title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych tore the cartilage in his knee fooling around in the outfield during spring training in 1977. He picked up where he left off after his return from the injury, but about six weeks after his return, during a July 4 game against Baltimore, he felt his arm just, in his words, "go dead." It was a torn rotator cuff, but it would not be diagnosed until 1985. At the time Fidrych injured his arm in Baltimore his record was 6 and 2 before the game. He was removed from the game after 5.2 innings right after Eddie Murray hit a two-run home run. The Baltimore Orioles scored six runs in the inning and won the game six to four. Fidrych finished the season 6–4 with a 2.89 ERA and was again invited to the All-Star Game, but he declined the invitation due to injury. Still on the disabled list toward the end of the season, Fidrych worked as a guest color analyst on a "Monday Night Baseball" telecast for ABC; he was subsequently criticized for his lack of preparation, as when play-by-play partner Al Michaels tried talking with him about Philadelphia Phillies player Richie Hebner and Fidrych responded, "Who's Richie Hebner?" As an AL player, Fidrych had never had to face Hebner, who played in the National League.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: He pitched only three games in 1978, winning two, including an opening day win. On August 12, 1980, 48,361 fans showed up at Tiger Stadium to see what turned out to be his last attempt at a comeback. Fidrych pitched his last MLB game on October 1, 1980, in Toronto, going five innings and giving up four earned runs, while picking up the win in an 11–7 Tigers victory which was televised in Detroit.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: At the end of the 1981 season, Detroit gave Fidrych his outright release and he signed as a free agent with the Boston Red Sox, playing for one of their minor league teams. However, his torn rotator cuff, still not diagnosed and left untreated, never healed. At age 29, he was forced to retire. Fidrych went to famed sports medicine doctor James Andrews in 1985. Dr. Andrews discovered the torn rotator cuff and operated; still, the damage already done to the shoulder effectively ended Fidrych's chance of coming back to a professional baseball career.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych remained cheerful and upbeat. In a 1998 interview, when asked who he would invite to dinner if he could invite anyone in the world, Fidrych said, "My buddy and former Tigers teammate Mickey Stanley, because he's never been to my house."


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych lived with his wife Ann, whom he married in 1986, on a farm in Northborough. They had a daughter, Jessica. Aside from fixing up his farmhouse, he worked as a contractor hauling gravel and asphalt in a ten-wheeler. On weekends, he helped out in his mother-in-law's business, Chet's Diner, on Route 20 in Northborough; the diner was later operated by his daughter. He would also frequent the local baseball field to help teach and play ball with the kids.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych was not an overpowering pitcher, posting strikeout rates below the league average throughout his career. He was, however, praised for having exceptional control (compiling a walk rate of 1.77 per 9 IP over his first two seasons), and for having good late movement on his pitches while keeping the ball down and inducing many ground balls. He allowed only 23 home runs in major league innings (0.5/9 rate).


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych captured the imagination of fans with his antics on the field. He would crouch down on the pitcher's mound and fix cleat marks, in what became known as "manicuring the mound," talk to himself, talk to the ball, aim the ball like a dart, strut around the mound after every out, and throw back balls that "had hits in them," insisting they be removed from the game. Because Tigers coaches were somewhat superstitious about jinxing Fidrych's success, Bruce Kimm, a rookie catcher, caught each of Fidrych's outings.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: As his success grew, Tiger Stadium crowds would chant "We want the Bird, we want the Bird" at the end of each of his home victories. The chants would continue until he emerged from the dugout to tip his cap to the crowd. While these "curtain calls" have become more common in modern sports, they were less so in mid-1970s baseball. In his 18 appearances at Tiger Stadium, attendance equaled almost half of the entire season's 81 home games. Teams started asking Detroit to change its pitching rotation so Fidrych could pitch in their ballparks, and he appeared on the cover of numerous magazines, including "Sports Illustrated" (twice, including once with "Sesame Street" character Big Bird), "Rolling Stone" (as of 2015, the only baseball player ever to appear on the cover of the rock and roll magazine), and "The Sporting News". In one week, Fidrych turned away five people who wanted to be his agent, saying, "Only I know my real value and can negotiate it."


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych also drew attention for the simple, bachelor lifestyle he led in spite of his fame, driving a green subcompact car, living in a small Detroit apartment, wondering aloud if he could afford to answer all of his fan mail on his league-minimum $16,500 salary, and telling people that if he hadn't been a pitcher, he'd have been happy pumping gas in Northborough.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: At the end of his rookie season, the Tigers gave him a $25,000 bonus and signed him to a three-year contract worth $255,000. Economists estimated the extra attendance Fidrych generated around the league in 1976 was worth more than $1 million. Fidrych also did an Aqua Velva television commercial after the 1976 season. He was considered for the role of the jock Tom Chisum in "Grease", a role that ultimately went to Lorenzo Lamas.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: According to the Worcester District Attorney's office, a family friend found Fidrych dead beneath his ten-wheel dump truck at his Northborough home around 2:30 p.m. on April 13, 2009. He appeared to have been working on the truck at the time of the accident. Authorities said Fidrych suffocated after his clothes had become entangled with a spinning power takeoff shaft on the truck. The state medical examiner's office ruled the death an accident, according to a release from the Worcester District Attorney's office.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Joseph Amorello, owner of a road construction company who had occasionally hired Fidrych to haul gravel or asphalt, had stopped by the farm to chat with him when he found the body underneath the dump truck. "We were just, in general, getting started for the [road-building] season this week and it seems as though his truck was going to be needed. It looked like he was doing some maintenance on it," Amorello said in a telephone interview. "I found him under the truck. There's not much more I can say. I dialed 911 and that's all I could do."


title: Mark Fidrych

text: Fidrych was cremated and a funeral was held in Fidrych's honor. Thousands of people came to pay their respects.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: A 2012 wrongful death suit filed by Fidrych's widow was dismissed by a Massachusetts appeals court in November 2017. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the companies in question did provide warnings and that their equipment was free of design defects. Further, the court decreed that the companies had no legal duty to provide any such warnings because Fidrych modified the truck.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: In one of Bill James' baseball books, he quoted the Yankees' Graig Nettles as telling about an at-bat against Fidrych, who, as usual, was talking to the ball before pitching to Nettles. Immediately Graig jumped out of the batter's box and started talking to his bat. He reportedly said, "Never mind what he says to the ball. You just hit it over the outfield fence!" Nettles struck out. "Damn," he said. "Japanese bat. Doesn't understand a word of English." Nettles actually hit Fidrych very well in his career, though, with a .389 average [7-for-18] and two home runs.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: On April 15, 2009, the Tigers paid tribute to Fidrych at Comerica Park with a moment of silence and a video before their game against the Chicago White Sox.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: At the time of his death he was about to be inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted posthumously on June 18, 2009.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: On June 19, 2009, Jessica Fidrych honored her father at Comerica Park by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to manager Jim Leyland for the Tigers game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Prior to throwing out the first pitch, Jessica "manicured the mound" just like her father. Ann Fidrych, widow of Mark Fidrych, was also present on the field for the ceremony.


title: Mark Fidrych

text: The Baseball Project, a band that specializes in songs about baseball, honored Fidrych in their song "1976".


title: Johnny Sequoyah

text: Johnny Sequoyah Friedenberg (born October 25, 2002) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Bo Adams on the NBC television series "Believe" and Audrey on the "Dexter" revival miniseries "".


title: Johnny Sequoyah

text: Sequoyah was born in Los Angeles and spent her first eight years in her mother's home state of Idaho. She began acting at age eight in independent films. In 2013 and 2014, she appeared in "Ass Backwards" and "I Believe in Unicorns". She starred in "Among Ravens", directed by her father, Russell Friedenberg, and produced by her mother, Heather Rae.


title: Johnny Sequoyah

text: In 2014, she appeared in the thriller film "Wind Walkers", also directed by her father. Her most notable role was Bo Adams in the NBC television series "Believe". In 2016 portrayed "Taylor Otto" in the pilot for the ABC series "American Housewife", but was replaced by Meg Donnelly before the series was picked up by the network.


title: Johnny Sequoyah

text: In August 2019, it was announced that Sequoyah had joined the cast of "Love, Victor", the Hulu sequel series to the 2018 film "Love, Simon", set to play the role of Mia. However, later that month, the role was recast with Rachel Naomi Hilson due to a decision to take the character in a new creative direction. In 2021, Sequoyah played Audrey on the "Dexter" revival miniseries "".


title: Marshal

text: Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated offices, such as in military rank and civilian law enforcement.


title: Marshal

text: In most countries, the rank of Marshal is the highest Army rank (equivalent to a five-star General of the Army in the United States).


title: Marshal

text: "Marshal" is an ancient loanword from Norman French (cf. modern French "maréchal"), which in turn is borrowed from Old Frankish *"" (="stable boy, keeper, servant"), being still evident in Middle Dutch "maerscalc", "marscal", and in modern Dutch "maarschalk" (="military chief commander"; the meaning influenced by the French use).


title: Marshal

text: It is cognate with Old High German "" "id.", modern German "(Feld-)Marschall" (="military chief commander"; the meaning again influenced by the French use).


title: Marshal

text: It originally and literally meant "horse servant", from Germanic "*marha-" "horse" (cf. English "mare" and modern German "Mähre", meaning "horse of bad quality") and "*skalk-" "servant" (cf. Old Engl. "scealc" "servant, soldier" and outdated German "Schalk", meaning "high-ranking servant"). This "horse servant" origin is retained in the current French name for "farrier": "maréchal-ferrant".


title: Marshal

text: The late Roman and Byzantine title of "comes stabuli" ("count of the stables") was a "calque" of the Germanic, which became Old French "" and modern "connétable", and, borrowed from the Old French, the English word "constable". Finally, in Byzantium, a marshal with elevated authority, notably a borderlands military command, was also known as an "exarch".


title: Marshal

text: In many countries, the rank of marshal, cf. field marshal, is the highest army rank, outranking other general officers. The equivalent navy rank is often admiral of the fleet or grand admiral.


title: Marshal

text: Marshals are typically, but not exclusively, appointed only in wartime. In many countries, especially in Europe, the special symbol of a marshal is a baton, and their insignia often incorporate batons.


title: Marshal

text: In some countries, the term "marshal" is used instead of "general" in the higher air force ranks. The four highest Royal Air Force ranks are marshal of the Royal Air Force, air chief marshal, air marshal and air vice marshal (although the first named, which has generally been suspended as a peacetime rank, is the only one which can properly be considered a marshal). The five-star rank of marshal of the Air Force is used by some Commonwealth and Middle Eastern air forces.


title: Marshal

text: In the French Army and most National Armies modeled upon the French system, "maréchal des logis" ("marshal-of-lodgings") is a cavalry term equivalent to sergeant.


title: Marshal

text: Some historical rulers have used special "marshal" titles to reward certain subjects. Though not strictly military ranks, these honorary titles have been exclusively bestowed upon successful military leaders, such as the famous grand marshal of Ayacucho Antonio José de Sucre. Most famous are the Marshals of France ("Maréchaux de France"), not least under Napoléon I. Another such title was that of "Reichsmarschall", bestowed upon Hermann Göring by Adolf Hitler, although it was never a regular title as it had been "invented" for Göring who was the only titleholder in history. In England during the First Barons' War the title "Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church" was bestowed upon Robert Fitzwalter by election.


title: Marshal

text: Usually in monarchies, one or several of the senior dignitaries wear the title of "Marshal" or a compound such as "Court Marshal" (not related to court martial, therefore usually called "Marshal of the Court" to prevent confusion) or more rarely "Grand Marshal".


title: Marshal

text: The function of the "Marshal of the Court" varies according to national tradition, but frequently he is the chief of staff of the monarch's household (meaning the palace and other domains). Often, the charge includes also the honorary privilege as chief of the protocol to announce formally the arrival of VIP guests at audiences, state dinners, and conferences in the monarch's premises. This office was often made hereditary in the high nobility, e.g., the English Earl Marshal, or the Scots Earl Marischal.


title: Marshal

text: The term is also used in more ordinary contexts, such as modern pageantry; for example, the "grand marshal" of a parade is often an honored guest or dignitary.


title: Marshal

text: In the United States, many colleges and universities have marshals. In some cases, there is a single "faculty marshal," appointed to the post on a more or less permanent basis. In other cases, there are one or several faculty marshals, and often one or several student marshals appointed for a single occasion. In all cases, the post is one of honor given to a senior faculty member or outstanding student, and the functions are generally limited to leading processions or parts of processions during commencement exercises, academic convocations, encaenia and similar events. These marshals often carry maces, staffs or wands of office.


title: Marshal

text: A chief usher at a large wedding is sometimes called a "wedding marshal". In addition to coordinating other ushers in attending guests, the wedding marshal may be a messenger between parties to signal the impending start of the service or communicate delays. In a church wedding, particularly a nuptial mass, these functions may be assumed by a verger. The wedding marshal is a position of honor and trust, often filled by a close friend or relative.


title: Marshal

text: Apart from its military uses, the Polish word "marszałek" (marshal) also refers to certain political offices:


title: Marshal

text: Demonstration marshals, also called stewards, are used by the organizers of large or controversial demonstrations, rallies and protests, to help ensure the safety of the participants. They are especially important for preventing infiltration by agents provocateurs.


title: Marshal

text: In motorsports, such as auto racing, motorcycle racing, and rallying, the track marshals wave the racing flags and assist crashed or broken-down vehicles and their drivers, while pit marshals watch over the procedures in the pits, and fire marshals assist in the event of a fire on the track or in the pit. The FIA provides general rules and recommendations on marshalling. In the 1977 South African Grand Prix, 1977 Japanese Grand Prix, 2000 Italian Grand Prix, 2001 Australian Grand Prix, and 2013 Canadian Grand Prix, track marshals were victims of fatal accidents.


title: Marshal

text: In some organized competitions, such as the endurance competition "Tough Guy," officials seeing to the observance of the rules are styled marshals. In road running races, in particular, "course marshals" enforce rules of competition and assist runners as needed.


title: Marshal

text: The word "Maréchaussée" derives from the French word "Maréchal" (plural "Maréchaux"), which was the second highest military charge in feudal France after "Connétable" (Constable), the military Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armed Forces until 1627, when the charge of Constable was abolished. The Constable and the Marshals had also jurisdictional powers, at first only over members of the armed forces. The additional conferring of police powers led to the creation of the "Corps of the "Maréchaussée"" ("Marshalcy"; the forerunner of the modern "Gendarmerie") and to an Ancien Régime Court of Justice called the "Tribunal of the Constable and the Marshals of France" which was competent for judging military personnel and civilians alike in cases of petty violations of the law.


title: Marshal

text: The term "Maréchaussée" was also used for the Continental Army's military police during the American Revolution.


title: Marshal

text: In the present-day Netherlands, the "Koninklijke Marechaussee" ("Royal Marshalcy") is a national military police force with civilian competences, similar to the French "Gendarmerie nationale".


title: Marshal

text: The federal court system in the United States has 94 federal judicial districts, each with a court (with one or more judges), a United States Attorney with assistants such as prosecutors and government lawyers and a marshal, appointed by the president, in charge of federal law enforcement. The courts are part of the independent judicial branch of the government, while the marshals and U.S. attorneys are part of the Department of Justice in the executive branch. The U.S. marshal for the district primarily oversees court security and has a unit of appointed deputies and special deputies. (Other law enforcement operations and the federal prison system are handled by other federal police agencies.) The United States Marshals Service is a professional, civil service unit of federal police, part of the system of marshals, made up of career law enforcement personnel rather than the appointed district marshals. The U.S. Marshals Service assists with court security and prisoner transport, asset forfeiture, serves arrest warrants and seeks fugitives.


title: Marshal

text: The Federal Air Marshal Service is a separate armed federal law enforcement service employed to protect commercial airliners from the threat of aircraft hijacking. These air marshals work for the Transportation Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.


title: Marshal

text: The U.S. Supreme Court maintains its own, separate Marshal of the United States Supreme Court, who also controls the U.S. Supreme Court Police, a security police service answerable to the court itself, rather than to the president or attorney general. It handles security for the Supreme Court building and for the justices personally, and undertakes whatever other missions the court may require or assign.


title: Marshal

text: In many U.S. states, marshals can be found acting at the state, local or municipal level; marshals can be court bailiffs or process servers, or even fully sworn police officers. In some states, they may be sworn peace officers, however their job is, in certain cases, entirely civil rather than criminal law enforcement. In other states, some communities maintain a Town or City Marshal who is responsible for all general law enforcement within the respective jurisdiction, as well as court duties, while others are strictly court officers. This is especially true in communities with both police and marshals. The position of marshal vastly differs from state to state. At least one local railroad servicing company's part-time public safety staff, which are both fire and police trained, is supervised by a chief marshal.


title: Marshal

text: American Old West (for example, Arizona Territory and Texas of the 1880s): Marshals, usually called "town marshals" or "city marshals" (since the larger cities were often punctilious about their titles), were appointed or elected police officers of small communities, with powers and duties similar to those of a police chief; these powers generally ended at the border of the community. By contrast, federal marshals (U.S. marshals) worked in a larger territory, especially in pioneer country, and this area could potentially overlap with the state or territorial office of county sheriff (who then, as now, policed communities, as well as areas between communities). The word "marshal" is still used in this sense, especially in the American Southwest. ("See" List of Western lawmen.) Town or city marshal is still the name for the head officer of some community police forces.


title: Marshal

text: Arizona: Cities and towns decide whether to appoint or elect a marshal, or have the board, council, or city manager hire a chief of police as the top criminal law enforcement official for their jurisdiction (as in the town of Tombstone). Marshals are elected by the trustees to serve a fixed term, and chiefs of police can be fired at will by whomever hired them, just like any other employee.


title: Marshal

text: California: Several urban counties (including Los Angeles, San Bernardino County, California, and San Diego) once maintained separate county marshal's offices, which served as court officers similar to U.S. marshals or constables, but mainly for the municipal court system. This system was abolished by state law in 2000, when the sheriffs of those counties announced that those counties' marshals would be absorbed into their departments. Therefore, many have been merged into or taken over by the local county sheriff's office, with the exceptions of Shasta County and Trinity County both located in Northern California. As of 2010, the marshal of San Benito County has been disbanded as an independent organization, with its employees becoming part of the sheriff's office. California also has fire marshals and deputy fire marshals, who may work for the State of California Fire Marshal's Office, or various county, city or special districts throughout the state. Fire marshals and deputy fire marshals are full-time sworn peace officers throughout the state, with powers of arrest statewide under section 830.37 of the California Penal Code. Their responsibilities include fire and arson investigation, bomb and explosives investigation, general law enforcement, as well as enforcement of the fire code.


title: Marshal

text: Colorado: Cities, towns and villages decide whether to appoint or elect a marshal, or have the board, council, or city manager hire a chief of police as the top criminal law enforcement for their jurisdiction. Marshals are elected by the trustees to serve a fixed term, and chiefs of police can be fired at will by whoever hired them, just like any other employee.


title: Marshal

text: Connecticut: In 2000, Connecticut eliminated the county sheriff system, and replaced it with two types of marshals. "State" marshals operate out of the executive branch of state government. They are sworn peace officers who perform a wide range of duties, including service of process, seizing money and property under court order, evictions, serving tax warrants, and arresting individuals on bench warrants. "Judicial" marshals are employed by the judicial branch. They are sworn peace officers who perform court security and transport detainees to and from court.


title: Marshal

text: Georgia: The marshal is a commissioned armed and uniformed law enforcement officer of the county state courts which have jurisdiction over civil matters and state ordinances. In the Atlanta metro counties, marshal's offices enforce evictions, foreclosures, subpoenas, civil forfeitures, judgements, seizure, liens, repossession, and garnishment. With a few exceptions, elsewhere in Georgia, the sheriff's office is responsible for enforcement of these duties, with some sheriffs' offices having an assigned unit or personnel for these duties.


title: Marshal

text: Indiana: Indiana Town Marshals are fully-sworn, ILEA certified police officers who act as the chief police officer of a town. General police terms in Indiana vary by what local government one works for; for example: counties have Sheriff's/deputies, cities have Police Departments/Officers and Towns have Marshals/deputies. In Indiana, a town is managed by a council without an elected mayor, whereas a city has a mayor and, thus, a city police department. Marshals are responsible for all law enforcement in their respective town, and their primary duties are the enforcement of local and state laws or ordinances as well as code enforcement. The Town Marshal may also be the town's humane law enforcement officer. Town marshals are fully sworn state certified police officers though the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, having law enforcement authority statewide; therefore, it is not at all uncommon for Town Marshals to be seen outside of their bailiwicks assisting other police agencies. Some town marshal agencies in Indiana can be quite large. A Town Marshal can appoint any number of unpaid deputy town marshals or reserve officers who may exercise full police powers in the state. Indiana Town Marshals are authorized to enforce not only city/town code, but also county ordinances; this differs from city police departments where a city police officer may only enforce city code or a sheriff's deputy, who may only enforce county code. Indiana Code recognizes Town Marshals as Police Officers, therefore it is very common for Indiana Town Marshal's Offices to go simply by "Police Department" .


title: Marshal

text: Under Indiana Code IC36-5-7 the marshal is described as "the chief police officer of the town and has the powers of other law enforcement officers in executing the orders of the legislative body and enforcing laws. The marshal or his deputy:


title: Marshal

text: Maine: The State Marshal Service provides physical security and law enforcement duties to the judicial system, as well as protection of all state judges. Deputy marshals are fully sworn state law enforcement officers with statewide authority.


title: Marshal

text: Ohio: The term "village marshal" has been used for the same function, often filled without colleagues, directly under the mayor.


title: Marshal

text: Texas: City marshals and deputy city marshals have, by law, the same authority as a municipal (village, town, or city) police officer. However, municipalities (like Fort Worth), that have both a police force as well as a city marshal's office, often utilize the police as the general law enforcement agency of the municipality, while court security and process service is provided by the city marshal's office. In municipalities that do not have a police department, the city marshal's office sometimes serves as the agency that provides general law enforcement services to residents.


title: Marshal

text: Washington State: The city of Seattle employs marshals in their municipal court, with the senior officer holding the title of chief marshal and the subordinate officers known as deputy marshals. Seattle Marshals provide court security and law enforcement services within the court. They handle arrests of out-of-custody defendants within the courthouse and transport in custody defendants to and from court hearings. The King County Sheriff's Office (county seat in Seattle) also employs court marshals, which is a unit under the sheriff's office. In the Old-West themed town of Winthrop, the municipal police force is headed by a town marshal, consistent with the Old West restoration of the buildings and tourist attractions.


title: Marshal

text: Wisconsin: A marshal occupies the same relation to the governmental affairs of the municipality as the sheriff does to the county.


title: Marshal

text: The hereditary title of "marshal" at one time designated the head of household security for the King of England. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, served four kings in this office, ultimately becoming one of the most powerful men in Europe; by the time he died in 1219, people throughout Europe (not just England) referred to William Marshal simply as "the marshal". The office of hereditary Marshal (or Earl Marshal) thus evolved into that of a Great Officer of State.


title: Marshal

text: The task of maintaining law and order within the king's court then devolved upon the office of Knight Marshal (established in 1236). Together with his officers, the King's (or Queen's) Marshalmen, the Knight Marshal continued to have restricted powers of arrest within a radius of the sovereign's palace until 1846, when the office was abolished.


title: Marshal

text: In 1595, Queen Elizabeth I issued letters patent giving powers to a marshal to maintain order within the City of London. Later, an under-marshal and six city marshalmen were appointed to assist the marshal in his duties. As a result of the Police Acts of 1829 and 1839, the marshal's role changed significantly. , one city marshal, currently Colonel Billy King-Harman, CBE, still acts as peacekeeper to the Lord Mayor of London, leading processions and representing the Lord Mayor at all Entries of Troops (challenging and then escorting those few regiments entitled to march though the City of London).


title: Marshal

text: The office of "marischal of Scotland" ("marascallus Scotie" or "marscallus Scotie") had been held heritably by the senior member of the Keith family since Hervey de Keith, who held the office of marischal under Malcolm IV and William I. The descendant of Herveus, Sir Robert de Keith (d. 1332), was confirmed in the office of "Great Marischal of Scotland" by Robert Bruce around 1324.


title: Marshal

text: Robert de Keith's great-grandson, William, was raised to the peerage as Earl Marischal by James II in about 1458. The peerage died out when George Keith, the 10th Earl, forfeited it by joining the Jacobite Rising of 1715.


title: Marshal

text: The marischal was to serve as custodian of the Royal Regalia of Scotland, and protect the king's person when attending parliament. The former duty was fulfilled by the 7th Earl during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, who hid the Royal Regalia at Dunnottar Castle. The role of regulation of heraldry carried out by the English Earl Marshal is carried out in Scotland by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.


title: Marshal

text: The separate office of Knight Marischal was first created for the Scottish coronation of Charles I in 1633. The office is not heritable, although it has been held by members of the Keith family.


title: Marshal

text: In France, the "Maréchaussée" ("Marshalcy") was the forerunner of the French "Gendarmerie". A military corps having such duties was first created in 1337, placed under the command of the Constable of France (the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armed Forces), and named the "Connétablie". In 1627 after the abolition of the title of "Connétable", it was put under the command of the "Marshals of France," and renamed the "Maréchaussée". Its main mission was to protect the roads from highwaymen.


title: Marshal

text: The "Maréchaussée" was a mounted military police force organised and equipped along military lines. The force wore uniforms similar to those of the dragoons of the regular army and carried the same muskets and sabres. While its existence ensured the relative safety of French rural districts and roads, the "Maréchaussée" was regarded in contemporary England (which had no effective police force of any nature) as a symbol of foreign tyranny.


title: Marshal

text: In 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the "Maréchaussée" numbered 3,660 men divided into small detachments called brigades. By law dated 16 February 1791, this force was renamed the "Gendarmerie Nationale," though at first its personnel remained unchanged. Later many of them died under the guillotine, especially the members of the nobility.


title: Marshal

text: The new designation "Gendarmerie" was derived from the term "gens d'armes" (gentlemen/people at arms) who were originally heavy cavalry regiments (called at first "Ordonnances royales") which were part of the King's household, the equivalent of the English "Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms".


title: Marshal

text: The title "Marshal of France" is a "Dignité d'État" ("State Dignity") in the contemporary French Republic, not only a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements, especially in times of war or national crisis.


title: Marshal

text: However, the Marshal of France was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France during the "Ancien Régime" and Bourbon Restoration and one of the Great Dignitaries of the Empire during the First French Empire and the Second French Empire (when the title was not "Marshal of France" but "Marshal of the Empire")


title: Marshal

text: A Marshal of France displays seven stars and is equivalent to a six star general in armies of other countries. The marshal also receives a baton, a blue cylinder with stars, formerly fleurs-de-lis during the monarchy and Eagles during the First French Empire and Second French Empire. It has the Latin inscription: "Terror belli, decus pacis", which means "terror in war, ornament in peace".


title: Marshal

text: The position in the French Navy ("Marine nationale") equivalent to the "Marshal of France" is called "Amiral de France" ("Admiral of France"). The title has not been conferred since 1869. Theoretically, the equivalent title in the French Air Force is "Général de France" ("General of France"), but it has never been conferred to anyone yet.


title: Marshal

text: Six Marshals of France have been given the even more prestigious rank of "Marshal General of the King's Armies and Camps": Biron, Lesdiguières, Turenne, Villars, Saxe, and Soult. This rank and title no longer exists in present-day republican France.


title: Marshal

text: In the Netherlands, the "Koninklijke Marechaussee" are the "gendarmerie" force created by King William I to replace the French "gendarmerie" on October 26, 1814. The word "gendarmerie" had gained a negative connotation, so William called the new force ""marechaussée"" (an alternate French word for "gendarmerie"). At that time, the "marechaussee" was part of the army ("landmacht"). The "marechaussee" performed police duties for the army, as well as civilian police work as a part of the national police ("rijkspolitie"). The "marechaussee" formed the only police force in many small cities like Venlo, especially in the southern provinces of Limburg and North Brabant. As of 1998, the "marechaussee" is a separate branch of the Dutch military, and is assigned both military and civilian police tasks.


title: Darwin's Game

text: 17-year-old high school sophomore Kaname Sudō accepts an online invitation by a friend to play an app game called "Darwin's Game", unbeknownst to him that it involves a fight between life and death. Those who play the game are given a Sigil, an ability that varies from player to player. Trapped in this game of relentless murder and conquest, Kaname determines to clear the game, and seek out and kill the Game Master.


title: Darwin's Game

text: FLIPFLOPs launched the series in the January 2013 issue of Akita Shoten's "shōnen" manga magazine "Bessatsu Shōnen Champion" which was published on December 12, 2012. The series has been compiled into 27 volumes as of December 2022. The manga entered its final arc on January 11, 2020.


title: Darwin's Game

text: An anime television series adaptation was announced in the 16th volume of the manga on November 8, 2018. The series is directed by Yoshinobu Tokumoto and written by Shū Miyama, the writer of the FLIPFLOPs duo and also original creator of the manga series, with animation by studio Nexus and character designs by Kazuya Nakanishi. Kenichiro Suehiro is composing the series' music. The series aired from January 3 to March 20, 2020 on Tokyo MX and other channels. The first episode was listed as a one-hour episode and had an advanced screening on the night of December 24, 2019. ASCA performed the series' opening theme song "CHAIN", while Mashiro Ayano performed the series' ending theme song "Alive". Aniplex of America licensed the series, and began streaming the series on FunimationNow, AnimeLab and Wakanim from January 3, 2020, and on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE from February 2, 2020. Funimation produced an English dub for the series. It ran for 11 episodes.


title: Recommender system

text: A recommender system, or a recommendation system (sometimes replacing 'system' with a synonym such as platform or engine), is a subclass of information filtering system that provide suggestions for items that are most pertinent to a particular user. Typically, the suggestions refer to various decision-making processes, such as what product to purchase, what music to listen to, or what online news to read. Recommender systems are particularly useful when an individual needs to choose an item from a potentially overwhelming number of items that a service may offer.


title: Recommender system

text: Recommender systems are used in a variety of areas, with commonly recognised examples taking the form of playlist generators for video and music services, product recommenders for online stores, or content recommenders for social media platforms and open web content recommenders. These systems can operate using a single input, like music, or multiple inputs within and across platforms like news, books and search queries. There are also popular recommender systems for specific topics like restaurants and online dating. Recommender systems have also been developed to explore research articles and experts, collaborators, and financial services.


title: Recommender system

text: Recommender systems usually make use of either or both collaborative filtering and content-based filtering (also known as the personality-based approach), as well as other systems such as knowledge-based systems. Collaborative filtering approaches build a model from a user's past behavior (items previously purchased or selected and/or numerical ratings given to those items) as well as similar decisions made by other users. This model is then used to predict items (or ratings for items) that the user may have an interest in. Content-based filtering approaches utilize a series of discrete, pre-tagged characteristics of an item in order to recommend additional items with similar properties.


title: Recommender system

text: We can demonstrate the differences between collaborative and content-based filtering by comparing two early music recommender systems – Last.fm and Pandora Radio.


title: Recommender system

text: Each type of system has its strengths and weaknesses. In the above example, Last.fm requires a large amount of information about a user to make accurate recommendations. This is an example of the cold start problem, and is common in collaborative filtering systems. Whereas Pandora needs very little information to start, it is far more limited in scope (for example, it can only make recommendations that are similar to the original seed).


title: Recommender system

text: Recommender systems are a useful alternative to search algorithms since they help users discover items they might not have found otherwise. Of note, recommender systems are often implemented using search engines indexing non-traditional data.


title: Recommender system

text: Elaine Rich created 1979 unknowingly the first recommender systems Grundy. She looked for a way to recommend a user a book he might like. Her idea was to create a system that asks the user specific questions and assigns him stereotypes depending on his answers. Depending on a users stereotype, he would then get a recommendation for a book he might like.


title: Recommender system

text: The first actual mention of recommender System was in a technical report as a "digital bookshelf" in 1990 by Jussi Karlgren at Columbia University, and implemented at scale and worked through in technical reports and publications from 1994 onwards by Jussi Karlgren, then at SICS,a


title: Recommender system

text: Montaner provided the first overview of recommender systems from an intelligent agent perspective. Adomavicius provided a new, alternate overview of recommender systems. Herlocker provides an additional overview of evaluation techniques for recommender systems, and Beel et al. discussed the problems of offline evaluations. Beel et al. have also provided literature surveys on available research paper recommender systems and existing challenges.


title: Recommender system

text: One approach to the design of recommender systems that has wide use is collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering is based on the assumption that people who agreed in the past will agree in the future, and that they will like similar kinds of items as they liked in the past. The system generates recommendations using only information about rating profiles for different users or items. By locating peer users/items with a rating history similar to the current user or item, they generate recommendations using this neighborhood. Collaborative filtering methods are classified as memory-based and model-based. A well-known example of memory-based approaches is the user-based algorithm, while that of model-based approaches is Matrix factorization (recommender systems).


title: Recommender system

text: A key advantage of the collaborative filtering approach is that it does not rely on machine analyzable content and therefore it is capable of accurately recommending complex items such as movies without requiring an "understanding" of the item itself. Many algorithms have been used in measuring user similarity or item similarity in recommender systems. For example, the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) approach and the Pearson Correlation as first implemented by Allen.


title: Recommender system

text: When building a model from a user's behavior, a distinction is often made between explicit and implicit forms of data collection.


title: Recommender system

text: Collaborative filtering approaches often suffer from three problems: cold start, scalability, and sparsity.


title: Recommender system

text: One of the most famous examples of collaborative filtering is item-to-item collaborative filtering (people who buy x also buy y), an algorithm popularized by Amazon.com's recommender system.


title: Recommender system

text: Many social networks originally used collaborative filtering to recommend new friends, groups, and other social connections by examining the network of connections between a user and their friends. Collaborative filtering is still used as part of hybrid systems.


title: Recommender system

text: Another common approach when designing recommender systems is content-based filtering. Content-based filtering methods are based on a description of the item and a profile of the user's preferences. These methods are best suited to situations where there is known data on an item (name, location, description, etc.), but not on the user. Content-based recommenders treat recommendation as a user-specific classification problem and learn a classifier for the user's likes and dislikes based on an item's features.


title: Recommender system

text: In this system, keywords are used to describe the items, and a user profile is built to indicate the type of item this user likes. In other words, these algorithms try to recommend items similar to those that a user liked in the past or is examining in the present. It does not rely on a user sign-in mechanism to generate this often temporary profile. In particular, various candidate items are compared with items previously rated by the user, and the best-matching items are recommended. This approach has its roots in information retrieval and information filtering research.


title: Recommender system

text: Basically, these methods use an item profile (i.e., a set of discrete attributes and features) characterizing the item within the system. To abstract the features of the items in the system, an item presentation algorithm is applied. A widely used algorithm is the tf–idf representation (also called vector space representation). The system creates a content-based profile of users based on a weighted vector of item features. The weights denote the importance of each feature to the user and can be computed from individually rated content vectors using a variety of techniques. Simple approaches use the average values of the rated item vector while other sophisticated methods use machine learning techniques such as Bayesian Classifiers, cluster analysis, decision trees, and artificial neural networks in order to estimate the probability that the user is going to like the item.


title: Recommender system

text: A key issue with content-based filtering is whether the system can learn user preferences from users' actions regarding one content source and use them across other content types. When the system is limited to recommending content of the same type as the user is already using, the value from the recommendation system is significantly less than when other content types from other services can be recommended. For example, recommending news articles based on news browsing is useful. Still, it would be much more useful when music, videos, products, discussions, etc., from different services, can be recommended based on news browsing. To overcome this, most content-based recommender systems now use some form of the hybrid system.


title: Recommender system

text: Content-based recommender systems can also include opinion-based recommender systems. In some cases, users are allowed to leave text reviews or feedback on the items. These user-generated texts are implicit data for the recommender system because they are potentially rich resources of both feature/aspects of the item and users' evaluation/sentiment to the item. Features extracted from the user-generated reviews are improved meta-data of items, because as they also reflect aspects of the item like meta-data, extracted features are widely concerned by the users. Sentiments extracted from the reviews can be seen as users' rating scores on the corresponding features. Popular approaches of opinion-based recommender system utilize various techniques including text mining, information retrieval, sentiment analysis (see also Multimodal sentiment analysis) and deep learning.


title: Recommender system

text: Most recommender systems now use a hybrid approach, combining collaborative filtering, content-based filtering, and other approaches. There is no reason why several different techniques of the same type could not be hybridized. Hybrid approaches can be implemented in several ways: by making content-based and collaborative-based predictions separately and then combining them; by adding content-based capabilities to a collaborative-based approach (and vice versa); or by unifying the approaches into one model (see for a complete review of recommender systems). Several studies that empirically compare the performance of the hybrid with the pure collaborative and content-based methods and demonstrated that the hybrid methods can provide more accurate


title: Recommender system

text: recommendations than pure approaches. These methods can also be used to overcome some of the common problems in recommender systems such as cold start and the sparsity problem, as well as the knowledge engineering bottleneck in knowledge-based approaches.


title: Recommender system

text: Netflix is a good example of the use of hybrid recommender systems. The website makes recommendations by comparing the watching and searching habits of similar users (i.e., collaborative filtering) as well as by offering movies that share characteristics with films that a user has rated highly (content-based filtering).


title: Recommender system

text: These recommender systems use the interactions of a user within a session to generate recommendations. Session-based recommender systems are used at Youtube and Amazon. These are particularly useful when history (such as past clicks, purchases) of a user is not available or not relevant in the current user session. Domains, where session-based recommendations are particularly relevant, include video, e-commerce, travel, music and more. Most instances of session-based recommender systems rely on the sequence of recent interactions within a session without requiring any additional details (historical, demographic) of the user. Techniques for session-based recommendations are mainly based on generative sequential models such as Recurrent Neural Networks, Transformers, and other deep learning based approaches


title: Recommender system

text: The recommendation problem can be seen as a special instance of a reinforcement learning problem whereby the user is the environment upon which the agent, the recommendation system acts upon in order to receive a reward, for instance, a click or engagement by the user. One aspect of reinforcement learning that is of particular use in the area of recommender systems is the fact that the models or policies can be learned by providing a reward to the recommendation agent. This is in contrast to traditional learning techniques which rely on supervised learning approaches that are less flexible, reinforcement learning recommendation techniques allow to potentially train models that can be optimized directly on metrics of engagement, and user interest.


title: Recommender system

text: Multi-criteria recommender systems (MCRS) can be defined as recommender systems that incorporate preference information upon multiple criteria. Instead of developing recommendation techniques based on a single criterion value, the overall preference of user u for the item i, these systems try to predict a rating for unexplored items of u by exploiting preference information on multiple criteria that affect this overall preference value. Several researchers approach MCRS as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, and apply MCDM methods and techniques to implement MCRS systems. See this chapter for an extended introduction.


title: Recommender system

text: The majority of existing approaches to recommender systems focus on recommending the most relevant content to users using contextual information, yet do not take into account the risk of disturbing the user with unwanted notifications. It is important to consider the risk of upsetting the user by pushing recommendations in certain circumstances, for instance, during a professional meeting, early morning, or late at night. Therefore, the performance of the recommender system depends in part on the degree to which it has incorporated the risk into the recommendation process. One option to manage this issue is "DRARS", a system which models the context-aware recommendation as a bandit problem. This system combines a content-based technique and a contextual bandit algorithm.


title: Recommender system

text: Mobile recommender systems make use of internet-accessing smart phones to offer personalized, context-sensitive recommendations. This is a particularly difficult area of research as mobile data is more complex than data that recommender systems often have to deal with. It is heterogeneous, noisy, requires spatial and temporal auto-correlation, and has validation and generality problems.


title: Recommender system

text: There are three factors that could affect the mobile recommender systems and the accuracy of prediction results: the context, the recommendation method and privacy. Additionally, mobile recommender systems suffer from a transplantation problem – recommendations may not apply in all regions (for instance, it would be unwise to recommend a recipe in an area where all of the ingredients may not be available).


title: Recommender system

text: One example of a mobile recommender system are the approaches taken by companies such as Uber and Lyft to generate driving routes for taxi drivers in a city. This system uses GPS data of the routes that taxi drivers take while working, which includes location (latitude and longitude), time stamps, and operational status (with or without passengers). It uses this data to recommend a list of pickup points along a route, with the goal of optimizing occupancy times and profits.


title: Recommender system

text: One of the events that energized research in recommender systems was the Netflix Prize. From 2006 to 2009, Netflix sponsored a competition, offering a grand prize of $1,000,000 to the team that could take an offered dataset of over 100 million movie ratings and return recommendations that were 10% more accurate than those offered by the company's existing recommender system. This competition energized the search for new and more accurate algorithms. On 21 September 2009, the grand prize of US$1,000,000 was given to the BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos team using tiebreaking rules.


title: Recommender system

text: The most accurate algorithm in 2007 used an ensemble method of 107 different algorithmic approaches, blended into a single prediction. As stated by the winners, Bell et al.:


title: Recommender system

text: Predictive accuracy is substantially improved when blending multiple predictors. "Our experience is that most efforts should be concentrated in deriving substantially different approaches, rather than refining a single technique." Consequently, our solution is an ensemble of many methods.


title: Recommender system

text: Many benefits accrued to the web due to the Netflix project. Some teams have taken their technology and applied it to other markets. Some members from the team that finished second place founded Gravity R&D, a recommendation engine that's active in the RecSys community. 4-Tell, Inc. created a Netflix project–derived solution for ecommerce websites.


title: Recommender system

text: A number of privacy issues arose around the dataset offered by Netflix for the Netflix Prize competition. Although the data sets were anonymized in order to preserve customer privacy, in 2007 two researchers from the University of Texas were able to identify individual users by matching the data sets with film ratings on the Internet Movie Database. As a result, in December 2009, an anonymous Netflix user sued Netflix in Doe v. Netflix, alleging that Netflix had violated United States fair trade laws and the Video Privacy Protection Act by releasing the datasets. This, as well as concerns from the Federal Trade Commission, led to the cancellation of a second Netflix Prize competition in 2010.


title: Recommender system

text: Evaluation is important in assessing the effectiveness of recommendation algorithms. To measure the effectiveness of recommender systems, and compare different approaches, three types of evaluations are available: user studies, online evaluations (A/B tests), and offline evaluations.


title: Recommender system

text: The commonly used metrics are the mean squared error and root mean squared error, the latter having been used in the Netflix Prize. The information retrieval metrics such as precision and recall or DCG are useful to assess the quality of a recommendation method. Diversity, novelty, and coverage are also considered as important aspects in evaluation. However, many of the classic evaluation measures are highly criticized.


title: Recommender system

text: Evaluating the performance of a recommendation algorithm on a fixed test dataset will always be extremely challenging as it is impossible to accurately predict the reactions of real users to the recommendations. Hence any metric that computes the effectiveness of an algorithm in offline data will be imprecise.


title: Recommender system

text: User studies are rather a small scale. A few dozens or hundreds of users are presented recommendations created by different recommendation approaches, and then the users judge which recommendations are best.


title: Recommender system

text: In A/B tests, recommendations are shown to typically thousands of users of a real product, and the recommender system randomly picks at least two different recommendation approaches to generate recommendations. The effectiveness is measured with implicit measures of effectiveness such as conversion rate or click-through rate.


title: Recommender system

text: Offline evaluations are based on historic data, e.g. a dataset that contains information about how users previously rated movies.


title: Recommender system

text: The effectiveness of recommendation approaches is then measured based on how well a recommendation approach can predict the users' ratings in the dataset. While a rating is an explicit expression of whether a user liked a movie, such information is not available in all domains. For instance, in the domain of citation recommender systems, users typically do not rate a citation or recommended article. In such cases, offline evaluations may use implicit measures of effectiveness. For instance, it may be assumed that a recommender system is effective that is able to recommend as many articles as possible that are contained in a research article's reference list. However, this kind of offline evaluations is seen critical by many researchers. For instance, it has been shown that results of offline evaluations have low correlation with results from user studies or A/B tests. A dataset popular for offline evaluation has been shown to contain duplicate data and thus to lead to wrong conclusions in the evaluation of algorithms. Often, results of so-called offline evaluations do not correlate with actually assessed user-satisfaction. This is probably because offline training is highly biased toward the highly reachable items, and offline testing data is highly influenced by the outputs of the online recommendation module. Researchers have concluded that the results of offline evaluations should be viewed critically.


title: Recommender system

text: Typically, research on recommender systems is concerned with finding the most accurate recommendation algorithms. However, there are a number of factors that are also important.


title: Recommender system

text: Recommender systems are notoriously difficult to evaluate offline, with some researchers claiming that this has led to a reproducibility crisis in recommender systems publications. A recent survey of a small number of selected publications applying deep learning or neural methods to the top-k recommendation problem, published in top conferences (SIGIR, KDD, WWW, RecSys, IJCAI), has shown that on average less than 40% of articles could be reproduced by the authors of the survey, with as little as 14% in some conferences. Overall the studies identify 26 articles, only 12 of them could be reproduced by the authors and 11 of them could be outperformed by much older and simpler properly tuned baselines on off-line evaluation metrics. The articles considers a number of potential problems in today's research scholarship and suggests improved scientific practices in that area.


title: Recommender system

text: More recent work on benchmarking a set of the same methods came to qualitatively very different results whereby neural methods were found to be among the best performing methods. Deep learning and neural methods for recommender systems have been used in the winning solutions in several recent recommender system challenges, WSDM, RecSys Challenge.


title: Recommender system

text: Moreover neural and deep learning methods are widely used in industry where they are extensively tested. The topic of reproducibility is not new in recommender systems. By 2011, Ekstrand, Konstan, et al. criticized that "it is currently difficult to reproduce and extend recommender systems research results,” and that evaluations are “not handled consistently". Konstan and Adomavicius conclude that "the Recommender Systems research community is facing a crisis where a significant number of papers present results that contribute little to collective knowledge […] often because the research lacks the […] evaluation to be properly judged and, hence, to provide meaningful contributions." As a consequence, much research about recommender systems can be considered as not reproducible. Hence, operators of recommender systems find little guidance in the current research for answering the question, which recommendation approaches to use in a recommender systems. Said & Bellogín conducted a study of papers published in the field, as well as benchmarked some of the most popular frameworks for recommendation and found large inconsistencies in results, even when the same algorithms and data sets were used. Some researchers demonstrated that minor variations in the recommendation algorithms or scenarios led to strong changes in the effectiveness of a recommender system. They conclude that seven actions are necessary to improve the current situation: "(1) survey other research fields and learn from them, (2) find a common understanding of reproducibility, (3) identify and understand the determinants that affect reproducibility, (4) conduct more comprehensive experiments (5) modernize publication practices, (6) foster the development and use of recommendation frameworks, and (7) establish best-practice guidelines for recommender-systems research."


title: D Block (film)

text: D Block is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language coming-of-age psychological thriller film directed by debutant Vijay Kumar Rajendran (Eruma saani fame) and produced by cinematographer Aravinnd Singh under the banner MNM Films and presented by Sakthi Film Factory. The film stars Arulnithi and Avantika Mishra with a supporting cast including Karu Palaniappan, Charandeep, Thalaivasal Vijay, Ramesh Khanna and Uma Riyaz Khan. The film's soundtrack and background score are composed by Ron Ethan Yohann and Kaushik Krish respectively, with cinematography handled by Aravinnd Singh himself and editing done by Ganesh Siva. The film was released in theatres on 1 July 2022. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and audience with praise for Arulnithi's performance, cinematography, background score and plot but criticized the screenplay and pacing.


title: D Block (film)

text: The film takes place at an isolated university in the middle of the Coimbatore forest. The hostels for students are nearby and the women's hostel, D Block, is in the middle of the forest.


title: D Block (film)

text: Swathi, a first year class leader, sees something disturbing and informs her friends. However, they pacify her and believe that she had imagined it. Later, when she visits the hostel terrace, she is dragged away by an unknown figure. In the morning, she is found dead.


title: D Block (film)

text: The university administration cover up the cause of her death as a tiger attack, and the principal bribes the police. Meanwhile, Maya, a senior student, meets with Arul and his friends and shows them a drawing of her friend Poornima. Poornima's picture was drawn 4 years ago, but exactly matches Swathi's drawing. Maya suggests that there is someone behind the death, but Arul and his friends refuses to accept it.


title: D Block (film)

text: One night, Arul and his friends sneak into D Block to meet with Arul's girlfriend, Shruti, on her birthday. They see a terrifying figure on the roof of D Block and become scared. When they attempt to inform the college administration, the principal and warden refuse to believe them.


title: D Block (film)

text: Arul, his friends and Maya decide to investigate the mystery themselves. They discover that eight other female students had died in the same way as Swathi. One of the dead girls was the daughter of a security guard who had previously worked at the university. Arul and his friend go to see the guard, and find the girl is alive, but mentally ill. The watchman tells them that the deaths in the university were not caused by a tiger, but by something else.


title: D Block (film)

text: The friends approach a cafeteria worker at the university to learn more about the past. The cafeteria worker tells them that a person named Kaali had peeked into girls washroom while a girl is showering and was brutally hit by college boys and was sent to police station. The inspector while getting his details recognised he is the same Kaali, who had suffered from mental illness since childhood, had been involved in the construction of D Block. As a child, Kali had kidnapped and killed two girls. Three other girls were also later abducted and two of them were killed. The surviving girl had identified Kali as the killer, and the police had arrested Kali and sent him to a rehabilitation center. Later, Kali ran away from the rehabilitation center, and became involved in the construction of D Block as a labourer. One day, Kali was caught sneaking into the women's bathroom by several students. The students beat him up before handing him over to the police, but Kali manages to escape. From then, he begins to kidnap and kill girls at the university.


title: D Block (film)

text: Arul, his friends and Maya find Kali's entry point into the hostel. They investigate the forest, but cannot find anything, and Arul turns to old issues of the college magazine for clues. Later, Arul sees some photos taken by his friend at the forest and realises that Kali had been standing behind them, and that his next target is Maya. He tries to warn Maya but fails, and he sees Kali pushing Maya from the D Block terrace. Maya's death is ruled as suicide.


title: D Block (film)

text: Arul tells his friends and Shruti that five of Kali's eight victims had been bharatanatyam dancers. At his insistence, Shruti make interviews all of the classical dancers in the hostel, and finds out that one of the girls has recently seen him. Arul and his friends believe that she is Kali's next target. That night, Arul and his friends enter the D Block to protect the dancer with the help of their friend, Ria. However, when they find out that the girl has a short hair, Arul realises that Kali doesn't target classical dancers, but girls with long hair. At the same time, they find out that Kali has kidnapped Shruti.


title: D Block (film)

text: Arul and his friends find Shruti in the forest and bring her back to the hostel. They inform the police and wait for them to arrive, but an enraged Kali returns to the hostel and tries to kidnap Shruti and Ria. Arul, his friends and their seniors struggle to stop him. All of the girls in D Block join forces, and Ria plots an idea to weaken Kali and trample him to death.


title: D Block (film)

text: In February 2020, YouTuber Vijay Kumar Rajendran (of "Eruma Saani" fame) announced his directional debut in a film starring Arulnithi in the lead and produced by cinematographer Aravinnd Singh under the banner MNM Films with the tentative title as "#Arulnithi15" (the actor's 15th film in leading role). The film marked Arulnithi's fifth project with Aravinnd Singh after "Demonte Colony" (2015), "Aarathu Sinam" (2016), "Iravukku Aayiram Kangal" (2018) and "K-13" (2019).


title: D Block (film)

text: Avantika Mishra was cast in the film as the female lead opposite to Arulnithi. Apart from the direction, Vijay Kumar Rajendran was also acting in the film in a prominent role. It was reported that Arulnithi was playing the role of a college student and to prepare for his role, he took some weight loss.


title: D Block (film)

text: The songs were composed by Ron Ethan Yohann and Kaushik Krish while the latter did the film score.The first single from the film titled "Ice Katti Kuruvi" was released by Think Music India on 4 February 2022.


title: D Block (film)

text: The title of the film and the first look poster of the film were unveiled by director Pandiraj via his Twitter account on 21 July 2021. In January 2022, the film was given a "U/A" certificate by Central Board of Film Certification and the trailer was released by Nelson Dilipkumar, Lokesh Kanagaraj and Venkat Prabhu.


title: D Block (film)

text: The satellite rights of the film were sold to Colors Tamil. The movie was made available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from August 1 2022.


title: D Block (film)

text: Logesh Balachandran of "The Times of India", rated the film to be 2 out of 5 and stated "The technical aspects of the film look very average and don't really elevate the mood of the film. D Block marks the debut of Eruma Saani Vijay Kumar, a popular YouTuber, and he has a long way to go in terms of writing for the screen." Vignesh Madhu of "Cinema Express" gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "D Block has more such moments to prove that 'Eruma Saani' Vijay Kumar is a promising filmmaker in the making. If only he had paid more attention to making the first half more interesting with less focus on the comedy and romance portions, this film would have been a wholesome thriller." "Indiaglitz" rated the film to be 2.25 out of 5 and stated "Go for this one if you fancy psycho thrillers and if your expectations are minimal."


title: Alyson Court

text: Alyson Stephanie Court (born November 9, 1973) is a Canadian actress. Beginning her career as a child actress, her first role was on the series "Mr. Dressup" (1984–1994) and she made her film debut in "" (1985). Court continued to appear in educational productions, landing the lead role of Loonette the Clown on the series "The Big Comfy Couch" (1992–2002).


title: Alyson Court

text: As a voice actress, Court has appeared in several animated series, mostly notably as Lydia Deetz in "Beetlejuice" (1989–1991) and Jubilee in "" (1992–1997). She was also the original voice of Claire Redfield in the "Resident Evil" franchise, voicing the character for all of her appearances from "Resident Evil 2" (1998) to "" (2012).


title: Alyson Court

text: Court first appeared in the Canadian children's series as herself in "Mr. Dressup" in 1984 and later with Big Bird in the 1985 film "". In 1988, she was in the pilot for the series "My Secret Identity" as Caroline, neighbor to Jerry O'Connell's character. Court played Loonette the Clown, the main character of the series "The Big Comfy Couch", for the first six seasons before leaving the show to focus on raising her child.


title: Alyson Court

text: From 2000 to 2003, Court was the host of the morning children's programming block on CBC, "Get Set for Life" (now "CBC Kids").


title: Alyson Court

text: Court voiced summer camper Dawn in the 1986 animated film "" and Emily Elizabeth in the "Clifford's Fun with..." videotape series from 1988 to the early 1990s. Among her animated series voice acting roles are Malani the Ewok in the animated television program "", and Lydia Deetz (originally played by Winona Ryder) in the animated adaptation of the 1988 film "Beetlejuice". She voiced Terri Cloth on "The Garbage Pail Kids" animated series of 1987–1988. In 1992, she voiced Jubilee in "" and Nora Mouse in the animated series "Timothy Goes to School". She was also voice of Trina Riffin in the Cartoon Network/Teletoon series "Grojband", Queen Martha in the Nick Jr. program "Mike the Knight" and Poodle in the YTV program "Almost Naked Animals". During 2006 and 2007, she was the voice of Dahlia in the animated series "Skyland". She voices Coco in the animated show "Urban Vermin", and was the voice of Pixx in the animated show "Ultraforce". Also she voiced of Windy Woo from "The Naughty Naughty Pets".


title: Alyson Court

text: In video games, she provided the voice of Claire Redfield in "Resident Evil 2," "", "", "", and "". Court did not reprise her role as Claire in "" or the 2019 remake of "Resident Evil 2", as the third-party localization team overseeing voice acting and motion capture chose to go with non-union voice actors. In addition she directed the voice-over and motion-capture portions of the spin-off title "Resident Evil Outbreak", which did not feature Claire. In addition to voice acting, Court was also involved in the localization process of several Capcom games in North America. Among the most worthy were "Mega Man X5" in 2001, in which she was directly responsible for the decision to rename the initial eight Maverick bosses to reference Guns N' Roses members, meant as a tribute for her then husband's love for the band. In 1998, Court reprised her role as Jubilee in "".


title: Alyson Court

text: Court also provided the voice of Arkayna Goodfey / Mysticon Dragon Mage in the Nickelodeon/YTV series "Mysticons".


title: Alyson Court

text: Court was previously married to Erik Suzuki, a former Capcom voice and video game localization director. Court has a son named Blaede, born in January 2003. In March 2018, Court became engaged to comic book creator Z.M. Thomas. On July 1, 2019, Court announced her marriage to Thomas.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister of Thailand (, , ; literally 'chief minister of state') is the head of government of Thailand. The prime minister is also the chair of the Cabinet of Thailand. The post has existed since the Revolution of 1932, when the country became a constitutional monarchy. Prior to the coup d'état, the prime minister was nominated by a vote in the Thai House of Representatives by a simple majority, and is then appointed and sworn-in by the king of Thailand. The house's selection is usually based on the fact that either the prime minister is the leader of the largest political party in the lower house or the leader of the largest coalition of parties. In accordance with the 2017 Constitution, the Prime Minister can hold the office for no longer than eight years, consecutively or not. The post of Prime Minister is currently held by retired general Prayut Chan-o-cha, since the 2014 coup d'état.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The office of the "President of the People's Committee" (), later changed to "Prime Minister of Siam" (), was first created in the Temporary Constitution of 1932. The office was modeled after the prime minister of the United Kingdom, as Siam became a parliamentary democracy in 1932 after a bloodless revolution. However, the idea of a separate head of government in Thailand is not new.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: Prior to 1932, Thailand was ruled by absolute monarchs, who acted as both the head of state and the government. However, during the middle and latter reigns of the Chakri Dynasty, several individuals were perceived to hold a post equivalent to a head of government. During the reign of King Mongkut, Somdet Chao Phraya Si Suriyawongse had a very significant role in an otherwise absolutist system. During the reign of King Chulalongkorn, Prince Damrong Rajanubhab took over this role. In fact, the office most considered the precursor of that of the prime minister was the ancient office of "Samuha Nayok" (สมุหนายก), which was run by an "Akkhra Maha Senabodi" (อัครมหาเสนาบดี) or "chief minister in charge of civilian affairs".


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The first prime minister of Siam was Phraya Manopakorn Nititada, a judge. The title of the office was changed from "Prime Minister "of Siam"" to "Prime Minister "of Thailand"" in 1945 and then permanently with the renaming of Siam to Thailand in 1949. For most of its existence the office has been occupied by Army leaders; sixteen out of twenty-nine, including the incumbent general Prayut Chan-o-cha. Military dominance began with the country's second prime minister, Phot Phahonyothin, who ousted his civilian predecessor in a coup in 1933. The longest-serving prime minister was Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram at 14 years, 11 months, and 18 days. The shortest was Tawee Boonyaket at just 18 days. Nine were removed by coups d'état, three were disqualified by court order, and eleven resigned from office. The youngest ever to occupy office was M.R. Seni Pramoj at 40 years old. Thailand received its first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, in 2011. Every prime minister since Manopakorn Nititada has been Buddhist.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The current 2017 Constitution states that the Prime Minister shall hold the office for no longer than eight years, consecutively or not. The term limit was the subject of legal challenge in 2022 after there were debates of how to count the term.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister of the Kingdom of Thailand must be a member of the House of Representatives. Therefore, the qualifications for the office of prime minister are the same as the qualifications for membership in the house.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: Prior to the coup d'état, to be appointed, the nominee for the office must have the support of one-fifth of the members of the House of Representatives. Then after a simple-majority vote in the house, a resolution will be passed and submitted to the king, who will then make a formal appointment by giving his royal assent to the resolution. This must take place within thirty days after the beginning of the first session of the House of Representatives after an election. If no candidate can be found within this time period, then it is the duty of the president of the National Assembly of Thailand to submit the name considered most worthy for the king to formalize.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The nominee and eventual prime minister is always the leader of the largest political party in the lower house or the leader of the majority coalition formed after an election.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: Under the current junta, the nominee for the office is selected by National Legislative Assembly, with the House of Representatives being abolished.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister is the "de facto" chair of the Cabinet of Thailand. The appointment and removal of ministers can only be made with their advice. As the leader of the government the prime minister is therefore ultimately responsible for the failings and performance of their ministers and the government as a whole. The prime minister cannot hold office for a consecutive period of more than eight years. As the most visible member of the government the prime minister represents the country abroad and is the main spokesperson for the government at home. The prime minister must, under the constitution, lead the cabinet in announcing the government's policy statement in front of a joint-session of the National Assembly, within fifteen days of being sworn-in.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister is also directly responsible for many departments. These include the National Intelligence Agency, the Bureau of the Budget, the Office of the National Security Council, the Office of the Council of State, the Office of the Civil Service Commission, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, the Office of Public Sector Development Commission, and the Internal Security Operations Command. Legislatively all money bills introduced in the National Assembly must require the prime minister's approval.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister can be removed by a vote of no confidence. This process can be evoked, firstly with the vote of only one-fifth of the members of the House of Representatives for a debate on the matter. Then after the debate a vote is taken and with a simple majority the prime minister can be removed. This process cannot be repeated within one parliamentary session.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The prime minister is aided in his work by the Office of the Prime Minister () a cabinet-level department headed usually by two ministers of state. These offices are housed in the Government House of Thailand () in the Dusit area of Bangkok.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: The official residence of the prime minister is the Phitsanulok Mansion (), in the center of Bangkok. The mansion was built during the reign of King Vajiravudh. It became an official residence in 1979. The mansion is rumored to have many ghosts, therefore most prime ministers live in their private residences and only use the house for official business.


title: Prime Minister of Thailand

text: Several deputy prime ministers of Thailand () can be appointed. This position can be combined with other ministerial portfolios.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle varies considerably between species. Both cetaceans and sirenians are fully aquatic and therefore are obligate water dwellers. Seals and sea-lions are semiaquatic; they spend the majority of their time in the water but need to return to land for important activities such as mating, breeding and molting. In contrast, both otters and the polar bear are much less adapted to aquatic living. The diets of marine mammals vary considerably as well; some eat zooplankton, others eat fish, squid, shellfish, or sea-grass, and a few eat other mammals. While the number of marine mammals is small compared to those found on land, their roles in various ecosystems are large, especially concerning the maintenance of marine ecosystems, through processes including the regulation of prey populations. This role in maintaining ecosystems makes them of particular concern as 23% of marine mammal species are currently threatened.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals were first hunted by aboriginal peoples for food and other resources. Many were also the target for commercial industry, leading to a sharp decline in all populations of exploited species, such as whales and seals. Commercial hunting led to the extinction of the Steller's sea cow, sea mink, Japanese sea lion and Caribbean monk seal. After commercial hunting ended, some species, such as the gray whale and northern elephant seal, have rebounded in numbers; conversely, other species, such as the North Atlantic right whale, are critically endangered. Other than being hunted, marine mammals can be killed as bycatch from fisheries, where for example they can become entangled in nets and drown or starve. Increased ocean traffic causes collisions between fast ocean vessels and large marine mammals. Habitat degradation also threatens marine mammals and their ability to find and catch food. Noise pollution, for example, may adversely affect echolocating mammals, and the ongoing effects of global warming degrade Arctic environments.


title: Marine mammal

text: The term "marine mammal" encompasses all mammals whose survival depends entirely or almost entirely on the oceans, which have also evolved several specialized aquatic traits. In addition to the above, several other mammals have a great dependency on the sea without having become so anatomically specialized, otherwise known as "quasi-marine mammals". This term can include: the greater bulldog bat ("Noctilio leporinus"), the fish-eating bat ("Myotis vivesi"), the arctic fox ("Vulpes lagopus") which often scavenges polar bear kills, coastal gray wolf ("Canis lupus") populations which predominantly eat salmon and marine carcasses, the North Ronaldsay sheep ("Ovis aries") which normally eats seaweed outside the lambing season, the Eurasian otter ("Lutra lutra") which is usually found in freshwater but can be found along coastal Scotland, and others.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals form a diverse group of 129 species that rely on the ocean for their existence. They are an informal group unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding. Despite the diversity in anatomy seen between groups, improved foraging efficiency has been the main driver in their evolution. The level of dependence on the marine environment varies considerably with species. For example, dolphins and whales are completely dependent on the marine environment for all stages of their life; seals feed in the ocean but breed on land; and polar bears must feed on land.


title: Marine mammal

text: The cetaceans became aquatic around 50 million years ago (mya). Based on molecular and morphological research, the cetaceans genetically and morphologically fall firmly within the Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates). The term "Cetartiodactyla" reflects the idea that whales evolved within the ungulates. The term was coined by merging the name for the two orders, Cetacea and Artiodactyla, into a single word. Under this definition, the closest living land relative of the whales and dolphins is thought to be the hippopotamuses.


title: Marine mammal

text: Sirenians, the sea cows, became aquatic around 40 million years ago. The first appearance of sirenians in the fossil record was during the early Eocene, and by the late Eocene, sirenians had significantly diversified. Inhabitants of rivers, estuaries, and nearshore marine waters, they were able to spread rapidly. The most primitive sirenian, †"Prorastomus", was found in Jamaica, unlike other marine mammals which originated from the Old World (such as cetaceans). The first known quadrupedal sirenian was †"Pezosiren" from the early middle Eocene. The earliest known sea cows, of the families †Prorastomidae and †Protosirenidae, were both confined to the Eocene, and were pig-sized, four-legged, amphibious creatures. The first members of Dugongidae appeared by the middle Eocene. At this point, sea cows were fully aquatic.


title: Marine mammal

text: Pinnipeds split from other caniforms 50 mya during the Eocene. Their evolutionary link to terrestrial mammals was unknown until the 2007 discovery of †"Puijila darwini" in early Miocene deposits in Nunavut, Canada. Like a modern otter, †"Puijila" had a long tail, short limbs and webbed feet instead of flippers. The lineages of Otariidae (eared seals) and Odobenidae (walrus) split almost 28 mya. Phocids (earless seals) are known to have existed for at least 15 mya, and molecular evidence supports a divergence of the Monachinae (monk seals) and Phocinae lineages 22 mya.


title: Marine mammal

text: Fossil evidence indicates the sea otter ("Enhydra") lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately two mya, giving rise to the now-extinct †"Enhydra macrodonta" and the modern sea otter, "Enhydra lutris". The sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast. In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50, 40, and 20 mya, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to marine life. In some respects though, the sea otter is more fully adapted to water than pinnipeds, which must haul out on land or ice to give birth.


title: Marine mammal

text: Polar bears are thought to have diverged from a population of brown bears, "Ursus arctos", that became isolated during a period of glaciation in the Pleistocene or from the eastern part of Siberia, (from Kamchatka and the Kolym Peninsula). The oldest known polar bear fossil is a 130,000 to 110,000-year-old jaw bone, found on Prince Charles Foreland in 2004. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the polar bear diverged from the brown bear roughly 150,000 years ago. Further, some clades of brown bear, as assessed by their mtDNA, are more closely related to polar bears than to other brown bears, meaning that the polar bear might not be considered a species under some species concepts.


title: Marine mammal

text: In general, terrestrial amniote invasions of the sea have become more frequent in the Cenozoic than they were in the Mesozoic. Factors contributing to this trend include the increasing productivity of near-shore marine environments, and the role of endothermy in facilitating this transition.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals are widely distributed throughout the globe, but their distribution is patchy and coincides with the productivity of the oceans. Species richness peaks at around 40° latitude, both north and south. This corresponds to the highest levels of primary production around North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Total species range is highly variable for marine mammal species. On average most marine mammals have ranges which are equivalent or smaller than one-fifth of the Indian Ocean. The variation observed in range size is a result of the different ecological requirements of each species and their ability to cope with a broad range of environmental conditions. The high degree of overlap between marine mammal species richness and areas of human impact on the environment is of concern.


title: Marine mammal

text: Most marine mammals, such as seals and sea otters, inhabit the coast. Seals, however, also use a number of terrestrial habitats, both continental and island. In temperate and tropical areas, they haul-out on to sandy and pebble beaches, rocky shores, shoals, mud flats, tide pools and in sea caves. Some species also rest on man-made structures, like piers, jetties, buoys and oil platforms. Seals may move further inland and rest in sand dunes or vegetation, and may even climb cliffs. Most cetaceans live in the open ocean, and species like the sperm whale may dive to depths of in search of food. Sirenians live in shallow coastal waters, usually living below sea level. However, they have been known to dive to to forage deep-water seagrasses. Sea otters live in protected areas, such as rocky shores, kelp forests, and barrier reefs, although they may reside among drift ice or in sandy, muddy, or silty areas.


title: Marine mammal

text: Many marine mammals seasonally migrate. Annual ice contains areas of water that appear and disappear throughout the year as the weather changes, and seals migrate in response to these changes. In turn, polar bears must follow their prey. In Hudson Bay, James Bay, and some other areas, the ice melts completely each summer (an event often referred to as "ice-floe breakup"), forcing polar bears to go onto land and wait through the months until the next freeze-up. In the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, polar bears retreat each summer to the ice further north that remains frozen year-round. Seals may also migrate to other environmental changes, such as El Niño, and traveling seals may use various features of their environment to reach their destination including geomagnetic fields, water and wind currents, the position of the sun and moon and the taste and temperature of the water. Baleen whales famously migrate very long distances into tropical waters to give birth and raise young, possibly to prevent predation by killer whales. The gray whale has the longest recorded migration of any mammal, with one traveling from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Baja Peninsula. During the winter, manatees living at the northern end of their range migrate to warmer waters.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals have a number of physiological and anatomical features to overcome the unique challenges associated with aquatic living. Some of these features are very species-specific. Marine mammals have developed a number of features for efficient locomotion such as torpedo-shaped bodies to reduce drag; modified limbs for propulsion and steering; tail flukes and dorsal fins for propulsion and balance. Marine mammals are adept at thermoregulation using dense fur or blubber, circulatory adjustments (counter-current heat exchange); and reduced appendages, and large size to prevent heat loss.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals are able to dive for long periods. Both pinnipeds and cetaceans have large and complex blood vessel systems pushing large volumes of blood rich in myoglobin and hemoglobin, which serve to store greater quantities of oxygen. Other important reservoirs include muscles and the spleen which all have the capacity to hold a high concentration of oxygen. They are also capable of bradycardia (reduced heart rate), and vasoconstriction (shunting most of the oxygen to vital organs such as the brain and heart) to allow extended diving times and cope with oxygen deprivation. If oxygen is depleted (hypoxia), marine mammals can access substantial reservoirs of glycogen that support anaerobic glycolysis.


title: Marine mammal

text: Sound travels differently through water, and therefore marine mammals have developed adaptations to ensure effective communication, prey capture, and predator detection. The most notable adaptation is the development of echolocation in whales and dolphins. Toothed whales emit a focused beam of high-frequency clicks in the direction that their head is pointing. Sounds are generated by passing air from the bony nares through the phonic lips. These sounds are reflected by the dense concave bone of the cranium and an air sac at its base. The focused beam is modulated by a large fatty organ known as the 'melon'. This acts like an acoustic lens because it is composed of lipids of differing densities.


title: Marine mammal

text: Marine mammals have evolved a wide variety of features for feeding, which are mainly seen in their dentition. For example, the cheek teeth of pinnipeds and odontocetes are specifically adapted to capture fish and squid. In contrast, baleen whales have evolved baleen plates to filter feed plankton and small fish from the water.


title: Marine mammal

text: Polar bears, otters, and fur seals have long, oily, and waterproof fur in order to trap air to provide insulation. In contrast, other marine mammals–such as whales, dolphins, porpoises, manatees, dugongs, and walruses–have lost long fur in favor of a thick, dense epidermis and a thickened fat layer (blubber) to prevent drag. Wading and bottom-feeding animals (such as manatees) need to be heavier than water in order to keep contact with the floor or to stay submerged. Surface-living animals (such as sea otters) need the opposite, and free-swimming animals living in open waters (such as dolphins) need to be neutrally buoyant in order to be able to swim up and down the water column. Typically, thick and dense bone is found in bottom feeders and low bone density is associated with mammals living in deep water. Some marine mammals, such as polar bears and otters, have retained four weight-bearing limbs and can walk on land like fully terrestrial animals.


title: Marine mammal

text: All cetaceans are carnivorous and predatory. Toothed whales mostly feed on fish and cephalopods, followed by crustaceans and bivalves. Some may forage with other kinds of animals, such as other species of whales or certain species of pinnipeds. One common feeding method is herding, where a pod squeezes a school of fish into a small volume, known as a bait ball. Individual members then take turns plowing through the ball, feeding on the stunned fish. Coralling is a method where dolphins chase fish into shallow water to catch them more easily. Killer whales and bottlenose dolphins have also been known to drive their prey onto a beach to feed on it. Killer whales have been known to paralyze great white sharks and other sharks and rays by flipping them upside down. Other whales with a blunt snout and reduced dentition rely on suction feeding. Though carnivorous, they house gut flora similar to that of terrestrial herbivores, probably a remnant of their herbivorous ancestry.


title: Marine mammal

text: Baleen whales use their baleen plates to sieve plankton, among others, out of the water; there are two types of methods: lunge-feeding and gulp-feeding. Lunge-feeders expand the volume of their jaw to a volume bigger than the original volume of the whale itself by inflating their mouth. This causes grooves on their throat to expand, increasing the amount of water the mouth can store. They ram a baitball at high speeds in order to feed, but this is only energy-effective when used against a large baitball. Gulp-feeders swim with an open mouth, filling it with water and prey. Prey must occur in sufficient numbers to trigger the whale's interest, be within a certain size range so that the baleen plates can filter it, and be slow enough so that it cannot escape.


title: Marine mammal

text: Otters are the only marine animals that are capable of lifting and turning over rocks, which they often do with their front paws when searching for prey. The sea otter may pluck snails and other organisms from kelp and dig deep into underwater mud for clams. It is the only marine mammal that catches fish with its forepaws rather than with its teeth. Under each foreleg, sea otters have a loose pouch of skin that extends across the chest which they use to store collected food to bring to the surface. This pouch also holds a rock that is used to break open shellfish and clams, an example of tool use. The sea otters eat while floating on their backs, using their forepaws to tear food apart and bring to their mouths. Marine otters mainly feed on crustaceans and fish.


title: Marine mammal

text: Pinnipeds mostly feed on fish and cephalopods, followed by crustaceans and bivalves, and then zooplankton and warm-blooded prey (like sea birds). Most species are generalist feeders, but a few are specialists. They typically hunt non-schooling fish, slow-moving or immobile invertebrates or endothermic prey when in groups. Solitary foraging species usually exploit coastal waters, bays and rivers. When large schools of fish or squid are available, pinnipeds hunt cooperatively in large groups, locating and herding their prey. Some species, such as California and South American sea lions, may forage with cetaceans and sea birds.