title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: The trial started on April 27, 2015. The jury consisted of 19 women and five men, two of whom had connections to the Columbine High School massacre. Arapahoe County prosecutors said that Holmes was sane during the shooting and intended to kill all 400 people in the theater, while Holmes' lawyers said he had a psychotic episode during the attack.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On May 7, an FBI agent displayed pieces of evidence at the trial, including Holmes' body armor, an arsenal of weapons, unfired ammunition, and a helmet with strands of his dyed orange hair. Jurors examined the evidence for thirty minutes. Holmes was represented by the Colorado State Public Defender.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On May 26, details of Holmes' notebook, reportedly found in a university mail room addressed to his psychiatrist Lynne Fenton, were entered into evidence at the trial for the first time. The notebook elaborated on Holmes' obsession to kill since ten years prior to the shooting, his dissatisfaction with life and finding work, as well as health issues. It also had details of his planning for the shooting, which prosecutors said indicated Holmes premeditated the attack. On May 27, Dr. William Reid, a court-appointed psychiatrist, testified that Holmes was mentally ill but legally sane. Reid and another doctor evaluated Holmes in December 2013 and determined that he understood what he was doing. On June 8, a second psychiatrist, Jeffrey Metzner, testified that Holmes was mentally ill but legally sane during the shooting, and suffers from schizoaffective disorder.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On June 9, three jurors were dismissed from the trial due to concerns of their violating orders not to talk about news reports about the case. In the following week, two additional jurors were dismissed; the first due to emotional problems following the shooting of a family member, the second for recognizing a survivor who was wounded in the massacre.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On July 9, Judge Carlos Samour asked Holmes if he would testify in court, and advised him of his rights to do so. Holmes chose not to testify.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: By July 10, the prosecution and the defense rested their cases. Closing statements were made on July 14, with formal deliberations beginning the following morning.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On July 16, after jury deliberations, Holmes was found guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of possessing illegal explosives, and a sentence enhancement of a crime of violence. The two murder convictions for each death were first-degree murder or attempted murder after deliberation, and first-degree murder or attempted murder with extreme indifference.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: The sentencing phase began on July 22. On July 23, the jury ruled that Holmes acted in a cruel manner, was lying in wait, and ambushed his victims during the shooting, which constitute as aggravating factors. However, the jurors decided that Holmes did not intend to kill children when he opened fire.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On July 27, Holmes' sister stated in her testimony that her brother became withdrawn from the family after they moved from Salinas to San Diego during his early teenage years. On July 28, Holmes' father pleaded for his son's life, stating that he is severely mentally ill. He displayed photos of camping trips and family vacations with Holmes to the jury. On July 30, Holmes' lawyers made a final appeal to the jurors, urging them to consider mental illness in his sentencing despite their rejection of the insanity defense used in the trial. The appeal for clemency was rejected on August 3 under the basis that mitigating factors such as mental illness did not outweigh aggravating factors such as the number of casualties in the massacre.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on August 7 after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision over sentencing him to death. Formal sentencing began on August 24 and was expected to last for three days. At the end of the hearing on August 26, Samour formally sentenced Holmes to 12 life imprisonment sentences without parole and a maximum of 3,318 additional years on attempted murder and explosives possession convictions.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: The evening after the shooting, a candlelight vigil was held at the site in Aurora. President Barack Obama ordered flags at government buildings flown at half-staff, in tribute to the victims, until July 25. Both Obama's and Mitt Romney's campaigns temporarily suspended television advertising in Colorado for the 2012 presidential election. On July 22, President Obama met with victims and local and state officials and gave a nationally televised speech from Aurora. Many world leaders sent their condolences, including Queen Elizabeth II, French President François Hollande, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Pope Benedict XVI.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Warner Bros., the distributor of "The Dark Knight Rises", said it was deeply saddened by the shooting. The studio canceled the film's gala premieres in France, Mexico, and Japan, scaled down its marketing campaign in Finland, and decided not to report box office figures for the movie until July 23. Some television advertisements for the film were also canceled. Other major film studios joined Warner Bros. in withholding early box office numbers on July 21. Warner Bros. reportedly made a "substantial" donation to Colorado's Community First Foundation to benefit victims.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Christopher Nolan, the film's director, spoke on behalf of his cast and crew and called the event "savage" and "devastating". Christian Bale, who plays Batman in the film series, privately visited victims on July 24. Members of the Colorado Rockies baseball team also visited victims. Members of the Denver Broncos also called or visited individuals at the hospitals.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Warner Bros. instructed cinemas to stop screening a trailer for the film "Gangster Squad", which preceded "The Dark Knight Rises" screenings in some cities (though not in Aurora), because it contained a scene involving the main characters shooting at a movie theater audience with machine guns. The film's release date was rescheduled to January 2013, and the theater scene was replaced by a new sequence in a different setting.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: In the wake of the shooting, DC Comics delayed the release of "Batman Incorporated" #3, which includes a scene in which a female Leviathan agent brandishes a handgun in a classroom full of children while disguised as a schoolteacher. Warner Bros. Animation reportedly edited the Cartoon Network series "Beware the Batman" to make the firearms look less realistic.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Hans Zimmer, who composed the soundtrack for "The Dark Knight Rises", recorded a choral song entitled "Aurora" in honor of the victims. The song was sold for donations that went to a fund for the victims.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Cinemark agreed to pay any funeral expenses incurred by the deceased victims' families not covered by the Crime Victims' Compensation Fund. Cinemark closed the entire Century Aurora 16 multiplex in the wake of the shooting but reopened January 17, 2013, with a 40-minute ceremony led by Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan, followed by a showing of "". As of 2020, Cinemark Theatres has not released any photographs or video evidence.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Soon after the shooting, police departments and cinemas across the United States and around the world increased security for fear of copycat incidents. In New York City, police officers were deployed to theaters screening the new film.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: The National Association of Theatre Owners distributed checklists from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to its members and said in a July 21 statement that members were "working closely with local law enforcement agencies and reviewing security procedures". AMC Theatres announced it would "not allow any guests into our theatres in costumes that make other guests feel uncomfortable and we will not permit face-covering masks or fake weapons inside our buildings". "Security Director News" raised the possibility in a July 23 article that "the massacre could be a Virginia Tech for movie theaters, causing security to become a bigger part of the conversation and more stringent security procedures to be adopted at theaters across the country."


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Three victims sued Cinemark Theatres in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on September 21, 2012, for the company's alleged negligence in failing to provide adequate safety and security measures. Their attorneys released the statement "Readily available security procedures, security equipment and security personnel would likely have prevented or deterred the gunman from accomplishing his planned assault on the theater's patrons."


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: In response, Cinemark's representation filed a motion to dismiss on September 27, 2012, on the grounds that there was no liability under Colorado law for failure to prevent an unforeseeable criminal act. Cinemark's motion quoted extensively from the landmark California appellate opinion that held McDonald's had no duty of care to prevent the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre. On October 30, 2012, the court hearing the criminal case against Holmes denied a motion by some of the survivors that would have let them access sealed evidence for review in their civil action against the theater chain. On January 24, 2013, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty issued a recommendation that most of the claims be thrown out, as they were not allowable under Colorado law. He also said claims alleging violations of the Colorado Premises Liability Act could proceed.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Judge R. Brooke Jackson stated that for theaters today, "One might reasonably believe that a mass shooting incident in a theater was likely enough (that is, not just a possibility) to be a foreseeable next step in the history of such acts by deranged individuals". Attorney Christina Habas, who represents several theater victims, has said: "We essentially don't have a single photograph, a single piece of evidence that we can show to a jury". In June 2016, a federal judge dismissed the last claims in the lawsuit.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: In a separate lawsuit in state court, Cinemark was sued by families of the victims, who alleged the theater should have taken greater measures to prevent such a shooting. In May 2016, after years of legal debate, a jury took three hours to deliver a unanimous verdict that the theater chain was not liable to any degree for the tragedy that transpired. The judge allowed Cinemark Theatres to submit a bill of costs to the plaintiffs to recover expenses due to the litigation, as Colorado state law allows for prevailing parties. In September 2016, Cinemark dropped all claims for reimbursement of legal fees.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: On January 14, 2013, Chantel Blunk, estranged wife and widow of victim Jonathan Blunk, filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado in federal court. She alleged that a school psychiatrist could have prevented the slaughter by having Holmes detained after he admitted he "fantasized about killing a lot of people". This type of lawsuit had been anticipated in an August 2012 article co-authored by bioethicist Arthur Caplan which discussed the applicability of the landmark California Supreme Court decision in "Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California" (1976) to the facts of the Aurora shooting.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: A grassroots community center, Aurora Strong Resilience Center, was established by community leaders, elected officials, and mental health professionals, as a response to the shooting. The center offers therapy for people who experienced traumatic stress from the theater shooting, and also people who were victims of other crimes and refugees who experienced a traumatic event in their country of origin before coming to the U.S.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: Colorado gun sales spiked after the shooting, with the number of background checks for people seeking to purchase a firearm in the state increasing to 2,887, up 43% from the previous week. Gun sales in Washington, Florida, California, and Georgia also increased. The shooting reignited the political debate on gun control, with one issue being the "easy access" Holmes had to semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, which were banned federally from 1994 to 2004. The results of a survey released on July 30, 2012, by the Pew Research Center suggested the incident did not change Americans' views on the issue.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: In 2015, a campaign titled "No Notoriety" was started by the parents of Alexander Teves, who died in the shooting. According to Teves' father, the campaign's incentive is to encourage media outlets to limit the usage of the suspect's name and photos when reporting about the Aurora shooting, as well as other mass shootings that receive national media coverage. In an interview on CNN, Teves' parents said they and the relatives of other victims believe the mass media coverage of Holmes' name and photo may inspire others to commit mass shootings for notoriety.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: The Century 16 theater where the shooting occurred was rebranded as the Century Aurora theater by its parent company Cinemark Theatres. Despite heavy criticism from families and loved ones of victims, the theater was not demolished and reopened to the public after cleaning and renovation on January 25, 2013, nearly 6 months after the shooting. The reopening ceremony, which was boycotted by opponents of the theater's reopening, included a memorial service and a screening of "". Theater room nine, where the actual shooting occurred, was combined with an adjoining room into a new XD theater room.


title: 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting

text: A memorial to the victims of the attack was installed near Aurora Municipal Center, some from the theater, and dedicated on July 19, 2018, one day before the sixth anniversary of the attack. It consists of a park-like dell with 83 abstract birds, one for each victim. Thirteen of the birds, with translucent wings, are on a center column and represent the twelve dead and the unborn child. The memorial, titled "Ascentiate," was designed by artist Douwe Blumberg.


title: Jane Hawking

text: Jane Beryl Wilde Hawking Jones (born 29 March 1944) is an English author and teacher. She was married to Stephen Hawking for 30 years.


title: Jane Hawking

text: Jane was born to George and Beryl Wilde (). She grew up in St Albans, Hertfordshire. She was raised in the Church of England and is an active Christian.


title: Jane Hawking

text: She studied languages at the University of London's Westfield College. Jane and Stephen Hawking met through mutual college friends at a party in 1962. Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS) in 1963. Even aware of his consequent shortened life expectancy and limitations, the couple became engaged in 1964 and married in 1965 in their shared hometown of St Albans. They had three children: Robert, born in 1967, Lucy, born in 1970, and Timothy, born in 1979.


title: Jane Hawking

text: After years of working on her doctoral thesis through Westfield College, Hawking received her PhD in medieval Spanish poetry in April 1981. She felt compelled to obtain a PhD to have her own academic identity within the University of Cambridge.


title: Jane Hawking

text: Jane and Stephen Hawking separated in 1990, and divorced five years later. In 1997, she married musician Jonathan Hellyer Jones. However, she continued to support Hawking through his health problems as he continued to work. In the postlude to her 2007 memoir "Travelling to Infinity", she writes of Hawking after his second divorce (from nurse Elaine Mason): "We are able to associate freely again and enjoy many a family occasion together. It has been quite like old times..."


title: Jane Hawking

text: During her marriage to Hawking, while dealing with the progression of his illness, Jane experienced depression. In a 2004 interview, she cited her Christian faith as giving her hope during her marriage and the depression she experienced as a result of being his then-caregiver. In that interview, she noted the irony in her faith-based strength to support him in light of Hawking's well-known atheism.


title: Jane Hawking

text: In 1999, she wrote an autobiography about her first marriage, "Music to Move the Stars: A Life with Stephen", which was used as a basis for the 2004 television film "Hawking" about his early years as a PhD student at Cambridge University and the beginnings of their relationship and marriage. She and Stephen Hawking established a working relationship following his separation and divorce from his second wife.


title: Jane Hawking

text: In 2009, an updated version of the autobiography was republished under the title "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen" and was subsequently made into the award-winning film "The Theory of Everything". Following the release of the film, Hawking discussed her life on BBC Radio 4's "Woman's Hour" in January 2015.


title: Jane Hawking

text: Hawking was portrayed on television by Lisa Dillon in the 2004 television film "Hawking", and on film by Felicity Jones in the 2014 film "The Theory of Everything", for which Jones was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.


title: Lingam

text: A lingam ( , lit. "sign, symbol or mark"), sometimes referred to as linga or Shiva linga, is an abstract or aniconic representation of the Hindu god Shiva in Shaivism. It is typically the primary "murti" or devotional image in Hindu temples dedicated to Shiva, also found in smaller shrines, or as self-manifested natural objects. It is often represented within a disc-shaped platform, the "yoni" – its feminine counterpart, consisting of a flat element, horizontal compared to the vertical lingam, and designed to allow liquid offerings to drain away for collection. Together, they symbolize the merging of microcosmos and macrocosmos, the divine eternal process of creation and regeneration, and the union of the feminine and the masculine that recreates all of existence.


title: Lingam

text: The original meaning of "lingam" as "sign" is used in Shvetashvatara Upanishad, which says "Shiva, the Supreme Lord, has no liūga", liuga ( ) meaning he is transcendental, beyond any characteristic and, specifically, the sign of gender. Lingam is regarded as the "outward symbol" of the "formless Reality", the symbolization of merging of the 'primordial matter' ("Prakṛti") with the 'pure consciousness' ("Purusha") in transcendental context.


title: Lingam

text: The metaphorical creative principle of lingam-yoni, the union of the feminine and the masculine, the eternal cosmological process of creation is also depicted in Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang, where etymologically and semantically "Yin" represents the feminine, half-unity of consciousness and "Yang" denotes the masculine, the other half, together symbolizing the entirety or unity-consciousness in the creation. The "lingam" is conceptualized both as an emblem of generative and destructive power, particularly in the esoteric Kaula and Tantra practices, as well as the Shaivism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism.


title: Lingam

text: "Lingam" is found in Sanskrit texts, such as Shvetashvatara Upanishad, Samkhya, Vaisheshika and others texts with the meaning of "evidence, proof" of God and God's existence, or existence of formless Brahman. Lingam iconography found at archaeological sites of the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia includes simple cylinders set inside a "yoni"; mukhalinga rounded pillars with carvings such as of one or more "mukha" (faces); and anatomically realistic representations of a phallus such as on the Gudimallam Lingam. In the Shaiva traditions, the lingam is regarded as a form of spiritual iconography.


title: Lingam

text: Lingam, states Monier Monier-Williams, appears in the Upanishads and epic literature, where it means a "mark, sign, emblem, characteristic". Other contextual meanings of the term include "evidence, proof, symptom" of God and God's power. The term also appears in early Indian texts on logic, where an inference is based on a sign (linga), such as "if there is smoke, there is fire" where the linga is the smoke. It is a religious symbol in Hinduism representing Shiva as the generative power, all of existence, all creativity and fertility at every cosmic level.


title: Lingam

text: The lingam of the Shaivism tradition is a short cylindrical pillar-like symbol of Shiva, made of stone, metal, gem, wood, clay or precious stones. According to "Encyclopædia Britannica", the lingam is a votary aniconic object found in the sanctum of Shiva temples and private shrines that symbolizes Shiva and is "revered as an emblem of generative power". It often is found within a lipped, disked structure that is an emblem of goddess Shakti and this is called the "yoni". Together they symbolize the union of the feminine and the masculine principles, and "the totality of all existence", states "Encyclopædia Britannica".


title: Lingam

text: According to Alex Wayman, given the Shaiva philosophical texts and spiritual interpretations, various works on Shaivism by some Indian authors "deny that the linga is a phallus". To the Shaivites, a linga is neither a phallus nor do they practice the worship of erotic penis-vulva, rather the linga-yoni is a symbol of cosmic mysteries, the creative powers and the metaphor for the spiritual truths of their faith. For example, according to Swami Sivananda, the corelation of the linga and phallus is wrong; the Lingam is only the external symbol of Lord Shiva's formless being. He further states that it is the light or power of consciousness, manifesting from Sadashiva.


title: Lingam

text: According to Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, the lingam signifies three perfections of Shiva. The upper oval part of the Shivalingam represents Parashiva and lower part of the Shivalingam, called the pitha, represents Parashakti. In Parashiva perfection, Shiva is the absolute reality, the timeless, formless and spaceless. In Parashakti perfection, Shiva is all-pervasive, pure consciousness, power and primal substance of all that exists and it has form unlike Parashiva which is formless.


title: Lingam

text: According to Rohit Dasgupta, the lingam symbolizes Shiva in Hinduism, and it is also a phallic symbol. Since the 19th century, states Dasgupta, the popular literature has represented the lingam as the male sex organ. This view contrasts with the traditional abstract values they represent in Shaivism wherein the lingam-yoni connote the masculine and feminine principles in the entirety of creation and all existence.


title: Lingam

text: According to Sivananda Saraswati, Siva Lingam speaks unmistakable language of silence: "I am one without a second, I am formless". Siva Lingam is only the outward symbol of formless being, Lord Siva, who is eternal, ever-pure, immortal essence of this vast universe, who is your innermost Self or Atman, and who is identical with the Supreme Brahman, states Sivananda Saraswati.


title: Lingam

text: Scholars, such as Wendy Doniger and Rohit Dasgupta, view "linga" as extrapolations of what was originally a phallic symbol. This interpretation is criticized by Stella Kramrisch and Moriz Winternitz who opines that the "linga" in the Shiva tradition is "only a symbol of the productive and creative principle of nature as embodied in Shiva", and it has no historical trace in any obscene phallic cult.


title: Lingam

text: According to Chakrabarti, "some of the stones found in Mohenjodaro are unmistakably phallic stones". These are dated to some time before 2300 BCE. Similarly, states Chakrabarti, the Kalibangan site of Harappa has a small terracotta representation that "would undoubtedly be considered the replica of a modern Shivlinga [a tubular stone]." According to Encyclopædia Britannica, while Harappan discoveries include "short cylindrical pillars with rounded tops", there is no evidence that the people of Indus Valley Civilization worshipped these artifacts as lingams. According to Srinivasan, in the Harappan sites, objects that resemble "lingam" have been found. That includes "a seated trident-headed ithyphallic figure", which was found on Indus seals, "has been compared to Shiva as meditating ascetic", states Srinivasan.


title: Lingam

text: The colonial-era archaeologists John Marshall and Ernest Mackay proposed that certain artifacts found at Harappan sites may be evidence of yoni-linga worship in Indus Valley Civilization. Scholars such as Arthur Llewellyn Basham dispute whether such artifacts discovered at the archaeological sites of Indus Valley sites are yoni. For example, Jones and Ryan state that lingam/yoni shapes have been recovered from the archaeological sites at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, part of the Indus Valley civilisation. In contrast, Indologist Wendy Doniger states that this relatively rare artifact can be interpreted in many ways and has unduly been used for wild speculations such as being a linga. Another Indus stamp seal often called the Pashupati seal, states Doniger, has an image with a general resemblance with Shiva and "the Indus people may well have created the symbolism of the divine phallus", but given the available evidence we cannot be certain, nor do we know that it had the same meaning as some currently project them to might have meant.


title: Lingam

text: According to the Indologist Asko Parpola, "it is true that Marshall's and Mackay's hypotheses of linga and yoni worship by the Harappans has rested on rather slender grounds, and that for instance, the interpretation of the so-called ring-stones as yonis seems untenable". He quotes Dales 1984 paper, which states "with the single exception of the unidentified photography of a realistic phallic object in Marshall's report, there is no archaeological evidence to support claims of special sexually-oriented aspects of Harappan religion". However, adds Parpola, a re-examination at Indus Valley sites suggest that the Mackay's hypothesis cannot be ruled out because erotic and sexual scenes such as ithyphallic males, naked females, a human couple having intercourse and trefoil imprints have now been identified at the Harappan sites. The "finely polished circular stand" found by Mackay may be yoni although it was found without the linga. The absence of linga, states Parpola, maybe because it was made from wood which did not survive.


title: Lingam

text: Shvetashvatara Upanishad states one of the three significations, the primary one, of "Lingam" as "the imperishable Purusha", the absolute reality, where says the "linga" as "sign", a mark that provides the existence of Brahman, or symbol of formless Brahman. Furthermore, it mentioned that Shiva is transcendent, beyond any characteristic or "liūga", specifically, the sign of gender. Linga, "sign", not only signifies the existence of perceptible "things" but also denotes the imperceptible essence of "a thing" or pieces of Brahman called Atma even before the thing in its concrete shape has come to exist. The imperceptible essence of "a thing", in its potentiality, is the "liūga" of the thing. The insight of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad conveyed through the word "liūga" is formulated explicitly in Samkhya and schools of Yoga or ways of looking at things, that is, looking at their appearance and at Ultimate Reality. "Liriga" here denotes the Subtle body (liṇga śarīra) underlying and ontological preceding anything perceptible. The perceptible state, in this context, is the gross body (sthūla śarīra), or concrete reality as it appears to the sense organs. In between the Ultimate and concrete reality is Prakṛti, also called Pradhana which is the imperceptible substratum of the manifest world or prematter. Out of this imperceptible cosmic substance, all things have come out, and to which they will return ultimately.


title: Lingam

text: The three Gunas are Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. The function as tendencies through the principles and powers of cosmic substance cohere are Buddhi, "cosmic intelligence or revelation"; Ahamkara, "individuation"; and Manas, "Mind". From these evolve the power (Indriya) of cognition that enables hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, and smelling and their corresponding subtle elements to exist. From these supersensible (Tanmatras), the sense particulars (Mahābhūta) come into being. They are Ether or space (Akasha), air (Vayu), fire (Agni), water (Ap), and earth (Bhumi), the Pancha Bhootas. They are the vehicles of the Tanmatras, and constitute the gross body of concrete, perceptible, and particularized reality. The Subtle body (liṇga śarīra) is the subtle prototype of the gross body, the imperceptible stuff of energy by which all phenomena are projected into concrete reality, like fire from its latency. The subtle body, itself changeless, accompanies the life-of-the-individual (Jiva) through the cycles of birth and deaths and is finally reabsorbed into the principles and powers of which it was composed of.


title: Lingam

text: The Linga Purana states, "Shiva is signless, without color, taste, smell, that is beyond word or touch, without quality, motionless and changeless". The source of the universe is the signless, and all of the universe is the manifested Linga, a union of "unchanging principle" and the "ever changing" nature. The "Linga Purana" and Siva Gita texts builds on this foundation. Linga, states Alain Daniélou, means sign. It is an important concept in Hindu texts, wherein Linga is a manifested sign and nature of someone or something. It accompanies the concept of Brahman, which as invisible signless and existent Principle, is formless or linga-less.


title: Lingam

text: The word "lingam" is not found in the "Rigveda", or the other Vedas. However, Rudra (proto-Shiva) is found in the Vedic literature. Worship of the lingam was not a part of the Vedic religion. The worship of the lingam originated from the famous hymn in the Atharva Veda Samhita sung in praise of the "Yupa-Stambha", the sacrificial post. In that hymn, a description is found of the beginningless and endless "Stambha" or "Skambha", and it is shown that the said "Skambha" is put in place of the eternal Brahman. Just as the Yajna (sacrificial) fire, its smoke, ashes, and flames, the "Soma" plant, and the ox that used to carry on its back the wood for the Vedic sacrifice gave place to the conceptions of the brightness of Shiva's body, his tawny matted hair, his blue throat, and the riding on the bull of the Shiva, the "Yupa-Skambha" gave place in time to the "Shiva-Linga". In the text "Linga Purana", the same hymn is expanded in the shape of stories, meant to establish the glory of the great Stambha and the superiority of Shiva as Mahadeva.


title: Lingam

text: There is a hymn in the Atharvaveda that praises a pillar ("stambha"), and this is one possible origin of linga worship. According to Swami Vivekananda, the Shiva-linga had origins in the idea of "Yupa-Stambha" or Skambha of the Vedic rituals, where the term meant the sacrificial post which was then idealized as the eternal Brahman. The "Yupa-Skambha" gave place in time to the "Shiva-Linga", quite possibly with influence from Buddhism's stupa shaped like the top of a stone linga, according to Vivekananda.


title: Lingam

text: The Gudimallam Lingam, one of the oldest examples of a lingam, is still in worship in the Parashurameshwara temple, Gudimallam, in a hilly forest about east of Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. It has been dated to the 3rd-century BCE, or to the 2ndcentury BCE, and is mostly accepted to be from the 3rd- to 1st-century BCE, though some later dates have been proposed. The stone lingam is clearly a representation of an anatomically accurate phallus, with a figure of Lakulisha, the ascetic manifestation of Shiva, carved on the front, holding an antelope and axe in his hands. He stands on top of a Apasmara "(demon) dwarf", who symbolizes spiritual ignorance, greed, sensual desires or "Kama" and nonsensical speech on the spiritual path, hence must be subdued in spiritual pursuits.


title: Lingam

text: In this earliest representation, the phallic representation illustrates of the centrality of the energetic principle of Urdhva Retas ( , lit. "ascent of vital energies or fluid") the upward flow of energy in spiritual pursuits and practice of celibacy (Brahmacarya), contrary to fertility or release of vital energies. Lakulisa as an ascetic manifestation of Shiva is seen in later peninsular Indian scriptures whose ithyphallic aspects connotes asceticism and conserved procreative potentialities (Brahmacarya or celibacy), rather than mere eroticism. According to Stella Kramrisch, the pictorial symbol of the Gudimallam lingam should not be mistaken for fertility or sexuality due to incomplete or impure understanding of the underlying refined principles.


title: Lingam

text: The Bhita linga – now at the Lucknow museum – is also dated to about the 2nd century BCE, and has four directional faces on the pillar and a Brahmi script inscription at the bottom. Above the four faces, the Bhita linga has the bust of a male with his left hand holding a vase and the right hand in the "abhaya" (no-fear) mudra. The pillar itself is, once again, a realistic depiction of phallus but neither symbolizes fertility nor sexuality, but the refined energetic principles of "Urdhva Retas" during Sannyasa or Asceticism.


title: Lingam

text: The Mathura archaeological site has revealed similar lingams, with a standing Shiva in front (2nd century CE) and with one or four faces around the pillar (1st to 3rd century CE).


title: Lingam

text: Numerous stone and cave temples from the mid to late 1st millennium feature lingams. The Bhumara Temple near Satna Madhya Pradesh, for example, is generally dated to late 5th-century Gupta Empire era, and it features an Ekamukha Lingam.


title: Lingam

text: According to Wendy Doniger, "lingam" in the "Mahabharata" is represented as the phallic form which suggests Sthula sarira of Shiva, although not the primary significance, however it connotes much more than that. The anthropomorphic shape, in this specific context, functions as the "subtle body" ("Lińga Śarīra") of Shiva in the "Mahabharata". It is a superabundant evocation of fierce potency on a cosmic scale, although it states crassly phallic. Doniger further finds that Shiva was called by many names, including Rudra or the Lord of the Mountain. Chapter 10.17 of the "Mahabharata" also refers to the word "sthanu" in the sense of an "inanimate pillar" as well as a "name of Shiva, signifying the immobile, ascetic, desexualized form of the "lingam"", as it recites the legend involving Shiva, Brahma and Prajapati. This mythology weaves two polarities, one where the lingam represents the potentially procreative phallus (fertile lingam) and its opposite "a pillar-like renouncer of sexuality" (ascetic lingam), states Doniger.


title: Lingam

text: According to Shiva Purana, the legend about the origin of the phallic form of Shiva is that some brahmin devotees of Shiva were highly engrossed in the meditation of Shiva. In the meantime, Shiva came in a hideous naked ascetic form with ashes smeared all over his body holding his phallus, to test the devotion of his devotees. The wives of the sages were scared at this sight but some embraced the holy ascetic. Although Shiva put them to test, the sages and wives did not recognize him. The sages were stupefied and deluded by Śiva's power of illusion, māyā, became infuriated at this sight and cursed ascetic form of Shiva


title: Lingam

text: Although the sages were also ascetics, only because they observed established conventions, they failed when Shiva tested them with his outrageous ways. The purpose of Shiva's visit to the hermitage, the place where the sages were living with their wives, was to enlighten the false sages by allowing them to humiliate him. But the sages were lost in anger, but Shiva allowed himself to be humiliated in the image that met the eye of the sages. Even though Shiva excited some of them as the source of their desire, they were unable to see him as the killer of desires. Although Shiva revealed his true nature by his dance (Tandava), yet so great was his power of illusion (māyā), the deluded sages did not recognize him. That falling phallus burnt everything in front; wherever it went it began to burn everything there. It went to all three Hindu worlds (hell, heaven, earth). All the worlds and the people were distressed. The sages couldn't recognise it as Shiva and sought refuge from Brahma.


title: Lingam

text: Brahma answered that they should pray to Parvati to assume a form of vaginal passage, and perform a procedure reciting vedic mantras and decorating the penis with flowers etc., so that the penis would become steady. As the phallus was held by Parvati in that form, an auspicion arrow formed. The pedestal shaped as the vagina and the phallus fixed therein are symbolic of the eternal creative forces personified as Śivā and Śiva. After the procedure was completed, the penis became static. This phallus was known as ""hatesa"" and "Siva Siva". In one version of the story found in "Vamana Purana", Shiva's visit to the hermitage in Deodar forests was an act of grace at Parvati's request.


title: Lingam

text: The "Shiva Purana" also describes the origin of the lingam, known as Shiva-linga, as the beginning-less and endless cosmic pillar ("Stambha") of fire, the cause of all causes. Shiva is pictured as emerging from the lingamthe cosmic pillar of fireproving his superiority over the gods Brahma and Vishnu. It also describes right way to worship Shiva linga in its 11th chapter in detail This is known as Lingodbhava. The "Linga Purana" also supports this interpretation of lingam as a cosmic pillar, symbolizing the infinite nature of Shiva. According to the "Linga Purana", the lingam is a complete symbolic representation of the formless Universe Bearerthe oval-shaped stone is the symbol of the Universe, and the bottom base represents the Supreme Power that holds the entire Universe in it. A similar interpretation is also found in the Skanda Purana: "The endless sky (that great void which contains the entire universe) is the Linga, the Earth is its base. At the end of time the entire universe and all the Gods finally merge in the Linga itself." In the "Linga Purana", an Atharvaveda hymn is expanded with stories about the great Stambha and the supreme nature of Mahâdeva (the Great God, Shiva).


title: Lingam

text: In early Sanskrit medical texts, "linga" means "symptom, signs" and plays a key role in the diagnosis of a sickness, the disease. The author of classical Sanskrit grammar treatise, Panini, states that the verbal root "ling" which means "paint, variegate", has the sense "that which paints, variegates, characterizes". Panini as well as Patanjali additionally mention lingam with the contextual meaning of the "gender".


title: Lingam

text: In the "Vaisheshika Sutras", it means "proof or evidence", as a conditionally sufficient mark or sign. This Vaisheshika theory is adopted in the early Sanskrit medical literature. Like the Upanishads, where linga means "mark, sign, characteristic", the texts of the "Nyaya" school of Hindu philosophy use "linga" in the same sense. In the "Samkhya sutras", and in Gaudapada's commentary on "Samkhyakarika", the term "linga" has many contextual meanings such as in verses 1.124.136, 3.9.16 and 5.21.61, as it develops its theory of the nature of "Atman" (Self) and "Sarira" (body, prakriti) and its proposed mechanism of rebirth. In the "Purva Mimamsa Sutra" and the "Vedanta sutra", as well as the commentaries on them, the term linga appears quite often, particularly in the form of ""lingadarsanacca"" as a form of citing or referencing prior Hindu literature. This phrase connotes "[we have found an] indicative sign", such as the "indicative sign is in a Vedic passage".


title: Lingam

text: According to Doniger, there is persuasive evidence in later Sanskrit literature that the early Indians associated the lingam icon with the male sexual organ; the 11th-century Kashmir text "Narmamala" by Kshemendra on satire and fiction writing explains his ideas on parallelism with divine lingam and human lingam in a sexual context. Various Shaiva texts, such as the "Skanda Purana" in section 1.8 states that all creatures have the signs of Shiva or Shakti through their "lingam" (male sexual organ) or "pindi" (female sexual organ). According to Doniger, a part of the literature corpus regards "lingam" to be the phallus of Shiva, while another group of texts does not. Sexuality in the former is inherently sacred and spiritual, while the latter emphasizes the ascetic nature of Shiva and renunciation to be spiritual symbolism of "lingam". This tension between the pursuit of spirituality through householder lifestyle and the pursuit of renunciate sannyasi lifestyle is historic, reflects the different interpretations of the lingam and what lingam worship means to its devotees. It remains a continuing debate within Hinduism to this day, states Doniger. To one group, it is a part of Shiva's body and symbolically "saguna" Shiva (he in a physical form with attributes). To the other group, it is an abstract symbol of "nirguna" Shiva (he in the universal Absolute Reality, formless, without attributes). In Tamil Shaiva tradition, for example, the common term for lingam is "kuRi" or "sign, mark" which is asexual. Similarly, in Lingayatism tradition, the lingam is a spiritual symbol and "was never said to have any sexual connotations", according to Doniger. To some Shaivites, it symbolizes the axis of the universe.


title: Lingam

text: The term "linga" also appears in Buddhist and Jaina literature, where it means "sign, evidence" in one context, or "subtle body" with sexual connotations in another.


title: Lingam

text: In the 11th-century, after conquests of the subcontinent by Muslim rulers, several sultans of Delhi, often iconoclastic, regarded the lingam as sexual and anthropomorphic, and ordered as many be destroyed as possible. In some situations, linga were deliberately laid at the thresholds of mosques for public usage and incorporated into Islamic architecture, notably at a mosque in Banbhore.


title: Lingam

text: The colonial era Orientalists and Christian missionaries, raised in the Victorian mold where sex and sexual imagery were a taboo subject, were shocked by and were hostile to the "lingam-yoni" iconography and reverence they witnessed. The 19th and early 20th-century colonial and missionary literature described "lingam-yoni", and related theology as obscene, corrupt, licentious, hyper-sexualized, puerile, impure, demonic and a culture that had become too feminine and dissolute. To the Hindus, particularly the Shaivites, these icons and ideas were the abstract, a symbol of the entirety of creation and spirituality. The colonial disparagement in part triggered the opposite reaction from Bengali nationalists, who more explicitly valorised the feminine. Swami Vivekananda called for the revival of the Mother Goddess as a feminine force, inviting his countrymen to "proclaim her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction".


title: Lingam

text: According to Wendy Doniger, the terms "lingam" and "yoni" became explicitly associated with human sexual organs in the western imagination after the widely popular first "Kamasutra" translation by Sir Richard Burton in 1883. In his translation, even though the original Sanskrit text does not use the words "lingam" or "yoni" for sexual organs, and almost always uses other terms, Burton adroitly avoided being viewed as obscene to the Victorian mindset by avoiding the use of words such as penis, vulva, vagina and other direct or indirect sexual terms in the Sanskrit text to discuss sex, sexual relationships and human sexual positions. Burton used the terms "lingam" and "yoni" instead throughout the translation. This conscious and incorrect word substitution, states Doniger, thus served as an Orientalist means to "anthropologize sex, distance it, make it safe for English readers by assuring them, or pretending to assure them, that the text was not about real sexual organs, their sexual organs, but merely about the appendages of weird, dark people far away." Similar Orientalist literature of the Christian missionaries and the British era, states Doniger, stripped all spiritual meanings and insisted on the Victorian vulgar interpretation only, which had "a negative effect on the self-perception that Hindus had of their own bodies" and they became "ashamed of the more sensual aspects of their own religious literature". Some contemporary Hindus, states Doniger, in their passion to spiritualize Hinduism and for their Hindutva campaign have sought to sanitize the historic earthly sexual meanings, and insist on the abstract spiritual meaning only.


title: Lingam

text: The traditional lingam rituals in major Shiva temples includes offerings of flowers, grass, dried rice, fruits, leaves, water and a milk bath. Priests chant hymns, while the devotees go to the sanctum for a "darshana" followed by a clockwise circumambulation of the sanctum. On the sanctum walls, typically are reliefs of Dakshinamurti, Brahma and Vishnu. Often, near the sanctum are other shrines, particularly for Shakti (Durga), Ganesha and Murugan (Kartikeya). In the Hindu tradition, special pilgrimage sites include those where natural lingams are found in the form of cylindrical rocks or ice or rocky hill. These are called "Svayambhuva" lingam, and about 70 of these are known on the Indian subcontinent, the most significant being one in Kashi (Varanasi) followed by Prayaga, Naimisha and Gaya.


title: Lingam

text: A lingam may be made of clay (), metal (), precious stone (), wood (), stone (, most common), or a disposal material (). The construction method, proportions and design is described in Shaiva Agama texts. The lingam is typically set in the center of a pindika (also called yoni or pithas, symbolizing Shakti). A pindika may be circular, square, octagonal, hexagonal, duodecagonal, sixteen sided, elliptical, triangular or another shape. Some lingams are miniaturized and they are carried on one's person, such as by Lingayats in a necklace. These are called "chala-lingams". The Hindu temple design manuals recommend geometric ratios for the linga, the sanctum and the various architectural features of the temple according to certain mathematical rules it considers perfect and sacred. Anthropologist Christopher John Fuller states that although most sculpted images (murtis) are anthropomorphic or theriomorphic, the aniconic Shiva Linga is an important exception.


title: Lingam

text: According to Shaiva Siddhanta, the linga is the ideal substrate in which the worshipper should install and worship the five-faced and ten-armed Sadāśiva, the form of Shiva who is the focal divinity of that school of Shaivism.


title: Lingam

text: Lingayats, a sect of the Shaivite religious tradition in India, wear a miniaturized linga called the . Lingayats wear a lingam inside a necklace, called "Ishtalinga". Initially known as "Veerashaivas" (heroic worshippers of Shiva), since the 18th century adherents of this faith are known as "Lingayats". This tradition originated in Karnataka around the 12th-century. Lingayatism is derived from the term "linga" and suffix "ayta". The term Lingayat is based on the practice of both genders of Lingayats wearing an (also called ) contained inside a box with a necklace all the time. The is a personalized and miniature oval-shaped linga and an emblem of their faith symbolising Parashiva, the absolute reality and their spirituality. It is viewed as a "living, moving" divinity within the Lingayat devotee. Every day, the devotee removes this personal linga from its box, places it in left palm, offers puja and then meditates about becoming one with the linga, in his or her journey towards the "atma-linga".


title: Lingam

text: An ice lingam at Amarnath in the western Himalayas forms every winter from ice dripping on the floor of a cave and freezing like a stalagmite. It is very popular with pilgrims.


title: Lingam

text: In Kadavul Temple, a 700-pound, 3-foot-tall, naturally formed Sphatika (quartz) lingam is installed. In the future, this crystal lingam will be housed in the Iraivan Temple. It is claimed as among the largest known sphatika self formed (Swayambhu) lingams. Hindu scripture rates crystal as the highest form of Siva lingam.


title: Lingam

text: Shivling, , is a mountain in Uttarakhand (the Garhwal region of Himalayas). It arises as a sheer pyramid above the snout of the Gangotri Glacier. The mountain resembles a Shiva lingam when viewed from certain angles, especially when travelling or trekking from Gangotri to Gomukh as part of a traditional Hindu pilgrimage.


title: Lingam

text: Lesser known Bhooteshwarnath Mahadeva in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh is a rock Shivlinga and said to be the Largest Natural Shivlinga in the world., whose height is increasing with each passing year.


title: Lingam

text: The tallest Shiva lingam in the world is located at Chenkal village in Thiruvananthapuram district in the state of Kerala, India.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: William Gregory Magnussen (born April 20, 1985) is an American actor. He has been featured in the films "Into the Woods" (2014), "Birth of the Dragon" (2016), "Game Night" (2018), and "Aladdin" (2019), and has had supporting television roles in "Get Shorty" (2017) and "Maniac" (2018). In 2021, Magnussen starred in the sci-fi series "Made for Love" on HBO Max and appeared in the films "The Many Saints of Newark" and "No Time to Die".


title: Billy Magnussen

text: He has starred in Broadway and off-Broadway theater productions, including 2013's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike", for which he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen was born in Woodhaven, Queens, New York City, the son of Daina, an aerobics instructor, and Greg Magnussen, a professional bodybuilder and kickboxer. He has two younger brothers. His maternal grandparents were Soviet Lithuanian immigrants. He is of Norwegian and Lithuanian descent. He grew up in Queens around Woodhaven Boulevard until the age of 10, when he moved with his family to Cumming, Georgia. Magnussen graduated from South Forsyth High School in 2003, and later from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen made his Broadway stage debut in 2007's "", starring Rosie Perez. In 2012, he was cast alongside David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver in Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike", premiering at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, prior to its move to Lincoln Center in New York City. It then moved to the John Golden Theatre, where it was nominated for six Tony Awards. Magnussen was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Spike. In 2014, he starred on Off-Broadway with Anna Gunn in a critically acclaimed production of "Sex with Strangers" directed by David Schwimmer at the Second Stage Theater.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen appeared in the films "" and "Happy Tears", which stars Demi Moore and Parker Posey. He starred as Claude in the film "Twelve", which was released July 30, 2010. He played Neil Thomas, a World War II hero, in the 2011 film "The Lost Valentine", based on the book of the same name by James Michael Pratt, which aired on CBS on January 30, 2011. That same year, he also played Thor in Whit Stillman's "Damsels in Distress". In 2012, he starred in the independent feature "Surviving Family".


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen starred in his breakout role as Rapunzel's Prince in Rob Marshall's 2014 film "Into the Woods". In 2016, Magnussen appeared in "The Great Gilly Hopkins", opposite Kathy Bates, as Ellis, the social worker in charge of Gilly Hopkins, played by Canadian actress Sophie Nélisse. The role was originally written for a female in the novel and stage play. In 2019, Magnussen played the newly created role of Prince Anders in Disney's live action adaptation of "Aladdin", directed by Guy Ritchie.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: In the 25th James Bond film "No Time to Die" (from Eon Productions), Magnussen plays CIA officer Logan Ash, who tries to convince a retired Bond to assist with a mission.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen played Kato Kaelin on the first season of "American Crime Story", about the O. J. Simpson murder case. He is known for his role on the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns", where he took over the role of Casey Hughes on January 29, 2008. He guest-starred on The CW's series "" in 2009. He guest-starred on "Boardwalk Empire" as Roger McAlister, Gillian Darmody's (Gretchen Mol) ill-fated lover, and was the stand-in for Jimmy Darmody's (Michael Pitt) corpse.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: He also guest-starred on "", in the 10th-season episode "Icarus", and on "Law & Order", in the 19th-season episode, "Sweetie". Magnussen appeared in four episodes of "The Divide", guest-starred on "" in episode 3 of season 2, titled "Borderline", and in episode 6 of the first season of "The Leftovers". In 2017, Magnussen guest-starred as Russ Snyder on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt".


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen also played a high school teacher Joshua "Nick" Sullivan who engages in a relationship with one of his students in "Tell Me a Story" during the first season, which came out in 2018.


title: Billy Magnussen

text: Magnussen once was the bass player and a contributing songwriter for the New York City-based rock band The Dash. He plays guitar in the New York City-based band Reserved for Rondee.


title: The Card Counter

text: The Card Counter is a 2021 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader. It stars Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, and Willem Dafoe. Martin Scorsese is an executive producer.


title: The Card Counter

text: It had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2021. It was released on September 10, 2021, by Focus Features.


title: The Card Counter

text: William Tell is a gambler who taught himself how to count cards during an eight-year stint in military prison. Seeking to avoid attention – either fame or casino bouncers – Tell's gambling philosophy is to bet small and win modestly. Despite gambling nearly every day, he never stays in a casino hotel. He lives out of two small suitcases and stays in motels, where he removes any decor and covers all the furniture in plain sheets secured with twine. At a casino, Tell encounters La Linda, an acquaintance from the gambling world. She runs a stable, a group of investors who back gamblers for a portion of their winnings. She offers to stake William but he refuses, unwilling to be burdened by the responsibility.


title: The Card Counter

text: In Atlantic City, a security-industry convention is being held in the same building as the casino. Tell slips into a seminar held by retired Major John Gordo, but decides to leave almost immediately. On the way out, he is recognized and confronted by a young man, Cirk Baufort, who slips him his name and number. After a nightmare about torture in a prison camp, Tell calls the young man and agrees to meet. Cirk informs Tell he knows who he really is: PFC William Tillich, a soldier who was tried and convicted for his role in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. Cirk explains that his father, Roger Baufort, was also at Abu Ghraib; like Tell, he was dishonorably discharged and served time, but the experience led him to drug addiction and made him violently abusive. Cirk's mother left the family, and Roger eventually killed himself. Gordo was the superior of Tillich and the elder Baufort and trained them in "enhanced interrogation techniques" but as he was involved as a "civilian consultant" avoided facing any charges or culpability. Cirk holds Gordo responsible for what happened to his family and is planning to capture, torture and kill him for revenge and seeks Tell's help. Tell refuses but offers to take Cirk along as he gambles in an attempt to help the young man avoid a violent life.


title: The Card Counter

text: At their next stop, Tell informs La Linda that he is interested in making an arrangement. He reveals to her his desire to go on the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tour in order to win enough money to help Cirk cover his debts and start a new life, after which Tell will retire. After early WSOP matches, Tell makes money but loses to Mr. USA, an obnoxious Ukrainian player who has taken on a jingoistic American persona. He bonds with Cirk and feels a growing attraction to La Linda but avoids getting too close as he continues making money gambling.


title: The Card Counter

text: At a qualifying round in Panama City, Cirk shares that he still plans to kill Gordo. Tell takes Cirk back to his motel, confronting the younger man with a harsh interrogator persona. He presents Cirk with $150,000 from his gambling winnings, enough for Cirk to pay off his and his mother's debts and return to college. He insists Cirk return to his mother in Oregon and forget about Gordo, threatening violence if he does not comply; Cirk leaves with the money. Tell, who has begun a relationship with La Linda, advances to the final table of the WSOP. While on a break he receives a message from Cirk, revealing that rather than returning home he went to Gordo's house to kill him. Tell is unsettled during the resumed match and abruptly walks off the casino floor. A news report shows that Gordo had killed an armed home intruder, presumably Cirk.


title: The Card Counter

text: Tell drives through the night to get to Gordo's house, covering the furniture as he does in his motel rooms. Gordo returns home and Tell holds him at gunpoint, revealing who he is and why he is there. Rather than shooting him, Tell takes Gordo into another room for a "dramatic reenactment" of their time in Abu Ghraib. Both men are heard screaming in agony and eventually Tell emerges from the room severely wounded and covered in blood. He calls the police to report a homicide. Tell is incarcerated in the same military prison as before, accepting the routine and ascetic setting as he feels it is what he deserves. La Linda arrives for a visit and the two reach out to each other, each placing a single finger on the glass separating them.


title: The Card Counter

text: It was announced in October 2019 that Oscar Isaac had been cast in the film, written and directed by Paul Schrader. In January 2020, Schrader announced that Tye Sheridan, Tiffany Haddish and Willem Dafoe had been added to the cast.


title: The Card Counter

text: Filming began in Biloxi, Mississippi, on February 24, 2020. On March 16, 2020, production on the film was paused after an actor with a small role who had flown in from Los Angeles tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic. Production on the film resumed on July 6, 2020, and concluded 6 days later on July 12, 2020.


title: The Card Counter

text: William's explanation of card counting was taken directly, almost verbatim, from the "Wired" YouTube video "Blackjack Expert Explains How Card Counting Works".


title: The Card Counter

text: In July 2020, Focus Features acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2021, and was given a wide release on September 10, 2021.


title: The Card Counter

text: In the United States and Canada the film was released alongside "Malignant" and "Show Me the Father". It grossed $1,039,580 during its opening weekend, and $2,657,850 in total domestically and $2,394,691 internationally for a worldwide gross of $5,052,541.


title: The Card Counter

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by Oscar Isaac's gripping performance, "The Card Counter" adds another weighty chapter to Paul Schrader's long inquiry into man's moral responsibility." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Card Counter

text: Reviewing the film for the "Chicago Sun-Times", critic Richard Roeper gave "The Card Counter" four stars, labeling it as "searing," "stunning" and praising Oscar Isaac's performance as "magnetic" in what Roeper called "one of the best films of the year."


title: The Card Counter

text: David Rooney also gave the film a positive review for "The Hollywood Reporter", calling it a "bruising character study" and, although noting some moments of slack storytelling, praised the film as a "highly controlled piece of filmmaking with an unerring command of tone" and Isaac as a "remarkably compelling force." For "The Atlantic", David Sims also praised the film as a compelling, impressive character study with larger implications as a metaphor for "America's struggle to overcome its grimmest failures."


title: The Card Counter

text: In a three-star review for "The Washington Post", Ann Hornaday had a mixed response to the film and criticized it for being occasionally perfunctory and tedious, overly schematic and missing polish. However, she commended the film for its "haunting power" and praised the acting, calling Isaac "mesmerizing."


title: The Card Counter

text: "The Card Counter" was included on a number of year-end critic best of lists, including "Time", — which also named Isaac's performance as one of the top 10 of the year, "The New Yorker", RogerEbert.com, IndieWire, "The A.V. Club", and "Cahiers du Cinéma" included the film as one of the best of 2021.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae (whose only living member is the walrus), Otariidae (the eared seals: sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (the earless seals, or true seals). There are 34 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic lineage (descended from one ancestral line). Pinnipeds belong to the order Carnivora; their closest living relatives are musteloids (weasels, raccoons, skunks, and red pandas), having diverged about 50 million years ago.


title: Pinniped

text: Seals range in size from the and Baikal seal to the and southern elephant seal male, which is also the largest member of the order Carnivora. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism. They have streamlined bodies and four limbs that are modified into flippers. Though not as fast in the water as dolphins, seals are more flexible and agile. Otariids use their front limbs primarily to propel themselves through the water, while phocids and walruses use their hind limbs. Otariids and walruses have hind limbs that can be pulled under the body and used as legs on land. By comparison, terrestrial locomotion by phocids is more cumbersome. Otariids have visible external ears, while phocids and walruses lack these. Pinnipeds have well-developed senses—their eyesight and hearing are adapted for both air and water, and they have an advanced tactile system in their whiskers or vibrissae. Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, and, other than the walrus, all species are covered in fur.


title: Pinniped

text: Although pinnipeds are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They spend most of their lives in the water, but come ashore to mate, give birth, molt or escape from predators, such as sharks and orcas. Seals mainly live in marine environments but can also be found in freshwater. They feed largely on fish and marine invertebrates; a few, such as the leopard seal, feed on large vertebrates, such as penguins and other seals. Walruses are specialized for feeding on bottom-dwelling mollusks. Male pinnipeds typically mate with more than one female (polygyny), although the degree of polygyny varies with the species. The males of land-breeding species tend to mate with a greater number of females than those of ice breeding species. Male pinniped strategies for reproductive success vary between defending females, defending territories that attract females and performing ritual displays or lek mating. Pups are typically born in the spring and summer months and females bear almost all the responsibility for raising them. Mothers of some species fast and nurse their young for a relatively short period of time while others take foraging trips at sea between nursing bouts. Walruses are known to nurse their young while at sea. Seals produce a number of vocalizations, notably the barks of California sea lions, the gong-like calls of walruses and the complex songs of Weddell seals.


title: Pinniped

text: The meat, blubber and fur coats of pinnipeds have traditionally been used by indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Seals have been depicted in various cultures worldwide. They are commonly kept in captivity and are even sometimes trained to perform tricks and tasks. Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for their products, seals and walruses are now protected by international law. The Japanese sea lion and the Caribbean monk seal have become extinct in the past century, while the Mediterranean monk seal and Hawaiian monk seal are ranked endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Besides hunting, pinnipeds also face threats from accidental trapping, marine pollution, and conflicts with local people.


title: Pinniped

text: The name "pinniped" derives from the Latin words "pinna" "fin" and "pes, pedis" "foot". The common name "seal" originates from the Old English word "seolh", which is in turn derived from the Proto-Germanic "*selkhaz".


title: Pinniped

text: The German naturalist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger was the first to recognize the pinnipeds as a distinct taxonomic unit; in 1811 he gave the name Pinnipedia to both a family and an order. American zoologist Joel Asaph Allen reviewed the world's pinnipeds in an 1880 monograph, "History of North American pinnipeds, a monograph of the walruses, sea-lions, sea-bears and seals of North America". In this publication, he traced the history of names, gave keys to families and genera, described North American species and provided synopses of species in other parts of the world. In 1989, Annalisa Berta and colleagues proposed the unranked clade Pinnipedimorpha to contain the fossil genus "Enaliarctos" and modern seals as a sister group. Pinnipeds belong to the order Carnivora and the suborder Caniformia (known as dog-like carnivorans). Pinnipedia was historically considered its own suborder under Carnivora. Of the three extant families, the Otariidae and Odobenidae are grouped in the superfamily Otarioidea, while the Phocidae belong to the superfamily Phocoidea. There are 34 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 fossil species.


title: Pinniped

text: Otariids are also known as eared seals due to the presence of pinnae. These animals rely on their well-developed fore-flippers to propel themselves through the water. They can also turn their hind-flippers forward and "walk" on land. The anterior end of an otariid's frontal bones extends between the nasal bones, and the supraorbital foramen is large and flat horizontally. The supraspinatous fossas are divided by a "secondary spine" and the bronchi are divided anteriorly. Otariids consist of two types: sea lions and fur seals. Sea lions are distinguished by their rounder snouts and shorter, rougher pelage, while fur seals have more pointed snouts, longer fore-flippers and thicker fur coats that include an undercoat and guard hairs. The former also tend to be larger than the latter. Five genera and seven species (one now extinct) of sea lion are known to exist, while two genera and nine species of fur seal exist. While sea lions and fur seals have historically been considered separate subfamilies (Otariinae and Arctocephalinae respectively), a 2001 genetic study found that the northern fur seal is more closely related to several sea lion species. This is supported by a 2006 molecular study that also found that the Australian sea lion and New Zealand sea lion are more closely related to "Arctocephalus" than to other sea lions.


title: Pinniped

text: Odobenidae consists of only one living member: the modern walrus. This animal is easily distinguished from other extant pinnipeds by its larger size (exceeded only by the elephant seals), nearly hairless skin and long upper canines, known as tusks. Like otariids, walruses are capable of turning their hind-flippers forward and can walk on land. When moving in water, the walrus relies on its hind-flippers for locomotion, while its fore-flippers are used for steering. In addition, the walrus lacks external ear flaps. Walruses have pterygoid bones that are broad and thick, frontal bones that are V-shaped at the anterior end and calcaneuses with pronounced tuberosity in the middle.


title: Pinniped

text: Phocids are known as true or "earless" seals. These animals lack external ear flaps and are incapable of turning their hind-flippers forward, which makes them more cumbersome on land. In water, true seals swim by moving their hind-flippers and lower body from side to side. Phocids have thickened mastoids, enlarged entotympanic bones, everted pelvic bones and massive ankle bones. They also lack supraorbital processes on the frontal and have underdeveloped calcaneal tubers. A 2006 molecular study supports the division of phocids into two monophyletic subfamilies: Monachinae, which consists of "Mirounga", Monachini and Lobodontini; and Phocinae, which includes "Pusa", "Phoca", "Halichoerus", "Histriophoca", "Pagophilus", "Erignathus" and "Cystophora".


title: Pinniped

text: One popular hypothesis suggested that pinnipeds are diphyletic (descended from two ancestral lines), with walruses and otariids sharing a recent common ancestor with bears and phocids sharing one with Musteloidea. However, morphological and molecular evidence support a monophyletic origin. A 2021 genetic study found that pinnipeds are more closely related to musteloids. Pinnipeds split from other caniforms 50 million years ago (mya) during the Eocene. Their evolutionary link to terrestrial mammals was unknown until the 2007 discovery of "Puijila" in early Miocene deposits in Nunavut, Canada. Like a modern otter, "Puijila" had a long tail, short limbs and webbed feet instead of flippers. However, its limbs and shoulders were more robust and "Puijila" likely had been a quadrupedal swimmer—retaining a form of aquatic locomotion that gave rise to the major swimming types employed by modern pinnipeds. The researchers who found "Puijila" placed it in a clade with "Potamotherium" (traditionally considered a mustelid) and "Enaliarctos". Of the three, "Puijila" was the least specialized for aquatic life. The discovery of "Puijila" in a lake deposit suggests that pinniped evolution went through a freshwater transitional phase.


title: Pinniped

text: "Enaliarctos", a fossil species of late Oligocene/early Miocene (24–22 mya) California, closely resembled modern pinnipeds; it was adapted to an aquatic life with a flexible spine, and limbs modified into flippers. Its teeth were adapted for shearing (like terrestrial carnivorans), and it may have stayed near shore more often than its extant relatives. "Enaliarctos" was capable of swimming with both the fore-flippers and hind-flippers, but it may have been more specialized as a fore-flipper swimmer. One species, "Enaliarctos emlongi", exhibited notable sexual dimorphism, suggesting that this physical characteristic may have been an important driver of pinniped evolution. A closer relative of extant pinnipeds was "Pteronarctos", which lived in Oregon 19–15 mya. As in modern seals, "Pteroarctos" had an orbital wall that was not limited by certain facial bones (like the jugal or lacrimal bone), but was mostly shaped by the maxilla. The extinct family Desmatophocidae lived 23–10 mya in the North Atlantic and had elongated skulls, fairly large eyes, cheekbones connected by a mortised structure and rounded cheek teeth. They also were sexually dimorphic and may have been capable of propelling themselves with both the foreflippers and hindflippers. Their phylogeny and evolutionary relationship to other pinnipeds is poorly understood although it has been proposed that they may be closer to the otariids than the phocids.


title: Pinniped

text: The ancestors of the Otarioidea and Phocoidea diverged 33 mya. Phocids are known to have existed for at least 15 million years, and molecular evidence supports a divergence of the Monachinae and Phocinae lineages 22 mya. The fossil monachine "Monotherium" and phocine "Leptophoca" were found in southeastern North America. The deep split between the lineages of "Erignathus" and "Cystophora" 17 mya suggests that the phocines migrated eastward and northward from the North Atlantic. The genera "Phoca" and "Pusa" could have arisen when a phocine lineage traveled from the Paratethys Sea to the Arctic Basin and subsequently went eastward. The ancestor of the Baikal seal migrated into Lake Baikal from the Arctic (via the Siberian ice sheet) and became isolated there. The Caspian seal's ancestor became isolated as the Paratethys shrank, leaving the animal in a small remnant sea, the Caspian Sea. The monochines diversified southward. "Monachus" emerged in the Mediterranean and migrated to the Caribbean and then the central North Pacific. The two extant elephant seal species diverged close to 4 mya after the Panamanian isthmus was formed. The lobodontine lineage emerged around 9 mya and colonized the southern ocean in response to glaciation.


title: Pinniped

text: The lineages of Otariidae and Odobenidae split almost 28 mya. Otariids originated in the North Pacific. The earliest fossil "Pithanotaria", found in California, is dated to 11 mya. The "Callorhinus" lineage split earlier at 16 mya. "Zalophus", "Eumetopias" and "Otaria" diverged next, with the latter colonizing the coast of South America. Most of the other otariids diversified in the Southern Hemisphere. The earliest fossils of Odobenidae—"Prototaria" of Japan and "Proneotherium" of Oregon—date to 18–16 mya. These primitive walruses had much shorter canines and lived on a fish diet rather than a specialized mollusk diet like the modern walrus. Odobenids further diversified in the middle and late Miocene. Several species had enlarged upper and lower canines. The genera "Valenictus" and "Odobenus" developed elongated tusks. The lineage of the modern walrus may have spread from the North Pacific to the Caribbean (via the Central American Seaway) 8–5 mya and subsequently made it to the North Atlantic and returned to the North Pacific via the Arctic 1 mya. Alternatively, this lineage may have spread from the North Pacific to the Arctic and subsequently the North Atlantic during the Pleistocene.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have streamlined, spindle-shaped bodies with reduced or non-existent external ear flaps, rounded heads, flexible necks, limbs modified into flippers, and small tails. Pinniped skulls have large eye orbits, short snouts and a constricted interorbital region. They are unique among carnivorans in that their orbital walls are mostly shaped by the maxilla which are not contained by certain facial bones. Compared to other carnivorans, their teeth tend to be fewer in number (especially incisors and back molars), are pointed and cone-shaped, and lack carnassials. The walrus has unique upper canines that are elongated into tusks. The mammary glands and genitals of pinnipeds can retract into the body.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds range in size from the and Baikal seal to the and southern elephant seal. Overall, they tend to be larger than other carnivorans; the southern elephant seal is the largest carnivoran. Several species have male-biased sexual dimorphism that correlates with the degree of polygyny in a species: highly polygynous species like elephant seals are extremely sexually dimorphic, while less polygynous species have males and females that are closer in size. In lobodontine seals, females are slightly larger than males. Males of sexually dimorphic species also tend to have secondary sex characteristics, such as the prominent proboscis of elephant seals, the inflatable red nasal membrane of hooded seals and the thick necks and manes of otariids. Despite a correlation between size dimorphism and the degree of polygyny, some evidence suggests that size differences between the sexes originated due to ecological differences and prior to the development of polygyny.


title: Pinniped

text: Almost all pinnipeds have fur coats, the exception being the walrus, which is only sparsely covered. Even some fully furred species (particularly sea lions) are less haired than most land mammals. In species that live on ice, young pups have thicker coats than adults. The individual hairs on the coat, known collectively as lanugo, can trap heat from sunlight and keep the pup warm. Pinnipeds are typically countershaded, and are darker colored dorsally and lighter colored ventrally, which serves to eliminate shadows caused by light shining over the ocean water. The pure white fur of harp seal pups conceals them in their Arctic environment. Some species, such as ribbon seals, ringed seals and leopard seals, have patterns of contrasting light and dark coloration. All fully furred species molt; phocids molt once a year, while otariids gradually molt all year. Seals have a layer of subcutaneous fat known as blubber that is particularly thick in phocids and walruses. Blubber serves both to keep the animals warm and to provide energy and nourishment when they are fasting. It can constitute as much as 50% of a pinniped's body weight. Pups are born with only a thin layer of blubber, but some species compensate for this with thick lanugos.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have a simple stomach that is similar in structure to terrestrial carnivores. Most species have neither a cecum nor a clear demarcation between the small and large intestines; the large intestine is comparatively short and only slightly wider than the small intestine. Small intestine lengths range from 8 times (California sea lion) to 25 times (elephant seal) the body length. The length of the intestine may be an adaptation to frequent deep diving, as the increased volume of the digestive tract serves as an extended storage compartment for partially digested food during submersion. Pinnipeds do not have an appendix. As in most marine mammals, the kidneys are divided into small lobes and can effectively absorb water and filter out excess salt.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have two pairs of flippers on the front and back, the fore-flippers and hind-flippers. The elbows and ankles are enclosed within the body. Pinnipeds tend to be slower swimmers than cetaceans, typically cruising at compared to around for several species of dolphin. Seals are more agile and flexible, and some otariids, such as the California sea lion, are capable of bending their necks backwards far enough to reach their hind-flippers, allowing them to make dorsal turns. Pinnipeds have several adaptions for reducing drag. In addition to their streamlined bodies, they have smooth networks of muscle bundles in their skin that may increase laminar flow and make it easier for them to slip through water. They also lack arrector pili, so their fur can be streamlined as they swim.


title: Pinniped

text: When swimming, otariids rely on their fore-flippers for locomotion in a wing-like manner similar to penguins and sea turtles. Fore-flipper movement is not continuous, and the animal glides between each stroke. Compared to terrestrial carnivorans, the fore-limbs of otariids are reduced in length, which gives the locomotor muscles at the shoulder and elbow joints greater mechanical advantage; the hind-flippers serve as stabilizers. Phocids and walruses swim by moving their hind-flippers and lower body from side to side, while their fore-flippers are mainly used for steering. Some species leap out of the water, which may allow them to travel faster. In addition, sea lions are known to "ride" waves, which probably helps them decrease their energy usage.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds can move around on land, though not as well as terrestrial animals. Otariids and walruses are capable of turning their hind-flippers forward and under the body so they can "walk" on all fours. The fore-flippers move in a transverse, rather than a sagittal fashion. Otariids rely on their head. neck and back spine more than their hind-flippers during terrestrial locomotion. By swinging their heads and necks, otariids create momentum while they are moving. Sea lions have been recorded climbing up flights of stairs. Phocids are less agile on land. They cannot pull their hind-flippers forward, and move on land by lunging, bouncing and wiggling while their fore-flippers keep them balanced. Some species use their fore-flippers to pull themselves forward. Terrestrial locomotion is easier for phocids on ice, as they can sled along.


title: Pinniped

text: The eyes of pinnipeds are relatively large for their size and are positioned near the front of the head. One exception is the walrus, whose smaller eyes are located on the sides of its head. This is because it feeds on immobile bottom dwelling mollusks and hence does not need acute vision. A seal's eye is adapted for seeing both underwater and in air. The lens is mostly spherical, and much of the retina is equidistant from the lens center. The cornea has a flattened center where refraction is nearly equal in both water and air. Pinnipeds also have very muscular and vascularized irises. The well-developed dilator muscle gives the animals a great range in pupil dilation. When contracted, the pupil is typically pear-shaped, although the bearded seal's is more diagonal. In species that live in shallow water, such as harbor seals and California sea lions, dilation varies little, while the deep-diving elephant seals have much greater variation.


title: Pinniped

text: On land, pinnipeds are near-sighted in dim light. This is reduced in bright light, as the retracted pupil reduces the lens and cornea's ability to bend light. They also have a well-developed "tapetum lucidum", a reflecting layer that increases sensitivity by reflecting light back through the rods. This helps them see in low-light conditions. Ice-living seals like the harp seal have corneas that can tolerate high levels of ultraviolet radiation typical of bright, snowy environments. As such, they do not suffer snow blindness. Pinnipeds appear to have limited color vision, as they lack S-cones. Flexible eye movement has been documented in seals. The extraocular muscles of the walrus are well developed. This and its lack of orbital roof allow it to protrude its eyes and see in both frontal and dorsal directions. Seals release large amounts of mucus to protect their eyes. The corneal epithelium is keratinized and the sclera is thick enough to withstand the pressures of diving. As in many mammals and birds, pinnipeds possess nictitating membranes.


title: Pinniped

text: The pinniped ear is adapted for hearing underwater, where it can hear sound frequencies at up to 70,000 Hz. In air, hearing is somewhat reduced in pinnipeds compared to many terrestrial mammals. While they are capable of hearing a wide range of frequencies (e.g. 500 to 32,000 Hz in the northern fur seal, compared to 20 to 20,000 Hz in humans), their airborne hearing sensitivity is weaker overall. One study of three species—the harbor seal, California sea lion and northern elephant seal—found that the sea lion was best adapted for airborne hearing, the harbor seal was equally capable of hearing in air and water, and the elephant seal was better adapted for underwater hearing. Although pinnipeds have a fairly good sense of smell on land, it is useless underwater as their nostrils are closed.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have well-developed tactile senses. Their mystacial vibrissae have ten times the innervation of terrestrial mammals, allowing them to effectively detect vibrations in the water. These vibrations are generated, for example, when a fish swims through water. Detecting vibrations is useful when the animals are foraging and may add to or even replace vision, particularly in darkness. Harbor seals have been observed following varying paths of another seal that swam ahead several minutes before, similar to a dog following a scent trail, and even to discriminate the species and the size of the fish responsible for the trail. Blind ringed seals have even been observed successfully hunting on their own in Lake Saimaa, likely relying on their vibrissae to gain sensory information and catch prey.


title: Pinniped

text: Unlike terrestrial mammals, such as rodents, pinnipeds do not move their vibrissae over an object when examining it but instead extend their moveable whiskers and keep them in the same position. By holding their vibrissae steady, pinnipeds are able to maximize their detection ability. The vibrissae of phocids are undulated and wavy while otariid and walrus vibrissae are smooth. Research is ongoing to determine the function, if any, of these shapes on detection ability. The vibrissa's angle relative to the flow, not the shape, however, seems to be the most important factor. The vibrissae of some otariids grow quite long—those of the Antarctic fur seal can reach . Walruses have the most vibrissae, at 600–700 individual hairs. These are important for detecting their prey on the muddy sea floor. In addition to foraging, vibrissae may also play a role in navigation; spotted seals appear to use them to detect breathing holes in the ice.


title: Pinniped

text: Before diving, pinnipeds typically exhale to empty their lungs of half the air and then close their nostrils and throat cartilages to protect the trachea. Their unique lungs have airways that are highly reinforced with cartilaginous rings and smooth muscle, and alveoli that completely deflate during deeper dives. While terrestrial mammals are generally unable to empty their lungs, pinnipeds can reinflate their lungs even after complete respiratory collapse. The middle ear contains sinuses that probably fill with blood during dives, preventing middle ear squeeze. The heart of a seal is moderately flattened to allow the lungs to deflate. The trachea is flexible enough to collapse under pressure. During deep dives, any remaining air in their bodies is stored in the bronchioles and trachea, which prevents them from experiencing decompression sickness, oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis. In addition, seals can tolerate large amounts of lactic acid, which reduces skeletal muscle fatigue during intense physical activity.


title: Pinniped

text: The main adaptations of the pinniped circulatory system for diving are the enlargement and increased complexity of veins to increase their capacity. Retia mirabilia form blocks of tissue on the inner wall of the thoracic cavity and the body periphery. These tissue masses, which contain extensive contorted spirals of arteries and thin-walled veins, act as blood reservoirs that increase oxygen stores for use during diving. As with other diving mammals, pinnipeds have high amounts of hemoglobin and myoglobin stored in their blood and muscles. This allows them to stay submerged for long periods of time while still having enough oxygen. Deep-diving species such as elephant seals have blood volumes that represent up to 20% of their body weight. When diving, they reduce their heart rate and maintain blood flow only to the heart, brain and lungs. To keep their blood pressure stable, phocids have an elastic aorta that dissipates some of the energy of each heartbeat.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds conserve heat with their large and compact body size, insulating blubber and fur, and high metabolism. In addition, the blood vessels in their flippers are adapted for countercurrent exchange. Veins containing cool blood from the body extremities surround arteries, which contain warm blood received from the core of the body. Heat from the arterial blood is transferred to the blood vessels, which then recirculate blood back to the core. The same adaptations that conserve heat while in water tend to inhibit heat loss when out of water. To counteract overheating, many species cool off by flipping sand onto their backs, adding a layer of cool, damp sand that enhances heat loss. The northern fur seal pants to help stay cool, while monk seals often dig holes in the sand to expose cooler layers to rest in.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds spend many months at a time at sea, so they must sleep in the water. Scientists have recorded them sleeping for minutes at a time while slowly drifting downward in a belly-up orientation. Like other marine mammals, seals sleep in water with half of their brain awake so that they can detect and escape from predators. When they are asleep on land, both sides of their brain go into sleep mode.


title: Pinniped

text: Living pinnipeds mainly inhabit polar and subpolar regions, particularly the North Atlantic, the North Pacific and the Southern Ocean. They are entirely absent from Indomalayan waters. Monk seals and some otariids live in tropical and subtropical waters. Seals usually require cool, nutrient-rich waters with temperatures lower than . Even those that live in warm or tropical climates live in areas that become cold and nutrient rich due to current patterns. Only monk seals live in waters that are not typically cool or rich in nutrients. The Caspian seal and Baikal seal are found in large landlocked bodies of water (the Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal respectively).


title: Pinniped

text: As a whole, pinnipeds can be found in a variety of aquatic habitats, including coastal water, open ocean, brackish water and even freshwater lakes and rivers. The Baikal seal is the only exclusively freshwater species. Most seals inhabit coastal areas, though some travel offshore and feed in deep waters off oceanic islands. Pinnipeds also use a number of terrestrial habitats and substrates, both continental and island. In temperate and tropical areas, they haul out on to sandy and pebble beaches, rocky shores, shoals, mud flats, tide pools and in sea caves. Some species also rest on man-made structures, like piers, jetties, buoys and oil platforms. Pinnipeds may move further inland and rest in sand dunes or vegetation, and may even climb cliffs. New Zealand sea lions are the only pinnipeds that can be found up to inland in forests. Polar-living species haul out on to both fast ice and drift ice. They use the ice platforms for breeding and raising young seal pups. Ringed seals build dens underneath fast ice.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have an amphibious lifestyle; they spend most of their lives in the water, but haul out to mate, raise young, molt, rest, thermoregulate or escape from aquatic predators. Several species are known to migrate vast distances, particularly in response to extreme environmental changes, like El Niño or changes in ice cover. Elephant seals stay at sea 8–10 months a year and migrate between breeding and molting sites. The northern elephant seal has one of the longest recorded migration distances for a mammal, at . Phocids tend to migrate more than otariids. Traveling seals may use various features of their environment to reach their destination including geomagnetic fields, water and wind currents, the position of the sun and moon and the taste and temperature of the water.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds may dive during foraging or to avoid predators. When foraging, for example, the Weddell seal typically dives for less than 15 minutes to depths of around but can dive for as long as 73 minutes and to depths of up to . Northern elephant seals commonly dive for as long as 20 minutes. They can also dive and for as long as 77 minutes. The dives of otariids tend to be shorter and less deep. They typically last 5–7 minutes with average depths to . However, the New Zealand sea lion has been recorded diving to a maximum of and a duration of 12 minutes. Walruses do not often dive very deep, as they feed in shallow water.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds have lifespans averaging 25–30 years. Females usually live longer, as males tend to fight and often die before reaching maturity. The longest recorded lifespans include 43 years for a wild female ringed seal and 46 years for a wild female grey seal. The age at which a pinniped sexually matures can vary from 2–12 years depending on the species. Females typically mature earlier than males.


title: Pinniped

text: All pinnipeds are carnivorous and predatory. As a whole, they mostly feed on fish and cephalopods, followed by crustaceans and bivalves, and then zooplankton and endothermic ("warm-blooded") prey like sea birds. While most species are generalist and opportunistic feeders, a few are specialists. Examples include the crabeater seal, which primarily eats krill, the ringed seal, which eats mainly crustaceans, the Ross seal and southern elephant seal, which specialize on squid, and the bearded seal and walrus, which feed on clams and other bottom-dwelling invertebrates.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds may hunt solitarily or cooperatively. The former behavior is typical when hunting non-schooling fish, slow-moving or immobile invertebrates or endothermic prey. Solitary foraging species usually exploit coastal waters, bays and rivers. An exception to this is the northern elephant seal, which feeds on fish at great depths in the open ocean. In addition, walruses feed solitarily but are often near other walruses in small or large groups that may surface and dive in unison. When large schools of fish or squid are available, pinnipeds such as certain otariids hunt cooperatively in large groups, locating and herding their prey. Some species, such as California and South American sea lions, may forage with cetaceans and sea birds.


title: Pinniped

text: Seals typically consume their prey underwater where it is swallowed whole. Prey that is too large or awkward is taken to the surface to be torn apart. The leopard seal, a prolific predator of penguins, is known to violently swing its prey back and forth until it is dead. The elaborately cusped teeth of filter-feeding species, such as crabeater seals, allow them to remove water before they swallow their planktonic food. The walrus is unique in that it consumes its prey by suction feeding, using its tongue to suck the meat of a bivalve out of the shell. While pinnipeds mostly hunt in the water, South American sea lions are known to chase down penguins on land. Some species may swallow stones or pebbles for reasons not understood. Though they can drink seawater, pinnipeds get most of their fluid intake from the food they eat.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds themselves are subject to predation. Most species are preyed on by the orca. To subdue and kill seals, orcas continuously ram them with their heads, slap them with their tails and fling them in the air. They are typically hunted by groups of 10 or fewer whales, but they are occasionally hunted by larger groups or by lone individuals. Pups are more commonly taken by orcas, but adults can be targeted as well. Large sharks are another major predator of pinnipeds—usually the great white shark but also the tiger shark and mako shark. Sharks usually attack by ambushing them from below. The prey usually escapes, and seals are often seen with shark-inflicted wounds. Otariids typically have injuries in the hindquarters, while phocids usually have injuries on the forequarters. Pinnipeds are also targeted by terrestrial and pagophilic predators. The polar bear is well adapted for hunting Arctic seals and walruses, particularly pups. Bears are known to use sit-and-wait tactics as well as active stalking and pursuit of prey on ice or water. Other terrestrial predators include cougars, brown hyenas and various species of canids, which mostly target the young.


title: Pinniped

text: Pinnipeds lessen the chance of predation by gathering in groups. Some species are capable of inflicting damaging wounds on their attackers with their sharp canines—an adult walrus is capable of killing polar bears. When out at sea, northern elephant seals dive out of the reach of surface-hunting orcas and white sharks. In the Antarctic, which lacks terrestrial predators, pinniped species spend more time on the ice than their Arctic counterparts. Arctic seals use more breathing holes per individual, appear more restless when hauled out, and rarely defecate on the ice. Ringed seals rely on their dens for protection.


title: Pinniped

text: Interspecific predation among pinnipeds does occur. The leopard seal is known to prey on numerous other species, especially the crabeater seal. Leopard seals typically target crabeater pups, which form an important part of their diet from November to January. Older crabeater seals commonly bear scars from failed leopard seal attacks; a 1977 study found that 75% of a sample of 85 individual crabeaters had these scars. Walruses, despite being specialized for feeding on bottom-dwelling invertebrates, occasionally prey on Arctic seals. They kill their prey with their long tusks and eat their blubber and skin. Steller sea lions have been recorded eating the pups of harbor seals, northern fur seals and California sea lions. New Zealand sea lions feed on pups of some fur seal species, and the South American sea lion may prey on South American fur seals.