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Homo Sapiens Idaltu

Homo sapiens idaltu

Homo sapiens idaltu is an extinct subspecies of Homo sapiens that lived over 160,000 years ago in Pleistocene Africa. Its fossilized remains were discovered in Ethiopia in 1997 by Tim White, but first unveiled in 2003. The fossils were found at Herto Bouri, a region of Ethiopia under volcanic layers. By using radioisotopes dating, the layers date between 154,000 and 160,000 years old. Three well preserved craniums are accounted for, the most well preserved is from an adult male (BOU-VP-16/1) having a brain capacity of 1450cc. The other craniums include another partial adult male and a six year old infant. These fossils differ slightly from those of early forms of H. sapiens such as Cro-Magnon found in Europe and other parts of the world in that its morphology has many archaic features not typical of H. sapiens (although modern human skulls do differ in certain regions around the globe). It appears to be the oldest representative of the H. sapiens species found so far. The name idaltu is an Amharic word for "elder". These specimens are likely to represent the direct ancestors of modern Homo sapiens sapiens thought to have originally evolved in Eastern Africa.

References


- White et al, Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia, Nature, 423:742-7 (2003).
- http://zinken.typepad.com/palaeo/05_human_evolution/

External link


- [http://www.andaman.org/book/app-r/ch5_bottleneck/textr5.htm Chapter 5, Toba Volcano, by George Weber] - Includes nice photo
- http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s877478.htm Category:early hominids Category:Pleistocene mammals Category:Pleistocene extinctions

Subspecies

In zoology, as in other branches of biology, subspecies is the rank immediately subordinate to a species. As an aside, do note that in botany a subspecies is only one of the ranks that will get a ternary name (see there), while in bacteriology, the terms subspecies and variety are usually interchangeable, see ICNB. The following applies to zoology only. In zoology, the scientific name of a subspecies is the binomen followed immediately by a subspecific name, e.g. Homo sapiens sapiens. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (4th edition, 2000) does not attempt to codify any "infrasubspecific entities". It should be noted that if a subspecies is indicated by the repetition of the specific name, it is known as the nominate subspecies. Thus Motacilla alba alba is the nominate subspecies of White Wagtail, Motacilla alba.

Criteria

Members of one subspecies differ morphologically from members of other subspecies of the species. Subspecies are defined in relation to species. It is not possible to understand the concept of a subspecies without first grasping what a species is. In the context of large living organisms like trees, flowers, birds, fish and humans, a species can be defined as a distinct and recognisable group that satisfies two conditions:
- Members of the group are reliably distinguishable from members of other groups. The distinction can be made in any of a wide number of ways, such as: differently shaped leaves, a different number of primary wing feathers, a particular ritual breeding behaviour, relative size of certain bones, different DNA sequences, and so on. There is no set minimum 'amount of difference': the only criterion is that the difference be reliably discernable. In practice, however, very small differences tend to be ignored.
- The flow of genetic material between the group and other groups is small and can be expected to remain so because even if the two groups were to be placed together they would not interbreed to any great extent. Note the key qualifier above: to be regarded as different groups rather than as a single varied group, the difference must be distinct, not simply a matter of continuously varying degree. If, for example, the population in question is a type of frog and the distinction between two groups is that individuals living upstream are generally white, while those found in the lowlands are black, then they are classified as different groups if the frogs in the intermediate area tend to be either black or white, but a single, varied group if the intermediate population becomes gradually darker as one moves downstream. This is not an arbitrary condition. A gradual change, called a cline, is clear evidence of substantial gene flow between two populations. A sharp boundary between black and white, or a relatively small and stable hybrid zone, on the other hand, shows that the two populations do not interbreed to any great extent and are indeed separate species. Their classification as separate species or as subspecies, however, depends on why they do not interbreed. If the two groups do not interbreed because of something intrinsic to their genetic make-up (perhaps black frogs do not find white frogs sexually attractive, or they breed at different times of year) then they are different species. If, on the other hand, the two groups would interbreed freely provided only that some external barrier was removed (perhaps there is a waterfall too high for frogs to scale, or the populations are far distant from one another) then they are subspecies. Note that the distinction between a species and a subspecies depends only on the likelihood that (absent external barriers) the two populations would merge back into a single, genetically unified population. It has nothing to do with 'how different' the two groups appear to be to the human observer. As knowledge of a particular group increases, its categorisation may need to be re-assessed. The Rock Pipit was formerly classed as a subspecies of Water Pipit, but is now recognised to be a full species. For an example of a subspecies, see Pied Wagtail.

Important difference between species and subspecies

Subspecies: a taxonomic subdivision of a species; a group of the organisms, which differ from other members of their species by genetically-encoded morphological and physiological characteristics, and by behavior. Members of different subspecies of the same species are potentially capable of breeding with each other, and production of fertile offspring. However, animals of the different subspecies of the same species might not interbreed even if geographical factor is removed. Differences in appearance and behavior rather often prevent the potential sex partners from recognizing each other as the sex partners. This is especially true for animals with complicated sexual rituals. Members of different species are incapable of reproduction, or produce an infertile offspring.

See also


- Binomial nomenclature
- hybrid
- race
- species
- scientific classification
- population rank25 rank25

Homo sapiens

Humans or human beings define themselves in biological, social, and spiritual terms. Biologically, humans are classified as the species Homo sapiens (Latin for "wise man" or "thinking man"): a bipedal primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, together with the other apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons. Humans have an erect body carriage that frees their upper limbs for manipulating objects and a highly developed brain capable of abstract reasoning, speech, language, and introspection. Bipedal locomotion appears to have evolved before the development of a large brain. The origins of bipedal locomotion and of its role in the evolution of the human brain are topics of ongoing research. The human mind has several distinct attributes. It is responsible for complex behaviour, especially language. Curiosity and observation have led to a variety of explanations for consciousness and the relation between mind and body. Psychology attempts to study behaviour from a scientific point of view. Religious perspectives emphasise a soul, qi or atman as the essence of being, and are often characterised by the belief in and worship of God, gods, spirits, or other people. Philosophy, especially philosophy of mind, attempts to fathom the depths of each of these perspectives. Art, music and literature are often used in expressing these concepts and feelings. Like all primates, humans are inherently social. They create complex social structures composed of co-operating and competing groups. These range from nations and states down to families. Seeking to understand and manipulate the world around them has led to the development of technology and science. Artifacts, beliefs, myths, rituals, values, and social norms have all helped to form humanity's culture.

Terminology

In general, the word "people" is a collective or plural term for any specific group of individual persons. However, when used to refer to a group of humans possessing a common ethnic, cultural or national unitary characteristic or identity, "people" is a singular count noun, and as such takes an "s" in the plural (examples: "the English-speaking peoples of the world", "the indigenous peoples of Brazil"). ethnic Juvenile males are called boys, adult males men, juvenile females girls, and adult females women. Humans are commonly referred to as persons or people, and collectively as Man (capital M), mankind, humankind, humanity, or the human race. Until the 20th century, "human" was only used adjectivally ("pertaining to mankind"). Nominal use of "human" (plural "humans") is short for "human being", and not considered good style in traditional English grammar. As an adjective, "human" is used neutrally (as in "human race"), but "human" and especially "humane" may also emphasise positive aspects of human nature, and can be synonymous with "benevolent" (versus "inhumane"; cf. humanitarian). A distinction is maintained in philosophy and law between the notions "human being", or "man", and "person". The former refers to the species, while the latter refers to a rational agent (see, for example, John Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding II 27 and Immanuel Kant's Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals). The term "person" is thus used of non-human animals, and could be used of a mythical being, an artificial intelligence, or an extraterrestrial. An important question in theology and the philosophy of religion concerns whether God is a person. In Latin, "humanus" is the adjectival form of the noun "homo", translated as "man" (to include males and females). The Old English word "man" could also have this generic meaning, as demonstrated by such compounds as "wifman" ("female person") → "wiman" → "woman". For the etymology of "man" see mannaz.

Biology

Anatomy and physiology

mannaz] Humans exhibit fully bipedal locomotion. This leaves the forelimbs available for manipulating objects using opposable thumbs. Humans vary substantially around the mean height and mean weight. Some of this variation is explained by locality and historical factors. Although body size is largely determined by genes, it is also significantly influenced by diet and exercise. The mean height of a North American adult female is 162 centimetres (5 feet 4 inches) and the mean weight is 62 kilograms (137 pounds). North American adult males are typically larger: 175 centimetres (5 feet 9 inches) and 78 kilograms (172 pounds). Human skin appears to be relatively hairless in comparison to other primates; however, most humans have a larger number of hairs on their body than a chimpanzee. The main difference is that human hairs are shorter, finer, and less coloured then the average chimpanzee's, thus rendering them harder to see. The colour of human hair and skin is determined by the presence of coloured pigments called melanins. Most researchers believe that skin darkening was an adaptation that evolved as a defence against UV solar radiation; melanin is an effective sunblock. The skin colour of contemporary humans can range from very dark brown to very pale pink. It is geographically stratified and in general correlates with the environmental level of UV. Human skin and hair colour is controlled in part by the MC1R gene. For example, the red hair and pale skin of some Europeans is the result of mutations in MC1R. Human skin has a capacity to darken (sun tanning) in response to UV exposure. Variation in the ability to sun tan is also controlled in part by MC1R. sun tanning] Because humans are bipedal, the pelvic region and spinal column tend to become worn, creating locomotion difficulties in old age. The individual need for regular intake of food and drink is prominently reflected in human culture, and has led to the development of food science. Failure to obtain food leads to hunger and eventually starvation, while failure to obtain water leads to dehydration and thirst. Both starvation and dehydration cause death if not alleviated. In modern times, obesity amongst humans has increased to almost epidemic proportions, leading to health complications and increased mortality in some developed countries, and is becoming problematic elsewhere. The average sleep requirement is between seven and eight hours a day for an adult and nine to ten hours for a child. Elderly people usually sleep for six to seven hours. It is common, however, in modern societies for people to get less sleep than they need, leading to a state of sleep deprivation. The human body is subject to an ageing process and to illness. Medicine is the science that explores methods of preserving bodily health.

Life cycle

health] The human life cycle is similar to that of other placental mammals. New human life develops from conception. An egg is usually fertilised inside the female by sperm from the male through sexual intercourse, though in vitro fertilisation methods are also used. The fertilised egg is called a zygote. The zygote divides inside the female's uterus to become an embryo which over a period of thirty-eight weeks becomes the fetus. At birth, the fully grown fetus is expelled from the female's body and breathes independently as a baby for the first time. At this point, most modern cultures recognise the baby as a person entitled to the full protection of the law, though some jurisdictions extend personhood to human fetuses while they remain in the uterus. Compared with that of other species, human childbirth is relatively complicated. Painful labours lasting twenty-four hours or more are not uncommon, and may result in injury to the child or the death of the mother, although the chances of a successful labour increased significantly during the twentieth century in wealthier countries. Natural childbirth remains an arguably more dangerous ordeal in remote, underdeveloped regions of the world, though the women who live in these regions have argued that their natural childbirth methods are safer and less traumatic for mother and child. Natural childbirth Human children are born after a nine-month gestation period, with typically 3–4 kilograms (6–9 pounds) in weight and 50–60 centimetres (20–24 inches) in height in developed countries. [http://www.childinfo.org/eddb/lbw] Helpless at birth, they continue to grow for some years, typically reaching sexual maturity at twelve to fifteen years of age. Boys continue growing for some time after this, reaching their maximum height around the age of eighteen. These values vary too, depending on genes and environment. The human lifespan can be split into a number of stages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, maturity and old age, though the lengths of these stages, especially the later ones, are not fixed. There are striking differences in life expectancy around the world. The developed world is quickly getting older, with the median age around 40 years (highest in Monaco at 45.1 years), while in the developing world, the median age is 15–20 years (the lowest in Uganda at 14.8 years). Life expectancy at birth is 77.2 years in the U.S. as of 2001. [http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm] The expected life span at birth in Singapore is 84.29 years for a female and 78.96 years for a male, while in Botswana, due largely to AIDS, it is 30.99 years for a male and 30.53 years for a female. One in five Europeans, but one in twenty Africans, is 60 years or older, according to The World Factbook. [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook] African.]] The number of centenarians in the world was estimated by the United Nations [http://www.un.org/ageing/note5713.doc.htm] at 210,000 in 2002. The maximum life span for humans is thought to be over 120 years. Worldwide, there are 81 men aged 60 or over for every 100 women, and among the oldest, there are 53 men for every 100 women. The philosophical questions of when human personhood begins and whether it persists after death are the subject of considerable debate. The prospect of death may cause unease or fear. People who are near death sometimes have a near-death experience, in which they have visions. Burial ceremonies are characteristic of human societies, often inspired by beliefs in an afterlife. Institutions of inheritance or ancestor worship may extend an individual's presence beyond his physical lifespan (see immortality).

Genetics

Humans are a eukaryotic species. Each diploid cell has two sets of 23 chromosomes, each set received from one parent. There are 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. At present estimate, humans have approximately 20,000–25,000 genes and share 95% of their DNA with their closest living evolutionary relatives, the two species of chimpanzees. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12368483] Like other mammals, humans have an XY sex determination system, so that females have the sex chromosomes XX and males have XY. The X chromosome is larger and carries many genes not on the Y chromosome, which means that recessive diseases associated with X-linked genes affect men more often than women. For example, genes that control the clotting of blood reside on the X chromosome. Women have a blood-clotting gene on each X chromosome so that one normal blood-clotting gene can compensate for a flaw in the gene on the other X chromosome. But men are hemizygous for the blood-clotting gene, since there is no gene on the Y chromosome to control blood clotting. As a result, men will suffer from haemophilia more often than women.

Race and ethnicity

haemophilia, Black, White (Hispanic), and Asian. Top row males, bottom row females.]] Humans often categorise themselves and others in terms of race or ethnicity. In the United States, racial categories are primarily based on language and ethnicity, although biological qualities, such as skin colour, blood type, facial features, ancestry, and other genetic variances are also key factors. Self identification with an ethnic group is usually based on kinship and descent, as well as presumed advantage. When race and ethnicity lead to variant treatment it is thought to impact social identity, giving rise to the theory of identity politics. Although most humans recognise that variances occur within a species, it is often a point of dispute as to what these differences entail, and if discrimination based on race (racism) is acceptable in the early twenty-first century. Race and intelligence, scientific racism, xenophobia and ethnocentrism are just a few of the many basis' for such practices.

Habitat

The view most widely accepted by the anthropological community is that the human species originated in the African savanna between 100 and 200 thousand years BCE, colonised the rest of the Old World and Oceania by 40,000 years BCE, and finally colonised the Americas by 10,000 years BCE. Homo sapiens displaced groups such as Neanderthals and Homo floresiensis through more successful reproduction and competition for resources, and/or extermination. (See Human evolution, Vagina gentium, and Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness.) Technology has allowed humans to colonise all of the continents and adapt to all climates. Within the last few decades, humans have been able to explore Antarctica, the ocean depths, and space, although long-term habitation of these environments are not yet possible. Humans, with a population of about six thousand million, are one of the most numerous mammals on Earth. Most humans (61%) live in the Asian region. The vast majority of the remainder live in the Americas (14%), Africa (13%) and Europe (12%), with 5% in Oceania. (See list of countries by population and list of countries by population density.) list of countries by population density (The arctic is at the centre of the map and the numbers are millennia before present).]] The original human lifestyle is hunting-gathering, which is adapted to the savanna. Other human lifestyles are nomadism (often linked to animal herding) and permanent settlements made possible by the development of agriculture. Humans have a great capacity for altering their habitats by various methods, such as agriculture, irrigation, urban planning, construction, transport, and manufacturing goods. Permanent human settlements are dependent on proximity to water and, depending on the lifestyle, other natural resources such as fertile land for growing crops and grazing livestock, or seasonally by populations of prey. With the advent of large-scale trade and transport infrastructure, immediate proximity to these resources has become unnecessary, and in many places these factors are no longer the driving force behind growth and decline of population. Human habitation within closed ecological systems in hostile environments (Antarctica, outer space) is expensive, typically limited in duration, and restricted to scientific, military, or industrial expeditions. Life in space has been very sporadic, with a maximum of thirteen humans in space at any given time, starting with Yuri Gagarin's space flight in 1961. Between 1969 and 1974, up to two humans at a time spent brief intervals on the Moon. As of 2005, no other celestial body has been visited by human beings, although there has been a continuous human presence in space since the launch of the initial crew to inhabit the International Space Station on October 31, 2000.

Population

2000 From 1800 to 2000, the human population increased from one to six billion. It is expected to crest at around ten billion during the 21st century. In 2004, around 2.5 billion out of 6.3 billion people lived in urban centres, and this is expected to rise during the 21st century. Problems for humans living in cities include various forms of pollution, crime, and poverty, especially in inner city and suburban slums. Geneticists Lynn Jorde and Henry Harpending of the University of Utah have concluded that the variation in the total stock of human DNA is minute compared to that of other species; and that around 74,000 years ago, human population was reduced to a small number of breeding pairs, possibly as small as 1000, resulting in a very small residual gene pool. Various reasons for this bottleneck have been postulated, the most popular, called the Toba catastrophe theory, being the eruption of a volcano at Lake Toba.

Human evolution

The study of human evolution encompasses many scientific disciplines, but most notably physical anthropology and genetics. The term "human", in the context of human evolution, refers to the genus Homo, but studies of human evolution usually include other hominids and hominines, such as the australopithecines. Biologically, humans are defined as hominids of the species Homo sapiens, of which the only extant subspecies is Homo sapiens sapiens (Latin for "very wise man"); Homo sapiens idaltu (roughly translated as "elderly wise man") is the extinct subspecies. Modern humans are usually considered the only surviving species in the genus Homo, although some argue that the two species of chimpanzees should be reclassified from Pan troglodytes (Common Chimpanzee) and Pan paniscus (Bonobo/Pygmy Chimpanzee) to Homo troglodytes and Homo paniscus respectively, given that they share a recent ancestor with man. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0520_030520_chimpanzees.html] Full genome sequencing resulted in these conclusions: "After 6 [million] years of separate evolution, the differences between chimp and human are just 10 times greater than those between two unrelated people and 10 times less than those between rats and mice." [http://news.ft.com/cms/s/43445728-1a44-11da-b279-00000e2511c8.html Chimp and human DNA is 96% identical] It has been estimated that the human lineage diverged from that of chimpanzees about five million years ago, and from gorillas about eight million years ago. However, in 2001 a hominine skull approximately seven million years old, classified as Sahelanthropus tchadensis, was discovered in Chad and seems to indicate an earlier divergence. Two prominent scientific theories of the origins of contemporary humans exist. They concern the relationship between modern humans and other hominids: The single-origin or "out of Africa" hypothesis proposes that modern humans evolved in Africa and later replaced hominids in other parts of the world. The multiregional hypothesis proposes that modern humans evolved at least in part from independent hominid populations. Human evolution is characterised by a number of important physiological trends:
- expansion of the brain cavity and brain itself, which is typically 1,400 cm³ in volume, over twice that of a chimpanzee or gorilla. The pattern of human postnatal brain growth differs from that of other apes (heterochrony), allowing for an extended period of social learning in juvenile humans. Physical anthropologists argue that a reorganisation of the structure of the brain is more important than cranial expansion itself;
- canine tooth reduction;
- bipedal locomotion;
- descent of the larynx, which makes speech possible. Humans are classified as Homo sapiens sapiens. A camp of physical anthropologists see neanderthalensis as a subspecies and classify the neanderthals as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis. A second camp of physical anthropologists see the neanderthals as a distinct species diverging from the modern human lineage over 500,000 years ago. Under this classification, neaderthals are Homo neanderthalensis. Recent DNA analysis suggests that neanderthalensis were not a subspecies. How these trends are related and what their role is in the evolution of complex social organisation and culture are matters of ongoing debate. larynx]]

Intelligence

Most humans consider their species to be the most intelligent in the animal kingdom. Certainly, humans are the only technologically advanced animal. Along with the brain's internal complexity, the brain to body mass ratio is generally assumed to be a good indicator of relative intelligence. Humans have the second highest ratio, with the tree shrew having the highest [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_935198,00300006.htm], and the bottlenose dolphin very similar to humans. The human ability to abstract may be unparalleled in the animal kingdom. Human beings are one of five species to pass the mirror test — which tests whether an animal recognises its reflection as an image of itself — along with chimpanzees or bonobos, orangutans, and dolphins. Human beings under the age of four usually fail the test.

Culture

dolphin]] Culture is defined here as a set of distinctive material, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual features of a social group, including art, literature, lifestyles, value systems, traditions, rituals, and beliefs. Culture consists of at least three elements: values, social norms, and artifacts. A culture's values define what it holds to be important. Norms are expectations of how people ought to behave. Artifacts — things, or material culture — derive from the culture's values and norms together with its understanding of the way the world functions.

Origins

Essentially every culture has its characteristic origin beliefs. Creationism or creation theology is the belief that humans, the Earth, the universe and the multiverse were created by a supreme being or deity. The event itself may be seen either as an act of creation (ex nihilo) or the emergence of order from preexisting chaos (demiurge). Many who hold "creation" beliefs consider such belief to be a part of religious faith, and hence compatible with, or otherwise unaffected by scientific views while others maintain the scientific data is compatible with creationism. Proponents of evolutionary creationism may claim that understood scientific mechanisms are simply aspects of supreme creation. Otherwise, science-oriented believers may consider the scriptural account of creation as simply a metaphor.

Language

metaphor, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew and Greek]] Values, norms and technology are dependent on the capacity for humans to share ideas. The faculty of speech may be a defining feature of humanity, probably predating phylogenetic separation of the modern population. (See Proto-World language, Origins of language.) Language is central to the communication between humans. Some scientists argue that non-human animals are able to use some form of language too, and that non-human primates are able to learn human sign language [http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/language/chimpanzee.html] [http://www.msubillings.edu/asc/PDF-WritingLab/3-Minute%20Spr05/APA%20sample%20paper.pdf] (pdf). Language is central to the sense of identity that unites cultures and ethnicities. The invention of writing systems some 5000 years ago, allowing the preservation of speech, was a major step in cultural evolution. Language, especially written language, is sometimes thought to have supernatural status or powers. (See Magic, Mantra, Vac.) The science of linguistics describes the structure of language and the relationship between languages. There are estimated to be some 6,000 different languages, including sign languages, used today.

Music

Music is a natural intuitive phenomenon operating in the three worlds of time, pitch, and energy, and under the three distinct and interrelated organisation structures of rhythm, harmony, and melody. Composing, improvising and performing music are all art forms. Listening to music is perhaps the most common form of entertainment, while learning and understanding it are popular disciplines. There are a wide variety of music genres and ethnic musics.

Emotion and sexuality

Human emotion has a significant influence on, or can even be said to control, human behaviour. Emotional experiences perceived as pleasant, like love, admiration, or joy, contrast with those perceived as unpleasant, like hate, envy, or sorrow. There is often a distinction seen between refined emotions, which are socially learned, and survival oriented emotions, which are thought to be innate. Human exploration of emotions as separate from other neurological phenomena is worth note, particularly in those cultures were emotion is considered separate from physiological state. In some cultural medical theories, to provide an example, emotion is considered so synonymous with certain forms of physical health that no difference is thought to exist. The Stoics believed excessive emotion was harmful, while some Sufi teachers (in particular, the poet and astronomer Omar Khayyám) felt certain extreme emotions could yield a conceptual perfection, what is often translated as ecstasy. ecstasy"]] In modern scientific thought, certain refined emotions are considered to be a complex neural trait of many domesticated and a few non-domesticated mammals, developed commonly in reaction to superior survival mechanisms and intelligent interaction with each other and the environment; as such, refined emotion is not in all cases as discrete and separate from natural neural function as was once assumed. Still, when humans function in civilised tandem, it has been noted that uninhibited acting on extreme emotion can lead to social disorder and crime. Human sexuality, besides ensuring reproduction, has important social functions, creating physical intimacy, bonds and hierarchies among individuals, and that may be directed to spiritual transcendence, and/or to the enjoyment of activity involving sexual gratification. Sexual desire, libido, is experienced as a bodily urge, often accompanied by strong emotions, both positive (such as love or ecstasy) and negative (such as jealousy). As with other human self-descriptions, humans propose it is high intelligence and complex societies of humans that have produced the most complex sexual behaviors of any animal. Human sexual choices are usually made in reference to cultural norms, which vary widely. Restrictions are largely determined by religious beliefs.

Body image

norms, Japan]]The physical appearance of the human body is central to culture and art. In every human culture, people adorn their bodies with tattoos, cosmetics, clothing, and jewellery. Hairstyles and hair colour also have important cultural implications. The perception of an individual as physically beautiful or ugly can have profound implications for their lives. This is particularly true of women, whose external appearance is highly valued in most, if not all, human societies. Anthropologists believe this to be an important factor in the development of personality and social relations in particular physical attractiveness. There is a relatively low sexual dimorphism between human males and females in comparison with other mammals.

Trade and economics

sexual dimorphism.]] Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods, services, or both, and a form of economics. A mechanism that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and services. Modern traders instead generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The invention of money (and later credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade. Trade exists for many reasons. Due to specialisation and division of labor, most people concentrate on a small aspect of manufacturing or service, trading their labour for products. Trade exists between regions because different regions have an absolute or comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits of mass production. As such, trade between locations benefits both locations. Economics is a social science that studies the production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services. Economics, which focuses on measurable variables, is broadly divided into two main branches: microeconomics, which deals with individual agents, such as households and businesses, and macroeconomics, which considers the economy as a whole, in which case it considers aggregate supply and demand for money, capital and commodities. Aspects receiving particular attention in economics are resource allocation, production, distribution, trade, and competition. Economic logic is increasingly applied to any problem that involves choice under scarcity or determining economic value. Mainstream economics focuses on how prices reflect supply and demand, and uses equations to predict consequences of decisions.

Artifacts, technology, and science

supply and demand.]] Human cultures are both characterised and differentiated by the objects that they make and use. Archaeology attempts to tell the story of past or lost cultures in part by close examination of the artifacts they produced. Early humans left stone tools, pottery and jewellery that are particular to various regions and times. Improvements in technology are passed from one culture to another. For instance, the cultivation of crops arose in several different locations, but quickly spread to be an almost ubiquitous feature of human life. Similarly, advances in weapons, architecture and metallurgy are quickly disseminated. Such techniques can be passed on by oral tradition. The development of writing, itself a type of artifact, made it possible to pass information from generation to generation and from region to region with greater accuracy. Together, these developments made possible the commencement of civilisation and urbanisation, with their inherently complex social arrangements. Eventually this led to the institutionalisation of the development of new technology, and the associated understanding of the way the world functions. This science now forms a central part of human culture. In recent times, physics and astrophysics have come to play a central role in shaping what is now known as physical cosmology, that is, the understanding of the universe through scientific observation and experiment. This discipline, which focuses on the universe as it exists on the largest scales and at the earliest times, begins by arguing for the big bang, a sort of cosmic explosion from which the universe itself is said to have erupted ~13.7 ± 0.2 billion (109) years ago. After its violent beginnings and until its very end, scientists then propose that the entire history of the universe has been an orderly progression governed by physical laws.

Mind

physical laws Consciousness is a state of mind, said to possess qualities such as, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. The way in which the world is experienced is the subject of much debate and research in philosophy of mind, psychology, brain biology, neurology, and cognitive science. Humans (and often others as well) are variously said to possess consciousness, self-awareness, and a mind, the fruition of being our senses and perceptions. Each of us has a subjective view of existence, the passage of time, and free will. There are many debates about the extent to which the mind constructs or experiences the outer world, and regarding the definitions and validity of many of the terms used above. Cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, for example, argues that there is no such thing as a narrative centre called mind, but that instead there is simply a collection of sensory inputs and outputs: different kinds of software running in parallel (Dennett, 1991).

Psychology and human ethology

Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = "soul" or "mind", logos = "study of") is the study of behaviour, mind and thought and the neurological basis for them. Psychoanalysis, the examination of the subconscious was, devised by Sigmund Freud and expanded and refined by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (initially one of Freud's followers and friends) and others. Carl Gustav Jung Freud divided the mind into the id (an individual's basic needs and instincts), the superego (personal and cultural values and norms), and the ego (the central, organising self, whose job it is to satisfy the id but not upset the superego). [http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html] C. G. Jung founded the school of analytical psychology and introduced the notion of the collective unconscious, a term taken from philosophy and used by Jung to describe symbols or archetypes that he believed might be common to all cultures. There are also the Conscious, Subconscious, and Superconsciousness, a related but not identical set of categories. The behaviour and mental processes of animals (human and non-human) can be described through animal cognition, ethology, and comparative psychology as well. Human ecology is an academic discipline that investigates how humans and human societies interact with their environment, nature and the human social environment.

Philosophy

social environment in detail from Raphael's School of Athens]] Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. It is the discipline searching for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means comprising as its core logic, ontology or metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology which includes the branches of ethics and aesthetics. The term covers a very wide range of approaches, and is also used to refer to a worldview, to a perspective on an issue, or to the positions argued for by a particular philosopher or school of philosophy. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of "first principles" and "being" (ontology). Problems that were not originally considered metaphysical have been added to metaphysics. Other problems that were considered metaphysical problems for centuries are now typically relegated to their own separate subheadings in philosophy, such as philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, philosophy of perception, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science. In rare cases subjects of metaphysical research have been found to be entirely physical and natural. The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain, particularly those of which humans are subjectively conscious, such as personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. Other species of animals share some of these mental capacities, and it is also used in relation to supernatural beings, as in the expression "the mind of God." The term is used here only in relation to humans. There are many Philosophies of mind, the most common relating to the nature of being, and ones way of being, or purpose. Adi Shankara in the East proposed Advaita Vedanta, a popular argument for monism (the metaphysical view that all is of one essential essence, substance or energy). Another type of monism is physicalism or

Lower Paleolithic

The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 2.5 million years ago when the first craft and use of stone tools by hominids appears in the archaeological record, until around 120,000 years ago when important evolutionary and technological changes ushered in the Middle Paleolithic. The earliest hominids, known as australopithecines (personified by the famous find of Lucy in Ethiopia) were not advanced stone tool users and were likely to have been common prey for larger animals. Sometime before 3 million years ago the first fossils that can be called Homo appear in the archaeological record. They may have evolved from the australopithecines or come from another phylogenetic branch of the primates. Homo habilis remains, such as those from Olduvai Gorge, are much more recognisable as humans. Stone-tool use was developed by these people around 2.5 million years ago before they were replaced by Homo erectus about 1.5 million years ago. Homo habilis used Olduwan tools and had learned to control fire to support the hunter-gatherer method of subsistence. The Olduwan tradition moved on to Europe from Africa, where it had originated. In the north it split into two parallel traditions:
- the Abbevillian followed by the Acheulian, both hand-axe traditions,
- the Clactonian followed by the Levalloisian, both flake traditions. The carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly Homo erectus. This type of man is more clearly linked to the flake tradition, which spread across southern Europe through the Balkans to appear relatively densely in southeast Asia. The Levalloisian appears with the Mousterian in the Middle Paleolithic, suggesting that Neanderthal Man evolved from Homo erectus. Also in Europe appeared a type of man intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, typified by such fossils as Swanscombe Man, Steinheim Man, Tautavel Man and Vertesszollos Man (Homo palaeohungaricus). Although it is unwise in the current state of knowledge to assume an exclusive association of any type of man with any type of tool, the intermediates seem responsible for the hand-axe tradition. Such an association should not imply that they necessarily evolved in Europe. Flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however spread to a different range to the east. It appears in Arabia and India, but more importantly, does not appear in southeast Asia. The Lower Palaeolithic was generally succeeded by the Middle Paleolithic (but not always). The problems of determining which tools belong to which men or of determining the genetic relationships between types of men continues.



Ethiopia

The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Amharic ኢትዮጵያ Ityopp'ya) is a country situated in the Horn of Africa. It has one of the most extensive known histories as an independent nation on the continent, or indeed in the world. Unique among African countries, Ethiopia maintained independence during the Scramble for Africa, and continued to do so except for a 5 year period when it was under Italian occupation. Ethiopia was historically called Abyssinia. The English name "Ethiopia" is derived from the Greek word Αἰθιοπία Æthiopia, from Αἰθίοψ Æthiops ‘an Ethiopian’ -- sometimes parsed by Westerners as a purely Greek term meaning "of burnt (αιθ-) visage (ὄψ)"; however, older Ethiopian sources state that the name is derived from "'Ityopp'is", a son of Cush, son of Ham who according to legend founded the city of Aksum.

History

The Kingdom of Aksum, the first verifiable kingdom of great power to rise in Ethiopia, rose during the first century AD. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time. It was in the early 4th century that a Syro-Greek castaway, Frumentius, was taken to the court and eventually converted king Ezana to Christianity, thereby making it official. For this accomplishment, he received the title "Abba Selama". At various times, including a period in the 6th century, Axum controlled most of modern-day Yemen just across the Red Sea. The line of rulers descended from the Axumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish Queen Gudit around 950, then by the Zagwe dynasty. Around 1270, the Solomonid dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming descent from the kings of Axum. They called themselves Neguse Negest ("King of Kings," or Emperor), basing their claims on their direct descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba. During the reign of Emperor Lebna Dengel, Ethiopia made its first successful diplomatic contact with a European country, Portugal. This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was subjected to the attacks of the Somali General and Imam, Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (called "Grany", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal responded to Lebna Dengel's plea for help with an army of 400 men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule. However, Jesuit missionaries eventually offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and in the mid-17th century Emperor Fasilidos expelled these missionaries. At the same time, the Oromo people began to question the Ethiopian Christian authorities in the Abyssinian territories, and demanded to keep their own religion. All of this contributed to Ethiopia's isolation during the 1700s. The Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras Mikael Sehul of Tigray. Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until the reign of Tewodros II that Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again. Tewodros II The 1880s were marked by the European colonization of Africa and some modernisation, when the Italians began to vie with the British for influence in bordering regions. Assab, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought from the local sultan in March 1870 by an Italian company, which by 1882 led to the Italian colony of Eritrea. Conflicts between the two countries resulted in the Battle of Adowa in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians surprised the world by defeating the colonial power and remaining independent. Italy and Ethiopia signed a provisional treaty of peace on October 26, 1896. The early 20th century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who undertook the rapid modernization of Ethiopia — interrupted only by the brief Italian occupation (1936–1941). British and patriot Ethiopian troops liberated the Ethiopian homeland in 1941, and Ethiopia's regained sovereignty was recognised by Britain upon the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944. Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg", deposed him and established a one-party socialist state. The ensuing regime suffered several bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a massive refugee problem. In 1977 Somalia attacked Ethiopia in the Ogaden War, but Ethiopia defeated them with Cuban military assistance the following year. The Derg regime was finally defeated in 1991 by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel forces. In 1993, the Province of Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, following a referendum, ending more than 20 years of armed conflict. In 1994, a constitution was adopted, that led to Ethiopia's first multiparty elections in the following year. In May 1998, a dispute over the undemarcated border with Eritrea led to the Eritrean-Ethiopian War that lasted until June 2000. This has hurt the nation's economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition. On May 15, 2005, Ethiopia held another multiparty election, and resulted in the EPRDF's disputed return to power. In early June and again in November, police under the command of the EPRDF shot and killed demonstrators who were protesting the alleged election fraud.
- See also: Rulers and Heads of State of Ethiopia

Politics

The election of Ethiopia's 547-member constituent assembly was held in June 1994. This assembly adopted the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in December 1994. The elections for Ethiopia's first popularly-chosen national parliament and regional legislatures were held in May and June 1995. Most opposition parties chose to boycott these elections, ensuring a landslide victory for the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). International and non-governmental observers concluded that opposition parties would have been able to participate had they chosen to do so. The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was installed in August 1995. The first President was Negasso Gidada. The EPRDF-led government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has promoted a policy of ethnic federalism, devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically-based authorities. Ethiopia today has 9 semi-autonomous administrative regions that have the power to raise and spend their own revenues. Under the present government, Ethiopians enjoy greater political participation and freer debate than ever before in their history, although some fundamental freedoms, including freedom of the press, are, in practice, somewhat circumscribed. Zenawi's government was re-elected in 2000 in Ethiopia's first multi-party elections. The incumbent President is Girma Wolde-Giorgis. Since 1991, Ethiopia has established warm relations with the United States and western Europe and has sought substantial economic aid from Western countries and World Bank. In 2004, the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east, proposing that these resettlements would reduce food shortages [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/3640227.stm]. Ethiopia held another general election in May 2005, were deemed by one international observer team (EU) to fall substantially short of international standards for fair and free elections. The oppostion and some observers led by Ana Gomez charged that the ruling EPRDF engaged in wide spread vote rigging and intimidation. In June 2005, with the results of the election still unclear, a group of university students protested these alleged discrepancies despite a ban on protests imposed by the government. This led to the arrest of thousands of protesters. On June 8, police killed 42 people in Addis Ababa. On September 5, 2005, the National Elections Board of Ethiopia released the final election results in which the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front retained its control of the government, but opposition parties increased their share of parliamentary seats. When street protests broke out as a result of the ensuing political stalemate beginning November 1, government forces once again opened fire with live bullets, killing at least 42 people in Addis Ababa and elsewhere in the country. Tens of thousands were arrested in various detention centers across the country. See also: Foreign relations of Ethiopia

Regions

Main article: Subdivisions of Ethiopia Ethiopia has been divided by the EPRDF into 9 ethnically-based administrative regions (kililoch; singular: kilil):
- Afar
- Amhara
- Benishangul-Gumaz
- Gambela
- Harari
- Oromia
- Somali
- Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region
- Tigray Additionally, there are two chartered cities (astedader akababiwoch, singular: astedader akababi): Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.

Geography

Main article: Geography of Ethiopia Ethiopia is 1,127,127 km² in size, and is the major portion of the Horn of Africa, which is the eastern-most part of the African landmass. Within Ethiopia is a massive highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semidesert. The great diversity of terrain determines wide variations in climate, soils, natural vegetation, and settlement patterns. Elevation and geographic location produce three climatic zones: the cool zone above 2,400 meters where temperatures range from near freezing to 16°C; the temperate zone at elevations of 1,500 to 2,400 meters with temperatures from 16°C to 30°C; and the hot zone below 1,500 meters with both tropical and arid conditions and daytime temperatures ranging from 27°C to 50°C. The normal rainy season is from mid-June to mid-September (longer in the southern highlands) preceded by intermittent showers from February or March; the remainder of year generally dry. Ethiopia is an ecologically diverse country. Lake Tana in the north is the source of the Blue Nile. It also has a large number of endemic species, notably the Gelada Baboon, the Walia Ibex and the Ethiopian wolf (or Simien fox).

Economy

Ethiopian wolf Main article: Economy of Ethiopia Ethiopia remains one of Africa's poorest nations: many Ethiopians rely on food aid from abroad. After the 1974 revolution, the economy of Ethiopia was run as a socialist economy: strong state controls were implemented, and a large part of the economy was transferred to the public sector, including most modern industry and large-scale commercial agriculture, all agricultural land and urban rental property, and all financial institutions. Since mid-1991, the economy has evolved toward a decentralized, market-oriented economy, emphasizing individual initiative, designed to reverse a decade of economic decline. In 1993, gradual privatization of business, industry, banking, agriculture, trade, and commerce was underway. Agriculture accounts for almost 41 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of exports, and 80 percent of the labor force. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products. Production is overwhelmingly of a subsistence nature, and a large part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural cash-crop sector. Principal crops include coffee, pulses (e.g., beans), oilseeds, cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, and vegetables. Exports are almost entirely agricultural commodities, coffee is the largest foreign exchange earner. Ethiopia's livestock population is believed to be the largest in Africa, and as of 1987 accounted for about 15 percent of the GDP.

Demographics

1987 Main article: Demographics of Ethiopia Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. The Oromo, Amhara, and Tigrayans make up more than three-fourths of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members. Semitic-speaking Ethiopians (as well as some Eritreans) collectively refer to themselves as Abesha or Habesha, though others reject these names on the basis that they refer only to certain ethnicities [http://www.abesha.com/abesha18/aboutus.php]. The name is said to have originally signified "mixture", i.e. of HAm with (BE) SHem, as applied to tribes of partly Cushitic and partly Semitic extraction. The Arabic form of this term is the etymological basis of "Abyssinia," the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European languages.[http://www.time.com/time/europe/timetrails/selassie/hs260809.html] The Axumite Kingdom was one of the first nations to officially adopt Christianity, when St. Frumentius of Tyre converted Ezana of Axum during the fourth century CE. Islam in Ethiopia dates back almost to the founding of the religion; in 616, a band of Muslims were counseled by the Prophet Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Abyssinia, which was ruled by, in the Prophet's estimation, a pious Christian king. Moreover, Islamic tradition states that Bilal, one of the foremost companions of the Prophet Muhammad, was from present-day Ethiopia. A small group of Jews, the Beta Israel, lived in Ethiopia for centuries, though most emigrated to Israel in the last decades of the 20th century. There are numerous indigenous African religions in Ethiopia. In general, most of the Christians live in the highlands, while Muslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit lowland regions.

Languages

Ethiopia has 84 indigenous languages. Some of these are: English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is taught in all secondary schools. Amharic was the language of primary school instruction, but has been replaced in many areas by local languages such as Oromifa and Tigrinya.

Culture

Tigrinya and a drum.]] Main article: Culture of Ethiopia In April 2005, the Axum obelisk, one of Ethiopia's religious and historical treasures, was returned to Ethiopia by Italy [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4458105.stm]. Italian troops seized the obelisk in 1937 and took it to Rome. Italy agreed to return the obelisk in 1947 in a UN agreement. Ethiopia is the spiritual homeland of the Rastafari movement, that believes Ethiopia is Zion. Rastafari view Emperor Haile Selassie I as Jesus, the human incarnation of God.
- Cuisine of Ethiopia
- Music of Ethiopia
- Islam in Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Miscellaneous topics


- List of Ethiopian companies
- Military of Ethiopia
- Monarchies of Ethiopia
- National parks in Ethiopia
- Communications in Ethiopia
- Transportation in Ethiopia

External links

Relief Organizations
- [http://www.thedenanproject.com/ The Denan Project - Provides Qualified Medical Relief For The People Of Denan] Government
- [http://www.ethiopianembassy.org/index.shtml Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington DC] information about the Ethiopian government
- [http://www.mfa.gov.et/ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia]
- [http://www.moinfo.gov.et/ Ministry of Information of Ethiopia]
- [http://www.ethiopiancrown.org/ The Crown Council of Ethiopia] official monarchy site
- [http://www.ethiopar.net/ The Parliament of Ethiopia] official site News
- [http://www.addistribune.com/ Addis Tribune] newspaper with a weekly online edition
- [http://allafrica.com/ethiopia/ allAfrica - Ethiopia] news
- [http://www.ena.gov.et/ Ethiopian News Agency (ENA)] government agency
- [http://www.nazret.com Nazret.com] Ethiopian news portal
- [http://ethiopianreview.homestead.com/ Ethiopian Review]
- [http://www.helmmagazine.com/ Helm Magazine] art, culture, fashion and talent from Ethiopia
- [http://www.waltainfo.com/ Walta Information Center] news Overviews
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/country_profiles/1072164.stm BBC News - Country profile: Ethiopia]
- [http://www.ethiopiantreasures.toucansurf.com Ethiopian Treasures - History, Culture, Language, Religion - Ethiopia]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/et.html CIA - The World Factbook: Ethiopia]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/ethiopia2000/0,2759,181415,00.html Guardian Unlimited - Special Report: Ethiopia 2000]
- [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html Library of Congress - Country Study: Ethiopia] most data as of July 1991 Directories
- [http://www.ethiosearch.com Ethio Search ]Ethiopian on-line directory and search engine
- [http://search.looksmart.com/p/browse/us1/us317916/us559898/us559899/us10065672/us559917/ LookSmart - Ethiopia] directory category
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Africa/Ethiopia/ Open Directory Project - Ethiopia] directory category
- [http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/ethio.html Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Ethiopia] directory category
- [http://www.afrika.no/index/Countries/Ethiopia/index.html The Index on Africa - Ethiopia] directory category
- [http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Ethiopia.html University of Pennsylvania - African Studies Center: Ethiopia] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/countries/ethiopia/ Yahoo! - Ethiopia] directory category Tourism
- [http://www.tourismethiopia.org Ethiopian Tourism Commission] government agency
- Portals
- [http://www.CyberEthiopia.com CyberEthiopia.com] (Ethiopic)
- [http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/ Ethiopian Reporter]
- [http://www.ethiosearch.com EthioSearch.com] (Amharic and English)
- [http://www.ethioindex.com/ EthioIndex.com] (News, Directory, Forums)
- [http://www.ethiozena.net/ EthioZena.net]
- [http://www.myethiopia.info/ myethiopia.info] Other
- [http://www.amharicsoftwares.com Amharic software store] download free Unicode standard Geez software
- [http://electionsinfo.com/election-information/viewforum.php?f=44 ElectionsInfo.com - Forum]
- [http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/ Ethiopundit] blog of "Eclectic Ethiopian & Ethio-American Commentary"
- [http://www.rastafarian.nl/ethiopia/ethiopia.asp rastafarian.nl - Ethiopia]
- [http://tezeta.org/ Tezeta.org]
- [http://www.EthioNetworks.com Ethio Networks] website developers in Amharic

References


-
- Pankhurst, Dr. Richard.
- Category:African Union member states Category:Peace and Security Council Category:Landlocked countries zh-min-nan:Ityop'iya ko:에티오피아 ms:Habsyah ja:エチオピア th:ประเทศเอธิโอเปีย

2003

2003 (MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. It was designated the:
- International Year of Freshwater
- European Disability Year
- Blog Year See also Wikipedia's almanac of events for this year.

Events

January


- January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil.
- January 1 - Pascal Couchepin becomes President of the Confederation in Switzerland.
- January 8 - US Airways flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina killing all 21 people aboard.
- January 15 - The United States Supreme Court hands down its decision in Eldred v. Ashcroft allowing the extension of copyright terms in the U.S.
- January 24 - The new United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
- January 25 - Central Line train crashes into the tunnel wall at Chancery Lane station in London, injuring 34 people.
- January 25 - An international group of volunteers left London and headed for Baghdad to act as voluntary human shields, hoping to avert a U.S. invasion.
- January 30 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of Britain, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the Czech Republic release a statement, the letter of the eight, demonstrating support for the United States' plans for an invasion of Iraq.

February

February
- February 1 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard.
- February 1 - In Northern Ireland, The Protestant UDA Belfast leader John Gregg is killed by a loyalist faction.
- February 3 - The worldwide movie premiere of Shanghai Knights was held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood.
- February 5 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq.
- February 9 - Cricket World Cup begins in South Africa.
- February 15 - Global protests against Iraq war - more than ten million people protest in over 600 cities worldwide, the largest war protest to take place before the war occurred.
- February 17 - Antwerp Diamond Center in Belgium opens its vaults after weekend and discovers that unknown burglars had stolen diamonds worth $100 million - largest diamond theft so far.
- February 26 - An American businessman is admitted to the Vietnam France Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. WHO doctor Carlo Urbani reports the unusual highly contagious disease to WHO. Both the businessman and Carlo Urbani die of SARS in March.

March


- March 1 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The United Arab Emirates calls for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid war. The sentiment is later echoed by Bahrain and Kuwait
- March 1 - The Turkish parliment vetos the access of the U.S troops to airbases in Turkey in order to attack Iraq from the north. The Bush administration starts working on the B Plan, namely attacking Iraq from the south, through the Persian Gulf.
- March 1 - The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the United States Customs Service, and the United States Secret Service moves to the United States Department of Homeland Security
- March 1 - Boxer Roy Jones Jr. beats John Ruiz to become WBA champion
- March 1 - War on Terrorism: Authorities in Pakistan capture Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks along with money man Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
- March 1 - Ohio celebrates its bicentennial statehood.
- March 5 - The Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 margin upholds California's "three strikes and you're out" law.
- March 11 - Iraq disarmament crisis: Iraqi fighters threaten two U.S. U-2 surveillance planes, flying missions for U.N. weapons inspectors, forcing them to abort their mission and return to base.
- March 12 - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić assassinated in Belgrade
- March 12 - WHO issues a global alert on SARS.
- March 12 - Iraq disarmament crisis: British prime minister Tony Blair proposes an amendment to the possible 18th U.N. resolution, which would call for Iraq to meet certain benchmarks to prove that it was disarming. The amendment is immediately rejected by France, who promises to veto any new resolution.
- March 13 - Human evolution: The journal Nature reports that 350,000-year-old upright-walking human footprints had been found in Italy
- March 15 - Hu Jintao becomes president of the People's Republic of China, replacing Jiang Zemin.
- March 16 - Iraq disarmament crisis: The leaders of the United States, Britain, Portugal, and Spain meet at a summit in the Azores Islands. U.S. President Bush calls Monday, March 17th, the "moment of Truth", meaning that the "coalition of the willing" would make its final effort to extract a resolution from the U.N. Security Council that would give Iraq an ultimatum to disarm immediately or to be disarmed by force.
- March 17 - Iraq disarmament crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush gives an ultimatum: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his sons must either leave Iraq, or face military action at a time of the U.S.'s choosing
- March 19 - First American bombs dropped on Baghdad, Iraq. President Saddam Hussein and his sons do not comply with President Bush's 48 hour mandate demanding their exit from Iraq.
- March 20 - 2003 Iraq war: Land troops from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invade Iraq.
- March 22 - The United States and the United Kingdom begin their shock and awe campaign with a massive air strike on military targets in Baghdad.
- March 23 - Cricket World Cup ends as Australia wins over India in Centurion, South Africa.
- March 29 - WHO doctor Carlo Urbani, who first identified SARS, dies of the disease.
- March 30 - The Undertaker defeated the Big Show and A-Train in a handicap match, boosting his Wrestlemania record to 11-0.

April

April.]]
- April 3 - Passenger bus hits remote-controlled land mine in the Chechen capital, killing at least 8.
- April 9 - U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, apparently ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.
- April 14 - Human Genome Project successfully completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to 99.99% accuracy.
- April 17 - The Stevens Report concludes that members of the RUC and British Army cooperated with the UDA in the killings of Catholics in Northern Ireland
- April 21 - Retired U.S. Army General Jay Garner becomes Interim Civil Administrator of Iraq.
- April 30 - The last American owned vehicle frame manufacturer, [http://web.archive.org/web/20010623093543/www.immsp.com/index.htm Midland Steel Products] goes [http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2166844/detail.html out of business] after almost 110 years in business, laying off almost 250 people.

May


- May 1 - George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing end of major combat in the Iraq war.
- May 2 - Monkeyman superhero hoax begins in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK
- May 3 - Old Man of the Mountain, rock formation in New Hampshire, crumbles after heavy rain
- May 4-10 - A major severe weather outbreak spawned more tornadoes than any week in U.S. history. 393 tornadoes were reported in 19 states.
- May 11 - Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
- May 12 -