Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju (born 1952) is an Indian structural chemist, educationist and an honorary professor at the Indian Institute of Science. He worked on crystal engineering and weak hydrogen bonding and co-authored a textbook in crystal engineering (2011). He subsequently wrote a book entitled "Bharat: India 2.0" (2022) in which he claims that India is a 5000 year civilization that does not need a constitution. He espouses ideas of intrinsic Indian sacredness, righteousness, and the belief that scientists should not take part in political discussions and has been an outspoken critic of academics who speak against government policies particularly those of the ruling right-wing BJP party.

Biography
Gautam Desiraju was born 21 August 1952 in Madras, India. He had his schooling in Cathedral and John Connon Boys School in Bombay and obtained his BSc (1972) from St. Xavier's College, Bombay. He obtained his PhD (1976) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked under the supervision of David Y. Curtin and Iain C. Paul.  He worked between 1976 and 1978 in the Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY. From 1978 to 1979 he was a research fellow in the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He joined the University of Hyderabad in 1979 as a lecturer and was promoted as reader in 1984 and professor in 1990. He spent a year (1988–1989) in the CR&D department of DuPont in Wilmington as a visiting scientist. After 30 years in the University of Hyderabad, he joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 2009. He is a member of the editorial advisory boards of Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Communications and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  He is a past president of the International Union of Crystallography during 2011–2014. He was the chair of the first Gordon Research Conference in Crystal Engineering, 2010 and is now a member of the Vice Chancellor's Strategic Advisory Council of the University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES).9 Dehradun, as well as a member of the Academic Council of Rishihood University Sonepat. He is a recipient of an honorary doctorate degree of the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, the Rayalaseema University, Kurnool and of the Gulbarga University, Kalaburagi. He organized, in August 2017, the 24th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography  in Hyderabad. He was awarded the Acharya P. C. Ray Medal (2015) of the University of Calcutta for innovation in science and technology, the ISA Medal (2018) for Science of the University of Bologna and the van der Waals Prize (2023) by ICNI, Strasbourg.

Major research contributions

Desiraju's contribution to the subject of crystal engineering has focus on the concept of the supramolecular synthon, which is a small sub-structural unit that is an adequate enough representation of the entire crystal structure of a molecular solid. The major problem in crystal engineering is that the prediction of a crystal structure from a molecular structure is very difficult and not easily derivable from functional groups. Identification of supramolecular synthons simplifies this otherwise intractable problem. The supramolecular synthon concept is now widely used by crystal engineers in the design of molecular crystals and pharmaceutical co-crystals, which are important from scientific and commercial viewpoints. Crystal engineering is effectively like supramolecular synthesis in the solid state, and there is a direct analogy between the supramolecular synthon of Desiraju and the molecular synthon that was proposed for organic synthesis by E. J. Corey.

Desiraju's second area of contribution focuses on weakly activated groups like the C-H group can act as donors of hydrogen bonds in molecular and biomolecular systems. These weak hydrogen bonds had been discussed sporadically since the 1930s, but it was only after the 1980s that the idea of a weakly activated group forming hydrogen bonds gained acceptance in the chemical community. Desiraju was among the few structural chemists who argued in those early days that the C-H...O and other weak interactions have a hydrogen bond character.

Desiraju has authored around 479 research papers and a total of 512 publications as given in the Web of Science. In addition to the three books on crystal engineering and hydrogen bonding, he has edited three multi-author books on these topics in structural chemistry. He has guided the PhD work of nearly 40 students over the past 43 years.

General writing and new book Bharat: India 2.0
Desiraju has authored several commentaries on science, the evolution of chemistry as a subject, emergence and complexity, and research habits and practices in various cultures. He has also written articles about the state of science education and research in India,, and about the current status of chemistry research in India, where he has identified problems and suggested solutions in situations that are, in part, expected in a country that is rooted in the traditional but yet aspires for the contemporary.

Despite being American-educated Desiraju strongly believes that if a sense of "Indian-ness" is inculcated in Indian students and young scientists, a modern
competitive spirit and adherence to professionalism will enter the education and research area of India automatically. He feels that this essential spirit is now largely lacking and that it is the chief cause of the present sluggishness in our R&D sectors. It is in this spirit that he has written his most recent book "Bharat: India 2.0" which describes India as a civilisational state where the concept of dharma needs to be explicitly invoked in the constitution and where the full diversity of the country is optimally showcased. In talks he praises the visions of Savarkar, speaks against the separation of Pakistan from British India.

ISI Ratings
His has written four books. His first (single author) book on crystal engineering (1989) has around 4000 cites. His second book (co-authored with Thomas Steiner in 1999) on the weak hydrogen bond has around 7500 cites. His third book is a textbook on crystal engineering (2010) and is co-authored with J. J. Vittal and A. Ramanan. His 1995 review in Angewandte Chemie has been cited more than 5000 times and is the paper with the second largest number of citations from India. Seven of his 479 publications have been cited 1000 or more times, 14 over 500, 41 over 200, and 81 over 100. As of July 2022, he has an h-index of 102 in Web of Science and this makes him the second most highly cited scientist in India, and the one with the highest m-index. His fourth book Bharat: India 2.0 (2022), the first non-scientific one, is referred to above.

References and notes

External links

 Desiraju Homepage

1952 births
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Science
Indian crystallographers
TWAS laureates
Indian chemists
Indian scientists
Living people
Telugu people


Divyamani (pronounced , meaning the divine gem) is a rāgam in the 72 melakarta rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is the 48th in the series. It is called Jeevantika or Jeevantini in Muthuswami Dikshitar school of Carnatic music.

Structure and Lakshana

It is the 6th rāgam in the 8th chakra Vasu. The mnemonic name is Vasu-Sha. The mnemonic phrase is sa ra gi mi pa dhu nu. Its  structure (ascending and descending scale) is as follows (see swaras in Carnatic music for details on below notation and terms):
:
:
(the notes used in this scale are shuddha rishabham, sadharana gandharam, prati madhyamam, shatsruthi dhaivatham, kakali nishadham)

As it is a melakarta rāgam, by definition it is a sampoorna rāgam (has all seven notes in ascending and descending scale). It is the prati madhyamam equivalent of Roopavati, which is the 12th melakarta.

Janya rāgams
Divyamani has a few minor janya rāgams (derived scales) associated with it. See List of janya rāgams for all rāgams associated with Divyamani.

Compositions
A few compositions set to Divyamani are:

Leela ganu joochi by Thyagaraja
Appa muruga by Koteeswara Iyer

Related rāgams
This section covers the theoretical and scientific aspect of this rāgam.

Divyamani's notes when shifted using Graha bhedam, yields no other melakarta rāgam.

Notes

References

Melakarta ragas


Kang Ji-min (, born 28 January 1980) is a South Korean professional golfer who plays primarily on the LPGA Tour.

Kang had a distinguished amateur career including finishing runner-up in 1999 U.S. Women's Amateur. She attended Arizona State University. She turned professional in 2002.

Kang played on the Futures Tour from 2002 to 2004, winning three times. In 2004, she won the Player of the Year honors and the money list title to earn her LPGA Tour card for 2005.

Kang won the 2005 LPGA Corning Classic, which included a hole-in-one at the short 15th hole in the final round.

In 2013, Kang was forced to take time off from golf after her immune system shut down and played the 2014 on the LPGA Tour and 2015 seasons on the Symetra Tour. She returned to Arizona State for her degree and earned her LPGA teaching certification in 2018. Kang qualified for the 2019 Women's PGA Championship via a qualifying tournament reserved for LPGA teaching and club professionals and finished T78, the only one to make the cut.

Professional wins (7)

LPGA Tour wins (2)

Symetra Tour wins (4)
2002 M&T Bank Loretto Futures Golf Classic
2004 Greater Tampa Duramed Futures Classic, Betty Puskar Golf Classic
2015 Mission Health Wellness Classic, Decatur-Forsyth Classic (unofficial, shortened to 18 holes)

Results in LPGA majors
Results not in chronological order before 2019.

^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
* The Evian Championship became an LPGA major in 2013.

CUT = missed the half-way cut.
WD = withdrew
"T" = tied

Summary

Most consecutive cuts made – 4 (2007 ANA - 2007 British)
Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (twice)

References

External links

Jimin Kang at 2009 U.S. Women's Open (archived)

South Korean female golfers
LPGA Tour golfers
Golfers from Scottsdale, Arizona
1980 births
Living people


Sheringham High School is a secondary school and sixth form located in the town of Sheringham in the English county of Norfolk. The school has around 700 students, usually including between 160 and 180 in the sixth form centre. It shares a campus with Sheringham Primary School and Sheringham Woodfields School. The headteacher is Alistair Ogle.

History
The school takes students from primary schools in Sheringham, Kelling and Holt. It has a specialism in the arts, and is a member of the Microsoft IT Academy programme.

On 1 November 2011 the school became an academy.

Curriculum
Virtually all maintained schools and academies follow the National Curriculum, and are inspected by Ofsted on how well they succeed in delivering a 'broad and balanced curriculum'. The school has to decide whether Key Stage 3 contains years 7, 8 and 9, or whether year 9 should be in Key Stage 4 and the students in that year just study subjects that will be examined by the GCSE exams at 16. Sheringham had decided to take the latter approach.

The timetable is planned a 50 period fortnight.
Key Stage 3
In 2019,  Key Stage 3 students studied:

Key Stage 4
Students study a core curriculum with German or French, History or Geography and two optional subjects selected from a short list.

Ofsted Inspections
In 2012 Ofsted carried out an interim assessment of the school and confirmed the previous judgement of Good. In 2014 it was inspected again and judged Good.

Houses
Sheringham High School has four houses named after famous Norfolk people. Carter house named after adventurer Howard Carter, Cavell named after nurse Edith Cavell, Nelson after Lord Admiral Nelson and Sewell after author Anna Sewell.

Media coverage
In Spring 2009, Sheringham High School was featured in the Channel 4 series entitled "The Sex education show VS Pornography" hosted by Anna Richardson.

References

External links
 Sheringham High School website

High School
Secondary schools in Norfolk
Academies in Norfolk


Merise () is a general-purpose modeling methodology in the field of information systems development, software engineering and project management. First introduced in the early 1980s, it was widely used in France, and was developed and refined to the point where most large French governmental, commercial and industrial organizations had adopted it as their standard methodology.

Merise proceeds to separate treatment of data and processes, where the data-oriented view is modelled in three stages, from conceptual, logical through to physical. Similarly, the process-oriented view passes through the three stages of conceptual, organizational and operational. These stages in the modelling process are paralleled by the stages of the life cycle: strategic planning, preliminary study, detailed study, development, implementation and maintenance. It is a method of analysis based on the entity-relationship model. By using Merise, you can design tables with relations to make a relational database.

See also
 SSADM
 UML
 Entity-relationship model

References
 D. Avison, "MERISE: A European Methodology for Developing Information Systems", European Journal of Information Systems, Jan. 1991, p. 183‑191
 Quang, P.T., Chartier-Kastler, C. (1991), Merise in Practice, translated by D. E. and M. A. Avison Macmillan, Basingstoke, .
 René Coletti, Arnold Rochfeld, Hubert Tardieu, La methode MERISE: Principes et outils (Paperback - 1983)
 Frédéric LE, Yves Tabourier, Hubert Tardieu, Actes de la 3ème conférence «Comparative Review of Information System design methodologies - International federation for Information Processing» (CRIS-IFIP, Working Group 8.1), Amsterdam (Hollande), 1986
 Cha Ni Wong, La Fortuna: Prinsipyo ug Teorya
 Jeralgene S. Macabinta: Study of Information Systems, 2008

Software development process


Much of the territory of the modern state of Serbia was part of the Roman Empire and later the Eastern Roman Empire. In particular, the region of Central Serbia was under Roman rule for about 800 years (with interruptions), starting from the 1st century BC, interrupted by the arrival of the Slavs into the Balkans during the 6th century, but continued after fall of the First Bulgarian Empire in the early 11th century and permanently ended with the rise of the Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 12th century. The territories were administratively divided into the provinces of Moesia (later Moesia Superior), Pannonia (later Pannonia Inferior) and Dardania. Moesia Superior roughly corresponds to modern Serbia proper; Pannonia Inferior included the eastern part of Serbia proper; Dardania included the western part of Serbia proper. After its reconquest from the Bulgarians by Emperor Basil II in 1018, it was reorganized into the Theme of Bulgaria.

The Danube River influenced the extension of the Roman Empire; its confluents, such as Sava and Morava, affected the growth of frontier fortresses and towns. Many authors and explorers wrote about traces of the Roman Empire on the Danube coast. One of the localities, Felix Romuliana, was ranked on the list of cultural heritage of UNESCO in July 2007.

The location has been invaded by many peoples over the centuries. The northern Serbian city of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) was among the top 4 cities of the late Roman Empire, serving as its capital during the Tetrarchy.
Contemporary Serbia comprises the classical regions of Moesia, Pannonia, parts of Dalmatia, Dacia and Macedonia.

History

Roman conquest
The Roman Republic conquered the region of Illyria in 168 BC in the aftermath of the Illyrian Wars. "Illyria" was a designation of a roughly defined region of the western Balkans as seen from a Roman perspective, just as Magna Germania is a rough geographic term not delineated by any linguistic or ethnic unity.

The later province of Illyricum was to the west of what is now Serbia.

The Romans conquered parts of Serbia in 167 BC and established the province of Illyricum. What is now central Serbia was conquered in 75 BC when the province of Moesia was established. Srem is conquered by 9 BC and Backa and Banat in 106 AD after the Dacian wars.

The city of Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) was among the top four cities of the late Roman Empire, serving as its capital during the Tetrarchy. Contemporary Serbia comprises the classical regions of Moesia, Pannonia, parts of Dalmatia, Dacia and Macedonia.

The chief towns of Upper Moesia in the Principate were: Naissus (modern Niš),  Viminacium (sometimes called municipium Aelium; modern Kostolac), Singidunum (modern Belgrade), Remesiana (modern Bela Palanka)

Many Roman noblemen and statesmen were born in present-day Serbia, including 17 or 18 Roman Emperors (Vetranio wasn't universally recognized as an emperor, but was proclaimed a caesar).

Byzantine period

The Byzantine era in the history Serbia refers to three distinctive periods. The territory of later Serbia was under control of the Eastern Roman Empire up to the beginning of the 7th century. During that period, emperor Justinian I (527–565) oversaw reinforcement of defensive structures in the region, and founded the city of Justiniana Prima, today a Cultural Heritage of Serbia-listed archeological site (Archaeological Sites of Exceptional Importance). In 535, the city became center of the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima, that had metropolitan jurisdiction over all provinces of the Diocese of Dacia. At the beginning of the 7th century, region was invaded by Avars and Slavs, thus ending the Byzantine rule. From that time, and up to the middle of the 10th century, the region was controlled by the newly created Slavic state - the early medieval Principality of Serbia. In 971–976, Byzantine rule was briefly restored, and Catepanate of Ras was established, but it was short lived. Only after 1018, the territory of Serbia came under the Byzantine rule, and it was included into two themata: the Theme of Serbia and the Theme of Sirmium, that existed until 1071.

Arrival of the Slavs

The Byzantines broadly grouped the numerous Slav tribes into two groups: the Sklavenoi and Antes. Apparently, the Sklavenoi group were based along the middle Danube, whereas the Antes were at the lower Danube, in Scythia Minor. Some, such as Bulgarian scholar Zlatarsky, suggest that the first group settled the western Balkans, whilst offshoots of the Antes settled the eastern regions (roughly speaking). From the Danube, they commenced raiding the Byzantine Empire from the 520s, on an annual basis. They spread about destruction, taking loot and herds of cattle, seizing prisoners and taking fortresses. Often, the Byzantine Empire was stretched defending its rich Asian provinces from Arabs, Persians and Turks. This meant that even numerically small, disorganised early Slavic raids were capable of causing much disruption, but could not capture the larger, fortified cities on the Aegean coast.

The Slavs invaded Balkans during Justinian I rule (527–565), when eventually up to 100,000 Slavs raided Thessalonica. The Western Balkans was settled with Sclaveni (Sklavenoi), the east with Antes.

The Sklavenoi plundered Thrace in 545.
In 551, the Slavs crossed Niš initially headed for Thessalonica, but ended up in Dalmatia. During the 6th and 7th century, Slavic tribes made eight attempts to take Niš and in the final attack in 615 the Slavs took the city.

Menander Protector mentions a King of the Sklavenoi, Daurentius (577-579) that slayed an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he however declined and is reported as saying: "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs [...] so it shall always be for us".

In 577 some 100,000 Slavs poured into Thrace and Illyricum, pillaging cities and settling down.
By the 580s, as the Slav communities on the Danube became larger and more organised, and as the Avars exerted their influence, raids became larger and resulted in permanent settlement. In 586 AD, as many as 100,000 Slav warriors raided Thessaloniki. By 581, many Slavic tribes had settled the land around Thessaloniki, though never taking the city itself, creating a Macedonian Sclavinia. As John of Ephesus tells us in 581: "the accursed people of the Slavs set out and plundered all of Greece, the regions surrounding Thessalonica, and Thrace, taking many towns and castles, laying waste, burning, pillaging, and seizing the whole country." However, John exaggerated the intensity of the Slavic incursions since he was influenced by his confinement in Constantinople from 571 up until 579. Moreover, he perceived the Slavs as God's instrument for punishing the persecutors of the Monophysites. By 586, they managed to raid the western Peloponnese, Attica, Epirus, leaving only the east part of Peloponnese, which was mountainous and inaccessible. In Maurice's Balkan campaigns, the final attempt to restore the northern border was from 591 to 605, when the end of conflicts with Persia allowed Emperor Maurice to transfer units to the north. However he was deposed after a military revolt in 602, and the Danubian frontier collapsed one and a half decades later.

Archaeological evidence in Serbia and Macedonia conclude that the White Serbs may have reached the Balkans earlier than thought, between 550 and 600, as much findings; fibulae and pottery found at Roman forts point at Serb characteristics and thus could have been either part of the Byzantine foedorati or a fraction of the early invading Slavs who upon organizing in their refuge of the Dinarides, formed the ethnogenesis of Serbs and were pardoned by the Byzantine Empire after acknowledging their suzerainty.

Administrative units

Moesia

In ancient geographical sources, Moesia was bounded to the south by the Balkans (Haemus) and Šar mountain (Scardus, Scordus, Scodrus) mountains, to the west by the Drina river (Drinus), on the north by the Danube and on the east by the Euxine (Black Sea). The region was inhabited chiefly by Thracian, Dacian and Illyrian peoples.

The region took its name from the Moesi, a Thraco-Dacian tribe that lived there before the Roman conquest 75 BC-c. 29 BC and formally became a Roman province of that name some years later (by 6 AD).

Cities and towns, in Moesia Superior (at times Macedonia/ Dardania):
Ulpiana (modern Lipljan)
Municipium Dardanicum
Dardapara
Naissus, (modern Nis, Nysus in the Byzantine era)
Theranda (modern Prizren)
Vicianum (modern Vučitrn)
Vindenis
Velanis

Pannonia

The cities and towns in Pannonia, located in modern Serbia, were:
 Acumincum (Stari Slankamen)
 Bassianae (Donji Petrovci)
 Bononia (Banoštor)
 Burgenae (Novi Banovci)
 Cusum (Petrovaradin)
 Rittium (Surduk)
 Singidunum (Beograd)
 Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica)
 Taurunum (Zemun)

Cultures and tribes

See also
List of Greek and Latin place names in Serbia
Illyro-Roman
Thraco-Roman

References

Sources

Serbia
Serbia


Jerry Tersoff is a Research Staff Member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. His work spans diverse topics in the theoretical understanding of surfaces, interfaces, electronic materials, epitaxial growth, and nanoscale devices. Throughout his career, his work has emphasized the use of simple models to understand complex behavior.

Awards and honors
 1988 Peter Mark Memorial award "For innovative approaches to the theoretical understanding of the electronic structure, properties, and measurement of surfaces and interfaces."
 1996 MRS Medal "For seminal contributions to the theory of strain relaxation in thin films."
 1997 Davisson–Germer Prize in Atomic or Surface Physics "For insightful, creative theoretical descriptions of surface phenomenology; particularly of crystal growth dynamics, surface structures and their probes."
 2007 Medard W. Welch Award "For seminal theoretical contributions to the understanding of surfaces, interfaces, thin films and nanostructures of electronic materials."
 2018 National Academy of Engineering "For theoretical contributions to the engineering science of materials growth and modeling, nanoscale electronic devices, and semiconductor interfaces."
 2019 Materials Research Society Von Hippel Award "For advancing the understanding of low-dimensional and nanoscale electronic materials, surfaces and interfaces, through elegant theoretical models that highlight the essential physics controlling growth, structure and electronic properties."

See also
 Bond order potential

References

21st-century American physicists
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)


Uffington railway station (sometimes marked as Uffington Junction) is a former station on the Great Western Main Line. The station was located north-east of the village of Uffington, on the east side of the road between Fernham and Baulking.

In 1864 Uffington became a junction as the Faringdon Railway opened between there and the town of Faringdon. In 1886 the GWR took over the Faringdon Railway.

The station closed in 1964 and the station was demolished the following year,

References

Further reading
 In this omnibus edition of his memoirs, Vaughan describes his time in the early 1960s as a Signalman at Uffington station. Appendices show track layout and signalling.

Disused railway stations in Oxfordshire
Great Western Main Line
Former Great Western Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1864
Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1964
Beeching closures in England


Balmiki Prasad Singh  (born 1 January 1942) was the 14th Governor of Sikkim, India. He is a retired IAS officer and has written books and articles relating to Indian culture, in particular the culture of North-East India. Among his prominent books are Bahudha and the post 9/11 World and The problem of change: a study of North East India.

Education and family background
Singh was born on 1 January 1942 in Begusarai, Bihar. He was educated in a village school and later at the universities of Patna and Oxford. He passed his M.A. in political science from University of Patna in 1960, standing First Class First with record marks and also winning several gold medals. He became a lecturer in the Post-Graduate Department of Political Science at Patna University at the age of nineteen.

Singh hails from a family of activists for Indian independence. His father, Harbansh Narayan Singh was an activist who had participated in the Quit India Movement (1942-1944) and courted imprisonment during this period.

Singh was married to Karuna on 10 March 1961 at Patna while they were in their teens. While B.P. Singh hails from a family of activists (not political leaders), the father of Karuna was Rai Bahadur Ganesh Prasad Rai, who retired as Commissioner in the Government of Bihar.

Singh and Karuna have three children: two daughters, Sumita and Preeti and Rajeev, a son and six grandchildren.

Administrative service
Singh was appointed in 1964 to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).A former IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Singh was posted in North Lakhimpur and Tezpur as a young district officer. He also held the posts of DC, Kamrup from 1973–75 and Home Commissioner, Assam from 1980-82. He had another stint in Assam from 1990-92 before being posted to Union Home Ministry.

Over the past four decades, Shri B.P. Singh has held a variety of important positions within Assam as well as in the Government of India. He was Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forest (1993–95), Culture Secretary (1995–97) and Home Secretary (1997–99) in Government of India. After an incident involving the extension or resignation of the celebrated Indian Police Service officer Kishore Kunal, he was removed from the post of Home Secretary by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was displeased with his conduct and made the Health Secretary. During this tenure, a conflict again arose between Kunal and him when Singh did not grant regional cancer centre status to the charitable Mahavir Cancer Institute  that Kunal had founded. Then Singh was removed again and sent to a World Bank assignment.

B.P. Singh served as Executive Director and Ambassador at the World Bank during 1999-2002 representing India, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and was one of the founder members of the Development Gateway Foundation (DGF) and member, Global Environment Facility (GEF), Washington D.C.

Career
1964  Joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1964. Postings held in the Indian State of Assam during 64-75, Was S.D.O., North-Lakhimpur (1966–68), Joint Secretary appointment (1968–70), Deputy Commissioner, Darrang, Tezpur (1971–72) and Deputy Commissioner, Kamrup, Guwahati (1973–75). Became life Member of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) New Delhi;
1975-79 Deputy Secretary/Director, Ministry of Defence, Government of India, New Delhi;
1980-82 Secretary for all Departments under the Chief Secretary and also Home Secretary, Government of Assam;
1982-84 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellow. Was also member, Assam Planning Board during this period;
1984-89 Joint Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Steel and Mines, New Delhi. Was also Chairman and Managing Director, Hindustan Copper Limited for one year;
1989-90 Queen Elizabeth Fellow, Oxford University, U.K;
1990-92 Agricultural Production Commissioner and Special Commissioner and Special Secretary, Government of Assam, Agriculture. Panchayat and Rural Development, Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Department, Dispur, Guwahati. Was awarded Governor of Assam Gold Medal in 1991 for outstanding service in Assam;
1992-93 Joint Secretary and later Additional Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi. Devised regional planning and Development models in tribal areas;
1993-95 Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi, Chairman of the National Committee on Bio-diversity Conservation. Asia Representative on Ramar Convention on Wetlands, Gland, Switzerland. Director, Indian School of Forest Management, Bhopal for one year. Life Member of the Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development (SPWD), New Delhi;
1995-97 Union Culture Secretary. Became Life Member of the Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) organized global level Golden Jubilee celebrations of India's Independence. Set up National Culture Fund;
1997-99 Union Home Secretary, Secretary, Justice, Government of India and Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Affairs, Government of India. Recipient of Gulzarilal Nanda Award for the year 1998 for outstanding public service in India from the President of India;
1999-99 Union Health Secretary
1999-02 Executive Director, The World Bank and its Affiliates representing India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Founder Member of the Board of Governors of Development Gateway Foundation (DGF) and member, Global Environment Facility (GEF), Washington D.C.;
2003-07 A variety of honorary academic and governmental assignments including (i) Chancellor of the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath (ii) Chief Editor of the South Asia Series on "Perspectives on Economics, Technology and Governnance" Oxford University Press, New York. (iii) Chairman, National Commission for Economically Backward Classes set up by Govt. of India: and (iv) Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow; Was honoured the first Man of Letters Award by the Dalai Lama on 11 June 2003 at New Delhi;
2008-13 Governor of Sikkim; Also President, Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok and Chancellor, Sikkim Manipal University;
2014 onwards B.P.Singh worked on a book "The 21st Century:Geo-politics, Democracy and Peace" being published by Routledge (New York & London, during 2017).      Also working for promotion of science, culture and world peace.
Public speaker: have been accepting speaking assignments on subjects such as Peace, Democracy, Culture, Security, Ecology and Governance, within India and abroad.

Awards and fellowships
He has since been the recipient of several awards and fellowships, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1982–84), Queen Elizabeth Fellowship (1989–90) and Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow (2007–08). He is also a recipient of Gulzari lal Nanda Award for Outstanding public service from the President of India in 1998 and Man of Letters Award from the Dalai Lama in 2003.

As academician and writer
B.P. Singh has authored six books including The Problem of Change-A Study of North-East India (1987); India’s Culture: The State, the Arts and Beyond (1998) and Bahudha and the post-9/11 World (2008), all published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi. He has also published articles and monographs on politics, culture, ecology and public administration. He is Chief Editor of The Millennium Book on New Delhi, OUP (2001).

B.P. Singh has also been Chancellor of the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath for six years and Chief Editor of the South Asia Series on "Perspectives on Economics, Technology and Governance" of Oxford University Press, New York  (2000–06).

List of books authored
 The Problem of Change: A Study of North-East India, Oxford University Press;
 India's Culture: The State, the Arts and Beyond, Oxford University Press;
 Bahudha and the Post 9/11 World with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Oxford University Press;
 The Indian National Congress and Cultural Renaissance, Allied Publishers, New Delhi;
 Threads Woven: Ideals, Principles and Administration, Allied Publishers, New Delhi;
 Our India, NCERT, New Delhi.

Edited books
 The Millennium Book on New Delhi, Oxford University Press.

Monographs
 The Challenge of Good Governance in India: Need for Innovative Approaches: Paper presented at the International Conference of Global Network of Innovators, organized by Ash Institute and JFK School of Govt, Harvard University, March- April, 2008.
 Would Terrorism become a thing of the past: When and How? Journal of Peace Studies, 2009.
 Repositioning A Heritage: Raj Bhavan Gangtok, Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Sikkim, 2011.
 Democracy, Ecology, and Culture-the Indian Experience, Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

See also
 List of Indian writers

References

Further reading
 Abracadabra Kalahari(2012-03-21). "Sikkim Governor reminisces on Assam".
 "Amid China row, president, PM skip global Buddhist meet". The Times of India. 2011-11-27. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
 Bedabrata Lahkar (2012-03-21). "Sikkim Governor reminisces on Assam". The Assam Tribune. Retrieved 2012-05-15.
 The Problem of Change: A Study of North-East India, Oxford University Press (Authored by B.P. Singh);
 India's Culture: The State, the Arts and Beyond, Oxford University Press (Authored by B.P. Singh);
 Bahudha and the Post 9/11 World with a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Oxford University Press (Authored by B.P. Singh);
 The Indian National Congress and Cultural Renaissance, Allied Publishers, New Delhi (Authored by B.P. Singh);
 Threads Woven: Ideals, Principles and Administration, Allied Publishers, New Delhi (Authored by B.P. Singh);
 Our India, NCERT, New Delhi (Authored by B.P. Singh).

External links

1942 births
Living people
Indian diplomats
Indian civil servants
People from Begusarai
Governors of Sikkim
Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows
National Defence College, India alumni


Blackhorse Quarry is a  geological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Battle in East Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.

This is the Type locality for the Wadhurst Clay Formation Telham Bond Bed, which dates to the Early Cretaceous and is part of the Wealden Group. It has yielded many fossils, including turtles, crocodiles, pterosaurs and dinosaurs.

The site is private land with no public access.

References

Sites of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex
Geological Conservation Review sites


, known professionally as , is a Japanese actor who works primarily in British theatre, films and television.

In recent years, he has had roles in major films such as Revolver, Memoirs of a Geisha,  The Last Samurai, and A Matter of Size.
Additionally, Igawa provides the voices of Professor Moshimo in Robotboy, and Hiro in the Thomas & Friends franchise starting with 2009's Hero of the Rails. Besides these, he also appears in 2011's Johnny English Reborn, the sequel to Johnny English, as English's Tibetan guru and is in the 2012 film Gambit playing businessman Takagawa.

His television roles have included appearances in Lovejoy, Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, The IT Crowd, Torchwood, Casualty, Archer, Doctor Who and The Crown.

Igawa voiced the main villain Colonel Lee in the video game Crysis Warhead and the Yakuza character Jiro in the 2013 video game Payday 2.

Personal life
Igawa lives in England with his wife Adrienne Baba. He became the first Japanese member of The Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986.

Filmography

Film
 Kagirinaku toumei ni chikai blue (1979) as Okinawa
 The Man Who Shot Christmas (1984) as Koji
 Half Moon Street (1986) as Japanese Waiter
 Just like a Woman (1992) as Akira Watanabe
 Incognito (1998) as Agachi
 Eyes Wide Shut (1999) as Japanese Man #1
 The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (1999) as Japanese Scuba Diver
 The Last Samurai (2003) as General Hasegawa
 Code 46 (2004) as a Driver
 Revolver (2005) as Fred
 Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) as Tanaka
 Irish Jam (2006) as Mr. Suzuki
 Speed Racer (2008) as Tetsuo Togokahn
 The Hedgehog (2009) as Kakuro Ozu
 Hero of the Rails (2009) as Hiro (voice)
 A Matter of Size (2009) as Kitano
 Ninja (2009) as Sensei Takeda
 Misty Island Rescue (2010) as Hiro (voice)
 Johnny English Reborn (2011) as Ting Wang
 Gambit (2012) as Takagawa
 King of the Railway (2013) as Hiro (voice)
 47 Ronin (2013) as Tengu Lord (voice)
 Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014) as Old Monk
 Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist (2014) as Gotetsu
 Everly (2014) as Sadist
 The Confessions (2016) as Japanese minister
 Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) as Resistance Bridge Officer
 The Gentlemen (2019) as Wang Yong (Dry Eye's uncle)
 The Host (2020)
 Tetris (2023) as Hiroshi Yamauchi

Television
 Gems (1985–1986) as Mr. Horikoshi/Mr. Jima
 Never the Twain (1988) as Japanese tourist
 Small World (1988) as Prof. Motakazu Umeda
 Forever Green (1989) as Mr. Okisawa
 Screen Two (1989) as Hiroto
 Lovejoy (1992) as Mr. Kashimoto
 Drop the Dead Donkey (1996) as Mishima
 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2005) as Jafar Shin (voice)
 Robotboy (2005–2008) as Professor Moshimo
 The IT Crowd (2006, 2008) as Yamamoto
 Torchwood (2006) as Dr. Tanizaki
 Thomas & Friends (2010–2020) as Hiro (voice)
 Casualty (2014) as Than Sein
 Marco Polo (2014) as Chuluun
 Archer (2015) as Kentaro Sato (voice)
 Doctor Who (2017) as Secretary General
 The Amazing World of Gumball (2017) as Mr Yoshida, Mystical Narrator (voice)
 Doctors (2017) as Akio Tanaka
 Origin (2018) as Eiichi Yagami
 The Crown (2019) as Emperor Hirohito

Video games
 Shogun: Total War (2001) as Narrator
 Perfect Dark Zero (2005) as Zhang Li
 Genji: Days of the Blade (2006) as Musashibo Benkei
 Crysis Warhead (2008) as Colonel Lee
 Payday 2 (2015) as Jiro
 Total War: Shogun 2 (2010, cooperating with Sega and Creative Assembly) as game's narrator
 Evil Genius 2: World Domination (2021) as Jubei
 Wolfstride'' (2020) as Oyabun

References

Living people
Male actors from Tokyo
People from Shibuya
Japanese male film actors
Japanese expatriates in the United Kingdom
20th-century Japanese male actors
21st-century Japanese male actors
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Japanese male stage actors
Japanese male television actors
Japanese male video game actors
Japanese male voice actors
1946 births


The People's Welfare Party or Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (KITA) is a small political party in Malaysia, based in the state of Kelantan.

Founded as AKIM (1995)

The party was formerly known as the Malaysian People Justice Front or Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia when it was founded on 16 February 1995. AKIM was founded as a splinter party of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party in 1995 following internal disagreements by members within the party. A few members from Parti Melayu Semangat 46 also joined the fray following its dissolution in 1996. AKIM contested in the 1999 general elections for the parliamentary seats of Pasir Puteh and Kota Bharu but failed.

In 2008, the party's president, Hanafi Mamat registered itself to participate in the Permatang Pauh by-election, but only managed to catch 92 votes in the election and losing his RM 15,000 deposit in the process. Nevertheless, he hoped that the election could serve as a platform to introduce the party to the nation.

Relaunched as KITA (2011)
On 13 December 2010, AKIM announced that Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has joined its ranks as a party member, with the view of having Zaid lead and revamp AKIM into a viable political party for the coming 13th Malaysian General Elections. The party further explained that Zaid had submitted his membership application to join AKIM in Nov 2010 after his former party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, accepted Zaid's resignation.

During the party's annual general meeting on 15 December 2010, Zaid Ibrahim was elected as the party's new president (later called "Party Chief"), taking over from Zakaria Salleh, the outgoing president of AKIM. The party also announced that it will be adopting a new name, the People's Welfare Party or Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air.

Zaid Ibrahim also announced that KITA would be a multi-racial democratic party open to all races in Malaysia and despite its current small size, aims to make an impact in the country's political scene by focusing on goals for the long haul. Zaid also announced that KITA's official party ideology and principles, including its new constitution, manifesto and logo, will be unveiled in Kuala Lumpur on 18 January 2011.

Zaid Ibrahim sought to dissolve KITA in February 2012, and resigned as its chief later that year due to quarrels within the party.

Presidents/Party Chief

Presidents
 1995–1998: Musa Salih
 1998–1999: Mohd Din Nizam Din (acting)
 1999–2002: Mohammad Yusoff
 2002–2009: Hanafi Mamat
 2009–2010: Zakaria Salleh

Party Chief
 2010–2012: Zaid Ibrahim
 2012–: Masrum Dayat

General election results

See also
:Category:People's Welfare Party (Malaysia) politicians

References

External links
 Zaid Untuk Rakyat

 Parti Kita on Twitter (2011)

Islamic political parties in Malaysia
Political parties established in 1995
Political parties in Malaysia
1995 establishments in Malaysia


David Dallas Taylor (December 15, 1926 – August 11, 1983) was an American murderer who was on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1953.

Background
Taylor had held jobs as a service station attendant, electrician, plumber, autobody repairman, and grill man in restaurants. A career criminal, Taylor had been serving a jail sentence in Jasper, Alabama for grand larceny when he killed an elderly guard to escape; the first of four prison escapes prior to his addition to the most wanted list in 1953. He was a "persuasive talker" with a Southern accent who was always armed with a gun and switchblade.

Escape and capture
Taylor escaped from a train on September 1, 1952 while being transported from Chicago, Illinois back to Alabama following a previous escape, and was added to the list on March 3, 1953. He was captured by FBI agents on May 26, 1953 in Chicago while "caught in a traffic jam".

References

External links
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives by year 1953

1926 births
1983 deaths
American murderers
Fugitives


Alfred Ogden (December 31, 1843 – July 29, 1919) was a political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented Guysborough in the House of Commons of Canada from 1878 to 1882 as a Liberal-Conservative member.

He was born in Port Elgin, New Brunswick, the son of John F. Ogden, of United Empire Loyalist descent, and was educated there. Ogden settled in Cape Canso, Nova Scotia. In 1866, he married Annie Cook. Ogden was unsuccessful in bids for reelection to the House of Commons in 1882 and 1891. He died in Bedford, Nova Scotia at the age of 75.

Electoral record

References

1843 births
1919 deaths
Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs
Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Nova Scotia


The "Famine Song" is a song sung by some Ulster loyalists in Ulster and Scotland and is normally directed at Catholics and, in Scotland, Irish people, those of Irish descent or those with perceived affiliations to Ireland. It is also sung by fans of Scottish football club Rangers due to rival Celtic's Irish roots. Set to the tune of "The John B. Sails" popularised by Carl Sandburg, the lyrics of the song make reference to the 1840s'  Great Famine of Ireland. The song is often heard at loyalist marches in Northern Ireland. "The Famine Song" has received criticism due to the racist and sectarian nature of its lyrics and, in some cases, those singing it have received criminal convictions.

Controversy
The Great Famine in Ireland during the 1840s led the country's population to fall from approximately 8 to 5 million as a result of starvation and emigration. Although the bulk of emigrants moved to North America, large numbers moved to Scotland and England, settling in London, Liverpool and Glasgow. Since then, sectarianism in Glasgow in particular has received much media attention, with its two main football teams being focal points of identity: Celtic drawing large support from the descendants of Irish Catholics, and Rangers from Protestants in Scotland and Ulster (chiefly Northern Ireland and County Donegal).

The song was first sung publicly by Rangers fans at a match at Celtic Park in April 2008. Lex Gold, the Scottish Premier League (SPL) chief executive at the time, said that football clubs could be deducted points if fans continue to sing such songs:
Clubs know they need to be alert and make sure their fans are doing all they can to avoid sectarian or other offensive abuse. The verse of the song that has featured hugely is racist, it's not sectarian as such, it's racist. The rules were structured to help to try to tackle this. You don't start with points deduction. We have a range of sanctions which can be applied.

John Reid, Celtic's chairman, tried to highlight the non-Catholic specific aspects of the famine: "Few of those who sing this song will have stopped to think that famine is non-sectarian and the millions of people who died or were forced into mass emigration – some to Scotland – were from all faiths and traditions within Ireland. The Republic of Ireland's Consul-General approached the Scottish Government regarding the song. A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is totally committed to combating sectarianism and bigotry, which is why we have expanded on the work of the previous administration and are doing more. We are working with the clubs themselves, as they are part of the solution to the problem.

Kenny Scott, Rangers' Head of Security and Operations, said in October 2008 that conversations with the Strathclyde Police made it clear to the club that there was the potential for supporters singing the song to be arrested. In November 2008, a Rangers fan was found guilty of a breach of the peace (aggravated by religious and racial prejudice) for singing the song during a game in Kilmarnock. At his appeal in June 2009, three Scottish judges ruled that the song is racist because it targets people of Irish origin. Rangers have repeatedly asked their fans not to sing the song. A Rangers fans' organisation, the Rangers Supporters' Trust, denied that the song is racist: It instead described the song as a "wind-up" that is designed to mock not the famine itself, but Celtic fans' perceived affiliations with the Republic of Ireland.

In the context of their charitable projects in partnership with Rangers, UNICEF expressed their concern regarding the song and called on the club to ensure it was not sung at their matches.

Legal issues
In the case of William Walls v. the Procurator Fiscal, Kilmarnock, the High Court of Justiciary held on appeal, in an opinion delivered by Lord Carloway, that:

"the song calls upon persons of Irish descent, who are living in Scotland, to go back to the land of their ancestors, namely Ireland [...] they are racist in calling upon people native to Scotland to leave the country because of their racial origins. This is a sentiment which, once more, many persons will find offensive."
Although it was accepted that the song lyrics technically state a fact followed by a question (The famine is over, why dont you go home?), it was deemed that this would reasonably be understood as not only a question but as a suggestion under threat.

The appellant, who was convicted for breach of the peace racially aggravated and aggravated by religious prejudice having sung the Famine Song and made a number of other remarks during a football match, had his appeal denied and his conviction upheld.

See also
Irish diaspora
Irish Scottish people
Old Firm
Sectarianism in Glasgow

References

Association football songs and chants
Immigration to Scotland
Great Famine (Ireland)
Irish diaspora
Racism in Scotland
Racism in association football
Rangers F.C. songs


HMS Mermaid was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Mermaid saw service as a convoy escort during the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of two German submarines while escorting Arctic convoys to and from the Soviet Union.

Mermaid was sold to Federal Republic of Germany in 1959, where she was renamed Scharnhorst and used as a training ship.

Construction
Mermaid, built by William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, Scotland, was laid down on 8 September 1942, launched on 11 November 1943, and completed 12 May 1944.

As with all the modified Black Swans, Mermaids main gun armament was six QF 4 inch Mk XVI anti-aircraft guns in three dual turrets. When completed, this was supplemented by a close-in anti-aircraft outfit of ten Oerlikon 20 mm cannon in three dual and two single mounts, although two twin 40 Bofors guns (in two twin mounts) replaced four of the 20 mm guns. Anti-submarine armament consisted of 110 depth charges and a Hedgehog anti-submarine spigot mortar.

Royal Navy service
Mermaids first operations were as part of the escort for the Arctic convoy JW 59 to Murmansk in August 1944, with it being credited with a part of sinking the U-boat  on 24 August in conjunction with the destroyer , the sloop  and the frigate .  On the return journey from Murmansk, escorting Convoy RA 59A, Mermaid again took part in sinking a German submarine, this time  on 2 September, in conjunction with a Swordfish aircraft operating from the aircraft carrier , the destroyers Keppel and  and the sloop Peacock.

In 1945 Mermaid was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet. However arriving at Aden en route she learned of the Japanese surrender, and of her recall for service with the Mediterranean Fleet as part of the 33rd Escort Flotilla. She received the new pennant number 'F30' and was based in Malta, as part of the 3rd Frigate Flotilla. This Flotilla took part in patrols preventing illegal immigrants following the formation of Israel. In 1953 she returned to Portsmouth and took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1954 she was placed in reserve at Portsmouth.

West German Navy service
In 1957, West Germany purchased seven escorts, including Mermaid for its newly established Bundesmarine. After refit, Mermaid was handed over to the Bundesmarine on 28 May 1959, and was renamed Scharnhorst.  Scharnhorst was used as a gunnery training vessel by the Germans, and was refitted with a more modern gun armament and sensors from June 1961 to July 1962, with two automatic French 100 mm naval guns replacing six manually loaded 4 inch guns, with a short range armament of four Bofors L/70 40 mm guns replacing two 40 mm guns. Scharnhorst was removed from the active list in 1980, and was used for damage control training until broken up in 1990.

References

Publications

External links
  Mermaid at naval-history.net
 Mermaid at U-boat.net

Black Swan-class sloops
Ships built on the River Clyde
1943 ships


Roger Lawrence Bisby (born 16 November 1952) is an English television presenter, journalist and plumber, known for his YouTube channel  Skill Builder and his expertise in the British building industry. He was the building expert on the long-running British consumer affairs television series Watchdog and then later Rogue Traders, both for the BBC.

Biography
Born in the City of London, one of six children to opera singer Charles Yates Bisby and his wife Jean Hazel Bisby, Bisby initially entered the building industry as an apprentice plumber. He went on to train as a college lecturer, and has also run his own building company for nearly 30 years.

Media career
In the last 30 years, Bisby has had a media career in many different areas. He has written articles and reviews for magazines and newspapers, had a series of DIY books published, appeared in television programmes, hosted radio shows, and more recently he has written a blog and started podcasting.

Publishing
Bisby entered journalism after sending an unsolicited article to a local paper as a PR exercise for his building company. Bisby worked on several building trade publications for Hamerville Publishing including Professional Builder magazine (for which he has been Products Editor for 16 years), Professional Electrician, Professional Heating and Plumbing Installer, and Professional Housebuilder and Property Developer. He has now left the print medium to concentrate on video production.

Published books include:

 Marshall Cavendish DIY guides
 Reader's Digest DIY Encyclopaedia
 Fix It DIY
 Here’s How
 The Knack
 Plumbing and Central Heating, Hamlyn Practical DIY Guides
 B&Q Best Way To Do It series

Radio
Bisby was the expert on LBC's Fix It Phone In which remained one of their most popular shows throughout its 15 years of broadcast. Bisby has also made guest appearances on talkSPORT, local BBC Radio and Capital FM.Radio 4 and Radio 2

Television
His television work includes appearances as the resident expert on The Terrace (BBC), Watchdog (BBC), Rogue Traders (BBC) and Dirty Tricks of the Tradesmen (BBC).

Television appearances:

 This Morning with Richard and Judy (ITV) - DIY Phone In
 Good Morning with Anne and Nick (ITV) - DIY projects
 Granada Television - DIY programmes
 Watchdog (BBC) - resident building expert
 Rogue Traders (BBC) - resident plumbing and heating expert
 House of Horrors (ITV) - resident building expert
 The Terrace (BBC) - resident building expert
 BBC News - building industry pundit
 Sky News - plumbing and heating expert
 Dirty Tricks of the Tradesmen (BBC) - acting rogue tradesman

Corporate
Since 1992, Bisby has been involved in the production of corporate media as a writer, voiceover artist, presenter, advisor and producer.
Corporate work:

 Worcester Bosch Group - Energy House, Boiler Installation Guides and Guide to Energy Efficiency
 Wedi - Tile Backer and Fundo
 Stanley Tools - Range Overview
 Jeyes - Cleaning up in the Garden
 Marshalls Paving - Range Guide
 Alpha Tape - Alfa Tape Live Demonstration
 Titan - Installing the Ecosafe
 NuHeat Underfloor Heating - Installation Guide
 DeWalt Powertools - Range Overview
 Bosch Power tools - Getting the Job Done

Internet
More recently, Bisby has moved into New Media with his Self Build and DIY website and YouTube Channel Skill Builder, which he co-developed with Colchester-based production company Motion.

Personal life
Bisby enjoys cycling (at the age of 13 he cycled around Britain), travel, running and rock climbing. He also gets involved in environmental clean-ups.

References

External links

www.skill-builder.uk - Skill Builder website
youtube.com/skillbuilderchannel - Skill Builder YouTube channel
www.switchonmk.com - Switch on to MK Podcast

English television presenters
English male journalists
English radio presenters
People from Reigate
1952 births
Living people


Donald James Tarr (11 March 1910 – 4 June 1980) was a Welsh international hooker who played club rugby for Swansea and Cardiff, county rugby for Hampshire and invitational rugby for the Barbarians. Tarr was a career naval officer, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy.

Rugby career
Tarr began his rugby career as a school boy, representing the Welsh Secondary Schools team. In the 1927 secondary school game against France, Tarr was one of seven Welsh players that would later represent their country at senior level. Tarr joined Cardiff in 1931 and soon found himself in the squad to face the touring South African team. In 1933 Tarr joined Swansea alongside one of his school boys teammates, Claude Davey, and both lined up for Swansea against the touring New Zealand team in 1935. Both men were last minute substitutes, as Tarr was a replacement for the injured Tom Day and Davey was brought from Sale to cover for Idwal Rees. When Swansea beat the All Blacks, they became the first club team to beat all three major Southern Hemisphere teams. Tarr would face the same touring All Blacks another two times at club level; the Combined Services team at Aldershot and a joint Hampshire/Sussex county team.

Later in 1935, Tarr was selected to face the same touring New Zealand team, but this time for Wales. This was Tarr's one and only cap for the senior team because of an injury so serious that rugby journalist Huw Richards would say in 2010 that Tarr "probably came closer to dying on the pitch than anyone else ever has in an international match." With ten minutes of the match remaining, a loose scrum broke up to reveal Tarr laying motionless on the ground, and the referee, Cyril Gadney, called for a stretcher. Gadney ensured no-one moved Tarr before medical aid arrived and Tarr was lifted still face down onto the stretcher and was removed from the pitch. This action is thought to have saved his life as Tarr had suffered a broken neck. Although Wales were 12-10 down at the time, and now a man light, they recovered strongly and after Rees-Jones scored a try, Idwal Rees kept a strong defence to allow Wales a 13–12 victory.

Tarr's injury kept him from ever playing again for Wales, although he is recorded to have played one match post-injury for Ammanford. In a coincidence, his opposite number at hooker in his only appearance for Wales, Bill Hadley, was born on the same day as Tarr.

International matches played
Wales
  1935

Bibliography

References

1910 births
1980 deaths
Ammanford RFC players
Barbarian F.C. players
Cardiff RFC players
People educated at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman
Royal Navy officers
Rugby union hookers
Rugby union players from Carmarthenshire
Swansea RFC players
Wales international rugby union players
Welsh rugby union players


Stephen Edward Whitaker (born May 7, 1943) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder. He played from 1966 to 1970 for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots and San Francisco Giants. Whitaker was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1962, and made his major league debut with the Yankees on August 23, 1966, going 1-for-4 in a 1–0 loss against the California Angels. In 1967, he played his first full season in the majors, batting .243 with 11 home runs and 50 RBI in 122 games with the Yankees.

After the 1968 season, he was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft. Whitaker was traded by the Royals, along with John Gelnar to the Pilots for Lou Piniella at the end of spring training 1969. He split the 1969 season between the majors and minors, batting .250 with six home runs and 13 RBI in 69 games with the Pilots.

On December 12, 1969, Whitaker was traded to the San Francisco Giants alongside Dick Simpson in exchange for Bob Bolin. In his final major league action, he hit .111 (3-for-27) while driving in four runs.

Following his playing career, Whitaker became a real estate broker along with his son, Chad. Chad was drafted in the third round of the 1995 MLB draft by the Cleveland Indians, and played in their minor league system until 2001.

References

External links

1943 births
Living people
Arizona Instructional League Pilots players
Baseball players from Tacoma, Washington
Columbus Confederate Yankees players
Florida Instructional League Yankees players
Fort Lauderdale Yankees players
Gold Coast Suns (baseball) players
Greensboro Yankees players
Hawaii Islanders players
Idaho Falls Yankees players
Major League Baseball outfielders
New York Yankees players
Phoenix Giants players
San Francisco Giants players
Seattle Pilots players
Shelby Colonels players
Toledo Mud Hens players
Vancouver Mounties players


The Colonel Robert A. Smith Monument, located in Hart County, Kentucky, is a monument related to the American Civil War, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was built in the memory of Colonel Robert A. Smith and the members of the 10th Mississippi Infantry Regiment who died in the service of the Confederate States of America on September 14, 1862, at the Battle of Munfordville.

Description
The monument is a 25-foot-tall, white Gothic limestone obelisk weighing 35 tons and built in 1884 by Colonel Smith's brother. It is believed that Cleopatra's Needle is the only larger single-stone work in the United States.  On private property far from a road, it is just east of CSX railroad tracks, and just south of a bridge across the Green River.  A cast iron fence forms a perimeter 250 feet away from the monument.  To the east of the monument are six smaller marble monuments each dedicated to a separate Mississippi Regiment—the 7th, 9th, 10th, 29th, and 44th.  Soldiers were interred by the monument.

The inscription reads: South 42' west and ninety poles distant is the place of The Sacrifice of Col. Robert A. Smith and his regiment the Tenth Mississippi on Sept. 14, 1862.

History
On September 14, 1862, Edinburgh (Scotland)-born Colonel Smith was ordered to capture a vital bridge during the Battle of Munfordville.  After three hours of combat, Confederate losses were 40 dead and 211 wounded.  Smith himself was mortally wounded and in great pain until he died several days later. Members of the Smith family long believed that Smith was ordered to lead the charge by his superior, Brigadier General James R. Chalmers, who felt that Smith would eventually rise in rank and become a threat to his promotion. Chalmers did in fact order the attack on his own initiative. Smith was buried in Jackson, Mississippi.

When Robert Smith's brother James immigrated to America from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1886, he searched for the place brother died. James decided to build a monument to honor his brother, buying the land and spending $4,000 on the monument itself.  It was built by Oman & Stewart of Nashville, Tennessee, using limestone quarried from Bowling Green, Kentucky.

On July 17, 1997, it was one of sixty different monuments to the Civil War in Kentucky placed on the National Register of Historic Places, as part of the Civil War Monuments of Kentucky Multiple Property Submission.

There is another monument to Colonel Robert A. Smith in Edinburgh, where he was born, in the large Victorian Dean Cemetery. The name and date of the battle on the monument is correct, however the name of the town is misspelled as Mumfordsville instead of Munfordville.

References

Woodsonville, KY Includes color photo of the monument

Civil War Monuments of Kentucky MPS
Confederate States of America monuments and memorials in Kentucky
Limestone sculptures in Kentucky
Mississippi in the American Civil War
Obelisks in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Hart County, Kentucky
1884 sculptures
1884 establishments in Kentucky


Lal Narayan Sinha was  a lawyer who served as the Attorney General of India between 9 August 1979 and 8 August 1983, and as the Solicitor General of India from 17 July 1972 until 5 April 1977. He was educated at Patna Law College, Patna University.

Sinha was the first Attorney General to represent a private party during their term in office. Before becoming the Solicitor General of India, he was the Advocate General of Bihar for several years.

Family and early life
His son Lalit Mohan Sharma became the Chief Justice of India. His grandson Justice Partha Sarthy currently serves as a Judge in the Patna High Court.

References

20th-century Indian lawyers
India
Solicitors General of India
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
People from Gaya district
Senior Advocates in India


The Wizards Project was a research project at the University of California, San Francisco led by Paul Ekman and Maureen O'Sullivan that studied the ability of people to detect lies. The experts identified in their study were called "Truth Wizards". O'Sullivan spent more than 20 years studying the science of lying and deceit. The project was originally named the Diogenes Project, after Diogenes of Sinope, the Greek philosopher who would look into people's faces using a lamp, claiming to be looking for an honest man.

Synopsis
The project defined a "Truth Wizard" as a person identified who can identify deception with accuracy of at least 80%, whereas the average person rates around 50%.  No Truth Wizard was 100% accurate.  "Wizard" is used to mean "a person of amazing skill or accomplishment."

O'Sullivan and Ekman identified only 50 people as Truth Wizards after testing 20,000 (~0.25%) from all walks of life, including the Secret Service, FBI, sheriffs, police, attorneys, arbitrators, psychologists, students, and many others. Surprisingly, while psychiatrists and law enforcement personnel showed no more aptitude than college freshmen, Secret Service agents were the most skilled.

O'Sullivan remarked, "Our wizards are extraordinarily attuned to detecting the nuances of facial expressions, body language and ways of talking and thinking. Some of them can observe a videotape for a few seconds and amazingly they can describe eight details about the person on the tape."

Scientists are currently studying Truth Wizards to identify new ways to spot a liar.

Truth Wizards use a variety of clues to spot deception and do not depend on any one "clue" to identify a liar.  Truth wizards have a natural knack for spotting microexpressions.  They also home in on inconsistencies in emotion, body language, and the spoken word with amazing skill.

Ekman said on NPR: "We're still trying to find out how in the world did they learn this skill? Are they the sort of Mozarts of lie detection; they just had it?"

Ekman points out that the success rate of Truth Wizards is "without any specialized training," and claims that anyone can be trained to detect microexpressions, one element used by Truth Wizards to spot deception in some case, and has released a training CD to do that.

Controversies

Psychologists Charles F. Bond and Ahmet Uysal of Texas Christian University criticized the methodology used by Ekman and O'Sullivan and suspected the performance of the reported Truth Wizards to be due to chance (a type I error), concluding that "convincing evidence of lie detection wizardry has never been presented." Gary D. Bond from Winston Salem State University later replicated the experiment using a more rigorous protocol and found two people to be exceptionally fast and accurate at lie detection out of 112 law enforcement officers and 122 undergraduate students, a result consistent with Ekman and O'Sullivan's. Both experts at lie detection were female Native American BIA correctional officers.

O'Sullivan responded to Bond and Uysal in "Unicorns or Tiger Woods: are lie detection experts myths or rarities? A response to on lie detection 'wizards' by Bond and Uysal". Bond and Uysal had critiqued a chapter which discussed the initial stages for a research program under way. They commented on two different issues in particular. Firstly, the scores of any "Truth Wizard" may have been a coincidence and secondly, the procedures used for testing does not meet the standards of classical psychometric class theory.  Ekman, Mark Frank and O'Sullivan also published "Reply scoring and reporting: A response to Bond (2008)".

In addition, the methods employed by the original researchers have also come under criticism, with suggestion that methodological techniques and particular results have not been published fully.

In popular culture

Ekman's work is the inspiration for the Fox TV series Lie to Me (2009–2011). One of the show's main characters, Ria Torres, is a "natural", that is, a Truth Wizard.

References

External links
 Lying and Deceit: The Wizards Project
  Scientists Pick Out Human Lie Detectors, nbcnews.com

Psychology experiments
Giftedness
Lie detection


Denford Magora was born in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is a novelist, playwright, analyst, advertising/marketing professional, politician and spokesman for Simba Makoni, presidential candidate in the Zimbabwe elections held in March 2008.

Writing career
Magora first became known in the early 1990s after his play, Dr Government, was banned by the government of Robert Mugabe. Magora himself was harassed by state security agents and this eventually led him to move to the United Kingdom, where he wrote the novel Dancing Under A Stormcloud, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. He is also a columnist with The Financial Gazette, writes analysis and opinion articles for the Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard and the Mail & Guardian of South Africa. He maintains a blog on which he writes news, opinion and analysis articles on Zimbabwe.

Political career
Magora's political career seems to have started seriously with his involvement in the campaign of Simba Makoni, when he was appointed spokesman and frequently commented on the presidential elections of March 2008. Prior to this, he did not identify with any political party, but was often criticised by readers of his articles for his criticism of Morgan Tsvangirai, the main opposition leader in Zimbabwe who beat Mugabe in March 2008 but failed to get enough votes to take office.

References

Zimbabwean writers
Living people
People from Harare
Year of birth missing (living people)


S. A. Rajkumar is an Indian composer and lyricist. He has made music for all South Indian language films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada.

Early life
Rajkumar's father was a vocalist performing in stage shows conducted by popular music directors such as Ilayaraja, Gangai Amaren, Deva among others. Rajkumar admired his father's musical career and developed an interest in music. It was his mother who encouraged his father to make him join music classes. Rajkumar underwent classical music training under the guidance of Subbaiah Bhagavathar for 3 years.

Career
After completion of his music training, Rajkumar started to organize musical shows on his own and was in search for film opportunities. Come 1987 and director duo Robert–Rajasekar gave him his first major breakthrough by signing him as the music composer for their film Chinna Poove Mella Pesu . Since then, Rajkumar has composed music for over hundred films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada language films. His compositions for the films such as Pudhu Vasantham (1990), Shruthi (1990), Poove Unakkaga (1996), Surya Vamsam (1997),  Aval Varuvala (1998), Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (1998), Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), Raja (1999), Vaanathaippola (2000), Vasantam (2000) and  Priyamaana Thozhi (2003) have all been blockbuster musical hits.

Awards
 1990 – Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil – Pudhu Vasantham
 1990 – Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Kannada – Shruthi
 1999 – Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Telugu – Raja
 1997 – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director – Suryavamsam

Filmography

Tamil cinema

Telugu cinema

Kannada cinema
 Shruthi (1990) Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Kannada
 Gowri Kalyana (1991)
 Maduve(1997)
 Jodi (2001)
 Chandra Chakori (2003)
 Rama Krishna (2004)
 Kanchana Ganga (2004)
 Jyeshta (2004)
 Gowramma (2005)
 Love Story (2005)
 Sirivantha (2006)
 Thandege Thakka Maga (2006)
 Sevanthi Sevanthi (2006)
 Thayiya Madilu (2007)
 Preethigagi (2007)
 Gokula Krishna (2012)

Malayalam cinema
 Vesham (2004)
 Villali Veeran (2014)

Television
 2010 Kodi Mullai

Onscreen appearances
Pudhu Varusham (1992) – guest role in song "Ovvorthanum Kaadhalikkiren"
Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (1998) – himself in song "Vaanambadiyin Vaazhvile"
Endrendrum Kadhal (1999) – himself in song "Nadodi Nanba"
Ennavale (2000) – himself
Priyamanavale (2000) – himself

Singer

References

External links

Musicians from Chennai
Kannada film score composers
Living people
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
Filmfare Awards South winners
Tamil film score composers
Telugu film score composers
1964 births


The flag of the City of Nelson represents Nelson, New Zealand. The flag is flown from many public buildings and other landmarks in Nelson including Christ Church Cathedral. It is also intended for public use and is often seen flying from private residences in the city.

The flag was designed and commissioned by the City of Nelson Civic Trust and was adopted as the city's civic flag by the Nelson City Council in 1987.

Design
The flag is based on the City of Nelson's coat of arms. The top third of the flag is blue, a colour strongly associated with Nelson including use by many sports teams. The bottom two thirds consist of alternating blue and white horizontal wavy stripes, which represent Nelson's relationship to the sea. Emblazoned upon the striped section is a black cross flory, taken from the arms of Lord Nelson. Above the cross, upon the blue section is a mitre with fringed lappets flowing from either side, for Nelson has been the seat of the bishop of Nelson since 1858.

References

See also
List of New Zealand flags

Politics of Nelson, New Zealand
Nelson
Nelson
Nelson
Nelson


Lalit Mohan Sharma (12 February 1928 – 3 November 2008) was the 24th Chief Justice of India. He was the son of L.N. Sinha, former Attorney General of India. He served as Chief Justice of India from 18 November 1992 until 11 February 1993.

Legal career
Passed B.A. Hons. (Patna University ) in 1946. Passed B.L. (Patna University) in 1948. Enrolled as articled clerk in High Court, Patna in 1949. Started practice in High Court, Patna as an Advocate – 6 Feb. 1950. Enrolled as Supreme Court Advocate – 6 March 1957. Later nominated as Senior Advocate. Took charge (oath) as Judge, Patna High Court on 12 April 1973.

He joined the Supreme Court of India on 5 October 1987 and appointed as Chief Justice of India on 18 November 1992.

He retired from the judicial service on 11 Feb. 1993.

Family and early life
Lalit Mohan Sharma was born on 12 February 1928 in the village of Musi (Belaganj, Gaya, Bihar) in a zameendar family. His father, Lal Narayan Sinha, was the Attorney General of India during the Prime Minister-ship of Indira Gandhi and Solicitor General of India from 17 July 1972 until 5 April 1977. His son, Justice Parthasarthy currently serves as a Judge in the Patna High Court.

Death

Sharma died on 3 November 2008 in Patna at his residence following a long illness. He was 80 years old. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

References

External links
 Biography

1928 births
2008 deaths
Chief justices of India
Bihari politicians
Patna University alumni
Politicians from Patna
20th-century Indian lawyers
People from Gaya, India
20th-century Indian judges


John Zenevisi or Gjon Zenebishi ( or Gjin Zenebishi; died 1418) was an Albanian magnate that held the estates in Epirus, such as Gjirokastër and Vagenetia.

Name
Zenevisi can be found with different spellings in historical documents. His name in modern English is usually John Zenevisi or John Sarbissa. In Italian, his name was spelled as Giovanni Sarbissa. In Albanian, his name is mostly spelled as Gjin Zenebishi (less commonly as Zenebishti), his given name scarcely spelled Gjon, as well.
The Zenebishi family was from the Zagoria region, between Përmet and Gjirokastër.

In 1381 and 1384, the Catholic lords of Arta asked the Ottoman troops for protection against the invading Albanian clan of the Zenebishi; the Ottomans routed the raiders and restored order in Epirus. Zenebishi submitted to the Ottomans after their victory against Balša II in the Battle of Savra in 1385, and gave them his son as a hostage to be sent to Edirne to the court of the sultan (this son became known as Hamza, an Ottoman official). Shortly after his submission, Zenebishi revolted and seized the fortress of Gjirokastër, encouraged no doubt by the attack on Ioannina by the Albanians of Acarnania. In 1386 he titled himself with the Byzantine title of sevastokrator.

Zenebishi was married Irene, the daughter of Gjin Bua Shpata, Despot of Arta, and thus became the son-in-law of Shpata and the brother-in-law of the wife of Esau de' Buondelmonti Despot of Epiros. In 1399 Esau, supported by some Albanian clans, marched against his wife's brother-in-law Gjon Zenebishi of Gjirokastër. Now Esau was routed and captured, and much of his land was occupied by Zenebishi. The neighbouring magnates determined to restore the captured despotes and secured Venetian intercession in his favour. Esau returned to Ioannina in 1400, regaining the reign from Zenebishi. In 1402, Esau divorced Irene Shpata and married Jevdokija Balšić, the sister of Konstantin Balšić, a leading Ottoman official in northern Albania. After Esau's death (February 6, 1411), his wife Jevdokija tried to take control of Ioannina, but the town exiled her and appointed Esau's nephew, Carlo Tocco, as lord (he arrived on April 1, 1411).

In 1412 Muriq Shpata and Zenebishi (who was the leader of the most powerful tribe in the vicinity of Ioannina) formed an alliance against Carlo Tocco. They won an open-field battle against Tocco in 1412, but were unable to take over Ioannina. Tocco relied on support from the local Greeks. In 1414, Muriq Shpata died, and Zenebishi was defeated by the Ottomans and fled to the Venetian island of Corfu where he died in 1418.

Aftermath
In the same year the Ottomans, after a prolonged siege, took Gjirokastër. Zenebishi's son, Thopia Zenebishi fled to Corfu. He landed again on the mainland and laid siege to Gjirokastër in 1434, but was killed in battle with a reinforcing Ottoman army in 1436.

Titles
Lord (signore) of Makasi (1382)
sevastokrator of Vagenetia and lord of Argyrokastron and Paracalo (after 1386).

Descendants
Zenebishi's descendants continued to live undisturbed in the mountains of Zagoria and eventually faded into history. In 1455, a certain Simon Zenebishi, who was the lord of Kastrovillari (Castro i Vivarit near Butrint) was active at the court of the king of Naples and Aragon on behalf of Skanderbeg in order to gain back Napolitan support for his land in Albania. In 1455, Venice, the only power to support his claim, reminded him of his pledge of allegiance to them but was not able to change his political orientation, i.e. his ties with Naples. A son of this Zenebishi was also a hostage at the court of the Sultan, this time of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, but fled to Naples where King Alphonso had him baptized and made him his vassal. The fate of this Alfonso Zenebishi was to be closely linked to that of Skanderbeg.

Zenebishi Family
Gjon married a daughter of Gjin Bua Shpata, whose name is unknown. They had the following children:

 A1. Anna ("Kyrianna"), Lady of Grabossa; married Andrea III Musachi (fl. 1419)
 A2. Maria, +after 1419; married Perotto d'Altavilla, the Baron of Corfu (+1445)
 A3. Thopia Zenebishi ("Depas", d. 1435), Lord of Gjirokastër (1418–34), deposed by the Ottomans
 B1. Simone Zenebishi, Lord of the Strovilo (1443–61), deposed by the Ottomans
 C1. Alfonso (fl. 1456), an Ottoman political hostage who fled to Naples and became a Napolitan vassal
 C2. Alessandro ("Lech"), Lord of Strovilo which he then sold to Venice in 1473
 C3. Filippo, served Alessandro
 A4. Hamza Zenebishi ("Amos", fl. 1456–60), an Ottoman political hostage, he was converted into Islam and entered Ottoman service. In 1460 he became a sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Mezistre.
 A5. Hasan Zenebishi, subaşi in Tetovo in 1455

Legacy
The Kardhiq Castle was built by Gjon Zenebishi

See also
 Albanian principalities
 History of Albania

References

Works cited

John
John
1418 deaths
14th-century Albanian people
15th-century Albanian people
Year of birth unknown


Maurice William "Maury" Uhler (December 14, 1886 – May 4, 1918) was a Major League Baseball outfielder who played in  with the Cincinnati Reds. He batted and threw right-handed. Uhler had a .214 batting average in 46 games in his one-year career.

He was born in Pikesville, Maryland, and died in Baltimore, Maryland.

External links

1886 births
1918 deaths
Major League Baseball outfielders
Baseball players from Baltimore County, Maryland
Cincinnati Reds players
People from Pikesville, Maryland


Steinkjer-Avisa is a weekly, local newspaper published in Steinkjer, Norway. In 2007, it had a circulation of 3,917, and was published each Friday.

The newspaper was founded in 1984 by Lothar Viem. In 1999, the Viem family sold to the other Steinkjer newspaper, Trønder-Avisa, but retains its own editor, offices, employees and board of directors.

References

Weekly newspapers published in Norway
Newspapers established in 1984
Companies based in Steinkjer
Mass media in Trøndelag
1984 establishments in Norway


Vedda is an endangered language that is used by the indigenous Vedda people of Sri Lanka. Additionally, communities such as Coast Veddas and Anuradhapura Veddas who do not strictly identify as Veddas also use words from the Vedda language in part for communication during hunting and/or for religious chants, throughout the island.

When a systematic field study was conducted in 1959, the language was confined to the older generation of Veddas from Dambana. In the 1990s, self-identifying Veddas knew few words and phrases in Vedda, but there were individuals who knew the language comprehensively. Initially there was considerable debate amongst linguists as to whether Vedda is a dialect of Sinhalese or an independent language. Later studies indicate that the language spoken by today's Veddas is a creole which evolved from ancient times, when the Veddas came into contact with the early Sinhalese, from whom they increasingly borrowed words and synthetic features, yielding the cumulative effect that Vedda resembles Sinhalese in many particulars, but its grammatical core remains intact.

The parent Vedda language(s) is of unknown linguistic origins, while Sinhalese is part of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. Phonologically, Vedda is distinguished from Sinhalese by the higher frequency of palatal sounds [c] and [ɟ]. The effect is also heightened by the addition of inanimate suffixes. Morphologically, the Vedda word classes are nouns, verbs and invariables, with unique gender distinctions in animate nouns. It has reduced and simplified many forms of Sinhalese such as second person pronouns and denotations of negative meanings. Instead of borrowing new words from Sinhalese or other languages, Vedda creates combinations of words from a limited lexical stock. Vedda maintains many archaic Sinhalese terms from the 10th to 12th centuries, as a relict of its close contact with Sinhalese, while retaining a number of unique words that cannot be derived from Sinhalese. Vedda has exerted a substratum influence in the formation of Sinhalese. This is evident by the presence of both lexical and structural elements in Sinhalese which cannot be traced to either Indo-Aryan or neighboring Dravidian languages.

History

It is unknown which languages were spoken in Sri Lanka before it was settled by Prakrit-speaking immigrants in the 5th century BCE. The term Vedda is a Dravidian word and stems from the Tamil word  meaning 'hunting'. Cognate terms (such as bedar, beda in Kannada) are used throughout South India to describe hunter-gatherers. Sri Lanka has had other hunter-gathering peoples such as the Rodiya and Kinnaraya.

The earliest account of Vedda was written by Ryklof Van Goens (1663–1675), who served as a Director General of the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka. He wrote that the Veddas' language was much closer to Sinhalese than to Tamil. Robert Knox, an Englishman held captive by a Kandyan king, wrote in 1681 that the wild and settled Veddas spoke the language of the Sinhalese people. The Portuguese friar Fernão de Queiroz, who wrote a nuanced description of Vedda in 1686, reported that the language was not mutually intelligible with other native languages.  Robert Percival wrote in 1803 that the Veddas, although seemingly speaking a broken dialect of Sinhalese, amongst themselves spoke a language that was known only to them. But John Davies in 1831 wrote that the Veddas spoke a language that was understood by the Sinhalese except for a few words. These discrepancies in observations were clarified by Charles Pridham, who wrote in 1848 that the Veddas knew a form of Sinhalese that they were able to use in talking to outsiders, but to themselves they spoke in a language that, although influenced by Sinhalese and Tamil, was understood only by them.

The first systematic attempt at studying the Vedda language was undertaken by Hugh Neville, an English civil servant in British Ceylon. He founded The Taprobanian, a quarterly journal devoted to the study of everything Ceylonese. He speculated, based on etymological studies, that Vedda is based on an Old Sinhalese form called Hela.  His views were followed by Henry Parker, another English civil servant and the author of Ancient Ceylon (1909), who wrote that most Vedda words were borrowed from Sinhalese, but he also noted words of unique origin, which he assigned to the original language of the Veddas. The second most important study was made in 1935 by Wilhem Geiger, who also sounded the alarm that Vedda would be soon extinct and needed to be studied in detail. One of the linguists to heed that call was Manniku W. Sugathapala De Silva who did a comprehensive study of the language in 1959 as a PhD thesis, which he published as a book: according to him, the language was restricted to the older generation of people from the Dambana region, with the younger generation shifting to Sinhalese, whereas Coast Veddas were speaking a dialect of Sri Lankan Tamil that is used in the region. During religious festivals, people who enter a trance or spirit possession sometimes use a mixed language that contains words from Vedda. Veddas of the Anuradhapura region speak in Sinhalese, but use Vedda words to denote animals during hunting trips.

Classification

Dialect, creole or independent language
The Vedda community or the indigenous population of Sri Lanka is said to have inhabited the island prior to the arrival of the Aryans in the 5th century B.C. and after the collapse of the dry zone civilization in the 15th century, they have extended their settlements once more in the North Central, Uva and Eastern regions. However, with the entering of the colonization schemes to the island after the 19th century, the Vedda population has shrunk to the Vedi rata or Maha vedi rata. Subsequently, the Vedda language was subjected to hybridisation depending on the geographical locality of the community. For instance, the language of the Veddas living in the North Central and Uva regions was affected by Sinhala, while the language of the coastal Veddas in the East was influenced by the Tamil language. However, there are still many arguments regarding the origin of the Vedda language. Ariesen Ahubudu calls the Vedda language a "dialect of Sinhala", saying that it is a creole language variety derived from Sinhala. According to him, "Veddas belong to the post Vijayan period and they use a language which has its origins in the Sinhala language." He further explains this with an etymological explanation of the term , that evolved from , meaning 'forest, timber'. This became , meaning 'those who live in the forest', which later transformed into .

Creole based on Sinhalese
The language contact that might have occurred between the Aryan immigrants and the aboriginal inhabitants could have led either to a language shift or to the crystallization of a new language through the creation of a pidgin. The first instance could have been in effect in relation to the members of the Vedda community who were absorbed  into the new settlements, while in the second instance the occasional contact of the Veddas with the new settlers would have resulted in the crystallization of a new language instead of the original Vedda language.  The term creole refers to a linguistic medium which has crystallized in a situation of language contact and the process of this crystallization begins as a pidgin. A pidgin is spoken natively by an entire speech community, whose ancestors have been geographically displaced through which a rupture is created in their relationship with their original language. Such situations were often the consequences of slavery and trade that occurred from the 17th to the 19th centuries owing to the process of colonization. As far as the Vedda community is concerned, although the features of a creole are visible in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon, a number of distinctions have been identified between the Vedda language and the classic creolization which occurred during the colonial period. Here it is also important to acknowledge the existence of many issues in relation to the process of creolization that remain unresolved in the domain of linguistics. Therefore, the classification of the Vedda language either as a dialect or as a creole becomes a difficult task, although it is clear that in the current context the Vedda language is not an independent language of its own.  However based on recent studies conducted on the Vedda community, it has been revealed that the Vedda language is on the verge of facing extinction since the younger generation is keen on using Sinhala or Tamil as their first language, being influenced by the dominant language of the region of residence due to an array of reasons including fragmentation of settlements, economic policies, national education structure and political factors of the country.

Grammar
 In Sinhalese, indicative sentences are negated by adding a negative particle to the emphatic form of the verb, whereas in Vedda, the negative particle is added to the infinitive. In Sinhalese, all indicative sentences whether negative or affirmative, exhibit two tenses – past and non past, but in Vedda a three-term tense system is used in affirmative sentences, but not in negative. Sinhalese pronouns have number distinction, but Vedda does not have number distinction. The Vedda verbal and nominal inflexions are similar to Sinhalese but are not identical. Vedda also exhibits a gender classification in inanimate and animate nouns.

Phonology

Although in phonemic inventory Vedda is very similar to Sinhalese, in phonotactics it is very dissimilar to Sinhalese. The usage of palatal plosives ([c] and [ɟ]) is very high in Vedda. Some comparisons:

This effect is heightened by the addition of inanimate suffixes such as ,  or . These suffixes are used in tandem with borrowings from Sinhalese.

These transformations are very similar to what is seen in other Creole languages like Melanesian Pidgin English and Jamaican English Creole. The preponderance of the palatal affricates is explained as a remainder from days when the original Vedda language had a high frequency of such phonemes.

Morphology
Formerly distinct Vedda nouns have two types of suffixes, one for animate and another for inanimate.

Animate nouns
The animate suffixes are  for personal pronouns and  for all other animate nouns and  and  for personified nouns. Examples are
 ('god')
 ('worm')
 ('I' or 'we')
 ('sun')
 ('fire')

These suffixes are also used in singular and plural forms based on the verbal and non-verbal context.

 ('Sir, I killed the elephant though')
 ('When our great-grandmother was walking in the forest there was a child conceived in that one's womb.')

The dependence on verbal (and non-verbal) context for semantic specification, which is accomplished by inflectional devices by natural languages is an indication of a contact language.

Certain words that appear to be from original Vedda language do not have these suffixes; also, animate nouns also have gender distinctions, with small animals treated as feminine (i marker) and larger ones masculine (a marker).
 ('elephant')
 ('deer')
 ('bear')
 ('bear')
 ('buffalo')
 ('bee')
 ('monitor lizard')
 ('bee')
 ('spider')
 ('louse')

Inanimate nouns
Inanimate nouns use suffixes such as  and  with nouns denoting body parts and other suffixes such as , , and . Suffixes are used when the words are borrowed from Sinhalese.
 ('eye')
 ('throat')
 ('street')
 ('coconut')
 ('verse')
 ('fire')

There are number of forms that are from the original Vedda language that lack suffixes such as
 ('axe')
 ('pot')
 ('bush')

Vedda inanimate nouns are formed by borrowing Sinhalese adjectives and adding a suffix.  is the Sinhalese adjective for the noun , whereas the Vedda noun is , where  is a suffix.

Pronouns
Examples of pronouns are  ('I'),  ('you'),  ('there'),  ('where?'). Compared to Sinhalese, which requires five forms to address people based on status, Vedda uses one () irrespective of status. These pronouns are also used in both singular and plural denotations.

Numerals
These are found in definite and indefinite forms, for example  'one' (def.) and  'once' (indef.) They count ,  and . Vedda also reduces the number formations found in Sinhalese.

Negation
Another example of simplification in Vedda is the minimisation of negative meanings found in Sinhalese:

Lexicon
Many Vedda words are directly borrowed from Sinhalese or Tamil via Sinhalese while maintaining words that are not derivable from Sinhalese or its cognate languages from the Indo-Aryan language group. Vedda also exhibits a propensity for paraphrases and it coins words from its limited lexical stock rather than borrowing words from other languages including Sinhalese. For example:

Archaic terms
Vedda maintains in its lexicon archaic Sinhalese words that are no longer in daily usage. These archaic words are attested from classical Sinhalese prose from the 10th century until the 13th century, the purported period of close contact between the original Vedda language(s) and Old Sinhala leading to the development of the creole. Some examples are
 in Vedda means 'sky', but in a 10th-century Sinhalese exegetical work called , it is used in the meaning of 'cloud'.
 in Vedda meaning 'fish' is similar to  found in a 10th-century monastic work called Sikhavalanda.
 in Vedda means 'near' or 'with'. This word is attested in the 12th-century eulogy called Butsarana.
 meaning 'wearing apparel' is similar to the Sinhalese word  found in the 13th century work Ummagga Jatakaya; alternatively  in Tamil is a 'loincloth', a cloth worn by early Veddas.
According to research at the turn of the 20th century by British anthropologists Charles and Brenda Seligman, the use of archaic Sinhalese words in Vedda may have arisen from the need to communicate freely in the presence of Sinhalese speakers without being understood. They claimed that this need encouraged the development of a code internal to the Vedda language that included archaic Sinhalese words (as well as mispronounced and invented words) in order to intentionally obfuscate meaning.

Substratum influence in Sinhalese and contemporary situation
These features place Vedda language as an independent body of language, than a creole variety of Sinhala. Now the Vedda language is fast mingling with Sinhala/Tamil according to the respective neighboring contexts. 'From the Southern Sinhala speaking areas Vedda language gets the Sinhala influence, while from the Northern areas it gets the Tamil influence'. According to Prof. Premakumara De Silva and Asitha G. Punchihewa of the University of Colombo, 'the original language of the Veddas has now become a second language mostly commercialized as a tourist attraction, than a cultural asset'. Their functioning language has become Sinhala/Tamil and those who speak the traditional language now are mostly the older generation. The second generation and the youth are more prone to use Sinhala. There are even those who have very little to no knowledge of the Vedda language. Their language has been a cultural identity of the community for a long time. But now, as the Veddas, especially when the second and third generations mix with the locales, Sinhala/Tamil is the language they choose to communicate. With the use of technology, and as the youth pursue educational facilities more and more, Vedda language gets reduced to the level of an exhibit. A visit to the Dambana Vedda Village will prove how the overall culture of Veddas (i.e. their dresses, equipment, etc.) has changed, and how this is reflected in the language as well.

According to Geiger and Gair, Sinhalese language has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of parent stock of the Vedda language. Sinhalese has many words that are only found in Sinhalese or it is shared between Sinhalese and Vedda and cannot be etymologically derived from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan.  Common examples are  in Sinhalese and Vedda for 'leaf',  in Sinhalese for 'pig' and 'offering' in Vedda. Other common words are  for 'wild duck' and  for 'stones' in toponyms found throughout the island. There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhalese such as  for 'head',  for 'leg',  for 'neck' and  for 'thighs' that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The author of the oldest Sinhalese grammar, Sidatsangarava, written in the 13th century has recognized a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhalese. It lists  ('to see') and  ('ford' or 'harbour') as belonging to an indigenous source.  is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo.

See also
Vedda
Balangoda Man
Fa Hien Cave
Indo-Portuguese creole
Ceylon Portuguese creole
Lists of endangered languages
List of endangered languages in Asia

Notes

References

Cited literature

Definitely endangered languages
Languages of Sri Lanka
Mixed languages
Pidgins and creoles
Sinhala language
Language
Pre-Indo-European languages