Banned: Property Tycoon KP Singh, Who Built India's First 'Smart' City

New Delhi: It was, by his own account, a chance encounter with Rajiv Gandhi, who later became Prime Minister, that turned former soldier Kushal Pal Singh into the man who built a city from nothing and made billions in the process.

Mr Singh was toppled from his spot as India's richest property developer this week, when his company DLF Ltd was hit with an unprecedented three-year ban from capital markets, accused by the regulator of failing to disclose key information at the time of its record-breaking 2007 market listing.

Investors wiped more than Rs. 7000 crore off the indebted company's market value after the decision.

Called a visionary developer, Mr Singh has been among the most influential names in the country of recent decades as the man who built "boom city" Gurgaon and fostered the outsourcing industry - with a little help, he says, from ex-General Electric boss Jack Welch.

To its cheerleaders, Gurgaon, the city he imagined and built 15 miles outside national capital Delhi, is a prototype of where young, upwardly mobile Indians want to live and work. The outsourcing boom has made the city India's third-richest.

"It is India's first smart city," said Rajeev Talwar, executive director at DLF. "Its infrastructure may be creaking ... but there is a new part which supports a new kind of life."

To its detractors, though, Gurgaon is the epitome of the fervid real estate speculation and dysfunctional urban sprawl that threaten India's cities as population booms. Water and power are unreliable, social problems abound and private contractors have had to step in where the police have failed.

Its population ballooned by about three-quarters to 1.5 million people in a decade.

After a decade in power the Congress, led by Sonia Gandhi, was ousted in this year's general election by Narendra Modi's BJP. Exit polls show that Haryana, which includes Gurgaon, too is set to throw out the Congress in a state election held this week. Results are due Sunday.

Mr Singh has been seen as close to the Gandhi family for years. In his autobiography, he describes how in 1980 he accidentally met Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's husband and the country's prime minister from 1984 to 1989, when the latter was travelling to Gurgaon and had stopped for water to cool his car's radiator.

Mr Singh, whose family property firm had been pushed out of the capital by strict development laws, says he shared his plan for the dry and desolate Gurgaon region, and his fate was sealed.

In the next few years, Mr Singh - who is even at 82 a sharp dresser with military bearing - acquired 3,500 acres of land in Gurgaon, some of it still undeveloped.

"A salute to the old man to have at that time thought of putting together the entire site and not be tempted to gain by selling parcels of land to other developers," said Anuj Puri, chairman and country head of Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consultancy that advises DLF.

In 2007, DLF listed in what was then India's largest IPO. The atmosphere at DLF, one employee recalled, was "electric".

Opposition party members and anti-corruption activists have accused DLF of improper land deals with Robert Vadra, the son in law of Sonia Gandhi.

The timing of market regulator Sebi's order this week, two days before the Haryana polls, has strengthened the view that DLF's close ties with the Congress could work against it. DLF and its supporters say they will seek to work with all governments, regardless of political shades.

But even detractors say it is not the end of the road for Mr Singh or DLF. "It is not the end of the road for them. These companies don't disappear," said Prashant Bhushan, a veteran lawyer who has long campaigned against DLF.

Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2014

Brothers, Both Soldiers, Died at Siachen. 21 Years Later, a Body Found.

New Delhi: The frozen body of a soldier who went missing 21 years ago at the Siachen glacier has been found last Sunday by a group of soldiers patrolling the world's highest battleground - Siachen Glacier. 

Havildar TV Patil, who belonged to Maharashtra, had fallen into a crevasse in February 1993. He was 30. Because of the sub-zero temperatures, his body had not decomposed, said sources, and he was identified by a letter from his family and a medical certificate found in his pocket.

His brother, also a soldier with the Maratha Light Infantry, died in an avalanche in 1987 while posted to the glacier. His body remains unfound.

Sources told NDTV that Havildar Patil, whose body has been found, was trying to collect air-dropped supplies when he moved away from the prescribed path and fell into a crevasse. As others tried to pull him out, his snow gloves slipped off, and he plunged several feet.

In August, the frozen body of Havildar Gaya Prasad from Maharastra had been found at the Siachen Glacier; in 1996, he had fallen into a crevasse there.  

At more than 18,000 feet (5,700 meters) Siachen sees temperatures that can drop as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius.

A complete guide to all major movies in Australian cinemas now

ADVANCED STYLE (PG)

Having the wherewithal to wear it all, US, 72 min
A delightful documentary about a vibrant fashion movement that has sprung up around a collection of trend-setting elderly women in New York City. At an average age of just under 80, this feisty fashionistas are blissfully oblivious to what the style gurus are hyping as the ‘in thing’ right now. To the Advanced Style gang - whose exploits are chronicled in a popular blog - the more ‘out there’ an outfit can be, the better. There is a inspirational spirit of rebellion at work here that has nothing to do with the manufactured impulses triggered by the global fashion industry. These sisters of a certain age are strictly doing it for themselves. Long may they go on doing so.
***1/2

Doll parts ... Annabelle is not the kind of toy Santa should be handing out. Source: AP

ANNABELLE (MA15+)
Sometime evil will take its doll, US, 98 min
The breakout star of last year’s smash-hit chiller The Conjuring gets her own movie. If you are unfamiliar with her work, let’s just say Annabelle is a creepy-looking vintage doll that just happens to be a paranormally active trouble-magnet for anyone unlucky enough to own her. A basic origin-story premise winds back the clock to 1971, a period where Annabelle was yet to turn pro as a full-on freaker-outer of men, women and children. Especially children. After a slow start, the movie generates a respectable number of scares once the self-arranging furniture and self-slamming doors get going. The production overall only really disappoints when compared to the far-superior The Conjuring. It looks a darn sight cheaper - so much so that it sometime breaks the menacing mood at hand - and definitely lacks the shrewd scripting of its predecessor. **1/2

Growing up ... Ellar Coltrane on the set of Boyhood with director Richard Linklater. Source: Supplied

BOYHOOD (M)
Growing, going, gone., US, 168 min
A coming-of-age movie? Been there, done that. A coming-of-life movie? Now that is something new. Background schematics are what puts this remarkable American production in a genre — and perhaps even a class — all its own. Beginning in 2002, prolific director Richard Linklater (School of Rock, Bernie) reconvened the same cast at the same time each year for a few days of shooting. When the project finally wrapped last October, Linklater had captured exactly what he was after: an achingly accurate chronicle of a child in the process of growing up. It should be emphasised that Boyhood is not a documentary. It is a wholly fictional take on the formative years of a typical Texas kid by the name of Mason Evans (Ellar Coltrane). We join Mason at the age of 6, and bid him goodbye at 18. Nothing much happens to the lad during this period. Aside from life itself. And as organically filmed by Linklater, that turns out to be really something. Co-stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette.
****1/2

Camp classic ... Luke Evans in Dracula Untold Source: Supplied

DRACULA UNTOLD (M)
Look out! He’s stark raving Vlad!, US, 90 min
Most vampire movies are a little camp. By comparison, Dracula Untold is a tent city. This cheesy (and at a zippy running time of 90 minutes) relatively breezy affair reveals how a little-known 15th century Transylvanian prince became the biggest bloodsucker the world has ever seen. Vlad the Impaler (played by Welsh heart-throb Luke Evans) starts out proceedings as a right royal family man. He loves his wife (Sarah Gadon), his kid (Art Parkinson) and his homeland. So with all three under threat from marauding Turkish warlords, Vlad accepts an offer to temporarily become a vampire warrior to repel them. All Vlad has to do is avoid drinking human blood for 3 days. What could possibly go wrong with such a simple plan? If you don’t know the answer, you need to get out more often.
**1/2

Mature vengeance ... Denzel Washington tussles with Australia’s Nash Edgerton in The Equalizer. Source: AP

THE EQUALIZER (MA15+)
Muscovites should never attack Washington, US, 132 min
Seems Liam Neeson no longer has the “mature vengeance” demographic all to himself. Denzel Washington wants his cut of the aged-aggression market, and he wants it now. In all honesty, The Equalizer is no better nor worse than the punishing pulp Neeson has been pounding out since the surprise blockbuster success of Taken in 2008. The same underlying principles apply here. Some bonkers badsters (Russians!) have irked our worldly, weary hero (Washington’s character works in the US equivalent of a Bunnings Warehouse!). So this old campaigner is quite within his rights to kill his way up the enemy’s chain of command until the movie ends. Very violent and very long, so best seen by hardline action fans, and best avoided by those who are not.
***

Cold psychological thriller ... Force Majeure. Source: Supplied

FORCE MAJEURE (M)
Everything went white, then everything went wrong, Sweden 118 min
An icy cold psychological drama that will chill you to the bone. A family on holiday at an elite French ski resort is seated at a balcony restaurant table. A mini-avalanche strikes without warning. The mother stays with her children, and braces for the worst. The father grabs his phone and makes a run for it. The fallout from this incident is imperceptible at first, then amplifies in magnitude as those involved try and process what has happened. Driven by well-chosen words and random bursts of emotion, this gripping affair could function equally well as a stage play. However, the role that the setting takes in proceedings is unsettlingly cinematic. A challenging piece of work no-one will be forgetting in a hurry, try as they might.
****

Believe nothing ... Ben Affleck in a scene from film Gone Girl. Source: Supplied

GONE GIRL (MA15+)
A lady vanishes. The mysteries multiply., US, 149 min
Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s sensational 2012 best-seller, this malevolently mischievous movie is one of the best films that will be released in 2014. There is just one proviso to guarantee maximum impact : Gone Girl must be seen ‘cold’. Too much advance knowledge changes the game played here in the wrong way. Nick (Ben Affleck) has arrived home to discover that his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared. The front door is ajar. A glass table in the living room is smashed to smithereens. Oddly, Nick doesn’t seem all that flustered. Nevertheless, he calls the cops. Nick’s measured responses to the ensuing investigation (and the finger-pointing fury of a baying US media) form one half of the narrative voice of Gone Girl. The other half comes from Amy herself, via a diary she had been keeping. Under the aggressively deceptive direction of David Fincher (The Social Network), Gone Girl is an entertainingly provocative film, bound to set tongues wagging and minds racing for some time to come.
****1/2

Solid courtroom drama ... Jeremy Strong, Robert Downey Jr and Vincent D’Onofrio in The Judge. Source: Warner

THE JUDGE (M)
A life of sentencing comes to a full stop, US, 141min
There hasn’t been a good, meaty courtroom drama hit the big screen in many years. While The Judge is by no means a classic, it is still presents a solid, enjoyable and engrossing legal stoush that will please traditional devotees of the genre. The great Robert Duvall plays Joseph, a veteran small-town judge facing a murder charge in his own court after a tragic hit-run incident. Joseph cannot recall the accident, and his only chance of beating certain jail time is to reluctantly hand over his defence to his estranged son Hank (Robert Downey Jr.). Ethics are not the calling card of this hotshot Chicago lawyer, who has serious misgivings about both returning home and his father’s culpability. Though overly long, this old-fashioned affair exerts a strong grip thanks to worthy writing and performances. Duvall and Downey Jr. are actors of the highest calibre, and the manner in which they alternately widen and shorten the disconnect between their characters is tremendously involving.
***

Erractic ... Richard (Patrick Brammall) and Rowena (Kate Box) in The Little Death. Source: Supplied

THE LITTLE DEATH (MA15+)
Don’t stare too deeply into demise, Australia, 95 min
The writing-directing debut of Australian actor Josh Lawson (Any Questions for Ben?) is an erratic episodic comedy about just how funny (and much more often, unfunny) a fetish can be. Among the saucy-seedy japes presented for your amusement are such thigh-slappers as mock sexual assault (Lawson himself plays a bloke whose partner keeps hassling him to rape her) and a husband who may or may not be interfering with his nagging wife after he drugs her asleep each evening. Isn’t that just lovely? Some sketchy interludes do have their moments, such as a beautifully performed vignette about a call-centre operator acting as interpreter between a dirty-minded deaf man and a distracted phone-sex practitioner. However, the film as a whole generally follows a line of humour where dysfunction, discomfort and sometimes, even distress, lead only to laughter-free dead ends.
*1/2

Throwaway trifle ... Emma Stone in Woody Allen's romantic drama Magic In The Moonlight. Source: Supplied

MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT (PG)
Sleight difference between a cynic and a psychic, US, 96 min
One of Woody Allen’s finer light comedies of his ‘later’ years. While definitely a throwaway trifle when compared to the writer-director’s 2013 caustic classic Blue Jasmine, the film exudes a mannered, yet carefree charm that is a delight to experience. Colin Firth plays Stanley, a belligerent British magician called to the south of France to investigate a new clairvoyant sensation. Sophie (Emma Stone) seems blessed with a range of psychic powers that make Nostradamus look like a rank amateur. The abiding mystery of Sophie’s gift duels for our attention with Stanley’s slowly intensifying affection for her. While both plot strands border on inexplicable, a carefully controlled chemistry shared by Firth and Stone keeps us wondering in all the right ways.
***

Running man ... Dylan O'Brien in The Maze Runner. Source: AP

THE MAZE RUNNER (M)
One way in, no way out US, 117 min
Imagine, if you can, a latter-day Lord of the Flies fused with a discarded plotline from TV’s Lost. Like the sound of that? Then this is bound to get you in. There will be no escape, either. Not at least until all four entries in author James Dashner’s hit series of young-adult novels are in the can. This punchy first instalment does not waste any time putting its easy-to-follow premise through some serious paces. A tribe of a teenage boys is trapped inside a walled field. Outside is a complex maze that changes configuration every day, and hosts a collection of vicious creatures every night. This is a fascinating set-up that lives up to most of the potential promised. Upon the arrival of the newcomer Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), the entrenched tribal laws are challenged for the first time. While the filmmakers delay any deep exploration of the maze and its sinister, shape-shifting properties, the wait is indeed worth it.
***1/2

Solid local crime flick ... Brendan (Ewan McGregor) and JR (Brenton Thwaites) in Son of a Gun. Source: Supplied

SON OF A GUN (MA15+)
A muffled bang for your buck, Australia 109 min
Best on-screen Australian prison escape ever? There are worse legacies a local movie can leave behind in 2014. While there is more to Son of a Gun than just an audacious breakout sequence - young rising star Brenton Thwaites certainly proves he is an actor going places - it never quite scales the same peak of adrenalised excitement again. Thwaites plays a young crim co-opted by his thuggish prison protector (Ewan McGregor) to repay his debt once he returns to the outside world. After a very striking start, the movie loses its pinpoint aim and begins spraying willy-nilly at some easy and familiar targets. The scripting here isn’t clever enough (Russian mobsters yet again, really?) to keep us caring who might be holding the upper hand as the white lies and black eyes just keep on coming. Co-stars Alicia Vikander.
**1/2

Low joke ratio ... Susan Sarandon and Melissa McCarthy in Tammy. Source: Warner

TAMMY (MA15+)
Laid on thick, spread too thin, US 97 min
A winning support effort in the 2011 smash hit Bridesmaids was the perfect showcase for Melissa McCarthy’s innate ability to appall as she amuses. However, when at the wheel of her own star vehicles (The Heat, Identity Thief), McCarthy seems incapable of finding a way to the funny. If only they made GPS systems for senses of humour. The title role has McCarthy taking her alcoholic granny (Susan Sarandon) on a reckless road trip, where jet-skis will be crashed, livers will be trashed and a father-and-son farmer duo (Gary Cole and Mark Duplass) will be pashed. The joke-to-laugh ratio is low at best, and a flat zero during some ill-advised scenes. *1/2

He is the walrus ... Justin Long Kevin Smith’s bizarre film Tusk Source: Supplied

TUSK (MA15+)
The old man and the sea creature, US, 102 min
Veteran American indie filmmaker Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Clerks) tries his hand at semi-sinister horror with Tusk, a so-so offering where cleverness is often cancelled out by laziness. Justin Long stars as Wallace, a popular US podcaster being held against his will in a shack in rural Canada. His captor is Howard (Michael Parks), a creepy elderly gent who wishes to turn Wallace into a walrus. That is not a misprint. A walrus. Wallace’s slow and agonising transformation from smartass to sea creature is every bit as gross as you might be imagining. Smith attempts to smooth this bumpy, bloody ride by applying his trademark style of wordy, wisenheimer humour. Unfortunately, the jokes are wildly hit and miss.
**1/2

Hard man ... Liam Neeson in A Walk Among the Tombstones Source: Supplied

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (MA15+)
Fifty shades of grave, US 114 min
Though hard-boiled crime author Lawrence Block has penned a stack of well-received books, the movies are yet to properly make his acquaintance. This disconnect may finally end witha gritty, greyed-out film noir featuring Block’s most enduring creation, lone-wolf New York private eye Matthew Scudder. At this point, it should be mentioned the role of Scudder, a lifelong alcoholic perpetually hovering between recovery and relapse, is played by Liam Neeson. This could be a deal breaker for many potential viewers. For many years, Neeson has been flooding the market with formulaic fare that has positioned him as a mature-age Mr Vengeance. No need to worry here : this very strong thriller is the best thing Neeson has been involved with for ages.
***1/2

Best film of the year so far ... J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller in Whiplash. Source: Supplied

WHIPLASH (MA15+)
The beat goes on. The beaten are forgotten., US, 106 min

Name any movie where a hot talent and a burning ambition are yet to combust. The same question will invariably be asked of the protagonist. Do you have what it takes? This astonishing make-it-or-break-it drama isn’t having any of that. The question it will ask is far more interesting. Do you want back what it took? By the time you get to the extraordinary answer, you will already have experienced one of the best films of this year. A basic plot synopsis does not make Whiplash seem all that inviting. A promising drummer, Andrew (Miles Teller), gains entry to an exclusive music conservatory. His main instructor, Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) immediately takes an active interest in Andrew’s development, while also displaying a blatant dislike of the young hopeful. So far, so familiar, huh? Well, Whiplash will soon give you pause to reconsider that position, by virtue of the incisive way it drills down into the cores of these two very different, very motivated characters.

Fusion Will Be A Huge Clean-Energy Breakthrough, Says National Ignition Facility CIO

By Tim Frazier, CIO for National Ignition Facility and for Photon Science Principal Associate Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once. 

—Albert Einstein.

When it comes to scientific research, sometimes the biggest obstacle of them all is time.

That’s because, as Dr. Einstein implies, time is linear. Everything doesn’t happen all at once: It takes time to conduct the research, plan the experiments, and analyze the findings that lead to scientific breakthroughs.

At the National Ignition Facility (NIF), we recently announced our own scientific breakthrough in our quest for Ignition, which is energy gain from a controlled nuclear fusion reaction. The breakthrough came when our scientists were able to create more energy from a fusion reaction than was deposited into the hydrogen fuel we used in the experiment.

Although we haven’t yet achieved our goal, this was the result of years of research and a significant step toward the goal.

But It Took Time 

As the Chief Information Officer, it’s my team’s responsibility to help expedite those breakthroughs—by maximizing the time our scientists spend doing science.

This means finding the right technology and infrastructure to give them more time to work on their research and spend less time waiting to access their data. By enhancing our IT infrastructure, we’ve found better ways to reduce downtime and even help contribute to the research at the NIF.

Our goal is that we become even more efficient, using cloud technology to become a worldwide facility, with research data that can be accessed globally.

Giving Time Back To Science

The greatest contribution that my team provides our scientists is reliable and fast access to their data. For us, that meant finding ways to practically eliminate downtime.

Maintaining our IT infrastructure requires monthly maintenance outages, but now we can do our own maintenance more efficiently, which typically saves us five hours each month.

That might not seem like much, but when you consider the amount of time involved and the value of that time to our facility and research teams, reclaiming that time from planned downtime is hugely valuable to us. That’s 60 hours a year we can give back to science.

With little or no downtime, we can now allow our scientists to access their data 24/7, which gives them more time to analyze it.

Flipping The 80/20 Split

Our technological advancements also enable us to give time back to research in indirect ways. We spend less time managing our infrastructure, which means we have resources that can be freed to contribute to research.

Most of those I speak with in the IT industry have a rule that they spend about 80% of their time just managing their infrastructure, but only 20% of their time contributing to the success of their organization.

In comparison, we’ve flipped the 80/20-split on its head at the NIF.

By migrating towards a highly virtualized infrastructure, we’re no longer forced to spend the majority of our time managing equipment. We can focus on our core competency—scientific research—not running our IT infrastructure.

The Future Of NIF Could Be In The Cloud

We continuously review and evaluate possible methods for innovating and improving our IT department for the future.

As with my colleagues in the rest of the industry, we’re reviewing cloud computing. Our belief is that cloud, if done right, could transform how we do research at the NIF.

We currently bring in scientists from across the globe to conduct experiments at our facility, which means that their research occurs in one place. Cloud computing, would help us offer data access, securely, from anywhere in the world. It would also help enable collaboration between scientists across the globe. This is already occurring in many other scientific disciplines, like climate research, that use cloud-based platforms such as Google Docs.

This transformation is already underway as we work to change the NIF into a user facility: Our goal is to enable scientists from across the world to not only utilize our experimental facility, but also collaborate on their findings.

The Bottom Line 

Achieving Ignition is a big, audacious goal! Working on its many challenging problems to support our country’s pursuit of the goal is what drives both the NIF scientific team, and also the IT team.

When we achieve that goal, it’ll be a tremendous breakthrough for our teams and for the scientists that started us on this journey, nearly 60 years ago. My IT team and I will continue to play our part, by finding new ways to give time back to science, and accelerate discovery.

Star Wars actor Harrison Ford joins Shropshire flight club

Harrison Ford plans to fly the plane while filming at Pinewood Studios, Bob Pooler said

Hollywood actor Harrison Ford has become the latest member of a Shropshire flying club.

Bob Pooler, chief instructor with Shropshire Aero Club, said he received a call from the actor, who was keen to rent an aircraft while he was filming the new Star Wars movie.
He said the actor had wanted to bring one of his own planes to Britain, but ran out of time before filming started.
Mr Pooler said the call, from Ford himself, came "out of the blue".
He said he delivered a plane from Sleap Airfield, near Wem, to Denham, close to Pinewood Studios on Sunday.
"I checked Harrison out, flew around the patch with him and made sure he was legal to fly and that's it.
'Lifetime member'
"We talked about Star Wars among other movies."
Mr Pooler, who is also a dealer for Husky light aircraft, said he had first been contacted by the manufacturer's factory a few months ago.

Fans of Star Wars are more used to seeing Ford behind the controls of the Millennium Falcon as Han Solo

"To rent the aeroplanes from Sleap you have to become a member and Harrison paid his membership dues until the end of the year," Mr Pooler said.
"I asked him, 'can we make you a temporary member of the aero club?' and he said 'I don't want to be a temporary member, I want to be a lifetime member'.
"I proposed that to the committee at the aero club and of course, without hesitation they said let's make him a lifetime member.
"He's got an open invitation to visit us at any time.
"He's also invited me to visit his place in California.
"I think he's got his own mini air force of about 11 aeroplanes."
It is not the first time Ford has been connected with the county.

In 2004 he travelled along the Shropshire Union canal after attending the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in North Wales with wife Calista Flockhart.

Oscar Wilde: First photo of prisoner he was 'attracted to' revealed

The only known photograph of a working-class man Oscar Wilde took an interest in has been unearthed in a search of Reading Prison archives.

The picture of Henry Bushnell was found by Prof Peter Stoneley, from the University of Reading, who carried out a study of Wilde's fellow prisoners.

He said the playwright had been "attracted to" Bushnell but details of their relationship were unknown.

Wilde was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for homosexuality in 1895.

In a letter the disgraced playwright mentioned a "little dark-eyed chap", believed to be labourer Bushnell, who was jailed for theft 21 times between 1892 and 1911, said Prof Stoneley.

Most inmates were not photographed but, as a repeat offender, Bushnell was. There are seven mugshots of him in the archives of the recently closed Reading Prison.

'Private relationships'

Speaking on the 160th anniversary of Wilde's birth, Prof Stoneley said: "We don't know the full details of the relationship between Wilde and Bushnell.

"However, Victorian prisoners were not officially even allowed to speak to each other while in prison - much less eat or work together, or form private relationships.

Oscar Wilde is said to have sent money to Bushnell after he was released from prison

"What we do know is that as well as mentioning him in his letters, Wilde sent money to Bushnell after he was released from prison, although further meetings are unlikely."

Records about the execution of Charles Wooldridge, the soldier whose death is the subject of Wilde's work The Ballad of Reading Gaol, were also found in the archives.

In records that detail the execution of Trooper Wooldridge, the prison doctor noted that he had a "rather long" neck.

The study revealed details of the Victorian prison system, which Wilde went on to campaign against.

The Oscar Wilde and Reading Gaol exhibition opens at the Berkshire Record Office on Monday.

Steve Carell on his 'fake nose' in Foxcatcher

By Tim Masters Arts and entertainment correspondent, BBC News

Steve Carell as wealthy heir John du Pont in Foxcatcher

Actor Steve Carell has said that the prosthetic nose he wore for the film Foxcatcher made people treat him differently on set.

"It influenced the performance more than I anticipated," he said ahead of the film's gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival.
Carell is almost unrecognisable as eccentric billionaire John du Pont in Bennett Miller's wrestling drama.
Based on a true story, the film is released in the UK on 9 January 2015.
"Once all of that make up was on, people reacted and responded to me differently on set," Carell said on Thursday.
"People naturally wanted to be separate from me and I was off-putting, so organically I stayed in character. I didn't have any choice because nobody wanted to talk to me."

Steve Carell and director Bennett Miller at the BFI London Film Festival

Foxcatcher focuses on du Pont's complicated relationship with two Olympic champion wrestlers, Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and his older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo).
Director Miller said: "I'm attracted to these characters who are outsiders who end up in worlds where they don't belong."
Miller's previous film Moneyball - another sports-based drama set in the world of baseball - was nominated for six Oscars, including best picture, in 2012.
Since Foxcatcher screened at Cannes in May, Carell's performance and the film have been tipped to get Oscar nominations next year.
"You can't really put any stock in it," Carell told the BBC. "It's nice that people are talking about the film in that way, but you can't really give it too much credence."
Talking about taking on a non-comedy role, the 40-Year-Old-Virgin star said: "I just think of myself as an actor, not necessarily a comedic actor. Those are the parts I have been hired to do more often than not."
His other films include Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and its sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues; Crazy, Stupid, Love; Little Miss Sunshine and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

On TV he starred in the American version of Ricky Gervais' sitcom The Office.