 
  1516 map of the world by Martin Waldseemüller
• 
  Time zones of the world
• 
  Only a few of the largest large igneous provinces appear (coloured dark purple) on this geological map, which depicts crustal geologic provinces as seen in seismic refraction data
• 
  The Goode homolosine projection is a pseudocylindrical, equal-area, composite map projection used for world maps.
• 
  United Nations Human Development Index map by country (2016)
• 
  The world map by Gerardus Mercator (1569), the first map in the well-known Mercator projection
• 
  A plate tectonics map with volcano locations indicated with red circles
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  Mollweide projection of the world
• 
  Index map from the International Map of the World (1:1,000,000 scale)

World records

• List of Olympic records in athletics
• List of world records in athletics
• List of junior world records in athletics
• List of world records in masters athletics
• List of world youth bests in athletics
• List of IPC world records in athletics
• List of world records in canoeing
• List of world records in chess
• List of cycling records
• List of world records in track cycling
• List of world records in finswimming
• List of world records in juggling
• List of world records in rowing
• List of world records in speed skating
• List of world records in swimming
• List of IPC world records in swimming
• List of world records in Olympic weightlifting

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