The elk or wapiti is one of the largest species within the deer family and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in North America and Northeast Asia. This animal should not be confused with the still larger Alces alces, known as the moose in America, but as the "elk" in British English and in reference to populations in Eurasia. Elk range in forest and forest-edge habitat, feeding on grasses, plants and bark. Male elk have large antlers. Males engage in ritualized mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling, bugling, a loud series of vocalizations that establishes dominance over other males and attracts females. Although they are native to North America and eastern Asia, they have adapted well to countries in which they have been introduced, including Argentina and New Zealand, their great adaptability may threaten endemic species and ecosystems into which they have been introduced. Elk are susceptible to a number of infectious diseases, some of which can be transmitted to livestock.

Efforts to eliminate infectious diseases from elk populations by vaccination, have had mixed success. Some cultures revere the elk as a spiritual force. In parts of Asia and their velvet are used in traditional medicines. Elk are hunted as a game species; the meat is higher in protein than beef or chicken. Elk were long believed to belong to a subspecies of the European red deer, but evidence from many mitochondrial DNA genetic studies beginning in 1998 shows that the two are distinct species. Key morphological differences that distinguish C. canadensis from C. elaphus are the former's wider rump patch and paler-hued antlers. Early European explorers in North America, who were familiar with the smaller red deer of Europe, thought that the larger North American animal resembled a moose, gave it the name elk, the common European name for moose; the word elk is related to the Latin alces, Old Norse elgr, Scandinavian elg/älg and German Elch, all of which refer to the animal known in North America as the moose.

The name wapiti is from the Shawnee and Cree word waapiti, meaning "white rump". This name is used in particular for the Asian subspecies, because in Eurasia the name elk continues to be used for the moose. Wapiti is the preferred name for the species in New Zealand. Asian subspecies are sometimes referred to as the maral, but this name applies to the Caspian red deer, a subspecies of red deer. There is a subspecies of elk in Mongolia called the Altai wapiti known as the Altai maral. Members of the genus Cervus first appear in the fossil record 25 million years ago, during the Oligocene in Eurasia, but do not appear in the North American fossil record until the early Miocene; the extinct Irish elk was not a member of the genus Cervus, but rather the largest member of the wider deer family known from the fossil record. Until red deer and elk were considered to be one species, Cervus elaphus. However, mitochondrial DNA studies, conducted on hundreds of samples in 2004 from red deer and elk subspecies as well as other species of the Cervus deer family indicate that elk, or wapiti, should be a distinct species, namely Cervus canadensis.

The previous classification had over a dozen subspecies under the C. elaphus species designation. Elk and red deer produce fertile offspring in captivity, the two species have inter-bred in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, where the cross-bred animals have all but removed the pure elk blood from the area. There are numerous subspecies of elk described, with six from North America and four from Asia, although some taxonomists consider them different ecotypes or races of the same species. Populations vary in antler shape and size, body size and mating behavior. DNA investigations of the Eurasian subspecies revealed that phenotypic variation in antlers and rump patch development are based on "climatic-related lifestyle factors". Of the six subspecies of elk known to have inhabited North America in historical times, four remain, including the Roosevelt, Tule and Rocky Mountain; the Eastern elk and Merriam's elk subspecies have been extinct for at least a century. Four subspecies described in Asia include the Tianshan wapiti.

Two distinct subspecies found in China and Korea are the Alashan wapitis. The Manchurian wapiti is more reddish in coloration than the other populations; the Alashan wapiti of north central China is the smallest of all subspecies, has the lightest coloration and is the least studied. Biologist Valerius Geist, who has written on the world's various deer species, holds that there are only three subspecies of elk. Geist recognizes the Manchurian and Alashan wapiti but places all other elk into C. canadensis canadensis, claiming that classification of the four surviving North American groups as subspecies is driven, at least for political purposes to secure individualized conservation and protective measures for each of the surviving populations. Recent DNA studies su

Prasanna Jayakody is a prominent Sri Lankan film director and screenwriter, internationally well-recognized for his distinctive cinematic accomplishments in contemporary Sri Lankan cinema. Philosophy and silver screen harmonize at their finest with Jayakody in his movies, which explore the human state of mind, his movies stand out as fusions of human emotions and thoughts contrastingly set against the fractured socio-economic-cultural and religious canvas of Sri Lanka. At a global context, Jayakody’s cinema resonates the psychological-biological realities of mankind and arbitraries of human cognition against the concept of civilization. Jayakody’s eccentric cinematic world, in the absence of a flowing story, capitalizes on subtle but detailed images and intense characters. Jayakody, born on 25 August, 1968, in Horana, embarked on a journey of artistic expression with his excellent skills in painting, he gained his first international award from the government of Japan, winning an Art competition while he was still schooling.

Art, being the base of his visual reading, Jayakody cherishes the memory of drawing cover page vectors for his late father Jayasena Jayakody. He completed his education from Horana. Following a series of short dramas, Jayakody stunned the structured traditional Sri Lankan theater in 1993 with his debut Sevenali Saha Minissu, an absurd drama which dealt with the complexities of the human condition, realities of life, it won the gifted young dramatist, 21 years of age at the time, the Best Stage Drama award in the State Drama Festival in Sri Lanka that year. After challenging the conventional Sri Lankan theater, Jayakody turned to excel in the Sri Lankan Television Drama genre with his exceptional works of art; these dramas secured several state awards, including the Best Tele Drama of the Year. Jayakody’s Awasana Horawa in 1998 won the Best Young Director award at the Sumathi Tele Awards, his first film direction came through Sankara in 2007. The film won several awards in both local and international award festivals, including the Silver Pyramid award at the Cairo International Film Festival that same year.

The film showcased awards for the Best Debut Director and the NETPAC Award for the Best Asian Film at the Kerala International Film Festival in the same year. Sankara secured the Jury special prize at the Turkey Silk Road Film Festival, his next movie Karma, which came in 2013, was nominated for several international awards. Jayakody’s third cinematic expression 28 was named the Best Asian Film at the Amsterdam Film Awards in 2014; the film 28 received the Best Director and the Best Actor awards at the SAARC Film Festival in 2018. No. Denotes the Number of Sri Lankan film in the Sri Lankan cinema. Sankara Jayakody’s debut movie Sankara features a young Buddhist monk, who visits a temple to restore the frescoes. Following several incidents, the young monk meets a beautiful woman who stirs his innermost worldly desires that a monk is prohibited to entertain; the movie reels out the internal turmoil the protagonist undergoes while trying to restore the frescoes. Sankara encompasses a deep philosophical and psychological portrayal of the complexities of the human mindset.

The young Buddhist monk is thrown into a situation where his restrained self is in conflict with his innermost raw sexual desires. From a psychological approach, the protagonist suffers from anxiety, which arises with the conflict between his sensuous desires for the girl and the fact that he should restrain himself as a monk. KarmaJayakody’s next film Karma is a plethora of emotions woven together into a microscopic image of three lives interconnected for all peculiar reasons; the movie deals with a young man, Piyal, 23, suffering from the guilt of his mother’s death, who finds solace in attending to his neighbor, a 32 year old woman, diagnosed with cancer. Piyal’s initial curiosity about the girl, wheels into a sexual attraction and finally into empathy, he attempts to redeem himself from the guilt of his mother’s death by attending to the sick woman. Her inattentive lover learns that Piyal has taken care of his girlfriend and embraces a similar kind of guilt that Piyal was suffering from.

Concentrating on the dualities of life, the movie takes the viewer through emotional turbulence. 28In 28, country bumpkins Abasiri and Mani won't say no to a trip to Colombo if the occasion is a sad one: they have to bring back the corpse of a woman from their village. When Abasiri learns the identity of the woman, the mood changes—and the problems begin; the standard method of using an undertaker would cost too much, so in the end, it has to be an ice cream van and its unwitting driver that transports the coffin through the breath-taking Sri Lankan landscape. Layer by layer, this melancholic road movie gains depth, uncovering social chasms, but without losing its light touch. Cairo International Film Festival – 2006 – Silver Pyramid Award for Best Director International Film Festival of Kerala – 2006 – Silver Crow Pheasant International Film Festival of Kerala – 2006 – NETPAC Award Bursa Festival – 2007 – Special Jury Mention Dhaka International Film Festival – 2008 – FIPRESCI Prize NETPAC Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam Rotterdam, Netherlands Special Jury Mention at the Bled Film Festival, Slovenia Award for the Best Director at

Rex, Wrecks & XXX is a double CD by British jazz saxophonist Evan Parker and American pianist Matthew Shipp released on the French RogueArt label. The disc one was recorded in studio and the disc two live at the Vortex in London the following day; the two "Wrecks" pieces are solo improvisations by Parker. They collaborated on 2007’s Abbey Road Duos; the Down Beat review by Daniel A. Brown states "Each player, armed with an arsenal of concepts and technique, aims for a shared target, an alien melodicism centered on emotional expression, pulled form the unknown."The Point of Departure review by Jason Bivins says "As is the case with all the music on this release, it’s focused stuff that, while never for a moment sacrificing the utter distinctiveness of the musicians, is unpredictable and organic. Many of the pieces develop, at least for a brief interval, into a fragmentary, angular space that seems a common language for these two superb listeners." All compositions by Parker/Shipp except as indicatedDisc One "Rex 1" – 9:55 "Rex 2" – 6:46 "Wrecks 1" – 5:25 "Rex 3" – 1:34 "Wrecks 2" – 2:45 "Rex 4" – 6:11 "Rex 5" – 11:00 "Rex 6" – 4:33Disc Two "XXX" – 41:47 Evan Parker – tenor sax Matthew Shipp – piano