Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge  A world renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted a prison simulation study in 1971 at the Stanford University with his student volunteers. He randomly divided these volunteers into guards and inmates and then placed in a mock prison environment. This study continued for six days and Zimbardo observed radical behavioural changes […]

By NJ Thakuria Guwahati: Two Bengali Nobel laureates from Indian sub-continent have been ranked 3rd and 5th among global influential thinkers in 2014 Global Thought Leader survey.  The worldwide survey, carried out by the Zurich-based Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for Economic & Social Studies (GDI) and MIT Sloan School researcher Peter Gloor, put Bengali economist Amartya […]

By Rohana R. Wasala (Courtesy The Nation On Sunday, where this article originally appeared under a different title) It was reported recently in the media that the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Dating laboratory in Miami in Florida, the largest professional radiocarbon dating facility in the world, has concluded that a piece of charcoal found embedded in […]

H. L. D. Mahindapala  Who on earth in their proper senses and in  command of their rational faculties, would promise, in this day and age, to establish within six years an ideal country” – I repeat, ideal country” – based on a  manifesto containing promises, promises, and promises, most of which will never see the […]

Ranjit Wickremeratne Judas drank wine at the last supper with Jesus and betray him by informing his whereabouts to Israelis for few Gold coins so was Aiyo Sirisena.  He has eaten Appa (Hoppers) with the leader and then stayed sometimes with him before he too betrayed his Master, day dreaming of be-coming the President of […]

Shenali D Waduge The figurehead of LTTE incorporated was killed on 19th May 2009 alongside a handful of other LTTE leaders. The fact that a little over 11,000 LTTE cadres surrendered or were captured during the final phase of the conflict should showcase that there are many more trained LTTE cadres still at large and […]

Chandre Dharmawardana, Ottawa, Canada The common candidate was a former minister of health, and also a former minister of agriculture. His election manifesto is remarkable in the absence of any statements regarding the crisis in agriculture, health and environmental degradation, resulting in kidney disease, dengue fever and malnutrition spreading in many parts of the country. […]

By Garvin Karunaratne In view of the fact that the Common Candidate has declared that Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe will be  the Prime Minister it is easy  to see how the Sri Lankan economy  will fare.  Regaining Sri Lanka, the flagplan of Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe when he ruled as the Prime Minister from 2002 to 2004  and the manner […]

By Charles.S.Perera There was colonialism under which many countries, poor from Western standard, were conquered subjugated and brought under the control of the  respective Western Countries that colonised them. The Colonisation was  an immense enterprise that brought into the  countries of the Colonial rulers an immense wealth from which they have created a strong economic […]

by Kumar David  Courtesy Island Mr Sirisena’s Manifesto caused consternation and disappointment among those who trusted his pledge to rescind the hated autocratic executive presidency and replace it with a democratic parliamentary system. What he now offers is “an essentially Executive” presidency wrapped in a honeyed sentence about an alliance with “Parliament through Cabinet”; what’s […]

සම්බන්ධීකරණය චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ ප්‍රශ්නය: මහත්මයාණෙනි, ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයට ඇත්තේ ඉතාමත් කෙටි කාලයක්, මේ මැතිවරණය හා බැදුන ගැටලු රාශියක් රට පුරා පැන නැගී තියෙනවා, මේ ගැටලු වලට පැහැදිලිව පිලිතුරු දිය හැකි අයෙකු ඔබ විසින් ගොඩනැංවූ දේශපාලන පක්ෂයෙන් සොයා ගැනීම අසීරු කරුණක්, දැන් ඉන්නා නියෝජිතයින් එකම ප්‍රශ්නයට විවිධ පිලිතුරු සපයනවා, මෙය මාධ්‍යවේදීන් වන අපට මහත් අපහසුවක්, ඒ […]

Dr D.Chandraratna  It is true that the existing constitution helped to fight terrorism without unnecessary factionalism rampant in the Westminster system of democracy but the general opinion is that more power has to be passed on to the parliament to open up the political dialogue in peacetime. Much of this noise about regime change may […]

Dilrook Kannangara  Rajiva Wijesinghe of Liberal Party fame has been unable to muster even 2,000 votes but found his way to parliament through the national list. He crossed over to the Common Candidate camp with Sirisena. He is part of the Dayan-Thisaranee-Rajiva trio that is consistently pushing for an anti-Sinhala pro-Tamil agenda nationally and internationally. […]

Ratanapala There is no place on earth that can truly be corruption free and where there is Yaha Palanaya or Good Governance. In spite of this reality, this is the word, which is parroted by every Sri Lankan opposed to the Rajapakse regime.. In the US, UK, France, Italy to Australia and New Zealand corruption […]

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි. ස්වභාවය සම්බන්ධව සාකච්ඡා කිරිම බොහෝ තලයන් හිදී සිදුකරන සාමාන්‍යය කාර්යයකි. සැබැ ලෙසම ප්‍රාථමික වශ‍යෙන් ස්වභාවය හඳුනා ගැනීමට යා යුතු සුදුසුම තැන වන්නේ  මිනිස් පාලනයෙන් බැහැරව පවතින පාරිසරික රටාවකටය. උත්තර ධ්‍රැවය, ඇන්ටාක්ටිකාව, වැසිවනානතරය, හෝ ඝන වනානතරය මේ සඳහා සුදුසුම ස්ථානයන්ය. මිනිසුන් රහිත ආක්ටික් කලාපයේ සම්පූර්ණ පාලනය දරන්නේ ස්වභාවයයි. ස්වභාවය සෑම ජීවියකුම නිර්මාණය කරන්නේ […]

 By Garvin Karunaratne Hiru News carries a statement from the Common Candidate that he will  create an economy where all could have three means a day”. The Common Candidate seems to have forgotten that it was the UNP under President Jayawardena that scrapped the Rice Ration Scheme, which provided rice to all or with the […]

Ranjit Wickremeratne Love thy Motherland before the party. This will be second time you will be taking for a ride by a bogus “PODU APEKSHAKAYA” label. UNP is not a just political party. It was a party who had several well know political stalwarts in the past. People respected this party because they had a […]

P.Ariyasinghe At a meeting in Crow Island, Chandrika had expressed confidence that Sirisena will win the Presidential elections.  She had said that, the unity among several political parties which are backing Sirisena for President gives guarantee that he can win. Past history of the leaders of the political parties backing Sirisena shows that they are […]

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න බුදුන්ගේ අභිලාශය වුනේ  සිංහල බෞද්ධයන් අතර වසර  5000  වත්  බුදු සසුන පවත්වා   ගැනීමටය  . ඉන්දියාවේ බමුණන්   කැමතිවුනේ  පොඩි උන් පාගාගෙන  සිටිය හැකි ආගමකටය  බුදු දහමින් එය කල නොහැක  එනිසා  උන් බෞධයින් ඉන්දියාවෙන් වනසා දැමුහ නේපාල හින්දුන් වසරේ එක දවසක  සතුන් තුන් ලක්ෂයක් මරා බිලිදී දෙවියන් පුදති  ඉන්දියාවේත් එහෙමය   අඩුකුලේයය් කියමින්  මිනිස් ප්‍රජාවෙන් […]

චන්ද්‍රසේන පණ්ඩිතගේ විසිනි. ජොතිෂ්‍යය යනු අපගේ සංස්කෘතියේ ඇති එක් අංගයකි. අප සෑම සිදුවීමක් සදහාම ජොතිෂ්‍යය හා බද්ධවන්නෝ වෙමු. ඒ අනුව මේ ජනාධිපතිවරණයේදී; ජෝතිෂ්‍යය විසින් සිදුකරන ලද කාර්යභාරයද සුලුපටු නොවේ..ජනාධිපතිවරණ තරග බිම්ට බැස ඇති තරගකරුවන්ගෙන් දිනන්නේ කවුරුදැයි අපි ජෝතිෂ්‍යෙව්දියකුගෙන් ඇසුවොත්; තරග කරුවන් 19 දෙනෙක් සිටියද; ක්ෂණිකවම ඔහු අතට ගන්නේ; ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ මහතාගේ හා මෛත්රීපාල සිරිසේන […]

Dr Hector Perera     London With the application of heat or in presence of other chemicals, very likely chemical changes take place. In chemistry we come across many chemical reactions where breaking bonds need heat then making bonds give out heat, these are quite common in thermo-chemistry. When there are rice grains in contact with water […]

Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge The massive earthquake off the west coast of Indonesia on December 26, 2004, registered a magnitude of nine on the Richter scale. The effect of this earthquake made massive tidal waves that destroyed the costal belt of the northern and southern Sri Lanka. Perhaps this must have been the most catastrophic […]

Insight By Sunil Kumar December 25th 2014 As usual the ancient Tamil Nadu cacophonist DMK president M Karunanidhi who never seems to realise that his fractious opinions of Sri Lanakan political matters are not only contentious but also often laced in duplicity with the conflict of interests resting on his leanings towards the Tamil Tiger […]

By M D P DISSANAYAKE The Ven Sobhitha Thera  has been  confined to a hospital for quite sometime.  Ven Sobhitha did all pioneering work for the campaign to select a Common Candidate to face the President Mahinda Rajapakse.  His plans went wrong during the last stages with the intervention of Mrs Chandrika and Mr Ranil […]

P.Ariyasinghe, Melbourne The local media reported that the Tamil diaspora had asked the Tamils to exercise their  vote CAREFULLY at the Presidential elections. They have also said that ‘ the Tamil people have lost their rights …The desire to have control in the Tamil majority areas was never granted…’ Followed by this, the Tamil Society […]

  වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග   කොලට් සේනානායක හා නාරද කරුණාතිලක  යනු  එක්තරා ආකාරයක විවාදාත්මක ලේඛකයන් දෙපළකි. ඔවුන් ඉතිහාසය හදාරති. අප සැමදෙනා දන්නා සංස්කරණය කරන ලද ඉතිහාසයෙන් එහාට ගොස් ඉතිහාසකරුවන් විසින් සඟවන ලද හෝ කාලයේ වැළි තලාවෙන් යටවී තිබෙන ඉතිහාසය මතුකර ගනිති. ඔවුන් දෙදෙනා විසින් මෑතකදී ප්‍රකාශයට පත් කරන ලද “කොන්කිස්තදෝස්: ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ක්‍රිස්තියානියට මුල පෑදීම” ග්‍රන්ථය […]

Dr. Tilak S. Fernando What inspires a writer to continue with his/her work depends on the amount of feedback one receives from the readership with both positive and negative comments. Such annotations will naturally help him/her to sharpen his/her faculties with inspiration. It is usually said that writing is akin to sharpening a pencil all […]

By A. Abdul Aziz.  (Given below is an excerpt of the Friday Sermon delivered by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Supreme Head of the world-wide Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Islam, on 19th December, 2014, at ‘BaithulFuthuh’, London, U.K. gave a discourse on the recent Peshawar School attack.)  Ahmadiyya Khalifa said: We observe these days many incidents […]

By Afshain Afzal The 25th of December bears great significance and is the day of rejoice. It is a day of blessings as it is birthday of our Holy Prophet Hazrat Essa Roohallah (Alhe-e-Salam) also known as Jesus Christ in the Christian world.  The birthday of Mr. Muhammad Ali, the Quaid-e-Azam and the founder of […]

Ranjit Wickremeratne UNP was led down once with an outsider and lost and now again they have selected an outsider as their Presidential candidate to face the incumbent.Who ever comes it will be very difficult to beat the current President in an election at this time.The reason is he is a man of Peace and […]