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Khan-Tuvan

Khan-Tuvan Dyggvi also known as Tuğan Khagan, according to Omeljan Pritsak, was the name of a Khazar Khagan of the 825 AD.

Per Pritsak, Dyggvi led a rebellion of the Kabars against the Khagan Bek. As this rebellion took place roughly contemporaneously with the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism, Pritsak have speculated that the rebellion had a religious aspect. Omeljan Pritsak speculated that a Khazar khagan named Khan-Tuvan Dyggvi, escaped after losing a civil war, settled with his followers in the Norse-Slavic settlement of Rostov, married into the local Scandinavian nobility, and fathered the dynasty of the Rus' khagans. Constantine Zuckerman dismisses Pritsak's theory as untenable speculation, and no record of any Khazar khagan fleeing to find refuge among the Rus' exists in contemporaneous sources.

Duczko points out that the reconstruction by Pritsak is entirely speculative: Rostov did not exist that early in the 9th century, nothing is known about the presence of Rus at this time in this area, there are no records of Uppsala royal family being involved (per Pritsak, the bride of Dyggvi's son was from Ynglingar).

Nevertheless, the possible Khazar connection to early Rus' monarchs is supported by the use of a stylized trident tamga, or seal, by later Rus' rulers such as Sviatoslav I of Kiev; similar tamgas are found in ruins that are definitively Khazar in origin.

title: Khan-Tuvan


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Routing and wavelength assignment

The routing and wavelength assignment (RWA) problem is an optical networking problem with the goal of maximizing the number of optical connections.

Definition
The general objective of the RWA problem is to maximize the number of established connections. Each connection request must be given a route and wavelength. The wavelength must be consistent for the entire path, unless the usage of wavelength converters is assumed. Two connections requests can share the same optical link, provided a different wavelength is used.

The RWA problem can be formally defined in an integer linear program (ILP). The ILP formulation given here is taken from.

Maximize:
 * $$C_0(\rho,q) = \sum_{i=1}^{N_{sd}} m_i$$

subject to

 * $$m_i \geq 0, integer, i = 1, 2, ..., N_{sd}$$
 * $$c_{ij} \in {0,1}, i = 1, 2, ..., P, j = 1, 2, ..., W$$
 * $$C^TB \leq l_{W \times L}$$
 * $$m \leq 1_WC^TA$$
 * $$m_i \leq q_i\rho, i = 1, 2, ..., N_{sd}$$

$$N_{sd}$$ is the number of source-destination pairs, while $$m_i$$ is the number of connections established for each source-destination pair. $$L$$ is the number of links and $$W$$ is the number of wavelengths. $$P$$ is the set of paths to route connections. $$A:P \times N_{sd}$$ is a matrix which shows which source-destination pairs are active, $$B:P \times L$$ is a matrix which shows which links are active, and $$C:P \times W$$ is a route and wavelength assignment matrix.

Note that the above formulation assumes that the traffic demands are known a priori. This type of problem is known as Static Lightpath Establishment (SLE). The above formulation also does not consider the signal quality.

It has been shown that the SLE RWA problem is NP-complete in. The proof involves a reduction to the $$n$$-graph colorability problem. In other words, solving the SLE RWA problem is as complex as finding the chromatic number of a general graph. Given that dynamic RWA is more complex than static RWA, it must be the case that dynamic RWA is also NP-complete.

Another NP-complete proof is given in. This proof involves a reduction to the Multi-commodity Flow Problem.

The RWA problem is further complicated by the need to consider signal quality. Many of the optical impairments are nonlinear, so a standard shortest path algorithm can't be used to solve them optimally even if we know the exact state of the network. This is usually not a safe assumption, so solutions need to be efficient using only limited network information.

Methodology
Given the complexity of RWA, there are two general methodologies for solving the problem:
 * The first method is solving the routing portion first, and then assigning a wavelength second. Three types of route selection are Fixed Path Routing, Fixed Alternate Routing, and Adaptive Routing.
 * The second approach is to consider both route selection and wavelength assignment jointly.

Fixed path routing
Fixed path routing is the simplest approach to finding a lightpath. The same fixed route for a given source and destination pair is always used. Typically this path is computed ahead of time using a shortest path algorithm, such as Dijkstra's Algorithm. While this approach is very simple, the performance is usually not sufficient. If resources along the fixed path are in use, future connection requests will be blocked even though other paths may exist.

The SP-1 (Shortest Path, 1 Probe) algorithm is an example of a Fixed Path Routing solution. This algorithm calculates the shortest path using the number of optical routers as the cost function. A single probe is used to establish the connection using the shortest path. The running time is the cost of Dijkstra's algorithm: $$O(m+n\log n)$$, where $$m$$ is the number of edges and $$n$$ is the number of routers. The running time is just a constant if a predetermined path is used.

This definition of SP-1 uses the hop count as the cost function. The SP-1 algorithm could be extended to use different cost functions, such as the number of EDFAs.

Fixed alternate routing
Fixed alternate routing is an extension of fixed path routing. Instead of having just one fixed route for a given source and destination pair, several routes are stored. The probes can be sent in a serial or parallel fashion. For each connection request, the source node attempts to find a connection on each of the paths. If all of the paths fail, then the connection is blocked. If multiple paths are available, only one of them would be utilized.

The SP-$$p$$ (Shortest Path, $$p$$ Probes, $$p > 1$$) algorithm is an example of Fixed Alternate Routing. This algorithm calculates the $$p$$ shortest paths using the number of optical routers as the cost function. The running time using Yen's algorithm is $$O(pn(m+n\log n))$$ where $$m$$ is the number of edges, $$n$$ is the number of routers, and $$p$$ is the number of paths. The running time is a constant factor if the paths are precomputed.

Adaptive routing
The major issue with both fixed path routing and fixed alternate routing is that neither algorithm takes into account the current state of the network. If the predetermined paths are not available, the connection request will become blocked even though other paths may exist. Fixed Path Routing and Fixed Alternate Routing are both not quality aware. For these reasons, most of the research in RWA is currently taking place in Adaptive algorithms. Five examples of Adaptive Routing are LORA, PABR, IA-BF, IA-FF, and AQoS.

Adaptive algorithms fall into two categories: traditional and physically aware. Traditional adaptive algorithms do not consider signal quality, however, physically aware adaptive algorithms do.

Traditional adaptive RWA
The lexicographical routing algorithm (LORA) algorithm was proposed in. The main idea behind LORA is to route connection requests away from congested areas of the network, increasing the probability that connection requests will be accepted. This is accomplished by setting the cost of each link to be $$ cost(l) = \beta^{usage(l)}$$ where $$\beta$$ is parameter that can be dynamically adjusted according to the traffic load and $$usage(l)$$ is the number of wavelengths in use on link $$l$$. A standard shortest path algorithm can then be used to find the path. This requires each optical switch to broadcast recent usage information periodically. Note that LORA does not consider any physical impairments.

When $$\beta$$ is equal to one, the LORA algorithm is identical to the SP algorithm. Increasing the value of $$\beta$$ will increase the bias towards less used routes. The optimal value of $$\beta$$ can be calculated using the well-known hill climbing algorithm. The optimal values of $$\beta$$ were between 1.1 and 1.2 in the proposal.

Physically aware adaptive RWA
The physically aware backward reservation algorithm (PABR) is an extension of LORA. PABR is able to improve performance in two ways: considering physical impairments and improved wavelength selection. As PABR is searching for an optical path, paths with an unacceptable signal quality due to linear impairments are pruned. In other words, PABR is LORA with an additional quality constraint.

Note that PABR can only consider linear impairments. The nonlinear impairments, on the other hand, would not be possible to estimate in a distributed environment due to their requirement of global traffic knowledge.

PABR also considers signal quality when making the wavelength selection. It accomplishes this by removing from consideration all wavelengths with an unacceptable signal quality level. The approach is called Quality First Fit and it is discussed in the following section.

Both LORA and PABR can be implemented with either single-probing or multi-probing. The maximum number of probes $$p$$ is denoted as LORA-$$p$$ or PABR-$$p$$. With single-probing, only one path is selected by the route selection. With multi-probing, multiple paths are attempted in parallel, increasing the probability of connection success.

Other routing approaches
IA-BF - The Impairment Aware Best Fit (IA-BF) algorithm was proposed in. This algorithm is a distributed approach that is dependent upon a large amount of communication to use global information to always pick the shortest available path and wavelength. This is accomplished through the use of serial multi-probing. The shortest available path and wavelength are attempted first, and upon failure, the second shortest available path and wavelength are attempted. This process continues until a successful path and wavelength have been found or all wavelengths have been attempted.

The multi-probing approach will allow IA-BF to outperform both PABR-1 and LORA-1. However, as the number of probes increases, the performance of the algorithms is similar.

IA-FF - Impairment Aware First Fit (IA-FF) is a simple extension of IA-BF. Instead of picking the wavelengths in terms of the minimum cost, the wavelengths are selected in order according to their index. IA-BF tends to outperform IA-FF under most scenarios.

AQoS - Adaptive Quality of Service (AQoS) was proposed in. This algorithm is unique in a couple of ways. First, each node maintains two counters: $$N_{BER}$$ and $$N_{wave}$$. The purpose of each counter is to determine which issue is a bigger factor in blocking: Path and wavelength availability or Quality requirements. The algorithm chooses routes differently based upon the larger issue.

Another distinction is that AQoS uses the Q-factor as the link cost. The cost of the $$i_{th}$$ link is calculated by this formula $$D_i = \frac{\sum_{j=1}^{N_i} 10\log[Q_{i,j}^{(s)} / Q_{i,j}^{(d)}]} {N_i}$$ where $$N_i$$ is the number of lightpaths on the $$i_{th}$$ link, $$Q_{i,j}^{(s)}$$ and $$Q_{i,j}^{(d)}$$ are the quality factor measurements of the $$j_{th}$$ lightpath at the source and destination nodes of the $$i_{th}$$ link, respectively. The repeated quality factor estimations are computationally very expensive.

This algorithm is single probing approach. The multi-probing approach, which the paper names ALT-AQoS (alternate AQoS) is a simple extension upon the same basic idea.

Wavelength assignment
Two of the most common methods for wavelength assignment are First Fit and Random Fit. First Fit chooses the available wavelength with the lowest index. Random Fit determines which wavelengths are available and then chooses randomly amongst them. The complexity of both algorithms is $$O(w)$$, where $$w$$ is the number of wavelengths. First Fit outperforms Random Fit.

An extension to First Fit and Random Fit was proposed in to consider signal quality. Quality First Fit and Quality Random Fit eliminate from consideration wavelengths which have an unacceptable signal quality. The complexity of these algorithms is higher though, as up to $$w$$ calls to estimate the Q-factor are required.

There are several other wavelength assignment algorithms: Least Used, Most Used, Min Product, Least Loaded, Max Sum, and Relative Capacity Loss. Most Used outperforms Least Used use significantly, and slightly outperforms First Fit. Min Product, Least Loaded, Max Sum, and Relative Capacity Loss all try to choose a wavelength that minimizes the probability that future requests will be blocked.

A significant disadvantage of these algorithms is that they require a significant communication overhead, making them unpractical to implement unless you have a centralized network structure.

Joint routing and wavelength assignment
An alternate approach to selecting a route and wavelength separately is to consider them jointly. These approaches tend to be more theoretical and not as practical. As this is an NP-complete problem, an exact solution is likely not possible. The approximation techniques usually aren't very useful either, as they will require centralized control and, usually, predefined traffic demands. Two joint approaches are ILP formulation and Island Hopping.

The ILP formulation listed above can be solved using a traditional ILP solver. This is typically done by temporarily relaxing the integer constraints, solving the problem optimally, and converting the real solution to an integer solution. Additional constraints can be added and the process repeated indefinitely using a branch and bound approach.

In the authors report on the algorithm which can be used to solve efficiently and optimally a constrained RWA problem. The authors study a constrained routing and spectrum assignment (RSA) problem, which can be reduced to a constrained RWA problem by requesting one slice. The constriction limits the path length.

In the authors report on the generalized Dijkstra algorithm, which can be used to efficiently and optimally solve the RWA, RSA, and the routing, modulation, and spectrum assignment (RMSA) problems, without the limit on the path length.

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

title: Routing and wavelength assignment


text:
Talk:Back Stabbers (album)

Untitled
Should be more in the article on the song of this name... AnonMoos 20:33, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Back Stabbers (album)


text:
Victoria Tower Gardens

Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London, adjacent to the Victoria Tower, at the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, between Millbank and the river. It forms part of the Thames Embankment.

Victoria Tower Gardens is a Grade II* listed park created in two stages in 1879–81 and 1913–14. It is in a conservation area, is partly within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Westminster, and is designated a zone of Monument Saturation.

History
The northern part of the gardens was acquired by the Government under the Houses of Parliament Act 1867 in order to reduce the fire risk to the Palace of Westminster from the wharves there. There was disagreement about whether at least some of the land should be built on, but eventually the newspaper retailer William Henry Smith donated £1000 towards laying it out as an open space and Parliament paid the remaining £1400 needed. The gardens opened in 1881. The Government promised Smith that the land would be maintained as a recreation ground.

A private scheme to rebuild the area south of the gardens was discussed in Parliament in 1898 in the Victoria Embankment extension and St John's Improvement Bill, and was rejected because it did not include extending the Gardens. London County Council then brought forward its own scheme for widening Millbank, extending the Thames embankment and enlarging the open space southwards to Lambeth Bridge. The Commissioners of Works were expected to give up a small part of the existing Gardens for the road widening, and, in order to honour the promise to Smith, insisted that it be expressly provided in the Act authorising the scheme that the new land between Millbank and the river be laid out as a garden. Consequently the London County Council (Improvements) Act 1900, which authorised the scheme, provided that the new land between Millbank and the Thames should be "laid out and maintained ... for use as a garden open to the public and as an integral part of the existing Victoria Tower Garden". The new land was laid out as a garden in 1913-14 and opened to the public on 30 June 1914.

A number of wharves were compulsorily purchased under the 1900 Act, including Dorset Wharf which was purchased from George Taverner Miller, son of Taverner John Miller, from where he ran a "Sperm Oil Merchants and Spermaceti refining" business. The effects from this business and others were sold in 1905.

The original gardens had a formal layout, with a central shrubbery. The garden was replanned with a less formal layout in 1913–14, with a shrubbery further south. In 1956 the shrubbery and trees in the lawns were removed in order to provide more of a parkland atmosphere and an uninterrupted view of the Palace of Westminster. The changes included (in 1957) erection in the Gardens of the Buxton Memorial. The present layout is essentially that of 1956–57.

Features
The park features:
 * A cast of the sculpture The Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin, purchased by the British government in 1911 and positioned in the gardens in 1914.
 * A 1930 statue of the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst by Arthur George Walker, now entitled the Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst Memorial
 * The Buxton Memorial Fountain – originally constructed in Parliament Square, this was removed in 1940 and placed in its present position in 1957. It was commissioned by Charles Buxton MP to commemorate the Act of 1833 abolishing slavery in British-ruled territories, dedicated to his father Thomas Fowell Buxton, and designed by Gothic architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812–1873) in 1865.
 * A stone wall with two modern-style goats with kids – situated at the southern end of the Gardens.
 * From 4 to 11 August 2014 the light installation spectra by Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda was situated in the gardens to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War.

Proposed UK Holocaust Memorial
In January 2015 Prime Minister David Cameron announced on behalf of the Holocaust Memorial Foundation that there was to be a new UK Holocaust Memorial and associated Learning Centre built in central London. At that stage three particular sites were proposed: the Imperial War Museum, Potter's Field near London City Hall, and on Millbank, south of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. However, on 27 January 2016 he announced that Victoria Tower Gardens had been chosen for the memorial. It later became clear that the learning centre was also to be built in the Gardens, although this was never formally announced. A design competition was launched, and in October 2017 the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation jury announced their chosen design. The proposed construction was submitted for planning permission to Westminster City Council which had to consider breaching its own rules on new monuments in this zone and the effect on heritage views of the Palace of Westminster. The memorial plans attracted strong opposition to the use of this small park, both from the grassroots campaign of local residents through the 'Save Victoria Tower Gardens' and international organisations like the UNESCO advisor ICOMOS. On 8 April 2022, at judicial review, the High Court quashed the planning permission. The Government has requested leave to appeal.

Transport
The nearest London Underground stations are Westminster and Pimlico.

title: Victoria Tower Gardens


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Battle of the Himera River (311 BC)

The Battle of the Himera River was fought in 311 BC between Carthage and Syracuse near the mouth of the Himera river (the modern Salso river). Hamilcar, grandson of Hanno the Great, led the Carthaginians, while the Syracusans were led by Agathocles. Agathocles initially surprised the Carthaginians with an attack on their camp, but the Greeks lost the battle when they were attacked by unexpected Carthaginian reinforcements. The Greek army took many casualties as it retreated. Agathocles managed to gather the remains of his army and retreat to Syracuse, but lost control of Sicily.

In classical antiquity the name Himera was used for two rivers on Sicily: the Imera Settentrionale and the Salso. The Imera Settentrionale flows north towards its mouth at the site of ancient Himera, the Salso follows a southern course to its mouth in modern Licata. The battle took place near the mouth of the Salso river because the Carthaginians positioned themselves on the hill of Ecnomus during the battle. This hill lies west of Licata.

Background
After Agathocles was exiled for an attempt to usurp power in his own city Syracuse, he was received by Morgantina, an enemy of Syracuse. As their general-in-chief he conducted a war for them, took Leontini and besieged Syracuse. The Syracusans turned to their enemy Carthage for help and were given reinforcements under the command of the Carthaginian general Hamilcar. Agathocles realized he could not take Syracuse, so he decided to make an alliance with Hamilcar instead. Hamilcar agreed, out of fear of the power of Agathocles, but also because he was promised favors to increase his power in Carthage.

The specific terms of the treaty stipulated that the Sicilian Greek towns Heraclea Minoa, Selinunte and Himera were to be controlled by Carthage as had previously been the case, and all the others were to be autonomous under the hegemony of Syracuse. The treaty also included an end to the war of Acragas, Gela and Messene with Agathocles. Hamilcar turned over Syracuse to Agathocles and left him with five thousand African troops. Agathocles then massacred the senate and the richest common people of the city and made himself tyrant.

Agathocles then proceeded to raise an army and broke the treaty. He attacked the neighbouring cities of Syracuse and the Sicilian cities allied with Carthage, but Hamilcar did not act against him. These cities complained to the senate of Carthage. The senate was not able to do much about it because Hamilcar was in command of the army. They decided to delay punishing Hamilcar until another Hamilcar, the son of Gisco, returned from Sicily. Hamilcar died before this could happen, and upon his return the other Hamilcar was sent to Sicily with an army.

Prelude
Hamilcar was sent to Sicily with 130 triremes, 2,000 citizen soldiers, 10,000 Libyans, 1,000 mercenaries, 200 Etruscans, and 1,000 Balearic slingers. After the army's departure from Carthage, sixty triremes and two hundred supply ships were lost in a storm. Some of the citizens soldiers, of which many were nobles, died in the storm. Once on Sicily, Hamilcar managed to reinforce his army with more mercenaries and troops of the Sicilian allies, as well as the Carthaginian troops already present there. At this point his force numbered about 40,000 infantry and nearly 5,000 cavalry.

Agathocles recognized that the Carthaginian army was superior to his own and feared that several of the cities under his control would desert him for Carthage. In particular he was concerned for Gela because the Carthaginian army was positioned in its territory. At the same time he suffered a considerable loss of twenty ships, which had been captured by the Carthaginians. Even so, he gave priority to keeping Gela under his control. He did not send in a garrison straight away because he feared the Geloans would shut him out, but sent in his troops a few at a time to trick them. When his troops eventually surpassed those of the Geloans, he took over the city and ordered four thousand Geloans to be slain. He confiscated their property and commanded the other inhabitants to turn over their money, gold and silver. He left the city with a garrison and then marched towards the Carthaginians.

Battle
The Carthaginians occupied the hill Ecnomus, which was said to have been a stronghold of Phalaris, a tyrant of Acragas. The hill acquired its name, which literally means 'lawless', because Phalaris had reputedly tortured people there in his brazen bull. On the other side Agathocles occupied another stronghold which had belonged to Phalaris, the Phalarium. Between the strongholds ran the Himera river, which both sides used as a defense against each other.

For a long time both sides did not risk crossing the river in force. Diodorus attributes this to sayings from earlier times which foretold that a great number of men were destined to die in battle at this place. Both sides engaged in raiding their enemy's territory and camp. When Greeks were driving away beasts of burden from the enemy camp, Carthaginian troops pursued them. Agathocles set up an ambush for the pursuers near the river, who were easily driven back when they tried to cross the river.

Agathocles exploited this opportunity to start the battle. He ordered his whole army to cross the river and attacked the enemy camp. The Greeks threw down the palisade and took the Carthaginians by surprise. They had no opportunity to form a line of battle and fought fiercely for the moat, but the Greeks won the contest.

To counter the attack Hamilcar ordered his elite Balearic slingers to unleash a hail of stones on the attackers. Many Greeks were wounded or killed and driven away from the camp. Agathocles continued to attack the camp at other points and was close to taking the camp. The Greeks were then attacked by unexpected reinforcements from Libya which arrived by ship. The battle reversed itself and the Greeks fled to the Himera river or their camp.

The Greeks withdrew over a distance of forty stades, about 4.5 mi, while being pursued by the Carthaginian cavalry. Because the pursuit took place during the middle of the day most of the fleeing Greeks became thirsty due to the heat and drank the water from the Himera river. Because the Himera river is naturally salty (which is reflected by its modern name Salso) many Greeks died from drinking its water. According to Diodorus the number of casualties caused by the river were roughly equal to the number of Greeks killed in the pursuit. He states that in the whole battle 500 Carthaginians and 7,000 Greeks fell. Agathocles had managed to survive and collected those who had survived the rout. He burned his camp and withdrew into Gela.

Aftermath
Agathocles decided to remain in Gela for some time to divert the Carthaginian army from Syracuse. This allowed the Syracusans to harvest their crops. Hamilcar first tried to besiege the city, but gave up when he discovered that Agathocles had large supplies and enough soldiers to defend the city. He then visited the cities and strongholds which were still siding with Agathocles to win them over. Because they despised Agathocles they soon deserted to the Carthaginians. Agathocles retreated to Syracuse and lost control over the rest of Sicily, while Carthage had gained superiority in land and naval forces. Agathocles supplied Syracuse with grain, left it with an adequate garrison and then crossed over to Libya to transfer the war to Africa.

title: Battle of the Himera River (311 BC)


text:
Carl Snoilsky

Count Carl Johan Gustaf Snoilsky (8 September 1841 – 19 May 1903) was a Swedish diplomat and lyricist of probable Slovene descent. He was the most prominent early realist and was a member of the Swedish Academy. His life and work was a major influence on the playwright Henrik Ibsen, in particular Ibsen's play Rosmersholm.

Biography
Snoilsky was born in Stockholm to Sigrid (née Banér), a painter and countess, and Nils Snoilsky, a Justice and Chamberlain Count. He was educated at the Clara School and Stockholms lyceum and in 1860 became a student at the University of Uppsala. He was trained for diplomacy, which he quit for work at the Swedish Foreign Ministry. As early as 1861, under the pseudonym of Sven Tröst, he began to print poems, and he soon became the center of the brilliant literary society of the capital. In 1862 he published a collection of lyrics called Orchideer ("Orchids"). During 1864 and 1865 he was in Madrid and Paris on diplomatic missions. It was in 1869, when he first collected his Dikter under his own name, that Snoilsky took rank among the most eminent contemporary poets. His Sonnetter in 1871 increased his reputation. Then, for some years, Snoilsky abandoned poetry, and devoted himself to the work of the Foreign Office and to the study of numismatics.

In 1876, however, he published a translation of the ballads of Goethe. Snoilsky had in 1876 been appointed keeper of the records (expeditionssekreterare) and head of the Foreign Ministry`s political department, in 1878 he was raised to deputy director (kansliråd), and succeeded Bishop Paul Genberg as one of the eighteen of the Swedish Academy. But in 1879 he resigned all his posts, and left Sweden abruptly for Florence with the Dowager Countess Ebba Piper, née Baroness Ruuth, whom he married in 1880. Count Snoilsky sent home in 1881 a volume of Nya Dikter ("New Poems"). Two other volumes of Dikter appeared in 1883 and 1887, and 1897; Savonarola, a poem, in 1883, and Hvita frun ("The White Lady") in 1885. In 1886, he collected his poems dealing with national subjects as Svenska bilder (2nd ed., 1895), which ranks as a Swedish classic. In 1891 he returned to Stockholm and was appointed principal librarian (överbibliotekarie) of the Royal Library. He died at Stockholm on May 19, 1903. His Samlade dikter were collected (Stockholm, 5 vols.) in 1903–1904.

Regarding his origins, the slavist Alfred Jensen reported to the Slovenian poet Anton Aškerc that Snoilsky was of Slovene descent. Carl Snoilsky said that his ancestor was a Protestant pastor Snoilshik from Znojile in Carniola who titled himself Labacus (from Ljubljana). The claim, which was popularised in Slovenia by the poet Anton Aškerc, has not been fully proven, but it is plausible. The name has been associated with the Carniolan protestant reformer Johann Snoilshik.

Evaluation
His literary influence in Sweden was very great; he always sang of joy and liberty and beauty, and in his lyrics, more than in most modern verse, the ecstasy of youth finds expression. He is remarkable, also, for the extreme delicacy and melodiousness of his verse-forms.

title: Carl Snoilsky


text:
User:Mpatel/sandbox/Principle of general covariance

In theoretical physics, general covariance (also known as diffeomorphism invariance) is the invariance of physical laws (for example, the equations of general relativity) under arbitrary coordinate transformations. This means, for example, that such laws take the same mathematical form regardless of whether they are expressed in an accelerating or non-accelerating reference frame. Alternatively, one could say that a generally covariant theory is one which treats time-like and space-like coordinates in the same way.

The term "general covariance" was first introduced by Albert Einstein to describe the property he sought to obtain in the theory of general relativity. It is one of the defining features of general relativity. The principle of general covariance states that the laws of physics should take the same form in all coordinate systems. Other physical theories such as electrodynamics and special relativity also have a generally covariant formulation, although their classical formulations involve a privileged time variable. In fact, most physical laws can be written in a generally covariant way.

The principle of general covariance is a very useful tool in general relativity.

An example: the wave equation
The wave equation (which describes the behavior of a vibrating string) is classically written as:

 * $$\ U(x, t) = f(kx + ct) + g(kx - ct)$$

for some functions f, g and some scalars k and c. Note how this explicitly uses coordinates t (time) and x (space).

To put this in a generally covariant form, one could define the following vectors:

 * $$\begin{matrix} X = (x_1, x_2) && K_1 = (k, c) && K_2 = (k, -c) \end{matrix}$$

Then the wave equation can be written as:

 * $$\ U(X) = f(K_1 \cdot X) + g(K_2 \cdot X)$$

Now, $$x_2$$ plays the role of the "time" variable, but it is not treated specially in the form of the equation.

Status
While the principle of general covariance is mathematically appealing, it's importance regarding the role it plays in general relativity is still disputed. Some authors argue that the principle is physically vacuous, whilst others maintain that it is a crucial feature of GR.


text:
Talk:Academic paper

Is it a bad idea to have academic paper link to here? After all, many non-science subjects have journals and the like. Rubextablet 14:37, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Yes, I think ideally there should be a more general article on academic papers from all fields. However, until someone actually starts this proposed article, I think it is appropriate to leave the redirect in place. ike9898 10:33, July 21, 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Academic paper


text: Template:Campaignbox Samnite Wars

title: Template:Campaignbox Samnite Wars


text: Category:295 BC

title: Category:295 BC


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Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia

The deputy prime minister of Malaysia (Timbalan Perdana Menteri Malaysia; تيمبلن ڤردان منتري مليسيا) is the second-highest political office in Malaysia. There have been 15 officeholders since the office was created in 1957. The first prime minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, started the convention of appointing a deputy prime minister, but some cabinets have opted not to appoint a deputy prime minister.

Appointment
Malaysia has always had a deputy prime minister for most of the time since independence. A prime minister may choose not to appoint a deputy prime minister. The office of deputy prime minister is not provided for in the constitution of Malaysia. At the same time, a prime minister could appoint more than one deputy prime minister, as has occurred before in Singapore.

From August 1957 to May 2018, when the coalition government Barisan Nasional (BN), of which the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was the main component party, was the only ruling coalition, and by practice, the UMNO deputy president was usually appointed the deputy prime minister by the prime minister, who was the UMNO president. In the organisational structure of BN, the president and deputy president of UMNO were automatically made the chairman and deputy chairman of BN.

From May 2018 to February 2020, when Pakatan Harapan (PH), a political coalition of four parties, was the only ruling coalition, the holder of the position of deputy prime minister was decided upon by the presidential council of PH. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was the first female holder of office, was the post holder.

The position has vacant for 16 months since Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as prime minister in March 2020 after Perikatan Nasional (PN) was leading ruling coalition until July 2021 after Ismail Sabri Yaakob was appointed to the position. However, he briefly served for 40 days before taking over as prime minister is the shortest-serving officeholder in history.

Since August 2021, when BN is again the leading ruling coalition, there have again been no holders of the office of the deputy prime minister for 13 months before replacing by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Fadillah Yusof, first duo deputy prime minister in Malaysian history.

Deaths, resignations and removals from office
Of the thirteen previous officeholders, eight have stepped up to become Prime Ministers. Of the remaining, one died in office, two resigned, two were removed from office (both who later became Prime Ministers) by the sitting Prime Minister, and two disqualified from office due to defeat in the 2018 general election and collapse of the federal administration in 2020 political crisis.

Ismail Abdul Rahman died in office due to massive heart attack in 1973. Musa Hitam resigned from second Mahathir cabinet over differences with Prime Minister over government policy in 1986. Ghafar Baba resigned from his portfolio following UMNO grassroots lost confidence in his leadership and his position as Deputy President of UMNO was challenged by Anwar Ibrahim in the UMNO's top leadership election. Anwar Ibrahim was the first deputy prime minister to be sacked after being accused and subsequently charged with corruption and sodomy in 1998. Muhyiddin Yassin was the second DPM to be removed from office after being dropped from the Cabinet by former Prime Minister Najib Razak in a reshuffle in 2015. He later was sacked from his party. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail's role as deputy prime minister ended after the seventh Mahathir cabinet was dissolved due to its fall from the federal administration in 2020.

List of deputy prime ministers of Malaysia
Colour key (for political parties):

title: Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia


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User:Mpatel/sandbox/White hole

A white hole is a theoretical celestial body that spews out matter. In Einstein's theory of general relativity, white holes are usually defined as the time reversal of black holes.

Scientific status
White holes have been postulated as a means of transport between points of spacetime and even different universes. Due to a black hole's suggested funnel-like nature, matter travelling through a black hole and exiting through a white hole would be crushed to an immensely dense but small size, which would go against transportation because it is very unlikely that a white hole would have the ability to recompose the matter to its original state prior to entering the black hole. This very process is sometimes regarded as meaningless as a black hole is actually a collapsed star and a white hole would presunmably be a star which ejects matter in the time-rversed manner of a black hole. The existence of white holes is hypothetical, as they appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics.

Other speculations include the hypothesis that quasars are actually white holes instead of supermassive black holes.

Relation to entropy
The existence of white holes is hypothetical, as they appear to violate the second law of thermodynamics.

White holes in science fiction
White holes have been used in science fiction.

title: User:Mpatel/sandbox/White hole


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File:DeadOrAliveYouthquake.jpg

Fair use rationale in Youthquake (album)
It is contended that the use of this album cover in Youthquake (album) qualifies as fair use for the following reasons:
 * 1) This image illustrates the cover of the album or associated single that is discussed in the article.
 * 2) The image is only a small portion of the overall product.
 * 3) This image can be used to identify the album or associated single that is the subject of this article.
 * 4) It does not limit the copyright owner's rights to market or sell the album in any way.
 * 5) The image is of lower resolution than the original cover.
 * 6) The image is being used in an informative way and does not detract from sales of the album.
 * 7) No free or public domain images have been located for this album.

title: File:DeadOrAliveYouthquake.jpg


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Catherine wheel (firework)

The Catherine wheel or pinwheel is a type of firework consisting either of a powder-filled spiral tube, or an angled rocket mounted with a pin through its center. When ignited, the energy of the fireworks not only create sparks and flame, but cause the wheel to quickly rotate, making the display much more spectacular. The physics of the process are those of an aeolipile.

The firework is named after Saint Catherine of Alexandria who, according to Christian tradition, was condemned to death by “breaking on the wheel”. When she touched the wheel it miraculously fell to pieces.

The largest Catherine wheel ever made was designed by the Lily Fireworks Factory of Mqabba, Malta. The Catherine wheel had a diameter of 32.044 m, and was lit on 18 June 2011, the eve of the annual feast of Our Lady of the Lilies. In Malta, Catherine wheels are a traditional fixture during every village 'festa'. Some villages even hold competitions on the eve of the parish feast, while others display the vast work of one firework. Entrants display a variety of moving shapes and include various colours year after year as the technology progresses. These displays are only a small part of the firework catalogue planned throughout the week preceding the feast and on the feast day itself. The Catherine wheel displays typically end with the burning of what is called 'the carpet': the largest Catherine wheel in the display on the night.

In the Philippines, the Catherine wheel is also known as trompillo, and according to Republic Act 7183, it is a legal firework.

title: Catherine wheel (firework)


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Quatremère de Quincy

Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy (21 October 1755 – 28 December 1849) was a French armchair archaeologist and architectural theorist, a Freemason, and an effective arts administrator and influential writer on art.

Life
Born in Paris, Quatremère de Quincy trained for the law, then followed courses in art and history at the Collège Louis-le-Grand and apprenticed for a time in the atelier of Guillaume Coustou the Younger and Pierre Julien, getting some practical experience in the art of sculpture. A trip to Naples in the company of Jacques-Louis David sparked his interest in Greek and Roman architecture.

He was involved in the troubles of the French Revolution. He was a royalist in the National Legislative Assembly of 1791–1792, and his politics were monarchist and Catholic. As a member of the Revolutionary Committee of Public Instruction his set of three Considerations on the arts of design in France was offered before the Assemblée Nationale at a time (1791) when the continuation of the former academies was under question; he offered a program for their reform. in part by opening up the Paris salons. In 1791–1792 he orchestrated the conversion of the Church of Ste-Geneviève in Paris (under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Rondelet) into the Panthéon, infilling the windows to give it the character of a mausoleum. In 1795 he was accused of taking part in the preparations for the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire and condemned to death, but subsequently acquitted.

In July 1796, he wrote a pseudo-epistolary treatise against the French plans to seize works of art from Rome, arguing that European powers should instead contribute a sum to the papacy for protecting art and knowledge. Quatremère was hiding when he wrote the Letters because he was sentenced to death for his role in the royalist uprising of 13 Vendémiaire. He argued that ‘displacing the monuments of Italy’ and ‘dismantling its schools and museums’ would destroy ‘civilization’ [Gilks 2022: 489, 492]. He wrote to show that ‘it would be in the interests of the arts to insist that we do not export from Italy different masterpieces’ and to render ‘the justice to the pontifical government in merits from the zeal and care it has constantly demonstrated toward research into the arts and their conservation’ [Gilks 2022: 491]. According to Gilks, Quatremère wrote in a contrived manner that he intended to appeal to republican readers: he therefore aped Condorcet’s Sketch and its notion of civilization that was then dear to the Directorial regime and cited writers approved by the Directory [Gilks 2022: 497].

Shortly afterward, he was behind a petition signed by forty-seven Parisian artists including Jacques-Louis David which questioned the benefits of displacing art from Rome; although prudently worded, there was a vituperative official response.

In 1797, he was elected to the Council of Five Hundred for the Seine department, then went into hiding after the Fructidor coup. In exile in Germany, he read Immanuel Kant and Gotthold Lessing, whose philosophy informed his own theories of aesthetics. In 1800, back in Paris, he was appointed secretary general of the Seine council. From 1816 until 1839 he was perpetual secretary to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which gave him great influence upon official architecture, and in 1818 he became a professor of archaeology at the Bibliothèque Nationale. He briefly returned to politics in 1820. In 1826 he became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands.

Quatremère de Quincy was the author of numerous articles and books. From 1788 to 1825, he wrote the three Architecture volumes of the Encyclopédie Méthodique. His Dictionnaire historique de l'Architecture was published in 1832–1833. He wrote biographies of several artists: Antonio Canova (1823), Raphael (1824) and Michelangelo (1835).

He transformed the simple metaphor of architecture as language into a framework for reconceptualizing the structure of architecture; modern writers describing "vernacular" architecture, or the Baroque "idiom" or the "vocabulary" of Classicism owe a debt to Quatremère de Quincy.

His essay De l'Architecture Égyptienne, written for a competition posed by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1785 and published in 1803, just as the Description de l'Egypte was in preparation, nevertheless was an important influence on the Egyptian Revival phase of Neoclassical architecture, for its theoretical observations concerning the origins of architecture rather than for its historical naiveté. He was among the first to point out the use of polychromy in Greek sculpture and architecture. Though he insisted that landscape gardening could not be admitted among the fine arts, he was a key figure in the establishment of the first landscaped cemeteries, and his essay, translated into English as The Nature, the End and the Means of Imitation in the Fine Arts influenced J. C. Loudon.

title: Quatremère de Quincy


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Rekha

Bhanurekha Ganesan (born 10 October 1954), better known by her mononymous stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, she has starred in more than 180 films and is the recipient of several accolades, including one National Film Award and four Filmfare Awards. She has often played strong and complicated female characters—from fictional to literary—in both mainstream and independent films. Though her career has gone through certain periods of decline, Rekha has gained a reputation for reinventing herself numerous times and has been credited for her ability to sustain her status. In 2010, the Government of India honoured her with Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour.

The daughter of actors Pushpavalli and Gemini Ganesan, Rekha started her career as a child actress in Telugu films Inti Guttu (1958) and Rangula Ratnam (1966). Her first film as a lead happened with the Kannada movie Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999 (1969). Her Hindi debut with Sawan Bhadon (1970) established her as a rising star, but despite the success of several of her early films, she was often panned in the press for her looks and weight. Motivated by criticism, she started working on her appearance and put effort into improving her acting technique and command of the Hindi language, resulting in a well-publicised transformation. Early recognition in 1978 for her performances in Ghar and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career, and she was one of Hindi cinema's leading stars through most of the 1980s and early 1990s.

For her performance in the comedy Khubsoorat (1980), Rekha received her first Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She followed it with roles in Baseraa (1981), Ek Hi Bhool (1981), Jeevan Dhaara (1982) and Agar Tum Na Hote (1983). While mostly prolific in popular Hindi cinema, during this time she ventured into parallel cinema, a movement of neo-realist arthouse films. These films included dramas such as Kalyug (1981), Vijeta (1982) and Utsav (1984), and her portrayal of a classical courtesan in Umrao Jaan (1981) won her the National Film Award for Best Actress. After a short setback in the mid 1980s, she was among the actresses who led a new trend of women-centred revenge films, starting with Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), for which she won a second Best Actress award at Filmfare.

Rekha's work was much less prolific in subsequent decades. Her roles in early 1990s mostly met with lukewarm reviews. In 1996, she played against type in the role of an underworld don in the action thriller Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), for which she won a third Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actress category, and further appeared in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996) and Aastha: In the Prison of Spring (1997) to critical acclaim but some public scrutiny. During the 2000s, she was praised for her supporting roles in the 2001 dramas Zubeidaa and Lajja, and started playing mother roles, among which was her role in the science fiction Koi... Mil Gaya (2003) and its superhero sequel Krrish (2006), both commercial successes. The lattermost emerged as her highest-grossing release.

Apart from acting, Rekha served as a Member of Parliament for the Rajya Sabha from 2012 to 2018. Her private life and public image have been the subject of frequent media interest and discussion. Starting in the 1970s, her pairing opposite Amitabh Bachchan in a number of successful films was accompanied by enduring speculation about a love affair between the two, culminating in their starring film Silsila (1981), which was reflective of media projections. Her only marriage to the Delhi-based industrialist and television manufacturer Mukesh Agarwal in March 1990 ended seven months later when he died by suicide. Rekha's public image has often been tied to her perceived sex appeal. She is reluctant to give interviews or discuss her life, which resulted in her being labelled a recluse.

Early life and work
Rekha was born Bhanurekha Ganesan in Madras (present-day Chennai) on 10 October 1954 to South Indian actors Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli, when the couple were unmarried. Ganesan was previously married to T. R. "Bobjima" Alamelu and had four children: the Illinois-based radiation oncologist Revathi Swaminathan, the gynecologist Kamala Selvaraj, The Times of India journalist Narayani Ganesan, and the medical doctor Jaya Shreedhar. He had two more children with actress Savitri—Vijaya Chamundeswari, a fitness expert, and Sathish Kumaar. Meanwhile, Pushpavalli had two children (Babuji and Rama) from her earlier marriage to the lawyer I. V. Rangachari. Ganesan and Pushpavalli had another daughter, Radha (born 1955). Nagaprasad and the actress Shubha are her cousins, while Vedantam Raghavayya and his wife Suryaprabha are her uncle and aunt, respectively. Rekha's mother tongue is Telugu, but she has mentioned that "at home we used to talk in English, barely spoke in Telugu", and that she thinks in English. She is also fluent in Tamil and Hindi.

Rekha did not reveal her family background until mid-1970s. During her unstable childhood, her relationship with her father Ganesan was poor. Ganesan did not want to recognize her as his daughter and give her a living. He rarely met both of his children with Pushpavalli, who subsequently married K. Prakash, a cinematographer from Madras, and she legally changed her name to K. Pushpavalli. She gave birth to two more children, Dhanalakshmi (who later married to the actor Tej Sapru) and the dancer Seshu (died 21 May 1991). Due to her mother's hectic acting schedule at the time, Rekha would often stay with her grandmother. Asked in an interview by Simi Garewal about her father, Rekha believed he was never even aware of her existence. She recalled that her mother often spoke about him and added that despite never having lived with him, she felt his presence all through. Even so, the relationship started to improve five years after Pushpavalli died in 1991. He told a Cine Blitz interviewer of his happiness about this and stated, "Rekha and I have such a good rapport. We are really close." He died in 2005.

Rekha was one year old when she played a small role in the Telugu-language drama Inti Guttu. Directed by Vedantam Raghavayya, the film was released in late 1958 and became a commercial success. She was enrolled at a kindergarten when she was at the age of three and next joined the Presentation Convent School in Madras during her adolescence. She also met Narayani, Ganesan and Aramelu's second daughter, at the school when the latter was around nine or ten years old. Always an awkward and lonely girl, she admitted that she experienced childhood obesity. In a 1990 interview to The Illustrated Weekly of India, she called herself as "the fattest girl in the school". In this period, she developed a love for dances and sports, although never participated in them due to her weight. Because of this, she was bullied by many of her schoolmates, who called her lotta (Tamil for "bastard"). Rekha, describing herself as a "firm believer" in God and destiny, used to spend her time at the school's chapel. Another brief screen role came with the release of Rangula Ratnam (1966)—a political satire which was popular among the audience —co-starring Pushpavalli and sister Radha.

According to her biographer Yasser Usman, Rekha was asked by Pushpavalli to start an acting career when their family faced financial troubles in 1968, as the latter was sure that it would help them. Although never had interest for acting, Rekha (who was initially aspired to be a flight attendant) obeyed her desire and, at the age of 13 to 14—while she was in ninth grade—she dropped out from school to start a full-time career in acting; she later regretted not having completed her education. A protective sister, she did not allow her younger sister Radha to join her, because she wanted Radha to finish hers.

Early roles (1968–1970)
In late 1968, the Nairobi-based businessman Kuljeet Pal visited Gemini Studios to search a newcomer for his new project Anjana Safar (an adaption of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines). He spotted Rekha at the studio and cast her as the film's second female lead after Vanisri. Pal went to Pushpavalli's house to give Rekha a screen test, dictating a number of sentences in Hindi, which were rewrote by Rekha in Latin script, and then told her to memorize it. A few moments later, Rekha said the sentences completely and Pal was impressed of her native Hindi-speaker-like voice. He gave her a five-year contract to star in four films from him and his brother Shatrujeet Pal each.

Rekha moved to Bombay (present-day Mumbai) in 1969 and rented a room at the Hotel Ajanta in the city's neighbourhood Juhu, with Pal paying off the fee. Also that year, she announced her debut to public and the media, and the successful Kannada film Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999 with Dr. Rajkumar, where she features as a lead for the first time, was released. In Anjana Safar, directed by Raja Nawathe, she played Sunita, a woman forced by her father to travel to Africa in search of a hidden treasure. She was paid inr 25000 for her work.

Since her mother fell ill at the time, Rekha was accompanied by her aunt to the shooting, which started in August that year at Mehboob Studio. A controversy arose around a kissing scene featuring Rekha and male lead Biswajit Chatterjee, of which she was not notified as Nawathe wanted to maintain her natural reaction. In later years, Rekha complained at having been tricked into the scene. The film ran into censorship problems and would not be released until 1979, when it was retitled Do Shikaari. The kissing scene made it to the cover of the Asian edition of Life magazine in April 1970. This prompted the American journalist James Shephard to travel to India to interview Rekha, which she saw as an opportunity to boost her career and express her complaint. Do Shikaari underperformed at the box office.

Soon after her move in 1969 to Bombay, Rekha was signed by the producer and director Mohan Sehgal for his film, Sawan Bhadon, and the filming started on 11 October. He cast her as Chanda, a village girl who does not receive approval from her parents to marry her lover (Navin Nischol). Although her hair was already long and thick, Sehgal forced her to wear a wig. Hence, it did not fit on her hair and her hairdressers had to shave her hair to almost bald. She was not fluent in Hindi at the time and most of the film's crew mocked her for having South Indian background. Marking her Hindi debut, Sawan Bhadon was released in September 1970 and became a commercial success. Film reviewers scorned her looks, but complimented her confidence and comic timing in the film. Manoj Das believed that "embarrassment" was shown on Nischol's face in every scenes with Rekha, and Film World magazine noted the film's success was a breakthrough for her career. Amma Kosam, a Telugu drama from the director Kolli Pratyagatma, was released in the end of the year, and she dedicated it to her mother.

Career fluctuations in the 1970s (1971–1977)
Rekha subsequently got several offers but nothing of substance, as her roles were mostly just of a glamour girl. She was highly prolific during the decade, working on average in ten films a year, most of which were deemed potboilers and failed to propel her career forward in terms of roles and appreciation. She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Kahani Kismat Ki (1973), and Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974), yet she was not regarded for her acting abilities and—according to the author Tejaswini Ganti—"the industry was surprised by her success as her dark complexion, plump figure, and garish clothing contradicted the norms of beauty prevalent in the film industry and in society." In 1975, she appeared in the war film Aakraman as Rakesh Roshan's wife Sheetal, a role Qurratulain Hyder thought was cliché and labelled "a clothes-horse". Randhir Kapoor's Dharam Karam is a drama about a hoodlum and Link magazine noted that Rekha's part is the most pathetic part in it. The mafia film Dharmatma was her only financial success of the year. Directed by and starring Feroz Khan, the film saw her in the part of Anu, Khan's childhood sweetheart.

Rekha recalls that the way she was perceived at that time motivated her to change her appearance and improve her choice of roles: "I was called the [ugly duckling] of Hindi films because of my dark complexion and South Indian features. I used to feel deeply hurt when people compared me with the leading heroines of the time and said I was no match for them. I was determined to make it big on sheer merit." The mid-1970s marked the beginning of her physical transformation. She started paying attention to her make-up, dress sense, and worked to improve her acting technique and perfect her Hindi-language skills for three months. To lose weight, she followed a nutritious diet, led a regular, disciplined life, and practised yoga, later recording albums to promote physical fitness. According to Khalid Mohamed, "The audience was floored when there was a swift change in her screen personality, as well as her style of acting." Rekha began choosing her film roles with more care.

Rekha's first performance-oriented role came in 1976 when she played Amitabh Bachchan's ambitious and greedy wife in Do Anjaane; it would be her first of many appearances with the actor. (They appeared together in Namak Haraam (1973), but Rekha was paired opposite Rajesh Khanna). Her role is Rekha Roy, the wife of Bachchan's character who becomes an established actress. Shooting took place in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata) and was finished within a month; Rekha and the other cast and crew would stayed at the Grand Hotel. An adaptation of Nihar Ranjan Gupta's novel Ratrir Yatri, the film—directed by Dulal Guha and scripted by Nabendu Ghosh—was popular among the audience and critics. Film World wrote that she has proved herself as a leading actress in Hindi cinema as filmmakers had started taking more notice of her and become more keen to cast her in their films. She remarked that it was difficult to stand in front of Bachchan, speaking of how she felt paranoid after she knew that he would star opposite her in the film. She stated that he contributed to "dramatic changes" in her life and was a big influence in her adulthood, and described him "[someone] I'd never seen before".

1977 was the third year when Rekha was consecutively gained one commercial success; the action crime Khoon Pasina emerged as the sixth-highest-grossing Indian film of the year. In the same year, she starred in the comedy-drama Aap Ki Khatir, opposite Vinod Khanna and Nadira. Her role as the poor girl won her awards from a number of film journalists' associations. In a retrospective review for The Hindu, the sport journalist and film critic Vijay Lokapally presumed that Rekha's role was challenging for her and appreciated her chemistry with Khanna; a Link reviewer praised its social themes. Film World awarded her with the Best Actress trophy for her work in Immaan Dharam, an action film that received mixed critical reviews. It features her as Durga, a Tamilian labourer who falls for the thief Mohan Kumar-Saxena (Shashi Kapoor). Cine Blitz praised Rekha for proving her talent in acting.

Turning point, stardom, and parallel cinema (1978–1984)
Rekha's turning point came in 1978, with her portrayal of a rape victim in the social drama Ghar. She plays Aarti, a newly married woman who gets gravely traumatized after being gang-raped. The film follows her character's struggle and traumatised with the help of her husband (Vinod Mehra). The film was considered her first notable milestone, and her performance was acclaimed by both critics and audiences. Dinesh Raheja elaborated, "Ghar heralded the arrival of a mature Rekha. Her archetypal jubilance was replaced by her very realistic portrayal..." She received her first nomination for Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards. In that same year, her another release, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, emerged as the biggest hit of that year, as well as one of the biggest hits of the decade, and Rekha was set as one of the most successful actresses of these times. The film opened to a positive critical reception, and Rekha's brief role as a tawaif named Zohrabai earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare. M. L. Dhawan of The Tribune noted her "smouldering intensity". Rekha recalled this phase as a period of self-discovery. Other films that year include Karmayogi.

Following Do Anjaane, speculation about a love affair with her co-star Amitabh Bachchan generated. Filmmakers at the time saw this as an opportunity to publicise their films by exploiting their alleged affair on-screen, as done in Mr. Natwarlal and Suhaag—both 1979 releases. In Mr. Natwarlal, an action romance set in Calcutta, Rekha portrays the simple, village woman Shanoo to good reviews. The next two years were even more successful. In 1980, Rekha starred in the comedy Khubsoorat by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. In a role written specially for her, she played Manju Dayal, a young vivacious woman who visits her recently married sister and tries to bring joy to the wide family, much to the dissatisfaction of the matriarch of the household. Rekha said she easily identified with the bubbly nature of her character, calling it "quite a bit me". Khubsoorat, and Rekha's performance in it, were well received by reviewers, and the film was a financial success. At the Filmfare Awards, the film was named Best Film and Rekha won her first Best Actress award. The Tribune lauded Rekha's "spunky performance" for giving the film "its natural zing". Maang Bharo Sajana and Judaai, both directed by T. Rama Rao, and Saawan Kumar Tak's Saajan Ki Saheli, brought her further critical attention that year.

Rekha's alleged love affair speculation with Amitabh Bachchan culminated when they starred together in Yash Chopra's romantic drama Silsila. It was the most scandalous of their films together as it reflected the rumours by the press: Rekha played Bachchan's lover, while Bachchan's real-life wife Jaya Bachchan played his wife. The film was filmed secretly during 1980–1981, with Chopra not allowing the media to visit the shooting. Silsila was regarded by many journalists as "a casting coup", and this was the last collaboration between Rekha and Bachchan. The film premiered in July 1981 to critical and commercial failure, and Chopra attributed this to the casting, feeling the audience's attention was strictly focused on the speculation rather than the plot. India Today Sunil Sethi saw that Rekha was "as synthetic as [Amitabh Bachchan's] tiresome chauvinism". Other films starring her that year include Ramesh Talwar's Baseraa and T. Rama Rao's Ek Hi Bhool (a remake of the 1981 Tamil film Mouna Geethangal) both box-office successes. She received another Filmfare Best Actress nomination for Jeevan Dhaara (1982), in which she played a young unmarried woman who is the sole breadwinner of her extended family.

During this period, Rekha was willing to expand her range beyond what she was given in mainstream films and started working in parallel cinema, a movement of Indian neo-realist art films. These films include Kalyug (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Vijeta (1982), Utsav (1984) and Ijaazat (1987). Umrao Jaan, a film adaptation of Mirza Hadi Ruswa's Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), saw Rekha in the title role of the poet and courtesan with a heart of gold from Lucknow in the 1840s. Made on a lavish production cost, the film follows Umrao's life story from her childhood as a girl named Amiran who is kidnapped and sold in a brothel to her position years later as a popular courtesan who seeks happiness amid love affairs and other tribulations. In preparation for the part, Rekha, who at the beginning of her career did not speak Hindi, took the task of learning the finer nuances of the Urdu language. Rekha was widely applauded for her performance, which has since been cited as one of her best work. Balu Bharatan of The Illustrated Weekly of India wrote of her "unexplored reserves of histronic strength". She was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress and earned another Filmfare Award nomination, with Filmfare later considering this one of the most iconic performances of Bollywood history. She later claimed that the film was a turning point.

Among her work in art films, Shyam Benegal's Kalyug is a modern-day adaptation of the Indian mythological epic Mahabharata, depicted as an archetypal conflict between rival business houses. Rekha's role Supriya is based on Draupadi. Benegal cast her in the role after seeing her work in Khubsoorat and took further note of her being "very keen, very serious about her profession". Critic and author Vijay Nair described her performance as "a masterful interpretation of the modern Draupadi". Madhu Trehan complimented her for playing "flawlessly" the part of "a woman of intelligence, strength and a barely suppressed yearning for her young brother-in-law". The 1982 coming-of-age film Vijeta saw her as Neelima who struggles through her marital problems and tries to support her adolescent son, who, undecided about his future plans, eventually decides to join the Indian Air Force. She has since described the role as one of her favourite.

In Girish Karnad's erotic drama Utsav, based on Śūdraka's Sanskrit play Mṛcchakatika from the fourth century, she portrays the courtesan Vasantasena and, for her performance, was acknowledged as the Best Actress (Hindi) by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association. The film attracted wide coverage for its sensuality and Rekha's intimate scenes; she took this as a way to compete with female newcomers at the time. Utsav polarized both the audience and film reviewers with its script and direction; her work and costumes, however, were well received. A review in Asiaweek noted Rekha "dressed in little more than glittering jewellery". In 2003, Maithili Rao wrote, "Rekha—forever the first choice for the courtesan's role, be it ancient Hindu India or 19th-century Muslim Lucknow—is all statuesque sensuality..." In Gulzar's drama Ijaazat, Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah star as a divorced couple who meet unexpectedly for the first time after years of separation at a railway station, and recall together their life as a married couple and the conflicts which brought about their eventual split.

Setback and resurgence (1985–1989)
Apart from parallel cinema, Rekha took on other increasingly serious, even adventurous roles; she was among the early actresses to play lead roles in heroine-oriented revenge films, the first of which was Khoon Bhari Maang in 1988. She won her second Filmfare Award for her performance in the film. Rekha went on to describe Khoon Bhari Maang as "the first and only film I concentrated and understood all throughout." One critic wrote about her performance in the film, "Rekha as Aarti is just flawless and this is one of her best performances ever! In the first half as the shy and not so sexy Aarti she is excellent and after the plastic surgery as the model and femme fatale she is excellent too. Some scenes show that we are watching an actress of a very high calibre here." M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune, while documenting the famous Hindi films of 1988, remarked that Khoon Bhari Maang was "a crowning glory for Rekha, who rose like a phoenix ... and bedazzled the audience with her daredevilry." Encyclopædia Britannica's Encyclopædia of Hindi Cinema listed her role in the film as one of Hindi cinema's memorable female characters, noting it for changing "the perception of the ever-forgiving wife, turning her into an avenging angel." In a similar list by Screen magazine, the role was included as one of "ten memorable roles that made the Hindi film heroine proud."

In later interviews, Rekha has mentioned that receiving the Filmfare Award for this role was a surprise and a turning point that gave her reassurance and validation after taking a small break and getting eclipsed by younger stars. "All that applause from the film fraternity inspired me and made me realize that I am still wanted. I felt even more charged to give my best and knew right then, that this was my calling, what I was born to do, to make a difference in people's lives, through my performances."

Career fluctuations and short revival (1990–1999)
The 1990s saw a drop in Rekha's success. Few of her films were successful and many of her roles were condemned by reviewers. Critics still noted, however, that unlike most of the actresses of her generation, like Hema Malini and Raakhee, who succumbed to playing character parts, typically of mothers and aunts, Rekha was still playing leading roles at a time when younger female stars rose to fame. The first year of the decade saw four releases featuring Rekha, including Mera Pati Sirf Mera Hai and Amiri Garibi, all of which went unnoticed. Still recovering from the recent suicide of her husband and struggling with the ensuing press antagonism towards her, Rekha retained considerable success with her starring role as Namrata Singh, a young woman who joins the police force to avenge her husband's death in K. C. Bokadia's Phool Bane Angaray (1991). The film was a box-office hit and Rekha received a Best Actress nomination at Filmfare for her work, in reference to which Subhash K. Jha remarked, "Khaki never seemed sexier". The Indian Express wrote that she "rides horses, wields swords and does justice to the title in being phool (a flower) and becoming angaarey (burning coal)".

The public's acceptance of Phool Bane Angaray and Khoon Bhari Maang prompted several filmmakers to come with similar offers to Rekha, and she played such roles—labeled "avenging angels"—in several of her proceeding projects to a much less consequential effect. These included her next film Insaaf Ki Devi (1992), and later films such as Ab Insaf Hoga (1995) and Udaan (1997), all of which were major duds. She followed with a dual role of twin sisters in Shakti Samanta's Geetanjali opposite Jeetendra and the title role in the box-office disaster Madam X, in which she starred as a young woman hired by the police to impersonate a female underworld don.

Halfway through the decade, Rekha managed to halt her decline when she accepted several highly-controversial films, including Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996). Kama Sutra, a foreign production directed by Mira Nair, was an erotic drama, and many felt her role of a Kama Sutra teacher in the film would damage her career. She was undeterred by the criticism. Todd McCarthy of Variety described her as "exquisitely composed" in the part. Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi, an action film directed by Umesh Mehra, was a major financial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of the year. It featured Rekha in her first negative role as Madam Maya, a vicious gangster woman running a secret business of illegal wrestling matches in the US, who, during the course of the film, romances the much younger Akshay Kumar. Her portrayal earned her several awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Star Screen Award for Best Villain. In spite of the positive response to her performance from both fans and critics, she maintained on more than one occasion that she did not like herself in the film, noting that her work was not up to her own, personal standards.

Another controversial film at that time was Aastha: In the Prison of Spring (1997), where Basu Bhattacharya, making the last film of his career, cast her as a housewife who moonlights as a prostitute. Once again, she faced some scrutiny by sectors of the press and the audience for the nature of the part and for some of the explicit love scenes in the film. She later reacted: "...people had a lot to say about my role... I don't have problems playing anything. I've reached a stage where I could do justice to any role that came my way. It could be role of a mother, a sister-in-law; negative, positive, sensational or anything." Her performance earned her positive reviews and a Star Screen Award nomination, with India Today referring to her work as "her finest performance in years". She next acted in Qila (1998) and Mother (1999).

Recognition for character roles (2000–2006)
In the 2000s, Rekha appeared in relatively few movies. She started the decade with Bulandi, directed by T. Rama Rao. The other was Khalid Muhammad's Zubeidaa, co starring Karisma Kapoor and Manoj Vajapayee playing the first wife Maharani Mandira Devi of the King. In 2001, Rekha appeared in Rajkumar Santoshi's feminist drama Lajja, an ensemble piece inspired by a true incident of a woman being raped in Bawanipur two years before. The film follows the journey of a runaway wife (Manisha Koirala) and unfolds her story in three main chapters, each one presenting the story of a woman at whose place she stops. Rekha was the protagonist of the final chapter, around which the film's inspiration revolves, playing Ramdulari, an oppressed Dalit village woman and social activist who becomes a victim of gangrape. Speaking of the film, Rekha commented, "I am Lajja and Lajja is me". Highly praised for her portrayal, she received several nominations for her work, including the Filmfare Award and the International Indian Film Academy Award (IIFA) for Best Supporting Actress. Taran Adarsh wrote that "it is Rekha who walks away with the glory, delivering one of the finest performances the Indian screen has seen in the recent times."

In Rakesh Roshan's science-fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya, Rekha played Sonia Mehra, a single mother to a developmentally disabled young man, played by Hrithik Roshan. The movie was a financial and critical success and became the most popular film of the year; it won the Filmfare Award for Best Film, among others. Rekha received another Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Filmfare for her performance, which Khalid Mohamed described as "astutely restrained".

In 2005, Rekha guest starred in an item number in connection with the song "Kaisi Paheli Zindagani", in Pradeep Sarkar's "Parineeta". In Bachke Rehna Re Baba (2005), Rekha played a con woman who, along with her niece, uses one scheme to rob men of their property. The film was a major critical failure. Mid-Day remarked, "why Rekha chose to sign this film is a wonder," noting that she is "riddled with bad dialogue, terrible cakey makeup and tawdry styling". This was followed in 2006 by Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana, a poorly received sex comedy about four female friends and their personal troubles. In a scathing review, Indu Mirani noted that "Rekha hams like she was never going to do another film." In a 2007 article by Daily News and Analysis, critic Deepa Gahlot directed an advice to Rekha: "Please pick movies with care, one more like Bach Ke Rehna Re Baba and Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana and the diva status is under serious threat."

In 2006, she reprised the role of Sonia Mehra in Krrish, Rakesh Roshan's sequel to Koi... Mil Gaya. In this superhero feature, the story moves 20 years forward and focuses on the character of Sonia's grandson Krishna (played again by Hrithik Roshan), whom she has brought up single-handedly after the death of her son Rohit, and who turns out to have supernatural powers. Krrish became the second-highest grossing picture of the year and, like its prequel, was declared a blockbuster. It received mostly positive notices from critics, and Rekha's work earned her another Filmfare nomination in the supporting category. Ronnie Scheib from Variety noted her for bringing "depth to her role as the nurturing grandmother".

Occasional work; hiatus (2007–present)
In 2007, she once again portrayed a courtesan in Goutam Ghose's Yatra. Unlike the initial success she experienced in playing such roles in the early stages of her career, this time the film failed to do well. In 2010, Rekha was awarded the Padma Shri, the 4th highest civilian award given by the Government of India.

Rekha starred in the 2010 film Sadiyaan alongside Hema Malini and Rishi Kapoor. The film marked the debut of Shatrughan Sinha's son Luv Sinha. The film failed to do well at the box office.

In 2014, Rekha was working on Abhishek Kapoor's Fitoor, but left the film due to unknown reasons and later Tabu was signed as her replacement. In 2014 she also worked in Super Nani released on Diwali (24 October). Super Nani was a family drama, in which the grandmother (Rekha) is unappreciated by her children and husband, Randhir Kapoor. Her grandson, Sharman Joshi convinces her to change. The grandmother 'transforms' herself into a glamorous model.

In 2015, she appeared in R. Balki's Shamitabh, where she played herself.

Personal life and off-screen work
In 1990, Rekha married Delhi-based industrialist Mukesh Aggarwal. Aggarwal was a self-made entrepreneur and owner of the kitchenware brand Hotline. He is believed to have had a long-standing struggle with depression and according to Rekha's biographers, she only found out about his mental health after marriage. He was introduced to Rekha through a mutual friend and fashion designer Bina Ramani who termed him Rekha's 'crazy fan'. Their marriage took place on 4 March 1990, and a few months later—while she was in London—he died by suicide, after several previous attempts, leaving a note, "Don't blame anyone". She was pilloried by the press at that time, a period which one journalist termed as "the deepest trough in her life." Bhawana Somaaya observed the period speaking of "a strong anti-wave against the actress — some called her a witch, some a murderess," but added that soon "Rekha came out of the eclipse once again unblemished!"

She was rumoured to have been married to actor Vinod Mehra in 1973, but in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal she denied being married to Mehra referring to him as a "well-wisher". Rekha currently lives in her Bandra home in Mumbai.

She was also famously rumoured to have been in a relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, who was married, after they first acted together in Do Anjaane, and later in Silsila.

Critics noted Rekha for having worked hard to perfect her Hindi and acting, and media reporters often discussed how she had transformed herself from a "plump" duckling to a "swan" in the early 1970s. Rekha's credits to this transformation were yoga, a nutritious diet, and a regular, disciplined life. In 1983, her diet and yoga practice were published in a book called "Rekha's Mind and Body Temple". Rekha has no children. She is a self-proclaimed eggetarian.

In 2012, Rekha was nominated as a Member of Parliament to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. She was appointed to the position by President Pratibha Patil on the recommendation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for her contribution in the field of art (in accordance with article 80 of the Constitution of India which allows the President to nominate 12 members to the House for their expertise in specific fields). Her tenure started on 27 April 2012 and ended on the same day in 2018. She took part in the Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution committee, but, like with other nominated members, her six-year term concluded amidst criticism for her low attendance as well as minimal participation in the House. This concern had been previously raised with respect to Rekha and other nominated members during their incumbency, but several elected members came to their defense, asserting that the active presence of those nominated to the House was not obligatory and that they could contribute in other ways through their position.

Image and artistry
Rekha's status in the film industry has been discussed in light of her change over the years, screen persona, and performances. Writing for The Tribune, Mukesh Khosla was impressed with her transformation from "the giggling village belle in Saawan Bhadon to one of country's reigning actresses". Hindustan Times described her physical change and loss of weight as "one of cinema's and perhaps real life's most dramatic transformations," arguing that "Rekha morphed from an overweight, dark ordinary girl into a glamorous and beautiful enigma". According to critic Omar Qureshi, "the term diva (in India) was coined for Rekha." Mira Nair, who directed Rekha in Kama Sutra (1997), likens her to a "Jamini Roy painting" and says, "Like Marilyn Monroe is shorthand for sex, Rekha is shorthand for charisma". Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali labels her the "last of the great stars".

Respected for her acting prowess, Rekha has been described by critics as one of Hindi cinema's finest actresses. Filmfare described her acting style, writing that in terms of "style, sexiness or sheer onscreen presence, she's unparalleled" and arguing that she is "a fierce, raw, flinty performer with unbridled honesty. Her acting isn't gimmicky." Critic Khalid Mohamed commends her technical control: "She knows how to give and to what degree. She has all that it takes to be a director. There is a kind of vulnerability in her control. She explores when she is acting." Shyam Benegal, who directed her in two movies, believes she is "a director's actress". M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune wrote, "Rekha's flowering as an actress post Ghar and Khubsoorat climaxed in [...] Umrao Jaan. As a tragic courtesan she gave a performance of quality artistry, adopting a much-admired huskiness and despondency of tone. Rekha communicated much with a delicately raised eyebrow". In 2010, Filmfare included two of her performances—from Khubsoorat (1980) and Umrao Jaan (1981)—in their list of "80 Iconic Performances". Her work in the latter was included on Forbes India's list of "25 Greatest Acting Performances of Indian Cinema". In 2011, Rediff listed her as the ninth-greatest Indian actress of all time, noting, "It's hard not to be bowled over by Rekha's longevity, or her ability to reinvent herself... the actress took on a man's job and did it stunningly well, holding her own against all the top actors and being remembered despite them." In 2023, Rajeev Masand listed her in a similar list by India Today.

Despite appreciation toward achievements in her professional career, Rekha's public image has often been interwoven in the media with speculations about her personal life and relationships. Known for her tendency to shun publicity, Rekha has gained a reputation for being mysterious and reclusive, which drew media comparisons to Greta Garbo. Hindustan Times argues that Rekha has shrouded "her life in an intriguing Garbo-like mystery". According to Rediff, "Rekha's reclusive nature has gone a long way towards building an aura of mystery around her." Rekha rarely gives interviews, and she mostly avoids parties and events. Asked once about her mysterious image, she denied several times trying to live up to this image, asserting it is press-created: "What mystery? The media is the one that creates this image. It's just that I am basically shy by nature, an introvert and fiercely private." Film journalist Anupama Chopra, who visited Rekha in 2003, wrote that while tabloids had portrayed her as "a reclusive woman twisted bitter by lecherous men and loneliness", in reality Rekha was "none of these", describing her as "chatty and curious, excited and energetic, cheerful and almost illegally optimistic".

She was referred to as the reigning Queen of Indian Cinema at the 2012 IIFA Awards held in Singapore, where she was given the "Outstanding Contribution to Indian Cinema (Female)" award, also referred to as the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1999, the columnist-turned-author Mohan Deep published the first biography about her, titled Eurekha!: The Intimate Life Story of Rekha (1999). Another biography was released by the journalist Yasser Usman in 2016 under the title of Rekha: The Untold Story.

title: Rekha


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File:Mellows bridge dublin ireland plaque.jpg

Photo of "National Graves Association" plaque on Mellows Bridge, River Liffey, Dublin, (in Irish and English) noting renaming of Bridge from its previous name Queen Maeve Bridge to Liam Mellows Bridge for republican Liam Mellows.


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Phil Liggett

Philip Alexander Liggett (born 11 August 1943) is an English commentator and journalist who covers professional cycling.

He currently commentates on the Tour de France and bike races for ITV and NBC Sports, and was previously associated with Australia's SBS. He is a former amateur cyclist and received a professional contract in 1967; instead of turning professional, he saw a future in sports journalism after writing articles in cycling magazines about races in which he participated.

Journalism
Liggett initially wrote for Cycling magazine, and moved on to do freelance work for The Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Observer. In 1997, he was appointed Cycle Sport magazine's international editor. He has also written books on cycle racing.

Liggett has reported on 16 Olympic Games and 52 Tours de France, generally alongside fellow veteran cycling commentators and former cyclists Paul Sherwen (UK) and Bob Roll (US). Liggett has covered other sports including triathlons and ski jumping. Because of his varied assignments, Liggett has worked for all of the American Big Three networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Liggett has also been associated with the Australian network SBS covering Australian events such as the Tour Down Under in addition to the Tour de France. In 2010, he covered Johannesburg's 94.7 Cycle Challenge for South Africa's SuperSport. Liggett also commentated for London 2012 with Australian broadcaster Foxtel.

Liggett, along with Anna Meares and Robbie McEwen, co-hosted the Seven Network broadcast of the 2023 & 2024 Santos Men’s Tour Down Under used by Peacock in the US.

Cycling
Between 1972 and 1993, Liggett was technical director of the Milk Race. His involvement with organising cycle racing events led to his becoming vice-president of the Association Internationale Organisateurs des Courses Cycliste. In 1973, age 30, Liggett became the youngest ever UCI international commissaire.

Liggett has been president of the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC), Britain's national cyclists' organisation.

In 2009, he was inducted into the British Cycling Hall of Fame.

Defence of Lance Armstrong
Liggett was a long-time supporter of Lance Armstrong and was a regular speaker at "Livestrong" functions along with his Tour De France co-presenter Paul Sherwen. He repeatedly defended Armstrong, challenging the investigations which he called "a waste of money". When Floyd Landis tested positive at the 2006 Tour de France, Liggett denigrated the verdict saying, "The fact that the lab knew whose sample it was testing is just one of the anomalies", but when Landis admitted to doping in 2010 and implicated Armstrong, Liggett dismissed it as "sour grapes" and called the accusations "ridiculous". He also stated that UCI President Pat McQuaid was "vehemently anti doping."

In 2012 after the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) had stripped Armstrong of his Tour de France titles, Liggett claimed on South African Radio to have proof that unnamed politicians motivated by jealousy had fabricated the evidence against Armstrong by bribing witnesses. This provoked an angry response from USADA, who dismissed his claims, and a comprehensive, point by point, rebuttal by Michael Ashenden PhD, a leading doping expert. In October 2012, Liggett maintained his defence of Armstrong, calling the investigation a "witch hunt" without evidence. Later that month, in a documentary by ABC's Four Corners entitled "The World According to Lance," he stated that he now found it difficult to believe that Armstrong had never doped and that he was disappointed that Armstrong had lied to him in 2003 when asked about doping.

Personal life
In 2005, Liggett was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to cycling.

Books

 * Tour De France for Dummies by Phil Liggett, James Raia, Sammarye Lewis and Lance Armstrong (27 May 2005)
 * Tour de France 1988 by Phil Liggett (May 1988)
 * Fastest Man on Wheels. In Pursuit of Chris Boardman by Phil Liggett (May 1994)
 * Dancing on the Pedals: The Found Poetry of Phil Liggett, the Voice of Cycling by Phil Liggett and Doug Donaldson (Editor)

title: Phil Liggett


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Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Nadro

free nadro :)


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User talk:Dan Wylie-Sears

I've been generating a bunch of stubs on molecular biology. Many of these probably should eventually be merged into other articles, with redirects put in their places. But I would hope for eventually -- later rather than sooner. Because molecular biology is a fast-moving discipline, we often don't know whether a particular protein will turn out to be much more important than it currently looks. We also often don't know what article a particular protein will eventually belong in. But we can be pretty sure that many of them will be worthy of their own articles in the long run, with lots of links between them.

Molecular biology is a fast-moving discipline, where Wikipedia seems to me to have an ideal niche: slower and more expansive than review articles, but much faster and cheaper than textbooks. Wikipedia also has the potential to bridge the gaps between levels of expertise, so that someone who begins as a casual reader about the subject can keep learning until they can make sense of the latest research results relevant to their concerns.

Old stuff
Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! --Malathion 13:44, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The five pillars of Wikipedia
 * How to edit a page
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 * How to write a great article
 * Manual of Style

DN & T-cells
Hi,

Thanks for your edit to DN (disambiguation). I'm wondering if the T-cell link really needs to be on that page, however. I'm only slightly familiar with the T-cell field, so I may be wrong here, but it seems unlikely that if I was looking for an article on T-cells, "DN" is what I would be likely to have typed into the search box. If it is a common shorthand, then it does indeed belong on the dab (disambiguation) page. My guess is not, but as I said, I'm not that familiar with the field and its jargon. In any case, I eliminated the link to CD4 (there should only be a single link per entry), and fixed up the formatting of the superscript minus signs to look better. See Manual of Style RoySmith 11:50, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. You've got a good point about looking up acronyms you've seen somewhere. You may also be right that DN and DN (disambiguation) may be misnamed. I'm into sailing, so when I hear "DN", I instantly think iceboats, but that may not be universal :-). RoySmith 12:50, 13 July 2005 (UTC)

Raf
Regarding your comment on my talk page, I have not begun work on the Raf article. I placed a link to it on my user page as an article I'd potentially like to start at some point, but I don't think I'll be getting around to that any time soon. If you had plans on writing the article, that would be great! —Brim 17:37, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

AFD
I think that this may interest you: Articles for deletion/Gatekeeper (politics). Thanks,  HK   06:57, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

A tag has been placed on 10001 (number), requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because the page appears to have no meaningful content or history, and the text is unsalvageably incoherent.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion. To do this, add  on the top of the page (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag) and leave a note on the page's talk page explaining your position. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself.

If the page you created was a test, please use the sandbox for any other experiments you would like to do. Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Gawaxay (talk • contribs • count ) 16:50, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Darby the Dog
A tag has been placed on Darby the Dog requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done because the article appears to be about a real person, organization (band, club, company, etc.), or web content, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is notable: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, articles that do not indicate the subject's importance or significance may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable. If this is the first page that you have created, then you should read the guide to writing your first article.

If you think that you can assert the notability of the subject, you may contest the deletion by adding  to the top of the page (just below the existing speedy deletion or "db" tag), coupled with adding a note on the article's talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the article meets the criterion it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the article that would confirm the subject's notability under Wikipedia guidelines.

For guidelines on specific types of articles, you may want to check out our criteria for biographies, for web sites, for bands, or for companies. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Paul20070 (talk) 19:44, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

Five-year-old
If gibberish gets posted by "me", it's presumably because my five-year-old has been playing on the computer. He's pretty good about sticking to the kids' stuff we let him do, but apparently he's been clicking some unauthorized buttons. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dan Wylie-Sears (talk • contribs) 2 March 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dan Wylie-Sears


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Talk:Polymer City Chronicles

Untitled
"art is fairly elaborate and of much higher quality than might be expected for a webcomic."
 * No, it is not. jglc | t | c 13:45, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

This article isn't the greatest of starts for a web comic page, however, I think it can be hammered out with time. Xuanwu 15:22, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

VfD
This article was unsuccessfully nominated for deletion. See Votes for deletion/Polymer City Chronicles for a record. Postdlf 21:57, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:Polymer City Chronicles