title: Bally's Corporation

text: In January 2021, Bally's partnered with developer Ira Lubert in a plan to build a $120-million casino in the area of State College, Pennsylvania. The next month, the company announced another proposed casino development, Bally's Richmond, which would be built in Richmond, Virginia, at a cost of $650 million; the proposal was rejected by the city.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In April 2021, Bally's acquired the operations of the MontBleu casino in Nevada from Caesars for $15 million, and later renamed it Bally’s Lake Tahoe. Bally's also entered a sale-and-leaseback deal with Gaming and Leisure Properties, Inc. (GLPI) for the three Black Hawk casinos and Jumer's, agreeing to sell them for $150 million and lease them back for $12 million per year.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In June 2021, Bally's bought Jumer's Casino & Hotel in Illinois from Delaware North for $120 million, and also purchased the operating business of Tropicana Evansville in Indiana from Caesars for $140 million. To fund the Tropicana purchase, the real estate of Dover Downs was sold to GLPI for $144 million in a leaseback transaction.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In January 2022, Standard General moved to take full ownership of Bally's, offering to buy all outstanding shares in a transaction valuing the company at $2.07 billion. The board of directors rejected the offer in May.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In May 2022, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot selected Bally's proposal to build the $1.7-billion Bally's Chicago casino resort in the city's River West neighborhood. A temporary site is planned to open in mid-2023 at the Medinah Temple, before phase 1 of the new, permanent facility is completed by 2026. It was projected to eventually account for one third of the company's gaming revenue.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In September 2022, Bally's purchased the non-land assets of the Tropicana Las Vegas from GLPI and Penn Entertainment for $148 million.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In November 2020, Bally's entered into a long-term media partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group, which would include the rebranding of its Fox Sports Networks regional sports networks under the Bally brand in a 10-year deal, and integration of Bally's content into its sports properties. The agreement included warrants that would allow Sinclair to acquire up to a 14.9% stake in Bally's, and increase its stake to up to 24.9% if performance criteria are met. The nineteen regional sports networks were rebranded as Bally Sports in March 2021.


title: Bally's Corporation

text: In 2021, Bally's made several acquisitions to expand its online gaming and sports betting business. In February, it acquired SportCaller, a provider of free-to-play online games. The next month, the company acquired Monkey Knife Fight, the third-largest daily fantasy sports operator in the U.S., for up to $90 million in stock. In June, Bally's acquired the sports betting platform Bet.Works for $125 million. In July, it acquired the Association of Volleyball Professionals. In October, it acquired Gamesys Group, a British online gambling company, for $2.7 billion,


title: Milan Luthria

text: Milan Luthria is an Indian film director who works in Hindi films. He is best known as the director of Ajay Devgan "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai" (2010). He is the nephew of producer and director Mahesh Bhatt.


title: Milan Luthria

text: Starting his career as an assistant director to Dharmesh Darshan for "Lootere" in 1993, Luthria made his directorial debut in 1999 with the successful action thriller film "Kachche Dhaage". The film, released under the Tips Films banner, starred Ajay Devgan as a smuggler on the Rajasthan-Kashmir, Pakistan border and Saif Ali Khan, on the run from the Border Security Force, the Central Bureau of Investigation, and the border mafia. Luthria shot the film in Rajasthan and Switzerland. The film received a mixed reception. Although the photography of the film was praised with the scenic backdrop of the Rajasthani desert and the green valleys and snow-capped peaks of Switzerland, it was seen as a weaker film than that of "Soldier", a film with similar theme which had been released the year before.


title: Milan Luthria

text: In 2002, Luthria once again worked with Devgan when he directed "Chori Chori", also starring Rani Mukerji and Sonali Bendre. The film was initially scheduled for release in 2002 but during the filming the producer died and its release was delayed, eventually being released on 1 August 2003. The film received a mixed reception. Taran Adarsh, although remarking that Luthria "handled a few sequences with flourish", believed that despite an interesting storyline, the script was fundamentally flawed, "hackneyed" as he put it, believing that interest in it fizzled out by the second half of the film, becoming "sluggish" with its progression. However, Sukanya Verma described the film as "heartwarming", remarking that "like most feel good romances, Chori Chori is about letting the heart rule the head."


title: Milan Luthria

text: In 2004, Luthria directed the war drama "Deewaar". The film, starring Bollywood veterans Amitabh Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna and Sanjay Dutt, is set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. It features Bachchan, a major who is captured by the Pakistani army, along with over 30 soldiers during the war and only freed 33 years later by his son, who he has not seen since he was a child, on a rescue mission. The film was generally panned by the critics although it was a commercial success, going straight to number 1 in the Indian film charts in the week of release. Film4 wrote of the film, "A Bollywood thriller with plenty of explosive action, yet which fails to come to life. Plotting is familiar, characters bland and a predictable storyline fails to excite or engage."


title: Milan Luthria

text: in February 2006, Luthria released "Taxi Number 9211". Working with producer Ramesh Sippy, with a soundtrack composed by the new age music composing duo, Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani, Luthria shot the film in 2005. The film, a comedy thriller, featured John Abraham and Nana Patekar (as the taxi driver) involved in a cat and mouse game during a two-hour taxi trip, with financial implications. The film was a major commercial and critical success, becoming the 16th highest-grossing film in India in 2006. Film critics were impressed with the originality of the script and the unpredictability and innovative devices used in the script, as the men progressed through the metropolis.


title: Milan Luthria

text: In 2007, Luthria directed the cricket comedy "Hattrick", featuring Paresh Rawal, Rimi Sen, Kunal Kapoor, Nana Patekar and Danny Denzongpa. In 2010 he directed "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai". The film again starred Ajay Devgan, but this time he played a character called Sultan Mirza who is Messiah of the poor, fear of the rich and authority of the powerful, the one whom people turned to when there was nowhere else to look. The silent ruler of the streets of Bombay, he did everything that was wrong according to the law, but right according to him – i.e. the "Indian version of Robin Hood". The film was produced by Balaji Telefilms and Popcorn Entertainment and was released on 30 July 2010. According to Luthria, "My film for Ekta will take a penetrating look at gangsterism in the 1980s. I'm quite enamoured by the period, quite taken up by the period and its flamboyance. There was a lot of action and inner life in some of the films during that period. I think the last film that looked at gangsterism from inside was Anurag Basu's "Gangster: A Love Story"".


title: Milan Luthria

text: In 2011, Milan directed the movie "The Dirty Picture" starring Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor and Emraan Hashmi. The film is based on the real-life story of the late Southern siren Silk Smitha, who Milan says he even briefly interacted with during her time in the 80s and 90s. Upon release, the film received both critical and commercial success.


title: Milan Luthria

text: In 2017 the film Baadshaho was released, becoming the fourth collaboration with Ajay Devgn, and starring Devgn, Ileana D'Cruz, Vidyurt Jammwal, Emraan Hashmi and Esha Gupta.


title: README

text: In software development, a README file contains information about the other files in a directory or archive of computer software. A form of documentation, it is usually a simple plain text file called codice_1, codice_2, codice_3, codice_4, codice_5 (to indicate the use of Markdown), or codice_6.


title: README

text: The file's name is generally written in uppercase. On Unix-like systems in particular, this causes it to stand outboth because lowercase filenames are more common, and because the codice_7 command commonly sorts and displays files in ASCII-code order, in which uppercase filenames will appear first.


title: README

text: It is unclear when the convention of including a README file began, but examples dating to the mid-1970s have been found. Early Macintosh system software installed a Read Me on the Startup Disk, and README files commonly accompanied third-party software.


title: README

text: In particular, there is a long history of free software and open-source software including a README file; the GNU Coding Standards encourage including one to provide "a general overview of the package".


title: README

text: Since the advent of the web as a "de facto" standard platform for software distribution, many software packages have moved (or occasionally, copied) some of the above ancillary files and pieces of information to a website or wiki, sometimes including the README itself, or sometimes leaving behind only a brief README file without all of the information required by a new user of the software.


title: README

text: The popular source code hosting website GitHub strongly encourages the creation of a README fileif one exists in the main (top-level) directory of a repository, it is automatically presented on the repository's front page. In addition to plain text, various other formats and file extensions are also supported, and HTML conversion takes extensions into accountin particular a codice_5 is treated as GitHub Flavored Markdown.


title: README

text: The expression "readme file" is also sometimes used generically, for other files with a similar purpose. For example, the source-code distributions of many free software packages (especially those following the Gnits Standards or those produced with GNU Autotools) include a standard set of readme files:


title: README

text: Also commonly distributed with software packages are an FAQ file and a codice_9 file, which lists planned improvements.


title: In the Mood

text: "In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by Edgar Hayes & His Orchestra in 1938.


title: In the Mood

text: In 1983, the Glenn Miller recording from 1939 was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, the recording was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry which consists of recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."


title: In the Mood

text: In 1999, National Public Radio (NPR) included the 1939 Glenn Miller recording in its list of "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century".


title: In the Mood

text: Glenn Miller's "In the Mood", with "I Want to Be Happy" on the B-side, became the best-selling swing instrumental.


title: In the Mood

text: "In the Mood" starts with a saxophone section theme based on repeated arpeggios that are rhythmically displaced; trumpets and trombones add accent riffs. The arrangement has two solo sections: a "tenor fight" or chase solo—in one recording between Tex Beneke and Al Klink—and a 16-bar trumpet solo by Clyde Hurley. At the end of the song, a coda climbs triumphantly, then sounds a sustained unison tonic pitch with a rim shot.


title: In the Mood

text: "In the Mood" was an arrangement by Joe Garland based on an existing melody. Lyrics were added by Andy Razaf. The main theme with repeated arpeggios rhythmically displaced appeared under the title "Tar Paper Stomp" and was credited to trumpeter Wingy Manone. Manone recorded "Tar Paper Stomp" on August 28, 1930, in Richmond, Indiana, and released it as a 78 single for Champion Records under the name Barbecue Joe and his Hot Dogs. It was re-released in 1935 by Wingy Manone's Orchestra.


title: In the Mood

text: Horace Henderson used the same riff in "Hot and Anxious", which was recorded by his brother Fletcher Henderson on March 19, 1931, for Columbia under the name the Baltimore Bell Hops. Don Redman recorded "Hot and Anxious" for Brunswick in 1932.


title: In the Mood

text: Under copyright laws, a tune that had not been written down and registered with the copyright office could be appropriated by any musician with a good ear. Manone raised the similarity between "Tar Paper Stomp" and "In the Mood" to Joe Garland and to the publisher Shapiro, Bernstein, and Company of New York. Manone also discussed the issue in "DownBeat" magazine.


title: In the Mood

text: "Tar Paper Stomp" was copyrighted on November 6, 1941, as a pianoforte version by Peer International.


title: In the Mood

text: The first recording of Joe Garland's version of "In the Mood" was made by Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra in 1938 with Garland participating. It was released as a B side to their recording of "Stardust" for Decca. On this recording there was a baritone saxophone duet rather than a tenor saxophone battle. The riff had appeared in a 1935 recording by the Mills Blue Rhythm Band entitled "There's Rhythm in Harlem", which had been composed and arranged by Garland. Before offering it to Miller, Garland sold it in 1938 to Artie Shaw, who chose not to record it because the original arrangement was too long, but he did perform it in concert.


title: In the Mood

text: Artie Shaw's version was over six minutes long and met a lackluster audience response. Jerry Gray arranged Shaw's version. The band later performed a shorter version. The Hayes recording was over three minutes in length to fit on one side of a 78 record.


title: In the Mood

text: The song was sold in 1939 to Glenn Miller, who experimented with the arrangement. The author of the final arrangement is unknown. One possibility is Eddie Durham because he wrote other arrangements on the same day that "In the Mood" was recorded. Other possibilities include pianist Chummy MacGregor, who was Miller's chief arranger, John Chalmers, and Miller himself. According to an account by MacGregor, "all they used of the original arrangement were the two front saxophone strains and another part that occurred later on in the arrangement." Both MacGregor and Miller were involved in creating the final arrangement: "MacGregor mentioned that additional solos were added to the original arrangement and he wrote the finishing coda. Miller probably edited some of the arrangement along with MacGregor."


title: In the Mood

text: Two copyrights were filed by Joseph Copeland Garland on June 8 and November 26, 1938, before the song was published by Lewis Music Pub. Co., Inc. on October 31, 1939, with Joe Garland the lone songwriter. Then on November 27, a copyright was filed with both Garland and Razaf by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co., Inc. of New York. A final copyright was filed by Shapiro, Bernstein on December 11, 1939, worded as follows: "In the mood; fox-trot, Andy Razaf & Joe Garland, arr. Joe Garland as suggested by Glenn Miller; orch. pts., with w."


title: In the Mood

text: Two editions of the sheet music are in circulation. The 1939 publication credited to Garland and Razaf is in A♭ and has lyrics beginning: "Mister What-cha-call-em, what-cha doin' tonight?" The 1960 reprint credited only to Garland (with piano arrangement by Robert C. Haring) is in G and has lyrics beginning: "Who's the livin' dolly with the beautiful eyes?"


title: In the Mood

text: The personnel on Miller's recording included Al Mastren and Paul Tanner on trombone; Clyde Hurley, Legh Knowles, and Dale McMickle on trumpet; Wilbur Schwartz on clarinet; Hal McIntyre on alto saxophone; Tex Beneke, Al Klink, and Harold Tennyson on tenor saxophone; Chummy MacGregor on piano; Richard Fisher on guitar; Rowland Bundock on double bass; and Moe Purtill on drums.


title: In the Mood

text: In February 1944, the Glenn Miller RCA Victor Bluebird 1939 studio recording of "In the Mood" was released as a V-Disc, one of a series of recordings sent free by the U.S. War Department to overseas military personnel during World War II. A second version recorded by Glenn Miller's Overseas Band in 1945, was released in May 1948. A new recording by Glenn Miller with the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was broadcast to Germany in 1944 on the radio program "The Wehrmacht Hour".


title: In the Mood

text: This piece of music was not new in Europe. The first Swiss record of "In the Mood" were released in April 1940 by "Teddy Stauffer und seine Original Teddies" in Zurich. Another interpretation was made by Ernst van't Hoff in February 1941 in Berlin.


title: In the Mood

text: In 1951 a Ferranti Mark 1 computer at the University of Manchester played "In the Mood", one of the first songs to be played by a computer, and the oldest known recording of digitally generated music.


title: In the Mood

text: In December 1959, the rendition of "In the Mood" that Ernie Fields and his Orchestra recorded peaked at number 4 by means of the "Billboard" popular hit parade and number 7 by means of both the Rhythm and Blues and the "Cash Box" hit parades.


title: In the Mood

text: Jerry Lee Lewis, under the alias of The Hawk, recorded an instrumental version of "In the Mood" in 1959. For contractual reasons, the track was released in the USA on the Phillips label, a subsidiary of the Sun Records label owned by Sam Phillips.


title: In the Mood

text: Jonathan King, under the name Sound 9418 released his version in 1976 which reached No. 46 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: In the Mood

text: In the winter of 1977, a novelty version by the Henhouse Five Plus Too (a Ray Stevens project) employing the sounds of clucking chickens entered the U.S. Pop Top 40: ("Billboard" No. 40, "Cash Box" #37).


title: In the Mood

text: An Indonesian-Dutch singer Taco recorded his version in 1986 for his album "Swing Classics: In the Mood of Glenn Miller".


title: In the Mood

text: Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers prominently featured "In the Mood" as part of their hit medley "Swing the Mood", which was a #1 single in the UK in 1989 and reached #11 in the US in 1990.


title: In the Mood

text: John Lee Hooker said that "In the Mood" was the inspiration for his song "I'm in the Mood" which became a No. 1 hit on the R&B Singles chart.


title: In the Mood

text: In 2021, Art of Noise released an album of a 1986 live show titled "In The City, Live In Tokyo, 1986" which contains an encore cover of "In The Mood".


title: Generalized additive model

text: In statistics, a generalized additive model (GAM) is a generalized linear model in which the linear response variable depends linearly on unknown smooth functions of some predictor variables, and interest focuses on inference about these smooth functions.


title: Generalized additive model

text: GAMs were originally developed by Trevor Hastie and Robert Tibshirani to blend properties of generalized linear models with additive models. They can be interpreted as the discriminative generalization of the naive Bayes generative model.


title: Generalized additive model

text: The model relates a univariate response variable, "Y", to some predictor variables, "x". An exponential family distribution is specified for Y (for example normal, binomial or Poisson distributions) along with a link function "g" (for example the identity or log functions) relating the expected value of "Y" to the predictor variables via a structure such as


title: Generalized additive model

text: The functions "f" may be functions with a specified parametric form (for example a polynomial, or an un-penalized regression spline of a variable) or may be specified non-parametrically, or semi-parametrically, simply as 'smooth functions', to be estimated by non-parametric means. So a typical GAM might use a scatterplot smoothing function, such as a locally weighted mean, for "f"("x"), and then use a factor model for "f"("x"). This flexibility to allow non-parametric fits with relaxed assumptions on the actual relationship between response and predictor, provides the potential for better fits to data than purely parametric models, but arguably with some loss of interpretability.


title: Generalized additive model

text: It had been known since the 1950s (via. the Kolmogorov–Arnold representation theorem) that any multivariate function could be represented as sums and compositions of univariate functions.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Unfortunately, though the Kolmogorov–Arnold representation theorem asserts the existence of a function of this form, it gives no mechanism whereby one could be constructed. Certain constructive proofs exist, but they tend to require highly complicated (i.e. fractal) functions, and thus are not suitable for modeling approaches. Therefore, the generalized additive model drops the outer sum, and demands instead that the function belong to a simpler class.


title: Generalized additive model

text: where formula_4 is a smooth monotonic function. Writing formula_5 for the inverse of formula_4, this is traditionally written as


title: Generalized additive model

text: When this function is approximating the expectation of some observed quantity, it could be written as


title: Generalized additive model

text: Which is the standard formulation of a generalized additive model. It was then shown that the backfitting algorithm will always converge for these functions.


title: Generalized additive model

text: The GAM model class is quite broad, given that "smooth function" is a rather broad category. For example, a covariate formula_9 may be multivariate and the corresponding formula_10 a smooth function of several variables, or formula_10 might be the function mapping the level of a factor to the value of a random effect. Another example is a varying coefficient (geographic regression) term such as formula_12 where formula_13 and formula_9 are both covariates. Or if formula_15 is itself an observation of a function, we might include a term such as formula_16 (sometimes known as a signal regression term). formula_17 could also be a simple parametric function as might be used in any generalized linear model. The model class has been generalized in several directions, notably beyond exponential family response distributions, beyond modelling of only the mean and beyond univariate data.


title: Generalized additive model

text: The original GAM fitting method estimated the smooth components of the model using non-parametric smoothers (for example smoothing splines or local linear regression smoothers) via the backfitting algorithm. Backfitting works by iterative smoothing of partial residuals and provides a very general modular estimation method capable of using a wide variety of smoothing methods to estimate the formula_18 terms. A disadvantage of backfitting is that it is difficult to integrate with the estimation of the degree of smoothness of the model terms, so that in practice the user must set these, or select between a modest set of pre-defined smoothing levels.


title: Generalized additive model

text: If the formula_18 are represented using smoothing splines then the degree of smoothness can be estimated as part of model fitting using generalized cross validation, or by restricted maximum likelihood (REML, sometimes known as 'GML') which exploits the duality between spline smoothers and Gaussian random effects. This full spline approach carries an formula_20 computational cost, where formula_21 is the number of observations for the response variable, rendering it somewhat impractical for moderately large datasets. More recent methods have addressed this computational cost either by up front reduction of the size of the basis used for smoothing (rank reduction) or by finding sparse representations of the smooths using Markov random fields, which are amenable to the use of sparse matrix methods for computation. These more computationally efficient methods use GCV (or AIC or similar) or REML or take a fully Bayesian approach for inference about the degree of smoothness of the model components. Estimating the degree of smoothness via REML can be viewed as an empirical Bayes method.


title: Generalized additive model

text: An alternative approach with particular advantages in high dimensional settings is to use boosting, although this typically requires bootstrapping for uncertainty quantification. GAMs fit using bagging and boosting have been found to generally outperform GAMs fit using spline methods.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Many modern implementations of GAMs and their extensions are built around the reduced rank smoothing approach, because it allows well founded estimation of the smoothness of the component smooths at comparatively modest computational cost, and also facilitates implementation of a number of model extensions in a way that is more difficult with other methods. At its simplest the idea is to replace the unknown smooth functions in the model with basis expansions


title: Generalized additive model

text: where the formula_23 are known basis functions, usually chosen for good approximation theoretic properties (for example B splines or reduced rank thin plate splines), and the formula_24 are coefficients to be estimated as part of model fitting. The basis dimension formula_25 is chosen to be sufficiently large that we expect it to overfit the data to hand (thereby avoiding bias from model over-simplification), but small enough to retain computational efficiency. If formula_26 then the computational cost of model estimation this way will be formula_27.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Notice that the formula_17 are only identifiable to within an intercept term (we could add any constant to formula_29 while subtracting it from formula_30 without changing the model predictions at all), so identifiability constraints have to be imposed on the smooth terms to remove this ambiguity. Sharpest inference about the formula_17 is generally obtained by using the sum-to-zero constraints


title: Generalized additive model

text: i.e. by insisting that the sum of each the formula_17 evaluated at its observed covariate values should be zero. Such linear constraints can most easily be imposed by reparametrization at the basis setup stage, so below it is assumed that this has been done.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Having replaced all the formula_34 in the model with such basis expansions we have turned the GAM into a generalized linear model (GLM), with a model matrix that simply contains the basis functions evaluated at the observed formula_35 values. However, because the basis dimensions, formula_25, have been chosen to be a somewhat larger than is believed to be necessary for the data, the model is over-parameterized and will overfit the data if estimated as a regular GLM. The solution to this problem is to penalize departure from smoothness in the model fitting process, controlling the weight given to the smoothing penalties using smoothing parameters. For example, consider the situation in which all the smooths are univariate functions. Writing all the parameters in one vector, formula_37, suppose that formula_38 is the deviance (twice the difference between saturated log likelihood and the model log likelihood) for the model. Minimizing the deviance by the usual iteratively re-weighted least squares would result in overfit, so we seek formula_39 to minimize


title: Generalized additive model

text: where the integrated square second derivative penalties serve to penalize wiggliness (lack of smoothness) of the formula_17 during fitting, and the smoothing parameters formula_42 control the tradeoff between model goodness of fit and model smoothness. In the example formula_43 would ensure that the estimate of formula_18 would be a straight line in formula_35.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Given the basis expansion for each formula_17 the wiggliness penalties can be expressed as quadratic forms in the model coefficients. That is we can write


title: Generalized additive model

text: where formula_48 is a matrix of known coefficients computable from the penalty and basis, formula_49 is the vector of coefficients for formula_17, and formula_51 is just formula_48 padded with zeros so that the second equality holds and we can write the penalty in terms of the full coefficient vector formula_39. Many other smoothing penalties can be written in the same way, and given the smoothing parameters the model fitting problem now becomes


title: Generalized additive model

text: which can be found using a penalized version of the usual iteratively reweighted least squares (IRLS) algorithm for GLMs: the algorithm is unchanged except that the sum of quadratic penalties is added to the working least squared objective at each iteration of the algorithm.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Penalization has several effects on inference, relative to a regular GLM. For one thing the estimates are subject to some smoothing bias, which is the price that must be paid for limiting estimator variance by penalization. However, if smoothing parameters are selected appropriately the (squared) smoothing bias introduced by penalization should be less than the reduction in variance that it produces, so that the net effect is a reduction in mean square estimation error, relative to not penalizing. A related effect of penalization is that the notion of degrees of freedom of a model has to be modified to account for the penalties' action in reducing the coefficients' freedom to vary. For example, if formula_55 is the diagonal matrix of IRLS weights at convergence, and formula_56 is the GAM model matrix, then the model effective degrees of freedom is given by formula_57 where


title: Generalized additive model

text: is the effective degrees of freedom matrix. In fact summing just the diagonal elements of formula_59 corresponding to the coefficients of formula_17 gives the effective degrees of freedom for the estimate of formula_17.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Smoothing bias complicates interval estimation for these models, and the simplest approach turns out to involve a Bayesian approach. Understanding this Bayesian view of smoothing also helps to understand the REML and full Bayes approaches to smoothing parameter estimation. At some level smoothing penalties are imposed because we believe smooth functions to be more probable than wiggly ones, and if that is true then we might as well formalize this notion by placing a prior on model wiggliness. A very simple prior might be


title: Generalized additive model

text: (where formula_63 is the GLM scale parameter introduced only for later convenience), but we can immediately recognize this as a multivariate normal prior with mean formula_64 and precision matrix formula_65. Since the penalty allows some functions through unpenalized (straight lines, given the example penalties), formula_66 is rank deficient, and the prior is actually improper, with a covariance matrix given by the Moore–Penrose pseudoinverse of formula_66 (the impropriety corresponds to ascribing infinite variance to the unpenalized components of a smooth).


title: Generalized additive model

text: Now if this prior is combined with the GLM likelihood, we find that the posterior mode for formula_39 is exactly the formula_69 found above by penalized IRLS. Furthermore, we have the large sample result that


title: Generalized additive model

text: The Gaussian smoothness priors are also the basis for fully Bayesian inference with GAMs, as well as methods estimating GAMs as mixed models that are essentially empirical Bayes methods.


title: Generalized additive model

text: So far we have treated estimation and inference given the smoothing parameters, formula_72, but these also need to be estimated. One approach is to take a fully Bayesian approach, defining priors on the (log) smoothing parameters, and using stochastic simulation or high order approximation methods to obtain information about the posterior of the model coefficients. An alternative is to select the smoothing parameters to optimize a prediction error criterion such as Generalized cross validation (GCV) or the


title: Generalized additive model

text: Akaike information criterion (AIC). Finally we may choose to maximize the Marginal Likelihood (REML) obtained by integrating the model coefficients, formula_39 out of the joint density of formula_74,


title: Generalized additive model

text: Since formula_76 is just the likelihood of formula_39, we can view this as choosing formula_78 to maximize the average likelihood of random draws from the prior. The preceding integral is usually analytically intractable but can be approximated to quite high accuracy using Laplace's method.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Smoothing parameter inference is the most computationally taxing part of model estimation/inference. For example, to optimize a GCV or marginal likelihood typically requires numerical optimization via a Newton or Quasi-Newton method, with each trial value for the (log) smoothing parameter vector requiring a penalized IRLS iteration to evaluate the corresponding formula_69 alongside the other ingredients of the GCV score or Laplace approximate marginal likelihood (LAML). Furthermore, to obtain the derivatives of the GCV or LAML, required for optimization, involves implicit differentiation to obtain the derivatives of formula_69 w.r.t. the log smoothing parameters, and this requires some care is efficiency and numerical stability are to be maintained.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Backfit GAMs were originally provided by the codice_1 function in S, now ported to the R language as the codice_1 package. The SAS proc codice_3 also provides backfit GAMs. The recommended package in R for GAMs is codice_4, which stands for "mixed GAM computational vehicle", which is based on the reduced rank approach with automatic smoothing parameter selection. The SAS proc codice_5 is an alternative implementation. In Python, there is the codice_6 package, which implements a bagging and boosting approach. There are many alternative packages. Examples include the R packages codice_7, which implements a boosting approach; codice_8, which provides the full spline smoothing methods; codice_9 which provides vector GAMs; and codice_10, which provides Generalized additive model for location, scale and shape. `BayesX' and its R interface provides GAMs and extensions via MCMC and penalized likelihood methods. The `INLA' software implements a fully Bayesian approach based on Markov random field representations exploiting sparse matrix methods.


title: Generalized additive model

text: As an example of how models can be estimated in practice with software, consider R package codice_4. Suppose that our R workspace contains vectors "y", "x" and "z" and we want to estimate the model


title: Generalized additive model

text: In common with most R modelling functions codice_1 expects a model formula to be supplied, specifying the model structure to fit. The response variable is given to the left of the codice_13 while the specification of the linear predictor is given to the right. codice_1 sets up bases and penalties for the smooth terms, estimates the model including its smoothing parameters and, in standard R fashion, returns a "fitted model object", which can then be interrogated using various helper functions, such as codice_15, codice_16, codice_17, and codice_18.


title: Generalized additive model

text: This simple example has used several default settings which it is important to be aware of. For example a Gaussian distribution and identity link has been assumed, and the smoothing parameter selection criterion was GCV. Also the smooth terms were represented using `penalized thin plate regression splines', and the basis dimension for each was set to 10 (implying a maximum of 9 degrees of freedom after identifiability constraints have been imposed). A second example illustrates how we can control these things. Suppose that we want to estimate the model


title: Generalized additive model

text: using REML smoothing parameter selection, and we expect formula_29 to be a relatively complicated function which we would like to model with a penalized cubic regression spline. For formula_30 we also have to decide whether formula_85 and formula_86 are naturally on the same scale so that an isotropic smoother such as thin plate spline is appropriate (specified via `s(v,w)'), or whether they are really on different scales so that we need separate smoothing penalties and smoothing parameters for formula_85 and formula_86 as provided by a tensor product smoother. Suppose we opted for the latter in this case, then the following R code would estimate the model


title: Generalized additive model

text: which uses a basis size of 100 for the smooth of formula_89. The specification of distribution and link function uses the `family' objects that are standard when fitting GLMs in R or S. Note that Gaussian random effects can also be added to the linear predictor.


title: Generalized additive model

text: These examples are only intended to give a very basic flavour of the way that GAM software is used, for more detail refer to the software documentation for the various packages and the references below.


title: Generalized additive model

text: As with any statistical model it is important to check the model assumptions of a GAM. Residual plots should be examined in the same way as for any GLM. That is deviance residuals (or other standardized residuals) should be examined for patterns that might suggest a substantial violation of the independence or mean-variance assumptions of the model. This will usually involve plotting the standardized residuals against fitted values and covariates to look for mean-variance problems or missing pattern, and may also involve examining Correlograms (ACFs) and/or Variograms of the residuals to check for violation of independence. If the model mean-variance relationship is correct then scaled residuals should have roughly constant variance. Note that since GLMs and GAMs can be estimated using Quasi-likelihood, it follows that details of the distribution of the residuals beyond the mean-variance relationship are of relatively minor importance.


title: Generalized additive model

text: One issue that is more common with GAMs than with other GLMs is a danger of falsely concluding that data are zero inflated. The difficulty arises when data contain many zeroes that can be modelled by a Poisson or binomial with a very low expected value: the flexibility of the GAM structure will often allow representation of a very low mean over some region of covariate space, but the distribution of standardized residuals will fail to look anything like the approximate normality that introductory GLM classes teach us to expect, even if the model is perfectly correct.


title: Generalized additive model

text: The one extra check that GAMs introduce is the need to check that the degrees of freedom chosen are appropriate. This is particularly acute when using methods that do not automatically estimate the smoothness of model components. When using methods with automatic smoothing parameter selection then it is still necessary to check that the choice of basis dimension was not restrictively small, although if the effective degrees of freedom of a term estimate is comfortably below its basis dimension then this is unlikely. In any case, checking formula_18 is based on examining pattern in the residuals with respect to formula_35. This can be done using partial residuals overlaid on the plot of formula_92, or using permutation of the residuals to construct tests for residual pattern (as in the `gam.check' function in R package `mgcv').


title: Generalized additive model

text: When smoothing parameters are estimated as part of model fitting then much of what would traditionally count as model selection has been absorbed into the fitting process: the smoothing parameters estimation has already selected between a rich family of models of different functional complexity. However smoothing parameter estimation does not typically remove a smooth term from the model altogether, because most penalties leave some functions un-penalized (e.g. straight lines are unpenalized by the spline derivative penalty given above). So the question of whether a term should be in the model at all remains. One simple approach to this issue is to add an extra penalty to each smooth term in the GAM, which penalizes the components of the smooth that would otherwise be unpenalized (and only those). Each extra penalty has its own smoothing parameter and estimation then proceeds as before, but now with the possibility that terms will be completely penalized to zero. In high dimensional settings then it may make more sense to attempt this task using the lasso or elastic net regularization. Boosting also performs term selection automatically as part of fitting.


title: Generalized additive model

text: An alternative is to use traditional stepwise regression methods for model selection. This is also the default method when smoothing parameters are not estimated as part of fitting, in which case each smooth term is usually allowed to take one of a small set of pre-defined smoothness levels within the model, and these are selected between in a stepwise fashion. Stepwise methods operate by iteratively comparing models with or without particular model terms (or possibly with different levels of term complexity), and require measures of model fit or term significance in order to decide which model to select at each stage. For example, we might use p-values for testing each term for equality to zero to decide on candidate terms for removal from a model, and we might compare Akaike information criterion (AIC) values for alternative models.


title: Generalized additive model

text: P-value computation for smooths is not straightforward, because of the effects of penalization, but approximations are available. AIC can be computed in two ways for GAMs. The marginal AIC is based on the Mariginal Likelihood (see above) with the model coefficients integrated out. In this case the AIC penalty is based on the number of smoothing parameters (and any variance parameters) in the model. However, because of the well known fact that REML is not comparable between models with different fixed effects structures, we can not usually use such an AIC to compare models with different smooth terms (since their un-penalized components act like fixed effects). Basing AIC on the marginal likelihood in which only the penalized effects are integrated out is possible (the number of un-penalized coefficients now gets added to the parameter count for the AIC penalty), but this version of the marginal likelihood suffers from the tendency to oversmooth that provided the original motivation for developing REML. Given these problems GAMs are often compared using the conditional AIC, in which the model likelihood (not marginal likelihood) is used in the AIC, and the parameter count is taken as the effective degrees of freedom of the model.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Naive versions of the conditional AIC have been shown to be much too likely to select larger models in some circumstances, a difficulty attributable to neglect of smoothing parameter uncertainty when computing the effective degrees of freedom, however correcting the effective degrees of freedom for this problem restores reasonable performance.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Overfitting can be a problem with GAMs, especially if there is un-modelled residual auto-correlation or un-modelled overdispersion. Cross-validation can be used to detect and/or reduce overfitting problems with GAMs (or other statistical methods), and software often allows the level of penalization to be increased to force smoother fits. Estimating very large numbers of smoothing parameters is also likely to be statistically challenging, and there are known tendencies for prediction error criteria (GCV, AIC etc.) to occasionally undersmooth substantially, particularly at moderate sample sizes, with REML being somewhat less problematic in this regard.


title: Generalized additive model

text: Where appropriate, simpler models such as GLMs may be preferable to GAMs unless GAMs improve predictive ability substantially (in validation sets) for the application in question.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: The Divide is a 2012 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Xavier Gens and written by Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean. The film stars Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, and Rosanna Arquette. "The Divide" premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 13, 2011, and Anchor Bay Films released it in the United States on January 13, 2012.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: As nuclear explosions ravage New York City, residents of an apartment block rush downstairs to escape from the building, only to be forced into the basement by further explosions. Only eight of the residents – Eva and her boyfriend Sam, Josh and his brother Adrien, Josh's friend Bobby, Marilyn and her daughter Wendi, and Delvin – manage to force their way into the building's bomb shelter before the superintendent, Mickey, seals the door. The group acclimates to the cramped surroundings while Mickey asserts his dominance over the shelter and its denizens, much to the chagrin of Josh, Bobby, and Delvin. After some time, the shelter's door is broken open and the shelter is invaded by armed soldiers in biohazard suits; the men's speech is unintelligible and their allegiance remains ambiguous. The men attack the group and seize Wendi, leaving the shelter with her. Delvin and Mickey manage to kill three of the men and Mickey takes a rifle. Josh volunteers to use one of the dead soldiers' suits to leave the shelter and search for Wendi.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: Outside of the shelter, Josh finds the area entirely sealed off by plastic sheet tunnels connected to a laboratory. Josh's outfit allows him to explore the lab, where he discovers several unconscious children, including Wendi, in stasis units, their hair shaved off and their eyes bandaged. One of the soldiers checks the ID on Josh's suit and, realizing he is an imposter, tears out his breathing apparatus, exposing Josh to the air. Josh flees back to the shelter, killing two of the soldiers on the way. After Josh returns, the soldiers weld the door shut from the outside, trapping everyone within. Time passes; Josh begins to suffer the effects of the radiation and admits to Adrien that he only went outside to find rescue for Adrien and himself. Eva, in a fractured relationship with the meek Sam, grows closer to Adrien. Bobby volunteers to hack up the bodies of the dead soldiers so their decaying remains can be thrown into the toilet's septic tank. Delvin grows suspicious that Mickey is hoarding resources. Marilyn, having been told by Josh that Wendi is dead, enters into a sexual relationship with Bobby.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: Marilyn attempts to convince Eva to sleep with Josh, warning her that the men will want sex. The group grows increasingly angry with Mickey as resources grow scarce, culminating when Delvin discovers Mickey's locked safe room and threatens to taser him if he does not open it. A struggle ensues and Mickey shoots Delvin in the head with the rifle. The group does not believe Mickey's argument of self-defense, and an increasingly ill Josh, and an increasingly deranged Bobby, torture him to gain the code to the safe room. Eva throws the rifle down the toilet to stop Josh using it. Seizing authority, Josh and Bobby are physically and emotionally abusive of Marilyn. Josh makes it clear that he wants Eva, and Sam is unable to stand up for her. Eva and Sam try to protect Marilyn from Josh and Bobby, but are unable to. While Eva is tasked with watching Mickey, Mickey reveals that there is a gun hidden in his safe room.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: Josh and Bobby force Eva to hack up Delvin's corpse when Sam cannot, leaving Eva distraught. Josh and Bobby, both losing their hair to radiation sickness, shave their heads. Mickey informs Eva that there is another way out of the shelter, through the septic tank to the sewer. Eva tries to retrieve the gun, but cannot get past the pair. She finds Marilyn's corpse, the two having beaten her to death. Eva notices her hair is falling out and realizes she is also sick; the shelter is not protecting them from the outside because of the broken door. Eva sends Sam to retrieve the gun while she cuts the power to distract Bobby and lures Josh away with the promise of sex. Josh grows suspicious and tries to rape Eva, but she fights him off with help from Adrien. Sam retrieves the gun, but as Bobby, Josh, Eva, and Adrien yell instructions at him to give the gun to them, Sam shoots and kills Adrien, perhaps as a result of jealousy over Eva's affections for Adrien. Josh brutally beats Sam. Bobby turns on Josh and is about to shoot him when Eva cuts his throat with a tin can lid. Eva frees Mickey, who shoots Josh. On his last action, Josh smashes an oil lamp, setting himself alight and causing a fire in the shelter. While Sam and Mickey attempt to put out the blaze, Eva chooses to escape. Eva recovers the biohazard suit and locks herself into the safe room, leaving Mickey and Sam trapped inside the burning shelter.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: Breaking through the toilet into the septic tank below, Eva drops into the tank and finds a ladder to the street. She emerges into the remains of the city and stares blankly at the total devastation.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: The film is based on a script by the screenwriting duo of Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean. Director Xavier Gens cast Lauren German, Milo Ventimiglia, Michael Biehn and Rosanna Arquette in leading roles for the film. The film was shot in the Millennium Centre and the Manitoba Production Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: "The Divide" was released theatrically by Content Films. After its premiere at Austin's South by Southwest Film Festival, the U.S. rights were quickly picked up by Anchor Bay.


title: The Divide (2011 film)

text: As of June 2020, the film has a 25% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 4.1/10 based on 53 reviews. Nigel Floyd of "Time Out" wrote, "Its nihilism feels cynical rather than authentically bleak, and the increasingly histrionic scenes start to resemble an indulgent actors' workshop that has spun out of control." David DeWitt of "The New York Times" wrote that the film is well-made and has good performances, but it "fails miserably" because the only reason to continue watching it is to see how depraved the characters become.


title: Brent Sexton

text: Brent Sexton (born August 12, 1967) is an American actor best known for his roles in the television series "Bosch", "The Killing", "Life", and "Deadwood". He has guest starred in several other television series, such as "The Expanse", "Justified", "That's Life", "Birds of Prey", "", and "Judging Amy". He has also appeared in several motion pictures, such as "In the Valley of Elah", "Flightplan", "Radio", and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence".


title: Brent Sexton

text: Sexton toured internationally with a theater company as both Officer Krupke and Detective Schrank in "West Side Story".


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire Underwood (née Hale) is a fictional character in "House of Cards", played by Robin Wright. She is the wife of the show's protagonist Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) and the main protagonist in the final season. She is a lobbyist and runs an environmental nonprofit organization, but in later seasons ascends to the positions of Second Lady of the United States, First Lady of the United States, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Vice President of the United States, and finally the 47th President of the United States. Claire made her first appearance in the series' pilot episode, "Chapter 1". The character is based on Elizabeth Urquhart, a character from the eponymous British miniseries from which the current series is derived. Unlike the original character, however, Claire has her own storylines.


title: Claire Underwood

text: The role has been critically acclaimed. Wright won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama for this role at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, becoming the first actress to win a Golden Globe Award for a streaming television online-only role in a series. She was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for this role at the 65th, 66th, 67th, 68th, 69th and 71st Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In November 2017, Netflix fired Spacey from the series after a number of people accused him of sexual misconduct. The Frank Underwood character was written out of the show as having died, and Claire became the main character of the show's sixth and final season.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire Hale Underwood is originally from the exclusive Highland Park enclave of Dallas, Texas. Her late father was a major Texas Republican. While studying Environmental Health and Chemistry at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, she met Francis J. "Frank" Underwood, a Harvard Law student from South Carolina. She subsequently achieved a masters in public health from Harvard University. She is from a wealthy family, and the show characterizes her as a "Dallas Debutante" and "Lily White". She recounts her father's taking her to Dealey Plaza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and that it made her feel "so sad, so angry". She has a difficult relationship with her mother, Elizabeth Hale (Ellen Burstyn), who despises Frank and is disappointed in Claire for marrying him.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Brian Stelter of "The New York Times" described her as Frank Underwood's conniving wife and described the Underwoods as "the scheming husband and wife at the center of 'House of Cards'". She is a woman "who will stop at nothing to conquer everything". Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post" describes her as an "ice-queen wife". "The Independent"s Sarah Hughes echoes this description, saying Claire is so dedicated to the couple's schemes that it is clear she will execute them herself if Frank wavers. Following season 4, Robin Wright stated that she felt Claire Underwood was the equal of Frank Underwood and demanded equal pay for her performance. Netflix acquiesced.


title: Claire Underwood

text: While Frank is Machiavellian, Claire presents a woman urging on her husband's assertion of power in the image of Lady Macbeth. She encourages his vices while noting her disapproval of his weaknesses, saying: "My husband doesn't apologize ... even to me." This gives a credibility to their symbiosis.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Willimon notes that "What's extraordinary about Frank and Claire is there is deep love and mutual respect, but the way they achieve this is by operating on a completely different set of rules than the rest of us typically do."


title: Claire Underwood

text: Nancy deWolf Smith of "The Wall Street Journal" describes Claire as "a short-haired blonde who manages to be masculine and demasculinizing at the same time." Smith describes their relationship as pivotal to the show: "Benign though they may seem—and their harmless air is what makes the Underwoods so effective as political plotters—this is a power couple with the same malignant chemistry as pairs of serial killers, where each needs the other in order to become lethal".


title: Claire Underwood

text: Upon viewing a four-episode preview of season 2, Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" says the series "sells husband and wife power-at-all-costs couple Frank (Kevin Spacey) and Claire (Robin Wright) Underwood as a little too oily and reptilian for anyone's good." "Los Angeles Times" critic Mary McNamara makes the case that "House of Cards" is a love story on many levels but most importantly between Frank and Claire.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In season 3, when the Underwoods are President and First Lady of the United States, Claire's marriage to Frank begins to falter. She tires of being in a subordinate role to him, wanting to be "significant" in her own right, and decides that he is "not enough" for her. She leaves him in the season finale but comes back in the fourth season, treating their marriage as a purely political arrangement to further her own career. When he is shot during a campaign event, Claire privately admits that she feels nothing for him. Throughout the season, she works behind the scenes to undermine Frank's election campaign, before finally joining forces with him in order to become his vice president. She also has an affair with her speechwriter Tom Yates (Paul Sparks), with Frank's approval.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Prior to Spacey's departure from the series, season 6 was going to center on a divorce battle between Frank and Claire, with the two attempting to destroy each other; after Spacey was fired, however, the season's story arc was drastically rewritten. The new season plot had Frank dying offscreen, and Claire—now the president—publicly distancing herself from him, and privately calling him her "biggest regret". Later in the season, she reveals that she is pregnant with his child.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire is the CEO of an environmental group while serving as her husband's primary accomplice. After President Garrett Walker (Michel Gill) goes back on his promise to make Frank Secretary of State, Frank enlists Claire to help him get revenge and propel them both to positions of power. She and Frank scheme nightly over a cigarette, and together they maneuver their way into Walker's inner circle. Frank says of Claire: "I love that woman, I love her more than sharks love blood."


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire is aware of Frank's sexual relationship with reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) and approves of it as long as it achieves their ends. She herself has an affair with an old boyfriend, Adam Galloway (Ben Daniels).


title: Claire Underwood

text: By the end of the season, Walker appoints Frank the Vice President of the United States, making Claire the Second Lady of the United States.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire's main storyline in season 2 is her advocacy, as Second Lady, for a sexual assault prevention bill. During her campaign for the bill, a secret from her college days emerges: during a nationally televised interview, she admits that she was raped in college and that her rapist, Dalton McGinnis (Peter Bradbury), is now a high-ranking general. (She had earlier had an uncomfortable encounter with McGinnis at a White House dinner, during which she had told Frank what the general had done to her.) She also admits to having aborted a pregnancy that she claims was the result of the rape; it is later revealed that she in fact aborted Frank's child, with his consent. She then converts the focus on that issue into political support that becomes critical to the Underwoods' ascension to the Oval Office.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire becomes increasingly ruthless as the season progresses. When Galloway leaks an intimate photo of Claire to appease his jealous fiancée, Claire intimidates him into publicly stating that he fabricated the picture, ruining his reputation. When Gillian Cole (Sandrine Holt), a pregnant former employee, returns to demand health care as part of her severance, Claire says, "I am willing to let your child wither and die inside you, if that's what's required, ... Am I really the sort of enemy you want to make?" Claire also manipulates First Lady Patricia Walker (Joanna Going) into believing that her husband is having an affair in order to distract President Walker from Frank's machinations.


title: Claire Underwood

text: She shows remorse for her actions only once. When another of McGinnis' victims, Megan Hennessy (Libby Woodbridge), comes forward, Claire uses her as the poster girl for the sexual assault bill, leaving the fragile young woman open to public scrutiny and reprisals from the bill's opponents. Before she can testify about her ordeal before Congress, however, Megan suffers a breakdown and attempts suicide. Upon realizing what she has caused Megan to go through, Claire bursts into tears.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In the season finale, she urges Frank to humble himself before President Walker, with whom he has fallen out of favor, in order to complete the plan: "Cut out your heart and put it in his fucking hands." The gambit works: Walker keeps Frank as his Vice President, allowing Frank to succeed him when he resigns. Frank is now President of the United States, with Claire as the First Lady.


title: Claire Underwood

text: According to Drew Grant of "The New York Observer", Claire's season-long storyline was similar to the real life efforts of United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's to legislate an end to military sexual assault. Based upon the 4-episode preview, Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times" says that in season 2 Claire "is still ruthlessly pursuing her own agenda as well as her husband's. She remains an enigma even as she reveals more and more disturbing secrets from her past." Claire remains composed and stylish with or without her husband and manipulates the press with aplomb.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In Season 3, Claire feels the need to be something more "significant" than the First Lady, and asks Frank to nominate her to a United Nations post. He nominates her, but the Senate rejects her after a rocky hearing. Frank gives her the job anyway in a recess appointment, but her tenure is brief; she ruins a treaty between the U.S. and Russia by publicly confronting Russian President Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen) about his anti-gay policies and is forced to resign when Petrov uses her as a bargaining chip during a diplomatic crisis.


title: Claire Underwood

text: During Frank's election campaign, Claire begins to question whether she still loves him. In the season finale, she and Frank get into an ugly fight in which she says he is not enough for her; Frank replies that without him, she is nothing. Season three ends with Claire leaving Frank as he prepares to go to the New Hampshire primary.


title: Claire Underwood

text: After leaving Frank, Claire goes back to Texas, where she has a tense reunion with her mother, who is dying of lymphoma. She sets her sights on running for a House of Representatives seat in Texas, with help from political consultant LeAnn Harvey (Neve Campbell). Frank persuades her to resume public appearances with him by promising to support her run. However, he sandbags her prospective candidacy by endorsing a political ally's daughter, in order to keep Claire focused on his campaign. Claire retaliates on the day of the South Carolina primary by covertly leaking a photo of Frank's father with a Klansman, imperiling Frank's candidacy. Frank figures out that she was behind the leak and confronts her. Claire calmly admits what she did and proposes that she join him in the ticket as his vice president. Frank rejects the idea.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Shortly thereafter, Frank is shot by Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus), in an assassination attempt, and falls into a coma. While Frank is in surgery, Claire helps guide Frank's weak vice president Donald Blythe (Reed Birney) through a diplomatic crisis with Russia. While Frank is receiving a liver transplant, she declines going to the hospital in favor of negotiating a treaty with Petrov, and strong-arms him into accepting the U.S.' terms. When Frank recovers from surgery, he agrees to let Claire be his vice president. He and Claire advocate for a controversial gun control bill for the sole purpose of creating an atmosphere divisive enough to pick off the potential running mates. In the ensuing open convention, they publicly endorse Secretary of State Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson) for the job, while working behind the scenes to undermine her and ensure that Claire wins enough delegates to be nominated. Meanwhile, she reluctantly honors her mother's request to help her die. She and Frank then use the public sympathy from Elizabeth's death to win the nomination; they are now running mates.


title: Claire Underwood

text: When the terrorist group Islamic Caliphate Organization (ICO) takes an American family hostage, Claire negotiates with their imprisoned leader, Yusuf Al Ahmadi (Farshad Farahat), who agrees to tell his followers to release the hostages. Al Ahmadi reneges on the deal, however, and tells them to kill the hostages. At the same time, journalist Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver) publishes an investigative news story detailing Frank's crimes. Claire gives Frank the idea to declare war on ICO and allow the public to see the hostage die in order to distract from the scandal and create an atmosphere of widespread fear that they can exploit.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In season 5, Claire's story begins as the opening scene of the season: shooting a propaganda commercial in order to stir up fear. Throughout the beginning, she helps make the campaign's focal point about the fear of ICO and how they can stop the threat.


title: Claire Underwood

text: On Election Day, Claire and Frank learn that they may lose because of low voter turnout. They exploit a possible terrorist threat to close down multiple polling centers in key states, such as Ohio. This leads to numerous states filing lawsuits and refusing to honor the election results.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Nine weeks later, with neither side winning the majority of electors, the House (now Republican-controlled) will decide the President and the Senate (Democrat-controlled) for the Vice President, the first instance of this happening for the President since the 1824 presidential election and the first time for the Vice President since the 1836 presidential election. Claire eventually wins when Blythe issues a bill to block any filibuster in the Senate; while the House cannot reach a majority. In the meantime, Claire is sworn in as Acting President of the United States and begins to exert her limited power by excluding Frank from certain presidential functions, such as the swearing-in of the new Justice of the Supreme Court.


title: Claire Underwood

text: During her short-lived presidency, a truck carrying nuclear material goes missing and puts D.C. into lock-down, a scheme devised by several members of Frank's cabinet and Conway's campaign. During the emergency, Claire is visited by diplomat Jane Davis (Patricia Clarkson), who says that she can track down a leader of ICO for the Underwoods. Claire is also faced with a series of diplomatic crises: Russian soldiers have taken over an American base, and the Russians and Chinese are vying for possession of a boat in Antarctica that has a stowaway American working for the Russians. After making a deal with the Chinese, Claire orders for the boat to be destroyed so that neither the Chinese nor the Russians can get what is on board. Around this time, Claire agrees to an open election in Ohio for not only the President, but also the Vice President, in order to avoid a possible Conway-Underwood administration.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Frank acquires a recording of Conway verbally abusing a pilot, as well as a recording of Conway's running mate, General Ted Brockhart (Colm Feore), threatening to kill Frank, which Frank and Claire use to blackmail Conway's campaign manager Mark Usher (Campbell Scott) into helping them; they then release the tapes anyway. Voters turn against Conway, and the Underwoods win the election.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Soon afterward, Congressman Alex Romero (James Martinez) encourages Republicans in the House to start up the Declaration of War committee to investigate Frank, which puts Claire and Frank in damage control.


title: Claire Underwood

text: By this time, Claire and Yates have fallen in love, which complicates both their lives. During an unguarded moment, Claire tells Yates that Frank murdered Zoe Barnes and Congressman Peter Russo (Corey Stoll). She immediately regrets it, and tells Yates that they can't see each other anymore. In response, Yates threatens to publish a book detailing the Underwoods' crimes. Claire invites him to Usher's home, and poisons him. He dies while having sex with Claire, and she has Usher get rid of the body. Around this time, Claire and Frank convince Stamper to take the fall for Zoe Barnes' death. Frank also starts to become suspicious of Claire as she disappears for a period of time (she had started talking to Davis in a secret corridor) and starts to memorize her testimony defending herself but not Frank, in case she has to testify.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Walker publicly testifies against Frank, prompting him to appear before the committee and resign the presidency. When an incredulous Claire confronts him, Frank says that it was his plan all along to resign and set her up to be president, so that the two of them can run Washington together—she from the White House and he from the private sector. For the plan to work, however, Claire must pardon Frank, which would damage her politically. Frank resigns and Claire is sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.


title: Claire Underwood

text: However, Claire does not announce that she is pardoning Frank in her first address to the nation as President. Frank calls her repeatedly, but she forwards the calls. She sees that Frank has burned a hole into the American flag in the Oval Office, and breaks the fourth wall, saying: "My turn."


title: Claire Underwood

text: The sixth season begins four months later. Claire is President, with Usher as her Vice President. Frank has died of an apparent heart attack, but Claire suspects that he may have been murdered. Throughout the season, she tries to disassociate herself from Frank, returning to her maiden name and calling him "my biggest regret". She makes enemies of Bill Shepherd (Greg Kinnear) and his sister Annette (Diane Lane), two political power brokers who oppose her agenda. As she returns to the White House from giving a speech, an attempt is made on her life; a disgruntled ex-soldier shoots at her motorcade and commits suicide.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Claire also faces a threat in Stamper, who recants his confession and makes a deal with federal prosecutors to give them Claire as revenge for her turning her back on him and Frank. She makes a shaky alliance with him, however, by promising to protect him in return for his help getting rid of Durant, who she fears will testify against her regarding her and Frank's crimes. Days later, Claire pardons Stamper, and Durant apparently dies of an embolism; it is later revealed, however, that she faked her death and fled the country.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Meanwhile, Claire grows suspicious of Usher, who is secretly working with the Shepherds. She fires her cabinet to neutralize his influence, and leaks information tying him and Bill Shepherd to laundering money for the Russian government; she also punishes Annette Shepherd by revealing to the press that Annette's son, Duncan (Cody Fern), is in fact the biological child of one of her serving staff. To clear the field of potential threats to her power, Claire has Durant, Davis and Hammerschmidt killed. When Stamper confronts her about what Frank left him in his will, Claire says that she is pregnant with Frank's child. The Shepherds try to undermine her by developing a voting app that would essentially steal the upcoming midterm elections; Claire retaliates by having Duncan, who created the app, arrested for treason.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In the series finale, Claire arranges a meeting with Stamper, whom she suspects has been hired by the Shepherds to kill her. During a heated exchange, she gets him to confess that he poisoned Frank in order to stop him from killing her, in order to protect the Underwood "legacy". He attacks her with a letter opener, superficially wounding her in the throat, but cannot bring himself to kill her, instead collapsing into her arms. Claire grabs the letter opener and stabs him in the stomach. As he lies bleeding on the floor, she covers his mouth and suffocates him.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Wright's performance is described as "nuanced and compelling". Claire has "chilly poise" but the "coolly regal doyenne" softens over the course of the first season according to "New Republic"s Laura Bennet. Wright plays the role with "an almost terrifying ". As a couple Frank and Claire are said to "reverberate with tension and wit". Michael Dobbs, who wrote the trilogy of novels upon which the British miniseries is based, compares the compelling nature of the relationship between Frank and Claire favorably to the original characters in "House of Cards" and likens them to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. He is not alone. In season 2, she remains "equally steely". Despite suggestions to the contrary, Wright insists that the character is not based on Hillary Clinton.


title: Claire Underwood

text: On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for original online only streaming television for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its web series, "Arrested Development", "Hemlock Grove", and "House of Cards", earned nominations. Among those nominations was Wright's portrayal of Claire Underwood for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as well as Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Frank Underwood for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Jason Bateman's portrayal of Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development" for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, making these three roles the first three leading roles to be Primetime Emmy Award-nominated from a streaming television series. The role has also earned Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama award at the 71st Golden Globe Awards on January 12, 2014. In so doing she became the first actress to win a Golden Globe Award for an online-only streaming television series.


title: Claire Underwood

text: For season 2, Wright earned a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series nomination at the 4th Critics' Choice Television Awards. Wright was again nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards and Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for both Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Claire Underwood

text: In season 3, she was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, Best Actress – Television Series Drama at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards, as well as both Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Her performance in season 4 earned her a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards. Wright continued to receive another individual Screen Actors Guild Award at the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a nomination at the 7th Critics’ Choice Television Awards for Best Actress in a Drama Series.


title: Claire Underwood

text: Wright's performance in season 5 earned her a fifth consecutive Primetime Emmy nomination at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards. She continued to be the show's only nominations at the 24th Screen Actors Guild Awards and the 8th Critics’ Choice Television Awards, both hosted in early 2018.


title: Claire Underwood

text: For her final performance in season 6, Wright received her fifth individual (and seventh overall throughout the series) consecutive nomination at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards. She later went on to receive her sixth and final nomination for the role for the Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy at the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards. She became one of only seven actresses that received six or more nominations in the category for the same show.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The Curonian (Courish) Spit (; ; , ; ) is a long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast. Its southern portion lies within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, and its northern within southwestern Klaipėda County, Lithuania. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared by Lithuania and Russia.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The Curonian Spit stretches from the Sambia Peninsula on the south to its northern tip next to a narrow strait, across which is the port city of Klaipėda on the mainland of Lithuania. The northern long stretch of the Curonian Spit peninsula belongs to Klaipėda County, Lithuania, while the rest is part of the Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The width of the spit varies from a minimum of in Russia (near the village of Lesnoy) to a maximum of in Lithuania (just north of Nida).


title: Curonian Spit

text: The Curonian Spit was formed about 3rd millennium BC. A glacial moraine served as its foundation; winds and sea currents later contributed enough sand to raise and keep the formation above sea level.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The existence of this narrow shoal is inherently threatened by the natural processes that govern shoreline features. It depends on a dynamic balance between sand transport and deposition. If (hypothetically) the source area to the south-west were cut off, say, by a large port construction with a pier, the spit would erode and eventually disappear. It is thus a geologically speaking ephemeral coast element. The most likely development, however, is that the shallow bay inside the Curonian Spit will eventually fill up with sediment, thus creating new land.


title: Curonian Spit

text: According to folk etymology for the name of Neringa Municipality, there was a giantess girl named Neringa, who formed the Curonian Spit and helped fishermen.


title: Curonian Spit

text: From c. 800 to 1016, the Spit was the location of Kaup, a major pagan trading centre which has not been excavated yet. The Teutonic Knights occupied the area in the 13th century, building their castles at Memel (1252), Neuhausen (1283), and at Rossitten (1372). In 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation. After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), the spit became a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights, and thus located within the Polish–Lithuanian union, later elevated to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The spit may have been the home of the last living speaker of now-extinct Old Prussian, one of the Baltic languages.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Significant human impacts on the area began in the 16th century. From the 18th century, it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. Deforestation of the spit due to overgrazing, timber harvesting, and building of boats for the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf in 1757 led to the dunes taking over the spit and burying entire villages. Alarmed by these problems, the Prussian government sponsored large-scale revegetation and reforestation efforts, which started in 1825. Other sources credit George David Kuwert, the owner of a post station in Nida in the late 19th century, with beginning the spit's reforestation. Owing to these efforts, much of the spit is now covered with forests.


title: Curonian Spit

text: In the 19th century the Curonian Spit was inhabited primarily by Kursenieki, with a significant German minority in the south and a Lithuanian minority in the north. The population of Kursenieki eventually dwindled due to assimilation and other reasons; it is close to non-existent these days and had been even before 1945, when the spit had become ethnic German.


title: Curonian Spit

text: From the late 19th century, the dune landscape around Nidden (Nida) became popular with landscape and animal painters from the "Kunstakademie Königsberg" arts school. The local inn of Herman Blode was the nucleus of the expressionist artists' colony ("Künstlerkolonie Nidden"). Lovis Corinth stayed here in 1890, followed by artists such as Max Pechstein, Alfred Lichtwark, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Alfred Partikel. Painters from Königsberg such as Julius Freymuth and Eduard Bischoff visited the area, as did poets like Ernst Wiechert and Carl Zuckmayer. Other guests included Ernst Kirchner, Ernst Mollenhauer, Franz Domscheit, and Herrmann Wirth. The painters usually took accommodations at Blode's hotel, and left some of their works with him. Some also built their own residences in the vicinity.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Until the 20th century, most people in the area made their living by fishing. From 1901 to 1946 the village of Rossitten, now Rybachy, became the site of the pioneering Rossitten Bird Observatory, the world's first, founded by German ornithologist Johannes Thienemann there because of the Spit's importance as a bird migration corridor.


title: Curonian Spit

text: After World War I, Nidden, together with the northern half of the Curonian Spit became part of the Klaipėda Region according to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and was annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Officially renamed Nida, the village nevertheless remained a German-majority settlement – the border with the remaining East Prussian half of the Spit lay only a few kilometres to the south.


title: Curonian Spit

text: In 1929 Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann visited Nida while on holiday in nearby Rauschen and decided to have a summer house erected on a hill above the Lagoon, mocked as "Uncle Tom's Cabin" ("Onkel Toms Hütte") by locals. He and his family spent the summers of 1930–1932 in the thatched cottage; parts of the epic novel "Joseph and His Brothers" ("Joseph und seine Brüder") were written here. Threatened by the Nazis, Mann left Germany after Hitler's "Machtergreifung" in 1933 and never returned to Nida. After the Klaipėda Region was again annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939, his house was seized at the behest of Hermann Göring and served as a recreation home for "Luftwaffe" officers.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Following World War II, the German-occupied Lithuanian part of the spit was restored to Lithuania, while the remainder fell to Russia. The German population was expelled after the war by the occupying Soviet forces in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. Like elsewhere in present-day Kaliningrad Oblast, the assimilation of the territory and colonization by Russian settlers was completed by changing the historic German toponyms to Russian ones throughout the Russian-controlled part of the Spit.


title: Curonian Spit

text: After the breakup of the Soviet Union, tourism flourished; many Germans, mostly the descendants of the inhabitants of the area, choose the Curonian Spit (especially Nida, as no visas are needed for Germans in Lithuania) as their holiday destination.


title: Curonian Spit

text: While today the Kursenieki, also known as Kuršininkai, are a nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit, in 1649 Kuršininkai settlement spanned from Memel (Klaipėda) to Gdańsk. The Kuršininkai were eventually assimilated by the Germans, except along the Curonian Spit where some still live. The Kuršininkai were considered Latvians until after World War I, when Latvia gained independence from the Russian Empire, a consideration based on linguistic arguments. This was the rationale for Latvian claims over the Curonian Spit, Memel and other territories of Prussia, which would be later dropped.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The Curonian Spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe. Their average height is , but some attain a height of . Several ecological communities are present on and near the Spit, from its outer beaches to dune ridges, wetlands, meadows, and forests. Its location on the East Atlantic Flyway means it is frequently visited by migratory waterfowl. Between 10 and 20 million birds fly over the feature during spring and fall migrations, and many pause to rest or breed there.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The first six are on the Lithuanian side, while the last three are on the Russian side. The Russian side of the Curonian Spit belongs to Zelenogradsky District of the Kaliningrad Oblast, while the Lithuanian side is partitioned among Klaipėda city municipality and Neringa municipality in Klaipėda County.


title: Curonian Spit

text: There is a single road that traverses the whole length of the Curonian Spit. In the Russian side it goes to Zelenogradsk, while on the Lithuanian side it goes to Smiltynė. The spit is not connected to mainland Lithuania. Car ferries provide a transportation link between Smiltynė, located on the spit, and the port town of Klaipėda.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Since 2000, the Curonian Spit has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List under cultural criteria "V" ("an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture [...], or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change").


title: Curonian Spit

text: As of March 2012, there was a demand to tear down a number of homes on the Curonian Spit. These homes are owned by people who were given permits to build by corrupt local government officials. The demand to tear the homes down is based on the fact that the Spit is a UN World Heritage Site and the only structures that were to be allowed outside official settlements were fishing shacks.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The largest town on the spit is Nida in Lithuania, a popular holiday resort, mostly frequented by Lithuanian and German tourists. The western shoreline of Curonian Spit is the site of beaches for tourists.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Parnidis sand dune, subjected to drift by harsh winds, is rising up to above sea level. Local residents believe that the name "Parnidis" comes from the phrase meaning "passed across Nida", because this wind-blown dune has several times passed through the village of Nida. Scientists estimated that each person climbing or descending on the steep dune slopes moves several tons of sand, so hikers are allowed to climb only in designated paths.


title: Curonian Spit

text: There is a granite sundial built on Parnidis dune in 1995 that accurately shows the time. The sundial was rebuilt in 2011 following storm damage. The sundial is a stone pillar high and weighing . It consists in small steps covered with granite slabs, carved with hour and half-hour notches, as well as one notch for each month, and four additional notches for solstices and equinoxes. From the astronomical point of view Parnidis dune is an ideal place for the sundial in Lithuania.


title: Curonian Spit

text: There are environmental concerns related to the Curonian Spit, which is often promoted as a refuge of clean nature.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Due to the importance of tourism and fishing for the regional economy, pollution of sea and coastlines may have disastrous effects for the area as the unique nature and the economy would be damaged.


title: Curonian Spit

text: The construction of an offshore drilling facility (the Kravtsovskoye (D-6) oilfield) in the territorial waters of Russia, from the coastline of the Curonian Spit raised concerns over possible oil spills. Between 2002 and 2005 local environmentalists in Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania protested against Lukoil's plans to exploit the oilfield, objecting to the possible great damage to the environment and tourism (a vital source of income in the area) in case of oil leakage. These concerns did not engender support in the government of Russia. They were, however, supported by the government of Lithuania. The oilfield is about from the boundary of Lithuanian territorial waters; the prevailing northward currents means that the Lithuanian coastlines would receive much potential damage in case of leakage. Opposition to the operation of D-6 met little international support, and the oil platform was opened in 2004. During the first decade of the 21st century the two states agreed to a joint environmental impact assessment of the D-6 project, including plans for oil spill mitigation. The assessment and mitigation project had not been completed as of 2010.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Another concern is that increased tourism destroys the very nature that attracts it. For this reason, protective measures have been taken, such as banning tourists from hiking in certain areas of the spit.


title: Curonian Spit

text: Natural hazards are more dangerous in the Curonian Spit than elsewhere in Lithuania or the Kaliningrad Oblast. For example, storms tend to be stronger there. Due to the importance of trees in preventing soil erosion, forest fires that happen in summer are more dangerous to the ecology.


title: The Claypool Lennon Delirium

text: The Claypool Lennon Delirium is an American psychedelic rock band, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, known for his work in Primus, guitarist/vocalist Sean Lennon from The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, keyboardist/vocalist João Nogueira from Stone Giant, and drummer Paulo Baldi of Cake.


title: The Claypool Lennon Delirium

text: The band was conceived in 2015, with Claypool knowing that Primus would take a year off after touring alongside The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and Dinosaur Jr. He kept in touch with The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger's lead singer Sean Lennon, who had not planned any musical project for the following year.


title: The Claypool Lennon Delirium

text: They had ideas of making an old-school, psychedelic, and progressive rock record. Claypool invited Lennon to his guesthouse to drink wine, run some ideas, and play drums.


title: The Claypool Lennon Delirium

text: Over the course of six weeks, they wrote and recorded ten songs with both of them sharing various vocal and instrumental responsibilities, going beyond their core instruments of bass and guitar, and culminating in the release of their first studio album, "Monolith of Phobos". The album debuted in the Top 10 of three "Billboard" charts: Top Vinyl Albums, Top Tastemakers Albums, and Top Alternative Albums.


title: The Claypool Lennon Delirium

text: On February 22, 2019, the duo released their second studio album, "South of Reality". The LP was written and recorded over two months at Claypool's home recording studio in California and was preceded by the release of the six-and-a-half-minute track "Blood and Rockets". The duo embarked on a brief headlining tour in support of the record in late 2018, with successive dates in the spring of 2019.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray, sometimes known as the Commando Stingray, is a light tank produced by Textron Marine & Land Systems division (formerly Cadillac Gage). It was specifically designed to use as many existing components of other American armored fighting vehicles as possible to keep costs down. The Stingray was a private venture project aimed at foreign countries. As of 2020, Textron has kept the Stingray name registered.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray was developed in the 1980s as a private venture by Cadillac Gage Textron. The first prototype was completed in 1985.


title: Stingray light tank

text: In 1988, the Royal Thai Army pressed the Stingray in service with 106 tanks purchased. The contract was for $150 million. Cadillac Gage provided assistance in repairing some of them after they obtained reports of cracked hulls.


title: Stingray light tank

text: In 1992, development of the Stingray II Started. Its production was complete in 1994 with marketing promoted to friendly countries like Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan up until 2003.


title: Stingray light tank

text: Cadillac Gage Textron submitted a version of the Stingray for the U.S. Army's Armored Gun System program. This was a Stingray hull mated to the former joint Army–Marine Corps LAV-105 turret. It had the fairly conventional layout with a four-man crew. The AGS Stingray carried 36 rounds, with eight in ready storage. In June 1992, Cadillac Gage lost to a proposal from FMC.


title: Stingray light tank

text: In 2010, Federal Defense Industries announced that they entered into an agreement with Textron Marine & Land Systems in order to provide authorized aftermarket parts, support and other types of assistance for the Stingray since FDI maintains a technical library for spare parts.


title: Stingray light tank

text: In 2011, Napco entered into an agreement with Textron to provide authorized aftermarket parts, support and other types of assistance for the Stingray.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray has a 105 mm rifled cannon. Its cruise speed is 44 mph (71 km/h). Maximum grade is 60%. The maximum vertical distance it can scale is 2.7 feet (82 cm). It can ford water up to 3.5 feet (107 cm). It is air transportable in a C-130 cargo aircraft. The original Stingray program was launched in 1983, with the first prototype vehicle ready in August 1984. The Stingray turret was also marketed separately for retrofit installation on the hull of the M41, M47 or M551 tank or on the V600 armored car. Its armor was made from CG's Cadaloy armor.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray can be upgraded with the CG Fire Control and Stabilization Upgrade Kit as an affordable solution to upgrade its fire control systems.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray II is an upgrade version of the Stingray, developed by Cadillac Gage as a private-venture armored fighting vehicle (AFV) for the export market. The light tank's baseline armor, while thin, is adequate for a light cavalry, reconnaissance or light infantry fire support role; it protects its occupants from armor-piercing, heavy machine gun rounds up to 14.5 mm in size. Additional armor appliqué can be fitted to increase ballistic protection. Operational range is increased by about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) if one assumes a travel speed of about 30 mph (48 km/h). In addition, the engine on the Stingray II has been upgraded to 410 kW (550 horsepower) at 2,300 rpm.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The Stingray's main armament is a low recoil force (LRF) version of the British Royal Ordnance L7 105 mm rifled gun installed in a well-angled and electro-hydraulically powered turret having manual backup as is usually found on tanks, together with duplicate turret controls for the gunner and the commander, providing redundancy. Dimensions of the turret were deliberately designed to allow it to be refitted to M41 Walker Bulldog and M551 Sheridan vehicles as an upgrade. The gun has optional stabilization in two axes, and eight rounds, with another 24 rounds stored in the hull. Complementing the main gun is a 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun with 2,400 rounds, as well as a 12.7 mm M2 Browning anti-aircraft machine gun with 1,100 rounds on the commander's hatch. The Stingray II is fitted with 16 protective smoke grenade launch tubes, with 8 of them on each side. The optic system for the gunner is composed of a two-axis stabilized day/night thermal imaging system called 'Hughes Hire,' made by the company then known as Hughes Electronics, together with a laser rangefinder. For the commander, there is another optical system that has seven different periscopes, and there is also a repeater display for the same thermal image seen by the gunner.


title: Stingray light tank

text: The main improvements offered in the Stingray II are a more capable digital fire-control system, NBC equipment, enhanced mobility and superior target-engagement capabilities. The Stingray II also improves the armor to provide protection from 23 mm rounds.


title: Stingray light tank

text: Two Stingray IIs were made to showcase its weapons and equipment for demonstration to potential customers.


title: Home sign

text: Home sign (or kitchen sign) is a gestural communication system, often invented spontaneously by a deaf child who lacks accessible linguistic input. Home sign systems often arise in families where a deaf child is raised by hearing parents and is isolated from the Deaf community. Because the deaf child does not receive signed or spoken language input, these children are referred to as linguistically isolated.


title: Home sign

text: Because home sign systems are used regularly as the child's form of communication, they develop to become more complex than simple gestures. Though not considered to be a complete language, these systems may be classified as linguistic phenomena that show similar characteristics to signed and spoken language. Home sign systems display significant degrees of internal complexity, using gestures with consistent meanings, word order, and grammatical categories. Linguists have been interested in home sign systems as insight into the human ability to generate, acquire, and process language.


title: Home sign

text: In 1987, Nancy Frishberg set out a framework for identifying and describing home-based sign systems. She states that home signs differ from sign languages in that they:


title: Home sign

text: However, there are certain "resilient" properties of language whose development can proceed without guidance of a conventional language model. More recent studies of deaf children's gestural systems show systematicity and productivity. Across users, these systems tend to exhibit a stable lexicon, word order tendency, complex sentence usage, and noun-verb pairs. Gesture systems have also been shown to have the property of recursion, which allows system to be generative. Deaf children may borrow spoken language gestures, but these gestures are altered to serve as linguistic markers. As the child develops, their utterances grow in size and complexity. Adult home signers use systems that mature to display more linguistic features than the simpler systems used by child home signers.