title: Yann Tiersen

text: In 2011, Tiersen collaborated with the Yellow Bird Project (YBP) to design a t-shirt, which was sold to raise money for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The main reason he chose to support MSF, is for their work as one of the three charities helping refugees in Libya at the time. A live video session was also filmed in the MSF London offices to promote the T-shirt and raise awareness for the cause.


title: Neuroscientist

text: A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, neural circuits, and glial cells and especially their behavioral, biological, and psychological aspect in health and disease.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists generally work as researchers within a college, university, government agency, or private industry setting. In research-oriented careers, neuroscientists typically spend their time designing and carrying out scientific experiments that contribute to the understanding of the nervous system and its function. They can engage in basic or applied research. Basic research seeks to add information to our current understanding of the nervous system, whereas applied research seeks to address a specific problem, such as developing a treatment for a neurological disorder. Biomedically-oriented neuroscientists typically engage in applied research. Neuroscientists also have a number of career opportunities outside the realm of research, including careers in industry, science writing, government program management, science advocacy, and education. These individuals most commonly hold doctorate degrees in the sciences, but may also hold a master's degree.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists focus primarily on the study and research of the nervous system. The nervous system is composed of the brain, spinal cord and nerve cells. Studies of the nervous system may focus on the cellular level, as in studies of the ion channels, or instead may focus on a systemic level as in behavioural or cognitive studies. A significant portion of nervous system studies is devoted to understanding the diseases that affect the nervous system, like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Lou Gehrig's. Research commonly occurs in private, government and public research institutions and universities.


title: Neuroscientist

text: The overall median salary for neuroscientists in the United States was $79,940 in May 2014. Neuroscientists are usually full-time employees. Median salaries at common work places in the United States are shown below.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists research and study both the biological and psychological aspects of the nervous system. Once neuroscientists finish their post doctoral programs, 39% go on to perform more doctoral work, while 36% take on faculty jobs. Neuroscientists use a wide range of mathematical methods, computer programs, biochemical approaches and imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography angiography, and diffusion tensor imaging. Imaging techniques allow scientists to observe physical changes in the brain and spinal cord, as signals occur. Neuroscientists can also be part of several different neuroscience where they can publish and read different research topics.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscience is expecting job growth of about 8% from 2014 to 2024, a considerably average job growth rate when compared to other professions. Factors leading to this growth include an aging population, new discoveries leading to new areas of research, and increasing utilization of medications. Government funding for research will also continue to influence the demand for this specialty.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists typically enroll in a four-year undergraduate program and then move on to a PhD program for graduate studies. Once finished with their graduate studies, neuroscientists may continue doing postdoctoral work to gain more lab experience and explore new laboratory methods. In their undergraduate years, neuroscientists typically take physical and life science courses to gain a foundation in the field of research. Typical undergraduate majors include biology, behavioral neuroscience, and cognitive neuroscience.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Many colleges and universities now have PhD training programs in the neurosciences, often with divisions between cognitive, cellular and molecular, computational and systems neuroscience.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscience has a unique perspective in that it can be applied in a broad range of disciplines, and thus the fields neuroscientists work in vary. Neuroscientists may study topics from the large hemispheres of the brain to neurotransmitters and synapses occurring in neurons at a micro-level. Some fields that combine psychology and neurobiology include cognitive neuroscience, and behavioural neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscientists study human consciousness, specifically the brain, and how it can be seen through a lens of biochemical and biophysical processes. Behavioral neuroscience encompasses the whole nervous system, environment and the brain how these areas show us aspects of motivation, learning, and motor skills along with many others. Computational neuroscience uses mathematical models to understand how the brain processes information.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Some of the first writings about the brain come from the Egyptians. In about 3000 BC the first known written description of the brain also indicated that the location of brain injuries may be related to specific symptoms. This document contrasted common theory at the time. Most of the Egyptians' other writings are very spiritual, describing thought and feelings as responsibilities of the heart. This idea was widely accepted and can be found into 17th century Europe.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Plato believed that the brain was the locus of mental processes. However, Aristotle believed instead the heart to be the source of mental processes and that the brain acted as a cooling system for the cardiovascular system.


title: Neuroscientist

text: In the Middle Ages, Galen made a considerable impact on human anatomy. In terms of neuroscience, Galen described the seven cranial nerves' functions along with giving a foundational understanding of the spinal cord. When it came to the brain, he believed that sensory sensation was caused in the middle of the brain, while the motor sensations were produced in the anterior portion of the brain. Galen imparted some ideas on mental health disorders and what caused these disorders to arise. He believed that the cause was backed-up black bile, and that epilepsy was caused by phlegm. Galen's observations on neuroscience were not challenged for many years.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Medieval beliefs generally held true the proposals of Galen, including the attribution of mental processes to specific ventricles in the brain. Functions of regions of the brain were defined based on their texture and composition: memory function was attributed to the posterior ventricle, a harder region of the brain and thus a good place for memory storage.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Andreas Vesalius redirected the study of neuroscience away from the anatomical focus; he considered the attribution of functions based on location to be crude. Pushing away from the superficial proposals made by Galen and medieval beliefs, Vesalius did not believe that studying anatomy would lead to any significant advances in the understanding of thinking and the brain.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Research in neuroscience is expanding and becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Many current research projects involve the integration of computer programs in mapping the human nervous system. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored Human Connectome Project, launched in 2009, hopes to establish a highly detailed map of the human nervous system and its millions of connections. Detailed neural mapping could lead the way for advances in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists are also at work studying epigenetics, the study of how certain factors that we face in our everyday lives not only affect us and our genes but also how they will affect our children and change their genes to adapt to the environments we faced.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists have been working to show how the brain is far more elastic and able to change than we once thought. They have been using work that psychologists previously reported to show how the observations work, and give a model for it.


title: Neuroscientist

text: One recent behavioral study is that of phenylketonuria (PKU), a disorder that heavily damages the brain due to toxic levels of the amino acid phenylalanine. Before neuroscientists had studied this disorder, psychologists did not have a mechanistic understanding as to how this disorder caused high levels of the amino acid and thus treatment was not well understood, and oftentimes, was inadequate. The neuroscientists that studied this disorder used the previous observations of psychologists to propose a mechanistic model that gave a better understanding of the disorder at the molecular level. This in turn led to better understanding of the disorder as a whole and greatly changed treatment that led to better lives for patients with the disorder.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Another recent study was that of mirror neurons, neurons that fire when mimicking or observing another animal or person that is making some sort of expression, movement, or gesture. This study was again one where neuroscientists used the observations of psychologists to create a model for how the observation worked. The initial observation was that newborn infants mimicked facial expressions that were expressed to them. Scientists were not certain that newborn infants were developed enough to have complex neurons that allowed them to mimic different people and there was something else that allowed them to mimic expressions. Neuroscientists then provided a model for what was occurring and concluded that infants did in fact have these neurons that fired when watching and mimicking facial expressions.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Neuroscientists have also studied the effects of "nurture" on the developing brain. Saul Schanberg and other neuroscientists did a study on how important nurturing touch is to the developing brains in rats. They found that the rats who were deprived of nurture from the mother for just one hour had reduced functions in processes like DNA synthesis and hormone secretion.


title: Neuroscientist

text: Michael Meaney and his colleagues found that the offspring of mother rats who provided significant nurture and attention tended to show less fear, responded more positively to stress, and functioned at higher levels and for longer times when fully mature. They also found that the rats who were given much attention as adolescents also gave their offspring the same amount of attention and thus showed that rats raised their offspring similar to how they were raised. These studies were also seen on a microscopic level where different genes were expressed for the rats that were given high amounts of nurture and those same genes were not expressed in the rats who received less attention.


title: Neuroscientist

text: The effects of nurture and touch were not only studied in rats, but also in newborn humans. Many neuroscientists have performed studies where the importance of touch is shown in newborn humans. The same results that were shown in rats, also held true for humans. Babies that received less touch and nurture developed slower than babies that received a lot of attention and nurture. Stress levels were also lower in babies that were nurtured regularly and cognitive development was also higher due to increased touch. Human offspring, much like rat offspring, thrive off of nurture, as shown by the various studies of neuroscientists.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Adam James Armstrong (born 10 February 1997) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Premier League club Southampton.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: A lifelong Newcastle fan, Armstrong joined the club at the age of nine and progressed through the ranks, scoring five times in his first five Professional Development League matches.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Armstrong was named among Newcastle's substitutes for the first time on 28 January 2014 for a Premier League game against Norwich City, remaining unused in the goalless draw at Carrow Road. On 15 March, Armstrong made his debut as an 86th-minute substitute for Luuk de Jong in a league defeat to Fulham, making him the second youngest player to play for Newcastle in the Premier League after Kazenga LuaLua.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 24 September 2014, Armstrong started his first game for Newcastle in a League Cup third round match against Crystal Palace. Newcastle won the match 3–2 in extra time with Armstrong providing assists for two of Newcastle's goals. Armstrong received his first Premier League start on 26 December in a 3–1 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 28 July 2015, Armstrong joined Coventry City on a youth loan until 16 January 2016. He made his debut on 8 August, scoring both goals in a 2–0 win over Wigan Athletic at the Ricoh Arena in the first game of the new League One season. A week later, he netted another brace in a 4–0 victory away to Millwall, the first goal coming from 35 yards out. Former Coventry and Newcastle legend Micky Quinn challenged him to beat his record of ten goals in his first six games in 1992 following his own move from the North East to the West Midlands. After scoring again in his next match on 18 August in a 3–2 win against Crewe Alexandra, Armstrong won the League One Player of the Month award for August with five goals in his first five games.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 19 September, Armstrong scored a sixth goal to give Coventry victory against Chesterfield, and on 3 October he netted a third brace of the campaign in a 3–0 win over Shrewsbury Town. He recorded consecutive braces on 31 October and 3 November, in home victories over Peterborough United and Barnsley, the former seeing his team come from 1–2 behind with ten minutes to go. Armstrong scored a first senior hat-trick on 2 January 2016, in a 5–0 win at Crewe Alexandra.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 14 January 2016, Armstrong's loan was extended until the end of the season. He finished the season scoring 20 goals in his 40 Coventry appearances. In April, he was listed in the PFA Team of the Year for League One.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Despite making two appearances for Newcastle at the start of the 2016–17 season, on 30 August, Armstrong joined fellow Championship side Barnsley on an initial six-month loan deal, having signed a new four-year deal at St James' Park before his departure, after Newcastle manager Rafael Benítez expressed his desire for Armstrong to gain more experience at Championship level. He made his debut for the "Tykes" on 10 September as a substitute in place of Ryan Kent during a 2–1 victory at Preston North End, scoring the winning goal with a left-footed curling effort after outpacing and losing his marker with a backheel. In January 2017, it was announced that Armstrong had extended his loan spell at the club until the end of the 2016–17 season.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 17 July 2017, Armstrong joined Championship side Bolton Wanderers until the following January. He made his debut for the club on 6 August, coming on as a late substitute for Stephen Darby in Bolton's 3–2 home defeat to Leeds United before making his first start in the EFL Cup at Crewe Alexandra, scoring in a 2–1 win. Armstrong was recalled from his loan spell on 4 January 2018, having made 23 appearances in all competitions.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 9 January 2018, Armstrong joined EFL League One side Blackburn Rovers on loan until the end of the season.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Armstrong signed for Blackburn Rovers permanently on 6 August 2018 on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £1.75 million. Throughout the 2020–21 season, he scored three hat-tricks, coming against Wycombe Wanderers, Huddersfield Town and Birmingham City.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Armstrong scored 64 League and Cup goal in his 160 appearances for Rovers, including 29 goals in his final season with them.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 10 August 2021, Armstrong joined Premier League side Southampton on a four-year-deal for an undisclosed fee, reported to be in the region of £15 million. He scored on his debut for the club, a 3–1 defeat away to Everton on the opening day of the Premier League season.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Armstrong has represented England at under-16 and under-17 levels. He made his debut for the under-16 side on 27 September 2012, in a 5–0 win against Northern Ireland in the Victory Shield, as England retained the tournament title for the twelfth year in a row following wins against Wales, and Scotland. He scored his first goal on 13 February 2013, in a friendly against Germany after replacing Izzy Brown in the second half. He was named in the England squad to take part in the 2013 Montaigu Tournament in France, with England drawn against Germany, Netherlands and Chile. England began the tournament with a 1–1 draw against the Netherlands, and beat Chile 3–1 in the second game with goals from Patrick Roberts and Giorgio Rasulo. A 1–1 draw with Germany in the final game meant that England finished as group winners and faced Turkey in the final. Armstrong scored in the final which England lost on penalties after the game had finished 2–2.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: This was to be his last appearance for the under-16 team, as he moved up to the under-17 side, scoring on his debut in a 1–0 win against Turkey in the FA International Tournament held at St George's Park National Football Centre in Burton upon Trent. He was named in the squad for the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying round matches against Armenia, Gibraltar and Republic of Ireland, scoring twice in each of the three games, as England won the group scoring 18 goals without conceding a single goal. England were subsequently drawn against group hosts Czech Republic, Albania and Italy in the elite round. Armstrong played in the first two games, both 1–0 wins against the Czech Republic and Albania. The results left England needing only a draw against Italy in the final game to qualify for the tournament, and Armstrong opened the scoring as England won 2–1 and sealed qualification to the final tournament, held in Malta. Armstrong was called up to England's victorious 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship squad and scored twice during the competition before missing the final through injury.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 26 August 2014, Armstrong received his first call-up to the under-18 team. He marked his debut with two goals in a friendly match against the Netherlands on 3 September. He followed this up with goals in victories against Poland and Switzerland to take his tally to four goals in his first four caps. In the second game against the Swiss, Armstrong scored twice as England won 6–1.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: On 8 October 2015, Armstrong netted for England's under-19 team away to Macedonia. On 9 November 2016, now playing at U20 level, Armstrong scored a hat trick against Nigeria in South Korea.


title: Adam Armstrong (footballer)

text: Armstrong was selected for the England under-20 team in the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He made four appearances in the tournament, scoring a goal in the opening game against Argentina. He was an unused substitute in the final between England and Venezuela that England won 1–0, England's first win in a global tournament since their World Cup victory of 1966.


title: Avant-pop

text: Avant-pop is popular music that is experimental, new, and distinct from previous styles while retaining an immediate accessibility for the listener. The term implies a combination of avant-garde sensibilities with existing elements from popular music in the service of novel or idiosyncratic artistic visions.


title: Avant-pop

text: "Avant-pop" has been used to label music which balances experimental or avant-garde approaches with stylistic elements from popular music, and which probes mainstream conventions of structure or form. Writer Tejumola Olaniyan describes "avant-pop music" as transgressing "the boundaries of established styles, the meanings those styles reference, and the social norms they support or imply." Music writer Sean Albiez describes "avant-pop" as identifying idiosyncratic artists working in "a liminal space between contemporary classical music and the many popular music genres that developed in the second half of the twentieth century." He noted avant-pop's basis in experimentalism, as well its postmodern and non-hierarchical incorporation of varied genres such as pop, electronica, rock, classical, and jazz.


title: Avant-pop

text: Paul Grimstad of "The Brooklyn Rail" writes that avant-pop is music that "re-sequences" the elements of song structure "so that (a) none of the charm of the tune is lost, but (b) this very accessibility leads one to bump into weirder elements welded into the design." The Tribeca New Music Festival defines "avant-pop" as "music that draws its energy from both popular music and classical forms." The term has elsewhere been used by literary critic Larry McCaffery to describe "the most radical, subversive literary talents of the postmodern new wave."


title: Avant-pop

text: In the 1960s, as popular music began to gain cultural importance and question its status as commercial entertainment, musicians began to look to the post-war avant-garde for inspiration. In 1959, music producer Joe Meek recorded "I Hear a New World" (1960), which "Tiny Mix Tapes" Jonathan Patrick calls a "seminal moment in both electronic music and avant-pop history [...] a collection of dreamy pop vignettes, adorned with dubby echoes and tape-warped sonic tendrils" which would be largely ignored at the time. Other early avant-pop productions included the Beatles's 1966 song "Tomorrow Never Knows", which incorporated techniques from musique concrète, avant-garde composition, Indian music, and electro-acoustic sound manipulation into a 3-minute pop format, and the Velvet Underground's integration of La Monte Young's minimalist and drone music ideas, beat poetry, and 1960s pop art.


title: Avant-pop

text: In late 1960s Germany, an experimental avant-pop scene dubbed "krautrock" saw influential artists such as Kraftwerk, Can, and Tangerine Dream draw inspiration from free jazz, German academic music, and Anglo-American pop-rock. According to "The Quietus" David McNamee, the 1968 album "An Electric Storm", recorded by the electronic music group White Noise (featuring members from the U.K.’s BBC Radiophonic Workshop), is an "undisputed masterpiece of early avant-pop". In the 1970s, progressive rock and post-punk music would see new avant-pop fusions, including the work of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Henry Cow, This Heat, and the Pop Group. More contemporary avant-pop artists have included David Sylvian, Scott Walker, and Björk, whose vocal experimentation and innovative modes of expression have seen them move beyond norms of commercial pop music.


title: Avant-pop

text: Others who have been credited as avant-pop's pioneers include the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed, singer Kate Bush, performance artist Laurie Anderson, art pop musician Spookey Ruben, and Black Dice's Eric Copeland. As of 2017, contemporary artists working in avant-pop areas include Julia Holter, Holly Herndon and Oneohtrix Point Never.


title: Top Chef: All-Stars L.A.

text: Top Chef: All-Stars L.A. is the seventeenth season of the American reality television series "Top Chef". The season was first announced on November 16, 2019, during a "Top Chef"-themed panel at Bravo's inaugural fan convention, BravoCon. The competition was filmed in Los Angeles, California, the same setting as the second season. The season finale took place in Italy, marking the first time the show has traveled to Europe. As with the previous all-stars edition, the cast of "All-Stars L.A." was composed entirely of returning contestants. Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio returned to judge, along with Gail Simmons, following her absence from the previous season. Along with the return of "Last Chance Kitchen", a new web series titled "What Would Tom Do?" debuted, showcasing Colicchio's approach to the contestants' various challenges. The winner received .


title: Top Chef: All-Stars L.A.

text: The season premiered on March 19, 2020, and concluded on June 18, 2020. In the season finale, "" finalist Melissa King was declared the winner over "" and "Top Chef Masters" runner-up Bryan Voltaggio, and "" and "" contestant Stephanie Cmar. King was also voted Fan Favorite.


title: Zwolle

text: Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is on the border with Gelderland, which follows the river IJssel, and is located about 50 km north east of Utrecht and 85 km south west of Groningen.


title: Zwolle

text: Archaeological findings indicate that the area surrounding Zwolle has been inhabited for a long time. A woodhenge that was found in the Zwolle-Zuid suburb in 1993 was dated to the Bronze Age period. During the Roman era, the area was inhabited by Salian Franks.


title: Zwolle

text: The modern city was founded around 800 CE by Frisian merchants and troops of Charlemagne. Previous spellings of its name include the identically pronounced "Suolle", which means "hill" (cf. the English cognate verb "to swell"). This refers to an incline in the landscape between the four rivers surrounding the city, IJssel, Vecht, Aa and Zwarte Water. The hill was the only piece of land that would remain dry during the frequent floodings of the rivers. Zwolle was established on that incline.


title: Zwolle

text: A document mentions the existence of a parish church dedicated to St Michael. That church, the Grote of Sint Michaëlskerk (St. Michael's church), was renovated in the first half of the 15th century and exists to this day. The church contains a richly carved pulpit, the work of Adam Straes van Weilborch (about 1620), some good carving and an exquisite organ (1721).


title: Zwolle

text: On 31 August 1230, the bishop of Utrecht granted Zwolle city rights. Zwolle became a member of the Hanseatic league in 1294, and in 1361 joined the war between the Hanseatic League and Valdemar IV of Denmark. In the 1370 Treaty of Stralsund that ended the war, Zwolle was awarded a "vitte", a trade colony, in Scania, then part of Denmark. Zwolle's golden age came in the 15th century. Between 1402 and 1450, the city's Gross Regional Product multiplied by about six.


title: Zwolle

text: In July 1324 and October 1361, regional noblemen set fire to Zwolle. In the 1324 fire, only nine buildings escaped the flames.


title: Zwolle

text: Zwolle was also, with Deventer, one of the centers of the Brethren of the Common Life, a monastic movement. from Zwolle, on a slight eminence called the Agnietenberg, (hill of St Agnes), once stood the Augustinian convent in which Thomas à Kempis spent the greatest part of his life and died (in 1471).


title: Zwolle

text: At least as early as 1911, Zwolle had a considerable trade by river, a large fish market, and the most important cattle market in the Netherlands after Rotterdam. The more important industries comprised cotton manufactures, iron works, boat-building, dyeing and bleaching, tanning, rope-making, and salt-making.


title: Zwolle

text: In World War II, Zwolle was single-handedly liberated from the Germans by French-Canadian soldier Léo Major. He was made an honorary citizen of Zwolle in 2005 and a street is named after him, Leo Majorlaan.


title: Zwolle

text: In 2004, Zwolle's De Librije restaurant was honored with 3 stars by Michelin Guide; as of 2018, it is one of only three restaurants so honored in the entire country.


title: Zwolle

text: Citizens of Zwolle are colloquially known as "Blauwvingers" (Bluefingers). This dates back to 1682, when the St Michael's church tower collapsed. The authorities were strapped for cash and saw no option but to sell the church bells to neighbouring city Kampen. To make sure that Kampen would not make too much profit from the deal, the local authorities asked a high price for the church bells. Kampen accepted, yet after the arrival of the bells it became clear, they were too damaged to be played. In revenge, Kampen paid in copper coins of four "duiten" (the equivalent of two-and-a-half cents). Zwolle distrusted Kampen and wanted to be sure they truly paid the entire price. After the rigorous counting of this vast amount of money, their fingers had turned blue from the counting of money.


title: Zwolle

text: Besides the Grote of Sint Michaëlskerk (St. Michael's church), the latter which houses a majestic Baroque organ built by Arp Schnitger, there are several other historic monuments in Zwolle. The Roman Catholic "Onze Lieve Vrouwe ten Hemelopneming"-basilica (Our Lady of the Assumption) dates back to 1399. The church tower, called "Peperbus" (pepperpot), is one of the tallest and most famous church towers in the Netherlands. The modernized town hall was originally built in 1448.


title: Zwolle

text: Mention should also be made of the "Sassenpoort" (one of the old city gates), the city walls, the "Mosterdmakerstoren" ("mustard makers' tower")(the complex where local mustard used to be made), a guild-house (1571), the former provincial government offices, a Dominican monastery, and on the Melkmarkt, two museums; the of antiquities and natural history, and the Vrouwenhuis. Museum de Fundatie, the fine art museum of the province of Overijssel, is hosted in the former Justice Hall on Blijmarkt Square.


title: Zwolle

text: In the western part of the city, west of the railway station, there is a quarter of Art Nouveau buildings, concentrated mostly on Koningin Wilhelminastraat, Prinses Julianastraat, and Prins Hendrikstraat. These three-store living houses were built in 1900s by various Dutch architects. Eleven of the buildings are protected by the Dutch government (rijksmonumenten).


title: Zwolle

text: The "Broerenkerk" church was part of the Dominican monastery founded in 1465. The monastery was closed in 1580 and the monks were expelled. From 1640 until 1982 the church was used for Protestant services. After a restoration in 1983–1988 it has been used for cultural events and it is now a bookstore.


title: Zwolle

text: Zwolle is a hub in the national highway network, and gateway to northern Netherlands. This is reflected in the high traffic volumes in and around the city. The A28 serves Zwolle with 4 exits, and runs from Utrecht to Groningen. It is being widened to 8 lanes across the IJssel River and 6 lanes from Zwolle to Meppel in 2010 and 2011. The motorway initially opened between 1964 and 1970. Another motorway, the A50, interchanges with A28 just west of the city, offering a route for southbound traffic to Apeldoorn and Eindhoven.


title: Zwolle

text: The N35 highway starts in Zwolle, where it forms the eastern section of the ring road of Zwolle, it runs as a non-motorway to Almelo and continues to Enschede as A35 motorway. The ringroad is mainly a 4-lane road, with numerous traffic lights. It forms a full ring, and also exists out of the N337 highway that runs to Deventer. Other sections of the ring road are not numbered. Parts of the ring road were widened to six lanes in 2010. Other numbered highways running from Zwolle are N331 to Hasselt, N758 to Nieuwleusen, N340 to Ommen and N764 to Kampen.


title: Zwolle

text: Due to nearby rivers, there are several major bridges in and around Zwolle. The most important bridge is the IJssel Bridge where the A28 motorway runs across. It was completed in 1970 and carries over 125.000 vehicles per day. Adjacent to this bridge is the older IJssel Bridge, which opened in 1930 and was destroyed twice during World War II. A third IJssel Bridge is the railway bridge (called Hanze boog) which carries the railway line from Zwolle to Amersfoort, and from 2012, to Lelystad. There are several bridges across the Zwarte Water River, including two 4-lane bridges, a 2-lane bridge, and a bus/bicycle bridge. There is also a bridge across the Vecht, which carries A28 motorway. Another local bridge is adjacent to this bridge. A third bridge carries rail traffic to Leeuwarden and Groningen. Numerous local bridges exist around the historic city center.


title: Zwolle

text: The first train in Zwolle arrived on 6 June 1864. Today the city has rail connections in eight directions (viz. Kampen, Leeuwarden, Groningen, Emmen, Enschede, Arnhem/Nijmegen, Lelystad/Amsterdam, and Amersfoort).


title: Zwolle

text: The rail connection with Amsterdam via Lelystad – the Hanzelijn – is operational since December 2012.


title: Zwolle

text: Zwolle is located on or near three rivers (Zwarte Water, Vecht, and IJssel), several canals (the now disused Willemsvaart, Nieuwe Vecht and Overijssels Kanaal and the modern Zwolle-IJssel Kanaal). There are some water-related industries in Zwolle, mainly in the Voorst industrial area.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The 15 puzzle (also called Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, Game of Fifteen, Mystic Square and many others) is a sliding puzzle having 15 square tiles numbered 1–15 in a frame that is 4 tiles high and 4 tiles wide, leaving one unoccupied tile position. Tiles in the same row or column of the open position can be moved by sliding them horizontally or vertically, respectively. The goal of the puzzle is to place the tiles in numerical order.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Named for the number of tiles in the frame, the 15 puzzle may also be called a 16 puzzle, alluding to its total tile capacity. Similar names are used for different sized variants of the 15 puzzle, such as the 8 puzzle which has 8 tiles in a 3×3 frame.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The "n" puzzle is a classical problem for modelling algorithms involving heuristics. Commonly used heuristics for this problem include counting the number of misplaced tiles and finding the sum of the taxicab distances between each block and its position in the goal configuration. Note that both are "admissible". That is, they never overestimate the number of moves left, which ensures optimality for certain search algorithms such as A*.


title: 15 puzzle

text: used a parity argument to show that half of the starting positions for the "n" puzzle are impossible to resolve, no matter how many moves are made. This is done by considering a function of the tile configuration that is invariant under any valid move, and then using this to partition the space of all possible labeled states into two equivalence classes of reachable and unreachable states.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The invariant is the parity of the permutation of all 16 squares plus the parity of the taxicab distance (number of rows plus number of columns) of the empty square from the lower right corner. This is an invariant because each move changes both the parity of the permutation and the parity of the taxicab distance. In particular, if the empty square is in the lower right corner then the puzzle is solvable if and only if the permutation of the remaining pieces is even.


title: 15 puzzle

text: For larger versions of the "n" puzzle, finding a solution is easy, but the problem of finding the "shortest" solution is NP-hard. It is also NP-hard to approximate the fewest slides within an additive constant, but there is a polynomial-time constant-factor approximation. For the 15 puzzle, lengths of optimal solutions range from 0 to 80 single-tile moves (there are 17 configurations requiring 80 moves) or 43 multi-tile moves; the 8 puzzle always can be solved in no more than 31 single-tile moves or 24 multi-tile moves (integer sequence A087725). The multi-tile metric counts subsequent moves of the empty tile in the same direction as one.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The number of possible positions of the 24 puzzle is ≈ which is too many to calculate God's number. In 2011, lower bounds of 152 single-tile moves or 41 multi-tile moves had been established, as well as upper bounds of 208 single-tile moves or 109 multi-tile moves. In 2016, the upper bound was improved to 205 single-tile moves.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The transformations of the fifteen puzzle form a groupoid (not a group, as not all moves can be composed); this groupoid acts on configurations.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Because the combinations of the 15 puzzle can be generated by 3-cycles, it can be proved that the 15 puzzle can be represented by the alternating group formula_1. In fact, any formula_2 sliding puzzle with square tiles of equal size can be represented by formula_3.


title: 15 puzzle

text: In an alternate view of the problem, we can consider the invariant to be the sum of the parity of the number of inversions in the current order of the 15 numbered pieces and the parity of the difference in the row number of the empty square from the row number of the last row. (Let's call it row distance from the last row.) This is an invariant because each column move, when we move a piece within the same column, changes both the parity of the number of inversions (by changing the number of inversions by ±1, ±3) and the parity of the row distance from the last row (changing row distance by ±1); and each row move, when we move a piece within the same row, does not change either of the two parities. Now if we look at the solved state of the puzzle, this sum is even. Hence it is easy to prove by induction that any state of the puzzle for which the above sum is odd cannot be solvable. In particular, if the empty square is in the lower right corner (even anywhere in the last row) then the puzzle is solvable if and only if the number of inversions of the numbered pieces is even.


title: 15 puzzle

text: The puzzle was "invented" by Noyes Palmer Chapman, a postmaster in Canastota, New York, who is said to have shown friends, as early as 1874, a precursor puzzle consisting of 16 numbered blocks that were to be put together in rows of four, each summing to 34 (see magic square). Copies of the improved Fifteen Puzzle made their way to Syracuse, New York, by way of Noyes' son, Frank, and from there, via sundry connections, to Watch Hill, Rhode Island, and finally to Hartford (Connecticut), where students in the American School for the Deaf started manufacturing the puzzle and, by December 1879, selling them both locally and in Boston, Massachusetts. Shown one of these, Matthias Rice, who ran a fancy woodworking business in Boston, started manufacturing the puzzle sometime in December 1879 and convinced a "Yankee Notions" fancy goods dealer to sell them under the name of "Gem Puzzle". In late January 1880, Charles Pevey, a dentist in Worcester, Massachusetts, garnered some attention by offering a cash reward for a solution to the Fifteen Puzzle.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Noyes Chapman had applied for a patent on his "Block Solitaire Puzzle" on February 21, 1880. However, that patent was rejected, likely because it was not sufficiently different from the August 20, 1878 "Puzzle-Blocks" patent (US 207124) granted to Ernest U. Kinsey.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Sam Loyd claimed from 1891 until his death in 1911 that he had invented the puzzle. However, Loyd had nothing to do with the invention or initial popularity of the puzzle, and in any case, the craze was in 1880, not the early 1870s. Loyd's first article about the puzzle was published in 1886, and it was not until 1891 that he first claimed to be the inventor.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Some later interest was fuelled by Loyd's offer of a $1,000 prize to anyone who could provide a solution for achieving a particular combination specified by Loyd, namely reversing the 14 and 15, which Loyd called the 14-15 puzzle. This is impossible, as had been shown over a decade earlier by , because it requires a transformation from an even to an odd permutation.


title: 15 puzzle

text: Chess world champion Bobby Fischer was an expert at solving the 15-Puzzle. He had been timed to be able to solve it within 25 seconds; Fischer demonstrated this on November 8, 1972, on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson".


title: HMS Glorious

text: HMS "Glorious" was the second of the three s built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord, Lord Fisher, they were relatively lightly armed and armoured. "Glorious" was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" was paid off after the war, but was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the late 1920s. She could carry 30 per cent more aircraft than her half-sister which had a similar tonnage. After re-commissioning in 1930, she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War in 1939, "Glorious" spent the rest of the year unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway in June, the ship was sunk by the German battleships and in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives.


title: HMS Glorious

text: During the First World War, Admiral Fisher was prevented from ordering an improved version of the preceding s by a wartime restriction that banned construction of ships larger than light cruisers. To obtain ships suitable for traditional battlecruiser roles, such as scouting for fleets and hunting enemy raiders, he settled on a design with the minimal armour of a light cruiser and the armament of a battlecruiser. He justified their existence by claiming he needed fast, shallow-draught ships for his Baltic Project, a plan to invade Germany via its Baltic coast.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" had an overall length of , a beam of , and a draught of at deep load. She displaced at load and at deep load. "Glorious" and her sisters were the first large warships in the Royal Navy to have geared steam turbines. The Parsons turbines were powered by eighteen Yarrow boilers. During the ship's abbreviated sea trials, she reached . The ship was designed to normally carry of fuel oil, but could carry a maximum of . At full capacity, she could steam for an estimated at .


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" carried four BL 15-inch (381 mm) Mark I guns in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore ('A') and aft ('Y'). Her secondary armament was 18 BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mark IX guns mounted in six triple mounts. These mounts had the three breeches too close together and the 23 loaders tended to interfere with one another. This negated the mount's intended high rate of fire against torpedo boats and other smaller craft. A pair of QF 3-inch (76 mm) 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns were fitted abreast of the mainmast on "Glorious". She mounted two submerged tubes for 21-inch torpedoes and 10 torpedoes were carried.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious"' keel was laid down on 1 May 1915 by Harland and Wolff at their Belfast shipyard. She was launched on 20 April 1916 and completed on 14 October at a cost of £1,967,223. During her sea trials the following month, her sister "Courageous" sustained structural damage while running at full speed in a rough head sea and had the damaged areas stiffened shortly afterwards to prevent a recurrence. "Glorious" did not suffer similar damage and did not receive her stiffening until 1918. Upon commissioning, "Courageous" served with the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet. After most of the 1st Cruiser Squadron was sunk at the Battle of Jutland, the squadron was re-formed with "Courageous" and "Glorious". "Glorious" received six twin-tube torpedo mounts in mid-1917: one mount on each side of the mainmast on the upper deck and two mounts on each side of 'Y' turret on the quarterdeck.


title: HMS Glorious

text: On 16 October 1917 the Admiralty received word of German ship movements, possibly indicating some sort of raid. Admiral Beatty, commander of the Grand Fleet, ordered most of his light cruisers and destroyers to sea in an effort to locate the enemy ships. "Courageous" and "Glorious" were not initially ordered to sea, but were sent to reinforce the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron patrolling the central part of the North Sea later that day. Two German light cruisers slipped through the gaps in the British patrols and destroyed a convoy bound for Norway during the morning of 17 October, but the British warships received no word of the engagement until that afternoon. The 1st Cruiser Squadron was ordered to intercept, but was unsuccessful as the German cruisers were faster than expected.


title: HMS Glorious

text: Throughout 1917 the Admiralty was becoming more concerned about German efforts to sweep paths through the British-laid minefields intended to restrict the actions of the High Seas Fleet and German submarines. A preliminary raid on German minesweeping forces on 31 October by light forces destroyed 10 small ships and the Admiralty decided on a larger operation to destroy the minesweepers and their light cruiser escorts. Based on intelligence reports, the Admiralty allocated the 1st Cruiser Squadron on 17 November 1917, with cover provided by the reinforced 1st Battlecruiser Squadron and distant cover by the battleships of the 1st Battle Squadron.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The German ships, four light cruisers of II Scouting Force, eight destroyers, three divisions of minesweepers, eight "sperrbrecher" (cork-filled trawlers) and two trawlers to mark the swept route, were spotted at 7:30 am, silhouetted by the rising sun. "Courageous" and the light cruiser opened fire with their forward guns seven minutes later. The Germans responded by laying a smoke screen and this made spotting targets very difficult. The British continued in pursuit, but lost track of most of the smaller ships in the smoke and concentrated fire on the light cruisers as opportunity permitted. One 15-inch shell hit a gun shield of , but it did not affect her speed. At 8:33 the left-hand gun in "Glorious"s forward turret was wrecked when a shell detonated inside the gun barrel. At 9:30 the 1st Cruiser Squadron broke off their pursuit to avoid a minefield marked on their maps. The ships turned south, playing no further role in the battle. "Glorious" required five days of repairs to fix damage caused by premature detonation and her own muzzle blast. She fired 57 15-inch and 213 four-inch shells during the engagement.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" received flying-off platforms on top of her turrets in 1918. A Sopwith Camel was carried on the rear turret and a Sopwith 1½ Strutter on the forward turret. On 5 November 1918, "Glorious" was anchored off Burntisland in the Firth of Forth together with the seaplane tender and the battleship when a sudden Force 10 squall caused "Campania" to drag her anchor and collide first with "Royal Oak" and then with "Glorious". Both "Royal Oak" and "Glorious" suffered only minor damage, but "Campania" was holed by her collision with "Royal Oak". "Campania"′s engine rooms flooded, and she settled by the stern and sank five hours later without loss of life.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet on 21 November 1918. She was placed in reserve at Rosyth, Scotland, on 1 February 1919 and served as a turret drill ship, being also flagship of the rear-admiral commanding the Devonport Reserve between 1921 and 1922.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limited the amount of capital ship tonnage and the Royal Navy was forced to scrap many of its older battleships and battlecruisers. However up to of existing ships could be converted into aircraft carriers, for which the "Courageous"-class ships' large hulls and high speeds made them ideal candidates. "Glorious" began her conversion at Rosyth in 1924, and was towed to Devonport where she was completed on 24 February 1930. During the ship's post-conversion sea trials, she reached . Her 15-inch turrets were placed into storage and later reused during the Second World War for , the world's last battleship to be built.


title: HMS Glorious

text: Her new design improved on her half-sister which lacked an island and a conventional funnel. All superstructure, guns, torpedo tubes, and fittings down to the main deck were removed. A two-storey hangar, each level high and long, was built on top of the remaining hull; the upper hangar level opened on to a short flight deck, below and forward of the main flight deck. The lower flying-off deck improved launch and recovery cycle flexibility until heavier fighters requiring longer takeoff rolls made the lower deck obsolete in the 1930s. Two lifts were installed fore and aft in the flight deck. An island with the bridge, flying-control station, and funnel was added on the starboard side as islands had been found not to contribute significantly to turbulence. By 1939 the ship could carry of petrol for her aircraft.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" received a dual-purpose armament of sixteen QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mark VIII guns in single mounts. One mount was on each side of the lower flight deck and a pair was on the quarterdeck. The remaining twelve mounts were distributed along the sides of the ship. During her 1935 refit, the ship received three octuple QF two-pounder (40 mm) "pom-pom" mounts, one on each side of the flying-off deck, forward of the 4.7-inch guns, and one behind the island on the flight deck. She also received a single quadruple mount for water-cooled Vickers AA machineguns.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" recommissioned on 24 February 1930 for service with the Mediterranean Fleet, but was attached to the Home Fleet from March to June 1930. She relieved "Courageous" in the Mediterranean Fleet in June 1930 and remained there until October 1939. In a fog on 1 April 1931 "Glorious" rammed the French ocean liner amidships while steaming at . The impact crumpled of the flying-off deck and killed 1 seaman aboard "Glorious" and 24 passengers and crew aboard "Florida". "Glorious" was forced to put into Gibraltar to temporary repairs. She had to sail to Malta for permanent repairs which lasted until September 1931. Sometime in the early 1930s, transverse arresting gear was installed. She was refitted at Devonport from July 1934 to July 1935 where she received two hydraulic accelerators (catapults) on her upper flight deck, which was also extended to the rear, her quarterdeck was raised one deck and she received her multiple "pom-pom" mounts. "Glorious" participated in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 20 May 1937 for King George VI before returning to the Mediterranean.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" could carry up to 48 aircraft; when first recommissioned, she carried Fairey Flycatcher fighters, Blackburn Dart and Blackburn Ripon torpedo bombers, and Fairey IIIF reconnaissance planes of the Fleet Air Arm. From 1933 until "Glorious" returned to the United Kingdom in April 1940, aside from a period when refitting in the mid-1930s, she carried 802 Squadron which flew a mixture of nine Hawker Nimrod and three Hawker Osprey fighters, until re-equipping with a dozen Gloster Sea Gladiators in May 1939. 812 and 823 Squadrons were embarked for reconnaissance and anti-ship attack missions. They flew the Blackburn Ripon, the Blackburn Baffin and the Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers and as well as Fairey IIIF and Fairey Seal reconnaissance aircraft. When "Glorious" recommissioned after her refit in 1935, 825 Squadron was embarked, initially with Fairey IIIFs, but the squadron converted to Fairey Swordfish in May 1936.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" served briefly with the Mediterranean Fleet for a time after the Second World War broke out. In October 1939, she moved through the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean where she became part of Force J which was organised to hunt for the in the Indian Ocean. It was not successful and "Glorious" remained in the Indian Ocean until December when she returned to the Mediterranean.


title: HMS Glorious

text: She was recalled to the Home Fleet in April 1940 to provide air cover for British forces landing in Norway. Eighteen Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF were flown aboard to be transferred to Norwegian airbases. Eleven Blackburn Skuas of 803 Squadron, plus eighteen Sea Gladiators from 802 and 804 Squadrons were also embarked. "Glorious" and arrived off central Norway on 24 April where 263 Squadron was flown off and their own aircraft attacked targets in and south of Trondheim before "Glorious" had to return to Scapa Flow late on 27 April to refuel and embark new aircraft. "Glorious"s Sea Gladiators provided air cover for the two carriers. They damaged one Heinkel He 111 bomber on a reconnaissance mission. Before departing she transferred four serviceable Skuas to "Ark Royal". She returned on 1 May, but had been unable to load many new aircraft because of poor weather. Only a dozen Swordfish of 823 Squadron, three Skuas and one Blackburn Roc managed to be flown aboard. The task force was under heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe all day and was withdrawn that evening. One Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber was shot down after it dropped its bomb by the Sea Gladiators on patrol.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" returned on 18 May with six Supermarine Walrus amphibious flying boats of 701 Squadron and 18 Hawker Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron RAF. The latter aircraft had been loaded aboard by crane. The Walruses were quickly flown off to Harstad, but the airfield at Skånland was not yet ready for the Hurricanes and they were still aboard when "Glorious" returned to Scapa on 21 May. "Glorious" came back to the Narvik area on 26 May and the Hurricanes were quickly flown off.


title: HMS Glorious

text: Even this success proved ephemeral and British forces were ordered to withdraw a few days later. The evacuation (Operation Alphabet) began in the north on the night of 3/4 June and "Glorious" arrived off the coast on 2 June to provide support, although she only carried nine Sea Gladiators of 802 and six Swordfish from 823 Squadrons for self-defence as it was hoped to evacuate the RAF fighters if at all possible. Ten Gladiators of 263 Squadron were flown aboard during the afternoon of 7 June and the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron were landed without significant problems in the early evening despite having a much higher landing speed than the biplanes. These had been flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation after the pilots discovered that a sandbag carried in the rear of the Hurricane allowed full brakes to be applied immediately on landing. This was the first time that high-performance monoplanes without tailhooks had landed on an aircraft carrier.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The commanding officer of "Glorious", Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes, was a former submariner who had been executive officer of "Courageous" for 10 months. He was granted permission to proceed independently to Scapa Flow in the early hours of 8 June to hold a court-martial of his Commander (Air), J. B. Heath, who had refused an order to carry out an attack on shore targets on the grounds that the targets were at best ill-defined and his aircraft were unsuited to the task. Heath had been left behind in Scapa to await trial.


title: HMS Glorious

text: On the return journey, nine Gloster Gladiators from 263 Squadron had landed on Glorious after abandoning their base at Bardufoss. Whilst in the Norwegian Sea the funnel smoke from "Glorious" and her two escorting destroyers, and , was spotted by the German battleships and (part of Operation Juno) at about 15:46.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The British spotted the German ships shortly after 16:00 and "Ardent" was dispatched to investigate. "Glorious" did not alter course or increase speed. Five Swordfish were ordered to the flight deck and Action Stations were ordered 16:20. No combat air patrol was being flown, no aircraft were ready on the deck for quick take-off and there was no lookout in "Glorious"s crow's nest. "Scharnhorst" opened fire on "Ardent" at 16:27 at a range of , causing the destroyer to withdraw, firing torpedoes and making a smoke screen. "Ardent" scored one hit with her 4.7-inch guns on "Scharnhorst" but was hit several times by the German ships' secondary armament and sank at 17:25.


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Scharnhorst" switched her fire to "Glorious" at 16:32 and scored her first hit six minutes later on her third salvo, at a range of , when one hit the forward flight deck and burst in the upper hangar, starting a large fire. This hit destroyed two Swordfish being prepared for flight and the hole in the flight deck prevented any other aircraft from taking off. Splinters penetrated a boiler casing and caused a temporary drop in steam pressure. At 16:58 a second shell hit the homing beacon above the bridge and killed or wounded the captain and most of the personnel stationed there. "Ardent"s smokescreen became effective enough to impair the visibility of the Germans from about 16:58 to 17:20 so they ceased fire on "Glorious".


title: HMS Glorious

text: "Glorious" was hit again in the centre engine room at 17:20 and this caused her to lose speed and commence a slow circle to port. She also developed a list to starboard. The German ships closed to within 16,000 yards and continued to fire at her until 17:40. "Glorious" sank at 18:10, approximately at , with 43 survivors.


title: HMS Glorious

text: As the German ships approached "Glorious", "Acasta", which had been trying to maintain the smokescreen, broke through her own smoke and fired two volleys of torpedoes at "Scharnhorst". One of these hit the battleship at 17:34 abreast her rear turret and badly damaged her. "Acasta" also managed one hit from her 4.7-inch guns on "Scharnhorst", but was riddled by German gunfire and sank at around 18:20.


title: HMS Glorious

text: Survivors estimated that about 900 men abandoned "Glorious". The German ships had suffered extensive damage themselves, and unaware that Allied ships were not in contact with "Glorious" beat a hasty retreat, and did not try to pick up survivors. The Royal Navy meanwhile, knew nothing of the sinking until it was announced on German radio. The Norwegian ship , on passage to the Faroe Islands, arrived late on 10 June and picked up survivors, eventually delivering 37 alive to Thorshavn of whom two later died. Another Norwegian ship, "Svalbard II", also making for the Faeroes, picked up five survivors but was sighted by a German aircraft and forced to return to Norway, where the four still alive became prisoners of war for the next five years. It is also believed that one more survivor from "Glorious" was rescued by a German seaplane. Therefore, the total of survivors was 40, including one each from "Acasta" and "Ardent". The total killed or missing was 1,207 from "Glorious", 160 from "Acasta" and 152 from "Ardent", a total of 1,519.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The sinkings and the failure to mount an effective rescue were embarrassing for the Royal Navy. All ships encountering enemies had been ordered to broadcast a sighting report, and the lack of such a report from "Glorious" was questioned in the House of Commons. It emerged that the heavy cruiser had passed within of the battle, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral John Cunningham, who was carrying out orders to evacuate the Norwegian Royal Family to the UK and maintain radio silence. Some survivors from "Glorious" and "Devonshire" testified that a sighting report had been correctly sent, and received by "Devonshire", but that it had been suppressed by Cunningham, who departed at high speed in accordance with his orders. It was also alleged that there was confusion over the use of wireless telegraphy frequencies on board "Glorious" which could have contributed to the failure of any other ship or shore-station to receive a sighting report. The absence of normal airborne patrols over "Glorious" and its destroyers, in conditions of maximum visibility, were named as contributors to the sinkings.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The circumstances of the sinking were the subject of a debate in the House of Commons on 28 January 1999. After the existence of the Bletchley Park decoding of German transmissions was made public in the 1970s, Bletchley Park personnel revealed that they had told the Royal Navy of the German breakout. However, the Royal Navy refused to believe the codebreakers partly because they were for the most part civilians, and despite begging from the codebreakers, never notified the "Glorious" squadron of the German advance.


title: HMS Glorious

text: The most prominent memorial for the lost crew of HMS "Glorious", HMS "Ardent" and HMS "Acasta" is situated in Southsea Common, Portsmouth, overlooking the promenade and is accessible to the public at all times. There are 176 memorials from the 1,531 servicemen lost with HMS "Glorious", HMS "Ardent" and HMS "Acasta" at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.


title: HMS Glorious

text: For many years the only memorial to the seamen lost in the three ships was a stained-glass window in the church of St Peter Martindale in Cumbria, on the east side of Ullswater. A new memorial plaque dedicated to HMS "Glorious" and her escort destroyers "Ardent" and "Acasta", was unveiled in St. Nicholas's Church, in HMS "Drake", Devonport in 2002. On 8 June 2010, 70 years after the loss of "Glorious", "Acasta" and "Ardent", a memorial plaque inscribed in English and Norwegian was unveiled near the Trondenes Historical Centre in Harstad, Norway, the two destroyers' last port of call. A memorial plaque is mounted on a stone plinth next to a memorial tree, in the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. It can be found in the gardens in location 19-81. On 8 June 2019, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the Belvedere Gardens, Plymouth Hoe, dedicated to all crew members who lost their lives onboard HM Ships "Glorious, Ardent" and "Acasta."


title: HMS Glorious

text: A model of HMS "Glorious" by model maker Norman A. Ough built for the Royal United Services Museum is now on display in the Fleet Air Arm Museum at RNAS Yeovilton.


title: Lapita culture

text: The Lapita culture is the name given to a Neolithic Austronesian people and their material culture, who settled Island Melanesia via a seaborne migration at around 1600 to 500 BCE. They are believed to have originated from the northern Philippines, either directly, via the Mariana Islands, or both. They were notable for their distinctive geometric designs on dentate-stamped pottery, which closely resemble the pottery recovered from the Nagsabaran archaeological site in northern Luzon. The Lapita intermarried with the Papuan populations to various degrees, and are the direct ancestors of the Austronesian peoples of Polynesia, eastern Micronesia, and Island Melanesia.


title: Lapita culture

text: The term 'Lapita' was coined by archaeologists after mishearing a word in the local Haveke language, "xapeta'a", which means 'to dig a hole' or 'the place where one digs', during the 1952 excavation in New Caledonia. The Lapita archaeological culture is named after the type site where it was first uncovered in the Foué peninsula on Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia. The excavation was carried out in 1952 by American archaeologists Edward W. Gifford and Richard Shulter Jr at 'Site 13'. The settlement and pottery sherds were later dated to 800 BCE and proved significant in research on the early peopling of the Pacific Islands. More than 200 Lapita sites have since been uncovered, ranging more than 4,000 km from coastal and island Melanesia to Fiji and Tonga with its most eastern limit so far in Samoa.


title: Lapita culture

text: 'Classic' Lapita pottery was produced between 1,600 and 1,200 BCE on the Bismarck Archipelago. Artifacts exhibiting Lapita designs and techniques from a period later than 1,200 BCE have been found in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Lapita pottery styles from around 1,000 BCE have been found in Fiji and Western Polynesia.


title: Lapita culture

text: In Western Polynesia, Lapita pottery became less decorative and progressively simpler over time. It seems to have stopped being produced altogether in Samoa by about 2,800 years ago, and in Tonga by about 2,000 years ago.


title: Lapita culture

text: Pottery whose detailed decorative designs suggest Lapita influence was made from a variety of materials, depending on what was available, and their crafters used a variety of techniques, depending on the tools they had. But, typically, the pottery consisted of low-fired earthenware, tempered with shells or sand, and decorated using a toothed (“dentate”) stamp. It has been theorized that these decorations may have been transferred from less hardy material, such as bark cloth (“tapa”) or mats, or from tattoos, onto the pottery – or transferred from the pottery onto those materials. Other important parts of the Lapita repertoire were: undecorated ("plain-ware") pottery, including beakers, cooking pots, and bowls; shell artifacts; ground-stone adzes; and flaked-stone tools made of obsidian, chert, or other available kinds of rock.


title: Lapita culture

text: The Lapita kept pigs, dogs, and chickens. Horticulture was based on root crops and tree crops, most importantly taro, yam, coconuts, bananas, and varieties of breadfruit. These foods were likely supplemented by fishing and mollusc gathering.


title: Lapita culture

text: Long-distance trade was practiced; items traded included obsidian, adzes, adze source-rock, and shells.


title: Lapita culture

text: In 2003, at the Teouma archeological excavation site on Efate Island in Vanuatu, a large cemetery was discovered, including 25 graves containing burial jars and a total of 36 human skeletons. All the skeletons were headless: At some point after the bodies had originally been buried, the skulls had been removed and replaced with rings made from cone shells, and the heads had been reburied. One grave contained the skeleton of an elderly man with three skulls sitting on his chest. Another grave contained a burial jar with four birds looking into the jar. Carbon dating of the shells placed this cemetery as having been in use around 1000 BCE.


title: Lapita culture

text: Lapita culture villages on islands in the area of Remote Oceania tended not to be located inland, but instead on the beach, or on small offshore islets. These locations may have been chosen because inland areas – for example in New Guinea – were already settled by other peoples. Or they may have been chosen in order to avoid areas inhabited by mosquitoes carrying malaria microbes, against which Lapita people likely had no immune defence. Some of their houses were built on stilts over large lagoons. In New Britain, however, there were inland settlements; they were located near obsidian sources. And on the islands at the eastern end of the archipelago, all settlements were located inland rather than on the beaches – sometimes fairly far inland.


title: Lapita culture

text: Lapita pottery has been found in Near Oceania as well as Remote Oceania, as far west as the Bismarck Archipelago, as far east as Samoa, and as far south as New Caledonia. Excavation at a site in the village of Mulifanua in Samoa uncovered two adzes that strongly indicate Lapita influence. Carbon dating of material found with the adzes suggests there was a Lapita settlement at this site in roughly 1000 BCE. Radio carbon dating of sites in New Caledonia suggest there were Lapita settlements there as early as 1,110 ago. The dates and locations of more northerly Lapita-influenced settlements are still largely up for debate.


title: Lapita culture

text: Linguists and other researchers theorize that the people of the Lapita cultural complex spoke a proto-Oceanic language, which is a branch of the Austronesian language family widely distributed in Southeast Asia today. However, the particular language or languages spoken by the Lapita is unknown. The languages spoken in the region today derive from a number of different ancient languages, and material culture uncovered by archaeology does not generally provide clues to the language spoken by the makers of the artifacts.


title: Lapita culture

text: The Lapita complex is part of the eastern migration branch of the Austronesian expansion, which started from Taiwan between about 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. Some of the emigrants reached Melanesia. There are different theories about the route they took to get there. They may have gone through the Marianas Islands, or through the Philippines, or both. The strongest support for the theory that the original people of the Lapita culture were Austronesian is linguistic evidence showing very considerable lexical continuity between Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (presumably spoken in the Philippines) and Proto-Oceanic (presumably spoken by the Lapita people). In addition, the patterns of linguistic continuity correspond to patterns of similarity in material culture.


title: Lapita culture

text: In 2011, Peter Bellwood proposed that the initial movement of Malayo-Polynesian speakers into Oceania was from the northern Philippines eastward into the Mariana Islands, then southward into the Bismarcks. An older proposal was that Lapita settlers first arrived in Melanesia via eastern Indonesia. Bellwood’s proposal included the possibility that both migration patterns happened, with different migrants taking different routes. Bellwood’s proposal is supported by the pottery evidence: Lapita pottery is more similar to pottery recovered from the Philippines (at the Nagsabaran archaeological site on Luzon Island) than it is to pottery discovered anywhere else. Other evidence suggests that the Luzon area may have been the original homeland of the stamped pottery tradition that is carried forward in Lapita culture.


title: Lapita culture

text: Archaeological evidence also broadly supports the theory that the people of the Lapita culture are of Austronesian origin. On the Bismarck Archipelago, around 3,500 years ago, the Lapita complex appears suddenly, as a fully-developed archaeological horizon with associated highly developed technological assemblages. No evidence has been found on the archipelago of settlements in earlier developmental stages. This suggests that the Lapita culture was brought in by a migrating population, and did not – as had been proposed in the 1980s and 1990s by scholars like Jim Allen and J. Peter White – evolve locally.


title: Lapita culture

text: There is evidence that western Melanesia was continuously occupied by indigenous Papuans beginning between 30,000 and 40,000 years ago. That evidence includes recovered artifacts. But those remnants of the older material culture are far less diverse than the relics dating from after the Lapita horizon. The older material culture appears to have contributed only a few elements to the later Lapita material culture: some crops and some tools.


title: Lapita culture

text: The vast majority of the Lapita material-culture elements are clearly Southeast Asian in origin. These include pottery, crops, paddy field agriculture, domesticated animals (chickens, dogs, and pigs), rectangular stilt houses, tattoo chisels, quadrangular adzes, polished stone chisels, outrigger boat technology, trolling hooks, and various other stone artifacts. Lapita pottery offers the strongest evidence of an Austronesian origin. It has very distinctive elements, like the use of the red slips, tiny punch marks, dentate stamps, circle stamps, and a cross-in-circle motif. Similar pottery has been found in Taiwan, the Batanes and Luzon islands of the Philippines, and the Marianas.


title: Lapita culture

text: The orthodox view, advocated by Roger Green and Peter Bellwood, and accepted by most specialists today, is the so-called "Triple-I model" (short for “intrusion, innovation, and integration"). This model posits that the Early Lapita culture arose as the result of a three-part process: “intrusion” of the Austronesian peoples of the islands of Southeast Asia (and their language, materials, and ideas) into Near Oceania; “innovation” by the Lapita people, once they reached in Melanesia, in the form of new technologies; and “integration” of the Lapita peoples into the pre-existing (non-Austronesian) populations.


title: Lapita culture

text: In 2016, DNA analysis of four Lapita skeletons found in ancient cemeteries on the islands of Vanuatu and Tonga showed that the Lapita people had descended from inhabitants of Taiwan and of the northern Philippines. This evidence of the Lapita peoples’ migration route was corroborated in 2020 by a study that did a complete mtDNA and genome-wide SNP comparison of the remains of early settlers of the Mariana Islands with the remains of early Lapita individuals from Vanuatu and Tonga. The results suggest that both groups had descended from the same ancient Austronesian source population in the Philippines. The complete absence of "Papuan" admixture in these remains suggest that the voyages of the migrants bypassed eastern Indonesia and the rest of New Guinea. The study authors noted that their results also support the possibility that early Lapita Austronesians were direct descendants of the early colonists of the Marianas (who preceded them by about 150 years); this idea is also consistent with the pottery evidence.


title: Lapita culture

text: Recent DNA studies show that the Lapita people and modern Polynesians have a common ancestry with the Atayal people of Taiwan and the Kankanaey people of the northern Philippines.


title: Lapita culture

text: As the archaeological record improved in the 1980s and 1990s, the Lapita people were found to be the original settlers in parts of Melanesia and Western Polynesia. Many scientists believe Lapita pottery in Melanesia to be proof that Polynesian ancestors passed through this area on their way into the central Pacific. The earliest archaeological site in Polynesia is in Tonga.


title: Lapita culture

text: Other early Lapita discovery sites dating back to 900 BCE are also found in Tonga and contain the typical pottery and other archaeological "kit" of Lapita sites in Fiji and eastern Melanesia of about that time and immediately before.


title: Lapita culture

text: Anita Smith compares the Polynesian Lapita period with the later Polynesian Plainware ceramic period in Polynesia:


title: Lapita culture

text: "There do not appear to be new or different kinds of evidence associated with plain-ware ceramics (& lapita), only the disappearance of a minor component of material culture and faunal assemblages is apparent. There is continuity in most aspects of the archaeological record that appears to mimic post Lapita sequences of Fiji and island Melanesia (Mangaasi and Naviti pottery).”


title: Lapita culture

text: Plainware pottery is found on many Western Polynesian islands and marks a transitional period between when only Lapita pottery was found and a later period before the settlement of Eastern Polynesia when the Western Polynesians of the time had given up pottery production altogether. Archaeological evidence indicates that plainware pottery ceases abruptly in Samoa around 0.


title: Lapita culture

text: Matthew Spriggs stated: "The possibility of cultural continuity between Lapita Potters and Melanesians has not been given the consideration it deserves. In most sites there was an overlap of styles with no stratigraphic separation discernible. Continuity is found in pottery temper, importation of obsidian and in non-ceramic artefacts".


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Daniel Lapaine (born 15 June 1971) is an Australian stage, film and television actor, currently residing in London. He also works as a writer and director.


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Born in Sydney, New South Wales to an Italian father and an Australian mother, Lapaine graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1992. He first came to prominence in 1994 when he played the South African swimmer David Van Arckle in P. J. Hogan's "Muriel's Wedding". Since then he has worked internationally in film, theatre, and television and is now based in London.


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: In theatre, he most recently he played Bassanio in "The Merchant of Venice" at Shakespeare's Globe, opposite Jonathan Pryce. Other theatre credits include the parts of Trip in "Other Desert Cities" and Eilert Lovborg in Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" at the Old Vic, opposite Sheridan Smith. He played Leontes in "The Winter's Tale" at the Sheffield Crucible; Kurt in "The Dance of Death" at the Donmar at the Trafalgar Studios and George in "All My Sons" in the West End, opposite David Suchet. At the Royal Court, he appeared in "Scenes from the Back of Beyond" and "F***ing Games", directed by Dominic Cooke. In Australia, Lapaine appeared at "The Sydney Theatre Company" in "King Lear" and "Les Parents Terribles", "Island" at Belvoir Street and for the Bell Shakespeare Company he played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" as well as appearing in "Hamlet" and "Richard III".


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Lapaine has made two appearances in the UK TV Show "Black Mirror", six years apart. First in 2011 as the morally dubious Max in "The Entire History of You", and later as the masochistic Dr. Dawson in 2017's "Black Museum".


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Lapaine's recent film work includes Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-winning "Zero Dark Thirty", "Last Chance Harvey" opposite Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, and "Shanghai", opposite John Cusack. He played the lead role in Pathe's "The Abduction Club" and Miramax's "Elephant Juice", as well as memorable appearances in "Brokedown Palace" opposite Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale. He has also appeared in many other films including "54", "Dangerous Beauty", "Polish Wedding" and "Gozo".


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Lapaine has worked extensively in television. He appeared in all four series of "Catastrophe" for Channel 4 and Amazon Prime, in which he plays the part of Dave. "Entertainment Weekly" named Catastrophe "the best new comedy of the year". He recently portrayed King Charles II in the Canal + series "Versailles". Daniel also starred in the 2000 television miniseries "The 10th Kingdom" as Prince Wendell White, ruler of the 4th Kingdom, and played Tim Allerton in the 2004 "Agatha Christie's Poirot" episode "Death on the Nile" opposite David Suchet. In 2009, he portrayed Neil Armstrong in the television film "Moon Shot". He also played Hector in "Helen of Troy" opposite Rufus Sewell. Other television credits include "Critical"; "Vexed"; "Lewis"; "Vera"; "Black Mirror"; "Identity"; "Hotel Babylon"; "Sex, the City and Me"; "Jane Hall"; "The Good Housekeeping Guide"; "The Golden Hour"; "Jericho"; and "I Saw You". In Australia he appeared in "A Country Practice" and "G.P.", opposite Cate Blanchett.


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: Lapaine also wrote and directed the Australian feature film "48 Shades". Based on the 1999 novel "48 Shades of Brown" by Nick Earls, the film was released in Australia by Buena Vista in 2006.


title: Daniel Lapaine

text: In 1998, Lapaine met English actress Fay Ripley at a party hosted by mutual friends. After meeting again on a trip in New York, they began dating. They married in October 2001 in a ceremony in Tuscany, Italy. In October 2002, the couple had their first child, a daughter named Parker. Their second child, a son, named Sonny, was born in October 2006.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: India's telecommunication network is the second largest in the world by number of telephone users (both fixed and mobile phone) with 1179.49 million subscribers . It has one of the lowest call tariffs in the world enabled by mega telecom operators and hyper-competition among them. India has the world's second-largest Internet user-base with 747.41 million broadband internet subscribers in the country.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Major sectors of the Indian telecommunication industry are telephone, internet and television broadcast industry in the country which is in an ongoing process of transforming into next generation network, employs an extensive system of modern network elements such as digital telephone exchanges, mobile switching centres, media gateways and signalling gateways at the core, interconnected by a wide variety of transmission systems using fibre-optics or Microwave radio relay networks. The access network, which connects the subscriber to the core, is highly diversified with different copper-pair, optic-fibre and wireless technologies. DTH, a relatively new broadcasting technology has attained significant popularity in the Television segment. The introduction of private FM has given a fillip to the radio broadcasting in India. Telecommunication in India has greatly been supported by the INSAT system of the country, one of the largest domestic satellite systems in the world. India possesses a diversified communications system, which links all parts of the country by telephone, Internet, radio, television and satellite.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Indian telecom industry underwent a high pace of market liberalisation and growth since the 1990s and now has become the world's most competitive and one of the fastest growing telecom markets.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. It also has helped to increase the transparency of governance with the introduction of e-governance in India. The government has pragmatically used modern telecommunication facilities to deliver mass education programmes for the rural folk of India.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: According to London-based telecom trade body GSMA, the telecom sector accounted for 6.5% of India's GDP in 2015, or about , and supported direct employment for 2.2 million people in the country. GSMA estimates that the Indian telecom sector will contribute to the economy and support 3 million direct jobs and 2 million indirect jobs by 2020.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: In today's period of progress and wealth, technological modernization is increasingly seen as a foreseen necessity for every country. With better technology and more rivalry from established businesses, telecommunications has entered a new era of development. The continuous rise of the mobile industry is linked to technological advancements in the telecommunications sector. The service providers' primary goal is to build a loyal customer base by measuring their performance and maintaining existing consumers in order to profit from their loyalty. The purpose of the paper is to address these concerns.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Telecommunications in India began with the introduction of the telegraph. The Indian postal and telecom sectors are one of the world's oldest. In 1850, the first experimental electric telegraph line was started between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour. In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. The Posts and Telegraphs department occupied a small corner of the Public Works Department at that time.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: The construction of of telegraph lines was started in November 1853. These connected Kolkata (then Calcutta) and Peshawar in the north; Agra, Mumbai (then Bombay) through Sindwa Ghats, and Chennai (then Madras) in the south; Ootacamund and Bangalore. William O'Shaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom throughout this period. A separate department was opened in 1854 when telegraph facilities were opened to the public.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: In 1880, two telephone companies namely The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Government of India to establish telephone exchange in India. The permission was refused on the grounds that the establishment of telephones was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work. In 1881, the Government later reversed its earlier decision and a licence was granted to the Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening telephone exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Ahmedabad and the first formal telephone service was established in the country. On 28 January 1882, Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General of India's Council declared open the Telephone Exchanges in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The exchange in Calcutta named the "Central Exchange" had a total of 93 subscribers in its early stage. Later that year, Bombay also witnessed the opening of a telephone exchange.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Development of Broadcasting: Radio broadcasting was initiated in 1927 but became state responsibility only in 1930. In 1937 it was given the name "All India Radio" and since 1957 it has been called "Akashvani". Limited duration of television programming began in 1959, and complete broadcasting followed in 1965. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting owned and maintained the audio-visual apparatus—including the television channel "Doordarshan"—in the country prior to the economic reforms of 1991. In 1997, an autonomous body was established in the name of Prasar Bharti to take care of the public service broadcasting under the Prasar Bharti Act. All India Radio and Doordarshan, which earlier were working as media units under the Ministry of I&B became constituents of the body.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Pre-liberalisation statistics: While all the major cities and towns in the country were linked with telephones during the British period, the total number of telephones in 1948 numbered only around 80,000. Post-independence, growth remained slow because the telephone was seen more as a status symbol rather than being an instrument of utility. The number of telephones grew leisurely to 980,000 in 1971, 2.15 million in 1981 and 5.07 million in 1991, the year economic reforms were initiated in the country.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Liberalisation of Indian telecommunication in industry started in 1981 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed contracts with Alcatel CIT of France to merge with the state owned Telecom Company (ITI), in an effort to set up 5,000,000 lines per year. But soon the policy was let down because of political opposition. Attempts to liberalise the telecommunication industry were continued by the following government under the prime-minister-ship of Rajiv Gandhi. He invited Sam Pitroda, a US-based Non-resident Indian NRI and a former Rockwell International executive to set up a Centre for Development of Telematics(C-DOT) which manufactured electronic telephone exchanges in India for the first time. Sam Pitroda had a significant role as a consultant and adviser in the development of telecommunication in India.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: In 1985, the Department of Telecom(DoT) was separated from Indian Post & Telecommunication Department. DoT was responsible for telecom services in entire country until 1986 when Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) were carved out of DoT to run the telecom services of metro cities (Delhi and Mumbai) and international long-distance operations respectively.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: The demand for telephones was ever increasing and in the 1990s Indian government was under increasing pressure to open up the telecom sector for private investment as a part of Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policies that the government had to accept to overcome the severe fiscal crisis and resultant balance of payments issue in 1991. Consequently, private investment in the sector of Value Added Services (VAS) was allowed and cellular telecom sector were opened up for competition from private investments. It was during this period that the Narsimha Rao-led government introduced the "National Telecommunications policy (NTP)" in 1994 which brought changes in the following areas: ownership, service and regulation of telecommunications infrastructure. The policy introduced the concept of "telecommunication for all" and its vision was to expand the telecommunication facilities to all the villages in India. Liberalisation in the basic telecom sector was also envisaged in this policy. They were also successful in establishing joint ventures between state owned telecom companies and international players. Foreign firms were eligible to 49% of the total stake. The multi-nationals were just involved in technology transfer, and not policy making.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: During this period, the World Bank and ITU had advised the Indian Government to liberalise long-distance services to release the monopoly of the state-owned DoT and VSNL and to enable competition in the long-distance carrier business which would help reduce tariff's and better the economy of the country. The Rao run government instead liberalised the local services, taking the opposite political parties into confidence and assuring foreign involvement in the long-distance business after 5 years. The country was divided into 20 telecommunication circles for basic telephony and 18 circles for mobile services. These circles were divided into category A, B and C depending on the value of the revenue in each circle. The government threw open the bids to one private company per circle along with government-owned DoT per circle. For cellular service two service providers were allowed per circle and a 15 years licence was given to each provider. During all these improvements, the government did face oppositions from ITI, DoT, MTNL, VSNL and other labour unions, but they managed to keep away from all the hurdles.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: In 1997, the government set up TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) which reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policymaking. The political powers changed in 1999 and the new government under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee was more pro-reforms and introduced better liberalisation policies. In 2000, the Vajpayee government constituted the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) through an amendment of the TRAI Act, 1997. The primary objective of TDSAT's establishment was to release TRAI from adjudicatory and dispute settlement functions in order to strengthen the regulatory framework. Any dispute involving parties like licensor, licensee, service provider and consumers are resolved by TDSAT. Moreover, any direction, order or decision of TRAI can be challenged by appealing in TDSAT. The government corporatised the operations wing of DoT on 1 October 2000 and named it as "Department of Telecommunication Services (DTS)" which was later named as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The proposal of raising the stake of foreign investors from 49% to 74% was rejected by the opposite political parties and leftist thinkers. Domestic business groups wanted the government to privatise VSNL. Finally in April 2002, the government decided to cut its stake of 53% to 26% in VSNL and to throw it open for sale to private enterprises. TATA finally took 25% stake in VSNL.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: This was a gateway to many foreign investors to get entry into the Indian telecom markets. After March 2000, the government became more liberal in making policies and issuing licences to private operators. The government further reduced licence fees for [cellular service providers and increased the allowable stake to 74% for foreign companies. Because of all these factors, the service fees finally reduced and the call costs were cut greatly enabling every common middle-class family in India to afford a cell phone. Nearly 32 million handsets were sold in India. The data reveals the real potential for growth of the Indian mobile market. Many private operators, such as Reliance Communications, Jio, Tata Indicom, Vodafone, Loop Mobile, Airtel, Idea etc., successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market. In the initial 5–6 years the average monthly subscribers additions were around 0.05 to 0.1 million only and the total mobile subscribers base in December 2002 stood at 10.5 million. However, after a number of proactive initiatives taken by regulators and licensors, the total number of mobile subscribers has increased rapidly to over 929 million subscribers as of May 2012.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: In March 2008, the total GSM and CDMA mobile subscriber base in the country was 375 million, which represented a nearly 50% growth when compared with previous year.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: As the unbranded Chinese cell phones which do not have International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers pose a serious security risk to the country, Mobile network operators therefore suspended the usage of around 30 million mobile phones (about 8% of all mobiles in the country) by 30 April 2009. Phones without valid IMEI cannot be connected to cellular operators.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: India has opted for the use of both the GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA (code-division multiple access) technologies in the mobile sector. In addition to landline and mobile phones, some of the companies also provide the WLL service. The mobile tariffs in India have also become the lowest in the world. A new mobile connection can be activated with a monthly commitment of US$0.15 only.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: On 2 February 2012 the Supreme Court ruled on petitions filed by Subramanian Swamy and the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) represented by Prashant Bhushan, challenging the 2008 allotment of 2G licenses, cancelling all 122 spectrum licences granted during A. Raja (Minister of Communications & IT from 2007 to 2009), the primary official accused's term as communications minister. and described the allocation of 2G spectrum as "unconstitutional and arbitrary". The bench of GS Singhvi and Asok Kumar Ganguly imposed a fine of on Unitech Wireless, Swan Telecom and Tata Teleservices and a fine on Loop Telecom, S Tel, Allianz Infratech and Sistema Shyam Tele Services. According to the ruling the then granted licences would remain in place for four months, after which time the government would reissue the licences.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Post starting of the commercial operation of Reliance Jio in September 2016, the telecom market saw a huge change in terms of falling tariff rates and reduction of data charges, which changed the economics for some of the telecom players. This resulted in exit of many smaller players from the market. Players like Videocon and Systema sold their spectrum under spectrum trading agreements to Airtel and RCOM respectively in Q4 2016.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: On 23 February 2017, Telenor India announced that Bharti Airtel will take over all its business and assets in India and deal will be completed in 12 months timeframe. On 14 May 2018, Department of Telecom approved the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel paving the way for final commercial closing of the merger between the two companies. Telenor India has been acquired by Airtel almost without any cost.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: On 12 October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced that it would acquire the consumer mobile businesses of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharastra Ltd (TTML) in a debt-free cash-free deal. The deal was essentially free for Airtel which incurred TTSL's unpaid spectrum payment liability. TTSL will continue to operate its enterprise, fixed line and broadband businesses and its stake in tower company Viom Networks. The consumer mobile businesses of Tata Docomo, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) have been merged into Bharti Airtel from 1 July 2019


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Reliance Communications had to shut down its 2G and 3G services including all voice services and only offer 4G data services from 29 December 2017, as a result of debt and a failed merger with Aircel. Surprisingly, the shut down was shortly after completion of acquisition of MTS India on 31 October 2017. In February 2019, the company filed for bankruptcy as it was unable to sell assets to repay its debt. It has an estimated debt of ₹ 57,383 crore against assets worth ₹18,000 crore.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Aircel shut down its operations in unprofitable circles including, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh (West) from 30 January 2018. Aircel along with its units - Aircel Cellular and Dishnet Wireless - on 1 March 2018, filed for bankruptcy in the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Mumbai due to huge competition and high levels of debt.


title: Telecommunications in India

text: Vodafone and Idea Cellular completed their merger on 31 August 2018, and the merged entity is renamed to Vi. The merger created the largest telecom company in India by subscribers and by revenue, and the second largest mobile network in terms of number of subscribers in the world. Under the terms of the deal, the Vodafone Group holds a 45.1% stake in the combined entity, the Aditya Birla Group holds 26% and the remaining shares will be held by the public. However, even after the merger both the brands have been continued to carry their own independent brands.