title: Arabesque

text: There is great similarity between arabesque artwork from very different geographic regions. In fact, the similarities are so pronounced that it is sometimes difficult for experts to tell where a given style of arabesque comes from. The reason for this is that the science and mathematics that are used to construct Arabesque artwork are universal. Therefore, for most Muslims, the best artwork that can be created by man for use in the Mosque is artwork that displays the underlying order and unity of nature. The order and unity of the material world, they believe, is a mere ghostly approximation of the spiritual world, which for many Muslims is the place where the only true reality exists. Discovered geometric forms, therefore, exemplify this perfect reality because God's creation has been obscured by the sins of man.


title: Arabesque

text: Mistakes in repetitions may be intentionally introduced as a show of humility by artists who believe only Allah can produce perfection, although this theory is disputed.


title: Arabesque

text: Arabesque art consists of a series of repeating geometric forms which are occasionally accompanied by calligraphy. Ettinghausen et al. describe the arabesque as a "vegetal design consisting of full...and half palmettes [as] an unending continuous pattern...in which each leaf grows out of the tip of another." To the adherents of Islam, the Arabesque is symbolic of their united faith and the way in which traditional Islamic cultures view the world.


title: Arabesque

text: Arabesque is a French term derived from the Italian word "arabesco", meaning "in the Arabic style". The term was first used in Italian, where "rabeschi" was used in the 16th century as a term for "pilaster ornaments featuring acanthus decoration", specifically "running scrolls" that ran vertically up a panel or pilaster, rather than horizontally along a frieze. The book "Opera nuova che insegna a le donne a cuscire … laqual e intitolata Esempio di raccammi" (A New Work that Teaches Women how to Sew … Entitled "Samples of Embroidery"), published in Venice in 1530, includes "groppi moreschi e rabeschi", Moorish knots and arabesques.


title: Arabesque

text: From there it spread to England, where Henry VIII owned, in an inventory of 1549, an agate cup with a "fote and Couer of siluer and guilt enbossed with Rebeske worke", and William Herne or Heron, Serjeant Painter from 1572 to 1580, was paid for painting Elizabeth I's barge with "rebeske work". Unfortunately the styles so described can only be guessed at, although the design by Hans Holbein for a covered cup for Jane Seymour in 1536 (see gallery) already has zones in both Islamic-derived arabesque/moresque style (see below) and classically derived acanthus volutes.


title: Arabesque

text: Another related term is moresque, meaning "Moorish"; Randle Cotgrave's "A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues" of 1611 defines this as: "a rude or anticke painting, or carving, wherin the feet and tayles of beasts, &c, are intermingled with, or made to resemble, a kind of wild leaves, &c." and "arabesque", in its earliest use cited in the OED (but as a French word), as "Rebeske work; a small and curious flourishing". In France "arabesque" first appears in 1546, and "was first applied in the latter part of the 17th century" to grotesque ornament, "despite the classical origin of the latter", especially if without human figures in it—a distinction still often made, but not consistently observed.


title: Arabesque

text: Over the following centuries, the three terms "grotesque", "moresque", and "arabesque" were used largely interchangeably in English, French, and German for styles of decoration derived at least as much from the European past as the Islamic world, with "grotesque" gradually acquiring its main modern meaning, related more to Gothic gargoyles and caricature than to either Pompeii-style Roman painting or Islamic patterns. Meanwhile, the word "arabesque" was now being applied to Islamic art itself, by 1851 at the latest, when John Ruskin uses it in "The Stones of Venice". Writers over the last decades have attempted to salvage meaningful distinctions between the words from the confused wreckage of historical sources.


title: Arabesque

text: Peter Fuhring, a specialist in the history of ornament, says that (also in a French context): The ornament known as moresque in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (but now more commonly called arabesque) is characterized by bifurcated scrolls composed of branches forming interlaced foliage patterns. These basic motifs gave rise to numerous variants, for example, where the branches, generally of a linear character, were turned into straps or bands. ... It is characteristic of the moresque, which is essentially a surface ornament, that it is impossible to locate the pattern's beginning or end. ... Originating in the Middle East, they were introduced to continental Europe via Italy and Spain ... Italian examples of this ornament, which was often used for bookbindings and embroidery, are known from as early as the late fifteenth century.


title: Arabesque

text: Fuhring notes that grotesques were "confusingly called arabesques in eighteenth century France", but in his terminology "the major types of ornament that appear in French sixteenth century etchings and engraving ... can be divided into two groups. The first includes ornaments adopted from antiquity: grotesques, architectural ornaments such as the orders, foliage scrolls and self-contained elements such as trophies, terms and vases. A second group, far smaller than the first, comprises modern ornaments: moresques, interlaced bands, strapwork, and elements such as cartouches"—categories he goes on to discuss individually.


title: Arabesque

text: The moresque or arabesque style was especially popular and long-lived in the Western arts of the book: bookbindings decorated in gold tooling, borders for illustrations, and printer's ornaments for decorating empty spaces on the page. In this field the technique of gold tooling had also arrived in the 15th century from the Islamic world, and indeed much of the leather itself was imported from there. Small motifs in this style have continued to be used by conservative book designers up to the present day.


title: Arabesque

text: According to Harold Osborne, in France, the "characteristic development of the French arabesque combined bandwork deriving from the moresque with decorative acanthus foliage radiating from C-scrolls connected by short bars". Apparently starting in embroidery, it then appears in garden design before being used in Northern Mannerist painted decorative schemes "with a central medallion combined with acanthus and other forms" by Simon Vouet and then Charles Lebrun who used "scrolls of flat bandwork joined by horizontal bars and contrasting with ancanthus scrolls and palmette." More exuberant arabesque designs by Jean Bérain the Elder are an early "intimation" of the Rococo, which was to take the arabesque into three dimensions in reliefs.


title: Arabesque

text: The use of "arabesque" as an English noun first appears, in relation to painting, in William Beckford's novel "Vathek" in 1786. Arabesque is also used as a term for complex freehand pen flourishes in drawing or other graphic media. The "Grove Dictionary of Art" will have none of this confusion, and says flatly: "Over the centuries the word has been applied to a wide variety of winding and twining vegetal decoration in art and meandering themes in music, but it properly applies only to Islamic art", so contradicting the definition of 1888 still found in the "Oxford English Dictionary": "A species of mural or surface decoration in colour or low relief, composed in flowing lines of branches, leaves, and scroll-work fancifully intertwined. Also fig[uratively]. As used in Moorish and Arabic decorative art (from which, almost exclusively, it was known in the Middle Ages), representations of living creatures were excluded; but in the arabesques of Raphael, founded on the ancient Græco-Roman work of this kind, and in those of Renaissance decoration, human and animal figures, both natural and grotesque, as well as vases, armour, and objects of art, are freely introduced; to this the term is now usually applied, the other being distinguished as Moorish Arabesque, or Moresque."


title: Arabesque

text: A major use of the arabesque style has been artistic printing, for example of book covers and page decoration. Repeating geometric patterns worked well with traditional printing, since they could be printed from metal type like letters if the type was placed together; as the designs have no specific connection to the meaning of a text, the type can be reused in many different editions of different works. Robert Granjon, a French printer of the sixteenth century, has been credited with the first truly interlocking arabesque printing, but other printers had used many other kinds of ornaments in the past. The idea was rapidly used by many other printers. After a period of disuse in the nineteenth century, when a more minimal page layout became popular with printers like Bodoni and Didot, the concept returned to popularity with the arrival of the Arts and Crafts movement, Many fine books from the period 1890–1960 have arabesque decorations, sometimes on paperback covers. Many digital serif fonts include arabesque pattern elements thought to be complementary to the mood of the font; they are also often sold as separate designs.


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Dhivyadharshini "DD" Neelakandan is an Indian television host and actress who prominently works in Tamil film and television industry.


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Initially making her debut as an actress, she featured in supporting roles in films including Kamal Haasan's production "Nala Damayanthi" (2003), before going on to work in television serials, drawing attention for her performances in the Raadan Media ventures "Selvi" and "Arasi". Since 2007, she has regularly been a host for shows on Vijay TV and in 2014, began hosting "Koffee with DD", her own show.


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Dhivyadharshini was born to K. Neelakandan and N. Srilatha. Her sister Priyadarshini is also a television host, while her younger brother is an airline pilot. She attended Our Lady's Matriculation Higher Secondary School and has since has continued part-time education at Anna Adarsh College, Chennai.


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Dhivyadharshini made her debut as a television anchor in 1999, when she successfully auditioned to be the child anchor for Vijay TV's "Ungal Theerpu". She made a breakthrough as an actress, portraying a serious character in K. Balachander's television serial "Rekkai Kattiya Manasu", shown on Raj TV, and subsequently, her performance helped her to popularity and gain further acting assignments. After a few more cameo appearances in films, Dhivyadharshini moved back to television, where she played notable roles in the Raadan Media ventures "Selvi" and "Arase". She has also contributed as a dubbing artiste in films, notably voicing Vega Tamotia in "Saroja" (2008) and Piaa Bajpai in "Goa" (2010).


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Since 2007, Dhivyadharshini has become one amongst the leading TV anchors as featured on Tamil television and has notably continued to host several reality TV shows on Vijay TV. She hosted the initial seasons of "Jodi Number One" alongside Deepak and Aravind Akash, as well being the initial host of "Boys Vs. Girls".


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: She married her long time friend & assistant director Srikanth Ravichandran. But the couple announced their split in 2017.now they have filed for divorce in a family court in Chennai. Dhivyadharshini has rheumatoid arthritis, which prevents her from long-distance walking.


title: Dhivyadharshini

text: Ananda Vikatan, one of the leading weeklies of Tamil Nadu has been awarding the films, actors and technicians on various criteria.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upper Stort Valley, which has been made navigable through other towns and features a canal section near its watermill. Old Harlow is a historic village founded by the early medieval age and most of its high street buildings are early Victorian and residential, mostly protected by one of the Conservation Areas in the district. In Old Harlow is a field named Harlowbury, a de-settled monastic area which has the remains of a chapel, a scheduled ancient monument.


title: Harlow

text: The M11 motorway passes through to the east of the town. Harlow has its own commercial and leisure economy. It is also an outer part of the London commuter belt and employment centre of the M11 corridor which includes Cambridge and London Stansted Airport to the north. At the time of the 2011 Census, Harlow's population was recorded at 81,944 and its district had the third-highest proportion of social housing in England, 26.9%, a legacy of the 1947 commitment to re-house blitzed London families after World War II and provide a percentage of homes for other needy families who cannot afford market rents.


title: Harlow

text: There is some dispute as to where the place name Harlow derives from. One theory is that it derives from the Anglo-Saxon words 'here' and 'hlaw', meaning "army hill", probably to be identified with Mulberry Hill, which was used as the moot or meeting place for the district.


title: Harlow

text: The other theory is that it derives from the words 'here' and 'hearg', meaning "temple hill/mound", probably to be identified with an Iron Age burial mound, later a Roman temple site on River Way.


title: Harlow

text: The earliest deposits are of a Mesolithic (circa 10,000 BC) hunting camp excavated by Davey in Northbrooks in the 1970s (Unpublished) closely followed by the large and unexcavated deposits of Neolithic flint beside Gilden Way. These deposits are mostly known because of the large numbers of surface-bound, worked flint. Substantial amounts of worked flint suggest an organised working of flint in the area. Large amounts of debitage litter the area and tools found include axe heads, hammers, blades, dowels and other boring tools and multipurpose flints such as scrapers. An organised field walk in the late 1990s by Bartlett (unpublished) indicates that most of the area, some 80 hectares, produced worked flint from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age with a smattering of Mesolithic. This indicates organised industry existed from 5000 BC to 2000 BC. The deposits are so large and dispersed that any major archaeological work in the area will have to take this into consideration before any ground work is started. Harlow was in Roman times the site of a small town (around Harlow Mill railway station) with a substantial stone built temple.


title: Harlow

text: The entry in the Norman Domesday Book reads: "Herlaua: St Edmunds Abbey before and after 1066; Geoffrey from Count Eustace; Thorgils from Eudo the Steward; Richard from Ranulf, brother of Ilger. Mill, 7 beehives, 8 cobs, 43 cattle, 3 foals." The mill is now a 300-year-old listed building and restaurant.


title: Harlow

text: The original village, mentioned in the Domesday Book, developed as a typical rural community around what is now known as Old Harlow, with many of its buildings still standing. This includes for instance the Grade II listed St Mary's Church in Churchgate Street. Its former Chapel is in a ruinous state in a field which was once the Harlowbury Abbey part of Old Harlow, is Grade I listed and is a scheduled ancient monument.


title: Harlow

text: Kingsmoor House on Paringdon Road is a Grade II* listed building and dates from the 18th century. It was built as a gentleman's residence and owned by local families including the Risden, Houblon and Todhunter families. It was later used as a private school and council offices before falling derelict. It has since been restored and converted into residential apartments.


title: Harlow

text: The original Harlow New Town was built after World War II to ease overcrowding in London and the surrounding areas due to the devastation caused by the bombing during the Blitz. Harlow was, along with places such as Basildon, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead a result of the New Towns Act of 1946, with the master plan for Harlow drawn up in 1947 by Sir Frederick Gibberd. The town was planned from the outset and was designed to respect the existing landscape. Sylvia Crowe, the landscape architect, worked on Harlow New Town between 1948 and 1958. A number of landscape wedges - which later became known as Green Wedges - were designed to cut through the town and separate the neighbourhoods of the town. The development incorporated the market town of Harlow, now a neighbourhood known as Old Harlow, and the villages of Great Parndon, Latton, Tye Green, Potter Street, Churchgate Street, Little Parndon, and Netteswell. Each of the town's neighbourhoods is self-supporting with its own shopping precincts, community facilities and pubs. Gibberd invited many of the country's leading post-war architects to design buildings in the town, including Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, Leonard Manasseh, Michael Neylan, E C P Monson, Gerard Goalen, Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew, Graham Dawbarn, H. T. Cadbury-Brown and William Crabtree. Harlow has one of the most extensive cycle track networks in the country, connecting all areas of the town to the town centre and industrial areas. The cycle network is composed mostly of the original old town roads.


title: Harlow

text: The town's authorities built Britain's first pedestrian precinct, and first modern-style residential tower block, The Lawn, constructed in 1951; it is now a Grade II listed building. Gibberd's tromp-l'oeil terrace in Orchard Croft and Dawbarn's maisonette blocks at Pennymead are also notable, as is Michael Neylan's pioneering development at Bishopsfield. The first neighbourhood, Mark Hall, is a conservation area. From 1894 to 1955 the Harlow parish formed part of the Epping Rural District of Essex. From 1955 to 1974, Harlow was an urban district. On 1 April 1974 the parish and urban district was abolished and it became an unparished area.


title: Harlow

text: The town centre, and many of its neighbourhood shopping facilities have undergone major redevelopment, along with many of the town's original buildings. Subsequently, many of the original town buildings, including most of its health centres, the Staple Tye shopping centre and many industrial units have been rebuilt. Gibberd's original town hall, a landmark in the town built in 1958, was demolished and replaced by a new civic centre and The Water Gardens shopping area in the 2000s.


title: Harlow

text: Since becoming a new town, Harlow has undergone several stages of expansion, the first of which was the "mini expansion" that was created by the building of the Sumners and Katherines estates in the mid-to-late seventies to the west of the existing town. Since then Harlow has further expanded with the Church Langley estate completed in 2005, and its newest neighbourhood Newhall has completed the first stage of its development, with the second stage underway in 2013. The Harlow Gateway Scheme, also completed, first involved the relocation of the Harlow Football Stadium & the building of a new hotel, apartments and a restaurant adjacent to Harlow Town railway station. Phase 2 of this scheme involved the construction of 530 eco-homes on the former sports centre site and the building of the Harlow Leizurezone adjacent to the town's college in the early 2010s.


title: Harlow

text: Other major developments under consideration include both a northern and southern bypass of the town, and significant expansion to the north, following the completed expansion to the east. The Harlow North plans, currently awaiting permission, involve an extension of the town across the floodplains on the town's northern border, into neighbouring Hertfordshire. The plan was supported by former MP Bill Rammell, all three political groups on Harlow Council, and the East of England Regional Assembly. It is opposed by Hertfordshire County Council, East Herts Council, Mark Prisk, MP for Hertford and Stortford in whose constituency the development would be, and all the parishes concerned. The opposition is coordinated by a local group based in neighbouring East Hertfordshire. An attempt to have Harlow North designated an "Eco Town" was rejected by the Minister for Housing, Caroline Flint MP, in April 2008.


title: Harlow

text: The south of the town centre also underwent major regeneration, with the new Civic Centre being built and the town's famous Water Gardens being redeveloped in the 2000s, a landscape listed by English Heritage. Despite this development, the main shopping area of the town has been stagnating for some time, not helped by the closure of two of the Harvey Centre's anchor tenants - these being BHS and M&S.


title: Harlow

text: In 2004 Harlow businessman Mo Ghadami won his High Court case to block a multimillion-pound extension of the town's Harvey Centre. The Iranian-born entrepreneur, who presented his case in person, persuaded Mr Justice Richards to quash Harlow DC's grant of planning permission for the development. In his judgment he backed Mr Ghadami's claim of 'apparent bias or predetermination' in the decision, as a result of the continued participation of Michael Garnett, the chairman of the planning committee, in the planning process after he had attempted in telephone calls to persuade Mr Ghadami to consent to the scheme.


title: Harlow

text: In 2011 the government announced the creation of an enterprise zone in the town. Harlow Enterprise Zone consists of two separate sites under development, at Templefields and London Road, with the London Road site divided into north and south business parks.


title: Harlow

text: A government policy to allow developers to convert office space to residential has led to a proliferation of new 'rabbit hutch'-sized flats, which are then let to London-borough waiting-list families. These are erected under permitted development rights which mean the local authority cannot refuse planning permission.


title: Harlow

text: A major feature of Harlow New Town is its green spaces; over one third of the district is parkland or fields containing public footpaths. One of the original design features of Gibberd's masterplan is the Green Wedges in the town, designed to provide open space for wildlife and recreation and to separate neighbourhoods. 23% of the district is designated as Green Wedge. The Green Wedges are protected from inappropriate development, through the Local Plan.


title: Harlow

text: The town is entirely surrounded by Green Belt land, a land designation which originated in London to prevent the city sprawling, and 21% of the district is allocated as Green Belt. The National Planning Policy Framework states that one of the purposes of Green Belt land is to protect unrestricted sprawl from large built-up areas.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow Town Park, at a size of 71.6-hectares (just under 1 km), is one of the largest urban parks in the country. The multi-functional park has been used for recreation and enjoyment for over 50 years. This park is in the centre Netteswell ward and is between the town centre and the railway station, both of which are within walking distance of the park, which is a natural thoroughfare from the station to the town centre.


title: Harlow

text: There are only 12 parks with significant post-war element on the English Heritage 'Register of Parks'. With these Harlow is seen as one of the first examples of a civic scheme to marry the modern science of town and country planning.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow was originally expected to provide a majority of employment opportunities in manufacturing, with two major developments of The Pinnacles and Templefields providing the biggest employers in the region; as with the rest of the country, this manufacturing base has declined and Harlow has had to adjust.


title: Harlow

text: The original manufacturing took the form of a biscuit factory, on the Pinnacles. Owned and run as a co-op, it provided employment to the town for over 50 years, before closing in 2002. It has since been demolished and the site now has small industrial units. At its peak, the factory employed over 500 people.


title: Harlow

text: In July 2017 Public Health England had bought the vacant site from GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) hoping to move altogether 2,745 jobs there, of which about 500 are from Porton Down.


title: Harlow

text: Nortel had a large site on the eastern edge of the town, acquired when STC was bought in 1991, and it was here that Charles K. Kao developed optical fibre data transmission. Nortel still has a presence, but it is much reduced. The site now is host to electronics,


title: Harlow

text: Unemployment is frequently around 10%, higher than the national average in the UK. Harlow also has a large number of people in social housing, almost 30% of dwellings being housing association and local authority owned, and many more privately rented.


title: Harlow

text: The Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow since the 2010 general election is Conservative Robert Halfon. He defeated Labour's Phil Waite, his predecessor being Bill Rammell, who had been the MP since the 1997 election, but had only held the seat at the 2005 general election by a majority of 97 votes.


title: Harlow

text: Elections to the district council are held in three out of every four years, with one-third of the 33 seats on the council being elected at each election. Labour had a majority from the first election in 1973 until the 2002 election. From then until the 2008 election no party had a majority with the Liberal Democrats ruling as a minority. The Conservatives gained control in 2008, but lost it back to Labour at the 2012 election and as of the 2018 election the council was composed of the following councillors:-


title: Harlow

text: Harlow is served by two railway stations: Harlow Town and Harlow Mill; both are served by trains between London Liverpool Street and Cambridge. There is also a bus service to Epping tube station, which is on London Underground's Central Line.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow can be assessed from junctions 7 and 7a of the M11 motorway, which runs from London to Cambridge; this places it within a short distance of Stansted Airport and the A120 and the orbital M25 motorway. The M11 motorway was planned originally to run to the west of Harlow, not to the east as it does today. Having planned for one of the two big industrial estates to be built to the west of the town for easy motorway access, Sir Fredrick Gibberd was appalled when the motorway was eventually built to the east of the town instead, describing it as "just about the most monstrous thing to ever happen to me as a planner" during a 1982 interview. Running through the town is the A414, a major road between Hemel Hempstead and Maldon; it links the town with the A10 to the west. Another major road running from Harlow is the A1184, which leads to the nearby town of Bishop's Stortford.


title: Harlow

text: Bishop's Stortford is the closest large town to London Stansted Airport, though Harlow is only 10 miles from this major transport hub and therefore provides several hundred airport employees. The airport operator withdrew a planning application for a second runway after the General Election of 2010, when all major political parties opposed it.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow bus station provides a focal point for the town's extensive bus network and serves as a regional hub for the local area, with operators such as Arriva (Herts and Essex) and Central Connect. On top of the prime routes from Harlow to Stansted Airport, there are links to many other local towns and villages such as Chelmsford, Epping and Bishop's Stortford. The 724 bus, operated by Arriva in Herts and Essex, provides a service between Harlow and Heathrow Airport via Hertford and Watford.


title: Harlow

text: Essex County Council was involved in development to Harlow's First Avenue, which was intended to reduce congestion and create better transport connections between the Newhall housing developments. The scheme was implemented in two phases, each phase focusing on developing First Avenue on either side of Howard Way. Phase two had an estimated cost of £4.4 million and was due to be completed in early 2010, phase one is already complete and is listed as having had £3.6 million of funding from the Community Infrastructure Fund (CIF). The scheme includes construction of a shared use cycleway and development to the bus service along First Avenue and into the Newhall development site where 'high quality bus' services between Harlow town centre and Harlow Town Railway station are listed as part of the intentions of the development.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow is served by the NHS Princess Alexandra Hospital, situated on the edge of The High, which is the main Town Centre area of Harlow. This hospital has a 24-hour Accident & Emergency and Urgent Care Centre.


title: Harlow

text: St. Nicholas School is an independent school in the town while Harlow College provides sixth form and further education and St Mark's West Essex Catholic School and BMAT STEM Academy also provide sixth form education.


title: Harlow

text: Brays Grove Community School and Specialist Arts College closed down in June 2008 due to decreasing pupil numbers over a number of years. Following the schools closure, the site was demolished and redeveloped into a £23 million state of the art Academy which Passmores School and Technology College relocated to in September 2011 opening as Passmores Academy.


title: Harlow

text: In the 1980s a further two secondary schools were closed, Latton Bush (now a commercial centre and recreational centre) and Netteswell (now forms part of the Harlow College Campus) is a major further educational centre, covering GCSEs, A-Levels, and many vocational subjects including Hair and Beauty Therapy, Construction, Mechanics, ICT, and a new centre for engineering recently opened. The college is currently under major regeneration and is due to open a new university centre in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University, covering mostly Foundation degrees in a variety of subjects relevant to local employers' needs.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow Town Cricket Club was formed in 1960 as Stort Cricket Club and plays at Ash Tree Field. The club plays in division 2 of the Shepherd Neame Essex League, runs a junior section that play in the West Essex District Cricket Board League and has a girls team which play other girls teams in the county.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow Town Cricket Club's Pavilion recently underwent a six figure refurbishment to promote women's and disabled cricket in Harlow and the whole of Essex. Essex County Cricket Club Ladies and disability sections use the club as well as the England disability teams.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow has four cricket clubs. Harlow Cricket Club play in Division 3 of the Shepherd Neame Essex League and is based in Old Harlow. The club runs a junior section that play in the West Essex District Cricket Board League. Netteswell and Burnt Mill Cricket Club are based at Harlow Cricket Club, they are a social team that was founded around 1889. Near neighbours Potter Street and Church Langley Cricket Club play in the Herts and Essex League.


title: Harlow

text: The town's football club Harlow Town F.C. play in the Isthmian League South Central Division, having been relegated from the Premier Division in the 2018–19 season.


title: Harlow

text: The club is best known for its extended run in the 1979-80 FA Cup, where they reached the Fourth Round of the competition. This included wins against established Football League sides Southend United and most famously a 1–0 win over Leicester City in a replay, having drawn 1–1 at Filbert Street. Harlow were eventually eliminated by Watford, narrowly losing 4–3.


title: Harlow

text: The club built a new stadium in 2006 at Barrows Farm, now named The Harlow Arena, with the old Harlow Sports Centre being converted into housing.


title: Harlow

text: Les Smith, a Harlow resident, represented Great Britain at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games. Les became one of the first disabled people to become a qualified football coach in 1993.


title: Harlow

text: The Harlow Greyhound Stadium has been at its present site for over 20 years and has regular race meetings each week as well as hosting other sporting events.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow Rugby Football Club moved from Ram Gorse near The Pinnacles to a new location in mid 2017 located on Howard Way, Latton Bush, Harlow. The former site of the club has been turned into a housing estate affectionately called Ram Gorse Park. The first team plays in the London and South East Division IIl North East league. Currently, the training grounds are located near Pennymead.


title: Harlow

text: The town has a leisure facility named the Harlow Leisurezone, built in the late 2000s next to Harlow College as part of the Gateway Project, which replaced the old Harlow Sports Centre, opened in 1960.


title: Harlow

text: In the 2010s, investments have included its skate-park next to Burnt Mill Academy. The project has been funded by the investment of over £300,000, largely from Harlow Council with £57,500 from Sport England. The park is floodlit. The 650sq metre park is made from concrete, and has a bowl as well as a street course which contains quarter pipes, flat banks, rails and steps.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow is the home to a major collection of public sculptures (over 100 in total) by artists such as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Gerda Rubinstein and Ralph Brown. Many of these are owned by the Harlow Art Trust, an organisation set up in 1953 by the lead architect of Harlow Frederick Gibberd. Gibberd had idealistic notions of the New Town as a place where people who might not normally have access to art could enjoy great sculptures by great artists on every street corner. Consequently, almost all of Harlow's sculpture collection is in the open air, in shopping centres, housing estates and parks around the town.


title: Harlow

text: In 2009 Harlow Council voted to celebrate Harlow's collection of sculpture by branding Harlow as 'Harlow Sculpture Town – The World's First Sculpture Town'. Harlow Sculpture Town began as an initiative from Harlow Art Trust, presenting itself as 'Sculpture Town', in a similar way to Hay-on-Wye's presentation of itself as Booktown.


title: Harlow

text: As part of the 'Sculpture Town' branding, Harlow is also home to the Gibberd Garden, the former home of Frederick and Patricia Gibberd, which is a managed twentieth-century garden, and home to some of the Gibberd's private sculpture collection. The Gibberd Gallery, in the Civic Centre, contains a collection of twentieth-century watercolours and temporary exhibitions.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow's Playhouse Theatre is in the town, which hosts shows and live comedy throughout the year and is the home to local community Arts group "Livewire Theatre" which has provided free arts access to young people since 2001.


title: Harlow

text: Harlow has a local museum, which hold exhibitions and which contains artefacts on Harlow's historic past, charting the story of the town through the ages. Harlow Museum is in Muskham Road, and is set within the grounds of a sixteenth-century manor building with walled gardens. The museum is run in conjunction with the Essex Records Office (ERO) which holds family history archives in the search room. Admission to the museum is currently free, but visitors are encouraged to make a donation to ensure future maintenance of services.


title: Harlow

text: The Town of Harlow and Harlow New Town are cited in the song "Get 'Em Out by Friday", by progressive rock group Genesis, on their 1972 album "Foxtrot".


title: Harlow

text: Harlow was home to The Square, named one of the Top 10 Small Venues in the UK by NME, but the venue was closed due to re-development of the site, and was demolished in 2018.


title: Report

text: A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents.


title: Report

text: In modern business scenario, reports play a major role in the progress of business. Reports are the backbone to the thinking process of the establishment and they are responsible, to a great extent, in evolving an efficient or inefficient work environment.


title: Report

text: One of the most common formats for presenting reports is IMRAD—introduction, methods, results, and discussion. This structure, standard for the genre, mirrors traditional publication of scientific research and summons the ethos and credibility of that discipline. Reports are not required to follow this pattern and may use alternative methods such as the problem-solution format, wherein the author first lists an issue and then details what must be done to fix the problem. Transparency and a focus on quality are keys to writing a useful report. Accuracy is also important. Faulty numbers in a financial report could lead to disastrous consequences.


title: Report

text: Reports use features such as tables, graphics, pictures, voice, or specialized vocabulary in order to persuade a specific audience to undertake an action or inform the reader of the subject at hand. Some common elements of written reports include headings to indicate topics and help the reader locate relevant information quickly, and visual elements such as charts, tables and figures, which are useful for breaking up large sections of text and making complex issues more accessible. Lengthy written reports will almost always contain a table of contents, appendices, footnotes, and references. A bibliography or list of references will appear at the end of any credible report and citations are often included within the text itself. Complex terms are explained within the body of the report or listed as footnotes in order to make the report easier to follow. A short summary of the report's contents, called an abstract, may appear in the beginning so that the audience knows what the report will cover. Online reports often contain hyperlinks to internal or external sources as well.


title: Report

text: Verbal reports differ from written reports in the minutiae of their format, but they still educate or advocate for a course of action. Quality reports will be well researched and the speaker will list their sources if at all possible.


title: Numberblocks

text: Numberblocks is a British animated television programme for preschoolers that debuted on CBeebies on 23 January 2017. The programme was created by Joe Elliot and produced by Alphablocks Ltd with Blue Zoo. It was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation, with Larkshead Media and Learning Resources holding merchandising rights. The series made its premiere on CBeebies in England and S4C in Wales.


title: Numberblocks

text: The show follows the Numberblocks, block characters who represent numbers. They live in Numberland and embark on adventures relating to mathematical concepts. In 2017, the show was nominated for a BAFTA award in the "Learning" category.


title: Numberblocks

text: "Numberblocks" follows the adventures of block characters in Numberland, each named after a number, and made up of the equivalent number of blocks. A black floating number, called a Numberling, appears above their heads to show their value. When one block hops on top of another, they transform into a different character to make a new number. Many of the numbers have styles and personalities associated with their numbers (One is brave and independent, Seven is rainbow-coloured and lucky, Eight has octopus-like tentacles. etc.)


title: Numberblocks

text: The show helps toddlers and young kids learn numeracy skills, especially how to count and do simple maths. Integer concepts such as even vs. odd, and factoring are discussed and explored. More sophisticated ideas are also explored in later episodes such as comparison, square numbers, and triangular numbers (known as "Step Squads") as well as counting using binary numbers.


title: Numberblocks

text: Kay Benbow of BBC Studios commissioned "Numberblocks" as an animated series for children aged 3–6 to be developed by Essex production company Blue Zoo. The production was made in partnership with the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) to complement the "Alphablocks" series. Created by Joe Elliot, the series was made to give children a deep understanding of how numbers work. Elliot wanted to visually show the concepts of maths in a way no other number series had, as he thought many people struggled with how the subject is taught. In October 2018, Aardman Animations' international sales and acquisitions arm acquired the distribution rights to the show, along with "Alphablocks".


title: Numberblocks

text: UK-based kids media service company Larkshead Media was appointed to manage licensing activities for "Numberblocks" in August 2017; the agency announced that merchandise including toys and apparel would be brought to retail. In July 2020, a MathLink Cubes activity set inspired by the show was announced by Learning Resources to be available through major retailers later in the year. The set, featuring characters One to Ten, was delayed and released in June 2021. In September, Immediate Media launched an official magazine for the show, with the first issue released on 8 September 2021. Fancy dress distributor Rubies announced an official dress up licence for "Numberblocks" in October, with costumes planned to be available in the EMEA and Australia in 2022. Learning Resources secured a global master licensing deal for "Numberblocks" in November 2021, announcing the release of plush toys in 2022 followed by playsets, video games and classroom items with sister company hand2mind by 2023.


title: Little black dress

text: The little black dress (LBD) is a black evening or cocktail dress, cut simply and often quite short. Fashion historians ascribe the origins of the little black dress to the 1920s designs of Coco Chanel. It is intended to be long-lasting, versatile, affordable, and widely accessible. Its ubiquity is such that it is often simply referred to as the "LBD".


title: Little black dress

text: The little black dress is considered essential to a complete wardrobe. Many fashion observers state that every woman should own a simple, elegant black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. For example, the LBD can be worn with a jacket and pumps for daytime business wear. It can also be worn with ornate jewelry and accessories for evening wear or a formal event such as a wedding or ball.


title: Little black dress

text: Black has always been a color rich in symbolism. In the early 16th century, black represented wealth among Spanish Aristocrats and Dutch merchants as it was incredibly expensive to produce the black color from "imported oak apples." In the early 18th century, black represented romance and artistry. As Ann Demeulemeester said of it, "Black is poetic. How do you imagine a poet? In a bright yellow jacket? Probably not." In the early 19th century, black was adopted by the Romantics such as Byron, Shelley, and Keats, due to its melancholic aura. As the Victorian era began, black transitioned from a color of art to one of grief and mourning – widows were expected to wear black for at least four years – and also for service livery, as the uniform for maids.


title: Little black dress

text: In 1926 Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel published a picture of a short, simple black dress in American "Vogue". It was calf-length, straight and decorated only by a few diagonal lines. "Vogue" called it "Chanel's Ford". Like the Model T, the little black dress was simple and accessible for women of all social classes. "Vogue" also said that the LBD would become "a sort of uniform for all women of taste". This, as well as other designs by the house of Chanel helped disassociate black from mourning, and reinvent it as the uniform of the high-class, wealthy, and chic. As Coco herself proclaimed, "I imposed black; it's still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around."


title: Little black dress

text: The little black dress continued to be popular through the Great Depression, predominantly through its economy and elegance, albeit with the line lengthened somewhat. Hollywood's influence on fashion helped the little black dress's popularity, but for more practical reasons: as Technicolor films became more common, filmmakers relied on little black dresses because other colors looked distorted on screen and botched the coloring process. During World War II, the style continued in part due to widespread rationing of textiles, and in part as a common uniform (accessorized for businesswear) for civilian women entering the workforce.


title: Little black dress

text: The rise of Dior's "New Look" in the post-war era and the sexual conservatism of the 1950s returned the little black dress to its roots as a uniform and a symbol of the dangerous woman. Hollywood femmes fatales and fallen women characters were portrayed often in black halter-style dresses in contrast to the more conservative dresses of housewives or more wholesome Hollywood stars. Synthetic fibres made popular in the 1940s and 1950s broadened the availability and affordability of many designs.


title: Little black dress

text: The generation gap of the 1960s created a dichotomy in the design of the little black dress. The younger "mod" generation preferred, in general, a miniskirt on their versions of the dress and designers catering to the youth culture continued to push the envelope - shortening the skirt even more, creating cutouts or slits in the skirt or bodice of the dress, using sheer fabrics such as netting or tulle. Many women aspired to simple black sheath dresses similar to the black Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in the acclaimed film "Breakfast at Tiffany's".


title: Little black dress

text: The popularity of casual fabrics, especially knits, for dress and business wear during the 1980s brought the little black dress back into vogue. Coupled with the fitness craze, the new designs incorporated details already popular at the time such as broad shoulders or peplums: later in the decade and into the 1990s, simpler designs in a variety of lengths and fullness were popular. The grunge culture of the 1990s saw the combination of the little black dress with both sandals and combat boots, though the dress itself remained simple in cut and fabric.


title: Little black dress

text: The new glamour of the late 1990s led to new variations of the dress but, like the 1950s and the 1970s, colour re-emerged as a factor in fashion and formalwear and repeatedly shows an aversion to black. The resurgence of body conscious clothing, muted colour schemes, and the reemergence of predominant black, along with the retrospective trends of the 1980s in the late 2000s paved way to the return of interest to the dress.


title: Little black dress

text: The black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), designed by Hubert de Givenchy, epitomized the standard for wearing little black dresses accessorized with pearls (together called "basic black"), as was frequently seen throughout the early 1960s. The dress set a record in 2006 when it was auctioned for £410,000, six times its original estimate.


title: Little black dress

text: Betty Boop, a cartoon character based in part on the 1920s it girl Helen Kane, was drawn wearing a little black dress in her early films, though with Technicolor later, Betty's dress became red.


title: Little black dress

text: Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, was known to own several little black dresses and said much in praise of the garments. One quote of the Duchess: "When a little black dress is right, there is nothing else to wear in its place."


title: Little black dress

text: Édith Piaf, the French folk icon, performed in a black sheath dress throughout her career: for this habit she was nicknamed "little black sparrow". It was thought that the dress helped audiences focus more on Piaf's singing and less on her appearance.


title: Little black dress

text: Diana, Princess of Wales wore a black Christina Stambolian dress to the Serpentine Gallery's summer party hosted by "Vanity Fair" in June 1994, the night her husband Charles, Prince of Wales admitted to having an adulterous affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. Diana's dress has been likened to a "little black dress".


title: Little black dress

text: In an incident at London's Covent Garden theatre in 2004, a director fired the then-obese soprano Deborah Voigt from an opera because she could not fit into a "little black cocktail dress", replacing her with the slimmer Anne Schwanewilms.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801February 11, 1848) was an English-American painter known for his landscape and history paintings. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century. Cole's work is known for its romantic portrayal of the American wilderness.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Born in Bolton le Moors, Lancashire, in 1801, Cole immigrated with his family to the United States in 1818, settling in Steubenville, Ohio. At the age of 22, he moved to Philadelphia and later, in 1825, to Catskill, New York, where he lived with his wife and children until his death in 1848.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Cole found work early on as an engraver. He was largely self-taught as a painter, relying on books and by studying the work of other artists. In 1822, he started working as a portrait painter and later on, gradually shifted his focus to landscape.


title: Thomas Cole

text: In New York, Cole sold three paintings to George W. Bruen, who subsequently financed a summer trip to the Hudson Valley where the artist produced landscapes featuring the Catskill Mountain House, the famous Kaaterskill Falls, the ruins of Fort Putnam, and two views of Cold Spring. Returning to New York, he displayed five landscapes in the window of William Colman's bookstore; according to the "New York Evening Post" the two views of Cold Spring were purchased by Mr. A. Seton, who lent them to the American Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition in 1826. This garnered Cole the attention of John Trumbull, Asher B. Durand, and William Dunlap. Among the paintings was a landscape called "View of Fort Ticonderoga from Gelyna". Trumbull was especially impressed with the work of the young artist and sought him out, bought one of his paintings, and put him into contact with a number of his wealthy friends including Robert Gilmor of Baltimore and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford, who became important patrons of the artist.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Cole was primarily a painter of landscapes, but he also painted allegorical works. The most famous of these are the five-part series, "The Course of Empire", which depict the same landscape over generations—from a near state of nature to consummation of empire, and then decline and desolation—now in the collection of the New-York Historical Society and the four-part "The Voyage of Life". There are two versions of the latter, the 1840 original at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York and the 1842 replicas with minor alterations at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Among Cole's other famous works are "The Oxbow" (1836), "The Notch of the White Mountains", "Daniel Boone at his cabin at the Great Osage Lake", and "Lake with Dead Trees" (1825) which is at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. He also painted "The Garden of Eden" (1828), with lavish detail of Adam and Eve living amid waterfalls, vivid plants, and deer. In 2014, friezes painted by Cole on the walls of his home, which had been decorated over, were discovered.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Cole influenced his peers in the art movement later termed the Hudson River School, especially Asher B. Durand and Frederic Edwin Church. Church studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846, where he learned Cole's technique of sketching from nature and later developing an idealized, finished composition; Cole's influence is particularly notable in Church's early paintings. Cole spent the years 1829 to 1832 and 1841 to 1842 abroad, mainly in England and Italy.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Cole is best known for his work as an American landscape artist. In an 1836 article on "American Scenery", he described his complex relationship with the American landscape in esthetic, emotional, and spiritual terms. He also produced thousands of sketches of varying subject matter. Over 2,500 of these sketches can be seen at The Detroit Institute of Arts.,


title: Thomas Cole

text: In 1842, Cole embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe in an effort to study in the style of the Old Masters and to paint its scenery. Most striking to Cole was Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna. Cole was so moved by the volcano's beauty that he produced several sketches and at least six paintings of it. The most famous of these works is "A View of Mount Etna from Taormina" which is a oil on canvas. Cole also produced a highly detailed sketch "View of Mount Etna" which shows a panoramic view of the volcano with the crumbling walls of the ancient Greek theater of Taormina on the far right.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Cole was also a poet and dabbled in architecture, a not uncommon practice at the time when the profession was not so codified. Cole was an entrant in the design competition held in 1838 to create the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. His entry won third place, and many contend that the finished building, a composite of the first, second, and third-place entries, bears a great similarity to Cole's entry.


title: Thomas Cole

text: After 1827 Cole maintained a studio at the farm called Cedar Grove, in the town of Catskill, New York. He painted a significant portion of his work in this studio. In 1836, he married Maria Bartow of Catskill, a niece of the owners, and became a year-round resident. Thomas and Maria had five children. Cole's daughter Emily was a botanical artist who worked in watercolor and painted porcelain. Cole's sister, Sarah Cole, was also a landscape painter.


title: Thomas Cole

text: Additionally, Cole held many friendships with important figures in the art world including Daniel Wadsworth, with whom he shared a close friendship. Proof of this friendship can be seen in the letters that were unearthed in the 1980s by the Trinity College Watkinson Library. Cole emotionally wrote Wadsworth in July 1832: "Years have passed away since I saw you & time & the world have undoubtedly wrought many changes in both of us; but the recollection of your friendship... [has] never faded in my mind & I look at those pleasures as 'flowers that never will in other garden grow-'"


title: Thomas Cole

text: Thomas Cole died at Catskill on February 11, 1848, of pleurisy. The fourth highest peak in the Catskills is named Thomas Cole Mountain in his honor. Cedar Grove, also known as the Thomas Cole House, was declared a National Historic Site in 1999 and is now open to the public.


title: First sergeant

text: First sergeant is a specialist in the Singapore Armed Forces. First sergeants are the most senior of the junior specialists, ranking above second sergeants, and below Staff Sergeants. The rank insignia for a First Sergeant features the three chevrons pointing down shared by all specialists, and two chevrons pointing up.


title: First sergeant

text: In combat units, First Sergeants are very often platoon sergeants, or given the responsibility for independently operating detachments of support weapons. They are often given instructional billets as well in training schools. First sergeants normally answer to the company sergeant major, assisting the latter in the mentorship, guidance and command of the more junior specialists (Third and Second Sergeants) who are section commanders.


title: First sergeant

text: In the United States, a "first sergeant" generally serves as the senior enlisted advisor (SEA) of a unit, such as a company, battery, or troop, or a USAF squadron or higher level unit. (USA and USMC squadrons and battalions, as well as all higher-level units, have a Command Sergeant Major [USA] or Sergeant Major [USMC] as the SEA.) While the specifics of the title may differ between the United States Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, all first sergeants can be identified by the presence of a lozenge-shaped (colloquially "diamond") figure on their rank insignia.


title: First sergeant

text: The rank of "first sergeant" has existed in the American Army since 1781, when a fifth sergeant was added to the table of organization for Continental Army infantry regiments. Previously, under the tables of organization approved by the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1779, there were four and three sergeants, respectively, authorized in each company. The sergeants were numbered in order of seniority, and the "first sergeant" was simply the senior sergeant in the company, but not a separate rank. After the 1781 Battle of Green Spring, Ebenezer Denny called the company first sergeant "the most important officer."


title: First sergeant

text: In 1833, first sergeant and orderly sergeant became separate pay grades, ranking below sergeants major and quartermaster sergeants, but above sergeants. In 1851, first sergeant was combined with the separate rank of orderly sergeant.


title: First sergeant

text: In the United States Army, since 1958, the rank of first sergeant (abbreviated 1SG) is considered a temporary rank in E-8 paygrade, ranking above sergeant first class (SFC), and below sergeant major (SGM) or command sergeant major (CSM). While first sergeant is equal in paygrade to master sergeant (MSG), the two ranks have different responsibilities. Both ranks are identical as indicated by three chevrons (standard sergeant insignia) above three inverted arcs (aka, "rockers"), an arrangement commonly referred to as "three up and three down", though the first sergeant has the lozenge "diamond" in the middle. A first sergeant is generally senior to a master sergeant in leadership matters, though a master sergeant may have more general military authority such as when in charge of a military police (MP) section.


title: First sergeant

text: Master sergeants are laterally appointed to first sergeant upon selection by senior Department of the Army leadership; qualified sergeants first class are promoted, depending on available billets and opportunities. A promotable sergeant first class, or a master sergeant, may be selected for promotion to, or appointment as, a first sergeant and may assume that duty. Upon reassignment to a non–first sergeant billet, the soldier reverts to his or her original rank of master sergeant, unless promoted to the E-9 rank of SGM or CSM. First sergeants can retire at that rank, if they so choose, as long as they have served satisfactorily in rank.


title: First sergeant

text: CSM is a leadership position that is a higher ranking equivalent of 1SG on a battalion level or higher command, while SGM is an MOS-specific technical equivalent to a MSG on a battalion level or higher command or in certain specialty billets.


title: First sergeant

text: The position of first sergeant is the highest US Army NCO rank position that is still in a direct "hands-on" leadership setting, as are command sergeant major (CSM/E-9) positions in a battalion command or higher level unit assignments of higher rank. CSM's have expanded administrative duties, and less direct leadership duty requirements with enlisted and junior NCO Soldiers than do 1SGs.


title: First sergeant

text: First sergeants are generally the senior non-commissioned officers of company (battery, troop) sized units, and are unofficially but commonly referred to as "first sausage", "top", "top sergeant", "top soldier", "top kick", "first shirt", due to their seniority and their position at the top of the company's enlisted ranks. In the Bundeswehr, the German Army, the first sergeant (German: Kompaniefeldwebel) is colloquially called "father of the company", a concept also in place in the US Army. They are sometimes referred to as "second hat" because the Company Commander may entrust them with important responsibilities, even over one of the company's lieutenants, especially junior lieutenants.


title: First sergeant

text: First sergeants handle the leadership and professional development of their soldiers, especially the non-commissioned officer development and grooming of enlisted soldiers for promotions. They also manage company logistical issues, supervise administrative issues, recommend and prepare enlisted soldiers for specialty and leadership schools, re-enlistment, career development and they manage the promotable soldiers within the company. First sergeants are the first step in disciplinary actions such as an Article 15 (non-judicial punishment) proceeding. A first sergeant may place a soldier under arrest and on restriction to quarters in certain cases, as well as manage all of the daily responsibilities of running the company/unit.


title: First sergeant

text: Beginning in 1821, first sergeants were recognizable by wearing a red worsted waist sash (along with all other senior sergeant grades), while all junior sergeant grades had to discard this item. In 1872, sashes were eliminated for all ranks (except for general officers who retained their buff sashes until 1917). Though the sergeant major and quartermaster sergeant already had distinctive staff NCO rank insignia, it was not until 1847 that the first sergeant received the characteristic lozenge, or diamond, with the three chevrons of a sergeant as its insignia of rank.


title: First sergeant

text: In the United States Marine Corps, first sergeant (abbreviated 1stSgt) is a permanent rank and ranks above gunnery sergeant and below sergeant major and master gunnery sergeant. It is equal in grade to master sergeant (E8), although the two ranks have different responsibilities. A first sergeant has command leadership responsibilities and serves as the senior enlisted adviser to the commander at the company, battery or detachment level, while master sergeants have technical responsibilities within their respective occupational fields, and serve important leadership roles within various company or battery sections. Master sergeants may also perform staff functions at the battalion/squadron level or above. Unlike first sergeants and master sergeants in the U.S. Army, no lateral movement is possible between the two ranks in the Marine Corps; they are permanent appointments and require a change in occupational specialty. Rather, gunnery sergeants elect a preference on their fitness reports, which are considered before promotion. Ultimately, those selected for either rank are appointed based on suitability, previous duty assignments, and the needs of the Marine Corps. Later in their careers, first sergeants are eligible to be considered for promotion to sergeant major, while master sergeants can be promoted to master gunnery sergeant.


title: First sergeant

text: The grade of first sergeant initially appeared in the Marine Corps in 1833, when Congress created the ranks of "first sergeant of the guard at sea" and "orderly sergeant of the post" (of which 30 billets for the rank were established). In 1872, the Corps replaced the title of orderly sergeant with the rank of first sergeant. The rank of first sergeant was another casualty of the rank realignment of 1947. It was reestablished in 1955.


title: First sergeant

text: In the United States Air Force, first sergeants are special duty temporary ranks and positional billets. First sergeants are not guaranteed to be promoted to the next level paygrade of first sergeant. Often referred to as the "first shirt", or "shirt", the first sergeant is responsible for the morale, welfare, and conduct of all the enlisted members in a squadron and is the chief adviser to the squadron commander concerning the enlisted force. They are held by a senior enlisted member of a military unit who reports directly to the unit commander or deputy commander of operations. This positional billet is held by individuals of pay grades E-7 through E-9 (master sergeant, senior master sergeant and chief master sergeant), and is denoted on the rank insignia by a lozenge (known colloquially as a "diamond"). Most units have a master sergeant in this position. Larger units use senior master sergeants and chief master sergeants as first sergeants. While both services don't have separate first sergeant ranks, those who hold these positional billets are senior to their non-diamond counterparts. All first sergeants can retire at that rank, within their respective paygrade, if they so choose, as long as they have served satisfactorily in rank.


title: First sergeant

text: Some U.S. law enforcement agencies, especially state police and highway patrol organizations, have first sergeants, who are typically in charge or command of a detachment, district, region, area, barracks or post consisting of anywhere from ten to fifty or more troopers or officers. Most law enforcement first sergeants are mid-level management leaders, with ten to thirty or more years of service. The NC Highway Patrol first sergeants for example, must complete the 6-weeks advanced police management training institute at the Southern Police Institute (SPI) in Louisville, KY. Other states also use SPI, or Northwestern University IL or the FBI National Academy (FBINA) Quantico, VA.


title: First sergeant

text: Some such state agencies may have a first sergeant in charge of special state police or highway patrol units such as SWAT, K-9, aviation, personnel, major traffic accident reconstruction, research, public information, logistics, training, recruitment, internal affairs, accreditation, inspections, mounted, motorcycle, communications, detectives, administration, and other specialized sections or services other than general patrol.


title: First sergeant

text: Some municipal and county agencies also have a first sergeant. Civil law enforcement first sergeants are senior to sergeants and junior to lieutenants.


title: First sergeant

text: The insignia of such a first sergeant is usually similar to a military first sergeant but may only may have a chevron of three stripes with no bottom curved stripes "rockers", or just one or two rockers, but generally always have the lozenge under the chevrons. The rank insignia may be displayed by sewn-on sleeve shoulder stripes, slip-on epaulet stripes or pin-on metal stripes of black, silver or gold tone that may be pinned on the collar or epaulet.


title: First sergeant

text: While the rank of first sergeant is used in some NATO countries, it is ranked differently depending on the country.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Walter Marty Schirra Jr. (, March 12, 1923 – May 3, 2007) was an American naval aviator, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. In 1959, he became one of the original seven astronauts chosen for Project Mercury, which was the United States' first effort to put human beings into space. On October 3, 1962, he flew the six-orbit, nine-hour, Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, in a spacecraft he nicknamed "Sigma 7". At the time of his mission in "Sigma 7", Schirra became the fifth American and ninth human to travel into space. In the two-man Gemini program, he achieved the first space rendezvous, station-keeping his Gemini 6A spacecraft within of the sister Gemini 7 spacecraft in December 1965. In October 1968, he commanded Apollo 7, an 11-day low Earth orbit shakedown test of the three-man Apollo Command/Service Module and the first crewed launch for the Apollo program.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Before becoming an astronaut, Schirra graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1945, and served at sea during World War II. In 1948, he became a naval aviator, served as a fighter pilot and flew 90 combat missions in the Korean War, and then in 1958 he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. Schirra retired from the Navy in 1969 with the rank of captain.


title: Wally Schirra

text: He was the first astronaut to go into space three times, and was the only astronaut to have flown in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. He was not the only Mercury astronaut, however, to be in all three programs; Gus Grissom did it too. In total, Schirra logged 295 hours and 15 minutes in space. After Apollo 7, he retired as a captain from the U.S. Navy as well as from NASA, subsequently becoming a consultant to CBS News in the network's coverage of following Apollo flights. Schirra joined Walter Cronkite as co-anchor for all seven of NASA's Moon landing missions.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra was born on March 12, 1923, in Hackensack, New Jersey, to a family of aviators. His paternal grandparents were from Bavaria and Switzerland, and originally of Sardinian ancestry (more specifically from Ghilarza). Schirra's father, Walter M. Schirra Sr. (1893–1973), who was born in Philadelphia, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War I, and flew bombing and reconnaissance missions over Germany. After the war, he performed as a barnstormer at county fairs in New Jersey. Schirra's mother, Florence Shillito Schirra (; 1898–1982), went along on her husband's barnstorming tours and performed wing walking stunts.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra Jr. grew up in Oradell, New Jersey, where he attended elementary school and was a First Class Scout in Boy Scout Troop 36. He graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood, New Jersey in June 1940 and enrolled in the Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJIT), where he was involved in the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and the Sigma Pi fraternity. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Schirra decided to apply to a service academy. His father encouraged him to apply to West Point, but he decided to enroll in the United States Naval Academy instead. Schirra graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1945 after only three years instead of four, as the Naval Academy had a wartime accelerated curriculum.


title: Wally Schirra

text: After graduating from the Naval Academy, Schirra was commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy on June 6, 1945. Schirra served during the final months of World War II aboard the large cruiser . Following the Japanese surrender, Schirra returned to America, where the "Alaska" was decommissioned. He was subsequently stationed to Tsingtao and assigned to the amphibious command ship . Following his return from China, Schirra began training as a Naval Aviator at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida.


title: Wally Schirra

text: After he completed training, Schirra received his naval aviator wings in 1948 and joined Fighter Squadron 71 (VF-71) at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. In VF-71, Schirra flew the F8F Bearcat. After several years of flying the F8F, he attended jet transition training with the F-80 Shooting Star in preparation for his squadron's transition to the jet-powered F9F Panther. Schirra was deployed to the Mediterranean aboard the aircraft carrier at the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950. He applied for an exchange program with the U.S. Air Force to gain combat experience, was selected for the program, and trained to fly on the F-84 Thunderjet.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra was initially deployed with the 154th Fighter-Bomber Squadron to Itazuke Air Force Base in Japan, from where he flew missions into South Korea. As U.S. troops advanced north, the squadron was reassigned to a base in Daegu. In the eight-month deployment, Schirra flew 90 combat missions and downed two MiG-15s.


title: Wally Schirra

text: After completing his tour in Korea, Schirra became a test pilot at Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, California (NOTS). At China Lake, he tested various weapons systems, including becoming the first pilot to fly with and fire the Sidewinder missile. Schirra was assigned to Miramar Naval Air Station to test the newest Navy jet fighter, the F7U Cutlass. Schirra was subsequently assigned to NAS Moffett to begin transition training to the Cutlass, and subsequently the F3H Demon. After a deployment to Asia aboard the aircraft carrier and aviation safety training with the University of Southern California (USC), Schirra was accepted to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in 1958.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra was a member of Class 20 at the Naval Test Pilot School, along with future fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and Pete Conrad, where he learned to fly numerous aircraft, including the F4D Skyray, the F11F Tiger, and the F8U Crusader. After graduation, Schirra became a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River and learned to fly the F4H Phantom to determine if it could become a carrier-based aircraft.


title: Wally Schirra

text: In February 1959, Schirra was one of 110 military test pilots selected by their commanding officers as candidates for the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Project Mercury, the first U.S. crewed space flight program. Following several rounds of tests, Schirra became a member of the original seven astronauts selected for the program in April 1959. During the program's development, Schirra's areas of responsibility were the life-support systems and the pressurized flight suit. Additionally, Schirra worked alongside John Glenn in capsule design. Scott Carpenter and Schirra flew F-106 Delta Dart chase planes during Alan Shepard's "Freedom 7" suborbital mission. Schirra was initially assigned as Deke Slayton's backup for the second orbital Mercury flight but was replaced with Carpenter when Slayton was grounded. Schirra was instead scheduled for the third orbital flight.


title: Wally Schirra

text: At 7:15am on October 3, 1962, Schirra lifted off aboard his Mercury flight, named "Sigma 7". After a minor trajectory deviation early in flight, "Sigma 7" achieved orbit. Once in orbit, Schirra demonstrated manually positioning and maneuvering his spacecraft using a reaction control system. After the navigation issues during Carpenter's "Aurora 7" mission, NASA and Schirra focused on the engineering and human factors in manually operating the capsule. Schirra reported rising suit temperatures, reaching a high of , before he was able to adjust his suit's cooling system manually. After completing his spacecraft tests, Schirra tested his ability to use controls in a zero-gravity environment without sight. Throughout his mission, Schirra demonstrated the ability to act as a backup to automatic controls and manually fly the spacecraft. After six orbits, Schirra manually aligned his spacecraft over Africa and performed retrofire. "Sigma 7" landed from the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier , in the central Pacific Ocean. Once "Sigma 7" was on deck, Schirra activated the explosive hatch to egress the spacecraft, and received a large bruise, proving that Grissom had not intentionally opened his hatch on "Liberty Bell 7". After Schirra returned to the US, he and his family were invited to the Oval Office at the White House to meet President Kennedy on October 16.


title: Wally Schirra

text: At the beginning of the Gemini program, Alan Shepard was assigned to command Gemini 3 with Tom Stafford as the pilot, but they were replaced by a backup crew after Shepard was diagnosed with Ménière's disease, a disorder of the inner ear. Schirra and Stafford became the backup crew for the new Gemini 3 crew, Gus Grissom and John Young, and were subsequently scheduled for the Gemini 6 primary crew. Gemini 6 was originally scheduled to perform the first orbital docking with an Agena target vehicle. The Agena vehicle exploded during its launch into orbit on October 25, 1965, while Schirra and Stafford waited in their spacecraft to lift off. Program managers decided that rather than wait for a replacement Agena to be available, they would revise the mission, calling it Gemini 6A and having it attempt a rendezvous with Gemini 7, to be flown by Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. On December 4, 1965, Gemini 7 lifted off to begin its two-week mission. Gemini 6A prepared to launch on December 12, but its engines shut down less than two seconds after ignition. Despite protocols calling for the astronauts to eject from the spacecraft in the event of an engine shutdown, Schirra chose not to activate his and Stafford's rocket-powered ejection seats, saving them both from probable injuries and a further delay and possible cancellation of the mission. Gemini 6A lifted off on December 15 and successfully rendezvoused with Gemini 7 after five hours of flight. The two spacecraft maneuvered to within one foot of each other and kept station for 5 hours. Following the rendezvous, Gemini 6A deorbited on December 16 and was recovered in the Atlantic ocean southeast of Cape Canaveral by the .


title: Wally Schirra

text: While on the Gemini mission, Schirra played a Christmas practical joke on the flight controllers by first reporting a mock UFO (implying Santa Claus) sighting, then playing "Jingle Bells" on a four-hole Hohner harmonica he had smuggled on board, accompanied by Stafford on sleigh bells.


title: Wally Schirra

text: In mid-1966, Schirra was assigned to command a three-man Apollo crew with Donn F. Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham to make the second crewed flight test of the Apollo Command/Service Module, with a mission profile identical to Apollo 1. Schirra argued against a repeat mission, and his crew became the backup crew for Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. Schirra's crew conducted tests in the command module on January 26, 1967, and were en route to Houston the next day when Grissom and his crew were killed in a fire during a test. Schirra's crew became the prime crew of the first crewed flight. This became Apollo 7 in the program's revised mission numbering plan, and was delayed until the fall of 1968 while safety improvements were made to the Command Module.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra had gained a sense of security from having Guenter Wendt, a McDonnell Aircraft employee, as the pad leader responsible for the spacecraft's launch readiness. As the Apollo contractor was now North American Aviation, Wendt was no longer pad leader. After the Apollo 1 accident, Schirra felt so strongly he wanted none other than Wendt as pad leader for his Apollo flight, that he convinced Deke Slayton and North American's launch operations manager Bastian "Buzz" Hello to hire Wendt as Apollo 7 pad leader. Wendt remained pad leader for the remainder of the Apollo and Skylab programs, and stayed on with NASA into the Space Shuttle program before retiring. However, Schirra was prevented from naming his spacecraft "Phoenix" in honor of the Apollo 1 crew, because some believed that its nickname as a metaphor for "fire" might be misunderstood.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Apollo 7 was launched on October 11, 1968, making Schirra the first person to fly in space three times. Prior to launch, Schirra had objected because of high winds, which could have injured the astronauts in the event of an abort within the first minute of the mission. After reaching orbit, the Apollo 7 CSM performed space rendezvous and docking exercises with the S-4B stage to simulate retrieving the Apollo Lunar Module. On the second day of the mission, the crew conducted the first live television pictures publicly broadcast from inside a crewed spacecraft.


title: Wally Schirra

text: During the mission, Schirra became sick with a head cold, which he passed to Eisele. Anticipating issues with congestion inside of a sealed spacesuit, Schirra proposed to Mission Control that they would not wear their helmets during reentry. Despite a request from Chris Kraft and Deke Slayton to wear helmets during reentry, Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham refused and performed reentry without them. Apollo 7 landed southeast of Bermuda on October 22, 1968.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Prior to the Apollo 7 launch, Schirra had made the decision to retire after the flight, and left the NASA Astronaut Corps on July 1, 1969. Schirra's last assignment as an astronaut was to conduct the investigation into Neil Armstrong's Lunar Landing Research Vehicle crash, which he attributed to a mechanical failure and recommended suspending training with the vehicle. On the same date, Schirra retired from the Navy with the rank of Captain.


title: Wally Schirra

text: A combination of pseudoephedrine decongestant with triprolidine antihistamine was the cold medicine carried on board the Apollo missions and prescribed by the flight surgeon. Years later when this became available over the counter as Actifed, the makers of Actifed hired Schirra as a television commercial spokesman, based on the notoriety of his Apollo 7 in-space head cold.


title: Wally Schirra

text: During later Apollo missions, he served as a consultant to CBS News from 1969 to 1975. He joined Walter Cronkite to co-anchor the network's coverage of the seven Moon landing missions, starting with Apollo 11 (joined by Arthur C. Clarke) and including the ill-fated Apollo 13.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Following his NASA career, Schirra became president and a director of the financial and leasing company Regency Investors Incorporated. He left Regency Investors to form Environmental Control Company and served as the company's chairman and CEO from 1970 to 1973. The company merged with SERNCO Incorporated in 1973. Schirra started as vice-chairman, but was elected to chairman of the board later that year. He also worked to develop an Alaskan oil pipeline and was a member of an advisory board for U.S. National Parks in the Department of the Interior from 1973 to 1985.


title: Wally Schirra

text: In January 1979, Schirra founded Schirra Enterprises, and worked as a consultant until 1980. He worked for the Belgian Consulate for Colorado and New Mexico, from 1971 to 1984, and was a board member of several corporations including Electromedics, Finalco, Kimberly-Clark, Net Air International, Rocky Mountain Airlines, and Johns-Manville Corporation. Schirra was president of the energy development company Prometheus from 1980 to 1981. In 1984, he was among the surviving Mercury astronauts who established the Mercury Seven Foundation, now known as the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, to award college scholarships to science and engineering students.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra, along with the rest of the Mercury Seven, co-authored the 1962 book "We Seven," detailing the training and development of the Mercury program. Along with Richard N. Billings, Schirra released his autobiography "Schirra's Space" in 1988. In 1995, he co-authored the book "Wildcats to Tomcats: The Tailhook Navy" with Barrett Tillman and fellow Navy Captains Richard L. (Zeke) Cormier, and Phil Wood. It describes five decades of Naval aviation, including accounts of combat tours in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. In 2005, he co-authored the book "The Real Space Cowboys" with Ed Buckbee. The book is an account of the 'Mercury Seven' astronauts. It follows them through the process of selection for the program, their entire careers, and into retirement. Schirra was also a contributor to the 2007 book, "In the Shadow of the Moon", which was his final authored work.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Shortly after being commissioned in the Navy, Schirra began dating Josephine Cook "Jo" Fraser. Schirra and Fraser were married on February 23, 1946. They had two children, Walter M. (III) and Suzanne, born in 1950 and 1957. Jo Schirra died April 27, 2015, at the age of 91.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra died on May 3, 2007, of a heart attack while undergoing treatment for abdominal cancer at Scripps Green Hospital (currently The Heart Center at Scripps) in San Diego, California. He was 84 years old. A memorial service for Schirra was held on May 22 at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in California. The ceremony concluded with a three-volley salute and a flyover by three F/A-18s. Schirra was cremated and his ashes were committed to the sea on February 11, 2008. The burial at sea ceremony was held aboard the and his ashes were released by Commander Lee Axtell, the command chaplain aboard.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Throughout his military career, Schirra received numerous military decorations, including three Air Medals and three NASA Distinguished Service Medals, including one posthumously. His first NASA Distinguished Service Medal was for his Mercury flight, and the second for his Gemini 6A flight. He was also awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Navy Occupation Medal with "ASIA" clasp, the China Service Medal, and the Korean Service Medal. Additionally, he received several international awards, including a Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the United Nations Korea Medal, and the Korean War Service Medal. Schirra has also received civilian aviation awards, the AIAA Award (1963), the Harmon Trophy (1965), the Kitty Hawk Award, and the Golden Key Award.


title: Wally Schirra

text: When Schirra was awarded his Navy Astronaut Wings by Secretary Fred Korth, the Navy's uniform guidance did not specify if it would be worn alongside his naval aviator wings, or replace them. Schirra decided to wear his astronaut wings above his ribbons, and the aviator wings below them. Schirra was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for being the commander of Apollo 7. He was also awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for escorting B-29 bombers during the Korean War, a gold star for his "Sigma 7" flight, and a second gold star for flying on Gemini 6A. Schirra, a fellow of Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award from the society in 1963, along with the other six Mercury astronauts. He was awarded the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1962, along with the rest of the Mercury 7. The award was typically given to engineers and inventors, but aviators were awarded this time instead.


title: Wally Schirra

text: Schirra was a 33rd Degree Mason and part of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as a fellow of the American Astronautical Society. Schirra received Honorary Doctorates of Science from three colleges and universities: Lafayette College (for Astronautical Engineering), the University of Southern California, and his alma mater the Newark College of Engineering (for Astronautics). Schirra was inducted into multiple halls of fame: the International Air & Space Hall of Fame (1970), the International Space Hall of Fame (1981), the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1986), the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame (1990), and the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The , a named for Schirra, was christened and launched March 8, 2009. A street and a park are named after Schirra in Upper Dublin, Pennsylvania, and Oradell, New Jersey. Walter M. Schirra Elementary School in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, is named after Schirra.


title: House of Maktoum

text: The House of Maktoum ( "") is the ruling royal family of the Emirate of Dubai, and one of the six ruling families of the United Arab Emirates. The family is a branch of the Bani Yas clan (a lineage the family shares with the Al Nahyan dynasty of Abu Dhabi), which is a branch of the Al Bu Falasah section of the Bani Yas, a tribal federation that was the dominant power through the region that now forms the United Arab Emirates.


title: House of Maktoum

text: In 1833, about 800 members of the Bani Yas tribe, under the leadership of Maktoum bin Butti, took over the emirate of Dubai and established the Al Maktoum dynasty in the emirate.


title: House of Maktoum

text: The Al Maktoum dynasty has ruled Dubai since 1833. Within the federation of the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Dubai ruling family is also de facto always the country's Vice President, Prime Minister and Defence Minister.


title: House of Maktoum

text: Shamsa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum has alleged that she was kidnapped off the streets of Cambridge by her father Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum’s men. Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum has also alleged that she was kidnapped and tortured on the orders of her father. The actions taken against the princesses was allegedly motivated by a desire to protect the reputation of the Al Maktoum family.


title: House of Maktoum

text: On 29 June 2019, "The Sun" reported that the wife of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, had fled Dubai and was in Germany seeking political asylum along with her children, a son and a daughter. The cause of the departure was unknown, despite a poem alluding to betrayal. On 30 July 2019 at the High Court, she filed for the sole custody of their two children, for a forced marriage protection order (FMPO), a non-molestation order, and non-repatriation to Dubai.


title: House of Maktoum

text: In December 2019, a UK family court ruled that—on the balance of probabilities—Sheikh Mohammed had orchestrated the abductions of Sheikha Latifa and Sheikha Shamsa and that he continued to maintain a regime whereby both were deprived of their liberty. Also on the balance of probabilities, that he had subjected his former wife, Princess Haya, to a campaign of "intimidation"; the findings were published in March 2020.


title: Tridevi

text: The Tridevi () are a trinity of supreme divinity in Hinduism, joining a triad of eminent goddesses either as a feminine version of the Trimurti, or as consorts of a masculine Trimurti, depending on the denomination. This triad is typically personified by the Hindu goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati. In Shaktism, these triune goddesses are the manifestations of Mula-Prakriti or "Adi Parashakti".


title: Tridevi

text: In the traditional androcentric denominations of Hinduism, the feminine Tridevi goddesses are relegated as consorts and auxiliary deities to the more eminent masculine Trimurti gods. In Shaktism, the feminine Tridevi goddesses are given the eminent roles of creator (Mahasaraswati), preserver (Mahalakshmi), and destroyer (Mahakali), with the masculine Trimurti gods being relegated as the auxiliary deities as agents of the feminine Tridevi.


title: Tridevi

text: Saraswati is the goddess of learning, arts, and music, as well as the consort of Brahma, the creator. She is described to be the very embodiment of wisdom.


title: Tridevi

text: Lakshmi is the goddess of fortune, wealth, fertility, auspiciousness, light, and material and spiritual fulfillment, as well as the consort of Vishnu, the maintainer or preserver. However, Lakshmi does not signify mere material wealth, but also abstract prosperity, such as glory, magnificence, joy, exaltation, and greatness, and spiritual fulfillment, which translates to moksha.


title: Tridevi

text: Parvati is also worshipped as Durga and Kali as the goddess of power, war, beauty, and love. She is the consort of Shiva, the destroyer of evil, or transformer.


title: Tridevi

text: Mahasarasvati is described to be the slayer of Shumba in the Devi Bhagavata Purana, suggesting that she has little to do with Saraswati.


title: Tridevi

text: Mahalakshmi is the prosperity aspect of Devi. She has two forms, Vishnu-priya Lakshmi and Rajyalakshmi. The former is the embodiment of chastity and virtuousness. The latter goes about courting kings. Rajyalakshmi is stated to be fickle and impulsive. She enters all those places where virtue and charity may be found, and as soon as these two vanish from any place, Rajyalakshmi will also vanish from that place.


title: Tridevi

text: Mahakali represents darkness, pure "tamas" personified. Mahakali is one of the three primary forms of Devi. She is stated to be a powerful cosmic aspect ("vyaṣṭi") of Devi, and represents the guna (universal energy) named tamas, and is the personification of the universal power of transformation, the transcendent power of time.


title: Tridevi

text: Via Buddhism and syncretism with Japanese Shinto deities, the Tridevi entered Japanese mythology as the goddesses Benzaitennyo 弁財天女 (Sarasvati), Kisshoutennyo 吉祥天女 (Laxmi), and Daikokutennyo 大黒天女 (Mahakali).


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie and directed by Guy Hamilton. Peter Ustinov stars as Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective whom he had previously played in "Death on the Nile" (1978).


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: A hiker finds a dead woman on the North York Moors. The victim had been strangled and is identified as Alice Ruber. Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) is asked to examine a diamond ring belonging to millionaire industrialist Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely). Poirot identifies it as a fake and assures that Sir Horace would have given a real diamond to his mistress and that Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana Rigg) had returned the fake. Poirot agrees to meet Sir Horace at an exclusive Adriatic Sea island and confront her. The hotel is the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), who had received the palace "for services rendered".


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: Sir Horace's former mistress is an actress on holiday with her husband Kenneth (Denis Quilley). Arlena is emotionally abusive to his daughter, Linda (Emily Hone) and flirts with Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) who is married to Christine (Jane Birkin). Patrick is on the island only because Arlena arranged it. Kenneth turns to his old friend, Daphne, who reviles the way that Arlena treats both him and Linda. Arlena has also caused financial trouble for Odell and Myra Gardener (James Mason and Sylvia Miles) by walking out of a major play and refusing another. Writer Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall) has already spent the royalties advanced to him for a tell-all biography of Arlena, but she refuses to give him a release, angering him. Early on the third morning, Arlena takes a paddle-boat to Ladder Bay. Patrick and Myra go for a boat trip around the island and see a body lying motionless on the beach. Patrick approaches the body and recognizes Arlena, announcing that she has been strangled. Poirot must determine which of his seven fellow guests, Sir Horace—or Daphne—is the murderer.


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: Daphne had heard Kenneth in his room typing at the time of the murder, and Christine was with Linda at Gull Cove and did not leave until 11:55 for a 12:30 tennis match. Sir Horace argued with Arlena about the diamond at Ladder Bay at 11:30, which is confirmed by his yacht crew and by Daphne. Arlena kept the diamond, promising an explanation that evening, and Poirot finds the fake jewel nearby in a grotto. Patrick left at 11:30 with Myra, seeing Sir Horace's yacht coming, and hearing the noon cannon. Rex met Linda entering Gull Cove at 12:00 and reports that a bottle flung from the top of a cliff nearly hit him. Odell was seen reading by Daphne and her staff. He claims low water pressure hindered his 12:15 wash before tennis, but nobody admits to bathing at that time.


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: Assembling the suspects together, Poirot accuses Christine and Patrick of the crime: Christine knocked out Arlena and hid her in the nearby grotto, and Patrick strangled the helpless Arlena later. Christine posed as Arlena with makeup to simulate a suntan, Arlena's swimsuit and large red hat, to be purposely mis-identified by Patrick in Myra's presence. But Poirot had smelled Arlena's perfume in the grotto. Christine set Linda's watch twenty minutes fast, suggested a swim cap to muffle the noon cannon, and corrected the watch afterwards. She tossed out the lotion bottle, almost hitting Rex, and bathed off her tan, thus depriving the hotel's poor water system of pressure. Poirot suspects that Patrick switched Sir Horace's jewel with a copy and that Patrick and Christine killed Arlena to protect the theft. The Redferns scoff at the detective's accusations, as he has no real evidence.


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: On leaving the hotel, Patrick pays by cheque, signing the "R" in "Redfern" in a distinctive way that Poirot recognizes as the same way "Felix Ruber", husband of the Yorkshire moor victim, signed his name. The hiker that found the body had been Christine, establishing Patrick's alibi. Poirot knows photos from the British police will show Patrick and Felix to be the same person. Patrick puts a pipe in his mouth that has never been lit during his stay; Poirot empties the pipe bowl to reveal the genuine diamond. Patrick sucker punches Poirot into unconsciousness. The closing scene shows Daphne feeding the now conscious Poirot and informing him that the king is awarding him the Order of St Goodwin The Inquisitive, First Class, as Kenneth and Linda look on smiling. Meanwhile, several members of Daphne's staff are shown holding the Redferns prisoner on the island's shuttle boat on the way to the mainland while Blatt, Brewster, and the Gardners gleefully taunt the murderous couple with a champagne toast from Blatt's yacht.


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: EMI Films had a big success with "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974). In 1975 head of production Nat Cohen announced the same producers would adapt the "Evil Under the Sun" novel as part of a slate of six films worth £6 million, also including "Spanish Fly" (1975), "Aces High" (1976), "The Likely Lads" (1976) and "Sweeney!" (1977). EMI ended up making all these films except "Evil Under the Sun". In May 1977 EMI announced they would make not one but two Christie adaptations, "Death on the Nile" (1978) and "Evil Under the Sun". Initially only the former was made, which introduced Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot.


title: Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)

text: In March 1981 Barry Spikings announced EMI would make "Evil Under the Sun" at a budget of $10 million. Producer Richard Goodwin said, "What we try to do is provide terrific escapist entertainment that you can take your kids to and make it look beautiful at the same time."