title: Jimmy Bain

text: In the mid-1980s, when the entertainment community became active in drawing attention to world charities, Bain founded Hear 'n Aid, a foundation in which he could involve the rock community to help eliminate world hunger. He also co-wrote the song, "Stars," with Vivian Campbell and Ronnie James Dio, which became the Heavy Rock world's answer to "We Are The World". "Stars" provided a major contribution to the famine relief charity appeal. Bain donated all of his shares of the proceeds to one of his favourite charities, Children of the Night.


title: Jimmy Bain

text: In autumn 1989, Bain formed a band with vocalist Mandy Lion called World War III, but after their 1990 eponymous debut album, the band floundered. Bain's solo project "The Key" utilised a far more melodic and commercial approach. Guitarist on the project was Tracy G, borrowed from Dio's band, who was also the guitarist for World War III. Ronnie James Dio's concept project "Magica" (2000) saw Bain's return to the Dio lineup, and he played on the albums "Magica" and "Killing the Dragon".


title: Jimmy Bain

text: In 2005, Bain again joined forces with former Black Sabbath and Dio drummer, Vinny Appice, for two projects, The Hollywood All Starz and 3 Legged Dogg. While the Hollywood All Starz performed live concerts featuring greatest hits sets of the individual members, (Carlos Cavazo of Quiet Riot was another notable member of the band), 3 Legged Dogg produced a well received album of original material. In an interview with journalist, David Lee Wilson, Bain lamented Appice's eventual choice to leave both these groups so that he could tour with Ronnie James Dio in the Black Sabbath offshoot, Heaven and Hell.


title: Jimmy Bain

text: Bain toured with Hollywood Allstarz, a supergroup featuring a number of 1980s metal stars. The group has included former members of Giuffria, Quiet Riot, and Lynch Mob. The band Last in Line was put together in 2013 comprising Bain, Viv Campbell, Vinny Appice, Claude Schnell and Andrew Freeman. That line-up (excluding singer Freeman) were the original songwriters and performers on the early classic Dio albums, and so intended to play gigs and to perform those songs. Bain was in court-mandated rehabilitation during the recording sessions for their album "Heavy Crown" with a curfew that ordered that he return daily before 10 p.m.


title: Jimmy Bain

text: In 1979, Bain married Lady Sophia Crichton-Stuart, daughter of John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute. They had one daughter, Samantha Ella Bain, born in 1981 (for whom Phil Lynott and John Sykes' song "Samantha" was written).


title: Jimmy Bain

text: On 23 January 2016, Jimmy Bain died while in his cabin on Def Leppard's "Hysteria on the High Seas" cruise. He was due to perform on the cruise with his group Last In Line the following day. The performance did not go ahead, and band members informed fans on the cruise that he had been battling pneumonia for some time. The cause of death was determined to be lung cancer. Bain had not been diagnosed with cancer and was aware only of his pneumonia. He is interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), not far from his bandmate Ronnie James Dio.


Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or NUTS () is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European Union, and thus only covers the member states of the EU in detail. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is instrumental in the European Union's Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund delivery mechanisms and for locating the area where goods and services subject to European public procurement legislation are to be delivered.


title: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics

text: For each EU member country, a hierarchy of three NUTS levels is established by Eurostat in agreement with each member state; the subdivisions in some levels do not necessarily correspond to administrative divisions within the country. A NUTS code begins with a two-letter code referencing the country, as abbreviated in the European Union's Interinstitutional Style Guide. The subdivision of the country is then referred to with one number. A second or third subdivision level is referred to with another number each. Each numbering starts with 1, as 0 is used for the upper level. Where the subdivision has more than nine entities, capital letters are used to continue the numbering. Below the three NUTS levels are local administrative units (LAUs). A similar statistical system is defined for the candidate countries and members of the European Free Trade Association, but they are not part of NUTS governed by the regulations.


text: The current NUTS classification, dated 21 November 2016 and effective from 1 January 2018 (now updated to current members ), lists 92 regions at NUTS 1, 244 regions at NUTS 2, 1215 regions at NUTS 3 level, and 99,387 local administrative units (LAUs).


text: Not all countries have every level of division, depending on their size. For example, Luxembourg and Cyprus only have local administrative units (LAUs); the three NUTS divisions each correspond to the entire country itself.


text: NUTS regions are generally based on existing national administrative subdivisions. In countries where only one or two regional subdivisions exist, or where the population of existing subdivisions is too small or too large, a second and/or third level is created. This may be on the first level (ex. France, Italy, Greece, and Spain), on the second (ex. Germany) and/or third level (ex. Belgium). In countries with small populations, where the entire country would be placed on the NUTS 2 or even NUTS 3 level (ex. Luxembourg, Cyprus), the regions at levels 1, 2 and 3 are identical to each other (and also to the entire country), but are coded with the appropriate length codes levels 1, 2 and 3.


text: The NUTS system favors existing administrative units, with one or more assigned to each NUTS level. Specific guidelines are based in population, leaving little or no role for other types of variables such as area, distance, topography, levels of jurisdiction or history, which can only be considered in (unspecified) types of special cases. From the NUTS Regulation, the average population size of the regions in the respective level shall lie within the following thresholds:


text: For non-administrative units, deviations from these population marks exist for particular geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially for islands and outermost regions.


title: Cenacle

text: The Cenacle (from the Latin , "dining room"), also known as the Upper Room (from the Koine Greek and , both meaning "upper room"), is a room in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls, traditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper, the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus held with the apostles.


title: Cenacle

text: According to the Christian Bible, the Cenacle was a place in which the apostles continued to gather after the Last Supper, and it was also the site where the Holy Spirit alighted upon the eleven apostles on Pentecost.


title: Cenacle

text: The site is administered by the Israeli authorities, and is part of a building holding the so-called "David's Tomb" on its ground floor.


title: Cenacle

text: "Cenacle" is a derivative of the Latin word , which means "I dine". Jerome used the Latin for both Greek words in his Latin Vulgate translation.


title: Cenacle

text: "Upper room" is derived from the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke, which both employ the Koine Greek: (, Mark 14:15 and Luke 22:12), whereas the Acts of the Apostles uses the Koine Greek (, Acts 1:13), both with the meaning "upper room".


title: Cenacle

text: The Cenacle is considered the site where many other events described in the New Testament took place, such as:


title: Cenacle

text: Pilgrims to Jerusalem report visiting a structure on Mount Zion commemorating the Last Supper since the 4th century AD. Some scholars would have it that this was the Cenacle, in fact a synagogue from an earlier time. The anonymous pilgrim from Bordeaux, France reported seeing such a synagogue in 333 AD. A Christian synagogue is mentioned in the apocryphal 4th-century ("Report of Pilate"); although the depiction is fantastic and of questionable reliability (the report claims that all of the other synagogues were destroyed by divine wrath immediately after Jesus's death, which is clearly false), a Jewish origin for the building has come under serious question. The building has experienced numerous cycles of destruction and reconstruction, culminating in the Gothic structure which stands today.


title: Cenacle

text: While the term "Cenacle" refers only to the Upper Room, a niche located on the lower level of the same building is associated by tradition with the burial site of King David, marked by a large cenotaph-sarcophagus first reported seen by 12th-century Crusaders but earlier mentioned in the 10th-century . Most accept the notice in 1 Kings 2:10 that says David was buried "in the City of David", identified as the Eastern hill of ancient Jerusalem, as opposed to what is today called "Mount Sion", the Western hill of the ancient city. The general location of the Cenacle is also associated with that of the house where the Virgin Mary lived among the apostles until her death or "dormition", an event celebrated in the nearby Church of the Dormition.


title: Cenacle

text: In Christian tradition, the room was not only the site of the Last Supper, i.e., the "Cenacle," but the room in which the Holy Spirit alighted upon the twelve apostles and other believers gathered and praying together on Pentecost. Acts 1 - 2 tell us that Judas had been replaced by Matthias, and 120 followers of Jesus gathered in this room after His ascension.


title: Cenacle

text: It is sometimes thought to be the place where the apostles stayed in Jerusalem. The language in Acts of the Apostles suggests that the apostles used the room as a temporary residence (Koine Greek: , ), although the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary disagrees, preferring to see the room as a place where they were "not lodged, but had for their meeting place".


title: Cenacle

text: The early history of the Cenacle site is uncertain; scholars have attempted to establish a chronology based on archaeological, artistic and historical sources.


title: Cenacle

text: Based on the survey conducted by Jacob Pinkerfeld in 1948, Pixner believes that the original building was a synagogue later probably used by Jewish Christians. However, no architectural features associated with early synagogues such as columns, benches, or other accoutrements are present in the lower Tomb chamber. According to Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis writing towards the end of the 4th century, the building and its environs were spared during the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (70 AD). Pixner suggests that the Mount Zion site was destroyed and rebuilt in the later first century. The lowest courses of ashlars (building stones) along the north, east and south walls are attributed by Pinkerfeld to the late Roman period (135-325 AD). Pixner believes that they are Herodian-period ashlars, dating the construction of the building to an earlier period.


title: Cenacle

text: Many scholars, however, date the walls' earliest construction to the Byzantine period and identify the Cenacle as the remains of a no-longer-extant "Hagia Sion" ("Holy Zion") basilica. The Roman emperor Theodosius I constructed the five-aisled Hagia Sion basilica likely between 379 and 381 AD.


title: Cenacle

text: 6th-century artistic representations, such as the mosaics found in Madaba, Jordan (the "Madaba Map") and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, depict a smaller structure to the south of basilica. Some have identified this smaller structure as the Cenacle thus demonstrating its independence from, and possible prior existence to, the basilica. The basilica (and possibly the Cenacle) was later damaged by Persian invaders in 614 AD but restored by the patriarch Modestus. In 1009 AD, the church was destroyed by the Muslim caliph Al-Hakim. Shortly afterward, it was replaced by the Crusaders with a cathedral named for Saint Mary, featuring a central nave and two side aisles. The Cenacle was either repaired or enclosed by the Crusader church, occupying a portion of two aisles on the right (southern) side of the altar. The Crusader cathedral was destroyed soon afterward, in the late 12th or early 13th century, but the Cenacle remained. (Today, part of the site upon which the Byzantine and Crusader churches stood is believed to be occupied by the smaller Church of the Dormition and its associated Abbey.)


title: Cenacle

text: Syrian Christians maintained the Cenacle until the 1330s, when it passed into the custody of the Franciscan Order of Friars who managed the structure until 1524. At that time (during Suleiman the Magnificent's rule), Ottoman authorities took possession of the Cenacle, converting it into a mosque: the ( ). The Franciscans were evicted from their surrounding buildings in 1550. Architectural evidence remains of the period of Muslim control including the elaborate mihrab in the Last Supper room, the Arabic inscriptions on its walls, the qubba over the stairwell, and the minaret and dome atop the roof. Christians were not allowed to return until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The historical building is currently managed by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior.


title: Cenacle

text: Scholars offer wide-ranging dates and builders for the surviving Gothic-style Cenacle. Some believe that it was constructed by Crusaders just before Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, while others attribute it to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, after he arrived in the city in 1229. Still others hold that it was not built in this form until the Franciscans acquired the site in the 1330s. Scarce documentation and disturbed structural features offer little strong support for any of these dates.


title: Cenacle

text: The primary early modern assessments of the Cenacle were recorded by French archaeologists. The first detailed assessment was by Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé in 1860. This was largely followed by other commentators until the work of Camille Enlart and Louis-Hugues Vincent / Félix-Marie Abel.


title: Cenacle

text: In its current state, the Cenacle is divided into six rib-vaulted bays. The bays are supported by three freestanding columns which bilaterally divide the space, as well as six pillars flanking the side walls. While the capital of the westernmost freestanding column is flush with the Cenacle's interior wall, the column shaft itself is completely independent of the wall, leading scholars to consider the possibility that this wall was not original to the building.


title: Cenacle

text: An analysis of the column and pillar capitals offers clues, but not a solution, to the mystery of the current building's origin. The Corinthianesque capital between the second and third bays of the Cenacle is stylistically indicative of multiple geographical regions and chronological periods. This capital's spiky leaves, which tightly adhere to the volume of the column before erupting into scrolls, are in congruence with common outputs of the 12th-century sculpture workshop at the Temple site in Jerusalem in the last years before Saladin's conquest in 1187. The workshop also frequently utilized drilling as an ornamental device. The Jerusalem workshop included artists from diverse regions in the West, who brought stylistic traits with them from their native countries. The workshop produced sculpture for many Crusader projects and other structures, such as the al-Aqsa mosque.


title: Cenacle

text: This comparison allows for the support of the 12th century date of the Cenacle. There are also, however, similar capitals which originated in workshops in southern Italy, a draw for scholars who wish to associate the building with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the Sixth Crusade in 1229. Examples can be seen in the Romanesque cathedral in Bitonto, a small city near Bari, in southern Italy, and on column supports of the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery, carved by Apulian-born sculptor Nicola Pisano around 1260.


title: Cenacle

text: The capitals of the freestanding columns are not identical. The capital between the first and second bays seems either severely weathered or shallowly carved, and its volume is a marked contrast from the others. It rises from the shaft in a straight cylinder, rather than in an inverted pyramid, and then flares only just before it intersects with the abacus. The third capital, which now flanks the Cenacle's western wall, is also unique among the three. It is not decorated with a floral motif, rather, scrolling crockets spring from the base of the volume. Enlart has proposed a comparison to buildings constructed by Frederick II in Apulia.


title: Cenacle

text: Analysis of these column capitals does not yield significant evidence to link them to the 14th century and a potential Franciscan construction, nor does it definitively date them to the 12th or 13th century. The building remains a frustrating, but intriguing, mystery.


title: Cenacle

text: The upper room is a focus of reference in several Christian hymns, for example in "An upper room did our Lord prepare", written by Fred Pratt Green in 1973, and in "Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest" ('We meet, as in that upper room they met...'), written by George Wallace Briggs.


title: Cenacle

text: St. Mark’s Monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem near the Armenian Quarter is sometime considered as alternative place for the Cenacle. The monastery church, belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church, contains an early Christian stone inscription testifying to reverence for the spot.


title: MAN KAT1

text: The MAN Category 1 is a family of high-mobility off-road trucks developed by MAN SE for the German army. Production continued through an evolution of the design with the final iteration (SX) in production until early 2019


title: MAN KAT1

text: In the late 1950s and early 1960s the West German Technical Office for Armament and Military Purchases drew up requirements for a new range (or second generation) of vehicles for the army. Covering all weight classes and mobility levels, the Bundeswehrʼs second-generation requirement originally called for 62,000 vehicles (of all classes including cars and buses) including four-tonne 4×4, seven-tonne 6×6, and 10-tonne 8×8 trucks; 4×4 and 6×6 armoured amphibious load carriers; and an 8×8 amphibious reconnaissance vehicle.


title: MAN KAT1

text: To meet development and production demands, a joint venture led by MAN and including Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz (KHD), Rheinstahl-Henschel, Krupp (which later dropped out), and Bussing (acquired by MAN in 1971) was set up. The first prototype vehicles were shown at the end of the 1960s, and a further two prototype series were developed before the first genuine pre-production vehicles were designed and built. Along the development trail it became clear that the highly technical vehicles as originally specified would simply not be affordable, so many of the more ambitious 'wish list' features were dropped; truck numbers were also reduced to 18,000. In 1972 the amphibious specification and the requirement that the vehicles should be powered by an air-cooled multifuel engine were dropped. In 1975 the four-tonne rating was uprated to five-tonne and at the same time this model’s rear cargo platform was lengthened and the wheelbase was increased from 4.3 to 4.5 m.


title: MAN KAT1

text: In December 1975 MAN was awarded a contract to build 8,385 4×4, 6×6, and 8×8 Category 1 vehicles at a cost of DEM1,400 million; this production total was further reduced to 7,925 in 1979. The technical parent of these trucks is now Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles (RMMV).


title: MAN KAT1

text: The 8×8 version was the first Category 1 model to enter production and first deliveries were made in 1976. Deliveries of a 6×6 tipper and the 4×4 cargo truck began in 1977. Deliveries of the 6×6 cargo truck began in January 1979; final deliveries were made in 1981. By 1983, 8,617 vehicles of all Category 1 configurations had been delivered to the West German armed forces, and while exact delivery totals are unknown, the Bundeswehr did receive a total of 7 Category 1 5,000 kg 4×4 variants, 14 Category 1 7,000 kg 6×6 variants, and 9 Category 1 8×8 10,000 kg variants. The complete range of Category 1 vehicles were produced at MAN’s Watenstedt plant in Germany.


title: MAN KAT1

text: Category I vehicles underwent a complete overhaul in the mid-1990s to extend their service life by another ten years, and replacement has only recently begun in earnest. Some ex-military MAN Category 1 vehicles have been released onto the second-hand market in Germany.


title: MAN KAT1

text: Introduced as the "mil gl" (for ""mil"itarisiert "g"e"l"ändegängig" - military, cross country mobile), the MAN Category 1 series was used by all branches of the "Bundeswehr". Militarisation includes a full blackout lights circuit completely separated from the standard lights, a military instrument layout with blackout option, an emergency stop switch to cut electrical power, a roof hatch with machine gun mount, and rifle brackets.


title: MAN KAT1

text: All Category 1 (and follow-on series) share a modular design. They have a torsionally rigid box-section chassis frame with rigid hub-reduction axles sprung by coil springs and shock-absorbers. The engine is mounted inside the forward-control cab, which is separated into a driver and engine compartment by a firewall. The engine is located to the rear of the driver compartment instead of beneath it, this enabling total height to be kept below 2.9 m, which means the trucks can be transported on standard railway flatcars. The characteristic, cut-away corners of the otherwise box-shaped cab ensure compliance with the railway loading gauge. The cab of early production examples does not tilt forward for maintenance because the vehicles were still based on the amphibious prototypes. The tilting cab was only introduced in the mid-80s.


title: MAN KAT1

text: The KHD air-cooled diesel engine powers all axles via a torque converter, semi-automatic transmission and a transfer case, these components forming a single unit. The follow-on A1 series employed a far greater use of mass-produced and standard truck components. For the extraterritorial deployment of the "Bundeswehr", some vehicles were fitted with an additional modular armour ("modulare Schutzausstattung", MSA) to increase crew protection.


title: MAN KAT1

text: The United States Army and the United States Air Force operated four derivations of the KAT 1 8x8, these known as Category 2 trucks and designated M1001, M1002, M1013 and M1014 by the US military. Category 2 trucks were developed at the request of, and in close co-operation with, the US armed forces.


title: MAN KAT1

text: The M1001 was used by the US Army as the prime mover for the Pershing II nuclear missile. The tractor was configured with a fifth wheel to tow the erector launcher, an Atlas Maschinen GmbH 8-ton crane for handling missile components and a 30 kW generator to power the erector launcher. The M1002 was configured as a recovery vehicle with a Rotzler recovery unit, earth spades, Atlas Maschinen GmbH AK4300 M5 crane, and carriers for two erector launcher spare tires.


title: MAN KAT1

text: The M1013 was used by the US Air Force as the prime mover for the Gryphon Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM). The tractor was configured with a fifth wheel to tow the launcher, a 2-ton material handling crane and a self-recovery winch. The M1014 was also configured as a prime mover and had a tire carrier for a launcher spare tire.


title: MAN KAT1

text: By the end of 1986, 534 Category 2 trucks had been delivered to the US, with 157 delivered to France, and 42 to Canada.


title: MAN KAT1

text: In a parallel development to the category 1, the so-called Category 3 trucks were developed. These are similar to the Category I vehicles, but are fitted with a cab from the MAN civilian truck range, modified for military use. A total of 1,594 Category 3 trucks were delivered to Algeria (280), Ireland, Oman (95), Peru (165), Singapore (104), Venezuela (405), and others including some commercial users.


title: MAN KAT1

text: In April 1985 MAN presented the first of the revised Category I A1 models to the German Federal Office for Military Technology and Procurement (BWB) and to the Test Centre 41 facility. It was planned that there would be 35 test vehicles of all configurations, including an extra wide 8×8 version for the Patriot and Roland systems. Production of the new category vehicles began in 1987. The Category I A1 generation was a development of the Category I with improved performance on- and off-road owing to higher power output engines and an improved design of chassis and cab. Category 1 A1 included a new (as a direct replacement for the earlier Kat 1 10,000 kg) 15,000 kg 8×8 weight class.


title: MAN KAT1

text: From 1988, the Bundeswehr ordered 1,100 Cat 1A1 models. Category 1 A1 models developed from 1988 carry the Category 1 A1.1 designation. Category 1 A1 models used some commercial components from MAN's F90 range of heavy commercial trucks introduced in 1986, while the later Category 1A1.1 models were developed between 1988 and 1991 and were based on components from MAN’s F2000 range of heavy commercial trucks introduced in 1992.


title: MAN KAT1

text: From 1993 the Bundeswehr ordered about 500 MAN Category 1 A1.1 trucks. The MAN designation of SX range became prevalent for the Category 1 A1.1 in the early 1990s and was applied to final derivations of the category 1 product, these remaining in production as SX44 and SX45 until early 2019.


title: MAN KAT1

text: A range of high performance airfield crash tenders were produced on the Cat 1 A1 extra-wide (2.9 m) chassis, and continued to be produced on the successor SX range 2.9 m wide chassis.


title: MAN KAT1

text: On 6 July 2017 Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles announced it had entered a framework agreement with the German Bundeswehr to supply 2271 MAN HX2 trucks under the Bundeswehr’s Unprotected Transport Vehicle (UTF) programme. UTF will replace the older Category 1 trucks. The contract award has a potential value of around EUR 900 million. An initial order for 558 trucks with a value of around EUR 240 million was placed, this including special tools and training support. Delivery was to take place during the 2018-2021 timeframe. RMMV announced on 12 June 2019 that the Bundeswehr had placed an order with the company for a second batch of unprotected transport vehicles. The order called for 252 trucks (161 5-tonne and 91 15-tonne) and was valued at EUR 92 million. The 252 vehicles ordered were delivered during 2019 and deliveries followed those of the original 558 trucks ordered at contract signing, the delivery timeline for these expedited. A further 60 trucks were ordered in November 2019, and the most recent order to date was announced in December 2019. This order calls for 1,000 trucks and is worth EUR 382 million including valued added tax. Of the latest order, 675 trucks are 5,000 kg payload and the remaining 325 are 15,000 kg payload. Production of this latest order commenced in January 2020, with delivery to be complete by the end of the year.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal Sarin (born 13 July 2004) is an Indian chess player and chess prodigy. He achieved the title of Grandmaster at age 14. He is also the fourth youngest player in history to cross the Elo rating mark of 2600, accomplishing this feat at the age of 14. He is one of the youngest chess talents from India. One of his specialties is blitz chess.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal won the Gold Medal as part of the Indian team in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020. He won the U-18 World Youth Championship held online in rapid format in 2020. In 2019, aged 15, Nihal had become the youngest Indian to play in the World Cup 2019 where he managed to reach the second round.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: As a junior player, Nihal was the World Under-10 champion in 2014. In 2015, he tied for first place in the World Under-12 championship, taking the silver medal on tiebreaks.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal was born on 13 July 2004 in Thrissur, Kerala, India. Sarin Abdulsalam, Nihal's father, is a dermatologist while his mother, Shijin Ammanam Veetil Ummar, is a psychiatrist. He has a younger sister, Neha. His family spent their first few years in Kottayam.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: He could recognize the capitals and the flags of 190 countries by the age of three. At the same age, he also had managed to know and recite from memory the scientific names of insects and plants. By the time he was in upper kindergarten, he spoke fluent English, and by the age of six, having just enrolled into the first grade, he knew all the multiplication tables until sixteen.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal began learning chess at the age of six. In order for his son to not feel bored during school vacations, his father introduced Nihal to a chess set, and his grandfather A. A. Ummar taught him the rules at Kottayam, where he was a student of Excelsior English School. Nihal's first coach was Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore, the school's chess coach who instructed him twice a week in the beginning and then gave Sarin special individual classes.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal won the Kerala State Championship in the Under-07 category in 2011, the Under-09 title twice, the Under-11 title twice and Under-15 title once. He became runner-up in 2015 State Senior championship in Irinjalakuda at the age of 10 years, thus becoming eligible to represent Kerala in the 2015 National Challengers Championship. He was twice the State Under-19 Runner-up at the age of 8 and 10 years, respectively.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal was the 2013 National Under-9 Champion in Chennai, the 2014 National Under-11 Bronze medalist at Puri, and the National Under-11 Silver medalist, 2015 in Pondicherry.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal won the gold medal in the World Blitz Championship in the Under-10 category in Al-Ain in 2013. In the same category, he was the Rapid and Blitz gold medalist in the Asian Youth Championship in Tashkent in 2014.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the age of 10 at Thodupuzha, Kerala, Nihal played simultaneously against 112 players of all age categories and won all his games.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the end of 2013, Nihal began working with Ukrainian GM Dimitri Komarov, an experienced coach with international success in his playing days, whom he met by accident at a tournament while Komarov was coaching the United Arab Emirates team. Dimitri would go on to coach Nihal for several years.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal's first big break came at the World Youth Chess Championship in the Under-10 category, which was held in Durban, South Africa in September 2014. He scored 9/11 to be crowned the Under-10 World Champion. For this achievement, he was conferred the Candidate Master (CM) title by FIDE.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Right after his World Youth success in 2014, Nihal scored his first victory over a titled player, IM Jonathan Westerberg of Sweden, at the World Junior Championship 2014 in Pune, India. For a year, Nihal was a regular in all the tournaments of importance held in India, including the National Challengers Championship in Nagpur. He would regularly hold titled players to draws.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: The next year in 2015, he won the silver medal in the Under-12 category of World Youth Chess Championship in Greece. In the last rounds of the tournament, Nihal successively defeated the top two seeds of his category: IM Awonder Liang and FM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. He was conferred the FIDE Master (FM) title by the World chess Federation in the same year as he had crossed live Elo rating of 2300.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In the 2016 edition of the tournament held in Batumi, Georgia, Nihal scored 8½/11 and tied for the second spot with three others. He was fourth on tiebreak.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In February 2016, Nihal played his first International Open outside India, the Cappelle-la-Grande Open, and registered his first International Master norm. In the process, he defeated a grandmaster for the first time in his career.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In Hasselbacken Open 2016 held at the turn of April in Stockholm, Nihal beat Lithuanian grandmaster Eduardas Rozentalis. The database website Chess-DB dubbed this performance as the 'Game of the Day'.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: On Children's Day in 2016, Nihal was chosen as one of the recipients of 'National Child Award For Exceptional Achievement' awarded by the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the Sunway Sitges Open 2016, Nihal registered his second International Master norm by scoring 5½/9. His third International Norm was registered in the Aeroflot B Open 2017 held in February, where Nihal scored 5½/9 as well, performing at 2539, to cross the 2400-mark and become an International Master.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the World Youth Chess Olympiad in December 2017, Nihal played for India Green, helping the country secure a silver medal. He also won an individual gold.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the TV2 Fagernes International 2017, Nihal tied for the second place to finish with 6.0/9. He was fourth on the tiebreak and stayed undefeated throughout the tournament. In the process, he scored his maiden Grand Master norm. In 2017, Nihal increased his rating by 192 elo points to cross 2500 in rating.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At Reykjavik Open 2018 held in March, Nihal scored 6.0/9 with a rating performance of 2668 to score his second GM norm. The average rating of his opponents was 2543. He scored wins against grandmasters Ahmed Adly and Elshan Moradiabadi and drew with Richard Rapport, Gata Kamsky and Mustafa Yilmaz.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal made his debut at the Isbank Turkish Super League in July 2018, leading the team Genc Akademisyenler on the first board. He scored 6.0/12 against an opposition made up of an average rating of 2590.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: At the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018 held in August, Nihal tallied 5½/9 with a rating performance of 2626 to secure his third GM norm. He became the 53rd grandmaster of India and the twelfth youngest in history at the time. On the day Nihal had become a grandmaster, his home state Kerala was ravaged by the 2018 Kerala floods, the biggest natural disaster in the state's history. Nihal contributed by raising Rs. 174,463/- (approximately US$2500) via a live YouTube show hosted by Indian chess news portal ChessBase India.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal competed in the Tata Steel Rapid Championship 2018. Starting as the last seed, Nihal scored 3.0/9, with draws against Viswanathan Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, losing only three games to Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, and Wesley So. The event marked Nihal's first game against the legendary five-time world champion Anand who graciously commented after the game, "Going by the evidence so far, I would not rule it out (Nihal becoming a world champion in future). It’s a long journey forward. At the end, he is just 14. I felt that he would really struggle in this tournament and he would be a bit out of place. It seemed the opposite. He seemed quite comfortable here. Not fully there, but he’s a huge talent what I’ve seen of him." Anand was quoted as saying by PTI.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal ended 2018 at the World Blitz Championship in Saint Petersburg, Russia where he scored 13½/21 with a rating performance of 2777, taking the 11th place on tiebreak.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In the 2019 TePe Sigeman & Co. Masters tournament held in Malmo, Sweden, Nihal scored a 3.0/7 and finished 6th place to cross the 2600 Elo mark in rating. He was the third youngest player in history and the youngest Indian to do so at the time. At the 2019 French Team Chess Championship, Nihal scored 6.0/11 on the first board and helped Mulhouse Philidor finish a historic third place. In 2019, aged 15, Nihal had become the youngest Indian to play in the World Cup 2019 where he managed to reach the second round after beating Peruvian Jorge Cori 2–0 in the first round. In the second round, Nihal managed to beat Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli in what the World Champion described as 'a perfect game'. Nihal lost the second round and the tiebreakers to crash out of the tournament.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In January 2020, Nihal competed in the Tata Steel Challengers tournament and scored 7.0/13 to share the sixth spot. Nihal was a part of the Indian Chess Team that won the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: After the Online Chess Olympiad 2020, Nihal's run of wins continued with him winning the Junior Speed Chess Championship conducted by Chess.com. A few weeks later he went to win the Capechecs Online Trophy in October 2020. He also helped the Indian team win the silver medal at the Asian Teams Online Championship 2020. On 10 December, Nihal registered his third successful win by defeating Arjun Erigaisi in the finals of the Super Juniors Cup organized by Chessbase India. His fourth tournament win for the year 2020 came after he defeated GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia in the finals of the World Youth Chess Championship 2020 held online and organized by FIDE. He was crowned under-18 World Youth Chess Champion on 22 December 2020, and won the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize for his game against IM Francesco Sonis.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal won the World Online Youth Championships 2020 in the Under-18 category by defeating GM Shant Sargsyan from Armenia.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In April 2021, Nihal participated in the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, becoming one of 19 young chess players who were selected to receive training sessions from Judit Polgár and Vladimir Kramnik as well as participating in a number of head-to-head games against various grandmasters. On 19 April 2021, the 19 participants faced off against current world champion Magnus Carlsen in a Blitz format with 3 minutes being allotted per move with no time increment. Nihal was among two of the 19 participants who were able to defeat Carlsen in the event. This game marked Nihal's first victory against the world champion in an official event. Nihal had previously beaten Carlsen in an unofficial online Blitz game on 27 May 2020, prompting the world champion to remark that Nihal was "one of the young guns" and "one of the better blitz players around".


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In June 2021, playing the Silver Lake Open in Serbia, his first over the board tournament since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nihal Scored 8.0/9 with a 2807 rating performance to take first place. In July 2021, Nihal won his second consecutive tournament by winning the Serbia Open Masters in Belgrade with 7.5/9 and a rating performance of 2786.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: In October 2021, Nihal defeated Raunak Sadhwani to win the Junior Speed Chess Championship organized by Chess.com.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: Nihal's first coach was Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore, a chess coach at his school. Nirmal E P, the Kerala State Champion, started training Nihal when he was eight years old.


title: Nihal Sarin

text: He was trained by Dimitri Komarov from 2013 to 2019. He has been working with Srinath Narayanan since 2016. Since late 2020, Nihal is also trained by Viswanathan Anand as part of the WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: The Flying Pickets is a British "a cappella" vocal group which had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 on the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of Yazoo's track "Only You".


title: The Flying Pickets

text: The band of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 1982 from a group of actors who had been active with him in John McGrath's , a fringe theatre organisation who had sung "a cappella" in their production of the 1981 play "One Big Blow". The group chose the name the Flying Pickets as band members had played a part in the UK miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Performing in clubs and pubs in London, the Flying Pickets came up with a concept of transferring the art of "a cappella" to the pop music scene. Joining Hibbard in the group were Rick Lloyd (who also wrote the music to "One Big Blow"), Gareth Williams, David Brett, Ken Gregson (real name Kenneth Gregory) and Red Stripe (real name David Gittins). The members of the group were internationally renowned for their flamboyant appearance: Hibbard's huge sideburns, Stripe's thick eye-liner, and the others showing off gaudy suits and large hats. Two of the other original members, Ron Donachie and Christopher Ryan left the band before "Only You".


title: The Flying Pickets

text: "Only You", their first single, was the UK Christmas number one in 1983 spending a total of five weeks at the top, and also doing well around Europe and in Canada, where it reached number 17 in spring 1984. It emulated the success of the original Yazoo version. The video was shot in the Red Lion And Pineapple, Acton High Street, London.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: The name "Flying Pickets" refers to mobile strikers who travel in order to join a picket, reflecting the group's radical socialist political views. The height of the group's fame coincided with the 1984 miners strike, when the National Union of Mineworkers called strike action following the National Coal Board's decision to close 20 pits – a move which would claim some 20,000 jobs. The Flying Pickets were vocal in their support of the miners during the dispute and came to blows with the record label Virgin after they picketed Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. They also performed benefit gigs for the miners. Hibbard himself claimed that their political beliefs probably had a detrimental effect on the group's mainstream image but it was a sacrifice they were willing to make; according to the group, one well-known record store refused to sell the group's albums due to their support of strike action.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Despite the group's socialist views, the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher proclaimed, to much amusement and skepticism, that "Only You" was her favourite record. A second single, a cover version of Van McCoy's "(When You're) Young and in Love" (originally written for Ruby and the Romantics) reached number 7 in the UK, but their third, a cover of the Eurythmics' "Who's That Girl" barely charted.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: In 1986, Hibbard and Stripe left the band and were replaced by Gary Howard and Hereward Kaye. Hibbard and Stripe tried to stay in the music industry, forming their own act called Brian and Stripe, but their first and only single, a cover version of Yazoo's "Mr. Blue", failed to chart, and they returned to their separate acting careers.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: In 1987, the Flying Pickets sang the title song (in Latin, "Dives in Omnia") and endtitles reprise to "Porterhouse Blue", in the style of a medieval university drinking-song.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: The Flying Pickets' line-up has changed throughout the years, but the band never died; since the Pickets began, there have been around 27 members. The last member of the original line-up, David Brett, left the band in 1990. However, in 1994, the original line-up (minus Lloyd) reformed to record one more album.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Although none of the founding members have been part of the group since 1990, the Flying Pickets continue to record albums and tour all over Europe and abroad.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Hibbard, the group's founder and lead singer, went on to act in "Doctor Who" and then briefly in "Coronation Street" as Doug Murray. He appeared regularly on Welsh television. He also had a brief role as Bobby-John Downes in the soap opera "Emmerdale" in 2003 and then came back for another brief spell in 2006. He appeared in the cult 1997 film "Twin Town", playing the part of the karaoke king, Dai Rhys. In 2006, Hibbard won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actor for his role as Tony in the film "Little White Lies". He also appeared in "Doctors" in 2005. He died on 17 June 2012.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Brett toured with the English Shakespeare Company and appeared as Mad Mike the Mechanic in the BBC children's TV programme "Marlene Marlowe Investigates". In 2000, Brett played the part of Dedalus Diggle in the film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Williams toured in a production of "South Pacific" and also with The English Shakespeare Company; he played Nathan Detroit in a production of "Guys & Dolls". He also worked with Jonathan Miller on a TV adaptation of Henry Mayhew's "London Labour, London Poor". In 2009, he understudied and went on for Patrick Stewart in the Theatre Royal Haymarket production of "Waiting for Godot".


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Gittins worked in bread delivery after leaving the band, then decided to move to Australia where he took a job as a stage mechanist at The Victorian State Theatre. He also co-developed the techno act Poets of the Machine.


title: The Flying Pickets

text: Lloyd was a joint winner of a BAFTA TV Award for his work on the 1987 TV series "Porterhouse Blue", and was musical director for the 1999 film "Julie and the Cadillacs".


title: Testudo formation

text: In ancient Roman warfare, the testudo or tortoise formation was a type of shield wall formation commonly used by the Roman legions during battles, particularly sieges.


title: Testudo formation

text: In the "testudo" formation, the men would align their shields to form a packed formation covered with shields on the front and top. The first row of men, possibly excluding the men on the flanks, would hold their shields from about the height of their shins to their eyes, so as to cover the formation's front. The shields would be held in such a way that they presented a shield wall to all sides. The men in the back ranks would place their shields over their heads to protect the formation from above, balancing the shields on their helmets, overlapping them. If necessary, the legionaries on the sides and rear of the formation could stand sideways or backwards with shields held as the front rows, so as to protect the formation's sides and rear; this reduced the speed and mobility of the formation, but offered consistent defensive strength against opposing infantry and excellent protection against arrows and other missile attacks.


title: Testudo formation

text: The "testudo" was used to protect soldiers from all types of missiles. It could be formed by immobile troops and troops on the march. The primary drawback to the formation was that, because of its density, the men found it more difficult to fight in hand-to-hand combat and because the men were required to move in unison, speed was sacrificed. As "phoulkon", it played a great role in the tactics employed by the Byzantines against their eastern enemies.


title: Testudo formation

text: The "testudo" was not invincible, as Cassius Dio also gives an account of a Roman shield array being defeated by Parthian cataphracts and horse archers at the Battle of Carrhae:


title: Testudo formation

text: Tacitus recorded its use during the siege of the city of Cremona by the troops of Vespasian under command of Marcus Antonius Primus. During the attack the troops advanced under the rampart "holding their shields above their heads in close 'tortoise' formation".


title: Testudo formation

text: The "testudo" was a common formation in the Middle Ages, being used by Muhammad's forces during the Siege of Ta'if in 630, also by the Carolingian Frankish soldiers of Louis the Pious to advance on the walls of Barcelona during the siege of 800–801, by Vikings during the siege of Paris in 885–886, by East Frankish soldiers under king Arnulf of Carinthia during the siege of Bergamo in 894, by Lotharingians under Conrad the Red at the siege of Senlis in 949, by Lotharingian defenders at the siege of Verdun in 984 and by the Crusaders of count Raymond IV of Toulouse during the siege of Nicaea in 1097. The "testudo" formation was also employed by medieval Arabs, who called it the "dabbāba" or "crawler". It was employed by Abu Abdallah al-Shi'i in the 906 siege of Tobna (in modern-day Algeria), where he used it to protect sappers as they advanced to the city walls, where they undermined and collapsed a tower, creating a breach for their allies to enter the city.


title: Testudo formation

text: British "riot police" have mastered its use, both as a defensive formation and as "snatch squads", where a targeted individual is swallowed up and held in the "testudo" while it withdraws from the crowd. During the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2014 the Berkut riot police used the "testudo" tactic to protect themselves. Israeli forces and American George Floyd protestors have been known to use the formation.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: A near miss, near hit or close call is an unplanned event that has the potential to cause, but does not actually result in human injury, environmental or equipment damage, or an interruption to normal operation.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: OSHA defines a near miss as an incident in which no property was damaged and no personal injury was sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage or injury easily could have occurred. Near misses also may be referred to as near accidents, accident precursors, injury-free events and, in the case of moving objects, near collisions.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: There are factors for a near miss related to the operator, and factors related to the context. Fatigue is an example for the former. The risk of a car crash after a more than 24h shift for physicians has been observed to increase by 168%, and the risk of near miss by 460%.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Factors relating to the context include time pressures, unfamiliar settings, and in the case of health care, diverse patients, and high patient-to-nurse staffing ratios.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Most safety activities are reactive and not proactive. Many organizations wait for losses to occur before taking steps to prevent a recurrence. Near miss incidents often precede loss producing events but are largely ignored because nothing (no injury, damage or loss) happened. Employees are not enlightened to report these close calls as there has been no disruption or loss in the form of injuries or property damage. Thus, many opportunities to prevent the accidents that the organization has not yet had are lost. Recognizing and reporting near miss incidents can make a major difference to the safety of workers within organizations. In the heavy construction industry, near miss reporting software allows crews to find and document opportunities that help reduce safety risks as the software tracks, analyzes and calls attention to near misses on the job site to help prevent future incidents. History has shown repeatedly that most loss producing events (accidents) were preceded by warnings or near accidents, sometimes also called close calls, narrow escapes or near hits.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: In terms of human lives and property damage, near misses are cheaper, zero-cost learning opportunities (compared to learning from actual injury or property loss events)


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Getting a very high number of near misses is the goal as long as that number is within the organization's ability to respond and investigate - otherwise it is merely a paperwork exercise and a waste of time; it is possible to achieve a ratio of 100 near misses reported per loss event.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Achieving and investigating a high ratio of near misses will find the causal factors and root causes of potential future accidents, resulting in about 95% reduction in actual losses.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: An ideal near miss event reporting system includes both mandatory (for incidents with high loss potential) and voluntary, non-punitive reporting by witnesses. A key to any near miss report is the "lesson learned". Near miss reporters can describe what they observed of the beginning of the event, and the factors that prevented loss from occurring.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: The events that caused the near miss are subjected to root cause analysis to identify the defect in the system that resulted in the error and factors that may either amplify or ameliorate the result.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: To prevent the near miss from happening again, the organization must institute teamwork training, feedback on performance and a commitment to continued data collection and analysis, a process called continuous improvement.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Near misses are smaller in scale, relatively simpler to analyze and easier to resolve. Thus, capturing near misses not only provides an inexpensive means of learning, but also has some equally beneficial spin offs:


title: Near miss (safety)

text: Reporting of near misses by observers is an established error reduction technique in many industries and organizations:


title: Near miss (safety)

text: In the United States, the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) has been collecting confidential voluntary reports of close calls from pilots, flight attendants, air traffic controllers since 1976. The system was established after TWA Flight 514 crashed on approach to Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., killing all 85 passengers and seven crew in 1974. The investigation that followed found that the pilot misunderstood an ambiguous response from the Dulles air traffic controllers, and that earlier another airline had told its pilots, but not other airlines, about a similar near miss. The ASRS identifies deficiencies and provides data for planning improvements to stakeholders without regulatory action. Some familiar safety rules, such as turning off electronic devices that can interfere with navigation equipment, are a result of this program. Due to near miss observations and other technological improvements, the rate of fatal accidents has dropped about 65 percent, to one fatal accident in about 4.5 million departures, from one in nearly 2 million in 1997.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: In the United Kingdom, an aviation near miss report is known as an "airprox", an air proximity hazard, by the Civil Aviation Authority. Since reporting began, aircraft near misses continue to decline.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: The rate of fire fighter fatalities and injuries in the United States is unchanged for the last 15 years despite improvements in personal protective equipment, apparatus and a decrease in structure fires. In 2005, the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System was established, funded by grants from the U.S. Fire Administration and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, and endorsed by the International Associations of Fire Chiefs and Fire Fighters. Any member of the fire service community is encouraged to submit a report when he/she is involved in, witnesses, or is told of a near-miss event. The report may be anonymous, and is not forwarded to any regulatory agency.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: A total of 1,439 U.S. law enforcement officers died in the line of duty during the past 10 years, an average of one death every 61 hours or 144 per year. There were 123 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in 2015. In 2014, the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) Near Miss Reporting System was established, with funding support from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). Since its launch, the LEO Near Miss system has established endorsements and partnerships with the National Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IADLEST), the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP) and the Below 100 organization. The Police Foundation, a national, independent non-profit organization, operates the system and has received additional support from the Motorola Solutions Foundation. Law enforcement members are to submit voluntary reports when involved in or having witnessed or become aware of a near-miss event. Near miss reports take minutes to submit, can be submitted anonymously and are not forwarded to regulatory or investigative agencies, but are used to provide analysis, policy and training recommendations to the law enforcement community.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: AORN, a US-based professional organization of perioperative registered nurses, has put in effect a voluntary near miss reporting system called "SafetyNet" covering medication or transfusion reactions, communication or consent issues, wrong patient or procedures, communication breakdown or technology malfunctions. An analysis of incidents allows safety alerts to be issued to AORN members.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed the "Patient Safety Reporting System" modeled upon the Aviation Safety Reporting System to monitor patient safety through voluntary, confidential reports.


title: Near miss (safety)

text: CIRAS (the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System) is a confidential reporting system modelled upon ASRS and originally developed by the University of Strathclyde for use in the Scottish rail industry. However, after the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, John Prescott mandated its use throughout the whole UK rail industry. Since 2006 CIRAS has been run by an autonomous Charitable trust.


title: Lady Byron

text: Anne Isabella Noel Byron, 11th Baroness Wentworth and Baroness Byron ("née" Milbanke; 17 May 1792 – 16 May 1860), nicknamed Annabella and commonly known as Lady Byron, was wife of poet George Gordon Byron, more commonly known as Lord Byron.


title: Lady Byron

text: A highly educated and strictly religious woman, she seemed an unlikely match for the "amoral" and agnostic poet, and their marriage soon ended in acrimony. Lady Byron's reminiscences, published after her death by Harriet Beecher Stowe, revealed her fears about alleged incest between Lord Byron and his half-sister. The scandal about Lady Byron's suspicions accelerated Byron's intentions to leave England and return to the Mediterranean where he had lived in 1810.


title: Lady Byron

text: Their daughter Ada worked as a mathematician with Charles Babbage, the pioneer of computer science. Lady Byron had felt that an education in mathematics and logic would counteract any possible inherited tendency towards Lord Byron's perceived insanity and romantic excess.


title: Lady Byron

text: Lady Byron was born Anne Isabella Milbanke, the only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke, 6th Baronet, and his wife the Hon. Judith Noel, sister of Thomas Noel, Viscount Wentworth.


title: Lady Byron

text: Her father's only surviving sibling was Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne, the influential political hostess. Her children, Anne's cousins, were:


title: Lady Byron

text: Her mother's only surviving sibling had no legitimate heirs, but he did have one son before his marriage, named after him, Thomas Noel; he became a clergyman.


title: Lady Byron

text: When Anne's maternal uncle died, a few months after her marriage to Lord Byron, Lady Milbanke and her cousin Lord Scarsdale jointly inherited his estate. The family subsequently took the surname Noel over Milbanke.


title: Lady Byron

text: Lord Wentworth had been both a viscount and a baron. Upon his death the viscountcy became extinct, and the barony fell into abeyance between Lady Milbanke and Lord Scarsdale. After their deaths, the barony passed to Lady Byron, and she became Baroness Wentworth in her own right; however, she did not use the title. She signed her letters "A. I. Noel Byron" and her will as "Baroness Noel-Byron". The world knew her as "Lady Byron", and her friends and family called her by her nickname "Annabella".


title: Lady Byron

text: She was a gifted child. To cultivate her obvious intelligence, her parents hired as her tutor a former Cambridge University professor by the name of William Frend. Under his direction, her education proceeded much like that of a Cambridge student; her studies involved classical literature, philosophy, science and mathematics, in which she particularly delighted. This fascination led her husband to nickname her his "princess of parallelograms".


title: Lady Byron

text: Annabella developed into a stiff, religious woman with strict morals. She was aware of her strong intellect and was not ashamed to demonstrate it in her social realm. Often described as cold and prim, she seemed an unlikely match for the man who would become her ultimate obsession, the dramatically dark and "morally fractured" poet Lord Byron. Their first meeting occurred in March 1812. She later said to her mother that though she would not venture to introduce herself to Lord Byron, she would certainly accept his introduction if it were offered.


title: Lady Byron

text: Byron's popularity was soaring following the success of his work "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage". Annabella met him on many social occasions as he began a relationship with Lady Caroline Lamb, the wife of her cousin, William Lamb. However, Byron was attracted to her modesty and intellect and in October 1812 he proposed marriage through her aunt, the well-connected political hostess Elizabeth Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne. In response, she wrote a summary of his character and three days later refused him. However, they were plagued with a persistent interest in each other.


title: Lady Byron

text: Although well aware of Byron's shortcomings, telling her mother "He is a very bad, very good man", she decided it was her religious obligation to support him and improve his behaviour. In August 1813, she contacted him in writing for the first time. The letters continued into the next year, some offering reassurance and support during times when public opinion of him was not favorable, others describing the "imperfect attachment" she felt for him. During this time, he accepted an invitation from Sir Ralph Milbanke to visit Seaham Hall, the family home in County Durham.


title: Lady Byron

text: When George Gordon Byron proposed a second time, in September 1814, she did accept. The couple were married privately, and by special licence, at Seaham Hall in County Durham on 2 January 1815 (the officiating clergyman was her cousin, the Rev. Thomas Noel of Kirkby Mallory, illegitimate son of her uncle, Viscount Wentworth). The couple lived at Piccadilly Terrace in London.


title: Lady Byron

text: Byron was then in extreme financial distress. He rejected payments offered for his written works, as he believed business was not appropriate for a gentleman, and gifted copyrights to people who had helped him. He was having difficulty selling his estates at Newstead Abbey and Rochdale to clear his debt. During the summer of 1815, he began to unleash his anger and hostility on his wife. His moods were dark and he began to drink heavily. In a letter to his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, he stated his suspicions that his wife had broken the lock on his desk and searched it. Later in the year he began an affair with Susan Boyce, a London actress at Drury Lane Theatre where he was a director.


title: Lady Byron

text: Annabella became increasingly upset. In the late stages of pregnancy, she feared her husband might be going mad. In November 1815, she wrote to Augusta and told her of Byron's moods and behaviour. In answer to her sister-in-law's letter, Augusta traveled to the Byrons' home to assist. Upon her arrival, she became the subject of Byron's wrath and believed him to be temporarily insane. On 10 December, Annabella gave birth to the couple's only child, a daughter whom they named Ada. Byron's despair seemed to increase.


title: Lady Byron

text: In January 1816, as the Byrons passed their first anniversary, Byron decided they must move from the rented house at Piccadilly Terrace. He recommended that Annabella take their daughter to her parents' home and stay there temporarily until he settled their finances. In disbelief, Anne sought medical advice, as she had become convinced her husband had gone mad. She invited a physician to their home to assess him; Byron was unaware of the true purpose for the visit. The doctor recommended she do as Byron requested and move to her parents' estate.


title: Lady Byron

text: Annabella began a detailed documentation of her husband's behaviour, moods, and speech. She contacted his solicitor and friend, John Hanson, and told him her concern that her husband would take his life. She also provided Hanson with a pamphlet on hydrocephalus, accompanied by notes that suggested Byron could be suffering from this particular affliction. Following this conversation, she took Ada and travelled to her parents' residence at Kirkby Mallory in Leicestershire. She would not see her husband again.


title: Lady Byron

text: During her first month away from him, Annabella wrote to Byron affectionately, addressing him as "dearest Duck". Her mother wrote to him and invited him to come to their home. However, her concern about him soon became paramount, and her parents sought legal counsel. Their attorney recommended a legal separation and sent Byron a letter proposing the separation. Augusta Leigh, who had remained with Byron at Piccadilly Terrace since his wife's departure, intercepted the letter, as she feared he would commit suicide if he knew of it. She returned the letter to Kirkby Mallory and communicated her opinion that greater consideration should be taken in the matter of the Byrons' marriage. A week later, however, a messenger sent Lord Byron the proposal again.


title: Lady Byron

text: This time it reached him, but he refused to believe that she no longer wanted to be married to him. He asked Mrs Leigh to write to her; in addition, he refused to dissolve their marriage. A short while later, when Lady Byron made clear her suspicions that his relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh was incestuous, that he had had homosexual relationships, and had sodomised her – Lady Byron – acts which were illegal, he changed his mind. He agreed to grant her request if she proved that the request for legal separation was truly hers and not that of her parents. In response, she personally communicated her feelings to Augusta. Byron kept his word, and their separation was made legal in March 1816, in a private settlement.


title: Lady Byron

text: Following the settlement, Augusta wrote to Annabella; the latter's solicitor replied to the private note. Byron was enraged by such cold treatment of his half-sister. Soon after the dissolution of his marriage, he left England and lived the remainder of his days abroad. Though she wished to separate from her husband, Annabella was obsessed by him until her death. She was motivated to save his soul and secure him a place in Heaven. In the years following their separation, she came to believe that the time she had spent with him guaranteed he would experience God's embrace upon his death. She kept his letters, copies of her own to him, and letters about him. She carefully documented their relationship, supposedly in preparation for any challenge Lord Byron might make for custody of their daughter.


title: Lady Byron

text: Byron never sought custody of Ada, though he sent for both of them shortly before his death in Greece on 19 April 1824. Lady Byron's obsession with him did not end with his death. Ultimately her relationship with him defined her life, though she committed herself to social causes, such as prison reform and the abolition of slavery. In furtherance of the latter, Lady Byron attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention, where she was one of the few women included in its commemorative painting.


title: Lady Byron

text: Lady Byron lived in Ealing between around 1822 and 1840, and established Ealing Grove School in 1833.


title: Lady Byron

text: As her daughter grew up, Lady Byron feared she might inherit her father's behaviours and dark moods. She schooled Ada in science and mathematics and discouraged literary study. Though her effort was great, it eventually seemed in vain: Ada Lovelace embodied many of her father's rebellious qualities. She is also considered to have been the world's first computer programmer, having written the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine—Charles Babbage's analytical engine.


title: Lady Byron

text: Ada married William, Lord King (who took the surname King-Noel) when she was 19. William was subsequently made the 1st Earl Lovelace, and the couple had three children, Byron King-Noel, Viscount Ockham and 12th Baron Wentworth; Anne Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth, who brought the Arabian horse to England; and Ralph King-Milbanke, 2nd Earl of Lovelace. Ada amassed considerable gambling debts before dying from cancer on 27 November 1852. Lady Byron attended her daughter's deathbed and, under her influence, Ada underwent a religious conversion. Ada was 36 years old when she died, the same age as Byron when he died.


title: Lady Byron

text: Lady Byron died of breast cancer on 16 May 1860, the day before her 68th birthday. She was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery at Kensal Green in London. Prior to her death, she shared the story of her marriage to Byron with Harriet Beecher Stowe, who encouraged her to remain silent. In 1869 Stowe published the account given to her, the first time anyone had publicly hinted at an incestuous relationship between Byron and his half-sister. Stowe was criticized for writing a supposedly "indecent" article and lost popularity. Initially biographers criticized Lady Byron as "small-minded;" more recent works have provided a fuller picture of her accomplishments.


title: Lady Byron

text: In her will she left a £300 legacy to the writer George MacDonald, whom she had patronized during her life.


title: Lady Byron

text: Lady Byron Lane, off Knowle Road, Solihull, is named after her. Lady Byron was heiress of the Knowle estates through her father, Sir Ralph Milbanke Noel.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi () is a 2013 Indian Malayalam-language road adventure film directed and co-produced by Sameer Thahir and written by Hashir Mohamed. The film stars Dulquer Salmaan and Sunny Wayne with Dhritiman Chatterjee, Surja Bala Hijam in supporting roles. The movie was inspired from the book "Long Way Down" . The movie was a hit at the Kerala box office and has since developed a cult following among the youth of Kerala. The film began shooting in the north-eastern state of Nagaland in February 2013 and completed its shoot in June 2013. The film was shot at real locations in eight Indian states, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, Nagaland and Sikkim.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: The film revolves around Kasi (Dulquer Salmaan) and Suni (Sunny Wayne) who go on a road trip from Kerala to Nagaland. Later, it was dubbed into Hindi as "Pyaar Ka Toofan" ( Love Storm) in 2021. Over the years, the film has accumulated a cult following and huge fan base.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: In Kerala, Kasi embarks upon a road trip. His best friend, Suni, joins him and refuses to return even though Kasi informs him that he himself is not sure of the destination. They travel to Odisha via Bangalore and Vizag where they are attacked by bandits. However, a group of riders rescue them and Kasi and Suni join them on their journey to Puri to attend a surfing festival.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: While in Puri, Kasi meets Ishita, a surfer. She develops an attraction towards Kasi and shares her feelings. Kasi tells her that he was in love with Assi, a girl from Nagaland. Nagaland is a place of political unrest and her parents were killed during the fights. Kasi takes her home to get his parents' approval to get married. However, his mom tells him of her displeasure as she does not share their culture or religion. Though his father was more supportive, he too disapproves their relationship fearing the family's social status. It is revealed that Kasi is on his way to Nagaland to win her back.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: From Puri, they head to Kolkata. However, on the way, they are mistaken for bandits in a village. When they inform him that they are from Kerala, the village chief reminisces about his life as a Communist and welcomes them to stay. In the village, they help to build a machine that grinds wheat. Suni falls in love with the chief's daughter, Gouri.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: Beyond Kolkata, they ride further east when an unidentified truck tries to injure Suni. When their bikes get punctured, they take it to a shop which happened to be owned by a Malayalee. He reveals that he had run away from the state years ago for committing a political murder. He informs that years later he has forgotten the ideals of the party and that he yearns to go back. Kasi remembers the time in college when one of his friends was murdered by some goons due to some scuffle.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: When they reach Assam, they end up in the middle of a communal riot where they rescue a little girl. Kasi begins to regret the road trip and calls his parents to inform them that he is coming back. With a new outlook on life after meeting different people and visiting different places, he decides against going back and continues the journey. As they near their destination, Suni turns back to go to Gouri and the two friends separate.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: Kasi reaches Nagaland and searches for Assi. The presence of a stranger attracts the attention of local militants and they plan to attack Assi that night. Kasi meets Assi and they get back together. At night when the militants arrive at Assi's house, they find the two missing. The film ends with Kasi and Assi riding away at dawn to Tawang.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: Manipuri actress Surja Bala Hijam was signed to play Assi, a student who comes to Kerala to study engineering. The film is Bala's Malayalam debut. 18-year-old Bengali actress Ena Saha played Sunny Wayne's love interest, Gauri. Joy Mathew was cast to play Dulquer Salmaan's father. Paloma Monappa played a surfer, also making her Malayalam debut. A Kochi-based adventurer, Bobby Zachariah, Abraham played a biker.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: The film was shot in Nagaland in the north-eastern part of India, at Government Engineering College, Thrissur, and in Ayyanthole. The costumes were designed by Mashar Hamsa. Stills by Vishnu Thandassery. This film's first official teaser released on 22 June in YouTube and got largely positive reviews from the viewers. The movie was released all over Kerala on 9 August 2013.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: IndiaGlitz gave a rating of 7.5/10, stating that "is a movie that must be watched for its solid, though diluted content." But the first slides very well when the second half is dilute as the normal film which don't depend it. In which the cinematography, music, and art direction, are perfectly done which it has bright freshness to all. "The Times of India" rated the film as a 3.5/5, praising some of the voice acting, but questioning the relevance of some of the character's political stances. "The Hindu" praised the entertaining nature of the film, the acting and the script, whilst criticizing the second half of the film and its climax.


title: Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi

text: The movie post release emerged as one of the most influential movies among YA audience and was single-handedly responsible for the rise in travel/ride culture and sudden spurt in the number of Bullet users across Kerala.


title: Reed switch

text: The reed switch is an electromechanical switch operated by an applied magnetic field. It was invented in 1922 by professor Valentin Kovalenkov at Leningrad Electrotechnical University, and later evolved at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1936 by Walter B. Ellwood into the reed relay. In its simplest and most common form, it consists of a pair of ferromagnetic flexible metal contacts in a hermetically sealed glass envelope. The contacts are usually normally open, closing when a magnetic field is present, or they may be normally closed and open when a magnetic field is applied. The switch may be actuated by an electromagnetic coil, making a reed relay, or by bringing a permanent magnet near it. When the magnetic field is removed, the contacts in the reed switch return to their original position. The "reed" is the metal part inside the reed switch envelope that is relatively thin and wide to make it flexible. It somewhat resembles part of some reed plants. The term "reed" may also include the external wire lead as well as the internal part.


title: Reed switch

text: A common example of a reed switch application is to detect the opening of a door or windows, for a security alarm.


title: Reed switch

text: The most common type of reed switch contains a pair of magnetizable, flexible, metal reeds whose end portions are separated by a small gap when the switch is open. The reeds are hermetically sealed within a tubular glass envelope. Another type of reed switch contains one flexible reed that moves between a fixed normally-open contact and a fixed normally-closed contact. The normally-closed contact is non-ferromagnetic and is closed by the flexible reed's spring force. Although reed switches with multiple poles are possible, more often an assembly of single-pole reed switches is used for multi-pole applications.


title: Reed switch

text: A magnetic field from an electromagnet or a permanent magnet will cause the reeds to attract each other, thus completing an electrical circuit. The spring force of the reeds causes them to separate, and open the circuit, when the magnetic field ceases. Another configuration contains a non-ferromagnetic normally-closed contact that opens when the ferromagnetic normally-open contact closes. A thin layer of non-ferromagnetic material is applied to the reed switch contact area to serve as an electrical contact switching (wear) surface and, for normally-open contacts, as a magnetic spacer whose thickness is important in controlling the magnetic field level at which the contact opens (the drop-out). Reed switch contacts are typically rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, or tungsten. There are also versions of reed switches with mercury-wetted contacts. Such switches must be mounted in a particular orientation, lest drops of mercury bridge the contacts even when not activated.


title: Reed switch

text: Since the contacts of the reed switch are sealed away from the atmosphere, they are protected against atmospheric corrosion. The hermetic sealing of a reed switch make them suitable for use in explosive atmospheres where tiny sparks from conventional switches would constitute a hazard.


title: Reed switch

text: One important quality of the switch is its sensitivity, the amount of magnetic field necessary to actuate it. Sensitivity is measured in units of ampere-turns (AT), corresponding to the current in a test coil multiplied by the number of turns in the test coil. Typical pull-in sensitivities for commercial devices are in the 10 to 60 AT range. The lower the AT, the more sensitive the reed switch. Smaller reed switches, which have smaller parts, are generally more sensitive to magnetic fields.


title: Reed switch

text: In production, a metal reed is inserted in each end of a glass tube and the ends of the tube are heated so that they seal around a shank portion on the reeds. Green-colored infrared-absorbing glass is frequently used, so an infrared heat source can concentrate the heat in the small sealing zone of the glass tube. The thermal coefficient of expansion of the glass material and metal parts must be similar to prevent breaking the glass-to-metal seal. The glass used must have a high electrical resistance and must not contain volatile components, such as lead oxide and fluorides, which can contaminate the contacts during the sealing operation. The leads of the switch must be handled carefully to prevent breaking the glass envelope. The glass envelope can be damaged if the reed switch is subjected to mechanical stress.


title: Reed switch

text: Most reed switches are filled with nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. After the final seal is made, the switch cools and the internal pressure is less than one atmosphere. Reed switches sealed with a pressurized nitrogen atmosphere have a higher breakdown voltage and are useful for switching 220–240 VAC power. Reed switches with a vacuum inside the glass envelope can switch thousands of volts.


title: Reed switch

text: Reed switches can be used to directly switch a variety of loads ranging from nanovolts to kilovolts, femtoamperes to amperes, and DC to radio frequency. Other magnetically-activated switching devices have a limited range of output voltages and currents, and generally do not directly control a final device such as a lamp, solenoid, or motor.


title: Reed switch

text: Reed switches have small leakage currents compared to solid state devices; this may be useful, for example, in medical devices requiring protection of a patient from tiny leakage currents. The reed is hermetically sealed and can therefore operate in almost any environment, such as where flammable gas is present or where corrosion would affect open switch contacts. A reed switch has very low resistance when closed, typically as low as 50 milliohms, whereas the Hall Effect devices can be in the hundreds of ohms. A reed switch requires only two wires whereas most solid-state devices require three wires. A reed switch can be said to require zero power to operate it.


title: Reed switch

text: One or more reed switches inside an electromagnetic coil constitute a reed relay. Reed relays are used when operating currents are relatively low, and offer high operating speed, good performance with very small currents that are not reliably switched by conventional contacts, high reliability and long life. Millions of reed relays were used in telephone exchanges in the 1970s and 1980s. In particular, they were used for switching in the British TXE family of telephone exchanges. The inert atmosphere around the reed contacts ensures that oxidation will not affect the contact resistance. Mercury-wetted reed relays are sometimes used, especially in high-speed counting circuits.


title: Reed switch

text: Reed switches actuated by magnets are commonly used in mechanical systems as proximity sensors. Examples are door and window sensors in burglar alarm systems and tamperproofing methods. Reed switches have been used in laptops to put the laptop into sleep/hibernation mode when the lid is closed. Speed sensors on bicycle wheels frequently use a reed switch to actuate briefly each time a magnet on the wheel passes the sensor. Reed switches were formerly used in the keyboards for computer terminals, where each key had a magnet and a reed switch actuated by depressing the key. Electric and electronic pedal keyboards used by pipe organ and Hammond organ players often use reed switches, where the glass enclosure of the contacts protects them from dirt, dust, and other particles. They may also be used to control diving equipment, such as flashlights or cameras, which must be sealed to keep water out under high pressure.


title: Reed switch

text: At one time brushless DC electric motors used reed switches to sense the rotor's position relative to the field poles. This allowed switching transistors to act as a commutator, but without the contact problems, wear and electrical noise of a traditional DC commutator. The motor design could also be "inverted", placing permanent magnets onto the rotor and switching the field through the external, fixed coils. This avoided the need for any rubbing contact to provide power to the rotor. Such motors were used in low-power long-service-life items, such as computer cooling fans and disk drives. As cheap Hall effect sensors became available, they replaced the reed switches and gave even longer service lifetimes.


title: Reed switch

text: Reed switches are used in at least one brand of endoscopic capsule to switch on the power source only when the unit is removed from the sterile packaging.


title: Reed switch

text: Reed switches may be selected for a particular sensor application when a solid-state device does not meet requirements such as power consumption or electrical interface compatibility.


title: Reed switch

text: The mechanical motion of the reeds is below the fatigue limit of the materials, so the reeds do not break due to fatigue. Wear and life are almost entirely dependent on the electrical load's effect on the contacts along with the properties of the specific reed switch used. Contact surface wear occurs only when the switch contacts open or close. Because of this, manufacturers rate life in number of operations rather than hours or years. In general, higher voltages and higher currents cause faster wear and shorter life. Depending on the electrical load, life can be in the range of thousands of operations or billions of operations.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church, often shortened to Mar Thoma Church, and known also as the Reformed Syrian Church and the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, is an autonomous Reformed Oriental church based in Kerala, India. While continuing many of the Syriac high church practices, the church is reformed in its theology and doctrines. It employs a reformed variant of the West Syriac Rite Divine Liturgy of Saint James, translated to Malayalam.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Mar Thoma Church sees itself as continuation of the Saint Thomas Christians, a community traditionally believed to have been founded in the first century by Thomas the Apostle, who is known as Mar Thoma ("Saint Thomas") in Syriac, and describes itself as "Apostolic in origin, Universal in nature, Biblical in faith, Evangelical in principle, Ecumenical in outlook, Oriental in worship, Democratic in function, and Episcopal in character".


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Until the beginning of the 20th century, Mar Thoma Christians lived in a few districts of Central Travancore (Pathanamthitta, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram districts) and Kunnamkulam (Thrissur district) in Kerala. Since that time they have spread with the 20th-century Indian diaspora to North America, Europe, the Middle East, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. According to the figures provided by the church itself, it currently has over 1 million members. Their mother tongue is Malayalam, the language of Kerala, and historically the variety known as Suriyani Malayalam was associated with them.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: According to the 2011 Census of Kerala it was, with a membership of 405,089, the sixth largest Christian church in the state, coming after the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church (2,345,911), the Latin Catholic Church (932,733), the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (493,858), the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church (482,762), and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (465,207).


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is commonly called the "Mar Thoma Church". In official and legal records the church is referred to as Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar or as Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church. "Malabar" is a term used to denote the Kerala coast in earlier days. The original Church was referred to as the Church of Malabar by the Jesuits and as the Syrian Church of Malabar in Missionary Registers from 1801 onward. "Malankara" is an ancient name derived from the name 'Maliankara', Maliankara Island is on the Southwestern side of the Indian Peninsula. It is between Gokarnam and Kanyakumari the southernmost point of India. Kerala, the present southwestern state of India is only a part of Malankara. It is also thought to be a cognate of this name Maliankara, a place near Muziris, where Thomas the Apostle first landed in Kerala.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: "Mar Thoma" is Aramaic, and means Saint Thomas. Members of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church are commonly called as Mar Thomiyar, Mar Thomites, or Mar Thoma Syrians. The original liturgical language used by Saint Thomas Christians was the East Syriac language which is a variant of Aramaic. The Reformation movement in the Malankara Syrian Church later resulted in the evolution of an independent indigenous Malankara church under the Mathoma Metropolitan, breaking all the ecclesiastical and temporal control from outside Malankara. In 1898, during the reign of Titus I Mar Thoma the church accepted as its name, "Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church" or "Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar" to comprise its order and heritage. The members of this church are known as Mar Thoma Nasrani or Mar Thoma Syrian Nasrani.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Mar Thoma Syrian Church has a well-defined constitution and has a democratic pattern of administration. The central administrative setup consists of the Metropolitan, the Episcopal Synod ("Consisting of all the Bishops of the Church"), the Prathinithi Mandalam ("House of Representatives") and the Sabha Council ("Executive body of the house of representatives / Mandalam"), and the Vaideeka Selection Committee ("to select candidates for the ordained ministry of the church").


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Central Administration of the Church is backed by the Dioceses. Each diocese has its own council and an assembly. The assembly members are elected by the individual parishes, and the diocesan council members are elected by the assembly.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: All members of a parish are members of the Edavaka Sangham (General Body) and they also have the right to elect their representatives to the Diocesan Assembly and Prathinidhi Mandalam (Church Parliament).


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The title of the head of the Church is "Mar Thoma Metropolitan". He is ordained from among the duly-consecrated bishops (Episcopas) of the Church, the choice being ordinarily that of the senior-most among them. The present Mar Thoma Metropolitan is Theodosius Mar Thoma who resides at Poolatheen at Church Headquarters in Tiruvalla, Kerala. He is 21 Mar Thoma in the line of continuation after the re-establishment of the Mar Thoma episcopacy after the Oath of the Koonan Cross (1653).


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: If the Metropolitan is personally satisfied that he has difficulty continuing to perform the duties pertaining to his office, he may relinquish the powers and responsibilities of Metropolitan. Then he becomes the Mar Thoma Metropolitan Emeritus and is addressed as "Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan". The present "Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan is Philipose Chrysostom Mar Thoma Valiya Metropolitan.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: To assist the metropolitan there are "Episcopas", the senior-most among them is called the Suffragan Metropolitan.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: For administrative purposes, the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church is divided into 13 dioceses or popularly called 'Bhadhrasanams' ("Mal" ഭദ്രാസനം) headed by a Metropolitan or by an Episcopa.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The excommunication of Reformist bishops and their followers by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch in 1875, the Synod of 1876 (Mulanthuruthy) and the Royal Court Verdict of 1889 were turning points in the history of the Malankara Syrian Church of Malabar. The Reformist (Metran) faction continued to consecrate bishops to the Malankara See without the consent of Patriarch as they claimed Malankara church is independent of the Syrian Church. Before the death of Malankara Metropolitan Mathews Athanasius, he consecrated Thomas Athanasius as Suffragan bishop of Malankara Church. Following the death of Mathews Athanasius, the suffragan succeeded as the Metropolitan of the Malankara See in 1877 which led to a schism in the Malankara church. Those who supported reformation loyally followed the Malankara Metropolitan who was legally evicted from the Malankara Syrian Church. He died in 1893 without consecrating a successor and suggesting a new name for the church. The Metropolitan of Malabar Independent Syrian Church stepped in and consecrated Titus Mar Thoma as the new bishop.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: For the consecrations, from 1917 onward bishops from other churches were invited as guests. But the consecration was done only by the Metropolitan and was assisted as a witness by the other Bishops of the Mar Thoma Church and of the Malabar Independent Syrian Church.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Sabha Prathinidhi Mandalam elects a Vaidika Selection board to select candidates for the ordained ministry of the church through recommendations (letters from bishops-clergy by the level of exposure in church or by personal sponsorships of bishops or written support pledged from bishops), exams (English, General knowledge and Bible) and pre- and post- theological training interviews (with theological-sociological aspects and scrutiny through psychological and health evaluations).


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Following a Malankara Church tradition and from diasporic influence, the church follows a compulsory twelve-month (or 24 months with relocation, if failed in the first attempt) unpaid missionary service to those who are inclined to be a priest, before selection process as a "Tithe of Youth" program for "evaluation purposes". Additionally, this program was challenged in youth meets of the church at the time of its conception on the basis of non-guarantee in an entry, fast-changing world, career stagnation, and other economic factors and have arrived at a discussion level resolution of implementing this process after the pursual of their theological training and integrating the "Deacon" status during the time period under mentorship which enables the church to fill up NGO's, projects and mission fields with trained and theologically equipped individuals for staff duties and pastoring, thus avoid stress and negligence that would be otherwise imparted on the youth. During the intensive field training, when the inclined candidate is counted to be worthy for the controlled influx in church duties, the trained and experienced Deacons can be nominated for ordinations as Kassessas, by each diocese as the allotment.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Persons receiving ordination as ministers shall be duly ordained deacons. They all have had their Bachelor of Divinity degree from the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam, Kerala, or from other recognized theological seminaries of India. The wife of a Kassissa is known as "Baskiamma" derived from" Baskiyomo in Syriac.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: From among the clergy who have completed 25 years of service in the ordained ministry and not less than sixty years of age are selected according to their contributions and ordained as vicars general. In the absence of the diocesan bishop, they may be appointed as deputy head of the bishopric.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Thomas Christians are popularly and traditionally called as "Syrian Christians", in view of the Syriac liturgy (a variant of the classical form of Aramaic) used in church services since the early days of Christianity in India.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: The Saint Thomas Christians remained as Church of Malabar with fraternity relationship with Church of East, Church of Antioch, Church of Alexandria, etc. till the Advent of Portuguese and Jesuits of Roman Catholic church in the 15th century. Thereafter, the Christians of St Thomas had been influenced by many belief streams at different points of time. These influences have later resulted in serious rifts and in the breaking down of the monolithic apostolic church to different fragments under different faith streams. They were organised as a Church in the 8th century, served by foreign bishops, and with a hereditary local chief called Archdeacon "(Arkadiyokon)". In the 16th century the overtures of the Portuguese "padroado" to bring the Saint Thomas Christians into the Latin Rite Catholicism led to the first of several rifts in the community and the establishment of "Pazhayakoor" (Catholic) and "Puthenkoor" factions. Since that time further splits have occurred, and the Saint Thomas Christians are now divided into several denominations, each with their own liturgies and traditions.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: On the southwestern side of the Indian peninsula; between the mountains and the Erythraean Sea (now the Arabian Sea); stretching from Kannur to Kanyakumari was the land called Cherarajyam, which was ruled by local chieftains. Later this land came to be known as the Malabar region and (now Kerala). Muziris (near Kochi) was the important entry port. After the discovery of Hippalus, every year 100 ships arrived here from various parts of the then known world, including Red Sea ports.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: According to the Bible, during the time of Moses and Solomon, the Malabar Coast traded spices and luxury articles with Israel (I Kings 9:26–28, 10:11, 22; 2 Chronicles 8:18, 9:21).


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: Excavations carried out at Pattanam (near Kochi) from 2005 provided evidence that the maritime trade between Kerala and the Mediterranean ports existed even before 500 BC or earlier. It is possible that some of those traders who arrived from the west, including Jews, remained in Kerala.


title: Mar Thoma Syrian Church

text: While Augustus (31 BC- 14 AD) was the Roman emperor and Herod the Great (37–4 BC) was King of Judea, ambassadors from Malabar visited the Emperor according to an account of Nicolaus of Damascus. Certain nasrani writings hypothesize that these ambassadors were the Biblical Magi of Matthew 2:1, as a tradition.