title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: In the 1960s and 1970s, Stamford's commercial real estate boomed as corporations relocated from New York City to peripheral areas. A massive urban redevelopment campaign during that time resulted in a downtown with many tall office buildings. The F.D. Rich Company was the city-designated urban renewal developer of the downtown area in an ongoing, contentious project beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s. The company put up what was the city's tallest structure, One Landmark Square, at 21 floors high, and the GTE building (now One Stamford Forum), along with the Marriott Hotel, the Stamford Town Center and many other downtown office buildings. One Landmark Square has since been dwarfed by the new 34-story Park Tower Stamford condominium tower, and again by the Atlantic Station development, another Rich Company project in partnership with Cappelli Enterprises. Over the years, other developers have joined in building up the downtown, a process that continued through the 1980s and 1990s and into the new century.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Since 2008, an mixed-use redevelopment project for Stamford's Harbor Point neighborhood has added additional growth south of downtown. The redevelopment plan included of new residential, retail, office and hotel space, and a marina. In July 2012, roughly 900 of the projected 4,000 Harbor Point residential units had been constructed. New restaurants and recreational activities have come up in the Harbor Point area, which is considered New Stamford. From 2008 to 2017, the city issued permits for 4,341 housing units.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., many New Yorkers relocated to Stamford and its metropolitan area.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has an area of , of which is land and is water. Stamford is the state's largest city by area. The population density was in 2010. The city is halfway between Manhattan and New Haven at approximately from each; it is from the state capital of Hartford.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford is near the southwestern point of Connecticut, on Long Island Sound; it is part of the Gold Coast. Stamford comprises approximately 45 distinct neighborhoods and villages, and two historic districts, including Cove, East Side, Downtown, North Stamford, Glenbrook, West Side, Turn Of River, Waterside, Springdale, Belltown, Ridgeway, Newfield, South End, Westover, Shippan, Roxbury, and Palmers Hill.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: North of the Merritt Parkway is considered the North Stamford section of the city, encompassing its largest land mass though it is the least densely populated. North Stamford functionally and legally acts as one municipality with the city of Stamford. Stamford borders Pound Ridge, New York to the north, the Long Island Sound to the south, Greenwich to the west, Darien to the east, and New Canaan to the northeast.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The city has islands in Long Island Sound: Cove Island, Grass Island, Greenway Island, Jack Island, and Cuties Island (also known as Vincent Island). Cove Island is a prominent beach and recreation area. It lies approximately from Norwalk.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Under the Köppen climate classification, Stamford has a temperate climate ("Cfa"), with long, hot summers, and cool to cold winters, with precipitation spread fairly evenly throughout the year. Like the rest of coastal Connecticut, it lies in the broad transition zone between the colder continental climates of the northern U.S. and southern Canada to the north, and the warmer temperate and subtropical climates of the middle and south Atlantic states to the south.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The warm/hot season in Stamford is from mid-April through early November. Late day thundershowers are common in the hottest months (June, July, August, September), despite the mostly sunny skies. The cool/cold season is from late November though mid-March. Winter weather is far more variable than summer weather along the Connecticut coast, ranging from sunny days with higher temperatures to cold and blustery conditions with occasional snow. As on much of the Connecticut coast and nearby Long Island, some of the winter precipitation is rain or a mix and rain and wet snow. Stamford averages about of snow annually, compared to inland areas like Hartford and Albany that average .


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Although infrequent, tropical cyclones (hurricanes/tropical storms) have struck Connecticut and the Stamford metropolitan area. Hurricane landfalls have occurred along the Connecticut coast in 1903, 1938, 1944, 1954 (Carol), 1960 (Donna), Hurricane Gloria in 1985, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford lies in USDA garden zone 7a. It averages about 90 days annually with freeze. Coastal Connecticut is the broad transition zone where so-called "subtropical indicator" plants and other broadleaf evergreens can be cultivated. As such, Southern Magnolias, Needle Palms, Windmill palm, Loblolly Pines, and Crape Myrtles are grown in private and public gardens. As in much of coastal Connecticut, Long Island, and coastal New Jersey, the growing season is rather long in Stamford, averaging 210 days from April8 to November5 according to the National Weather Service in Bridgeport.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Census data from 2020 showed the City of Stamford with a population of 135,470. This was a 10.5% increase from 2010. Census data also showed Stamford had surpassed New Haven’s population, making it the state's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: In 2020, the racial makeup of the city was 49.3% non-Hispanic white, 14.1% Black or African American, 0.3% American Indian or Alaska Native, 8.6% Asian American, 3.2% from two or more races, and 27.2% Hispanic or Latino (of any race). 2020 American Community Survey estimates show that of the Hispanic or Latin American population, Guatemalans form the largest group (6.75% of the city's population), followed by Puerto Ricans (3.77%), Colombians (2.87%), Ecuadorians (2.42%), and Mexicans (2.38%). In 2018, 5.9% of the city was West Indian. The median age was 37.2 in 2018, lower than the national average of 37.9.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: There were 54,513 housing units at the 2018 estimates and 50,847 households. The average household size was 2.53 and there were approximately 31,347 families living in the city. The owner-occupied housing rate was 46.6% and the renter-occupied housing rate was 53.4%. Stamford's median household income in 2021 was $99,792 and the per capita income was $58,297, the highest of any city in Connecticut. The average household income was $143,222. About 9.3% of the population was at or below the poverty line.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: In 2010, its population was 122,643. At the U.S. Census Bureau's mid-year 2010 estimates, it grew to 122,902. Roughly 49.8% of the population was non-Hispanic white, 12.9% Black or African American, 0.2% American Indian or Alaska Native, 6.8% Asian, 1.6% from two or more races, and 28.3% Hispanic or Latino. The American Community Survey determined there were 46,396 households. The average household size was 2.56 and the average family size was 3.15. The owner-occupied housing rate was 56.5% and the renter-occupied rate was 43.5%.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The 2000 census determined Stamford had a population of 117,083. The proportion of the population under the age of 18 was 21.6%, age 18 to 24 was 7.8%, age 25 to 44 was 32.5%, age 45 to 64 was 25.0%, and 65 years of age or older was 13.1%. The median age of 37.1 was slightly lower than the U.S. median age of 37.2. Composition of the population based on sex was 50.7 females to 49.3 males.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: According to Sperling's BestPlaces, 64.0% of the city's inhabitants are religious or religiously affiliated. The largest religious group in the city are Christians, followed by Judaism, Islam, and eastern religions including Hinduism and Buddhism. The largest Christian denomination in the city is the Roman Catholic Church, served by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: According to FBI statistics in 2014, Stamford is the 16th safest of the 269 cities in the nation and well ahead of any in Connecticut with a population greater than 100,000 that report crime statistics to the FBI. In 2015, Stamford reported three murders, 19 rapes, and 92 robberies. Crime in Stamford is much more controlled in comparison to cities with similar population size in Connecticut and nationally. Lower crime rates in Stamford are attributed to the city's robust economic growth in recent decades. Criminal cases are prosecuted by the State's Attorney's Office, and Stamford is home to a State Superior Court, at 123 Hoyt Street, adjacent to the Stamford Police Headquarters.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford's cluster of corporate headquarters includes a number of Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, and Forbes Global 2000 companies. In 2017, Stamford had four Fortune 500, nine Fortune 1000, three Forbes Global 2000, and one Fortune Global 500 company.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Among the larger companies with headquarters in Stamford are Charter Communications, Harman International, Synchrony Financial, Indeed.com, Webster Bank, United Rentals, Conair, Gartner, Henkel North American Consumer Goods, WWE, Pitney Bowes, ITT Inc., Gen Re, NBC Sports Group, Nestle Waters North America, Crane Co. and Vineyard Vines. UBS's Stamford trading floor held the Guinness World Record as the largest columnless trading floor in the world until surrendering that space in 2017. The building was sold after the bank downsized. The Royal Bank of Scotland moved its North American operations into Stamford in 2009, including its RBS Greenwich Capital subsidiary.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The Harbor Point development, in the South End, is one of the nation's largest private-sector development projects. Many large retail stores, such as Design within Reach (also headquartered in Stamford), have moved in, along with multiple companies including ITV America, McKinsey & Company, Bridgewater Associates, and Kayak.com.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford's public library, the Ferguson Library, is one of the largest in Connecticut. The library also shows movies and has a used book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The library has branches in South End, Springdale, and the Turn of River sections of the city, it also has a bookmobile that runs daily to different neighborhoods. The Turn of River branch, officially called the Harry Bennett Branch, is the largest library branch in the state. That branch also has a used book store run by Friends of Ferguson Library.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford is predominantly Democratic but not nearly as heavily Democratic as Connecticut's more urban cities like Bridgeport and New Haven. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama received 64.06% of the city vote to Republican John McCain's 35.35%.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Democrat Caroline Simmons is Stamford's current mayor. Notable Republicans from the city include former U.S. Representative Chris Shays, former Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele, and former mayor Michael Pavia. Prominent Democrats from Stamford include current Attorney General William Tong, former two-term Governor Dannel Malloy, former Attorney General and incumbent senior U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, former Attorney General George Jepsen, former U.S. Attorney General and former mayor Homer Stille Cummings, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Andrew J. McDonald, and Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court Richard A. Robinson. Other notable politicians with Stamford roots include Carrie Clyde Holly, the first woman (along with two colleagues) elected to serve in a State Legislature (Colorado, from Pueblo County in the 1894 election) in U.S. history, Joe Lieberman, former Attorney General of Connecticut and Independent/Democratic U.S. Senator who was Al Gore's vice-presidential nominee in the 2000 presidential election; William F. Buckley, Jr., conservative commentator; and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford has consistently received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign for LGBT-friendly policies since 2016.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford has branches of the University of Connecticut, University of Bridgeport and Sacred Heart University. The University of Connecticut's campus is in a large modern building downtown that opened in 1998 after extensive renovations to an abandoned former Bloomingdale's store that had closed in 1990. The University of Bridgeport has a branch at the River Bend Executive Center, and Sacred Heart University has a branch at Landmark Square. In 2017, UCONN Stamford opened a 300-student dormitory around the corner from the Stamford Campus on Washington Blvd.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: As no study has been conducted to assess the cost of education in Stamford, it is difficult to tell whether Stamford has a well-funded public education system. Public education is a state responsibility, and Connecticut ranks near the bottom in state share of public education expenditures. Thus most education funding must come from local governments like Stamford's. According to the State Department of Education, in the 2004–2005 academic year, 42.7% of Stamford's public school students were economically disadvantaged, 34.8% did not have English as a home language and 11.6% were students with disabilities. Research has shown that these populations need additional resources to meet state academic standards. Owing to the state school finance system, the burden of these extra necessary costs of education falls primarily on Stamford's local government. The public school system is an integrated district with racial balance requirements exceeding those of the state. State standards require that a school's racial makeup be within 25% of the community's racial makeup. Stamford's standard is 10%. Over the years, schools have become unbalanced.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford has three public high schools: Westhill High School, Stamford High School, and the Academy of Information Technology and Engineering. The city also has several private schools, including Villa Maria School, and Bi-Cultural Jewish Day School, King Low Heywood Thomas, and The Long Ridge School.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford has one of the nation's most highly educated populations: nine out of ten are high school graduates, and those possessing a bachelor's degree or higher are estimated at 43.6% of the population. Stamford is tied with Iowa City, Iowa, for the U.S. metropolitan area with the highest percentage of the adult population holding a bachelor's degree or higher; 44% of adults hold a degree.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: A not-for-profit agency, Stamford Emergency Medical Services (SEMS) provides pre-hospital emergency care in Stamford, Connecticut. SEMS also provides contracted paramedic intercept response to Darien Emergency Medical Services, located in Darien, Connecticut. SEMS is the only Connecticut EMS service accredited by the Commission on the Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). All SEMS units are staffed by at least one Connecticut-licensed paramedic. Stamford EMS responds to 14,000 calls annually.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Fire protection in the city of Stamford is provided by the paid Stamford Fire Department (SFD) and four all-volunteer fire departments—Glenbrook-New Hope, Belltown, Springdale, and Turn of River—plus a combination company (paid and volunteer members), Long Ridge.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Budgeting and districting of the various fire departments throughout the city had been unstable since 2007, due to an extended legal conflict between the volunteer departments and the Malloy administration. As of May 16, 2012, a decision was reached by the city's charter revision committee to combine the paid and volunteer fire departments into one combination fire department, known as the Stamford Fire Department.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: The Stamford Police Department (SPD) is Stamford's only police force, and has lost four officers in the line of service since 1938. The police force has about 280 sworn police officers making it the fifth largest police force in Connecticut after Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury. Most Stamford Officers were trained at the Connecticut Police Training Academy before patrolling in the city. Aside from Police Headquarters, located at 725 Bedford St., opened in 2019, in Downtown Stamford, SPD also operates substations in Stamford's West Side at Wilson St. and W. Main St., and at 1137 High Ridge Rd and Hope Street. The current Chief of Police is Tim Shaw since April 9, 2020 who was a police officer in Stamford before leaving to Easton, Connecticut and coming back to Stamford to become police chief.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford is on the New Haven Line of the Metro-North Railroad, the commuter rail system for northern metropolitan New York City. Stamford is the second-busiest station on the Metro-North system, after Grand Central Terminal, and serves as a major transfer point for local trains. Stamford Station is also the terminus of a Metro-North branch that ends in New Canaan, away, known as the New Canaan Branch, and a part-time terminal of Shore Line East and Danbury Branch trains. Two smaller train stations in Stamford are Glenbrook and Springdale, both a part of the New Canaan branch.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Commuter trains come into Stamford from all points between New London to the east and New York (Grand Central Terminal) to the south. The average nonstop commute is 47 minutes. Trains operate from the Stamford station between 4:43 a.m. (first departure to Grand Central) until 12:55 a.m. (last departure to Grand Central).


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford also serves as a station along the Amtrak route. Acela, the high speed train service between Boston and Washington, makes several daily stops in Stamford. Amtrak's Northeast Regional (Springfield, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.) and Vermonter (Saint Albans, Vermont to Washington, D.C.) also make daily stops in Stamford. Amtrak tickets can be purchased on the upper level of the Stamford station.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford is within reasonable distance of 11 airports: four general aviation, two regional, five international.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: City bus transportation is provided by CT Transit, which is run and financed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The main terminal is adjacent to the train station on State Street, under the I-95 highway. Bus service runs along major arterial roads through the towns of Darien, Norwalk, Greenwich and Port Chester, New York. A non-stop direct route is also offered to White Plains, New York. Commuters can connect in Norwalk to points as far east as Milford and as far north as Danbury. Additional connections can be made in Port Chester and White Plains to all points covered by the Bee-Line bus system in Westchester County.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Greyhound provides inter-city bus service from the lower level of the Stamford train station. Bus service is provided to New Haven (Union Station), Boston (South Station), and New York (Port Authority).


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Two limited-access highways run through the city. Interstate 95 serves as the main route through downtown Stamford with four exits (6–9). The Merritt Parkway runs through the northern part of the city. This road is designated for passenger vehicles only. Any congestion on the Merritt Parkway is mostly likely to occur on the southbound lane in the morning and the northbound in the evening (route to and from New York). At night, due to the absence of lighting, visibility on the Merritt Parkway is relatively poor. Stamford exits on the Merritt Parkway are 33–35, and exit 36 is just over the border in New Canaan.


title: Stamford, Connecticut

text: Stamford is also served by four other state highways. Route1, also known as Main Street in Stamford, is also used as a major artery during the morning and evening commute. Most traffic via Route1 is short distance or fairly local, yet vehicles have utilized Route1 during times of heavy congestion on I-95 as a re-route. Route 137 (Washington Boulevard and High Ridge Road) is the main north–south road of the city and runs from the Stamford Transportation Center and serves the Turn of River, North Stamford, and High Ridge sections of the city. Route 104 (Long Ridge Road) branches off from Route 137 to serve the Long Ridge section. Route 106 (Courtland Avenue) serves the Glenbrook neighborhood and continues towards the town of Darien.


title: The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt

text: In the far north of the continent of Varno lies the small country of the Kingdom of Natra. Ever since King Owen collapsed from illness, the job of running the country falls to Owen's extremely competent son, Crown Prince, now Prince Regent, Wein Salema Arbalest. Alongside his beautiful and capable aide, Ninym Ralei, Wein upholds the image of a genius prince that leads the nation with an iron hand. However, behind the scenes, Wein constantly bemoans the fate that has been shoved upon him, quietly hoping for an opportunity to commit treason by selling off his home country and escaping from his duties.


text: The light novel is written by Toru Toba and illustrated by fal_maro. SB Creative has released eleven volumes since May 2018 under their GA Bunko label. The light novel is licensed in North America by Yen Press, and the first volume was released digitally on September 3, 2019.


text: A manga adaptation with art by Emuda has been serialized online since October 2019 via Square Enix's online manga magazine "Manga UP!". It has been collected in five "tankōbon" volumes.


text: An anime television series adaptation by was announced during a livestream for the "GA Fes 2021" event on January 31, 2021. The series is produced by NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan and animated by Yokohama Animation Laboratory, with Makoto Tamagawa serving as director, Xin Ya Cai serving as assistant director, Deko Akao handling series composition, Ryūnosuke Ōji designing characters, and Toshihiko Sahashi composing the music. The opening theme song, "Level", is performed by Nagi Yanagi in collaboration with The Sixth Lie, while the ending theme song, "Hitori to Kimi to" (Alone and With You), is performed by Yoshino Nanjō. The series aired from January 11 to March 29, 2022 on Tokyo MX, BS NTV, and AT-X. Funimation licensed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in South and Southeast Asia; and is available to watch on iQiyi.


text: On March 7, 2022, Funimation announced that the series would receive an English dub, which premiered the following day.


title: Karakoram

text: The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the jurisdiction of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is controlled by Pakistan. Its highest peak (and world's second-highest), K2, is located in Gilgit-Baltistan. It begins in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) in the west, encompasses the majority of Gilgit-Baltistan, and extends into Ladakh (controlled by India) and Aksai Chin (controlled by China). It is the second-highest mountain range in the world and part of the complex of ranges including the Pamir Mountains, the Hindu Kush and the Himalayan Mountains. The Karakoram has eighteen summits over in height, with four exceeding : K2, the second-highest peak in the world at , Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II.


title: Karakoram

text: The range is about in length and is the most heavily glaciated part of the world outside the polar regions. The Siachen Glacier at and the Biafo Glacier at rank as the world's second and third longest glaciers outside the polar regions.


title: Karakoram

text: The Karakoram is bounded on the east by the Aksai Chin plateau, on the northeast by the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and on the north by the river valleys of the Yarkand and Karakash rivers beyond which lie the Kunlun Mountains. At the northwest corner are the Pamir Mountains. The southern boundary of the Karakoram is formed, west to east, by the Gilgit, Indus and Shyok rivers, which separate the range from the northwestern end of the Himalaya range proper. These rivers flow northwest before making an abrupt turn southwestward towards the plains of Pakistan. Roughly in the middle of the Karakoram range is the Karakoram Pass, which was part of a historic trade route between Ladakh and Yarkand that is now inactive.


title: Karakoram

text: The Tashkurghan National Nature Reserve and the Pamir Wetlands National Nature Reserve in the Karalorun and Pamir mountains have been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO in 2010 by the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO and has tentatively been added to the list.


title: Karakoram

text: Karakoram is a Turkic term meaning "black gravel". The Central Asian traders originally applied the name to the Karakoram Pass. Early European travellers, including William Moorcroft and George Hayward, started using the term for the range of mountains west of the pass, although they also used the term Muztagh (meaning, "Ice Mountain") for the range now known as Karakoram. Later terminology was influenced by the Survey of India, whose surveyor Thomas Montgomerie in the 1850s gave the labels K1 to K6 (K for Karakoram) to six high mountains visible from his station at Mount Haramukh in Kashmir Valley.


title: Karakoram

text: In traditional Indian geography the mountains were known as Krishnagiri (black mountains), "Kanhagiri" and "Kanheri".


title: Karakoram

text: Due to its altitude and ruggedness, the Karakoram is much less inhabited than parts of the Himalayas further east. European explorers first visited early in the 19th century, followed by British surveyors starting in 1856.


title: Karakoram

text: The Muztagh Pass was crossed in 1887 by the expedition of Colonel Francis Younghusband and the valleys above the Hunza River were explored by General Sir George K. Cockerill in 1892. Explorations in the 1910s and 1920s established most of the geography of the region.


title: Karakoram

text: The name Karakoram was used in the early 20th century, for example by Kenneth Mason, for the range now known as the Baltoro Muztagh. The term is now used to refer to the entire range from the Batura Muztagh above Hunza in the west to the Saser Muztagh in the bend of the Shyok River in the east.


title: Karakoram

text: Floral surveys were carried out in the Shyok River catchment and from Panamik to Turtuk village by Chandra Prakash Kala during 1999 and 2000.


title: Karakoram

text: The Karakoram is in one of the world's most geologically active areas, at the plate boundary between the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate.


title: Karakoram

text: A significant part, somewhere between 28 and 50 percent, of the Karakoram Range is glaciated covering an area of more than , compared to between 8 and 12 percent of the Himalaya and 2.2 percent of the Alps. Mountain glaciers may serve as an indicator of climate change, advancing and receding with long-term changes in temperature and precipitation. The Karakoram glaciers are slightly retreating, unlike the Himalayas where glaciers are losing mass at significantly higher rate, many Karakoram glaciers are covered in a layer of rubble which insulates the ice from the warmth of the sun. Where there is no such insulation, the rate of retreat is high.


title: Karakoram

text: In the last ice age, a connected series of glaciers stretched from western Tibet to Nanga Parbat, and from the Tarim basin to the Gilgit District. To the south, the Indus glacier was the main valley glacier, which flowed down from Nanga Parbat massif to elevation. In the north, the Karakoram glaciers joined those from the Kunlun Mountains and flowed down to in the Tarim basin.


title: Karakoram

text: While the current valley glaciers in the Karakoram reach a maximum length of , several of the ice-age valley glacier branches and main valley glaciers, had lengths up to . During the Ice Age, the glacier snowline was about lower than today.


title: Karakoram

text: The majority of the highest peaks are in the Gilgit–Baltistan region administered by Pakistan. Baltistan has more than 100 mountain peaks exceeding height from sea level.


title: Karakoram

text: The naming and division of the various subranges of the Karakoram is not universally agreed upon. However, the following is a list of the most important subranges, following Jerzy Wala. The ranges are listed roughly west to east.


title: Karakoram

text: The Khunjerab Pass is the only motorable pass across the range. The Shimshal Pass (which does not cross an international border) is the only other pass still in regular use.


title: Karakoram

text: The Karakoram mountain range has been referred to in a number of novels and movies. Rudyard Kipling refers to the Karakoram mountain range in his novel "Kim", which was first published in 1900. Marcel Ichac made a film titled "Karakoram", chronicling a French expedition to the range in 1936. The film won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 1937. Greg Mortenson details the Karakoram, and specifically K2 and the Balti, extensively in his book "Three Cups of Tea", about his quest to build schools for children in the region. "K2 Kahani" (The K2 Story) by Mustansar Hussain Tarar describes his experiences at K2 base camp.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Maya peoples () are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region, however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.


title: Maya peoples

text: It is estimated that seven million Maya were living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras have managed to maintain numerous remnants of their ancient cultural heritage. Some are quite integrated into the majority hispanicized mestizo cultures of the nations in which they reside, while others continue a more traditional, culturally distinct life, often speaking one of the Mayan languages as a primary language.


title: Maya peoples

text: The largest populations of contemporary Maya inhabit Guatemala, Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador, as well as large segments of population within the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas.


title: Maya peoples

text: One of the largest groups of Maya live in the Yucatan Peninsula, which includes the Mexican states of Yucatán State, Campeche, and Quintana Roo as well as the nation of Belize. These people identify theirselves as "Maya" with no further ethnic subdivision (unlike in the Highlands of Western Guatemala). They speak the language which anthropologists term "Yucatec Maya", but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as "Maya". Among Maya speakers, Spanish is commonly spoken as a second or first language.


title: Maya peoples

text: There is a significant amount of confusion as to the correct terminology to use—Maya or Mayan—and the meaning of these words with reference to contemporary or pre-Columbian peoples, to Maya peoples in different parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and to languages or peoples.


title: Maya peoples

text: Linguists refer to the Maya language as Yucatec or Yucatec Maya to distinguish it from other Mayan languages. This norm has often been misinterpreted to mean that the people are also called Yucatec Maya; that term refers only to the language, and the correct name for the people is simply Maya (not Mayans). Maya is one language in the Mayan language family. Thus, to refer to Maya as Mayans would be similar to referring to Spanish people as Romantics because they speak a language belonging to the Romance language family. Confusion of the term Maya/Mayan as an ethnic label occurs because Maya women who use traditional dress identify by the ethnic term "mestiza" and not Maya.


title: Maya peoples

text: Persons use a strategy of ethnic identification that Juan Castillo Cocom refers to as "ethnoexodus"—meaning that ethnic self-identification as Maya is quite variable, situational, and articulated not to processes of producing group identity, but of escaping from discriminatory processes of sociocultural marginalization.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Yucatán's indigenous population was first exposed to Europeans after a party of Spanish shipwreck survivors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, is reported to have taken up with a local woman and started a family; he became a war captain in the Postclassic Mayan state of Chetumal. Later Spanish expeditions to the region were led by Córdoba in 1517, Grijalva in 1518, and Cortés in 1519. From 1528 to 1540, several attempts by Francisco Montejo to conquer the Yucatán failed. His son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, fared almost as badly when he first took over: while invading Chichen Itza, he lost 150 men in a single day. European diseases, massive recruitment of native warriors from Campeche and Champoton, and internal hatred between the Xiu Maya and the lords of Cocom eventually turned the tide for Montejo the Younger. Chichen Itza was conquered by 1570. In 1542, the western Yucatán Peninsula also surrendered to him.


title: Maya peoples

text: Historically, the population in the eastern half of the peninsula was less affected by and less integrated with Hispanic culture than the western half. In the 21st century in the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexican states of Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo), between 750,000 and 1,200,000 people speak Mayan. However, three times more than that are of Maya origins, hold ancient Maya surnames, and do not speak Mayan languages as their first language.


title: Maya peoples

text: Matthew Restall, in his book "The Maya Conquistador", mentions a series of letters sent to the King of Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries. The noble Maya families at that time signed documents to the Spanish Royal Family; surnames mentioned in those letters are Pech, Camal, Xiu, Ucan, Canul, Cocom, and Tun, among others.


title: Maya peoples

text: A large 19th-century revolt by the native Maya people of Yucatán (Mexico), known as the Caste War of Yucatán, was one of the most successful modern Native American revolts. For a period the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz was recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire, particularly in terms of trading with British Honduras.


title: Maya peoples

text: Francisco Luna-Kan was elected governor of the state of Yucatán from 1976 to 1982. Luna-Kan was born in Mérida, Yucatán, and he was a doctor of medicine, then a professor of medicine before his political offices. He was first appointed as overseer of the state's rural medical system. He was the first governor of the modern Yucatán Peninsula to be of full Maya ancestry. In the early 21st century, dozens of politicians, including deputies, mayors and senators, are of full or mixed Maya heritage from the Yucatán Peninsula.


title: Maya peoples

text: According to the National Institute of Geography and Informatics (Mexico's INEGI), in Yucatán State there were 1.2 million Mayan speakers in 2009, representing 59.5% of the inhabitants. Due to this, the cultural section of the government of Yucatán began on-line classes for grammar and proper pronunciation of Maya.


title: Maya peoples

text: Maya people from Yucatán Peninsula living in the United States of America have been organizing Maya language lessons and Maya cooking classes since 2003 in California and other states: clubs of Yucatec Maya are registered in Dallas and Irving, Texas; Salt Lake City in Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; and California, with groups in San Francisco, San Rafael, Chino, Pasadena, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard, San Fernando Valley and Whittier. Maya language is taught at the college and graduate level; beginning, intermediate, and advanced courses in Maya have been taught at Indiana University since 2010. The Open School of Ethnography and Anthropology offers immersion Maya courses in a six week intensive summer program


title: Maya peoples

text: Chiapas was for many years one of the regions of Mexico that was least touched by the reforms of the Mexican Revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, launched a rebellion against the Mexican state, Chiapas in January 1994, declared itself to be an indigenous movement and drew its strongest and earliest support from Chiapan Maya. Today its number of supporters is relevant. (see also the EZLN and the Chiapas conflict)


title: Maya peoples

text: Maya groups in Chiapas include the Tzotzil and Tzeltal, in the highlands of the state, the Tojolabalis concentrated in the lowlands around Las Margaritas, and the Chʼol in the jungle. (see map)


title: Maya peoples

text: The most traditional of Maya groups are the Lacandon, a small population avoiding contact with outsiders until the late 20th century by living in small groups in the Lacandon Jungle. These Lacandon Maya came from the Campeche/Petén area (north-east of Chiapas) and moved into the Lacandon rain-forest at the end of the 18th century.


title: Maya peoples

text: In the course of the 20th century, and increasingly in the 1950s and 1960s, other people (mainly the Maya and subsistence peasants from the highlands), also entered into the Lacandon region; initially encouraged by the government. This immigration led to land-related conflicts and an increasing pressure on the rainforest. To halt the migration, the government decided in 1971 to declare a large part of the forest (614,000 hectares, or 6140 km) a protected area: the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve. They appointed only one small population group (the 66 Lacandon families) as tenants (thus creating the Lacandon Community), thereby displacing 2000 Tzeltal and Chʼol families from 26 communities, and leaving non-Lacandon communities dependent on the government for granting their rights to land. In the decades that followed the government carried out numerous programs to keep the problems in the region under control, using land distribution as a political tool; as a way of ensuring loyalty from different campesino groups. This strategy of divide and rule led to great disaffection and tensions among population groups in the region.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Maya population in Belize is concentrated in the Corozal, Cayo, Toledo and Orange Walk districts, but they are scattered throughout the country. The Maya are thought to have been in Belize and the Yucatán region since the second millennium BC. Much of Belize's original Maya population died as a result of new infectious diseases and conflicts between tribes and with Europeans. They are divided into the Yucatec, Kekchi, and Mopan. These three Maya groups now inhabit the country.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Yucatec Maya (many of whom came from Yucatán, Mexico to escape the Caste War of the 1840s) there have been evidence of several Yucatec Maya groups living by the Yalbac area of Belize and in the Orange Walk district near the present day Lamanai at the time the British reach. The Mopan (indigenous to Belize but were forced out by the British; they returned from Guatemala to evade slavery in the 19th century), and Kekchi (also fled from slavery in Guatemala in the 19th century). The later groups are chiefly found in the Toledo District.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Mexican state of Tabasco is home to the Chontal Maya. Tabasco is a Mexican state with a northern coastline fringing the Gulf of Mexico. In its capital, Villahermosa, Parque Museo la Venta is known for its zoo and colossal stone sculptures dating to the Olmec civilization. The grand Museo de Historia de Tabasco chronicles the area from prehistoric times, while the Museo Regional de Antropología has exhibits on native Maya and Olmec civilizations.


title: Maya peoples

text: In Guatemala, indigenous people of Maya descent comprise around 42% of the population. Despite the population size, it is reported that many still experience discrimination and oppression.The largest and most traditional Maya populations are in the western highlands in the departments of Baja Verapaz, Quiché, Totonicapán, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, and San Marcos; their inhabitants are mostly Maya.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Maya people of the Guatemala highlands include the Achi, Akatek, Chuj, Ixil, Jakaltek, Kaqchikel, Kʼicheʼ, Mam, Poqomam, Poqomchiʼ, Qʼanjobʼal, Qʼeqchiʼ, Tzʼutujil and Uspantek.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Qʼeqchiʼ live in lowland areas of Alta Vera Paz, Peten, and Western Belize. Over the course of the succeeding centuries a series of land displacements, re-settlements, persecutions and migrations resulted in a wider dispersal of Qʼeqchiʼ communities, into other regions of Guatemala (Izabal, Petén, El Quiché). They are the 2nd largest ethnic Maya group in Guatemala (after the Kʼicheʼ) and one of the largest and most widespread throughout Central America.


title: Maya peoples

text: In Guatemala, the Spanish colonial pattern of keeping the native population legally separate and subservient continued well into the 20th century. This resulted in many traditional customs being retained, as the only other option than traditional Maya life open to most Maya was entering the Hispanic culture at the very bottom rung. Because of this many Guatemalan Maya, especially women, continue to wear traditional clothing, that varies according to their specific local identity.


title: Maya peoples

text: The southeastern region of Guatemala (bordering with Honduras) includes groups such as the Chʼortiʼ. The northern lowland Petén region includes the Itza, whose language is near extinction but whose agroforestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants may still tell us much about pre-colonial management of the Maya lowlands.


title: Maya peoples

text: The 36 year long Guatemalan Civil War left more than 200,000 people dead, half a million driven from their homes, and at least 100,000 women raped; most of the victims were Maya.


title: Maya peoples

text: The genocide against Mayan people took place throughout the whole civil war because indigenous people were seen as supporting the leftist guerillas, but most acts against humanity occurred during Efraín Ríos Montt's presidency (1982–1983). Ríos Montt instituted a campaign of state terror intended to destroy the Mayas in the name of countering "communist subversion" and ridding the country of its indigenous culture. This was also known as Operation Sofia. Within Operation Sofia, the military followed through with "scorched earth policies" which allowed them to destroy whole villages, including killing livestock, destroying cultural symbols, destroying crops, and murdering civilians. In some areas, government forces killed about 40% of the total population; the campaign destroyed at least 626 Mayan villages.


title: Maya peoples

text: On January 26, 2012, former president Ríos Montt was formally indicted in Guatemala for overseeing the massacre of 1,771 civilians of the Ixil Maya group and appeared in court for genocide and crimes against humanity for which he was then sentenced to 80 years in prison on May 10, 2013. This ruling was overturned by the constitutional court on May 20, 2013, over alleged irregularities in the handling of the case. The ex-president appeared in court again on January 5, 2015, amongst protest from his lawyers regarding his health conditions and on August 25, 2015, it was deliberated that a re-trial of the 2013 proceedings could find Ríos Montt guilty or not, but that the sentence would be suspended. Ríos Montt died on April 1, 2018, of a heart attack.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Maya people are known for their brightly colored, yarn-based, textiles that are woven into capes, shirts, blouses, huipiles and dresses. Each village has its own distinctive pattern, making it possible to distinguish a person's home town. Women's clothing consists of a shirt and a long skirt.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Maya religion is Roman Catholicism combined with the indigenous Maya religion to form the unique syncretic religion which prevailed throughout the country and still does in the rural regions prior to 2010s of "orthodoxing" the western rural areas by Christian Orthodox missionaries. Beginning from negligible roots prior to 1960s, however, Protestant Pentecostalism has grown to become the predominant religion of Guatemala City and other urban centers, later to 2010s that almost of all Maya of several rural areas of West Guatemala, living rural areas were mostly mass converted from Catholicism or possibly Maya religion due of various reasons to either Eastern or Oriental Orthodoxy by late Fr. Andres Giron and some other Orthodox missionaries, and also smaller to mid-sized towns also slowly converted as well since 2013. The unique religion is reflected in the local saint, Maximón, who is associated with the subterranean force of masculine fertility and prostitution. Always depicted in black, he wears a black hat and sits on a chair, often with a cigar placed in his mouth and a gun in his hand, with offerings of tobacco, alcohol, and Coca-Cola at his feet. The locals know him as San Simon of Guatemala.


title: Maya peoples

text: The Popol Vuh is the most significant work of Guatemalan literature in the Kʼicheʼ language, and one of the most important works of Pre-Columbian American literature. It is a compendium of Maya stories and legends, aimed to preserve Maya traditions. The first known version of this text dates from the 16th century and is written in Quiché transcribed in Latin characters. It was translated into Spanish by the Dominican priest Francisco Ximénez in the beginning of the 18th century. Due to its combination of historical, mythical, and religious elements, it has been called the Maya Bible. It is a vital document for understanding the culture of Pre-Columbian America. The Rabinal Achí is a dramatic work consisting of dance and text that is preserved as it was originally represented. It is thought to date from the 15th century and narrates the mythical and dynastic origins of the Toj Kʼicheʼ rulers of Rabinal, and their relationships with neighboring Kʼicheʼ of Qʼumarkaj. The Rabinal Achí is performed during the Rabinal festival of January 25, the day of Saint Paul. It was declared a masterpiece of oral tradition of humanity by UNESCO in 2005. The 16th century saw the first native-born Guatemalan writers that wrote in Spanish.


title: Maya peoples

text: Due to the war in Guatemala, many Maya people were killed. The two parties in the war were both hurting the basic living circumstances of Maya people by destroying infrastructure, such as railroads, farmlands, factories, they also burned most of the Mayan books. The destruction of these basic tools created a very difficult environment for Maya people to make a living. Without a way to sustain themselves, many Maya people decided to move somewhere that they were able to live. Many people moved to Mexico and some moved to the United States, which was also their first encounter with the US. Many Mayans who moved to the US mainly moved to areas like Florida, Houston, and Los Angeles.


title: Maya peoples

text: After the peace agreement among both parties in Guatemala after a 36-year war, the two parties built a new government. But the new government is also not protecting the benefit of people, especially the native people like Maya people. The new government was trying to unite all the culture together which in another word, is trying to assimilate all the culture within Maya people. In addition, the new government was not only trying to eliminate the culture but also was keeping the lands to itself rather than gave them back to the Maya people. Without a way to grow crops and food, Maya people were in extreme poverty. They have to find a way to make a living which they started the second migration movement to the United States.


title: Maya peoples

text: There is often a relationship between cultural heritage, tourism, and a national identity. In the case of the Maya, the many national identities have been constructed because of the growing demands placed on them by cultural tourism. By focusing on lifeways through costumes, rituals, diet, handicrafts, language, housing, or other features, the identity of the economy shifts from the sale of labor to that of the sale of culture.


title: Maya peoples

text: Global tourism is now considered one of the largest scale movement of goods, services, and people in history and a significant catalyst for economic development and sociopolitical change. Estimated that between 35 and 40 percent of tourism today is represented by cultural tourism or heritage tourism, this alternative to mass tourism offers opportunities for place-based engagement that frames context for interaction by the lived space and everyday life of other peoples, as well as sites and objects of global historical significance. In this production of tourism the use of historic symbols, signs, and topics form a new side that characterizes a nation and can play an active role in nation building.


title: Maya peoples

text: With this type of tourism, people argue that ethno-commerce may open unprecedented opportunities for creating value of various kinds. Tourists travel with cultural expectations, which has created a touristic experience sometimes faced with the need to invent traditions of artificial and contrived attractions, often developed at the expense of local tradition and meanings.


title: Maya peoples

text: An example of this can be seen in "Mayanizing Tourism on Roatan Island, Honduras: Archaeological Perspectives on Heritage, Development, and Indignity." Alejandro J. Figueroa et al., combine archaeological data and ethnographic insights to explore a highly contested tourism economy in their discussion of how places on Roatan Island, Honduras, have become increasingly "Mayanized" over the past decade. As tour operators and developers continue to invent an idealized Maya past for the island, non-Maya archaeological remains and cultural patrimony are constantly being threatened and destroyed. While heritage tourism provides economic opportunities for some, it can devalue contributions made by less familiar groups.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis muscle () is a flat, pyramidally-shaped muscle in the gluteal region of the lower limbs. It is one of the six muscles in the lateral rotator group.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis muscle has its origin upon the front surface of the sacrum, and inserts onto the greater trochanter of the femur. Depending upon the given position of the leg, it acts either as external (lateral) rotator of the thigh or as abductor of the thigh. It is innervated by the piriformis nerve.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis muscle originates from the anterior (front) surface of the sacrum by three fleshy digitations attached to the second, third, and fourth sacral vertebra.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: It also arises from the superior margin of the greater sciatic notch, the gluteal surface of the ilium (near the posterior inferior iliac spine), the sacroiliac joint capsule, and (sometimes) the sacrotuberous ligament (more specifically, the superior part of the pelvic surface of this ligament).


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The muscle inserts onto the greater trochanter of the femur (its tendon often unites with the tendons of the superior gemellus, inferior gemellus, and obturator internus muscles prior to insertion).


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The posterior aspect of the muscle lies againt the sacrum. The anterior surface of the muscle is related to the rectum (especially on the left side of the body), and the sacral plexus.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The muscle lies almost parallel with the posterior margin of the gluteus medius. It is situated partly within the pelvis against its posterior wall, and partly at the back of the hip joint.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: In around 80% of the population, the sciatic nerve travels below the piriformis muscle. In 17% of people, the piriformis muscle is pierced by parts or all of the sciatic nerve. Several variations occur, but the most common type of anomaly (81% of anomalies) is the Beaton's type B which is when the common peroneal nerve pierces the piriformis muscle.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: It may be united with the gluteus medius, send fibers to the gluteus minimus, or receive fibers from the superior gemellus.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis muscle is part of the lateral rotators of the hip, along with the quadratus femoris, gemellus inferior, gemellus superior, obturator externus, and obturator internus. The piriformis laterally rotates the femur with hip extension and abducts the femur with hip flexion. Abduction of the flexed thigh is important in the action of walking because it shifts the body weight to the opposite side of the foot being lifted, which prevents falling. The action of the lateral rotators can be understood by crossing the legs to rest an ankle on the knee of the other leg. This causes the femur to rotate and point the knee laterally. The lateral rotators also oppose medial rotation by the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. When the hip is flexed to 90 degrees, piriformis abducts the femur at the hip and reverses primary function, internally rotating the hip when the hip is flexed at 90 degrees or more. (Netter's Clinical Anatomy, 2010)


title: Piriformis muscle

text: Piriformis syndrome occurs when the piriformis irritates the sciatic nerve, which comes into the gluteal region beneath the muscle, causing pain in the buttocks and referred pain along the sciatic nerve. This referred pain is known as "sciatica". Seventeen percent of the population has their sciatic nerve coursing through the piriformis muscle. This subgroup of the population is predisposed to developing sciatica.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: Sciatica can be described by pain, tingling, or numbness deep in the buttocks and along the sciatic nerve. Sitting down, stretching, climbing stairs, and performing squats usually increases pain. Diagnosing the syndrome is usually based on symptoms and on the physical exam. More testing, including MRIs, X-rays, and nerve conduction tests can be administered to exclude other possible diseases. If diagnosed with piriformis syndrome, the first treatment involves progressive stretching exercises, massage therapy (including neuromuscular therapy) and physical treatment. Corticosteroids can be injected into the piriformis muscle if pain continues. Findings suggest the possibility that Botulinum toxin type B may be of potential benefit in the treatment of pain attributed to piriformis syndrome. A more invasive, but sometimes necessary treatment involves surgical exploration; however, the side effects of the surgery could be much worse than alternative treatments such as physical therapy. Surgery should always be a last resort.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis is a very important landmark in the gluteal region. As it travels through the greater sciatic foramen, it effectively divides it into an inferior and superior part.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: This determines the name of the vessels and nerves in this region – the nerve and vessels that emerge superior to the piriformis are the superior gluteal nerve and superior gluteal vessels. Inferiorly, it is the same, and the sciatic nerve also travels inferiorly to the piriformis.


title: Piriformis muscle

text: The piriformis muscle was first named by Adriaan van den Spiegel, a professor from the University of Padua in the 16th century.


title: Key signature

text: In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at the beginning of the first line. If the piece contains a section in a different key, the new key signature is placed at the beginning of that section.


title: Key signature

text: In a key signature, a sharp or flat symbol on a line or space of the staff indicates that the note represented by that line or space is to be played a semitone higher (sharp) or lower (flat) than it would otherwise be played. This applies through the end of the piece or until another key signature is indicated. Each symbol applies to all notes in the same pitch class—for example, a flat on the third line of the treble staff (as in the diagram) indicates that all notes appearing as Bs are played as B-flats. This convention was not universal until the late Baroque and early Classical period—music published in the 1720s and 1730s may have key signatures showing sharps or flats in both octaves for notes which fall within the staff.


title: Key signature

text: Most of this article addresses key signatures that represent the diatonic keys of Western music. These contain either flats or sharps, but not both, and the different key signatures add flats or sharps according to the order shown in the circle of fifths.


title: Key signature

text: Each major and minor key has an associated key signature, showing up to seven flats or seven sharps, that indicates the notes used in its scale. Music was sometimes notated with a key signature that did not match its key in this way—this can be seen in some Baroque pieces, or transcriptions of traditional modal folk tunes.


title: Key signature

text: With any note as a starting point, a certain series of intervals produces a major scale: whole step, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Starting on C, this yields C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C (a C-major scale). There are no sharps or flats in this scale, so the key signature for C has no sharps or flats in it. Starting on any other note requires that at least one of these notes be changed (raised or lowered) to preserve the major scale pattern. These raised or lowered notes form the key signature. Starting the pattern on D, for example, yields D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D, so the key signature for D major has two sharps—F and C. Key signatures indicate that this applies to the section of music that follows, showing the reader which key the music is in, and making it unnecessary to apply accidentals to individual notes.


title: Key signature

text: In standard music notation, the order in which sharps or flats appear in key signatures is uniform, following the circle of fifths: F, C, G, D, A, E, B, and B, E, A, D, G, C, F. Musicians can identify the key by the number of sharps or flats shown, since they always appear in the same order. A key signature with one sharp must show F-sharp, which indicates G major or E minor.


title: Key signature

text: There can be exceptions to this, especially in 20th-century music, if a piece uses an unorthodox or synthetic scale and an invented key signature to reflect that. This may consist of sharps or flats that are not in the usual order, or of sharps combined with flats (e.g., F and B). Key signatures of this kind can be found in the music of Béla Bartók, for example.


title: Key signature

text: In a score, transposing instruments will show a different key signature to reflect their transposition but their music is in the same concert key as the other instruments. Percussion instruments with indeterminate pitch will not show a key signature, and timpani parts are sometimes written without a key signature (early timpani parts were sometimes notated with the high drum as "C" and the low drum a fourth lower as "G", with actual pitches indicated at the beginning of the music, e.g., "timpani in D–A"). In polytonal music, where different parts are actually in different keys sounding together, instruments may be notated in different keys.


title: Key signature

text: The order in which sharps or flats appear in key signatures is illustrated in the diagram of the circle of fifths. Starting the major scale pattern (whole step, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half) on C requires no sharps or flats. Proceeding clockwise in the diagram starts the scale a fifth higher, on G. Starting on G requires one sharp, F, to form a major scale. Starting another fifth higher, on D, requires F and C. This pattern continues, raising the seventh scale degree of each successive key. As the scales become notated in flats, this is shown by eliminating one of the flats. This is strictly a function of notation—the seventh scale degree is still being raised by a semitone compared to the previous key in the sequence. Going counter-clockwise from C results in lowering the fourth scale degree with each successive key (starting on F requires a B to form a major scale). Each major key has a relative minor key that shares the same key signature. The relative minor is always a minor third lower than its relative major.


title: Key signature

text: The key signatures with seven flats and seven sharps are usually notated in their enharmonic equivalents. C major (seven sharps) is usually written as D major (five flats) and C major is usually written as B major.


title: Key signature

text: Key signatures can be extended through double sharps and double flats but this is extremely rare. The key of G major can be expressed with a double sharp on F (F) and single sharps on the other six pitches. As with the seven-sharp and seven-flat examples, the simpler enharmonic key can be used instead (A is enharmonically equivalent with only four flats).


title: Key signature

text: The key signature may be changed at any time in a piece by providing a new signature. If the new signature has no sharps or flats, a signature of naturals, as shown, is used to cancel the preceding signature. If a change in signature occurs at the start of a new line on the page, where a signature would normally appear, the new signature is customarily repeated at the end of the previous line to make the change more conspicuous.


title: Key signature

text: Traditionally, when the key signature changes from sharps to flats or vice versa, the old key signature is cancelled with the appropriate number of naturals before the new one is inserted. Many more recent publications (newer music or newer editions of older music) dispense with the naturals (unless the new key signature is C major) and simply insert the new signature.


title: Key signature

text: Similarly, when a flat key changes to fewer flats, or a sharp key changes to fewer sharps, the convention was to use naturals to cancel the flats or sharps that are being subtracted before the new signature is written. Again, more modern usage often simply shows the new signature without these naturals.


title: Key signature

text: When a flat key changes to more flats or a sharp key changes to more sharps, the new signature is simply written in without using naturals to cancel the old signature. This convention applies in both traditional and newer styles.


title: Key signature

text: At one time it was usual to precede the new signature with a double barline even if it was not otherwise required, but it has become increasingly common to simply retain a single barline. The courtesy signature that appears at the end of a line immediately before a change is usually preceded by an additional barline and the line at the very end of the staff is omitted.


title: Key signature

text: If both naturals and a new key signature appear at a key signature change, there are also modern variations about where a barline will be placed. In some scores by Debussy the barline is placed after the naturals but before the new key signature. Hitherto, it would have been usual to place all the symbols after the barline.


title: Key signature

text: The A which is the fifth sharp in the sharp signatures may occasionally be notated on the top line of the bass staff, whereas it is more usually found in the lowest space on that staff. An example of this can be seen in the full score of Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome", in the third section, "Pines of the Janiculum" (which is in B major), in the bass-clef instrumental parts.


title: Key signature

text: In the case of seven-flat key signatures, the final F may occasionally be seen on the second-top line of the bass staff, whereas it would more usually appear on the space below the staff. An example of this can be seen in Isaac Albéniz's "Iberia": first movement, "Evocación", which is in A minor.


title: Key signature

text: There can be up to seven sharps in a key signature, appearing in this order: . The key note or tonic of a piece in a major key is a semitone above the last sharp in the signature. For example, the key of D major has a key signature of F and C, and the tonic (D) is a semitone above C. Each scale starting on the fifth scale degree of the previous scale has one new sharp, added in the order shown.


title: Key signature

text: There can be up to seven flats in a key signature, applied as: The major scale with one flat is F major. In all major scales with flat key signatures, the tonic in a major key is a perfect fourth below the last flat. When there is more than one flat, the tonic is the note of the second-to-last flat in the signature. In the major key with four flats (B E A D), for example, the second to last flat is A, indicating a key of A major. Each new scale starts a fifth "below" (or a fourth above) the previous one.


title: Key signature

text: Key signatures are a notational device in diatonic or tonal music that define the key and its diatonic scale without the need for accidentals. Music can be notated using other means, and the key of a piece of music may not always conform to the notated key signature. This is particularly true in pre-Baroque music, when the concept of key had not yet evolved to its present state.


title: Key signature

text: More extensive pieces often change key ("modulate") during contrasting sections. These sections are sometimes indicated with a change of key signature, but are sometimes indicated using accidentals.


title: Key signature

text: The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538 by Bach has a key signature with no sharps or flats, indicating that it may be in D, in the "Dorian", but the Bs that occur in the piece are written with accidentals, making the music actually in D minor.


title: Key signature

text: When musical modes, such as Lydian or Dorian, are written using key signatures, they are called "transposed modes".


title: Key signature

text: Key signatures are also used in music that does not come from the Western common-practice-period. This includes folk music, non-Western music, and Western music from before or after the common practice period.


title: Key signature

text: Klezmer music uses scales other than diatonic major or minor, such as Freygish (Phrygian). Because of the limitations of the traditional highland bagpipe scale, key signatures are often omitted from written pipe music, which otherwise would be written with two sharps, F and C. (The pipes are incapable of playing F and C so the sharps are not notated.) 20th century composers such as Bartók and Rzewski (see below) experimented with non-diatonic key signatures.


title: Key signature

text: In music from the Baroque period, it is common to see key signatures in which the notes are annotated in a different order from the modern practice, or with the same note-letter annotated for each octave.


title: Key signature

text: The 15 key signatures that form diatonic scales are sometimes called "standard key signatures". Other scales are written either with a standard key signature and use accidentals as required, or with a nonstandard key signature. Examples of the latter include the E (right hand), and F and G (left hand) used for the С diminished (С octatonic) scale in Bartók's "Crossed Hands" (no. 99, vol. 4, "Mikrokosmos"); the B, E and F used for the D Phrygian dominant scale in Frederic Rzewski's "God to a Hungry Child"; and the E and D (right hand) and the B, A, G (left hand) in György Ligeti's "Galamb Borong" (no. 7 from the second book of the "Études pour piano"), and B, E, D,G (both hands) in "Pour Irina" (no. 16 from the same work's third book).


title: Key signature

text: There are also examples of conflicting standard signatures, as in no. 3 of Sergei Prokofiev's "Sarcasms", op. 17 (three sharps in the right hand, and five flats in the left hand), and four numbers of Ligeti's "Études pour piano": no. 1 from the first book (none in the right hand, and five sharps in the left hand), no. 10 from the second book ("Der Zauberlehrling"; none in the right hand, and five flats in the left hand in bars 67-87); no. 11 from the second book ("En Suspens"; five flats in the right hand and none in the left hand, with the opposite later on); and no. 12 from the second book ("Entrelacs"; none in the right hand and five flats in the left hand, with the opposite later on)


title: Key signature

text: No sharps or flats in a key signature can indicate that the music is in the key of C major / A minor or that the piece is modal or atonal, and does not have a key signature. An example is Bartók's Piano Sonata, which has no fixed key and is highly chromatic.


title: Key signature

text: The use of a one-flat signature developed in the Medieval period, but signatures with more than one flat did not appear until the 16th century, and signatures with sharps not until the mid-17th century.


title: Key signature

text: When signatures with multiple flats first came in, the order of the flats was not standardized, and often a flat appeared in two different octaves, as shown at right. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, it was common for different voice parts in the same composition to have different signatures, a situation called a partial signature or conflicting signature. This was actually more common than complete signatures in the 15th century. The 16th-century motet "Absolon fili mi" by Pierre de La Rue (formerly attributed to Josquin des Prez) features two voice parts with two flats, one part with three flats, and one part with four flats.


title: Key signature

text: Baroque music written in minor keys often was written with a key signature with fewer flats than we now associate with their keys; for example, movements in C minor often had only two flats (because the A would frequently have to be sharpened to A in the ascending melodic minor scale, as would the B).


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Thunderbirds is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It was made between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry (dubbed "Supermarionation") combined with scale model special effects sequences. Two series, totalling thirty-two 50-minute episodes, were filmed; production ended with the completion of the sixth episode of the second series after Lew Grade, the Andersons' financial backer, failed in his bid to sell the programme to American network television.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Set in the 2060s, "Thunderbirds" is a follow-up to the earlier Supermarionation productions "Four Feather Falls", "Supercar", "Fireball XL5" and "Stingray". It follows the exploits of International Rescue, a life-saving organisation equipped with technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space rescue craft; these are headed by a fleet of five vehicles named the "Thunderbirds" and launched from the organisation's secret base of operations in the Pacific Ocean. The main characters are ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, leader of International Rescue, and his five adult sons, who pilot the "Thunderbird" machines.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: "Thunderbirds" debuted in September 1965 on the ITV network. The series was exported to around 30 countries during the 1960s. Periodically repeated, it was adapted for radio in the 1990s and has influenced many TV programmes and other media. Besides tie-in merchandise, the series has been followed by two feature film sequels – "Thunderbirds Are Go" and "Thunderbird 6" – as well as an anime adaptation, a mime theatre show and a live-action film. A remake series premiered in 2015; the same year, three new episodes, based on tie-in audio plays and made using the same techniques as the original series, were created to mark its 50th anniversary.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Widely regarded as the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, "Thunderbirds" has been praised for its special effects (directed by Derek Meddings) and musical score (composed by Barry Gray). It is also remembered for its title sequence, which begins with an oft-quoted countdown by Jeff Tracy voice actor Peter Dyneley: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1: "Thunderbirds" Are Go!"


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Set between 2065 and 2067, "Thunderbirds" follows the exploits of the Tracy family, headed by American industrialist and ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy. Jeff is a widower with five adult sons: Scott, John, Virgil, Gordon and Alan. The Tracys make up International Rescue, a secret organisation founded to save human life. They are aided in this mission by technologically-advanced land, sea, air and space vehicles that are called into service when conventional rescue methods prove ineffective. The most important of these vehicles are the five ""Thunderbird" machines", each assigned to one of the five Tracy brothers:


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The family live on Tracy Island, International Rescue's base of operations in the South Pacific Ocean, in a luxurious villa that they share with four others: Jeff's mother, Grandma Tracy; the bespectacled scientist and engineer Brains, who designed the "Thunderbirds" machines; Brains' assistant Tin-Tin, who is also Alan's girlfriend; and Tin-Tin's father Kyrano, the Tracys' retainer. In this remote location, International Rescue is safe from criminals and spies who envy its technology and aim to acquire the secrets of the "Thunderbird" machines.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Some of International Rescue's operations are triggered by sabotage or negligence instead of accidents. For missions requiring espionage, the organisation incorporates a network of undercover agents headed by English aristocrat Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and her butler Aloysius Parker. Based at Creighton-Ward Mansion in Kent, Penelope and Parker travel in FAB 1, a specially-modified Rolls-Royce. Members of International Rescue acknowledge orders with the expression "" (a shortening of the 1960s vogue word "fabulous", but spoken like an initialism: "F-A-B").


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: International Rescue's most persistent opponent is master criminal the Hood. Based in a temple in the Malaysian jungle and possessing powers of hypnosis and dark magic, the Hood exerts a telepathic control over Kyrano, his estranged half-brother, and manipulates the Tracys into rescues that unfold according to his own malevolent designs. This gives him opportunities to spy on the "Thunderbird" machines and, by selling their secrets, make himself rich.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: "Thunderbirds" was the fourth Supermarionation puppet TV series to be produced by APF, which was founded by the husband-and-wife duo of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (née Thamm) with their business partners Arthur Provis, Reg Hill, and John Read. Pitched in late 1963, the series was commissioned by Lew Grade of ITC, APF's parent company, on the back of the positive audience response to "Stingray".


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Gerry Anderson drew inspiration for the series' underlying concept from the West German mining disaster known as the "Wunder von Lengede" ("Miracle of Lengede"). In October 1963, the collapse of a nearby dam flooded an iron mine in the municipality of Lengede, killing 29 miners and trapping 21 others underground. Lacking the means to drill an escape shaft, the authorities were forced to requisition a heavy-duty bore from Bremen; despite the considerable time necessary to transport the bore by rail significantly reducing the chances of a successful rescue, 11 of the trapped miners were eventually saved. Recognising the advantages of swifter crisis response, Anderson conceived the idea of an "international rescue" organisation that could use supersonic aircraft to transport specialised rescue equipment quickly over long distances.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Seeking to distinguish his proposal from APF's earlier productions, Anderson attempted to pitch the stories at a level that would appeal to both adults and children. Whereas previous series had been broadcast in late-afternoon children's timeslots, Anderson wanted "Thunderbirds" to be shown during the evening to attract a broader family audience. Sylvia remembers that "our market had grown and a 'kidult' show ... was the next step." The Andersons retired to their holiday villa in Portugal to expand the premise, script the pilot episode and compose a writers' guide. According to Sylvia, the writing process depended on a "division of labour", whereby Gerry created the action sequences while she managed characterisation. The decision to make a father and his sons the main characters was influenced by the premise of "Bonanza", as well as Sylvia's belief that the use of more than one heroic character would broaden the series' appeal. The Tracy brothers were named after Mercury Seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The series' title was derived from a letter written by Gerry's brother, Lionel, while he had been serving overseas as an RAF flight sergeant during World War II. While stationed in Arizona, Lionel had made reference to Thunderbird Field, a nearby United States Army Air Forces base. Drawn to the "punchiness" of ""Thunderbirds"", Anderson renamed the series, whose working title had been ""International Rescue"", as well as the star vehicles, which had initially been designated "Rescues 1" to "5". His inspiration for the launch sequences of "Thunderbirds 1", "2" and "3" originated from contemporary US Air Force launch procedure: Anderson had learnt how the Strategic Air Command would keep its pilots on permanent standby, seated in the cockpits of their aircraft and ready for take-off at a moment's notice.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: In the DVD documentary "The Thunderbirds Companion", Anderson explained how a rise in filming costs had made overseas distribution revenue even more important and essentially caused "Thunderbirds" to be made "as an American show". During the character development and voice casting process, the Andersons' main priority was to ensure that the series had transatlantic appeal, thus increasing the chances of winning an American network deal and the higher audience figures that this market had to offer.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: "Thunderbirds" was filmed at APF's studios on the Slough Trading Estate between 1964 and 1966. In preparation, the number of full-time crew was expanded to 100. Shooting began in September 1964 after five months of pre-production. Due to the new series' technical complexity, this was a period longer than for any of the earlier productions. To speed up the filming, episodes were shot in pairs on separate stages and by separate crews (designated "A" and "B"). By 1964, APF was the UK's largest commercial user of colour film, consuming more than three million feet (570 miles or 910 kilometres) of stock per year.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: As with APF's previous three series, the Andersons devised "Thunderbirds" as a 25-minute show. In late 1964, Alan Pattillo, a longtime writer and director for APF, was made the company's first official script editor. This move was aimed to reduce the burden on Gerry Anderson who, while reserving his producer's right to overall creative control, had grown weary of revising scripts himself. Direction of episodes was assigned in pairs: veterans Pattillo and David Elliott alternated with the less-experienced Desmond Saunders and newcomer David Lane for each month's filming. Due to the difficulties of setting up takes, progress was slow: even on a productive day, it was rare for the crew to complete more than two minutes of puppet footage. In a contemporary interview, Hill noted that "Thunderbirds" contained several times as many shots as a typical live-action series. He explained that rapid editing was necessary on account of the characters' lack of facial expression, which made it difficult to sustain the viewer's interest for more than a few seconds per shot.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: After viewing the finished pilot, "Trapped in the Sky", Lew Grade was so impressed with the series that he instructed Anderson to extend the length of each episode from 25 to 50 minutes – enough to fill an hour-long commercial timeslot. He also increased the budget per episode from £25,000 to £38,000. As a result, "Thunderbirds" became not only APF's longest and highest-budgeted production, but also one of the most expensive TV series ever made up to that point. The total budget for the 26-episode Series One was approximately £1 million (about £ million in ).


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The production, which had been shooting two 25-minute episodes every two weeks, faced great challenges transitioning to the new format: nine episodes had already been fully or partly filmed, scripts for ten more had been written, and major rewrites would be needed to satisfy the longer running time. Anderson lamented: "Our time-scale was far too drawn out. ITC's New York office insisted that they should have one show a fortnight ... Everything had to move at twice the speed." APF spent over seven months extending the existing episodes and filmed the new 50-minute format at a rate of two episodes every four weeks.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Tony Barwick, who had impressed Pattillo and the Andersons with an unsubmitted script that he had written for "Danger Man", was recruited to assist in writing subplots and filler material. He found that the longer format created opportunities to strengthen the characterisation. Science fiction writer John Peel suggests that "small character touches" make the puppet cast of "Thunderbirds" "much more rounded" than those of earlier APF series. He compares the writing favourably to that of live-action drama. The new footage proved useful during the development of the first series finale, "Security Hazard": since the previous two episodes ("Attack of the Alligators!" and "The Cham-Cham") had overspent their budgets, Pattillo devised a flashback-dominated clip show containing only 17 minutes of new material to reduce costs.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Filming of Series One was completed in December 1965. A second series was also commissioned late that year and entered production in March 1966. Barwick became a full-time member of the writing staff and took over the role of script editor from the outgoing Pattillo. The main puppet cast and vehicles were rebuilt; in addition, the art department expanded some of the standing sets, including the Tracy Villa lounge and the "Thunderbird 5" control room. To accommodate the simultaneous filming of the TV series and "Thunderbirds Are Go", APF purchased two more buildings on the Slough Trading Estate and converted them into new stages. As personnel and studio space were divided between the two productions, filming of the TV series progressed at half the previous speed, with B crew shooting one episode a month. Filming on "Thunderbirds Are Go" was completed by June, allowing A crew to resume work on the series to shoot what would prove to be its penultimate episode, "Ricochet".


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Production of "Thunderbirds" ended in August 1966 with the completion of the sixth episode of Series Two. In February that year, it had been reported that Grade had been unable to sell the series in the United States due to disagreements over timeslots. In July, he cancelled "Thunderbirds" after failing in his second attempt to secure an American buyer. The three major US networks of the time—NBC, CBS and ABC—had all bid for the series, with Grade repeatedly increasing the price. When NBC withdrew its offer, the other two immediately followed.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: By the time of its cancellation, "Thunderbirds" had become widely popular in the UK and was being distributed extensively overseas. Grade, however, believed that without the financial boost of an American network sale, a full second series would fail to recover its production costs. He therefore asked Anderson to devise a new concept that he hoped would stand a greater chance of winning over the profitable US market. This became "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons".


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Dialogue recording sessions were supervised by the Andersons and Reg Hill, with Sylvia Anderson in charge of casting. Dialogue was recorded once per month at a rate of two scripts per session. Supporting parts were not assigned, but negotiated by the cast among themselves. Two recordings would be made at each session: one to be converted into electronic pulses for the puppet filming, the other to be added to the soundtrack during post-production. The tapes were edited at Gate Recording Theatre in Birmingham.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: In the interest of transatlantic appeal, it was decided that the main characters would be mostly American and therefore actors capable of producing an appropriate accent were used. British, Canadian and Australian actors formed most of the voice cast; the only American involved was stage actor David Holliday, who was noticed in London's West End and given the part of Virgil Tracy. Following the completion of the first series, Holliday returned to the US. The character was voiced by English actor Jeremy Wilkin for "Thunderbirds Are Go", Series Two and "Thunderbird 6".


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: British actor David Graham was among the first to be cast. He had previously voiced characters in "Four Feather Falls", "Supercar", "Fireball XL5" and "Stingray". Beyond the APF productions, he had supplied one of the original Dalek voices on "Doctor Who". Cast alongside Graham was Australian actor Ray Barrett. Like Graham, he had worked for the Andersons before, having voiced Titan and Commander Shore in "Stingray". A veteran of radio drama, Barrett was skilled at performing a range of voices and accents in quick succession. Villains of the week would typically be voiced by either Barrett or Graham. Aware of the sensitive political climate of the Cold War and not wishing to "perpetuate the idea that Russia was the enemy with a whole generation of children watching", Gerry Anderson decided the Hood (voiced by Barrett) should be Oriental and placed his temple hideout in Malaysia to defy the viewer's expectations.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Although Lady Penelope and Parker (the latter voiced by Graham) were among the first characters developed, neither was conceived as a major role. Parker's Cockney manner was based on a waiter at a pub in Cookham that was sometimes visited by the crew. On Gerry Anderson's recommendation, Graham dined there regularly to study the accent. Anderson's first choice for the role of Penelope had been Fenella Fielding, but Sylvia insisted she take the part herself. Her Penelope voice was intended to emulate Fielding and Joan Greenwood. On Penelope and Parker's secondary role as comic relief, Gerry explained, "We British can laugh at ourselves, so therefore we had Penelope and Parker as this comedy team. And in America they love the British aristocracy too.'"


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: As well as Jeff Tracy, English-Canadian actor Peter Dyneley voiced the recurring character of Commander Norman, chief of air traffic control at London International Airport. His supporting character voices were typically those of upper-class Englishmen. Shane Rimmer, the voice of Scott, was cast on the strength of his performance on the BBC soap opera "Compact". Meanwhile, fellow Canadian Matt Zimmerman was selected at a late stage in the process. The expatriate West End actor was given the role of Alan on the recommendation of his friend, Holliday: "They were having great difficulty casting the part of Alan as they wanted a certain sound for him, being the youngest brother. David, who [was] a bit older than I am, told them that he had this friend, me, who would be great."


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Christine Finn, known for her role in the TV serial "Quatermass and the Pit", provided the voices of Tin-Tin Kyrano and Grandma Tracy. With Sylvia Anderson, she was also responsible for voicing most of the female and child supporting characters. Supporting parts were occasionally voiced by John Tate, Paul Maxwell and Charles Tingwell; the latter two joined the cast in Series Two following their contributions to "Thunderbirds Are Go". None of these three actors were credited for their performances.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The puppet stages used for the filming of "Thunderbirds" were only one-fifth the size of those used for a standard live-action production, typically measuring with a ceiling. Bob Bell, assisted by Keith Wilson and Grenville Nott, headed the art department for Series One. During the simultaneous filming of Series Two and "Thunderbirds Are Go" in 1966, Bell attended mainly to the film, entrusting set design for the TV series to Wilson.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Since it was necessary for the art department's interior sets to conform to the special effects department's exterior plans, each team closely monitored the other's work. According to Sylvia Anderson, Bell's challenge was to produce complex interiors on a limited budget while resisting the effects department's push for "more extravagant" design. This task was complicated by the unnatural proportions of the puppets: Bell struggled to decide whether the sets should be built to a scale proportionate to their bodies or their oversized heads and hands. He used the example of FAB 1 to illustrate the problem: "As soon as we positioned [the puppets] standing alongside [the model], they looked ridiculous, as the car towered over them." He ultimately adopted a "mix-and-match" approach, in which smaller items, such as tableware, were scaled to their hands and furniture to their bodies.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: While designing the Creighton-Ward Mansion sets, Bell and his staff strove for authenticity, ordering miniature Tudor paintings, -scale Georgian- and Regency-style furniture and carpeting in the shape of a polar bear skin. This realism was enhanced by adding scrap items acquired from household waste and electronics shops. For example, a vacuum cleaner pipe serves as Virgil Tracy's launch chute.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The head puppet sculptors were Christine Glanville and Mary Turner, who also served as the lead puppeteers. Glanville and Turner's team built the 13 members of the main cast in six months at a cost of between £250 and £300 per puppet (about £ and £ in ). Since pairs of episodes were being filmed simultaneously on separate stages, the characters needed to be sculpted in duplicate. Facial expressions were diversified by means of replaceable heads: as well as a head with a neutral expression, each main character was given a "smiler", a "frowner" and a "blinker". The finished puppets were about tall, or adult human height.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The puppets were made up of more than 30 individual components, the most important of which was the solenoid that synchronised lip movements with the characters' pre-recorded dialogue. This device was positioned inside the head unit; consequently, torsos and limbs appeared relatively small. The puppets' likenesses and mechanics are remembered favourably by puppeteer Wanda Brown, who preferred the "Thunderbirds" marionettes over the accurately-proportioned ones that first appeared in "Captain Scarlet": "The puppets were easier to operate and more enjoyable because they had more character to them ... Even some of the more normal-looking faces, such as Scott and Jeff, for me had more character than the puppets in the series that came afterwards." Rimmer speaks positively of the puppets' still being "very much caricatures", since it made them "more lovable and appealing ... There was a naive quality about them and nothing too complex."


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The appearances of the main characters were inspired by those of actors and other entertainers, who were typically selected from the show business directory "Spotlight". According to Glanville, as part of a trend away from the strong caricature of previous series, APF was seeking "more natural faces" for the puppets. The face of Jeff Tracy was based on that of Lorne Greene, Scott on Sean Connery, Alan on Robert Reed, John on Adam Faith and Charlton Heston, Brains on Anthony Perkins and Parker on Ben Warriss. Sylvia Anderson brought the character of Penelope to life in likeness as well as voice: after her test moulds were rejected, sculptor Mary Turner decided to use Anderson herself as a template.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Main character heads were initially sculpted in either Plasticine or clay. Once the general aspect had been finalised, this served as the template for a silicone rubber mould. This was coated with Bondaglass (fibreglass mixed with resin) and enhanced with Bondapaste, a putty-like substance, to accentuate contours. The Bondaglass shell was then fitted with a solenoid, leather mouth parts and plastic eyes, as well as incisor teeth—a first for a Supermarionation production. Puppets known as "revamps", which had plastic heads, portrayed the supporting characters. These marionettes started their working lives with only a mouth and eyes; their faces were remoulded from one episode to the next. Particularly striking revamp moulds were retained and, as their numbers increased, photographed to compile an internal casting directory.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Wigs were made of mohair or, in the case of the Penelope puppet, human hair. Puppet bodies were built in three sizes: "large male" (specifically for the Tracys and the Hood), "small male" and "small female". Sylvia Anderson, the head costume designer, devised the main characters' attire. To give the puppets increased mobility, the costume department generally avoided stiff synthetic materials, instead working with cotton, silk and wool. Between 1964 and 1966, the department's stock numbered more than 700 costumes.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Each puppet's head was fitted with around ten thin tungsten steel wires. During the filming, dialogue was played into the studio using modified tape recorders that converted the feed into electronic pulses. Two of the wires relayed these pulses to the internal solenoid, completing the Supermarionation process. The wires, which were sprayed black to reduce their visibility, were made even less noticeable through the application of powder paint that matched the background colours of the set. Glanville explained the time-consuming nature of this process: "[The puppeteers] used to spend over half an hour on each shot getting rid of these wires, looking through the camera, puffing a bit more [paint] here, anti-flare there; and, I mean, it's very depressing when somebody will say to us, 'Of course the wires showed.'" Positioned on an overhead gantry with a hand-held cruciform, the puppeteers co-ordinated movements with the help of a viewfinder-powered CCTV feedback system. As filming progressed, the crew started to dispense with wires and instead manipulate the puppets from the studio floor using rods.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: Due to their low weight and the fact that they had only one control wire per leg, the puppets were unable to walk convincingly. Therefore, scenes involving movement were filmed from the waist up, with a puppeteer holding the legs below the level of the camera and using a "bobbing" action to simulate motion. Alternatively, dynamic shots were eliminated altogether: in an interview with "New Scientist", director of photography John Read spoke of the advantages of circumventing the lack of agility so that the puppets "appear, for example, to walk through doors (although the control wires make this impossible) or pick up a coffee cup (although their fingers are not in fact jointed)." Live-action shots of human hands were inserted whenever scripts called for more dexterous actions to be performed.


title: Thunderbirds (TV series)

text: The scale model effects for every APF series from "Supercar" to "UFO" were directed by Derek Meddings, who later worked on the "James Bond" and "Superman" films. Knowing that "Thunderbirds" would be the "biggest project [APF] had worked on", Meddings found himself struggling to manage his workload with the single filming unit that had produced all the effects for "Stingray". He therefore established a second unit under technician Brian Johncock, and a third exclusively for filming airborne sequences. This expansion increased the number of APF crews and stages to five each. A typical episode contained around 100 effects shots and Meddings' team completed up to 18 per day.